Review - Mortal Fire by Elizabeth Knox (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 448 pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Release Date: June 11, 2013
ISBN:978-0374388294
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: ARC from Amazon Vine
Rating: 3/5 stars


I got a copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. This is a hard book to review for me. There were some parts of the book I really enjoyed and other parts that I found to be boring and confusing. This book was an inconsistent read. Some parts were rambling and boring, while other portions were very intriguing and engaging. I almost stopped reading it multiple times and am still uncertain as to whether I enjoyed it or not.

The story is set in an alternate New Zealand in the late 1950’s. It follows the story of Canny. Canny is a teenager whose mathematical genius defines her, however she has a lot of trouble getting along with others. When her brother and his fiance decide to travel to a small town for the summer, Canny is sent along to accompany them. While Canny’s brother tries to dig up historical accounts of a tragic mining accident that happened many years ago, Canny explores the Valley. Things are strange in the Valley, for example there is a house that no one but Canny can see. In the valley Canny meets the Zarene family who practice a strange sort of magic. When Canny finds that she too can perform the magic, she is drawn into a story of dark secrets and determined to unravel the mystery of this strange house.

As I said this is a tough book for me to review. Some chapters I found boring and confusing and some were incredibly engaging. At points in the book the dialogue and language between characters is very awkward. There were a number of points in the book I had to reread a passage a few times before I could figure out what the author was trying to say. Some of the dialogue is so awkward that I ended up thinking maybe Know did it that way on purpose; but it was awkward in an inconsistent way (not with just one character, but sporadically throughout the book). It was almost like parts of the book were written by different people.

Canny is an interesting character but hard to engage with. She is a genius of sorts, and has a lot of trouble interacting with others. She breaks even the most basic things (locations, colors, poems) into a mathematical way of thinking. This results in her being lonely and curious, but her lack of emotional engagement with the world makes her hard to like. When she does show emotion it comes off as distant and stiff.

The most interesting character in the book is the young man Canny meets in the strange house, Ghislain. He has a mysterious past and is an intriguing character. Throughout the book his interactions with Canny come off as a bit dreamlike, awkward, and disjointed. Still I was intrigued by his mystery and why he was trapped in that house.

Canny and Ghislain have a romance of sorts, but that also came off as a bit awkward for me. They didn’t have much chemistry together and the “romance” comes off as a bit creepy at times.

I did enjoy how this world in the Valley was both part of and removed from our world. I enjoyed the magic system of runes. I also enjoyed the somewhat peaceful and dreamline quality to the writing. The book wraps up fairly well too.

Overall this was a mixed read for me. I enjoyed the magic and Canny’s genius. I enjoyed the mystery behind Zarene Valley and behind the character of Ghislain. I also enjoyed the interesting asides into mining and the mining disasters. However the writing was awkward and alternated between engaging, confusing, and boring. It was just very inconsistent. The conversations between characters felt forced and awkward. The romance between Canny and Ghislain is sudden and a bit creepy. The pacing of the story is also a bit off; parts are incredibly engaging and parts are wandering and boring.

Honestly I can’t really recommend this as a good fantasy read. If you really have your heart set on reading this I would recommend reading the first chapter of the book...it’s one of the most awkward parts of the book...if you can get through that and enjoy it then you will probably enjoy the rest of the book. If that chapter bothers you, then the rest of the book will most likely bother you as well.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- YA/MG Fantasy Reading Challenge
- 150+ Reading Challenge
- Young Adult Reading Challenge

Audiobook Review - Angelfall (Penryn and the End of Days, Book 1) by Susan Ee (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic
Size: 290 pages
Publisher: Skyscape
Release Date: August 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0761463276
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Penryn and the End of Days series
Source: Audiobook through Audible.com
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

This book was recommended to me by one of my Goodreads friends. It sounded interesting and ended up being a decent read. I am a bit sick of post-apocalyptic/dystopia type novels right now, so take that into consideration when reading this review. This is another YA post-apocalyptic novel but with angels!

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was okay. This isn’t one of those audiobooks that was so stellar I would recommend listening to this instead of reading it. Still the narrator did a decent job of distinguishing between character voices. I had a bit of trouble with the different male voices since they sounded awkward and occasionally similar to each other.

