Hello my fearless fans!  Read the summary of this book and tell me if you would be able to pass it up:
 
“One father. Two mothers. One genetically engineered baby.
 
In Kira Peikoff’s domestic thriller, MOTHER KNOWS BEST (Crooked Lane Books: September 10, 2019), a heartbroken mother is certain having a healthy child is more important than the controversial process it takes to create one. Bioethics battles human longing in this story of the medically possible versus the moral. 
 
Three years after her son died from a genetic defect, he inherited from her, Claire Abrams is desperate for another baby. And she knows a secret. A trailblazing fertility specialist has developed a procedure to combine healthy DNA from two different women to form one healthy egg. Claire’s husband, Ethan, a member of the President’s Bioethics Committee, would never agree to genetic engineering. But he can’t be outraged if he doesn’t know.
 
Dr. Rob Nash and his brilliant assistant, Jillian Hendricks, have engineered a way to implant healthy genes from one egg into the shell of another. Claire is the perfect human to test this on—she’ll risk anything to have a healthy baby. Only the three of them will know about this illegal procedure. But when the silence is broken, someone will pay the price.
 
When federal agents arrest Rob and Jillian, Claire must run. But where? The entire country is searching for the pregnant woman carrying the FrankenBaby. When the trial begins, Jillian is the only one who appears in court and the only one sentenced to prison. Her life, and her bright future, is over. Biding her time from behind bars, she makes plans and waits.
 
Eleven-year-old Abby Burke is just an ordinary girl living in a small town with her stay-at-home mom and carpenter dad, leading a normal life.  But when a school genetics project reveals that Abby shares DNA with a relative, she knows nothing about, their world explodes. 
 
Who is Abby Burke? And who is this stranger threatening to destroy her family? It’s Michael Crichton meets Gillian Flynn in this technological heart-stopper that asks how far a mother should go to keep her child safe.”
 
Right?!?!?!  So, I asked to be sent the book.  And I just finished reading it.  Oh wow, what a whopper of a tale. Truly a fantastic psychological thriller that is such a fascinating page turner, it put philosophical questions up against the letter of the law, throwing in every kind of personality trait you can want in a thriller.  While staying in the focus of keeping the reader in suspense, this author expertly binds incredible moments of overwhelming emotion with instants of pure tension, action, anger, surprise and even outrage.
 
The plot being something so seemingly outrageous yet, it’s actually very plausible and therefore, to me, increases the creepiness and the eeriness by a factor of at least ten.  Not to mention that this author really seems to have taken the time to really think through each character.  Targeting their core, their souls, their personalities, their motivations, not just letting the reader inside their minds, but actually PULLING the reader into their worlds.
 
There’s Claire and Ethan, a couple desperate to recreate what they lost in their first child.

There’s Jillian and Rob, two doctors desperate to make their mark on human history.

And Abby, a child stuck in the middle of all the crazy.
 
This was a fabulous novel to zip through, once I finally got to it on my reading list.  I was so happy I was sent this one.  That doesn’t always turn out well, ya know?  Some of the free stuff isn’t good.  This, I would have paid for.  This is worth it.  Don’t miss out on this one.  It’s a gripping story that will have you on the edge of your seat all the way to the last page.
 
Here’s link to buy:
https://www.amazon.com/Mother-Knows-Best-Novel-Suspense-ebook/dp/B07NKS94NH

RATINGS
5/5 Stars

 
About the Author
 
KIRA PEIKOFF is the author of Living Proof, No Time to Die, and Die Again Tomorrow. She has a degree in journalism from New York University and a master's in bioethics from Columbia University. She is the editor-in-chief of leapsmag.com, a digital magazine about innovation and ethics in the life sciences. She has also contributed articles to The New York Times, Newsweek, Popular Mechanics, Nautilus, Slate, Cosmopolitan.com, and other outlets. Peikoff is a proud member of The Authors Guild, International Thriller Writers, PEN America, and Mystery Writers of America. Visit her online at www.kirapeikoff.com.

Crazy Ass Stories for Crazy Ass People
Book Author Andy Rausch
 
This collection of short stories was sent to me by the lovely people at Blackthorn Book Tours.  I tell you, these folks have got some good taste.  I really enjoyed reading this book.  There were times I laughed, times I was completely shocked and times I had both going on plus more at the same time.  
 
This book includes twenty-one short stories AND a very creative novella (which will really get your mind going).  The great thing is the plot range is all over the place with the exception that they all have that general horror component in common.  Now, I don’t want to give anything away but at the end of each story I made some notes about my thoughts on that tale.  I’ll give you a few general examples without spoiling any of the stories for you because, believe me, you won’t want me to ruin any of this.
 
