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Genre: YA Paranormal
Published: December 9, 2012
Series: #1 (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter)
Length: 242
Source: author (review copy)

“If there is one thing eighteen-year-old Aurora Sky wants, it’s to get off the iceberg she calls home. Being kissed before she graduates wouldn’t hurt either.

Then a near-fatal car wreck changes everything. Government agents step in and save Aurora’s life in exchange for her services as a vampire hunter. In Alaska. Basically she’s a glorified chew toy. All thanks to her rare blood type, which sends a vampire into temporary paralysis right before she has to finish the job… by hand.

Now Aurora’s only friends are groupies of the undead and the only boy she can think about may very well be a vampire. And if he’s a vampire, will she be forced to kill him?

For ages 16+“

I really enjoyed reading this book! It was kick ass of course since our protagonists are vampire hunters. Aurora Sky is our 18 year old protagonist, and when the story starts out, she isn’t a vampire hunter…yet. Aurora was crazy, independent, and kick ass. Sometimes her craziness annoyed me though (how crazy she acted with Fane, her boyfriend). I do like how she wants to do things her way and she does not let her mom get in the way. Fane is a kick ass too and the bad boy type, but when it comes to Aurora, he shows his soft side which I think is cute! There is also a twist about one of the characters which I kind of figured out almost halfway through the book, but maybe some readers won’t & will be surprised. Who knows.

The book is fast paced with a lot of actions which made me hooked on to the story. I just don’t like books that drags on. This one did not! *Claps* The only thing I did not like is I feel like the information that there was such thing as vampires was presented too rapid and too fast to take in. The information was thrown in like someone just snapped their finger and *boom* vampires existed. More facts could have been said in the book (how they came to Earth, Alaska, etc.). I do like Aurora’s reaction and how she took in and accepted that there were vampires. She didn’t just accept in immediately. You could see how she progresses with the idea that there is a vampire and she has to kill them. Also I wish more vampire killing took place, but she was still a newbie at killing vampires, so maybe the 2nd book has more of that stuff. I do recommend you all reading Aurora Sky. It was a good read and you’ll like it, especially if you’re up for some vampire slaying story!

Nikki Jefford is a third generation Alaskan who loves fictional bad boys and heroines who kick butt – especially ones who go by the name of Buffy. She is the author of the YA paranormal romance trilogy SPELLBOUND. Nikki married Sebastien, the love of her life, while working as a teaching assistant in France. They now reside in the not-so-tropical San Juan Islands, 70 miles northeast of Forks, Washington.

Q: How is Aurora Sky different from your other books?

Unlike Spellbound, there’s no magic in Aurora Sky. Aurora has to rely on her toxic blood and brutal force for protection. Aurora Sky is also a cross-over from YA to New Adult and will lean more toward NA as the series progresses.

Q: Why did you choose Aurora Sky to take place in Alaska?

I was determined to eventually to set a novel in my home state. Vampires love the cold and dark. It made sense that they’d flock to Alaska.

Q: If you wake up one day as a vampire, what’s the first thing you would do?

Drink blood – straight from someone’s vein. The vein of a willing subject, naturally.

Q: Do you have a favorite vampire movie/show? If so, what is it?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer! My Buffy withdrawals are what inspired Aurora Sky.

Q: What are your top 5 favorite vampire books?

I am more of a fantasy buff, but I did enjoy ReVamped by Ada Adams, Vaempires: Revolution by Thomas Winship, and Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. I’d really like to check out the Night Huntress series, as well. I’m keeping my eyes out for more vampire reads. Suggestions?

ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY HERE (AT NIKKI JEFFORD’S BLOG)

Far From the Tree, which came about after Solomon conducted ten years of research, stems from the idea that diversity is more uniting than it is dividing. He investigates parents who have children with various needs and issues different from their own – the book covers dwarfism, autism, deafness, schizophrenia, Down’s Syndrome, severe disabilities, children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who are criminals, and who are transgender. Each of the parents Solomon studies are dealing with different specific challenges, yet their experiences are curiously similar. The idea for the book was inspired by Solomon’s own difficulties in being accepted by his family, and by himself, for his identity as a gay man, and his decision upon arriving at this acceptance to become a parent.

I was handsold this book at SIBA and let me tell you, I did not want to read it. The ARC is 700 pages plus 300 more of appendices, sources, etc., and it was way overwhelming for me. However, I was so captivated by the rep’s unabashed love for this book that I couldn’t say no. And after it sat on my shelf for a few months, I realized that I really needed to dive in and give it a try, if not so I could decide it wasn’t for me, pat myself on the back for trying, but ultimately give up.

But that is not what happened! Because oh my gosh, Far From the Tree is amazing. Brilliant. Gorgeous. It made cry. It made me laugh. It made me shake in terror at the idea of being a parent. But also, hope someday to become a parent and love my child as unselfishly and as completely as these parents love theirs. There are not enough words, not enough ways to explain, how much this book touched me. It’s that fantastic.

The book is epic in scope, it is clear within 10 pages that Solomon lived and breathed this book for the decade he was working on it. It is also clear that writing it was cathartic to him, a labor of love in many ways, and that shows in the writing and in his interactions with these families. He fell in love with a lot of these kids, and admired a lot of these parents. He is not without criticism in parts, but it is obvious he is way more open-minded than many people would be, and ultimately he approaches every family with love and an open heart. It is really something to behold, not easily explained. This book asks hard questions and doesn’t provide easy answers, but it will turn your brain on and make it do some work, in a good way.

Honestly I can’t think of anything else to say that will clarify what exactly is so captivating about Far From the Tree but it is so, so good. There are endless things about this book that make it discussion-worthy and beautiful and shocking and sad and hopeful but it is just an all-around amazing read. Don’t miss it.

In the case of this collection by Sarah Hall, the commonality seems to be that most of the characters in the stories are in the process of letting go of something, usually a relationship, but sometimes also of ideas they have about themselves or about others. In some cases, the letting go comes suddenly, before they’ve had time to prepare, but in others, the parting takes its time. Sometimes the ending is by choice, and at other times it’s not. Death and dissolution both have their say, but so too does the choice to try something daring and different. Thus, within the unity, there is variety, making this collection work as a collection and letting each story carry its own particular weight.

In each story, Hall gets inside the head of a woman who is starting—or who is on the verge of starting—a new life. In “Bees,” Hall describes this feeling of transition, as experienced by a woman who has moved to London from her rural home in the North:

It’s not work-related, this move; not a new job, that which beckons most rural emigrants. You’ve come away from your old home for another reason, a reason you imagine to be prosaic, here in this cauldron of life. You’ve come to forget, to move on. And with this move, some lurid internal part of you has unzipped your flesh and stepped outside. A red, essential thing. You felt it go. It happened as you were getting off the train in Euston station, standing on the platform and reaching back into the carriage to collect your suitcase. There was a sudden internal event, like a cramp or a stroke, like waters breaking. Something rose up inside your chest. It split you open. It tugged itself through the walls of muscle, slid to the floor and moved off into the crowd. What’s left now is a loose pink sack of human being, bearing your name and your forgettable history. A skin bag with a few organs and some blood slung in; viscera, which cooperate only to the extent they must, in order to keep you alive. In truth, it’s a relief. This downgrading of self. This degeneration. You don’t ache or feel hunger or long for anything. You don’t mind going without that prime red aspect. You have been granted mercy.

Change is rarely wholly good or bad; it’s indifferent. The change described here, in terms that suggest birth, but a violent one, something akin to what you might see in the Alien films. It brings freedom from an invasive force, that steals away your life. But it leaves you somehow less than you were. With each story in this collection, change is a blessing and a curse.

In, for example, “She Murdered Mortal He,” the change that comes prevents the protagonist from having to cope with another change that is perhaps inevitable but that she will have to choose. The choice is taken from her, which is a relief–and events in the story left me with a feeling that perhaps she willed the ending into being without knowing what she was doing. On the other hand, in “The Nightlong River,” the protagonist has time to prepare for the tragic party that is to come, and she turns that time of preparation into an opportunity for showing her love.

These are gorgeous, mournful stories, each one a delicate portrait of emotion stretched almost to the point of breaking. The collection has been available in the UK for more than a year, but this week marks its US release. It’s worth looking for–I’ll certainly be seeking out more of Hall’s work.

Hesketh Lock is an anthropologist investigating a scandal in the Taiwan timber industry. Shockingly, his contact in Taiwan dies suddenly at the same time that Hesketh learns of a series of bizarre murders back home of children killing their parents and caretakers. Unable to connect well with other people due to his Asperger’s Syndrome, Hesketh does have a close relationship with his stepson, Freddy, and when Freddy starts acting strangely Hesketh knows he must turn his investigation towards these horrific acts being committed by children. Hesketh will do anything to protect Freddy from whatever is happening to these kids, but he might just lose everything else in the process.

I was SO intrigued by this book when I started reading it! I was even more intrigued by the fact that I couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on, but deep down I felt confident that Jensen would clear everything up for me eventually, so I relaxed myself and settled in for the ride.

