The Changing Earth: book review

Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts

Monday, May 30, 2016

Tyrant, The Rise; Book Review

Find this blog at:

http://www.authorsarafhathaway.com/thechaningingearthnewsletter/tyrant-the-rise

Sara F. Hathaway

Sara F. Hathaway is the author of the The Changing Earth Series: Day After Disaster and Without Land. She also hosts The Changing Earth Podcast which blends her fictional stories with educational survival tips. Sara grew up in the country where she developed a profound interest in the natural world around her. After graduating with honors from The California State University of Sacramento with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, she launched into a career in business management. In her fictional novels her research and experience with survival techniques and forgotten life-sustaining methods of the generations past come to the forefront in a action packed adventures. She has used her background in business management to pave new roads for fictional authors to follow and she delights in helping other achieve the same success. She currently lives with her husband and two sons in California where she is at work on the sequel to her first two novels. For more information and a free copy of “The Go-Bag Essentials” featuring everything you need to have to leave your home in a disaster visit: www.authorsarafhathaway.com

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Purchase Day After Disaster

Monday, September 7, 2015

Behind the Scenes: Book Review, Last of the Breed, by Louis L'Amour

Find this article at:

http://www.authorsarafhathaway.com/thechaningingearthnewsletter/book-review-last-of-the-breed-by-louis-l-amour

Sara F. Hathaway

Purchase Without Land

Purchase Day After Disaster

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

A Daily Survival Essential: Doctor Prepper's Making the Best of Basics, Family Preparedness Handbook

I recently had the honor of appearing in an interview with James Talmage Stevens aka Dr. Prepper on his PreparednessRadioNetwork. The discussion was an amazing opportunity to trade information with someone who has been on the leading edge of preparedness awareness for over 40 years but beyond that, I was also gifted a copy of his book, Doctor Prepper's Making the Best of Basics, Family Preparedness Handbook. This book is an absolute must have for any person's library, prepper or not!

James writes from a time when the society in general was more concerned about your responsibility to your family for their care and safety. He lays his advice down straight and states that you must be prepared to handle any type of disaster whether that be personal, people-made, or natural disaster. His book carefully outlines all the details of what you need to be ready for the loss of a family member or a debilitating sickness. His book includes detailed spreadsheets for you to fill in the blanks and make sure you are ready on all ends of life if a family member loses a job or if there is a terrorist attack. He has thought through the details of having to leave your home behind in a natural disaster and all the things you should be concerned about in that unfortunate event. He doesn't just explain the basic go-bag or e-bag as he calls it; he outlines insurance documents, household documents, and so much more that you should be aware of in that unfortunate event.

I have been interested in learning about survival details for many years and never before have I seen a book that is so complete and so easy to follow to get your family prepared for unfortunate events. This book has a plethora of recipes for the odd items you stock up like dehydrated milk and whole grains that you may not eat on a regular basis. He walks you through making your back up supplies into a general store, how to store water, stay sanitary, dry meat, work with metal and all the basics that are being rapidly forgotten in our fast paced modern day society. Plus, he has included so many great resources where you can go to get more information both online and off.

If you haven't taken a look at this book, I highly suggest it! It brings all the information you are searching for together into one manual so you can feel confident in the face of adversity.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Book Review: The Dying Time: Impact

Find this article at: http://www.authorsarafhathaway.com/thechaningingearthnewsletter/the-dying-time-impact

Sara F. Hathaway

Purchase Without Land

Purchase Day After Disaster

Monday, December 1, 2014

Book Review: Ambient Light, An Angel McKenzie Thriller, by: Lorraine Adair

All and all I really liked this book and read half of it (the end) in one night. It had a good flow, the writing was clear and easy to follow. For me personally, it was a little to sexually oriented but it added to the story in many ways. It was a fun quick read that kept me hooked.

The story follows a photographer, Angel, who is at the wrong place at the wrong time. She gets involved in a police investigation and becomes an item of interest to the perpetrator and the detective in charge of the investigation. Her character is very well plotted out. She is a no nonsense, honest and light-hearted individual with her career at the top of her list of priorities. The story is written not only from her point of view but also from different characters in the story as well. It gets kind of redundant to read the same scene from multiple points of view but it often adds a level of understanding that is intriguing to find out about. For example, you get to see into the mind of the "bad guy". This was also very well done. The author paints a picture of a very sick individual but looking through his eyes and reading how his brain thinks almost makes you understand the motives behind his actions. Almost.

