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Entries categorized as ‘Paranormal’

Sins of the Flesh by Caridad Pineiro

October 27, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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Caterina Shaw is fighting for her life.

A talented cellist, she is quickly going blind. With no options left to her, she agrees to undergo a highly experimental gene treatment. The treatment restores her sight and turns her into someone she barely recognizes.

The experiment also turns her into a supposed murderer. Accused of a viscious murder she knows she didn’t commit, Caterina takes her life into her own hands.

On the run for her life, Caterina tries to piece together what happened to her and come to grips with her new life. She knows that she will have to prove her innocence, that she will have to fight for her life, if she has any way of figuring out who the murderer really is.

She doesn’t know that someone has been hired to find her.

Mick Carrera is a mercenary and has been hired to find and capture Caterina Shaw. He’s been told that she is a vicious killer and that she must be stopped at all costs. But when Mick does track Caterina down, the description of her he has been given does not match what he sees.

Caterina is wounded and vulnerable and an incredible mystery. She heals quickly, more quickly than a normal human should. And her skin can take on any hue to camouflage herself. Mick knows that something horrible has been done to Caterina and before he can decide if she is a murderer, he must first find out what was done to her.

Normally he stays emotionally distant from captives in order to finish his mission, but there is something about Caterina that pulls at him and at his heart. Soon, the two are giving into the passion that consumes them even as a dangerous group is plotting their next move, with Caterina as the pawn…

Sins of the Flesh is a flat out incredible read. I was pulled into the story from the first page and kept enthralled until the last page was turned. My meagre plot summary can’t even come close to the emotion, thrills and passion that Sins of the Flesh contains. It only scratches the surface.

Sins of the Flesh has something for everyone: passion, lust, romance, science fiction plot lines that tangle the reader up in its spell. It has engaging characters with depth and emotion and more thrills than a novel three times its size.

It takes a very talented writer to find the perfect balance of all these elements and Caridad Pineiro manages this with aplomb and flair. She has created the beginning of a series that can only get better. And that’s saying something as Sins of the Flesh is the best romantic suspense novel I’ve read in years. It truly is her best book yet.

What I love most about Sins of the Flesh is that nothing is what you think its going to be. Caridad keeps the reader constantly on the edge of their seat with more twists and turns, thrills and chills than a roller coaster. Sins of the Flesh is a wild ride from start to finish that leaves you wanting more.

Caridad’s strength lies not only in her writing, but in the incredibly real characters she creates. You become emotionally involved with Mick and Caterina and the secondary characters of the novel. These are people you care for, people you root for.

It’s sometimes difficult in the romantic suspense genre for writers to create believable characters with depth, but Caridad has created a whole cast of characters that seem to live and breathe off the page. By the end of Sins of the Flesh, you know these people. She has created a world and its people that you would swear really exist.

Thankfully, Sins of the Flesh is the first in a series. The book had a satisfying ending but it did leave a few strings dangling to tempt me with more. I can’t wait to find out what happens and what sinfully delicious story Caridad will give us next.

This is the best romance I have read in years. If you read one good book this fall, make it Sins of the Flesh by Caridad Pineiro. After the first sinful bite, I can guarantee you’ll want more.

 

Categories: Chick Lit · Paranormal · Romance · Science Fiction · Speculative Fiction

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

July 28, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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Connie Goodwin has just achieved her life’s dream: candidacy for the PHD program at Harvard. She must provide her mentor with a PHD dissertation topic shortly. He encourages her to look for a new, unheard of primary research source. But there are other things on her mind.

Her New Age mother, Grace, has asked her to clean out her Grandmother’s house. Not having anything to do aside from research, Connie agrees, despite a wish to do the exact opposite. While cleaning the house, she finds a key tucked inside of an old bible.

Inside the empty shaft of the key is a slip of paper. On the paper is a name: Deliverance Dane. As she digs into the story of Deliverance Dane, Connie realizes that Deliverance was a Witch, accused during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.

