Tag: Coming of Age Y/A

  • EDEN’S ORE: REVELATIONS by B. V. Bayly

    EDEN’S ORE: REVELATIONS by B. V. Bayly

    An action-packed, dystopian science fiction series, describing a near-future, energy-starved world saved by the discovery of a crystalline ore with powerful properties. Creating the perfect Eden, however, comes with unexpected and dangerous consequences!

    B.V. Bayly has crafted an action-packed story full of mystery and suspense in a near-future, dystopian world. The author has presented an intriguing premise in which an Eden-like Utopian civilization has been created by using an all-powerful ore that replaces depleted energy reserves. However, Eden is an oasis on a planet where many of its inhabitants exist in brutal and barbaric times; human life has little value and savagery runs rampant.

    The core of Eden’s government is the Church of Humanity. The Patriarchs, the Church’s leadership, are under increasing pressure from several outside factions who are actively trying to tear apart or infiltrate them. One of the strongest and most dangerous factions is the corrupt and insanely violent Horsemen.

    As Revelations – Book 2 in the series – begins, Commander Nate Reinhart of The Church of Humanity must come to terms with his own guilt over watching one of his best men, Gabriel, the hero from Book 1, get caught in one the largest explosions the commander has ever witnessed.  The explosion happened at a weapons facility while Gabriel attempted to detonate a shard of black ore.

    Now, Nate puts his entire team at risk of attack from the enemy to rescue Gabriel. When they extract Gabriel from the crater caused by the blast, it is still underdetermined if he is alive or dead. As Nate’s team takes Gabriel into the forest for cover, they come upon the remnants of a second team of wounded soldiers who had been stationed outside the weapons facility. One of the few remaining soldiers reveals to Nate that they’ve been attacked by two squads from their own platoon. Soldiers in their own ranks may have betrayed them, becoming their most dangerous enemies.

    Given Nate’s growing misgivings from his own dealings with the Church, he must now face the fact that he no longer has any confidence in the Church leaders and suspects that their motives aren’t to be trusted. Gabriel may be in mortal danger and unable to protect himself in his current, comatose state. Nate decides to let the Church leaders believe that Gabriel is dead, turning to his most trusted allies for help in healing and protecting the young man.

    As events continue to unfold, Nate realizes that The Horsemen have succeeded in spreading their corruption, infiltrating the leaders of the Church and weakening the Patriarchs. As he waits for Gabriel to awaken, Nate must choose whom he can trust as he battles against the forces of good and evil. Only the Spheres, with their secret sanctuaries and strong desire for independence, can offer an alliance with Nate in this battle for the hearts and souls of humankind. Nate must lead his team into the bowels of the dark and uncivilized zones to find the source of the Horsemen’s power.

    Readers will be drawn into the Eden’s Ore series with its engaging characters, complex relationships, nonstop action, and its strange dystopian world with interesting and powerful new twists.

    Reviewer’s Note: Reading Eden’s Ore: Revelations is like traveling back to a futuristic world to visit old friends and make new ones. I recommend that readers begin with Eden’s Ore: Secrets, the first in this compelling top shelf series, and have Book Two close at hand for immediate immersion into the sequel.

  • THE WATCHER by Lisa Voisin

    THE WATCHER by Lisa Voisin

    Mia Crawford is a vibrant, outgoing high school student in West Seattle with a close circle of friends. She shares most things in her life with them, but not the strange occurrences that keep her guessing her own sanity: cloudy dog-like creatures with menacing red eyes that chase her, voices cloaked in static, flickering lights, and even real people no one else sees. Mia’s family isn’t around much – Mom works a lot, her dad has a different life out of state, and her brother is away at college. She feels everything with deep intensity, as the smallest events trigger emotional responses landing on both ends of the spectrum.

    Two new boys arrive at her high school this year: the first is mysterious Michael, who experienced death after an accident but came back. He is beautiful, strong, and seems to show an interest in Mia, always showing up at just the right time. She quickly develops strong affections for him, but he does not reciprocate her feelings. Instead, he pushes her away, disappointing and confounding her, giving rise to her insecurities.

