Review of Tiger House, by Wendy Scott

The Blurb:

Betrayed. Kidnapped.
Mistaken for a warrior; Jairus must survive the Emperor’s Games.
Disposed. Ostracized.
Tekagi seeks vengeance and power.
Farm boy versus sorceress.
An empire hinges on the outcome.

Thousands compete for the dragon banner, but in the end there can only be one winner.

The adjudicator thumped the scepter into the ground three times. “By the fates, the war dragons will not return until a new emperor wins the dragon scepter.”
The crowd parted as Tekagi threaded her way toward the funeral cart waiting by the main gate. Tiger pelts adorned the two caskets. Only emperors earned the right to be entombed within the Dragon Palace. The sons were relegated to less hallowed ground.
A few of her most treasured belongings were also piled on the cart. No longer an emperor’s daughter she was being cast out of the palace. A limp tiger tail trailed over the side of the cart. She ran the tips of her obsidian finger stalls along its striped length before tucking it beneath a tapestry.
She tapped her fan against the cart’s side and the driver flicked the horses’ reins into a funeral march. Head bowed, she followed a few paces behind, flanked by her two bodyguards. As she exited through the palace gates and headed to Tiger House she patted the snake bracelet on her forearm, and vowed, “I will reclaim my birthright. Let the Emperor Games begin.”

Tiger House: The First Chronicle of Jairus Tanner (The Chronicles of Jairus Tanner Book 1) by [Wendy Scott]

My Thoughts:

A well-constructed plot that has more twists and turns than a theme park waterslide. Tiger House serves up plenty of action. Imagery is this novel’s forte. Wendy Scott has a wide and colorful pallet of descriptions that say more than the average photo.

It was easy to connect with the characters emotionally, to cheer on the protagonists and to despise those evil Xjiangsuans.

The conclusion sets the stage for a second book and creates the anticipation of another exciting round of adventure.

The book would have earned a Five Star, but I found the first competition to be unoriginal, and for that it will be designated a Four Star.

I recommend Tiger House for those who enjoy High Fantasy and who look to the skies and wonder, “What If?”

About Wendy:

Wendy Scott

Wendy Scott has a New Zealand Certificate in Science (Chemistry), which allows her to dabble with fuming potions and strange substances, satisfying her inner witch.

Wendy writes fantasy and children’s novels, and short stories.

One of the creeds she lives by is to always – Live a life less ordinary!

Pen Names: Fantasy ~ Wendy Scott, Children’s ~ WJ Scott, (Romance/Paranormal) ~ Wendy Jayne

Connect with Wendy and purchase her works.

Blue Treat Award: RRBC KCT International Literary Book Awards 2017 & 2018.

Twitter:  @WendyJayneScott

Blog

RWISA

Amazon page

You can find Wendy’s books listed under the following categories in the RRBC Catalog:

Children’s Books

Education & Teaching

Paranormal, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Short Story

Teen & Young Adult

Wendy is a member of Rave Reviews Book Club, check out her Author Page!

 

 

Book Cover Reveal: The Reckoning Squad by S. Burke @pursoot#thriller

Today I have the privilege of participating in a cover reveal for a very talented author, Suzanne Burke.

I’ve read several of her books and have become a fan! The details on her new book, The Reckoning Squad, are given below. If you like what you read, please consider pre-ordering her book from the link provided at the end of this blog.

I’ll let Suzanne take it from here.

Hello, and welcome to the Cover Reveal of my New Psychological Thriller.

“The Reckoning Squad.”

 

the-reckoning-squad-cover-reveal-banner.

Available to Pre-Order NOW.

Release Date:  Monday FEBRUARY 24th, 2020.

Mystery>Psychological Thriller & Suspense >

I have many good friends sharing this cover across the blogosphere today and tomorrow, so you’re likely to see it pop up in various places. Thank you to everyone participating in my cover reveal splash, and to everyone dropping by to share in my excitement. Here’s my new baby . . .

With much gratitude to Eeva Lancaster at The Book Khaleesi for the cover creation.

Cover Created by Eeva Lancaster at The Book Khaleesi

the-reckoning-squad-high-res-image-of-bookcover

BLURB:

The Reckoning Squad was the new name being whispered in the darkened corridors of the powerful in Washington. The name was whispered with awe, and the whispers grew louder.

Twenty people had been carefully vetted and recruited to undergo specialized training. Training engineered to break them utterly, intended to shatter everything they once believed themselves capable of surviving. Only the best of them made it through the twelve weeks of hell. They now formed a cohesive black-ops unit, known as The Reckoning Squad.

Their facility is breached, and the team’s numbers are decimated. The survivors know that they’re in a fight for their lives. They have been betrayed from within. Trust has now become a rare commodity. They want answers.

The betrayers don’t understand just what they’ve unleashed.

But they are about to find out.

The Reckoning Squad are coming, and they have just rewritten the rules.

Here’s an extract from the Prologue.

Prologue.

New York: November 8th, 2003.

