UNINTENDED CULTIVATOR: VOLUME 2

Unintended Cultivator: Volume 2 by Eric Dontigney
Book 2 in the Unintended Cultivator series
Narrated by Adam Verner
Genre: fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Unintended Cultivator: Volume 2:

He left to see the world, but the world is a cruel master…

Setting out to be a wandering cultivator, Sen has high ideals. Half-remembered stories of honorable cultivators and the kindness of his teachers shaped his expectations.

The world he finds is something else entirely. Thrust into deadly conflict, Sen finds himself fleeing the death of a sect cultivator in fear of retribution. As his flight carries him across the kingdom, he finds his ideals challenged by bandits, cultivators, and demon beasts.

In the city of Emperor’s Bay he will face the true crucible of his character and skills, and discover the harsh truth that violence is necessary to survive.

Source: Info in the "About Unintended Cultivator: Volume 2" was taken from amazon on 15/02/2025.

Buy Link(s):

 

My Thoughts:

Another chunk of a bigger book. That I even considered reviewing these books as one. But then I don't know if subsequent books would be as good or if the entertainment value would dip, or what. So I decided to give this chunk of the story a separate review anyway.

I also like the fact that not only humans become "cultivators" but animals too! In their own way.

This is exactly the same as the first book. Just a continuation of more of the same. Not any less entertaining, though. Having said that, the ending of this book is more a cliffhanger than the first book which dipped the rating of this book a notch or two.

Adam Verner did another wonderful job of bringing this book to life!

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 5
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 3
World building = 5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = (12 hrs and 32 mins listening time)
Plot = 3
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Unintended Cultivator Series:

 

Meet The Author

About Eric Dontigney:

Raised in Western New York, Eric Dontigney has lived in New Mexico, Florida, Wisconsin, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. He currently resides near Dayton, OH. He is a fan of photo-realism and impressionist paintings, coffee, and well-made food.

Not wishing to tarnish the good names of writers who have come before him, he refuses to name influences. He will admit to reading Neil Gaiman, Harlan Ellison, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ayn Rand, Stephen J. Cannell, Jim Butcher, Kate Chopin, Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, Camus, James Baldwin, Tim O'Brien, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Stephen King.

ericdontigney.com | x | facebook | instagram | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Adam Verner:

Adam Verner is a full-time narrator and voice talent with over one hundred titles recorded. He is the recipient of AudioFile Earphones Awards for Pavilion of Women by Pearl S. Buck and The Big It by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. Adam earned his MFA in acting from the Chicago College of the Fine Arts at Roosevelt University.

www.adamverner.com | x | facebook | instagram | threads | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

WOLF PACK

Wolf Pack by Craig Zerf
Book 5 in the Project Bloodborn series
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook

Synopses:

The synopsis of the first book, Wolf Man:

Brenner is not a werewolf...

He is the result of a secret US Army experiment. The creation of a government controlled Super Soldier.

And no one asked if he wanted to take part.

So, he escaped. And for the last fifty years has been living in the backroads and the small unknown towns of America. Never aging. Searching for a cure. At the same time avoiding the dark ops experts who are looking for him.

But just because he can become a seven foot, four hundred pound killing machine, it doesn't mean that Brenner is bad. In fact, he sticks to a strict code.

And like the High Plains drifters of old, anyone who crosses the Wolfman's code is sure to suffer.

They took his humanity ... and now it's time for payback.

Synopsis of Wolf Pack:

The adventures of Brenner and Griff continues in this book. A couple of old army buddies. Vietnam veterans. One old and one young. One human, one wolf. Together they fight evil. The bad guys this time is another group of US military group much like the first one. Experimenting. However unlike the first US military group, their experimentation has a new twist. Either way, they are still very bad.

The synopsis of the first book was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36178703-wolf-man on 14/06/2021. The synopsis of the current book, Wolf Pack, is provided by me.

