Tag: #Fiction

Posted in #History

What If the South Had Won the American Civil War

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

(What If? Turning Points of History) 

What If the South Had Won the American Civil War

What if one of the most pivotal conflicts in history had ended differently?
This gripping work of alternate history dares to imagine a world where the Confederacy emerged victorious. This victory reshapes not just the fate of the United States, but also the course of global events.

Through vivid storytelling and thought-provoking scenarios, What If the South Had Won the American Civil War explores the ripple effects of a Confederate triumph:

  • How would slavery have evolved—or endured—in a victorious South?
  • Would the United States have fractured permanently into rival nations?
  • How might this alternate America have influenced world wars, diplomacy, and the rise of global powers?

This book blends historical detail with bold imagination. It offers readers a chance to step into a parallel timeline. In this timeline, the familiar story of America takes a dramatic turn. Perfect for fans of counterfactual history, political thrillers, and anyone fascinated by the delicate hinges on which history turns.

If you’ve ever wondered what could have been, this book delivers a compelling answer.

Discover a world that almost was—and imagine the consequences.

Marko Roostalu
4.0 out of 5 stars. 
A Thoughtful “What If” That Sparks Real Historical Thinking.
Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2026.
Format: Kindle
Verified Purchase.
As a history teacher, I’m always cautious with alternate-history books—done poorly, they oversimplify complex events or drift into speculation without grounding. This one does a better job than most. What If the South Had Won the American Civil War treats the question seriously and uses it as a lens to explore the causes, consequences, and contingencies of history.
What I appreciated most is how the book doesn’t just stop at a Confederate victory and call it a day. It follows the ripple effects forward: politics, economics, global power shifts, and—crucially—the unresolved moral and social questions around slavery. Even when the scenarios are imaginative, they’re rooted in real historical tensions and documented debates from the era.
This isn’t a substitute for studying what actually happened, and it shouldn’t be read without context. But as a supplement, it’s excellent for older students or curious readers who want to understand why outcomes matter in history. It encourages critical thinking, comparison, and discussion—exactly the kinds of skills we want students to develop.
Used thoughtfully, this book can spark meaningful conversations about historical turning points, unintended consequences, and how fragile the paths of history really are.
Posted in #LGTBQ+

The Regressor King

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

The Regressor King
AJ Sherwood
Publication date: February 10th 2026
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, LGBTQ+, Romance

Death, Paradise, and the gods themselves–all rejected for the sake of love.

When King James Kronenscheld dies at the hands of the Demon King, he thinks his suffering is finally over and he can join his Edwin in Paradise. And, hey, at least he’d taken the Demon King with him, right?

But then the gods try to send James to Paradise WITHOUT his Edwin, and that is simply unfathomable. So he does the unthinkable–he turns it down and negotiates for one more chance to fix his mistakes.

Armed with memories and regrets, James regresses to before he was crowned. He is determined to woo the man he lost, even if it means facing down all his previous failures. For Edwin alone will James face Wraths and plagues, court politics, and demon kings. He will avoid the horrors of the crown and attain Paradise for them both.

Failing this time means losing Edwin forever. And that is not an option.

Tags:

Romantasy, High fantasy, M/M romance, inspired heavily by webtoons, calling all passengers: hop on board, this ship is about to sail!, remember to take water and bathroom breaks, don’t start this book at 8pm, time regression, fated love, reluctant ruler, PTSD, hurt/comfort, both characters are near 30, Paradise without Edwin isn’t paradise to James, competence is sexy, so says James, power couple, Edwin finds Prince James very strange, and rightfully so, Victor has climbed to the very top of the shitty life decisions tree and was hitting every branch on the way down, Helena is a BAMF princess, Royce is a pharmacologist but make it medieval, James doesn’t want the throne, no seriously, stop asking him to take it, the gods play favorites, heavy is the crown, James wishes he’d paid better attention to details the first go around, that’s currently biting him, demon portals are a pain, horse lovers unite, Titan is best horse ever, Edwin realizes his Task in this life, Edwin has no problem unaliving James’s ex, buying books is a love language

Tropes: MM Romance, Regression, High Fantasy, Fated Love, Demon King, Reluctant Ruler, Hurt/Comfort

Goodreads / Amazon

EXCERPT:

Author Bio:

AJ Sherwood believes in happily ever afters, magic, dragons, good men, and dark chocolate. She often dreams at night of delectable men doing sexy things with each other. In between writing multiple books (often at the same time) she pets her cats, plays with her dogs, and attempts insane things like aerial yoga.

