Blog Archives
Curse: A Novel
Curse by Christina Maraziotis, the second installment of the Loveletting series, immerses readers in a mesmerizing and captivating tale that will leave them yearning for more. Within the pages of this book, a blend of romance, danger, and adventure awaits. Having faced the depths of despair and grappled with profound loss and grief, Charlotte discovers solace in Jesse McCoy’s tender and loyal embrace. While evading the law for crimes she has been unjustly accused of, Charlotte finds herself entangled in a web of enigmatic figures as the search for the elusive serial killer, Mac Kinnon, persists. Amidst the unsettling supernatural occurrences that unsettle Charlotte’s sense of identity and security, Jesse’s steadfast nature becomes a beacon of hope, allowing her to heal and rediscover the joys of life. As unexpected romance blossoms and her freedom is put to the test, Charlotte traverses a path that unravels the true essence of love. However, lurking behind captivating and mysterious faces lies a darkness threatening to corrupt even the purest of souls, transforming them into unrecognizable beings, yearning to reclaim their former selves.
From the very outset, Curse shows immense promise. The author’s skillful writing and thoughtful structure transform what could be an intricate and protracted narrative into a series of concise, well-crafted chapters. This approach enables the plot to breathe and seamlessly engross the reader in an immersive experience. Once engrossed in the story, one is transported to a new world where the narrative and its characters take center stage. The book’s length is justified, as it adds depth and complexity to the overarching storyline, allowing for fully realized character arcs that embody the true nature of each individual and the myriad challenges they face.
Passion, romance, and darkness intertwine throughout the narrative, with supernatural elements deftly woven into the fabric of the plot, heightening its mystery. This narrative technique captivates the reader, holding their attention steadfastly throughout, even during quieter moments. However, the true strength of this book lies in its characters. They are flawlessly imperfect, each possessing a depth and complexity that authentically reflects the human experience and its trials. Engaging and diverse, these characters form a vibrant tapestry of personalities and emotions, with their highs and lows.
Curse by Christina Maraziotis is an entrancing and spellbinding book that transports readers to a realm brimming with mystery and passion, reminding us that amidst the darkest shadows, true beauty can still be discovered.
Pages: 879 | ASIN : B0BVQHGTBC
Haunt
In an attempt to flee from a world that has turned her life upside down, Charlotte and her darling horse are only met with more complications—running into a serial killer. Having no choice but to stay with him after becoming a wanted woman herself (for a crime she did not commit), Charlotte and her newfound companion are thrust into situations previously unimaginable. A man with a dark and haunting past, and a woman who fears a dark and haunting future, these two souls collide in a thrilling romance.
Haunt by Christina Maraziotis is a book that makes itself very clear right away: it is not for an audience who cannot handle certain topics and themes. At the front of the book, before getting to the story itself, there is a list of trigger warnings, so readers will know what they are getting into with this novel ahead of time.
The characters and settings in Haunt are truly ones to be remembered as they all feel full, fleshed out, and alive. Even characters who aren’t important are given full personalities and recognizable traits. The story itself is nothing less than a page-turner, and readers will most definitely feel themselves eagerly turning the page to see what will happen next—good or bad.
The writing in this novel is eye-catching. The style is complex at times, fightings with itself to have beautiful words and prose and then having sentences that feel out of place, much like the characters feel at times. The formatting can also be distracting; there are often POV changes that can be disorienting for the reader. While some may find these a deterrent, they are actually brilliant literary elements that add to the haunting and intricate storyline.
Haunt is truly a thrilling western story with characters readers will yearn for, feel for, and never forget. Readers will feel their own hearts break as they look into the minds of characters that they normally wouldn’t and have to choose whether their actions are justified.
Pages: 920 | ASIN : B0BKY7ZH23
The Myrk Maiden: Daughter Darkness
Twilight is a 15yr old girl who doesn’t quite fit in with her family. She is mistreated by her parents and siblings and is forced to do chores all day. She doesn’t understand why she is treated different and why her mother despises her. She realizes that she looks different from her sibling, but she does look like her father. She learns that she is part of the Sharavaks, who are also known as the shadows. They want to exterminate normal people and establish their own civilization, but they need Twilight’s help since she is the most powerful. As her powers awaken she has an internal battle between good and evil. Will Twilight help the Sharavaks carry out their dark purpose?
The Myrk Maiden: Daughter Darkness by Alyssa Charpentier is a riveting coming-of-age fantasy novel that immerses readers in an alluring world of magic and the tense fight between a hope for good and an inherent evil.
Twilight’s character starts off innocent, and the reader wonders why she is hated by her family. As the story progresses she unravels the mystery of who she really is and her powers begin to grow and we get to see the dark side of her. I was enthralled with this meticulous development of her character and the intriguing realization of who she actually is. I was shocked when Twilight turns ferocious and savage. This is the moment readers get to see her internal struggle where she yearns to be good, but the darkness is always pushing itself on her.
