Knowing by Kimberly Cross

Title: Knowing
Author: Kimberly Cross
Length: 5396 Kindle units
Rating: 3.5 stars

The Plot

Gray has always had a special power – the ability to know things that are going to happen before they do. But his powers get a lot stranger when he meets Tally. As soon as he sees her, he feels an irresistible urge to be near her and protect her. According to his psychic grandmother, this means that Gray can’t survive without her. But she’s an Army brat with an alcoholic dad who doesn’t want to give the time of day to a spoiled rich kid like Gray. Can he convince her that his feelings are real before it’s too late?

The Good

Knowing was a nice love story with a paranormal twist. Gray’s powers were interesting in that they didn’t cripple him in any way but gave him a unique advantage in every aspect of his life. Instead of having any kind of pain or complex sensory experience, he simply had extra knowledge in his head appear from nowhere. That is, until he meet Tally, who threw a monkey wrench into his ordinary life. Suddenly he’s being forced to use his powers to solve serious problems and provide emotional certainty to life or death issues. Fortunately, his powers are growing along with this need, though sometimes that makes things even worse.

The Bad

This is something I very rarely complain about, but in Knowing it was such a problem that I feel the need to bring it up. The formatting of the book for Kindle was terrible. There were no spaces between any of the lines, which made the whole book feel rushed. The indentation of paragraphs was sporadic, and it made it very difficult to read the dialogue because I couldn’t tell when someone stopped speaking.

As for the book itself, it got kind of repetitive after awhile. Gray would make Tally start to like him, then something would happen that would make her trust him less. This happened several times, and I could have dealt with one or two fewer iterations of it. Also, all the characters were really one dimensional, and most of them were completely irrational. It was like Gray, Tally, and maybe a few others were the only remotely decent people in the entire town, which was both hard to believe and kind of boring.

The Romance

There is a lot I could say about the romance in Knowing, because the book was almost all romance. Lots of Gray going on about how much he loved Tally. Which is fine, no complaints. But that’s not what I want to say. What I want to say is this:

Dear Fictional Boys,

I have a piece of advice that I hope you will take to heart. Never, under any circumstances, make a bet with any other guy that involves you getting to know a girl, whether you like her or not. You may think that it is harmless fun, but inevitably you will fall in love with said girl, or at least begin to see her as a person and not just the object of a bet. Unless you are a sociopath, but then you have other, more important issues to deal with.

Assuming that you are capable of basic empathy, though, at some point you will realize that using this girl for your own entertainment is wrong. If you have been so unwise as to ignore my advice to this point, I recommend that you tell the girl about the bet immediately. Because, believe me, she’s going to find out anyway, and it is better that she hears it from you. You may want to spare her feelings, but this situation can only play out in one, not terribly original or interesting way.

Save us all some angst. Don’t make this kind of bet, and if you do, don’t keep it a secret.

Will I read more?

I’m mostly “Meh” on the whole things. Knowing wasn’t terrible, but I’m probably going to lean on the side of not reading more. And that’s mostly because the story featured alcoholism prominently, and I have not yet recovered from having OCD and having to go through high school drug education fear tactics.

See Details for Book on    Amazon    

Revenge of the Castle Cats by Isabella Fontaine & Ken Brosky

Title: Revenge of the Castle Cats
Series: The Grimm Chronicles
Author: Isabella Fontaine & Ken Brosky
Previous Books in Series: Prince Charming Must Die!, Happily Never After
Rating: 4 stars
Length: 3496 Kindle units (includes fairy tales)

Refresher: Alice must use a magic pen to kill corrupted creatures from Grimm’s Fairy Tales to prevent them from wreaking havoc on unsuspecting humans. Accompanying her in this task is the newly tech-savvy Bre’r Rabbit, who prefers to be known as Briar.

Revenge of the Castle Cats is the third installment of The Grimm Chronicles, and I feel like the series is really hitting its stride. The plot continues from the second book, where we learned that three of the seven dwarves are involved in an evil plot to make everyone play a smartphone game called Castle Cats. Clearly they must be stopped, especially when it turns out in this book that they are using their code to compel people to buy gross candy bars.