Chastity Adams checked the time, ran a brush through her long blonde curls and hurriedly grabbed her school books. She shoved them into her backpack and slipped on her gloves. One quick look from her bedroom window was enough to tell her just how windy it was outside. The last of the fall leaves still clung bravely to the branches all the while knowing it was futile. The others swirled in small angry spirals across her backyard. She grabbed her coat, pulled on a beanie, and loosely draped a scarf across her shoulders. Chastity was unaware of how pretty she looked with her long curls falling in a soft curtain around her. Her mind was too busy to cloud it with vanity.

She suddenly recalled a decision she’d made yesterday.

Chastity hurried down the hallway to her brother Nathan’s room and knocked on the door.

Nathan stood looking down at her from his 6ft 3ins, rubbing his eyes and leaning on the wall. “What’s up, squirt?”

Chastity ignored the nickname, she’d be thirteen in a couple of days then she’d ask her big brother to quit using it, “I was just wondering if you had some gloves and maybe a beanie or scarf you don’t ever wear.”

“Why would you need them?”

Chastity flushed a deep shade of pink, “There’s this boy at school, he kinda always looks cold. He’s still wearing the same stuff he was wearing back in June. It’s way too cold now for shorts and a tee-shirt. So, I figured maybe his folks just didn’t have enough money to buy him some warmer stuff, you know? I mean he could have one of mine, but he already gets picked on enough and adding bright girl colored stuff would just make it worse.”

“You off on another one of your missions to save the world, squirt?”

“I’m not! But it just doesn’t seem right that some folks have too much and some folks never have enough. That’s all.”

Her brother looked at her closely and nodded. “Okay. I guess I have some stuff I don’t really need.”

His sister flung her arms around him. “You are the best brother ever! You wouldn’t maybe have an old hoodie as well?”

Nathan knew he’d lose an argument with his kid sister. He had never been able to deny her anything. And the little minx knew it.

His eyes followed her as she left the room with her donated bootie. He tried to shrug off the thought that his friends may start looking at his kid sister a little differently, and soon.

Then he grinned and was comforted by the knowledge that the squirt was capable of laying them out flat on the ground, courtesy of the karate lessons she’d undertaken since the age of five. If she didn’t dissuade them they’d have to come through him. That wasn’t about to happen. This whole big brother thing had suddenly altered in a way he hadn’t anticipated happening quite so soon.


Travis Wilson shivered as he stepped outside and hurriedly locked the front door behind him. The baggy shorts and tee-shirt he was wearing gave him no armor to fight off the cold November wind. He steeled himself to brace it, picked up his violin case and hurried to catch the school bus.

He climbed on and made his way quickly down to the back corner and grabbed the window seat. He spoke to no one and kept his eyes averted, but he couldn’t shut his ears off from hearing the nasty comments from the other kids that sat nearest to him. “You going away to a beach somewhere, freak? Don’t much like your choice of swimwear.”

The guy had secured himself a good laugh with that one.

Then the other comments started. Kids seemed to grow braver when they formed a pack. Travis knew they weren’t all cruel, not normally, but the need they had to belong trashed all over their distaste at what they were doing. Driven by the desire to be considered popular inspired them to be as cruel as they could be. Their words lacerated his already damaged soul and Travis felt his face darken with the shame of it. He didn’t respond either by word or action, knowing they’d soon become bored with their bullying of him and move their spiteful tongues on to some other kid they deemed to be weak and an easy target.

He looked out the window and sighed with relief when he spotted Chastity Adams and her best friends readying to climb onboard at the bus stop. Chastity was different from the rest of them. He always felt a little better about his day when she’d seek him out and give him a smile. He looked across at her then, just as she turned. He knew she had caught the wistful look on his face. She simply smiled across at him and turned back to her chattering best friends.

He caught the smile and burned it into his memory. He would remember it when the darkness descended again. It would help keep him warm.


Purchase The Reckoning Squad on Amazon.com

Again my grateful thanks to the generous folks sharing my Cover reveal with you today.

I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Suzanne Burke Amazon Author Page

On TWITTER.

My Blog

The All-New Rave Reviews Book Club!

 

I’ve been a member of this very supportive club for several years now, and I cannot say enough good things about it!

I’d like to invite you to visit the ALL-NEW RAVE REVIEWS BOOK CLUB at our new location > RaveReviewsBookClub.wordpress.com

-If you are an author looking for amazing support, #RRBC is the place for you!

-If you are looking to grow as a writer, #RRBC is the place for you!

-If you are looking for a community where your peers push for your success just as hard as they push for their own, #RRBC is the place for you!

When visiting, we ask that you #follow our site so that you’re kept up-to-date with all the awesome news that we’ll be sharing in 2020.

If you like what you see after looking around the site, then please, JOIN US!  We’d love to have you!

 

Review of Dangerous Alliance, by Randall Krzak

The Blurb:

United Nations’ sanctions are crippling North Korea. China has turned her back on her malevolent partner. The North Korean military machine is crumbling, unable to function. Oil reserves are minimal and the government seeks new alliances.