Tension is high throughout the story, especially when Twilight is on the run. While I enjoyed the story I felt that it could have benefited by being shorted just a bit to make Twilight’s struggle feel more linear rather than recycled. Don’t let this deter you from reading this impressive gothic fantasy novel though as the author creatively incorporates magic into the story, like having Twilight’s mother visit her in visions or how the Sharavaks were able to infiltrate Twilight’s thoughts and shapeshift. All of this helps make this story an unpredictable adventure.
I recommend The Myrk Maiden: Daughter Darkness to readers who are looking for a dramatic and thoughtful fantasy adventure novel.
Pages: 466 | ASIN: B098MXQHTK
Taiwan Butterfly
Taiwan Butterfly follows a British missionary who comes into possession of a powerful Tibetan grimoire called ‘The Book of the Butterfly’. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
Taiwan Butterfly is the second installment of a series I am writing called The Book of The Butterfly. The prequel will be released later, which details the adventures of the main character Jonathan Woods and his travels around Asia as he searches for occult material. Something Jonathan has been obsessed about since a teenager. The beginning of Taiwan Butterfly picks up from the ending of the first novel ‘Book of the Butterfly.’ I released the second book first, ‘Taiwan Butterfly’ because it deals with death and resurrection. I am an English teacher and recently had a young twelve-year-old private English student of mine pass away from a childhood stroke. She had been my student since she was five years old. So I released Taiwan Butterfly first as a tribute to her and with a wish that it could be true.
Jonathan Woods is an interesting character that was fun to follow. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Jonathan Woods is a composite character formed from Indiana Jones, Merlin, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Three of my favorite fictional characters. All I had to do then was imagine what such a character would be like and do.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The death of someone we love and how it affects our belief in life was what I wanted to explore. I wanted to say that life is precious, and we should cherish it. Too many books and entertainment glorify death and the killing of people for fun or without hesitation. I find it very sad that people disrespect life so much. We are only here once on this earth. We will never be here again. Respect life and love it while you can. That’s what Taiwan Butterfly is about.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I’m multi-tasking on that one! I am writing four books at the same time. First to be released will be a gothic-horror story called ‘Formosan Vampire’ in mid-July 2023. The second will be a political thriller called ‘The Illuminati’ regarding a secret world order that has been controlling everything happening in the world, both good and bad. The third will be the prequel to ‘Taiwan Butterfly’. And the fourth is a sci-fi epic called ‘Conquest of our Forefathers’ about an ancient alien race that created an experimental lifeform and placed it on planet Earth to see what would happen. The human race is that experiment! Then, after a break, I will write the prequel to ‘Legend Blade’, my first novel that was published in 2021.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
The Story Just Flowed From There
The Fisherman’s Wife follows a woman married to an abusive husband that saves a drowning pirate, they then set off on an adventure to gain their freedom from oppressors and find treasure. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
The story just came to me. I had a vision of a woman wanting to escape her life, and then I set it in a place near to where I grew up, the story just flowed from there when I discovered Bigsbury-on-Sea has a pirate history.
What was your approach to writing the interactions between characters?
I picture my characters in my mind and the interactions just flow.
What research did you do for this novel to get the history part of the novel right?
Tons of research. I spent several months researching pirates and also the area of Bigbury-on-Sea. I needed to look up many things to ensure I was historically factual, from buildings to clothes to customs, everything. It was a lot of hard work.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I have several books on the go. I think the most likely to be complete first will be: Whispers of Love, which is a contemporary love story. Emily takes a job in the country to be a companion to an old lady called Camilla. Camilla’s two sons both end up falling in love with Emily, but Emily is caught up in the family’s past and trying to find out why there is no love between them all. I would like to hope that it will be released before Christmas this year.
Author Links: Twitter | Website
1727. A wife with an oppressive husband. A pirate trapped by circumstance. Together they must face their fears and make a break for freedom.
When Connie’s parents died, rather than become homeless she accepted a proposal from a fisherman known for his temper. After seven years of marriage and still childless, she is labeled cursed. Her drunken husband brutally punishes her for her failings and Connie retreats into a world of her own.
Seeking his fortune, Eddie finds himself becoming an unwilling pirate. With no way out of Captain Hawkins’ clutches, he concentrates on amassing funds to one day buy his freedom. A harsh life takes its toll on a gentle spirit, and he begins to lose himself in the bloodthirsty life of a pirate.
A violent tempest throws hope into both their lives when Eddie is shipwrecked in the fishing bay of Bigbury-on-Sea and ends up on Connie’s beach. Will the two of them take their chance at happiness, and if they do, can they outrun the men who want them dead?
A thrilling historical romance novel, The Fisherman’s Wifeis a gripping atmospheric love story!
The Fisherman’s Wife: is a captivating historical romance novel that will also give readers pirate treasure hunting and a thrilling escape adventure. Literary Titan
There is More to Dracula Than People Think
Powers of Darkness is more than just a translation of Dracula, it includes sections originally published in the paper but not the novel, as well as historical information. Why was this an important book for you to write?
The simplest explanation is that the translator was given wide latitude to be creative, as long as the story helped sell newspapers. Although a few scenes were left out, including the zookeeper interview and the death of Renfield, this is an adaptation of Dracula with some new characters and plotlines. We know from Dracula that Harker has a hard time maintaining his composure when he’s trapped like an extremely tasty small rodent, but when the madhouse doctor’s thoughts start to race, he is less able to hold himself together.