The biggest problem I had with the first two books was that the big reveal at the end of the book was so patently obvious that I didn’t even feel like it should have been kept a secret. That problem was totally absent from this installment. The ending was both surprising and appropriately climactic. Alice also got to bring her friend Seth in on some of the adventure, which was fun because more characters who know what’s going on means more social interaction. And social interaction is much of what makes stories interesting.

Of course, it would not be a review from me if I did not point out the biggest problem I had with the book. In this case, it was that I don’t feel like the authors really knew enough about programming to be writing a book that featured it so prominently. Seth as a character is apparently learning about computer programming by borrowing books from the library. He talks about code without mentioning any programming languages, as if it is all the same. 

Nonetheless, he manages to get to the source code of Castle Cats, which seems unlikely as it is certainly not open source. So he clearly has some mad hacking skills. That he’s somehow managed to learn from the books he borrowed from the library. Yeah, I’m not buying that.

Overall, though, it was a cute story and an exciting installment, and I’m looking forward to reading the next one.

See Details for Book on    Amazon 

The Slayer and the Sphinx by Adam Bolander

Title: The Slayer and the Sphinx: Book 1
Author: Adam Bolander
Length: 1609 Kindle units
Rating: 3.5 stars

The Plot

Porter is a Slayer, a hunter of mythical beings, and he is very good at what he does. Sarah is a sphinx who is never allowed to leave her house because she is not good enough at disguising herself as the humans she despises. When Porter and his team attack Sarah’s house, things go horribly wrong. Sarah teleports away, accidentally bringing an injured, amnesiac Porter with her. She knows she should kill him, as he will certainly kill her if he gets his memory back, but she can’t bring herself to harm an unarmed man. And so the slayer and the sphinx must travel together as they try to find their way back to civilization.

The Good

The Slayer and the Sphinx is a cute little story about two people on opposite sides of a war who are forced to work together to survive on a journey that is dangerous for both of them.  The world is an interesting version of a modern one where our two heroes somehow end up in an environment that reminds me of nothing so much as a role-playing-game-like scenario where they have a goal of reaching civilization but have a number of random encounters along the way. Some of the people they run into want to help them, and some want to harm them, and some it’s hard to tell which. They each have different skills that are useful in different situations, so at times Sarah and Porter each has to save the other one.

The Bad

One thing I’m finding about self-published books is that they are frequently shorter than traditionally published books. (And the rest of the time they’re much longer. It’s an odd balance.) I don’t have a problem with shorter books per se, and I’ve found that the length of time it takes me to read something is more contingent on the quality of the writing than the number of Kindle units or pages a book has. But there are times, as is the case with The Slayer and the Sphinx that I have a problem with the length because I am not getting an entire book. This might not be too bad if I had any assurance that the story was going to go somewhere, but when the first book fails to have a story arc, I lack evidence that I am ever going to get one. My overall comment is “Write an entire book before you publish one.”

My other issue with the book is that it hits you over the head with its themes. We have Slayers who kill Mythics without any real cause, and we have Mythics who look down on humans. Clearly both sides need to learn a lesson here, but it could definitely be more subtle.

The Romance

At one point we meet an elf who can tell the future, and he predicts that both Sarah and Porter will fall in love with someone who will create social problems for them. Since I have read books before, I have a suspicion of how this is going to play out, though I confess to some curiosity regarding the mechanics. Regardless, nothing in this vein happens in this installment, so I declare this a romance-free zone.

Will I read more?

I found the story of The Slayer and the Sphinx, with its series of random encounters, to be interesting and fun. I would like to know how things play out when Porter’s “friends” find him, and when the pair finally gets to the Mythic hideout that certainly won’t welcome a human. But I kind of wanted all that to happen in this book. As it is, I have no sense of when we are going to get there or whether that will be the end of the story. If I had some reassurance that I was going to get a good plot starting up somewhere along the line, I would be motivated to read more. But without that, I don’t think I’ll invest in more of the story.

