Category: book reviews

Yecheilyah’s Book Reviews – The Sleeping Serpent by Luna Saint Claire

Title: The Sleeping Serpent: A Woman’s Struggle to Break an Obsessive Bond with her Yoga Master

Author: Luna Saint Claire

Print Length: 428 pages

Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1928816762

Publisher: Compelled Books (October 19, 2015)

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Language: English

ASIN: B016LUUB1K

In The Sleeping Serpent, the deceitful yoga teacher Nicolas (Nico) becomes the infatuation of various women, including Hollywood costume designer Luna.

Nico uses chakra and kundalini magic to put women under a spell that makes them cling to him in more ways than one. Falling victim to his elegant speech, smooth words, sex, and laced tea, the women become drawn to him without realizing it. Not only do they allow him to abuse them physically and emotionally, but they also invest in him financially. The women fall under the captivity of doing whatever Nico wants them to do, and despite how he berates them, they cannot get enough.

Nico is not only a yoga instructor. He is a warlock, a sleeping serpent preying on the vulnerability of successful women to turn them into his mother. The most potent portrayal of Nico’s spell is over Luna herself. While she is not as clingy as the other women, the mental hold Nico has on her is stronger than the physical hold he has on the other women. Though married, Luna will drop everything to be with him.

The book is written well and maintains good pacing as Nico captivates woman after woman and sexes them crazy.

Lovers of erotica, romance, and psychological thrillers will enjoy this book.

Ratings:

Plot Movement / Strength: 4/5

Entertainment Factor: 4/5

Characterization: 5/5

Authenticity / Believable: 4/5

Thought Provoking: 5/5

Overall Rating: 4 / 5

The Sleeping Serpent: A Woman’s Struggle to Break an Obsessive Bond with her Yoga Master by Luna Saint Claire is Available now on Amazon. Go Get it!

How can we encourage more readers to leave reviews for our books?

Excellent idea from Sally on encouraging reviews. I think some people think leaving a review means writing a literary critique. A small reminder that it is just them leaving their opinion about the book is most excellent.

Yecheilyah’s Book Reviews – To Thee I’m Wed by Deborah Dykeman

Title: To Thee I’m Wed

Author: Deborah Dykeman

Print Length: 239 pages

Publication Date: December 29, 2015

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Language: English

ASIN: B019YT5NC2

They were in total bliss when Jason and Kathy Miller married in June 1985. Like any young couple, they are happy, giddy, and excited to start their lives together. A little too happy for things to be all peaches and cream.

Twenty years and three children later and the fire dies. Once happy-go-lucky, Kathy is starting to feel unfulfilled. The life of a housewife is now her duty where it had once been so much more. It had once been fun. Now that the children are older, Kathy seeks work to rekindle the excitement in her life, but her husband is not pleased.

Jason can’t understand why his wife is so discontent and is unsure of Kathy’s love for him. After revealing that she’d like to start work, Jason is unhappy but leaves it to Kathy to decide. She decides to work, and though it makes her feel like she has a purpose, things do not improve.

When Kathy meets the owner of Giordano’s restaurant where she works, everything she feels she is missing in Jason is handed to her on a gorgeous silver platter. Kathy is feeling Antonio Giordano, and as hard as she tries to fight it, she begins to change, and so does her marriage.

I like how the author lets us into the not-so-good parts of marriage and the realness of Jason and Kathy’s feelings concerning their responsibility in the relationship. The author developed the characters’ persona well so that it is easy to see them as real people. I enjoyed knowing what each person was thinking, how they were wrong about the other, and ways in which they were right.

Kathy is representative of many women who feel differently after children, especially if they are stay-at-home moms and have focused so many years on raising children and taking care of husbands that they forget how important their self-care is.

Jason is representative of many men who also get comfortable in the relationship. Too caught up with work that they don’t realize how they are neglecting their wives in ways they might not be consciously aware of.

Ratings:

Plot Movement / Strength: 4/5

Entertainment Factor: 4/5

Characterization: 5/5

Authenticity / Believable: 5/5

Thought Provoking: 5/5

Overall Rating: 5 / 5

To Thee I’m Wed is Available Now on Amazon

(Isn’t this cover beautiful? I love all Deborah’s covers!)

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Be Sure to Also Follow This Author on Social Media!

Website
www.deborahanndykeman.com
Facebook
facebook.com/deborahanndykeman
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Deborah-Ann-Dykeman/e/B01B2BYPK6

Yecheilyah’s Book Reviews – When We Go Missing by Kristen Twardowski

Title: When We Go Missing

Author: Kristen Twardowski

Publisher: Kristen Twardowski; 1 edition (December 16, 2016)

Publication Date: December 16, 2016

Language: English

ASIN: B01NBIZRC8

When Alex fell for Nathan Radcliffe, I knew something wasn’t right. I imagine he saw her from a distance, watching her confused and lost, and knew she was easy prey. Whatever the reason, I knew something was slightly off-kilter because she trusted him too quickly.

