Month: November 2022

Posted in Books, Review, Science fiction

Dark Cascade – Book Review

Posted on by Tawny Molina


Dark Cascade (Galacticide) by Bert-Oliver Boehmer is a sprawling space epic that ranges multiple races and characters, soaring through dark voids and zealous AIs and reality-bending multi-universe concepts. This story follows Kel Chaada as he travels through the galaxy attempting to prevent another galaxy-wide devastating event by taking the fight directly to the enemy’s home. This story is filled to the brim with amazingly creative alien races, some humanoid some as far away from human concepts as possible. It is difficult, to sum up, this novel in a way that will give it any credit as so much happens. And the whole ordeal is exciting!

I honestly am finding it hard to describe this fantastic novel in a limited word count. This novel offers so much from the fantastic super dramatic aspects expected of a space drama to science fiction world-building that puts many a classic to shame. I found the alien races, in particular, to be particularly interesting to read about. Many science fiction novels will pile on hundreds of humanoid aliens never really departing from what we know. The races in Bert-Oliver Boehmer’s work are so varied that I can not even list them here. As stated before the world-building of Dark Cascade is heavy and multi-layered, you can tell a lot of time and love went into this book. I know after reading this I plan on going back to read more of Boehmer’s work. I would suggest any sci-fi fan does the same. Totally worth it!

Reviewed for Reader’s Favorite

Posted in Books, Dystopian, Review, Reviews, Science fiction

Dusk Upon Elysium – Book Review

Posted on by Tawny Molina

Dusk Upon Elysium follows Geoff as he does his best to cope in a world that has been overcome by the dreadful Nergal virus, a terrible disease said to have infected even plants and animals. Locked away inside small enclosed homes with only government-distributed work and food to keep them busy, the people of the world trudge along assuming what they are told by the news outlets is true. There is hope, however. A virtual reality program called Paradiso allows people to escape their troubles and reality into the paradise they always wished they could have had before their lives were torn apart by disease and questionable government tactics. nothing bad could come from this situation. What could happen here?

I found Dusk Upon Elysium to be a really exciting book one that I found managed to skirt the line of being just similar enough to our post-COVID reality without being too close for comfort. That nearness in the story, while done in many a dystopian novel, particularly the ones written in the last few years, is particularly well done by Tamel Wino in this novel. I found the slight hint of biological horror and the ideas of what could be happening outside of the assumed safe homes of the people of the world intriguing. Even more so I found the mental tribulations of the people of the story even more exciting. Geoff and other characters are thrown through a variety of mental turmoil that is both relatable and traumatizing. 

Reviewed for Reader’s Favorite

Posted in Audiobooks, Books, romance, steamy

Blood of Zeus – Book Review

Posted on by Tawny Molina

I found the Blood of Zeus audiobook while scrounging around on my local library’s website. This steamy romance novel by Meredith Wild and Angel Payne. I had never read either work before but I am always excited to pick up an audiobook. So I snatched up this discovery and brought it home to listen to. Now I am one of those strange people that still have a CD player just in case of audiobooks so I was able to enjoy this in a seven-disc format. Don’t worry you can also find it on Audible or just read it if you like.

Blood of Zeus is the first in a series, while I have not yet read the rest of this steamy series much of the story was rather entertaining. The involvement of mythology creatures both demonic and godly was given an interesting tie-in to this story, though I do wish this first book had more background information. Unfortunately despite enjoying the story at the moment, I doubt the series had enough substance to make me want to come back to it, at least not till I whittle down my TBR a bit further. Maybe I will come back.

Posted in Books, Non-fiction, Spooky

Haunted Tampa – Spirits of the Bay – Book Review

Posted on by Tawny Molina

So as many of my review readers know, I do not often touch non-fiction, and even less often do I publicly review any non-fiction books based on local areas. Why? Because the majority of the people who read my blog are international, there isn’t much desire on their end to read books about the area I live in. However while once again wandering the website of my locale county library I tumbled upon Haunted Tampa Spirits of the Bay by Deborah Frethem so I figured I have lived in this area for a long time now, I might as well take a peak in at its creepy background. 

While I intended this to be a casual spooky Halloween read it ended up being a bit of a black hole of study as I study as I found myself Googling most of the locations mentioned in the book. Sure I’d driven past pretty much all these spots at least once but there were a few I missed. The information from the book had been fantastic tidbits that made me want to go out and find some more information. This was mostly due to the fact that the book is now quite old as far as non-fiction goes and some of the details were obsolete but certainly entertaining none the less.

If you are from the Tampa Bay area, or visited, or just like spooky knowledge, this may be an entertaining read for you.\