REVIEW - Year One - One helluva journey!

Date read: 27th May 2020

My rating: 4*

Genre I reckon: Dystopian Fantasy

Buy link: Amazon

Follow the author: on Instagram  

Let me start this review with a warning; we are currently living in lockdown for COVID-19 as I write this. Now, if you're even a little bit nervous, wait until afterwards before reading this. 

The reason for this caution is because, obviously, this book deals with a deathly pandemic; it says so right in the book description. But sh*t gets real!! 

It's taken me about a month to read this book. It was a bit much for me right now. 

However, I loved the gritty realism. And then the magickal aspects. 

The opening is what every author wants to achieve - an intriguing hook. It dragged me in...

"When Ross MacLeod pulled the trigger and brought down the pheasant, he had no way of knowing he'd killed himself. And billions of others." 

Without darkness, there can be no light. And there's a whole lot of darkness just brought to Earth in this tale. 
With such a high death toll, who will survive and how? 

There were some parts which lingered too long, if I'm being honest. But that's just me. 
And there were an awful lot of characters. However, I managed to keep on top of it, perhaps with a little confusion here and there.
After the initial outbreak, there's focus on a couple of different groups of people. And it was during this that I lost focus. But this was probably at least partly owing to my slow reading pace. 

I loved the way the stories were interwoven. And sorry when we lost track of some people; I'm hoping to catch up with them though. 
There's some really interesting folk; some I love and some I love to hate - brilliant! 

By the time I got to the end, I was itching for book 2. And now there's more about the magick and less about The Doom (the plague/pandemic/virus), it might just be safe enough for me to get it 😉

Dystopian fans - you should definitely try this.
Those new to the genre - try it once you feel stable enough to do so.

Always in love and light,
TL

 

MY BOOK - Love Gaia - The Diary Directive

Let me tell you about my latest book...

Like all of my novels, this one looks at love in a different way.
Love Gaia - The Diary Directive, is a post-nuclear war, dystopian vs utopian, environmental romance.
That's a bit of a mouthful, huh?
Well, it's a book of two aspects. In the distant future we have Aroha. She and her classmates undertake lessons to learn the harsh lessons of their past in order to safeguard their future.

They study the diary left by one of their founders, Dr. Rachel Rose.
She was once an oncologist at the Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool. That is, until government agents whisked her away to 'safety'.
Wrenched away from her family, she is forced into an underground city, The Bunker, in New Zealand. Life will never be the same again!

The authorities there, known as the GFA, tell them a meteor is about to strike and they've been brought there to protect the best humanity has to offer. But 'the best' is a subjective term. And the civilians heavily suspect there's no meteor at all, but in fact, World War III is taking place and it's nuclear.

But then, with the world's bee population wiped out, it was only a matter of time before the humans followed suit.
Is anything salvageable?

"Honesty, Respect, Fortitude" is the village motto and it's not without good reason.

And the little fella on the cover is the village symbol. He was specially created by the clever chap at Tattoo Tribes - below are the Maori symbols embedded within.

At the time of writing this blog post, Love Gaia is available for pre-order.
It's available for FREE in Kindle Unlimited and is also available in paperback online from Waterstones and Barnes & Noble.

Incidentally, this is launching during a global lockdown thanks to COVID-19.
Most of this book was written back in November before our own troubles began. And yet, there are eerie similarities. There's even mention of a survivor eating a bat (which is rumoured to be how COVID-19 began to spread)!!
Love Gaia is here to bring a message of hope though. To help people realise the potential of a better future.

Always in love and light,
TL