Blood Flows Deep in the Empire by N. Isabelle Blanco

Book Name: Blood Flows Deep in the Empire

Author Name: N. Isabelle Blanco

Genre: Paranormal Romance, Erotica

Publisher: The Writer's Coffee Shop

Dyletri, God of Fertility, has locked away his powers. No woman is allowed to touch him, not until he can return his long-dead lover back to life. All he has to do is sacrifice one human girl, a girl who unlocks his powers and rips his dormant lust right out of his body. Trapped by his promise, Dyletri has no choice but to watch Ismini die, no matter how much he wants her. 

Yet the darkness of his calling is spiraling within him, demanding he claim the human as his. If he goes back on his promise, the energy of the Fates will cause untold destruction in the Universe. That doesn’t change how Dyletri’s begun exhibiting symptoms that point to more than just lust. How does he allow Ismini to die when she’s come to own him from the inside out?

Desire and torment spiral into something much darker than obsession, more turbulent than an addiction, and something much more brutal than a mere soul-mating. As a war is being rekindled right under his nose, Dyletri will have to come to terms with a destiny eleven thousand years in the making. He thought he’d known what path his future would take, but he’d been wrong. Now the one woman he truly loves might pay the price for his decision.

Blood Flows Deep in the Empire is the first in a series that will pit free-will against Destiny, Destiny against Fate, and love against brutal desire. Everyone likes to think they have a choice as to who they end up with, but as they rise to face the greatest threat they’ve ever known, even the Gods will learn they have to bend to Destiny’s whim to survive.

                 My Review                           

Wow. I never expected this book to so good. But, I freaking love it. I definitely find there to be a strong element of creativity in this book. My most favorite genre is supernatural/paranormal. My second most favorite is erotica. This book series has the best of both worlds.  Hats off to the author for putting the best of both genres together so well into one story. 

The story starts about 11,000 years ago, when the God of fertility, Salicyar, watch Earth being flooded and most of mankind be wiped out. In this tragedy, he also looses his beloved, Dimithinia. With a prophecy of her soul twin being born in the modern world and sacrificing the said soul to bring back his beloved, Salicyar, now known as Dyletri, settles for the long haul.

As ages go by, the story focuses on the modern day New York,USA, and we are introduced to Ismini, the twin soul destined to bring Dimithinia back. When Dyletri goes to check on her, the both are knocked off their feat(metaphorically, ofcourse!) by the force of the attraction the feel for each other at the very instant. Hence, starts their journey to defy the fates, who are hell-bent on collecting the sacrifice promised to them and leting their love prevail.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book from the first page to the very last. It was humorous and very, very exciting. All of the other gods were snarky and very sarcastic towards each other so that was definitely fun. The interaction of the gods and the human females( namely, Ismini and her friend, Eve) were too witty and funny that had me crackling like a lunatic. 

Blood Flows Deep in the Empire is the first paranormal erotic romance from that I've read and it was definitely one satisfying read. It was seriously hot, sexy and I just loved Dyletri talking dirty to Ismini. Their sex scenes though. Holy smokes...hot, seriously hott! his book was so erotic and I found myself literally clenching my thighs.

The character development  was good. The characters were original and I loved the different elements that they were all they were gifted with. 

All in all, it was a very satisfying read and i look forward to other books in the series.

Buy this book at:

Amazon.com

Into The Dark(Vol 1-4) by Milly Silver

Book Name: Into The Dark( Vol 1-4)

    Author: Milly Siver

   Genre/Tags: Romance, Fantasy, Paranormal, Alternate Universe

   Publisher: Whit Hot Books

Love the fast-paced action in The Hunger Games Trilogy?
Want to relive the romance of The Twilight Saga?

This new Young Adult series is for you!

"The only three people in the world who I truly loved were my best friend, Ben, my Uncle Spencer and his fiancee, Irene. I am now grateful for what I didn't know on that sunny afternoon. One of them would soon be lost to me. The other two, I was destined to kill without hesitation or remorse.
It wasn't premeditated.
It was what needed to be done.
So I did it."

Success means love. Failure a death sentence.

