Waking Lazarus (A Guardian Novel #2)

Jake Harris' life hasn't turned out the way he planned. Battling his addictions, and the shattered pieces of his family, he is hired to ghostwrite a memoir. From the 1920's story of a controversial evangelist, to the present day mystery of a former District Attorney, everything changes when his search for the truth leads to an atrocity hidden from history. With a past he can't remember, he begins to discover that he is not the person he believed himself to be. Rather, he is a threat to a secret society that has remained in the shadows for nearly a century. Jake is drawn deep inside a world he never knew existed that brings him closer to his own extraordinary destiny.

*May Contain Spoilers*

DJ Williams defies expectations with his novel, Waking Lazarus, the second in the Guardian series. With everything already lost, there isn't much choice but for Jake Harris to help with an investigation that cleared him as a suspect. But there's more to the FBI partnership than there seems. 

Jake seems like an average man going through a rocky part of life. He's getting divorced, though he doesn't want to, and lacking both a job and a home. When he's hired to ghostwrite a memoir, it seems his prayers have been answered. He has hope, he has drive, but he also has a drinking problem. Jake Harris is about as real as a character can get, before he is dragged into a world of secret societies and trained assassins. After Doc Warren hires Jake as a writer, he is killed and Jake is pulled into a world that he was once a part of. But those memories have been erased. Jake isn't a perfect person, he has more then his fair share of flaws, but he has good intentions and even better motivations: keeping his wife and daughter safe. I think readers will connect with him through that motivation more than anything else. 

Though not the main character, I really enjoyed Kate's role in the story. She is brought back by the President to protect Jake, though she isn't given a reason as to why. As she becomes entangled in this terrorizing plot, Kate's certainty that she's working for the good guys becomes unclear. I really enjoyed that Williams wrote a female FBI agent to protect Jake, it added another level to the relationships, espionage, and what overall success of the operation would mean exactly. 

The plot begins with Doc Warren and the story of Evelyn Shaw, a 1920s miracle worker. She created Hope House, a place for orphaned children, in different areas around the world. Some of these children were trained to be weapons under an off-the-books government program. Jake Harris was one of them. In present day, the secret society of the Brethren know Jake is alive, but they don't know who he is. They know him only as Lazarus. However, Jake doesn't remember how to be Lazarus. Though he can be forced to remember. 

Waking Lazarus is an action thriller with guts and killer instincts. To fight the Brethren, Lazarus must be awakened in Jake, but the cost is high. Readers will enjoy the action in the novel as Jake searches for answers and redemption. But this is only the start of the war. The end leaves readers hanging off a cliff, waiting for the battle to really begin. 

Rating: 3.5/5 Cups

The Disillusioned (A Guardian Novel #1)

Birdkill

Robyn’s recent past is missing. And she’s not sure she wants it back.

Robyn Shaw has amnesia, a recent trauma so great her mind has veiled her memory. When she starts a new life teaching at a research institute devoted to exceptionally gifted children, the last thing she expects is for those blocked events to be lying in wait for her.

Plagued by dreams of death and blood that threaten to overwhelm her, Robyn is fragile and vulnerable. When she meets student Martin Oakley plucking sparrows from the air and breaking their necks, she is pitched into a vicious battle that threatens her grasp of her own mind.

Attacked from without and within, Robyn struggles to maintain her increasingly tenuous hold on reality as journalist Mariam Shadid races to discover the dreadful secret buried in Robyn’s past before her friend is consumed by insanity.

*Contains Spoilers*

 

Ever wondered what would happen to the mutants at 'Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters' if the government had found them first? Or rather, had created them first? Birdkill by Alexander McNabb uncovers a multi-national engineering program of experimentally created children and drug-infused soldiers. Though this novel has nothing to do with the X-Men, I couldn't help but create connections and revel in the horrifying amazement of McNabb's story of weaponized children and disastrous drug trials.

 

Robyn suffers from amnesia and has recently been rehabilitated, given the chance of a new life working at the Hamilton Institute in England, a few hours away from London. Robyn struggles to adapt to life with a black hole in her memory, fighting nightmares and visions brought about by a seemingly evil little boy. Readers will sympathize with Robyn and fear for her survival as she uncovers the ghastly secrets that the Institute hides. Even though she's fighting for her sanity, Robyn is much braver than I feel I would be in her situation. One dead bird from a little boy and I'd be out of there. However, Robyn's intelligence and desire to help teach these children, while finding out what's really going on, outweighs her fear.

 

Mariam met Robyn while they were both being rehabilitated and she became Robyn's lifeline. Now, as best friends, Mariam worries and hopes for Robyn's safety in overcoming her amnesia. Mariam is hired by a news website and is immediately (conveniently?) assigned to a whistleblower story. Mariam is a dedicated, focused, and ruthless journalist who does not give up, even if she's in mortal danger. Readers will be both terrified and excited at what Mariam uncovers about the Hamilton Institute, the genetically altered children, and the military drug trials. Her intelligence and need to discover the truth often outweighs her concern for her personal safety. A little naïve in my opinion, but I'm not a journalist. I am a reviewer who knows how the book ends... and if I could have warned Mariam, I would have.

