Why did I bother coming back?

I've only been back on a week and already I'm packing it in. ONE WEEK and some moronic over sensitive arsehead has reported a book review I posted in 2020 as containing 'sensitive' material & it now has a big red warning sign on it. It has also given blogger free reign to spam me tonight with the same message three times in a row, telling me off for posting this material, as if I'm a naughty schoolchild or some sort of deviant. 

For those interested, the book review was Jenny Lawson's 'Let's Pretend This Never happened'. You can read it at my Goodreads profile. I don't know if the special precious idiot snowflake who complained objected to a mention that animals have a tendency to crap everywhere, or use of the words 'hand job' or 'labia' in relation to humourous story references in Jenny's memoir. But frankly this is just a bloody book review and if some constantly offended idiot can't handle a book review, they shouldn't be allowed out the house without adult supervision. 

Snowflakery and wokery are running rampant these days and I refuse to bow down to it. I'm quite sure that in this inclusive era that those in the trans community refer to body parts as part of their transition story yet I'm not allowed to mention the same body parts in relation to a book review?

Fuck off blogger, your site is shit and I'm done with it. Goodbye and good riddance.

Wolf Wanderings: Blackpool, England

I've been going to Blackpool since I was about 2 years old & I still enjoy it. It's your typical tacky seaside resort but I love walking along the promenade on a sunny day, sea breeze in my face, listening to screams from the roller coasters, eating junk food on the piers, taking the tram along the coast to Fleetwood, walking around Blackpool Tower, visiting the Sealife Centre or waxworks or bloody dungeons...here are a few photos.

Many a time I took the lift to the top of the tower to look across the town & out to sea. Great views on a clear day.

The tram system is smooth, efficient & an enjoyable way to get around. I enjoy this method of transport compared to buses to be honest. Less stressful!

The Big One. Might be tame by American theme park standards but it's one of the best rides at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

I love the junk food on offer, I can't help it. The standard of ice cream is very good & I never miss the opportunity...

Viking Wolf Reads: Robert Boren-The New Republic (Bug Out Texas #2)

 

In the Bug Out! Texas Book 1, invaders flood into Texas and stage a number of terror attacks. Police, the Texas National Guard, and armed citizens take them on. Texas has to take matters into its own hands after the Federal Government refuses to provide meaningful help. The roads are no longer safe, as roving bands of Islamic Terrorists run down citizens and kill them. Bug Out! Texas Book 2 moves throughout the huge state as citizens go mobile in their RVs , taking the fight to the enemy. Unlikely friends join forces to fight enemies from within and without the great state of Texas. Will they survive and prevail?

The action continues quickly as our trouble spreads through Texas. Local politicians like Kip and chief Ramsay are having to put political differences aside to work together for the good of Texas, protecting it from the invaders and their own government. Kip is still trying to deal with his growing infatuation with Maria and wonders if the crisis is making her more dependent on him, giving him a chance to win her over. But things get dangerous for Kip when the government asks him to spy on his Texas colleagues putting him at risk of treason. Governor Nelson is starting to think that turning Texas into a republic might be the only way he can fight back against outside interference at a national level but can Texas go it alone?

DPS are suffering from more losses as they try to take on the enemy barges that continue to cross from Mexico, full of armed terrorists. Now the enemy are sending choppers into the battle and nobody can be sure if the US military choppers in the air are actually attacking or assisting the foreign enemies. DPS are trying to fight a lone battle, outgunned and vastly outnumbered but patriots in the US military like General Walker and General Hogan continue to take risks to try and save their country from domestic and foreign enemies.

Jason's group are still on the move after the failed attack, with Curt's tech skills proving to be a game changer for putting them one up on the enemy. They link up with new allies as they travel towards the meeting place at the RV camp in Fort Stockton. Kelly's group are taking a similar route and facing the same problems on the road with the feeling that nowhere is truly safe. They are also concerned that Chris has taken a detour to collect his sister, putting him way behind the others. Chris and a couple of his friends have linked up with Simon Orr. Eric has had to sneak over the Texas border as he tries to reach his brother but the route he has to take is putting him on a collision course with groups of terrorists using the quieter roads to attack towns across the state. 

