Review: Taming the Rake

Taming the Rake by Erica Ridley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am a big fan of historical fantasies.

This recent read still surprised me so much, from one of the main characters being a selfish idiot to another thrown out in the streets by her own parents.

Historical romances usually take on a softer version of romance on the female characters projecting the males as someone who is in pain or unworthy, but this one was tough.

When I started reading, I didn't think I would like Gladys for some reason, but I started connecting with the character as I knew more about her. Same with Reuben too. I wish we had more information about other characters like Gladys' sister after she is married, whether Gladys' parents repented for what they have done, etc.

It just felt the entire world revolved around Gladys and Reuben in this novel.

One other thing - not a flaw - but illogical, is the mention of rockets in historical novels.. unless I am very wrong, I don't think rockets are even part of the century they are in.

Overall, it is definitely a great read and I lost some sleep over it (and that's a good thing) because I needed to know what happens next. :)

View all my reviews

Review & Giveaway: She Never Got to Say Goodbye by Ica Iova

Book Trailer | Amazon | Goodreads

When Olivia trades her promising career for a more domestic lifestyle as a wife and mother, she expects many things but never to see ghosts much less be one.

Her life with her handsome husband, Brandon, a successful criminal lawyer, starts as a happy one, but following a tragedy, guilt, alcohol and drugs crush their blissful world in a hurry. One minute Olivia is planning to leave the marriage and the next she’s floating at the foot of her son’s bed. Dead. Murdered. And all evidence points to Brandon as the prime suspect.

She is angry and determined to make him pay, but soon, she learns that she if she wants justice, she must follow the clues that reach back into Brandon’s past.

Suspenseful, romantic and awash in the afterlife thrill, She Never Got To Say Goodbye captures the power of love and friendship.

REVIEW

A book which gave me some unexpected surprises when I least expected it.

I read nothing from other reviews and go through Google ratings before I started reading.  And I am happy for that decision.

It started off where Olivia and Brandon meet at a restaurant, become friends, falls in love, gets married and has a baby.  Yeah, all these were said in the same pace in the book.  No big ah's and oh's of romance and marriage.  It just happened and then the tragedy hit the happy couple when Olivia was murdered.  The spirit Olivia is on her way to getting revenge on... yeah, you have to go read the book, in order to know more.

It was not an easy read.  I seriously didn't expect a paranormal plot.  So many secrets and revelations - that will cause your mind spiral down to a complete mess.  I was plastered in my chair with my Kindle until I completed this book.  This is the first book for me from this author, but she made sure that I get her other books some serious attention.

4 STARS!

GIVEAWAY

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Excerpt: Learning to Stutter by Sherm.Davis

Welcome to my tour stop of "Learning to Stutter" by Sherm Davis, presented by Elite Book Tours.  To follow the full tour, please visit here.

LEARNING TO STUTTER IS FREE ON JULY 4, 5 AND 6!

BUY NOW @ AMAZON!

Kenneth Kocher seems to have it all - a good heart, a sense of humor, decent looks, and lots of money. What he doesn't have is something most of us take for granted - freedom of speech. Kenneth lives with a severe stutter which has wreaked havoc with his life since childhood.

After much embarrassment, pain and soul-searching, Kenneth realizes that to free his inner self he must accept the fact that he cannot be cured, and that he must learn to stutter with grace. Along the way he meets another stutterer and a young widow who are both dealing with the stumbling blocks in their own lives.

Using an experimental syntax to portray the neurological component of the syndrome, the novel gives the reader a unique view of stuttering from the inside out.

Amazon | Createspace

PRAISES FOR "LEARNING TO STUTTER"

This is an extraordinary book. It’s the inside dope on stuttering. And if one person was born to tell the story, it’s David Sherman. And does he have a story to tell. The plot is consummate, the writing proficient, the pacing skillful, with a clarity of detail that renders it very realistic. After awhile, I found myself caring about all the characters, even (or particularly) the minor ones, oftentimes because they reminded me of myself, and were therefore incredible familiar. It is a reflection of the author’s versatility –as educator, in math and Language Arts, as musician and writer –and diversity –Jewish, New York born and bred, having resided all over the world –that some parts of the writing even speak to the Oriental in me. As each of the characters, stuttering and non-, go about their lives, problem-solving, adapting, you cannot help but see the parables at a universal level. Resonant, poignant, and ultimately elucidatory, this book get an A+ from me.

---- Ling T., Guatemala

In addition to those who struggle with dysfluency and their friends and family, I highly recommend this novel to educators and speech pathologists to ensure their understanding of the multi-faceted impact that this neurological syndrome can have on one’s identity.

---- Shari Mayerson, MS, CCC-SLP

EXCERPT FROM "LEARNING TO STUTTER"

Why is the name so difficult? Perhaps because there is no way to reach into the verbal bag of tricks which every person who stutters carries with him in a desperate attempt to seem normal. Word substitution (the favorite of all stutterers who block more on certain sounds than others) is impossible when the name is fixed and finite. Linking the end of one sound to the start of another to increase fluidity is impossible also, because the name begins with a specific sound, and most stuttering occurs on the initial syllable of a word.

But the great author, unaware of Kenneth Kocher’s internal trauma, was in a hurry, and only scribbled his name and gave a cursory nod before moving on to the next person in line. It was only as he was walking away that KK realized that he was fixating on his own name, and hadn’t said a single word to one of his personal heroes.

