Bokerah BrumleyRezensionen

Only 83 pages so more a novella than a novel and as the title says : a Demo.

We follow Zee Traine a mother of two and avid gamer. She is sucked into a game together with her 13 year old daughter and then has to rescue the daughter and some space dragons.

It is really a demo. when she is sucked into the game nearly half the book is gone already. The descriptions of life with young kids is nice. The sarcastic approach of the parents is fun and totally realistic.

In the game everything is very streamlined. The MC really has not much to do beside running and her choices are minimal. Most brought on a silver tablet by the supporting Harrison Ford character.
Well - what to expect of a game demo. Nevertheless there have to be a lot of improvement in the next book. This one is too obvious and has not enough tension to thrill the reader.
Give her more spine in the game world, dimish the role of the helping character and let her solve some stuff in unusual ways and then i think it could be a lot of fun to read.

I like sarcastic characters. A young mother is something unique and the chemistry between mother and daughter could make a great mood for the fantasy setting.
Hope the author sees where she can improve and works on it.

This is about DISGRACED FAE by Margo Ryerkerk

A fun revisit to some characters from the CRUEL ELITES series. In this book we find Peony working her job with plants. The ex queen B of the academy, the one who made Onyx/Thorsten's lives miserable is about to learn a bit about karma. After something happens at work she winds up in a reprogramming center under the academy. If she thought the academy was tough, that was mere child's play. Will her eyes finally be opened? Can she finds the strength within? All kinds of reveals and action happen in this gem!

I loved this collection. There's a wide variety of stories, and not all take place in space. There's as wide an array of settings as there are genres. You can easily jump from story to story, and pick and choose which ones resonate with you. I look forward to reading more by some of the authors I discovered in this anthology, and have already recommended the collection to friends. Would rate higher if I could.

After Cindi moves to small-town Paris, Texas to help out at her aging grandmother's dress shop, a stunning pair of crystal shoes in the clothier shop next door grabs Cindi's interest—and won't let go. Principe, who serves his cruel uncle in the next-door shop, is determined to keep Cindi away from the deadly shoes in Cindi/Ella: When Shoes Speak by author Bokerah Brumley.

Yeah, it was the (Victorian steampunk-inspired?) book cover that drew me to this contemporary retelling of a classic fairy tale. The look is striking, appearing outside of my normal fantasy fiction preferences, but as I've enjoyed this author before, I went for it.

The tale was slow-going for me for a while, but given its short novella length, I stuck with it. Good thing I did, because I came to rather like Ainsworth, the talking mouse, and I was drawn in more as the story darkened, becoming more twisted, but not in a way that was too dark for me.

Some typos had me rereading sentences to catch their meaning, but it wasn't a big or frequent deal. And the story's climax? Fantastic!

No, this retelling isn't a steampunk story, but I'm glad the cover got my attention anyway.

A sweet, second-chance romance that will make you yearn for home.

Rebecca and Johnny were once high school sweethearts with different dreams. When Rebecca comes back to Yearly to help her sister open a restaurant, she finds Johnny -- now going by "Cash" -- is the only one who can be sure to get their renovations done on time. The only thing worse than being stuck with her ex is having no idea how he feels about her, after all these years. As they work to get through the renovations for Rebecca's restaurant, secrets, both past and present, are revealed, and Rebecca and Johnny are left to answer the question of whose dreams will come true.

It's 2049, and Michael McNair has got his sights set on heading off to Mars next year. Penelope McAuliffe has her sights set on an open teaching position at an elementary school, but she won't make it to her job interview on the flat tire her car just picked up. A chance meeting on the side of I-45 might do more than change Penelope and Michael's day in The Teacher & the Astronaut by author Bokerah Brumley.

I read this second of the McNair short stories after reading the sci-fi tale that comes before it. I can't say there's anything too sci-fi or futuristic about this second story, apart from mentions of Michael's upcoming mission to Mars with his mother.

Still, after reading the first story, it was nice to get some more background on Michael and Penelope. It's a rather simple read that incorporates a little romance, a little family, and themes of faith and having peace in the midst of uncertainty.

And while, for a couple of reasons, I wouldn't say the silhouettes on the book cover really reflect the characters, I've loved the cover's color scheme ever since I grabbed a copy of this story more than a year ago.

Mae McNair, orbiting Mars in the Solace Station, is on her last mission in space before retirement, joined by her son, Michael. But when a malfunction locks Mae out of Solace, Michael and Mae's coworker, Abel Onizuka, must work together to save her before her oxygen runs out in Circular Horizon by author Bokerah Brumley.

A few pages into this short story, I realized I'd tried it years before in a ChristFic anthology. I didn't finish it then, but I did this time.

The first half or so was pretty slow for me, but this is more of a story of human connections and a Gospel message in a futuristic space setting, not an action-packed sci-fi adventure. Once the action/danger does come into play, the "heart and soul" aspects of the plot are what make the danger more consequential.

A little comedy, a thread of romance, a touching familial bond, and a prominent theme of faith tie this sci-fi story together. I plan to go on and read the second McNair short in the near future.

I got a copy of this novella through NetGalley to review. This was a cute and simple little story about a woman from the future who is a toy maker. When a portal shows up in her bathroom mirror she finds herself 400 years in the past in the late 1800’s. She is desperate to get back home until she realizes that the past may have more to offer her than she originally thought.

This was an interesting blend of sci-fi and steampunk. It’s very very short and it felt rushed. The beginning of the story is particularly bad as it abruptly skips from one day to the next. This does progress the story quickly but it also made it seem very choppy.

The story is very simple and very predictable. This was one of those novellas that was easy and quick to read (took me about 30 minutes to read it) and generally okay. However at the end I was like “Huh, okay I am done with that...what’s next?” It’s just completely forgettable.

Overall an okay novella. It’s a cute little story but is completely predictable and very simple. I guess I just don’t have much to say about it. It wasn’t offensive or technically bad, but I am pretty sure I won’t ever think about it again or even remember it all that well in a week or so.