Review: Between Worlds Two

Title: Between Worlds Two (The Occupation Saga Book 2)

Amazon.com: Between Worlds Two (The Occupation Saga Book 2) eBook: Williams, J.L.: Kindle Store

Author: J.L. Williams 

Rating: 4.5/5

Comments:

I really enjoyed book 1 of this series, and book 2 is also good. I have some quibbles with the story and some character actions but they are quibbles.  

The author writes and posts this on Reddit and Patreon as he goes.  I think this method allows some anomalies to sneak in that a good pass with a story/content editor would catch.

Even with my quibbles, I'll be reading it as he posts it because it is a lot of fun.

Bedroom Activities: Explicit

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Review: Microbrewer Alchemist: Book 1

Title: Microbrewer Alchemist: Book 1 

Amazon.com: Microbrewer Alchemist: Book 1 eBook: Svenson, Jon: Kindle Store

Author: Jon Svenson  

Rating: 4.25/5

Comments:

This book is, in my opinion, incorrectly categorized as a children's book on Amazon.  I absolutely would not let children read it.   Drug use, alcohol, marital infidelity, and violence are not what I consider "kid friendly" but maybe that's just me.

Now, for an adult, it's a pretty good story.  If you are a fan of brewing and beer, even more so as he goes into a lot of brewing detail.

It's slice of life, so if you don't want to hear about what they have for dinner, or driving to work, it will probably drive you nuts.  Honestly I think people who like Schinhofen books would like it, although there's no explicit bedroom times.

I'll be curious to see what book 2 brings as the end of book 1 had some big bombs.

Bedroom Activities: FTB

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Review: War God for Hire Book 2

Title: War God for Hire- Adventurer: A Reincarnation, Cultivation Adventure

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B094ZC881G/
 

Author: David Burke

Rating: 4.5/5

Comments:

This is a pretty strong sequel to book 1.  Admittedly I was in the mood for a book where I could somewhat check out when I read it, but I enjoyed the ride.

This book gave a good bit more meat to the main story and you find out that some things were not as they first appeared, so there's some growth for the protagonist.

Bedroom Activities: Explicit

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Review: Courts and Cabals 3

Title: Courts and Cabals 3

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B096MPR1TZ/

Author: G.S. D'Moore

Rating: 3.9/5

Comments:

Well first off, I think this was a better book than book 2  The narrative flow seemed better despite the jumping around.  

Story-wise there are some plot points that seem to be directly in response to some of the more vocal subgroups of the genre, which are fine, but it seemed incongruous as it changed some basic assumptions from book 1.

There is some decent character growth for the protagonist, and we get some new characters.

All in all, a serviceable sequel and an improvement over book 2.  There are some very definite time bombs in the story arc and it will be interesting to see what happens when they start going off.

Bedroom Activities: Explicit

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Review: The First Course

Title: The First Course: Book One of The Omegas Series

https://www.amazon.com/First-Course-Omegas-SuperHarem-Adventure-ebook/dp/B082Z4JXF9/

Author: Ashus Evinco

Rating: 4.2/5

Comments:

Honestly with the blurb I didn't expect a lot from this story, it was just too odd of a premise, but it was recommended by Cebelius, so I thought I would check it out.  I was pleasantly surprised to find the story flow was good, the characters were varied, and there was good development through the story.  At one point I was starting to wonder if I was delving into another "story" where it was just a loose collection of ideas connecting a string of sex scenes, but that turned out to not be the case.

A pretty solid first book, I will watch for book 2.

Bedroom Activities: Explicit (frequent)

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Review: Luck's Voice 3

Title:Breaking the Bank (Luck's Voice Book 3)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B096X82K1X/

Author:Daniel Schinhofen

Rating:4/5

Comments: 

 Slice of life, Weird West, and Schinhofen, I think fans of the mix will like this installment a lot.    Amazon currently has a 5 star rating with 334 reviews.  I think this one had fewer "Wow" moments than the first two, which is why I brought it down a little.  

I think DJ must have had a conundrum as he was writing it, which is when to end it.  The ending snuck up on me and I was surprised to find myself there.  We were on the cusp of important events!   I'm sure he wanted to keep going, but was coming up against his size target, and perhaps a little wariness about ending on a cliffhanger based on previous experiences.

