Lightning

Fans of such films and books like Hunger Games and Divergent will love the Stone Braide Chronicles series, now into its second novel Lightning. This is definitely NOT a series you can just pick up any of the books and hope to gain an understanding as to what is happening, but once you begin, you will find yourself on a very different adrenaline rush adventure you will not want to see come to an end. With each novel in this series, author Bonnie Calhoun has only excelled at pulling out all the stops in her ability to transport the reader into a vastly different world than the one we are living in, in this case a post apocalyptic America, now named TicCity, the remainder of what used to be Atlantic City. It's the only thing remaining, a billboard baring the partial name.

The citizens refer to the nuclear war as the Time of Sorrows and now they have taken to rebuilding what remains of the world now that survivors have begun populating the earth again. The people that arrive from the sea are referred to as Landers, and Selah Rishon, has just be transformed from a Lander to what is called a novarium. With this recent change in her body, she is having what is referred to as "Lightnings" or burst of power that her fellow mind reading recipients can feel but no one can explain what is happening. All Selah knows is that if her father, Glade and his team can not locate what is referred to as the Third Protocol of Landers, Selah will fracture and she will cease to exist.

Meantime there are those who believe that within Selah's blood lies the answer to immortality and they will stop at nothing to harness that power. The search will lead them to the Mountain, where her family and friends have ventured in search for any answers that might help her, but first she has to figure out who she can trust, and who she can't. The only problem is the Mountain is where her and her father were held captive against her will and it is the last place where she had ever hoped to venture back. What is she willing to risk to discover the answers about her future and her past?

I received Lightning by Bonnie Calhoun compliments of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance and Revell Publishing Group for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation aside from a free copy of this novel to review, and the opinions contained here are my honest and personal ones. This is such a great novel because if you have been following the series up to this point, it has been a true nail biter all the way, just getting tidbits each time Bonnie publishes a full length novel of the prequels that go in between each of them. This is definitely something that hasn't been done before and for me this is what makes it work so well. It's combining a bit of science fiction along with a post apocalyptic dystopian element that catapults you on to each new addition. For me this one is an easy 4.5 out of 5 stars, but trust me start at the beginning. I have listed the series below for you to ensure you are reading them in order. (1) Tremors - Prequel, (2) Thunder - First novel in the series, (3) Aftershock, prequel to Lightning, and (4) Lightning, the Second Novel in the Series.

For more information about Lightning, Bonnie Calhoun or where you can pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

Lightning by Bonnie Calhoun

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To read more reviews on Lightning, please visit Christian Fiction Blog Alliance's book tour page. 

The Hidden Ones

When I was first approached by Nancy Madore to consider reviewing her Legacy of the Watchers Series, like most of the times, I was apprehensive about the content of the novels, blending what she considers historical, science fiction and speculative fiction into each novel. I would revise that genre blend and reclassify them as historical, science fiction and fantasy. While she does utilize the creation of the Nephilim from the Bible, the rest of the content dealing with their race and subsequent creation does not stem from anything found in the Bible.

The Nephilim are mentioned in the book of Genesis as a race of being created from the fallen angels who bred with the daughters of man and created a sub race known simply as the Nephilim. Nancy utilizes this race of people who she refers to as the Watchers, those creatures who were born not from angels but from demons. Therefore their intent is simply to watch over the earth as it has been entrusted to them. Lilith was the only known female Nephilim to have survived while all the other females died at birth. The novel The Hidden Ones parallels the lives of three women, Helene, Nadia Adeire, Helene's granddaughter, and Lilith.

This is where explaining what the novel is about can be a bit confusing just like reading it can confuse you. The novel begins with the abduction of Nadia Adeire by three masked men who believe that she is possessed by the spirit of Lilith, the former Nephilim who reigned during the creation of Mesopotamia and the rest of the Nephilim race. The men who have kidnapped Nadia believe that she is part of a huge terrorist plot of the djinn, or evil demonic spirits, who want to gain control of the earth again and eliminate the human race, known as the sons of man.

The spirit of Lilith was conjured by a series of incantations by Helene's father and a group of archaelogists using a scroll identified at the Book of the Dead that controls the resurrection of the Nephilim's soul. The one that creates a ring with certain symbols along with metal shavings can harness control of the spirit and order it to do their bidding. They didn't expect this to work and are more than shocked when it does and soon realize they have bitten off more than they can chew and send her back into the nether world until they can figure things out.

