Will O’ The Wisp by C.S. Boyack

Jun3

I want to say that reading this book is akin to watching a horror movie, but my actual knowledge of horror movies is severely limited because they scare the bejeebers out of me.

This is some of the best cover art I’ve seen in a bit, it fits the book absolutely perfectly. In fact my heart started pounding again just looking at it.

So you tell me.

If a book…

-Says, per the book blurb, that ” It involves a strong element of suspense…” (Or translated into layman’s speak- your elevated vitals will have you feeling like you just ran a marathon while reading this book).

-Has a main character and sidekicks that have you yelling at them “What are you doing?!? WHY? Why would you do that… no… what?!! Have you no sense of self-preservation!?”

-And was a non-stop page turner despite the fact that you wished for more character development in some cases and a bit better plot flow in others.

Does all that make it like a horror film?

I think it may be the next blockbuster.

It’ll probably be great.

I’m never watching it.

Would I recommend it? It was scary and icky and Dear Lord had I read this as a kid I would never have gone into the woods at night again – but wow was it a page turner. I think if horror is your thing this could be the book for you. But if you, like me, would rather get off the couch and actually run to elevate your vitals, you might want to take a pass on this one.

This honest review was given in return for a free copy of the book from its author.

The Cull – Bloodstone and Blood Feud by Eric J. Gates

May13

I like thrillers. A good dose of running-in, guns blazing while the world blows up, just as the good guy outsmarts the bad is good for the soul… Ok maybe not good for the soul, but certainly good fun.

But in your typical thriller those good guys, can be a little, well, male. They seem to like to swear a lot and there’s a lot of talk of, to put it not near as bluntly as they seem to, boobs. Throw in the manly stuff that men do and women roll their eyes at and I’m sure it’s all quite realistic when you are down in the trenches with the fellows. But that eye rolling us women do? That’s realistic too.

In The Cull, a series that’s as suspensefully gun blazing as one could wish for, the two main characters are ladies. Ladies, I might add, that can get by on a reasonable amount of swearing. And between their super brains and super computers, general kickassedness and sass, those typical male protagonists hardly stand a chance in a contest of pure awesomeness.

But that’s not the point.

The point is that unlike many women featured in thrillers, these girls have two things going for them. First off they have, so far, not fallen head over-heels for some hunk they are partnered with. Because once someone starts doing that, then they require rescuing and before you know it the whole world is going to shit they are stuck on a ledge over a giant void and they choose that moment to start kissing.

Seriously…

And these ladies from The Cull actually excel at what they do because of their skills instead of getting by on dumb luck and hunky male backup. Two women, getting the job done with a bit of giggling that the men don’t understand.

Perfect.

Despite the look of their covers…

…I’d call them thrillers for women.

Also, if you are going to have a psychopathic vampire in your book, I appreciate that they are given a sense of humor and a good Irish Brogue so they can use the phrase “me darlin” often.

Would I recommend them? Yes!

Bloodstone is the second of The Cull series. Not as edge-of-your-seat-I’m-never-going-to-sleep-again suspenseful as the first but still plenty of drama and lots of plot thickeners. Good suspense, in a way that had me avoiding responsibilities to keep reading and yet still let me sleep at night.

Blood Feud continues the storyline and as the characters continue to develop so does the reader’s knowledge of their “grey” sides- nothing is black and white after this one! I read this waiting in line at the DMV and found myself in the unusual position of wishing the lines were longer!

There are two more books coming and I’m ready and waiting to hear what these ladies do next!

Still Life with Chickens by Catherine Goldhammer (And a Chance for Real Mail!)

Apr29

Are you a used book shop browser?

Always, I have been convinced that hiding amongst the throngs of books on the shelves are tiny gems waiting for me to discover them. Perfect little books I wasn’t even looking for that will jump off the shelf and beg me to take them home. And it happens! If you spend enough time browsing book shops those books will find you. Now, I know there are many people who don’t like buying books – but I’m not one of them. I like to have the books I love on my shelf. I, not unlike a dragon with it’s hoard of gold, like to have piles of my favorite books around to count, organize and admire. And, quite unlike a dragon but more importantly, I like to have them available to put in the hands of people who I think may like them as much as I do.

Sadly, small children have cut down my used book store browsing time to exactly nothing.

But, luckily for me I have like-minded relatives. At a recent family gathering, my cousin handed me a cute little book with baby chicks on the cover and told me she thought I might like to read it. She found it in a used bookstore and started reading it standing in the aisle. Many minutes and a good way into the book later, she thought that for a dollar she ought to just buy it.

I’m glad she did.

