Ransom by Emily Guido

Second Novel in the “Light-Bearer” Series

This is a review of the last two books in the series – Seditious, Ransom.

PDMI Direct

Rating:  4 stars

Morning sickness – what a great way to start the first chapter.  Our couple, Charmeine and Tabbruis, is very happy.  All the people from the first three books have reappeared here as well.  Just like the first novel I reviewed, Emily gives titles to each of her chapters. 

Charmeine is the Queen of Light and Tabbruis is the King of Darkness.  Even though Charmeine is the Queen of Light, Emily lets her let loose with swearing.  If a light-bearer can do it, then I won’t feel bad when I need to use some colorful language.

Whether you believe in the bible or not this book has used a couple of people that can be found there.  I was brought up in the Baptist faith and know who Bathsheba is.  I find it very interesting that Emily has made her a blood hunter but it fits.  At one point in Emily’s book, she appears in another part of history and going by a different name – again the perfect choice.

Emily also shows us that true love can also come with a few bumps in the road.  It’s how we handle that bump that’s important.  Emily also shows her readers that even Kings can still be a royal (sorry for the pun) pain in the ass just like anyone else.

One of the characters is named Athena.  She is such a sweetheart and is wise beyond her years.  For me, she seems to steal every scene she is in.  When it comes to fighting evil Emily shows us that no matter how young we all must join the fight – it takes everyone to overcome evil.  My favorite sentence was said by Sandra “There is strength in numbers and conviction…” 

This is why good characters work so well together and why evil characters never will.  Charmeine and her family feel that love and family are what is important – we sometimes forget about that because other things seem to get in the way.

Emily also continues with the Billy Joel music.  I did not mention it in my first review, so if you get a chance you could listen to “She’s Got a Way” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5djkVhLjw18) while you read this installment of Emily’s Light-Bearer’s Series.  Also toward the end of the story, just as in the last book, we switch to classical music.  The difference being, instead of Chopin we get Beethoven.

I’ve found out that come early next year, Emily is giving us another Light-bearer book.  This one will be titled Conundrom.  I find that interesting since the definition of conundrum is “A question asked for amusement, typically one with a pun in its answer; a riddle”.  And if you know Charmeine, she tells some pretty bad light bearer - blood hunter jokes.  It will be interesting to see if this is the case.  I look forward to reading Conundrom and finding out for myself if this is true or not.

http://www.emilyguido.com/  " The Light-Bearer Series" Novelist, Emily Guido

Charmeine by Emily Guido

First Novel in the “Light-Bearer” Series

This is a review of the first three books of the series – Charmeine, Mactus, Accendo.

PDMI Direct

Published:  September 02 - 28, 2012 (e-book)

Rating:  4 stars

Contemporary Romance, Paranormal Romance, Emily Guido, Book Review

Tabbruis feels that something is coming.  Charmeine is someone that brings him joy.  She is an angel and so is Tabbruis.  They complement each other.  What’s coming is going to affect Heaven.

I have a thing for great cars and Tabbruis drives a Dodge Charger SRT8.  If I thought I could get away with it, I would love a chance to take a car like that out on the open road and get a first-hand look to see what kind of power is under the hood.   It also makes me question; why Heaven need with a car but then you realize that we are finding how they came to be in Heaven together.  We find out that he has actually lived on Earth for quite a while.  He is what is called a blood hunter.

Charleen is an elementary school teacher.  We see that sexual harassment can also occur out on the playground.  But Charleen can take care of herself.  She also has a pseudo brother named Shane.  They ended up at the same orphanage and became fast friends.  Shane is someone that is very brave – he served our country and he somehow ends up working for Tabbruis.

It seems like the music choice at the beginning of the book is Billy Joel.  If you like, you may want to listen to some of his music as your read this book.  One song that is brought up a couple of times is “Piano Man”, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxEPV4kolz0.  And you can also check out one of my favorite tunes, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g&feature=relmfu, it makes me think that Tab has seen a lot of the history that Billy Joel sings about.  At the end Char’s music choice is Chopin.  So if you’ve never listened to him before, I hope you will give his work a chance.

