Ink of Blood

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Ideally, I’d give this book 3.5 stars. Although it was an entertaining read, I felt it got kind of bogged down with the details about the camping… and there wasn’t a whole lot of mystery in this book.

The book did start out really well. I liked the fact that it went straight into the action and it was really easy to understand why Kit was scared and hiding, despite not having much background to her character or the situation. I found her someone who was easy to relate to… I recognise a lot of how I might respond to things in her.

It was good to see the friendships that struck up between the campers and between them and Kit. I did feel sorry for Frankie. It kind of seemed like Mrs. Stillwater and Bob didn’t really care about the campers… only about getting the money; at least in Bob’s case. I did find it a bit irritating that his personality seemed to match his apparently unattractive appearance at first… though it was good to see Kit acknowledge all of the work he did do.

Many of the adults in this book seemed incompetent at best… and outright uncaring at worst. Porter creeped me out with how he kept driving by. Not so much at first… but definitely towards the end, where I felt he came across as a prize jerk. I did feel sorry for Anna-A, though, especially with how much responsibility Kit kept putting on her. Responsible she might be… but she’s still a camper and not one of the leaders.

It was a bit disappointing not to see more paranormal aspects in this book, since I was expecting there to be more. I did like seeing the insects interacting with Kit, though it was strange no one else commented on the amount that just seemed to follow her around. It was hilarious when the insects were mimicking the campers. I don’t think a bear was Kit’s totem at all… I think it’s a dragonfly.

I’m not sure if I’d read more books by this author in the future. I’ll have to wait and read the blurb before I make that decision.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I thought that the concept of this book was a really intriguing one. Rynah was a character who was easy to relate to and empathise with. Even when she was kind of mean to her allies, she had reasons for acting the way she did… even if those reasons weren’t necessarily good ones.

I thought it was interesting to read about the prophecy and how Solaris took the people who were in the prophecy from Earth’s history. Although there wasn’t as much of a culture shock as I was expecting (I thought Alfric and Solon would have trouble dealing with suddenly being in space), I actually found myself growing quite fond of all five of the main characters… six, if you count Solaris.

I had a lot of sympathy for Brie in this book. Although she did only want to go home, I felt that she still demonstrated good qualities. There were times when she acted and did the right thing and I felt that Rynah was completely unfair to her. She wasn’t a warrior… but she fit the time frame she was from; just like the other characters did.

One particular thing I thought worked quite well was the similarity between the myths… such as Heracles and Herclai (I think that’s the correct spelling) having a lot that’s the same.

It was good to see friendships forming between many of the characters, such as Alfric protecting and caring for Brie. I thought there was a lot that was sweet about the way he tried to encourage her to stand up for herself. And I really liked Solon and his calm nature.

I did notice quite a bit of repetition in this book. Some descriptions were repeated… and the ‘As you know’ explaining device also made an appearance. There was also a lot of summarising during the narration, rather than things being revealed through dialogue… or even flashbacks.

I would have liked to see a bit more expansion of Klanor’s motivations, since the best villains are always those who have more depth to them. I really liked Solaris’ character and the friendships that formed between the ship and the humans.

I can definitely see myself reading the next book in this series at some point in the future.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Science fiction is probably one of my favourite genres of books. I found this collection of short stories to be really intriguing, though I did notice there seemed to be an underlying connection with all of them.

An interesting thing I noted was the fact that the main characters in the stories weren’t actually named. It was an intriguing way of doing things, but it did make it a bit hard to differentiate between the different characters. There were a couple of stories I felt could have been connected to each other, such as the one about the child and its mother… and the one about the mother and her son.

Some of the short stories were quite disturbing. There were elements of horror in a few of them, but some of those scenes were a bit more difficult to follow.

I would have liked a bit more background to some of these short stories. There was lot of potential for the world/s to be expanded upon and I was disappointed that I couldn’t learn more about the surroundings the characters were in.

A couple of the short stories were really quite confusing, such as Lost and Found. I was left entirely uncertain about what was going on there. Mimir’s Well carried a lot of intrigue, while Life Line was another one I would have liked a bit more background on.

Empty was particularly creepy to read about, though I think one of the mental images I got from reading it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. Live and Virtually Returning was an interesting concept, even if I wasn’t sure exactly what had happened by the end.

I thought Bethel was quite emotional… not just because of Bethel herself, but also how bad the justice system so clearly was. I think it showed really well how humanity’s reliance on the artificial can turn justice to… well, the opposite.

It was interesting to read The Child and to see how someone questioning the system was seen as wrong and abnormal. It was easy to feel the depression and sameness many of the characters were facing.

