Tag: Review

Review: Walking the Labyrinth

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Walking

 

  • Author: Lisa Goldstein
  • ISBN: 9781497673618
  • Publisher: Open Road Media
  • Genre: Fantasy/Mystery

I was invited by the publisher through Netgalley to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Several months ago, I read Lisa Goldstein’s The Red Magician.  I enjoyed it enough to accept the publisher’s invitation to read this book, and I’m glad I did.  It had none of the faults that I had found with The Red Magician, and it was also a very different book.  Though both stories involve magic, that’s where the commonality ends, and if I hadn’t already known that they are by the same author, I would’ve never guessed it.

I also wouldn’t have guessed what the story would ultimately be about by the title, and I find it funny how my mind interpreted the synopsis to mean that this book fit very well into the Fantasy genre.  As I said, there is the element of magic.  There is also a labyrinth, and the two are connected in an interesting way, but that’s it for the Fantasy part of the story.  It’s more of a Mystery novel than anything else.  It’s also about a young woman trying to find where she belongs in the world.

Four things that I loved about this book are the interesting chapter titles, the 90’s setting (especially seeing the main character, Molly, and the private investigator, John Stow, doing research in a library instead of on the internet), Molly isn’t a Mary Sue, and the fact that, unlike so many other genre books involving a male and female duo, Molly and John don’t fall in love over their shared interest in solving the mystery.  I also enjoyed that, even though I had my suspicions about how the mystery would be solved, there were enough “suspects” and possibilities to make me unsure all the way up to the end.

I will definitely be checking out more of Lisa Goldstein’s books, and even though it’s too early to tell, I might be adding her to my favorite authors list.  There are too many “types” of readers I think would love Walking the Labyrinth as much as I did.  So, I’m not going to name them.  Just read the book.  It has been in print since 1996, so I’m sure you can find it at a library if you think you might not be one of those readers.

Review: The Kingdom Lights

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Kingdom

  • Author: Steven V.S.
  • ISBN: 9780990314844
  • Publisher: Neverland Publishing Company LLC
  • Genre: Middle-Grade Urban Fantasy

I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have very mixed feelings about this book that, unfortunately, lean towards the negative.  While the plot, pacing, and quality of writing were all good, the overall story felt like Harry Potter fan fiction, or maybe just a condensed rip-off of the series altogether.  I love Harry Potter, but I get extremely irritated when authors take a great book or series or whatever, change the names and details just enough to avoid plagiarism, and then sell it as their own.  Steven V.S. made enough changes, basically playing a game of opposites, for me to question if that’s what he did, but then almost immediately say to myself, “No, that’s [fill in Harry Potter character or plot point], I KNOW it is!”  It was aggravating enough to make it difficult for me to stay in the world of The Kingdom Lights.  Now, if he had somehow taken the Harry Potter story and made it better, or at least equally as great, then I’d be much more forgiving.  However, that’s not the case.  If you put this book toe to toe with Harry Potter, it will be found wanting.

If you don’t care about reading a knock-off, and you love Fantasy, especially Middle-Grade or Urban Fantasy, then feel free to give this book the chance I don’t believe it deserves.  Try to find it at your local public library, instead of buying it.

Review: Feast of Fates

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Feast

  • Author: Christian A. Brown
  • Genre: Fantasy

I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

This was a DNF book for me.  It was so horrible that I was debating on whether or not to review it.  However, I’m reviewing it because, unlike The Time Roads by Beth Bernobich, I didn’t DNF it because it was horribly written, but because of two back-to-back absolutely disgusting, horrifying, graphic, completely unnecessary rape scenes.  I’ve been unsettled by violent scenes in both books and movies, but this wasn’t just unsettling.  These scenes were so disturbing that I felt physically ill, betrayed by the author, and unable to move onto another book.  I had to take several quiet hours to myself to recover.  The next day I tried to continue, but a victim of one of the assaults forgives her husband and thinks to herself that it wasn’t his fault because he had been taken over by some kind of evil being.  I had this reaction:

DNF(click on the pic to watch the video)

I can’t recommend Feast of Fates to anyone, but if you decide to read it anyway, please understand that “trigger warning” is an understatement for this book.  I’m not even going to give it one star.

Review: Onyx Webb – Episode 1

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Onyx

  • Authors: Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz
  • ASIN: B00O6DZLG0
  • Publisher: Lust For Living Press
  • Genre: Paranormal Suspense

I received this book from the authors in exchange for an honest review.

Once again, I’ve read a genre I don’t normally read.  This time, though, it was because my mind somehow equated Paranormal Suspense with Fantasy and I agreed to review the book after reading the synopsis.  I’m mostly happy about the mistake, after I got over my initial genre confusion when I started reading the book.

