Book Review: The Pages of Time by Damian Knight

British author Damian Knight weaves a fascinating modern day read with facets of paranormal-fantasy, time travel, intriguing thriller, and comfy romance in his The Pages of Time series.  The self-eponymous title is book 1 in the series, tracing the journey of teenager Sam Rayner, who, at the start, is an average high school student.  A series of events that come into his life, while he is a teenager, ignite a paranormal ability in him, which allows him to travel through time, offering a new twist on H. G. Wells iconic novel Time Machine.

 

Knight has the reader enter into Sam's life just as his parents move from England to America over his mother's promotion at the bank where she works.  This is the first event that upends Sam's life followed by several more events that sees him bullied in his new high school, beaten by the boyfriend of a girl he befriends at school, and peaked by being on a flight back to England with his parents that is blown up by a terrorist.  His father is killed while he and his mother are in a coma.

When Sam wakes up in a hospital, he is informed that he has suffered a severe brain injury that his doctor cannot predict how Sam will be affected by the head trauma.  The effect is revealed to the reader as an ability for Sam to see events happen before they actually happen.  To see tragedies before they unfold.

  
Dr. Lara McHayden enters the story, a scientist who is experimenting with brain injuries and psychic abilities through her Tempus Project when she learns about Sam's case.  She recruits him for her research, testing a drug she has concocted.  Luring Sam into her research with the illusion that he could change the time line that caused the tragic plane crash and be able to bring his father back to life.

Interspersing Sam's tale with the back-stories of secondary characters, Knight interweaves their plot into Sam's plight.  This gives the read greater depth and broadens the reader's perception of the patterns of good and evil and provides insight into Sam's own character and maturity.

Knight deftly blends intrigue and suspense with romance and introspection.  The narration is well articulated and written in third person, which places the reader in the role of spectator, as the plot progresses steadily to a gravely tragic outcome, only to use time travel to upend that conclusion.  

The reader needs to have patience as Knight skips between the storyline of Sam and the tertiary characters, who are vital to the plot.  The reader also needs to accept the story as it takes unbelievable turns like when Sam is shot up and bleeding profusely, yet, he lives.  Knight does keep the reader wondering where he will take the story from here, making the reader galvanized to the pages.

http://www.damianknightauthor.co.uk/

 

Book Review: The Enemy Within: Terror, Lies, and the Whiteashing of Omar Khadr by Ezra Levant

Canadian journalist and co-founder of Canada's Rebel News network, Ezra Levant lays out the documented facts regarding the violent acts and prosecution of Islamic zealot Omar Khadr in his book The Enemy Within.  Levant's narration is interspersed with his opinions about the western judicial, political and media institutions, which all protected Khadr from receiving punishment to the full extent of the law.

He explains how Khadr and Khadr's family had been welcomed into Canada and protected by the Canadian government by both the conservative and the liberal political parties.  Further, he shows how Islamic zealots have been idolized by western institutions.
 
Levant sees the facts through a clear lens, which readers who are not involved in the judicial, political and media institutions will appreciate and feel validated for not going along with the deception foisted on them.  Levant opens the reader's eyes, providing a true visual of what exists behind the curtains that western institutions put up.  His style of writing allows the reader to keep up with him, even repeating himself to drive the facts and their consequences deeper into the reader's mind.
 
At the center of Levant's book is Omar Khadr, who had been born in Toronto, Canada and introduced to Al Queda by his father Ahmed whose Islamic roots kept him tied to Afghanistan throughout his life.  Only returning to Canada for financial benefits, free healthcare, and protection from facing law enforcement outside of Canada where he committed his crimes. 
 
Levant describes the Khadr's as a crime family.  Illustrating how they are heavily involved in the criminal activities of Al Queda, making bombs, killing westerners who ironically took care of the Khadr's needs, dealing in black markets to sell drugs and weapons, and most essentially, being activists to impose the Islamic way of life and thinking on western society.
 
Levant devotes a great deal of time explaining the child soldier, who is forced into killing innocent people through gangs who take control of a community.  He demonstrates how Khadr does not fit that profile of a child soldier.  He provides accounts of how Khadr killed westerners, specifically US Army combat medic Christopher Speer,  because it pleased him to do so, as had been repeatedly documented in Khadr's own words. 
 
Khadr's shameless and unremoresely killing of US Army medic Christopher Speer in 2003 is what put Khadr in Guantanamo Bay prison.  The years proceeding led to a show trial that the media and Canadian politicians used to garner sympathy for Khadr in a most twisted and deceptive way.  Levant intelligently lays out the facts and chronicles the events that follow.
 
Levant's narration explains the deeper issues of the Islamic-driven attacks of 9/11 and Oct. 7, the Boston Marathon bombing, and the Islamic-driven killings on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year's Day 2025, to name a few.  Levant provides an explanation of what drives Islamic zealots based on the words of Islamic zealots and their actions.  His book describes the core conflict and deceptive thinking that opened the 21st century and continues to plague the present century.
 
When some consider the 21st century as the Age of Technology, Levant proves that the 21st century is the Age of Islamic-driven terrorism.
 
rebelnews.com
rumble.com/rebelnews

Book Review: Follow the Science by Sharyl Attkisson

Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist and New York Times bestselling author Sharyl Attkisson provides oversight in her book Follow the Science on the corruption behind the pharmaceutical industry, which has been growing for decades.  From America's CDC, FDA and NIH to its educational and pharmaceutical complexes and all government funded media, Attkisson shows how these institutions are all intertwined, dependent on one another to keep their money-making machine going, enlarging, and controlling people's thoughts and lives.

Her research and case studies are jaw-dropping, eye-opening and mind-blowing.  She demonstrates  how deep the collusion and deception extend within Big Pharmaceutical companies, paying off elected officials, public health agents, educational masters, and high priced clinical researchers as she cites real life cases, Congressional hearings and doctors accounts as evidence.  From prescribed medication and vaccines that combat COVID, smallpox, dementia, and more, Big Pharma has been slowly and methodically toying with people's health while giving the public the illusion that they are saving lives.

Attkisson explains how some of the most trusted scholars and scientists within our society are willing to commit life-threatening ethics violations to fatten their wallets.  Once the truth starts to surface, the stakeholders marshal their forces to defend their harmful actions and take steps to silence the injured and smear those who would expose them.

Her journey through the dark underbelly of the pharmaceutical industry is an essential read to understand the forces ruling people's lives and controlling social standards.   Attkisson's compilation is vast, touching on her reports from CBS news through the 1990's and 2000's to her present day assignments for Full Measure online.  

Her book is an important resource that exposes the truth behind the spin espoused by ghostwriters and hired guns implanted in mainstream media and government bureaucracies.  Each care more about profits than the people they are supposed to serve and protect.  Attkisson supplies frightening documentation that is very relevant and very essential to see through the fog and astroturf manufactured to reorient and control people's minds with lies.

https://sharylattkisson.com/

https://fullmeasure.news/

Book Review: Highland Games by Evie Alexander

Evie Alexander weaves an amusing little tale, a modern day romantic comedy, about a girl from London who meets a Scottish boy from Kinloch, a small burg within the perimeters of Aberdeen.  She brings the couple together through a series of mishaps and misunderstandings in her novel Highland Games.  The couple's interaction is sometimes comical and sometimes oddly put together, making it difficult for the reader to believe the couple's connection.

What is interesting about Kinloch is it has a massive castle that is in disarray.  Part of the charm in Alexander's storytelling is the reader needs to figure out who is the Lord of Kinloch's castle, and why would this Lord have any effect on this couple?  The author leaves kernals of information scattered throughout the story, which baits the reader along as to the identity of the castle's Lord.

The reader gleans that the plot centers on Zoe, a young woman from London who resettles in her uncle's cabin after his death.  Her uncle had transferred the leasehold of the cabin to Zoe upon his death.  It has been years since she visited her uncle's cabin in Kinloch, having spent one summer with him.  While staying with him, she had met her mother's best friend Morag and Morag's children, Fiona and Jamie.  Returning to the cabin, she reignites her friendships with Morag, Fiona and Jamie.

While making herself at home in her uncle's cabin, a young man Rory intrudes on Zoe's space, claiming that she does not own the land.  There is a power struggle between the two that continues for a few chapters until Rory decides that he needs Zoe to help him revitalize the castle.  The reader discovers that Rory is obligated to the castle because he is the Lord of the castle, having inherited it after his father's death.  The problem is Rory is a lumberjack, a craftsman and an artisan, but he is not a businessman who can make the castle profitable. However, Zoe is an experienced accountant and marketing specialist.  The two enter into a business arrangement that quickly blossoms into a romance.

The script is unique, bridging the couple through a series of unusual circumstances.  Though Rory mentions having a number of rough times with his father and mother and his time in the military, his struggles are never re-lived in the dialogue only projected and skimmed over in his reflections.  The same is true for Zoe, whom the reader is only given a cursory impression about her character and her life.  Alexander keeps the narration in the present.  What really keeps the reader engaged is the ownership and fate of the castle.  The castle is the focal point that brings the couple together and keeps them together through the tale.

https://eviealexanderauthor.com/all-about-evie/

Book Review: Rochester Trilogy by Skye Warren

Author Skye Warren is best known for her erotic love scenes, and although this trait is prevalent throughout her Rochester Trilogy series, she concentrates so much more time on developing the character's personalities, behavioral patterns, and thought processes.  She invests a great amount of the read on building up a compelling thriller, crime drama and modern romance in this series.

 

Warren's Rochester Trilogy consists of Private Property, followed by Strict Confidence and concludes with Best Kept Secret.  A small footnote is that Warren grabs characters from the trilogy and continues the saga with Hiding Places and 1001 Dark Nights Behind Closed Doors.

There is a film noir quality about the series, with the first book set in an ominous mansion on a cliffside of a quaint town in Maine.  The next two books move to a cozy inn by a beach in the town.  Warren's description of the mysterious and Gothic atmosphere sets the scene for readers, plunging them into the center of an emotional whirlwind.

Written in first person, veritably each character holds a conversation with the reader, revealing vulnerabilities and well kept secrets to the reader, who enjoys discovering each of their stories.  A bond is formed between the reader and the protagonists, Jane Mendoza and Beau Rochester, as Warren weaves into the narration a number of pearls of wisdom about life's lessons and struggles.  All of which resonate with the reader, opening a level of human consciousness.

In the vane of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 popular fiction Jane Eyre, whose characters, Jane Eyre, an orphan turned governess, and Edward Fairfax Rochester, a wealthy landowner in North England who is in need of a governess for his ward Adèle, Warren gives this Gothic prose fiction a modern twist in her Rochester Trilogy. Mendoza is hired by Beau Rochester to be a governess to his niece Paige Rochester, whose father is presumably killed in a boat accident along with her mother, who is also believed to have been killed.  

Unlike Jane Eyre, Warren's trilogy shares a handful of characters with the reader.  This aspect makes the progression of the story easy to follow, while Brontë's tale had the reader moving in various directions with the introduction of many new characters that created tangents along the story.  All the characters in Warren's trilogy lead the reader back to Mendoza and Rochester's relationship.  Their passion is intense and their strength and will is cavalier.

Warren ends the first two books on cliffhangers, which keeps the reader anxious to discover what happens next.  Smartly, she closes the third book of the trilogy with a happily ever after ending that ties all the loose ends and soothes all the mixed emotions to a credible new beginning for the protagonists.


Skye Warren: https://www.skyewarren.com/

 

Book Review: Trouble Me by Eliza Peake

Trouble Me by Eliza Peake is a story that the reader needs to give it some time before gleaning enlightenment, clarity and satisfaction from the narration.  The final five chapters move quickly and really dig deep emotionally into the two protagonists, Emmaline Reynolds and Shane Kavanagh.  Before arriving at that destination of happily ever after, Peake slowly leads the reader through the development of Reynolds and Kavanagh's relationship, leaving the reader with questions about what binds the two together other than a steamy attraction.  All is answered by the ending.

At the heart of the story is the hardship and struggles that arise from dealing with an addiction and a partner who succumbs to addiction.  Reynolds is on the journey to overcoming an alcohol addiction, and Kavanagh is on the journey to self-realization that it was not within his power to stop his deceased wife's drug addiction.  Peake's insight into the human condition is enlightening and leaves a lasting impression on the reader

The story is well written with intense characters evolving through a slow plot progression that winds up the loose pieces together by the close of the read.  The secondary characters are also interesting and add dimension to the tale, especially Kavanagh's dying father whose words of wisdom resonate loudly in the reader's ears and Kavanagh's younger brother whom he misreads as his nemesis.

The struggles and conflicts that Reynolds and Kavanagh face are relatable to the reader.  The story intertwines four tropes, first, being a modern day small town romance, second, honing an office romance, third, having characters who seek redemption, and fourth, describing the tingles of love at first sight.  These are common tropes that Peake refreshes to make for a satisfying read.

Artist Site:  https://elizapeake.com/

 

Book Review: On the Line: A Second Chance Sports Romance by Julia Connors

Written in first person, On the Line: A Second Chance Sports Romance by Julia Connors is the fourth installment of her Frozen Hearts series.  Set in Park City, Utah at the start and finishes in Boston, Massachusetts, the story traces the saga of professional figure skater turned marketing expert and stay at home mom, Lauren Manning-Emerson and professional ice hockey player turned sports agent, Jameson Flynn.  From start to finish, the read moves like a saga, though it is meant to be a cozy modern romance.  The reader experiences all the emotions that go through someone in a lifetime with just this single story.

The hero and heroine each have multiple layers to their characters, supported by strong family ties and good friends.  Connors takes the readers through the trials and tribulations of these characters, building a bond between the readers and these characters.  Their ordeals and the human strength they share with the audience is enlightening.  Granted, sometimes, Flynn seems too good to be true, and other times, Emerson seems to be over-reacting to unsuspecting surprises.  Still, the window into these lives resonates a realistic vibe.

Readers can discern Connors created a story that she put a great deal of thought into, applying care and attention to the details of the characters circumstances and situations.  Connors is an effective author in hooking the reader and keeping the story engaging.

Julia Connors