    Damiel, the other new boy, shows up dashing and debonair on his vintage motorcycle. All the girls swoon under his attention, and he pursues Mia persistently. Michael warns her to stay away from him, and she really doesn’t like Damiel. However, she is inexplicably drawn to him, in spite of being in love with Michael.

    Mia loves the study of ancient civilizations and literature. She lives out her painful crush through a classroom reading of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Sometimes she has visions of another world, seeing at times a meadow, a loom, and large birds circling in a fight to the death. She also knows she has some kind of connection with Michael, and that he and Damiel have a history. But nothing could prepare her for knowing the truth of that history, and her role in it.

    Things become heated when Michael and Damiel confront each other in an other-worldly fight over Mia. When she finally discovers the truth, it sends her on a soul-searching journey of love and redemption, and into a supernatural battle of good and evil, involving angels and demons.

    Voisin transports us visually into Mia’s world with rich details, from places as mundane as a wall locker in a school corridor, to a thrilling winged flight high above the city. We ache with Mia for Michael’s touch when he is near, and feel Michael’s pain for resisting.

    The mundanity of high school life and petty spats gives way to an other-worldly realm with life and death significance. Mia and Michael have a tragic past that occurred before recorded history, resulting in Mia’s early death and Michael’s fall from his fold into hell and guilt-ridden remorse. Only Mia’s strength can save them in this lifetime; is she up to the task?

    The author draws from principles of many different sources, from the Bible and the Quran to Tarot cards, giving none any greater importance than the others, and without judgment.  The Watcher will keep you guessing, and feeling, and leave you with great hope.

     The Watcher by Lisa Voisin was awarded the Grand Prize Award for Paranormal Novels, a division of Chanticleer Reviews Novel Competitions.

  • BLACK CROW WHITE LIE by Candi Sary

    BLACK CROW WHITE LIE by Candi Sary

    After years of moving from motel to motel with his alcoholic mother, Carson Calley has grown old enough to start questioning his gypsy life. The stories he’s been told – father died a war hero, a past life as a medicine man – slowly unravel as the 13-year-old begins to spread his wings.

    However, of all his mother’s stories (I’d wouldn’t lie,” she assures him, “the gods … plant things in my head”), Carson knew one was true – he did possess the gift of healing. Since his earliest days, his hands would fill with heat and then emit tiny “stars” that soothe his mother’s tortured heart and frequent hangovers. Yet despite this power, Carson also experienced rages that he can’t control, an anger seated in his mother’s frequent long absences. To distract himself, he grabs his skateboard and wanders the streets of Hollywood.

    Author Sary adroitly captures the real Hollywood: streetwalkers, grit and grime, tattoo parlors and head shops and gangs of idle youth. She also portrays its denizens free of stereotype and with a lyric eye: Carson’s mother “had a worn-out kind of beauty – like a thirsty flower.” Of Carson’s few friends, tattoo artist Faris “looked like a live page from a comic book,” while Casper, the albino owner of a local head shop, “looked like he had a light bulb inside of him.”

    Faris gives Carson gruff, fatherly advice, world-weary insight into his mother’s issues and stories, and the boy’s first tattoo: a small black crow to remind him of his father, who, he’s told, killed a crow with his bare hands. Casper offers something else: when Carson heals his deaf ear, the head shop proprietor sets up a back room where the boy can practice healing.

    Accepting her son’s readiness to heal, his mother arranges for him to work with a mentor: Lolo, a healer and an actress. Unfortunately, Lolo digs a little too deep into her part. She puts the idea of raising the dead into the teen’s mind, and he immediately decides to fly to Washington, D.C., and bring his father back to life. He needs to earn some money first, though, so in the meantime, he heals people during the day and skateboards with a gang of stoner kids at night. At school, a classmate, Rose, torments his heart. It’s a tenuous existence, but it’s all life offers Carson.