She currently resides in Michigan with aforementioned dogs and cats. Being in snow country gives her the excuse to stay inside and watch bl dramas, which suit her perfectly.

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Posted in My Likes and Dislikes

The Collateral Part 1

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Please remember that this story is set in a dystopian future where the illegal immigration problem was solved by reducing people to slavery. Is it dark? Yes, Is it against our current laws? Yes. Could it happen? One last time, I feel compelled to answer “Yes.” – Reluctant Retiree

“It’s just a formality.”: An Intense MM Dystopian Saga

This isn’t supposed to happen to guys like me. I’m not a criminal or an illegal alien. I’m a middle-class boy from a good family.

But my dad’s business hit a rough patch, and he needed a loan to save it. And he only had one asset left that the bank would accept as collateral.

Me.

Dad said that it wouldn’t be so bad. That it would only be for a few years, and I’d be a free man again as soon as he paid off the loan. He made it sound like I’d be waiting tables or mowing lawns. Hard work that would “build character,” he told me.

But Dad hadn’t thought about how things would change once I was in the collar.Or what other uses the bank might find for a blond eighteen-year-old slave.

Note: This is the start of an intense dystopian MM saga. While the series ends in an HEA, the first few books are a descent into the shadows. Expect high angst, psychological intensity, and a hero pushed to his limits.

The Reviews!

The Collateral — Part 1: “It’s just a formality.”: An Intense MM Dystopian Saga by Josh Hunter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a great start to the series!

Let me recap what we have learned about our main characters:
1. Dominic (the father) is a restaurant owner who has no idea how to change with the times. When the town was booming, he built a successful restaurant business. However, when things in the town went downhill, he either had no idea how to keep his business afloat, or was unwilling to make the necessary changes.
2. Doug (the older brother) apparently has been a bully all his life. Unfortunately as he has endeared himself to his father, he can do no wrong in his father’s eyes. Doug is the one who convinced his father to talk Wes into becoming a slave so Dominic can use Wes as collateral for a loan. Dominic apparently hasn’t researched anything about owning a slave but you can be sure that Doug has.
3. Wes (main character) is within mere weeks of turning 18 and becoming a citizen. Unfortunately the only way his father can get a loan to save the family restaurant is for Wes to be enslaved and used as collateral for the loan. Wes loves his little sister and doesn’t want to see her homeless. So he naively believes his father’s promises.

View all my reviews 
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars 
A great dystopian novel
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2025
Verified Purchase
The Collateral is a great dystopian novel masquerading as an mm dark romance/erotica. Set in an ordinary California town in a future not so far away (and startlingly realistic) where slavery is back as a way of solving the problem of rounding up undocumented workers en masse, it chronicles the slow and steady degradation of Wes, an ordinary middle-class blond, blue-eyed teenager who agrees to allow himself be enslaved for four years to solve his father’s money problems, as a way of getting his father to love him. He is so naïve, so innocent.
In the first volume, the outline of his likely future is laid out in some telling short episodes: as a slave, he is simply regarded as a sexual object. The power of the enslaver to abuse slaves sexually, to make them the object of sexual violence and humiliation, is at the heart of slavery (shades of Toni Morrison and any other number of Black theorists) in Hunter’s analysis: this is where the genre of gay erotica and dystopian novel overlap. Most of his father’s promises to him are quickly broken within the first few hours of his enslavement: this first installment only covers a few hours, with some backstory. It only gets worse. This series really got me by the throat, in part because it uses the violence that is now being made visible in our politics and takes it one step further. Is this our future?
Posted in #BookTours

Dragonsong

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Sometimes, nothing but the death of your father will do


Dragonsong

by Michael Forester

Genre: Epic Fantasy Adventure



Rebekah, noblewoman of Albion, has been driven to madness by the murder of her lover Vidar. In her torment she bargains with the Prince of Demons to turn her into a dragon. Thus transformed, she seeks to take revenge upon her father, Merlin, whom she is fooled into believing is responsible for Vidar’s death. To save the world from the ravages of Dragonsong, Merlin is forced to banish his beloved daughter to hell, regardless of the consequences for him personally. 

Behind the subterfuge stands Oberon, Captain-King of Elves. He does not foresee the devastation his jealousy and unrequited love for Rebekah will unleash upon Gaia when he frees her from Merlin’s spell and summons her from hell to support his war against Albion.

To save Gaia a second, Merlin is forced to travel back in time to prepare a warrior capable of overcoming the dragon through the power of the Sleep Stone. But he does not foresee the bond that will develop between the dragon and his own assistant, the Seer, Michael of Albion. If Lady Attie and Michael prove unable to return the Sleep Stone to the mouth of Hell in time, the Demon Army will be swarm out of Hell and overrun Gaia.

