Review: The Scarlet Cavern

Title:  The Scarlet Cavern

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/d/B08KYH1NSZ/

Author: Michael Dalton

Rating: 3.5/5

Comments

The Scarlet Cavern is a fairly standard pulpy monster-girl harem book.  Guy winds up in another world, but somehow copes with that fact with nary an emotional hiccup. He has a magic dick and uses it.  It’s funny that he’s a former Marine, because the old joke with Marines is they will fuck anything, and he pretty much does.  All the women worship his bedroom prowess, and don’t even get me started on his sheer overpowering combat abilities.

 

Now despite all those tired and recycled tropes, the story really isn’t bad, which mildly impressed me. He threw some plot hooks and foreshadowing in there that could actually develop into something interesting.

 

If you want a pulp level light story, you can do worse than this one.  It was a nice break for me after the density of Mark of Kings.

 

Bedroom Activities:  Explicit

 

Review: Cashing In (Luck's Voice Book 2)

Title:  Cashing In

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/d/B08P4BKYBT/

Author: Daniel Schinhofen

Rating: 4.9/5

Comments

Daniel Schinhofen has found a niche in the market and has really done well establishing his brand.  His stories tend to have a slower pace, as he does more slice of life type narratives, so that may or may not be to your taste.  If you have looked at Luck’s Voice, he has done a really interesting fusion of Fantasy and Old West which I find very entertaining.

The only ding I am giving it on the rating is simply that he really knows his poker, and there is a lot of detail about it.  My brain finds this level of detail tedious, but a poker fan would probably love it.  He makes it pretty easy to skim past though, although I have a hard time doing that because my reader brain rebels.

Bedroom Activities:  Explicit (the bedroom times are always segregated in their own chapters, so you can skip those chapters if you wish without harming your understanding of the story)

 

Review: Mark of Kings

Title:  Mark of Kings (The Shattered Reigns Book 1)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R818YQ3

Author: Luke Chmilenko, Bryce O’Connor

Rating: 4.1/5

Comments

Mark of Kings is aimed solidly at the Fantasy Epic market and it mostly succeeds.  My issues with it are less about the story than how it’s delivered.  There are several POV changes which, in my opinion, do nothing to actually advance the story, but are just there to attempt to add emotional impact.  At least for me they generally fail in that unless they were aiming for the emotion of annoyance, in which case they succeeded.  I’m not being hyperbolic when I say one annoyed me to the point that I almost quit reading.  That entire chapter could be removed and it would actively help the story.

My other gripe about the story is that it seems to meander about for most of the book without accomplishing a whole lot as far as getting us into the story, but delivering us a whole heaping plate of history and backstory.  This is thankfully accomplished without massive infodumps, but I think they could have lightened them up without hurting the story, and it would have improved the pacing and flow, while simultaneously shortening the book.

I will most likely read the sequel, but I’m going to have to give myself a break.  Fortunately the cast of characters is fairly small (essentially three important characters), so a break won’t really be an issue.

Bedroom Activities:  None

 

Review: Mana Master

Title:  Mana Master

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MDHLY6V

Author: Bruce Sentar

Rating: 3.5/5

Comments

So this is another cultivation book.  I’m a little conflicted about it because I think the cultivation parts of it are pretty decent and interesting.  Some of the relationships are really well done.  Others, well they’re just magical in their simplicity.  Meet girl in café,  girl gets added to entourage with hardly a word spoken.  The MC is also self-absorbed to the point of pathology.  Best friends from childhood get separated from him by a rampaging beast?  Not a single thought of “We need to find them.” 

Anyway, I liked parts of it, but I feel the inter-personal interactions are somewhat unrealistic, and occasionally cross right over into “Oh give me a fucking break” territory.  The cultivation parts are pretty well done though.

Bedroom Activities:  Explicit

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FTB/Explicit/None – Fade to black bedroom activities vs “Onscreen” vs No activities

 

 

 

Book Review: Aether's Guard (Aether's Revival Book 2)

Title:  Aether’s Guard

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08H4LNR43

Author: Daniel Schinhofen

Rating: 5/5

Comments

I was introduced to “Cultivation” style books with Cultivating Chaos, since then I’ve found I quite enjoy them providing the main character isn’t one that makes me want to beat him senseless.  Since this is for book TWO of the series, it’s safe to say that book one at least got 4/5.  It’s been a while since I read it, but I am listening to it now and enjoying it since it’s narrated by the incomparable Andrea Parseneau.  Iron Prince is kind of a sci-fi/cyber-punk type of Cultivation novel, and I recommend it.

All that being said, Aether’s Revival book 1 dropped a HUGE bomb in the last line of the book, and book 2 does not fail to exploit that as Greg and Yuki lay waste to their competition, and pick up some more friends along the way.  I can’t wait to see what DJ has planned for book 3.

Bedroom Activities:  Explicit - limited

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FTB/Explicit/None – Fade to black bedroom activities vs “Onscreen” vs No activities

 

 

Review: Entangled Fates (books 1-4)

Title:  Entangled Fates

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084R85157

Author: Joe Kuster

Rating: 5/5

Comments

This is one of the best series by a new author I’ve ever read.  The characters are believable, great, and varied.  The security tech sections are where Joe really shines, presumably because that is the world he lives in with his day job.  The things that happen with technology are terrifyingly plausible while being unbelievably cool at the same time.

 

The one quibble I had with these books, is the shifting of POV’s.  After some conversations with Joe I am more ok with them because his overall story arc is focused on all of the inner circle, not just the main protagonist, Alex.

 

Highly recommended.

