Charles Miske Author

The 10 Biggest Workout Mistakes: Are one of these mistakes slowing your progress? by Dr. Len Lopez My rating: 3 of 5 stars So/So. Average. 3. yep. If you took a handful of bullet points, wrapped them in repetitive catch-phrases, and added in some links to your other projects, you'd have this book. Would it be at all helpful to anyone? Yes, if you are needing to do actual aerobic exercise and need to be smacked in the face with it over and over and over until it works finally - this might be the book that does that. If you're trying to get in shape or achieve some specific level of fitness, then no. View all my reviews

Eternal Redemption by Paul A. Wunderlich My rating: 2 of 5 stars Rating this: under the little star at position 2nd from the left, there is a little balloon that pops up "It was OK" That's about it. In general, the tone and language seem like a fervent attempt to imitate high fantasy. There are a series of editing errors that cause some confusion. It's tough to write a protagonist who drifts in and out of their own head. Time slips around in circles. An entire world of minions is disposable. When you're sitting at the top of an Everest sized pile of skulls, what's the next big challenge? Oh, yeah, trick the master trickster. Well, you get exactly what you ask for. With a little syrup on the side. View all my reviews

How to Outline a Nonfiction Book: How to Write an Outline That Will Make Writing Your Nonfiction Book a Breeze by Dean R. Giles My rating: 3 of 5 stars If you've never written a book of any sort. If you've never written a non-fiction book. If you're totally clueless. If you need to copy/paste your way to completing a non-fiction book. There might be something here for you. I have a dozen non-fiction books already published. I have had a couple on best-seller lists. That being said just to explain my possibly unique position, not to brag, I got not much out of this. You on the other hand might find the perfect tool to use to achieve your perfect non-fiction book. It's totally worth an hour to check it out and discover for yourself. View all my reviews

Magic of Thieves by C. Greenwood My rating: 5 of 5 stars I went into this not expecting a lot, and boy was I surprised. A bit slow in the middle, but great fun in the beginning and especially the end. It's a series, yes, but the hanging loose threads didn't seem unnatural, as though placed there for something to suck you into the next book. Nope. All the loose ends were natural to the story, and nothing made me want to skip the rest of the series. The protagonist, the apparent sole survivor from her village, destroyed in a pogrom against "magickers" by the government, lives with a band of highway robbers. She has forgotten most of her real family, and only has fitful dreams to tease her memories. Eventually she will outgrow her band of brigands, and what waits for her as she seeks to learn more of the magic that calls out to her? Why 5? I tried to think of anything to detract from the rating, but aside from the slowness (typical of fantasy) I could find nothing neg...

Unshakeable: Your Financial Freedom Playbook by Tony Robbins My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is an extremely reserved 5 star. The book is spot on, totally amazing information that it would pay anyone who fits into any of the categories of person that is described in the text. The financial advice is worth way more than what the cost of the book is. Enough info is given to easily reverse engineer the processes described. The author isn't pounding on your face every few paragraphs about how you have to buy their next product right now, or forever be a loser. It's one of the risks of getting a book from a self-help guru. There is only one touchy-feely section, and when you do run into it, call the book done. No point in going further IMHO. Why so reserved? I am nearly 60. None of this applies to me in the slightest. I'm running about 40 years too late for it to have much value. I suppose if I were looking to have a nest-egg built up for my 100's it would have value, but ri...

Taste by D.S. Murphy My rating: 4 of 5 stars The story was fascinating. Dragged me right in. Vamps, hints of what might be shifters, rebels, villages essentially selling their 17 year old girls into a type of slavery, never to be seen again just to ensure they have enough food and access to their magic elixir of life. Sadly, it's a beta, a teaser, a potential promise of what might be in the first book in a series. It's quite short. I expected as much. I usually check the number of pages in the Amazon listing, and try to keep some shorts around to fill in between other books. As far as cliffhangers go - it ends with a bang. You're waiting for the very next sentence, and it's not there. Again, I went in with my eyes wide open. I loved it just the same. Why 4? It has a lot of little editing errors that are tough to overlook. Hopefully they'll be ironed out when the real book is released. View all my reviews

