The Green Alliance

Andrew J. Rafkin

This book was provided to me for free by Free and Fast Reviews in exchange for an honest review. 

This book is part of a series called ‘ORCA Adventures’- But I could follow the story well although I haven’t read any of the other parts so far. 

The plot can be quickly summarized: The president of the United States, his wife and some other members of the White House get shot at the wedding of two members of the ORCA team. The ORCA is an independent organization/company who choose to fight on the White House’s side.

Then the fights start. The ORCA team wants to kill everyone involved in the attack at the wedding while at the same time fighting against the leader of the ecoterrorist organization Green Alliance who wants to prevent global warming at no matter what costs and through producing a mini-ice-age. Thirdly, the fight China which wants the province of Taiwan back and total control of the South China Sea. Since the US objects China declares war against the US.

For me it was like reading a far too long newspaper article with America… or with ORCA as kind of a Superhero. I mean – seriously – the members of the ORCA team win all their fights because of their perfect bulletproofed war suits and their perfect computer system MOBI which can hack into every other system worldwide. So there is a bunch of hackers sitting in China trying to mess with the America and lunches a cyber-attack on their electric grit and wants to destroy theirs satellites but they are defeated by MOBI in no time. They could do some damage that threw some states into chaos due to lack of electricity. But nevertheless it was just a small amount of what they really wanted to do. So no matter what China tries, MOBI already knows about it because it ‘has his eyes everywhere’ and can hack into every system. Please don’t get me wrong but reading through this really made me feel like reading through a bad Superhero story. How realistic is it that one organization has so much power and control and no other country can keep up with it?

But however China starts WWIII which btw. takes place only between China and the US, Japan and Inidia – Russia stays out of it, other countries or even continents like Europe aren’t mentioned. 

But however the fate of the United State can turn in each direction.

I can’t say much about the characters in the book because you never read anything about their feelings. I mean, they state that they are horny… okay, they use some other words and there are even some short sex-scenes which also read like an article from the New York Times.

I don’t wanna say that this book is bad or not worth reading – I’m sure there are a lot of people who just don’t wanna read all this feeling stuff and how the protagonists are coping with situations or what they think about it. But for me that’s one of the most important things when reading a book no matter if it’s a romance, a thriller or an adventure.

My Boyfriend is a Dog

S A Smythe

This book was provided to me for free by the author in exchange for an honest review.

When I read the plot of the story, it sounded like an easygoing shifter story. And since I haven’t read a real shifter story so far (well except Twilight but I think you can’t count that as a real shifter story, can you?) I thought it could be a fun one to start with. And when I read the first page of the book where it is stated explicitly that it should be a funny to read shifter story and shouldn’t been taken too seriously I felt quite confirmed in my first opinion.

And the first part of the book was really good and funny to read. I actually had some good laughs. The book starts with the vegetarian Nathan being rescued from the woods by a dog err wolf who can talk. This fact actually freaks Nathan out. But since the dog insists on staying Nathan has to get used to the fact. But what he can’t quite get used to is that the dog always tells him that they are mates and belong together. Nathan tries to explain Angelo (the dog) that he isn’t into sodomy. But the dog still keeps insisting on being mates and interferes in all dates Nathan has. Finally, the town’s vet reveals the big secret to Nathan: Angelo is a shifter. Nathan gets angry with the dog for not having told him the truth and tells him to go away. That’s when Nathan finally comes closer to Jet on whom he has had a crush for a very long time. They go on a date, and end up making up in the woods where they are attacked by a wolf. Nathan first thinks that Angelo is the attacker and hits the dog but soon finds out that it is another wolf, a foreign one, and that Angelo is actually Jet who tries to defend him. Nathan saves Jet’s life and finds out that he is a shifter too. And if the book had ended here I would have given five stars or at least four. Because up to this point it was really a pleasure reading it. The only thing that disturbed me a little was Nathan’s obsessive search for a mate although he was actually in love with Jet. But that’s the only thing I could criticize.

But then the last part started and I thought I somehow had opened the wrong book. So, Nathan finds out that he is a shifter too. He is admitted in Jet’s pack, where Jet’s father is the Alpha. The first thing he has to do is eating meat. And well he enjoys it. This isn’t something I’d as a vegetarian would do but he states that he didn’t relinquish meat because of the animals but because he wanted to annoy his parents. So, I guess starting to eat meat again isn’t quite a problem under these circumstances. But this was just a small part that disturbed me. Mainly it was the punishment Jet got because of not telling Nathan the truth from the beginning. He has to watch Nathan making out with I don’t know how many shifters. And seriously??? That was kind of hard core porn. And although I don’t mind well written sex-scenes if they fit into a story I’m absolutely not into porn. So, I skipped this chapter. But it actually didn’t get much better in the next chapter. There were some funny sentences but most parts were just how they had sex…. I would definitely not read this last part again. Maybe the book should contain a warning that it contains some pornographic scenes (not just erotic ones).