What I really enjoyed about The Uninvited was that it was a thriller, very focused on plot, but still Jensen really gets the reader into the head of the main character, Hesketh, and therefore gives the reader the opportunity to get to know him and truly care about him. The situation between he and Freddy’s mom was heartbreaking to me and it hurt me deeply to understand that Hesketh was being kept from seeing Freddy, so this kid had a father figure who truly loved him, yet he was kept from experiencing that love. That human element of this otherwise incredibly strange, twisted, but thrilling story is what really kept me tethered to the book and held my interest.

And strange and twisted are perfect words to describe this book. Children were killing their parents in horrific, disgusting, beyond disturbing ways. SO creepy! But I have to admit that I was interested by this – it certainly kept me turning the pages, desperate to find out what on earth could have possessed these children to act so, well, possessed! Scary.

Unfortunately, the ending really disappointed me and I’m not sure I can get over that. I won’t give anything away, but it wasn’t clear enough to me, I didn’t feel any solid answers were given (that I can accept, anyway) and I was left with a horrible empty feeling that I don’t think I can forget. While the book showed lots of promise, ultimately the ending ruined it for me.

The Uninvited is definitely a thrill ride that will appeal to lots of readers because of the personal, human element of the relationship between Hesketh and his stepson. While the ending, for me, was so disastrous to cancel out most of the good feelings I had about the book, other readers may disagree so I would still encourage you to pick up the novel and decide for yourself. This was an interesting read, to say the least!

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Genre: YA Contemporary
Published: December 13, 2012
Series: #1 (Silenced)
Length: -
Source: author (review copy)

“Amber Brown spent her entire existence believing Dave was her father. When her mother reveals this is untrue, she goes through an emotional spiral with depression. It’s hard for her to believe her mother had lied to her all this time.

A move to a new home and town causes Amber to be consumed by her “darkness” and reverts to cutting to free herself from her pain.

When Casey, her new friend enters her life, she introduces Amber to parties, drugs, and Amber’s new boyfriend Landon. The secret of cutting begins to take affect on Amber as she tries to hide it from her friends and family. In the mist of everything, Amber has the desire to find out who her biological father is.

Follow Amber through her trials of depression and cutting, along with the discovery of love.“

Silenced is a story that for sure someone has experienced before. Although not everyone will relate to it, the author did an awesome job because I sure felt a connection with the main character, Amber. The story isn’t just about depression and cutting, it’s also about friendship, family, love, and growing up. What I love the most about this book is that Amber developed as a character as the story was progressing. You could see and feel how hard it is for her to resist cutting herself. Yes I do think some readers will be bothered by the part where Amber cuts her wrist. It made me flinch while reading it, but I am glad that the author did not take out the details because it made it easier for me to feel what Amber was feeling during the time she was cutting herself. Besides Amber, I also liked the rest of the characters.

I really like Amber’s boyfriend, Landon. He is a year older than Amber (he’s 18) and drinks & smokes. At first you’d think “uh oh” this guy will be a bad influence to Amber. Surprisingly, he wasn’t and his character was the complete opposite of my first impression of him. He’s very important both in the story and Amber’s life. Another thing that I liked about Silenced is there’s more to “finding-my-real-father”. While Amber’s in the search for her biological father, she encounters problems with her new friend Casey and her mother who refuses to tell her the truth. At the same time though, the thing I didn’t really like is those problems with her friend and mom took more place in the story when the main point is finding who her real father is. Let’s just say she spent more time thinking about her situation with Casey and her mother than her father.

Overall I recommend Silenced to contemporary lovers, to those who have been depressed or IS in this kind of situation,  and to anyone, really. I’ll be on the lookout for the next book as the ending was a cliff hanger! I love cliff hangers btw as long as it has a second book (lol). I hope to see more of father daughter relationship and I can’t wait what really is up with Amber’s friend Casey.

This book of short stories takes readers through many different aspects of the healthcare and medical situation in the US today, focusing specifically on the San Francisco area. The subjects in Aronson’s stories are fictional, but their stories are based on personal experience and things she witnessed while working in the healthcare profession for years.

What I enjoyed about A History of the Present Illness is that the stories, while told about vastly different kinds of people, different medical issues, and told from widely different points of view, they somehow all fit together. This is a cohesive collection with a clear theme, and Aronson has a definite voice as she’s telling each story. And the writing is really good, so good that a few of these stories I wanted to keep reading based on the writing alone. I was fully invested in almost all of these stories and excited to see what the next one would bring upon finishing each of them.

What I didn’t like, and I think this is my problem, is that I didn’t LOVE each one of these stories, which makes it difficult for me to endorse the entire book. I think I need to take a break from short story collections, to be honest, but I say this knowing full well I’ll be reading this in the very near future. What can sometimes happen to me when reading short story collections is that the stories can sort of run together after a while. So maybe I need to read them more slowly? Take breaks between them? I’m not sure.

But whatever, this is still a really great collection! Aronson manages to create characters that seem real and true in very short periods of time. If you like short stories, or have an interest in the medical field, or just like great writing, I can recommend A History of the Present Illness.

“Meet The Second Chance Institute (SCI): Earth’s benevolent non-profit by day, Thera’s totalitarian regime by night. Their motto: Because Everyone Deserves a Second Chance™. Reality: the SCI subjects Second Chancers to strict controls and politically motivated science experiments like Cleaving—forced lifetime union between two people who have sex.

Meet Kira Donovan. Fiercely loyal, overly optimistic, and ensnared by the promise of a full-ride college scholarship, Kira signs the SCI Recruit contract to escape memories of a tragedy that left her boyfriend and friends dead.

Meet Blake Sundry. Bitter about being raised in Exile and his mother’s death, Blake’s been trained to infiltrate and destroy the SCI. Current barrier to success? His Recruit partner—Miss Goody Two Shoes Kira Donovan.

Meet Ethan Darcton. Born with a defective heart and resulting inferiority complex, Ethan’s forced to do his SCI elite family’s bidding. Cleave-worthy Kira Donovan catches his eye, but the presiding powers give defect-free Blake Sundry first dibs.

Full of competing agendas, romantic entanglements, humor, twists and turns, daynight is Megan Thomason’s debut young adult dystopian novel and first in the daynight series.”

Okay first of all I love the cover and I like how it relates to the story. While some parts of the book takes place on earth, the majority of the setting takes place in Thera. Thera is a place for people given a second chance in life. There’s a catch though. They won’t remember anything from their past lives, and they will be given a partner which requires them to “cleave” (a term for marriage or sex I believe). I have never read any dystopian book with this kind of plot which made daynight a refreshing and interesting read for me.

The book is told by our three main characters Kira, Blake, and Ethan. Yes there is a love triangle, and it added suspense to the story. I got a long with the characters except for Kira unfortunately. Kira is from earth and before her senior year in high school, she was recruited by the Second Chance Institute (SCI)  meaning she will be trained there to serve the institute in exchange for a full college scholarship. Thera is the location she was assigned and there she meets one of her friends from earth which is Blake. Why I didn’t really like Kira is because sometimes she acted in a way that was just unbelievable. There was a part in the book where something horrible happened to her family and instead of her reacting surprised, scared, and sad, she showed little of that. Another part is when Ethan’s mother was treating her harshly and she was AWARE of it but she acted like it was okay. Come’on Kira, what’s up with you.

Although it was an interesting dystopian read, I had a few problems with it. I wanted to see how Kira would be trained, but as I was reading, there was more cleaving and partying taking place. The pacing was sort of slow towards the middle of the book, but I’m glad it picked up after that. Also I was confused at times during the first half of the book, but as I continued reading, my questions were answered and man there were lots of twists at the end. Really enjoyed the surprises that the author put in there. I wish I got to know more about the places of the SCI though and not just Thera and the characters’ problems. Overall daynight was a good read for me and I recommend it to dystopian lovers and for those who wants to read a book that involves afterlife.

Megan Thomason lives in paradise aka San Diego, CA with her husband and five children. A former software manager, Megan vastly prefers writing twisted tales to business, product, and marketing plans. When she isn’t typing away on her laptop, she’s reading books on her phone—over 600 in the last year—or attending to the needs of her family. Megan’s fluent in sarcasm, could potentially benefit from a 12-step program for road rage, struggles with a Hot Tamales addiction, loves world travel & fast cars and hates paperwork & being an insomniac. Daynight is Megan’s first published novel, but fourth written one.

Q: How did you come up with daynight’s plot?

As I hiked the canyons of San Diego on a particularly hot day I pondered what would happen if temperatures were so extreme that days and nights had to be switched. This became the impetus for Thera, the main setting for daynight. I researched the extreme temperatures would have on the environment and what a society would have to do to adapt to it. Even the lingo was affected… Monnight, Tuesnight, etc.; daygowns instead of nightgowns; daymares and more… I had a lot of fun with it. daynight’s story is complex, so I plotted the whole thing out and then adjusted continually a I went along and had better ideas.

When I mentally brewed the concepts of dark and light, and what kind of government would rule the dark, The Second Chance Institute (SCI) was born. The characters came next. To best tell the story, I decided to have three characters, each with vastly different backgrounds and experiences tell the story: Kira, an earth-born SCI Recruit; Blake, who grew up in SCI-mandated exile; and Ethan, born to SCI elite and expected to carry on the family business.