When We Go Missing is the debut novel of Kristen Twardowski and tells the story of one woman’s struggle to convince a psychiatric hospital that she is not crazy and that her husband is in fact, a killer. We first meet Alex on a boat. She has been kidnapped and is being taken to an undisclosed location. It is soon that Alex realizes she’s been taken to a psychiatric hospital and that the story concerning her mental well-being is in question. She is being told that her husband is a good guy who visits her every week. Her last name is even different from what she remembers.

Alex screams at night like the other patients and experiences delusions and paranoia. This leads her to question her own sanity, and although I knew more than Alex did, from a reader’s perspective, there were moments where I wondered if I knew what I thought I knew! I found myself questioning Alex’s state of mind. Was she kidnapped? Is her husband really a killer? Or did she make this all up? What happened to Alex Gardinier?

I love books like these! They make me think.

Although Alex is the focus of the story, it is also the story of a number of women who go missing every day rather than just one. This book informs the reader of a few potential and actual consequences of being missing. I couldn’t help but put myself in the women’s position and think about how important it is for women to defend themselves, use weapons, be aware of our surroundings, and get to know the men we are with.

I loved the “six degrees of separation” type feel that Kristen gave to the women involved as well and how this would all tie into the truth concerning Alex’s fate.

Ratings:

Plot Movement / Strength: 4/5

Entertainment Factor: 4/5

Characterization: 4/5

Authenticity / Believable: 5/5

Thought Provoking: 5/5

Overall Rating: 4 / 5

When We Go Missing is available now on Amazon

Be sure to follow this author online!

About.

Kristen Twardowski stumbled her way through working with wolves and libraries and found her professional home doing marketing and data analysis in the publishing industry. Though there will always be a place carved in her heart for numbers and graphs, the rest of her love is given to the craft of writing.

Blog: https://kristentwardowski.wordpress.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16190135.Kristen_Twardowski

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KristenTwardowskiAuthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KristenTwardow

Yecheilyah’s Book Reviews – Talon, Come Fly with Me by Gigi Sedlmayer

Name: Talon, Come Fly with Me

Author: Gigi Sedlmayer

Print Length: 238 pages

Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1921578726

Publisher: Aurora House (March 16, 2014)

Publication Date: March 16, 2014

Language: English

ASIN: B00J2643PG

Talon Come Fly With Me is about a small girl searching for her purpose in life. Matica and her family live in the village of Pucara in Peru where the Indians have restricted Matica from playing with their children because of her small size. Thinking she’s possessed by an evil spirit it leaves Matica feeling lonely and without purpose in life because she’s so small. The story opens with Matica and her little brother Aikon searching for food to feed Matica’s birds. Aikon is in a hurry to play with his friend Emelio which makes Matica sad. She admires her brother having friends since she has none. Well, she almost has none.

The story is about Matica’s friendship with a family of Condors, the largest vultures on Earth and the largest land birds. In a place, she called Ramah, which Matica named after the biblical city Ramah, Matica befriends Tamo and Tima, the condor couple. There is only one problem. The condors are nearly extinct and are being hunted by poachers. They only lay one egg a year and the poachers are on a quest to steal the bird’s egg which they can get paid lots of money for. Matica has learned how to communicate with the birds in a way that the Indians cannot but can she help them to save their egg?

I feel funny reviewing this book seeing that there are already over one hundred reviews! I can see why, it’s a cute story, well-written, and simple enough for young children to enjoy. Personally, I enjoyed the symbolism tied into Matica’s size and that of the birds. The Condors are huge which makes them look clumsy and weird and Crayn, Matica’s father, thinks they are ugly (I have to agree, they do look funny. Sorry Matica lol). Similarly, Matica is small and odd looking to the Indians who has made her an outcast.

I loved the mention of the birds being pushed off the cliff at six months old to learn to fly. To me, the entire book was Matica being pushed off the cliff so that she can learn to fly. I don’t want to spoil it for you, so I’ll leave it there. This is book one in the Talon series however the story is well-written and has a satisfying ending so it can be read as a standalone.

I recommend this book to middle-grade readers and pre-teens.

Ratings:

Plot Movement / Strength: 4/5

Entertainment Factor: 4/5

Characterization: 5/5

Authenticity / Believable: 5/5

Thought Provoking: 5/5

Overall Rating: 5 / 5

Talon, Come Fly with Me is available now on Amazon on Kindle and paperback

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Be Sure to Follow Gigi online!

My email: gigi@gsed.info

Website: www.gigised.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gigisedlmayer/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GigiSedlmayer

Stay tuned for my next awesome author! My next two are some new faces! Whoop.

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