Category Archives: books/book review

Review of Jolene Stockman’s Total Blueprint for World Domination

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Total BlueprintSo, this morning I asked my husband to choose a number, any number between 1-43. He looked at me a little funny, but humoured me and eventually chose 37. Now, he may not have realised it, but he had just decided my next read. I honestly couldn’t be arse to choose anything myself. It’s one of those days.  Book number 37 happened to be Total Blueprint for World Domination, by Jolene Stockman. I was sent this book by the author for the purpose of an honest review.

Description from Goodreads:
Target big dreams and build a plan to achieve them! You’ve got one life, one shot, and all the power to make it happen. Get ready to dream big and live big. It’s all up to you. And it starts now. 

Total Blueprint for World Domination (17,000 words) is a powerful life-planning book for teens that will inspire. The book lets readers: 
*Explore hidden passions and find direction. 
*Create heart-pounding, toe-tingling goals. 
*Recruit an army for support. 
*Design a dream world and make it happen. 
*Achieve world domination step-by-step. 

Full of tips and tricks for tackling life’s challenges, Total Blueprint for World Domination is a book that will motivate readers to take their life to the next level. 

Anything is possible. And anything is possible for you. Believe it. Total Blueprint for World Domination takes you from this very second to your greatest dreams. So, are you ready?

This is WAY outside of my normal reading material, both because I don’t read a lot of self-help books and because I’m no longer a teenager. But I give all of the books sent to me consideration, so as the eminent book number 37 I chose to give it a go.

Review:
Total Blueprint for World Domination would make a great high school graduation present for a teenager…or maybe they need it at the beginning of their senior year to give them time to implement its advice. Either way, I can see it being very relevant in their lives. There has been some debate in psychological circles saying that modern Western society tells youths to go out and find their place in the world but doesn’t give them any instruction on how to identify it. Honestly, how helpful is telling 17-year-olds that they can be anything they want to be if they don’t know how to find what it is they want to be? It leaves them angsty and feeling anchor-less. Far smarter people than me have addressed this. They call it an identity crisis. Look up Erik Erikson if you’re interested. My point is that this book gives them a step-by-step blueprint of how to look into themselves and find what it is the world is telling them they should find. Contrary to the myth, it isn’t necessarily innate.

The book is written in an upbeat tone with a lot of modern media references. As a 35-year-old woman, I thought it sounded incredibly narcissistic and ‘kumbaya’, but I remember being a teenager and just how self-absorbed I was. It fits its audience. I can’t imagine any teenager having the forethought to pick this book up though. If they do, they probably don’t need it to start with. But all of you parents out there take heed. Many teenagers need advice like this.

Book Review of Valerie Zambito’s Island Shifters

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The Island ShiftersSome time ago, I missed out on a chance to win a copy of  Valerie Zambito‘s fantasy novel, Island Shifters – An Oath of the Blood (Island Shifters #1), in Mysti Parker‘s 20K hit Giveaway. Lucky for me, Mrs. Zambito is a generous woman and offered to send me a copy. As I write this post, Island Shifters also happens to be free at Amazon.

Description from Goodreads:
Heroes are born not made. 

The idyllic lives of four young shifters living in the exiled land of Pyraan are shattered when a tour of legion duty gives witness to a brutal enemy invasion. Born with magical prowess none has seen in over three hundred years, the friends become pivotal in a race against time to save a people they hardly know, but are sworn to protect. 

The journey exacts a terrible price from Beck, Kiernan, Rogan and Airron as they battle demons, both real and personal, to save the Island of Massa. But, whatever the chances, the shifters will fight.

The blood oath will have it no other way.

Review:
I initially had this marked as YA, probably based on the cover and the description of the heroes and heroine as ‘young.’ As a result, I drug my feet about reading it. I just didn’t know if I could take another angsty teenage drama. I’m beginning to think I might have to admit that I’ve finally outgrown them.