Q: If you get to spend the day with one of the characters, who would it be and why?

Jax Christo, a seemingly minor character, but highly important to daynight’s story nonetheless. Jax is great eye candy, hilarious with his unique brand of double speak, knows a lot of Theran secrets, and has great capabilities I’d like to see in person.

Q: Could you tell us a little bit about the dystopian world Thera?

Physically, Thera not only has days and nights switched, but land and sea, direction of the sun, etc. Every Theran city is protected by a 50 foot Eco Barrier, which releases deadly chemical explosions when contacted, preventing entry and exit. Citizens who defy the ruling entity SCI’s edicts are subject to death or immediate exile to the harsh conditions beyond the Eco Barrier.

Like classics 1984, Brave New World and The Handmaid’s Tale, daynight explores societal extremes of morality and control. The Second Chance Institute is an interesting entity. On Earth they are a well respected non-profit. But on Thera they rule with an iron fist. They purport to provide help to those in need of a second chance at life. But instead of nurturing and fostering the downtrodden, they use the Second Chancers on Thera as science experiments for new political ideas they want to push on Earth. One such idea, Cleaving is an extreme enforcement of morality. If two people have sex, they’re automatically Cleaved, a forced lifetime union (a contrast to the Brave New World government who conditions its citizens to be immoral). Violation of Cleaving results in exile or death. Although, interestingly enough… as the SCI desires everyone to be Cleaved, they push immorality to get people to Cleave, but then expect the newly Cleaved to adopt a strict moral code thereafter.

Of course, Cleaving merely scratches the surface of the SCI’s plans, what they are testing & how far they are willing to go to push their agendas on Earth. Book two of the daynight series, arbitrate, will explore more societal extremes and their implications.

As with all dystopias, daynight should make readers think through parallels between the extreme dystopia and our own society.

Q: What did you feel when you were writing the first chapter of daynight?

Writing the first chapter was emotional for me. Kira relives the day she took The Second Chance Institute Recruit Test… and the same day that her boyfriend and friends died in a terrible explosion. The published version of daynight’s first chapter has little resemblance to the chapter I first wrote . During one of my (many) re-writes I removed several chapters and started the story at a different place in an effort to get Kira to Thera in the first few pages. I added the prologue later and am glad I did. I love Bailey Goodington’s character. She’s a real piece of work and provides excellent comic relief (alongside Jax) to a story with a lot of heavy, dark and disturbing themes.

Q: Do you have any message to your readers? 

I love my readers and am extremely grateful to all the ‘early adopters’ of daynight who have not only taken the time to read, but to review and spread the word. My husband got cornered in the elevator at work recently and asked if his wife was an author. She heard about daynight through her knitting club! I love it!

As a thank you to my readers, for every 25 reviews posted on Amazon.com I release ‘extras’ for daynight or teasers for the sequel arbitrate (targeted for a summer 2013 release) on facebook and twitter. I’m a couple reviews away from posting full color, full character fashions from daynight. An up and coming costume designer/producer friend, Emma Connelly, graciously spent her winter break putting pictures to my words and they are amazing!

I’d love to hear from you!

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/megan_thomason

Follow the daynight series on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/daynight.series

I am a huge reader, too. Friend me or follow my reviews on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6578897.Megan_Thomason

Read a sample and/or purchase daynight at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A6NG014

Thank you so much to Megan for providing me 8 SIGNED COPIES OF DAYNIGHT! OH EM GEE. 3 of it will be part of this giveaway and the others for future giveaways. I’m making this giveaway international and will end on Feb. 17. Please do take the time to thank her in the comments or her Goodreads page. Also DAYNIGHT WILL BE FREE ON AMAZON FROM 1/21-1/23 if you want to grab it asap!
ENTER THE GIVEAWAY HERE (RAFFLECOPTER)

Sōsuke and Oyone were without question a loving couple. In the six long years they had been together they had not spent so much as half a day feeling strained by the other’s presence, and they had never once engaged in a truly acrimonious quarrel. They went to the draper to buy cloth for their kimonos and to the rice dealer for their rice, but they had very few expectations of the wider world beyond that. Indeed, apart from provisioning their household with everyday necessities, they did little that acknowledged the existence of society at large. The only absolute need to be fulfilled for each of them was the need for each other; this was not only a necessary but also a sufficient condition for life. They dwelled in the city and though living deep in the mountains.

Natsume Sōseki’s 1910 novel The Gate, translated by William F. Sibley, is a story of an ordinary couple living an ordinary life. Their trials are ordinary trials, involving money, health, and family, and the crisis that drives the novel is a rather ordinary search for meaning. Certain specific aspects of their life, and their reaction to it, might be characteristically Japanese, but as I read, I was struck by how easily the events of the novel could be transferred to just about any place and time because the struggles the couple faced seemed so very universal. At times, I forgot I was reading a book about set more than 100 years ago on the other side of the world.

The couple married under inauspicious circumstances, the details of which are never fully explained, and they’ve muddled through life ever since. Sōsuke’s brother has recently shaken up their circumstances by coming to live with them, but it’s a quiet upset, not played for melodrama. Their most significant ongoing pain comes with their lack of children, which perhaps contributes to their feeling of restlessness and disconnection from life and the world. They react to the ennui in quiet ways, often putting a great deal of deliberate thought into any action they take.

If you haven’t guessed by now from my description, this is not the sort of book in which a lot happens. The lack of happenings is part of the point. In cutting themselves off from the wider world, Sōsuke and Oyone have cut themselves off from the kinds of events that would ordinarily become the plot of a novel. So instead, we get a chapter devoted to their angst over selling an inherited decorative screen. The one rather big step that Sōsuke takes toward the end of the novel is a step toward greater quietness, not less. And it’s a step he takes to avoid what could be a dramatic confrontation.

Some might find this book dull, but I thought it was lovely and painful, just as life is so often lovely and painful.

This was my second book for Tony’s January in Japan event. If you’re interested in more Japanese lit, check out the event blog.

Available now from GDP!

Would you like a free copy of Femme Fatale: Erotic Tales of Dangerous Women?  Well, if you’re happy to write a review of the e-book, we’re happy to send you a free copy.  But do be quick about it, because we only have 25 copies up for grabs!  All we ask:  Your online review can be positive, negative, or anything in between. You can post it on a blog/website, on Amazon, on Facebook, etc.  What we really want to know is what you think of the e-book.  Naturally, you’ll also be helping us to spread the word about Go Deeper Press, and we’ll be forever grateful for that.  Just drop us an email at “editors (at) godeeperpress.com” or comment on this post, leaving your email address.  We’ll send a free download link to the first 25 emailers, and we look forward to your review!

In case you need persuading, here is an excerpt from “La Femme Chocolat” — the first story in Femme Fatale.  Author V. C. writes this dark fantasy beautifully, bringing the Parisian chocolate-seller who seduces women with her wares, to wonderful erotic life.  In this excerpt, “La Femme Chocolate” (aka Annette) begins to seduce the narrator:

“When she walked in, blood rushed immediately to my clitoris, causing it to swell, while the rest of my body buzzed with indescribable pleasure that I had never felt before until that moment. Annette was completely nude. I was hypnotized by the bounce of her gorgeous breasts and the sway of her hips as she moved toward me, holding a tray of four gorgeous, delectable, bite-sized cordials on a silver platter. My mouth gaped as she lay on her back on the long coffee table that was in front of me. Immediately, I realized that she was the table, and I was to dine on her new chocolates on her naked flesh….”

No need for me to tell you what follows.  I’ll just say that it’s sexy, voluptuous, and well-worth enjoying.  V.C. writes beautifully.  A tour de force!

Nora Hamilton wakes up one cold, snowy morning in her home in the Adirondacks to find her husband, Brendan, absent from their bed. A careful search of their house leads Nora to the shocking discovery that he has committed suicide, leaving her devastated and asking the obvious question of “why?” In the haze of her grief, Nora devotes herself to the task of answering that very question. She is beyond surprised to learn that Brendan had kept many secrets from her, and as she begins unraveling the secrets of her husband’s life, she learns that his past is inexorably tied to the secrets of the small town she calls home.

I have to be upfront about something here, and that is that I met Jenny Milchman at SIBA this past September and I absolutely adored her. Which is why it breaks my heart to have to write about Cover of Snow because … well, I thought overall it was unsuccessful. I can definitely appreciate what she was trying to do with this novel, but unfortunately it just didn’t work for me.

The novel starts out with a bang, as Nora wakes from a peaceful, but dead-to-the-world slumber to find Brendan missing, and the concept is certainly promising, and when she finds her husband hanging, dead, I was definitely excited by where Milchman was going to take this strong start to the story and how she would run with it. It does get rocky from there, however, when Nora quickly learns some major facts about her husband’s life he had kept secret from her, as she learns them in very coincidental, incredibly improbable ways, and rather quickly following the discovery of her husband.

After the first 75 pages or so, I became hopeful for the novel to change my initial opinion (and skepticism) as things begin to pick up and the mystery started to become more interesting and mysterious. I found myself trying to figure out what was really going on in this small town, what was behind the facade of the perfect police department, and why on earth did Brendan have such a difficult and hostile relationship with his mother. I also found myself charmed by Nora’s relationship with her sister, Teggie, and while they went through something of a rough patch over the course of the novel, I liked the sisterhood dynamic, as it’s something I can relate to myself.