Penryn is trying to survive in a world where angels have recently (6 weeks ago) ravaged many major cities on Earth. As if just surviving isn’t bad enough Penryn has a psychotic mother and a handicap younger sister (who can’t walk) to take care of as well. When an angel with black wings kidnaps Penryn’s little sister, Penryn is determined to rescue her. Penryn has decided the best way to do this is to kidnap an injured angel from the scene of the crime and make him take her back to his aerie.

This book was okay. It was pretty typical YA post apocalyptic type of fiction. In this case rather than a nuclear disaster or a plague wiping out humanity it's a host of angels attacking from heaven that wipes out all the major cities. This isn’t ever explained very well and it seems like even the angels aren’t all that sure why they attacked the humans.

Penryn is an interesting character. She is small but tough. Penryn’s mother thinks that she (the mother) gets possessed by demons and is worried about hurting her daughter during one of her demonic episodes. As a result of this insanity Penryn has been trained to fight from a very young age. Penryn has this very practical attitude towards life and just kind of goes with everything. Her dedication to her family is admirable.

The other main character is the angel that Penryn rescues, Raffe. To be honest Raffe is kind of a pretencious jerk through the first part of the story...then again Penryn isn’t very nice to him. As the story continues we learn that Raffe is a complex set of secrets and has a very complicated history of his own.

There is a lot of grotesque and horrific stuff in here. Including cannibalism, genetic tampering/torture of small children, and of course angels attacking humans in brutal ways. There is actually quite a bit of talk about sex as well; the angels really love human women and Penryn is constantly in danger of being sexually assaulted. Needless to say it's an incredibly dark story with very little light or hope throughout.

The book was decently enough written, but this book just basically sets everything up. We don't ever get any resolution around anything by the end of the book. There is no explanation as to why the angels have attacked humanity, as to why humanity couldn't defend themselves, or even much explanation about the angels' society in general.

Then there is the whole star-crossed love thing going on between Penryn and the angel she saves. This kind of made me roll my eyes a bit. I get a bit sick of the tortured man forbidden to love a human girl thing that seems to be ever present in paranormal YA.

Overall I didn't really love this book, but I didn't hate it either. It was somewhat engaging and an okay read. I did like the idea of angels causing an apocalypse, that was creative and intriguing....however, why all this happens is never really addressed. Penryn is an okay heroine, but didn’t really stand out for me. The world is interesting but not all that well developed. I guess in general I am just a bit sick of post-apocalyptic YA and this book didn’t change my mind about that. So if you are a huge fan of post-apocalyptic YA I would tentatively recommend this to you. I personally will not be reading any more of this series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- Audio Book Challenge
- 150+ Reading Challenge/a>
- Paranormal Reading Challenge
- Young Adult Reading Challenge

Early Novella Review - Spartan Frost (Mythos Academy, Book 4.5) by Jennifer Estep (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 325 KB
Publisher: Kensington Books
Release Date: June 25, 2013
ASIN: B00BJPYGQE
Stand Alone or Series: 4.5th novella in the Mythos Academy series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

This is a Novella from the Mythos Academy world told from Logan’s POV, it takes place in between books 4 and 5. I got a copy of this novella to review through Netgalley(dot)com; thanks to Kensington and NetGalley for providing a copy for me to give an honest review of. This is kind of a take it or leave it novella; it adds a bit to the series but you aren’t missing much if you skip it either. This review does contain spoilers for previous book in the series, so you have been warned. You definitely do want to read the books prior to this one before reading this novella; it is not a stand alone kind of novella.

Logan almost killed Gwen while he was possessed by Loki and now he is trying to recover. He’s returned to his family home with his father and is trying to work out and refocus on what is important to him. Along the way he is drawn to some action against the Reapers with his father.

This book doesn’t really give us any insight into Logan’s thoughts about Gwen, which I was kind of hoping for. The part of Logan that this novella does fill out is Logan’s relationship with his father. So we do get to learn a bit about Logan’s past and how he interacts with his father. This was kind of nice and gave a little more depth to Logan as a character.

Gwen is mentioned a few times in passing but she is mostly absent from the story. Logan is staying away from his friends because he fears hurting them, like he did when he was possessed by Loki.

Overall this is pretty short little novella that gives us some additional background about Logan but definitely isn’t significant to the main story. If you are a huge fan of the series and want to know more about what Logan and his dad did when Logan left Mythos Academy then go ahead and give it a read. It’s a decent story just nothing all that profound. I am not sure it’s worth $1.59 to read and you definitely won’t be lost in Book 5 if you skip this little tale about Logan.