But what she doesn’t know is that she is connected to Deliverance in an incredible way. And, though Connie doesn’t believe in Witchcraft, what does she do when she is given proof that Witchcraft actually exists?

As she delves further into the mystery surrounding Deliverance Day, she realizes that she is connected to her, and the Salem Witch Trials, in a way that she could not imagine.

This is by far one of my favourite books of 2009 and I can’t wait to read the authors next book. She deftly weaves history, romance, suspense, intrigue and magic into one of the most amazing novels ever written.

Normally, books set in modern day that have a historical background read like text books. The author tries to incorporate the history we need to know and ends up dragging down the storyline, making it lag. Not so in The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. Though we do come away with a thorough history of The Salem Witch Trials, and its causes, the book is written in a breezy, easy to read manner.

Connie is an incredibly likeable character who, though bookish, is a strong woman, a refreshing change from a lot of fiction out there today. I also love the fact that the author introduced the love interest, Sam, so well; their meeting and the build up of their relationship was incredibly natural and very sweet.

If you’re looking for the special book this summer, look no further than The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. With enough history, romance, magic and surprise twists, it’s writing at its best and is pure magic.

Categories: Chick Lit · Fantasy · Fiction · Historical · Literary · Mystery · Paranormal · Romance · Thriller

Men of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong

May 18, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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I love the Otherworld Series by Kelley Armstrong.

That being said, I had never read the free novellas that she offered on her web site. I don’t know why this is. Part of it has to do with the fact that I love holding the book in my hand. The other part of it, I guess, was that I didn’t want to read anything outside the actual series of books.

I know, finicky but true.

But I was extremely excited to hear that most of the online fiction would be taken off of Kelley’s web site and published into a couple of collections, the first of which is Men of the Otherworld.

I was a trifle worried that it would read like a bunch of mismatched short stories that wouldn’t really flow together very well. However, I am happy to report that I was way more than wrong.

Men of the Otherworld consists of the tales Infusion, Savage, Ascension and Kitsunegari, the collection of otherworld tales actually reads like a novel. The book follows the progress of the men of the pack including Jeremy’s birth, Clay’s being bitten, his training and acceptance of his new life.

In fact, though these tales were written at the same time as the novels, because of how they are arranged, they make for a better read than some of the more recent Women of the Otherworld novels. Not because those novels were bad; far from it. More, I think, because there is an urgency to these tales, a need that burns off the page.

If you’ve never read Kelley Armstrong’s novels before, Men of the Otherworld is actually a great place to start as everything but the last story takes place before the series itself.

And with all of Kelley Armstrong’s proceeds going to World Literacy of Canada, you’re getting a great read and doing something good. How can you go wrong?

Categories: Fantasy · Fiction · Paranormal · Short Stories

Private Midnight by Kris Saknussemm

April 23, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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Inside all of us is something wanting to break free.

No one knows this better than Detective Birch Ritter. He is a man on the edge of himself and he doesn’t know if he can keep himself from falling. Divorced and alone, he lives for his job. His job is his life. The long hours keep him from thinking of what could be.

And especially what was.

While investigating a case where a business man was chained to the inside of his car and the car set aflame, he receives a visit from an old police buddy, someone he never thought he would see again. Someone who knew his secrets.

Saying nothing, the man leaves Ritter only a business card with an address written on the card in what looks like scarves. The words move and shift; Ritter knows this must be a trick of the light, or his mind playing tricks on him. The past can haunt you in many ways.

Knowing that he should just ignore the business card, something pulls at him to go. He knows that going to an address written on a mysterious card left by someone who knows his past could be dangerous.

But something compels him to go.

When he arrives, he meets Genevieve. A curvy red head with looks that won’t quit, he follows her inside her house, still not sure what he is doing there or why he came. He is entranced by her, almost hypnotized. Shocked by her beauty and what she wants him to do.

Genevieve introduces Ritter to the world of bondage. Shock collars and blindfolds, submission and darkness. She knows things she could not possibly know, knows secrets from his past that he has told no one about. Though he is frightened of her, he cannot stay away.

