"Gogh rose and went out through the door. Leon also stood up and began pulling the worried kid. 'It's not that easy, is it?' Juan asked and Leon just laughed; it certainly wouldn't be, though it was evident that they couldn't stay there much longer."
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The Curse of the Golden City:
The Path to the Fallen Stars by L.D. Nascimento Trafford Publishing
book review by Wendy Strain
Nascimento fills a bit of a gap in paranormal literature with this dark tale of pirates and British soldiers during the late 1800s. The story is unique in its approach to myth and legend, but could be more effective with its use of plot devices. Beginning with Leon and his team of British recruits as they are fully engaged in a high-stakes training exercise, the story never lets up on its swashbuckling action. The recruits are able to win their first deployment to St. Martin island where they will be assigned a ship and employed in hunting pirates. The question is, who is more corrupt: the pirates they battle against or the British captain that leads them?
Captain Henry has become driven by his own ambition. Fully confident in his skill at battle and strategy, he is on a personal quest to discover the location of the legendary Golden City. Containing enough gold to make every crewmember a lord in his own right but with no intention of sharing the wealth with anyone, Captain Henry will stop at nothing to achieve his dream. However, there are plenty of other players vying for the chance at finding the greatest collection of wealth known to man. Discovering which player is the mastermind behind this highly complicated game of strategy is a constant challenge for the reader.
Given the unique word choices employed, it is difficult to determine whether this choice was deliberately intended to place the reader's mind more fully into the time period. Once the pattern is established, though, the text becomes much more accessible. The paranormal shifts and surprising twists leave the reader still seeking more even as the last page is turned.