Review & $25 Green Gift Card Giveaway: Tangled Ties To a Manatee

Original Title: Tangled Ties to a Manatee

Author: Kalen Cap

Release Date: May 5th 2012

Genre: Humor, Crime Thriller

A pregnant manatee is rare at any zoo, and a first for the Grove City Zoo in Ohio. Ankh is a delight to zoo patrons, a concern to its staff, and the unintentional victim of two con men. She has no idea how many human relationships, problems, and dreams tangle around her.

Jerry is a young developmentally disabled man who happily follows Ankh's pregnancy on the zoo's webcam. He has a shy crush on Janelle, a pretty college student who volunteers for his group home’s outings to the zoo.

Jerry's Aunt Vera also loves nature and runs an environmental retreat center. But all is not well, with Vera or the center. The center needs money and is under investigation as a cult.

Amid their college studies, Janelle and her friend Cecily try to help. Instead, Janelle re-awakens an old obsession in Vera when an innocent tarot reading hints at how the center might be saved.

Two bumbling con men are attempting to sabotage the region’s electrical grid as part of a lucrative scheme. But Jerry accidentally gets in their way and becomes their captive.

When the con men surprisingly succeed in bringing the grid down, it spells danger for Ankh, her unborn pup, and the many people tied to them both. With investigations of their own, Cecily and Janelle try to untangle it all to find Jerry, save a manatee’s life, and rescue Vera from herself.
Tangled Ties to a Manatee is a humorous crime thriller with environmental themes that is revealed through multiple points of view. The novel emphasizes college-aged characters, though not all, such as the developmentally disabled ones, are in college.

REVIEW

There are numerous characters in the novel, who all have different stories of their own.  And all these characters get somehow tied to a pregnant manatee at the zoo.  All these characters are aware of one another at some point in the novel and its really clever to build the plot like that.  I would loved to read more about the said manatee, but unfortunately, there was very few paragraphs alloted to that.

The author has tried something completely different in the way of writing.  But, although I really appreciate it, this would have better worked with 3-4 main characters..not for more than 10 characters.  It took me too long to understand the plot and characters.  By the time I understood them, I was near completion of the book.  I have to admit, when I did understand, I loved it.

The problem is you need patience..in a vast quantity.  I didn't tell you about the synopsis or plot, because this is one of those books, where opinions might vary widely.  While I loved the characters individually, due to the problem in remembering 'who is what', and the confusions in bringing them together, I lost the interest somewhere.

The ending was satisfying though, mainly because after a lot of struggles, I understood the plot and I was able to remember the characters.

Very good try on plot building!  But, could have been more understandable and less confusing.

GIVEAWAY

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So, please comment below to win this awesome giveaway.  Anonymous and Name/URL commentors --- please leave your EMAIL ID in your comment.

Giveaway open INTERNATIONALLY and ends July 13th, 2012!

Review & Giveaway: Generation by William Knight (VOTE FOR ME!)

PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO VOTE FOR MY BLOG HERE!

Original Title: Generation
Author: William Knight
Publisher: Standing Hare
Publication Date: October 22nd 2011
Genre: Horror, Crime

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Journalist Hendrix ‘Aitch’ Harrison links bodies stolen from a renowned forensic research enclosure to an influential drug company specialising in genetic modification.

Assisted by Sarah Wallace, a determined and beguiling forensic entomologist, he delves into a grisly world of clinical trials and a viral treatment beyond imagination.

But Aitch must battle more than his fear of technology to expose the macabre fate of the drugged bodies donated to scientific research.

REVIEW

"G"ripping!  Well, this is one of those first times for me, with the crime and horror novel combination.  And it pretty much had thrown me out of my shell.  From the start to the end, this novel had my undivided attention..and to that, both the writing and plot are the main reasons.  It's not only scary, but also a information mine.