Cargo and tourist ships are disappearing along the Somali and Kenyan coastline at an alarming rate. Speeches abound, but inaction emboldens Al-Shabab to seek their next prize: Kenya. The terror organization controls land but requires weapons.

Bedlam Bravo team leader Colonel Trevor Franklin (Ret.) leads the small international team into East Africa. Tempers flare as the team is embroiled in a political quagmire. The axis must be stopped to avert an international crisis but at what cost?

My Thoughts:

Plenty of action in this book to satiate those who love adventure. This novel brings the world to your doorstep. The political struggles, backroom deals, secretive missions, and puppetry of the most heinous dictatorships become very real. They are no longer just news stories to be viewed while eating dinner.

Randall’s extensive experience with the military and travels are reflected in his writing style. This author has ‘been there’ and his knowledge of technical terms and cultures is impressive.

The perspectives do change quickly, so hypervigilance to the plot and characters is required.

Dangerous Alliance was an eye-opener for me, and I wouldn’t hesitate to read another book written by Krzak. I give this book Five Stars!

About Randall:

Randall Krzak

Randall Krzak is a U.S. Army veteran and retired senior civil servant, spending almost thirty years in Europe, Africa, Central America, and the Middle East. His residency abroad qualifies him to build rich worlds in his action-adventure novels and short stories. Familiar with customs, laws, and social norms, he promotes these to create authentic characters and scenery. He penned A Dangerous Occupation, a winning entry in the August 2016 Wild Sound Writing and Film Festival Review short story category. His first novel, The Kurdish Connection, was published in 2017.

He is currently working on the third novel in the series, Carnage in Singapore. His creative enterprise delved even further into the treacherous sphere of the drug cartel in South America, expanding the manuscript, A Cartel’s Revenge, into a future series. Randall holds a general Master in Business Administration (MBA) and a MBA with an emphasis in Strategic Focus, both from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland. He and his wife, Sylvia, and five cats are transitioning from the United States to Scotland. In addition to writing, he enjoys hiking, reading, candle making, pyrography, and sightseeing.

Connect with Randall and purchase your copy:

Amazon.com

Randall’s website

Randall’s Twitter Page

Randall’s Linkedin Page

Randall’s Facebook Page

Vanished

This is a Guest Blog Post about my novel, Vanished, that was kindly hosted by author Karen Ingalls.

I am grateful to Karen for this opportunity! Please click on the following link to view and purchase Karen’s novels: Amazon.com

Here is the Guest Post:

Author, Mark Bierman

I am pleased to have Rave Reviews Book Club Member, Mark Bierman, as my guest this week. Drawing on his work as a private investigator and a correctional officer, Mark combines unique experiences and imagination to create stories and characters.

His novel, Vanished,  is a remarkable story about Human Trafficking.

    

Synopsis:

When a shared tragedy strikes the lives of John Webster an his son-in-law, Tyler Montgomery, they seek healing by embarking on a good will mission to earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

The mission quickly changes from benign to perilous after a young girl is kidnapped by human traffickers, and the pair make a promise to the child’s mother that may cost them everything.

The two ordinary men undertake the extraordinary, forming unholy alliances with the seedy underbelly of an impoverished land, as they struggle to keep their moral fiber from unravelling.

Interesting Facts:

  1. Giving Back: Fifty percent of the proceeds from the sales of Vanished are donated to organizations that help victims of human trafficking.
  2. Coincidence? A few months after publishing Vanished, Mark befriended a missionary family that was actively helping victims in Cambodia. He continues to support their amazing work.

  3. Change of plans: The idea for Vanished came about when Mark decided to write a magazine article about an actual mission trip to post-earthquake Haiti. The trip had been undertaken by his father and brother-in-law. The main characters are loosely based on them. They each kept a journal about their experiences, and though neither encountered human traffickers, a percentage of the facts and experiences they logged were used in the novel.

Some Reviews

“The subject of human trafficking is a painful subject to read about, but it is something that we all need to be aware of in hopes of bringing an end to this horrible part of most societies. Mr. Bierman does an excellent job of bringing the subject to the forefront through a fictional story. The actions of two Americans in a foreign country to bring one little girl safely home is the story line.

I had to give it four stars because there was too much detailed description of their hunt through the forest and the mine. All in all, this is a book I would recommend to anyone.

By Karen Ingalls

“Really great book about the hidden world of human trafficking. A friend referred to this author, and I’m glad he did! The story is based in Haiti and is not only a good read, but is also thought provoking and well written.

I highly recommend it and look forward to other books by this author. Great job!

By Gail M. 

Bio

Born and raised on a farm near Brockville, Ontario, Mark Bierman’s childhood consisted of of chores, horseback riding, fishing trips to a local lake, snowmobile races, and many other outdoor adventures.

Transitioning to adulthood also meant moving from the farm  into large urban  centers that introduced this ‘country boy’ to life in the ‘big city’.

Please follow these links to see what Mark is up to: 

Website:  markbierman.com

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