Backpack Chronicle: The Perspective by Adam Que - Book Review

Book Description:

This is a short story collection of contemporary-literary fiction. Each story examines the way the characters look at things and perceive the world around them. And how each character differs in doing that, or so they think? Because despite their differences the characters learn from and experience with one another. As well as sharing similarities in their personalities. Simply put, they share their humanity and they share their rawest emotions even at their most vulnerable.

Where to Purchase:

Amazon:
USA: USA Link
Australia: Australia Link
Brazil: Brazil Link
Canada: Canada Link

France: France Link

Germany: Germany Link
India: India Link
Italy: Italy Link
Japan: Japan Link
Mexico: Mexico Link
Netherlands: Netherlands Link
Spain: Spain Link
UK: UK Link

Connect with the Author:
Twitter: Twitter Link

Author Bio: 

(This picture was very kindly provided by the author, so thank you!)

Adam Que was born (August 19,1988) and raised in New Jersey. Now living in Jersey City, Nj he is a contemporary fiction writer who's stories are very introspective. May they sometimes be comical, sarcastic, or in your face by nature they usually tell a truth, are heartfelt, and life-examining. Besides story telling he is an engaging poet, which is shown in his self published poetry book called P.L.E.A.S.E. Also an athlete who has competed in many sports including amateur MMA, he notes the fact that competing and working hard in athletics has helped him become a more disciplined and passionate writer. Even though fairly young and in the beginning of his writing career, Adam Que wants to share his artistry, and his authentic point of view.

Book Review by Carmen:

This is a collection of short stories, most of them I enjoyed. They range from somber, to lighthearted through to action packed; a selection for a wide range of readers. This was a relatively quick read for me. I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.

*Please be sure to support the author by buying their books and connecting with them on social media. 

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The Laws of Nature: A Collection of Short Stories of Horror, Anxiety, Tragedy and Loss by Ashley Franz Holzmann, Narrated by Mr. Creepy Pasta ~ Audiobook Review

Book Description: 

There is a dark side to human nature that neither can be wished away nor completely mitigated. Ashley Holzmann details just several of these "Laws of Nature" before taking his readers on a journey through the bizarre, the terrifying, and, ultimately, the disturbingly real truths that underlie much of modern American life.

Ashley makes his debut into the horror genre with "The Stump," a story about an afternoon trot through the woods that quickly becomes a blood bath--and, much as it does for that story's creature, the scent of fear will only lure veteran horror readers further through the forest. A teenager's vanity will likely cause his town to be consumed by a roaming swarm of insects that burst forth from his acne-riddled skin in "White Heads;" entire populations vanish into the void of the Alaskan tundra in "Glass Houses;" and superiority takes the form of a murdering, sadistic woman in "Lady Macbeth."

But Ashley's best retellings focus less on gore and adrenaline and instead take human psychology as their medium, as demonstrated in "Plastic Glasses," where readers are brought into a world of disturbing personality and mental disorders. Ashley's work abounds with stories in this vein, stories which grab a hold of a common failing--such as marital friction in "Hush," or American male frustration in "Orpheus's Lot"--and take it to an extreme that is nevertheless not inconceivable for most people.

Coming from the mind of a man who has experienced more than his fair share of humanity, "The Laws of Nature" is, at its finest, a description of universal emotions of loss, nostalgia, anxiety, and soul-penetrating terror. Ashley's stories elicit empathy from his readers and draw them into worlds where they both acknowledge and cuddle with their fears and which leave them, ultimately, more human.
 
Purchase a copy on Amazon. 

About the Author: 

Ashley Franz Holzmann was born in Okinawa, Japan and raised in a variety of countries while his parents served in the Air Force. He considered attending art school, but is instead a graduate of West Point, where he enjoyed intramural grappling and studying systems engineering and military history. He majored in sociology and is currently a captain in the Army. Ashley speaks Korean, enjoys backpacking, and is the cook in his family. He currently lives in North Carolina with his wife, two sons, and their two dogs.

