💫 Support a Creative 💫
Z.S. Diamanti’s upcoming book Guard in the Garden: A Cozy Fantasy tells the story of dwarf warrior Felton Holdum. Felton is injured during a battle and must return to civilian life. He has a hard time adjusting until a human woman introduces him to her garden. The cozy tale focuses on family bonds, finding a new purpose in life, and budding romance. Guard in the Garden releases on March 4, 2025. It is available for preorder on Amazon.
This post’s feature image was created by WordPress AI.
Introduction
Over the month of August, A.R. Witham and others hosted a TBR (or To Be Read) Quest on Discord. The goal was to read five books during the month.
Everyone was divided at random into teams, and the team with the most points by the end of August won. Each person chose a max of five books from the provided prompts. Each book equaled one point. For a bonus point you could review the book. The team also had a sixth book, a team read book, chosen by the team leader. So, each person could score a max of 12 points for their team.
Below are my six reviews along with their links to Goodreads.
The Reviews
Rieden Reece and the Final Flower by Matt Guzman
More twists than a Grecian labyrinth! Every time you think you know what’s going on Guzman pulls the rug out from under you. You wonder who to trust. Rieden says that it was his brother who was the troublemaker and Rieden cleaned up his messes, but everyone else says Rieden was the troublemaker. You wonder if Rieden’s brother even existed; and in a series where pretty much anything can happen, it doesn’t seem that far-fetched.
Throughout the book you, and Rieden, question if he is sane. Every strange occurrence is either explained away or has no witnesses. Even at the end when it finally seems that the question of Rieden’s sanity is put to rest there is still a question. Brian says that the big bad carried a sword while Rieden says it was a scythe. Not completely strange seeing how others who witness the strangeness will see things differently; but on the cover, the villain is carrying a sword.
Rieden Reece and the Final Flower is a great story for middle grade readers and young adults who like sci-fi, fantasy, adventure, mystery, and most importantly parallel worlds.t
Stone & Sky Preludes Collection by Z.S. Diamanti
A great read for those needing a Stone & Sky fix. Works great if you’ve read the trilogy or are waiting till you have enough to buy the books/audiobooks, or if you only have a few minutes of reading time for the day.
The chapters are short enough to keep you motivated while not being so short that details get left out. Diamanti did an excellent job of tying the preludes to the main story without spoiling it. Also, the events in the preludes don’t have much “impact;” they don’t interfere or “retcon” events from the trilogy.
Rieden Reece and the Water World by Matt Guzman
The Rieden Reece series is a good showcase of dealing with trauma. I like how Guzman is able to depict what trauma and grief is like in a way that people can understand. It is interesting how Brian will do pretty much anything to be friends with Rieden and then he merges with Rieden’s brother, Rieden’s original only friend. For a little bit the reader, and Rieden, wonder if Brian is putting on act, pretending to be part-time Rob.
It’s also interesting how there’s a couple of times where Rieden almost seems to control the strange happenings. One time, he is knocked in the face and the rain stops.
I like how Guzman continues to make you question reality then confirm what is happening as reality only for you to question it again as someone witnesses some other explanation for the events. When the friends escape the reservoir, the truck bumper is bitten into and torn off by the shark, but the police later find the bumper caught in a chain attached to a cinderblock.
Guzman must have one impressive thesaurus to be able to come up with all those alliterative chapter titles.
Rieden Reece and the Scroll of Life by Matt Guzman
Guzman did an excellent job describing the wild events of the Scroll of Life. The way he described how the buildings shifted like a Rubix’s Cube or how places folded made picturing the strange world of the Candy Cosmos more accessible. He also did a great job of explaining difficult topics like quantum mechanics or philosophy. Though some of the ideas are still confusing.
I also enjoyed that the story got right to the main plot; there wasn’t a lot of stretching things or needless exposition. However, the Librarian of Death’s trial in the middle threw me. It seemed almost out of place, not so much that it broke the story, but I kind of felt like it was added just to further the plot or to make the book longer. The Librarian of Death’s part was necessary to hinder Rieden’s hunt for his brother’s soul, but maybe some other force or complication could have stopped him instead. Something was just weird about it. I guess the scene was needed to show how the Librarian of Death is such a threat and isn’t going to be defeated easily.
I did enjoy all the pop culture references with Cursor morphing into different famous characters. Rieden also seemed a little less rough around the edges this time. He seemed not as much of a smart-mouth. It seemed like he grew as a character a bit while also making it believable. Rieden still had some smart-aleck comments, but he knew when to keep them to himself. He didn’t change over night.
Another great adventure!
You Like it Darker by Stephen King
The collection of stories were true to King’s usual…strange stories. They aren’t normal horror with a monster terrorizing a protagonist with an axe; they’re more thinky, that kind of terror that gets under your skin…invades your mind. Or as King states in the book, “the dark side of imagination.” One story was so thinky I was like, “Huh?” I had a hard time figuring out why it was in the book. Others were a little more “obvious.” All made you decipher them. They weren’t something you read, went “what a nice story about an axe murderer,” and carried on to the next story. It made you stop and think and rub your arms as your skin crawled.
King did an excellent job of balancing “out there” terror, like alien invasions or psychic powers with “real world” terror, like talents or meeting strangers on the highway.
The Return of the Knights by Gregory Kontaxis
The world of The Return of the Knights sounds vast and full of interesting creatures. It sounds full of mythical beings and wise souls. It sounds like a place of honor and darkness.
I found that the story, while having an intriguing plot, was heavy with dialogue and exposition. It felt like many of the chapters involved characters standing around not doing anything. However, the action scenes were tense, even some of the dialogue scenes were tense. The near constant bickering between characters, the “how dare you talk to me like that” attitude, got on my nerves at times. The story picks up after some time. Once it gets past the info dump, the action and conflict increases and the story becomes more interesting. Near the end, however, it does slow down again as they recap the events and all the twists are explained, including Elliot’s fate.
Since this is one of Kontaxis’s first books, I think there is a lot of potential. No one creates a masterpiece on their first try; you have to learn and grow, and I think Kontaxis could grow into a good author.
Conclusion
The TBR Quest was tiring and at times frustrating. I felt like I was constantly behind and not doing my part. Near the end I felt like it’d become something that needed to be done instead of something fun. You can see it in my reviews; they became shorter and more hurried. I felt like I couldn’t read anything else until I finished the six books. It felt like all my reading time, and eventually any free time, was taken up by the Quest.
That being said, I’m glad I did it. It was fun rooting for my team, with some occasional friendly trash talk to the other teams—and sometimes even our own teammates. It was nice to find readers that had similar interests, experiences, and issues to me. I also found out about books that weren’t the trending ones. It was great meeting other authors and readers.
However, I am glad it is done. LOL.
Until the next wormhole…thanks for reading!
Please like, follow, and share!
🗞️ Subscribe to my free newsletter for more sci-fi/fantasy book content!
📚Invasion, mystery, and futuristic sci-fi fantasy action! Preorder Future Shock today!
📚Hardback and paperback release Nov. 12, 2024, on Amazon. Not available for preorder.
Joe Rover 
Leave a comment