Christmas Unexpected
Genre: Science Fiction, Romance
Length: Novella
TBR Reviewer: Brutally Honest
Rating: 4 Stars – Recommended Read.
Heat: 4 Handcuffs – An Erotic Ride.

Kina is in a serious amount of trouble. First, someone puts contraband on her space ship making her the focus of an investigation, then someone attempts to shot her, throw in a car chase and a few
revelations, you have Christmas Unexpected.
 
I really liked Kina. She was a type of girl that wasn’t damsel in distress but not hardened to the core. Her past is tragic but she still had hope for the future. That is until this crazy set of events that sends her to Jake’s sexy arms. The heat is really smoking hot. The story would have easily been five stars but for the rushing. The entire book needed more scenic details. I would have loved to be transported into this new
futuristic world that the book takes place. There are some great action scenes that really get your blood pumping and a fantastic ending. 
 
Christmas unexpected was a great treat, any time of year.

Ripple in time Eternal by Mark Alders
Genre: M/M, Science Fiction
Length: Novel
TBR Reviewer: Brutally Honest
Rating: 5 stars – A Must Read.
Heat: 5 handcuffs – Orgasmic.

Wounded but alive, Zane wakes up to humans working with shadow eternals. Humans have volunteered to be hosts for the horrible entities. Now he and sexy Motac are on a mission to save the humans and
get rid of the eternals once and for all. Of course, things go wrong. Eternals are turned into crazy beasts that go cannibalistic. And there are only a few steps from Zane’s bare ass.
 
What an adventure! The action is fantastic and heart pounding. It had a lot of zombie like action that worked so well. The heat, as always was smoking hot. I really liked the twist and pace of the story. The eternals were given a might blow by the beloved team. There’s also a great wedding ceremony but I won’t say who’s. You’ll have to read to find out. 
 
A Ripple in Time Eternal is the third book in Diary of the Eternal War, a sexy, sci-fi adventure you should not miss! 

Spindown by George Wright  Padgett 
Genre: Sci-fi 
Length: novel
Reviewer: Mark
Rating: 5 Stars - A Must Read!

For over one hundred and fifty years, Mining Mega-Corporation Gensiid has maintained a tight grip over all the Galaxy’s energy resources, thanks to its Mining Operations on Jupiter’s largest moon, Gannymede. Clones, living out their whole, strictly controlled lives in a drug-induced stupor, have worked the mines for generations; extracting the most valuable substance in the Galaxy before
shipping it out into Deep Space to be sold on for tremendous profit. Except now, something has changed. All but a few planetary governments have been overthrown and the Galaxy is in chaos. Gensiid is no longer as powerful as it once was, though Prinox, the Artificial Intelligence that is responsible for controlling the Mining Operation, continues to carry on business as usual. When a group of Rebel Spacers infiltrate the Mining Operation with the intention of liberating the clones and granting them freedom, Prinox retaliates. They’re too late to stop a small group of the clones from becoming self-aware. For the first time ever, they begin questioning their very existence and what it means to be human as they flee for their very lives from the A.I that once protected them but now wishes to terminate them and make them “Dormant-dead” for no longer being “Productive”. Escaping through normally restricted levels of the Mining Operation in a bid to reach Prinox’s Central Control, the four clones begin forming a bond, a very troubled and conflicted relationship, as they learn to truly live for the first time ever......
 
When this book was sent to me, it was sent with some strong recommendations. The Executive Director of Publishing House, Grey Gecko, described this as being “one of the best Sci-fi novels I have ever read” and compared it to the works of  two authors who could well be described as the founding fathers of
modern Sci-fi; namely Arthur C. Clarke and Issac Asimov. That is a very strong recommendation by anyone's standards! By heaping all of this praise on the book, could Grey Gecko’s Executive Director be setting this up for a fall? By placing it so high on a pedestal before the first page had even been turned, could he be unwittingly and unintentionally lining this book up to fail?
 
Thankfully, the answer to both these questions is no! Spindown is every bit as awesome and enthralling as its recommendations would suggest! Set entirely on, and never quite leaving,  the Mining Operation based on Jupiter’s largest satellite. Spindown manages to be both original and highly unique in both style and content! It is exceptionally well written, its characters brilliantly conceived and Fowler 3805 is perfect as the hero of this tale, whose story we follow right through to its end. The story is action-packed with lots of tense moments thrown in and barely slows its pace for a moment throughout the whole of its journey. Inevitable questions are asked along the way and what makes this book even better is the way it makes you stop and think; to contemplate the nature of your OWN existence....
 
