Tag: you haven’t read this yet

Categories
Authoring Promotion

Big News from A. D. Trosper

Biggest sale on books you may or may not have heard of!

 

Many have read these, many more have not. Some will share this because they love them, other won’t because they don’t wish to inflict my books on people they care about. On the flip side of that, if you didn’t like them, share this to your enemies! Plenty of opportunity abounds for lovers and haters alike! Here is your chance to spread the love (or torture those you feel are deserving). All of my books are on sale in one way or another, so take advantage of it since I don’t do these often. The sale runs from today, May 27th thru Monday, May 30th

 

A New Beginning (short prequel) – FREE

In the War of Fire, death often heralds a new beginning…

Dragons, magic, and war are commonplace for sixteen year old Emallya. Though she longs for the simple life of hearth and home, some things are not meant to be.

Her dreams for the future are changed in a single night when battle breaches the walls of her home, and she finds her true calling. The innocent hopes of youth are cast aside as Emallya steps forward into a future she never imagined for herself.

*This is a short story within the Dragon’s Call world and includes a bonus peek into Embers at Galdrilene, the first Dragon’s Call book.

 

Get it FREE on Amazon

 

Embers at Galdrilene (Dragon’s Call book 1)

“A ray of light, a stain of shadow, shall endure to breathe life and death into the future”

The war between the Guardians and the Shadow Riders ended in total devastation. The final battle killed all the dragons and left nothing but fields of ash. A small clutch of dragon eggs was all that remained to provide hope for the future.

Five hundred years later, the ability to use magic is a death sentence and dragons are remembered as a curse. But the unhatched dragons sing for their riders…and six lives will be changed forever.

The elements of magic are drawn together as the dragons’ call leads them on a journey where they learn everything they’ve been taught to believe about magic and dragons is wrong.

With the last of the dragons and the world at stake, they will risk everything to heed the call.

But an evil from the past rises again. Shadow Dragons ride the dawn once more…

 

Get it for .99 on Amazon

 

Tears of War (Dragon’s Call book 2)

“Old things come again and new things surface.”

Faced with a looming war, the riders have no choice but to leave the safety of Galdrilene and reach out to the nations for help. But the Shadow Riders are doing the same and not all nations are opposed to their rule.

New discoveries are made, old wounds are reopened and betrayal hides among welcoming smiles.

As one nation begins to unravel it’s clear that some choices, even those made with the best of intentions, can have devastating consequences.

 

Get it for 1.99 on Amazon

 

Ashes and Spirits (Dragon’s Call book 3)

“The incomplete weave breeds the darkness…”

Presented with impossible odds, the Guardians struggle to hold against the Shadow Riders. While enemies from within are discovered and allegiances are formed, the losses mount.

As the war escalates, one Guardian may have to make the ultimate sacrifice to save all.

 

Get it for 1.99 on Amazon

 

Bound by Time -FREE

Time knows no bounds when you are tested to your limits…

Isobel Moore is looking forward to spending her summer break alone while her parents are overseas. But when she returns home from college she discovers it’s no longer the welcoming place it used to be…and that something sinister now resides within.

As Isobel begins to question her sanity, a mysterious neighbor moves next door with plenty of his own secrets…and Damien DeLuca has the uncanny ability to always show up when the unexplainable happens.

Now Isobel must unravel a past that tests her limits and everything she thought she knew—before the darkness kills her.

Get it for FREE on Amazon

 

Bound by Legend

When demons show up there will be hell to pay…

At nineteen Morgan has already faced more loss than she can handle and has more experience living on the street than she wants. Unable to do anything other than keep on the move in order to hide from the demons that hunt her, she guards her heart and emotions carefully. But when the demons start talking to her and calling her by a name from another life, things spiral beyond her control.

Lucian, an ancient dark angel who has seen his fair share of lives, is happy being a free agent until he’s assigned to Morgan. Determined to do everything on her own, she’s unlike any channel he’s ever met.

As the danger mounts and a demon prepares to open a gateway to the underworld, Morgan must find a way to overcome her past in order stop him. Offered what her heart desperately wants, and holding a key that will close the gate but open another, Morgan struggles find the strength to make the right choice.

