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Uncaged Review – Inception by Bianca Scardoni

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Inception
Bianca Scardoni
Young Adult/Paranormal

My name is Jemma Blackburn and I have a secret. I know vampires are real. I watched one murder my father eight months ago, and even though they tried to convince me it didn’t happen—that I’d lost touch with reality due to the trauma, I know what I saw was real…

Uncaged Review: This is a terrific page turner, and touted as a new adult/paranormal – but also it’s in the category of Childrens – and I would definitely not go that route – new/young adult is okay. The twists and turns that this book takes you on, will have you screaming. There were times I didn’t even like Jemma as she acted a bit too childish, and other times I was on her bandwagon – but I was always engaged. The other characters are also engaging, but trust me, you’ll want to go after a couple of them yourself when this is over. I finished this book in one day, and when a book grabs me that well, it’s a winner. There are three books in this series out now, and a fourth slated soon, but with over 500 reviews on Amazon, I had to see what the fuss was about and it didn’t disappoint. Reviewed by Cyrene

5 Stars

Uncaged Review – She by David Kummer

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She
David Kummer
Young Adult/Thriller

It’s been twenty years since the children went missing. Everybody has forgotten. They always do. And now, they’ll regret it.

Hardy is a sleepy town on the river. In 1995, it’s nothing special. Nobody pays attention to it. Nobody thinks about the woods nearby. But something comes out of them. It watches. It takes. It kills.

Michael is a teenager, enjoying his summer. His friends, his little sister, and his community feel the excitement building. That all changes in one night. The kidnappings… are back.

Uncaged Review: The first book wrote by this young author who is off to a promising start.

“She” is a old woman who takes kids every 20 years. Some describe her as a witch. Others look at her as a scary tale to tell the kids. If you see her you can bet your life she’s watching you. Life will never be the same again for a group of friends after they encounter She. I really enjoyed this book it wasn’t in your face horror, more psychological horror – the kind that gives you the creeps. I found myself wanting to find out even more history that concerns She. This book would make a great film or tv drama. Can’t wait until book 2 – this author is someone to keep a eye on.
Reviewed by Jennifer

4 Stars

Uncaged Review – Seasons by Iesha S. Walker

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Seasons
Iesha S. Walker
Romantic Erotica

Troy Delaney has spent her dating years compartmentalizing the men in her life. Men were necessary, but interchangeable. Troy never felt the need to settle down or foster real connections with men. Men were necessary because “Like the four seasons each one of them served a purpose” in her life. Men were interchangeable because if they failed to fulfill their purpose they could be replaced by the next man who could.

Uncaged Review: A prospective story on life dramas and the struggle of finding love. Troy isn’t the type of girl to just settle with one guy. She likes four guys like the seasons of the year. So she will never be hurt or really have to commit to a guy. But when a tragic acident changes the way Troy views life, she may just never be the same. I really liked this book. As Troy is the type of girl that you feel could be you. Her emotions and fears are real and you can feel them on the page. I found myself caring about Troy and wishing her to find a happy ending. The pleasent thing about this book is it deals with a lot of issues surrounding females. Can’t wait to see what this Author brings out next.. Reviewed by Jennifer

4 Stars

Uncaged Review – Love and the Shameless Lady by Barbara Monahem

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Love and the Shameless Lady
Barbara Monahem
Historical Regency

Disgraced lady Daisy Warren serves ale in a tumbledown inn, sings crude songs for the smugglers, and writes romantic novels in her spare time. Shunned by her own class, she’s resigned to her lowly life—until someone tries to kill her.
Gentleman spy Sir Julian Kerr noses out seditionists and traitors. When he visits the inn to investigate two suspicious Frenchmen, he meets the lovely but hostile Daisy. He doesn’t intend to get involved with her—but then he learns that someone is threatening her life.
He wants to find out more—it’s part of his investigation.
He wants to protect her—he’s a chivalrous man.
He wants her.
But will Daisy’s bitter past allow her to risk love again?

