Bernard Jan's Blog - Posts Tagged "reviews"

Without An Angel by Mitchell Bogatz

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Broken heart can cut like a knife, tear up your world and torture your body and mind as you drift between two realities. The old one you know, love and miss every minute of your life, and the new one in which you feel lost, abandoned and cannot accept it as your new life order.

Mitchell Bogatz wrote his poetry book titled Without An Angel during the hardest year of his young life, when he fell in love with an unavailable woman. His raw and beautiful poetry, devoid of any pathos, is filled with unrestrained lust and almost desperate yearning to be loved, cherished, needed and appreciated.

While going through his short, vivid poems and experiencing his emotional and somehow so familiar verses, we drink straight from the fountain of the author's personal, intimate life. We are reminded of our own passions, of our own struggle to get back on our feet and SURVIVE on the ruins of forbidden love, of our own longing to quit, just let go, disappear and be forgotten: Sometimes I wonder if I’d be happier on a beach somewhere, nothing in my pockets, with no one waiting for me to come home.

If you like poetry, it would be a shame to miss this powerful and honest collection of poems. Even if you are not too big a fan of the verse, do yourself a favor and spend some time with Bogatz's writing. His suffering and pain might surprise you with hope and strength it gives you when you are faced with going through life without your angel, or, even better, encourage you to swing your wings to go out and find it.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com



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Without An Angel

Ashley Bell by Dean Koontz

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


It was love at the first read. It started with Watchers twenty-three years ago and lasted more than seventy books up to this date.

Dean Koontz, like very few authors, managed to keep me expectant, eager, thrilled and enthusiastic about his books. His latest novel Ashley Bell is no exception either. What's more and to be honest, despite being an author myself, I am now lacking words to describe how I really feel about Ashley Bell.

Ashley Bell is a complex novel of more than 700 pages about a remarkable young woman Bibi Blair who is determined to do the impossible and: 1) fight, beat, outsmart and escape death, and 2) find and save someone named Ashley Bell. Both seems rather impossible and destined to failure. But not for Dean Koontz and not for Bibi Blair.

Ashley Bell is a poetic, dark, psychological thriller in which the master of suspense and mystery creates a parallel world with the ease of The Maker. Koontz daringly plays the literary God and takes us into parallel worlds created by his incredible imagination, convincing us to believe and live the impossible. Dean Koontz has already taught as that nothing in his books is impossible, that “impossible” universes, creatures and situations are possible, we only have to imagine them.

His prose is a kaleidoscope of the most vivid colors and darkest shadows. It is a playground sanded with rarely seen scenes of violence and murders, chilled-to-the-bones moments and sentences poetically beautiful as sunsets. Our task is to imagine and bring them into life.

“If we were imagined into existence with a universe of wonders, then the power to form the future with our imagination must be in our bloodline.” – Dean Koontz, Ashley Bell

BJ
www.bernardjan.com



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The Grid 1: Fall of Justice by Paul Teague

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Grid by Paul Teague is a good example why dystopian literature is at the moment my favorite genre! The Grid 1: Fall of Justice is the first book in The Grid Trilogy and it instantly captured my attention as it was the case with its predecessors: the unforgettable Silo (Wool-Shift-Dust) series, Station Eleven, The Hunger Games trilogy, The Maze Runner series or the Divergent trilogy.

They say it is impossible to survive The Grid. It is the one, only and ultimate way to get justice once you end up among thousands of lawbreakers and detainees confined in the cages of The Soak, a vast and nightmarish underground prison located under a river.

A massive concrete wall separates hundreds of thousands of the privileged ones on Silk Road from almost four million poor residents of The Climbs, who live there in miserable and inhumane conditions with no elevators and with crumbling stairs, after the plague devastated their world many years ago, leaving billions of people dead in its wake.

Their city is the only refuge. But the refuge is where minority flourishes at the expense of many many others, where justice systems is corrupted and full of deceptions and lies, and where the will of the authorities is more important than practically non-existent human rights.

In this world Joe Parsons is trying to find the truth about the death of his suddenly disappeared father. He breaks into the Fortrillium network but before he gets the chance to avenge him, he and a few of his friends find themselves thrown into the The Grid. They are all facing a series of terrified justice challenges in the Gridder Games and only one person has ever survived so far.

The Grid 1: Fall of Justice is a post plague dystopian story. It excellently stages the faith of our society already plagued by the symptoms of greed, inhumanity and fabricated truth, which might lead to life of a few (un)lucky surviving hundreds of thousands, or even millions, in The City of our future while the rest of us will be gone.