 

Birdkill is a book that astounds and horrifies. It's a little different than McNabb's other novels, but is undoubtedly full of action, conspiracy, and death. The plot begins with Robyn's assignment to the Hamilton Institute, where the topdogs of the hidden agenda can keep an eye on her while also ensuring that her memory does not return and threaten their program. Meanwhile, Mariam learns about the Hamilton research and trials from the whistleblower that opens Pandora's box of chaos and secrets. Readers who enjoy thrillers and conspiracy will lose themselves in Birdkill, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. When facing a group of powerful men who live by the motto 'two can keep a secret if one of them is dead,' the odds are stacked against an amnesiac and a reporter who won't let it go.

 

Rating: 4/5 Cups

Platform 21 - Blog Tour

Synopsis:
Luke’s life is about to take a dangerous turn.
But first he has to die.

In the year 2052, high school sophomore Luke Gibson considers himself an average teenager in a world on the brink of monumental change. Joining his parents and sister, Laura, at the first World Energy Initiative Conference, he is among thousands gathered in a Denver arena to celebrate free renewable energy when a massive earthquake strikes killing everyone in the stadium. The last thing Luke sees before his death is a girl reaching out to him—a stranger whose face he remembers from his dreams.

The end, however, is not the end. Suddenly, inexplicably, Luke is back home in Ohio and everything is different. His sister is gone, the victim in an unsolved homicide years before. Angela, his mysterious dream girl, is here also, and the only person besides Luke who recalls the previous reality. And now their determination to uncover the truth about Laura’s murder and their transformed world is making them targets—forced to flee for their lives from a nameless shadow organization and a government seeking vengeance for an unthinkable act of terror—as they stand on the threshold of a dark conspiracy that threatens all humankind.

Review:
T.R. Patrick combines global crisis and murder with his novel, Platform 21, the first in his Beyond the Veil series. As the world turns to chaos after a terrorist attack killing thousands, Luke awakens from death to find a new life awaiting him. A life in which his sister was brutally murdered and the criminal never caught. With the need to decipher his sister's death, Luke and Angela join forces when they discover they both survived the terrorist attack. Though, now that they're alive, the government seems to want to place the blame on their teenage shoulders.

Though Luke tells most of the story from his point of view, both he and Angela are the main characters. Readers will enjoy Luke's unwavering fortitude. He's intelligent, loyal, brave, and a little superhuman. He perseveres through every obstacle the government throws at him, uncovering connections to his sister's death that is ultimately the key to the global conspiracy.

Angela is the perfect partner for Luke. She's incredibly strong, both physically and emotionally. Angela is the character readers will cheer for. As she survives death during the terrorist attack, losing her best friend, falling in love, being abused, and being declared treasonous, Angela keeps her strength. Though readers will connect with Luke, Angela is the one readers will form an unbreakable bond with.

The plot of Platform 21 is a creatively chaotic layering of interwoven mysteries. While the terrorist attack is the push-off point of the novel, the murder mystery that comes after is the real focus. The mystery unravels to reveal multiple (seemingly) unrelated deaths which don't add up to equal the global conspiracy. It's an intricate plot that doesn't seem to come together until the very end. Though, the confusion is worth the wait as the novel reaches its climax and the series-plot is actually unveiled.

Rating: 3/5 Cups

Author Bio:
Author Timothy R. Patrick, born in 1985, started writing when he was only nine, delivering his first short story to his Mom for her birthday. Since then, writing has been an incredible passion. Every chance he could write, he took it. He even scratched out a few stories in Naval Boot Camp at Great Lakes, Illinois.

Tim spent four years in the Navy achieving the rank of Petty Officer 2nd class. He served three years aboard USS Chosin and was deployed twice in support of the Global War on Terror, and Iraqi Freedom. However, he would always be remembered as the guy who sat in the corner of the mess decks writing a book he would never release. He said it wasn't good enough.

After his time in the Navy, Tim became a Test Engineer working for companies like Scientific Research Corporation and Hewlett Packard. During this phase of his life he moved to Charleston, South Carolina where he bought a home and tried to settle into the American Dream. But Tim wasn't content with that, he wanted to do something more than work the 9 to 5. So, he tried his hand at politics and ran for Dorchester County Council as an Independent. They said he was too young and verbose. After losing the election, he decided to try his hand at writing instead.

Today, Timothy Patrick is the author of, Platform 21 - the first installment of the "Beyond the Veil" series. Platform 21 is a novel set in the near future which follows a young man on a journey to solve his sister's murder in the midst of global conspiracy. His current project is, The Vorago Initiative - which picks up right where Platform 21 left off.

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