She Called It, Wolf By Cyn Bagley

She turned towards the hanger doors as the shooting started. A strange man in his thirties, dark hair and brown eyes in cammies with an M-16, sprayed the line with bullets. Most of the soldiers had already handed in their small arms. They were sitting ducks. In only seconds the screaming and groans started. EJ slammed to the floor. She could smell the coppery eaint of blood. The young soldier next to her was lying in a pool of blood. It spread towards her. He gasped and then his eyes died.

It was then she became angry. One of her men, her unit, had died in front of her and she had done nothing. How could this creature kill U.S. soldiers on U.S. soil. The anger grew from her belly and encompassed her mind. In her mind’s eye she saw a small wolf walk towards her and sniff. EJ jumped. She had never seen such a creature before. Her head pushed into the concrete she tried to move away from the wolf. It was in her so she had nowhere to go. The shooter noticed her small movements and pulled his weapon towards her. It was then he saw the explosion of skin and fur. EJ still felt anger as she leaped towards this killer.

This paranormal novel was quite interesting and not at all typical of other paranormal type books with wolves in them. While the wolves of Twilight could transform themselves rather quickly into wolves, the other shapeshifters in She Called It, Wolf had more difficulty changing. Except for EJ, the main female character, who seemed to do this effortlessly.

EJ comes home from the army only to find out that her uncle has already passed away. She inherits his trailer and everything her uncle had. She also inherits a dog named Barkley, some new friends, a gold mine, a bunch of goats, a donkey and also, a guy named Adam.

Adam is the small-town sheriff of Felony Falls. But Adam and the whole town hold a secret. Many of this small town are shapeshifters or married to one. When two of the towns upstanding citizens are murdered in front of their young children, and the children are kidnapped, the town goes crazy trying to find these kids without giving away their secret to outsiders.

EJ herself is a shapeshifter, which is quite unheard of. Only a few in the history of the wolves have been women, and none of them can change as fast as she can. That is the questions that are left unanswered. Why is she the only female wolf, and why can she change so easily, when it takes some of the wolves up to 15 minutes to go through this painful change? EJ seems to be able to change on the fly, and at will.

EJ finds herself staking claim to the old mine that her uncle had, but in the process, stumbles upon a building out in the middle of nowhere. She ends up finding the children there. The children are abused and tortured, having experiments done on them. One of them almost dies in the process of these experiments.

While rescuing the children, we find out something else about EJ that makes her different from the other shapeshifters. I’m not going to tell you what it is…you’ll have to read the book to find that out.

I like that the author made the wolves a bit different than the wolves from other novels, but it sounded downright painful and I know if I was watching the movie, I wouldn’t want to wait that long before the wolf appeared.

I also like the special surprise ability that EJ exhibits at the end, and I also like that her wolf would talk to her, soothing her and helping her with the decisions she had to make.

I thought the ending could have been a little stronger, but overall, a pretty good book. There were some editing problems, grammar and spelling mistakes, but those are easily fixed and a good reviewer (and reader) can get past those mistakes to see the real story behind it.

Overall, I give this story 4 stars.

Falling For Rain By Janice Kirk And Gina Buonaguro

“Why did I do it?” Rain repeated the question as he pulled the car into the driveway of Maple Tree Farm and parked in front of the house. He turned off the engine, switched off the lights, and sank back against the leather seat. There was a distant rumble of thunder. “For your father, for one. I owed him a lot for giving me a home. It was hard for him when your mother died, and when you left….” He broke off, knowing she would get the idea. He looked at her, her lovely profile faintly illuminated by the yard light. “And for you, of course. I did it for you,” he whispered. “Because I didn’t know what else I could do.”

Let me just point out a few things…if you don’t like sexual tension, romance, strong women, gorgeous men, or anything Canadian, you will not love this book. However, if you do, this book is an excellent read. I had difficulty putting this one down.

It starts out with Emily Alexander coming back to the countryside from the big city of Toronto. She is a successful business woman there, and has built up a wall between her old country girl life and the city woman she is now. She would never have come back to the old farm, but with her parents both dead, she sees no reason to hang onto it any longer. Plus, her “business partner” (who is a slimeball!) Jonathon, convinces her that the farm property would make an excellent golf course and resort.

When Emily gets back to the farm, expecting it to be abandoned, she runs into Ray Storm. Ray was just a kid when he came to live with Emily and her family, a bastard child from another woman. Emily nicknamed him Rain, and it stuck.