    And it doesn’t last. His mother’s drinking increases as her longtime boyfriend, Jackson, toys with her heart. When she goes into rehab, Carson questions the truth of all she’s told him. Lies begin to unravel. Carson makes the trip to D.C.’s Cemetery of Heroes, but what he finds is more painful truth, followed by an even greater shock when he returns home. Carson’s faith in all he knows is shaken to the core. Can the healer heal his own heart?

    A writer with a casual but empathetic voice, Sary succeeds in portraying teen angst without melodrama, in depicting compassion without sentimentality, and in creating a world of characters on the margins of society whose depth and complexity outshine any Hollywood hero.

    Black Crow White Lie by Candi Sary earned a First In Category position in the highly competitive Dante Rossetti Awards for Young Adult Fiction, a division of Chanticleer Reviews International Writing Competitions.

  • The Dante Rossetti Awards 2014 for Young Adult Novels – Official Finalist List

    Dante Rossetti Awards for YA FictionThe Dante Rossetti Awards recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of  Young Adult, New Adult, and Tween Novels. The Rossetti Awards is a division of Chanticleer International Blue Ribbon Awards Writing Competitions.

    More than $25,000.00 dollars worth of cash and prizes will be awarded to Chanticleer Book Reviews 2014 writing competition winners!

     

    The Dante Rossetti Awards FIRST IN CATEGORY nine sub-genres are:  Contemporary, Fantasy/Steampunk/SciFi, Romance, Historical, Inspirational, Dystopian/Edgy/Urban, Mystery/Thriller/Suspense, Lighthearted/Humorous, New Adult, and Tween.

    The Official Listing of Finalists  of the Dante Rossetti Awards 2014 Young Adult Novel Competition:

    •  Song Magick by Elizabeth Hamill
    • An Outcast State by Scott Smith
    • The Labyrinth Wall by Emilyann Girdner
    • Student Bodyguard for Hire by Callie James
    • The Black Shadow by Ben Hutchins
    • Skin Deep by Kate Pawson Studer
    • Just Going by Jianna Higgins
    • Crazy Like Mom by Joanna Bowman Woods
    • Scargirl by Eliza Mann
    • Fruit of Misfortune; Creatura Book 2 by Nely Cab
    • A Slow Climb Up the Mountain by Susan Cornfield Dugan
    • Project Aquarius by Colleen Jordan
    • The ARK Brothers by James B. Hoke
    • Odette Speex – Time Traitors by Padgett Lively
    • Unearthed by Karen Seymour
    • Kerry’s Shattered Heart by Samantha Giles
    • Ice Massacre by Tiana Warner
    • The Curse of the Crystal Kuatzin by Jan H. Landsberg
    • The Obsidian Dagger by Brad A. LaMar
    • The Sage Wind Blows Cold by Clint Hollingsworth
    • In the Rock by Mark Facciani
    • Orbit by Leigh Hellman
    • Ambrosia Chronicles, the Discovery by K. C. Simos
    • Chrissie’s Run by S. A. Mahan
    • Mark of the Remaker  by Ian Yamagata
    • Elainraigh: The Vow by S. A. Hunter
    • The Star Catcher by Stephanie Keyes
    • Kharishma by Jenny L. R. Nay
    • Riding with Crazy Horse by PJ Martin
    • Strega by Karen Monahan Fernandes
    • Ruth 66 by Elizabeth Barlo
    • The Sage of the Heroine by Bobbie Groth
    • The Diamond of Talakmoon by S. E. Burt
    • In the Blink of an Eye by Linda L. Creel
    • Solomon’s Lake by Jenny Clark
    • Scriptors by Shannon Crolly
    • The Curse of the Thrax by Mark Murphy
    • Discovering Daniel by Nadine Christian
    • The Dragon Within by Cindy Lyle
    • The Escape of Princess Madeline by Kirstin Pulioff
    • The Flying Burgowski by Gretchen K. Wing
    • Twist by Roni Teson
    • Once Upon a Road Trip by Angela N. Blount
    • Scattered Links by M. Weidenbenner
    • Sydney West by Rebecca McKinsey
    • Legacy, the Biodome Chronicles by Jesikah Sundin
    • Project Aquarius by Colleen Jordan
    • Orbit by Leigh Hellman
    • Mischief and Mayhem by Monte French
    • Solomon’s Lake by Jenny Clark
    • Dreams of a Red Horizon by Chris Pawlukiewicz

