Chris Roy

Her Name is Mercie is actually an anthology filled with very dark themes in each one of the five short stories.
The first and longest short story was Her Name is Mercie. This was my favorite story from the group. A young woman finds out her parents were killed by cops during a routine traffic stop. Well, to put it nicely she became unhinged that involved criminal activities.
I liked that it showed the reader, good guys aren’t always good and bad guys aren’t always bad. I also enjoyed the high octane action packed scenes!

There were 5 stories in all, each completely different themed. If you like really dark noir short stories, this book is for you.

I wasn’t a fan of some of the stories being completely unclear and disconcerting. With hardly any character development due to them being so short it left me in a dazed state.… (plus d'informations)

I received this book from Blackberry Book Tours as part of the Book Tour for for the book. I apologized as I know the book tour technically ended on the 11th but I was unable to have it read by then due to my conflicting schedule and because I do these particular book reviews with my Daughters (usually Ase my oldest daughter at a few months over 2 years old now).
This was a very fun picture book and I read it along with my two-year-old Ase. Ase can appreciate being a Ninja as she always likes to try and do karate ever since she watched the Kobra Kai series and the original Karate Kid movies. The book for most of it was easy enough to keep my child's attention through almost the entire thing. It was only at the last couple of pages it got pretty long-winded for her and started to lose her interest.
I found the illustrations by Lucas Romão to be very well drawn and matched up with the story quite well. The illustrations were actually quite detailed the more you look at them all the way down to Uncle Max's arm hair and a rendition of the Hulk on a poster in the background.
In My Opinion, I think this is a very good book for kids especially those are early readers and with any luck we'll help keep kids to be like Ronin and clean their rooms and do their homework.

This book got Ases coveted thumbs up, and I also give this book 4 "Haaa!"s out of 5.

Until Next Time,
-Teo… (plus d'informations)

When Ronin’s parents go on what is possibly a well-deserved cruise, Uncle Max comes to stay to take care of Ronin, their son. Uncle Max is a pretty cool guy who gets ideas across without nagging or sounding boring. Ronin doesn’t like cleaning his room, putting his things away, eating dinner when he is told to, taking a bath when he doesn’t feel like it, and lots of other annoying stuff. Ronin can’t wait to grow up so people would stop telling him what to do. Ronin decides he is going to become a ninja, but he has no idea what is involved. Uncle Max does, though, and he very cleverly teaches Ronin what a ninja needs to understand and weaves some significant life lessons into the story. This has an incredible impact on Ronin and suddenly everything falls into place.

What a great way to teach kids the basics of life such as responsibility, determination, respect, and maturity using a concept that kids will relate to and enjoy. Ninjas need to know how to conduct themselves properly if they want to be a true ninja. The best way to get a kid to do something is help him want to do it because he enjoys it. Ronin finds that with the ninja concepts firmly in his mind, he cleans his room, does his homework, and makes decisions for the better.

Author Chris Roy understands kids. He presents Ronin Cleans His Room Like a Ninja in short, quick sentences, much like ninja moves I guess, and there is no preaching or pontificating about the right thing to do. The message is cleverly woven into Ronin’s aim to become the best ninja. The book works very well visually with illustrations by artist Lucas Romao. I also liked the page layout with one side being images of Ronin’s eloquent expressions/actions and Uncle Max and the other being the text laid over various images of Ronin’s room. The colour palette will appeal to boys as well with vibrant shades of blue.

Parents will be delighted to purchase this book for their child who maybe has issues cleaning their room or generally tidying up. Kids will admire Ronin’s aim and hopefully come to realise that “Cleaning like a ninja is fun!” But it’s not just about cleaning up. The book cleverly highlights the important foundation stones of life and how one grows up to be a good, responsible person, and where one learns these lessons. Great fun for all young readers and highly recommended.… (plus d'informations)

I absolutely loved the opening line of Sad Sally Salad, "The day Sally's daddy made her commit murder, she ran away." It definitely kept me reading to see what that was all about and find out what kind of person Sally turned out to be afterwards.

I also enjoyed the way Sally and her mentor, the old hippie woman, talked to each other. I thought the way they phrased their words was interesting and different, but it was the closeness they shared in them that stood out to me. The tight bond they have was clearly felt and originally made me glad Sally had the hippie woman in her life since she and her father were so far apart in their views about animals. It felt like this adversity from a young age prepared her later when she became the face of environmental groups fighting against animal cruelty, namely the cattle ranchers.

On the flip side, the old cowboy is set in his views while his son, Aaron, is cast in his own darker ones. Each believes their way is best in how to handle Sally and her mentor, which only compounds the growing conflict between everyone until an ordinary protest becomes anything but peaceful.

A compact short story that had me reflecting before the last page was turned.… (plus d'informations)