Uncaged Review: This is the first book I’ve read from this author, and I am happy to report, I hope it won’t be my last. This is an engaging regency, with the heroine committing all types of faus paux in the era, from having sex before marriage, to writing racy novels. Being shunned by society, Daisy works at a pub, slinging ale and food to unsavory types. Enter Julian – who takes an interest in Daisy and can’t get her off his mind. But Julian also has secrets…

Suspense, romance, likeable characters and a couple nice plot twists give this original regency a bit of zest. The danger to Daisy’s life throws both Julian and Daisy together, and we watch a slow brewing romance. Recommended. Reviewed by Cyrene

4 1/2 Stars

Uncaged Review – Zombie Virus by Samuel T. Raven

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Zombie Virus
Samuel T. Raven
Young Adult/SciFi/Horror

Ben excels in the stupidity department, however, he fancies an intelligent girl, Charlie, but she’s not interested. She prefers boys who can hold up a decent level of intellectual conversation. When Ben finds a drug that may increase his intellect, he takes it, hoping this will open to the door to Charlie’s heart. However, this has disastrous consequences as the virus adapts, causing widespread disease. The only thing that stands between it and the complete annihilation of mankind is a time traveler from the future who only has limited interaction with the present. Can this time traveler help prevent the end of days for humanity whilst at the same time help Ben find true love?

Uncaged Review: Part 1 in a 6 part series follows Ben and Alex, best friends at college. Ben has a crush on a girl called Charlie and is desperate for her to notice him. He takes some important vials from a science centre trip which nearly brings about a zombie outbreak. Ben does have some tricks up his sleeve to help try and end this. I really liked this book the first half felt a little rushed like the author was trying to fit massive amounts of plot into a short book. Towards the second half of the book it was very action packed and full of zombie fun. Of course it ends in a cliffhanger and I’m desperate to see what happens next. Reviewed by Jennifer

4 Stars

Uncaged Review – Edge by Serena Sallow

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Edge
Serena Sallow
Horror

Trapped on a staircase with no end or beginning, a young boy and girl must fight fear, isolation, hallucinations, and the most potent of all killers: themselves.

On the staircase, nothing is certain. Which way is up; which way is down; what is real, or what isn’t. Everything is left open to interpretation. It’s hard to figure out where you’re going when you don’t even know from where you’re coming — but this doesn’t stop our protagonists from doing their best to figure just this out…

Uncaged Review: A simple tale set in a place that holds a staircase. You either go up or down or simply fall to your death. We follow two kids nicknamed Freckles and Screech and their journey on the staircase. I was slightly puzzled with the story at some points as we are given a little glimpse into Freckles life, then thrown back into the mystery of the staircase. I liked the idea of this story but was a bit disappointed at the end. I guess I was hoping for a different outcome. It’s still worth a read though. Reviewed by Jennifer

3 Stars

Uncaged Review – Music in the Night Michelle L. Levigne with Excerpt!

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Music in the Night
Michelle L. Levigne
Steampunk

Ess and Carmen are childhood friends who only met in dreams. Orphaned and destitute, Carmen flees enemies she doesn’t understand. Ess desperately seeks for her friend, knowing their enemies all too well.

Brogan is a creature of the darkness, his music stolen and his face scarred by tragedy. He leads an underground community of people left destitute by injustice and tragedy. Crystal in his flesh and bone allows him to hear Carmen sing in the night. When she takes refuge in his world of tunnels and shadows, she brings him hope that he isn’t going mad after all.

Ess and Carmen finally meet, resolving puzzles more than twenty years old. A future of possibilities open before them, but only if they can defeat the Revisionists who will destroy them all to control crystal’s power, the future, and rewrite the past.

 