"E"ngaging plot!  Hendrix Harrison (like his name! :)) is a journalist working for "Strange Phenomena", who is searching for some new article.  He stumbles upon ghost sightings in some places and tries to get more information on that.  But, what he doesn't know is that he was in danger of exposing an influential drug company of its invention gone wrong..wrong, in the sense, so so badly.  Sarah Wallace, a young and sexy forensic entomologist, finds that one of her dead bodies, donated to science, is missing.  Police is involved. Her forensic research on the body was so wrong..she gets aware of the fact that this is no normal test.

"N"o-nonsense hero and heroine!  Both Hendrix and Sarah's characters are portrayed in a great way, although in different fields.  They are both brave and great in their own jobs.  Hendrix relationship with his friends were as good as Sarah's relationship with her students.  Its both two different fields - journalism and science.  But, when Sarah stood up to solve the case against her management's decision, it showed her confidence (of course, she got thrown out from her job after that, but that's beside the point, right? :)) in her area of expertise.  And Hendrix was hunted for murder, thrown out of job and threatened, and still he tries to solve the mystery.  There is a reason these characters will be adored by the readers.

"E"ffective new area - Forensic science!  I am not interested in medicine, but I have seen National Geographic Channel, and I was so much interested in seeing what these people do.  So, when Sarah Wallace started saying about some of the facts and suspicions, it was so entertaining that I felt like I am seeing the channel.  Its a difficult area, what with knowing about multiple fields with excellence in all of them. The readers can definitely know much about their life here.

"R"iveting Research!  One thing I thought was amazing, so amazing, is the research done by the author for this book.  Journalism, Drugs, Medicine, Entomology, Technology - so many fields covered with great care and it worked out.  As the author himself is a journalist, I am not surprised by how well he brought out the character of Hendrix.  But, other fields - its just amazing that the author has done such a detailed research and presented in a gripping way to the readers.

"A"ction-packed!  Towards the middle of this book, this book gets filled with action.  Chasing the bad guys, finding the mystery and solving it, with policemen pointing their guns at their heads, is well more than what I wanted for action.

"T"hriller at its maximum!  You have got to trust me on this, because I was up until 1 o'clock last night to finish this book, and I was not the least bit tired until I had completed this book..it was that good.  I was clutching my Kindle so close, like if I get a closer look, I would find the mystery myself and may save many of them. :)

"I"nteresting and engrossing to the end!  I have made that point very clear, I suppose.

"O"pposite poles attract!  Hendrix is not good with technology, one who doesn't even know to tweet from his mobile.  Sarah is, you know, a geek.  When these two are attracted, we know what will happen - sparks fly.  I am not surprised by this..actually, it was comic when I thought how this will work out in the future for this couple.

"N"ot a zombie, its worse!  Yes, exactly my point..this book shows creatures worse than zombie.  I don't feel sorry for zombies..at least they can take care of themselves.  But, these creatures are like coma patients..dead, but alive.  I think enough of all the spoilers, you will have to read it to find out more.  Although one more thing - you see the cover?  I was sympathetic towards them, until I saw the cover again..well, its a horror novel, what do you expect?

"GENERATION": This is a perfect 5-star novel, that will amaze the readers at all ages.  But, as some adult scenes are involved, ages above 16 would find this novel to be great!

G + E + N + E + R + A + T + I + O + N = GENERATION

where each variables in this equation are explained above.

Novel Publicity Blog Tour Notes: Get Generation on Amazon or Barnes & Noble – you know you want to! And please vote for my blog in the traffic-breaker poll for this tour.

The blogger with the most votes wins a $50 Amazon gift card. I want that to be me! You can vote in the poll by visiting the official Generation blog tour page and scrolling all the way to the bottom.

 Be sure to enter for your chance to win an autographed copy of Generation : ENTER HERE.

William Knight is a British born journalist and technologist currently living and working in Wellington, New Zealand. He's chased a varying career starting in acting, progressing to music, enjoyed a brief flirtation with handbag manufacturing and was eventually wired into technology where he's been since 1989. In 2003 he published his first feature in Computing magazine and has since written about the many successes and failings of high-tech for the Guardian, Financial Times and the BBC among many others publications. He continues to maintain a lively IT consultancy. Connect with William on his website, blog, Facebook, Twitter or GoodReads.