Buy Ambient Light on Amazon.com

Sara F. Hathaway

Purchase Without Land

Purchase Day After Disaster

Friday, November 21, 2014

Book Review: Havoc's Cry

I usually don't read paranormal books with vampires, werewolves and the like but I took a chance with this novel because my book, Day After Disaster, has a strong female lead just like this one. I wanted to see how Victoria crafted the character and I was not disappointed at all. The lead character is strong and paranormally powerful but also shows vulnerability and weakness. Very well done.

The story was a little slow at the start but plot needed to be laid out so you could understand the nuances that come into play later on in the story. Once it got rolling it was action after action. Maybe a little too fast with characters constantly going to the hospital and then magically being able to walk out the next day (even the non-paranormal people) but it worked and was essential to keep the story moving.

The supporting characters were very interesting and well described. You understood what made each of them tick and how the main character needed to understand that to effectively run the team. Villains also received the same character care. Victoria painted beautiful interactions here. You immediately knew who she should be very afraid of and who would not be such a big threat.

My only criticism, and this is just my opinion, is the inner character chatter was redundant and confusing to follow but some of the inner chatter was amusing and made the story more entertaining, almost comical.

Hats off to Victoria. I can't believe I read a paranormal book with vampires and werewolves and loved it. You made the magic reality in a detective meets sorceress kind of way.

Buy Havoc's Cry on Amazon.com

Sara F. Hathaway

Purchase Without Land

Purchase Day After Disaster

Monday, June 9, 2014

Day After Disaster Review

Day After Disaster (The Changing Earth, #1)
by Sara F. Hathaway (Goodreads Author)

Katherine Chinelli's review

May 26, 14

5 of 5 stars

Read in May, 2014

As far as disaster books go, I really appreciated how Ms. Hathaway started the story with her character experiencing the beginning of the changes. Because she did this, we got to hear about "the beginning" later on again when the main character, Erika, told other people about her adventure. The more she told her story, the more she became a legend for not only the other survivors, but also the reader. I really liked this aspect of the book because it meant not only did the character have a rich history, but we had been there to share it with her when no other characters were around, almost making us a character in the story as well.

I really liked how Erika used her faith and her desire to get back to her family as a deep motivation to survive and reach for things other characters may not have been able to achieve. As a mother, the story was compelling to me because of course I wanted to know what would happen with her family and if they would be safe. I also liked how Erika began to meet up with other survivors along the way and hear their stories of survival. Each story was almost like a superhero origins story.

I liked how Erika was such a strong character. I appreciated the special skills she used to get her to the next leg of her journey. The way she escaped her initial ordeal and the way she used every bit of what she could salvage along the way made the story interesting and detail-filled.

Ms. Hathaway did a great job of creating a rich landscape for the reader's imagination. There were a few times when the details in the beginning bogged down the story a bit--I felt myself anxious to move on and find out what happened--and a few times when the details were not able to paint as clear of a picture as I wanted in my mind, but overall I felt the details served the story well.

As a first book, I think Ms. Hathaway created an amazing experience. I think some of the sentence structures and tenses were a bit awkwardly inelegant, but I'm sure that's something that can be easily ironed out over time. Aside from the sentence structure issues and a few scattered grammatical problems, this book was a joy to read. None of the small problems made me want to read it less.

I found myself coming back to the book again and again. The book became a treasured ritual in the morning and afternoon, a respite and small break from the day. I would read a bit while drinking my coffee and found myself disappointed when I had to put it down. In fact, now that the book is done, I find myself looking around for a book of comparable comfort and excitement, and am not finding it on my shelf. I find myself very disappointed that this story is over and look forward with energy to her next book!

Sara F. Hathaway

Purchase Without Land

Purchase Day After Disaster

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Why did I write my novel, Day After Disaster?

Day After Disaster was written to cause readers to reflect on two main points. The first thing this novel causes readers to ask themselves is what if our way of life was drastically altered in a snap. Anyone alive on 9-11 remembers exactly where they were when the world was changed, this novel causes the reader to ask where will I be when the world changes again? What would I be willing to do to save my family or myself? Would I even know how to survive in the natural world of our ancestors?

The next issue Day After Disaster causes the reader to ponder is an appreciation for the now. Modern humans live at such a fast paced speed that the special moments of gratitude for the people surrounding you can be lost. So many things designed to make life easier or more entertaining may be drastically altering our basic social relationships and this book causes readers to consider the simplicity of the life that our society gave up in return for the conveniences of modern gadgets.

Sara F. Hathaway

Purchase Without Land

Purchase Day After Disaster