Excerpt
From Chapter 3

Two hundred miles west, with most of the width of Michigan between the Golden Nile and Chicago, Carmen Mackenzie rubbed the condensation of her breath off the window and watched for the sunrise to penetrate the snow-heavy clouds. She prayed as she always did when she woke each morning, asking for guidance, for the miracle of a friendly face, for God’s grace to shine upon her once more and prove that the last year had been some horrible dream. She leaned her forehead against the cold glass and tried to believe that the heavy footsteps in the hallway outside the drafty little boarding house room would turn into her father’s feet, coming to fetch her for breakfast, and then a long day of walking the streets of the city. They would meander wherever the wind blew, stopping for him to say a few words of encouragement on a street corner or for Carmen to sing a few verses of a hymn, and invite people to come to the camp meeting tent set up outside town in the evening.
The rumble of the train on the tracks on the other side of the boarding house shredded her daydream before she could quite convince herself. No, she was still in Chicago, following the shreds of old memories. After yesterday, that had to end. She should have given up long ago and moved on. Whatever friends her mother had known here, either they had died or moved on, or they lived in a part of town that Carmen never saw.
She had grown comfortable enough with her surroundings and her fellow laborers in the enormous hotel kitchen that she had ventured to sing over her work, peeling and cutting and kneading. She had been happier than she had felt since before her father died. Since before Richard Boniface whispered his sweet, false promises of love. Her co-workers liked her voice and requested songs from her. The last few days, other workers came in during breaks, hoping to hear her sing. They didn’t even mind that all the songs she knew were hymns and spirituals and camp meeting songs. Carmen had thought perhaps she had a chance to plant some spiritual seed, and she had felt that sweet contentment she thought she would never feel again.
A man in a slick black suit, with a red silk vest and a pointed black beard came into the kitchen yesterday, while she sang in rhythm with the potato peelings falling from her knife. He didn’t make his presence known until she finished, though she thought she had sensed something, some change in the comfortably steamy atmosphere thick with the smells of good cooking.
“Very nice,” he said, his smile cold when his voice startled a squeak out of her. He came around to stand on the other side of the table from her. “You should be singing upstairs.”
“I’m a cook.”
“Yes, with those clothes, what else would you be?” His upper lip curled as he looked her over. “I’m Gio Frierri. You know who I am?”
“You’re the owner.” Carmen set the knife down on the table and wiped her hands on her apron, then kept her hands on her lap, hidden under the table, so he wouldn’t see them shaking.
When he asked her to sing again, she hesitated. He rapped out the titles of songs she had never heard of, but didn’t look upset when each time she shook her head and told him she didn’t know them.
“That’s all right. You’ll learn them, and right quick,” he said, looking her over again. “Get rid of those widow’s weeds and put on some decent clothes.”
“These are all I have, and I’m still in mourning,” Carmen had said. “Why should it matter what I wear in the kitchen, or what I sing, for that matter? My friends haven’t complained about the songs I sing.”
“Yeah, but my friends will.” He grinned at her, and she shuddered with the momentary illusion that his teeth were pointed. “You’re gonna be the new, private entertainment for special guests.”
“Thank you, but no.” She wished she had held onto the paring knife, even knowing it wouldn’t have done her any good. “I’ll stay here in the kitchen, if it’s all the same with you.”
“It’s not.” He snatched hold of her by her elbow and yanked her up off the stool, kicking aside the bucket with the potato peelings. “You work in the special parlor, or you don’t work at all. Understand?”
“Yes, I understand.”
He left with a chuckle. Carmen waited until the break after the lunchtime rush, then went to the manager to ask for her pay up through that morning. Frierri must have anticipated she would try to run. The manager, who had always been kind to her, looked afraid when he told her to report to Madame Collette. He whispered that if she was smart, she would leave town tonight.
Madame Collete informed Carmen that her pay was being applied to the dresses Frierri wanted her to wear when she entertained. She smiled warmly enough, but the warmth never reached her eyes. She added that if Carmen did well, she would be offered a room at the hotel, so she wouldn’t have any expenses to worry about besides “making pretty.” Carmen complied with the fittings for the dresses and tried to calculate how much money she had saved. If only she hadn’t bought new boots last week, and a cloak to replace her threadbare shawl. Precious little remained of her pitiful savings, compared to the distance she had to travel to evade Gio Frierri’s reach.