When seventeen-year-old Oxford student Emily Baxter steps forward to become part of the search and rescue team for her kidnapped family member, she sees it as her last chance to put things right. Despite her seizures and being ripped between parallel universes, Emily is determined to get back to living a normal life. But first Emily has to join forces with the mysterious Gifted & Talented set and the darkly beautiful Henry Seadon. And survive. Killing the Misery-Makers who get in their way is a necessary evil.

                 My Review                           

I got this book as a gift from author in exchange for an honest review.

Disclaimer: This is an overall combined review for all the four volumes of the series.

Did you all see the official blurb??

Love the fast-paced action in The Hunger Games Trilogy?
Want to relive the romance of The Twilight Saga?

This new Young Adult series is for you!

I love The Hunger Games and I most definitely love everything Twilight. So yeah, I was pretty much excited about reading this series. And I have to say, It. Did. Not. Disappoint.

 The plot is unusual but very interesting. The protagonist Emily Baxter has had black outs since she turned thirteen and every time she passes out, she finds herself in some alternate universe. Places that she doesn’t even know but those are some kind of parallel universe. In these parallel worlds she has to run, hide and do anything that’s possible to save herself from The Misery-makers because once she’s captured she’ll go into an indefinite coma in the real world.

Interesting, isn’t it?  There’s more!

Once she starts her college at Oxford U, she finds herself face to face with this hot, sexy, mysterious enigma, Henry Seadon. Three years her senior and part of an elite club called G&T, he catches the eye of our girl and we see them falling for each other in a whirlwind romance.

Surely, both of them have their secrets. Henry and his team are researching on a project that can help Emily with her problems of black-outs. But they have to trust each other I order to do that.

WHAT WORKED

The story was fast-paced, kept up the interest and the intrigue, hanging you guessing at every turn. Since I love action sequences, I have to say that the author well maintained the required amount of action-suspense-drama.

This book is written in “British-English” which provides authenticity to the book as the story is set in the backdrop of England, specifically London and Oxford. The story flows smoothly and the author does not use complex vocabulary which suits the book. This book is easy to read, understand, and follow. 

The development of the characters was great. We see Emily commit a horrible act of betrayal in the beginning, and as the story progresses that one act sticks with her, and the way she deals with it and makes the wrong, right again was good. We also see her juggling her new social and college life along with her alternate reality one in a very authentic way that anyone can relate too. She’s shown as no super-woman but just a 18 year old girl gives her character credibility.

Henry lives upto his reputation of mysterious, sexy guy till the very end, which was good with respect to the plot of the book.

The characterisation of all the side characters was also good.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK (I recommend you to read the book, it’s worth it. Then come back to read this section)

Though the book was good overall, it left a lot of questions unanswered.

By the end of the series we learn that the little girl who was helping Emily was her own imagination, a psychological disposition of her own brain. If that’s true then that shouldn’t know anything more than what Emily knows. Yet, she told Emily about Henry and The Logician. She also knew where Irene was held captive. How’s that possible since Emily doesn’t know a dime about those things.

Who are these misery makers and what are they doing in Emily’s parallel universe??

We read Henry and his team talking about The Misery-makers and their leader. Also, that these creatures are collecting weapons and building force to broke war on the G&T team. Again, who are these misery makers and why are they recruiting people from real world to declare war in some alternate reality??

How do the misery-makers know that Emily is a Networker and they have to target her?

And lastly, when in the very end, the entire team comes back after rescuing Irene, Emily acts as if there were no problems between her and Henry and everything is hearts & roses again. Although I liked it happened because those two make a really lovey-dovey cute couple, yet the change of heart was too abrupt.

RECOMMENDATION

I recommend this book to every YA reader. The entire series consisting of 4 volumes will take just a little over 2 hours. So, that’s not a big time commitment either. I give you my word you’ll love this series despite what I said in the above section. You are not gonna regret it.

Buy this book at:

Amazon- Into the dark vol 1

Amazon- Into the dark vol 2

Amazon- Into the dark vol 3

Amazon- Into the dark vol 4

my Ex from Hell by Tellulah Darling

My Ex from Hell by Tellulah  Darling

Book Name: My Ex from Hell (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy #1)

Author Name: Tellulah Darling

Genre/Tags: Paranormal, Romance, Greek Mythology  

Publisher: Te Da Media

My Rating: 4 star

Sixteen-year-old Sophie Bloom wishes she’d been taught the following:

a) Bad boy’s presence (TrOuBlE) + teen girl’s brain (DraMa) = TrAuMa (Highly unstable and very volatile.)
b) The Genus Greekulum Godissimus is notable for three traits: 1) awesome abilities, 2) grudges, and 3) hook-ups, break-ups, and in-fighting that puts cable to shame.

