The Station: A Paranormal Thriller by H.A. Larson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book is described as a paranormal thriller in the blurb so I thought I knew what to expect. However, my main problem when reading The Station was there was not enough initial incredulity expressed by the various characters. When a voice speaks to Eric, the main protagonist, from a radio and even responds when he speaks back, is not something that most “normal” people take in their stride. But after a slight doubt he seems to. OK, it’s a paranormal tale so the reader is going to allow a bit of room for vivid imagination for the tale to unwind. When ghosts appeared to other people and still others just seem to accept the spooky radio, without a shocked comment or suggesting someone might need sectioning by a psychiatrist, then I started to lose interest. The book still needs a lot of work in my opinion to make it more credible and to feel completed. The general idea and the various twists and turns of the story have a lot to commend it to keen readers of this genre and, although it may not be as horrific as the new movie Paranormal Activity, it seems to be in that vein.

I was also left with certain practical questions about too many things that the author seemed to gloss over. What happened to Eleanor, Eric’s apparently abandoned but affectionate cat? Can a shotgun produce a single wound in someone’s leg when it’s a scattergun? Would a broadband link to the internet be possible in a remote cabin, somewhere in “the heart of Nawayee Forest” Minnesota? It was pretty obvious about half way through the book that a shocking family revelation would appear towards the end and, unfortunately, it did!

After a rather slow beginning and build up to the story I found that I was being too distracted by the many punctuation, grammatical and typo errors throughout the story to be absorbed by the plot. Some examples: “the (United) states” should be capitalized; adjectives were being used as adverbs as in “bad off” rather than the correct “badly off”; “He let me borrow” had the word “it” missing when Eric was returning a borrowed umbrella; the word “bequest” was used when the context required “request”; and the lack of the formal comma whenever another character was being addressed in some way: as in “Thank you (,) Pam” or “Hi (,) honey”. This kind of dialogue omission became very noticeable after a while. There were quite a few typos that could easily have been spotted with a second glance at the text, such as using the word “closet” when it meant “closed” – produced quite a different meaning! I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.


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The Heart Lands by Richard Becker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Heart Lands is a book of considerable length, many hundreds of pages I would guess, even though I was reading an electronic version. It was not until I was about a third of my way through it that I started to gain some idea of what it was about and where it was going. Despite this vague awareness I had to constantly refer back to the book’s blurb for reassurance about the multifarious plotlines. The reader is told that The Heart Lands is a love story, together with the good and evil that may result from the breaking of hearts. Unfortunately, I did not find much tender love, gentleness or even subtle caresses that could lead to passionate moments. There were plenty of passionate, even violent and often cruel, moments verging on the erotic (no pun intended!). And with regard to breaking hearts, apart from Sydney, Andrew Stone’s past lover, I had problems finding anyone sensitive enough to suffer from such a hurt. But while on the two subjects of breaking and hurting I can confirm that there was plenty of both in this overlong novel: the breaking of skulls, limbs, bodies and promises, and the obvious hurt that would accompany these.

The whole book lurched backwards and forwards between past and present, between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, which is OK if there are occasional indicators of some sort to clear the reader’s confusion. But I had to constantly refer back to previous sections of the book to find a character’s name for this signposting, which was very annoying and slowed down the pace of the story. When I was sure that the “present” timeline lay in the 1990s up popped a few references to cell/mobile phones and I did not think that they were quite so common around that decade. However, I thought that the dialogue was very good and believable; that the action scenes were excellent and well written. In Andrew Stone the author has found a complex and troubled anti-hero who I wound up rooting for right to the end. Sydney, his hurt love interest, comes across also as a complex character and my sympathies towards her swung between anger and understanding. That was probably the nearest I came to actually liking any of the characters in this “epic” book. For me the book could have lost about a third of its pages, mainly because most of the content and characters covered “in the past” I just did not care about and could have done without. I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest and objective review.


