Beacon's Spark

Potomac Shadows #1

by Jim Johnson

AWAKENING THE FATES

Even with a great girlfriend, a bestie, and visits with her ailing grandpa, Rachel Farran feels isolated and lonely. When she stumbles into the mystical Veil separating the mortal and spirit worlds, she encounters voices that won’t shut up, ghostly faces that won’t leave her alone, and a crystal that can’t stop glowing.

Rachel soon discovers that she can manipulate magical ley threads as a descendant of the ancient Fates and a Beacon for lost souls. But when the malevolent being known as the Spinner harnesses the ley to drag helpless souls through the Veil to devour them, can Rachel begin to trust others and learn to control her newfound abilities before her grandpa and many others are lost forever?

Beacon’s Spark, a coming of age magical adventure, is the first book in Potomac Shadows, a paranormal fantasy series set in the Washington, DC metro area.

315 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 28, 2016

About the author

Jim Johnson was born about the same time Apollo XII landed on the moon (and has always been kinda spacy) and shares a birthday with the Kindle. He is the author of the Pistols and Pyramids weird western series and the Potomac Shadows urban fantasy series. He's also written a bunch of other stuff in and around the SFF genres and pen and paper RPGs. He's currently the project manager and line editor for Modiphius's Star Trek Adventures RPG and project manager for the Fallout RPG.

In rare moments when he's not writing or publishing, Jim plays board games and card games, and makes a brilliant bowl of popcorn. You can learn more about him and his writing at www.SCRIBEINETI.com.

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book in a goodreads drawing.

An urban fantasy where a young lady starts seeing dead people.

Tries for the diversity crowd, but nobody quite seems real.

[Charles Barsaga · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the world building in this one, but perhaps that's why I couldn't bring myself to add another star onto the review. It was full of world building and perhaps not enough time building upon its side characters and their relationships with the protagonist.

There was a weird see-saw in personality for Rachel Farran. At times she would seem lost. Sometimes sarcastic. Sometimes vulnerable. While the various emotional states would normally mean a deep and developed character, I couldn't emotionally connect to the character at times.

Although the climax was suitably 'heroic' I couldn't help but feel that the villain was somewhat disappointing. I'm hoping the next books prove me wrong. The world is intriguing enough for me to want to explore the next books but as far as urban fantasy goes, this is a decent read.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not written very well and was must meh overall.

[Torrey Grennan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway.

I found this Urban Fantasy an enjoyable read. I was at times as confused as the main character, but as a whole it kept my attention until the end. I also like the fact that while it leaves much to be handled in future books, it is a complete story on its own.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rachel is a lonely person, living from day to day, with not much going on. Then when she finds out the things she can do, things change for her. I really felt for her at the beginning. She just seemed so lonely, even though she had a girlfriend, a grandpa, and her brother. By the end of the book, she was almost a different character. This leads me to say the book is very-well written and I how much I really liked the characters. The author made me feel so much for them, including Malcolm who I really couldn't stand so much I really wanted to do not very nice things to him! That's how good of a book this was. And, to add to that, there is plenty of action and plot to keep the reader entertained, even if the beginning was a tad bit slow. I really am looking forward to more in the series, and am interested to see where it goes. If you like excellent, well-written new adult, then look no further. This book is worth your time and money! Highly recommend!

Thanks to the author for the e-book which I read voluntarily. This exact review will be posted on both Amazon and Goodreads.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have read my reviews before you know I love a story that has characters that cause extreme emotional reactions from me like Malcolm. I wanna punch him, throttle him, hang him by his toenails you know nothing drastic. Anyway this is a great story with lots of action and intrigue. Soul eating, vampires, and a whole cast of characters. Great read and start of a series.

[Heather Henkel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting premise

I enjoyed this story but I kept wanting to punch Malcolm given his actions. I think it will be interesting to see how the story progresses.

[Tracy]

I was unable to finish this book after about 35%. I found it hard to connect to any of the characters and the parts that should have been exciting/mysterious were just boring to me. The premise was interesting enough and it had great potential. It just fell flat for me. I am not giving this a star rating since I did mark it as "did not finish" before even being able to get through 50% of the book.