Virginia Gamsky Hust

Eternal

Amazon.com
Amazon.UK

Not sure what to expect from this book. The cover didn't tell me anything at all. Eternal means, of course, forever, so I'm thinking love story, but what's the image? A head of a staff? An ornament? It wasn't very clear and not a very striking cover.

The blurb had a typo and a few poorly constructed sentences, but errors aside I felt I knew what the book was about because of it. It told me that an immortal woman, Maura, feels lost and wants her soul back. She goes in search of it, but things go wrong. Then we’re introduced to Gabriel, who is described as a cliché (a jaded private detective), and I’m intrigued on how he can help Maura to regain her soul. I'm thinking love story between them? Will this be two people helping one another? Maura helping bring a sparkle back into Gabriel’s life, and Gabriel giving Maura hers.

I turn to the ‘look inside’ feature on Amazon. The prologue opens beautifully: Five hundred years, a wisp of smoke on the winds of time. Yet the world had changed momentously at an altogether astonishing rate. And although I wanted to cross out ‘altogether’ I felt compelled to read on.

Unfortunately, not too far into the prologue, I came across another error and at £2.62 I felt the book was a little too expensive to chance. I shan't pursue.

Blurb:

Three hundred years of penance, of suffering through an immortal life has left Maura praying for salvation. She joins a group bent on gaining back their souls by awakening The One and after a rather bleak few years in Cairo she thinks they’ve found him. But after a meeting with her sire goes terribly wrong she is trapped in the enemy camp. How far will she go to survive?

Gabriel is a normal, if rather jaded private detective living in Seattle Washington, until a beautiful woman showes up at his practice, claiming to be a vampire and asking for his help. Suddenly his life is turned on its head as he is introduced to the underground society of Fallen Angels bent on finding their savior.

John A. Heldt

Amazon.com
Amazon.UK

The Mine

The cover wasn't exciting. It looked like a non-fiction book about trains at first glance, and I wouldn't have looked twice at this book at all. It spoke boring. But it had good reviews on both the American and UK Amazon site, and so I moved to the blurb. That was a lot better. It told me straight away who and what the novel is about. The main protagonist is Joel Smith and he's 'cocky', and towards the end of the blurb I know he's going to be 'humbled' because of his time-travel to the 1940s.

I began the 'look inside' feature first to see if it was something I'd like, and admittedly I did struggle with it, but most of the reviews said it was a slow burner so I thought I'd try it. And at 77p it'd hardly break the bank!

I didn't finished the book. It never picked up, and although it was very well written and researched I felt the main character was wooden. For a young guy from the 21st century he wasn't fazed at all by the lack of modern things.

It was a gentle read, but I finished long before the end, it just didn't grip me enough.

Blurb

In 2000, Joel Smith is a cocky, adventurous young man who sees the world as his playground. But when the college senior, days from graduation, enters an abandoned Montana mine, he discovers the price of reckless curiosity. 

He emerges in May 1941 with a cell phone he can't use, money he can't spend, and little but his wits to guide his way. Stuck in the age of Whirlaway, swing dancing, and a peacetime draft, Joel begins a new life as the nation drifts toward war. 

With the help of his 21-year-old trailblazing grandmother and her friends, he finds his place in a world he knew only from movies and books. But when an opportunity comes to return to the present, Joel must decide whether to leave his new love in the past or choose a course that will alter their lives forever. 

THE MINE follows a humbled man through a critical time in history as he adjusts to new surroundings and wrestles with the knowledge of things to come.