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Many new chapters are opening up in my life at the moment. I just got married last month and will be moving over 1,200 miles away to the new husband’s army base after Christmas. I will still be doing reviews during the move as well as settling in. Right now I’m deciding on what to read next and will let you guys know by Friday. Have a great week and Happy (early) Thanksgiving!
Until Next Time…

Review: Phantoms by Dean Koontz

Phantoms take place in a small off season ski resort village in Snowfield, California. On her way back to her home after picking up her newly orphaned sixteen younger sister, Jenny drives through the oddly deserted town. They arrive at Jenny’s home which doubles as her doctor’s office. In the
kitchen they find her secretary dead on the floor, spotted with bruises that seemed to have been inflicted all at one time. The death must’ve happened quick and caught the woman of guard since her eyes were open; her face frozen as if she died in the middle of a scream. Requesting the help from the military’s Biological Investigations Unit the following morning and having them flown in,
another gruesome discovery is made. One of the victims had written a name on a bathroom mirror, “Timothy Flyte”. In Phantoms, Flyte is famously known for his book, “The Ancient Enemy” in which he shares these mass disappearances and says that the cause of these events was done by an ancient predator.  Some of the mass disappearances he mentions are that of the Mayan population as well as the dinosaur extinction. As the story progresses, Timothy Flyte, Jenny, Lisa, the police and the biologists find that the cause is a creature who is able to mimic anything it consumes, growing in
mass as it does. It resembles a jellified, black mass which has been hibernating under the entire town until recently. It is never revealed how big exactly the mass is but it’s made clear it was big enough to fill caverns under the town as well as fill the entirety of under the town itself. The creature commands other parts of itself to detach in to phantom like creatures, into anything it has
consumed.  Their only hope of getting out of Snowfield alive is to put together a biological weapon to attack the creature’s nucleus, obliterating it’s’ existence.

Phantoms was a book I easily got lost in. There were two different stories going on which had me wondering how these two were going to meet. The main story is about what was going on in Snowfield. The side story was about a man who had killed his wife and son. The side story was a nice
break every now and then when the main story was just starting to drag. At the end of the book, the side story met the main portion seamlessly and found myself not wanting the story to end. The ending tied all the loose ends in a nice little bow and I was happy to not to be let down at the outcome. The creature’s outcome was at first a little lack luster but then again Koontz tried to make this story as realistic as possible. I was impressed when Koontz’s “a note to the reader” reveled that the mass disappearances motioned in the book (The Roanoke Island colony, the deserted Eskimo village of Anjikuni, the vanished Mayan populations, the loss of thousands of Spanish soldiers in 1711, etc.) were true events and that he had really researched the back stories of these events  for his book. One of the chemicals that were used in attempts to kill the phantom creature was called Biosan-4 which was a supposed more stable strain of the first patented microorganism which was to fragile to survive outside of the lab. Although Biosan-4 is fictional, the fragile version is in fact real and scientists have not found a way to make a hardier version like the characters used in this book. I would recommend this book to someone who likes facts integrated into fiction novels as well as a scientific twist on a suspense novel. There are some graphic as well as disturbing scenes. This is a book that is undoubtedly different from most.


Until Next Time…
  ~Fiction-Book-Reviewer

Update #32

After a much needed time away, I will be getting back into doing book reviews. Right now I am finishing up Phantoms by Dean Koontz and will have a review up by next weekend.

Until Next Time…

Update #31

I picked out Phantoms by Dean Koontz for the next review. The cover looks enticing (must be the #1 NYC Bestselling Author written in bold letters) and it looks to be suspenseful. Its not a very thick book so ill have a review up by January 5th or so.

Until Next Time...

Review: The Taker By Alma Katsu

The Taker: Book One of the Taker Trilogy

Written by Alma Katsu

        The Taker is based in two different times. It starts off in St. Andrew, Main in present time
were Dr. Luke Findley is treating a strange young woman who asks his help in escaping the
hospital. Despite the fact that she is a witness to a murder, he helps her in her journey to cross the
border into Canada. During their drive up along the snow covered roads, the young woman
Lanore McLivrae (or Lanny is what she is called on and off throughout the chapters), finds
herself compelled to share her story of how she came to be stumbling into the hospital with
blood and police stuck to her like white on rice. Lanny was born in St.Andrew in the early 1800s,
when main itself was still a small village and not entirely ventured into yet. She shares her tale of
her encounters with true love, the face of the devil himself, and countless passionate nights. It
takes multiple dark turns, starting with her immortality coming with a dangerous bond. What
once was her saving grace was now her fated damnation.

       The Taker is a fairly good read although it has a slow beginning up until they start delving into
Lanny’s past. I was surprised at how graphic the sex scenes are since it was mentioned no where
on the book that there was going to be. There’s a lot of them if you don’t mind some Game of
Thrones type intimate scenes, personally, I love them. I do feel the writer should have put more
adventure into the present portions of the book. I found myself just skimming the present day
portions just to get an idea of what was going on. There are many twists, turns and dark secrets
throughout the book that kept me on the edge of my seat up until the last page and I ended up
buying the next book in the series, The Reckoning. I would recommend this series who are
interested in history based fiction and don’t mind some detailed kinky sex scenes. There are a
few abusive/molesting scenes that don’t go to far into detail but just be prepared!

         Until Next Time…
              ~Fiction-Book-Reviewer

Update #30

Ive been extremely busy with family/life issues but I’m back finally and ill be doing my reviews as well as getting my other little business up off the ground within the few up coming weeks. Any ideas you might come up with that might help me with anything on the entrepreneurial topic like more product ideas or opinions of any kind, please click the “ask me anything” link above or comment on this post. In two weeks ill have the next review up!

Until Next Time…

Update #29

Its been a crazy couple of weeks but I finished The Taker just last night. Its probably now one of my favorite books and diffidently going to read the rest of the series in my free time. This up coming weekend I will write my review and i should be up by the latest, monday morning.
Until Next Time…