The Path I Had to Walk by Raven

From the Publisher

This is a heartfelt story as told by the author in her own words, about triumph over tragedy. The story unfolds with the telling of a small girl’s life growing up in an environment few could imagine. It describes in tragic detail the terror experienced by a small child at the hands of her family.

As you read this book, you will be drawn into a relationship with a dysfunctional family and become part of the story. The story shows how a child with little chance for a successful life chose success over failure in a world of physical and mental abuse achieving triumph over tragedy.

With so many stories of failure, this story enlightens and encourages anyone born into adversity to the hope of a better life. In drawing from her faith and inner strength a little girl overcomes circumstance to achieve success beyond expectation.

Raven lives a blessed life in the south and her story continues.

From the Author

I write under the pseudonym of Raven. I live in the south with my husband and wonderful children. I have always had a talent for writing. Reading and Language Arts were my best subjects in school. My hobbies are reading RL Stine, Christopher Pike, Norma Roberts and James Patterson books.

I have been married for twelve years and we have three of the most wonderful children you could ever meet. I spent

I began writing my life story as therapy, a way of getting it all out like keeping a journal. I learned that the more I wrote the more I understood my life. Since I am the type of person who believes that everything happens for a reason, I realized that my hard up bringing was what made me into the woman I am today. Everything I experienced was just the path I had to walk.

My Take

Heart-wrenching!!  Compelling!

Raven’s young life was undeniably complex and harsh. It’s very difficult to imagine how a mother could treat her own child as Raven was treated. Why would someone have a child just to treat them worse than a pesky rodent? My heart goes out to Raven for the years she had to endure. Just reading some of the passages brought tears to my eyes but, in the end, her courage prevails.

Learning forgiveness and understanding truly is the underlying message of this compelling story. Raven has taken those years and learned from them in order to make herself a better person. Thank you, Raven, for sharing your story---it’s a work full of optimism and bravery.

Published by Brighton Publishing and available for download on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

five years in the United States Army and found it to be a very enriching experience.

THE GOOD FIGHT by Matthew Horn

INTENSE!  FOLLOWS TODAY’S HEADLINES!  THE GOOD FIGHT BRINGS OUT THE HERO IN ALL OF US!

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Jeffery Scott had always made it on his own. Unwanted by his family, Jeff spent his childhood being shuffled from family members to orphanages before finally ending up alone, homeless, and on the street. One night, in a dark, cold alley behind a local restaurant, Jeff’s life was saved by a dark suited, masked vigilante whose true identity was unknown to him.

Sixteen years later, he crosses paths once again with the dark suited stranger. This time, it is Jeff who saves the vigilante’s life. And this time he discovers the masked man’s identity. Jeff learns to understand the quest of good versus evil and becomes the protégé of the masked hero. Ultimately, he arrives at a crossroad where he must decide whether the quest itself is good or evil. Jeff’s inner struggles ultimately draw the line between what he wants to do and what he must do.

His decisions not only affect those he cares about, but they alter and shape the course of his young life. Through the mask of the vigilante, Jeff finds the courage and determination he needs to get an education, change his life and become the person even his own family believed he could never be.

MY TAKE:

When Jeff is only nine years old, he witnesses a violent crime in a back alley. It was then that he first saw the hooded man. A masked man who killed the bad guys and then came over to where Jeff was hiding to make sure he was okay. Was this man a killer or a hero?

Fast forward sixteen years. After a young life of a dysfunctional family and being passed over for adoption at the orphanage, Jeff is now living in his own apartment, working the night shift, and going to college during the day.  He vowed to himself that because he was spared that night in the alley, he was going to live his life the right way and make something of himself.

One night, as he was trying to fall asleep, Jeff listened to the sounds of the city. All of a sudden, he thinks he hears something that sounds like gunshots. As any south-side Chicago dweller would do, he hits the floor to take cover. When he finally gets up the courage to look out in the back yard, he sees bodies strewn across the yard and a familiar masked man standing in the middle. But the man looks injured and drops down to the ground. Remembering that night in the alley, Jeff rushes out of his apartment only to find blood seeping out on the masked man’s side. The little boy in Jeff says “save him” while the adult Jeff wants to get the man to a hospital.

What happens after that will alter Jeff’s world, not only for that night, but for the rest of his life. The more he learns about his “hero” from all those years ago, the more confused Jeff becomes. Why does this man don a rubber suit and mask  and stalk the neighborhood at night? Is it eccentricity? Is it nobility to get involved and save his neighborhood from crime? Or is it to take matters into his own hands to see his persona splashed all over the media?

Jeff just wants to get on with his life but the “hero” has other ideas. What follows is an intriguing and intense series of events that Jeff isn’t even close to expecting.

This is the first book from the author and it’s an out of the ordinary read. The topic was new to me and it was a nice change from the usual shoot ‘em up thriller. Although slow or drawn out in some spots, overall the book was easy to follow. I’m not too sure about the character of Jeff’s girlfriend other than to show Jeff is moving into another stage of adulthood, but the reader doesn’t really learn much about her. The theme of “good over bad” is an interesting one to ponder. What would YOU do if you saw a crime in progress? Or if someone asked you to help pro-actively fight a crime?

In real life, most people are blind to the wrongdoings and violence around them. They bury their heads in the sand so they don’t feel guilty when a crime happens in front of them and they don’t intervene. However, there are real-life defenders around who take the situation into their own hands and do get involved---but they are few and far between. Some of these guardians really do dress up in super-hero suits to guard their neighborhood. Reading The Good Fight fits in perfectly with today’s headlines!

I’d give The Good Fight a 4 out of 5 star rating. It’s now available for download at Amazon.com and other online retail outlets.

Author Biography

Matthew Horn is an aficionado of fiction. Spending his life reading authors such as Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, and C.S. Lewis, Matthew gained an appreciation for a good story. His first book, Heroism, written in 2009, is the compilation of ideas that have been building since childhood. Since then, he has developed many different stories and plans to continue his writing as more than just a hobby.

Matthew graduated from Rochester High School in 1998 and from Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management in 2002. He is currently the Chief Financial Officer for Modern Materials, Inc. in Rochester Indiana. He is married and enjoys spending his free time writing and learning about the publishing industry. “As a new author, you probably spend more time learning the industry than you do writing.”

“You always want to write from the heart,” he says from his home office in late October, 2010, “but it takes a special book to be from the heart and still reach out and make people want to read it.”

         Pub. Date: February 2011

        Publisher: Brighton Publishing

        Format: NOOKbook (eBook)

        Series: The Good Fight , #1