These stories were intriguing and well-written. In the future, I’d definitely read more books by this author.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Okay, so… I actually have some mixed feelings about this book. I’ve wavered over how many stars to give it… but the four stars come from how I felt by the end of the book.

Although I didn’t like seeing yet another love triangle, the fact that it was a guy and two girls involved meant it was somewhat more bearable… even if there were times I wanted to shake Kaylyn due to the fact that she clearly had feelings for Jorrin and wouldn’t acknowledge them… or talk to her friend about them.

I was intrigued by the concept of this book. It was interesting to see a world where good and evil were clearly defined… at least in the good people’s minds. It wasn’t very clear about what the exact relation was, though. The ‘evil’ people were referred to by a different name, but although Kaylyn senses their nature, there isn’t anything shown about *why* they’re evil. Apart from the last one killing her adoptive mother… but with only seeing it from Kaylyn’s perspective, it could be argued that he was acting in self-defence.

Another interesting aspect to this book was how things changed when the last evil person was killed. There were a lot of scenes that were really tense after they went to the other village and I did care about what happened to the characters. Although Kaylyn was closed off, I found her easier to understand. It would have been good to see the storyline from the perspective of one of the other characters, though. Marsa would have been a good choice.

I was confused about why there were other warriors being trained when Kaylyn was supposed to be the one to defeat all of the evil. I have to admit, there were a lot of unanswered questions in this book. I think a bit of expansion of the world wouldn’t have gone amiss.

There were some elements of self-sacrifice, which came across really well. The ending was sad, but it was good to see hints dropped that everything might not be as black and white as it seemed.

I’m not sure if I’d read a sequel to this book. I’d like to see some questions answered and the world expanded upon… and I’m worried the romance would take over the whole book, considering how much it cropped up at inopportune moments here.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Although it’s been a little while since I read the previous book in this series, I did find it really easy to pick up the world in this story once more. I found myself quite on edge with the transcripts provided throughout, that made it quite clear that Savas and his team were under suspicion… a fact that made me quite angry on their behalf.

I liked the opportunity to see Lopez and Sara again. I don’t remember if I did get to meet Savas and his team in the previous book, but I enjoyed seeing them working together. Even if I couldn’t get a handle on their relationships exactly, it was good to see the loyalty in this book… at least within the constraints of the team. I could definitely understand Sara and Lopez’s initial reluctance to help out, though… but they probably gave the team the edge they needed.

It was interesting to have the main bad guy involved in Anonymous. I’ve heard of them, but don’t know a whole lot, so I have no idea how accurate the information about the group in this book is… at the same time, it was interesting to get glimpses of the boy-genius; it was enough to make me wonder… if things had been different, could he have turned out differently?

I really liked Angel’s character. I didn’t really know exactly what her relationship to the team was, but there were hints that she had a really deep past. She was very contradictory to the rest of the team and in many ways, she made me think of Abby from NCIS.

I felt that the tension in this book grew the closer it got towards the end. There weren’t many instances where it let up, which was good, since it gave me the opportunity to experience how fast-moving everything was for the characters… though the transcripts did kind of ‘stop’ the tension a bit.

I did find a bit of the computer language hard to understand, but by the end, I had a bit more understanding. I didn’t really like that the book ended on a cliffhanger… even though it has made me want to read the next book to find out what will happen next.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Although I haven’t read the previous two books in this series, I did find this book to be a really intriguing read. I was drawn into the world very quickly and the plot was easy to understand and follow.

It was an interesting concept to see how the world might be with modern-day Romans around. Although I wasn’t given much of an opportunity to see the world outside of their civilisation… it was good to see something of their relations with countries outside.

There was a lot of tension in this book and I felt it gradually progressed; until, by the end, I was reading quickly to find out what was going to happen to the characters.

I have to be honest… I really didn’t like Conrad. I felt sympathy for him, sure. And at first, I could understand why he wanted to see the potential for good in Nicola… but by over halfway through the book, all I could see was that he was keeping himself in dangerous ignorance.

I very much liked Allegra. For all that she made mistakes at the start, I felt she was given the opportunity to grow and mature by the end. She was a likable character and it would be a good opportunity to see how she grows and matures in future books. It was nice to see her relationship with her mother… and, to a lesser extent, her father.

I felt a lot of sympathy for Stella. It would have been good to see more of her and Carina interacting, but I was still able to see her as a well-rounded character… even if there were times she came across as somewhat spoiled. I would have liked to see a bit more of her development later on in the book.

The fact that this book was written in the first person enabled me, as a reader, to get to know Carina’s character. It did mean that there were few instances to be surprised… for instance, by Nicola’s devious nature. An outside perspective would have allowed some more instances of shock.

In the future, I’d like to read the other books in this series. The characters were intriguing and the world came across really well. It would be good to read more of their past… and see more of their future.