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All posts for the month February, 2017

Blog Tour: Wintersong

Posted by cat2002116 on February 18, 2017
Posted in: Blog Tour, Books, Reviews. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment
Wintersong

by S. Jae-Jones

Publisher: Thomas Dunne

Release Date: February 7th 2017

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Retellings, Romance
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Synopsis:
Beware the goblin men and the wares they sell.
All her life, nineteen-year-old Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, mysterious Goblin King. He is the Lord of Mischief, the Ruler Underground, and the muse around which her music is composed. Yet, as Liesl helps shoulder the burden of running her family’s inn, her dreams of composition and childish fancies about the Goblin King must be set aside in favor of more practical concerns.
But when her sister Käthe is taken by the goblins, Liesl journeys to their realm to rescue her sister and return her to the world above. The Goblin King agrees to let Käthe go—for a price. The life of a maiden must be given to the land, in accordance with the old laws. A life for a life, he says. Without sacrifice, nothing good can grow. Without death, there can be no rebirth. In exchange for her sister’s freedom, Liesl offers her hand in marriage to the Goblin King. He accepts.
Down in the Underground, Liesl discovers that the Goblin King still inspires her—musically, physically, emotionally. Yet even as her talent blossoms, Liesl’s life is slowly fading away, the price she paid for becoming the Goblin King’s bride. As the two of them grow closer, they must learn just what it is they are each willing to sacrifice: her life, her music, or the end of the world.

My Review

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
I really liked the blurb of this book. I thought it was interesting to see the contrast between Liesl and her sister, though I found it hard to really care about Kathe. I particularly liked seeing the relationship between Liesl and her brother Josef, though. Their relationship gained a new dimension with certain things revealed towards the end of the book.
I did feel that this book moved very slowly in the middle. Even in Liesl’s world, I had the impression that reality was more of a dream, long before the Goblin King started exerting his influence.
While it was good to see that Liesl wasn’t the stereotypical heroine, I did feel that too much was made of the fact she wasn’t pretty. It got to the point of being too repetitive.
It was good to learn about the legends of the goblins and their king and it was interesting to see Liesl’ feelings towards Thistle and Twig, who, even by the end of the book, I was really unsure about.
I did feel this book was particularly dark at times, but I also felt there wasn’t much of an urgency where there should have been. Long passages of time were glossed over, during which I felt there could have been character development. It was good to see something of the world outside where Liesl’s brother and sister were, but I didn’t get a strong impression of her relationship with her parents, even at the start of the book.
I did find the Goblin King to be the most intriguing character and I would have liked the book to focus more on him. I felt that Liesl didn’t push as hard as she might have done to learn about him and while the blurb had promised a relationship forming between them, I found it harder to believe in those emotions, as the two of them didn’t spend nearly as much time together as they probably should have done.
I did feel there were parts of this book that were moving and I would have liked to see more time spent on the relationship between the characters. The ending was somewhat disappointing, even though it was perhaps the best possible outcome. I would be interested in reading the sequel to this book, as it would be good to see more of a resolution.
S. Jae-Jones, called JJ, is an artist, an adrenaline junkie, and the author of Wintersong, forthcoming from Thomas Dunne in February 2017.
Born and raised in sunny Los Angeles, she lived in New York City for ten years before relocating down to Dixie, where she is comfortably growing fat on grits and barbecue. When not writing, she can be found rock-climbing, skydiving, taking photographs, drawing pictures, and dragging her dog on ridiculously long hikes.
A Reading Nurse & The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club – Welcome Post
Wishful Endings – Review 
Storybook Slayers – Review 
 
 
Library of a Book Witch – Review 
Literary Meanderings – Interview
Resch Reads and Reviews – Review 
 
 
The YA’s Nightstand – Guest Post 
YA Obsessed – Review
 
 
Ink of Blood – Review 
Roadside Reader – Review 
A Reading Nurse – Review 
 
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Blog Tour: Snowed

Posted by cat2002116 on February 2, 2017
Posted in: Blog Tour, Books, Reviews. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

 