See Details for Book on    Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Smashwords

Darkshore by Megan Jendrink & Nathan Jendrick

Title: Darkshore
Series: The Icia Epic
Author: Megan Jendrick & Nathan Jendrick
Length: 3331 Kindle units
Rating: 3.5 stars

The Plot

Noelle’s people live in fear of the Icia, strange fog spirits who live in the forest that surrounds their land. Anyone who sets food in the woods during the cold season never returns, and all are forbidden from entering the trees for fear of bringing the Icia’s wrath upon the entire village. One day, fearing that her father has already been killed by the Icia, Noelle runs into the forest in a rage. The Icia capture her and force her into a lake, but instead of drowning as she should, she survives. Thus begins the tenuous relationship between Noelle and the Icia, the first person in Darkshore in generations to learn that there are two sides to this conflict between their races. But if people on both sides believe that war is inevitable, how can one thirteen-year-old girl change their minds?

The Good

Darkshore had an interesting environment and mythology. We all like a good tale of peoples who live in a desolate and forbidding landscape in which less hardy folk would not survive. We get a particularly noteworthy viewpoint when Noelle goes to school in a larger town. Though she is at odds with her own people, she still identifies with them, and other people view her as part of the Darkshore community.

The Icia are a unique race of enemies/supernatural folk. They are not elves or faeries in the traditional sense, though that’s probably how I’m tagging this post. They are spirits of nature who seem to be made of water but can switch forms and have supernatural powers of death to humans when they want to. To some degree they are at the mercy of the weather, and they cannot survive without the forest, but they are unable to explain their nature to Noelle, as it is totally alien to humanity.

The Bad

So mostly what I have to say about this book was that it was boring. Sometimes I can’t tell if a book is truly boring or if I just find it boring because of my personal tastes. I feel that Darkshore was empirically uninteresting. From page 1, I failed to have any interest in the characters or their problems.

I think part of this was the setting. The book took place in a super-cold climate where people were freezing to death and getting killed by ice people, and as I pictured this I felt frozen out of the people’s heads as well.

The second factor is that I think most interesting things in novels come from people interacting with each other, and there were large sections where Noelle was acting alone without other people. Even when she was with others, they were mostly ignoring her or trying to kill her, so there wasn’t too much actual communication.

Also, I was disappointed that there were no Night Elves.

The Romance

Noelle was only 13, so she was sadly a little young for romance. Perhaps in future installments.

Will I read more?

There was nothing glaringly awful about Darkshore, other than the authors’ over-fondness for participles, a crime of which I too am guilty enough not to throw stones. But I also really couldn’t get into Darkshore. I don’t really care about the characters, so I don’t have much motivation to find out what happens to them next.

See Details for Book on    Amazon     Barnes & Noble  

Tuesday Update & Vote for Me!

As you may have noticed, I am back to reviewing on Tuesdays. I planned to stay on my two update a week schedule for a little longer, but there are so many books out there for me to review that I just could not stay away! 

Except today. 

There is no review today for reasons that you probably don't want me to go into. Suffice it to say the tale involves more vomit than I like my stories to include. I am hoping that you understand. There are some great sequels coming out in the next few weeks that will hopefully make up for my absence today.

In other exciting news, the blog Underground Book Reviews is having a Battle of the Book Review Blogs in which I am competing. And all you have to to show your support for Wading Through Electronic Ink is follow this link and vote for me!

The Last Falcon by Colleen Ruttan

Title: The Last Falcon
Series: The Cael Stone
Author: Colleen Ruttan
Length: 4137 Kindle units
Rating: 3.5 stars

The Plot

Erynn works in the kitchens at the castle and occasionally pens personal letters for the king. One day, she is under strict orders to watch the king’s message be delivered – but the falconer refuses to send it. Erynn becomes aware that there is a power struggle in the castle between the king and his subversive son, who is making deals with other warmongering nations. Erynn knows that the only way to protect the kingdom is to find another way to send the king’s letters. But since privatized falconry is outlawed, where can she turn for help?

The Good

The traditional fantasy genre, with its warring factions and political machinations holds a special place in my heart. I haven’t read a lot of it lately, but The Last Falcon reminded me of a lot of what I found appealing. Epic things are happening in the land of Valentia, centered particularly in the kingdom of Alyria. So far our nation has been left out of the battles waged by Queen Naedra in her attempt to take over the land, but war spreads ever-westward. Older Prince Gareth works to rally the kingdoms against Naedra, but while he is away his brother implements opposing plans. These are big doings in a nation on the brink of war, and we get to watch it from the front row perspective of a common kitchen girl who, of course, has a greater destiny than she could have ever dreamed.