Get it for .99 on Amazon

 

What people are saying about the Dragon’s Call books

The people that were happy:

“I thoroughly enjoy these books and feel anyone that love true Fantasy, full of magic and dragons, will enjoy these books. The characters are richly written and the storyline is addictive. The interaction between dragon and rider is some of the best Fantasy I’ve read. I love the relationships the author has developed between the two.”

“Took a well used genre (dragon riders) but added a new twist that had me struggling to put the book down. Real page turner that keeps you on your toes.”

“All 3 books are just wonderful. From start to finish it will keep on edge just waiting for what will come next. You won’t be disappointed!! These books have gotten me in trouble!! I couldn’t put it down, tried for work as a result!! Dragon Loves must read set. Looking forward to reading more books by this Author!!!”

And the people who weren’t happy:

“Very boring. ….”

“This book might take prize for overall, most cliche fantasy book Ive read this year.”

 

And those that are neither:

USA Bestseller List says, “Who are you?”

New York Times says, “This is a restraining order…”

 

The happy for the Bound series:

“Such a sweet, romantic and action packed story. From the onset, you’re drawn in and intrigued by everything going on. I never knew a window could be so menacing!”

“I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading Bound by Time.”

“Amazing & intriguing story. From the very beginning I was drawn in & it never disappointed.”

The unhappy:

“The storyline was slow and uneventful with very little happening along the way.”

“Dull…”

“Hated main character.”

 

USA Bestseller lists says, “We still have no clue who you are.”

 

 

 

 

Categories
Book reviews

Review of Overload Flux

Teaser first (from Goodreads) 
The Central Galactic Concordance has been stable for two centuries, but trouble is brewing. A pandemic is affecting hundreds of civilized planets, and someone is stealing the vaccine…

Brilliant investigator Luka Foxe’s hidden mental talent is out of control, making him barely able to function in the aftermath of violence, and the body count is rising. The convoluted trail leads to a corrupt pharma industry and the possibility of an illegal, planet-sized laboratory. In the face of increasing threats, he must rely on an enigmatic, lethal woman he just met, but she has deep secrets of her own.

Mairwen Morganthur hides extraordinary skills under the guise of a dull night-shift guard. The last thing she wants is to provide personal security for a hot-shot investigator, or to be plunged into a murky case involving sabotage, treachery, and the military covert operations division that would love to discover she’s still alive.

Two more lives in a rising death count won’t bother their enemies one bit. Their only hope for survival lies in revealing their dark secrets and learning to trust one another.

My words second:
3 stars of 5
First off, I do recommend this–I only put my impressions into blog form if I can recommend with enthusiasm–but I’m only saying it may appeal to  other readers and fans of space opera, clean romance and traditional-style science fiction, not that it will or should appeal. Me, I never warmed to it enough to lose myself, and I won’t lie about that.

You gotta remember though, that I have a cold, hard, analyst’s heart. That means I have the objectivity and reading experience to say Overload Flux is good even if I didn’t like it.** Mileage varies, that’s my baseline. This book has some great ideas in it, but they aren’t ones that move me. It also contains elements which I dislike and other people love. So. Here are the deets:

First, I wasn’t sold on the future. Overload Flux is space opera, not hard scifi. It offers lots of interesting scientific extrapolation and an incredibly complex future society, but…I couldn’t ignore the parts that didn’t fit. A lot of things struck me as anachronistic or made me think, “but if they can do X, why don’t they use it for Y as well?” The epic scope of this universe means these points may be addressed in later books, but they stand out like high-radiation spots of nope in this one. To me.

Second,  the romance. The culture is presented as sex-positive, with consensual sex between adults socially acceptable for both sexes. The attraction between the protagonists was very well portrayed. The excuses to not consummate the relationship? Not so well. (Not enough time, not enough privacy, badly-timed interruptions–the situations didn’t generate true dramatic tension, nor were they played for comedy.)  I love a good romance, but I like a plausible one much better. If the pair has an overwhelming bond and a deep need to connect, FFS, they would fuck. If  they don’t have that psychic “love conquers all” connection, I needed to be shown a lot more specific, personal reasons they fall in love and a better reason to abstain than ‘first time together needs to be perfect’ issue.