Audiobook Review - Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Children’s
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 336 pages
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Release Date: August 7, 2001
ISBN: 978-0064410342
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Audiobook through Audible.com
Rating: 3.5/5 stars


I have had this book to read forever and was so excited to finally get around to reading it. I watched the movie a long time ago and enjoyed it, but wanted more depth to that interesting story. This was a well done fantasy book, that had an old time fairy tale feel to it. My main complaint that the ending was a bit rushed. There are two sequels to this book: Castle in the Air and House of Many Ways.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was very well done. The narrator has an English accent which fits this fairy tale type of story perfectly and did a wonderful job with the character voices.

Sophie is the eldest of three children in a hat-makers shop. As such, she feels that she is destine to lead a boring and uneventful life. Things change when she runs afoul of the Witch of the Waste while selling the Witch a hat. The Witch turns Sophie into an old woman. Sophie leave the hat shop and journeys to Howl’s Castle in hope that he can break the spell on her and return her to her youthful self.

This was a well done children's book with a fairy tale feel to it. The world is a typical olden time fantasy world with Kings and magic and castles. I loved the idea of Howl’s floating castle and the Wicked Witch of the west. This is a magical story full of lessons on life, love, and happiness.

The characters did leave a bit to be desired for me though. Sophie’s personality matches that of a cranky old woman perfectly, even before she is a cranky old woman. I think that is part of the irony in her being turned into a cranky old woman. I didn’t really enjoy her all that much. The huge decision she makes to go Howl’s castle she blames on being in shock from the transformation and to be honest she doesn’t do much but be incredibly stubborn for large portions of the book. She also is very caustic and rude to Howl throughout the whole book. She never lets him get a word in edgewise and never lets him actually explain anything. She continually calls Howl a “slitherer-outer”, which seems hypocritical to me since Sophie is constantly trying the slither out of her own live and out of making any decisions.

I like Howl’s character better but he was still hard to engage with. Howl is a first rate womanizer and (Sophie is right, he is a slitherer-outer) tries to get out of having any responsibilities at all. He pretends to be mysterious and hard-hearted but it is extremely apparent that he is not any of those things. He was a very stereotypical bachelor type character (he has a messy house, eat poorly, and is always after women).

The best character of the bunch is Calcifier, the fire demon that lives in Howl’s fireplace. He is much more fascinating than either Sophie or Howl, and I would have liked to read more about him.

Sophie’s sisters are also delightful characters. They are full of mischief and add more life to the story than Sophie ever does. I especially enjoyed Sophie’s sister’s magic teacher, she was a funny and engaging character.

Behind all of the Sophie/Howl disagreements there is a larger part to the plot. The King wants Howl to rescue his brother from the Witch of the Waste, of course HOwl is doing his best not to get involved. This part of the story was largely in the background. To be honest this portion of the story isn’t really dealt with until very late in the book. The way it wraps up is creative and interesting, but also very rushed and a bit confusing. This would have been better if Jones had taken a bit more time to explain and wrap up the mystery behind the Witch of the Waste and the King’s brother.

So to be honest, while I enjoyed this cute little fairy tale story, it didn’t awe me or blow me away. The characters left something to be desired, the pacing was slow in the beginning and rushed at the ending, also things get a bit confusing at the end and could have used some better explanation.

In addition to the above there are some mysteries around the “other world” Howl goes to that are never well explained. The “romance” between Howl and Sophie (if you can even call it that) felt forced, awkward, and rushed as well.

Overall this was a decent fairy tale like story. I enjoyed the world and Howl’s magical castle and the whimsical tone to the story. I also enjoyed Calcifer the fire demon and his sharp wit. I thought Howl and Sophie were probably the least interesting characters in the book. I also thought the pacing was off and that there were a lot of things left unanswered. After writing this review I guess I felt a bit let down by this book, my expectations were really high though....so that’s kind of my own fault. I most likely will not be reading the sequels to this book. There are just too many other wonderful middle grade fantasy stories out there to read.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- YA/MG Fantasy Reading Challenge
- Audio Book Challenge
- 150+ Reading Challenge
- TBR Pile Reading Challenge

Audiobook Review - Three Days to Dead (Dreg City, Book 1) by Kelly Meding (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 416 pages
Publisher: Dell
Release Date: November 24, 2009
ISBN: 978-0553592863
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Dreg City series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3.5/5 stars


This is the first book in the Dreg City series. There are four book total in this series, there were supposed to be seven but the publisher dropped the series after the fourth book. This series was pretty typical urban fantasy; nothing bad but nothing all that original either.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was decent. The narrator did a good job distinguishing characters voices and conveying emotion. My one complaint would be that Evy’s voice was kind of breathy sounding which totally didn’t match Evy’s character-type (at least I didn’t think so).