Would I recommend it? Yes. In fact, because this is a book that begs to be shared, and because I’ve been blogging for five years without ever giving something away, and because everyone loves to get mail, I’m going to take this cute little book in my hand…

… wrap it up in a nice little package and mail it to one of you who would like it.

So, if a book about chickens, and moving, and starting over sounds appealing, (And it should. It made me chuckle and sigh and there is one passage about moving that will stay with me forever) just leave a comment saying so before next Wednesday and I’ll mail it out to a randomly chosen person. (Open to those that live down the street or across the ocean. So long as the post office will recognize your address I’ll send it!)

Update: Still Life with Chickens is now winging it’s way toward Anna Eastland!

The Cull – Bloodline by Eric J. Gates

Apr22

“Am I going to have to stage an intervention?” asked John as I tore myself away from the book and hopped into the kitchen arms flapping talking about vampires, secret services and possibly never sleeping at night again.

“No.”

“Honey?…”

“No, it’s just that I think I know what’s going on, but I’m not quite sure, but it’s all crazy, and then… but… AHHH!”

And then I dove back into my spot on the couch in front of the fire, burrowed up to my chin into my hooded sweatshirt and used the rest of a singularly icky April day to finish the rest of the book.

Would I recommend it? Yes, and don’t tell John but I’m going to have to read the next one…

Two For the Heart by Ekta R. Garg

Apr15

Stories in pairs?

I didn’t understand why a book containing two short stories was called “Stories in Pairs” but I thought I’d give it a try.

Two for the Heart-

I read the first one. It didn’t seem to have extraordinary depth, but neither was it so shallow as to be trite – it was solid. A very sweet, solid little tale.

I went on to read the second one and was startled as my heart was rear-ended by a bus. A bus loaded with anger, grief and love, a deep well of emotion the first tale had not prepared me for.

When I finished, I finally understood the connection and the concept of stories in pairs and spent some time paging back through both of them, re-reading, and thinking. Days later I am still thinking.

Ekta Garg describes “Stories in Pairs” on her website like this:

I designed my series “Stories in Pairs” keeping today’s reader in mind. Each year you’ll get six pairs of stories to enjoy on your digital device of choice. The stories will come out every two months, starting with the major stories.

The major stories will release every February, June, and October, and the stories will share two things: a theme and a link. The theme will appear in the title of each book. The link? You’ll have to read the stories to find it. But I promise I’ll always include one.

That brings us to the other three pairs of stories in the year. Two months after the release of the major stories I’ll give you the More… stories. In these books you’ll find out more about the characters in the previous pair of stories. You’ll get a peek at the characters’ lives outside of the parameters of the original stories: deleted scenes, backstory, and possibly even alternate beginnings or endings to the stories. The pairs of the More… stories will release in April, August, and December.

I will admit, I was skeptical about this “Stories in Pairs” buisness at first. I get stories about people, but then I have to wait two months to find out more? Why aren’t they all in the same book? What kind of scam is this? Why is this so different? I think I should probably hate it on principle!

But, I didn’t hate Two for the Heart. Not in the slightest. And, of course, I was curious what else the author had to say about these characters so I opened up More for the Heart and read that too. After reading More for the Heart I got it.

“Stories in Pairs” is about much more than a couple married for convenience and family wrapped in tragedy. It’s about the connections we make, with the people we see, those that we don’t know, those that we think we know and those that we know as well as ourselves. Solid little stories set up to make you look up at those around you and think.

Would I recommend it? These aren’t for everyone but if they sound even a bit interesting to you, I urge you to give them a try. Despite my original skeptical reaction it’s a good kind of something different going on here.

This honest review was given in return for a free copy of the book from its author.

Outsourced by Eric J. Gates

Apr2

4,377 pages.

That was a number large enough, and out of context enough, as to be almost meaningless – until this morning. Now, I can tell you what 4,377 pages means.

4,377 pages means that if you think that the book you’ve been staying up too late reading can probably just be finished quickly because you are 77% of the way through – you are wrong.

4,377 pages means that even if it’s spring break and you can hear the kids happily playing upstairs, giving you no pressing need to get out of bed, you should not give in to the desire to know what happens next.

And 4,377 pages means that when you do finish it, because of course you will – it’s the dramatic conclusion, you will still be in the kitchen looking for your first cup of tea when there is a knock at the door. And even though you were expecting your friend, it will still be a little bit shocking.

FYI 4,377 pages on my Kindle app is a 364 page book. Had I been holding a paper copy I would have known that it’d be best not to finish the last 84 pages of a book before I brushed my teeth when company was on the way.

Thankfully, she’s a good friend.