The Bad

I had two major gripes with The Last Falcon, and both of them do fall under the category of major.

First, the book didn’t really have a plot. There was no rising action, climax, and falling action. There weren’t even little dips that made me feel like there were a bunch of mini-plots. The book kept going at relatively the same pace, with some more urgent action at the end, and then it stopped. And where it stopped was right in the middle of things, not at an opportune moment when our hero has overcome the first of many hurdles or at an edge-of-my-seat cliffhanger. There was nothing to set apart the installment that I read as its own book rather than just the introduction to a much larger fantasy work.

My other issue is that Erynn is kind of a nincompoop. I have no idea why she does most of the things she does. She discovers early on that Prince Holden is doing evil things with the bad guys of the land, and as part of that he is cutting off communication between his father the king and his brother Prince Gareth. Somewhere in here, she decides that she can’t tell the king what’s going on because she has to protect him. But she still continues to investigate what’s going on. I question the intelligence of this decision because she has absolutely no plan of what to do with the information she gets. I can only assume that she wants to get caught by the evil people and put to death, because with no allies or course of action, her best bet would have been to keep her head down.

The Romance

I was very disappointed by the lack of romance in The Last Falcon. In the first chapter, Erynn appears to have a crush on her friend’s brother Jared, but he is not in the novel at all. Plus, she’s only 14 at the beginning, so how seriously can we take her romantic attachments? For most of the book, though, she is sixteen (though she does seem a bit younger), and every time there were hints of a new male character, I got excited that they might be the love interest. I mean, there’s a prince, a captain of the guard, and a mercenary! Sadly, they are all at least partly evil. It is a tragedy unequalled in literature.

Will I read more?

I have no particular objection to reading more, though I have no assurance that the plot plans to stop meandering and start developing any time in the near future. And Erynn was still behaving much like an idiot towards the end. But the book was not terrible by any stretch, and I would like to see the good and noble people triumph over the evil queen determined to conquer the whole world.

See Details for Book on    Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Smashwords

Sandy Morrison and the Pack of Pussies by Zoe E. Whitten

Title: Sandy Morrison and the Pack of Pussies
Series: Sandy Morrison
Author: Zoe E. Whitten
Length: 3673 Kindle units
Rating: 4 stars

The Plot

Sandy is thrilled when she gets invited to cheerleader Trisha’s graduation party, because people don’t usually invite the “she” who used to be a “he” anywhere. But when the cheerleaders play a cruel prank on Sandy, she gets upset and jumps off the water tower – and then catches herself in mid-air. Turns out that Sandy is a witch, which is unfortunate because her best friend Maggie is a werecat, and the two species have been at war for as long as anyone can remember. Like, kill on sight kind of war. So if Sandy and her friends want to keep her alive, they have to move fast.

The Good

In a genre of cookie-cutter Bella-esque heroines, Sandy Morrison stands out as unique. I confess that I don’t know a lot about transgender people, so it was cool to read from the perspectives of someone going through the transition and the people around her. But I think in a book like this it would be easy to make Sandy’s being transgender the only interesting thing about her, and I really like how that is not the case. Sandy is brave and determined but also forgiving of people. She likes to go to parties and dance and have fun. And she owns a Star Trek uniform from every series.

I think one of the big themes of the book is that no one is “just” anyone. Kyle is a former druggie/sex addict who has reformed his life and was studying to be a computer programmer. Maggie defies cheerleader stereotypes but still loves being on the squad. And Trisha learns that she could be more than just a shallow rich girl.

I’m actually sitting here thinking about the great themes in this book, and it’s making me cry a little. So, points, because I think this is only the second book I’ve reviewed that’s made me cry.

The Bad

The book was slow to get started. Everything hinged upon this prank that Trisha decided to pull on Sandy, which basically consisted of Trisha trying to get Sandy to make out with Kyle. First off, I’m not entirely sure how what actually happens is Trisha’s fault, since other than inviting both of them to the party, she didn’t do anything to hook them up. If anything, she warned Kyle off. Secondly, I’m not so clear on what the big deal is about getting caught making out with someone you like. I mean, yes, Trisha said she posted the pictures on the internet, which was kind of mean, but she seemed to think the prank was just as bad without that extra step. So the whole thing didn’t make tons of sense.