On the heels of this humiliation, he still had one more errand to run, and it was better to get it over with early in the day. When he entered the toy and game store, he really didn’t know what he was looking for. He walked up and down the aisles of the small shop, but couldn’t find anything that struck his fancy. Finally the shopkeeper, a jovial man in his fifties, horseshoe bald with a red pate and dramatic waxed moustache like the character from Monopoly, came over and played the part.

“What are you looking for, son?”

“A gift for my six-year-old nephew,” was the sentence that formed itself with perfect clarity, sonority and resonance in his brain. But just after the sentence was formed, he scanned ahead and found a stutter reflex embedded in the /g/ in gift. Automatically, he sought to substitute a synonym, but in this case he couldn’t even substitute the word present, because the /p/ was his nemesis, the hardest sound in the lexicon and one to be avoided at almost any cost. So he got past the opening vowel and then hit the hard /g/ like an electric fence. His larynx locked and he started pushing against it with brute force, but it wouldn’t budge. His face and neck started twitching, and his left eye was blinking out of control. The harder he pushed, the harder he jerked and twitched.^[1]

Finally he caught hold of himself and let go of his breath. Inhaling anew, he substituted one sound for another. “^Ssssssomething fffffor mmmmy nephew.” It was stilted and spasmodic, but got the point across, more or less.

He could see the surprise in the storekeeper’s face, but he was used to seeing this. All his life, he had been watching people try to figure out how to respond to his twisted speaking voice.

“Well,” the man said, maintaining an amiable front, “what is your nephew like?”

The second interaction of the day, and it wasn’t going well, either. He was floundering in a neurological rut, and he couldn’t make it stop. His larynx slammed shut on its own accord, his left arm shot into the air like it was connected to an invisible string, and the muscles in his face and neck began quivering under the strain. He pulled himself together and responded slowly, too slowly, “^~I…. ^d-d-don’t know. I nnnnnever see him.”

“Hmm,” the shopkeeper tugged at his moustache. “That makes it a bit more difficult, but I’m sure we have something. Are you looking for something educational, mechanical, sports-oriented, or just plain fun?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Sssomething he ‡can ^g-grow into.”

The paunchy man nodded sagely from behind his suspenders and his bowtie. “I’ve got just the thing,” he said, and went into the back roozm. The shopkeeper returned with a magnetic construction set, simple enough for a young boy but advanced enough for his father to enjoy as well, and handed him the box. “What do you think?”

KK nodded his appreciation and gave a thumbs-up, too taut to say anything. On other days, he might have made the effort to ask the man to gift-wrap the box, but when a day began like this, every word was precious.

“This is a gift for a nephew who lives far away?” the man deduced. “Would you like me to wrap it for you?”

Exhaling a sigh of relief for the man’s telepathy and compassion, KK nodded his head and handed him a credit card. Walking out of that toy store, he was unable to even thank the man. Cursing himself and vowing to never shop in a store again for as long as he lived – he’d shop online instead – he stuffed the gift in his backpack and started power walking through the streets.

OTHER BOOKS FROM SHERM DAVIS

This bilingual English/Spanish collection contains pieces ranging from flash fiction to folktale. Set in New York, New & Old Mexico, Guatemala, Italy, and the future, eight morsels of Zap Fiction lead off the collection, and five longer stories close it out. The Spanish translations, the product of a team of professionals, are as true to the original English as possible. 

Buy NOW @ Amazon | Createspace

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Howard Sherman Davis is a writer, musician and international educator who has taught in five countries on four continents. Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised on Long Island, he currently lives by Lake Atitlán in Guatemala. His journalism and fiction have appeared in the United States, Canada, Guatemala, and online. 

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud

Spotlight: Halendor by Lyoydd Marshall

Author: Lloydd Marshall

Title: Halendor: First Light

Genre: Urban/Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Release Date: 4/25/16

Buy Link: Amazon

Synopsis 

Aurora is the only daughter of two of Fredan’s most influential figures, but all of the money in the world can’t help her feel as if she belongs in that world. Gifted, or cursed, with telekinetic abilities that she hasn’t told her two best friends about, let alone her family, Aurora soon learns that she isn’t as unique, or out of place, as she had once believed.

The Elements have been hidden where no one would think to look, so Lisa has come to the backwater of the galaxy, Earth, to find them. She has a very specific mission: locate and inform five extraordinarily powered people that their lives are not what they thought. In fact, they have the ability to access vast planes of elemental magic and are known throughout the universe as the Elements.
Together they will have to overcome seemingly insurmountable forces possessing potent abilities and even more dangerous goals. Throw in two federal agents tasked with keeping Earth from ever knowing anything about supernatural events, and Aurora is in for a wild ride.

About the Author

I grew up all over southern California and Washington state, with a smattering of locations about Oregon, Nevada, and Hawaii, and with each move I learned about new cultures and ideas.Many people have interests in literature and fiction, but few people have ever thought themselves so ambitious that they would chose to write and publish a book every single week. This is the promise of Lloydd Marshall and BLGM Reserve Estates, with a new trilogy dropping weekly, while a new Halendor Arc will drop on the last Monday of each month.Writing has been a passion, and through my life moving has always been a constant which has exposed me to various people and ideas about the United States and has only increased my love of writing. With each book, I hope to reach new people who will enjoy what I create.

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/LloyddMarshall
WEBSITE: lloyddmarshall.com