Prior to the Halloween dance, Sophie figures her worst problems involve adolescent theatrics, bitchy yoga girls, and being on probation at her boarding school for mouthy behaviour. Then she meets bad boy Kai and gets the kiss that rocks her world.

Literally.

This breath stealing lip lock reawakens Sophie’s true identity: Persephone, Goddess of Spring. She’s key to saving humanity in the war between the Underworld and Olympus, target numero uno of Hades and Zeus, and totally screwed.

Plus there’s also the little issue that Sophie’s last memory as Persephone was just before someone tried to murder her.

Big picture: master her powers, get her memories back, defeat Persephone’s would be assassin, and save the world. Also, sneak into the Underworld to retrieve stolen property, battle the minions of Hades and Zeus, outwit psycho nymphs, slay a dragon, rescue a classmate, keep from getting her butt expelled from the one place designed to keep her safe …

… and stop kissing Kai, Prince of the Underworld.

My Ex From Hell is a romantic comedy/Greek mythology smackdown. Romeo and Juliet had it easy.

                                               My Review

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher.

I really liked this book. It was witty, funny and full of sarcastic humor. This is a story of modern day high school life with a back drop of Greek mythology.

The plot revolves around a high school junior Sophie Bloom, who studies with her two BFF’s Theo and Hannah in a day boarding school. The twist comes when she goes off two meet a handsome hunk of her arch nemesis at midnight on Halloween and while kissing him she gets the memory flashes of Greek mythological creatures including Zeus and Hades themselves. And here comes everything crashes down! She learns from Theo that, the hot yummy treat Sophie ran off to kiss, also known as Kai, the Prince of the Underworld.

She infact is Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and her soul has taken refuge in a human body after being brutally murdered in her previous life as a goddess. From now on starts her quest to unravel her past, get back her memories and save humanity from the ongoing war between Zeus and Hades.

What I really liked about Sophie was her sarcastic sense of humor. That girl cannot talk in a straight way. Everything she has to say, no matter how serious, has to be in some snarky, witty, funny and sarcastic way. No matter the seriousness of the matter, she could always joke about it.

“Then I met a guy. I know that’s the worst cliché ever. But sadly, it’s true. And of course, me being me, he couldn’t be just any bad boy. No. He had to be Kai, son of Hades, Lord of the Underworld.”

“Who knew when I was cramming Greek mythology for my English final, I was studying the family tree?”

I loved the characters of Theo and Hannah too. The easy banter between the three friends had me crackling like a lunatic. Some of my favorite parts:

"How big was my rack?" I asked hopefully.

"Such tact," Theo admonished. "I never noticed."

"How would big boobs help you save humankind? Unless you're planning to poke out Hades' eye with your diamond hard nips." Hannah rolled her eyes at me.

“Stranger things have happened, Neo. And it was Halloween.” “It was, Morpheus. But since I wasn’t abducted, thrown into a shipping container, and sent on my way to the Baltics to be sold into sex slavery, highly unlikely.”

“Rule number two, I agree with Theo. No blowing your cover. You are strictly Clark Kent around here.” “Couldn’t I at least be Tony Stark?”

I am completely enamored with My Ex from Hell. There’s mystery, intrigue, comedy and drama all rolled into one. It's one of those books you're only expecting to read for about a half hour or so (because you're busy and have other work you should probably be attending to) and end up reading the whole thing in one sitting, forgetting all the things you had to do that day (Spoken from true experience!).

RANDOM THOUGHTS

I am not so happy with the cover of the book. Before I read the blurb of the book and just saw the cover, I thought this is going to be contemporary high school cliché with your girl-next-door suffering through life only to have her ex coming back and making it more miserable. Although most of it was true in this book to, but this wasn’t your contemporary-nothing-paranormal-cliché. So I just kind of wished the cover would have depicted something along the mood of the book, what with all the Greek mythology stuff going on. Well you know, I am the original anti-don’t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover girl. What can I say, I love creative book covers.