The deeper he follows her into the darkness, the more of his past confronts him until all he is left with is a choice: cling to his safe, boring, lonely life? Or embrace the midnight darkness that waits inside of him? As Genevieve strips Ritter physically, emotionally and physiologically, he knows that he has no choice.

He must submit and change his life forever…

My meagre plot description doesn’t even come close to describing how great this book is. Its part gumshoe detective story, part noir thriller, part erotica and part something else altogether. Combined, all these elements make one of the best and most frightening novels I have ever read. Indeed, Private Midnight is one of the best books of 2009 so far.

Private Midnight defies genre. There is absolutely no way to categorize this book. It is not simple fiction. Instead it is an incredible tour-de-force that defies all genres, transcends them all and becomes something all its own.

For me, reading Private Midnight was like being inside a train that was destined to crash. It was like watching a car wreck in slow motion; I knew what would come would challenge my ideals of what is normal and acceptable, that it would make me uncomfortable and leave me haunted. But I welcomed every blood soaked word.

Not only is Private Midnight an incredible mystery, it is also the ultimate study in human nature. What makes us tick? What are our desires? What frightens us? What happens when fear, pleasure and desire are mixed together? What drives us to stay away from the darkness or give into it and swim in its depths?

While reading Private Midnight I was shocked, uncomfortable, thrilled and frightened. Rarely has a book affected me in so many different ways. Many authors would not be able to write a book that transcends genre and make it good. Saknussemm does this and more and the result is a heady, incredible thriller that is seedy, sexy, thrilling and tantalizing.

If you read one good book this Spring, make sure its Private Midnight.

And discover the darkness inside of you…

Categories: Fantasy · Fiction · Horror · Mystery · Paranormal · Thriller · erotica

Fury Calls by Caridad Pineiro

March 25, 2009 · 1 Comment

 

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Blake Richards is a vampire haunted by the past.

Four years ago, he was forced to either sire Meghan Thomas, making her a vampire, or risk having her die. So he did the only thing he could do and turned her…and lost the only woman he had ever loved.

Though he is still tortured by his love for her, Blake knows that he will have to make it up to her, somehow. And maybe then, she can forgive him…

Angry at having her life taken away from her, Meghan doesn´t want anything to do with Blake. She misses her former life, misses what she once was. She is fueled by anger at having her life taken from her, at having the decision made for her.

Meghan is also haunted by the past and can´t forget the attraction she felt for Blake, the attraction she still feels for him. Fury fills her every time she thinks of him and yet, she can´t stop herself thinking of Blake and the passion they shared.

Both of them must put aside their fury and anger when something threatens the vampire community. Bodies of vampires are found, ravaged beyond recognition.

Blake and Meghan come together to try and find out what is killing others of their kind. During the investigation, the attraction that they feel for each other starts to grow stronger until neither of them can ignore it.

But they are in a race against time. Though no one knows who has been killing the vampires, there are suspicions. And those suspicions begin to fall on Blake.

Meghan must put aside her fury and make a choice: Is Blake the man she could love? Or is he a killer?

If you haven´t read the other novels, there is no need to. Pineiro manages to make each novel stand alone as a complete and wonderful story.

The newest book in Caridad Pineiro´s amazing The Calling series is the best yet and is one of the best romances I have ever read. It has everything you could possibly want in a romance novel: a thrilling plot, amazing characters, and an incredible dark storyline.

But Fury Calls is so much more than that.

In Fury Calls, Piniero has given us a story of true, bittersweet emotion. She has given us a novel where the characters on the page are so alive, they seem to live and breathe off of the pages. She has given us the ultimate love story that pulls at your heart and your emotions. Not an easy feat to manage, but Pineiro pulls this off with style and grace.

Though this is the seventh full novel in The Calling Series, Pineiro manages to keep things fresh by giving us a hero and a heroine that we care about, that we become emotionally involved with. She also manages to keep the mythology of the vampire new and fresh by introducing different elements never before seen.

