Book Reviews – Page 50 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Review: ‘The Old Dragon’s Head’, by Justin Newland

Blurb
Constructed of stone and packed earth, the Great Wall of 10,000 li protects China’s northern borders from the threat of Mongol incursion. The wall is also home to a supernatural beast: the Old Dragon. The Old Dragon’s Head is the most easterly point of the wall, where it finally meets the sea.
In every era, a Dragon Master is born. Endowed with the powers of Heaven, only he can summon the Old Dragon so long as he possess the dragon pearl.
It’s the year 1400, and neither the Old Dragon, the dragon pearl, nor the Dragon Master, has been seen for twenty years. Bolin, a young man working on the Old Dragon’s Head, suffers visions of ghosts. Folk believe he has yin-yang eyes and other paranormal gifts.When Bolin’s fief lord, the Prince of Yan, rebels against his nephew, the Jianwen Emperor, a bitter war of succession ensues in which the Mongols hold the balance of power. While the victor might win the battle on earth, China’s Dragon Throne can only be earned with a Mandate from Heaven – and the support of the Old Dragon.
Bolin embarks on a journey of self-discovery, mirroring Old China’s endeavour to come of age. When Bolin accepts his destiny as the Dragon Master, Heaven sends a third coming of age – for humanity itself. But are any of them ready for what is rising in the east?

Buy Link

https://amzn.to/2XjoYQz

Review: ‘Motivation Matters’, by Wendy H Jones

Blurb
Has your motivation to write flown out of the window? Do feelings of self-doubt creep in and haunt your writing day? Looking for a way to beat the doubts into submission?
Award winning author and writing coach Wendy H. Jones shows you how, with 366 glorious exercises you can use to boost creativity and change the way you think and feel about your writing. Techniques that can easily be incorporated into your day, becoming part of your writing routine.
It’s time to change the way you think and feel, in order to set your creativity free.

Buy Link: https://amzn.to/2NHfutf

Review: ‘The Oshun Diaries’, by Diane Esguerra

The Oshun Diaries
High priestesses are few and far between, white ones in Africa even more so. When Diane Esguerra hears of a mysterious Austrian woman worshipping the Ifa river goddess Oshun in Nigeria, her curiosity is aroused.
It is the start of an extraordinary friendship that sustains Diane through the death of her son and leads to a quest to take part in Oshun rituals. Prevented by Boko Haram from returning to Nigeria, she finds herself at Ifa shrines in Florida amid vultures, snakes, goats’ heads, machetes, a hurricane and a cigar-smoking god. Her quest steps up a gear when Beyoncé channels Oshun at the Grammys and the goddess goes global.
Mystifying, harrowing and funny, The Oshun Diaries explores the lure of Africa, the life of a remarkable woman and the appeal of the goddess as a symbol of female empowerment.

Trailer – https://vimeo.com/340907769

Purchase Links

Readers can order the book from the Lightning Books website at 30% off (with free UK p&p) if you enter this code at checkout – BLOGTOUROSHUN

http://eye-books.com/books/the-high-priestess-of-oshun

Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oshun-Diaries-Encounters-African-Goddess-ebook/dp/B07SYLJ9YC

Amazon US – https://www.amazon.com/Oshun-Diaries-Encounters-African-Goddess-ebook/dp/B07SYLJ9YC

Review: ‘The Lost Daughter’, by Sylvia Broady

Hull, 1930. A terrified woman runs through the dark, rain-lashed streets pursued by a man, desperate to reach the sanctuary of the local police station. Alice Goddard runs with one thing in her mind: her daughter. In her panic she is hit by a car at speed and rushed to hospital. When she awakes, she has no memory of who she is, but at night she dreams of being hunted by a man, and of a little girl.
As the weeks pass and her memories gradually resurface, Alice anxiously searches for her daughter, but no one is forthcoming about the girl’s whereabouts – even her own mother is evasive. Penniless and homeless, Alice must begin again and rebuild her life, never giving up hope that one day she will be reunited with her lost daughter

Purchase Links

From 22^nd – 29^th August, The Lost Daughter will be at the bargain price of 99p.

Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Daughter-Sylvia-Broady-ebook/dp/B07F3KPN1J

Amazon US – https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Daughter-Sylvia-Broady-ebook/dp/B07F3KPN1J

Review: ‘They Don’t Make Plus Size Spacesuits’, by Ali Thompson

“They don’t make plus size spacesuits” is a sci-fi short story collection, featuring an introductory essay. It is written by long-time fat activist, Ali Thompson of Ok2BeFat.
This book is a incandescent cry from the heart, a radical turn away from utopian daydreaming of future body perfection to center a fat perspective instead.
Ali invites people to experience a fictional version of a few of the many ways that fatphobia can manifest in a life. The ways that the people closest to fat people can subject them to tiny betrayals on a near constant basis. The disdain that piles up over the years, until it all becomes too large to bear.
And while some of the fatphobic tech in these stories may seem outrageous and downright unbelievable, it is all based on extrapolations of so-called “advances” by the diet industry, as they search for ever more efficient ways to starve people.
The modern day worship of Health promises a future peopled only by the thin, a world where the War on Fatness is won and only visually acceptable bodies remain.
What will that future mean for the fat people who will inevitably still continue to exist?
Nothing good.