Buy this book at:

Amazon.com

Barnes&Nobles

Wicked Sense by Fabio Bueno

Wicked Sense by Fabio Bueno

Book Name: Wicked Sense( Singularity #1)

Author Name: Fabio Bueno

Genre/Tags: Paranormal, Romance, Witches  

Publisher: Booklings Publishing

My Rating: 3.5 star

Winner, 2012 Sandy Literary Contest - 1st place - YA category

Witches inhabit our world, organized in covens and hiding behind a shroud of secrecy—the Veil.

Skye’s London coven sends her to Seattle’s Greenwood High to find the Singularity, an unusually gifted witch who may break the Veil and trigger a dangerous new era of witch-hunting. Things get complicated when Skye meets a charming new classmate, Drake. Skye’s job becomes even trickier when she clashes with Jane, an intimidating rival witch.

Drake falls for the mysterious Skye, but odd accidents, potion mix-ups, and the occasional brush with death kind of get in the way of romance. Once he discovers Skye is a witch, he goes to war for her, even though his only weapons are a nice set of abs and a sharp sense of humor.

Fighting off wicked Jane and the other dark forces hell-bent on seizing the Singularity's immense power, Skye and Drake will risk everything to save the covens.

Going on a date has never been harder.


                                            My Review                      

Finally I get to read a book that’s not vampires or angels& demons. Wicked sense is a book on our good ole witches complete with potions and human/animal sacrifices and spell casting. In the present day world, hidden just behind the Veil, a shroud of secrecy is the world of witches.

This is a story of Skye, a 17year old London based witch who moves to Seattle to find the Singularity, a very powerful, one of a kind witch. I loved Skye, she is a very strong and fun character complete with a sense of responsibility who knows the importance of her job and the repercussions should she fail.

While on her quest to find the Singularity, Skye meets her classmate, Drake, and soon sparks fly between the two. As Drake breaks the Veil and enter the world of witchcraft, we see the two of them fighting for their lives.

This book is written in two POVs- Drake and Skye’s, it allowed the reader to see what the other person was thinking. The characterisation is good and a medium pace that doesn’t let the readers getting bored.

Disclaimer: Received a copy of this book from the author.

Buy this book at:
Amazon.com

Supernatural Freak by Louisa Klein

Supernatural Freak by Louisa Klein

Book Name: Supernatural Freak

Author Name: Louisa Klein

Genre/Tags:   Paranormal, Fantasy, Ghosts, Faeries

Publisher: Self-Published

My Rating: 4.5 stars

When paranormal expert Robyn Wise is offered an outrageous sum of money to cure a boy who is turning into a dead tree, she's very sceptical. A politician ready to pay that much to make his son stop growing branches instead of hair? Come on! She's more likely to be abducted by aliens. This is a trap. Or much worse. And, of course, it's much worse.

The child is turning into a dark portal, created by a powerful entity determined to absorb Fairyland's power. This means that not only queen Titania and her court are in danger, but the very balance of the magic fluxes.

Robyn'd rather stick a pencil in her own eye but. to learn how to destroy the portal, she has to sneak into the Wizardry Council, a place full of wizards who are hiding something—though it’s certainly not their dislike of her.

There, she discovers a terrible secret that could help to overthrow Fairyland's enemies for good, but puts her in the midst of an ancient and deadly war, and not as a bystander, but as the main target.


                                                          My Review                      

I received a free copy of the book as part of the All Review event in March organized by Lost in Fiction group.

Supernatural Freak is paranormal fantasy revolving around a 25 year old Robyn Wise. She is a paranormal consultant and has powers that she wasn’t supposed to have. As she best describes herself

“I was born a supernatural freak. My whole life I've been running away from and fighting against paranormal creatures and monsters. For me there were no sleepovers, no parties, I was always the weird kid, the one who actually knew for sure that there were monsters in her wardrobe.”

The story starts with Robyn helping a certain Mr Wilson, to cure him of his condition (read being a werewolf!) which goes horribly wrong and she soon finds herself running for her life and toppling over a certain Chinese man with his heart ripped from his chest.    