Fury Calls is also her darkest offering yet in The Calling series. There were several uncomfortable moments in Fury Calls, but Pineiro handled them with ease. Unafraid of taking the series to new, darker places, she forces the reader to confront the darkness within themselves and the world around them.

The Calling Series, though about vampires, is really the ultimate study in human nature. What drives someone to love, to hate, to kill? And though the characters that populate the series are vampires, Pineiro still manages to make them incredibly vulnerable, incredibly human. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Fury Calls.

Fury Calls is a dark, incredible ride and I didn´t want it to end. It´s a wonderful story of love, lust, murder and redemption that leaves the reader wanting more. It´s one of the most amazing romances that I have ever had the pleasure of reading.

Do yourself a favor and read Fury Calls and experience true, exquisite passion.

Categories: Chick Lit · Fantasy · Fiction · Paranormal · Romance · Vampire Fiction · erotica

Honor Calls by Caridad Pineiro

March 25, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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Michaela Ramirez has always fought what she was. Literally.

A half vampire, she is a huntress in the night as she finds and then kills vampires who have no regard or respect for humanity. She is called by honor to defend others, driven by her past and by what she is to do the right thing.

Even if it means putting herself in the line of fire.

FBI Assistant Director, Jesus Hernandez, has always believed in what he can see and touch. He has seen a fair share of crime in his lifetime. He knows that evil lurks on the streets of Manhattan and that it is his job to protect its citizens.

Despite the darkness that Jesus has seen, his current case worries him. It feels different. Bodies left out in the open, their throats ravaged to a bloody mess.

Knowing that the killer may have left a trail, Jesus decides to stop by The Blood Bank, a popular Goth hang out, for clues. He knows that The Blood Bank caters to those who favor the darkness, who like the darker things in life.

Though he knows there are those who whisper of things going bump in the night, the rumors hold no credence for him. He is a man who needs truth, who is called by honor to uphold the truth and the law.

All that is challenged when he arrives at The Blood Bank. In an alleyway, he spies Michaela attacking what he thinks is a man. Then Jesus sees the glowing eyes of the beast and knows that the attacker is something different. Something not human.

Though his honor demands he uphold the law, he is drawn to Michaela by an incredible attraction. And though her honor is put to the test, something in Jesus pulls at Michaela´s heart, something dangerous.

As the attraction between them grows, both of them know that, in the end, they must heed the call of their honor; despite what it may cost them…

Honor Calls is one of the best romances I have ever read. Caridad Pineiro is well known for creating a thrilling story with great characters and a moving plot but she has outdone herself this time. Not only do we get thrilling danger and searing love, but her characters are beautifully flawed.

Jesus is so bound by what he can see and touch that, when he is confronted with something other than the ordinary, he struggles inwardly. Michaela is so bound by revenge that, when she has to stop and contemplate the attraction she feels for Jesus, the fear she feels if he should run for her, the worry is palpable.

Though a short read, what Pineiro has given us is really a study in human, and un-human nature. She has taken something that all of us deal with and given it a supernatural twist.

How many times have all of us struggled with something we wanted, though we knew that it might be bad for us? How many times has we denied ourselves pleasure, though our hearts and minds have called out for it?

Honor Calls is an incredible, wonderful read that will help you chase away an afternoon and leaving you craving more. Do yourself a favor and read Honor Calls.

Heed the Call and fall prey to passion…you won’t regret it.

Categories: Chick Lit · Fantasy · Fiction · Paranormal · Romance · Vampire Fiction · erotica

Bag of Bones by Stephen King

November 14, 2008 · Leave a Comment

 

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I am enjoying what I think is perhaps Stephen King’s best novel, ever.

The opinion on Stephen King’s best work differs depending on who you talk to; but for me, it will always be Bag of Bones.

It’s the one novel of Kings that I’ve read more than any other (nine times) and each time it’s just as wonderful and beautiful and engaging as it was the first time I opened up my hardcover copy ten years ago.