This was an urban fantasy series about a Bounty hunter named Evangeline who hunts Dregs (the cities dark creatures like goblins, vamps, etc). Evangeline starts the book waking up in a new body that’s not her’s. For the whole book she is trying to remember and hunt down critical information that she knew when she died, information that could save the world. Evangeline (Evy) has been resurrected into the body of a young woman who committed suicide, Chalice. She was resurrected by her friend Wyatt, who is determined to help her hunt down her memories.

While I thought the idea behind the world was interesting, there wasn't a ton creative here and the world wasn't expanded much beyond the initial premise of fey-like creatures hiding out in the bad parts of the city.

Evangeline was your typical urban fantasy heroine, except for the fact that she was killed and brought back into a different body at the beginning of the book. She complains some about Chalice’s body not reacting like her own. Still she seems to do fairly well in fights despite the fact that Chalice’s body is untrained. The fact that she only has three days to solve the mystery of this unknown information does lend more urgency to this story.

Wyatt was okay but not all that inspiring as a male lead. He seemed a bit weak and easily led...I didn’t really feel great chemistry between him and Evy. In fact I didn't find any of the characters to be all that intriguing or engaging in this book.

The plot was also fairly predictable, there are some twists and turns but things end up pretty much how I thought they would in the end. This is a pretty dark story as well with torture, rape, and dank bleak settings. So those who dislike really dark urban fantasy should probably skip this and look elsewhere.

Overall this was an okay read, but nothing that really stood out in the urban fantasy genre for me. The world was kind of interesting but not all that well filled out, Evy is in an interesting situation with her resurrection and all, but I didn’t like her all that much as a character. Nothing really offensive here, but nothing great either. This is a dark setting with rape and torture as part of the story, so just a heads up to those who don’t like those subjects in their reading. There is so much excellent urban fantasy out there that I wouldn’t really recommend this series. I don’t plan on reading any more of this series.

For excellent urban fantasy check out Ilona Andrew’s Kate Daniel’s series, Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim series, Seanan McGuire’s InCryptid or October Daye series, Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassin series, or Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- Audio Book Challenge
- 150+ Reading Challenge
- Paranormal Reading Challenge
- TBR Pile Reading Challenge

Early Review - Tides by Betsy Cornwell (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Size: 304 pages
Publisher: Clarion Books
Release Date: June 4, 2013
ISBN: 978-0547927725
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: ARC from Amazon Vine
Rating: 3/5 stars


I got a copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. I am always interested in selkie mythology and was curious and interested in reading this book. It was a decent book but not spectacular. There is a lot of interesting selkie mythology in here but I didn’t find the characters to be all that engaging.

Noah and Lo are a brother and sister who go to live with their grandmother in her island home for the summer. Noah is working on a marine biologist internship there and Lo hopes to escape to a place where she can draw in peace. Once there they notice something strange about their grandmother’s friend. Things get even weirder when Noah finds out the beautiful girl he is drawn to is a selkie.

I really enjoyed the selkie mythology throughout the story. This was the best part of the story for me. Selkie mythology from various parts of the world is discussed and it was really interesting.

The book also explores some social issues but not in much depth. For example Noah’s grandmother and her female friend are lifetime partners, so there is some brief discussion on how hard to was to be a lesbian back in the day. Noah’s adopted sister Lo suffers from bulimia, so there is discussion about how Lo is fighting this horrible disease. None of the issues are explored in great depth, Lo’s bulimia does play a large role in the story though.

I had a lot of trouble engaging with the characters though. The point of view bounces from Noah, to Lo, to Mara (the young selkie), to Mara’s mom, to Noah’s professor, etc. The story ends up being fractured by all of the points of view and I feel like as soon as you start to engage with a character then suddenly you are reading from someone else’s POV.

I thought the story was a bit predictable and boring as well. Mara is searching for one of the lost Younglings and Noah is working with a marine biologist. Right from the beginning you can tell what is going on and what will happen. There were no twists and turns, the story was very simple and linear.

The writing was easy to read and the story wrapped up nicely. There were some very beautiful descriptions throughout the book as well. The setting is beautiful and has a very dreamy summer feel to it.