Also, the werecats in the book turn into large housecats. It is established that they are quite dangerous, but they still look like your neighbor’s tabby. And there is this scene where four werecats come and attack three humans in an outdoor setting. Picture this scene with a straight face if you can, for I certainly cannot.

And the end is just weird. It’s from the point of view of a totally new character that adds a whole new twist to the mythology. I understand that the idea was to create a cliffhanger ending, but I think narratively the thing would have worked better as an introduction to the second work. It could have been a great vehicle for summing up the first novel.

The Romance

Oh, the romance. How to even begin? I think the best word for it is “non-traditional.” There was a lot of sexual experimentation going on among the characters, and many of them question their own sexualities. The book is also unique that instead of having a pair of people who are “supposed to be together” or even a love triangle, there are a group of people forming a triad, and it was interesting to watch that dynamic develop.

Will I read more?

Probably not, but not for any of the reasons I mentioned above. Sandy Morrison was very gritty. I felt like I was reading about the seedy underbelly of high school life, where kids drugged each other for pranks and physically assaulted people who were different. Not that I think those things don’t happen. I think they DO happen, which is why it’s extra upsetting to read about. (I read books about teens with supernatural powers. Too much reality upsets me.) There was also a lot of explicit dialogue about sexual experimentation going on, and I think if I stuck around for the series, it would likely get into some ménage a trois action. And though I have no personal objection to sexual experimentation or threesomes or anything that consenting adults choose to do in the privacy of their own homes, these are not necessarily things that I want to read about.

See Details for Book on    Amazon   

My Boyfriend Merlin by Priya Ardis

Title: My Boyfriend Merlin
Series: My Merlin
Author: Priya Ardis
Length: 5158 Kindle units
Rating: 5 stars

The Plot

Ryan knows that things are going to change when a giant earthquake shook the whole world and the sword Excalibur appeared in a stone in the middle of London. But she has no idea that Matt, the boy she’s been crushing on, is going to reveal himself to be the wizard Merlin and whisk her and her adopted brother Grey to train to be candidates to pull the stone. And it turns out that Matt’s brother Vane, who helped Mordred in his revolution against Arthur during the first go-round with the sword, has also stepped up to train candidates, though he distinctly prefers the wizard candidates to the regulars like Ryan. Can Matt and Vane work out their differences in time to train a successful candidate this time around, or will Camelot once again fall into legend?

The Good

I cannot possible describe with words how much I loved this book. Seriously, what you are about to read now is as close to gushing as I am ever going to get. The way I feel about My Boyfriend Merlin is how I want to feel about every single book I pick up. I want to be gripped so thoroughly by the plot that I can’t put it down, and I want to think about it when I’m not reading it. When deciding what to read the next night, I want to think that rereading the best parts of this book is a far better choice than trying to pick up something new that will almost certainly be inferior. This feeling is the reason that I read, and I love that this book was able to provide it for me.

As for specifics… Well, it’s a modern day Arthurian story where Merlin is a hot teenage boy with an equally hot evil older brother. What’s not to love? But there is also an interesting mythology going on over who is going to pull the sword from the stone this time around and how that is going to change the world.

The Bad

I have to confess that I don’t think that this book is for everyone. It’s definitely in the teen girl romance section of your bookstore. If you aren’t saying, “Hot teenage Merlin with an evil brother? Sign me up!” it’s probably not going to turn you into a convert. I am currently imagining authors reading this and saying, "She gave me two/three/four stars and this all the stars?" And my only defense is that I have never lied about my love of good YA paranormal romance. And My Boyfriend Merlin is good YA paranormal romance.

And technically, the book was far from perfect. I find myself asking questions like “If Ryan just moved to Boston a year ago, why is she the senior class president?” and “Why is a wizard who has been frozen in a cave for the past 1000 years making Wizard of Oz references?” Also, the chapters often ended in awkward places. But for the most part, I find myself too involved in the story to nitpick.