To my delight, it isn’t YA at all. In fact, it includes some fairly explicit sexual innuendo. Luckily, the story doesn’t fall victim to the painfully common sexy, simpering slave-girl trope. What Mrs. Zambito does is far more varied and insidious and, therefore, realistic. I’m not complaining. I like it. I don’t mean that I got any sort of sadist joy out of it, but it is unrealistic to think that truly evil people would just happen to be evil in every realm except for the interpersonal. It also allows for an interesting foray into different types of power. I’m probably making more of it than I need to. It is a very small part of the book, after all. But it was so unexpected that I can’t help but mention it.

The book’s strengths are definitely in the world-building and love the main characters both carry for each other and garner from those around them. Despite the heavy task before them, the book has a definite ‘feel-good’ quality to it. It feels downright sappy at times, in a good way. I did have a little trouble with the lack of contractions. Now, I’ll grant you there isn’t really any reason that people from another world would talk just like us, but it gave everything a formal feel that didn’t seem natural to me. Despite that, Island Shifters is an enjoyable example of the indomitable power of the human (or elven or dwarfian) spirit to persevere and of good triumphing over evil. I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity to read it.

The Nightlife Las Vegas

Book Review of Travis Luedke’s The Nightlife: Las Vegas

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I recently read Travis Luedke’s The Nightlife: New York, so when I saw the sequel (Las Vegas) come up free on the KDP list I was all about grabbing it.

Description from Goodreads:
Vampires, Aaron Pilan and his master Michelle, live by one rule — no bloodslaves. EVER. Aaron breaks that rule when he meets Anastasia. All Anastasia wants is to be loved and cherished, but the predatory men she’s attracted to bring her only pain and abuse. Escaping one train-wreck relationship for another, she finds happiness with Aaron and Michelle as a bloodslave, a ‘pet’.

When Aaron uses his telepathy to win thousands at the gambling tables, he attracts the deadly attention of the Colombian Cartel and Aaron and Michelle are ‘disappeared’. Addicted to the bite of her vampire lovers, Ana is desperate to find them. But, Las Vegas isn’t ready for vampires mixing heroin, sex and vengeance. Ana is trapped in the spiraling chaos.

Review:
I really loved The Nightlife: New York and anticipating liking this one just as one. Such was not the case, however. Luedke’s writing is just as crisp and wonderful here as it was in the first, but a lot of what I really appreciated about the first book didn’t carry over into this one. Most notable was Aaron’s innocence. This was one of my favourite aspects of The Nightlife: New York. It seemed to have been replaced in The Nightlife: Las Vegas by The Predator. While I liked The Predator’s protective nature and general badassness it was no substitute for the nice-guy feel that was lost.

Similarly, there was a lot of sex in this book. There was plenty in the first one too and I have no problem with sex (and Luedke can write one hot scene), but here it started to crowd out the plot a little bit. A good 30% of the book passed between meeting the antagonist the first time and him taking any action toward Aaron and Michelle. There was very little in the intermediate 30% but sex of every imaginable sort. Plus it all felt a little one sided. Michelle, Aaron, and Ana are all about reckless abandon, but apparently only with girls. Never once is another man brought into the mix. There are countless women and just Aaron’s ‘sole penis,’ four on one at one point. Even Michelle seemed to prefer a female partner. It didn’t feel very natural.

As one should probably expect of Las Vegas it all takes a bit a turn toward the depraved too. No longer are the pages full of Aaron’s appreciation of Michelle’s beauty and sexuality or lines like, “Being in love was the biggest turn-on he’d ever known.” Instead they are littered with what every power-hungery scumbag would like to do to ‘that piece of ass,’ ‘whore,’ ‘tramp,’ ‘slut,’ etc (sometimes in quite shockingly lewd detail). At the conclusion of The Nightlife: New York I praised Luedke for writing a male oriented PNR that women could relate to. This one just felt like some sleazy, male fantasy run amok. I didn’t find this to be an improvement. It felt like something indefinable had been corrupted.

The ending was fairly predictable, but the addition of the new character Michael intrigued me. I’d be interested in knowing where that plot line goes.