The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Synopsis:  Tom and Isabel Sherbourne work on a lighthouse off the coast of Australia.  The newly married couple keeps trying to have children but after three miscarriages all hope is lost.  Until one day a small boat washes ashore with a dead man and a crying baby aboard.  The couple decides to keep the baby for themselves and not properly notify the authorities, while burying the dead man on the island.  As the years go by the new family eventually leaves the post for holiday and heads back to the mainland only to realize that this missing baby, Lucy is actually named Grace and her real mother has spent years looking for her lost child and husband.  Once they head back to the lighthouse the guilt of what have they done starts to settle in and eventually begins to consume Tom and may eventually lead to their demise.

My review:  What a fantastic book.  So many emotions brought to life here.  I could actually feel the struggles from both Tom and Isabel and as well as Hannah and Lucy.  This is definitely a "book club" style book.  I highly recommend this to anyone.  Here is a link where you can read the first chapter online.  I was not sure how this book was going to end and given the story line this book could have gone many different directions.  I loved how the author brought this story to an end, I don't want to give anything away but all in all I loved this book.  Highly recommended!

My rating:  9
Pages:  343
Author website:  https://www.facebook.com/lightbetweenoceans

Taken! Mega Box Set - Books 1-24 by Donald Wells

Synopsis:  A series of short stories revolving around a man who has homicidal tendencies only to be leveled out by one of his would be victims.  Jessica, was taken, tied up and about to be murdered when the killer has a change of heart and falls in love with Jessica.  It is though this love, that her now husband has been able to contain his tendencies and together they have become two of the best criminal profilers in the business.

My review:  I previously reviewed just books 1-6.  After reading this book I decided to buy all the remaining available books in one box set, so essentially on this post I am only reviewing books 7-24.  As I was reading the books 1-6 I thought that once you read the first story all other stories could be read independently from each other as individual short stories but as I continued to read I realized that even though these were called books they were really just chapters in a really long book and should definitely be read in order.  The stories, while they each have a beginning, middle and end, they are all very much connected to each other as well.  The author brings back characters from previous stories, entwines them yet again in the ongoing saga that is Dr. Jessica White and her husband's life.  I could not put this book down.  Each of these stories are fantastic.  After book 24 there were three novels written that also follow the same story line chronologically.  My plan is to read these three books before continuing with Taken! 25.  As of now there are also Box Sets 26-31 and 32-37 released in ebook and paperback form.  I am giddy with excitement.  I highly recommend that you read Taken! Box Set books 1-6 as soon as possible, you will not be disappointed.  It is available for free on Amazon or iTunes.

My rating:  9
Pages: 545
Author website: http://www.donaldwells.com/

Pennsylvania 2 by Michael Bunker

Synopsis:  Jed continues his journey on the planet of New Pennsylvania with even more struggles than we read about in book one.  As war rages on around him he is protected by a group of individuals for reasons which we are not yet aware.  We do learn that Jed might be much more in the future than the nine years it was supposed to take him to get this this planet but we are not yet told exactly how far in the future this may be.  We also learn that his family may be somehow associated with his protection.  To find out the answers to these questions we will have to wait, yet again, for the next Pennsylvania book to be released.

My review:  The story picks up exactly where we left off from book one.  I did find the first book more compelling but maybe just because it was the first time I have read any Amish SciFi fiction.  I still cannot wait to see where this story goes, the possibilities are literally endless.  As a Michael Bunker fan I was provided this book for free just for being one.  What a concept, authors giving away books because people love to read them.  A glimpse of the hopeful future my friends.  My one issue with this book is that I have to wait for the ending.  I am not a patient man Mr. Bunker!

My rating:  8
Pages:  62
Author website:  http://journal.michaelbunker.com/

THEORETICAL books 1 - 3 by Nick Reynolds

Synopsis:  So much of this story line depends on reading the book so as not to give anything away all I will say is that each book specifically deals with time travel and a family of scientists/mathematicians who have figured out a way to travel both into the past and into the future.

My review:  Wow is all I can say.  My head is spinning and I mean that is the absolute best way possible.  Time travel stories always see to mess with me a bit but this one has really got me thinking.  Literally I am still sitting here trying to figure out this story.  I actually had to sit and write it down so I could place the people in the correct time frames and correct associations with each other.  After doing that my head is only spinning slightly less.  As far as short stories go, this is one of the best I have ever read.  I read this in pretty much one sitting, each story is no more than 20 or so pages, and each one just gets better and better.  Once I started this I wanted nothing more than to keep the story going, as fantastic as this was I am sad that it's over.  To me that is the definition of a great story.

So often for me when reading a time travel story the lack of cohesiveness and confusion that comes along with anything time travel related seems to take away from the story because so much is it does not make any sense or is so mind bending that its actually hard to think about.  Try reading All You Zombies by Robert Heinlein and call me in the morning.  What I love about Theoretical is that it all makes sense.  It's cohesive and it all comes together beautifully.  I love the ending of this book, I love how well Nick was able keep me captivated through three different interlocking stories and still blow me away with the ending.  Well done sir, well done!

The author Nick Reynolds is a pen name for Donald Wells, a rising author who has managed to grab my attention with his stories like an author has not done for quite some time.  I look forward to reading every word this man puts into print.

My rating: 10 (1st 10 rating on the blog to date!)
Pages: 59
Author website: http://www.donaldwells.com/nick-reynolds.html

Monsters by Peter Cawdron

Synopsis:  A meteor passes by earth leaving behind some kind of dust or debris that overtime changes all the animals into giant monsters.  Dogs the size of horses, ants the size of a human foot, leaving humans no longer at the top of the food chain.  As times goes on the monsters get bigger and there are less and less people.  Bruce and his son James must learn to fight off not only the monsters of the animal kingdom but also those monsters trying to take back claim of a world that no longer belongs to them.

My review:  I felt like this book was a bit slow going in the beginning but now I realize that a picture needed to be painted before I could appreciate the work as a whole.  After about 100 pages I could not put this book down.  I became a big fan of James and his view of the way the world should be.  There is quite a bit of story line going on throughout this book and I don't want to give away too much in the synopsis so I kept it as brief as possible.  One thing I really liked was how Peter, the author was able to describe the monsters, I could truly picture them in my mind.  In the end I just enjoyed the uniqueness of this whole story and while this is the first book I have read of Peter's it will definitely not be the last.

My rating:  7
Pages:  342
Author website:  http://thinkingscifi.wordpress.com/

TAKEN! Box Set - Books 1-6 by Donald Wells

Synopsis:  A series of short stories revolving around a man who has homicidal tendencies only to be leveled out by one of his would be victims.  Jessica, was taken, tied up and about to be murdered when the killer has a change of heart and falls in love with Jessica.  It is though this love, that her now husband has been able to contain his tendencies and together they have become two of the best criminal profilers in the business.

My review:  Each short story is completely independent of the others but is also essentially a continued story as pertaining to the two main characters.  These stories are very Dexteresque.  The main character, his name has not yet been mentioned, is a killer at heart but it is because of the love of his wife that he is able to control these urges and apply them to catching other criminals.  Together this married team runs into all sorts of trouble and each story is absolutely fantastic.  This is just books 1-6 and at this point in time the books already go up to # 25, with more in the works.  I have thoroughly enjoyed each of these books and will continue to read the rest of the books in the entire series.

My rating:  9
Pages:  133
Author website:  http://www.donaldwells.com/