Bedroom Activities: Explicit

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Review: Heretic Peacekeeper

Title: The Heretic Peacekeeper: Chinese Cultivation Fantasy in a Cyberpunk Future China (The Nine Heavens and Ten Earths Book 1)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08TLV5N3W

Author: Jeremy Bai

Rating:4/5

Comments: This setting has some interesting twists, and is still a little mysterious even at the end of the first book, which honestly is good because it leaves more to be discovered later plus it means that the author didn't beat us over the head with infodumps in book 1.

Overall, pretty decent book.  There's not a lot of cultivation in it, but the story introduces the why of that, and it sets up more in book 2.  The cultivation system seems pretty unique too.

Bedroom Activities: None

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Review: Descend Book 1 Audio book

Title: Descend Book 1: First Steps

Author: David Burke

Voice actors: Daniel Wisniewski, Rebecca Woods

Rating: Story:  2.5/5

            Performance 4.5/5

Comments:

Ok the story is borderline terrible.  There's almost no dramatic tension, and the plot is heavy on what a horny adolescent would think would be awesome. 30 to 1 female to male ratio; check.  Aphrodisiacs  liberally applied; check.  Magic enhanced body; check.  Magic sex powers, check.

No guy over the age of about 25 would think it would be awesome to be stuck full time with 30+ women.  

Then there's the dialogue from the James T. Kirk school of talking.  It takes stilted and awkward to new heights.  It's so over the top I genuinely laughed.

On the upside, Daniel and Rebecca take that sow's ear and do everything they can to make it a silk purse.  Best of all, Rebecca delivered her signature "warm southern belle" accent at least once in the 10 hours, so that made it worth it.

If I had been reading I have no doubt this would have been a DNF - avoid, but I took a chance based on the voice actors (they did TAP by Cebelius), and broke-even.

To be fair, if you just wanted a LitRPG book with sexy times, and no thought required, this would probably work.

Bedroom Activities: Explicit

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Review: El Finito 1

Title:  El Finito Book 1: Welcome to the Stacks

Author: M.E. Thorne

Rating:2.9/5

Comments:

On a 3 rating I question whether finishing the book was a wise decision, in this case there is no doubt in my mind that finishing the book was a poor decision.  This book premise was kind of a cool idea, but it quickly became apparent that it was window dressing for frequent sexy times.  If this doesn't get put in the erotica dungeon I will be amazed.  If that's what you're looking for, well 5/5 for you.  By the end it had gotten to the point of being almost parody as the protagonist explicitly gains the magic dick of procreation.  

Bedroom Activities: Explicit, Frequent

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Review: He who Fights Monsters 2

Title: He Who Fights with Monsters 2:  A LitRPG Adventure

Author: Shirtaloon

Rating: 4.3/5

Comments:

This one was an improvement over book 1.  The threads that were so separate and unrelated in book 1 have been pulled together and things proceed at a brisk pace.

It's nice to start to see hints of how things all got started, what the greater conflict is.

All in all a fun story, and I'm glad to see it's continuing.

Bedroom Activities: FTB - minimal

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Review: Enemy of my Enemy

Title:  Enemy of my Enemy (Brannigan's Blackhearts book 8)

Author: Peter Nealen

Rating: 4/5

Comments:

This being book 8, you can safely assume that I read the previous 7, and enjoyed them.  Book 8 doesn't really break any new narrative ground, although there's some team shuffling.  The POV jumps around, but theses are not character driven stories, so it's not that important, or unexpected.  I read these when I need a change of pace from my usual fare.  If you like a story where the good guys are good, and the bad guys are bad, and there is a lot of face wrecking, explosions, and guns, well you could do worse than a Peter Nealen book.

Bedroom Activities: None

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Review: Infinite world series

Title: Infinite World

The Infinite World (3 book series) Kindle Edition (amazon.com)

Author: J.T. Wright

Rating: 4.5/5

Comments:

This series has 3 books in it currently;  Land of the Undying Lord, A Bond Broken, and Moonlight Banishes Shadows.

I read them all in about 4 days.  It's fairly notable that I binged them like that, so you could say I really enjoyed the story.

My quibbles:  Shifting POV for minor characters for little to no story value,  I find Litrpg character sheet dumps annoying and feel they detract from the story.  I guess mainly I don't see the value of crunchy game bits in a story.

Other than that, it's a good story with a unique start.  Beyond that, it doesn't develop the way you think it will, and any time an author can accomplish that with me is enjoyable.