Last, wordiness. Very much a personal complaint (and a fault I share.)  Every important action or point of dialogue came sandwiched between long descriptions of where, exactly, everyone was standing, what expressions they were wearing, and how they were moving, with a side order of what they were thinking before and after speaking or acting. As that sentence demonstrates, more can be less.  Some of the scenes were spectacular, some of the action quite intense, but I undoubtedly missed nuances within long paragraphs that felt redundant.

So. This is a sweeping scifi world-build designed on a grand scale, with psychic powers and swashbuckling space war as trimmings. Intense, chaste slow-build romantic relationship, evil villains and conspiracies, action payoff, and excellent set up for the next installment. Which I will be reading.

Because I did like it, and I think the story is just going to get better and better.

** Recall I’m the one who can’t get past chapter 3 of book 1 in the Wheel of Time, but I chew through George R. R. Martin like cotton candy. Robert Sawyer’s SF  leaves me unmoved, but give me C. J. Cherryh all day long. Nothing is universally loved.

Categories
Book reviews

Review: The Raging One by Lexy Wolfe

3.25 of 5 stars.

I’m trying something new:  starting my review with the blurb from Goodreads:

“Still reeling from an ancient war, the world has begun showing signs of unraveling. To save their world, a select group of the most gifted elite must form an alliance and find a solution before it is too late.

But, can these historically incompatible members of the remaining nations cooperate despite their ancestral biases and distrust? Or, will shadows consume them before they uncover the secret of The Raging One?”

This book is complete in itself, but it left me with the pleasant sense that I’d explored only one room of a huge mansion full of treasures yet unseen. The epic scale of the tale piqued my interest, but the difficulty of cramming so many big ideas into the limits of a single novel may be the reason some things did not satisfy me.

I’ll start with what I enjoyed in a handy list format:
1. Character interplay: phenomenal dialogue & excellent, realistic tension. Superb.
2. Magic & religion: detailed, intriguing systems, complete and coherently presented.
3. Culture: often the downfall of epic fantasy, the quality of this really stood out for me. The nations and societies are built on familiar foundations without ever falling into stereotype or cliche.
4. Characters: the protagonists are all clearly designed to fulfill epic roles, but they fill their big hero shoes with verve and style. I never felt that minor characters were minor. Everyone had lives and motives and pasts, and as I pointed out in #1, they spoke and reacted to events in ways that made emotional sense.

I really enjoyed the way relationships developed — or didn’t — over the course of the book. Life is complicated, change is hard, and trust takes courage. All those truths were handled with sensitivity and realism.

As for the points that bugged me, I will again default to a simple list:
1. Saidisms: action words like “seethed” or “frowned” used as dialogue tags. I know reader feelings run high about these, pro and con. I only notice when they make no sense to me, but then they set my teeth on edge. I nearly put down the book when I hit a “Stupid beast,” the middle rider seethed, on page 1. I’m immensely glad I continued, but if saidisms are like fingernails on a blackboard for you, it might be a deal-breaker.
2. Terminology & naming conventions: I struggled to stay afloat in the first few chapters. The flood of jargon and job titles, deity names, place names and other proper nouns overwhelmed me. Usually I love immersion reading–diving straight into worlds full of new words is a vocabulary adventure, but this book taxed my ability to assign meaning by context, especially early on.  The glossary at the end of the book became my best friend. (oh, how joyful I was to discover it!)
3. Villain. I love a good bad guy, even a melodramatically mustache-twirling black hat who is clearly Up To No Good from the beginning, but…but.  I had a hard time with one of the antagonists. The elements of the plot that revolved around the most obvious bad guy in the mix disappointed me, especially compared to the larger, sweeping war of greater powers that took shape over the course of the book.

I am thoroughly intrigued by the direction the Bigger Story is taking.  I can recommend this novel to anyone who loves a sweeping story with big ideas, bonds with heroic heroes and heroines, and enjoys juicy, complex interpersonal conflicts.

Final note: the star rating will bump to 4 for Amazon because that’s their version of “I liked it,” and I cannot justify less. This book is good with gems of real brilliance in it.

See all the books I’ve given an in-depth blog review here: My book reviews

 

Categories
Book reviews

Review of A Dragon Problem by Rick Rossing

A Dragon Problem: The Dragons of Phelios, Book I by Rick Rossing

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a fun book, and reading it whiled away a pleasant afternoon. I recommend it to people who love a good portal fantasy the way I do, and I’m following on Amazon so I can grab the next in the series as soon as it comes out.

