Marilyn PeakeCritiques

Girl Journalist Saves Town from Slavers

When Galactic Shade Griffin moves with her mom into her new town, she heads to school with dread. As usual, from her unusual name, to her unorthodox Mother, the kids at her school can smell out a kid that doesn't fit in.

However, after a rocky start, Shade, as she becomes known as, meets Annie Green, and George Knight who run the school newspaper and online forum. Together, they become fast friends.

Something odd is happening in Shade's house, an unseen prescence is making itself known. It turns out that her bedroom in the turret of the Victorian house has had a long time resident. Brandon, who died there, introduces himself in a scary way.

Shade, the book, is engaging, heart pounding and addresses serious issues that face today's young adults. Suicide, self-harm, substance abuse and sexual abuse are issues handled with great care.

Ultimately, Shade, and her newspaper friends are faced with solving the puzzle of a series of missing girls and some very dark secrets. Marilyn Peake manages to keep her story balanced between the humourous stuff of a teenagers daily life and the shady undercurrent of the town's secret.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Shade, actually, I couldn't put it down! I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series. Marilyn Peake is highly entertaining, I recommend this to anyone.

Shade and Kai are off to school…senior year at Ocean View College. Shade is a Ghost Whisperer and Kai is an empath. They are BFFs.

We are off to a good start. Shade has the same roommate, Carrie, who went to Romania with her, and they are in the same dorm room, #58. The familiar gives her confidence, makes her feel more comfortable coming back.

I love going to dinner with them. The servers and guests…well, ya have to read it to enjoy it as much as I did. Put a smile on my face, cracking me up. Yeah, it does bring to mind Harry Potter, but that just makes it easier to visualize and makes it that much more enjoyable.

Shade will be studying Kelpies this year and is off to Scotland for a research project. Her friend Li will be accompanying her. Will they see the Loch Ness Monster?

Kelpies are shapeshifting spirits inhabiting the lochs in Scottish folklore. It is usually described as a black horselike creature able to adopt human form. I love the shapeshifter that can become whatever she wants, whether whale, dolphin, fish… We have selkies, which are seal shapeshifters. That’s pretty darn cool too.

“The magical world is as complex as the real world.”

Things are going too smoothly and I am waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. I hope my spidey sense are wrong, but what would be the story in that?

Then, POW. Marilyn, you rocked my boat. I am amazed.

Marilyn Peake’s writing is enthralling, riveting. I cannot look away.

There are six books in the Shade series and I am sad to see it end. The books are not filled with gore, erotica, or savagery, but draw the reader into circumstances and characters and we have to know how it will end…and talk about surprises…the stories about the Loch Ness Monster are true, but..

I love how Shade came full circle.

I cannot imagine how Marilyn Peake could have done any better. The finale hit all the buttons and I am sure my review did not do it justice. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVED IT!

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Shade and the Crystal Orb by Marilyn Peake.

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It’s Shade’s junior year at Ocean View College and I am excited to begin another adventure with her and her magical friends. On the way to school, the go on a cruise. Shade had never been anywhere, so this was quite an adventure, and how fortunate that her BFF Kai is with her.

Shade is a Ghost Whisperer and I still watch The Ghost Whisperer TV show reruns in the mornings. I wonder how she will fare with vampires. She opened the pamphlet she was given, thinking it would be full of pretty pictures and ghosts. Not so. Instead she saw it was about vampires, strigori, troubled spirits that rise from the dead, causing her to have a panic attack.

The gang: Shade, Kai, Apple and Annie are together again and more excited about life than ever. They would be separated when they headed off on their student exchange adventure. She draws people to her, though if you asked her about it, she wouldn’t know what to say.

Dakota, Trinity, Summer, Maeve, Li…from ghosts whisperers to selkies…Whew…we dodged a bullet, along with Carrie and Selene. Ya know, the one where they go into the forest, into the cave, down in the basement…I couldn’t help but smile. I can see them in her cabin, scared…

WOW. Marilyn Peake created an amazing world filled with magic and wonder, danger and evil. I was so lost it was hard to come up for air. The characters may be young and inexperienced, but they are brave, courageous, loving and loyal.