Overall this book was okay; it didn’t offend me in anyway but it didn’t really grab my attention either. It was just something to read and then set aside. While I enjoyed the selkie mythology, I found the story predictable, and the characters difficult to engage with. I would definitely recommend reading The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan if you are interested in selkie folklore, this book was an excellent YA read that I absolutely loved. While I probably won’t be reading any more of Cornwell’s books I can tentatively recommend this if you are really into reading about selkies; it’s an okay...if not inspiring story.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Reading Challenge
- Paranormal Reading Challenge
- Debut Author Reading Challenge
- Young Adult Reading Challenge

Early Graphic Novel Review - The Bramble by Lee Nordling and Bruce Zick (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Middle Grade/Childrens’
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 32 pages
Publisher: Carolrhoda Books
Release Date: September 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0761358565
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley for review
Rating: 3.5/5 stars


I got a copy of this book to review through NetGalley(dot)com. Thanks to Carolrhoda Books and Netgalley for giving me the chance to review this book. When I saw this graphic novel about a boy finding monsters in a dark forest I was hooked and dying to read it. It ended up being an okay read, a little confusing at parts and the drawings were more sketches and seemed a bit incomplete.

A young boy is being teased and bullied by some older boys when he can’t catch them during a game of tag, then he falls into the Bramble. The Bramble is a mysterious world full of friendly monsters and an evil dark wave that threatens them. When he helps the monsters defeat this evil dark wave they celebrate with him. Soon he has to journey home, there he uses what he learned in the Bramble to deal with the bully he was having trouble with and to make new friends of the human type.

The illustrations are cute but have an unfinished feel to them. They are done mostly in muted browns and blues, which match the tone of the story well. Still the sketchy feel they had to them bothered me a bit, like maybe the illustrations weren’t quite all they could be.

There are very very few words in this book, it’s mostly told through pictures. Giving the sketchiness of the illustrations and the complete dependence of the story on these illustrations, you end up with a story that is kind of confusing at times. I had to go back and re-look multiples times to try and figure out what was going on in the story.

Still once I figured the story out it is a cute one. Basically the boy befriends the monsters and then uses his own strengths back in his own world to make new friends with the kids that were mean to him before. It’s a good story about friendship, using your strengths, and forgiveness. So there’s a good message here if you can follow the story.

Really this book comes across as a bit of a Where the Wild Things Are but for the middle grade age set.

Overall an okay book. I love the theme and the idea here and really enjoyed the positive story. I was disappointed in the unfinished feel the illustrations had and a bit disappointed at how hard the story was to follow. This was a bit like a Where the Wild Things are but for the middle grade crowd...and with poorer illustration. I would recommend taking a quick look at the illustration of the book before buying just to see if it appeals to you.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- Graphic Novel Reading Challenge
- 150+ Reading Challenge

Audiobook Review - Iced (Dani O’Malley, Book 1) by Karen Marie Moning (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 512 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: October 30, 2012
ISBN: 978-0385344401
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Dani O’Malley series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

This is the first book in the Dani O’Malley series which takes place after the last book in Moning’s Fever series. The second book in this trilogy, Burned, is scheduled for a Jan 2014 release. The third and final book, Flayed, is scheduled to release in 2015. I think that you could read this book without reading the original Fever series; there is a ton of recapping. Still if you really want to know what is going on here, you probably want to read the Fever books first.

I listened to this on audiobook and I wouldn’t recommend it. The audiobook had two different narrators, one who does the female voices and one who does the male voices. As a result the female voices are very high in sound and the male voices are very low. When you turn up the sound to hear the very low and deep male voice, the female voice comes across as shrill. It made the book hard to listen to. I was either straining to try and hear the male voices or wincing at the shrill female voices.

Dani O’Malley was a side character in the Fever series and this is the start of her story. Dani is a superhero of sorts, she is super fast and super tough and she has one of the only weapons that can actually kill Fey. When Ryoden’s club gets frozen solid (patrons and all) he forces Dani into a contract. He wants Dani to work with him to solve this mystery before more people and Fey are killed. Now Dani is facing off with something that might be more dangerous and evil than anything she’s ever faced before.

The book is told from many POVs, not just Dani’s. This didn’t add a lot to the story but just drew it out and fractured it.