The future that Padgett has created here is a scarily believable, one where big Corporations are the ones that wield the highest power. Though we see little of that future outside of the Gannymede Moon Base
where this book is set, the reading between the lines paints a very frightening picture. Spindown is not the first book to feature clones in such a situation as is presented here, but it is certainly one of the first in a while to ask such pertinent questions as it does. Last year, C.K. Burch’s Icarus Void, which I also reviewed for TBR, was my favorite Sci-fi novel of 2012. Though 2013 has barely begun, I very much doubt that I will read any other Sci-fi this year that will be able to compare to Spindown! 
 
Spindown is amazing, it is thought provoking, emotional and mere words fail to describe how highly I recommend this debut novel. I predict George Wright Padgett will be an author to watch in the future.

Remembrance by Ravon Silvius
Genre: m/m, science fiction
Length: Novel
TBR Reviewer: TBR Reviewer
Rating: 5 Stars - A Must Read!
Heat: 2 Handcuffs - Flirty.

I don’t even know where to start. How do you begin to express the love of a dark and almost magical world such as this? Remembrance will forever be one of my favorite novels. It was so well written. The plot was so intricate and the romance was utterly beautiful.

Aldric is a solider of the war, left behind on a ravaged planet earth because he’s gay. He’s bruised of body and mind. He drifts from town to town aimlessly until he meets Daniel. Daniel is in need of a bodyguard as he tries to record everyone’s life here on the doomed earth so they will never be forgotten.

The characters were so...I’m actually at a loss for words. They were perfectly flawed is the best way to describe them. The world the author created was dark and twisted but so imaginative and real. I was hooked at the beginning and pulled through to the end. 

Remembrance is a novel that no one should pass up because it will touch your soul.

Negotiator of Worlds by Mark Alders
Genre: M/M, science Fiction
Length: Novel
TBR Reviewer: Brutally Honest
Rating: 3 stars – A good read.
Heat: 3 handcuffs – Blush Worthy.

Liam was born advanced and this is the story of his coming of age. Only he has a strange twist, he’d not like other young men. There are people trying to capture him calling him the Negotiator of Worlds and people he trusted are turning on him. Who can he trust? What exactly
is the negotiator of worlds?
 
I’m a big fan of Mark Alders. I’ve read several of his books and really enjoyed them. The way this was written was very interesting. There were first POV scenes as if he was talking in a journal. The beginning really drew me in. There was a seriously intriguing plot and of
course, really hot sex, but the sex was a bit lacking in this book. Less detail and more sex just for word count. Liam was a great character but I didn’t feel his connection with Toby and Paul. Maybe because of the lack of details? It made the story feel rushed. 
 
As the story progresses I was certainly getting into it. Liam in taking some sort of drug that turns him invisible and it makes the sex fantastic but it also takes the story up another level. What exactly is this drug? Who can he trust? People are betraying him left and right. It really worked and I found myself on the edge of my seat. However, things took a turn about three quarters of the way through the book. Suddenly Rogers and Tina and Jim were introduced. All strangers, no back-story, why would Liam trust them? It made no sense! Then a character from the beginning can suddenly read minds and there’s an alien ship and alien blood. Things went from amazing to strange to outlandish and eventually foolish. It’s as if the author was
combining a bunch of different stories. The characters became muddled and everything took off in different directions. By the last few chapters, I really lost interest in the book and Liam’s plight. 
 
Negotiator of Worlds had a stunning beginning and interesting plot. Despite this have only three stars DO NOT let it deter you from Mark Alders books. He is a talented writer and I will certainly be picking up more of his books to sink into!

Temperature : Bitter Cold
Author: Adam Santo
Genre: Horror Science Fiction
TBR Reviewers: Shyla
Length: 240
Rating: 5 stars - A Must Read.

