Review of Narcissist Seeks Narcissist by Giselle Renarde

This is a funny short story about a former model named Szuszu who wastes her days drinking scotch. After her best friend places a silly personal ad in the paper, she meets Naomi. She is convinced that Naomi looks just like she did when she was young. The two begin a relationship and Szuszu starts really thinking about her past and why she is the way that she is.

Over the course of their six month relationship, both women become more comfortable with their bodies and who they are as people. Then Szuszu reveals that she has a problem.

When her friend returns, she immediately attacks Naomi because she doesn’t like the way she looks and she doesn’t like the changes that she sees in Szuszu. I like that Naomi stood up for herself, Szuszu and their relationship. The ending was nice. I really like the underlying theme of self acceptance.

I recommend this to fans of lesbian short stories.

Review of The Witch Sea by Sarah Diemer

The Witch Sea is a short story about a lonely witch named Meriel who lives in a lighthouse off the shore of Bound Island. She is tasked with keeping the magic web in place so the sea creatures can’t get onto or off of the island. Her life is pretty monotonous until, on the night of the new moon, a seal breaks through the web. The sea god who lives on the island helps the seal transform into a human woman name Nor and sends her to visit Meriel everyday in hopes of getting her to undo the spell.

I like the progression of Meriel’s character throughout the story. At the beginning she keeps the web going because she promised her mother that she would. She feels like it’s her duty but, as she starts getting closer to Nor, she questions whether or not she’s doing the right thing. She begins to question everything that her mother had told her about the sea folk and about why they keep the web together. The ending was sad, but I think I would’ve done the same thing.

I would recommend this to fans of short stories and fantasy.

It’s currently free on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Witch-Sea-Sarah-Diemer-ebook/dp/B007GQYZZ2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1430247466&sr=1-1&keywords=the+witch+sea

Review of Just One Kiss by Kathy Woods

This short story was ok, but I feel like it could’ve been better. It’s broken into three chapters, but it could’ve either fit into two chapters or been expanded into a full book. The last chapter is sort of an epilogue. There were a few typos, but it didn’t take away from the story.

The main character, Emily, and Katy seem like a good match for each other. They’re both teachers and they’re around the same age, but neither of them are out at work. I like that they saw each other for awhile instead of just jumping into bed together. It was more realistic. Unfortunately, the author chose to throw in a sex scene at the end of the second chapter after their first kiss. It’s not very well written and seems like it was just added so the story would have a sex scene.

I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone either.

Review of The Man With the White Face: An Urban Legend by Micah Ackerman

This story was ok, but I didn’t think it was “mind-bending” or really scary. It was weird and the ending was predictable. There were also some grammatical errors. I also thought it was going to be about an actual urban legend, but it’s not.

The main character, Jay, is supposed to be “highly intelligent” yet he doesn’t really come across that way. He refers to the “Man with the White Face” as a variety of different insults (asshole, dickhead, etc.)which was kind of entertaining. Maybe that’s where the “R-rated” part comes from.

The videos that the man makes Jay watch are gruesome and violent but, even though I could picture them, they sounded like something out of a cheap shock film. I found it hard to believe that he could be affected by all of it so soon.

I think this would be better if it was edited and if the idea was fleshed out more. I’m happy that this was free and short. I wouldn’t really recommend this to anyone.

Review of The Crow: Quoth the Crow by David Bischoff

I picked this up on one of my trips to the thrift shop because it’s set in the “The Crow” universe and the description sounded good.

This is one of the best books that I’ve read so far this year. I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads. The characters, setting, descriptions and writing style are all excellent. I could just picture the characters sitting in Baxter’s goth bar on a dark night in Baltimore. The violence, and there is a lot of if, is justified. It’s not just there for shock value. The Poe reference are neat too.

Each chapter starts with a quote from a poem or short story by Edgar Allan Poe, with “The Raven” and “The Pit and the Pendulum” being used the most. The main character, William Blessing, was a professor, an author and a Poe expert. He quotes various Poe works to his victims before killing them.

I really like the crow itself in this book. He’s a more sarcastic version of the one in the original “The Crow” graphic novel. He serves as a guide and mentor for Blessing. This book also deals with the fact that Blessing is basically a reanimated corpse. It’s very realistic about the complications that would cause.

By the last chapter I was cheering for William and the ending made me smile. It was a great ending and I think it was very well done. I would recommend this to any fans of The Crow, revenge stories and people who love great stories.

Review of The Stupid Nerdy Notebook Vol 1-3: The High Five Collection by Chris Garrett

I was given a free copy of this book as part of a blog tour with Sage’s Blog Tours. All opinions are my own.

I chose this book because I liked the name, the description drew me in and Chris Garrett’s author bio says he “eats pizza and slays dragons.” Awesome!

The book is full of poems written by the author when he was younger. Since we’re the same age, it brought back memories of how I felt back then. The poems range from hopeful to sad to dark. My favorite one is actually the first one in the book, “Beautiful Disaster.” It’s dark, full of heartbreak and has excellent imagery. The other one that I like is “My regards to the mother father train robbery.” It’s very sad and is, unfortunately, about something that happens far too often (parents taking their children’s’ ssi/child support and buying drugs and alcohol).

I like that the handwritten version of the poems are included. It was neat to see what was kept and/or changed. It was like getting to see alternate song lyrics.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes great poetry. I would read more from this author.

About the author: Rising out of Georgia Chris Garrett is a natural dark poet and storyteller delivering nerve pounding stanzas and short stories of angry teens, broken hearts, and mosh pits since 2004. Chris is the author of The Stupid Nerdy Notebook series as seen on Amazon.com. When not writing he enjoys eating pizza and slaying dragons.

Review of De Niro: A Life by Shawn Levy

I received this book from the Blogging For Books program in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own.

It took me months to get through this book because I couldn’t get into it. There was just too much information and it honestly bored me.

I liked learning more about Robert De Niro and the book shows how dedicated he is to acting and how he really immerses himself in his roles, no matter how small the part is. It was neat to learn about some of his earlier roles and I plan to watch a few of the movies.

I didn’t like how much info the author gives about various other people such as his acting teacher and Martin Scorsese. I really have no interest in who the acting teacher learned from or why she decided she wanted to act and if I wanted Scorsese’s life story, I would find a book about him. If you don’t mind that type of thing, then this book will be ok for you.