     

    Finalists will continue on to compete for a first place category win in their sub-genre, and then for the overall grand prize of the 2014 Dante Rossetti Awards. First place category winners will receive an award package including a complimentary book review, digital award badges, shelf talkers, book stickers, and more.

     We are now accepting submissions into the Dante Rossetti Awards 2015 for YA Novels. Deadline is April 30, 2015. 

    More than $30,000 worth of cash and prizes will be awarded to the Chanticleer Novel Writing Competition winners! Nine genres to enter your novels and compete on an international level.

  • New YA RACE WITH DANGER from Award Winning Pamela Beason

    New YA RACE WITH DANGER from Award Winning Pamela Beason

    Race with DangerIntroducing an excellent new Young Adult Trilogy – Run for Your Life by Pamela Beason, a Chanticleer Grand Prize Winner.  “Tanzania Grey is running for her life and never have the stakes been higher. Readers’ hearts will be racing as the story twists and turns and the suspense rapidly intensifies in Race with Danger.” Download it now at the introductory special of $2.99 at Amazon  and at Barnes  & Noble Nook Store for $2.99.

  • An Editorial Review of “I, James” by Mike Hartner

    An Editorial Review of “I, James” by Mike Hartner

    James Crofter is born in Spain in the early hours of September 21, 1613. Rosalind Caufield is born the same day and same time in London. Their lives, families, and fortunes will forever be intertwined.

    I, James, is the second book in Mike Hartner’s historical young adult saga, a series designed to flow from the 16th century to the present time. It is a story of adventure, hardships, survival, heroics, and sweet romance.

    When Rosalind is just 10 years old, she and her mother are cast out of the family home. Her grandparents have died and her father is away at sea. Rosalind can’t understand how family can turn against family. She and her mother are shipped to Sarat, India, presumably to be met by her father.  Her mother dies and her father cannot be found. Rosalind, now alone in a strange city, is grabbed and trained, readied to be sold as a slave. Instead, her trainer decides to befriend her; she is put on a trade ship where she has some protection; she dresses as a boy and calls herself Sal. She becomes a sailor, a cook, a fighter, growing from child to young woman.

    James is a child of privilege, a prince, the second son of Walter, King of Northern Spain. On his eleventh birthday, James is snatched from his family, transported to Africa, and sold into slavery. James never gives up on the thought of taking revenge the man who took him from his home and made him a slave.

    Hartner takes us on the journey of James and Rosalind who are from these very different walks of life at the time of who rules the sea rules the world. Their lives and stories become entwined as they struggle with pirates, slaves and slavers, cruel masters, and just down-right evil bad guys as they each find their way with the help of compassionate friends, determination, hard work, and quick thinking. It is a book that will transport you back to the time of your childhood daydreams of faraway places and distant times.

    I, James is a captivating tale of survival, of helping others, of not letting others discourage you, and of never giving up hope. Fascinating historical details are woven throughout this classic coming-of-age story adding to its intrigue. Readers will find themselves rooting for Hartner’s feisty and resourceful protagonists. However, I, James, is told in a matter-of-fact tone throughout; the harshness and cruelty of the time period comes through in all its bleakness. During James’ time working on the tobacco plantation, he is whipped many times. James is reminded of his father’s stories but with fuller understanding of the hardships his father actually endured. As a small boy, James enjoyed his father’s stories of adventure, never expecting to experience such things for himself.