I'm very much enjoying the new characters being introduced in this book. There is the eccentric Brushy, who I totally love and want to see a lot more of. There are the fighters of Deadwood trying to save their town from the terrorists in what could be a suicide mission. There are Moe and Clancy at Fort Stockton who run the RV park. Gray's biker group are the latest to join the fightback against the terrorists.

Now I do have to address the numerous editing issues in the text which is a problem with self published books. The wrong character names are often used. In this book it says Nate and Fritz arrive together, at the start of book 3 it says Nate arrived with Jasper, then says Jasper is with Earl, Simon and Chris who have not arrived yet. It does get confusing. There are also spelling issues but I tend to ignore those for the most part. Later editions of the books may have corrected the issues, I don't really know.

I'm really enjoying the different take on the same US invasion, seeing a different set of characters and a new angle to view the events from. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Wolf Rating: 🐺🐺🐺🐺🐺

                                                      Robert Boren

Viking Wolf Reads: Robert Boren-Texas Lockdown (Bug Out Texas #1)

It’s a normal day at the Dripping Springs Superstore. Shoppers look at merchandise while keeping their kids under control. Customers wait in the check-out lines, some chatting, others silently bored. Everything is about to change. Terrorists rush in with guns blazing, killing all who try to escape, rounding up the rest to hold hostage. Carrie, pregnant mother with a four-year-old at home, escapes into a stockroom closet. She calls her husband Jason, an Austin PD officer.

Jason and his partner find a raging massacre in the parking lot. They attack, badly outnumbered until Kelly and his rednecks fly onto the parking lot in their pickup trucks, shooting the terrorists where they stand. Inside the store, Carrie’s hiding place is about to be discovered. She pulls the pistol from her purse and waits, firing when her closet is opened, killing the enemy fighters. As her husband frantically searches for her, Carrie slips into the storefront and attacks, foiling the terrorist’s plans. Reunited, Carrie and Jason think the danger is over. They are wrong.

Terrorists attack them at home later that night, forcing them to flee into the darkness. Others join them as they try to find safety, the relentless enemy hounding them wherever they go. Now there is only one thing left to do. Fight back. Hunt the hunters.

A terrorist attack at a shopping mall in Dripping Springs by Islamic extremists starts a war in Texas. Bad guys are flooding across the Texas borders in huge numbers leaving law enforcement and border patrols overwhelmed. The local police and sections of the military realise that they cannot contain the threat without the help of armed civilians across the state. Their efforts are being stopped by the Federal government who are using draconian measures to try and stop citizens joining the fight to save their homes, loved ones and way of life as more terrorists take them on.

This is a spin off from the highly enjoyable Bug Out series (I suggest you read that one first) which had citizens in their 60's to 80's in RV's taking on psycho militia, terrorists and part of their own military. I wasn't sure what to expect from this spin off as it is set in the same timeline as Bug Out, happening at the same time in Texas as events in Bug Out took place in California, Arizona and Utah. I wondered if it would be too similar but it wasn't. Events we heard about in Bug Out are briefly reported using TV news flashes which lets you compare the timeline without being bored by it being repeated.

This book begins with two Austin police officers Jason and Kyle rushing to the shopping mall to save Jason's pregnant wife Carrie, who is hiding in a shop with fellow shopper Kate while terrorists execute innocent people. The incident ends as the police, shoppers and armed rednecks take on the enemy with their legally owned weapons. However things turn bad soon after when the civilian shooters start getting targeted in their homes by revenge attacks, causing them to flee in their RV's. We see much more more of the terrorists in this book rather than the corrupt militia which dominate the early Bug Out books so although the characters flee in their vehicles, the plot still feels different.