Can't wait to read Quest For Vengeance and Catharsis, Part 2 and Part 3 of this very promising trilogy!

BJ
www.bernardjan.com



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The Grid 1: Fall of Justice
Paul Teague
Bernard Jan

I don't want to prejudge it, but there is a great chance—and hope!—that you've read A World Without Color, my first book I published this summer in English. And if you read it as an e-book or paperback, there is even greater hope you liked it! At least this is what I like to think, haha!

But did you share your thoughts about it with someone? There is a simple way for everyone to hear what you think of my true story of the last three days I spent with my cat. For that you need an Amazon or Goodreads account through which you can post your review that can range from a simple sentence to a small article, depending on how impressed you are and motivated to test your own writing skills!

Why are reviews so important to indie authors like me? Because many readers use them as a reference point whether to pursue with buying a book or skipping it altogether. The more reviews, the more people read your book. Cool, right? Sure, except getting there is not always so cool and easy.

This is why I ask you: if you loved my book, if it brought any emotion in you, please post your review. Don't be shy, a simple line or two will do. Anything more than that is a welcome bonus for me!

I want to show you with a few examples how easy it is. Below there are highlights of five authors and readers who read my book, their reviews on Amazon, Goodreads and their blogs. You can see their complete reviews in the Review A World Without Color page on my website or by following the links to their original posts on Amazon and Goodreads.

The tale is poetic, heartfelt and unique. I was pleased to read such a fine story by a talented, compassionate author. - Amazon Customer, Amazon

Bernard Jan describes the life of his beloved cat with such poignancy. His writing style is straightforward and emotionally moving. Happier times with Marcel brought a smile to my lips, while his deteriorating decline brought tears to my eyes. Most moving of all was the author’s profound love, devotion, and grief for his cat. - Leigh Holland, Amazon and Goodreads

Bernard Jan has taken a piece of his own heart and soul and put down in words, his feelings, his thoughts, and the utter devastation of the raw loss of his beloved pet. - Dianne, Tome Tender and Goodreads

If you're looking for a sad story then this is for you. (...) I felt that I was Bernard at the end of the book, I love books that pull me in and make me feel that I'm part of the book. You'll have to read it for yourself to experience this. - Angel Ramon Medina, indie author, The Hybrid Nation

In this book, the author tells his whole story about what his cat Marcel’s last 3 days were like interlaced with memories of the past. He writes about the effects of losing a best friend for himself and his family. (...) At multiple times I cried and could feel his emotions. He expresses what he’s feeling physically, his thoughts and emotions, everything so raw and real. Despite the sadness, I love the way this author writes. - Mischenko, ReadRantRock&Roll, Amazon and Goodreads

I hope those reviews won't discourage you; quite on the contrary, I wish they give you courage and determination to plow through my emotional and honest read and experience with me the last three days I spent with my Marcel.

You can purchase my e-book or paperback on Amazon or read it for free on KindleUnlimited. Either way, your review counts! And in either, both or any way, I will be grateful for your honest review because honest reviews are the only reviews I care about.

Once you post them contact me and I will repost them on my website and blog their highlights in one of my future posts here as motivation and encouragement for others, if you have nothing against it.

Thank you for purchasing, reading, reviewing and recommending my book by word of mouth! This is the best way to support me as an indie author and for making your voice and thoughts heard by many!

Thank you for your love because there is no greater joy than to share what you love with those who appreciate it!

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

Cover photo by Zach Singh; Cover design by Mario Kožar MKM Media

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Bernard Jan

The original idea for writing this post was to say thanks and reflect with a few figures on the launch and the journey of my book A World Without Color in 2017. That I will do as planned, but first I must let you know about something that happened on the last day of 2017.

With deep regret and sadness in my heart I have to tell you that Oswald, the beautiful cat from the cover of my book, has passed away. I learned that in the early afternoon hours of December 31st, 2017 and spilled many tears that day.

Zach Singh, a New York-based photographer, and his cat Oswald brought the story of my beloved cat Marcel to life. Marcel had passed away on April 19, 2006 and left me heartbroken. Last year I brought him back to life again by publishing his story in English so I could share it with all of you.

Oswald and Zach are the two great guys on the photo of my book cover who gave the prettiest face and character to my book. I am eternally grateful to Zach for letting me use it. My joy was honest, true and profound as much as is my sadness now at losing Oswald. Oswald is no longer with his beloved family. Instead, together with Marcel, while he keeps on living in my book and in the hearts of those who loved and still love him.