And to be honest, I was even somewhat impressed with the way Milchman resolved everything – the answers Nora found took a turn I wasn’t expecting and I did find creative. However, overall the beginning was really rough, the middle felt entirely too long, and there were so many aspects of the book I was trying to overlook because of how much I enjoyed the author and wanted desperately to like the book. The writing was clunky, the characters didn’t seem fully realized or at all complex, and the book didn’t always travel logically from point A to point B. I found myself confused a few times, lost by a discovery Nora made that didn’t make a ton of sense, and I couldn’t discern what anybody’s motivations were for much of anything until the absolute end.

I’m sad to write this because as I said earlier, Jenny Milchman is awesome! But sometimes books just don’t work for me, and this was one of those times. While the novel showed promise at certain points throughout, overall Cover of Snow was disappointing to me.

Claire Roth is a struggling artist who makes her living reproducing famous masterpieces for an online retailer. When Aiden Markel, a local gallery owner, comes to her with the request to reproduce one of the original Degas masterpieces stolen in the famous museum heist in 1990 in exchange for her own show at his gallery, she can’t refuse. But when the painting arrives at her studio, Claire begins to suspect that this painting itself could be a forgery, and this discovery entangles her in a web of crime with incredibly long ties in history – and she has no idea what she’s stumbled into.

Let me begin by saying that I know absolutely nothing about art, and not only that but I’m not even really interested in art. I’ll look at a piece of art and think “hmm, that looks pretty” and truthfully, that’s about the extent of my interest. So I was a little concerned going into this book that I wouldn’t “get” it, it wouldn’t resonate with me, and simply that I just wouldn’t like it. Happily, none of those things happened – I truly enjoyed the ride Shapiro took me on here and the fact that I am not an art person did not hinder me one bit!

One thing I really enjoyed about this novel is that Shapiro gave the reader snippets of information about the time, three years before the book takes place, when Claire was involved in another situation with a famous artist and there ended up being scandal attached to her name because of it. There’s also a few letters from the late Isabelle Gardner (of the Gardner museum, where the 1990 heist took place) to her niece, Amelia, that hint at the heart of the mystery Claire is trying to solve. These dual narratives added complexity to the story and really kept me on my toes, turning pages anxious to find out how these three stories would all come together.

I have to say that while I enjoyed most things about this book, and I liked Claire as a character, I didn’t feel particularly close to any of the characters. I’m totally okay with this as, for me at least, this book was much more about the plot and the mystery than about the characters, but it’s definitely something to note. I felt that Shapiro created interesting, complex characters, I just didn’t particularly feel connected to them. But that could just be me, after all I said before that I am not into art, and Claire and I are such drastically different people I wouldn’t be able to connect to her in real life, I’m sure, so why should in fiction be any different?

But that aside, I really did enjoy this book. The Art Forger kept me on my toes, it took me on a ride I wasn’t expecting, and I couldn’t put it down. I truly enjoyed it and would definitely recommend this novel!

Genre: YA Paranormal
Published: December 2012 by Little Prince Publishing
Series: #1 (A Touched Trilogy)
Length: 219 pages
Source: (author) review copy

“With a Truth Telling gift that has never worked, Phoebe Matlin accepted long ago that she was broken.

Then one simple lie changes everything and suddenly the whisper of liar is ripping through her. Some lies, though, cover darker truths than Phoebe ever imagined.

But knowing when someone is lying is the easy part. It’s convincing everyone else that’s the problem.“

Phoebe Matlin is a triplet. Her other sisters, Chloe and Lily had their gifts earlier than Phoebe. Chloe can see the future, and Lily can heal people. The story was really unexpected. It isn’t a hard core paranormal book. The story is practically 50% about how Phoebe takes in her truth telling gift, and 50% about her school life (the drama, boys, the enemy). I was expecting Phoebe, the main character, to be sort of like a shy type since she’s the only one left in her family who didn’t have her power. Nope. She was very outgoing and just your high school girl who payed more attention to drama and boys. Lie To Me was really an interesting and fun read! I liked how Phoebe’s school life tied in with the discovery of her gift. It’s 1st person point of view with Phoebe being the narrator.

The problem that I had though is that after the prologue, things got kind of confusing until I passed a few chapters where I realized what happened. Also, there wasn’t really an explanation of why Phoebe’s special talent came in late. I think it would be cooler if there was an explanation or something and how their family acquired special gifts. I do like everything else though. Finding out whether Phoebe’s bestfriend’s boyfriend was telling the truth or a lie kept me reading on. I also enjoyed reading how Phoebe, her friends and her sisters would hang out and watch movies etc. but then something would happen… dun dun dun.

The ending though, oh my gosh. CLIFF HANGER. I was shocked that it just ended like that! I feel like most teenagers would relate to this book. It consists of having fun, living the high school life with some paranormal elements. I recommend this if you’re up for a fun, light paranormal read!

The novel opens with the story of two young girls, Mitsu and Kiku, who live in a village outside Nagasaki. Mitsu is obliging and obedient to her elders, and Kiku is an adventurous tomboy. Kiku’s kind-hearted and risk-taking ways get her in trouble sometimes—early in the novel she gets stuck in a tree trying to rescue a kitten, having been goaded into the act by a couple of local boys. But a young man from nearby Nakano rescues her. Despite being told that people from Nakano are no-good Kuros, a term Kiku doesn’t understand, she never forgets the young man who helped her. That early encounter ends up shaping the course of her life.

Meanwhile a French priest named Bernard Petitjean arrives in Nagasaki to assist in the building and maintaining of the Ōura Church, which was being built to serve the Westerners who were newly allowed in Japan as trading partners. Father Petitjean longed to find some of the Japanese Christians who had continued in the faith despite the law, but the rules were clear. The new Christian church was for Westerners only. No Japanese were to be allowed to worship there.

This novel serves as something of a follow-up to Silence, although it lacks the intimacy of the earlier novel. Here, instead of delving deeply into the mind of a single Christian, Endō splits the narrative between Kiku as she grows into an adult woman, Petitjean as he figures out how to help the Japanese Christians, and the Japanese Christians themselves as they come out of hiding and find persecution and pain almost beyond imagining. We also see into the mind of one of the men involved in the persecution. It’s more of a widescreen view of the era and the ways the changing attitudes toward the West affected people of different walks of life.

For me, the different approach took away some of the novel’s power, but not to a great degree—I still found this novel moving and thought-provoking. A comparison to Silence is almost unfair because the earlier novel knocked me flat and changed my thinking. Kiku’s Prayer covers enough similar ground that its effect is more limited. Probably the most difficult idea presented here is that of the value and meaning of suffering and the role of prayer in suffering. Characters pray and God is silent. Simplistic notions about answered prayer just don’t hold up here. Prayer, instead, is about finding strength in suffering, rather than being delivered from it. Yet the priests and Christians still sometimes offer simplistic teachings—the tension here is not followed up on, and the questions linger. Whether that’s a good thing depends on the reader, I think, I appreciated the tension. For me, the difference between what characters said and what they experienced reflected real life, and attempts to explain it would tip the novel too far into preachy territory.

More problematic is the attempt to make suffering meaningful. Much of my struggle here has to do with the way Endō uses Kiku herself. When Kiku falls in love, her love seems almost too intense, given her limited knowledge of the man she loves, but she throws herself into that love with a single-minded devotion that leads her onto a path she never would have chosen were it not out of love. Just as in Silence Endō redefines what it means to have faith, here he redefines what it means to be pure.

But the story becomes difficult for me to swallow when Kiku’s journey is turned into a means for softening the heart of one of the men who knows her. I can’t deny that I was moved by this development, but I was uncomfortable about the way Kiku’s particularly feminine pain becomes a tool for a man’s conversion. It comes perilously close to certain damaging readings of the Bible in which women are encouraged to endure abuse as some sort of testimony. Had the novel ended earlier, without the too-tidy resolution, I would have been less troubled, but the more Endō attempts to extract meaning from Kiku’s suffering, the more it feels like a plot device. Her part of the story ceases to belong to her but to the men around her.

Even though I had problems with parts of the narrative, I found the bulk of the novel to be effective and unsettling in the right ways. I was especially interested to learn more about the hidden Christians. Endō incorporates actual historical figures into the story. Petitjean, for example, was really a priest in Nagasaki. And from what I’ve been able to find out, much of the persecution he describes was real. The opening of Japan to the West changed the country forever, but the transition was rocky, and Endō shows just how rocky it was for many.

This book happened to come to me at just the right time for Tony’s January in Japan event. If you’re interested in more Japanese lit, check out the event blog.

But like a lot of people, I eventually learned that life, even (especially?) the Christian life doesn’t operate by tidy and easy-to-follow rules. Life is more complicated than that, and God is even bigger and more complex than life is! I had turned my idea of God into an idol. And I’m not the first—or the last—Christian to do that. It’s a common phenomenon.