How Marilyn merged ghosts and vampires together was creatively done, flowing seamlessly to the conclusion.

I love that I can get so wrapped up in a young woman’s life. Where there is no romance, no sex, but plenty of action and danger. I am finding it hard to express how wonderfully sweet it is. So much more than I expected.

I am so excited to head off to Scotland next.

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I have been loving the Shade series from the beginning, watching Shade grown and develop into a deeper character. She has traveled from the trailer park to the magical Ocean View College. She is in her Sophomore year as a Ghost Whisperer. Trouble seems to follow her and she does not back down from it. Luckily, she has her two best friends at her side, Kai and Anne.

Shade has no qualms with other magical creatures and accepts them, as long as they accept her. At Ocean View she has found a situation she has never faced before…racism. The fairies rule the college with an iron fist. There are those that think they are above the sea creatures: mermaids, selkies and kelpies, and the secrets that will be exposed are worse than she could have ever imagined. It is disgusting and disgraceful and, knowing Shade, she will not let this slide.

Her roommate, Natalie, recruits her for the school paper. She is a perfect fit and a platform for making a change at Ocean View College.

The richly detailed world Marilyn Peake has created takes her wonderfully developed characters through Shade’s sophomore year. Shade and the Pure Blood Faeries reads like a true story of a young girl and her college years, except for the magical creatures. She amazes me with her ability to draw me in, making me feel the danger, the despair, the desire to right a gross injustice, to make the world a better place.

Even with Shade’s past experiences in how ugly life can be, she is still naive, trusting. There is good and bad in everyone and Shade has to learn that the hard way. I love watching her grow and change, gather more friends, and work to make her world a better place. If that means traveling to Romania on her next adventure, Shade and the Vampires of Romania, then I plan on going with her. I don’t want to miss a minute of it.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Shade and the Pure Blood Faeries by Marilyn Peake.

See more at http://www.fundinmental.com

My name is Galactic Shade Griffin and I am a ghost whisperer.

It has been a while since I have been in Shade’s world, but I am looking forward to be with her on her grand adventure. She is off to college on a full scholarship. Her mother says all the right things, but Shade knows she has to make her own way in the world. Bye Bye trailer park, hello Ocean View College

She is off to train to be a ghost whisperer. Her neighbor and best friend, Kai, is going with her. Even better, Kai is her rooommate. Shade’s major is Ghost Whispering and her minor is Journalism in a Broken World. She is being trained to make the world a better place.

Of course, this is school, so there will be the normal problems when you throw a bunch of teenagers together, but for her it meant freedom from her mother. Although her mother will still try to guilt her into doing what she wants, she was going to take advantage of everything available to her.

From the mouth of Shade, “…when someone’s in a lot of trouble and I understand what the problem is, I play Guardian Angel.” Shade is giving, trusting, and loyal.

Marilyn Peak went where I have never been before and that is saying a lot. The Shade series keeps getting better with each book I read and, lucky me, I have the next one ready to go!

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Shade and the Castle by the Sea by Marilyn Peake.

See more at http://www.fundinmental.com

An OK short story, but it never really engaged me. I think because the initial reaction to the apocalypse by the main character was almost nonchalant. So, from the get-go, I have no reason to get involved with the story.

I love the cover for The Other by Marilyn Peak, a time traveling science fiction novel that took me by surprise and kept me riveted from beginning to end.

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OMG OMG, I LOVED THIS BOOK! I really really felt sorry for Shade, as what person in their right mind names a baby GALACTIC SHADE???!!! I was sorry that Shade felt that she had to take care of her alcoholic mom and that her mom be the child? This book brought me to my KNEES as I raced toward the end!! Now, I can't wait to read book 2.

Do not recommend

This was poorly written, repetitive... little to no research... Will not read another story by this author. Do not waste your time.