                                                    

That’s right! Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a book that starts with a bang!                              Well, that’s just the beginning. Robyn soon finds herself in all kinds of mess what with dark genies trying to end her life and being in the centre of a battle to stop dark creatures from freeing the evil incarnate through a human portal. What I really loved about her was her crackling humour. She could joke in the direst of situations.

This book also has tons of other characters too. We have a whole team of unique personalities aiding Robyn in her save-the-world-and-definitely-save-yourself journey. A prim-and-proper ghost of British Duke, Sir William who lends a lot of magical support; a former stage actor who now treads only the boards of pubs and homes of easy women, Robyn’s Uncle Terry who lends a hand when the time comes. A couple of geeks, a sly and comical wizard friend James and his adorable witch sister, Susan; one of James's best friends, Gock, who comes from another dimension and even a dream guide wearing a bowler hat and carrying an umbrella were all awesome characters full of so much personality.

We also have a subtle and very chaste romance budding between James and Robyn but it doesn’t really take away the thunder from the entire paranormal goings happening in the city of London. It’s a book that can be read by both girls and boys alike. It’s not a paranormal romance, not even by a long shot. It’s a through and through paranormal action thriller laced with lots of wit and humour.

Supernatural Freak is a real page turner, extremely well written. I completely delved in the story-line from the very beginning! The fact that the action is so fast paced really kept the interest intact. All in all it’s an interesting story. A definitely recommend it for everyone.

Buy this book at:

Amazon.com

He Came for Me by Carolyn Brown

He Came for Me by Carolyn Brown

Book Name: He Came For Me

Author Name: Carolyn Brown

Genre/Tags: Paranormal, Romance, Vampires  

Publisher: Self- Published

My Rating: 2 stars

Jazz, lives on the beautiful Sunshine Coast, in Queensland, Australia. She leads a normal teenage life busy with friends, TAFE College, a part time job as a waitress, surfing and searching for a boyfriend!
Until one day driving on her way to TAFE she is passed by a red Mazda Rx7. The driver holds her attention and as they both wait at a set of traffic lights to change to green, a sexual tension passes between them.
In the days that follow she finds that this guy moves into her life as she befriends him, his friends and family! But are Seb and his friends what they seem to be? 
Attacks by groups of boys targeting girls Jazz's age are becoming noticed by the media. Eyewitnesses to the attacks state that these youths seem to possess abilities no normal human would be capable of. Is it drugs or is it something else? 
Jazz finds that Seb, seems to be stalking her. What is his purpose? Is he really a friend or is he actually a foe?

A fantasy novel revolving around a love story between two young people, who should not by rights, come together. Crossing the dimensions of two worlds, this story embarks on a journey of love, duty and togetherness as the two young lovers fight to be together and keep each other safe. Overcoming many obstacles while fighting to protect one another this story will leave the reader intrigued and wondering what will happen next!

                          My Review                         

Disclaimer: I have received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Although this book had a different and interesting plot than your clichéd paranormal romance, I couldn’t really picture myself there in the book connecting with the characters. It might have to do something with the grammatical errors that were too common in the first few chapters of the book. When I contacted the author about the same, I was told that the story has been written in accordance with the local dialect that is prevalent in the geographical area where the plot of the book is located. As a reader whose not familiar with the regional dialect, I found it extremely difficult to understand what was being said and had to read lines more than once to get the meaning clear.

Secondly, the book is written in two perspectives. The book needed subtitles to prepare and tell the reader there is a shift in perspective. At first I was too confused as to what is happening. I got used to the different perspectives but I think the book would have looked better and would have had a more organized feel if there had been subtitles. 

But as I got halfway through the book the errors (atleast what I considered them to be) became much less noticeable and I started enjoying the story.

The book has been written in two perspectives, of Jazz(the female protagonist) and Seb’s (the hot male vampire protagonist).  Having the book written in two different perspectives actually wasn't bad. Because of the constant perspective changes, the character development was stronger .

Jazz (aka Jasmine) is a college student who one day on her way to TAFE finds herself getting tailed by a red Mazda. She feels an instant connection with the driver who is a hot, sexy guy. She hasn't even met the guy and she is looking for him everywhere she goes. Jazz’s character is very unconventional from our otherwise bimbo paranormal female leads that go all gaga over a vampire. She had a very realistic reaction when she got to know that the guy she’s starting to fall for is vampire from another dimension. Thrown in the mix are the bad guys who are after Jazz’s blood because she carries gene that allow these vampires to reproduce!

