Squeak

I always wondered what it would be like if Stephen King wrote a Historical Fiction, Romance, Time Travel novel. Not really, but it was fun to take this journey with him.

Jake Epping has the chance to go back in time and change history. The thing he will be trying to change will be the assignation of JFK. But the time portal isn’t an exact thing. It only goes back to the year 1958, so he will have to ‘hang out’ until 1963. So what does a teacher do for 5 years while he is waiting around? Research all he can about Lee Harvey Oswald, teach school, and fall in love, what else?

I enjoyed all the time period references, like the fact that everyone smoked and how inexpensive everything was. (Not that I am old enough to remember!) I thought it was funny when he would slip up and use some 2011 slang or sing modern songs.

I wondered if Jake was even going to feel like going back to his own time once he got all settled into 1960’s. Sure we have all the conveniences like cell phones and internet, but they had honesty and respect.

I felt the book was a bit long, but who would really tell someone like Stephen King, ‘Hey, you have to shorten this up or no one will read it.’ LoL

I have noticed that there is a love/hate thing going on with reviewers over the ending. I loved the ending.

The Narration Review
I thought Craig Wasson did a great job narrating this story. I think he nailed the voices and sentiments of the characters just as Stephen King meant them to be read. I enjoyed hearing the New England accent and the funny pauses JFK used to use when he gave speeches.

This was a great epic adventure story! The story was constantly moving along and doesn't slog down any place. Just when I thought I had it all figured out the author would reveal something and completely change my mind. This story was very enjoyable and I highly recommend this story to anyone who enjoys fantasy adventure tales. The narrator, Tim Gerard Reynolds, had great enunciation and a good repertoire of voices for the different characters. He was a pleasure to listen to.

I loved these twisted tales. This series just keeps getting better. I highly recommend this series to all lovers of great young adult tales!

When this first started out I wasn't too sure I was going to like it. But as the story continued, I liked it more and more. The book was set in old England and the reader (Emily Gray) gave a good English accent the English folks and even did a good job on the Scottish accent for the Lord of Werewolves, Lord Maccon.

Even though this book was a Paranormal Romance, there was more story than sex so it made this story doubly enjoyable for me. The steamy romance was well done and not overly described in such a way that made you feel like you were reading porn.

I enjoyed this second story in the series. Although this story did not continue on from the first, I enjoyed finding out what had happened to the other dragons from the first story. There were a lot of things that were touched on briefly in the first book that got a better explanation in the second story.

Although this is the second in the series, I believe that you could listen to this one and not have heard the first one and still be able to follow and enjoy this story as a stand-alone.

The reader (David Drummond) did a great job on the different characters in this story. Each different character seemed to have a unique voice so it was easy to tell them apart.

JMHO

I loved this story! Even though it is a twisted Cinderella story, I could not predict how it was going to come out. I am eagerly awaiting the next story in the series.

The reader (Rebecca Soler) was excellent and enjoyable to listen to.

Recently I have had a thing for dragon shifter stories, mostly because I think of myself as a dragon woman, especially when I get angry. So I look forward to adding new dragon and dragon stories to my TBR list. I came across this one and thought I would give it a shot.

When the story starts out, Myst Munroe, a regular lady working as a nurse, comes across a bad situation where a pregnant lady lays dying. Try as she might, she is unable to save the mother, but is able to save the child. Enter the dragon! Before Myst is able to get away from the situation, her and two paramedics are attacked … by dragons! Sounds great right? So much potential in such a great start.

There were many things I liked about the story. The fight scenes between the different dragon factions were pretty awesome. The different abilities of the dragons were pretty cool too. I wasn’t too keen on the fact they couldn’t go out during the daytime, but each author has to make their dragons unique, so it was okay.

There were a few things that just didn’t sit well with me. For example, if you have a dragon lair that you can only enter by a cave entrance behind a waterfall and a ‘force field’ that makes it so you cannot sneak in. What the heck was with the cars and driveway when Myst needed to escape?????

I will probably read the next in the series just to see if Ms. Callahan will let our dragons soar or if they will be shot down in flames.

The Narration Review
This audiobook was narrated by Benjamin L. Darcie and I really enjoyed his narration. His voice was clear and his character voices were easily distinguishable. When it came to the more steamy scenes, Benjamin’s voice and tone rose and fell with the perfect tempo making me hang on every word.

This was a great story of shifting power within the Mongol nation. It was very interesting to hear this story because it brought up several Khans that I wasn’t aware of. I enjoyed the story of Kublai. I liked the way he conquered without leaving total destruction in his wake. I also enjoyed not actually knowing what the outcome of the war with his brother would be. I was very tempted to go look it up in the history books, but that would be like peeking at the end of the story.

Since I am not a history buff, but I know enough to get by, I knew that Kublai was going to become Khan. How did he get there, well that is something that my limited knowledge didn’t know. Well now I have a better idea. That’s one of the great things that I love about historical fiction. When I was in school, history class dragged on and on and on and on. If only I had a few good historical fiction books back then, I would have been a straight ‘A’ student!

These stories of Genghis Khan and his descendants are really great. I don’t know which parts are historical facts and which are historical fiction, but I will always remember this version. I know there is no way for Conn Iggledun to be privy to all the secret discussions etc., but they are so finely woven into the story that it just seems like they belong there. It is so well written that I find myself just wanting to accept the whole thing as truth even though I know otherwise. LoL

I highly recommend this whole series to anyone that wants to know more about the rise of the Mongol nation. Also there is a lot of interesting facts about their specific breed of horses, their lifestyle while out on campaign and the warfare they used to gain the nation.