Dani is incredibly obnoxious. She basically bitches and complains throughout the whole book. She yells at people and is mean to them, then is indignant when they won’t help her out. If you cut out all of Dani’s complaining the book would be a third shorter. Dani is also supposed to be a superhero of sorts, but she spends the vast amount of time either passed out or being rescued by the harem of men that lusts after her. I am not even going to go into how weird it is that she has all these older men lusting after her when she is only fourteen.

So, yeah, in a nutshell I thought Dani was an incredibly immature and obnoxious character and really didn’t enjoy her. I suppose that gives her a lot of room to grow in future books, but I am not sure I want to read more about Dani.

Next let’s talk about the men. You have Ryoden who is super sexy and super dangerous and has trapped Dani into working for him. He is creepy but strangely seems to care about Dani in a very uh...sexual way. Then you have Christian who is slowly turning into a Fey Prince, he is incredibly unstable, sex crazy, and has decided that him and Dani will be getting married. Seriously we hear about how hard Christian is a lot throughout the book, and it is just yucky.

The last man in Dani’s life is Dancer, and he is the only one who deserves his own paragraph. Dancer has been Dani’s friend for a long time, they kind of look out for each other with no strings attached. He is actually Dani’s age, but as the story goes on you realize he must have some pretty deep and dark secrets of his own. He was my absolute favorite character in this book; he is smart, supportive, and stands up to anyone (human or Other) who tries to harm Dani in anyway. I liked him. In a world of crazy he was something interesting and intriguing.

The world is completely insane. Basically this is after the war was lost and the Fey invaded Dublin (Earth?). Apparently realities can shift at will and you never know what will be around the corner. There is a lot of talk about people waking up in different realities and about horrible creepy crawlies...but honestly we don’t see much of that in the story. Most of the story is spent with Dani complaining and trying to manage her harem of testosterone driven men.

By the end of this book I just wanted it to be over. I loved the idea of this world, but the characters were obnoxious and overdone. Dani gets so distracted from the story by these crazy older man that want her, then there was the strange addition of the Crimson Hag. The Crimson Hag was kind of a cool enemy but her addition to the story seemed so last minute and contrived that I just kind of rolled my eyes at this part. Ugh, the whole thing was a bit of a mess.

Overall definitely not my favorite urban fantasy book. There is just too much in here that bugged me. I love the world and some of the characters are intriguing. But Dani is an absolute flop as a character for me, she is annoying and obnoxious and not someone I ever want to read about again. Even though the book features a fourteen year old girl it is definitely an adult read. Having all these older guys jonesing after Dani was super creepy too, I just didn’t enjoy reading about it. The story took too many detours from the actual main plot and all of the POVs throughout just served to draw things out. I will not be reading more books in this series and don’t recommend this new addition to the Fever series. Stick with other urban fantasy reads like Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassin series, Ilona Andrew’s Kate Daniels series, or Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- Audio Book Challenge
- 150+ Reading Challenge
- Paranormal Reading Challenge
- TBR Pile Reading Challenge

Review - Strangers in the Land (The Zombie Bible, Book 3) by Stant Litore (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Zombies
Size: 440 pages
Publisher: 47North
Date:October 16, 2012
ISBN:978-1612183923
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Zombie Bible series
Source: ARC from Amazon Vine
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

I got a copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. This seems to be the third book in the Zombie Bible series; I did not read the first two books but this book stands well on its own. It was decently written, a bit dense at times, but it was engaging enough.

This was a retelling of a portion of the Bible with zombies included. This is the story of Devora (an aging Hebrew prophetess), Hurriya (a slave girl who has suffered through many horrors) and Zadok (a legendary Hebrew warrior). The three of them journey from their home out into the Land in an effort to save their people from an onslaught of undead.

This story is a bit wordy and dense at times, but ended up being a compelling story with characters that were easy to engage with. The first part of the book drags a bit but that gets better as the story continues. Most of the book is told from Devora’s point of view.

Devora is a compelling character. She is a strong woman figure in a society where women are only valued for their child-bearing abilities. She values life above all, but is often forced to fight and take lives to protect her people. With Zadok by her side she is unstoppable, but in his absence she is strangely vulnerable.

There are a lot of politics going on in this book. Devora struggles for respect as a woman, so there is that going on. Hurriya, as a heathen in the Hebrew people’s eyes, struggles with cruelty and persecution of her people. There is a bit of an unrequited love thing going on here too. There are also all the rituals and laws that the Hebrew people follow, they say they follow the laws to protect their people from the undead. In truth there is some validity to that (for example raising cairns on the undead so they can’t rise again) but like most religions a lot of it is routine meant to comfort.