Seb or Sebastian is the royal prince of Aidensdein who comes to Earth from other dimension with the task of protecting Jazz from the baddies. Its been two years since he has been protecting her(and admiring her…read he is smitten) from afar. But now no more. He’s decided to approach her and make her his own.

Having the story in two perspectives helped me understand seb and Jazz’s differences better. We could understand seb’s need to keep some distance between himself and Jazz. Jazz is very timid and doesn’t confront him about it; instead she wallows in her own misery.

I did like the book. Like I said this book had a very interesting and unconventional plot. Once the book goes through some more editing and corrections, I feel it can easily garner much higher ratings.

Buy this book at: 

Smashwords.com

Barnes&Nobles

Tribulation by Phillip W. Simpson

Tribulation(Rapture Trilogy#2)  by Phillip W. Simpson

Book Name: Tribulation(Rapture Trilogy #2)

Author Name: Phillip W. Simpson

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, Dystopia, paranormal,   Angels&Demons, Adventure, action

Publisher: Pear Jam Books

My Rating: 4 stars

Halfway through the desolate Tribulation, half-demon Samael is still alone, with only his beloved Samurai swords and memories of the dearly departed - especially his beloved Aimi - to sustain him. Fighting for the innocents who remain behind, Sam has thwarted the plans of the Antichrist once before. Now, having already conquered Europe, America remains a thorn in his brother’s side. 

At the head of a massive invasion fleet, an army of 
demons, and his sights firmly fixed on New York, he will not be denied again ...

Beset on all sides by adversaries, aided by friends old and new, Sam must stop his brother before America falls. And if that means killing him, then so be it. He failed once before; this time he will succeed - or die trying.

The long-awaited follow-up to Rapture, Tribulation is the second in the Rapture Trilogy. Look out for Apocalypse, coming soon

                                                   My Review

I would like to thank the author Mr Simpson for gifting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

 Being a second book in the series it had both its advantages and drawbacks. Let’s get the negative out of the way first so we can move on to discuss the awesomeness of the book. When I read Rapture, I was enthralled by it. Although Tribulation maintained the fast pace of the first book, it didn’t really provide anything new. What we read in Tribulation was more or less same what we had in Rapture.  Secondly what irked me about this book was how it had only one character that carried the book. Sam was mostly alone, being on the road and at times his inner monologues used to get a little (read very little) monotonous.

Okay, the drawbacks out of the way, it was an interesting book. It has been three and a half years into the tribulation. Sam is still trying to help the innocents who are braving the hellish Earth and fighting the demons. He is utterly alone and constantly thinks of Aimi. Those were my (one of the) favourite moments in the book. We (along with Sam) get to learn that he will never set foot in the Heaven when Christ returns to Earth at the end of the tribulation. Moreover, he would be cast off to the pits of hell along with his father (the Satan), brother( the Antichrist) and the False Prophet (he will be surprising you…more like shocking you…well, it really shocked me!). Now all this made me really angry (along with Sam). What about all the good he is doing, saving innocents and all. What about his humility, love and selflessness.  All that counts for nothing? But our dear Sam replies with 

“It doesn’t change who I am. I’m not suddenly going to stop doing [saving innocents]  what I’m doing. Just because Heaven doesn’t keep its word, doesn’t mean I don’t have to.”

“It was never going to be easy, he reflected, reminding himself why he was doing this. Not for those in Heaven. Not for Him. This was for the innocents. Those who didn’t deserve to be the targets and subjects of the Antichrist’s rage. If Sam killed the Antichrist, surely he would save many innocents.”

Now if these aren’t the words of someone who deserves Heaven, I don’t know who does. Even with all this, he carries on with fierce determination and sheer will power, knowing that it may kill him and it almost did! Even after all this, nobody showed even an ounce of gratitude. Take Grace for example, Sam went to hell to save her but instead of being thankful she snubbed Sam that what made him wait that long! What the nerve! I really couldn’t figure out what her problem was.

One of the best things about this story was the entry of Yeth, a hellhound that became Sam’s most trusted and loyal companion. What the author depicted through Yeth and Sam was that absolutely nobody is born evil. It’s the influences in our lives that deviates us from the path of good.

