Review: KGB in High Heels
April 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Book Title: KGB in High Heels
Author: Valentina Maltseva
Niche: Mystery / Spy Drama
Price: $4.50
Size: 65,000 words (250 pages paperback equivalent)
This book was a best seller in Russia and Israel under the title: KGB v smokinge (you can see why the English version has a new title). It was made into a 16-part miniseries.
Written in Russian, it’s been excellently translated into colloquial English. It reads just like it was originally written in English.
Valentina works on an artsy Newspaper in the old Soviet Union. She’s not political and is happy puttering around in the art world, writing stories and reviews.
Unfortunately for her, her boyfriend gets her involved with non other than Yuri Andropov (head of the KGB) and she finds herself shipped off to Argentina and plunged into the world of espionage.
Nothing goes as planned and the body count rises as her chances for survival plummet. Three spy agencies are after her and two of them would rather see her dead.
Valentina is no James Bond. She’s not suave or sure of herself. She’s just terrified and wants to go back to her safe life in the art world.
Like many people, I love the Bond movies. I also read all of the Ian Fleming Bond books. This isn’t Bond by any stretch of the imagination. This is much more realistic than Fleming’s books ever were. A refreshing look into the spy world from another perspective, where spies are highly fallible and plans rarely go well.
I enjoyed every paragraph. My only complaint is that it wasn’t a longer book. However, sources tell me there may be a “part 2″. Oh goody!
So, grab your knife and gun, and sit down for a great roller-coaster ride into danger.
Formats: Adobe Reader (pdf), ePub, Kindle (prc), Microsoft Reader (lit), Mobi (prc)
No DRM
Reviewed by Allan Kalar, Washington state
By it now at AKW Books
Review: The Fighter King
March 4, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Book Title: The Fighter King
Author: John Bowers
Niche: Fiction – Science Fiction / Adventure
Price: $5.95
Size: 139,000 words (424 pages paperback equivalent)
The beginning of the Fighter Queen saga.
Oliver Lincoln III has it good. Born into a rich family (his father manufactures combat fighters), he can pretty much coast through life. In fact, the easy life has made him soft and overweight.
He leads a playboy life with friends on other worlds and enough money to visit whenever he feels like it. In fact, in the opening of the story, we see him “showing off” his marksmanship to a college friend on Sirius, a planet settled by aggressive southern rednecks from Earth who trade in slaves.
So, how was Oliver sucked into the middle of a war on another world, one he’s never previously visited and where he has no friends to bail him out?
The answers and Oliver’s struggles to stay alive, do the right thing, and get back home make an intriguing story of triumph, tragedy, and “growing up”.
This is a “page-turner” from the start. I only get about an hour to myself at night before I turn in, and I’ve “crashed” late several times because I had to read “just a little more”.
The 3rd book released in the series, it’s probably the one that should be read first.
Other books in the series: A Vow to Sophia, and The Fighter Queen. A fourth, Star Marine, is due out in mid to late March.
Rated “R” for sex, language, and violence
Reviewed by Allan Kalar, Washington state
John Bower’s website is http://bornnovelist.wordpress.com/
Buy it now at: AKW Books
Review: EyeLeash: A Blog Novel
July 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment
eBook Title: EyeLeash: A Blog Novel
Niche: Modern/Contemporary Fiction, YA Fiction, Blog Fiction
Price: $6.99
Number of Pages: 288
EyeLeash started out a bit like a teen read, but then again it IS a teenage blog after all. But it was nicely honest enough to have me going without “putting it down”. By the way - I finished it while on standby for rehearsals for a play.
So yeah, I think I did pretty much enjoy it by the time I got to the end. It seemed somewhat autobiographical (perhaps that’s why it sounded so real).
Plus I know the stuff the author talks about does happen (even the seemingly slightly more far-fetched instances were of course real - 15yo “Tannie from NewYoungParents” losing her phone? Hahaha loved that bit when I read it, nice “local” inside joke!) which made the rest of it all the more believable for me anyway.
Reviewed by Ben Tan, Singapore
EyeLeash is a coming-of-age blog/IM novel, by Jess C Scott.
Her website is www.jesscscott.com.
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