TALLOW JONES

Tallow Jones by Trevor H. Cooley
Book 1 of the Tallow Mysteries series
Read by Andrew Tell
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: paperback, kindle ebook, & audiobook

About Tallow Jones:

When Detective Douglas Jones' son goes missing under strange circumstances everyone assumes he ran away. The first break in the case comes when a long lost relative shows up with a new name and a strange tattoo on the palm of his left hand. His name is Tallow Jones. He is a private detective . . . and a wizard.

A wizard is needed too because, in Atlanta, strange abductions are just the tip of the iceberg.

Source: Info in the About Tallow Jones was taken from Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36324291-tallow-jones on 29/07/2018.

Buy Link(s):
 

My Thoughts:

This is the first book in the Tallow Mysteries which is an offshoot series from The Bowl Of Souls saga. Reading about the old world, Gaiana, made me miss the old characters like old friends.. like Death Claw and Fist!! It makes me wish that there would be more Bowl Of Souls books with Death Claw in it and more...

Andrew Tell sounds surprisingly so similar to James Foster that I thought I was listening to James Foster still, until about halfway through. Hah! My ears fooled me!

The author skated closely to destroying the plot. He had a lot of explaining to do to tie ends up nicely. Which he did... and skimmed through by the skin of his teeth.

The cover is not the best cover art in the world. If I hadn't known the author already, I don't think I would be picking up this book. It might be apropos to the story but it is not conducive to "book-buying" to my fantasy geek eyes.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 4
Cover art = 2.5
Pace = 4
Plot = 3.5
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries

The Author
	Since putting out his first book: Eye of the Moonrat in May of 2012, Trevor H. Cooley has sold over 200,000 copies of his books in ebook and audio formats. He was born in South Carolina and has lived all around the United states, including Utah, New Mexico, Michigan and Tennessee. His love of reading started in the second grade with Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain series. He couldn’t get enough and continued with David Eddings, Tolkein, Robert Jordan, Stephen King, and many others. Since then, all he wanted was to become a published writer. The characters and concepts that eventually became the Bowl of Souls series started in his teens. He wrote short stories, kept notebooks full of ideas, and generally dreamed about the world constantly. There were several attempts at starting a novel over the years. Not long after he was married, his wife told him to stop talking about the story and write it down. Many years and rewrites and submissions and rejection letters later, he finally put the books on Amazon. In August of 2013 he quit his day job and started writing full time.
trevorhcooley.com | facebook | twitter | pinterest | google+ | goodreads | amazon

The Narrator
	I’m an actor and voiceover artist based in Los Angeles, California. I’m a versatile, articulate, and technically clean narrator with a strong background in improvisation and comedy. In audiobook narration, I’m an Audible-Approved producer audibleapproved._CB169116043_with thousands of 5-star performance reviews by Audible listeners. I work closely with independent authors and publishers to bring their books and characters to life.
www.andrewtell.com | facebook | twitter | instagram | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
This book was purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

BEHEMOTH

Behemoth by Trevor H. Cooley
Book 11 of The Bowl Of Souls series
Read by James Foster
Genre: epic fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Behemoth:

THE FINALE OF THE JHARRO GROVE SAGA

The Behemoth was created a thousand years ago, its body stretching for miles under Malaroo’s swamplands turning them into a dangerous and uninhabitable place. Now it has learned to swallow the peoples of Malaroo and transform them into its own army; a twisted mix of troll and man known as the Trollkin. It hungers to consume the power of the Jharro Grove and if it succeeds the world will be plunged into darkness.

Justan and Jhonate, forced to hold off their wedding until the threat is over, find themselves stuck between the two rival factions that are the only hope of defeating the Behemoth and its everlasting hunger.

A Bowl of Souls novel.

Source: Info in the About Behemoth was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34623320-behemoth on 05/08/2017.

My Thoughts:

Reading this book after waiting for so long after the last book was like meeting old friends again! And I am particularly happy to see Fist again, being his lovable ogre self! By now I am an old die hard fan of this series. And this book was a wonderful 5 star read! The down side is, that you have to trudge through previous books first to get here! And that is not an arduous task as it may sound. It has its down sides and upsides. You just have to roll with the bad as with the good. And the series has lots and lots of good reading times!

