Voices of the French Foreign Legion by Adrian Gilbert

This is a non-fiction book and details with first-hand experiences by those who have joined the legion. It is a reprint of an earlier edition.

The French Foreign Legion has always had a reputation based in movies of a slightly romantic quality. “I’m running away to join the Legion,” can be heard in many scripts. The reality is far from this, however. The Legion is in fact known for its acceptance of any volunteer, regardless of background, as long as they are able to survive the training – both physical and emotional akin to torture.

The author takes the excerpts and divides them into a logical sequence as well as adding his own information and opinion on events. The book begins with how the Legionnaire is made: from the decision to join, the volunteering and the hell that is basic training. The book is no holds barred, and some experiences described, should have turned half of the recruits crazy. The recruit’s experiences tell of life in the Legion and the camaraderie experienced by some and the hatred by others. This intense reliance on others, often in life-threatening situations, led to desertion, and some very scary scenarios come out explaining what led to deserters and how they were dealt with. A large section of the book also deals with the conflicts that the Legion was involved in; from Africa to Vietnam.  I found their ‘Never give up unless we die’ attitude absolutely amazing and the fact that a recruit would fight against their birth country as they are now in the French Legion and be happy about it was quite a revelation.

The last 14% of the book is dedicated to endnotes and a bibliography which was quite strange as the book seemed to end very suddenly if you had been keeping an eye on the percentage of pages left. A few editing mistakes crept in, but nothing to really put you off the flow of the book.

Since I had never read a book on the Foreign Legion before, all of this information was new to me so I enjoyed learning a great deal of new info. Apparently, the excerpts are from other published books, so if other readers have read these books a lot of the info might not be new.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would. The author has taken facts and stories and presented them in such a way that it is like reading a work of fiction and you just have to keep on reading to see what will happen next.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thistle Publishing for the opportunity to review the book.  

Serial K Returns by Brian Gallagher

Serial K returns is the second in a series but can be read as a standalone novel.

Craig Breedlove is back and this time he has his sights set on those who have been abused by priests, as he was during his childhood. His Ripper days are behind him, but he still has the urge to end lives as he sees fit.  Agents O’ Callaghan and Lucci are back together again but are meant to be taking it easy in a semi-retirement. Lucci has the unfortunate luck of landing in a situation with the Mexican cartel and her actions launch a retaliation vendetta. Fortunately, her neighbours pack a lot of heat and are quite willing to help out. Breedlove’s plans collide with theirs when he forms a group of people willing to take matters into their own hands and deal out their own brand of justice to the priests. As the pair comes closer to finding Breedlove, he finds a way to change his plan and now has his sights set on Lucci. With both parties willing to go all the way, who will be the victor?

The story brings up an interesting moral dilemma where the reader feels empathy for the abused, and as the killings start are almost rooting for them to get away with it due to the fact that the priests feel no remorse. With the killings there is quite a bit of violence and descriptions of gore etc, but nothing too over the top. With the focus on the story of a serial killer and law enforcement that are out to get him, I found it quite strange that the author concentrated so much on what the characters ate and drank. The extra info on the arms and ammo as well as the boats was still in the understandable range, but the amounts of bottles of wine and their labels as what was eaten in restaurants were unnecessary. There were some editing mistakes, but nothing that detracted from the story.

I enjoyed the pace and writing of the story and found it very interesting being in the conflicted mind of this serial killer. The ending is quite interesting as a couple of things can be read into it and it’s up to the reader (or book 3) to decide how they believe it ended.

A quick but “enjoyable” read. 

Stir of Shadows by Jaime Lee Mann

This is the sixth book in the fantasy Legend of Rhyme series and is aimed at middle grade so has no scenes of foul language or sexual connotations.