Connect: Website | Goodreads | Twitter  | Facebook |
 
Narrator: Mr. Creepy Pasta  YouTube | Website |


Review: This review was originally posted on Audiobookreviewer.com

This is a novel of short stories of horror, mental illness, trauma and more. A few of these stories are very unbelievable - The Stump especially but it is more of a horror story. The rest of them are more believable and very creepy. One story that really got to me was Clarissa, the story is set out as an "writer" recording his story about meeting a killer named Clarissa and how she went about killing her victims. The narrator does a great job pulling the listening into this story, making you fell like he is speaking to you. At the end of it the "writer" ask how is your writing going Jennifer and a few other questions. Because I am a Jennifer and was totally engrossed into this story I was totally thrown off and freaked out. It was likely my favourite story. I also enjoyed the one about a truck driver explaining about how he drives truck and the safety that he has to deal with all the time, the other drivers out on the road and accidents. Another story is about a man who talks about losing his son to SIDs and hearing the baby still crying at night on the baby monitor, as the reader I felt he was just going through his grieving but in the end it isn't what you would expect.  If you enjoy creepy stories this is a great compilation that you should check out.

The narrator, Mr. Creepy Pasta, is amazing, he engages the readers and makes you feel like he is just talking to you. He really gets into the stories and "acts" them out verses reading them. There is music playing in the background for most of it but it really adds to the stories and makes things seem creepier. Mr. Creepy Pasta is an amazing voice for horror stories. I really enjoyed his narration so much that I looked him up on YouTube and have listened to more horror stories on his channel.

I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars. I will look for more from this author and the narrator.

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Filling Up In Cumby and Other Stories by Jim Steinberg ~ Short Story Collection Book Review

Book Description: 

Filling Up In Cumby is a collection of stories about matters of the heart: the bonds and trials of lovers and friends, fathers and sons, even strangers in the midst of chance encounters. Carefully crafted and set in vividly described places, the stories reveal the interiors of everyday people working through dilemmas readers will recognize as much like their own. The author describes the situations with nuance and realism through the eyes of his main characters, revealing their struggles with the gentle touch of compassion, their lessons and reasonable triumphs with scrupulous honesty. The reader is welcomed into richly detailed evocations of very personal situations.

In the title story, when a father's ex-wife appears at an inappropriate time, he struggles to protect their son from his difficulty keeping a healthy distance from the woman who still fascinates him. In "That Girl," a mother cooking dinner for her live-in boyfriend must persuade him to soften his harsh approach to her pregnant fifteen-year-old daughter. In "Uncle Eno's Bad Day," a gas station attendant with more wits than meets the eye delivers an important lesson about what matters and what does not to a man worried about being late for a meeting. In "Highway 47," a man stuck in a diner by a snowstorm, hoping for the fulfillment of a long-held fantasy that he has never thought possible or wise, finds something of much greater importance than a night with a lovely woman. He moves on, unsure of what happened, what did not, and what he will do when he gets home. In "An Apple Totem," a father preparing to take his ten-year-old son to live with his ex-wife in a distant town receives an unusual gift to commemorate their seven years together. Then it is time for the journey and the parting. In "Moschovitz And Pasternak," a man standing in line in a polling place gazes at an older man with a most pleasant countenance. Then he has a few moments of deep introspection and a brief encounter of unusual depth and satisfaction. "In The Middle" presents the reader with a man asked to mediate between his housemate, a woman with a young child, and the visiting father of her child. In a most difficult situation, the narrative character must struggle against his conflicting feelings and his biases in order to do the right thing for everyone. "The Blue Note" describes in extraordinary detail a couple's effort to begin repairing their marriage broken by an up-close infidelity. Like the title story, it is filled with a finely rendered backstory. Last, in a single page, Brotherhood In Beijing" describes a touching moment between strangers who cannot speak the same language.

These are simple stories. Each is a fresh, clear, moving depiction of people in emotional situations. They are meant to be savored one at a time.

Purchase a copy on Amazon. 

About the Author: 

Jim Steinberg has been a lawyer, blacksmith, middle school teacher of English and Social Studies, college teacher of Criminal Justice, hippie, and director of basic law enforcement training at a community college. He now divides most of his time between his loved work as a mediator (thirteen years in a small private practice in his home and in tribal courts in Northern California) and his greatest love of the last two decades, writing fiction. He has published one novel, "Boundaries," and two short story collections: "Filling Up In Cumby And Other Stories," and "Last Night At The Vista Cafe, Stories." His current project is a second novel - "The Third Floor," a story about twins, a brother and a sister.