Would I recommend it? When you read it, plan in some time for that ending. After all, if you consider that the story needs to wrap up a mass murdering assassin, a device that’s not quite within the realm of normal, which is being sought out by high ranking government intelligence, and two authors that have become mixed up in it all, 997 pages seems pretty minimal.

Extra thanks to Barb Taub (She’s a recurring theme lately, have you noticed that? Do you follow her blog yet?) for reviewing the book and to Eric J. Gates for hosting a giveaway with her.

While I did receive this book for free in the giveaway, this honest review was given just because I liked it!

The Jack of Souls by Stephen C. Merlino

Mar26

Harric is a good guy.

He saves damsels in distress because it’s the right thing to do. (And also, he likes girls.)

He’s joined up with folks who are off to save the land from evil. (But he needed to get out of town quick anyway.)

He keeps in contact with his mother. (Unfortunately she’s dead and working hard to kill him too.)

He thinks carefully about making the right decisions. (Except for those highly questionable situations that he dives headlong into.)

And he works hard selling his wares. (While he fleeces unsuspecting persons out of any money he can.)

I always like a book with a good guy don’t you?

Would I recommend it? This is far more than just a fantasy book with a good guy. It’s full of new worlds and magics, culture clashes and ideals, angry immortals and horses (it never hurts to have good horses)… it’s epic fantasy! I finished it, promptly took the book my husband was reading away and put this in his hands instead. If you’re a fantasy lover put this next on your list!

I’d also like to recommend popping over and reading Barb Taub’s book review and interview with the author but, unfortunately, it’s titled: “Don’t read this review…Go straight out and buy 5-star epic fantasy The Jack of Souls”

I feel that leaves you with two options:

Follow her advice and go buy the book.

Or, if you are one of those people who is terrible at doing what you are told, read it anyway, realize that she was right, and go buy the book. (That was me.)

But really, the choice is yours.

The Immortals by Tamora Pierce

Mar20

My first introduction to Tamora Pierce was in her Beka Cooper series. (You can read a review/movie rant here where I sort of talk about Terrier.) I was hooked and then delighted to discover another two dozen books by the same author, many set in the same world. I had reading to do!

Last year I binge read The Song of the Lioness Quartet and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then, last week, feeling under the weather, I got all four of The Immortals books from the library and promptly devoured them.

The Beka Cooper books (Terrier, Bloodhound and Mastiff) are, so far, still my favorite – as an adult. The Song of the Lioness quartet I enjoyed, but would have loved as a kid. The Immortals? The Immortals main character can talk to animals. I’d have been over the moon to have discovered this when it was written!

Would I recommend it? These are the kind of fun, strong, female character books that I can’t wait to introduce my own girls to. When I hand the first of these to them I’ll be crossing my fingers that at least one of my girls will like it as much as I do!

The Highlander by Zoe Saadia

Mar11

Can you say… Tenochtitlan, Tepanecs, Tlaxcala and Nezahualcoyotl three times fast?

Yeah, me neither.

But at least now I know what they are! (An Aztec capital, a mesoamerican tribe, a town, and an heir to Texcoco, in case you were wondering.)

The Highlander jumps right to the story, immerses it in history and never pauses to lecture on the subject. This can be a bit confusing when mesoamerica circa 1400’s is completely new to you (as it was to me) but worth it. If given the choice between initial confusion and interrupting the flow of a story to give a history lesson, I’ll choose initial confusion every time. And, as happens in well done historical fiction, by the end of this fairly short book I had many of the unfamiliar terms, towns and people sorted out in my brain – even if I still can’t pronounce a single one of them.

Saadia is also great at writing adolescent boys. The trouble is adolescent boys are not my favorite. Teenage boys were annoying when I was a teenager, and they haven’t gotten less so just because they are fictional. And, yes, because my husband asked, I didn’t even like Harry Potter that much during his teenage years. And, no, in case you are wondering I didn’t know my husband when he was that age. And, no, I will not speculate on what I might have thought of him then. The two main characters in this story are boys brimming with adolescent, angst-ey, angry, hormonal, warrior energy. All their boy shenanigans are a great way to tell the story, immerse the reader in history and keep it exciting. It’s just that all those warrior hormones seem to get in the way of other things – like brains. I found myself yelling at them, “Seriously boys, what are you doing? Just think!” Initially I thought perhaps they could have been written differently but then I remembered back to when I spent time with fifteen year old boys – and figured she was writing them just right.

Would I recommend it? I loved learning some of the history of a place and time entirely new to me and the book does have a pretty fantastic female character hiding in the wings but those boys… I just don’t love those boys…

This honest review was given in return for a free copy of the book from its author.