     I, James may be categorized as a middle school – young adult novel, but if you enjoy classic adventure stories, it will draw you in, no matter your age. You’ll also want to read the first volume in the series, I, Walter, and watch for upcoming books with new characters and new adventures in Mike Hartner’s Eternity series. Highly recommended.

  • An Editorial Review of “Ray Ryan” by Aiden Riley

    An Editorial Review of “Ray Ryan” by Aiden Riley

    An engaging contemporary coming of age story, Ray Ryan by Aiden Riley, follows and is narrated by the main character, Ray. The writing style is quite conversational and very British in its syntax. As the novel progresses through Ray’s life from childhood to mid-30s, the reader will learn of Ray’s challenges and fears, hopes and dreams that create the choices he must make to find his own way.

    The reader is first introduced to Ray in the year 1994 when he is still in grade school. Riley drops the reader right into the middle of Ray’s life and loves: his mother, Janet, his best friend, Kevin, and his passion for writing. While the love of writing takes a backseat for most of the story, Ray’s relationships, especially with his mother and best friend become central to the novel.

    Flash forward four years:  Ray is now in secondary school, scared out of his wits because not only is his new school enormous and intimidating, but he is still one of the smallest students around. Ray doesn’t let his size dictate passiveness however, and quickly learns that standing up for himself will not only get him left alone a bit, it also feels imperative. For the first time, Ray is not in class with his best friend Kevin, which takes him out of his comfort zone. The first day in class he meets a new friend, Anna, and makes a new enemy.

    The novel continues through Ray’s life and, as he gets older, life becomes simultaneously more rewarding and more challenging. For every bit of happiness there seems to be a bit of sadness or stress to maintain a balance. Ray falls in love. His father makes a reappearance in his life, and not for the better. His mother gives birth to his little sister. His friends get involved in drugs and face some hard times.

    When tragedy strikes unexpectedly, Ray must learn to cope with his new reality. The suddenness of the events may be a bit jarring for the reader, but do ring true to life and how tragedy occurs in the real world. Ray’s life changes forever and, like all of us who have experienced hardship, he runs through a gamut of emotions and comes out the other end the same, but different.

    Three years later, now in 2008, Ray’s life seems to be taking a new path when old relationships and feelings reappear. Ray must once again navigate tragedy, and in so doing, discovers what is truly meaningful to him. Events toward the end of the novel concerning the reappearance of Ray’s father may take the reader out of the story due to their inconsistency with the flavor of the rest of the novel.

    Readers should be prepared for traumatic and dramatic events of the non-cozy type (psychologically disturbing events).  These jarring events reflect vividly circumstances that some people experience in real life and add to the novel’s overall realistic and true-to-life tone. This is a brief hiccup however, as the conclusion of the novel is both satisfying and returns to the previously established voice and feel of a contemporary literary novel.

    Ray Ryan by Aiden Riley is a contemporary genre blending novel that does not follow a typical plot based structure. Rather each section highlights the important, life changing, and character building moments that the main character experiences. Riley’s characters are relate-able and authentic. There are a few of Ray’s cohorts with whom readers may find themselves desiring to shake some sense into—if only they could. At the same time, they will find themselves urging Ray on to follow his dream.

    Ray Ryan is a solid debut novel by Aiden Riley, an engaging contemporary coming-of-age story.

  • An Editorial Review of “The Starlight Fortress” by Fiona Rawsontile

    An Editorial Review of “The Starlight Fortress” by Fiona Rawsontile

    Courage, love, and loyalty are counterpoised with intrigue, hatred, and betrayal—in settings ranging from intimate dinners to royal banquets, seaside walks to interplanetary voyages and galactic space battles in this highly entertaining and fast moving debut novel by Fiona Rawonstile: The Starlight Fortress.

    After reluctantly turning the last page of this mesmerizing and unpredictable tale of love, life, and war, I looked out my window to see the solid shape of a bright quarter moon and the twinkle of the “Evening Star” that is Venus against a deep azure sky. I wished I could see further into the galaxy and find the Renaisun solar systems, with their widely differing planets, countries, and cities—but of course they don’t exist (yet?) except in the pages of The Starlight Fortress.

