January Book Review!

Welcome to the first of hopefully many reviews! These will focus on self published or small press published books. I may throw in a traditionally published book every now and again, but I want to focus on the more "Indie" types of publishing. I know that promotion for "Indie" books can be hard to come by, so I want to help others as much as I can!


The first book up is actually an anthology from a small press. The anthology is titled: Psychopomps: Shepherds of the Dead. The publisher is Misch Masch Books, if you would like to check them out: http://mischmaschbooks.com/
The Anthology is made up of 4 original short stories, and 4 stories (or selections of stories) from writers past. Honestly I only read the original (new) stories, as several of the selected pieces I have read before, so that is what I am basing my review on. Further, each story will be broken down with each individual rating and comments.
As long as I'm being honest I would like to add that while I did receive this book free, it was through a blind giveaway, and was not given out for the purpose of a review. The lovely Raychel Rose, check her out here: https://raychelrose.wordpress.com/ , ran the giveaway, and I actually won! (If you don't know me, I never win anything, so I was shocked)


The first story that I read was Little Bundle of Death by Ben Lane Hodson.
Here is the blurb from Goodreads: "A teenage girl's fight to save her newborn brother from the phantom of death who seeks to steal his soul."
Sounds pretty interesting, right? The description really grabbed me. The story was extremely well paced and kept the reader engaged. The girls in the story "won" the day with only their mettle, and did not have any special abilities. A gripe that I had was I never really got a good understanding of what the girls looked like, nor how old they were. There were also a few instances of grammar mistakes, and wrong word typos. The description of the "bad" guys though...that was fantastic! As was the mythology that was throughout the story. I would have liked a bit more information about why the girls weren't put to sleep in the first place, and unable to wake like everyone else. And the ending was fantastic and there was some mystery left.
Overall this story was a 3/5 stars for me.


The second story was The Sea of Ghosts by Rachel Rose.
The blurb from Goodreads:  "A pirate's redemption from infernum to aeternus with the guidance of a sea reaper mermaid."
This story drew me in from the get go. The only thing that gave me pause was that it is written in first person- of which I am not usually a fan. However, with that said, the descriptions of surroundings and of the other characters were amazing. Using a historically  accurate event as the basis of the story was fantastic. Everything had a jumping off point, and I felt that it really grounded the story. There were a few typos, and the word "skit" was used a few times. I actually had to look it up. Compared with the other words used in the story it seemed oddly out of place and stuck out to me. The ending, while awesome, did tend to tie things up simply. Which can be great, but after everything in the story I didn't think that would happen. Plus, the idea that mermaids are sea reapers? I had never heard that before. I love, love, loved the mythology that was used in this story.
Bottom line? This story was a 4/5 stars for me.


The third story was Mobile Dusters by E.W. Fainsworth.
The blurb from Goodreads: "A Corpse Duster's initiative to out-program death."
Honestly, this was the most disappointing story out of all of them. I felt absolutely no attachment to the main character. Not joy, happiness, or sympathy. Simply nothing. The story felt very post-apocalyptic which seems to have saturated the market. Most, if not all, of the important events happen "off screen", and we are told about it later. Very bland voice, almost monotone. The one uptick for this story was that I found no typos!
Overall, it was a 1.5/5 stars for me.


The fourth, and final new story is The Resurrectionist's Kiss by Cindy Grigg
The blurb from Goodreads: "A British soldier's escape from limbo after his Valkyrie goes rogue."
This was the story when I read the blurb that I immediately got excited about. I LOVE mythology, especially Norse mythology. And this story did not disappoint. The legends were very well done, and included in the story line. As this was set in a historic period the use of "shishkebabed", while appropriate for the situation, felt out of place. I think this story was the shortest of them, but it packed the most into its length. I was left wondering a few things though: such as would a catholic priest have a son? And how someone can "frown in approval"? There were a few typos scattered about, but nothing too terrible. I absolutely loved the use of the Valkyrie and the cameo of Hel. Their descriptions were well done, and I was left with wanting to know what happened next.
I would give this story a 3.5/5 stars.


So, this review may be a little more awkward and longer, than a normal book review since it was an anthology. I hope to start a general format with the next month's post, and get you readers acquainted with how I review books.


Until next month, keep reading! :)