 Bedroom Activities: None

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Review: Dark Obligations: Book One of the Phantom Badgers

Title: Dark Obligations

Author: RW Krpoun

Rating: 3.9/5

Comments:

This is kind of a fantasy take on military fiction, and it mostly works.  The story gets a little bogged down in world building, and as typical Krpoun likes to jump between POV's.  This slow pace meant it took me a lot longer than normal to get through it, but I'm glad I did.

I think the world has good potential, but I hope there's a little less of the "here's a thing, now let me explain the thing to you for half a page" in the next book.

Bedroom Activities: None

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Review: The Last Kingdom (Saxon Tales Book 1)

Title: The Last Kingdom

Author: Bernard Cornwell

Rating: 4/5

Comments:

This is not my typical book, partly because it was one I was given rather than one on Kindle Unlimited.

This is a historical fiction book set in the Dark Age England during the wars between the Danes, the Saxons, and the Britons.

I struggled a little with the narration style because it's told by the protagonist in the past tense, as if relating his life as an old man, but I persevered, and it is ultimately a pretty decent story.  For those of you who watch shows, I hear that there is video adaptation of it on Amazon streaming.

I wouldn't mind reading the next one, but it will have to come from the library.  There are 12 more books in the series, and they are more than $10 each, and that's a lot of money to finish the story.

Bedroom Activities: FTB

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Review: Wrangler 4

Title: Wrangler 4

Author: Hondo Jinx

Rating: 3.75/5

Comments:

Ok, generally I like Hondo's work.  This one just felt kind of shallow.  We had characters added to the cast with little development, and the big looming threat of the previous books was dealt with almost casually.

There were parts of it that were really good, but my impression after finishing it was that he wanted to wrap up the series in this book, and certain things were abbreviated to make that happen.  If you've read the first 3, I recommend reading it as it does give a satisfying wrap-up, but it's not the grand finale it could have been.

Bedroom Activities: Explicit

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Review: War's Edge: Dead Heroes

Title: War's Edge: Dead Heroes

Author: Ryan W. Aslesen

Rating: 4/5

Comments:

This is from the same author as War Whore (link to review) and I picked it up based on the strength of that novel.  

The first half is a fairly standard "boot camp" experience which is not groundbreaking but it works. The second half covers the protagonists first deployment, and I got a very Vietnam War vibe from it.  Again, not a problem, just familiar.

All in all, good action, good characters.  There was some POV switching that was apparently there just to give us a broader view of the story, because honestly they didn't get enough screen time for me to care about them.

Bedroom Activities: FTB limited, one "on-screen" but not detailed enough to warrant an Explicit rating.

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Review: He Who Fights Monsters

Title: He Who Fights Monsters: A Litrpg Adventure

Author: Shirtaloon

Rating:4/5

Comments:

This was originally written as a serial on some web platform, and I hear it's still there.  That introduces a few oddities, where you get information repeated.  Overall it's not a problem.

All in all, it's entertaining.  The protagonist has a very definite way of looking at the world, but he's not one to "do as I say, not as I do" so he shows a level of integrity about his beliefs that you can respect, even if you don't agree.

Detracting from the story is the length, and the number of POV shifts.  Fortunately the shifts are short, and eventually tie together.

I am interested enough in where it's going to read the next volume when it releases this month, but I'm not waiting with bated breath.

Bedroom Activities: FTB

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Review: Legacy of the Fallen

Title: Legacy of the Fallen (Ascend Online book 2)

Author: Luke Chmilenko

Rating: 3.5/5

Comments:

Well, this is the 3rd book set in Ascend Online that I've read.  I can't explain why, but it was kind of a slog to get through it.  It had some good parts, but I think the fact that the whole thing isn't real detracts from it enough that they couldn't make up for that.  Unlike the first book, the mechanics of the game weren't novel enough to hold my interest.

If you like gamelit, well I can give this my whole-hearted endorsement.  I think Luke could have dropped the game trappings and just put it together as a fantasy world, and it would have been a better story.

Two minor parts of the story apparently bugged me enough they are percolating to the top of my brain as I write this, so I'm including them.  One, the protagonist gets a message from family members that they're joining the game, yet they don't contact him in game, or ask for gear, starting money, or apply for the guild.  Just "Hey we're going to be in the neighborhood, but we don't want to see you"  Second, the world outside of the game is just implausibly awful, which no doubt is the point, so people will want to escape into the game.  

Bedroom Activities: FTB

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