I think it was the beginning of King moving away from horror and toward a more literary style of writing. Hearts in Atlantis, Lisey’s Story and Duma Key (his most literary works) would come later, but Bag of Bones was the beginning of something, the capturing of time in the pages of a book.

I remember when I first read Stephen King’s Bag of Bones. I was on welfare at the time and living in a boarding house with nine other people. It was this big sprawling Victorian house that still had the servants quarters in the attic and the servants stairs to the kitchen. I remember going to the bookstore early in the morning and spending more money than I had on the book.

Even though it was fall, I sat outside on the front porch of the big old house and opened my book to the first page. I remember smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee; but I don’t remember much else except the words.

It was the words, the language that transported me.

I had thought that I was going to read a story of a writer haunted by ghosts. In a sense, that’s what the book was about. But in reality, Bag of Bones was and is about a man haunted by himself, haunted by the past.

It was the most beautiful book by King that I had ever read. I felt for and ached for Mike Noonan, newly widowed writer of thriller novels. Newly struggling with a writers block so intense that he could not write a word.

I remember thinking when I brought that book home that it was so big, that it was huge. That it would take me forever to finish it (and thus worth the fourty some dollars I had spent on it).

The book lasted me three days.

Three glorious days where I was held spellbound, enraptured, in rapture. Bag of Bones for me was more than a novel. It was a gift. While reading Bag of Bones, I realized that I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to see if I could write something as good as Bag of Boens.

I’m still trying.

That hardcover copy was lent out, only to be lent out to someone else. It was lost to me, never to be seen again. And so, when the book came out in paperback, I bought a copy. I read that copy twice a year for many years, always saving it for a dark, rainy day. It somehow seemed appropriate, reading Bag of Bones when the rain was falling down around me.

It would call to me on my shelf, begging to be read. I swear I could hear the book sigh with contentment when I took it off the shelf and held it in my hands.

Not learning my lesson the first time, I lent it out to someone who either lost it or lent it out to someone else. It was never clear what happened to the book. Suffice it to say that I felt like I had lost a part of me. After all, it was Bag of Bones that showed me what I wanted to do with my life.

It’s been a couple years since I’ve read Bag of Bones. So imagine my surprise when I saw a trade paperback edition on the shelves in the bookstore yesterday.

I had no reason being in the bookstore. I had little money but, when I saw Bag of Bones, sitting there nestled in between other paperbacks, I thought again of when I had first read the novel. I looked at the cover: 10th Anniversary Edition.

Ten years? That couldn’t be right, I thought. It can’t have been ten years. But I counted back and indeed it has been. Time flies when you’re having fun. I picked up the book and stroked the cover lightly, letting the memories flood back into my consciousness.

It was not lost on me that I found myself in much the same situation as I did ten years ago: Staring at the gorgeous white cover with little money to my name but knowing that I would leave the store a few dollars poorer but all the more richer with that book under my arm.

And what a book it is. Bag of Bones reads as fresh ten years later as it did ten years past. What I love most about the novel, I think, is its gothic nature. Mike Noonan, trying to find the power to write again by delving into his past. As a writer myself, I identify with Mike, with his struggle. With his search for peace.

There is some bonus material enclosed: we get to read an interview about why Stephen King wrote Bag of Bones and learn a bit more about what he thinks of the novel. We also get a short story, The Cat From Hell, from Kings upcoming collection of short stories Just After Sunset which will hit the shelves on November 11th.

But for me, it’s not the bonus material (though great it is) that makes the new edition of Bag of Bones so incredible. For me, then and now, it’s about the story, the language, the power of words and redemption from the ghosts of your past.

For, in the end, we are all bags of bones.

Categories: Fantasy · Fiction · Paranormal · Romance

Night Road by A.M. Jenkins

June 20, 2008 · Leave a Comment

 

Cole is a hemovore.

 

A blood drinker, he must avoid the sunlight and feed off the blood of omnivores. Unable to die, they lead a meager existence, going from one meal to the next.

