Tag Archives: self published

Pledge Allegiance

Book Review of Pledge Allegiance (The Finch #1) by Rider England

I won an Audible copy of Pledge Allegiance, by Rider England, narrated by Greg Tremblay.

Description from Goodreads:
Shaun Blake had once had it all. As captain of the ISS Oregon, he‘d commanded his crew in the Horde War and helped to protect Earth. It was a dream come true for a farm boy from Idaho. 

But the dream shattered a year ago when a Horde ship blew the Oregon out of space, leaving Blake and a single crew member as the only survivors. 

Now, Blake is a gambler and a drunk living in the slums on Iton-3. His only interest is winning money at the WarZone tables and trying to forget who he was. He blames himself for every death that occurred under his command. 

When a woman named Jane Baltimore approaches Blake in a bar and says she has a job for him, he isn’t interested. Until she tells him the job is to captain a ship about to embark on a search and rescue mission. 

There are more surviving crew members from the Oregon. 

And they’re stuck on a planet deep in Horde space.

Review:
This was a fun, if simplistic (and familiar to any sci-fi fan) story. I liked Blake and his crew, but I never felt I got to know them well or that there was the opportunity for any significant character growth. I liked that two of the main characters, two of the best fighters were women. But it felt a little cliche that one was almost childlike in her joy and the other basically emotionless. (To be fair, the male soldiers were even flatter.)

This is a good set up for a further series, but on its own it’s largely a protracted fight scene. And even in that it’s pretty weak, as the characters seemed to triumph a bit too easily. But as a just-for-fun read, I call it a success.

Kudos to the narrator though, I don’t know if Blake would have felt as charismatic if he hadn’t had his distinct drawl.

Lady of the Sea

Review of Lady of the Sea (Aureate Chronicles #1), by Heather Zwygart

I downloaded Lady of the Sea when it was free on amazon, completely because I was entranced by the cover. It’s gorgeous. I don’t think I even read the blurb. And then when I noticed the authors name is Heather  Zwygart, I decided to read it right away. I promised myself that this year I wouldn’t reach December with an author beginning in Z being the last left in my alphabet challenge.

Description from Goodreads:
Avelessa has always had someone in her life to make decisions for her. With no family left and her mentor near death she has to make the biggest decision of her life. 

She goes in search of a pearl, known as Sol Fyre, all the while crossing the boundary the Elders put in place for their safety. 

She discovers a few things along the way. The Elders are keeping secrets. And humans… well they are not as evil as she has been taught to believe.

Review:
This is 100% a YA novel and I have 100% gone off YA books. But even if I set that aside, I was disappointed. I thought it inconsistent, juvenile (yeah, I know YA), unfocused and incomplete, being that it ended on a cliffhanger.

The writing was ok, but the editing was a little rough. Most of the book is Avelessa doing unimportant things with the two boys who she coincidentally meets as soon as she comes ashore, which irritated me. I kept thinking, don’t you have more important things to do? Her choices made little sense to me, she waffled back and forwards about her decisions, the emotions whipped around so fast I couldn’t follow them, I dislike love triangles, I don’t see why if a novel is set in 1850 New Zealand a European has to be one of the main heroes, and I needed more information about the world.

This really might be a matter of the wrong book for the wrong reader and others might enjoy it a lot more than me. But I can’t say the story lived up to that beautiful cover.

Review of Twelve Days Of Faery (Shards of a Broken Sword), by W.R. Gingell

I picked up a free copy of W. R. Gingell‘s Twelve Days of Faery free on Amazon. (It was still free at the time of posting.)

Description from Goodreads:
King Markon of Montalier is at the end of his tether. His son, Prince Parrin, is afflicted with a rather nasty curse that slaughters, maims, or brutally attacks any woman with whom he so much as flirts. After the rumour that sweeps around the kingdom, promising that any woman breaking the ‘curse’ will be eligible to marry the prince, there is no shortage of willing volunteers. Unfortunately, there is also no shortage of bodies piling up. 

Markon needs to do something, but what? Can a visiting enchantress from Avernse help, or is she simply another accident waiting to happen? And will Markon be able to give her up to his son if she does break the curse?

Review:
Honestly delightful in an irreverent, slightly absurd, but purposeful way. I love that the POV is slightly off from what you would expect for a fairytale, that what Markon thinks of himself and what we’re shown don’t align in a charming way, that Althea runs circles around everyone without even batting an eyelash, that the hero/heroine are mature (Markon in his mid forties at least) and that the whole thing is written in a witty, engaging voice.

My only complaints are that I’m never pleased with the whole scorned woman turns villainous trope and some of the challenges were overcome a bit too easily. Though, to be fair, they weren’t meant to be the focus of the book anyhow.

What can I say, I finished the book and immediately looked for more Gingell stories.