What a FANTASTIC story and I secretly BELIEVE IT! I didn't like the beginning as I felt it was out of sequence, but it maybe it was the twist of Ms. Peake's choice. I did like the characters in the book and the two strong women who changed history and learned truths!

Miracles and magic are happening from the opening pages, and Kaelin’s acting like it’s an every day occurrence in these desperate times.

The financial situation the characters find themselves in, makes me think of current events, with businesses closing, people being deported, people losing everything, and those with hope struggling to survive.

When Kaelin found the baby, I really woke up, became hooked and knew I would have trouble putting the book down, even long enough for a bathroom break.

Her mother has a heart so big, so open and giving, I wish more for her. No one deserves a break more than she does. Some characters…and people…amaze me with their ability to give, and the depths of love that is freely given.

First an abandoned baby, then a kitty with itty bitty legs, Kaelin takes them home and makes them her own.

And Devin, the new guy across the hall. What’s up with him? Why doesn’t she question his sudden appearances? Almost as if he knows something. I know he’s going to be special.

Kaelin has friends, people looking out for her and her family, like Mrs Santiago, who owns the grocery store and Gwendolyn Griffin, a healer who offers to work with her to develop her healing abilities. If you ever want candy, be sure and visit Mrs Santiago’s store.

Kaelin is very resourceful, and even though she dumpster dives for additional food for the family, you would never know it by her attitude. She knows where to find apples and blueberries, ripe for the picking. She has a green thumb, and her touch can be like Miracle Gro.

She does everything she can to make it to college, wanting a better life for them all. But, even though she is accepted, due to cutbacks of the governmental kind, there is no money available to help her. She chooses an alternative, Gwendolyn Griffin’s traditional healing of the witchy kind.

I can see the kids with bags of Halloween costumes, as they are tossed willy nilly, while they each choose the perfect costume. Kaelin goes to the thrift store and creates a mish mash costume that makes her beauty bloom.

The book is divided into three parts.

Part I is Kaelin’s story that takes place in the human world.

Part II is Liliana’s Story that takes place in the fairie world. Liliana is a fairy that crosses into the human world. A romance goes wrong. But the world is not what it appears to be.

Part III brings them all together, exposing secrets and Kaelin’s true calling.

Human, Seelie, Unseelie, good fairies, bad fairies…Magic, danger, romance, love and loss.

Blood and Ashes is written for the young at heart, with easy reading and a quick pace. I love the imaginative world and characters Marilyn Peake has created. Such a great story. I found myself smiling at the simplest things. Her ability to spin a tale keeps her high on my reading list…no matter what genre she writes in.

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Shade is a YA Paranormal mystery that includes some difficult subject matter, such as cutting and alcohol and drug abuse. More than anything it is the journey of Galactic Shade Griffin as she struggles with life and the danger and difficulties that cross her path.

A drug addict, a ghost, faeries, a troubled teen girl, her missing friend, a messed up mom, an amulet…will Shade be the hero she created in her graphic novel?

Shade has pretty much raised herself and hasn’t done too bad of a job, considering…no father and a mother who drank and drugged herself into oblivion.

Her mother moved them again, and things changed for Shade. She met Brandon Yates, a ghost that haunted their new home. When her best friend turns up missing, they band together to figure out the mystery.

More girls go missing…

I love how Shade struggles and grows to develop. I knew a girl who cut herself and I cannot stress how upset and sad I was for her. I could not understand how hurting yourself could make you feel better. Or maybe it was just so she could feel…something.

I love a good mystery and the paranormal is a nice touch. It adds an extra element I always appreciate. The danger rises and the the mystery is darker than Shade could have imagined. I have read of what can happen to girls who go missing and I fear how vulnerable the female species is…how unprepared and innocent we can be about the evil men do.

Marilyn can spin a wonderful tale that is easy to read and contains lovable characters that will wiggle their way into your heart. I would love to have Shade as my best friend too.

Amongst the dark, there is light.

In the tragic and sadness, there is hope and love.