As I’m reading this story, I get a sense that this is about good vs. evil.  And evil can take many forms.  Good can also take many forms and one such form are the “light-bearers”.  An acquaintance of Tabbruis’ explains what they are.  There is always a fight between the blood hunters and light-bearers but who will come out on top in the end.

One good thing about this book is that Emily gives each chapter their own title.  It gives the reader some idea as to what the chapter is going to be about.  In one scene where Charleen meets Tab for the first time, we find out that Char has some very interesting abilities – you will have to read if you want to find out what those abilities are.

This is one story where opposites actually do attract.  Emily also shows us that some people can change when they meet the right person.   And they will overlook their differences when the need to survive is there.  Tab has been told one thing about the blood hunters and the light-bearers but that doesn’t stop him from connecting and protecting Charmeine.  Char is very calm about believing everything she has been told – I don’t think I would be quite as calm. 

In one chapter, I got a total shock – it’s not something I saw coming or even thought as a possibility.  This is what makes a great author – they surprise you when you least expect it.  We also get lots of action and suspense along with our romance.  We have a lot going on but you won’t get lost or think things are going on too long.

This is a book that I would love to see as a graphic novel.  I say this because I would love to see the art work that would go along with Emily’s words.  It would just bring this story to life more than my imagination could.

There is some religion involved in this book – God, Heaven, Angels, Lucifer – but Emily does not preach to her readers.  It just shows the possibilities of what may happen between Heaven and Earth and those that fight for the good and those that follow evil.  It is your choice as to what to believe.

The book I received to review actually includes three books.  The books can be read by themselves but I hope you will read them in order.  Once you finish these three, you will want to see what Emily has in store for us in book 4 titled “Seditious”.  I also suggest that if you have a chance, check out Emily’s web site http://emilyguido.com/.

Sophie's Turn by Nicky Wells

Book 1, Rock Star Romance

Sapphire Star Publishing LLC

ISBN:  97819

Published:  August 08, 2012 (paperback)/September 4, 2012 (e-book)

424 pages (paperback)/580KB

Rating:  4 ½ stars

This story is written in the first person.

Sophie Penhalligan gets a marriage proposal while on a carousel.  But Sophie has a problem, she is already engaged.  But this is the Prologue and we need to go back in time.

Sophie is on her way to a date with Tim Renfrew.  Because she’s in England, Sophie’s traveling on the Tube.  I would love to add this to my bucket list – be an observer and watch the other passengers as we travel on the Tube route.

Nicky reminds us how different men and women are when it comes to remembering dates.  I also can’t figure out what Sophie sees in Tim – well they do say that love is blind.  The more I read the more I mentally yell at her to “dump him, dump him”.  He reminds me a little bit of my older brother – clueless.  Sophie also lets us know who her favorite band is – Tuscq.

Sophie is like a lot of young women, and girls, she has a thing for the lead singer of the group.  If you like to listen to music as you read, you may want to put on some of your favorite music.  Me – I would love to listen to some Michael Buble. 

Rachel is the perfect friend for Sophie.  I can picture her with these little horns that poke through every once-in-a-while.  She’s also a great person to have around when Sophie needs to bend someone’s ear.  Rachel also has me laughing every so often.  When I go traveling, it would be great to have someone like her along for the trip.

I love how Nicky puts temptation in Sophie’s way – like the apple was tempting to Eve, Dan is tempting to Sophie.  He knows how to go after what he wants.  And having Sophie’s occupation as a journalist is perfect.  What could be more ideal then putting a journalist and a band together.  The only disappointment I had was that there was no audio – I would have loved to listen to some of Tuscq’s music while reading this book.  Maybe someone will develop an ipod/e-reader combination.  In the meantime, I’ll just continue to listen to Michael.

If I ever travel “across the pond”, I’ll plan on taking Sophia’s story with me.  It would be interesting to travel to all the places mentioned in the book.  This way, I would get to experience some of what Sophie got to.  But I may have to find out what band may be traveling in the same vicinity of where Tuscq was playing in the book.  If not – pack lots of CDs.

This was a great book to start this series off with.  The ending was not something I was expecting.  It’s a great lead in to the next book coming out.  I’m looking forward to see what happens to Sophie next in book two titled Sophie’s Run.  We can look forward to it coming out in February of 2013.  You can also check out Nicky’s web site at http://nickywellsklippert.wordpress.com/.