Maye's Request by Clifford Henderson

Maye's Request by Clifford Henderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I really have no clue what I just read. It wasn't a romance. It wasn't a new adult/young adult. It wasn't a mystery/action/suspense/thriller/etc.etc. A family drama.

Maye, of 'Maye's Request', is the mother of the man character known alternatively as Brianna or Bean. Bean has just graduated college, and headed down to spend some time in Mexico with a friend (just a friend). Right when 'just a friend' became 'fuck buddies', Bean's mother, Maye, ends up in the hospital with a serious condition and the next thing Bean knows, she's on a plane back to the States. And her Aunt Jen will be there (is already there) and her father will also be there. Which is strange since the father and Jen haven't had much in the way of contact, any?, for fifteen years. Oh, and they a) are twins; b) have alternated having a relationship with Bean's mother - Maye.

That request from the title? Offered fairly early on (after a fuck ton of flashbacks) - Maye wants Bean to talk her father (who she, she being Bean, doesn't really know) into telling the father's sister, Aunt Jen, the 'big secret'. And, oh, maybe repair the rift that has developed between them.

And so the book shows this dysfunctional family over about a week or two while one is in the hospital slowly getting worse then better.

Family drama. Slice of life.

Oh, since I mentioned it (and I'd thought of saying it before I even wrote anything) - even thought the main character is smack dab in young adult/new adult zone, I say this book isn't that because new adult implies certain things not applicable here (an adult breaking free, trying to wrestle with the fact that they are, in fact, now an adult and have to act like it, support themselves - granted some people are 'forced' into that position when they still should be children, and others never reach this realization - Bean, in this case, is still in the 'I'm going to go party now, fuck being an adult' zone).

Right. I've mentioned it in passing but - there's a fuck ton of flashbacks here. Flaskbacks on flashbacks. And it isn't always easy to tell when they end, when a new one begins (before the old one ended) and stuff.

I've now read everything by this author, at least in book form released under this name (covering my bases, I am). An odd mix of books, most of which I was vaguely reluctant to try, then loved when I read them. Except for this book here. Oh no - I was super reluctant to read this one, it's the part where I didn't actually love the book once I tried it.

Rating: fuck if I know. um. 3

June 21 2017



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Warriors of the Heart by BadSquirrel

Warriors of the Heart
by BadSquirrel
Pages: 173
Date: December 2012
Publisher: Self
Series: None
URL: http://xenafiction.net/scrolls/badsquirrel_warriors_of_the_heart.html

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: August 17 2016

It is funny in it's way. One of the reasons I decided to try this book was because it involved an undercover police officer. More directly, because it involved said police officer operating undercover as a stripper.

And nearly the first scene, or around there, involved a lap dance by said undercover officer given to a woman. Who promptly orgasmed. One of those 'quickest to orgasm' type moments, eh?

Who knew, from that background, what I'd actually find when I continued reading? The two main characters, Rachel and Stevie, are probably my two favorite characters I've come across. There's family turmoil, religious turmoil, crime, passion, thrills and chills.

This might be the best family/religious/LGBT-related book I've read.

While reading I was thinking several thoughts, one of which is - why am I able to read this book for free? Other than a few mentions here or there of green eyes, I noticed nothing that would put either woman as being stamped from the mold of the two main women from Xena. Maybe Stevie and Rachel are modeled on some other couple?

There was one moment wherein I think the author or someone got confused (maybe it is I who got confused), but there is one moment when it appeared that Rachel, for one brief scene, had her name switch from Rachel to Teresa, to Rachel again. Other than that specific issue, this was a lot more polished than I'd have expected (granted I'm not talking about the formatting, that was annoying how scenes/etc, meshed together; while other scenes kept getting interupted by large blocks of text informing everyone the name of the book and the page number). Right, think I lost my focus there, I had meant to just note that I did not see anything specifically that would have kept this book from being published for pay.

Not sure which would have lead me to it quicker, free, published for pay, or published for free. *shrugs* No matter. I rather enjoyed the book.

August 17 2016

The Khyber Connection by Simon Hawke

The Khyber Connection
by Simon Hawke
Pages: 170
Date: October 15 2015 (originally 1986)
Publisher: Self (originally Ace)
Series: TimeWars (6th in series)

Review
Rating: 2.8 out of 5.0
Read: April 23 2016

In this sixth book in the series, we see the fight of the British to expand their empire in the Hindu Kush. Well, they are already there, more like we see an uprising that is religiously driven among the natives of the region against the British.

Into this scenario we have an actual parallel time line impose itself on evens, as opposed to past books that seemed to imply that parallel time-lines weren't possible - or at the very least, that if a time line split, 'it'd be the end of everything'. Well, apparently some of the weapons used by the time comandos packed a mighty punch. Most of which got sent along, vaguely magically, to some distant point. At least that's what they thought. Unbeknownst to them, the energy actually was being sent into a parallel time line - and killing millions. Naturally that time line, when it got the opportunity, launched an actual time war upon those knowingly or unknowingly kiling them.

An interesting enough book. Certain points seemed to have had odd moments of info dumps, which were both odd and unneeded. And then there was the case of Col. Priest for some reason being referred to as Major Priest. He was a Colonel in one or more previous books. A light Colonel, but still, not a Major. Makes me wonder if I've somehow drifted into some third time line.

Oh, and one last note - that whole business involving that Dr. Darkness guy? Quite annoying.

April 23 2016