Thanks to Oswald, Marcel and my love for him are alive for you too, and thanks to Marcel and his story, Oswald will live as long as my book lives. And that, my dear readers, depends on you and me.

Thanks to you and only you, A World Without Color had a good start last year.

I published it as e-book on July 1 and as paperback on September 13, 2017.

Its two awesome trailers (B/W and the blue edition) produced by Mario Kožar MKM Media, who also designed the great book cover, were released on October 29, 2017.

A World Without Color was one of the nominees in the TCK Publishing 2017 Readers Choice Awards in the Memoir category for the book of the year and also took part in four book cover contests.

My book cover was reviewed by The Book Designer in the e-Book Cover Design Awards for July 2017 while thanks to you it won the 3rd place in Cover Wars in Author Shout one-week contest, the 2nd place in the AllAuthor Cover of the month August contest and gold or the 1st place in the Literary Fiction category of AUTHORSdb contest! Thank you all for your votes!

You supported it in the Anniversary Giveaway on the Animal Bliss blog when two lucky winners out of 320 entries got my e-book!

Those of you who bought it or read it for free with Kindle Unlimited rewarded A World Without Color with great and touching reviews: 24 reviews on Amazon, 6 reviews on Amazon UK and 27 reviews and 36 ratings on Goodreads!

For that I am thankful to you, my fellow readers, authors and dear supporters! Thank you for accepting my book so well, thank you for reading and reviewing it and for spreading the message all over the Internet and your social network platforms!

There is one thing I learned from the past and my first six months as an indie author. Indie authors are not competitors, they are friends and supporters (at least those I know). We are encouragement to each other and that's the nicest thing about self-publishing and being an indie. Together with our faithful readers and honest reviewers, we are one body that lives and breathes for good books. And that is fantastic!

My sincere gratitude goes to each and every one of you for giving a chance to my true story of the last three days I spent with my cat Marcel. Thank you for accepting and loving it, thank you for shedding tears with me.

If they were alive, both Marcel and Oswald would purr their gratitude to you, dancing with their tails up around your legs or jumping into your lap for a cuddle or the feels-so-good scratching behind their ears and under their chins.

Although they are gone and no longer with us, you can still try to do that with the power of your imagination and with cuddles through the lines and pages of A World Without Color.

I thank you for your continuous support to A World Without Color in the new year and hopefully years to come and to my new books and other projects.

Have a fantastic year full of great books, love each other and love and care for your and other animals!

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

Cover photo by Zach Singh; Cover design by Mario Kožar MKM Media

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Bernard Jan

I wish and hope that this year has started in a grand style for you and that will carry on like that all the way through and even further!

No reason for me to complain, because I continue to get your reviews and that means you are reading my book A World Without Color, which is the greatest reward and a gift to any writer!

When I read books before I didn't realize how important reviews are. Even if it is just one sentence. As long as they are honest and you speak from the heart.

With your review you recommend the book you loved and enjoyed reading and you also help bring more readers through the complicated Amazon algorithm. Putting it simply, the more books you buy, the more reviews you write, the more you will help a book with its ranking.

Allow me to share with you a few more honest reviews which A World Without Color received at the beginning of this and during the last year.

This short powerful novella is a must read. It gave me permission to stop grieving in many ways, because Bernard Jan told me it was okay to feel like I did and it was okay to move on, despite suffering an emptiness that will never be filled. I would give this book to anyone who has pets, because it will give you an insight into what will happen one day. We’re telling you it is okay and that you aren’t alone. - Haley Jenkins, Selcouth Station and Goodreads

As someone who has worked with hospice, in hospital, health care centers, and survivor’s of loss and trauma, for close to 40 years, I must say that this is one of the most honest, compassionate, and understanding description of what grief can feel like that I have ever read – and I’ve read a lot of books about grief, loss, death and bereavement. - Gabriel Constans, Amazon and Gabriel Constans blog

A heart-wrenching memoir of a man's last three days in the life of his beloved cat. (...) The reader can truly feel the anguish Bernard felt watching his beloved feline's life be extinguished. (...) Thank you Bernard! - Stacy from Two Gals and a Book, Goodreads

When I started reading A World Without Color, from the very first few sentences I knew what it would be like and I was very emotional from beginning to end. (...) I am a cat owner and found myself identifying with the authors feelings and grieving process. I loved this book and I highly recommend it to all to read. - Starjustin, Goodreads