The Serial Killer's Daughter by Lesley Welsh My rating: 4 of 5 stars Like reading the screenplay for a snuff film. If that's not okay with you, skip it. You've been warned. The sheer quantity of sexual violence and mind-games can be a bit overwhelming to the more sensitive reader. None of the characters experience much of a growth arc. No one really wins or loses. It's just fun fun fun until everyone is dead. There is no romantic anti-hero posturing here. Hope that's not going to be a problem for you. Why 4 stars? It is pretty well written. Gotta hand the author that. View all my reviews

Creatures of Appetite by Todd Travis My rating: 4 of 5 stars I wanted to give it a 5, really. But the main character was a bit coarse and misogynistic. Like a lotta bit. Oh, and a few other characters were too. Of course, we're talking about a bunch of cops and killers of various shades of gray here, so we can cut them a bit of slack. Overall really good editing, good story, and everything fits into place nicely. In fact the "shocker" ending to this book even fits in nicely. What does it take to out-sociopath all the sociopaths? Find out in this book, for sure. Best of all, there's no cliff-hanger. You can read this and bail on the rest and miss nothing at all. I might go on with the series, maybe not. We'll see... View all my reviews

A Time To Kill by Jeanette Raleigh My rating: 4 of 5 stars Not sure what just happened here. The snippet of chapters flitted back and forth between POV, sometimes in the middle of a fight scene or car crash or whatever. Mildly distracting to say the least. Like switching body-cams in an episode of COPS. A few were organic enough - flit to the POV of someone in an alternate dimension, a different city, yep, that's when you switch POV, and carefully at best, making sure it adds to the story somehow. Overall, after reading it, I felt like it could have been done in a few chapters as a short, maybe a treatment for a Buffy screenplay, or something similar. I don't mind having to grow into a mythology, heck, I did that in my own fiction novel, so that's not a problem. I mean the mythology being handed out in bits and pieces, hints and chunks held tantalizingly just out of reach. So that was one good thing, and why it's a 4, not a 3. The characters seemed a little bit cardb...

Crossing in Time by D.L. Orton My rating: 3 of 5 stars I don't think the description accurately portrayed this book. I won't spoil that for you, by pointing out the misses, but be mildly forewarned. The various bogey men might or might not be themselves or others, and blowing up a city to attract the attention of the people who would blow up the city in an alternate reality while adding more lists of people to blow up cities in other alternate realities and sending them all on death missions to interfere with their own alternate lives seems a bit much to keep track of. Other readers might not see this convoluted mess for what it is, and I apologize if it seems like I'm trying to say "Don't Read It" because I'm not. It's just a bit messy for me. I won't be continuing because the hints of what might come next are even more convoluted. How else can you wormhole through alternate dimensions and realities while cavorting with alternate or identical v...

Revenge Of The Cat Woman: A Short Story Set in Old Japan by Yael Eylat-Tanaka My rating: 3 of 5 stars I'm not certain what happened here. It was pretty short, and not much happened aside from depressing cultural attitudes and events that were pretty much historically correct. No one here was particularly easy to empathize with. The "Cat Woman" was pretty passive. The Cat was pretty passive. The antagonist was stated to be aggressive. It ended in a "he got his" way, but it was still unsatisfying. The ghost was merely a suggestion, perhaps a shadow of guilt. It was free, took only a few minutes to read, and was probably worth both the money and time. View all my reviews

The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer My rating: 5 of 5 stars Holy Snot! Is this the best Stephenie Meyer book ever or what? I read all the Twilights and thought they were way better than a lot of people did. I read The Host and it took me a while to get into it, but finally managed to find the groove and recognized the important step she took away from Twilight. With The Chemist it's like a total 180, and it's amazing. A super strong, super smart, super female who isn't all hung up on relationships. A doofus-jock hacker CIA assassin. A sweet sensitive school teacher in way over his head. How do they all fit together? Yes, there is a brief section where they all get together and sort through all the touchy-feelies and that lags a bit. Like a lotta bit. But finally it all works out with a bang and we're back in the groove for non-stop action. You know what though? That last Epilogue could have been kept sealed. I didn't need to add that to the characterizations. Maybe th...

