Alex Gates

Magic Abounds!

A small backstory:

Joseph Hunter is infused with magical abilities that are entwined with sorcery and he is able to create sigils on his weapons including the bullets so that he can take down supernatural creatures. After his wife, Callie was murdered he has some friends take care of his daughter, Melanie to keep her safe as whoever murdered his wife will probably come after his daughter.

Though keeping his daughter safe didn't work as now his daughter has been kidnapped and Joseph along with his friend, Xander will need to track down whoever took her which might include them stepping into a vampire lair. One way or the other, both men are on the hunt for Melanie and they hope that they will find her before anything bad happens.

Thoughts:

This was an interesting first book into this series as the sorcery abilities of Joseph Hunter grabbed me when the character started wielding his powers and there is plenty of action within the pages of the book.

However, the character, Joseph Hunter has a bad attitude about everything that comes his way and though he is in mourning for his wife that died, he comes off as not caring about anyone but himself, which is understandable as he drowns his sorrows in drinking, but there is quite a bit of whining and him finding himself in trouble all the time which his friend, Xander has to keep pulling him out of scrapes.

This could have been a five star read if the character wasn't whining and complaining through most of the story, so I have dropped it down one star from a five star read to a four star read. The magic sorcery abilities along with some action within these pages are the only thing that keeps this book afloat.

I wasn't too impressed with the character of Joseph Hunter and at some point in time I will finish the series as I have the other three books that follow this one as I am curious if Joseph will continue to whine or if he will come out of his depression and be something different in the books to follow. Giving this one four "Shadow Sorcery" stars.

For more thoughts on this review, please see my blog:
https://booknookretreat.blogspot.com/2021/11/shadow-born-joseph-hunter-series-1-...
… (mehr)

This sequel book to the book Mask of Silence was very creepy and grabbed me right away in the first chapter!

A little backstory:

Gruesome murders are taking place and Detective Annie Gibson is trying to figure out who would be killing victims in the manner that she is finding them as everything that is happening reminds her of the case the year before.

The more she delves into the case the more she wishes that she knew what was going on but as time moves forward she realizes that she is not dealing with just any killer as something more evil and sinister is out there.

While Detective Gibson is dealing with the murders - Savannah (from the first book) knows what is out there as the demon that she unleashed the year before is back and this time it will not stop till it gets what it wants.

Thoughts:

This book was fast paced, twisted and loaded with some gory parts - lots of suspense along with edge of the seat creep chills as I made my way through the storyline! I sat down to read the book and before I knew it I was deep into the storyline.

The author knows how to grab you from the get-go and take you deep into the recesses of his mind. Giving this book five "chilling" stars!… (mehr)

This was a new horror author to me and the creepy cover of the book drew me right in, so I thought I would give this book a try. I can tell you that I was not disappointed as it was one spooked out creepy book!

Five friends (Evan, Savannah, QP, Robert, and Tyler) all of them have some kind of problems in their life that they are dealing with, so they decide to get together and see if they can summon a demon for Halloween. Since all of them will probably be going their separate ways after high school, they want to do something epic for their last Halloween together. QP decides that he wants to do the summoning in a cemetery on Halloween night which the other friends are a little iffy on that, but they eventually all go along with the idea.

When they try to summon the demon, something does appear in the circle, but they find out it was just a prank as one of their other friends just wanted to mess with them as he appears to them wearing a mask. When one of the friends ends up dead is when everything takes a more serious turn and the friends find out the hard way that even trying to summon a demon is never a good thing. As time goes on, each friend is stalked by some kind of apparition wearing the mask.

What kind of demon did the friends summon? What or who is wearing the mask? Does anyone survive the demon's wrath? No spoilers here as you will just have to read the book!

This was a spooky romp all the way to the end of the book as the more I became involved with the storyline, the more creeped out I became as I wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen next to the friends!

There is a second book in the series that I will be checking out as well. Giving this book four spooky stars!… (mehr)