The second book in the Temperature series takes on a much darker, sinister tone. I was chilled to the bone, riveted and curious about where Mr. Santos was taking me. Our hero Bo is forced to team up with a witch named Zemra to find Sally, our heroine who's been kidnapped in the
last book; I hate to be a spoiler kind of gal but that's a need to know basis for this review. Mysteries and legends prevalent in society are explained with the wit and whimsy I've come to expect from Santos as Bosnic and his partner trek to find someone who can give them the locations of Sally. 

Our heroine, newly raised zombie, Sally is having one hell of a bad year! She's just trying to wrap her mind around what she's become, only to find she has powers none have seen in millennium, be threatened with death and finally kidnapped by a religious group of zombie haters. The torture she endures at the hands of top psycho Demric is enough to turn your stomach. But it forces her to explore just what being a necromancer means. If you have images of vile , half decomposes bodies rising from their grave you're dead on and you know just what makes this book so bad ass. One thing I really love about Sally is she's a save yourself kind of girl. ( The best kind in my opinion.) Bo is there to help her get out of tight spots but he's almost a last resort/mentor. 

I could on and on about the plot and its wicked twists but that would be ruining. Suffice to say I highly recommend this dazzling jewel. Santos has a way with descriptions and distorting the everyday knowledge we take at face value that makes you devour each page.

Taking the Highway by  M.H.Mead 
Genre: Science Fiction 
Length: novel
TBR Reviewer: Mark
Rating: 4 stars - Recommended Read.

In future Detroit, there are rules  about taking the Highway. One of these is the Minimum Passenger Requirement that  sees drivers heavily fined for driving vehicles under capacity. This is where  the Fourths come in. Essentially paid Hitchhikers, for a negotiable fee they  will
ride in your car with you and fill the vacancy in your carpool, enabling  you to take the Highway rather than driving the longer side streets. It has  become a legitimate profession but is not without its risks. Because someone has  begun killing Fourths...
  
This was a great Sci-fi novel that was an absolutely great read from start to finish! Set in a highly realistic and believable future only a stone's throw away from the present, the book is part of a larger series based in a future version of Detroit. The books can be read either in order or separately and feature some cross-over of characters and events but not enough to spoil or hinder your enjoyment. There is nothing here that is particularly ground-breaking but then there doesn’t need to be! This particular book in the series was both original, individual and creative and came as a refreshing change in a Genre that too often can feel overly swamped by depressing visions of  a grim, dystopian future. What the authors set out here to achieve, and succeed in doing I might add, is to create an alternative vision; one that is still breath-taking  but, at the same time, a bit more positive and believable set just a few years  away from where we are now.
 
The story moves along quickly at a good pace and is populated with realistic and credible characters that the reader can readily associate with. It is a bit of an easy read but if you are looking for something light that is also lots of fun, you could certainly do a lot worse! As much a clever Crime thriller as it is Sci-fi, this novel highly impressed me and  left me keen to read more by the same author. Taking The Highway comes highly recommended from me and M.H. Mead certainly looks like an author to watch  out for in the future for enjoyable, uncomplicated, good quality Sci-fi!

The path of the fallen by Dan  O’brien 
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: novel
Reviewer: Mark
Rating: 2 Stars - Had potential but we didn't like it.

The world as we know it is no more.  Generations have passed and many centuries into our future, only a few remnants  of humanity remain, secreted in a frozen and inhospitable Tundra. E’Malkai  Armen is our last hope as he sets off  on a pilgrimage that could be the last
chance for victory against an onslaught  of unstoppable evil....

 
Path of the fallen is like an amalgamation of  several different Sci-fi stories and concepts that seems to find its main source influence in the likes of Frank Herbert’s Dune and Ian M. Bank’s  Culture series, with a little bit or lots of other ideas thrown into the mix for good measure. 
That is not to say this isn’t original in its own way because it is. It is just that anyone of a certain age who has been reading Sci-fi for a long time now will recognize some of the authors inspiration for this story and may feel a little that they have seen similar things done before. And done better....
  
 In this book, there was heavy, storming Sci-fi  action set against a vast villainous intelligence that the odds say can’t be beat, coupled with long often unpronounceable names and varying points of view. I was  slightly less impressed and though I kind of liked the direction this story eventually takes, I did find it a bit slow to start and had trouble really getting to grips with the universe O’Brien had created here very early on. You are kind of thrown into E’Malkai’s world a little, sink-or-swim style and it took me a few chapters to really work out who was who and what was going  on.
 