Sure, some would say that the plot is kind of formulaic, so what? It is the pleasure of reading it that matters! And it is a pleasurable read! At first I was kinda reluctant to read through the book so I only listened to it halfway through. I was reluctant because I knew this book is going to be a cliffhanger simply because every single book in this series is a cliffie. And it is kind of one, but only if you read the epilogue. Even then, it is still kind of not... This book closes 12 books worth of story and it is satisfying! Of course I want more! So the epilogue tells me what to expect next and I very much like that, so those of you who is thinking of following this series, read the epilogue! :) Needless to say that this is the best book in the series!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4.5
Writing Style = 5
Ending = 4.5
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = 4.5
Plot = 4.5
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Bowl Of Souls Series:

                     

 

The Author
	Since putting out his first book: Eye of the Moonrat in May of 2012, Trevor H. Cooley has sold over 200,000 copies of his books in ebook and audio formats. He was born in South Carolina and has lived all around the United states, including Utah, New Mexico, Michigan and Tennessee. His love of reading started in the second grade with Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain series. He couldn’t get enough and continued with David Eddings, Tolkein, Robert Jordan, Stephen King, and many others. Since then, all he wanted was to become a published writer. The characters and concepts that eventually became the Bowl of Souls series started in his teens. He wrote short stories, kept notebooks full of ideas, and generally dreamed about the world constantly. There were several attempts at starting a novel over the years. Not long after he was married, his wife told him to stop talking about the story and write it down. Many years and rewrites and submissions and rejection letters later, he finally put the books on Amazon. In August of 2013 he quit his day job and started writing full time.
trevorhcooley.com | facebook | twitter | pinterest | google+ | goodreads | amazon

The Narrator
	James Foster was born in Björk’s house in Iceland and grew up on Easter Island, where his parents were giant stone heads. He has the ability to fire beams of tacos out of his hands and he can turn his legs into tigers. On Sundays, James enjoys reading Family Circus and traveling through time. His favorite color is greenish-transparent and his favorite movie is the one you just watched. James is in charge of uploading the staff bios to the website, and no one has checked over his work.
jamesnarrates.com | twitter | facebook | google+ | instagram | goodreads | linkedin | audible

FTC Disclosure:
This book was purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

PRIESTESS OF WAR

Priestess Of War by Trevor H. Cooley
Book 10 of The Bowl Of Souls series
Read by James Foster
Genre: epic fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Priestess Of War:

BOOK FIVE OF THE JHARRO GROVE SAGA

Born of war and kept young only by the darkest of magic, the Dark Prophet’s most powerful priestess has returned to the Trafalgan Mountains to take control of the Black Lake’s mindless evil. Now, with a growing army of the infested and dead under her power, she turns her gaze on Dremaldria.

Fist’s chances of helping his former tribe destroy the Black Lake are bleak at best. The combined help of the Academy and the Mage School may not be enough to help him defeat The Priestess of War.

Source: Info in the About Priestess Of War was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33561710-priestess-of-war on 05/08/2017.

My Thoughts:

I've had a copy of this book in my phone for the longest time and resisting reading because I did not want to read it before Behemoth is released because I would want to dive into the next book as soon as I hit the cliffhanger ending of this book. Ten instalments down the line, I know how the ending of the books in this series goes. But this time around we actually get some sort of a closure! Hurrah!! Some threads in the story arc are still hanging, of course, but we got an ending on one of the major plot lines! And I like that a lot. And the fact that I got to read on with the next book as soon as I hit the cliffhanger ending negated the cliffhanger-ending-syndrome depression. This is the best book yet in the series. But to get here you have to read through the previous books first because it would make more sense than jumping straight into this book without reading the previous books first. Do I love this book? Oh, yeah!! And I got to read a lot about my favourite ogre too! Kudos to this book!! So why does the book still not get a 5 out of 5 then? Because it still ended in a cliffhanger ending.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 4.5
World building = 5
Cover art = 3.5
Pace = 3
Plot = 4
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Bowl Of Souls Series:

                     

 

The Author
	Since putting out his first book: Eye of the Moonrat in May of 2012, Trevor H. Cooley has sold over 200,000 copies of his books in ebook and audio formats. He was born in South Carolina and has lived all around the United states, including Utah, New Mexico, Michigan and Tennessee. His love of reading started in the second grade with Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain series. He couldn’t get enough and continued with David Eddings, Tolkein, Robert Jordan, Stephen King, and many others. Since then, all he wanted was to become a published writer. The characters and concepts that eventually became the Bowl of Souls series started in his teens. He wrote short stories, kept notebooks full of ideas, and generally dreamed about the world constantly. There were several attempts at starting a novel over the years. Not long after he was married, his wife told him to stop talking about the story and write it down. Many years and rewrites and submissions and rejection letters later, he finally put the books on Amazon. In August of 2013 he quit his day job and started writing full time.
trevorhcooley.com | facebook | twitter | pinterest | google+ | goodreads | amazon

The Narrator
	James Foster was born in Björk’s house in Iceland and grew up on Easter Island, where his parents were giant stone heads. He has the ability to fire beams of tacos out of his hands and he can turn his legs into tigers. On Sundays, James enjoys reading Family Circus and traveling through time. His favorite color is greenish-transparent and his favorite movie is the one you just watched. James is in charge of uploading the staff bios to the website, and no one has checked over his work.
jamesnarrates.com | twitter | facebook | google+ | instagram | goodreads | linkedin | audible

FTC Disclosure:
This book was purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.