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My Thoughts:

What I want to know is, what happened to Bruno Catalano?! The author just left it there hanging for the reader to fill in the blanks. I do not like that kind of writing. It's like, so he's dead. Then later on in the series he rose to life again! That is really annoying! If the bad guys are to rise back to life again, let him die properly first!! Whether he comes back to life or not, at least give the reader the satisfaction of reading him die! Geez! **grumble grumble**

This is also the book which started to use the "chopped-up" kind of writing where a different thread of the story is told after every other chapter. Like for example, chapter 20 is Brenner. 21 is Solomon. Then 22 is Brenner again. And so on and so forth until the end. I so hate this kind of writing. It disrupts the flow of the story! It yanks you out of the story. When that happens I needed a minute to re-align myself again. Annoying!! So what I do is cheat. I read the book every other chapter and when that thread is done, I go back to the last chapter I skipped and follow that thread until the end. Less annoying that way. However, I sincerely hope that Craig Zerf would go back to his old style of writing and abandon this new-found style!

Same old, same old, MO. Our heroes fight bad guys. Blood and gore! Same tune, different song. And still same enjoyable read.

Another short-ish read (at 237 pages) from this author. Still a violent book, not recommended for young readers.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 5
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 2.5
Ending = 3.5
World building = 5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = 4
Plot = 4

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries

Books In Project Bloodborn Series:

Meet The Author

About Craig Zerf:

Craig Zerf is a full-time writer who has been awarded the Golganooza Gold medal for Fantasy as well as being voted 'Best Read' by radio BBC United Kingdom.

His novels have been translated into French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and German.

Craig has lived in America, Africa and Europe and now resides in England with his wife and two imaginary cats.

His books have reached the number one Best Seller spot in both the United Kingdom and Germany and he reckons that writing is about the most fun that you can have without actually blowing things up!

czerf.wordpress.com | twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | amazon | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook were bought with private funds.
No money received for this review.

MAGICAL MIDLIFE MADNESS

Magical Midlife Madness by K.F. Breene
Book 1 in the Leveling Up series
Narrated by Nicole Poole
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Magical Midlife Madness:

A woman starting over. A new house with an unexpected twist. A cape wearing butler acting as the world's worst life coach.

"Happily Ever After" wasn't supposed to come with a do-over option. But when my husband of twenty years packs up and heads for greener pastures and my son leaves for college, that's exactly what my life becomes.

Do-over.

This time, though, I plan to do things differently. Age is just a number, after all, and at forty I'm ready to carve my own path.

Eager for a fresh start, I make a somewhat unorthodox decision and move to a tiny town in the Sierra foothills. I'll be taking care of a centuries old house that called to me when I was a kid. It's just temporary, I tell myself. It'll just be for a while.

That is, until I learn what the house really is, something I never could've imagined.

Thankfully forty isn't too old to start an adventure, because that's exactly what I do. A very dangerous adventure that will change my life forever. I have a chance to start again, and this time, I make the rules.

Source: Info in the "About Magical Midlife Madness" was taken from amazon on 08/02/2025.

Buy Link(s):

 

My Thoughts:

A fun, magical romped through midlife crises. Because one crisis is not enough...

Not a book to be taken too seriously. If you do, you will probably not enjoy it.

What I wanted to know is if her husband got his comeuppance...

There isn't much of a plot. This book is just basically an introduction to the world of the Ivy House.

Nicole Poole did a beautiful job of bringing this book to life!

Enjoyed this book and of course, book 2 is already bought!

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4.5
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = (7 hrs and 9 mins listening time)
Plot = 3.5
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Leveling Up Series:

 

Meet The Author

About K.F. Breene:

K.F. Breene is aWall Street Journal,USA Today,Washington Post, and Amazon Charts bestselling author of paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and fantasy novels. With millions of books sold, when she’s not penning stories about magic and what goes bump in the night, she’s sipping wine and planning shenanigans.

www.kfbreene.com | x | facebook | tiktok | instagram | pinterest | bookbub | youtube | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Nicole Poole:

Nicole Poole is a classically trained actor with equal passions for literature and improvisation. She has toured with the Royal Shakespeare Company, has been a member of the critically acclaimed Walter Thompson Orchestra for over fifteen years, and recently became a member of the Parisian groups SPOUMJ and Anitya. She is honored to have been recognized for her narration by an AudioFile Earphones Award, a Publisher's Weekly Listen-Up Award, and nomination for an Audie Award.

www.nicolepoole.com | facebook | instagram | linkedin | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.