Overall, I find this book a good read. The plot was consistent and there were no holes or missing pieces in the story. This book has got some cliff hanger. What happens to Sam now that his powers are stripped? Does he get Aimi back? I am definitely awaiting the next installment in the series!

Buy this book at:

Amazon.com
Smashwords.com

Also see my review of Rapture, book #1 in the Rapture Trilogy

Rapture by Phillip W. simpson

Rapture(Rapture Trilogy#1)  by Phillip W. Simpson

Book Name: Rapture(Rapture Trilogy #1)

Author Name: Phillip W. Simpson

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, Dystopia, paranormal,      Angels&Demons, Adventure, action

Publisher: Pear Jam Books

My Rating: 5 stars

The Rapture has occurred, just as the Bible predicted. The faithful have risen up to Heaven. Those left behind are in a living hell. 

Earth burns, hell-like in its oppressive heat. Every volcano in the world has erupted, and tsunamis and earthquakes continue to devastate the planet. Clouds continually rain ash onto the scorched landscape, sparking fires all around. Plants and animals are dying. Food is scarce. The night sky is devoid of stars, and the moon - when it can be seen - is the color of blood. 

The remnants of humanity fight for survival. Most have fled the cities and now hide in caves deep in the mountains. By night, demons stalk the Earth, capturing the remaining humans and killing them - if they're lucky. The less fortunate are converted to worship of the Devil, and ushered into endless hell. 

Eighteen year old, Sam (short for Samael) was raised in the town of Jacob's Ladder, Utah. It is appropriately enough near to a place of natural scenic beauty called Devil's garden. He finds himself alone, unable to rise up with his family because he is half demon. His mother, a devout Christian, was seduced by Satan and conceived his child. She smuggled the boy to an old friend Hikari, a Japanese sword master and demon expert. Since then, Hikari and his daughter, Aimi, have been all the family Sam has known. 

Now they're gone, and Sam must set out on the mission Hikari charged him with long ago: to help all the humans left behind. Armed only with his beloved Japanese swords and his wits, Sam wanders the post-apocalyptic world alone, separated forever from everyone he loves. Cursed by his demonic heritage, he must now embark on a quest that will take him across the US to the City of Angels. 

There he will confront his destiny. There he must fight to save a friend ... and the souls of the living.

                                                        My Review

I have to say when I was recommended this book by a friend  I wasn’t really keen about reading it. I am not really into dystopian fiction and this is my first one. What really sold me for this one is its cover. What a gorgeous cover!

Like I said, this is my first dystopian read and it was amazing. I think after reading this one I’m going to try reading more dystopian books.  The subject matter was fantastic. This story is set in the post-apocalyptic period. The Rapture had occurred as predicted in The Bible and all the most devote worshippers of Jesus have been taken up to the Heaven while the nonbelievers and the damned have been left on earth that has been ravaged by hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

This book basically revolves around Sam, a half demon who had been in the care of a priest Hikari and raised along with his daughter Aimi. He is trained by his sensei in the art of sword fighting from an early age. It has been told earlier in the story that Sam is the chosen one to fight the Antichrist. What I really liked about Sam was his ability to resist temptation. Being a half demon, he is constantly subjected to temptation and give into his true nature. But no, Sam is determined to let his human goodness prevail and sets out to help the innocents left behind from the clutches of the demons that plague the Earth at night.

I loved the writing style of the author. It has been written in the alternating history/current day format. The story jumps back and forth to events that happened before the Rapture, focusing on Sam's life and his training for his mission, and back to the present, where he is in the middle of slaying demons and fighting for the good of humankind. The moments it would jump back to his past were a little heartbreaking to read because you can see how much Sam loved his Sensei and especially how much he loved Aimi, and the thought of them being taken up to Heaven when the Rapture occurred was devastating to read. 

The author definitely has a knack for writing action sequences descriptively. The fighting scenes were lively that gave an impression of been happening right there in front of you. Anyone and everyone who likes action in their books are going to enjoy it.

I think Phillip Simpson has written a very interesting and engaging story. All the Biblical references that were made gave credibility to the story. Overall, good job!

Buying links for this book

Smashwords.com

Also see my review of Tribulation, book#2 in the Rapture Trilogy