Nadia doesn't understand what is going on and has merely been told stories by her grandmother Helene as well as her mother Giselle so well that she can remember all the details. It is those details that these kidnappers hope to use to figure out where the spirit of Lilith may be hiding along with those other Nephilim from the past that are about to unleash a plague of biblical proportions to wipe out the human race and they believe that Nadia's stories may hold more clues than she believes.

The novel toggles back and forth from the creation of the Nephilim, to Helene's part in conjuring the spirit, to the modern day dilemma with Nadia. While each chapter is highlighted with the time period, for instance Ancient Mesopotamia, 1948 or Present Day, you can maintain a level of where you are at, but by about 3/4 of the way through, you are almost completely confused by all the characters, times, and subplots going on within this novel. It might have worked better to keep the storyline a bit more simplified rather than attempt to throw it all together in the first novel. The writing style in engaging and deals with so many legends and myths from the Greek and Roman gods, to parallels to biblical stories like Noah and the flood and the walls of Jericho. That being said, from a Christian perspective, this is not a novel for believers. It deals with demons, and witchcraft with harnessing the spirit of the Nephilim by their human counterpart as well as possession of the body.

If you keep it in those context as a science fiction and fantasy novel with a bit of historical fact, then you have an interesting novel. I can honestly say by the end, I was not looking forward to reviewing the next novels in the series, based on my personal beliefs and now knowing what the series is about. In my opinion, I would rate the novel a 3 out of 5 stars. It does contain some adult content, profanity and strong subject matter pertaining demons and possession that might not be suitable to all readers so I would recommend a mature audience only. I received The Hidden Ones from Nancy Madore compliments of the author's request for a honest review and did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable one. For more information about The Hidden Ones, Nancy Madore or where you can pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

The Hidden Ones by Nancy Madore

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Isolation - Giveaway and Review

Imagine a world where just the touch of someone could quite literally kill you. In fact the spread of contaminants and bacteria are spiraling so out of control that physical touch is banned. To prevent the spread of bacteria, you are not allowed to touch your face at all. What has become a habit is now against the law. A new motto is in effect, "Habits learned early are habits for life." In fact the world's population is now spiraling out of control as government agencies like the CDC and Homeland Security are trying to figure out just how to control the spread of bacteria like Ecoli and others that are killing people faster than 48 hours.

Suddenly bans on everything is becoming the norm as they try to isolate the sources and causes for so many wide spread deaths on a global scale. Antibacterials or AB's are now sought after in great supplies along with sanitary supplies like bleach and antibiotics. People are now becoming obsessive in their attempts to stay alive and even companies like AgriBiz have been trying to find safe food products and have worked to genetically modify things like wheat and corn to increase supply while trying to fight diseases.

The common cold, allergies, and other respiratory infections all become dangerous beyond discomfort. People, even close relatives, would shy away from an afflicted person. It was impossible to know what was causing an illness, and the illness caused symptoms that became shunned. A kind of stoning occurred when infected individuals ventured out in public with an audible cough. You could have called it a beating - it would have sounded more contemporary, less ancient - but the fact was no one wanted to touch an infected person. So throwing things - bricks, chunks of concrete, anything you found that was heavy and safe to pick up, though not garbage, obviously - at someone who coughed or sneezed was a safe way to eliminate a contaminating source, who happened to be a person, a person who ignited your deepest fear, the fear that a cold could kill you. After that, people with colds quarantined themselves, sought medical attention and called in sick. It was that or face the wrath of the terrorized public.

So foods became unsafe, first fresh vegetables and fruits, then pork, chicken and beef until all sources of those products were completely destroyed in an effect to contain whatever was killing people. Pretty soon the only thing that remained was government surplus products that were divided as an allotment based on your age and weight. Soon the government took things further creating groups designed to specifically looking for offenders to the bans and arrest or contain them as needed. Pretty soon even the population was controlled in an effort to stop the spread of the deadly bacteria, but were they killing themselves in the process?

I received Isolation by Denise R. Stephenson compliments of Virtual Authors Book Tours and Mill City Press for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review and the opinions are strictly my own. Based on where we are headed with the recent introductions of GMO's into our food supply, what Denise has written could very well be a chilling future look at where we as a country might be headed. The controversy over the use of GMO's, overuse of antibacterial products and immunity of antibiotics are chilling to see the results of this played out over time. While this novel is science fiction, it could quite possibly give us insight into our own apocalyptic future. I'd rate this novel a 4 out of 5 stars based on my personal rating scale, which includes some profanity and sexual content.