Theologian Peter Rollins explores this kind of journey in his new book The Idolatry of God: Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction. Rollins says that, starting in infancy, we all develop mythologies about the way the world works:

Mythologies are overarching stories that tell us why we are here, where we are going, and what we are supposed to do. The problem arises when we fully identify with these mythologies, viewing them as a complete and accurate description of who are are and how the world works—in other words, when it becomes a mask that covers the truth of our anxiety and unknowing. Instead of facing up to the reality that we are fragile human beings who are faced with mystery and suffering, these narratives help us prop up the fantasy that we are in control of our destinies and are masters of our actions.

Many people find ways to deny the flaws in their mythologies—or they come to rebel against those mythologies, a tactic that doesn’t reduce the influence of those mythologies because, as Rollins notes, “that which we oppose is that which we define ourselves against.” Rollins says that a better approach is to embrace the questions and the challenges, to realize that there’s much we cannot understand.

In this book, Rollins attempts to reframe the traditional Christian understanding of Original Sin, Law, and Idolatry. He also explores different understandings of universalism and salvation. (You can see a sample of this latter discussion at his blog.) His ideas go against the grain of a lot of traditional Christian thinking, but it struck me as I was reading is that not a lot of it is totally new—most of the originality comes in the way he redefines various Christian terms whose meaning has become distorted over the years to the point of being useless. (I know what I mean when I talk about sin, but not everyone means what I mean, which makes the term nearly useless.)

Because Rollins is doing so much reimagining, his arguments do not always make obvious and intuitive sense. He helps readers along by offering parables, pop culture references, and stories to illustrate his point. And the pop culture references cover lots of ground. You’ve got Miami Vice, Austin Powers, and The Bridges of Madison County all in the space of a few pages. He finds lessons in the popular fascination with zombies—a zombie “expresses pure human drive without the social and psychological constraints that keep it in check.” And he draws from Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

One of the things I appreciated about this book is that it didn’t keep me nodding in agreement (though I agreed with a lot of it), nor did it put me into an argumentative mode (though I question bits and pieces of his argument). Instead, it made me think about old ideas in new ways. I’ve only touched on a handful of those ideas here.

When Alice, Griffin, and Dinah were children, their mother and father died, in separate but equally tragic ways. Raised by their grandmother and leaning on one another for support throughout their childhoods, they were unaware of the fact that their loving parents have always watched them from above. Alice, the oldest, is a stage actress in New York who has difficulty committing to an adult relationship. Middle child Griffin is in love with his longtime partner Theo, but when Theo becomes determined to adopt a child despite Griffin’s hesitation, the cracks in their relationship begin to turn into canyons between the two of them. Baby of the family Dinah makes one mistake and finds herself single and pregnant, heartbroken by the father of the baby’s decision to marry someone else. The three of them cling to one another throughout these trials and tribulations as their parents watch from the outside, unable to help but proud of the adults their children have become.

I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this book. At first, it seemed a bit strange, the parents watching these three kids from above, and the conversations between their parents about the kids (while there are only a few of these) felt awkward and unnatural. But soon enough, I got into the rhythm of the book and really started to enjoy spending time with these characters. And I loved the sibling dynamics between the three of them.

I ended up liking all three of these characters, but the one I think I most connected to was Dinah. I just felt for her the most – her story was the most desperate, her situation the most difficult for me personally to imagine going through. Surprisingly, I really connected to Theo, Griffin’s partner, as I felt that he was truly such a good guy with only the best of intentions. It was difficult for me to sympathize with Griffin, as I felt he was more selfish and not willing to open up and deal with the issues between him and Theo. I liked Alice but nothing really connected me to her emotionally – she was important to the story, but to me personally not so much.

The end of this one is kind of … cliché? I don’t know the word for it. Coincidental maybe? It was feel-good, which I liked, but not altogether realistic.

Outside Wonderland was definitely an enjoyable read, but I can’t help feeling that it might be a bit forgettable. I liked it but it won’t ever be a favorite for me. Recommended.

When Sicily Coyne was thirteen years old, she and her firefighter father were in a fire at her school, a fire that killed her father and left her with a disfigured face. Sicily’s mother passed away two years later, so Sicily was raised by an aunt who taught her to live life to the fullest, and as an adult Sicily is happy, engaged to a wonderful man who she’s known since childhood. But when she learns a devastating secret that shatters her entire life, she decides to take a huge plunge and accept the face transplant surgery that is being offered to her. The surgery changes her life in a million ways, but she is faced with more obstacles than she’d expected, and the choices she has to make about her new life have consequences she never could have anticipated.

I chose to read Second Nature because I’ve enjoyed Mitchard’s books in the past, and I was excited to find out that some characters from previous books (the Cappadora family, best known from The Deep End of the Ocean) make appearances in this book. The beginning of the book showed promise, and I found myself interested in Sicily’s story from the very start, but ultimately I felt that Mitchard crammed way too much drama into one novel here and was left feeling disappointed.

It is difficult to explain exactly what I didn’t love about this book without giving away plot spoilers, since my main issue had to do with the events in the book, so the best way that I can say it is this – just when I thought the events of the book had hit their breaking point of ridiculousness, something even MORE ridiculous would happen. I don’t mean ridiculous like stupid, I mean that there is NO possible way THIS many coincidences could happen, that this much stuff could happen to one person, etc. Does that make any sense?

However, I have to admit that I did care enough about the characters to continue reading through my disbelief and finish the book. I also am a fan of Mitchard’s writing and have enjoyed a few of her other novels in part because of the writing. She does write a compelling story with well-drawn characters.

I was sad not to like this one. It’s disappointing when an author you typically enjoy provides you with something less than stellar. Oh well.

Shannon is abandoned at the local YMCA by her birth mother when she is just hours old, found by an employee of the Y swaddled in an old sweatshirt with, oddly enough, a Swiss Army knife tucked between her feet. She spends her first few years of life with several different foster families, experiencing things that no child should have to, until she is placed with Miranda, a single mother with a daughter Shannon’s age. Growing up in Miranda’s house isn’t perfect, but it is a happy household for the most part, so Shannon should be content with her new family – instead, as she grows up, she longs for information about the mother who abandoned her and never feels truly at home in Miranda’s house. Interspersed with Shannon’s story is the story of her biological mother, Yula, a young, desperate girl who cannot possibly imagine providing her unborn daughter with the life she deserves. The choices she makes in the days and hours leading up to her daughter’s birth will have drastic, far-reaching consequences, for herself and for Shannon.

I really liked this one. It reminded me a lot of The Language of Flowers, a book I LOVED, and while I didn’t quite fall head-over-heels with Y, it was very close. I couldn’t put the thing down and there were many moments throughout the novel that resonated with me.

Shannon is the kind of character you can’t help rooting for. Since the reader follows her story from birth, by the time the book is over she feels like a complete and true person, not just a character in a novel. You can’t help but feel for her when, during the first few years of her life, she is treated poorly by some of her foster families and sees some things that children shouldn’t ever be privy to. There are moments in her adolescence when she becomes pretty insufferable, but it’s easy to get past that because it’s clear she’s acting out because she’s lonely, desperate to understand where she came from, hopeful to meet her birth parents, and all of that. She’s so confused and sad that she will do anything to keep those feelings at bay.

Yula is a bit more difficult to sympathize with. She’s had an incredibly difficult life, yes, but she’s also made some pretty horrific choices. Reading her story at times was like watching a ten-car pile-up in action – it was incredibly distressing, I wanted to look away, and yet I couldn’t tear myself away from the page. But she too crept into my heart and I wanted desperately for her to find a way to turn her awful situation around.

This novel will break your heart. It wasn’t the easiest book to read, at all, because Shannon goes through some really tough stuff, and Yula’s story – well, there are no words for Yula’s story. It’s devastating. Still, these two women crept into my soul and didn’t let go, and although their stories are heartbreaking and sad, the book itself is ultimately hopeful and actually quite beautiful. I will definitely be watching for more from Celona. Highly recommended.

“Some vows can never be broken.

Persephone thought she could go back to her normal life after returning from the Underworld. She was wrong.
The goddess Aphrodite is born among the waves with more charm than she can control. Zeus is stalking Persephone and her loved ones, and Thanatos is no longer content with Persephone’s silence.

He wants her soul.

Persephone can’t tell anyone about Thanatos’ betrayal, and it drives a wedge between her and Hades. Her mother is still keeping secrets, and Melissa’s jealousy of Aphrodite threatens to tear their friendship apart.
Alone, Persephone turns to a human boy for comfort. But will their relationship put him in danger?
Sacrifices must be made, and Persephone must choose between her human life and her responsibilities as a goddess. If she doesn’t, she could lose them both.
But will either life be worth choosing once Zeus is through with her?“

I super enjoyed this book! This time the setting took more place outside the Underworld. It focused more on how Persephone and Hades will find Zeus – the antagonist, and problems that came along in between. I also like how we got to know more about the other characters especially Persephone’s best friend/priestess Melissa. She opened up more in this book which surprised me. There were also a few new characters, and we get to see what happens to Orpheus and Eurydice!

For Persephone, you could still see that she’s trying to be independent. She’s become more headstrong and wanting things her way. Besides her relationship with Hades, we see how her relationship with her mom Demeter has become. Hades was just plain sweet and awesome! In this series, Hades isn’t just all out bad guy. I love how he’s caring and protective but such a bad ass at the same time. He’s still iffy about his relationship with Persephone since she’s too young for him, but in this book it really shows more of how much he cares for her. Their relationship is just plain cute!

