Review: The Eye of Nefertiti

'' All one can do is shape the present. ''

★☆☆☆☆

The Eye of Nefertiti is the second instalment to A Pharaoh's Cat series. They can be read individually, but they both are around two hundred pages so I recommend reading them both. TEON contains a lot of references to the first book, so reading it could shed some light. I didn't read the first book.

Wrappa-Hamen is a cat from ancient Egypt. He has the ability to talk, walk, and sense like a human. He got his abilities in the last book by a sacrifice he made in the first book.

Wrappa-Hamen lives in the twenty-first century with a High Priest Gato-Hamen, the Priest's girlfriend and their child, who is the reincarnation of the Pharaoh from the last book. 

Review: The Limpet Syndrome (How to Survive the Afterlife #1)

''Emotion is not what makes us weak, Brimstone. It's what makes us human. The ability to care, even if people often do not.''

★★★☆☆

The Limpet Syndrome takes you below the surface to the deepest pits of hell and back. Though, for some, the journey doesn't end there. If you suffer from the Limpet Syndrome your soul, through a complicated process, reincarnates itself into an animal. Most cases it's the animal closest to you in the moment of your death. And for John Hewson, things got a bit more complicated. Finding himself in a waiting room with a lady looking older than a dinosaur he knows something isn't right. Proceeding through his trial, he finds out that he has been selected to bring back two souls before the Summer Solstice or the world will crumble beneath his feet. The task isn't easy because there are other people hunting those two souls and because John is, well, dead.

Review: Dining and Driving with Cats - Alice Unplugged

''British author Sir Terry Pratchett once said, ''In ancient times, cats were treated as gods; they have not forgotten this.'' We have found this saying to be key to understanding the behavior of cats. Another unidentified person once said, ''Dogs have owners. Cats have staff.'' These two basic principles have governed our relationship and adventures with two cats, which are partially chronicled in this story. And so, we begin...''

★★★★☆

Being the staff to a cat named Jamie myself, I could very well relate to the scenarios happening in the book. Running away one second, napping the next is a very familiar situation at home too. Munchie and Tuffy made this book so relatable. The cats are a big part of the story, they are present all the time surprising the reader constantly. Sometimes they make you happy, sometimes sad, and once scared for their lives.

The story flows forward like a movie. The present and past mixing together effortlessly. The story is a combination of a road trip, history lessons, and cooking class. Beware, you might get hungry while reading. The book contains a few recipes and many descriptions of foods that I hadn't ever heard of. Somehow the author has brought this all together, creating a combination so life-like. Well, the book is a true story, so no wonder there. 

All in all, this is a story of how the couple became who they are today. Taking the reader to places where they had been years ago was amazing. You could feel the love and fondness towards each other between the lines. Reliving their lives and experiences through this book was what made it great.

Review: Chase & Chloe

''I'd kill him if I wasn't so bloody in love with him.''

★★★★★

Wow. Another gripping biker romance from Simone Elise. This one didn't let me get away from its grip, so I stayed awake the night before falling asleep in the early hours. And, of course, as soon as I woke up the book was back in my hands.

A bit background first. Chase is the president of his motorcycle club charter. As the eldest of his siblings, the responsibility of the McKenzie family fell on his shoulders with the death of their father. So, when he finds Chloe on the side of the road with her car broken down, he can't help himself but help her.

Chloe is used to having her walls up. She doesn't trust anyone, especially men, and suddenly finding Chase in her personal space is overwhelming. Having run away from her stepfather she needs to go as far as possible, but running away doesn't seem to be the option anymore. Not with Chase on her heels.

Review: The Lot of a Nobody

''It was like something from a fairy-tale -more Brothers Grimm than Walt Disney.''

★★★☆☆

Sometimes your clothes just don't stay on you. Waking up on a weird island, totally naked, Lot Nobody realises his life isn't the same anymore. Transporting to a mystery location and then returning buck-naked to the same place he vanished from. Neat trick, right? Except when Lot vanishes from school. Completed with mysterious carved statues with numbers, and a shady businessman, named Hector Shady, wanting to collect them all. The book is full of humour and snarky comments that are guaranteed to make you laugh.

Review: The Bucket List

''Running away is not the solution. You have- we have- to enjoy every moment we get to have.''

★★★★★

Damon and Leah. Leah and Damon. I've read their story. I cried, a lot, so if you're about to embark on it, you are warned. 

Damon and Leah were best friends for fifteen years. They did everything together until The Thing happened. Afterwards, they separated and never heard from each other again. Until Damon moves to the house next to Leah's. Many things have changed since they last saw each other. Leah's in college, living with her new best friend. Damon, on the other hand, is suffering. Diagnosed with an incurable sickness he is set out on living the most out of his final year. And that is how The Bucket List starts.

Review: Poor No More: An American Dream

★★☆☆☆

Now retired, author Dr Steven Bentley was a successful emergency physician. But his path in life wasn't always an easy one. In Poor No More: An American Dream, he shares his story of how he survived a rare birth defect, abject poverty, an alcoholic mother, a KKK father, an abusive children's home, and a cruel step-mother.

That is the first of three paragraphs on the back cover of Poor No More: An American Dream. And that paragraph was what originally made me accept the book into reading and reviewing. So, thank you for sending me the copy!

Unfortunately, the description didn't match the story inside. Yes, there was the cruel step-mother and the alcoholic mother, but everything else was almost shrugged off with just a mention in a sentence or two.