4/5 Stars Sacred Honor by Lori Bates Wright

March 12, 2022February 27, 2022 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, historical, romance Austenne Grey, historical fiction, Lori Bates Wright, Saberton Legacy

The Saberton Legacy Book 3

Narrated by Austenne Grey

Run Time: 9 hrs and 27 mins

Genre: historical, American Civil War

Summary:

Aurora Haverwood and Zachery Saberton love each other, but a lot stands in their way. First, he’s accused of something pretty awful and barely escapes with his life. But part of that deal sends him to England on an undercover mission to recover some missing money from the Confederate coffers.

Additional Comments:

I think of the trilogy, I liked book 2 the best so far. This one was okay. The build up was nice. The middle meandered a bit. The end declared itself from afar. There was at least one cringey stereotypical female-does-something-dumb scene just to give us another half-hour to cover.
Characters are endearing.
Kinda wish Tori was in this more.
Austenne Grey’s performance hit the right emotional notes.
Not a huge fan of the style of epilogue we got. Could have safely done without it, but it’s fine.
Favorite character is the lady who play’s Zach’s love interest. I’d love to see a spinoff of her adventures. Her backstory is just outlandish enough to work.

Conclusion:

Well-written. Nicely performed.

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Have You Tried Kindle Vella Yet?

Christmas Shorts – (Mystery, thriller, Christian, suspense; Ongoing; story 1 is complete) Only one story right now, but will be a collection of short stories with characters from across my series. Typically, FBI agents with personal drama. Might feature an abundance of cute puppies.

The Minder Project Season 1 – (scifi, genetic engineering, superpowers; shares characters with Dustin’s Decision, Updated Wednesdays) The government gave her genetic Gifts. Now, it wants what it paid for from the program.

5 Steps to Better Dialogue – (nonfiction, writing skills; Complete) I feel like nonfiction titles should come with spoiler tags. This is a book for writers seeking to learn more about the creation of realistic characters and dialogue.

Assassin School Season 1 – (thriller, YA; Complete) Teen spies try to survive the rigorous training and other drama as powerful people battle to control the Ghost children.

Dustin’s Decision Devya’s Children Book 5 – (YA scifi, shares characters with The Minder Project; Complete) Genetically altered teens struggle to navigate the murky world and control their Gifts.

Choices Stories Review 4/5 Stars Sunkissed

January 29, 2022December 29, 2021 Julie Gilbert Choices Stories, romance, small town Choices Stories, romance, small town

pic from fandom; promo pic for the story

Summary:

Family is complicated. But also, family sticks together.

Additional Comments:

Pretty sure I named my character Joy.
The characters include the hot lifeguard, the MC’s mother, the MC’s somewhat bratty little sister, and the MC’s dead father.
Many of the diamond opportunities involve upgrading the beach house and doing nice things for your mom or sister. The father’s gone but very much present in various notes and such.
I think the other love interests are the local artist and the scientist. I went with the surfer type.
The story’s not exactly the most danger-filled, epic adventures, but there is always a sense of danger navigating the relationships between Mom and Alexis (the sister).

Conclusion:

Not their best story. Not their worst story. Sort of small town meets family drama.

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Audiobook Promotions …

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Many of my 57 audible titles are listed on Audiobooks Unleashed.
Whether you’re looking for mystery or suspense or fantasy, I’ve got a title for you. Free codes are probably on audiobooks unleashed.
Normal links go to audible. *The Amazon labeled links are affiliate links. That means I get a very small payment from Amazon if you go through with a purchase.*
Note: Filter by US if you’re looking for those codes as many titles are out.
Ones I think may still have US codes: Reshner’s Royal Ranger, Never Again, Innova, The Golden City Captives, The Holy War, Reclaim the Darklands, Eagle Eyes, Treachery Makes it Tense, Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts, The Dark Side of Science, Ashlynn’s Dreams, Nadia’s Tears, Malia’s Miracles, and Varick’s Quest
There are plenty of UK codes, but not many US ones left.

Review copies for many titles are available from StoryOrigin.