Time. Time is the key. Time is the only solution to Gaia’s destiny – but only if the gods of Asgard can find a way to stop it.  

 

What readers are saying:

“On a par with the epic of Beowulf, this modern day classic never ceases to amaze. Gripping, thrilling, twisting and turning, the plot of this epic piece of verse (an achievement unrivalled in the 20 the century, I’d say), will have you gripped from start to finish. Don’t just dream of dragons and elves, Kings and Warriors, heaven and hell: read about them and allow the mythology to soak deep into the fibre of your being! You, and your deepest soul, will be thrilled.” -Rod Boothroyd

 

Absolutely beautiful book I loved this book. It is a tale of wizards, demons, dragons, elves, love and treachery set around the Arthurian court but written in rhyme. I have not read any poetic literature for over 40 years since studying Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight at university so this book intrigued me. I am full of admiration for anyone who can write beautiful poetry but when they can also tell a story at the same time I find that quite remarkable. It is about the battle between elves and men, love stories ending tragically and deceit and treachery. I would urge people to read this even if they haven’t read poetry in a long time, I just found it so beautiful and the story will entrance you. The last lines as written by the Scribe are “Or wilt thou, reader, now persuade me once again to take my pen And make another story come to be? All I can say is that I really hope so!  – A 5 Star ***** Review By Breakaway Reviewers

  

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Michael Forester is a deafened author who lives between the New Forest and the sea. He is a full time author and public speaker, travelling both in the UK and internationally, speaking inspirationally and signing his books for readers in locations as far apart as the UK, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines. He is the author of ten published books to date, on subjects as diverse as business strategy, spiritual inspiration and epic fantasy poetry.

Michael’s own journey has taken him from early years in academia into middle years in management training and Neuro Linguistic Programming. It has taken him from normal hearing to near-profound deafness and the life-changing arrival of a hearing dog, Matt. It has taken him through a miraculously survived suicide attempt in 2002, into a spiritual awakening.

He has travelled to over forty countries, from the Amazon Rainforest, encountering ecological devastation, to South Africa, experiencing post-Apartheid forgiveness; from a personal pilgrimage in search of the singing bowls of Nepal, to a first-hand examination of the darker side of economic modernisation in the Philippines, besides many other destinations.

 

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Posted in #BookTours

Dead Geniuses

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

How many times does a genius have to die anyway?

A rogue AI named Nessie makes answering that question problematical.



A Once-Dead Genius in the Kennel of Master Morticue Ambergrand

Dead Geniuses Book 1

by R. Gary Raham

Genre: Science Fiction



What happens when you die, but the universe isn’t done with you?

You might end up as the pet of a giant worm-a-pede alien and…if you survive your evolved descendants and rogue aliens of 1 million A.D…discover you have more in common with intelligent worms than you ever thought possible.

 Yes, all this might happen if you are Rudy Albert Goldstein—the discoverer of the Biomic Network Algorithm—who thought his time had come. He had done his part to make the world a better place. Now he deserved—even looked forward to—a peaceful and mercifully succinct death. But the universe had other plans…

 

What reviewers are saying:

“The arch tone should remind readers of Kurt Vonnegut, although Raham is better grounded in exobiology and science and displays a more upbeat outlook for the human (and nonhu man) condition in this engaging tale.” Kirkus Reviews

 

“A Once-Dead Genius is filled with fascinating characters that we hu mans can learn a lot from (despite the fact that we are, as one of Gary’s characters puts it, ‘primates with delusions of grandeur’). The plot is solid, the action entertaining and philosophically challenging, and the science is great.” Michael Carroll, Astronomical artist, journalist, and author of Europa’s Lost Expedition

 

**On Sale! Get it for only $2.99 for a limited time!**

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A Singular Prophecy

Dead Geniuses Book 2



When young paleontologist, Ryan Thompson, finds a new species of mosasaur in Cretaceous seaway sediments, he is thrilled. Joy quickly turns to fear when he touches an artifact buried among the sea reptile’s ribs. Suddenly, he must fight a mental takeover by an alien intelligence committed to transforming the Earth into a refuge for her own species. As Ryan and his girlfriend, Skeets, attempt to thwart alien plans to colonize Earth begun in the deep past, even this crisis becomes trivial when the uneasy symbiosis of Ryan and the alien, Siu, generates a new entity with the power to transform the entire universe.

