One-Sentence Reviews: My 3rd Quarter 2022 Reads

Promoting Authors, Reading

Can she do it? Can Priscilla write 33 reviews using only one sentence each? Let’s find out!

Plotting for Murder by Tamra Baumann is your typical, cute cozy mystery, this time with a love story included, awww. KU.

The Box by Scott J Couturier combines contemplative passages with science fiction and horror to produce a collection of unique, dark short stories. ARC from publisher.

No One Can Help You by Ruth Anna Evans. This is a collection of emotional horror short stories featuring childhood and parental nightmares penned in Evans’ hypnotic prose. KU.

Relative Chaos by Kay Finch is a cozy mystery with multiple mysteries, crazy family dynamics, greed, danger, quirky characters, engaging plot… this one has it all! KU.

Don’t old clocks kinda give you goosebumps anyway?

“The Long Case Clock” by Ken Fry is an expertly penned short story of occult horror with an old clock as a prop and a horrible marriage as the true antagonist. Kindle.

Underworld Theater: 1972 by Eddie Generous is a splatterpunk horror collection cleverly framed in an overarching storyline. KU.

Great character names!

The Armadillo Files by Teagan Riordain Geneviene is a YA-to-adult fantasy in which Dilly and Fang (great character names!) time-travel to various historic locations while bombs, magic, and zany characters make this an enchanting and hilarious story. First serialized on Geneviene’s website and now a standalone available from Amazon.

Dead of Winter: Journey 14 by Teagan Riordain Geneviene. In the final installment of Geneviene’s serial fantasy novel, Emlyn (the main character) is still young, but we get a glimpse at her future and the satisfaction of seeing how far she’s come from the naive, oppressed child that she was in Journey 1. Kindle.

Lake Effect Murder by Lakota Grace. I loved this cozy mystery with its quirky characters, a fluffy cat, and substance. KU.

I’m gonna write a series!

Writing and Publishing a Book Series by Rayne Hall and Nicholas Rossis. The advice in this book applies to any genre (including nonfiction), includes marketing wisdom, and was persuasive enough to convince me to write a series. ARC from author.

Beautiful Atrocities by Ross Jeffery. It was hard for me to see through to the horror stories because of the overlying social messaging, but Jeffery can put together dark, engaging plots. KU.

You know me. I can read some scary sh– feces.

The Dawning by Ezekiel Kincaid. I can read some scary stuff, but this demon possession story by a former pastor frightened me so much that I won’t be reading the sequel! KU.

Wounds to Wishes by Chad Lutzke, John Boden, and Robert Ford. This anthology of three novellas is grief horror at its finest. ARCfrom publisher.

The Guild by S.C. Mendes is a novelette combining body horror and gluttony and religious nut-i-tude into one heck of an unnerving story! ARC from publisher.

West of Hell: Weird Western Horror Stories by James A. Moore, R.B. Wood, and Michael Burke. This “weird-Western” anthology contains three novellas that are more splatterpunk-to-literary than weird, go figure. ARC from publisher.

Hedgehogs by Iseult Murphy. In this comedic horror novella about the hedgehog apocalypse (yes, you read that right), Watership Down meets Night of the Living Dead for a wonderfully absurd story with an underlying ecological message. Kindle.

Murphy’s descriptive phrases are lovely enough to print and frame.

“The Toymaker” by Iseult Murphy, a novelette in the anthology Chronicles of New Albion: Adventures in 1787 edited by C. Vandyke. Murphy manages to pack SO much emotion into so few words of this historical fantasy that I laughed, smiled, and cried before the ending came about, and her descriptive phrases are lovely enough to print and frame. KU.

Submarine-er by Jerry Pait is like an older veteran telling stories while everyone’s gathered around the dinner table, authentic and emotional. Kindle.

Code Red by R. Saint Claire. Humor and horror are hard to combine, but Saint Claire does it with charm and trope-y fun in this hilarious Hillbilly Gothic vampire novel. ARC from author.

Ravenscroft Hall by R. Saint Claire. Saint Claire nails the Gothic tropes, piles on the soap opera drama, and goes above-n-beyond for an enthralling, light-horror novel. KU.

Schoonover supernaturalizes the 1980 Mt. Saint Helens’ eruption.

“Beware Burning Snow” by Kristi Petersen Schoonover in The Sirens Call summer 2022 issue. Schoonover takes the 1980 Mt. Saint Helens’ eruption and supernaturalizes it for a sophisticated, dread-filled story that will leave you with chills. Free read from the magazine’s website.

“Bone Wishes” by Kristi Petersen Schoonover in the Dead Stars and Stone Arches anthology ed by C.R. Langille. In this Western cosmic horror story, palpable hopelessness and fresh imagery had me alternating between holding my breath and admiring the superb prose. KU.

Liminal Spaces by Deborah Sheldon. This is a collection of foreboding short stories that leave the reader unsettled and at times bewildered but still satisfied because of Sheldon’s deft wordsmithery. ARC from author.

“Orchards” by Katherine Silva. Silva uses artwork, poetry, and prose to present a beautiful but bizarre image of the afterlife of a particular character in her The Wild Oblivion series. Kindle.

“Billy, the Kid” by Ken Stark is a coming-of age zombie short story written with urgent prose and high action, producing a Middle-Grade vibe which I’m not sure was Stark’s intention. KU.

Gothic Erotica Humor? Yep, as only Strange can do!

Thane the Monster by K.M. Strange. Strange pens a Gothic erotica novella with her typical humor and mystery, and this time with monsters and witchcraft for a ridiculously entertaining read. KU.