Redeemer Chronicles (Fantasy)

Awakening – Redeemer Chronicles Book 1, MG fantasy (Amazon) (free codes)
The Holy War – Redeemer Chronicles Book 2, MG fantasy (Amazon) (free codes)
Reclaim the Darklands – Redeemer Chronicles Book 3, MG fantasy (Amazon) (free codes)
River’s Edge Ransom – Prequel to Redeemer Chronicles (Amazon) (email devyaschildren @ gmail.com for free codes)

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Devya’s Children Series Links:

Books 1-4 were re-released in audiobook form in 2021.
Ashlynn’s Dreams – Genetically altered Dream Shaper learns her gift. (Amazon) (Request a Review Copy)
Nadia’s Tears – Jillian tries to awaken her sister, Nadia, from a coma. (Amazon) (Request a Review Copy)
Malia’s Miracles – Jillian and her siblings try to save a friend’s mother. (Amazon) (Request a Review Code)
Varick’s Quest – Jillian and Danielle get kidnapped. Nadia’s also in trouble. (Amazon) (Request a Review Code)
More Scifi:
Reshner’s Royal Ranger (epic sci-fi) just made it there. (Amazon) (click for sample)
If you’re all in and want to review the entire trilogy (~35 hrs!) go here.

Aeris Legends Books 1-3 ~17 hrs of epic fantasy. (Request a Review Copy)

Guardian Angel Files:

Spirit’s Bane – Allister and Mina are training to be Guardians. Satan’s out to get them. (Amazon) (free codes)
Kindred Spirits – Mina’s exiled to Earth. Allister’s stuck in the Heavens. (Amazon) (free codes)

I have Author Direct codes from Findaway Voices for the combo book that has Spirit’s Bane and Kindred Spirits. (Click here for a review copy.)

5 Stars Duby’s Doctor by Iris Chacon

September 13, 2021August 6, 2021 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, romance Iris Chacon, Jenny Hoops

Narrated by Jenny Hoops

Run Time: 8 hrs and 24 mins

Genre: Light Suspense, Semi-Romance

Summary:

A man dumped into the ocean and left for dead washes up and is taken to a hospital. His knee’s toast. Mitchell Oberon has been married to her job for a long time, but she takes great pride in her work. This intriguing stranger catches her eye and her heart. Under duress, she takes the man-child into her home and continues his care. He sort of earns his keep through his fabulous paintings and drawings.

Additional Comments:

It’s far-fetched but the plot works.
Frank Stone’s kind of hard-hearted, but still a good guy.
Yves and Mitchell are cute dancing around the point for forever.
Clean romance, some suspense, some thriller pieces.
I mainly got it because I liked some of the narrator’s other works. I’ve only tried one other book by this author. Of the two, this is by far the better story.
The cover sort of fits, but it made it seem goofier than it turned out to be. Judging solely on the cover, I never would have picked it up.
I liked Frank’s wife.
This isn’t the role the narrator was made for, but she did a decent job with it.

Conclusion:

I find some of the things like the scene on the boat a bit beyond suspension of disbelief, but it’s still a fun story. The author and narrator are worth checking out.

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Audiobook Promotions …

Many of my 50 audible titles are listed on Audiobooks Unleashed.
Whether you’re looking for mystery or suspense or fantasy, I’ve got a title for you. Free codes are probably on audiobooks unleashed.
Normal links go to audible. *The Amazon labeled links are affiliate links. That means I get a very small payment from Amazon if you go through with a purchase.*
Note: Filter by US if you’re looking for those codes as many titles are out.
Ones I think may still have US codes: Reshner’s Royal Ranger, Never Again, Innova, The Golden City Captives, The Holy War, Reclaim the Darklands, Eagle Eyes, Treachery Makes it Tense, Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts, The Dark Side of Science, Ashlynn’s Dreams, Nadia’s Tears, Malia’s Miracles, and Varick’s Quest
There are plenty of UK codes, but not many US ones left.

Redeemer Chronicles (Fantasy)

Devya’s Children Series Links:

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – short stories featuring Jillian. (Amazon) (free codes)
The Dark Side of Science – official prequel to Devya’s Children; Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live. (Amazon) (Please email devyaschildren @ gmail.com for free codes)
Ashlynn’s Dreams – Genetically altered Dream Shaper learns her gift. (Amazon) (free codes)
Nadia’s Tears – Jillian tries to awaken her sister, Nadia, from a coma. (Amazon) (free codes)
Malia’s Miracles – Jillian and her siblings try to save a friend’s mother. (Amazon) (free codes)
Varick’s Quest – Jillian and Danielle get kidnapped. Nadia’s also in trouble. (Amazon) (free codes)
More Scifi:
Reshner’s Royal Ranger (epic sci-fi) just made it there. (Amazon) (free codes)

Guardian Angel Files:

3.5 Stars Shadow of Regret by Barbara Goss

September 7, 2021August 6, 2021 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, Christian, romance, Western Barbara Goss, Christian romance, Tom Jordan

Series: The Shadow Series Book 3

Narrated by Tom Jordan

Run Time: 3 hrs and 29 mins

Genre: Christian Romance

Summary:

Rose has been hopelessly in love with Quinn. He’s suddenly on the marriage market but he’s broken, so she has to put humpty dumpty back together again.