This book is incredibly well written the only reason i gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is purely down to how hard and upsetting it was to read which is just a credit to how well it was written. Unfortunately it was that upsetting to read i nearly struggled to sit and carry on which is why i had to knock it down a star. Well worth a read if you feel as though you are up to it. - Justin, Goodreads

Death never arrives easy. Here, Bernard Jan chronicles the final stage in the life of a cat named Marcel, as Bernard, his family, and Marcel face Marcel’s death. The capacity for the depth of bond in an interspecies way has always amazed me. This has been illustrated to me very recently with the death of my own cat, Poppy. She was the runt of the litter, not meant to survive, smaller than my undersized palm when she arrived, but she lived for just about twenty-five years. I relay my story because this short book reflects the dilemmas and conflicted emotions faced when dealing with, and having ultimate responsibility for, the final breath of a creature greatly loved. - Rebecca Gransden, Goodreads and Amazon UK

A special thanks to Mischenko and Starjustin. After reading both their deeply moving reviews- I wanted to purchase this book for our younger daughter who has two cats. (...) In this short story we are witness to a beautiful love story between a cat and his owner and the family they are a part of. Gut wrenching loss when death comes. Rest In Peace Marcel.... - Elyse, Goodreads

​If you like these beautiful words of authors, readers and reviewers who honored my book with their honest reviews, please purchase A World Without Color as e-book or paperback, or read it for free with Kindle Unlimited. And don't forget to leave an honest review on Amazon, Amazon UK or Goodreads, or your personal website or blog, for I will feature your review on my website and my booklife profile, unless you wish otherwise. And I may even shout it out to my dear subscribers via my newsletter!

Thank you for all your wonderful support to A World Without Color and for spreading the word about it! You are the reason and my motivation to carry on.

Thank you and have a wonderful January!

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

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Bernard Jan

Angel Ramon Medina is the author who writes faster than I get to read his books. He is the unstoppable writing machine and in less than past three months he has published his two new books! And as I write this, he is working on his new book. Crazy man, I tell you! Crazy in a good way.

If you like aliens, grab the last sequel Life's a Beach Expansion Pack Story of his The Thousand Years War series. If you like zombies, dig into the plagued action horror Angel's Nightmare Adventure 3: Nemesis.

On a second thought why choose between any of them? Just read both books!

If you have followed this indie author from his first self-published books, you have noticed the advancement in his writing and style. With these two new books, Angel did one more step forward toward his old/new Videogame/LitRPG/GameLit genre. You may ask yourself what the heck is that? It's best we let Angel tell us in his own words.

"When you think of a GameLit book whether it’s LitRPG, LitFPS, or whichever sub-genre, you think that the story mostly takes place in a "video game" world. The term GameLit is coined as a genre that has elements of a video game and we know that video games are not "real life". In other words, most titles in the genre have no real consequences in the real world since they take place in a separate virtual world." (From his article Gamelit/LitRPG – The Real Life Connection published on greatlitrpg.com, January 23, 2018)

Video games are not for everyone (I am not too big a fan either; if I have to choose between a video game and a book, books will win by a hundred to zero percent) but that doesn't have to concern you. His books are readable and fluent also with the GameLit touch, in a way adding to them being even more interesting.

Life's a Beach Expansion Pack Story is set in Puerto Rico and its story carries on from the events of the first book of The Thousand Years War series but you can read it as a standalone. While Angel and Maria with their new mates Ben and Steven are on a vacation in Puerto Rico, the gloobas summon their forces using the virtual world and strike again in their attempt to take over the world. Reading this novel after the actual catastrophe that in 2017 hit the whole island of Puerto Rico with hurricanes Irma and Maria is a bit an awkward and bizarre experience. However, Angel Ramon Medina, who survived the wrath of both hurricanes, has every moral right to plummet his fictional island into another ice age, freezing it to change the climate on the whole planet.

If you tasted the smell of explosions, scare and unease of Resident Evil while reading the first two books of Angel's Nightmare Adventure, the third part of the series Nemesis will catapult you there. The biggest change in the last sequel is that Angel is gone (lost somewhere in Croatia) and his girlfriend Maria is left to fight zombies and many other creatures that escaped from Hybrid's underground laboratory without him. Surviving the second zombie outbreak put her capabilities of survival to another test after she finds her family murdered and the whole of New York City faces the biggest threat ever.