Marilyn Peake wraps up this novella series, exposing all the conspiracies and corruption, the perverted reasons for setting the zombies loose, and my juices were flowing as they pissed me off and sickened me beyond words, but left me with the faith that a ‘few good men/women can make all the difference in the world.

Journalist Hunter Morgan is a seriously messed up guy who has lost so much because of the Z virus, but he never gives up and I love that, because in this apocalyptic horror novella, all my conspiracy theories developed into full blown betrayal and treason showcasing an evil so potent that it makes me so angry I want to jump into my Kindle and beat the hell out of someone…or so much worse and with writing like that I say, “Well done, Marilyn,” as we move on to a new beginning in Hunter’s life.

Each novella is an important part of the whole in the Mutation Z series by Marilyn Peake. Her writing amazes me, bringing the characters and the world they created to life. The Zombie Virus was developed by some of the most evil men ever to walk this earth, all for their own gain and self interest. The brutality they dealt out as the blood and guts flew, the lives that were lost as the good people struggled to expose the conspiracy, is shocking. I felt this story rang of possibilities, that something like this could really happen. Maybe not exactly as written, but when push comes to shove, the elite will sacrifice anything and anyone to get what they want. If you want to be shocked, pissed off, saddened, frightened, left with food for thought, then Mutation Z is for you.

Mutation Z: Drones Overhead by Marilyn Peake is the fourth novella in this zombie series that had me feeling like upchucking one minute and kicking ass the next.

Journalist Hunter Morgan awoke in McAllen, Texas, and remembered the massacre. As he raged, tearing apart the cell he had been placed in, they shot him with a tranquilizer dart…but there is a ray of hope and it is more important than ever he survive.

The virus is reaching epidemic proportions and a madman is running the Zombie Hunters.

The situation becomes more dangerous. Isolated and housebound, they plot their next course of action. They had to stop THEM before the situation reached an apocalypse, wiping out humanity.

Can it be stopped? Is it already too late?

With governments running AMOK, the media spewing lies and terror, the zombie population growing and the attempt to stop them reaching a level of savagery nobody could have foreseen, the clock is ticking and time is running out.

Maybe it is was me, but I didn’t feel the level of urgency that I felt leading up to #4. Maybe because, in Drones Overhead, we cover details of how they stay hidden, what they do to disguise themselves, and planning what comes next. We can’t be running willy nilly or no one will survive.

Needless to say, I can hardly wait to read Mutation Z: Dragon in the Bunker, #5. The title alone makes me think something even more terrible is going to go wrong (if such a thing is possible) and I want to be there!

I received a copy of Mutation Z: Drones Overhead by Marilyn Peake in return for an honest review.

Mutation Z: The Ebola Zombies is free and I received Book II in return for an honest review.

SPOILER ALERT

Emma is now part of the experiment to creat a zombie army. It wasn’t bad enough for her in Book I, now she has traveled to the furthest reaches of HELL and knows it.

In NYC, journalist Hunter Morgan smells a rat when Chen-Zamora Pharmaceuticals gets an exclusive government contract to develop the Ebola vaccine. I mean, wouldn’t they want competition? Why an exclusive contract? Corruption? Conspiracy? Greed? And why was he given such easy access to a crime scene?

The scene with Hunter and his daughter is so sweet. Marilyn Peake has an ability to make her characters come to life, human and zombie alike.

Hunter gets more involved and could be making the biggest mistake of his life or becoming the savior of the planet.

Imagine being aware of turning into a zombie, aware of your shambling walk, bumping and jostling each other, your skin falling off in sheets, and the worst of all…

Can a shred of humanity remain?

Mutation Z is gross, horrific, outrageous, infuriating, corrupting…heads are cracked open, entrails pulled from shredded abdomens, body after body, young and old alike.

I am so into Mutation Z, I am wringing my hands with an evil grin on my face as Mailyn Peake tells me Mutation Z: Protecting Your Own, Book III, has just come out and I can have a copy for review. YAY!!!!