Additional Comments:

For a clean book, this Christian western talks an awful lot about sex. I’m not even sure it’s named once, but about 80% of the book is some sort of reference to Quinn’s messed up life or the problems that gives his new marriage.
For a womanizer, this dude gets tricked an awful lot.
There’s some excitement and danger in the middle and end of the book.
I would not have picked it up based on the cover. It fits the genre right, but that’s about it. The title doesn’t mean much either, except that it ticks a box for the series.
Narration was fine. I like the narrator. He does a credible job with male and female characters. He also fits westerns reasonably well.
I did like the amount of action in this book compared to some of the author’s other works.
There was conflict, but most of the characters came in 1 of 2 shades: saintly or drunk good-for-nothings.
I like Rose’s side business.
The fix to Quinn’s marriage was a bit of a cop out, but it worked.
Rose’s attempt to be more seductive was hilarious.

Conclusion:

This series can be read in any order. You pretty much know what you’re going to get with this author. She’s pretty reliable for clean, Christian romance set in the west.

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Redeemer Chronicles (Fantasy)

Devya’s Children Series Links:

Guardian Angel Files:

4.5/5 Stars Charlotte Redbird, Ghost Coach by Sharon Buchbinder

September 4, 2021August 23, 2021 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, cozyish, Paranormal, romance Rebecca Winder, Sharon Buchbinder

Series: Cat’s Paw Cove 12

Narrated by Rebecca Winder

Summary:

Charly Redbird moves to Florida after her business as a life coach hits a speedbump in the form of a put-out customer.

Additional Comments:

Moving to FL brings her close to a handsome real estate broker who happens to be an empath.
Thankfully, there wasn’t too much dancing around the point with the romance angle. He fell for her pretty quickly, and she did the same.
What makes or breaks a cozy is the side characters and setting. Cat’s Paw Cove sounds like a hopping weird place to be.
Charly’s ability to chat with ghosts and cats is amusing. There’s even a mini-mystery of sorts for her to solve.
Charly freaking out that she’s adopted was dumb, but she got over it quickly.
Content Comments: some cursing. Some skirting around adult situations.
Narrator fit the main character well.
Novella length isn’t exactly a great amount of time to get to know characters, but the cast of characters sounds amusing, especially grandma and the old folks home people.
As with most in its genre, you don’t have to think too hard with this story, just enjoy the oddities.

Conclusion:

Charming short tale of a woman who likes puns, can chat up ghosts and cats, and lands a boyfriend in about .5 seconds.

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Redeemer Chronicles (Fantasy)

Devya’s Children Series Links:

Guardian Angel Files:

3.5/5 stars Singapore Secrets by Irene Onorato

August 28, 2021August 11, 2021 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, Christian, romance Christian romance, Irene Onorato, Kathleen Li

Narrated by Kathleen Li

Run Time: 3 hrs and 45 mins

Genre: Christian romance, suspense

Performance 4 stars. Story 3 stars.

Summary:

When her father proposes to his sweet, much younger, beautiful actress girlfriend, a spoiled little rich girl pitches a fit and runs away to Singapore. The father sends an ex-soldier, who happens to be tall, handsome, physically fit, etc after her, just to make sure she’s okay. The usual ensues. Toss in a few Christian references and the kid sort of sees the error of her ways and you pretty much have this story.

Additional Comments:

Highly predictable. There wasn’t much investigating going on. Julia wasn’t exactly hiding. One check of her cell phone would have had her pinned down. She didn’t strike me as the type to be carefully covering her tracks. Heck, I think she even used her credit card to pay for the hotel and such. Pretty sure daddy could get a hold of that record if he wanted to. If he was that worried, I see no reason he wouldn’t have hopped on a plane to drag her behind back from the other end of the world. But then, Julia wouldn’t have had the chance to fall in love with the devastatingly handsome ex-soldier boy.
Has a few mammoth plot holes, especially where the danger factor is concerned.
Performance is fine. The senator, Gabe, Julia, and the famous actress fiancée are all distinguishable. I’ve said it before and stand by the assessment that the narrator has nice reading instincts. Her pauses are natural. Her accents are decent and believable. She doesn’t have a huge range of characters (10+), but you don’t need that for this story anyway.
The title has very little to do with the story, except that it mentions where most of the scenes take place.
The cover has zip to do with the story, except that it might get the genre right.
Story’s okay.
Characters: Gabe’s a decent love interest, but I have a very hard time liking Julia because she goes from a stupid, super selfish little rich brat to contrite semi-selfish, slightly less dumb little rich girl to damsel in distress to semi-tolerable little rich girl who’s got a hot boyfriend. There is a smidgen of hope for her at the end when she fights back. She’s probably the most realistic character but still annoying.
Romance angle is fine.
The Christian angle didn’t bother me, but it wasn’t subtle in any sense. It was also a tad unrealistic. The story wouldn’t have changed one iota if it hadn’t been there at all, just a few lines of dialogue would change. That tells me it wasn’t integrated well.
Suspense angle fell flat, but it made the last quarter of the book better than the first three quarters.
Book is clean as far as curse words go and adult scenes. There’s one scene that might trigger some people, but I thought it was fine and I’m picky about such things.

Conclusion:

It’s not a bad story, just highly predictable with little that makes it stand out.

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Redeemer Chronicles (Fantasy)

Devya’s Children Series Links:

Guardian Angel Files:

4/5 Stars Shadow of Shame by Barbara Goss

August 27, 2021August 23, 2021 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, Christian, historical, romance Barbara Goss, Tom Jordan

The Shadow Series Book 1

Narrated by Tom Jordan

Run Time: 4 hrs and 30 mins

Genre: Christian romance, historical fic

Summary:

Ivy Jeffries falls hard for Jonas Armstrong, but he doesn’t want to taint her with his past. He married at 18 because a woman said she was carrying his child. Falsely, by the way.

Additional Comments:

Besides the bad guys, all the characters are saints.
I’d listened to book 3 before 1 accidentally, so I knew some of the names. It was probably more interesting this round, knowing their pasts.
It’s not exactly a deep-thinking series, but then again, none of these are.
They’ve got a general good message of letting go of your past regrets because God forgives sins.
They follow the historical romance pattern right down to the characters not feeling good enough for the other person, so they try to drive the other way, see the error of their ways, and finally let themselves be loved and love the other person.
As with others in the series, there’s talk of sex as part of marriage (good) or outside of marriage (bad), but it’s still a clean read.
It’s not exactly a Western, though this does include a smidge of danger and action, which is a nice change of pace between the she loves me, she loves me not routine.

Conclusion:

Intriguing Christian historical romance.

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Redeemer Chronicles (Fantasy)

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3.5/5 Stars Mister Darcy’s Dogs by Barbara Silkstone

August 14, 2021August 11, 2021 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, cozyish, romance Barbara Silkstone, Karen Krause, Mister Darcy

Narrated by Karen Krause

Run Time: 3 hrs and 47 mins

Summary:

In this re-imagining, Darcy’s still exceedingly rich, though Elizabeth has no idea what he does. She’s there to train his dogs to hunt.

Additional Comments:

Checked this one out because I’m still fascinated by the sheer number of Pride and Prejudice spinoffs.
This modern re-imagining might have been just as good or better set in it’s own world instead of being linked. It is quite fascinating though how many ways one plotline can be repeated so many times and in so many ways.
Wickham unfortunately lives.
Lizzy’s sisters are still twits, though props to Darcy for getting to tell Lydia so.
It got exceedingly tedious the number of times Lizzy reminded everybody that she’s Doctor Bennett, dog psychologist.
Caroline Bingley gets to be a well-connected, gold-digging glorified reporter.
The performance fits. It’s written in a light-hearted manner, but the proper, stiff language of the style takes a lot of the punch out of the comedy.
It’s clean as far as language and adult scenes go.

Conclusion:

If you’re completely obsessed with Pride and Prejudice and have time to kill, this is a decent way to do it.

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Redeemer Chronicles (Fantasy)

Devya’s Children Series Links:

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3.45/5 Stars Amber Alert by Linda K. Rodante

May 12, 2021May 2, 2021 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, Christian, romance Christian romance, J. Grace Pennington, Linda K. Rodante

Narrated by J. Grace Pennington

Run Time: 9 hrs and 16 mins

*Disclaimer: possible spoilers in discussion; Not my primary genre.

Summary:

Coming off an abusive relationship, Sharee Jones decides to focus on her grand vision for the Christmas program. John doesn’t really want to help because he’s mad at God, but he does it anyway because that’s his job.