    Spectacular battles in the Stony Band of asteroids, the interstellar pathways, and even on-the- ground maneuvers provide plenty of fast-paced military action, conducted with imaginative space-age techniques, weapons, and ships of all shapes and sizes—the most spectacular being the RA allied forces’ enormous five-armed Starlight Fortress, coveted by Emperor Pompey. Artfully interwoven with the military battles are the interpersonal relations among the royals, the military officers, and ordinary citizens.

    Despite their future sci-fi existence in the universe, Rawsontile’s characters and their language, lifestyles (with a few tweaks), hopes, and desires—as well as their darker natures of envy, jealousy, hate, prejudice, and war—will resonate with readers. The young Queen Geneva of Sunphere, the primary country on the RA-4 planet of the Renaisun A system, is unlike any queen, past or present, on Earth. Elevated to her post after the untimely death of her father, she would rather go shopping on one of the moon malls with her friends than rule the country, but duty calls and the stakes are high.

    Geneva may be queen, but her elders question her judgment when she selects as her military assistant not an experienced officer, but Commander Sterling Presley, on the basis of a speech he delivered at his graduation from Sunphere’s Space Force Academy just four years earlier.  However, they are betting that age isn’t everything when it comes to creating new battle strategies.

    Sometimes singly, and sometimes together, Geneva, with her chubby cheeks, and Sterling, resembling a junior college professor, face some hard work if they are to earn the respect of Sunphere’s citizens and Space Force—not to mention that of their allies of Renaisun A, as well as their enemy Emperor Pompey with his colonial forces of Renaisun B.

    Joining Geneva and Sterling is a full cast of colorful, multifaceted characters—Sir Lloyd, Geneva’s uncle and Secretary of Defense; the handsome, aristocratic, young officer Charlie Swinburne of Rainprus; Prince Edwards of the neutral Renaisun C, who could be a good ally; military diamond-in-the-rough; and more, all artfully crafted by Rawsontile.

    Dangerous, sticky, and amorous situations intensify as hostilities mount and battle fleets are amassed. Be sure to strap in, hang on tightly, and enjoy Rawsontile’s exhilarating ride into the future. This reviewer really didn’t want the story to end. Please, Fiona, give us a sequel to The Starlight Fortress! 

  • An Editorial Review of “Artemis Rising” by Cheri Lasota

    Rendered with a lush and lyrical touch, this Y/A historical fantasy depicts the romantic yearnings of two innocent lovers, both dedicated to and trapped by the belief that they embody tragic figures from myth and legend.

    Born of a pagan mother and a strict Catholic father, fifteen-year-old Eva Maré learns the hard way that when the two religions clash, catastrophic results follow. Aboard a ship bound for the Azores, Eva undertakes a ritual to transfer the role of Arethusa, a sea nymph dedicated to Artemis, from mother to daughter. But instead of the Goddess’s blessing, hell’s own fury is unleashed. The ship crashes into the volcanic face of Ilhéu das Cabras, though not before Diogo Cheia, a marquês’s son possessed by his desire for Eva, displays his wrath over her rejection.

    Eva, now Arethusa, regains consciousness on the Azorean island of Terceira, surrounded by the flotsam of the shipwreck that took the lives of her parents and nearly everyone else on board. Badly wounded and rendered mute by an act of violence she cannot remember, she is rescued by a beautiful young man, who takes her to the orphanage in Angra do Heroísmo, where he lives. There Arethusa is healed, but it won’t be long before she discovers Diogo survived as well.

    Thus begins the ages-old tale of two men fighting over the woman they both love. But this is no ordinary triangle: Diogo believes himself heir to the role of Alpheus, the river god to whom, in Greek mythology, Arethusa is bound for eternity. To complicate matters, Tristão Vazante, Arethusa’s rescuer, had been led to believe he is the embodiment of the Cornish knight Tristan and that Arethusa is his Isolde.