 

That changes for Cole when he is called back home. Home is really a safe house, a house where the hemovores can live and feed in relative safety. There, he finds Gordon. Newly created by Sandor, Gordon is young and unable to accept his condition, unable to accept the “disease” that runs through his veins.

 

Sandor and Johnny ask Cole to help Gordon, to help him acclimate to his new lifestyle. Cole agrees, taking him on a road trip so that he can learn how to fit in, how to feed, how to live as a blood drinker. 

 

On the road, Gordon eases into his new lifestyle but things go wrong when they meet a hemovore who likes to murder omnivores for fun. Gordon balks and goes on a hunger strike, trying to ignore a Thirst that may eventually kill him.

 

And Cole? Cole is forced to examine everything he is, everything he does. He is forced to examine what is good and what is evil. But then something happens that changes his life forever…

 

Night Road by A. M. Jenkins is a thrilling read and a welcome retelling of vampire mythology. It breathes new life in to a tired genre and manages to create it’s own mythos, it’s own rules.

 

Instead of super human vampires, we are given a portrayal of those who are merely succumbing to necessity, who bleed and hope and dream like us. Gone is the ideal of the all powerful vampire. Instead, A. M. Jenkins gives us something a lot more human.

 

Night Road is not only thrilling, it’s an emotional and super charged race to the finish. Even though the book is about vampires, it really is a study in human nature, a study in what makes a human whole.

 

It’s a beautiful, gritty book that take a look at the dark side of human life, from a totally different point of view. Cole is the perfect protagonist to take us through a journey that even had this reader looking at himself differently at the end.

 

Night Road is a quick, dark read that is the perfect bloody treat for summer. Why not start your summer off right by taking a walk down Night Road?

 

You won’t be sorry.

 

 

Categories: Fantasy · Fiction · Paranormal · Vampire Fiction

Blood Red by Heather Graham

July 7, 2007 · 1 Comment

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Blood Red

Heather Graham

Mira Books

July 2007

Genre: Paranormal/Romance

  

Lauren Crow is not having a good time.

 

After accompanying her friends Heidi and Deanna on a trip to New Orleans to celebrate Heidi’s upcoming wedding, she receives bad news: her life is in danger.

 

The giver of this news is Susan, a fortune teller in Jackson Square. She stares into her crystal ball and tells Lauren to leave, to take her friends and go. Something stalks her, something wants her and she is in danger.

 

As if that weren’t bad enough, she is being followed by a man named Mark Davidson. After finding Lauren in a New Orleans bar, he doesn’t want to let her out of his sight. She is the spitting image of Katie, his first love, who was killed so many years ago by a murderous vampire.

 

Mark knows that if he lets Lauren out of his sight for one moment, Stephan will claim Lauren for his just like he did Katie. Lauren, however, is having none of this. She doesn’t believe in vampire mumbo jumbo and won’t accept the truth.

 

Until the vampire starts to hunt one of her friends. Suddenly the danger they are all in is very real and Lauren must rely on Mark for help. She must also try to ignore the growing passion that sparks to life between them.

 

But some things don’t always go as planned…

 

Blood Red manages to breathe new life into the tired genre of vampire fiction and it does it extremely well. Having never read a book by Heather Graham before I wasn’t sure what to expect; I didn’t know if I was in for a bodice ripper with fangs or a book with fangs with a touch of fire. Thankfully it was the latter. 

 

What makes Blood Red so successful is the characters. Lauren is no cardboard cut out heroine. She is tough and stands well on her own two feet. Mark Davidson, vampire hunter, isn’t the rough and ready macho man that so many hero’s end up being. In short, they aren’t caricatures. They feel like living, breathing people.

 

Graham also manages to throw a new twist on vampire lore that works beautifully. They’re still harmed by holy water but Graham has a few new twists up her sleeve. I love when an author take a paranormal element that’s already been done to death and makes it his or her own. Graham excels in the paranormal and it never comes off feeling hokey or fake. You will honestly believe, even if for an instant, that vampires exist.