Marigold is far too big to be a pixie, yet that’s what her family tell her she is. Frederick is far too small to be a giant, yet that’s what his family tells him he is. Pyra the phoenix has awakened, which means disaster has struck. Starla’s sister Blue is desperate to speak to her, but she could inadvertently hurt Teagan by her actions when Teagan goes exploring in places far away from safety. Elizabeth is still stuck in the grimoire and is desperate to get out. Grimblerod is still dealing with the nightmares of abduction. These and other stories are about to mesh with dire consequences.

I liked the introduction of Pyra and the effect she has on the continuation of Coraira. It was also fair that Asher got to claim a power which made him feel more like the hero he is meant to be. You can feel that the culmination of the series is coming as the families get to find out that they are related and how they need to work together.

I think to be this far into the series, and having to keep up with the myriad of characters (both still around or gone), it becomes a little confusing. While the poems at the beginning of each section help to remind the reader of what has happened with the characters previously and where they are now, it’s still a little difficult orienting yourself to what land or story you are in. I found that because of the story having to be spread in so many directions, that not enough substance was spent on the parts of the stories now and certain storylines were only just touched on. Some of the chapters were a little too punchy, and a situation would be brought in and immediately solved. I felt the action was missing a bit.

The Kindle edition had the first 6% taken up by hyperlinks which made it a bit irritating to keep flipping until you reached the story. I liked the catch up of characters at the end even if the author did feel like it was a bit of a spoiler alert, it did help to reorient the reader as to where they were with the characters. As usual, the story questions at the end were a great addition as a discussion point for a class. The story ends with a great cliffhanger and the bonus excerpt from the next book really gets the reader guessing. It’s not the best one in the series, but necessary as a gateway. I would still recommend the series for a magical fantasy read filled with mystery and all manner of beings. 

Storm: It’s a Curse to Remember by Gurpreet Kaur Sidhu

Storm: It’s a Curse to Remember is Book One in a series but can be read as a standalone novel and is a thriller which deals with past lives.

Evan Storm wakes up with terrible nightmares every morning about a past life where he is an abusive husband. He and his sister are orphans, and his psychic grandmother raised them from when they were small. Evan has just met his new neighbour Shadow Hex, and is shocked to find that she is the reincarnation of his abused wife from his previous life. Evan feels a bond with her and knows immediately that he must protect her at all costs. What Evan doesn’t know is that there is a secret agency out there that deals with problems for wealthy clients and that one of their agents, Marvin, used to be engaged to Shadow. Marvin wants her back and will use everything in his arsenal, which could include getting rid of Evan or anyone in his life. Can you fight against one who actually doesn’t exist? Evan’s sister Denise has her own problems, as her husband was in an accident and has lost 7 years of memories, including the knowledge that he has a son. Is there a happy ending in anyone’s future?

The story had a good idea behind it, but a lot of things let it down. Firstly the formatting was completely out. Letters of words were divided up between lines and many words had no spaces between them. Some pages had lines between paragraphs and other pages had paragraphs which just ran into each other.  Sometimes the word order was incorrect and other times there were prepositions missing which changed the meaning of the sentence. The paragraphs were filled with head hopping and you could get multiple POV’s in a paragraph (including in some instances the POV of a cat). The only tie-in I could see with Denise’s story was the parallel between memories lost in her family, while Evan is struggling with more memories than most in his. Otherwise, the two parts don’t fit together at all and indeed have no impact on each other. Without giving away too much, the ending was very strange for me. Many past life memories are brought in which have no bearing on any of the current characters and actually make the ending more confusing. The intense fear of the agency and the build-up to a confrontation fizzles out and I hope that some of the character’s paths are expanded on more in the next book.

A story with past lives interfering with present ones as well as secret agencies with evil agendas does sound intriguing, but the story needs work to make it more coherent. I had to remove stars for the editing and formatting as well as for the storyline which left me hanging. I wish the author well and hope that she continues and grows in her writing.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review the book.   

The Bathwater Conspiracy by Janet Kellough

The Bathwater Conspiracy is a standalone novel, set in a post-apocalyptic world of sorts where men have been eradicated after the Testosterone Wars and women are the only sex that remain.