“Cleveland certainly isn’t far enough,” Carmen whispered now, staring at the condensation on the window.
She stood up straight, frowning. When had the idea of Cleveland come into her head? If anything, she should head west, maybe try to reach her father’s friends in Denver.
Carmen shivered, hearing Essie, her make believe friend, insisting she had to go to Cleveland. Perhaps the strain of her circumstances had become too much for her and she had broken, at long last? She was losing her mind, imagining a friend who came to her in the darkness and shadows and promised help and whispered advice. Yet what if she weren’t losing her mind?
Her mother had always told her to pay attention to her dreams, and to never dismiss the impossible when it happened in front of her. Anna had taught her to search for details and patterns and think about the why and how of things. Otherwise, how would she have realized that wonderful, small, helpful things happened when she sang?
Granted, her singing in the kitchen hadn’t led to something wonderful, but Carmen had to be honest with herself and admit that she had left out an important piece of the pattern. Wonderful things happened when she sang while she wore her mother’s crystal rose. She had no idea how, she only knew that when she sang for the children who came to the camp meetings, especially when she held them in her arms, she saw pictures of their fears and dreams, their skinned knees and sore fingers, and knew what to say to encourage them. After she held and sang to them, pain vanished. Carmen could only attribute the incidents to being used as a vessel of Almighty God’s power to do good in the world. A lamp didn’t boast over the light it produced. After all, it was only the receptacle of the oil and a resting place for the wick.
She hadn’t worn the crystal rose and the cross in months. She hadn’t worn it when she worked in the hotel kitchen. Perhaps if she had worn the cross while she sang today, God might have worked through her song to protect her, just like the Almighty used her song to help the children. Last night, when she returned to her room from the hotel, Carmen had pulled the cross out of its hiding place in the slot under the windowsill, where the wallboard had rotted away. She had curled up with it and cried herself to sleep, in between praying for answers.
Thinking back, she decided that she hadn’t dreamed of Essie, her make believe friend, until she wore the cross again.
Before she fell asleep, she had pondered how much money she needed to go out west, and how much money she could get by selling the cross. If only she could remember the name of the man who offered her so much money for it last year. Then Essie burst from the shadows, begging her not to sell, and most certainly not to him. Whoever he was.
“How do you know who he is, when I can’t remember?” she whispered, and leaned back to study the clear spot on the glass where her forehead had rested. “I wish you could talk to me when I am awake. We could understand each other better. I’ve never been much good at remembering dreams once I wake up.”
Sighing, she stepped back to sit on the edge of her bed. Raising her hands to be even with her nose, she stared into the sparkles of light and hints of color within the crystal rose.
“Mother, I wish I could remember what you taught me. How can my memories be stored inside the rose? Even if I had a jeweler’s tools, I wouldn’t be able to write all my thoughts and memories on the petals. Certainly not so they could be read, to remind me.” Carmen sighed a bit of laughter at her moment of whimsy.
Common sense would dictate that she pack up her few possessions, find the pawnshop six blocks away, and wait on the front step until it opened. Then she would offer her last few worthwhile possessions until the man in the shop gave her enough money to head west. The wind moaned past her window and she shivered, feeling the chill touch through the drafty window before it actually reached her. Maybe go south? Certainly Texas was warmer than Colorado at this time of the year. Had any of her father’s friends gone to Texas? She knew no one in Cleveland.
“Why do I keep thinking of Cleveland?” she murmured, staring into the crystal petals of the rose, trying to follow the play of pink and green and even a few pale blue sparkles.
If only she had been able to remember the people her mother had met when they visited Chicago. She never would have taken the job at the hotel, if she had had someone to advise her. Who were her mother’s friends? Where were they hiding?
Carmen gasped as an image of her mother seemed to swirl among the crystal petals of the rose. She saw Anna walking past this very boarding house. That made no sense. Carmen knew she should pull herself out of the images dancing before her eyes, among the sparkles of color and light. Yet she couldn’t.