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Felicity~ A Sparrow's Tale by Loralee Evans
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This charming tale of an adventurous sparrow, written I would imagine for children aged around 6 to 9, is well written and has many of the usual ingredients to be found in a fairy tale. The queen of the fairies has been kidnapped by a wicked night hawk, although we are unsure why, and a particularly literate sparrow, Felicity, sets out to rescue her. The various perils and pitfalls that she encounters and must overcome along the way do not seem too dangerous but give the reader (parent or grandparent?) the occasional opportunity to raise a smile. Whether the humour would work with little children I’m not too sure. Some of the scary moments would probably work with little ones but I think the events in the nighthawk’s cave were a bit tame. I liked Felicity’s puzzle solving and can see that appealing to most children. My main criticism of this book is its lack of illustrations because they can add so much to the kids’ experience when they are in this age bracket. Otherwise, the adult reader becomes essential for adding the inflections and drama to the story.
I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest and objective review.


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Prototype D by Jason D. Morrow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Prototype D is one of the best sci-fi books that I have read for a long while. I was reminded of Asimov’s I Robot in places when the author takes on the tricky task of using discussions between humans and robots to arrive at the “logical conclusions” that may be reached by an AI brain. In the book there are lengthy arguments between various prototypes, their software creator, Hazel Hawthorn and Commander Bracken about the usefulness or otherwise of software that emulates human emotions. Hazel’s program, called Soul, endows robot Des with the sense of fear and Bracken is angered about it when sending “his” soldier robots into battle. He has no time to listen either to her logic or her philosophy and will not give way, pulling rank in the end.

Although the reader is plunged yet again into some dystopian future scenario, where the Mainlanders are attempting to ward off the marauding Outlanders, the book does not spend too much time describing bloody battles between good and evil. The main attraction for me was the intrigue and twists and turns that come about as Hazel learns more of the history behind the rise to power of the Mainlanders, and its unprincipled rulers. Alongside these plots the reader is privy to Hazel’s struggle with her misplaced loyalties and the thinking of her two robots, Esroy and Des, who become central to success in the war between Mainland and Outland. Indeed the arguments between the robots, the touching sense of their devotion that grows or dies, for Hazel, take up a large part of the story. But the author skilfully avoids any oversentimentality and creates an acceptable dose of understanding in the reader during those passages of the book.

Unfortunately, I found a couple of editing issues like planet Earth without a capital “e” and missing commas and hyphens that changed the meaning of certain phrases: eg. the word “however” can change its meaning when followed by an essential comma. This made me rate the book 4.5 stars rather than 5 but my enjoyment was great enough to mathematically round up my 4.5 back to 5 on Amazon. I strongly recommend this thoughtfully well-written book to fans of the genre. It has pace, well-drawn characters, believable dialogue and an interesting plot. I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest and objective review.


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Like Fine Wine: A Head-to-Toe Youth Restoring Makeover for Ladies Over Forty by Julia Black
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This makeover book for women over 40 covers a very wide range of ideas from D-I-Y tips to the use of chemicals and even surgery. The author invites people not to be overwhelmed by the very comprehensive Table of Contents, but to pick one change and then come back for more if and when necessary. So the individual can choose the level of body transformation that they are in interested in. She suggests starting small, doing things that the reader likes to do and not to wait until the “ideal” time for changing arrives. That day will probably never come so, meanwhile, making many small changes could have made a real difference.

Readers are invited to keep a notebook for tracking improvements and, in these days of easy to do “selfies”, to take (honest!) before and after photos of themselves to spur on their efforts. There is an air of encouragement throughout the book and lots of advice on how to avoid the dreaded “mutton dressed as lamb” phenomenon. She emphasises that women at a later stage of life have earned the right to feel comfortable within their own skin and that timeless elegance is worth much more than the cheaper and passing fads in which (quite naturally) younger girls indulge. Many ideas are included about making changes without having to become heavily involved with chemicals and surgery, with warnings to the reader about how to avoid problems if they do decide to take the more expensive and invasive route. The Resources section at the end lists many on-line sites to try for further advice on the various topics covered by this book.

Overall, this is a positive and encouraging book with a light touch which could encourage women, who simply “don’t have time”, to dip into its pages and incorporate some of the ideas there into their lives. The author reminds women in the age group that she is writing for that, probably having spent much time caring for others, it is permissible and desirable to take time out to care for themselves too! The book is well written with humour in parts and no doubt will be helpful to those looking for such tips and suggestions. I will admit to accepting much assistance from my wife before writing this review. I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest and objective review.


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