 

Bedroom Activities:  Explicit (limited instances)

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FTB/Explicit/None – Fade to black bedroom activities vs “Onscreen” vs No activities

 

 

Review: Superhero Dad

Title:  Superhero Dad

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HVW52RY

Author: Chase Danger

Rating:3/5

 

Comments

 

I honestly had pretty low expectations of this book, but I had a few hours and needed something light.  I was surprised that it wasn’t horrible.  I mean, there are some plot holes, and questionable actions, but I finished it.   I’m not sure I’ll read the next one, if there is one.

 

The initial premise is that there are some “special” children and these children have protectors that get powers to make sure they’re safe.  So not a horrible premise.  There is some POV switching that seems kind of pointless, but whatever, it wasn’t horrible.  Anyway, if you are ok with literary Twinkies, and can tolerate the occasional stupidity by the protagonist, it’s not too bad.

 

Bedroom Activities: Explicit

 

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FTB/Explicit/None – Fade to black bedroom activities vs “Onscreen” vs No activities

 

Review: Swing Shift series

Title: Swing Shift (books 1-3)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Z849JFS

Author: William D. Arand

Rating:  5/5

Comments

 

The Swing Shift series is the story of Gustavus Hellstrom, a battle-scarred veteran who is a detective for the Paranormal Investigation Department. The story includes a host of great side characters, including his best friend and fellow veteran Mark Ehrich, Melody Lark, partner Vanessa Flores, and the sorceress cleaning lady Patricia Ash.

 

My second favorite series after Right of Retribution

 

 

Bedroom Activities: FTB

 

Full disclosure:  Mr. Arand is a friend, and I do beta reading for him.

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FTB/Explicit/None – Fade to black bedroom activities vs “Onscreen” vs No activities

 

 

Review: Right of Retribution

Title: Right of Retribution – Book 1

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B085BCFZ24

 

Author: William D. Arand

 

Rating: 5/5+

 

Comments

As a father, this book hit me hard in the Dad emotional zone.  It is easily my favorite book in the Sovereign-verse.  Warner literally metes out divine justice on the low-life scumbags that hurt his daughter.  It’s like Death Wish, but with a flaming sword of divine wrath instead of a .44 magnum.

 

Bedroom Activities: FTB

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FTB/Explicit/None – Fade to black bedroom activities vs “Onscreen” vs No activities

 

 

Review: TAP

Title:  T.A.P.  Origins

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08FWBSBZ3

Author: Cebelius

Rating: 5/5

Comments

TAP features an unusual protagonist in that he’s an orphan with two prosthetic legs and a rather unique special ability that he can “wake up” inanimate objects, as long as they have some kind of electronics.  Unusually, he uses his power sparingly for reasons that become apparent. 

This is a very fun, pretty light-hearted book, especially compared to his other series.  I have to say I also enjoyed it the most out of his books.

 

Bedroom Activities: Minimal FTB

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FTB/Explicit/None – Fade to black bedroom activities vs “Onscreen” vs No activities

 

 

Review: Send Me an Angel

Title: Send me an Angel

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MD236N7

Author: Cebelius

Rating: 4/5

Comments

Cebelius is best known for his Celestine Chronicles books, but this one was actually first written before those books and there are places in the story you can definitely tell it’s an early work.  It’s fairly standard “trapped in a game world” fare, but his characters are decent.  The POV jumps around a bit, which I’m not a fan of, but it wasn’t  enough for me to drop it. That might possibly be because I’ve read so many of his other books that I was willing to power through the rough spots in this one.  No idea if there will be a sequel, he has said he isn’t sure.

Bedroom Activities: FTB/None for the main character

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FTB/Explicit/None – Fade to black bedroom activities vs “Onscreen” vs No activities

 

 

Review: Shadow Sun Survival

 

Title: Shandow Sun Survival: Shadow Sun Book One

Author: Dave Wilmarth

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/d/B07P7HYK53/

Rating: 3.1/5

Comments

There was a lot of this book I enjoyed, it was a fairly standard Litrpg framework, but it worked.  What didn’t work for me was the initial premise of why everything was gamelike.  Maybe the players don’t have the full story yet, but there’s nothing to hint at that.  Without trying to spoil too much, the idea that aliens are going to transport the the whole planet to a new solar system because humans meet some standard of worthiness, yet are going to cull the population by 90% in the first year is enough to make my brain want to explode with cognitive dissonance.  As long as I ignored that part of the story, I was able to enjoy it.  Unfortunately, that bit comes up a lot.

Plus it had some really pointless POV shifts that did very little for the main narrative.  I read his other book Battleborne and I think it was better.

Bedroom Activities: Minimal, FTB

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FTB/Explicit/None – Fade to black bedroom activities vs “Onscreen” vs No activities

 

Review: Iron Prince

 Title: Iron Prince (Warformed: Stormweaver Book 1)

https://www.amazon.com/Iron-Prince-Warformed-Stormweaver-Book-ebook/dp/B08KGT4CLQ

Author: Bryce O’Connor, Luke Chmilenko

Rating: 5/5+

Comments

This is one of those rare books where they accomplish POV shifts that actually help advance the main narrative rather than slow everything down.  This book is 1100 pages of “What happens next?  Holy crap.”  Repeat.  I was up until 4:30 a.m. the night I started it.

Bedroom activities:  None

Review: Lightfoot

 

Title: Lightfoot

https://www.amazon.com/Lightfoot-Joe-Kuster-ebook/dp/B08MZBP2MF

Author: Joe Kuster

Rating: 5/5+

Comments

I enjoyed the hell out of this book and was sad when it was over.  A full cast of great characters and plenty of twists that I did not anticipate.

Bedroom Activities:  Explicit

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FTB/Explicit/None – Fade to black bedroom activities vs “Onscreen” vs No activities