                                                                                 

A young lady has been murdered and the body mutilated in ways that have not been seen for years. Detective Carson MacHenry jumps straight onto the case and is determined to find out what happened, but has been warned off by the Darmes, a branch of law enforcement that is way above Carson’s pay grade. This in itself is peculiar as why would they not want a horrific murder like this solved? Carson gets lumped with the newbie Nguyen as a partner and sends her on all sorts of wild goose chases so that she can concentrate on what she thinks is best. As she moves deeper and deeper into her own investigation, she stumbles across a sinister genetic experiment that may prove to undo years of advancement. Add to this political intervention and a genuine fear for her own life and you have a fast-paced and thought-provoking look at a dystopian future.

This book was a lot more insightful than it seemed at first. Even though it is explained that the male genes were eradicated I somehow thought for the first half of the book that the principal character was male. It goes to show how clever the writing is and how your brain interprets it. Some books with similar themes have ideas so out there that the reader can just shake their heads and put it aside as a book. This theme, while very controversial, is not impossible with the current changes in gene experimentation. The book shows how emotional manipulation can lead to different outcomes and what happens when one woman will not back down. A very interesting concept and well-written book.

Mentoring Darkness by David Ring III

Mentoring Darkness is a psychological thriller novella and a quick read at 104 pages.

Leo receives a worried text from his friend Anita about a troubled youngster Nick, that Leo has taken under his wing. Leo, who has survived an abusive childhood, thinks Anita is blowing up the issue but knows he will see her later and they can chat about her fears. When he arrives at her place, she is nowhere to be seen. It soon comes out that Anita is gone and Leo is being blamed for it. In light of the text Anita sent to him about Nick, he is torn between reporting it or doing some investigating himself. The more he looks into it, the more he realises that things are most definitely not what they seem.

The blurb of the book sounded so promising that I thought I’d start it quickly one night before I went to sleep but landed up reading the whole thing. Unfortunately, it was a huge hit and miss for me. It had all the elements of a disappearance, a person being accused unjustly, snippets of info that could lead to a number of people being the killer and other storylines of romance and abuse being involved. All of a sudden, BAM, the story is over. I turned the page to see if who the killer is claimed to be is definitely the one and there is no more story. It felt like the book just ended in the middle of a chapter. There are too many unanswered questions for the story to end satisfactorily, and as the reader, I wasn’t sure if I believed the ending or not. The characters are engaging and the author does a great job of connecting the reader with their inner struggles, but too many paths are left open at the end. While I have no problem with cliffhangers, this was more of not knowing how to finish character’s stories off. It would be interesting to see more of this author’s work to see if that writing is in the same vein.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review the book.

Last Seen: A Dr Pepper Hunt Mystery by JL Doucette

This is a standalone novel and is about a disappearance and the lives connected to it. It falls under the cop/thriller genre and one of the main characters: Dr Pepper, will be featured in future books.

Kimi, a crime reporter, has gone missing and the fear is that she has been taken by the serial rapist. Her husband oscillates back and forth between showing emotion that she is gone and indifference to her possible demise. Dr Hunt, Kimi’s psychologist, has been treating Kimi who has been experiencing some dissociative disorder and is brought in as a consultant to the case which is being led by Sheriff Scruggs and Kimi’s cousin Detective Antelope. Throw in a creepy colleague, her brother Diego who is a convicted sex offender, and Cass, Antelope’s previous love interest and Kimi’s best friend. If this is the serial rapist, why has Kimi not been returned like everyone else who has been attacked? As time runs out and more clues are revealed, it seems as though not everyone has been as upfront as they should have been. People have secrets, but some are a doozy.

The primary characters are well described, and you feel for them as they go through their ups and downs and face demons that surface throughout the case. I really enjoyed this book. It’s a typical detective thriller where clues are fed to you throughout and even though just before the end you figure out who it is, it takes no oomph away from the ending.