Jim's stories have appeared in Clapboard House, The Greensboro Review, The New Renaissance, Sensations Magazine, Cities and Roads, The Lone Wolf Review, The Bishop’s House Review, Voices From Home - A North Carolina Prose Anthology, and Best Of Clapboard House. He writes his stories to scratch the itches that rise up from within him, to answer the impulses that ask him to visit and lay them in greater repose. When these impulses arise, he finds himself at the beginnings of trails he knows he will follow with minimal planning and no synopsis, plot, timeline, or character description. He jumps right in and finds the stories, making each a discovery for him, the first reader.

Jim is a Fellow of the Redwood Writing Project of Humboldt State University and a founding member of the Lost Coast Writers' Retreat, a week-long gathering on the Mattole River on the remote Northcoast of California. For the last fourteen years he has described this time in a close knit writers' community as his best week of every year. He believes that writing stories is the best way he can get his hands around experience. He believes that the world would be a better place if everyone wrote stories because they all have them, and they are all worth passing on.

You can talk with Jim about writing stories on his blog: "Follow Your Nose Fiction, A Blog About Writing By A Guy Who Writes."
 
Connect: Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook | Videos |

Review: 

This is a great short story collection of love, lost love, life lessons/events and a lot soul searching. I have really enjoy reading short stories lately as they are great to read when you don't have a lot of time to devote to reading. All the characters in these stories are very complex and well developed. They will make you really think and will stay with you long after you are done reading their story.

Some of my favourite stories in this collection are Highway 47, about a man on his way home to his wife. He is stranded at a diner in a snow storm and spends the night with the owner (single mother). He has been thinking about straying on his wife and here is the opportunity but does he actually go through with it? This story doesn't go as you would think.

Another one I enjoyed was In The Middle, about a gentlemen who rents out a room to a single mother and her daughter. He steps into the role of dad helping her with her daughter, they don't really cross that friend line but they are standing on it swaying back and forth. The mother has her ex (daugther's father) come for a visit, he wants to see what he can do but in the end will he step up to be a father and a lover or not?

That Girl is another one I enjoyed. At first I wasn't too sure about it, but in the end it is about a fathers love and protection for his daughter and granddaughter, a mothers love for her only child and what she will give up to help her daughter out. The mother is divorced and their teenage daughter becomes pregnant while living at her fathers.

If you are trying to add more reading into your life short stories are a great way to do it. These are all pretty quick reads. You can easily pick up this book and put it down when you need to without losing your place in the storyline. This collection would fall into literary fiction, life lessons, relationships old and new. I give this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars. I look forward to reading Mr. Steinberg's other stories.


~*Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. *~ 

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Tales from Valleyview Cemetery by John Brhel & Joseph Sullivan ~ Book Review

Book Description: 

Welcome to Valleyview, where bodies lie buried but an ancient curse never sleeps. A father hears strange voices on his daughter's baby monitor. A trio of gravediggers faces a swarm of supernatural creatures. A group of teenagers puts a mausoleum legend to the test. A husband and wife take a stroll through a corn maze that they'll never forget.

Tales From Valleyview Cemetery contains seventeen interconnected tales of terror -- legends of a town and cemetery entrenched in occult practice, macabre history, and a demon elemental waiting for his people's return. It is a short story collection, in the vein of Alvin Schwartz and Richard Matheson. Appropriate for teen and adult readers.

Purchase a copy on Amazon. 

About the Authors: 

John Brhel is a horror writer and co-founder of Cemetery Gates Media. His work has appeared in “The Vault of Ghastly Tales.” When he’s not writing, he works as a communications manager at Binghamton University, writes music and reads fiction. He lives in Vestal, NY, with his wife and daughter. Follow him on Twitter at @johnbrhel.

J. Sullivan is the author of the verse novella “Jillian Loman,” and co-founder of Cemetery Gates Media. His long-term writing goal is to combine his love of poetry, the American novel and upstate New York into one cohesive work of fiction. In his free time, he enjoys hiking and songwriting. He is currently co-writing a novel about a group of urban legend explorers tentatively titled “Route 12: The Legend Trip.” He lives in Binghamton, N.Y., with his wife and three children.

Connect: Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr |

Review: 

I love a good ghost story! I have always loved those short ghost stories from my childhood, those scary stories to tell in the dark or by the campfire. This book delivers just that, a selection of scary stories about ghosts, demons and occult. They are all tied to this one cemetery, Valleyview. Some have other tie ins but mainly it is the cemetery itself that is the big connector. It is fun to read one story and later read another that has one of the same characters or dinner etc in it also. 