An Endless Darkness: The Novellas by Steve Stred. This is a collection of six horror and science fiction novellas, one of which, Wound Upon Wound, would have made a perfect old-school Twilight Zone episode (and it brought me to tears). KU.

Broken World, book 3 in the Perfect World series, by Shari Sakurai. True-to-life characters and excellent world-building in this near-future dystopian novel make for an interesting as well as entertaining read. Kindle.

Owl Dance by David Lee Summers is firmly in the Western genre but with science fiction plot threads and lots of fantastic, cinematic-like action. Kindle.

Said the Crow by Ellen Taylor. Maybe it’s grief, maybe it’s gaslighting-abuse, maybe it’s folk horror, but reviewers can’t agree what Taylor’s Gothic horror novella is about because of all the ambiguity. (I think it’s grief.) KU.

“Fractals” by D.L. Tillery is a creature-feature novelette with a creepy pasta vibe and a pithy, self-aware conclusion. Kindle.

Revenge of Queen Rose by Valinora Troy. Troy takes creative characters (like magical rock people) and sets them off on an enchanted adventure sure to please any Middle-Grade fantasy fan. Kindle.

One Ampule of Terror by Carrie Weston is a vampire-and-magic mashup novella with underdog characters to root for, interesting props like a teddy bear that’s more than a teddy bear, and surprises around each corner, great fun! KU.

Don’t forget, my new novella Dog Meat is up for preorder! The release date is just around the corner: November 8, 2022!

And don’t forget next quarter I’m reading fellow bloggers’ books. I’ve got a good TBR lined up, but I can handle a couple more if you are an author with a book you’d like me to read-n-review.:-)

Today’s feature image by Debby Hudson on unsplash.

Published

91 thoughts on “One-Sentence Reviews: My 3rd Quarter 2022 Reads”

  1. Sounds like a fantastic month! I’m curious about a lot of these, especially Hedgehogs. West of Hell was a little uneven for me, but I would love to find time to check out more in that series.

    Liked by 2 people

  5. You’re amazing at this. “The Dawning” caught my attention – so scary that you won’t read the sequel! And “Hedgehogs” sounds like a hoot. I like your mix of pure scary and humorous reviews. Great to see some familiar authors and books here too. Thanks!

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  6. These are great, as always, Priscilla. I particularly enjoyed your comment about The Dawning being so scary you can’t read the rest. Coming from an author of horror, that must have been really scary! And how fun that you are going to undertake a series – great idea! Happy reading 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  7. I love reading your one sentence reviews! I always find some great sounding reads to add to my TBR list! Thanks so much for your review of Broken World too! I am so happy you enjoyed it!

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Definitely some unusual ones in here, Priscilla. I checked out several, but the one that appeals the most is Said the Crow.

    Submarine-er is already my Kindle and my MAMMOTH TBR!

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    1. The Dawning scared me as much as The Exorcist did. (I couldn’t read the sequel to The Exorcist, either!) Blatty’s book is written more skillfully, but The Dawning still kept me engaged. Beautiful Atrocities is getting a LOT of buzz. You might connect with it more than I did. Thank you for commenting, Robbie!

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    1. Thank you, Marie.:-) I think you would like “The Toymaker” (from the Chronicles of New Albion 1787 anthology) especially. It’s available through KU if you have it. I hope you’ve had a great weekend!

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  11. You’ve been busy, Priscilla! I’ve taken notes and I’m off to check a few of the stories. Good luck with the series, and I think a post with tips on how to write brief reviews would be a godsend (at least for me!)

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  12. That’s a long list!
    I think Hedgehogs caught my attention the most – I’ve never seen humor and horror combined before, and apocalyptical hedgehog is bizarre enough that it gave me pause.
    Btw, is your book in wide distribution or exclusive with amazon?

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  15. I haven’t read any of these, but the hedgehog one sounds like something that would’ve turned up over on the animals’ blog at some point, as they suffer frequent raids from the ninja hedgehogs. Maybe the poor things have just been forced to resort to raiding following the hedgepocalypse … 😂

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  16. I love your idea of short reviews, Priscilla! I was in Seattle when Mt. St. Helens erupted. Schoonover’s book sounds interesting to me. Harry Truman’s refusal to be evacuated and killed on the mountain was horrible and “romantic” at the same time. Beware Burning Snow by Schoonover sounds amazing to me. By the way, thank you for your wonderful review of The Winding Road. I’ll make sure to reblog your next post of book reviews. We’ve been packing our house for the last six weeks to prepare for selling, so I was absent from my blog. The first open house is tomorrow. We hope to move to Portland, Oregon, soon to be close to my daughter and the grandkids.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It’s wonderful to hear you get to move closer to your daughter and the grandkids! You’re welcome re my review of The Winding Road. It’s an excellent book, and it’ll get a one-sentence review at the end of this quarter.:-) I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend!

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      1. We’ve been going to see the grandkids every six weeks for many years, except during the pandemic. My husband wasn’t ready to move until a few months ago when his mom passed away. He now feels free of obligation. The grandkids are 5 and 2, cute ages, and he is attached to them. The moving is a big undertaking but we look forward to being close to them. Have a wonderful weekend, Priscilla!

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  18. Always enjoy seeing your mini reviews of a wealth of books! And had to add some to my tbr since I have kicked a lot of the horror I own off of my own this month. I hope writing a series goes well and it is good the books you read on the subject were insightful 🙂

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    1. I’m challenging myself this quarter to read a book from all the authors whose blogs I follow. It’s proving to be quite a diverse lot! Thanks for commenting, Olivia-Savannah.:-)

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