Book Review: The Haunting of Gordon's Lake by Danny Gunn (Van Diemen's Valley Book 1)

     Brad is forced to spend the last weeks of summer with his aunt and uncle, but he is promised lots of fun. Crickets, swimming, and barbeque. While his cousin doesn't initially seem very interested in hanging out, the friends he slowly begins to make warn of ghosts in the area. He doesn't believe it at first, but he may just lose his life the same way a group of kids did years ago if he isn't careful. Will he join the eternal playground or go home with his family at the end of summer?

    I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. This is a middle grade horror novel that is well done. Just in case you can't handle child death you might want to be leery of this one. A group of teenage kids die in this book. It doesn't go into a lot of detail about that and it is something that happened years before the book begins, but it is mentioned throughout multiple times. 

    We start by following a young boy as his parents drop him off with his aunt and uncle while they have to travel. Everything seems normal about them, including a surly older cousin, and the cabin they go to seems nice enough. The longer he is there, however, the more weird things begin to happen. While his aunt and uncle assure him that his cousin was only teasing with her warning of ghosts in the area, some things aren't adding up. Following along as Brad decides who is real and who is a ghost out of each he encounters. 

    The truth behind who is a ghost was a bit obvious to me, but it didn't take away from the story. Again, this is a middle grade horror. Still, it is well written and engaging. 

    This book is available on Kindle Unlimited or buy it on Amazon for $3.99 by clicking here. 

Book Review: Civil: Revolution in Turn by Frank Visone

     Jack Miller is an average man who wants nothing more than to protect his family. After joining a local militia, he learns more about how to protect his family. Now that China-men have taken the opportunity to land on their shores in an attempt to take over the country Jack will protect his family and land through any means possible. Standing toe to toe with trained military men as they fight to protect what matters most will Jack be able to save his home, or will he lose his life along with everything he loves?

    I received a physical copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. This book was a bit of a slow start for me, but once it got exciting it got VERY exciting. It was well written, and I completely enjoyed it. No trigger warnings that I can think of to warn people about. Well...unless you get butt hurt over putting down Trump and are for having guns removed from the general population. Then you should probably not read this. You'll be really mad. Course I should hope I don't have those on my page anyways...(The no gun people. Don't care one way or the other about the trump people. Politics doesn't have a place here.)

    Anyways, we follow Jack as he tries his level best to protect his family, home, and neighbors. When a foreign military breaches homeland shores he is on the front-line to protect it. Armed with just the guns he owns he soon amasses the foreign weapons as well as he takes them down. No, he isn't perfect. He isn't Rambo. He is just a regular guy doing whatever it takes, no matter how afraid he is. We see him leave his family time and again in an effort to keep them safe. Even when he is home, he is doing everything he can to help his neighbors.     

    Be it threats from home or threats from outside the challenges are met again and again. While there are plenty of casualties it is worth it in the end. Once the threats are over and life goes as close as back to normal as possible the next threat comes from the government. However, that is another fight no one is willing to back down from. Can't say I blame them. 

    This book is page after page of fights, threats, and willpower. Worst part is it is a possible threat. I'm not saying the Chinese are going to attack us or that the government would make any headway with taking away the general public's weapons. But it is a matter of time before someone somewhere decides to attack on American soil. 

    This book is available on Kindle Unlimited or buy it on Amazon for $4.99 by clicking here. 

Book Review: The Queen of Reckoning by N. C. Hayes (Redfern Legacy Book 2)

     After risking everything to find a teacher to help with her volatile magic Shaye's troubles are far from over. Between a looming wedding, others opinions of her and her families past, and now mysterious visions she may just lose herself. In fact, the more she deals with the person in her visions the more she learns that he was far from the person he was made out to be. Can one secret have so completely shaped her entire past?

    I received a request from this author to read this book after having already read it. She sent me book one and I enjoyed it, but when I finished I lent it to a co-worker, Ms. Deb, who enjoyed it so much she bought book 2. After she was finished with book 2 she gave it to me. So these are books I have the physical copies of. I want to start by saying they are gorgeous and I love having them on my shelves. 

    Book 2 picks up directly after book 1 ends and this is not a book that you can read as a stand-alone. I tried to be as vague as possible with the above so if you haven't read book 1 yet you can go check it out first without a lot of spoilers. 

    Just like in book one this book has a very YA Fantasy feel. Yes, the characters are of age, but there is magic and very innocent scenes. I'm not saying there isn't activity. There is plenty and there is even some possible trigger warnings. I read this book while I was pregnant and it was a lot for emotions at points because of a miscarriage and subsequent depression. If that is something you can't handle, even in literature, this is your warning. 

    I am not by any stretch of the imagination trying to put you off this book. I fully enjoyed book 1, as you will see in by review, and I enjoyed this one as well. I just try to give disclaimers as some people have certain triggers they go to lengths to avoid. The characters are still just as amazing as they were in book one. The same characters have continued on to this one, although character relationships have changed a bit, in the best possible way. 

    We still have the loveable cat of Skye's and her teacher's snake, in case you were wondering. There is also attempted progress made on reclaiming the throne and castle that the mortals currently occupy. That is something that made great progress and I look forward to what will happen next there. I read this book rather quickly and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future. Although, we will need to wait for the next instance in this series as there are only the two books at this time.

    This book is available on Amazon for $2.89 by clicking here. 

Books by this author: 

The Wayward Prince (Redfern Legacy Book 1)