Rain is still living on the farm, tending to the animals, working the land, and keeping up the house, barn and cabin. She doesn’t want to look at him, seeing his beautiful blue eyes and his tousled blonde hair, but she sees the man she left behind so long ago. Ten years ago. And, the old feelings start to stir in her.

Except, she won’t let him know that…she won’t tell him that she watches him, wishing that she could say that she loved him, that she always has. But, doing that would show weakness…and Emily is far from weak.

A freak storm brings them together when the barn catches on fire in a lightning storm. She sees the barn in flames and runs to save the cows and horse that are trapped in there. Rain runs to save her.

But, just when you think they’ll get together, something always ends up stopping them. Emily was going to tell Jonathon that he wasn’t going to get the golf course/resort that he wanted, and instead was going to give the farm to Rain. But, a secret is revealed. A secret that changes everything.

The sexual tension builds readily throughout this book. You’ll be begging for them to get together, and when it happens finally, they get ripped apart again by a secret. A deadly secret.

I truly loved this book…and not because it happens to occur in my own backyard, so to speak, but because I am a country girl at heart and I love romance. This book will have you wanting more.

The only thing wrong with this book was the advertisements for other books by the authors after chapter 3 or 4 and then again closer to the end, and also at the end of the book. Otherwise, a beautfiul love story that will tug at your heart strings. I teared up (ok, cried) a couple of different times. I highly recommend this book.

I give it 5 stars.

Sleeping Handsome By Jean Haus

                                                                                         December 28

I’m almost done with my writing sample since I spent most of Christmas break working on it. I think it’s good, but I’m going to have Mrs. Gains take a look. I’m a bit anxious about hearing her opinion. Actually I’m scared shitless and I’m hoping that’s because I poured so much emotion in it. Since the short story is about a guy whose father wants him to be a lawyer, but he wants to be a surfer, it kind of mirrors my own life. So it should have some authentic emotion. If she says its crap, I just might cry like a little fan girl. Or jump off a cliff.

Oh. My. Gosh…loved this story! Sleeping Handsome is the modern day fairy tale story of a boy named Zach who is in a coma after a cliff accident while hiking with his friends at the end of school.

Paige and her friend get caught cheating on a school project, so as punishment, she has to do community service or be expelled. Because Paige wants to be an actress, she has to read to a boy in a coma.

She doesn’t want to do it, but it beats being expelled. So, she goes to his house everyday and reads to him. Of course, the books aren’t really her thing, (The Count of Monte Cristo, The Spy Who Loved Me, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, etc.) but, if that is what she has to read, she would.

She comes across Frankenstein on his book shelf and pulls it down. Inside the novel is a journal. His journal. She debates about reading it, but decides that maybe it would help him wake up. Plus, she’s curious. Wouldn’t you be?

She starts reading about his tortured life, the life his father wants for him. Everything is about his father, and what he wishes for his son, his dreams. Yet, these dreams aren’t Zach’s. He doesn’t want to play football anymore, but wants instead, to be a writer.

His father won’t speak to him, and if they do speak, they argue. To top it all off, Zach has a girlfriend who doesn’t appreciate him, but just uses him for his popularity status of being the star running back on the football team. She’s convenient, but he doesn’t love her. He never really has.

As Paige reads his journal to him, she learns some things about herself. She learns that she’s not much better. She has a friend (the one she got caught cheating with, Amanda) that bullies her into doing things that she doesn’t want to do, like teasing and bullying the less popular kids at school. Paige hates herself for doing those things, but Amanda is her friend.

Now as she reads the journal and finds out that Zach found the courage to break up with his girlfriend and to tell his father that he didn’t want to follow HIS dreams, but his own.

Of course, the journal entries end because Zach is in the coma, but Paige finds her own courage to tell Amanda to go fly a kite, that she doesn’t want to be friends with someone who is so mean anymore.

When Paige comes in for her daily reading session with Zach, his mother stops her and tells her that she will no longer be needed there. When she asks why, his mother tells her that they (Zach’s parents) have made the decision to take Zach off the breathing machines and any machines that are keeping him alive.

My tears spill across his skin as I push the breathing tube on an angle and lean forward. “I love you,” I whisper in a light breath and press my lips to his. They feel soft and warm as they press against mine.

Press against mine.

I loved this story, but just wish that it was a little longer…it was only a short story, but well worth the read. It’s free at Amazon, so give it a try. I give this story 5 stars!

