Location: Mexico
Member Since:
Feb. 20, 2011
Marti xx
Biography
American ex-pat living in the central highlands of Mexico. Retired with plenty of time to read, and enjoy life.
Where to find Marti xx online
Smashwords book reviews by Marti xx
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Tortilla Press
on April 01, 2011
What a wonderfully written book, with converging story lines that keeps the action moving. Getting inside the head of the various characters gives insight into their actions and decision-making. A fine example of how we all do the best with what we've got, and a lot of what we've got depends on what we start off with in life. Believable and sympathetic characters, and a storyline that keeps moving, all keep the reader cheering for the characters and hoping for the best for them, while at the same time fearing the worst.
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Maceration
on May 13, 2011
(no rating)
A delightful short detective mystery. It left me wishing it was novel-length. Sympathetic characters, crisp writing. All in all, a good read.
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Bubba and the Dead Woman
on May 26, 2011
(no rating)
What a fun read. What's not to like about a good ole boy from Texas with an old pickup truck and a beagle named Precious, a decaying pre-civil war mansion and a mother who runs a quasi-secret illegal floating poker game for the gals in town? Oh yeah, and a body in his front yard. Now I got to get me the other title, Bubba and the Twelve Deadly Days of Christmas.
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Homesick: A Time in Yellowstone Story
on March 30, 2014
A truly delightful story, one of a series, about Yellowstone National Park in the time of World War II, when most of the Park staff were off fighting the war, and there were few visitors because there was no gas for traveling. Ranger Will McManis is the guy in charge of the Upper Geyser Basin. He and his wife have had the care of their now five-year-old grandson since his birth, due to the death of his mother and his father's despair. But after this summer, he will be moving to Denver to live with his father and to go to school. A beautiful story full of loving details of the countryside, the relationship with the three family members, and a ghost. Oops! Didn't mean to tell you about the ghost. This is a gentle story with just a smidge of paranormal. Just a smidge. Definitely a warm-your-heart work.
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The Deadly Playground - 1914
on May 02, 2014
It's 1914, and the wealthy and influential Barrington family of Britain, with its 5 sons and two daughters, must set aside its frivolous ways because war has been declared. Germany is about to take over poor little Belgium in an effort to get at France and take over France as well. The first section, an introduction to the various members of Barrington family, is told through the eyes of Stanley Walker, a former classmate of the youngest Barrington, Jimmy. Stanley comes from a working class family, and managed to scrape by to attend university, has a knack with motors, and stays connected with Jimmy as he works on Jimmy's motorcars. When the war effort begins, Jimmy coerces Stanley to join the nascent air corps as pilots the fact that neither had ever even been in an airplane, let alone flown one, notwithstanding. With Jimmy's connections, he is able to get them a certificate, which gets them into classes. The remainder of the book is the story of how the piloting effort goes, and the different directions and interconnections in the European war zone the lives of the two main characters take, Stanley as an ace pilot, and Jimmy in 'Intelligence'. I believe this is the first of a planned series about the Barringtons, although this one is primarily about the war in 1914, and is completely a stand-alone book. This book is obviously extremely well researched, and the historical period is integral to the story, not just window dressing for it. I am really looking forward to the continuing story,
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The Weeping Empress
on May 15, 2014
"For some, death is an art," a voice behind her said. "For others, it is merely an inevitability." Gee, this was an interesting book. Actually, more than interesting. Did you ever have one of those days, or periods of days, where what you really wanted to be doing was slashing a honking big sword at everybody and everything that annoyed you, and then say to yourself, 'Well, they needed killing.' Yeah. Me, too. Well, here's your chance to do that vicariously through Chiyo Alglaeca, a perfectly normal young mommie with a nice husband and a darling 3 year old child, who wakes up one bright morning to find she has been mysteriously transported to another place, and another time. Another dimension? It seems sort of like feudal Japan, but maybe not exactly. We are never told exactly where, but there is a cruel Emperor who lives in a great castle high on a bluff, and the place is referred to as the kingdom. Anyway, she is right in the middle of a group of conscripts being taken in lieu of money to work in some function of the Emperor. (I forget exactly. If I had a penchant for detail, I could get a real job.) Upon seeing a frail elderly woman being cruelly treated then killed for not moving fast enough, Mz. Chiyo goes into action, and well, the game is on. Without knowing diddly squat about sword fighting, she picks one up and starts flailing away, to the amusement and interest of a couple of rebel types who have come to disrupt the human caravan, and thus provoke the Emperior, which they have being doing for years. They agree to help the group escape by taking them far away to a river border to a place they will be safe. More swordplay, more slashing and flailing, which certainly gets their attention. The three become companions, and the two guys, Muhjah and Senka, begin to teach her how to properly handle the sword. She works hard at learning and eventually becomes an excellent warrior in her own right, and she and her two companions do a Robin Hood/Bonnie and Clyde and Clyde throughout the countryside, wrecking havoc against the forces of the Emperor. And if all this weren't paranormal enough for you, we now introduce you to Kali, the Goddess. She had been worshipped by the animals and humans since time immemorial, but times have changed, and the humans have drifted away from her. She promises to send her Arm to free her people. And it soon becomes apparent that Chiyo is thought to be that Arm of the Goddess, and is becoming revered throughout the land, as tales of her powers and that of her two companions, begin to spread. You know how so many sci fi, apocalypse and dystopian stories are about how we humans are destroying our resources and our planet, and how that theme, serious as it is and true, sort of gets tedious after about the 70th book? Well, this is the same, in disguise, and it isn't until after you close the book and think back on the story that you realize that it is a parable. Kali the Goddess is the Earth, and her devotees and followers who have rather abandoned her are, well, US. And how we are always looking for a savior to get us out of this mess. Wonderful read, filled with Latin quotes, and lyrical writing. And a real kick-ass female warrior. So get your bad self on, grab a sword, and swing away!
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Flat Tire
on June 24, 2014
In spite of the cover claiming it is a novelette, it is really a short story, and a fun one at that. And although it is grammatically challenged in a couple of places, that does not take anything away from the enjoyment of the story that leaves us smiling with the knowledge that a love that is out of this world can come to us out of the blue.