    This well-written and crisply paced novel mixes the two myths: one Greek, the other of the canon of Arthurian literature. It’s possible the author intended the two disparate myths to represent the clash between paganism and Christianity—and the way the main characters eventually reconcile their religious conflicts—but one is distorted to emphasize evil, while the other is less a Christian morality play than a medieval tale of courtly love.

    However, the sweetly chaste passion of Tristan and Arethusa carries the day, along with the Azorean setting, with its seaports and beaches, caves and cities, all wonderfully evoked and enhanced by a sprinkling of Portuguese expressions. An early scene, when Arethusa dreams between life and death after the shipwreck, is a sensory feast. The inevitable showdown between Arethusa’s two suitors challenges the traditional endings of the two myths in a way that is as anticipated as it is satisfying. Readers who enjoy being swept away in romantic fantasy will not be disappointed.

    Artemis Rising by Cheri Lasota was awarded First Place in the Mythological Category, The Cygnus Awards 2013. The Cygnus Awards is a division of Chanticleer Book Reviews Blue Ribbon Writing Competitions.

  • “I, Walter” by Mike Hartner

    “I, Walter” by Mike Hartner

    I, Walter  is a captivating story of valor and chivalry. This classic grand adventure takes you on the high seas and to exotic ports-of-call during the Elizabethan era when a boy acknowledges that he must change his stars and expand his horizons if he is to live the life that he wants to live–one that is quite different than the one into which he was born.

    The narrator is Walter, who at the age of 67 years and possibly dying of malaria – in sixteenth century England- begins his tale of how he, like other boys of that era  who lacked social standing, were “earning coin” as soon as they could be put to work to earn money for their family and find food, too.

    After his older brother suddenly leaves home without notice, Walter does his best to help his family. But in doing so, he learns the reality of what life has in store for him if he continues down the same path as his father, whom he considers lethargic. He has often felt as if he was born into the wrong family. He decides that he must leave his family (now living in a hovel near London) or succumb to a disappointing life.  He decides to take a chance to change his stars. He finds himself in Bristol, where he is commandeered into the Royal Merchant Marines as a lowly sailor. It was then and there that his adventures began.

    Young Walter learns how to use the stars to steer the way the ancient mariners did, but he also is taught how to work with the Davis Quadrant, the latest advancement in navigational technology at that time. Meanwhile, the crusty old salts taught him the survival skills that he would need to survive at sea; they took a special interest that the boy could hold his own if their ship was boarded. They teach the young boy to fight with knives, swords, muskets, and cannons. Trading merchant ships, like the one that Walter served on, were hunted by pirates who are always plying the waters in search of booty–making “sayling” a most dangerous endeavor.

    Walter narrates his encounters with the scoundrels in a way that makes us feel as if we need to dodge a cutlass or thrust a sword in the heat of a battle. Walter cannot seem to escape the threat of peril even on dry land. A mysterious thin man with a hat pulled down over one eye seems to be following him. And even more dangerous to Walter, he falls in love with the beautiful, but to his heart, unattainable Marie.

    Walter engages us with tales of his sea adventures that took him to strange lands and introduced him to new trading goods such as sugar and tobacco along with excellent new wines and exotic spices. As we read Walter’s memories, we smell the odors and aromas of foreign markets. We feel his strength and confidence building as he develops into a valiant, but humble, young man.

    However, all is not glory and honor. Hartner, the author, also shares the brutishness and indifference of the times in the telling of  I, Walter. The story nuances mature as Walter ages. We experience the travails of life at sea, the treacheries of traveling by land, the comforts of a familiar pub, and love’s longing.

    This action packed novel is a tale of noble innocence with a most refreshing, charming slant. Romance, adventures, mysteries, rescues, deceptions, along with vivid descriptions make this novel an enjoyable and inspirational read that will leave you wanting more. This reviewer is happy to know that I, Walter is the first of the series from Mike Hartner.