Mutation Z: The Ebola Zombies is free and I received Book II in return for an honest review.

SPOILER ALERT

Emma is now part of the experiment to creat a zombie army. It wasn’t bad enough for her in Book I, now she has traveled to the furthest reaches of HELL and knows it.

In NYC, journalist Hunter Morgan smells a rat when Chen-Zamora Pharmaceuticals gets an exclusive government contract to develop the Ebola vaccine. I mean, wouldn’t they want competition? Why an exclusive contract? Corruption? Conspiracy? Greed? And why was he given such easy access to a crime scene?

The scene with Hunter and his daughter is so sweet. Marilyn Peake has an ability to make her characters come to life, human and zombie alike.

Hunter gets more involved and could be making the biggest mistake of his life or becoming the savior of the planet.

Imagine being aware of turning into a zombie, aware of your shambling walk, bumping and jostling each other, your skin falling off in sheets, and the worst of all…

Can a shred of humanity remain?

Mutation Z is gross, horrific, outrageous, infuriating, corrupting…heads are cracked open, entrails pulled from shredded abdomens, body after body, young and old alike.

I am so into Mutation Z, I am wringing my hands with an evil grin on my face as Mailyn Peake tells me Mutation Z: Protecting Your Own, Book III, has just come out and I can have a copy for review. YAY!!!!

The Mutation Z series is a post apocalyptic look at life after zombies.

Emma Johnson is a spoiled, rich kid who sets off the adventure of a lifetime, as a volunteer nurse in Africa. The Ebola crisis is so much more than she could have ever imagined.

Dr. Gustavo Tovar is the tour guide for the new recruits. She picked up bad vibes from him, but shook them off. He stressed the necessity of never wandering off on their own. With such a highly infectious disease, they must proceed with extreme caution.

Well, hell, we all know they are going to fuck up and fuck up in a big way.

Something struck me wrong from the very beginning. The creep factor was running on high.

This conspiracy, horror novella scared the bejesus out of me. It started out fast and never let up. Every time I turned around, something was there to creep me out. I mean, think about it, a highly infectious disease is lurking, just waiting for you to make a mistake. A conspiracy is operating behind closed doors and when Emma stumbles in there is no turning back. I love this series and would highly recommend it to all horror lovers.

If Zombies are your thing, Mutation Z, Book I is free on Amazon.

Bored and unhappy with her life with living with her parents, nurse Emma Johnson decides to go to Liberia and help fight against the Ebola out break. Once the plane lands, she is woozy for too many drinks she drank to calm her nerves. Her shakiness is barely under control when she passes customs, but as she boards the bus she drifts in and out of sleep. Once she arrives she's paired up with five other volunteers and when a handsome doctor describes what they must do she prays that he'll be her teacher, but once her nosiness when she discovers information in the records room a sting of pain enters her neck and all she thinks about is she was bitten by an infected bat.....................

Marilyn Peake will grab readers attention once the truth is learned that all is not what it seems in the compound behind the huge iron gate! There is something to think about as it could very well happen if the powers that be get their greedy way and I can't wait to read book 2!!

This is an awesome short story, if you skip to the last 10%. The first 90% is just total bullshit.

Our first-person narrator is a nurse that is sent to Africa to help with the Ebola virus. So, the first 90% of the story is just this nurse, and her colleagues getting to Africa, and getting their lab set up, etc. No zombies whatsoever in that part of the story.

Then, the story gets injected with the Mutant Z serum which causes Ebola patients to turn into zombies. Only during a full moon, mind you. So, they're like zombie werewolves or something. This part of the story is pretty cool, except that the Mutant Z patients are locked up in a cell the whole time, and can't actually go all zombie mad on everyone.

Until the last page of the story, that is. On the last page, the Ebola zombies are set free to roam the countryside and wreck havoc. Great. So, the real story doesn't happen until the last fucking page. Goddamnit to hell.

I received a free copy of this book for an honest review.

I won this book through FirstReads on Goodreads. I really enjoyed reading it.