Monday, October 21, 2013

Review: Preta's Realm: The Haunting by J. Thorn

 A Top 10 Kindle Bestseller in the Horror/Dark Fantasy genre from J. Thorn, a Top 100 Horror Author, Amazon Rank 2013. Add it to your cart NOW because it is on sale for a limited time!

FANS OF HORROR--THIS IS YOUR NEW FEAR!

Do you love graphic horror? Preta's Realm: The Haunting will keep you up at night. Get this book now because you'll love: The creeping horror... The chilling, horrific, scenes... The suspenseful and action-packed ending... *This novel contains scenes of graphic violence and sexual situations that are intended for adults and may be offensive to some readers. 

Drew works hard, pays his taxes, and loves his family. But when a visit from the spirit of his deceased grandfather coincides with the violent murder of two co-workers, Drew falls into a desperate spiral of delusion and betrayal until he finally faces the demons of the past, which threaten to drag him deeper into Preta's Realm.

Rating: 
Format: eBook
Amazon: Here
B&N: NA

When a horror book opens up with a “your mama joke”…you’re going to double check the title and genre just to make sure that you are legitimately reading the book that you thought you bought.
At least that’s what I did!

Preta’s Realm is unlike anything I've ever read before. 
It was morbidly funny, while being downright scary at times, but over all I thoroughly enjoyed learning about something that I never knew existed until now-Pretas.

The mother fucking Preta in this story kept me up late last night while I finished off the first book in the Hidden Evil Trilogy.
No joke. I was freaking the hell out and wanting to bathe myself in Lysol!

What’s a Gaki you may wonder…well brace yourselves folks.
Shit is about to get real.
Literally.

Via Wikipedia:
Pretas are believed to have been false, corrupted, compulsive, deceitful, jealous or greedy people in a previous life. As a result of their karma, they are afflicted with an insatiable hunger for a particular substance or object. Traditionally, this is something repugnant or humiliating, such as human corpses or feces, though in more recent stories, it can be anything, however bizarre.


In Preta’s Realm, it’s feces. 
Fresh human shit and every time it was referenced I gagged.
So.fucking.gross.
 Anyways, you come about meeting the Preta in this tale, aka Gaki, when the narrator of the book, Drew, finds out that he’s inherited a curse from his deceased Grandfather. 
Drew’s Grandfather was a solider during the Vietnam War and after murdering countless lives, he happens upon Gaki, while scoping out a cave in the jungle ridden land of Vietnam. 

This is where the tale first took a sharp turn for me. 
If I found a grey skinned, fat bellied monster thingamajig with an elongated neck, and eating recently dispelled shit; I'd yell "NOPE" as loud as I could and get the fuck out of there. 
Obviously Drew's Grandfather does the complete opposite and instead has some chai tea (not really but why the fuck not) with the Monster made of Nightmares and surprisingly (heavy on the sarcasm there) is bestowed a lovely parting gift, from Gaki, of  insatiable greed.

Grandpa relates his tale of living in five years of peace until his greedy appetite kicked in to Drew through a ghostly form? This wasn't explained very well in the book, and honestly left me quite confused, but hey you can't win them all right?
NOPE.

So Drew finds out that his Grandfather was still indebted to Gaki when he died, and that he's the next one to have the curse consume him.

Although greed isn't Drew's clutch...
Drew's vice is sex.

Raunchy.
Borderline rapey sex.
And is something that I did NOT expect out of this book!!!

J. Thorn did a great job, in my opinion,  of showing how male writers can bring their A-game to the table when it comes to writing intimate scenes in novels.
This Dirty Little Birdie loved it!

Drew of course tries to fight the inevitable, but Preta's do NOT fuck around and by halfway through the book, Drew is coo-coo for cocoa puffs. I finished out Drew's demise around one in the morning and for the life of me I could not get the mental image of Gaki eating shit out of my head.
That thing seriously FREAKED me the fuck out.

NOPE

And while I really enjoyed the majority of this book I did think that it had a few hiccups that should have been addressed or left out all together.
Here is my biggest issue with this novel. 
Ravna.
This guy is a Hunter although it never is specifically stated what he hunts. I wish that there was more of a back story for him because I was intrigued by his situation, but when he was introduced, something just didn't click. Then again he could have a back story somewhere else and I have yet to find my way to it, but as a newbie to J. Thorn's novels, I was left a tad confused about some characters and scenarios that arose through out The Haunting.

Preta's Realm is NOT for the faint of heart. 
It is gory. 
It is scary. 
Disgusting in parts, but overall I'd recommend it to those of you who enjoy taking a step into the darker world of literature, and letting your mind explore the monsters and creatures from other parts of the world. 
Solid 3 stars from me and I intend on continuing with the series in order to find out if a certain someone is caught!

Til next time!
-B

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Review: The Perfect Game by J. Sterling


He's a game she never intended to play. 
And she's the game changer he never knew he needed.

The Perfect Game tells the story of college juniors, Cassie Andrews & Jack Carter. When Cassie meets rising baseball hopeful Jack, she is determined to steer clear of him and his typical cocky attitude. But Jack has other things on his mind... like getting Cassie to give him the time of day. 

They're both damaged, filled with mistrust and guarded before they find one another (and themselves) in this emotional journey about love and forgiveness. Strap yourselves for a ride that will not only break your heart, but put it back together. 

Sometimes life gets ugly before it gets beautiful...

Rating: 
Format: eBook
Amazon: Here
B&N: Here
Jack F'n Carter.
I fucking hate you.
I love you, but I mostly hate you.
How could you do that to her?
To us? 

The Perfect Game is the perfect hurt! 

Our girl, Cassie Andrews, is a little bit damaged from events from her past. She, of course, goes to college and immediately catches the eye of the resident baseball hottie, Jack Carter. Who also happens to be insane in the membrane due to a stellar childhood (heavy on the sarcasm there) and some serious daddy issues.

Naturally they fall in love and their story takes us on a whirl wind of emotions, I'm talking some serious W.T.F. moments, before we wrap up their drama and end the book on a HEA. 
*yawn* Haven't I read this story before?

Anyways.

This book was a solid 4 stars for me, because I appreciated the angst that happened along toward the middle of the book. We all know how much of an angst whore I am ;)

What I didn't like about this book is the C-word. (You know cheating?)
I don't mind reading about it, but this scenario was sooooo rushed and far fetched that it made me want to bang my head on the wall. I literally kept shouting out loud to 

CALL MAURY!!!!

18 years, bro. 18 years!


Jack was such an idiot.
ugh.
But wait...there's more!

Cassie annoyed me with how quickly she forgave Jack. 
Girl, he blew you off. 
Big time. 
Yet there she is, "Oh I forgive you, I love you more than your fuck ups" yada yada yada. Girl please. That boy needed to grovel. For months. Fuck, for years! Cassie, instead, is the one that continuously begs and pleads for Jack F'n Carter to pull his dense head out of his ass and get real. 

Bitch, please. 
I would have made that boy suffer. I'm just screwed up like that bwha! 

If you're looking for a book that has a pompous asshole with problems keeping his dick in his pants: 
This book is for you.

If you want to see what it's like when naive people fall in love and let their SO get away with unfathomable acts: This book IS for YOU.

Goodreads is telling me that there is a second book in this series, but from the reviews that I've read...I'm thinking I'm just going to pretend that this is a stand alone. 

Although I am TOTALLY feeling the cover model on both of the books. That guy is insanely good looking! 
HA!
 -B