She was twelve years old, and had awakened before dawn, disturbed by the sound of a train whistle howling so mournfully a dozen blocks away from the hotel. She had dressed with the intention of finding the hotel parlor and practicing the new piece of sheet music Reverend Darlington had given her at the society meeting last month. When she stepped out of her room, into the parlor of the suite she shared with her parents, she saw her mother at the door of the suite, swinging her cloak around herself. Without thinking, she had darted back to her room for her own coat and bonnet and hurried to follow Anna.
The morning was rainy and overcast. Carmen lost her mother several times in shadows and walking down alleys between buildings. They had passed the boarding house Carmen stood in now, and walked four more blocks, then turned and walked several more blocks. Then Anna had gone to a narrow, tall wooden house shoehorned between two other buildings. The door opened immediately after the first knock. Carmen had been afraid to linger, and hurried back to the hotel. She had never told her mother what she saw, and never asked what she had done that early, gloomy, cold morning.
Now, though, when it was too late to ask, Carmen wanted to know. Could she remember the way? If she could find the house, would the woman who had answered the door that morning still be there? Would the strong resemblance between Carmen and her mother help her, or hinder?
Hands shaking, Carmen slid the cross down the neck of her dress and blinked rapidly, trying to regain her focus on the present moment and place. Had the vision been an answer to her prayers for help? Despite the losses and betrayals she had endured, Carmen still believed in prayer and the guidance of the Almighty in her life.
“Doesn’t really matter, does it?” she whispered, refocused her gaze, and looked around the room. “I need to leave. I need to be gone before he sends someone looking for me. If this doesn’t work out, I’ll just keep moving.” She got up on unsteady legs and gathered up her few possessions, folding them carefully almost without thought.
Mrs. Blomfield didn’t seem to know how to smile, but she had a warm heart and looked out for her boarders well as she could. Carmen regretted not saying goodbye to her landlady, but at least she was paid up for three more days, so Mrs. Blomfield wouldn’t suffer while she looked for a new boarder. If Frierri was as much a danger as she feared, telling her landlady she was leaving would just get the old woman in trouble. Carmen left a note in her room, with the bedding pulled off the bed and folded by the door, the room neatened as best she could. She tried to say her thanks and apologize without revealing anything her pursuer could use.
Carmen calculated she had perhaps an hour of leeway before her failure to arrive at the hotel sent someone hunting for her. Hopefully, her cooperation yesterday, being fitted for the new dresses, fooled Frierri into thinking she wouldn’t run, so he wouldn’t have anyone watching the boarding house to make sure she showed up for work. There were plenty of people leaving for work in the darkness before dawn, and she could blend in unnoticed. Snow or sleet would have been welcome, to help her fade from notice even more.
She remembered the way to the odd, narrow house as if she had walked it many times since she followed her mother here. Carmen shivered whenever her vision doubled and she saw a ghostly image of the streets and buildings as they had been years before, overlaid on the present streets and buildings. Often, the only changes were a touch of shabbiness. Some places, the buildings were painted a different color, or the shutters, or the signs for businesses had changed. The narrow little house was a comfortable brownish-red now instead of the weathered gray with black shutters it wore in her vision.
Walking up to the front door, Carmen’s steps slowed. She wanted to turn around before she reached the door. A moment after she knocked, she considered running. She counted her heartbeats as she waited for someone to respond. This was utter madness. Most likely everyone in this house was still asleep in bed. How rude was she, to come at such an early hour? She was a fool to hope–
The door opened, and the same woman, her dark gray hair now completely white, stared at her. She pressed both hands to her generous bosom.
“Child, they told me you were–” She choked on the words.
“I’m Anna’s daughter,” Carmen hurried to say.
“Ah, the little one.” The woman blinked rapidly, as if she fought tears. Then she went up on her toes and looked past Carmen, out onto the street. “Come inside. Quickly now. They likely haven’t seen you, but better to be cautious than sorry, yes?”
Carmen let the strong, thin fingers pull her inside. She stepped past the heavyset woman and down the narrow hallway that extended all the way to the back of the building.
“You’re in trouble, aren’t you?” Gesturing for Carmen to follow, she pushed a door open and led her into the kitchen, just as long as the hallway. They settled at the table that appeared to be anchored to the wall, and the woman poured coffee into battered tin cups.