First of all, the author starts off with a very honest and open introduction that totally gives you a feel for what you are about to get into.  Plus, it also gives you a fair amount of insight as to the kind of guy the writer is.  In reading the intro, I truly felt like this guy was my kind of people.  Come to find out, he’s from Parsons, KS. which is only about two and a half hours away from me.  Midwesterners tend to recognize other Midwesterners by the verbiage they use.  (I call us flatlanders, especially here in the center of the country where there are no mountains or anything like that…lots of wheat and corn fields…and cattle…and fields…lots and lots of fields.  But anyways, the intro is funny.  Mr. Andy gives us a taste of the kind of twisted, sometimes dry, sometimes over-the-top, but always natural sense of humor he has.  Reading the introduction is like Rausch is sitting right there in front of you talking with you as if you’re one of his buddies.
 
A lot of the stories I liked had a very Tales from the Crypt/Twilight Zone kind of feel to them.  Think back to watching Twilight Zone episodes, and when you just KNEW you had it figured out.  Then all of a sudden in the last five minutes, Rod Serling threw you a twist that you never saw coming and you loved it.  Now apply that to the written form and you get this fantastic collection of troubling little tales, shocking stories and appalling anecdotes.
 
Some of my notes consisted of comments like “very eerie, excellent build up and ending,  well written, moved fast, 8/10 creep meter 10/10 deviant meter, natural flow, fantastic adult take on Snow White, would make a great horror movie short, very modern day Twilight Zone.”
 
As you can see, getting this book would not be a wasted purchase.  I highly recommend it to my readers and fans of horror novels and fans of short stories.
 
RATINGS
5/5 Stars

About the Author:

Andy Rausch is an American film journalist, author, screenwriter, film producer, and actor.
 
He is the author of several novels and novellas including Elvis Presley, CIA Assassin. He also wrote the screenplay for Dahmer versus Gacy and is the author of some twenty non-fiction books on popular culture.
 
Books: Riding Shotgun, Bloody Sheets, A Time for Violence, Layla's Score
 
You can usually find Andy on Twitter @writerrausch1, and he maintains a blog at https://authorandyrausch.wordpress.com/
 

Escape From Alcatraz: The Mystery of the Three Men Who Escaped from the Rock
 Author: Eric Braun
 
I was surprised how small this book was when I got it, but then I remembered…little things can pack a big punch.  There is a lot of information in this book.  It’s well written and it actually has more than just the basic every day, every documentary information that you’re usually gonna get.
 
Most of the time, especially when you watch a documentary about the escape, they are so limited on time that they really only focus on the three inmates that actively left the cell block.  The real facts are that there were others involved in not only the planning of the escape, but also in the preparation of the escape.  
 
Think about it.  Alcatraz was like a prison inside a prison.  You spent the majority of your time in your cell, unless you had a job to go work.  So, these three men would have definitely needed help procuring specific things.  Yes, one of the escapees worked in the prison barber shop and that’s how they got the hair.  That was one of the Anglin brothers.  The other one worked in an area where he had access to the raincoats and contact cement.  They were allowed to order paint for their “painting hobbies”.  But still…
 
Someone somewhere had to get them the magazines from the prison library.  Someone had to help explain the layout of the cell block.  Someone had to help get the motor for the drill they made.  Someone had to get tools, extension cords, act as decoys, help distract the guards (sometimes for months at a time).  Believe me, this was not a small, secret, three-man effort.
 
The idea of escape was revered by the inmates on The Rock and many wanted to help just to be able to be a part of what they dreamt of and longed for with sadness and sorrow as their many days of their long sentences went by.
 
The escape was new.  It was fun.  It was exciting.  It was history in the making.  And people wanted to be a part of that.
 
In this book you will find a wealth of information and a treasure trove of legitimate picture of everything from the dummy heads the inmates made to the tools that were found in their makeshift workshop above the cell block. (Oh, you didn’t know that was there huh? Read this book.  There’s so much more to tell.)
 
This is a fantastic book to read as an introduction to the subject of the escape from Alcatraz.  It really does cover a wide range of details in a short number of pages, making it a fast and easy, not to mention fascinating, read.
 
RATINGS
5/5 Stars

I was fortunate enough to be one of the few that was given this book by Ms. Taylor herself.  What’s most interesting about this horror novel is that it is, in my mind, completely and totally relevant.  And anytime a horror story, tv show, film can get into my head and show me that this is something that actually could happen, that’s when it’s the creepiest and scariest to me.
 
[Side Note: Things like IT, Nightmare on Elm Street, Puppet Master, Leprechaun, etc…those movies and stories don’t really scare me.  In fact, fiction RARELY scares me, because well, it’s fiction.  There’s usually some aspect of it that makes it a non-probable scenario.  Take something like Trucks or Maximum Overdrive.  Great stories, and I love Maximum Overdrive.  But, totally not scary.  In fact, almost comical because I have a hard time wrapping my head around inanimate objects coming to life with the sole purpose of wiping out human existence.  To me, since they would need us to survive, it seems a little farfetched.  However, you take this story here, Sinkhole, and it hits a creeped-out chord with me.]
 