To say I enjoyed this book would be  overstating my experience slightly. I found it okay but never really got over my initial problems getting to proper grips with the plot. This kind of tainted the  rest of my reading and I did find myself struggling a little to maintain my interest in parts. That said, I found this okay as far as heavy Sci-fi goes but no more than average at best.

Timewarp Inc by Cotton.E.Davis
Genre: Sci-fi
Length: novel
TBR Reviewer: Mark
Rating: 5 Stars - A Must Read!

Mike Garvin is a centurion fighting in Gaul alongside Caesar and his mighty legions in 51       B.C. But Mike is also a time traveler from the Twenty-First Century who has spent the last nine years sending back secret footage of his exploits to the future. He thought he was there for the duration and was destined to live out his days as a Roman Soldier. He was wrong.....
 
Following a visit from a  fellow traveler, Mike finds himself returning to the future to be briefed on his next assignment. Middle Eastern terrorists have managed to obtain  access to time travel equipment and plan to use it to go back and  assassinate Christ. Garvin has been given the task of stopping them before the future can be changed irrevocably.
 
Gwen is a Historian and expert on Ancient Aramaic, the language spoken at that time in Nazareth. It is her job to brief him in the local dialect and get him up to speed on  speaking the native language but, somewhere along the way, the pair begin to fall in love. When Mike is sent
back in time again, their relationship is tested to the limits ~ not least because Gwen is a believer and Mike an agnostic. But even Mike starts to question his beliefs when he finally       meets the man himself.....
 
If there is one thing I love more than books about Zombies, it’s stories about time travel. The    idea fascinates me that we might travel back to the days of our ancient ancestors and see first-hand how they might have lived. And if there is one period of time that particularly interests me, then it would have to be the days of The Roman Empire. Since visiting Rome on my honeymoon many years back, and even before then if I’m honest, I have always been      
fascinated with the Romans and the whole era in which they lived. This book then sounded absolutely ideal for me and, upon receiving it for  review, I became positively excited about the thought of reading it!
 
Thankfully, my anticipation was rewarded. This was an engrossing read that was very well  written and absolutely brilliantly conceived! The whole complexities of time travel are suitably glossed over so that readers are given a basic idea of how it all works without getting too bogged down in technicalities and the lead characters wonderfully fleshed out and made
believable within moments of introduction. Without giving anything away, the whole issue of    Jesus’s divinity is suitably addressed but never wholly confirmed or denied throughout and though there is much evidence that he is more than  he appears to be, this is never what the book is about. The main crux of this novel addresses the issues and concerns, the inevitable
problems that can arise when you start messing around with time!
 
I loved the ending to this book and, though it feels as though this particular chapter has been  
closed, it will be interesting to see where the author goes from here as  it appears he plans more books in the series. I, for one, would certainly be interested in reading the further adventures of Timewarp Inc and look forward to future entries in the series! From the initial cover art, I was a tad worried that this might just be a bit of a turkey but, I am pleased to report, the perfect opposite is true instead! I enjoyed this much more than I expected to and  found it an insightful and enjoyable read that almost made me feel as though I had been transported back in time myself!

Supercritical by Shawn Kupfer
Genre: Science Fiction
Length:- Novel
TBR Reviewer: Kim
Rating: 4 Stars - Recommended Read.

This is the story of Nick Morrow. He is an Asian American lieutenant in charge of 47 Echo. Set in the future, the units are made up of convicts. Due to the Convict Conscript Act, prisoners are used almost as human shields to the regular forces. To Nick, his unit are his friends and he will guard them with his life. China is at war with the US and now Nick and his rag tag unit are being sent on an almost suicide mission to Shanghai. Can he complete the objective and get
everyone out alive or is everyone doomed?

This was a great, action filled story. I loved the characters and I felt for them, always being sent on suicide missions as they were seen as being expendable. The pace was fast and the action unrelenting. The story itself was an interesting one, set in the future. It was a future however that anyone could recognise (apart from the China/Russia war with the US!). The characters were believable, and Nick stood out as the hero, who, having paid his dues, had earned the right to lead his team as a regular Marine. I enjoyed this very much.

GIVEAWAY: 2 winners get a copy of both his books - Supercritical and 47 Echo. Comment below to enter!