My Review

This book contains an essay and four short stories on the subject of being fat. Sci fi has a bit of a fatphobia problem, like the world in general. Ali Thompson writes short powerful stories that takes the current obsession with forcing everyone into a single acceptable body type to logical conclusions. They are painful to read but a necessary pain if we are to understand the daftness of the idea that thin = healthy.

Highly recommended, especially to anyone who thinks telling a child they’re fat is a good idea.

Review: ‘The Perfect Wife’, by JP Delaney

Details here

Abbie wakes in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. The man by her side explains that he’s her husband. He’s a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most innovative startups. He tells Abbie she’s a gifted artist, a doting mother, and the love of his life.

Five years ago, she suffered a terrible accident. Her return from the abyss is a miracle of science, a breakthrough that has taken him half a decade to achieve.

But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins questioning her husband’s motives – and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together for ever? And what really happened to her, half a decade ago?

Published by: Quercus Fiction

Publication Date: 8th August 2019

Format: Hardback

I. S. B. N.: 9781786488527

I got this book from Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival. On the Friday there was a pop-up Crime Files event where this book was given out.

I hadn’t planned to read or review it yet, but something was brought to my attention by the delightful @autiedragon on Twitter, who was reading an eARC and came across something that they felt had to be highlighted. Before saying anything I wanted to read the book and form my own opinion. I have, and I fully support @autiedragon’s response.

You will see what I mean when I get in to the review. As regular readers know, I don’t normally review books I don’t like but this is important to me. I need to warn Autistic fans of thrillers, psychological suspense novels etc. about the content.

There will be spoilers in this review. If you don’t want to know what happens, there are other reviews available elsewhere.

Continue reading “Review: ‘The Perfect Wife’, by JP Delaney”

Rosie Reviews the ‘Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year 2019’ Shortlist books

Hola, peeps, dear readers, etc. I’m awa’ on my big adventures – heading to Harrogate (pronounced ‘Arragut, except for by posh people who pronounce it ‘harrow gayte’) for a long weekend of crime writing delights. The fun starts this evening at the Crime Novel of the Year Awards and in preparation (otherwise known as ‘so I don’t look like an illiterate twerp’) I have been reading the books on the shortlist. I couldn’t decide which order to read them in so I went for alphabetical by author’s surname.

Review: ‘A Killing Sin’, by K.H. Irvine #LoveBooksTour

Blurb
Would you surrender your secrets to save a life?
London. It could be tomorrow. Amala Hackeem, lapsed Muslim tech entrepreneur and controversial comedian, dons a burqa and heads to the women’s group at the Tower Hamlets sharia community. What is she doing there?
Ella Russell, a struggling journalist leaves home in pursuit of the story of her life. Desperate for the truth, she is about to learn the true cost of the war on terror.
Millie Stephenson, a university professor and expert in radicalisation arrives at Downing Street to brief the Prime Minister and home secretary. Nervous and excited she finds herself at the centre of a nation taken hostage. And then it gets personal.
Friends since university, by the end of the day the lives of all three women are changed forever. They will discover if friendship truly can survive secrets and fear.

Review: ‘Storytellers’, by Bjorn Larssen

Storytellers

In March 1920 Icelandic days are short and cold, but the nights are long. For most, on those nights, funny, sad, and dramatic stories are told around the fire. But there is nothing dramatic about Gunnar, a hermit blacksmith who barely manages to make ends meet. He knows nobody will remember him – they already don’t. All he wants is peace, the company of his animals, and a steady supply of his medication. Sometimes he wonders what it would feel like to have a story of his own. He’s about to find out.

Sigurd – a man with a plan, a broken ankle, and shocking amounts of money – won’t talk about himself but is happy to tell a story that just might get Gunnar killed. The blacksmith’s other “friends” are just as eager to write him into stories of their own – from Brynhildur who wants to fix Gunnar, then marry him, his doctor who is on the precipice of calling for an intervention, The Conservative Women of Iceland who want to rehabilitate Gunnar’s “heathen ways” – even the wretched elf has plans for the blacksmith.

As his defenses begin to crumble, Gunnar decides that perhaps his life is due for a change – on his own terms. But can he avoid the endings others have in mind for him, and forge his own?

Purchase Links:

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Storytellers-Bj%C3%B8rn-Larssen-ebook/dp/B07P8Z74CC

US – https://www.amazon.com/Storytellers-Bj%C3%B8rn-Larssen-ebook/dp/B07P8Z74CC

Review: ‘The Arrival of Tavish the Tractor’, by Anne K Stewart

Summary:
Meet Tavish the Tractor, he’s a bit different from the other tractors, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be a busy tractor! Let him show you how!

Information about the Book

Title: The Adventures of Tavish the Tractor

Author: Anne K. Stewart

Release Date: 27^th June 2019

Genre: Picture Book

Page Count: 26

Publisher: Clink Street Publishing

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28535427-the-arrival-of-tavish-the-tractor

Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arrival-Tavish-Tractor-Anne-Stewart/dp/1913136507/