The Good Samaritan by John Marrs My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was my Kindle First selection, which I put off till the 30th, it was that difficult to choose. I'm happy I did though. Our Good Samaritan is a bit more than we expect and you grow inside her head as the story progresses. Suddenly you're ripped out of it and inserted into another POV. That was jarring. Fortunately you grow into the new POV, and then flit back and forth between them. Is this a bad thing? Not once you get used to it. Until then it's tough. Who do you end up cheering for? Or do you hope they all get what they deserve for getting involved in this mess? Surprising participants drift into the "suicide and murder game" and no one seems untouched by it. A seemingly out-of-the-blue ending sweeps in to shock you, but were you paying attention? It was foreshadowed several times throughout the book. Read it. Read it and pay attention. It lags just a little bit at the first POV switch, but picks r...

Dark Retreat by Grace Hamilton My rating: 3 of 5 stars Ok. Just ok. The protagonist seemed to be running straight into trouble most of the time. She was a bit too twitchy to identify with most of the time. The male lead was just too perfect and patient, in spite of his few flaws. Dragged a bit. It's worth reading if Prepper Fiction is your cup of tea. Otherwise maybe it's not the best first Prepper Fiction book to start with. View all my reviews

The Killing Jar by R.S. McCoy My rating: 4 of 5 stars A very interesting world. Some very interesting characters. Author kept lots of info barely revealed, which was interesting. A male lead drifted along the edges of dark obsession, and it seemed like the character wasn't quite locked in. Maybe that's something that accurately represents their psyche, maybe not. It's not clear. Some motivations seemed ambiguous. Maybe I'm overthinking it. I really wanted to give it a 5, but it's not quite there. Sorry. View all my reviews

Silly Girl by Brandon Berntson My rating: 3 of 5 stars Certainly interesting, and a quick read. Little vignettes of imaginative fantasy glued together with stardust. Lost me a few times, maybe my imagination didn't drift that direction or make that same hairpin turn. Satisfactory ending, though not the one I expected, which was also interesting. Worth the quick read, and it was free the day I got it. Why 3? It felt like the scenes could have been fleshed out just a bit more with better connections between them. View all my reviews

Salem's Secret: a paranormal thriller by Jessica Lynn Barrett My rating: 3 of 5 stars Fun little very short story. The big reveal was a bit insignificant. There could have been a few more days of "Paying the price" to add suspense. The confession was a bit convenient. The solution was really too quickly achieved. I would have loved to have seen flashing lights, sirens, and handcuffs. Without spoilers, the final death could just have easily been pinned on the killer. Thriller not so much. Paranormal elements are all behind the scenes and invisible. Decent quick read with an interesting circumstance to explore. Use your imagination. View all my reviews

Released by Megan Duncan My rating: 4 of 5 stars Overall enjoyable. Decent story kept me engaged. A few small negatives: Disposable NPC's Clunky character arcs Romantic teasers Positives: Demons never explained or excused Fun action sequences If you thought you'd enjoy Pitch Black monsters in a Mad Max world, this would be a good read. View all my reviews

The Naturalist by Andrew Mayne My rating: 5 of 5 stars I didn't know quite what to think from the description, and being intrigued enough, went ahead and selected it from the list on Amazon. I normally dislike the present-tense, and was a touch irritated when it transitioned from the prelude chapter into the main story. That didn't last long though as I got to really dig into the character of Theo Cray, our non-hero hero. It was amazing all the way through to the end and I skipped some sleep to finish it quicker. The antagonist was well hidden to the end, and every bit of the story fit together for me. YMMV but I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery/thriller with a lot of dead bodies in it. View all my reviews