Cherry Mischievous: 2024

Tuesday 22 October 2024

WITCH WITH A BADGE

Witch With A Badge by by TR Cameron, Martha Carr, and Michael Anderle
Book 1 in the Witch Warrior series
Narrated by Megan Trout
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Witch With A Badge:

Deputy US Marshal Cait Keane is a Witch with a Badge — and a Dragon for a partner.

The Boston office tour will have to wait — her first day on the job in her new appointment is canceled to pursue a federal fugitive, a magical with a penchant for fire.

She’ll need her gun and her wand to take him down. What will her team think of having a magical on board?

When a federal judge is killed, she discovers she’s in the middle of a territorial battle between criminal organizations. The killer is a magical, or working with one, which makes Cait the perfect Marshal to take them down.

Add in a threat to her coven and life has become a lot more challenging for Cait Keane.

The US Marshal with something extra wouldn’t have it any other way.

Source: Info in the "About Witch With A Badge" was taken from amazon on 03/09/2024.

Buy Link(s):

My Thoughts:

The other thing that made me buy this book other than this book being a witch book, is the dragon in the cover art. Because I am a dragon nut and want to read more about dragons!

This book ended in a big whooping cliffhanger. And that is the main reason that this book would never, ever, get a five with me! At 252 pages long, I say this is a long novella to introduce readers to the world of Cait Keane. I say Cait Keane because the world of Oriceran was introduced to us in Waking Magic by Martha Carr and Michael Anderle. In other words, this is an off-shoot series from that one.

The world building and story telling quality is really good which is the reason that this book would never get a one with me.

Plot? What plot? But, having said that, this is urban fantasy not a crime fiction so I was not gunning for twisty plots.

This is my first Megan Trout audiobook and I would listen to her again.

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 3
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 2
World building = 5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = (5 hrs and 20 mins listening time)
Plot = 1
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Witch Warrior Series:

Meet The Authors

About Michael Anderle:

Michael Anderle (ok, weird talking about myself in the 3rd person) (1967-Hopefully a long time from NOW) was born in Houston, Tx. A very curious child, he got into trouble — a lot. What to do with an inquisitive mind when he was grounded? Read!

Ok, done with all of that 3rd person stuff.

In the first 20 years, I mostly read Science Fiction and Fantasy. In the last 10 years I have enjoyed Urban Fantasy and Military Fiction. With this background, I've been blessed with creating The Kurtherian Gambit series, a well-selling, and fan loved, collection of stories.

The fans have propelled these stories beyond my wildest imagination and they should get all of the credit for sharing with friends, family and occasionally the random person on the street. They are fantastic!

About Martha Carr:

Okay, I'm a late bloomer who's a big DC comics fan and spent my childhood summers on the Jersey shore in the U.S. but have had a weird wanderlust to live in different parts of America ever since. That's enough about me. Need to feel inspired today? Looking for something to make you root for an ordinary hero? I'm all about that in everything I write.

I love a good tale that makes me wonder about things and I love a story even more that leaves me feeling inspired or like I'm capable of doing more than I realized. That's my goal with everything I've ever written. Some of the stories I tell involve twisting, turning thrillers and others have a lot of magic.

There's something to be said for getting lost in another world and coming out the other side feeling a little better about yourself or the possibilities in front of you. That's basically the best part of life in a nutshell, no matter what kind of story I'm setting out to tell.

About TR Cameron:

I’m TR Cameron, Urban Fantasy and Science Fiction author. I’ve been an avid consumer of the genres since I was six, I think, when I broke the seal on my Dad’s copies of the Asimov Foundation books. Shortly after, it was Dragonlance and Drizzt. It’s been all downhill since then.

I have a day job that I love most days, and writing is pretty much my only consistent hobby. When I find time that’s not already filled with my wife, my daughter, my writing, my work, or dodging the affections of our clowder of cats, you can find me playing video games (currently Cyberpunk 2077, Avengers, and Witcher 3), watching things (Marvel movies, The Expanse, Picard), playing board games, or, naturally, reading.