The Narration Review

This audiobook was narrated by Richard Ferrone and I have grown so used to hearing his narration that I will not be able to think of this series without him. I don’t know if his pronunciation of the names is the correct pronunciation, but it is the way I will forever pronounce them. He has the perfect voice for this set of historical fiction books and he makes the whole series seem so believable, just like he was there. Awesome.

This book was mostly about Ogedai’s rise to power and the struggle to keep the power and the nation held together. Since Genghis did not name his first born son as heir, there is a struggle amongst his sons, each believing they would be better suited to rule the nation.

The Mongols battle against several different types of armies and they all had different tactics to try and use to defeat the Mongol warriors, so there were still plenty of battle scenes in this story. The reach of the Mongolian army was almost from sea to sea and still mostly mobile. Ogedai’s vision of settling the nation made him build decide to build Karakorum, a great city that would serve as the capital city for the Mongol nation.

Ogedai has health issues and at times he makes things worse for himself with drinking and generally not taking care with himself. He knows he is in ill health and decides he will just wait to die. It takes Sorhatani’s firm hand and sharp tongue to draw him out and set him on the path to living and ruling the nation again.

This fourth book in the Conqueror series covers a time period that I wasn’t even aware of. Silly me, I thought that the line went from Genghis directly to Kublai. Once again Conn Iggulden’s story captured me with vivid details and made this historic time period very interesting and memorable.

The Narration Review
This audiobook was narrated by Richard Ferrone and once again he doesn’t disappoint. He has a great voice and I find myself captivated by his storytelling. I think this historical fiction is a good fit for him.

Mother-Daughter Review
We listened to this as an audiobook, narrated by Lauren Ambrose and Carlos Santos, so our reviews are based on that version.

My Review
I really enjoyed this story of this ship hurtling toward a planet they hope habitable. They carry the future with them. This story is about what happens when someone starts unfreezing the cryogenically frozen people … before they arrive at their destination. Not only do people start getting unfrozen, but whoever is doing it is just shutting off the mechanism that keeps them frozen and not taking them out of the frozen liquid so they don’t drown.

Besides the threat to the frozen people, there is something else very strange about the people on this ship. If you were in a closed environment, how would you know that something was not as it should be? As the story unfolds, you get little hints here and there but it really takes the unfreezing of Amy to really see the difference. She is not like the others on the ship and she knows things are not right. She can’t fix what is wrong on this ship and the leader of the ship has made it very clear that if she makes any waves on his ship that she will be dropped off amongst the stars.

Although this book is part of a series, the author brought this story to a satisfying conclusion so we weren’t left hanging. The story can be read as a stand-alone, but there is enough left unsaid and I am enjoying the story so much that I want to continue onto the next in the series. I have to know what happens! My rating: 4 of 5 Stars.


Lily’s Review
This was a very interesting book. This book had a plot that for once, I never heard before! (((OMG))) The book had the right amount of violence, action, and drama. I also love one of the charters, Harley!!!! He’s amazing, if only that didn’t happen in the end…. Anyway I liked this book a lot and I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars, mostly because of the whininess of the main character.

The Narration Review
This audiobook was narrated by Lauren Ambrose and Carlos Santos. I enjoyed the two different voices as they switched between the perspectives for the two main characters. Both voices sounded age appropriate and both seemed to carry the different attitudes and personalities of the characters they were portraying. It is great to have that contrast when listening, especially when you are shifting between perspectives.

This book was originally written in 1953 and I have really started taking a liking to these old mystery novels. It is not the same as a novel written today in where the setting is in the 1950s, but an actual novel written during that timeframe thinks nothing of mentioning smoking in college classrooms, the jukebox on the table at your favorite coffee shop, or the folded handkerchief that gentleman would offer ladies who were crying. You just gotta love those little details.

This story was clever masterpiece of mystery and suspense. Our young protagonist is a gentleman determined to make it big by marrying big. He tries to find young ladies who are daughters of wealthy families to date. He woos them carefully, so if the relationship doesn’t work out, he can move on without alerting other young ladies that he is dating girls for their potential to make him rich. He thinks he has found the perfect girl in Dorothy.

All is going well until Dorothy turns up pregnant. Then he sees all of his carefully laid plans start to go down the drain. He can’t just dump her, that wouldn’t look good. He can’t marry her because her father would disown her because of the unplanned pregnancy. Then he wouldn’t get any money and they would have to live in poverty. But if she were to suffer an ‘accident’ then he would be off the hook and could continue dating again.
Now it seems like he has gotten away with the perfect crime … or has he? One of Dorothy’s sisters gets involved and starts asking questions and he begins to feel threatened by her discoveries. If she finds out too much, he might go to jail and never get rich. Maybe she should have an ‘accident’ too before she discovers too much.

Overall this was a great little mystery / suspense story. Even though you know who killed Dorothy there were many, many more twists and turns in this book. Enough to keep you going full speed ahead until you see the light. It was a very satisfying read.

The Narration Review
This audiobook was narrated by Hauro Hantman. He has a nice, clear, and soft spoken voice. He was very easy to listen to and he had a calming effect. Definitely a voice you can listen to while relaxing. There were a few times in the story where the juke box was playing and instead of just reading the lyrics, Hauro sang the tunes. I discovered that Hauro has a very pleasant singing voice, too!