“Please, I don’t even know your name. And no, before you ask, Mother never told me about you. I followed her here on one of our last visits to Chicago. That’s how I knew the way.” Sighing, she slid her bonnet off the back of her head and let it hang by the strings from around her neck. “And yes, I am in trouble.” She cradled the tin cup of coffee, welcoming the heat. “How do you know my mother?”
“When someone is in trouble, and needs to hide and flee, they find us, or we find them.” She chuckled. “I’m Harriet. Just Harriet. I worked with the Abolitionists before the war. That’s how your mother and I met, and then when she needed help, well…” Harriet spread her hands, as if the explanation didn’t need to be spoken.
“I don’t understand. Did she need to hide with you? Why did she come here? She came here every time we came to Chicago, didn’t she?”
“She had a gift, and she was determined to use it for the right cause.” Harriet shrugged and then seemed to deflate a little into her chair. “I think maybe she was trying to atone for the sins of her ancestors. Whenever she found a new piece, she brought it to me and I passed it along to those better suited to deal with it. We always agreed that she couldn’t come to see me for at least three, four months after she gave me one, just to make sure that anyone trying to figure out my source wouldn’t spot her. I always waited for a month after one of her visits, before I passed it along.” A sigh escaped her. “In the end, we weren’t nearly clever enough, or careful enough. Not even being married to a preacher-man could provide her enough protection.”
“From whom?” Carmen said, her voice dropping close to a whisper.
“If you don’t know, child, then Anna didn’t pass on her burden or her knowledge to you. If you didn’t wear her face, I’d be willing to wager you were safe, but…” Another sigh. “Why hasn’t your father told you anything? Anna told him everything about her past, about her burden and her mission in life. He should have at least given you her journals, or told you what she told him. Are you sure you don’t know what your mother used to be, the horrible people she escaped?”
“My father is dead. All I was left of my mother’s legacy is this.” She reached into the collar of her black dress and pulled out the cross. The color fled Harriet’s cheeks. “I’m ready to sell this for enough money to go somewhere safe. Except for a cache of books and some mementos and photographs, this is all I have.”
“If you have to, sell the cross for the silver, but don’t let that rose out of your sight. That is…” Harriet shuddered, her gaze fixed on the cross now lying on the table between them. “Well, if your mother didn’t tell you about your heritage, then maybe you don’t have a heritage. Doesn’t matter six days from Sunday… I could take all the other pieces for Anna, but not this. If the wrong person saw this, they’d know and then wouldn’t I have hellfire to explain?” A weak chuckle escaped her. She finally blinked and tore her gaze away from the rose.
“What is so special about the rose?”
“It has a twin. The woman who made both roses befriended your mother when she escaped her terrible heritage. Anna referred to her as her lifeline, a true sister of her soul.”
“Can I go to her? Will she help me?”
“I truly wish you could, but she’s been dead longer than your mother. Near to tore Anna’s heart out. She was that sure Vivian had died protecting her. No, and that’s the reason you can’t let that rose out of your sight. Or at least, not until you hand it over to the right people,” Harriet added, her voice slowing. She nodded once, like a punctuation mark. “Anyone who knew Vivian would recognize that rose. What you need to do is go to someone who was close to Vivian, someone with the connections to protect you and dispose of that tricky little trinket properly. Ah, if only Vivian’s in-laws were still… well, it’s no use crying over spilled milk, is it?” She thumped both hands flat on the table. “Give me time to think on where you need to go and who you need to talk to for help. In the meantime, let me feed you good. If you don’t mind my saying, you do look more than a little down on your luck.”
Harriet scurried around the narrow kitchen with agility that was amazing for her size, and put together a breakfast Carmen hadn’t seen since the glory days, before her mother died. Her hostess told her a few stories of when she had known her mother, before Anna met Reverend Mackenzie and dedicated her life to God’s service. Carmen refused to divulge the heartbreaking way her father’s associates had turned on him. She merely said that he had slowed his travels as old age crept up on him. She had lost contact with many of his friends and associates, so when they were robbed, there was no recourse but to sell personal property to pay her father’s outstanding debts after his death. Harriet’s sympathy and her outrage nearly loosened Carmen’s tongue, to spill the reservoir of hurt that sometimes threatened to drown her soul.


