Maria Violante

Charlie is a truck driver and looked like one. She was a mess – overweight, bad complexion, zombie looking. She was horny and looking forward to Luke joining her on the the road, but that never happened. She had given up everything for him, and he betrayed her. Used her, then threw her away. At first she felt pity, then anger, then desperation.

She’s driving along, trying to find a radio station, making up her own words to the song playing. “I woke up alone in a bed I don’t know.” “And eat my breakfast all alone….” It made me think of my hubby and I, laughing and making fun of country music lyrics in that same way.

She stopped for a dog in the median. She could relate to it being dumped and wanted to save it. It would be mine, she thought. She named him Diesel. He was helping her already. He calmed her.

My heart pounded and I moved forward in my chair, when the truck began to wreck. Her description is so vivid it’s as if it is happening before my eyes. She looks out the window at something – what is it? It’s very large and furry. What runs through my mind – werewolf, then Sasquatch – as it grew and bared its fangs. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when she got sick.

He was going to kill her…until he saw her birthmark.

I knew Maria’s book would need to take a twist…and it begins here.

Birth Marked reads like a Twilight zone episode. I was sorta ho hum until this point.

I loved her change of attitude. I’m feeling good about her. Her curiosity became my curiosity. What comes next?

Maria had me cracking up, “You can stare at my chubby ass stomach, assholes. You’re not getting any more looks at the jubbblies.”

A boy brought her breakfast – two pieces of plain toast and plain oatmeal. “That’s it?” “AH!!!!!!!!” “They said I a was a porker, heh?”

As the pieces come together, my interest grew. Now we’re getting to the good stuff. Even though her Master is Buckner, its his duty is to protect her, it was Shawn that saved her. I feel he will play a big part in finding the answers she seeks.

Haven’t you ever wondered why nothing turns out for you? What if you were supposed to be doing something else all along?

The monsters were unique and new to me and had comical names, but are not nice at all.

I know she’s gonna kick ass. I loved the sci-fi element, the monsters fighting in spacesuits and futuristic equipment. I find myself shivering in fear one minute, and chuckling the next.

She would learn fast or die. I felt a sense of adventure with her, stepping out of her rut of a life into mission impossible. Does the way you die determine your afterlife? This was her moment. I felt the weight on her shoulders, the heavy heart and determination to show them she belonged. She had found her place and would fight for it.

Her descriptions like ‘The little mouse that had the heart of a dragon’ brought the characters to life with a humorous touch. Describing the death of a beloved Marker was very creative.

There was a prophecy, there will be an unlikely Marker named the Lily. Is it her?

Maria Violante left me wanting more of this fantastic world.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Birth Marked by Maria Violante.

See more at http://www.fundinmental.com… (plus d'informations)

I should first point out that this is not the type of story I normally read. It starts with action and it barely takes a breath before there is more. It is about a gun-toting, formerly human demon who serves as a mercenary and assassin at the pleasure of a group that are called, logically enough, angels. This would normally put it on my “not my kind of thing” list because I tend to not like tales in which the protagonists use violence as their primary means of resolving conflicts. I don’t find anything admirable about such characters or anything interesting in that kind of conflict. It is normally simplistic and, quite frankly, uninteresting.
Hunting for the Five may be a rare exception because of how well written it is. The prose is succinct and fresh, almost poetic in places. The descriptions are vivid but not graphic. I saw only two or three typos in this self published novella, which are fewer than I would normally expect to see in a professionally edited and traditionally published book.
From the beginning I got the impression that the lead character, De la Roca, is a reluctant token in someone else’s game. I read on wondering who the players were and what the object of that game was. That question is not answered in this short novella. It seems to mainly serve to introduce us to the protagonist.
I can’t say I admire or identify with De la Roca. She is interesting though and I can sympathize with her. She has lost her memory and she finds herself in the middle of a conflict she does not fully understand, manipulated and blackmailed by one side of some grand conflict to seek out and kill agents from the other side. Her motivation is selfish though. She is hunting down and killing demons not to save the world or free mankind; she is doing it so that she can be released from Hell.
Her direct contact with whomever or whatever uses her in its game is simply called the Angel. It seems to be almost like her parole officer. It is an enigmatic but obviously magically powerful creature that shows up after each kill she makes to emotionlessly inform her of her next target. It never shows any personality and one wonders what this thing really is that has such power over her and is it really all that much different than the demons she is contracted to kill?
Of course a novella is far too short a work to do the kind of world building necessary to fully develop the obviously complex mythos behind this story. It is rich with magic and mythical creatures. Most are fairly interesting but we don’t get the chance to understand any of them well. One of the most interesting is De la Roca’s trusted companion throughout the tale, her horse, which is also presumably some kind of demon and can change between various equine forms at will.
I can see this story developing further. There are many questions implied in our introduction to this fantasy world. Will De la Roca free herself? Will she regain her memory? What is this cosmic conflict and who are the opposing forces? Will De la Roca ultimately rebel against those who have been using her or will she continue to serve them willingly? There is a lot of potential here.
If you like an action packed fantasy adventure with a strong female antihero, then I think you will really like this first episode of the De la Roca Chronicles. It is a real bargain as well for only 99¢ from Smashwords or Amazon.
… (plus d'informations)

I obtained this book thru the LT Member Giveaway process. I found that the story captured my attention immediately - I liked the main character De La Roca very much. Somewhere or other I had gotten it into my head that I had read she was not a very likeable character. Perhaps I'm confused and getting my titles mixed up, but I found nothing to dislike. She was tough, but not over-the-top unbelievable bad-ass. Each chapter was very short so I never felt pressured to keep going til the end as I sometimes do with less interesting stories. In fact, I found myself reading more than I intended, and staying up later than I intended because the author was able to keep my attention. My very favorite character was De La Roca's horse, Alsvior. Not only was he loyal and magical and tough, but he was unintentionally comical as well. I could read a book just from his point-of-view. Ms. Violante writes beautifully, intelligently, and the world she builds is incredible. True, I did find myself confused about who was who, what was what, etc. quite often, but I blame myself for that, not the author. Due to the main character's situation, the book has to be this way. We are learning along with De La Roca and she herself is confused. At times, I felt I needed more info ... that somehow I should have read a certain book before this one to know what was going on. There are layers and layers here and we are thrown into the story that happens to be kinda the middle of a story. All is made clear(er) as we read on. Again, I blame myself for not fully appreciating this, not the author for her style of writing. I think Ms. Violante will enjoy a success with her characters and storyline here. I would love to see this in graphic novel form!… (plus d'informations)