If you like to be scared and thrown around by unstoppable action, those are the books for you. Angel Ramon Medina offers little compassion to his heroes and villains, sacrifices are given and taken with each turn of the page.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

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Bernard Jan

NAKED TRUTHS About Getting Book Reviews 2018 by Gisela Hausmann

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I beg other authors not to hold it against me for reading and reviewing NAKED TRUTHS About Getting Book Reviews 2018 by Gisela Hausmann ahead of the schedule and before theirs. This book came at the right moment to my attention, when I was on the mission of seeking and hunting new reviews for A World Without Color, the true story of the last three days I spent with my cat, and I was too curious and hungry for good advice. And I got it!

It's not that I didn't ask around and collected information on what is allowed and what is not allowed when asking for a review and posting my own reviews on Amazon before I read this book. I did it by the book, not breaking any rules, which came as a relief.

NAKED TRUTHS About Getting Book Reviews 2018, Gisela Hausmann reminded me of things I could have done better, more thoughtful and... more refined. As a "self-publishing industry veteran, an email evangelist and a top reviewer," as her Goodreads profile says, in her 86 pages long fourth edition (earlier editions were 2015, 2016 and 2017), she offers us her insight and knowledge on how to better understand Amazon's review platform and introduces us to 10 different kinds of reviews.

Spending years in collecting information and studying the shape-shifting of the patterns of Amazon's behavior to its readers and authors and as a response to the actions of its readers and authors, the Amazon top reviewer Gisela Hausmann delivered us a short but well-informed handbook of Amazon dos and don'ts.

I love this book. I love its simplicity of writing and the clarity of advice and examples Hausmann uses to tell us what we should do to get more reviews for our precious books. Like a good teacher or a caring parent she explains her every claim so everyone can understand it. Don't touch a heated oven or you might get burned, don't ride your bicycle over the red light or you might get hit by a car. Reward your teachers with a smile and thank you for the knowledge they gave you because they are also humans and kind words open many doors.

Apart from stating the rules in NAKED TRUTHS About Getting Book Reviews 2018 we should follow, should we want to make our books successful, Hausmann tells us probably the biggest secret of all on how to get desired reviews. I am sure we all know that secret on some basic, primal level, but we somehow forgot it in our rush to count our daily written words, haste to build our launch team or finish the formatting before we catch the self-imposed publishing deadline.

Every successful relationship is built individually, on respect and personal level, with just the right emotion and enough passion to spark it into existence. The same applies to our books and their reviewers, to us and how we treat them.

For further information please read the book.

Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com

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Bernard Jan



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A BRAVE Year: 52 Weeks Being Mindful by Gabriel Constans PhD

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I was curious and brave enough to purchase and explore A BRAVE Year: 52 Weeks Being Mindful by Gabriel Constans PhD in a rather challenging time for me. It was like someone pointed a finger and told me to slow down with doing my two part-time jobs, studying online marketing for my book A World Without Color and preparing the launch of the new one.

Life is a torrent which leaves many bruises on our body and mind so I thank the author of this insightful book for giving me the much-needed sense of calmness, focus and awareness in a small space while going to work and back home, which is almost the only time when I can read and relax with a good book.

Living through A BRAVE Year can be a brave act, because allowing ourselves to pause, to be still, undisturbed and not doing something of a greater importance is challenging in this hectic world which forces us to sacrifice our personal mental and spiritual nourishment and growth on the altar of the physical survival.

This is why A BRAVE Year: 52 Weeks Being Mindful isn't a onetime read but the source of fifty-two sessions and classes of mindfulness to be accessed repeatedly. With a brave enough and honest mind to accept and “witness what we discover, inside and out, without turning away or getting caught in the content.”

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

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Bernard Jan



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Bandwidth by Eliot Peper

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


He did it again! Eliot Peper is a master of creeping his way into your brain cells with stories that carry a premonition sign of a society galloping into its dystopian future and human entities running wild with seemingly no one to save them.

Having recent events flooding the world media in mind, Bandwidth (An Analog Novel Book 1) comes as another shocking reminder of the realities we live in, both virtual and the real-time ones, and the hidden battles fought for our souls, money and lives.

Bandwidth is a prophecy of a digital feed era which lures us into its techno-thriller net with an immense potential of manipulating everything and everyone. The only way of survival might be in trusting no one and questioning every authority.

Whether or not you fancy that shape of our future or not, read Bandwidth. If not for the story itself than for the author's writing.

I don't hide; I love Peper's style. His Bandwidth opening pages are a carefully handcrafted textbook example of a great writer catching the attention of his reader at an early stage and the promise of an entertaining read for those seeking intellectual and sophisticated writing.

Oh yes, he did it again! High five!

Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy from the author as his early reader in exchange for an honest review.

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Bernard Jan



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