Now for some great news, thanks to the generosity of Virtual Authors Book Tours and Denise R. Stephenson, they are offering a giveaway eBook copy of Isolation to one lucky follower of my blog, Reviews From The Heart. Here are your details to enter.

1. Be a follower of my blog, Reviews From The Heart. 

2. "Like" Denise R. Stephenson's Facebook page and leave a comment.

3. Be a resident of the US or have a US shipping address. Please No P.O. Boxes.

4. Leave a comment below telling me why you'd love to win a copy of the book. Don't forget to include your email address. You can use the words (at) and (dot) instead of the symbols.

I will be contacting the winner of the giveaway when it ends on June 25th by email so be sure to include it. Without it, I won't have a way to contact you. The winner will have 72 hours to respond to the email notification. If I don't hear from you, I will redraw another winner.

For more information about Isolation, Denise R. Stephenson or where you can pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

Isolation by Denise R. Stephenson

You can also find Denise R. Stephenson on Facebook to stay up to date with all her latest novels.

To read more reviews on Isolation, please visit Virtual Author's Blog Tours website.

The Curiosity

Each year a handful of people who are dying decide to take the chance that in the future someday there might be a cure for what is slowly killing them now and have their bodies frozen just before their death. But is it possible for that to really happen? Does science possess the skill to reanimate a person who was frozen or it is possible that the body can never fully recover from being place in suspended frozen animation?

Dr. Kate Philo has been searching the Arctic Ocean in hopes of finding out those very answers. She and her team have been harvesting what they classify as hard ice in icebergs found floating in the Arctic Ocean. She hopes to find what she calls as a "candidate berg," one that is five times larger than any prior find, and one that is at least 91.7 percent of the berg being underwater. Today's find is 93.151 and not only that, they have discovered a large carbon signature bigger than anything they have found to date. All their subsequent discoveries have been shrimp, plankton, krill which have been reanimated at the Carthage Institute. Yet none of the species have lived but a few seconds before succumbing to what is believed the end of their life cycle anyway. These poor creatures simply were frozen while still alive and thus never really died to begin with.


Dr. Kate Philo believes that they have discovered frozen solid in one of the deep hard ice veins, a seal or large whale. What they soon discover will shock the entire team and possibly bring about one of the largest moral and ethical debates in the world of science, a man! But is it possible to reanimate a human? Does this go against everything the world believes when it comes to life after death? Is science attempting to play God?

In the debut novel, The Curiosity by author Stephen P. Kiernan, Dr. Kate Philo is about to be thrust into a world she never dreamed possible. It will put her at odds with everything she faces about her morals and the ability to put the needs of what the lab is calling "Subject One" above her own and even risk her job. It seems that all Erastus Carthage cares about is making more money and gaining more fame, and nothing will stop him from obtaining all he desires even if it means exploiting Subject One for his own means. He is the financial catalyst behind all the research and the reanimation attempts on Subject One and he will remove anyone who tries to stop him. He even has the media under his financial control enabling a sole reporter, Daniel Dixon the exclusive rights to all press releases on Subject One's reanimation.

I received The Curiosity by Stephen P. Kiernan compliments of William Morrow, a division of Harper Collins Publishers for my honest review and received no monetary compensation for a favorable one. I was immediately drawn to the story because it promises a story about Michael Crichton meets The Time Traveler's Wife which I absolutely LOVED and wondered how this would all play out to reanimate a man frozen in ice who died over a 100 years ago. What would he think of the world today? What are the implications from a religious side in dealing with this idea of bringing someone possibly back to life?

I have to hand it to author Stephen P. Kiernan for completely captivating me! The premise is amazing and I think he hit this one out of the park. The novel is divided among the characters, Dr. Kate Philo, Daniel Dixon, Erastus Carthage and Jeremiah Rice as known as Subject One. He makes you really despise Erastus Carthage who is simply motivated by greed and fame, the slimy newspaper reporter, Daniel Dixon who has a fascination with the female body and does not go out of his way to hide it, Dr. Kate Philo who is the only one who sees Jeremiah Rice as a person and not some lab rat and Jeremiah Rice, a judge from the late 1800's who is challenged between wanting to make the most of his second chance and fighting simply to stay alive long enough to make it count.