 

In short, I loved this book. I was hooked from the first page and couldn’t stop reading. It’s the perfect cure for a case of the blues or to make your summer night red hot. It has something to please everyone: suspense, romance, thrills, and paranormal elements. Graham manages to be deft at juggling all her balls and never drops a single one.

If you haven’t fallen under Graham’s spell yet, what are you waiting for? Blood Red is an absolute flat out fantastic book and you’ll love every bloody moment of it.

  

Categories: Chick Lit · Fantasy · Fiction · Paranormal · Romance · Vampire Fiction

Let Us Play by Karen Magill

May 21, 2007 · 3 Comments

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Here’s what I want you to do:

 

 

 

Go to your CD collection and pick a CD. I want it to be good and loud, a rock ‘n roll CD with beat, with a pulse, with life. Maybe some Aerosmith. What? No Aerosmith? Okay, how about The Rolling Stones? What? No Rolling Stones? You have to be kidding me? Okay, how about someBoston? Some Led Zepplin? Some ACDC? The Doors, maybe?

 

 

 

Whatever the CD, I want it to be rock n’ roll. I want you to put it in your stereo and press pick your favorite song off the album. Doesn’t matter what song really as long as you put the volume up and play it loud. Really loud.

 

 

 

Is it playing? Are you listening?

 

 

 

Do you remember the first time you heard that song? The first time you heard that music, felt it blowing through you, blowing into you? Do you remember where you were when you heard that song?

 

 

 

Now I want you to do something else: press stop. And then I want you to listen. Hear the silence. What would happen if something, or someone, silenced rock n’ roll music forever? What would happen if rock n’ roll music would cease to exist?

 

 

 

This is exactly what happens in Karen Magill’s fascinating new novel Let Us Play. It’s an uncertain time in the future and the world of music is suffering.

 

 

 

After a horrible accident at a concert for the band Mystique, rock n’ roll music is silenced forever and the world is quiet. The People Against Rock and Roll (PARR), led by Peter Neils have stamped out the sounds of rock n’ roll. Feeling that the music is sent from Satan to encourage people to riot and act horribly, Neils will not be satisfied until all music, not just rock n’ roll, is quieted to a whisper.

 

 

 

But the people of the world will not take this sitting down, however. Where there is an action, there is an equal and greater reaction. The reaction comes in the form of the Let Us Play Organization (LUPO). Led by Kaya Moore, LUPO fights against the rulings of the evil PARR, knowing that in music, there is freedom.

 

 

Moore uses her gift of second sight to lead LUPO and fight for the rights of people everywhere. But their organization hides a secret: several members of LUPO are descendants of Mystique, the band that caused the ceasing of all rock n’ roll music and became the stuff of urban legend.

 

 

But the fantastic thing about legends is that they are quite often true. And even more wonderful: with legends, good always triumphs over evil.

 

 

 

On a whirlwind adventure, Kaya and her team of LUPO members will have to face personal triumphs and failures. If they hope to get out of their battle alive, they will have to believe in each other and in the people of the world…..

 

 

 

With one incredible twist after another, Magill leads us through an adventure that tests our emotions and makes our hearts race. It’s a fun tale that is perfect for a relaxing afternoon when you want something different, inventive and gripping to read.

 

 

 

It’s also a social commentary. The novel is really a look at the problem with censorship. There have been lots who have been quieted so as not to offend the masses. What’s interesting about Let Us Play is that it could, theoretically, happen. What would the world be like if censorship went that far and music was gone from us forever? Let Us Play makes you take a deep look into the censorship of the world and haunts you well after you turn the page.

 

 

 

While Let Us Play could do with a bit of editing, it’s still a fantastic read. It clips along at a frantic pace and you’re held breathless until the gorgeous, surprising ending. Why not go out and play and pick yourself up a copy of this fun, frantic futuristic adventure.

 

 

 

It’s for music lovers everywhere!

Categories: Chick Lit · Fantasy · Fiction · Paranormal · Romance · Science Fiction