My favorite authors in Sci-Fi are David Weber, Jean Johnson, John Scalzi, CJ Cherryh, and the giants: Asimov, Pohl, Bear, Heinlein, etc. I read a lot in other genres too, and am a big fan of Matthew Woodring Stover, Michael Anderle, Jim Butcher, and I could go on and on and on. If I had to choose one favorite, though, it would be Stephen R. Donaldson, whose Thomas Covenant series was transformative for me.

Probably my pie-in-the-sky dream for my writing career is that someone would make a movie or television show of my books and I could be a part of the production. Sure, unlikely, but a clowder-dodger can dream, right? My more practical dream is that I can keep writing and both entertaining and connecting with my readers for years and years to come.

www.trcameron.com | twitter | facebook | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Megan Trout:

Megan Trout is a Bay Area–based narration, voice, and theater artist. She has been seen and heard on stage, screen, radio, and podcast. No matter what form they take, she loves stories. She loves to create detailed, tangible worlds for her and her listeners to get lost in together. Megan enjoys most genres . . . but if she had to narrow it down she'd list: terrifying thrillers, poignant fiction, true crime, historical fiction, and harrowing biographies of courageous women (in no particular order).

www.megantrout.com | instagram | goodreads

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

Tuesday 15 October 2024

BLOOD LINE

Blood Line by Paul Heatley
Book 1 in the Tom Rollins Thriller series
Narrated by Wayne Mitchell
Genre: crime thriller
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Blood Line:

Tom Rollins has gone AWOL from his CIA black-ops unit and is living off-grid when he hears that the woman he loves, Alejandra, has been murdered by a person or persons unknown. Rollins is determined to punish her killers and sets out on his own personal search and destroy mission.

Applying pressure as only he knows how, he quickly discovers who was behind the killing — a vicious gang of hardened criminals. Using his dizzying array of lethal skills, Rollins begins to take out the leaders of the gang, one by one. But then he discovers that Alejandra’s murder was part of a larger conspiracy, one that threatens death and destruction on a horrifying scale. The conspirators are clever and ruthless. They’ve thought of everything, covered every angle. Except one — Tom Rollins. Can Rollins find justice for the woman he loves?

Source: Info in the "About Blood Line" was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57473420-blood-line on 27/03/2024.

Buy Link(s):

My Thoughts:

Wonderful start to a new-to-me series!

For a crime fiction the plot was quite straight forward. But it is not so much the twistiness of the plot but of how the story was told. Now, that, was wonderful!

I like to throttle Anthony, though! That doesn't mean that the character development is bad. Quite the opposite in fact. The author painted him to be such a whiny little shit that it elicited an emotional response from me, the reader.

The audiobook is supposed to be about eight and a half hours long. It felt so much less than eight hours. The book just whizzed by me! I call that fast-paced!

I wanted the bad guys to be punished though. I think some got away lightly and some scot-free. I wanted my happily ever after...

This is my first Wayne Mitchell audiobook and I would listen to him again.

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 5
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4.5
Ending = 4.5
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = (8 hrs and 24 mins listening time)
Plot = 4
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Tom Rollins Thriller Series:

Meet The Author

About Paul Heatley:

Paul Heatley's books have been published by the likes of All Due Respect, Inkubator Books, Close To The Bone, and more. His short stories have appeared online and in print for publications such as Thuglit, Horror Sleaze Trash, Spelk, Near to the Knuckle, Shotgun Honey, the Crime Factory, and the Flash Fiction Offensive, among others.

The Narrator

About Wayne Mitchell:

Wayne Mitchell has been an actor all his life and has been described as a big guy with a big voice. He competed on the Forensics (Speech) Team in high school and college, doing mostly interpretation events (prose interpretation being a favorite). Since getting involved with audiobooks, Wayne feels like he's back doing Speech Team once again, and it's a welcome return!

As an LA based (Meisner trained) actor of twenty yearrs, he has appeared in a dozen TV shows, loop grouped over a hundred TV episodes and numerous movies, and in 2015 cowrote/directed an independent feature film called SOLEDAD, which is available on Amazon Prime.

Wayne brings versatility to any project. He's comfortable with a variety of voices and accents, but most importantly he brings a knack for conveying the truth. The truth of the words on the page. The truth of the experience the listener is being asked to participate in. Be that truth intergalactic in scope, or as familiar as Sunday brunch with Grandma.