Additional Comments:

Does Sharee have a title at the church? I know she’s involved with the Christmas program, but is she just a volunteer or does she have a more formal role?
3/5 Main Characters – Sharee’s over the top insistence that she can do everything herself is annoying. She’s painfully naïve without one iota of self-preservation in her. Everybody around her is like “don’t do that picking up of strangers thing because it’s dangerous” and she’s like “yes, but I prayed first.” John’s kind of volatile and moody. The whole disable car and steal keys until you go on a date with me thing is not really attractive. Pretty sure someone who just came off of an abusive relationship would be less okay with that than Sharee.
2.5/5 Side Characters – They’re okay. Nobody’s really memorable.
3/5 Performance – It’s okay. You can tell who’s who. That’s what counts.
The romance is kinda weird. Both of them have some baggage. They’re falling in love but she’s like “nope, you’re not a Christian. I must resist” and he’s like “but I am a Christian” and she’s like “okay, yay. I shall now fall deeper in love with you.” Typically, in this brand of story one of them genuinely isn’t a Christian, becomes a Christian in the course of them dodging danger together, and then the non-Christian flips and they enter Happily Ever After.
Probably could have been shortened. I listen at a faster speed but even then some parts dragged.
The bickering between the MCs went over the top.
Title tie in – This book pulls one of those, I’m going to show you 5 exciting pages and then skip to 3 months ago, but literally, the part that has to do with the Amber Alert is maybe a few hours. Everything else it to fill in the blanks of how we go there.
The mystery’s wrap up kind of lost its wow factor because I 100% didn’t even remember the character.
This could just be a quirk of the book not translating well to audio format, but the scenes seemed disjointed.
Definitely hits the romance genre, sort of hits Christian, doesn’t really hit suspense. But certain pieces of the mystery were intriguing.
I would read other stuff by the same author, but I wouldn’t re-read this.
Didn’t feel much about Cooper and John. Why is his dog always hanging around anyway?

Conclusion:

It’s a decent Christian romance.

Audiobook Promotions …

Many of my 42 audible titles are listed on Audiobooks Unleashed.
Whether you’re looking for mystery or suspense or fantasy, I’ve got a title for you. Free codes are probably on audiobooks unleashed.
Normal links go to audible. *The Amazon labeled links are affiliate links. That means I get a very small payment from Amazon if you go through with a purchase.*
Note: Filter by US if you’re looking for those codes as many titles are out.
Ones I think may still have US codes: Reshner’s Royal Ranger, Never Again, Innova, The Golden City Captives, The Holy War, Reclaim the Darklands, Eagle Eyes, Treachery Makes it Tense, Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts, The Dark Side of Science, Ashlynn’s Dreams, Nadia’s Tears, Malia’s Miracles, and Varick’s Quest
There are plenty of UK codes, but not many US ones left.

Redeemer Chronicles (Fantasy)

Devya’s Children Series Links:

Guardian Angel Files:

Choices Stories Review 3.5/5 Stars Distant Shores

April 21, 2021March 27, 2021 Julie Gilbert Action Adventure, romance, Young Adult Choices Stories, pirates

One of the general promo pics they put out as a teaser for the story.

Summary:

You’re auditioning for a role in a pirate movie when you step through a time rift directly into the past to a life of adventure on the high seas.

Additional Comments:

I appreciate what they tried to do with the scifi angle, but honestly, it probably would have been better as a true set-in-the-time period piece.
Characters are interesting. You’re not meant to like Robert, but of the characters Choices has put out, he has a particularly punch-able attitude and face. I really liked Charlie. Edward was okay. He’s kinda a little too full of himself for comfort. Side characters are just okay. Kendrick’s annoying. The Twins are fun. Jones is typical hard-boiled softee when it comes to Ginny. Samuel kind of makes no sense. Henry’s typical pirate. Oliver’s just kind of their “shoot. We need another love interest option” add-on.
The extra scene’s honestly not worth collecting the cabin pieces, though I probably would have collected most of the things anyway. I think the only extra scene that kinda seemed worthy was the Elementalists Book 1. As usual, I’m a sucker for pets and weapons.
Not my favorites Choices story. Not my least favorite (I don’t think … think that goes to The Haunting of Braidwood Manor).
End kind of disappointed. Like the end of their other scifi adventure (Across the Stars), it just sort of fizzled out, like they hit their quota of chs and decided to put more effort into their VIP stories instead. I get it, they gotta make money, but still wish it was a stronger ending.

Conclusion:

Worth checking out, but in my opinion, not their finest piece.

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Redeemer Chronicles (Fantasy)

Devya’s Children Series Links:

Guardian Angel Files: