Category: Wilde City Press

Review: Tread Marks & Trademarks (Team Maker Jock #1) by S.A. McAuley

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Tread Marks and Trademarks coverAlex Maddox, mad tech genius, is about to hit some major milestones in his life.  He is almost at his 30th birthday and the robot, Yudo, that he has been working on since childhood, is almost finished and ready to be launched.  But how to go about it?  His twin brother Micah and his partner JT suggest that a friend of theirs is perfect for the job and set up an introduction.  When Alex meets the Norse god of advertising, Christian Lawson, Alex is immediately smitten.  But what would someone as gorgeous and together as Christian see in a geek like Alex?

Christian Lawson is an advertising genius.  And when Alex Maddox approach him for help with his robot, Christian immediately sees two things he wants.  Christian knows he is the man to promote Yudo and he also knows that the inventor is the man for him. Christian’s past includes a failed romance and a motorcycle accident that left him with a limp and scars that go past the physical.  He has never wanted to let anyone else close to him again…until Alex.

As Alex and Christian work together to launch Yudo into the tech world, their attraction turns into love.  But their own insecurities and elements from their past must be dealt with if their budding relationship is to deepen into the forever love each has always wanted.

Tread Marks & Trademarks was the first contemporary fiction story I have read by S.A. McAuley, an author known to me only by her superb science fiction novels One Breath One Bullet and Dominant Predator.  Those stories taught me to expect a tight narrative, told with intensity and suspense, focused on characters both sublime and innately dangerous.  Needless to say they did not prepare me for this absolutely enjoyable tale of geekiness, robots, and love amongst the techies and their lovers.

McAuley introduces us to the Maddox twins, Alex especially as he in caught up in finishing the project of a lifetime, his robot Yudo. Yudo represents astounding technological breakthroughs that, if it functions as Alex hopes, will make his reputation and his fortune.  I love that while Alex Maddox incorporates some of the mad scientist/geek characteristics one would expect, McAuley goes further with her character and gives Alex, not just genius but a wildly sexy component and a twin who is his complete mental and emotional opposite, Micah.  Alex is intensely focused on his work with Yudo, understandably so as this has been the center of his life since childhood.  While his brother dated and partied, Alex studied and worked on the technology needed to make Yudo function.  Micah is “the force of nature” brother, Alex is the quiet nerd who appears more confident than he actually is.

Both brothers are characters that any reader will love, two halves that make a whole and we are drawn to both of them.  Such a magnetic pair deserves lovers that balance such extremes out.  The author understands that balance is necessary not only in relationships but in the characters in a story.  Christian Lawson, the “Norse god” of advertising is made human by his frailties otherwise it might be hard for the reader to invest their emotions in a character so perfect as to be annoying.  However, again McAuley has made Christian accessible by putting a devastating motorcycle accident in his past that almost cost him his leg. The emotional and physical scars as well as limp gives Christian a more realistic presence in story and in Alex’s life.  JT, Micah’s lawyer boyfriend and their romance is already well established in this story.  But the glimpses we are given into their relationship and courtship are so intriguing that I can’t wait for McAuley to deliver their backstory to us in another novel as she has  promised.

McAuley has divided her narrative into two parts.  The first is told from Alex’s pov, and the second half of the story is from Christian’s.  It is an interesting format and the two points of view works to give the reader not only greater insight into the characters and their pasts but how each character views the other.  I still found the switchover a little jarring  and wish that the author had stuck to one point of view throughout her story.  There are no real extremes here, just the normal highs and lows that come with two men trying to establish both a working relationship as well as a romantic one,  That is given a very realistic treatment here and I appreciated that neither came without its obstacles and elements that stress both men out as their adjust to all the changes happening in their lives.

There are so many interesting elements to this story, including its location in Detroit, Michigan.  Either the author has done her homework extremely well or is very familiar with the city or both.  McAuley combines key city landmarks with Detroit based industries such as Pewabic Ceramics to give Tread Marks & Trademarks an authentic and appealing setting.  The Maker Movement figures largely in Alex’s makeup and the Maker Summit is the venue at which he introduces Yudo to the public and the companies attending.  I was unfamiliar with the Maker movement until this story which sent me on a google hunt for background information and philosophy.  I love it when an author does that and here McAuley did it twice.  Once with the Maker Movement and again with Pewabic tiles.  I am now a huge fan of both thanks to this story and its author.

Finally, Tread Marks and Trademarks is the first in the Team Maker Jock series.  Next up is Micah and JT’s  story.  I can’t wait.  If it is as good, as entertaining, as absorbing as this story, then count me first in line to grab it up.  In the meantime, start the series at the beginning, with Alex and Christian.  They are a wonderful couple and I loved watching them meet and their romance build.  You will too.  Consider this story highly recommended.

The Cover art is credited to Wilde City Press.  I loved it.  It is just perfect for this story in every way.  Kudos to the artist whoever they are.

Book Details:

ebook, 200 pages
Published December 11th 2013 by Wilde City Press
ISBN13 9781925031690
edition language English
series Team Maker Jock

Mid January Blahs and The Week Ahead in Reviews

Winter trees longs

Normally I love Winter.  I love the contrast of the bare limbs of the deciduous trees and the lush fullness of the evergreens, the sounds of foxes crying for mates, the owls hooting in the night and the crystal clear night sky with some of the most beautiful and recognizable constellations in the Northern hemisphere.  Orion rises high, glowing bright with its two first magnitude stars, one of easiest of the constellations to learn.

But this year its different. It’s mid January and already I can’t wait for the month and indeed winter to be over.  Winter has not even been that bad here in the DC Metro area.  So many other regions have had it so much worse this season that to complain about what little harsh weather we have had seems like whining.  But these last few months have been filled full of stress and anxiety over health issues, mine and others, that I am looking forward to Spring.

I can’t wait for the new buds, returning warm weather and longer days that herald the return of the season of renewal and new beginnings.  My gardens start to come alive, the birds are singing for mates and territory as nest building begins.  Winston and I can once again count on our daily walks around the neighborhood.  Ice, wind, and the cold keep me inside for a number of reasons and Winston stays with me in total agreement.

When the weather is agreeable out we go. He loves his walks as much as I do, actually more.  His steps are jaunty as we step out the door, his head on a swivel and that marvelous natural tail is on a constant wag.    I have never had a terrier before with a natural tail as other my rescues, Kirby and Willow included,  came with the typical terrier docked tail, one that comes with the birth of the terrier breeds.  A docked tail that was used to pull the dogs out of the holes and places where they had run their prey to ground.

Now those  little tails can wag, don’t get me wrong because they can wag up a storm.  But Winston’s ?  When a rabbit is spotted, he is in ecstasy and around and around it goes until it starts to resemble a helicopter ready to lift off.  A most amazing sight, one guaranteed to lift one’s spirits and brighten the day in an instant.  This spring will be our first Spring together.  I can’t wait to see his reactions to our first walks into a new season and all that it brings.  Come on, Spring!

Now here are the books to be reviewed this week:

Monday, Jan. 13:     Horsing Around Anthology

Tuesday, Jan. 14:     Tread Marks and Trademarks by S.A. McAuley

Wed., Jan. 15:            The Lightning Moon by Silvia A. Winters

Thurs, Jan. 16:          Tor (WWF #1) by Lynn Lorenz

Friday, Jan. 17:          Ashland (WWF#2) by Lynn Lorenz

Sat., Jan. 18:               The Actor and the Thief by Edward Kendricks

Review: The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men (Valley Books) by Eric Arvin

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men coverWinifred Walterhouse lived in the mansion on the top of Black Hill.  She was aware of the secrets the river and the valley held.   She knew of the river sprites, and of the forest passions, small beings becoming fewer and fewer in number.  She had helped hold off the outdwellers, those who would steal the valley’s magic and destroy the old ways.  But now she is dying, unable to take care of herself let alone a young girl of a certain stubborn temperament.

When her parents died, little Calpurnia Covington was sent to live with her eccentric aunt in the mysterious River Valley. And by her arrival changed everything.  With her aunt, Winifred Walterhouse, dying and confined to her room, Calpurnia is free to roam throughout the estate and nearby woods.  Missing the outside world, Calpurnia is frightened by the beings and things she sees in the Valley and resolutely turns her back on the magic all around her, thus setting her path away from the light and those coming after her.

Minerva True is a mystic who lives deep in the Valley, aware of the magic and light all around her.  She is also aware of The Prophecy and the coming darkness.  Although Minerva tries to warn the river valley’s inhabitants, she is ignored and the darkness is allowed to grow and thrive.  In the future, it will be the mingled destinies of Minerva, the young hero Leith, his lover Aubrey, and the mute boy, Deverell that will tilt the fate of the valley and perhaps the world towards the light or darkness.  Who will succeed and who will fail in the ultimate of all battles?

The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men by Eric Arvin has to be one of the most memorable and complex books that I have read recently.  It is an extraordinary and sometimes confounding mixture of gothic horror, Grimm’s fairy tale, and dark fantasy.  Arvin pulls from a number of sources, from elementals and the Industrial Revolution to the Bible and uses them to help him create a lost river valley where magic still exists along side the human and the mundane.  Inside the valley, power flows through the woods and into the river. Here river dwellers and passions live but no longer flourish.  The Outsiders and Industry test the borders  and darkness has come to claim the valley and its souls for its own.

With this novel and the books to follow, Eric Arvin conceived his version of the eternal war between good and evil, the battle between the light and the darkness.  This story has a language so lyrical that it will remind you of sonnets and characters so beautifully defined and textured that their loss will haunt you for days.  Arvin’s story feels so old and timeless that the aroma of old leather bindings and yellowed pages of text will commingle in your mind along with the title, an effortless interface of ideas both old, fantastical and still somehow quite new.   An ebook of emotional heft and extraordinary value.

In keeping with the large scope of his story that is nothing less than the battle between good and evil, Arvin’s novel encompasses a rather large time span that starts from Calpurnia’s arrival in the valley as a young girl through her marriage and birth of her child and further still as that child, Leith, grows up and becomes a featured player in this timeless spiritual war. Circling around Calpurnia is a convoluted and intertwining group of relationships that will include beings of power to Leith, her son.   Arvin has created a large and incredible cast for his story and series, including Azriel, a angel and the fundamental Mother True.  These characters live and breath and love with an realness that will grab you.  Some love with a lightness of being and others, well,  others are weighed down with such a darkness of spirit that it seeps right off the page.  I mean really some of Arvin’s creations just exude such a feel of evil that they carry a stench of corruption.  And with any tale of good and evil, there are so many losses that will cut to the heart as the story and the fight progress.

Its that unrelenting parade of death as the story proceeds with its inexorable march towards that final battle between good and evil that might turn away readers looking for a warm tale of love and romance.  This is a true fantasy, horror story.  An epic tale that must, by its very nature, come with the deaths of characters the reader has come to love. I think it is those character deaths here will cause not only consternation but pain as the losses add up.  Not only because we didn’t see these deaths coming but because we had come to care for these people in the short amount of time we knew them, a required ingredient of great characters.   It is this aspect of the story that most readers will shy away from, especially those looking for a strictly m/m romance.  This is not that book.   Yes, there is a m/m romance, but there is also heterosexual love, familial love and so much more.  And for those readers to shy away from this story because of those aspects would be a shame indeed because this story also has great heart to go along with great loss.

One of the real revelations here is Arvin’s ability to reveal a true contamination of the soul, a slow defilement of character so extraordinary that you almost weep for the promise of the child that was thrown away, seduced by her own needs and a greater evil.  The author’s prose and descriptions delivering both a story of great emotional impact but also of spiritual warnings that go unheeded to the sorrow of all involved.   The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men is easily one of Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words Best of 2013.  Consider this tale highly recommended and a must read for all.

Cover photography by Amy Morrison.  This book needs an extraordinary cover to measure up to the greatness of the story within and it gets it with this great cover by Amy Morrison.  Also one of the best covers of 2013.

Book Details:

ebook, 286 pages
Published April 24th 2013 by Wilde City Press
ISBN13 9781925031065
edition language English
series Valley

Looking Ahead To Those In Need and This Week’s Reviews and Contests

Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is only two weeks away.  For those of us who celebrate this holiday, it is frequently a time of loads of great food, family, and togetherness.

Especially, the loads of food.

So what better time to think of others in need than now.  Where ever you may live, I am sure there is a food bank in need of supplies or families going hungry.  Maybe  they need coats or a wood burning stove or backpacks for school age kids.  Whatever and where ever the need, I am sure there is a worthy organization helping to stem the flow of hunger, of clothing, of shelter for those in that need it so.

Next week, my post will highlight those organizations and the manner in which we all can help.  If you know of an organization you would like to see posted here, please send it to me at Melaniem54@msn.com and I will see it included on next week’s post.  I am also going to maintain a separate page so people can look up organizations year around.  I have my favorites to donate to.  I am sure you do as well.  Let’s pass them on and see if we can all pass it forward.

Now on to this week’s reviews.  It is a special week here at Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words because Shira Anthony is premiering her Blue Notes novel, Encore, here on Monday, November 11.  To celebrate Encore’s release, there will be an incredible giveway that includes a Kindle, jewelry, and of course, books.  Don’t miss out, check in with us on Monday and Tuesday for more details.

Monday, Nov. 11:               Guest Post and Contest for the release of Encore (Blue Notes #5) by Shira Anthony

Tuesday, Nov. 12:              Review of Encore by Shira Anthony

Wednesday, Nov.13:         Close Quarter by Anna Zabo

Thursday,  Nov. 14:           The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men by Eric Arvin

Friday, Nov. 15:                   The Retreat (a Roughstock story) by BA Tortuga

Saturday, Nov. 16:             Captive Magic (Sentinels #3) by Angela Benedetti

So grab up a pen or two, make note of the schedule (and the contest).  The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men by Eric Arvin is another book of 2013 that is not to be missed as is Encore by Shira Anthony.   There is fantasy, m/m cowboy stories, and contemporary stories of love and perseverance.   See you all here on Monday.