In Case of Survival

The Talisman of El by Alecia Stone

Publisher: Centrinian Publishing

Release date: May 18, 2012

Note: Review copy provided by the publisher

Amazon blurb:

WHAT IF YOUR WHOLE LIFE WAS A LIE?

One Planet.

Two Worlds.

Population: Human … 7 billion.
Others … unknown.

When 14-year-old Charlie Blake wakes up sweating and gasping for air in the middle of the night, he knows it is happening again. This time he witnesses a brutal murder. He’s afraid to tell anyone. No one would believe him … because it was a dream. Just like the one he had four years ago – the day before his dad died.

Charlie doesn’t know why this is happening. He would give anything to have an ordinary life. The problem: he doesn’t belong in the world he knows as home.

He belongs with the others.

Okay. So. This book. It was different. Not in a bad way, mind you; it was just different.

Charlie Blake, fourteen year old orphan, is sent to yet another potential adoptive family. He’s hopeful, but so many possible adoptions have fallen apart that he’s always thinking he’s going to be sent back. This time he’s sent to live with a single guy named Jacob, whose late wife died in an accident that raised eyebrows throughout the village (she broke her neck). At first Jacob’s the nice quiet type. And then Charlie discovers something hidden in the house and we find out that Jacob is a total psycho nutjob.

I know, right? Just when things were starting to look up. I mean, he makes friends at his new school and discovers a guy who looks like he’s 102 but is really only 27.

Okay, wait. I’m getting ahead of myself.

Continue reading “Talisman of El by Alecia Stone”

[1. Wormwood was provided for review by Black Wraith Books]

In the post-apocalyptic paranormal thriller, Wormwood by D. H. Nevins, the Earth has been decimated by a legion of half-angels. But while most of these creatures are bent on sending all humans to their final resting place, one, Tiamat, is tormented by the tasks he is called upon to do. When he rescues a woman named Kali, both their lives change forever. Kept alive by the grace of Tiamat, Kali defies him by trying to save as many of the human survivors as she can. The attraction between them is irresistible, but can Kali trust one of the half-angels who has sworn to destroy her world and everyone in it? And can Tiamat justify helping one of the very people he is meant to kill? The more he tries to keep Kali safe, the more his own life is in danger. As Kali struggles to find a way to survive in the Earth’s vast, devastated landscape, she finds herself plagued by the half-angels hell bent on her destruction. Forced to trust Tiamat, the one being who could prove to be her greatest enemy, she walks a thin line between life and death.

Grade: B-

Wormwood is a curious book. I enjoyed it a great deal, but a few unignorable flaws stopped it from being an A grade for me.

Continue reading “Fiction Review: Wormwood, by D.H. Nevins”