I say “mostly happy” because though this is a quick, suspenseful read, the subtitle “The Story Begins” means exactly that.  There is a lot of character introduction spanning several different generations, and it’s known that the main character, Onyx Webb, is dead, and a ghost of some sort, but not the how or why.  Just when I thought I was going to find out what happened to Onyx, there was a plot twist and then the story shifted to one of the other characters.  I’m fine with that, but I wanted a little more story before all the cliffhanging.

If “Episode One” wasn’t a part of the title, or if the book wasn’t as short as a novella or the start of a serial, I’d be angry about the cliffhanger ending.  So, even though I would have liked a bit more of the story, I’m not disgruntled about it, especially since a preview of Episode Two was included in my copy.  I look forward to reading the next parts, and I recommend Episode One to anyone who loves Paranormal or Suspense Thrillers or both, especially if you enjoy serials.

 

Review: Tommy Black and the Staff of Light

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Tommy

  • Author: Jake Kerr
  • ISBN: 9780692316665
  • Publisher: Currents & Tangents Press
  • Genre: Middle-Grade Urban Fantasy

I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Tommy Black is just a kid living in New York with his grandfather, Declan.  At least that’s what he thinks, until they are attacked by magical creatures, Shadows, and his grandfather fights back with his cane.  The cane is really a magical staff that has been passed down from one person to the next in Tommy’s family.  His grandfather gives him the staff and orders him to escape.  Tommy barely gets away with his life and the staff and doesn’t know what has happened to his grandfather, but Tommy knows in his heart that he’s still alive.  Now, Tommy must save him.

I enjoyed reading this book for more than it being an exciting, adventurous Fantasy story.  Tommy ends up meeting a girl, Naomi, who is better at magic than most who have trained for years.  However, this being set right before World War II, she comes up against sexist ideas about what girls can and can’t do throughout the story.  She’s constantly underestimated by everyone, except Tommy, but they pay the price for their narrow mindedness.  I find it refreshing to read a Fantasy story, especially a middle-grade one, in which sexism is faced without being preachy or accepted and allowed to go without remark of any kind.

The book journal I use to write down notes and thoughts about my review books has a rating scale from 1 to 10 for various elements of the story, such as quality of writing, pace, characters, etc.  I marked a 9 or 10 for every single element.  I highly recommend Tommy Black and the Staff of Light to Fantasy lovers of all ages, especially if you enjoy Urban Fantasy.

Review: The Sunken

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Sunken

  • Author: S.C. Green
  • ISBN: 9780473305581
  • Publisher: Grymm & Epic Publishing
  • Genre: Steampunk/Horror

I recieved this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’m fairly new to Steampunk, but the few movies I’ve seen and the one short story I’ve read prior to this book were enough for me to be interested in trying out more of the genre’s offerings.  The Sunken by S.C. Green has the added benefit of being Horror AND there’s dragons!  However, the dragons aren’t the main cause of the horrific events.  Needless to say, the combination of these elements is surprising and interesting.

Unfortunately, I have to give a trigger warning, since the story contains what could be considered an unnecessary rape scene that is horrifically graphic in detail.  I was angered by one of the female character’s reaction to finding out about the rape, but I understand that it was considerably liberal for the times in which the story takes place.  However, the rape scene itself automatically docks a star off this book.  The rest of the story is fantastic and has all of what I enjoy about Steampunk.

I’m feeling a bit hesitant on who to recommend this book to, despite it being a good story overall.  I would say it’s for anyone who loves Steampunk, but if anyone in that category doesn’t like Horror or is triggered in any way by graphic sexual violence, I have to say stay away from this book.  If neither of those apply to you, then maybe give it a chance.

 

Classics Club: Ivanhoe

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Ivanhoe

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott was my book for the Classics Club Spin #8.  I chose to do a read-along, and all the recaps can be found below.  Though the read-along is over, feel free to bookmark the recaps and/or leave comments as you read the book.  Each recap contains some trivia and the spoilers are marked.

First of all, I have to say that I really enjoyed reading this book about 95% of the time.  It’s full of action, adventure, romance, knights, King Richard and Prince John, and Robin Hood and his Merry Men.  It has a wide variety of characters including some I loved to hate and one or two that I was a little ashamed to love, and a couple that provided the comedy relief.  What’s not to love, especially if you’re a Fantasy genre addict like me?!

Then there’s that 5% that I didn’t enjoy so much.  There are parts that get ridiculously slow and the characters get long-winded.  Some of the conflicts get resolved a bit too easily, making the last few chapters a bit anti-climactic.  There’s also the racism that was prevalent during not only the times in which the story is placed but during the times in which the author wrote as well.  Now, I don’t believe in removing those uncomfortable parts from media in order to comply with a much more modern view of the world, but that doesn’t mean I like or agree with them.  I believe it’s important to keep the horrible stuff because 1) taking it out doesn’t mean it never existed, 2) we need to be able to know and understand our history, no matter how ugly, and 3) we need to be able to see how far we’ve come since those times.