The author has a clean, straightforward storytelling style, and the first-person point-of-view in this book brings out the best in it. The setting is a basic fantasy world (magic, dragons, semi-feudal societies warring over territory and power) Nothing notably twisty or shockingly original, but all perfectly enjoyable. The story is YA-friendly with a romantic pairing that never goes behind closed doors.

I would put 3.25 stars if Goodreads would allow fractions.

You may well ask, why the compliments but not more stars? Because I am a mean and horrible person. No, wait, that isn’t it. Because I am a literary snob? Bwahahahahaha. no. I like all kinds of books in all genres, and I enjoy a wide variety of writing styles and levels of complexity.

I am an avid reader, however, with a lot more books in my brain than my Goodreads profile indicates. (I am also lazy, and rating hundreds of extensive bibliographies holds no appeal.) My experience does influence my evaluation.

A book has to have something special to even catch my eye these days, and I don’t start from five stars and subtract. Like a figure skating judge, I start at zero, and a book has to earn my interest and respect one character, one trope, one plot twist at a time. “I liked it” describes my satisfaction level for a lot of good books.

I would put 3.25 stars if Goodreads allowed halvsies, but not more. This one hit some personal buttons about character depth, convenient coincidences, and plot-driven motives (the romantic sub-plot especially) The writing and ideas are good enough I wish there was more than the basics, and that’s where the .25 comes in. But when there’s no one in the book for me to relate to, then it won’t ever get more from me.

Nothing red-flagged;  it’s just a lot of the usual: strong woman warrior who conveniently still needs rescue and of course falls in love with the male hero, everyone trusts the outsider hero because a wise elder gives the seal of approval, modern dude comes in and unites the natives who can’t fight the evil themselves until he points the way…

There’s a reason these are popular tropes. They’re satisfying and fulfilling for many people. I don’t happen to be one of them. I’m bored when the only characters who share my gender in an adventure tale are sidelined and/or treated as a prize–and the stereotyped romantic dialogue made me roll my eyes. Plenty of lip service is paid to the strength and importance of the female protagonist, but in the final analysis, everything she does and says is aimed at helping the hero and serves to make him look good. Yawn.

So. Read the “Look Inside,” and if the main character makes you smile, then grab this one up and enjoy the adventures.

View all my reviews

Categories
Book reviews

Review of Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina

Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is the perfect example of what I call a great cotton-candy read. Cotton candy is sweet, sticky and fun to consume, yet even while I’m enjoying it, I know it’s nothing but air and sugar that will rot my teeth. Bad cotton candy leaves me with a queasy sense of disappointment. Good cotton candy tastes so delicious I’m willing to accept a little brain rot as the price of indulgence.

This is excellent sugary fluff.

I’m picky about my steampunk. It shares some innate problematic issues with cyberpunk, another genre that inspires ambivalence in my heart. In both, style is more important than substance, science is often relegated to the status of stage dressing, and atmosphere is all. I prefer steampunk that snuggles up to paranormal or science fantasy elements. The inclusion of an obvious MacGuffin, whether it be called aether or outright magic, means I can more easily suspend my disbelief about the fun clockwork gadgetry.

Lady of Devices doesn’t do this, but I gave it a try anyway. It plays so fast and loose with basic physical science and engineering that if I’d paused for even a second during the read, I would’ve been laughing out loud at the factual inaccuracies. Ah, but I didn’t pause. The plucky heroine’s narrative voice, the capers and conspiracies, the delightfully-described action — all those things distracted me from the ridiculousness.

Other less than thrilling aspects: the story plays a bit fast and loose with cultural/historical presentation as well, with most characters falling too neatly into stereotypes for my taste, and villains with motives so simplified they approach melodrama standards. The characterization of Our Heroine’s attitude wavers between prissy and plucky at times; although she settles on the progressive side of the fence toward the end.

And there’s a love triangle. Sigh.

The romantic sub plot is a messy one, though, and neither match is made in heaven. The refusal to let that one element go the predictable direction is what made the book stick with me, and the other messy bits of this story are what really won me over. The world has a lot to offer, and nothing ended up quite where it seemed it was going all along.

That intrigued me enough to keep going with the second book, and I can say that unlike a lot of series, this one just gets better with each book so far.

View all my reviews