Significance By Shelly Crane

“Hold on.” I walked up to his cousin a few feet away. I looked up into his face, at least half a foot higher than mine, probably more. “I’m really glad I was there.”

“Me too. Thank you. You ever need anything; a new pair of rollerblades, a popsicle, a kidney, it’s yours.”

I laughed and tucked my hair behind my ear as he chuckled too and shuffled his feet.

“Ok. I’m Maggie by the way.” I stuck my hand out towards him and smiled.

“Maggie,” he repeated and I bit my lip at the sound of my name on his lips. “Caleb.” He took my hand and I felt an instant jolt go through my body that made me gasp.

Not like a girly wow-he’s-touching-me jolt. I mean an actual jolt. Like it felt as if fire was racing through my veins and I was standing in water with a blow dryer. My breaths ceased to exist and my blood felt cold in my hot skin. My eyes fluttered automatically at the pleasure pain of it. I saw images, flashes of things. Me on a porch with tan arms going around me from behind and a brown haired head sitting atop mine then leaning down, kissing my neck. Then that image vanished and a new one appeared.

Ok. I know I’m in my mid-forties, and shouldn’t like this kind of book, but I do. I love the young adult paranormal type books, and this one I really do love.

It’s the story of Maggie Masters, a seventeen year old who has wasted her last year of high school away. Her ex-boyfriend, Chad, broke up with her a few days after her mother split almost a year ago, and her father has been distant, not caring what she does, or where she goes,  or who she does things with. Her father felt that he wasn’t much of a man since his wife left him and Maggie with nothing, cleaning out their bank accounts, including the one for Maggie’s education. (What a bitch!)

Now that graduation is upon them, Maggie’s future looks bleak. Her father has been depressed, and not going to work at times, leaving Maggie to pay for things around the house. She hasn’t seen much of her best friend, Becky, and her friend, Kyle, has been trying too hard for too long to get her to notice him. She doesn’t have a college picked out because she didn’t pick any, and because her mother took her college fund money when she left. All she has is her work at the restaurant.

One night, while standing at a street corner, she notices this guy with headphones on about to cross the street in front of a truck. She yanks him back, saving his life.

As they get talking, Maggie finds out that this guy is really Kyle’s cousin. When Kyle shows up to where they are, he tries his best to show off in front of his cousin. But, when Maggie and the boy introduce themselves by shaking hands, sparks fly. Literally.

What has just occured between Maggie and Caleb Jacobson is called an ‘imprint’. Ok, so that sounds like a Twilight thing, and maybe it is, but it’s still pretty neat the way the author describes how they feel about each other instantly, and how it feels when they are apart. You could almost feel the pain and the joy between them. They become each other’s significant.

What Caleb and his whole family are, are called Aces. A clan. A group of people with amazing special abilities, that amaze Maggie right from the beginning. And, she amazes them as well. Aces of their ages don’t usually imprint that young, and it usually doesn’t happen with humans either.

But, a rival clan finds out about Maggie and Caleb’s imprint through a guy named Marcus. He touches Maggie and leaves a burned handprint on her skin, which Caleb’s grandmother has to take away. Imprinting hasn’t happened to any of the clans for so long, that this whole thing is exciting. This rival clan tries to take her several times, but she always manages to get away or Caleb is able to save her. Marcus is able to enter her dreams through what’s called an Echoling. At a party one night, and with the help of his friend, Marcus kidnaps Maggie, taking her some place unknown.

Even though it had only been a few days, because of the imprint, she is in severe pain from being apart from Caleb. And, he is too. He feels what she feels, and knows that they are hurting her.

He comes to her, speaking in her head, but she doesn’t know where she is so that he can come find her. The captors have drugged her, keeping her medicated so that Caleb can’t find her through her racing heartbeat like he would have normally.

But, he comes to her in a dream, and through their dream, they ascend, which is part of the imprinting process, finalizing it.

I don’t want to give too much away, but I loved this book. It had a lot of editing problems that I could overlook, but the book would have been so much better if there weren’t all the spelling mistakes in it. However, as I said, these I could overlook because I loved the story so much.

I give this story 4 stars, and only because of the numerous spelling errors. Every time the author meant to write “ever”, it would be spelled “every”…I mean, every single time. Breathe would be breath, and vice versa…It kind of distracts away from the story, but it was still a most excellent tale. Grammar faux pas I can get around…but the spelling mistakes were plentiful. A few mistakes are ok, but not this many. There are sequels to this book, which are available at Amazon. However, with the amount of spelling errors in the book, I really think this author should get herself an editor.