While Ivanhoe didn’t make my Through the Magic Door list, because of that 5% I didn’t like, overall, it’s a great read.  I recommend it to anyone who enjoys Romance era fiction, classic Fantasy, or classic literature in general.

Review: The Broken Sword

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Broken

  • Author: Poul Anderson
  • ISBN: 9781497694224
  • Publisher: Open Road Media

The Broken Sword is High Fantasy at its highest.  It was originally published the same year as The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (1954), and the trilogy is what I immediately thought of as I began reading this classic.  For the most part, I enjoyed it.  It’s a good story with a good plot that is fairly paced.  However, I never cared about any of the characters, and for me there has to be at least one character I cheer for or one I despise so much that I love all the others in comparison.  Neither of those characters exist in this book.  Some of them were a bit more despicable than others, but all of them did horrible things while also having problems that made them not seem so horrible; except for the trolls who are just vile and disgusting.  If anything, the gods that are behind everything that occurs are the ones to despise, but they’re rarely mentioned and only one of them is seen “in person”.

As I said, the story itself is good.  It was good enough for me to finish the book despite not caring about the characters, and it was good enough for me to give it three stars.  If you are a true lover of classic High Fantasy this just might be the book for you.  If you’re not, check it out at the library.

Review: The End of Violet and Abby

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Violet

  • Author: Scott Silver
  • Genre: YA Paranormal/Fantasy

I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

I rarely ever read YA Paranormal books, but when I received the review request and read the synopsis, I was intrigued enough to give it a chance.  I’m glad I did!  The End of Violet and Abby isn’t your typical YA Paranormal read.  There is a romance, but neither of the two involved are the paranormal characters, and it’s also more in the background rather than being front and center in the plot.  As the title suggests, the story centers on the friendship between Violet and Abby.

What I really enjoyed about this book is that it feels like a tribute to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.  There’s lots of witty banter and geeky references, and on top of dealing with a teen-turned-demon, there’s plenty of high school drama to handle too.  There’s even a veiled reference to the show in the form of a fictional show that Violet and Abby stop everything they’re doing to watch together once a week.  While the fictional show doesn’t have anything to do with vampires, it does involve a group of teenagers trying to save the world from evil creatures, and they even have a British librarian to help them in learning how to destroy the baddies.

This was a great fun break from my usual reads.  I finished it in about half a day, and even ordered pizza so I wouldn’t have to stop reading to cook.  I recommend this to anyone who loves YA Paranormal books for other reasons than the romance, or those looking for a witty, light bit of brain candy.

Review: We Are the Birds of the Coming Storm

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Layout 1

  • Author: Lola Lafon
  • ISBN: 9780857421890
  • Genre: Literary Fiction
  • Publisher: Seagull Books

I purchased this book, but I would like to thank the author for coming to the Central Texas Chapter AATF conference on Oct. 25th to speak with the attendees, and Dr. Moira DiMauro-Jackson for inviting me.  I wouldn’t have discovered Ms. Lafon’s book otherwise.

We Are the Birds of the Coming Storm is the English translation of the book from the original French.  I really wish my French was at a high enough level to read the original because I’m sure, as with all translations, something is always lost.  However, that didn’t lessen my enjoyment of the book in any way.  It’s still a 5 star book, and that is also despite the fact that I prefer Fantasy over any other genre.

My reasons for loving this book are many, but I will stick to my top couple of reasons.  First of all, this being Literary Fiction, it pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me think.  I had to take my time with the story, with several breaks to sort out my feelings and thoughts.  Even though the story takes place in France, it deals with many social and political issues that are relevant to current events in the United States.  It is primarily a Feminist book, but in addition to dealing with issues of rape and mental illness, it also brings up issues of political upheaval, riots, racism, and immigration.  I didn’t necessarily agree with everything, particularly the violent political action, but I was still able to relate to the characters and understand their reasoning.

My second reason for loving the story is that it doesn’t provide any answers.  This isn’t a book of pat solutions to all the social issues.  It’s not preachy or condescending, and it doesn’t contain a single moment of misandry, blaming, or explaining away the issues.  The story simply presents them as they appear in the characters’ lives.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves thought provoking literary fiction, or who is interested in or studying Women’s Studies or Feminism.  However, I do have to provide a trigger warning for victims of sexual assault since many of the narrator’s thoughts, memories, and emotions concerning rape often come up as flashbacks.