We follow Jason, wife Carrie, daughter Chelsea, and his police partner Kyle and new girlfriend Kate as they flee towards Fredricksburg to link up with Jason's parents. Jason's brother Eric, girlfriend Kim and dog Paco are heading to Texas from Florida, hoping to stay out of trouble as they try to get across the locked down Texas border. The rednecks led by Kelly, Brenda and Junior split into groups to evade the terrorists with a specific meeting place in mind. There is the totally mad Curt who reminds me of Burt Gummer from Tremors! We also follow Department of Public Safety Patrol Boaters Juan Carlos and Brendan as they patrol Falcon Reservoir where terrorists try to cross to Texas and local law enforcement led by Chief Ramsay and Officer Sam Reilly, who are trying to fight the bad elements in the military and Federal government to try and save Texas. I really like all these characters and I'm already rooting for them!

We have the less pleasant characters in the form of slippery Simon Orr, trying to recruit rednecks for the militia as he was doing in Bug Out. I hate that guy! There is also the President of the Texas State Senate Kip Hendrix, whose obsession with secretary Maria is downright creepy and a source of worry for his advisor Jerry. They and Police Commissioner Holly have been trying to bring in gun control, unlimited migration, Sharia Courts in Muslim areas, leading them into conflict with local people. Now that Texas is under threat from terrorists, their previous stance makes them deeply unpopular-except in the government.

It was so great to see General Walker back in this book, trying to recruit the DPS guys to be part of his civilian fighter network which we hear so much about in Bug Out. We also hear the work of General Hogan mentioned too, which was great though he has yet to appear. I'm hoping we might get a glimpse of or hear about other Bug Out characters as we go along.

The main element of this book was introducing the characters and getting them all fleeing the situation in their RV's. They are trying to travel while under threat of terrorist attacks on the road and at RV parks like Bug Out but also attacks on the mall, a popular bar and the DPS border patrols so it has the same feel as Bug Out but is also new and different in other ways. I really enjoyed the book and can't wait to read the rest!

Wolf Rating: 🐺🐺🐺🐺🐺

                                                                Robert Boren

Blog Relaunch!

 

I have started to miss blogging & having a regular routine so I'm going to be relaunching this blog in about a week's time. I'm back on Twitter & can be followed under the new title of VikingWolf, instead of Chuckles Book Cave. I'm still @chucklesthescot so if we were following each other, you'll not need to request to follow. I'll be keeping Chuckles Book Cave for the blog title though as books will remain a big focus.😎

Wolf Wanderings: This is to be a regular series showing my photos of places I've visited on day trips & holidays over the years, & perhaps gorgeous scenery from around the world on my favourite photographic subjects.😍

Six Degrees of Separation: I really enjoyed taking part in this & I'm glad to see that it's still running. It was always fun to do. Hopefully I'll start this again.😊

Five Of The Best: As much as I enjoyed Top Ten Tuesday, I feel like I've done the various topics on there so many times. So I'm going to do posts where I pick a top 5 on a subject & share them with you instead.😉

Book Reviews: Yes I'm going to still be doing book reviews! New reviews will be under the title of Viking Wolf Reads, my twitter name. I don't enjoy writing them but I really need to make the effort & write them as soon as I finish reading them.😒

Chuckles Retro Reviews: I'll be posting a few of these older reviews during periods where I have no reviews to share or where I can't be bothered writing one!😄

Chuckles Mini Review Catchup: The odd time where I only have short reviews to share, I'll put a few together in one of these posts. 😁

Tackling The TBR: It's not that I WANT to be reminded of the ton of books I haven't read but I'm going to do regular updates on my progress. I don't buy as many books as I used to so hopefully I can put a real dent in my pile as I'm reading regularly again.😬

Chuckles Weekend Roundup: This is going to be more about what I've been doing during the week, anything I've bought, anything of interest in the world of Chuckles.😝

Chuckles With Chuckles: I'll be trying to put some funny posts in from time to time to have a bit of a laugh.😀

Wolf Watch: This will be about what I'm watching on TV, any films I'm looking at, & a regular update on the fate of my sporting teams.🐺

Other than a weekend roundup post & maybe Six Degrees of Separation, I won't be doing anything on set days so I can be more flexible & get a good balance with my off blog time. That was the issue before, too much bloody pressure & it all became a chore. This time I want it to be fun!