Uncaged Review

One way to describe this book and series, is it’s very intelligently written. It draws you in almost immediately and even though it’s not jam packed with action, the story is interesting and original. I did not read the first books in this series, but I was lucky enough that the author was kind and sent me detailed sypnopsis’ for the previous books knowing my time was limited. So I wouldn’t recommend anyone going into these books without starting at the beginning. And you won’t be sorry. This is a nicely written story, with the characters racing to find the final pieces of the Time Machine. Ess and Carmen have been connecting through the crystals trying to find each other. But there is danger lurking at every street corner, and the race is on to defeat the Revisionists who want full power, and all hope relies on Ess, Carmen and their team.

There is wonderful history woven with the alternate steampunk, and it’s so cleverly done and I’ve never read anything quite like it before. The characters are easy to like, including Brogan, with the disfigured face with the crystals embedded in his bones, being able to hear the music through the crystals giving us the Phantom of the Opera feel. Ess and Carmen are strong young women who you can easily get behind. So if you are looking for a good steampunk series, dashed with scifi, history and a playwrite’s drama, you won’t be disappointed with this series. And who doesn’t like crazy inventions?
Reviewed by Cyrene

5 Stars

Uncaged Review – Managed 3 by Clarissa Carlyle

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Managed 3
Clarissa Carlyle
Rock Star Romance

 

This is Book 3 in the Managed: a rock star romance series.

Throw caution to the wind, dreams won’t work unless you do…

Will Jasper turn away from the growing chemistry that Hailey and he share? Is recovering the image of his fans far more important than exploring a love that he never expected to occur? Or will he throw caution to the wind and seek out the woman who refuses to leave his mind?

Uncaged Review: Finally, Hailey sees Matthew for the scumbag he is, even though she still puts up with way too much from her boss at work. Carl is the only saving grace at that firm. Jasper and Hailey still won’t talk about their feelings for each other. This is the first time I wasn’t upset about the ending though, even though it was a cliffhanger, I’m OK with it. I said before and I’ll reinforce that here, most people would be better off waiting until this full set is out, or if the author releases a box set instead of being strung along – but I HAVE to see this through to the end. Reviewed by Cyrene

4 Stars

Uncaged Review – Shifter’s Shadow by Ella Summers

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Shifter’s Shadow
Ella Summers
Urban Fantasy

“So this was just one gigantic, cosmic war between light and dark magic. And we were only a small part of it, a tiny dot in the gods’ empire. It was no wonder that they saw us as insignificant.”

Tested by the gods, Leda and her angelic mate Nero venture into the City of Ashes, a fallen fortress in the Western Wilderness where nightmarish monsters reign supreme and an ancient secret is buried. To survive the Gods’ Trials, they will have to save the city—and they will have to do it without their magic.

Their victory, however, comes at a heavy price. And the secret they uncover will upset the balance of power between Earth and heaven.

Uncaged Review: Again, we hit the ground running in book 5 of this series. The book is action packed, and the characters are well developed. I was all-in from the first page to the last. We are starting to see the main arc with the series as it gets a bit more focused now, and all the minor arcs that have been happening in these books are leading to the grand plan.

There is nothing that I didn’t like in this book, sometimes when you are reading a series, as it gets further and further into the series, they are almost on life-support and you are trudging through them anyway because of the loyalty you feel for the characters and author. But this series is just getting stronger – and I’m seriously wanting book six. Reviewed by Cyrene

5 Stars

Marketing for Authors – Steps to Take Now – by Dawn Seewer

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As the article appears in the November issue of Uncaged Book Reviews:

 

I met Dawn back when I started working with BTS Book Reviews. She was the lead and it was always a great working relationship that grew to a friendship.

The one question that I ask authors quite often is what is one of their least favorite things about being an author, and the response is overwhelmingly that they don’t like marketing. When Dawn told me about a new eCourse that she developed for authors and how to market their books, I jumped onboard and asked her to talk about it here in Uncaged.

So please welcome Dawn to Uncaged, we are excited to learn more on this daunting subject.

Why is marketing so important for authors?

If you don’t have a way to genuinely connect with people, to share your message, how will they even find out about your books? Unless your name is Nora Roberts, and then well, you know, you’re Nora Roberts and that’s all you need. But for the rest of us, marketing is what gets the word out about what you have to offer. That being said, one of the very first points I make in the Marketing for Authors course is that marketing is not the same thing as selling. Book sales are the result of effective marketing, not the source. I think this is a really important distinction that a lot of well-meaning books and blogs fail to hammer home.

Marketing is not about making a sale, marketing is about connecting with the people who will support your work. Sales are about a single transaction, marketing is about building relationships that cultivate long-term sales over your entire writing career. Because, as we learn in the course, marketing is relationship building, it is the vehicle that drives long-term success. It not only get the word out about your books, but it also ensures that you don’t lose your entire audience between releases. It’s not so much about driving sales for a particular product, marketing as a whole, is about creating a community of people who will consistently support your work.

How should an author get started marketing their book?

