Book Review: Awakening by Jennifer Leah Pezzano

 

    Jezebel moved to the stormy New England town to start a new life and escape from her past. Here she started her own cleaning business, and while she enjoyed her life, it was a solitary one. While she had been curious about the house on the bluff since she had moved there she had no idea who owned it or anything about it until she gets a call one day asking her to come and take on the job. She agrees and comes face to face with the sexy August. He seems like a period romance cover and acts like it to. However, there is more to this man who awakens intense feelings within her than meets the eye. 

    I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. It almost comes off as a period paranormal romance while being in a contemporary setting. It is just very flowery writing. A lot of people who enjoy period romances would like that fact, personally I am not a fan. That isn't to say I didn't enjoy the book. If you ignore the writing style I enjoyed the story itself. 

    Jezebel received her name in a dream after the death of her parents. She still holds the scars from the crash that ended their lives, both physically and mentally. August has scars of this own from his childhood trauma as well as the loss of his wife. Together they may be able to heal and form a future. 

    In this book August is a vampire of sorts that feeds off life energy transferred through the "donor's" sexual release while feeding. If he drinks from one person for too long it can deplete their life-energy and cause them to become sick and die. It is definitely a different way of the traditional and I can't say I loved that aspect. From the voyeuristic encounters to providing sexual release for people other than their partners. Definitely not for me. Thankfully that is only a prevalent part at the end of the book, so it's not something that bothered me for most of the book. 

    I enjoyed the descriptions of the settings in the book. From the stormy coastline town to the Italian vineyard. 

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

Book Review: DarkLands Online by David J. Bushman (DarkLands Online Book 1)

     Kurt's brother has been driving him nuts to join him in playing the new DarkLands Online, an immersive VR game that the developers want to feel as realistic as possible. When they start playing Greg quickly dies, becoming a Wisp and haunting his brother. In doing so he becomes a walking/floating tutorial. While Greg wants Kurt to focus on the main storyline Kurt decides to follow a seemingly boring side quest since it was one Greg had already done anyway. In doing so he finds a whole new aspect of the game that intrigues him and has his brother nervous. Could it be possible that on his first day Kurt's character Turk has already uncovered something no one else has managed since launch?

    I received this audiobook from the author in exchange for an honest review. This approach was different than many others I do simply because Anna Mocikat, who I have done reviews for frequently over the last 2 years, suggested this series to me and they reached out at her recommendation after I gave her the green light. I value Anna's opinion and she has yet to steer me wrong on a book, this one included. 

    While I am relatively new to VR/LitRPG books I haven't found one yet that I don't enjoy. This book reminded me a lot of Evan Klein's book series Immersion Online in that character stats were displayed while reading. I have to admit that I think I would have enjoyed this book more if I had read it versus listened to it. The narrators were great and I have nothing but good things to say about them. It was just the notification chime, I swear that noise was more annoying than Navi.  

    Anyways, on to the important part: this book. Readers are drawn in from the beginning to find out where this mysterious path will lead and how everything will play out. DarkLands is a unique read as I have yet to stumble across the concept of whatever you can do in real life reflects how you can play the game. With that I loved every aspect of it, including the authors subtle tip of the head to older videogames. I look forward to what this series holds in the future. 

    My favorite character in the book was Grins. Not entirely sure why, he just seemed like a loveable asshole. I will say that I knew about Greg's little RW surprise by the end of chapter one. By the third hint there wasn't a doubt in my mind. I won't give it away, because it was something that gave me pleasure being right on. Not the situation, mind you, that'd be terrible. But, that I found the crumbs the author was dropping. 

    Truly an amazing start to a series that, while it doesn't answer all questions posed, stops in a good place. You don't feel like you are missing part of the story while still left wanting more. 

    This book is available on Amazon for $2.99 by clicking here. This book is available on Kindle Unlimited. 

Books by this author:

Darklands Online Book 2

Darklands Online Book 3

Darklands Online Book 4