There’s just a bunch of craziness happening in this book which I really don’t want to talk about in this review. I’m afraid I would spoil it for you guys. It’s a page turner with lots of action, mystery, and revelations. The only thing I had trouble though was sometimes I couldn’t understand what was happening. I’d ask myself “why can’t Persephone just teleport?” or “why can’t she just stay in the Underworld since it’s easier for Hades to protect her?”. The ending would make your jaw drop or leave your mouth hanging, I swear! Literally I was like WHAT!?!?!?! IT ENDED!? WHAT!? DID IT REALLY!? Cliff freaking hanger man. I want book 3 right now! I’m serious! I definitely recommend this series to all of you. Daughters of the Earth and Sky was such an entertaining read with an amazing plot. If you’re a greek mythology fan, pshh, go grab it now!

Before Marie Antoinette became THE Marie Antoinette she was a ten-year-old Austrian girl by the name of Maria Antonia, who was raised by an empress with serious political ambitions. Antonia learns at a young age that she will be married off to the dauphin of France, Louis XVI, and it is her job to make sure that not only her betrothed falls in love with her, but the entire country of France does as well.

Why did I put off reading this book for so long? Everyone told me that Becoming Marie Antoinette was captivating, well-written historical fiction, and now I see that they were right! I fell in love with the young Marie Antoinette while reading her story, and I couldn’t put this book down. It was so lovely!

The main reason I was so enthralled with this book was the character of Antonia, or Marie Antoinette, herself. The novel starts when she is a very young child, so the reader gets an inside look at what it might be like to have so much incredible pressure placed on such a young girl’s shoulders. Grey wrote her to be an incredibly mature young woman, but at the same time she was innocent of so much about life and it showed in many of her actions and decisions. She was a picture of grace when she arrived in France, but there was still so much she didn’t understand about her new surroundings and the power that came with her new place in the world.

Grey does a good job balancing the political events of the time with the personal stuff that’s going on with Marie Antoinette and her loved ones near and far. I felt like I was pulled into her life, but also that I was getting a mini-history lesson at the same time. Perfect historical fiction, in my opinion.

I liked this one so much that I went out and purchased the second in the series immediately upon finishing it! And to be honest, I don’t buy a lot of books (I’m a library girl). So that should tell you something.

Becoming Marie Antoinette was a fabulous contribution to the world of historical fiction and I’m so excited to see what Grey has coming up next for me. I absolutely recommend this one!

Title / Author: [sic] by Scott Kelly

Genre: Young Adult Mystery

Date Read: January 4, 2013

Every once in a while, a book comes along that transcends simple story telling. These books leave a lasting impression, giving you the thoughts and the ability to make positive changes to your life. [sic] is one such book, about a group of teenagers who want to break free from the normal constraints of life. They play a compelling game called Eureka and the rules are simple. Once they are tagged, they have 15 minutes to change their life, in whichever way they choose.

Jacob Thorke, a relatively poor teen living in the trailer park, has been pulled in for questioning of the death of his friend, David Bloom. As he slowly recalls the past few years of his life, we find out how Eureka started and the addictive nature of the game. David Bloom is akin to a cultist leader, with magnetism and energy to capture the heart of his group. Without the usual constraints and social norms, these teenagers would do anything to gain David’s approval. From arson, to giving their car away, losing their virginity and starting fights, we learn that Eureka is a scary game to play, no matter how life changing it may be.

I was really impressed with [sic] from the get go. While it’s less ‘murder mystery’ as the blurb may suggest and more realistic fiction, seeing these teens equipped with Eureka and what they did was really interesting. Eureka removes all the fear in doing things that you think would get you into trouble, for hopes of bettering your life. From the righteous Jacob, to the psychotic and beautiful Emily, to crazy Steven, these teenagers are off the hook. The only thing balancing out their craziness is Nora, the on and off again girlfriend of Jacobs who questions his loyalty to the game.

The writing has its moments of beauty, kind of like a rough diamond. Its simply to convey what Jacob thinks about his own life, and it’s really easy to fall into.

[sic] is a simple yet powerful tale about the possibilities of life if you break free from constraints. It’s about the freedom to act out your wishes to achieve your dreams, but the flipside is the consequences of these actions can be scary. What would you do if you had 15 minutes to change your life? This book makes you think about those possibilities, and what’s holding you back.

I received a review copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Review copy donated by author

Description:
A man learns to hold what is his

It is a vast spread in the eastern wilds of the newly independent Republic of Texas, the ranch their parents fought for … and died for. To the eight Graham siblings, no matter how much hard work or hard love it takes, life is unthinkable without family…

In the wake of his parents’ murder, Matthew Graham must take the reins at the Circle Eight. He also needs to find a wife in just thirty days, or risk losing it all. Plain but practical, Hannah Foley seems the perfect bride for him . . . until after the wedding night.

Their marriage may make all the sense in the world, but neither one anticipates the jealousies that will result, the treacherous danger they’re walking into, or the wildfire of attraction that will sweep over them, changing their lives forever

Review:
I’ve been a fan of Emma Lang’s writing since I discovered her stuff under her other name (Beth Williamson), but until now, I hadn’t actually picked up any of her books. So when she offered up ARCs of book 3 in the Circle Eight series on Twitter, I jumped on the opportunity. As a bonus, since I hadn’t read the previous 2 books in the series, she sent me signed copies. So while I was in bed this past weekend, feeling sick and sorry for myself, I dug into book 1.

It was to me the ultimately comfort read and by that I mean, it went down easy – there wasn’t a lot of conflict within (although some of the females, especially Olivia were major brats – or insert other expletive here) and there was a satisfactory conclusion – although, I do feel that everything was figured out early in the series – I had kind of hoped to see the mystery behind Matthew’s (et al’s) parents death continue through a couple of books, rather than being solved at the end of this one. However, the mystery behind the missing brother still needs to be solved, so maybe that will be the common plot through-out.

I liked the romance between Matt and Hannah – it was sweet with a mail-order/marriage of convenience theme that seemed common in the time period that the book was set in. Hannah’s grandmother was a hoot – I can’t wait to see her in future book (or at least, I hope she is in future books). The introduction of Brody (who it appears is going to be the hero in the next book was intriguing – I mean, you have to have the darkly handsome, stand-off-ish law enforcement type).

I would note, however, that in a few places that language and writing just felt a bit forced – like it didn’t really flow. But it is hard to place it. I don’t know – just something that I noticed – will be interested to see if I notice anything similar in the next book. Overall, I would give Matthew 3 stars with a recommendation to anyone who likes historical romances with a western theme.

Title / Author:

Series: Acceptance #1

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Date Read: December 29, 2012

Acceptance is about a group of humans (the Yaechahre) who willingly pledge to given their blood to the vampires (or Canichmeh). Kalyn Reid is one such human who has just turned 16 and has accepted to become a Yaechahre. The vampire she’s assigned to is Anselm, a handsome, polite, respectful man who she’s had her eye on for years. As she finds out about the beliefs and the rigid constraints of being a Yaechahre, she soon needs the vampires’ protection as they are pursued by an evil group of vampires, called the Imuechmeh.

Kalyn soon experiences grief and loses everything she’s ever known as she becomes a Yaechahre, as the vampires are soon attacked by an evil Imuechmeh called Erik von Gault. As they are on the run, Kalyn is the prized human being protected by two handsome vampires, Anselm and his age old friend, Micah.

What sets Acceptance apart from other vampire novels is the richly detailed world of the two vampires and the humans they feed from. The Canichmeh are governed by a Council in Jerusalem, honouring its rigid and religious roots of vampirism. The deep historical background that the author has set up is impressive, explaining how the vampires have evolved from the birth of Cain, and the physiological differences between the two vampire species.

The budding romance between Kalyn and Anselm is subtle, yet sweet, despite him being an 800 year old vampire and her youth. They are both quite prudish in their ways, never crossing any romantic boundaries in case the other may feel uncomfortable. While the novel is more ‘New Adult’ than YA, I found that Kalyn did not act like a 16 year old girl at all. She’s strong, willing, yet not very confident in her thoughts and her prudish ways sort of made her resemble someone in their 30′s or so rather than a teenager. When she was placed next to her friend Meg, the contrast was astounding as Meg acted more her age.

While the plot isn’t very strong, there was always something happening to keep things moving along whether it was Kalyn getting bitten, or the vampires taking Ciaran, a stray Imuechmeh into their trust or the group meeting the Council. I was quite absorbed into the story and Keri’s writing is fantastic.

I’d recommend Acceptance to anyone looking for a bit more substance than the typical vampire story. It sort of reminded me of what Discovery of Witches tried to be, but I didn’t like that one as much as this.

I received a review copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. Acceptance is available from Smashwords here. Check out more on the Acceptance trilogy at: www.keripeardon.com

Rating: 4 out of 5

Genre: YA Horror
Published: October 1, 2012 by ETreasures Publishing
Series: #1 (Life After the Undead)
Length: 286 pages
Source: (author) review copy

“The battle that began in Life After the Undead continues.