 

What reviewers are saying:

“Gary Raham, the author of this enthralling book, seems almost to have been there hundreds of millions of years ago when Siu’s dim star blinked out and the trees began to die on the planet known as Grove. This is the magic of good writing, and Raham is no less convincing as he describes the discovery by modern paleontologists on Earth of the jewel-like engram that has carried the genetic imprint of Siu through a galactic gate, out of the void of deep time, and into our lives.”

Kate Gilmore, author of The Exchange Student and Enter Three Witches

  

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A Twice-Dead Genius Comporting With Misunderstood Abominations

Dead Geniuses Book 3



Rudyard Albert Goldstein, inventor of the Biomic Network Algorithm, made peace with death in the 22nd century. But an idiot doctor hijacked his mind, placing it in the care of Nessie, an impish AI guardian. Then, he died again, nearly a million years later, merged with a worm-a-pede alien male sated after completing his conjugal obligations. They expired peacefully on a cliff top, pondering the nature of existence—and the promise of abominable liaisons.

Two deaths should be quite sufficient for any genius to endure.

Somehow, though, Nessie resurrected him from oblivion. His descendants needed him again. New hostile aliens roamed the Earth—along with a mysterious immortal hybrid with powers that rivaled those of Nessie. Was the healthy young body Nessie had prepared for him, along with the prospect of meeting a maker of universes, enough of a bribe to risk dying a third time?

Apparently so.

Readers of Raham’s A Singular Prophecy (Biostration, 2011), and A Once-Dead Genius in the Kennel of Master Morticue Ambergrand (Penstemon Publications, 2018) will reconnect with old friends (both human and alien). But even those new to the author’s quirky sense of humor will enjoy this third adventure that spans the breadth of time and space.

 

What reviewers are saying:

“After reading and reviewing the 2018 release of “A Once-Dead Genius in the Kennel of Master Morticue Ambergrand,” I could not imagine where Raham’s distant future could take us that would outdo that fine novel. But this author is clearly writing on a different plane because “A Twice-Dead Genius Comporting with Misunderstood Abominations” is even more intriguing and entertaining.” Pat Stoltey, Author of Wishing Caswell Dead

 

Naked apes, gigantic worm-a-pedes, alien life forms galore. Gary Raham’s latest does not disappoint. It’s yet another cosmic-scale adventure with fascinating characters and a riveting, amusing story.

Michael Carroll, Astronomical artist, journalist, and author of Europa’s Lost Expedition

 

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Not Quite Dead Geniuses at Large on an Angry Planet

Dead Geniuses Book 4




How many times does a genius have to die anyway? Rudyard Albert Goldstein, inventor of the Biomic Network algorithm, asked himself—and his AI guardian, Mnemosyne (aka Nessie)—that question many times in the course of their million-year relationship. Nessie didn’t play fair, making multiple copies of him from time to time in an effort to preserve his precocious species, H. sapiens from natural disasters, invading aliens, their own self-destructive proclivities, and even from the now angry planet that gave them birth.

Could Rudy & Nessie manage to convince multiple species, each with their own unique delusions of grandeur, to work together to avert their own extinctions? Could Rudy find a way to let Nessie finally set him free?

Only time—and the completion of an even vaster intellect—would tell.

 

What reviewers are saying:

“An increasingly madcap conclusion to an eco-themed SF saga of a weary Earth chafing under its alien tenants.” Kirkus Reviews

 

“One of the things I love about this series is the cast of imaginative characters, including human, alien, and the combinations of living creatures with the surviving intelligence of great minds long gone.” Pat Stoltey, author of Wishing Caswell Dead

 

Deep Time and Gary are close bud dies, as is evidenced by the panoramic time and physical settings taken in by his tales. Fans of the first Once-Dead Genius—and newcomers as well— will not be disappointed by the newest installment…” Michael Carroll, Astronomical artist, journalist, and author of Europa’s Lost Expedition

 

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R. Gary Raham illustrates nature with the critical eye of a biologist, but he also loves to tell stories that highlight nature’s complexities and undiscovered mysteries. Sometimes that leads him to speculative fictions that he hopes will inspire another generation of both scientists and story-tellers. Raham’s work has been known to make a reader laugh and think simultaneously with no known deleterious effects. Raham taught biology at the middle and high school level, has worked for decades as an accomplished graphic artist and science journalist, and won numerous awards for his writing and illustrations. He currently has over 20 published books of science fact and/or science fiction. Raham has written science titles for Chelsea House, Discovery Channel Books, Marshall-Cavendish, and Teacher Ideas Press. Many of his award-winning science articles for both children and adults are featured in Confessions of a Time Traveler (Penstemon, 2015), a finalist in the Colorado Authors’ League Awards.

 

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