As you might expect there is a lot of talking about God and praying to God in this book. There is also a lot of talk from the characters about how God doesn’t take good care of his people. This always bothers me a bit because I believe people should be willing to be proactive and take care of themselves. God is there to guide them, not run their lives.

In the second half of the book there are a lot of more traditional zombie mayhem types scenes where warriors are mowing down fields of hungry undead. There is a lot of gore in this book as well, so it is not for the faint of heart. You even have some scenes with super creepy zombie children. Additionally there is a lot of sexual violence mainly between the Hebrew men and the “heathen” women. So this is definitely an adult read.

At points the story reads like a Greek tragedy...a lot of people die in this story and no one is safe from an untimely death. This is definitely not an uplifting read, pretty much everyone dies. Still it was well done. The discussion of who are really the monsters here is also a good one. At many points in the book Devora has more to fear from her fellow humans than from the undead.

There isn’t anything super creative here, much of the zombie aspects to the story have been seen before. It is a decently written and engaging story though, if a bit wordy at points.

Overall an okay religious zombie read. It’s a bizarre combination to be sure. The characters are engaging and the plot is fairly compelling. The pacing could use a bit of work, it is a bit slow and definitely wordy for the first half of the book. It’s not necessarily a comfortable read (there’s a lot of violence and little hope in this story), it is also not an uplifting read. I guess I would recommend this to someone who wants to read a zombified retelling of a portion of the Bible. Kind of a specific audience but it is what it is.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Reading Challenge
- Paranormal Reading Challenge
- TBR Pile Reading Challenge

Early Review - Wednesdays in the Tower (Castle Glower, Book 2) by Jessica Day George (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Children’s/Middle Grade
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 240 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Date: May 7, 2013
ISBN: 978-1599906454
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Castle Glower series
Source: eGalley through NetGalley.com
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

I got a copy of this book to review through NetGalley(dot)com. Thanks to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for giving me the chance to review this book. Last year I read Tuesdays at the Castle and really enjoyed it. This sequel to that book was a fun read but not as magical as the first book.

Things start going strange in Castle Glower. First Celie finds a strange orange egg in a tower that’s never been there before and she needs to figure out what it is. Bran, the new Royal Wizard, is in on the secret but is swamped with identifying a bunch of magical armor and weapons that showed up in a new armor room. Meanwhile a visiting wizard stops by to help Bran and he seems to have a hidden agenda all of his own. Adding to all of this is the Castle’s increasingly erratic temperament; rooms no one has ever seen before are appearing left and right.

This was a fun continuation of the Castle Glower series. Not as magical and whimsical as the first book in the series, but still a fun read. The biggest downfall to this book is that it ends on a horrible cliffhanger and reads more like half of a book than a full book; I felt like half of the story was missing.

Celie and her siblings are fun to read about. They are all very agreeable characters and they work together well. It is always fun to see how well Celie’s family gets along together and how well they work together to solve problems. It makes for a light and uplifting read.

I enjoyed that the storyline is expanding here, we finally get some explanation as to why Castle Glower is how it is. We also learn a lot of history behind the castle itself. The additon of some mystical creatures made the story even more fun.

I did feel like the story was missing some of the whimsy, surprise, and delightful magical feel of the first book though. Part of that is just because we’ve already been introduced to this castle and nothing is as surprising this time around. I also felt like maybe Celie and family were just dealing with too many different problems at once, so the story was a bit bogged down and not as light-hearted and magical as the first book.

The absolultey biggest drawback to this book for me was the horrible cliffhangers. Oh, Miss Jessica why did you have to do that? I hate cliffhanger endings, it really drops my opinion of the book a lot. I hate it when author’s depend on a cliffhanger to force readers into continuing a series rather than just providing a good story and world that makes readers want to come back for more because the author writes well.

Overall a fun continuation of this series. Great for all ages. I enjoyed the magical creatures, the nice family dynamic, and finally learning about the why behind Castle Glower. I absolutely hated the horrible cliffhanger ending; this actually made me not want to read more of this series because I hate it when authors do that. This book wasn’t as magical as the first one, not as much full of wonder and fun. Still I recommend to those who enjoyed the first book in the series and to those who are looking for a good children’s fantasy read that is light and fun.


This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- YA/MG Fantasy Reading Challenge
- 150+ Reading Challenge