Title: Snowed 
By: Maria Alexander
Publisher: Raw Dog Screaming Press
Release Date: November 2, 2016
Genre:  Young Adult, Mystery, Fantasy, Horror
Synopsis:
Charity Jones is a 16-year-old engineering genius who’s much-bullied for being biracial and a skeptic at her conservative school in Oak County, California. Everything changes when Charity’s social worker mother brings home a sweet teen runaway named Aidan to foster for the holidays. Matched in every way, Charity and Aidan quickly fall in love. But it seems he’s not the only new arrival: Charity soon finds the brutally slain corpse of her worst bully and she gets hard, haunting evidence that the killer is stalking Oak County. As she and her Skeptics Club investigate this death and others, they find at every turn the mystery only grows darker and more deadly. One thing’s for certain: there’s a bloody battle coming this holiday season that will change their lives – and human history – forever.Will they be ready?

My Review

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
I wavered a bit on how many stars to give this book. In the end, I decided on four, primarily because the paranormal aspects of this book were actually really unique. And while I felt the relationship between Charity and Aidan moved far too quick, it made a nice change from all the vampire, werewolves and fay paranormal romances.
I did find it somewhat hard to differentiate between some of the characters at the start of the book. It seemed like there was a very big mob mentality… and that all of the religious characters in the school were grouped together as hypocritical bullies.
I did think it was good to see that Charity was fighting against the mould. I really didn’t like Charles. At all. The best types of villains are those who have depth to them; who have good in them along with bad. Charles just seemed like a completely awful person and it got to the point I didn’t actually care about what was happening to him.
I found it difficult to understand Aidan at times. While it was interesting to learn about him as Charity did, I felt there was a bit too much information dumping when it came to the relationships he was forming with the other characters. I didn’t get to see much of him interacting with Charity’s parents, for instance, even though he apparently really liked her father.
I really didn’t like Keiko. While I could understand how she felt at first, as the book went on, I just found myself growing more and more irritated with her. I liked Judy and Leo; Michael, too, although I didn’t feel they were as well-developed as the other characters.
I did feel that this book was a really short one and there was too much telling rather than showing going on. I couldn’t help but feel some sympathy for the monster, but I would have liked a bit more detail about how Charity put everything together.
There was more action towards the end of the book, but there were very few characters who had a lot of depth to them. I would be interested in reading more books by this author in the future, though.
 
 
Maria Alexander is a produced screenwriter, games writer, virtual world designer, award-winning copywriter, fiction writer, and poet. Her stories have appeared in publications such as Chiaroscuro Magazine, Gothic.net and Paradox, as well as acclaimed anthologies with legends such as Clive Barker, David Morrell and Heather Graham.

Her debut novel, Mr. Wicker, won the 2014 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Publisher’s Weekly called is, “(a) splendid, bittersweet ode to the ghosts of childhood,” while Library Journal hailed it in a Starred Review as “a horror novel to anticipate.” She’s represented by Alex Slater at Trident Media Group.

When she’s not wielding a katana at her local shinkendo dojo, she’s being outrageously spooky or writing Doctor Who filk. She lives in Los Angeles with two ungrateful cats, a pervasive sense of doom, and a purse called Trog.

                           Website        Twitter

 

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Ink of Blood  – Review 


fallxnrobin – Promo Post 

 
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Deliciously Savvy – Promo Post 


Bibliobibuli YA – Q & A

 
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Mythical Books – Guest Post 

 
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Reading to Unwind – Review 


2/6

Comfort Books – Q & A 

A Reading Nurse – Review  





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Wrapped in The Past

Posted by cat2002116 on February 2, 2017
Posted in: Books, Reviews. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