Full of suspense, unpredictable plots and the thrill of wondering what will happen next, I loved this book. You can easily read one or two stories quickly and then put it down and come back to it whenever you have the chance. This is great for people who only have a few minutes here and there to read. It is really hard to say which stories where my favourites but I would have to say the one with the teen that would hang out in the grave yard with his "dead" friends and also the last one about a medium.  

I would really like to read more from John and Joseph and also more Tales from Valleyview. I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars! Some great spooky tales for teens and adults.
 

~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Genuine Jenn. I received a copy of the above book for review purpose. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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Erotic Daydreams by Valerie Brundage ~ Book Review

Book Description: 

Let Valerie Brundage’s imagination fuel your naughty fantasies and take you to those secret places where your libido beckons. Vicariously walk on the wild side as the women in her stories explore their desires—ladies only, ménage, rough and edgy, ice play, being watched…and more. All you have to do is pour yourself a glass of wine, turn on your e-reader and wait for the erotic daydreams to begin.

Purchase a copy on Amazon. 

About the Author: 

I began writing again after 17 years doing the "married thing." I realized two things: it was more than my imagination that was being held back, and I'm enjoying starting to live out some of those dark sexy urges as much as writing about them.

I've always been open to new experiences hearing about others. I like to read fiction that doesn't shy away from the sex people have, because to be honest, people have sex. Sometimes for the wrong reasons, sometimes for the reasons they're not admitting. That's why it's such an important part of writing truthfully about how people interact with people.

My writing teachers told me to tell the truth and to not be scared. So I write about dark desires. Kissing that person (of any sex) you aren't supposed to kiss. And inviting the wrong person to see something they aren't supposed to see.

Not because it's wrong. Because you learn something about yourself when you embrace your inner desires.

I'm new at this, after 100 poems back in high school and I think I have been thinking up alternate histories in my head the entire time.

Connect: Goodreads | Website |  Twitter |

Review: 

This is a great little bundle of erotic short stories. They jump right into the action and can be read in on sitting or over a few. Included is a little for everyone. A couple of the stories were not really my cup of tea, but I do admit they are steamy. I am not into public humiliation or sex in public so those ones were not my favorite. I also found the last one I didn't really get. I did like the rest of the stories, I believe there were 8 in total.

The first half of the book read really well, the characters and stories were fast paced and action packed. I did find the editing didn't hold out all through the book, if you are just looking for a sexy read then that likely wont bother you. I do have a hard time with errors in novels of any kind.

I would be interested in reading more from this author as I do like her writing. I'm giving this book a 3.5 out of 4 stars.


~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Genuine Jenn. I received a copy of the above book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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If Only In My Dreams by Mariah Stewart

Book Synopsis:

New York Times bestselling author Mariah Stewart’s timeless, charming holiday novella, originally featured in the popular yuletide anthology Upon a Midnight Clear, now available as a standalone at a great price!

A lively family reunion on a Montana ranch brings on a flurry of memories for a beautiful young writer—and a winter storm that rekindles an old flame—in this “warmly magical” (Library Journal) feel-good holiday gem!

Purchase a copy from Amazon. 

About the author, Mariah Stewart.

Mariah Stewart is the award-winning New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of numerous novels and several novellas and short stories. A native of Hightstown, New Jersey, she lives with her husband and two rambunctious rescue dogs amid the rolling hills of Chester County, Pennsylvania, where she savors country life and tends her gardens while she works on her next novel. Visit her website at MariahStewart.com, and like her on Facebook at Facebook.com/AuthorMariahStewart.

Book Review:

A great holiday read if you’re looking for a quick, sweet holiday romance! This wonderful short story presents likable characters, vivid imagery and a story with Christmas spirit or two.

This story is void of the predictable elements that plague most modern-day romances, such as arrogant heroes and dimwitted heroines. Instead, Stewart writes a genuine tale of true love and realistic obstacles that serve as life’s hurtles.

The story of Quinn Hollister and Cale McKenzie is one of second chances at love - one that proves nothing will stand in fate’s way. Years after young love’s heartbreak, a snow storm traps Quinn and Cale in a mountain cabin, where they come to realize love doesn’t have an expiration date and time cannot touch fate. They are forced to reevaluate old wounds and rekindle flames that never died!

Oh, what a story! Stewart gives a book worthy of a true rating of 5 stars. Read this one waiting or during your holiday flight. Or, after hanging the stockings with care, take a good long bath with this one!

~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Andrea'. I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are honest and my own.*~ 

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