The first thing I recommend to every author, whether you write romances or how-tos, is to sit down and create a marketing plan. I know, I know, everyone hates the marketing plan, but the biggest complaint I hear from authors is that they really don’t have any idea what do or where to begin when it comes to their marketing. As much as we all hate the marketing plan, this is exactly what it is designed for. A good marketing plan will not only help you determine your goals and strategies, it will actually ensure that you are creating marketing that is going to be effective. There is nothing worse then create a marketing campaign that goes completely unnoticed, talk about a waste of time. You could have been writing, right? A marketing plan (and as we also discuss in the course, a campaign strategy) will help you make the most of the time you spend marketing.

What is the best way for authors to market and sale their book online?

I’m going to let you in on a little secret, social media is the worst place to try to sell a book (or any product for that matter). Your website, Amazon, your publisher’s site, these are the places sales are made. Even if you click on a Facebook ad, you don’t actually make the purchase in Facebook, it takes you somewhere else. So please, please, please don’t waste your time trying to sell your book on social media. If you want to focus on sales, focus your efforts on the venues where the sales actually happen: pump up your Amazon reviews, get featured on your publisher’s site and make your own website a sales machine.

Social media is however a fantastic place for cultivating relationships, and marketing is after all, relationship building. Use social media for the purpose in which it was intended: to make connections, engage with readers, and provide content of real value that makes a positive impact in someone’s life. Put the “social” back in social media and focus on building connections that will allow you to share your message and funnel your audience toward your sales.

What is the most important thing for an author to know about marketing?

That your marketing is not really about you, LOL. Authors have a tendency to market in a way that serves our own needs rather than the needs of our readers. We create blog posts and share items on Facebook that interest us, as the writer, rather than what interests our readers. We sometimes forget that as authors, we must operate in service to our readers. While we certainly find joy and fulfillment in our writing, we write primarily to share our knowledge or our stories with someone else, to be in service to others. If our books were just written for us, we’d never need to learn how to market because we’d never need to publish a single word. Thus, your marketing is not really about you, it’s about your readers.

So instead of asking: how can I market my books, start asking yourself: how can I be of service to my readers? Marketing is about making your message connect with your audience, to do that, you have to make sure that your message actually serves a purpose in their life. I know this can be challenging, especially for fiction authors, so we really go into a lot of detail on this point in the course. Even if you write about blood-sucking vampires, you can still be of service to your readers. You can still create messages that add value to their lives. Look for those points of value and let them drive your messages.

When is the best time for an author to start marketing?

Now. Right now. It doesn’t matter if you have one book out or ten. It doesn’t matter if your latest release just hit the shelves or has been collecting dust there for the last few years. It doesn’t matter if your next release is ten days out or ten months out. It doesn’t even matter if you haven’t released a book yet. As an author, or a soon-to-be-author, you should always be marketing, because marketing is relationship building. That means you should always be working not only to build new connections, but to maintain the connections you already have.

If you shift your mindset from marketing as a task to be checked off your list, to marketing as a way to connect with the people who will buy your books, you’ll find that this marketing thing isn’t really that hard. Sure, you have to work to put strategies into place and build campaigns, but at the heart of it all, you’ll find that the best marketing is really just genuine connecting. When you stop thinking of marketing as a way to peddle your work and start seeing marketing as a way to share the books you love to write with the people who can’t wait to read them, it stops being a chore.

 

Tell us about this course you mentioned.

Marketing for Authors is the first course from my new Author eCourses program. It is a self-paced course that not only teaches authors how to develop a marketing strategy that fosters long-term growth and facilitates sales, but also offer the tools and techniques to build a loyal reader base and create content that engages those readers. You’ll learn the strategies behind successfully marketing, but more importantly, you’ll have a easy-to-follow, step-by-step plan to help you master your marketing. You can find out more about this course at AuthoreCourses.com (http://authorecourses.com/).

[symple_box color=”black” fade_in=”false” float=”center” text_align=”left” width=””]Dawn Seewer is a digital marketer and designer. Her passion is helping authors, entrepreneurs, and businesses translate their story into marketing that people will love. She is also the creator of Author eCourses. Find out more at http://dawnseewer.com/ and http://authorecourses.com/.[/symple_box]