Zombies changed her life completely…

Tough teenager Krista escaped to the safety of Florida after her parents were killed by the zombie horde. She united with General Liet, a distant cousin, and moved with him to North Platte to help build a wall to keep the zombies in the West. Krista fell in love with Quinn, a survivor and fighter from the zombie-infested wildlands of the West, and together they freed the garrison at North Platte from the power-hungry Liet.

But zombies aren’t the only enemy they have to face…

Now, North Platte is free, but Liet was not the only one using the zombie apocalypse to control their people. Florida is ruled by five ruthless Families, who use intimidation and the threat of the zombie horde to coerce their populace. Krista and Quinn hatch a desperate plan to run guns into the state and help the people revolt. Krista and Quinn, labeled as rebels run for their lives when the Families attack North Platte. The Families want them captured, the zombies want to eat them, and other survivors want them dead. Caught in between powerful forces, they must survive long enough to devise a new plan and put it into action, all while trying to solidify their new relationship and trying not to self-destruct in the meantime.“

I really enjoyed reading Death to the Undead. It picks up from where Life After the Undead left off, and I was surprised by how much the characters changed! I really like that, and they all changed in a non-negative way (vice versa to the antagonists). In this book, Krista is even faced with more problems as she’s not only fighting with zombies, but with selfish, heartless people. How ugly is that! The Disneyland in Florida is occupied by hundreds of civilians and 5 families who basically rules the place. One of the families, the Johnsons, is lot more superior than the other families and wants all the people in Disneyland to just continue living their life there. They are being fed with false information, and the family twists the words so everyone would feel frightened and prevent them from planning an uprising because, you know, they want to keep all the power and all. Krista, her boyfriend Quinn, and along with other kick-ass people are smarter than that, and plans to overthrow the family.

Krista is such a brave, smart, and strong protagonist. I love her character! She’s even more kick-ass in this book. There’s a lot of blood, action, fighting, and of course good-looking zombies in this book. Just kidding about the good-looking part. Krista is 17 (or 18?) and I think that’s pretty amazing how she is determined to revolt over those hungry-for-power families. I really like Quinn’s character too. He’s like Krista and the romance part improved. During the first book it was an insta-love and just happened too fast for me. Now it’s more slow and believable.

The only thing that I had trouble with was when Krista and her army finally confronts the Johnsons. I thought more action would take place. It just happened a little bit too fast. I do like the part where they were preparing for the battle though. It left me nervous and worried for them. I enjoyed the little twists in the book as well. I really recommend this awesome zombie book to everyone! It wasn’t boring and you’ll definitely enjoy it.

CHAPTER 1
“Rome wasn’t built in a day.” God, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that cliché. Dad was particularly fond of it when I had issues with homework or a dilemma in my personal life. I knew what his point was. He was telling me to be patient, to let things progress the way they were supposed to. But, I wasn’t good at that. I never had a lot of patience. I imagined my Dad reiterating the cliché after the North Platte takeover, wondering what he would think of what I’d done. What we’d done. We liberated Nebraska, but we still had a long road ahead of us. I knew Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I was pretty sure the zombies could destroy it in one.

I stood in the guard tower, overlooking the field. My body pressed against the railing. Corpses still littered the ground, but there weren’t as many as when I first came to North Platte. The crews had done a great job of cleaning up, though there was little they could do about the atrocious smell.

The sun sank beneath the horizon, casting hues of orange, pink, and purple onto the silhouettes of the undead. A bullet was chambered into a gun behind me. Quinn had been sitting in a chair behind me in the tower the whole time.

“Quinn, what happened to your parents?” I turned so I faced him.

Quinn rested the butt of his gun on the deck and wrapped his arms around the barrel. He sighed. “My mom died about seven years ago from cancer. I don’t know what happened to my dad.”

I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean?”

“Well, when we heard about the first zombie attacks, Dad wanted to help. Most of the neighbors lived within a few miles, so it didn’t take too long for him to move them onto the ranch. One morning, him and a few of the others decided to venture a little further, see who else might need some help, and he never came back.”

My stomach felt queasy. I averted my gaze to the floor, then glanced back at Quinn. “Did you go look for him?”

Quinn shook his head. “He told me not to. He said no matter what happens, I was to stay at the ranch and take care of the people.”

“Yeah, but you must have been curious what happened to him.”

Quinn nodded and stood from his chair. “Of course, but I did as I was told.” He shouldered the rifle and lined up his sights. He fired.

I moved so I stood next to him. “Do you think he’s out there somewhere?”

Quinn glanced at me. “Probably. But I doubt he’s anything like I remember.”

“Doesn’t that make you sad?”

He returned his attention to the sight. “Every day. But there’s nothing I can do to change it now.” He fired another round.

I slumped against the rail. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I averted my gaze back to the field. I rubbed my sore shoulder. A breeze picked up, bringing a chill and the smoke from the funeral pyre. I wrinkled my nose.

“We need to do something about that.”

Quinn straightened. “Like what?”

I shrugged the good shoulder. “I don’t know. Maybe we could put a building around it. It might help contain some of the smoke and smell.”

Quinn nodded. “You should suggest it at the next meeting.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but the sound of footsteps on the stairs interrupted me. It was Pam. She still wore her old guard uniform, a relic from Liet’s reign, but it was obvious whose side she was on. Thank goodness she was on our side. She trained me; I knew how tough and skilled she was. It would’ve been a battle to take her down.

“Krista,” Pam said. “There’s someone who needs to see you.”

I pushed myself away from the rail. “Who?”

Pam motioned toward the courthouse. “I think it’s best if you just head over there.”
I looked at Quinn, who shrugged, then the three of us headed to the courthouse.

My stomach fluttered as I pushed opened the door. Visions of Mrs. Johnson’s bodyguard flooded my mind, and I didn’t think I could stand another visit like that. I held my breath as I opened the door. The person stood at the end of the room, her head down as she chewed on her thumb nail. Excitement rose in my chest and relief loosened my shoulders. A smile crossed my lips. I held out my good arm and hurried across the room. Normally, I wasn’t one for hugs, but anyone besides guards from Florida in the office was a welcome relief.

“Tanya! What are you doing here?”

Tanya looked up. She balled her hand into a fist and swung it over her head. I flinched, and the blow hit me on the bicep. Tanya lunged forward, flailing her arms. I crouched and covered my head. I didn’t know what else to do. I was so shocked, I froze. I couldn’t react. Several more hits landed on my back and head before someone pulled Tanya away.

“How could you?” Tanya yelled. “HOW COULD YOU?” She kicked and caught me on the knee.

Pain radiated through my leg, and I rubbed at the minor injury. Anger replaced the shock. Who did she think she was coming into my courtroom and attacking me?

“What are you talking about?” I tried to keep my emotions in check, common sense told me I needed to know what was going on.

“Don’t play dumb with me! You know what you did.” She jerked her arms out of Quinn and Pam’s grasp.

Really? Was she mad that we liberated Nebraska before we helped Florida? I didn’t think it was a big deal, but I guess it upset her.

“I’m sorry, Tanya. We had to move quickly. We had to set the people of North Platte free.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I’m not talking about the attack.”

I stared at her for a moment. “Then what are you talking about?”

“You sent zombies down in the truck of supplies! You figured if you couldn’t overthrow The Families, you’d overrun the state with the undead!” Tanya yelled, then attempted to attack again. Pam and Quinn restrained her and stared at me.

I picked myself off the floor, staring at Tanya wide eyed. Zombies in the truck? What? When? Why would I have done that? I hate those things! I would have to get pretty close to put those in the truck, and I wasn’t willing to do that. But someone must have. Who would be stupid and conniving enough to do that?

“Tanya, honestly, I have no idea what you are talking about. Maybe you should fill us in on some details.”

Tanya snarled. “The truck showed up a few weeks ago, with Mrs. Johnson’s bodyguard behind the wheel. He said it had come from North Platte, and I assumed it had another shipment of guns. As usual, I was going to wait until night to collect the weapons. My father took the vehicle to the storage yard, like he always did. I was done working at the coffee shop, so I decided to see what you guys sent. I stood at the chain link fence, watching the guys work, when I heard my father scream from the trailer. The others ran to see what was going on, and a zombie lurched out of the vehicle. They ran.”

Tanya continued her story, and I pictured the whole scenario in my mind. She was a bit lacking on details, so I filled in the blanks with my own imagination. It wasn’t hard, especially when you’ve seen as many zombies as I have. There were three creatures, buried under crates. Two men, newly turned with just the slightest hint of yellowed skin. Their clothes were dirty but not yet torn. The third, a woman, she had been a zombie for a while. Her stringy blonde hair was knotted, caked in mud, and falling out of her head, only wisps remained on the bottom and right side. Her clothes had almost completely decayed, tatters of a floral print dress clung to her the bones exposed in her chest and legs. Her gray, wrinkled skin looked like leather. They hid in the shadows, hard to see, and for some reason, they didn’t moan like the others when food was near. The workers didn’t know they were there and had unloaded almost the entire truck. They were almost finished when the attack started. Tanya ran through the gate, making her way to the back of the truck, just in time to see her father beating one of the creatures with a tire iron. The third one was still pinned behind a crate. Her breath caught as she watched the creature’s mouth snap for her dad. Her dad panted with exhaustion. He leaned against the side of the truck for support. Blood, brain matter, and bits of skull were everywhere, and the smell was overpowering. Tanya was about to climb in, find out if her dad was all right, but he told her to stop. He collapsed onto the floor, sliding down the wall. He cradled his hand. The zombie had bitten him.