wrapped-in-the-past

(This review may contain spoilers).
Ideally, I’d give this book 3.5 stars out of 5. I thought the blurb sounded really unique and having had the chance to read book one in the series and enjoyed it, I was happy to see this book was free on Amazon for the Kindle.
I felt like Shirlyn came across as a very stereotypical teenager. I did get the impression she didn’t really care about going on a trip through time, but it wasn’t clear if that was because she’d already gone on so many, or if she just didn’t like the idea. If it was the former, then her father explaining how everything worked didn’t make a lot of sense; but if it was the latter, her whole attitude didn’t make a lot of sense.
It was nice to see the magi as a focus in this book and I particularly liked the fact there was a language barrier, though I have to admit, I didn’t really feel like Shirlyn’s father had planned the trip with his wife and daughter in mind, considering he was the only one who was able to communicate verbally with them.
Out of the three magi (and it was a little disappointing to see the number stuck at three, as it’s possible, from a historical standpoint, that there were more than that), Balthazar was the only one who had any real development. I found his abilities to be really intriguing and I would have liked a bit more speculation on his background… and that of the others, too.
While I could understand the concept of the silhouettes, I’m still not sure how leaving a Daily Reminder could really affect the past, as it’s made quite clear that those people were only echoes of the real historical people; which carried implications that the past was completely set in stone.
If it wasn’t for Shirlyn, I probably would have given this book 4 stars. I felt this book was better geared for a younger readership, but I did still enjoy reading it. I just felt like Shirlyn’s emotions changed too quickly and that she was quite a shallow person.
But this book did succeed in making me want to see more of the characters from book one.

Elphame’s Choice

Posted by cat2002116 on February 1, 2017
Posted in: Books, Reviews. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

elphames-choice

(This review may contain spoilers).
Given that the previous books in this series were set in a mixture of Partholon and Earth, I thought it was interesting to see the next book was set entirely in Partholon, with characters who had no idea of the existence of Earth.
I did experience some confusion, as it wasn’t clear how much time had passed since the events of Divine By Blood. Etain was the name of the daughter Shannon’s (or Rhiannon’s) daughter had given birth to, but the references to her seemed to imply a much longer amount of time had passed.
I did find Elphame to be a really interesting character. It was good to see her struggle to find a place and while I would have liked to see her interactions with her other siblings, it was good to see her relationship with her brother, Cu.
While there wasn’t quite as much information dumping as in the previous books, there was still a bit; such as when the information was given about Brighid’s clan. It would have been good to have a bit of detail revealed naturally in the story.
It was good to see the contrast between Elphame and her brother and I liked being able to see Partholon from Elphame’s perspective.
It was also good to see something of the reasons for the people who were joining Elphame. I would have liked a bit more detail about some of the secondary characters, but although Wynn did annoy me to begin with, she grew on me more as the book went on.
I liked being able to get to know more information about Lachlan and his people. I couldn’t help feeling some sympathy for them, considering what they’d gone through and the struggle it was quite clear they were going through because of their heritage. While the romance was only a small part of the book, I did find it believable and the emotions between Lachlan and Elphame to be real.
It was nice to see Elphame’s vision for the castle, but I did find it a bit distracting that there were so many POV changes. While I did like learning about the characters, it was harder to connect emotionally with any of them when it kept shifting between different heads.
I did enjoy reading this book as a whole and at some point soon, I’ll be reading the fifth book in the series.

Sixteen

Posted by cat2002116 on February 1, 2017
Posted in: Books, Reviews. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

sixteen

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
Having read the first book in this series, I was immediately happy to read the second when it was offered as an ARC.
I liked the opportunity to see the origins of the Jumlin. It was also good to learn more about the child… or, rather, the previous incarnations of Laughing Bear. While I really didn’t like her when she suddenly made an appearance, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her; and later in the book, she seemed to have more depth to her than in book one.
I liked the fact that Ashling had to suffer through real consequences, both from what had happened in book one and also from what happened in this book.
While I could understand Ashling’s desperation to save her mother, I did think that, by doing so, she made some poor choices that had a negative impact on not only her, but also on the other people around her, including the new family members she’d discovered. I did, however, like the fact she had the chance to go back in time and see her mother when she was the same age.
I did think that, towards the end of the book, the setting felt almost like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with the amount of people who knew the truth. It was hard to suspend my disbelief when people who were untrained were able to kill the Jumlin’s spawn, at least until there was an explanation given.
I thought it was good to see Ashling meet Coop in the present, though it was just as weird for me, as a reader, to think of the fact they would be married as adults. It was sweet to see the almost hero worship on Coop’s part, though.
I did kind of feel like the romance was tacked on for the sake of it. I would have liked more focus on Laughing Bear and the Jumlin, as I felt the danger the characters were in took a backseat to some of the subplot.
On the whole, I did enjoy reading this book. It was a nice addition to the series, but I wouldn’t say it could stand on its own. If you’re new to the series, start with book one.