Tag: reviews
More marvellous plaudits
I’m thrilled to say that Day 2 of the Game of Crones blog tour has produced a crop of great feedback.
Radzy Writes and Reviews commented: “Every short story in this collection has that out of the box twist, and never once reaches a weird, unrealistic place. I found the stories satisfying and uplifting when I didn’t realise.
Fans of great endings will be very happy with this book, as will fans of fantasy, medieval, steampunk, and the like. It ticks all the boxes for me, and I’ll be checking out more of Raven’s work ASAP.”
Jazzy Book Reviews wrote: “I think my favorite story out of them all was the one involving the scarecrow. That one was pretty horrifying, but that might be because I have a thing with scarecrows. They’re ridiculously creepy.
All of the stories were entertaining and amusing, though. I enjoyed that most, if not all, had a revenge aspect to them. Never cross a witch, that’s for sure.
If you’re a fan of short stories, horror, witches, or all of the above, then you’ll want to grab a copy of Game of Crones. I’d recommend it. 4 stars!”
And Mai’s Musings reported: “Game of Crones is filled with vivid imagery, with the author painting such a clear image of the landscape surrounding each story that you could actually feel that you were there. Achieving this at the same time as creating characters that you really cared about in each story in so few words is a true talent, and one that I wished I possessed.
“Game of Crones is a book that I would definitely recommend both to people who wouldn’t normally read short stories, and also to those who normally avoid the creepier books. This book is a great introduction to both, and is a great showcase of the author’s writing skills.”
Wow – many sincere thanks to the reviewers who took the time to give their thoughts on the collection. I really appreciate it. More reviews tomorrow…
Crimson Siege blog tour – day 2 and more plaudits.
Great day on Friday (the second day of the week-long blog tour organised by Rachel’s Random Resources). Two bloggers reviewed Crimson Siege and gave it a huge thumbs up.
Jess at Jess Bookish Life wrote:
“With Crimson Siege, Jay Raven gives us a book full of excitement, action, horror, vampires and crazy moments that I can’t even describe because the book was so good.
It was so different from all the other vampire books I have read, and that made it refreshing to me. It’s that Gothic vibe that I quite enjoy in a vampire book with that touch or horror that just makes it scary and unexpected. And it made me remember the first time I read Dracula, and how wowed I was about it.”
To read her review in full, please click HERE.
As well as her kind words, she shot this marvellous picture. I love it.
Meanwhile, on Birdie’s Bibliotheca, Birdie wrote a very considered appraisal:
“This book was slow for me to get into. I think it was just me, though, because as I got into the meat of it…I fell in love. Vampire books are pretty common, but rarely do I find one where there is no clear good guy/bad guy. Vampires are either good guys (ethically taking blood without death) or bad guys (psychopathic killers). Jay Raven manages to make all the characters in his book human. NOBODY is perfect and everybody has a history.”
She goes on: ” The whole thing reads as literature and not popular fiction, delving deep and depending on personal conflict to move the story along. The tone is reminiscent of some of my favorite Russians.”
Wow! Praise indeed.
Read the full review HERE.
MORE NEWS
The other great thing that happened yesterday – although not directly linked to the blog tour – was that I featured in a fun, fast paced, Meet The Author slot on the Black Books Blog site. Many thanks to Simon for organising this.
Check it out HERE to find out why I’d love to have dinner with Mrs Beeton, where I get inspiration for my chilling historical horror novels, and what surprising career I’d be following if I couldn’t be an author.