I’ll start with sharing the blurb summary I was given that made me want to read the book.
 
“Could you learn to get along with a complete stranger - or even your worst enemy - to save your life?

A sinkhole swallows a girl in Michigan. Fire shoots into the sky in Pennsylvania. Deer attacks leave people hospitalized in West Virginia. And this is all just the beginning of a catastrophic series of global events that will make you question everything you think you know about the planet, nature, and humanity.

From an award-winning, Amazon #1 best-selling author comes this harrowing tale of a world gone mad. Can anyone survive when Mother Nature unleashes her bad side?”
 
Now, here’s what initially got me interested.  There’s an actual sinkhole in my major metro area that the city has refused to fix for over a year.  Then, you add to that the incredible awe factor of Centralia, PA.; a now near ghost-town wrought to desertion and devastation by what is called a coal-seam fire.  That’s when there’s a large coal mine on fire underground.  For a very over simplified example: Imagine a Pac-Man game board.  Now, picture that anywhere dots can be either has been, is now, or will be at a later time burning coal that reaches a temperature of up to 1350 degrees Fahrenheit underground.  At that temperature the asphalt splits and cracks open, sinkholes open up and swallow whatever is in its grasp, the climate in the area is affected, things won’t grow in certain areas, fumes and vapors seeping up through the cracks in the ground can be toxic and unhealthy, sometimes lethal.  And the problem with such a kind of coal fire is there is no way to smother it or put it out.  It’s coal burning in a coal mine.  It just has to burn away all its fuel and then it will be over.  Unfortunately, that can be decades upon decades.  It all depends on how much coal is in the mine below the surface.
 
So, that’s the hook about sinkholes.  But, check this out.  Taylor has truly brought to life an idea that, while in a fictional novel form may seem a little outside the box, I see as something that could actually happen in a sense and most likely will with global warming now on steroids.
 
So, now picture this…
 
You’ve got the sinkholes dropping ground beneath people, places and things all over the nation.  Now imagine that Mother Nature herself is EXTREMELY pissed off, and man do I mean pissed.  I mean, we’re talking a whole new realm of pissed here.  Like Mother Nature took “pissed off” into The Twilight Zone and unleashed a new dimension of hatred, frustration and vengeance upon the human race.  And it’s not just the plants, the grass and the trees, the wind and the rain.  It’s the animals too.  It’s like every deer in the country has turned into Cujo, but without the rabies.
 
Got that situation in your head?  I mean, the world very well could be ending.  Can you see it?
 
Now imagine trying to survive that with your worst enemy, your total and complete nemesis, the one person that, when you see their face, you just want to smash it in with a Mack truck with barbed wire wrapped around it’s grill, covering the nine inch spikes imbedded in the front end at every square quarter inch as well to ensure full disfigurement.  I mean, you have to try to survive all this and the person that you have to try to survive with is the one  person who’s voice makes you cringe, their mere presence makes you want to nauseated and when they talk, you can’t help but vomit from the constant smell of bullshit coming out their mouths.
 
It’s one thing to have to try to survive this kind of ordeal with your significant other or your family, but your enemy?  Hell, all would be difficult.
 
I will tell you this book is a very fast read.  We switch back and forth between locations, which are all real places, by the way.  The chapters are short and most have some kind of action in them.  I will also tell you there is a character named Don who is a horrific poster boy for Donald Trump.  It’s mortifying, terrifying and hysterical all at the same time.  This author, April Taylor, is very good at giving you a variety of characters in this novel.  That coupled with the different locations where many various things are happening simultaneously keeps the story alive, interesting and fast paced.  It also keeps you on the edge of your seat because each next chapter is taking you slightly back to pick up that particular story and then give you more.  Then you stop and move on to the next location and next set of problems.  It keeps your complete attention and definitely gives you a few OMG moments.
 
I loved this book.  Not only because I could relate to parts of the story but also because Taylor chose to use real places, thus making the story feel more real and true to life.  Also, I’ve often wondered what it would be like (or if/when it will happen) if Mother Nature really just gave us all the finger.  A version of that is coming with global warming, as I said earlier.  When climates change, ecosystems change.  That affects farming and the species living in those areas.  All species have to start to adapt, which means that behaviors are going to change.  Eventually, this is all going to trickle down to the human race.  So, what’s Mother Nature gonna do to us for mistreating her all these years.
 
If you’d like to get one person’s very creative and, in my opinion, even possible ideas on what nature would do to us…get this book.  You won’t regret it.
 
RATINGS
5/5 Stars