• Contemporary Fiction
    • Families
    • Historical Fiction
    • Humor
    • Mystery Novel
    • Suspense
  • Romance Fiction
    • Sara Craven
    • Susan Fox Romance
    • Mary Burchell
    • Daphne Clair
    • Kay Thorpe
    • Roberta Leigh / Rachel Lindsay
    • Penny Jordan
    • Other Authors
    • Paranormal Romance
  • Science Fiction Reviews
    • Near Future
    • Space and Aliens
    • Alternate History
  • Fantasy Reviews
    • Action and Adventure
    • Fairy Tale Retelling
    • Dark Fiction
    • Magic
    • Urban / Modern Fantasy
    • Young Adult Fantasy
  • Non Fiction
  • Ads, Cookie Policy and Privacy
  • About Us
    • Who Am I and Should You Care about My Opinions?
    • Where to Find Fantasy and Science Fiction Books

More Books than Time

Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

Recursion: Book One of the Recursion Event Saga. OK Time Travel Novel

July 6, 2017 by Kathy 1 Comment

Recursion by Brian J Walton starts with a bang as Molly, narrator and main character, slides out of the time travel tunnel into 1950s Paris and a burning hotel.  The tunnel station in 1950s Paris is in a hotel basement and the entire building is on fire.  More, Interlopers – other time travelers from unsanctioned groups – are present and shooting to kill.

I thought this might be one of the time travel series where bad guys are trying to change history and the Time Patrol (or whatever name the author chooses) try to keep history on the straight and narrow.  Books with this time travel plot can be a lot of fun and it’s always interesting to see how the author will spin the inevitable paradoxes.  Will the time travelers even be able to change history?  Will changes spawn new parallel worlds?  Will the resulting paradox cause total collapse?

Unfortunately Walters’ novel started to flag a bit as we got deeper into the story.  I kept waiting for Molly to ask some obvious questions, such as the one prompted by her mentor, Helen’s comment, “that’s what the ISD pretends to do.”  C’mon.  Who wouldn’t follow up on a lead in like that?

The paradoxes were left as paradoxes.  Molly had multiple memory sets of different pasts, married, not married, and the Interlopers were able to change events by having someone and their time traveler duplicate get close.   Walters kept using the phrase “own timeline” to describe going back or forwards in time during one’s own lifetime.

I finished the entire novel but was not intrigued enough to look for its sequels.  Molly as a character didn’t have a lot of depth, although in fairness it is hard to be deep when you are running for your life.  The back story looked interesting but the villain and his almost-magical powers seemed ridiculous.  If I were the bad guy in this story I’d be doing a lot different things than chasing Molly to find out what her Dad was up to.  The bad guy was cardboard, a stock villain character.

The writing was uneven.  The last third of the novel seemed disjointed and didn’t make a lot of sense while the first third was good.

Overall I’d give this 3 stars.  Keep in mind Walters is a fairly new author and may improve in future books.

I received a free copy via Instafreebie and the links here are referral links to Amazon.

Filed Under: Near Future Tagged With: 3 Stars, Book Review, Science Fiction, Time Travel

Review: Her Royal Spyness Drawing Room Comedy Mystery Rhys Bowen

March 1, 2013 by Kathy Leave a Comment

Her Royal Spyness should have had it all:  Cute premise, 1930s setting in upper (way upper) class England, murder mystery, likable heroine.  For some reason I could not get into it.  I stuck it out and managed to finish but the book dragged for me until about page 100, then it slowly picked up and managed to lumber home.

The reviews on Amazon were enthusiastic and Amy Peveto highly recommended this on her Bookzilla blog. So why didn’t it work for me??

The main character Lady Georgiana, aka Georgie, a minor member of the British royal family, wants to set her own life, away from her penny pinching sister in law, away from her family’s drafty, cold castle and most definitely, away from the cold suitor hand picked by her cousin’s wife, Her Majesty.

Sad fact is girls in her class – especially royal family members however minor – did not do that in the 1930s. It simply Was Not Done.  Despite the problems, Georgie is completely broke and needs cash now.  She manages to start a business opening homes and doing light cleaning while living in her family’s equally cold and drafty London mansion. That’s a cute premise and the book should have, could have been loads of fun.   The romance part of the book worked better than the mystery, with Georgie overcoming somewhat predictable problems.

Maybe part of the problem was Rhys Bowen took so long to establish the setting, characters and backstory. Her Royal Spyness is the first in a series that has at least four newer novels.

All in all, I’ll give this 3 Books. Cute, nice but just missed the mark.

Filed Under: Mystery Novel Tagged With: 3 Stars, Book Review, Early 1900s Novel, Mystery

Love Dogs? Hounded Iron Druid Chronicles Book 1, Kevin Hearne Fantasy

January 19, 2013 by Kathy 1 Comment

Hounded: The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book One, by Kevin Hearne, is the first story in a series about a Druid in contemporary America.  This first book chronicles Atticus O’Sullivan’s first bad step, taking on a pretend ancient Irish god.  This pseudo-god has nursed a grudge against our hero for 2100 years – yes 21 centuries – because he lost his favorite magical sword when Atticus picked it up on a battlefield.

It’s not clear why Atticus decided to take the offensive against the rather stupid godling, but although he wins this battle it sets him up for problems down the road.

The best parts of Hounded are Atticus’ dog Oberon and the lovely, well-thought out magic system.  This is a first book that sets up for further novels in the series so we meet many characters and establish the overall direction and theme.  (I’ll give you a hint, Oberon gets even better in the later books.  And I’m a cat person.)

You might find Hounded reminds you of the Harry Dresden novels by Jim Butcher.  But the werewolves in Hounded  are neither friends nor allies for Atticus. They join together only for common causes, nothing esoteric like generic villain-fighting.  Another difference was the amoral motives and actions of Atticus and his vampire and werewolf lawyers.  In fact Atticus was more concerned with convenience than ethics until close to the end of the story.

Nonetheless, Hounded was good enough that I got the next two books from the library and as soon as I hit “Post” will go back to read book #3, Hammered: The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book Three

3 Stars plus a bit

Amazon links pay commissions to blog owner.

Filed Under: Fantasy Reviews Tagged With: 3 Stars, Book Review, Fantasy

« Previous Page
Subscribe by Email

Save on Shipping!

Copyright © 2025 · Lifestyle Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in