The Valley Of Candles By Antonio Grasso

Final Statement

I deserve the punishment in which the courts have handed down. I did not want this case to go to trial because I know I am guilty of murder, and other crimes. Everything I have said in the above account is true.

I have repented of my sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as my savior. Any ofther God is a false God. As I now sit here and wait for the clock to strike midnight on my life, I take joy in the fact that even though I have committed these horrible crimes, God still loves me enough to save me. Save me, not from the certain earthly death I will definitely have but from eternal death that I so richly deserve. I long to see my family together as one for the first time and thank you for sentencing me to death for my crimes I have committed. To those who don’t believe and have read this account, believe because one day you won’t have a choice anymore as you will have to stand before God one day and be judged for your life.

In Christ,

McCoy O’Neal

A few days ago, I was followed by Antonio Grasso on Twitter. For following him back, he gave me a copy of his free book. In return, I gave him a copy of my free book.

This was a coming of age book about a young man named McCoy, who, like any teenager, is trying to fit in, have fun and get laid.

The story starts out with McCoy not ever knowing his mother. His mother died during childbirth with him, so he always blamed himself for his mother’s death. And, God, of course.

His father is a Bible thumper, always reciting Bible verses and making McCoy do “homework” about the Bible. But McCoy had a hard time believing in God because of what had happened to his mother. He couldn’t believe in something that would take his mother away from him before he even got a chance to know her. He would have to tell his father what he had learned while doing his Bible homework, which he never really did. Of course, being a teenager, he wanted to be out with girlfriend, Anne, instead of doing Bible study.

One night while McCoy and Anne are out looking for a place to do it, they decide on the local church. Although it was late at night, McCoy was sure there wouldn’t be anyone around to catch them…but then again, not getting caught was half the fun.

But, they do get caught as they are doing it on the church altar. Pastor John walks in and tells McCoy that he won’t tell his father if he will come to the Pro Life Rally the next day. McCoy doesn’t want his father to know, so he agrees to go to the rally. While at the rally, he meets up with his friend, Matt.

Pastor John however, renige’s on the deal and is about to tell McCoy’s father about his son’s indescretion the night before. Just as Pastor John was about to tell him, a shot rings out at the rally. McCoy’s father dies in his arms from a gun shot wound.

McCoy goes to live at his friend, Matt’s house. His family dynamic isn’t much better, his father a drunk and his mother refusing to “look” after her husband any longer.

While out for a walk, Matt sees something materialize in front of him. It tells him that he should believe in God, and that he should follow His ways. However, this isn’t a good God that he is being asked to follow. It was a false God…the Devil.

Possessed, Matt brings McCoy out to the place where he met his new God. Matt shows him what he was shown, and now McCoy believes too. When Matt sleeps, he dreams of what they need to do to make it up to God. The false God.

They kidnap Anne and bring her to their “altar” in the woods. Matt kills her, stabbing her repeatedly, saying a prayer for McCoy and himself to be saved, for their God to accept the sacrifice they have laid out for Him.

McCoy, on the other hand, begins to re-think what is going on. He dreams one night that his mother comes to visit him. She told him that the God they are following was a false God…the Devil, and that there was a better road for him to follow. McCoy is confused about why her God would take her during childbirth.

His mother confesses that she didn’t want McCoy. She told him that she hated his father and wanted to be away from him. She said that she prayed to God every day to take her, that she didn’t want to live anymore, and that that was why God took her. He listened to her prayer’s, getting her away from the man that she hated. Now she was with McCoy’s father in heaven, and things were ok now.

McCoy goes to Pastor John and his helper, telling them that him and Matt had killed Anne, and that he saw the error of his ways. He wanted to help Matt if he could, before it was too late.

At the altar, another girl was tied up, ready to be sacrificed to their God. Matt kills her and then kills Pastor John as he tried to stop him.

This was a good story, a boy finding religion just a little too late. However, I did have a few issues with the writing. There were a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes, making it sometimes difficult to read. Also, it was written in multiple first person POV, however, at the top of the chapter, you don’t know who is narrating that particular chapter.

There was a couple of times where it switches to a third person POV in the middle of the chapter (Where Pastor John was going to tell McCoy’s father…McCoy and Matt were too far to hear, so it was in third person)…that made it a little confusing.

However, the story itself was good. I think with a little more writing practice and an editor, this Indie author will do great. Even with the mistakes and a little confusion regarding POV, I’d still give this book 4 out of 5 stars…