When I saw that the Icelandic Powers of Darkness was an abbreviated version of the more elaborate Swedish original, I wanted to see how it ended. When it became clear that the story was unique and entertaining on its own, I felt like I had to publish it before the Count’s sympathizers had it suppressed at the publishing houses.
Did you find anything in your research of this story that surprised you?
My editors started prodding me about how the text was dripping with racism and misogyny, initially with suggestions to soften the sharp edges and occasionally with comments in the margins indicating their level of cringe. I was surprised at how it managed to come in with even more racism than Dracula.
What were some goals you set for yourself as a writer in this book?
I thought I was trying to clear up some misunderstandings about Count Draculitz. He wasn’t just some creepy, ravenous moral-panic-inspiring predator; he was greasing the palms of English politicians and founding a personality cult promoting fascism twenty years before it became popular.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I do not think I will come across a book from a past century that I have to publish again.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter
Powers of Darkness
Powers of Darkness by Bram Stoker, a Swedish adaptation by A—e, is a more detailed account of Tom Harker’s journey to Transylvania to meet with Count Draculitz. This variation on the original classic provides the reader with more detail with some slight deviations from the original text. The editor of this particular retelling, W Trimble, precedes the story with a vast collection of papers. These papers explore the similarities and differences between the original Dracula and the later versions published in Sweden like Mörkrets Makter, or Makt Myrkranna (Powers Of Darkness), published in an Icelandic newspaper in the 1900s, as well as touching on numerous other variations.
Having so much information before the actual story allows the reader to understand why this retelling is different from the original. In addition, these papers touch on important and pertinent themes such as racism and assumptions about Romanians. This is evident from the offset when Tom Harker writes in his journal, “disturbed by the bat and the howling dogs, they stealthily exchanged glances and crossed themselves when they thought I was not looking.” This could be seen as a foreshadowing of the rest of the storyline, but it also assumes this is how people in these areas would behave. This is discussed in detail in the preceding papers.
The adaptation itself is still written in the same style as the original, littered throughout with the well-known imagery of the tale, such as “put her in the coffin” however, it contains some elements such as that of a beast which would have been slightly more shocking at the time it was originally published.
I am a big fan of the text published in England and enjoyed getting a more in-depth tale. This variation is perfect as a literary source, or for anyone looking to deepen their knowledge of gothic literature, especially due to the papers contained in the preface. With the change in times, the additions and this version of the story are as exciting as the first Dracula.
Powers of Darkness: the wild translation of Dracula from turn-of-the-century Sweden is a captivating take on the story of Dracula most people know. The added history included gives readers a new look at this classic story. This gothic horror novel will provide readers with more suspense and thrills than the original book.
Pages: 1049 | ASIN : B09RX3877X
Encore
![Encore: A Contemporary Love Story of Hypnotic Abduction (The Agents of the Nevermind Book 3) by [Bensko, Tantra]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51THYvDlZbL._SY346_.jpg)
Encore is Book 3 in the Agents of the Nevermind series brought to you by author, Tantra Bensko. Tantra Bensko does a fantastic job writing a story line that intertwines themes of history, myths, politics, psychology magic, cultism, religion and romance. A clever author that sets out to achieve a contemporary love story with a touch of Gothicism. The author does a marvellous job at blending themes and motifs together in order to build up tension and create an epic dark read. This is a book that provides everything you would expect from a psychological suspense story – guaranteed to keep you firmly on the edge of your seat.
The narrative of Encore is imaginative and unique, which allows readers to really think about the importance of different aspects of their lives. The plot of this book mostly revolves around Colin, a Bennu performance troupe’s hypnotist who abducts Susan and takes her to a castle. This weird relationship sees Colin slightly fixated with Susan’s character, pretending to be her husband to solidify their romance. However, the story unfolds with lots of twists and mysteries that are questionable to the reader. The reader is constantly left wondering what is happening and why. This is a great feeling for a reader of the paranormal genre. What more could you possibly want?
The plot throughout this book is strong, creative and imaginative. Bensko structures her book clearly and it’s easy to follow. I think that paranormal activities are apparent throughout the book, which makes for a great read. Tantra Bensko does a fantastic job at trying to write something for her readers that takes them out of their comfort zone and into something quite edgy and Gothic. Her writing is exceptional throughout the book and allows readers to fully engage with the topics being explored.
Having read this book, I believe it clearly captures the paranormal and suspense genres to an exceptionally high standard. I was hooked right from the opening chapters and was left overwhelmed and intrigued when I put the book down.
Encore is a dark read with dark characters and an ever-evolving plot. I think the author has done a great job at creating all sorts of emotions from the ideas of love as well as complete fear. This is a unique contribution to the world of Gothic literature and I look forward to reading more from this author.
Overall, Encore is an exciting and intriguing read that has opened my eyes to the world of the paranormal genre. I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the paranormal world. Even if you aren’t that interested, I think it’s worth a shot, as I think you too will be impressed with the story of Encore.
Pages: 376 | ASIN: B07HQYNL7K
LITERARY TITAN 