 I rate this book a 4 out of 5, simply based on the language content and sexual references made by certain characters in the book. I would have rated it a 5 out of 5 if these were left out but see the authors need to include them based on his character development. It does allude to the theory of evolution in regards to Erastus Carthage's team which believes they are simply doing what they are called to discover and feel no moral obligation to Jeremiah Rice, as a person as he continues to refer to him as Subject One no matter what happens. To Erastus Carthage, Jeremiah Rice is simply a large lab rat at his disposal. The best parts of this book are the conversations between Kate and Jeremiah as she shows him the new world and all that we've done in the last 100 years since he "died." It really is quite eye opening to see things from his point of view and also quite sobering as well to see despite all our advancements, we really are a violent and morally loose world. This is a wonderful novel and one you won't want to miss! The best part is that this will soon be made into a movie coming to the big screen in the future. I know I can't wait to see this one!

For more information about The Curiosity, Stephen P. Kiernan, and where to preorder this novel that is slated for release in July, please click on the links below:

The Curiosity by Stephen P. Kiernan

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You can also visit Stephen P. Kiernan on his website by clicking here.

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (July 9, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006222106X
• ISBN-13: 978-0062221063
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.4 inches 

Available at your favorite book retailer in Hardcover and eBook formats.

The Journey

I've always enjoyed thinking about what life would be like if I could go back in time. Would I change anything? Would I do anything differently?

Well imagine what would happen if you found yourself suddenly walking back into your life thirty-one years ago, only you are the same. You haven't grown younger and all your memories are still intact. What would you do then?

That's just the premise behind The Journey by John Heldt. Finding herself quite literally at a crossroads in her life, Michelle Preston Richardson is still grieving the sudden death of her husband, Scott who died tragically in a hiking accident on Mount Rainer. Now faced with the opportunity to attend her thirty year high school reunion, she decides to go and reconnect with old friends. While investigating an old home that has remained vacant and in desperate need of repairs and renovations, she wander upstairs and finds a door that appears to be locked. However when she pulls on it hard enough, it opens revealing a staircase that leads down into the first floor. Manned with only a flashlight, she takes a risk and enters. Only when she reaches the bottom she becomes spooked and rushes upstairs only to find the door slams shut just before she reaches the top step. As she bangs on the door, yelling and screaming, the door finally gives way. Did her friends play a horrible practical joke on her?

When she calls out to them, she finds they have gone. As Michelle walks slowly back to town, she realizes she has stepped into an episode of the Twilight Zone. Everything in the small town has returned to 1979 even though she hasn't changed a bit. Even the old barber shop that was owned by her father is still there. What's even more surprising is her father who has been dead for the last twenty two years is still alive and cutting hair again! Michelle wanders back up to the old home again and tries in vain for a week to get back to her current time frame, but seems hopelessly stuck in her past once again. She realizes she must find work and a place to stay while she figures things out and how to get back.

In the novel, The Journey by John Heldt, the reader is taken back in time much like the movie, Peggy Sue Got Married. Only in that situation, Peggy got to go back and relive her high school years til she found her way back to the present. In this case, Michelle remains the same age of forty-eight when she left. She has the opportunity to influence her friends and even a younger version of herself and wonders just what the consequences would be if she changes a few things from her past. What would that do if she ever found her way back to the present time?

I received The Journey by John Heldt compliments of the author for my honest review. This is such an incredible series of ebooks, The Northwest Passage time-travel series and I was honored when John asked me to review this second book for him. After reading The Mine, his first, I knew immediately I was hooked. I want to remind you that the Journey is NOT a sequel to The Mine but they do in fact deal with similar themes. I've been a huge fan of time travel and series like the Outer Limits and Twilight Zone and LOVED this novel. It made me think of what I would do if I found myself in a similar situation. I know I wouldn't want to change too much because it may adversely affect what would happen if I ever found my way out again. But if it could impact the lives of my friends in a positive way, I definitely would make some changes. For those of you that love a great Science Fiction novel, then this is definitely a MUST READ for you! I personally rate this one a 5 out of 5 stars and John amazes me each time to see just where he is going to go in his future books. Well done, John, you definitely surprised and kept me intrigued. I can't wait for the next one, The Show which is the sequel to The Mine! Trust me, you'll definitely want both of these ebooks!

For more information about The Journey, John Heldt or where to pick up a copy of this ebook today, please click on the links below:

The Journey by John Heldt

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• File Size: 347 KB
• Print Length: 242 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: John A. Heldt (November 3, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00A1ID5X0