Tanya set her jaw. “The other one that got out of the truck attacked several of the workers before it was put down. I don’t know how many of them got bit, but within a few days, we had an epidemic on our hands. They got it under control, but thirty people got infected.”

Pam and Quinn released her, and she pointed a finger in my direction.

“You just couldn’t wait, could you? You just had to make all of us pay.”

My throat felt tight and a knot developed in my stomach. I swallowed hard. “What happened to your dad?”

Tanya snarled. “Instead of waiting for the plague to take its toll, he took care of himself.”

I lowered my gaze to the floor. My stomach lurched, bile rose into my throat. I took several deep breaths, but the feeling never abated.

“I’m sorry, Tanya.” I looked into her face. “I really, truly am. But I did not put zombies in the back of the truck. Why would I harm the people I’m trying to help?”

Tanya shook her head and opened her mouth to speak.

“Think about it,” Quinn interrupted her. “The Families were afraid of losing control. They knew about the rebellion here in North Platte, and they knew the people would soon hear about it. They had to do something to ensure the people wouldn’t revolt, so they planted zombies.”

Tanya stared at him for a moment, letting the information sink in. “Maybe,” she spoke softly.

I stepped closer to her. “Tanya, please, you have to believe us, we would never do anything like that. Smuggle guns to kill the regime, yeah, but we wouldn’t infect Florida with zombies.”

Tanya took a deep breath. “Maybe.”

“Didn’t Bill and Kyle tell you what was going on?” Quinn asked.
Tanya faced him. “They did.”

“What happened to them?”

She took a deep breath and averted her gaze to the floor. “After the attack and my dad’s suicide, guards, um, did random house searches and they were arrested.”

Pam’s, Quinn’s, and my eyes grew wide.

“What?” Quinn glanced from Tanya to me. “Arrested? Why?”

“They were outsiders.” she responded. “I guess they felt they were a threat to The Families and Florida.”

“Did they find out about the guns?” I stammered out the question.

Tanya looked at me. “No. Those are still safe.”

“How did you get here?” Pam chimed in.

“After everything calmed down, I took the boat Bill and Kyle came in on and found their vehicle in Texas. I made my way up here to you.”

“Do you know what happened to them?” Worry coated Quinn’s eyes.

“I’m sure they’re not dead. I’m sure The Families kept them for interrogation.”

Quinn rubbed his hand over his mouth, staring at me. “What are we going to do? Everything is ruined. I told you we had to attack simultaneously.”
Confusion and anger coursed through my body. “It’s a moot point now. We’ll figure it out. It’ll be fine.” What did he expect me to do? I couldn’t change the past.

The room was silent for a long moment. The group glanced at each other out of the corners’ of their eyes, then averted their gazes to the floor. My head spun. When we first took over North Platte and found out there had been a spy, I felt like I was losing control then, but after Tanya arrived, I knew I lost my grip. An all-out attack on Florida was out of the question. They would know what was coming. Plus, we were grossly outnumbered by Floridian soldiers. Despite the tragic nature of the event, a zombie attack wasn’t a half bad idea. It would keep the soldiers busy long enough for our people to get in and take control. There would be some collateral damage, but in the long run, it would lead to the liberation of the people of Florida.

I shook the idea out of my head. How could I even think of that? There were innocent people down there. Children. It wouldn’t work. Besides, three zombies had already done enough damage. I couldn’t believe Tanya thought we sent the attack.

Quinn grabbed my arm and directed me away from Tanya and Pam.

“We’ve got to evacuate the city.”

“Why?”

“Don’t you see what’s going on? Florida sent men up here to investigate what happened. They planted zombies in the back of the truck and blamed it on us. They are trying to rally the masses against us.”

“Yeah? So what else is new?”

“The people they sent here were the dregs of society. They were causing problems in Florida. They are still causing problems. This is the perfect excuse to wipe us off the planet.”

My stomach knotted. The color drained from my face. I didn’t want to believe it, but I knew Quinn was right. They were probably on their way to level the city.

“There are two thousand and eleven people in North Platte.” I couldn’t raise my voice over a whisper. “Where are they going to go?”

Quinn pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger and shook his head. “I don’t know. All I know is they can’t stay here.”

“What about Liet? What are we going to do with him?”

Quinn didn’t have the opportunity to answer.

“Everything all right over there?” Pam asked.

We faced her.

“No. I don’t think it is,” Quinn responded.

“Well, maybe you’d like to fill the rest of us in.”

Quinn glanced at me for a second, then back at Pam. “I think you need to call a town meeting.”

“For what?”

“Just do it!” I didn’t mean to yell at her, but I had no control over my emotions. The room spun and breathing was difficult, it just slipped out.

Pam hurried out of the room, and I sank to my knees. I lowered my head and closed my eyes. I felt light-headed and nauseous. I couldn’t believe it was this hard. It wasn’t supposed to be this hard. I felt Quinn’s hand on my back.
“You all right?”

I looked up at him. “I’ll be fine. Just give me a second.”

Tanya moved so she stood in front of me. Her knees popped as she knelt down.

“What are we going to do now? Everything has been ruined.” She lowered her gaze. “I ruined it. I can’t believe I was so stupid to believe you would have sent zombies!”

I took a deep breath and stared at her face for several moments. Anger clenched my chest. I wanted to tell her it was her fault, that she should have known we would never do anything so devious, but it wouldn’t get us anywhere. Her eyes were red rimmed and her shoulders slumped forward. She probably didn’t stop traveling until she made it to the city. Rage kept her moving. Her desire to see me dead or maimed fueled her journey. After she found out the truth, rage was replaced with sheer exhaustion. Sadly, her journey wasn’t even close to being over.

Besides, I wasn’t mad at her, I was angry at the universe. I was upset that my luck had run out. The same rage that kept her moving was going to have to sustain me. We still had a job to do, we just had to rethink it.

“You didn’t ruin it,” I told her. “You were just reacting to a situation you thought we created. It’s understandable.”

She placed her hands on the floor and leaned forward. “I want to help you fix it. Please tell me what I can do.”

“First of all, we’ve got to get the people to safety. Then, we’re going to disappear.”

“And go where?”

“The only place we have left. The West.”

The novel is divided into two parts. The first is a man named Phillipe’s recounting of his first marriage, which he is writing for his second wife, Isabelle. The second is Isabelle’s recounting of her marriage to Phillipe. Jealousy, mistrust, and unfaithfulness plague both marriages, even as husband and wife continue to profess love for one another. Phillipe loves his first wife, Odile, for her passion and vivacity, but it doesn’t take long for him to fear that her liveliness and desire to be sociable is a sign that she prefers to spend time with others. When he’s married to Isabelle, he appears to prefer the company of Solange, a woman who reminds him of his beloved Odile.

In both marriages, jealousy proves to be just as destructive as unfaithfulness. As Phillipe notes, “Suspicions planted in the mind are triggered like a series of mines and destroy love gradually with their successive explosives.” Maurois never reveals precisely when Odile’s affair began, and it’s entirely possible that Phillipe’s fear that Odile would be unfaithful drove her into another man’s arms. We only ever see Odile through Phillipe’s eyes, and he perceives her as a flighty flirt, but her actions are open to interpretation—and there’s reason to imagine that Phillipe misjudged her.

Phillipe can only speculate about Odile’s feelings, but Isabelle has access to Phillipe’s journal and includes excerpts from it in her writing. So we get both spouses’ perspectives on their marriage in this half of the book. This more balanced account doesn’t do much to vindicate Phillipe, however. If anything, it shows what a hypocrite he is—his behavior is not so different from Odile’s, and he knows it. His feelings are understandable, but his behavior is hard to sympathize with. He knows from experience how his actions will hurt Isabelle, but that doesn’t stop him. He is, at heart, a narcissist. His feelings are the only feelings that matter.

One of the things I’ve been thinking about it how much Phillipe’s sense of entitlement comes from his being a man in a society where women are taught to be submissive. Isabelle accepts that she is supposed to shape herself to suit his preferences:

Deep down, a woman in love never has a personality; she says she has one. She tries to make herself believe she has, but it’s not true. No, she tries to understand the woman that the man she loves wants to see in her and to become that woman.

How does the fact that Phillipe is a man and Isabelle is a woman affect their narratives? Would men and women of their time and place perceive mistrust and unfaithfulness differently? They almost certainly would—and perhaps they would today too. When Phillipe is suspicious, he feels bitter and indignant, but when in the same position, Isabelle worries over how she can retain her husband’s love.

As I pick through the dual narratives of Climates, I find more and more potential lies and obfuscations to work through. Each of the two narrators has a bias, and their perceptions are colored by what other, also biased, people have told them. The more I dig into it, the further away the truth seems. All those meaty questions of reliability and perspective abound.