And, yes, the title is terrible. I’m a little ashamed to admit to reading something with the name. The second one is My Merlin Awakening, which is even worse. If you aren’t Kate Chopin or L.J. Smith, you are too late to use the word Awakening in your book title. Sorry.

The Romance

There is only one thing that we readers of teen paranormal romance like better than a love triangle, and that is a REALLY GOOD love triangle. And what makes a love triangle really good? I ask myself as I try to define why it is that My Boyfriend Merlin is so superior to other books for me. I think in this case it’s because it’s so hard to choose which team to be on. Because while both boys are right for her in that they are attractive and challenging to her, they are also both wrong for her. Matt and Vane both like Ryan, but they’re both also deeply involved with trying to manage the fate of the world, and there are going to be times that they will choose their political agendas over her. And for some reason that just makes them both more attractive. Or at least interesting.

Will I read more?

The real question is, Can I stand not having more to read without my head exploding? I stayed up well past my bedtime to finish reading My Boyfriend Merlin. And then the next day at work I may have had to download the second one onto my phone and read it in between tasks (Mom, pretend you didn’t see that last sentence.) And then, once I ran out of more to read, I went back and reread the best parts of both books. Multiple times. When I was supposed to be doing other things. And now I am in agony because I have to wait for the third one.

See Details for Book on    Amazon     Barnes & Noble  

Dead Girl Walking by Elizabeth Lee

Title: Dead Girl Walking
Series: The Guardian
Author: Elizabeth Lee
Length: 2627 Kindle units
Rating: 3.5 stars 

The Plot

Addison has always been able to see ghosts, and usually they just go into the light when she tells them to. But now she’s faced with the spirit of famously disappeared teen starlet Sharlene Gallagher, who tells Addison that she needs to solve her ten-year-old murder. But what Sharlene is not telling is that they need to catch the killer fast, before Addison becomes the next victim.

The Good

Dead Girl Walking was a cute story about likable characters. Addison and Sharlene are two very different teen girls who nonetheless find that they can learn a lot from each other. Sharlene helps Addison come out of her shell and gain the attentions of not one but two cute boys, and Addison makes Sharlene feel like she has a real friend for probably the first time in her life.

Through the eyes of both girls, we learn that no one’s life is perfect, no matter how it seems on the outside. Addison appears to be a typical shy, quiet girl, but she has a lot of stress from her parents’ divorce and father’s remarriage – not to mention the whole seeing ghosts thing (which apart from Sharlene is really incidental to the story). And Sharlene was always the center of attention and on the road to fame, but she had dark secrets even before the events that led to her death.

The Bad

I felt like the story was rushed overall. This feeling was increased by the rapid switching of narrators between Addison and Sharlene. For the first third of the book or so, I felt like we shouldn’t be switching heads at all, because all we were getting from Sharlene was some overdone foreshadowning. But as the story went on I started to have the opposite impression, that maybe we needed Sharlene’s thoughts more than Addison’s. I think in the end we need to have both girls’ viewpoints, but I think having a less frequent switch-off would have helped the story.

Toward the end of the story, things got kind of confusing, like I couldn’t follow exactly what was going on in every scene. There was some surprise sexual assault thrown in out of nowhere (which like surprise lesbians seems to be more common than you would think in self-published young adult literature).

I also saw who the killer was from a mile away. But that could just be my super-sleuth skills.

The Romance

Most of the romance in the book was for Addison, which makes sense, since she was the one who was still alive. On the very same day that Sharlene gives her a makeover, Addison attracts the attention of two boys: Jon, the most popular senior boy in school, and Andrew, her one-time next door neighbor/friend. Jon may win out at being the host of the school’s biggest parties, but Andrew is in a band, which definitely earns him coolness points. But both boys also have their downsides: Jon is older than her, and everyone except Addison seems concerned that his motives are less than pure. And she’s still upset with Andrew since he stopped being friends with her after her parents got divorced and she moved away.

As for Sharlene, there were some hints that she might have a developing romance with her guardian supervisor Peter (not St Peter, just a regular one). But then at one point he poses as her father, which just makes the whole thing much creepier than I prefer.

Will I read more?

I’m a little unclear as to where the story will go from here. Will it be about Addison or Sharlene or both? There are reasons that it could go in any direction. (Or not. Maybe Addison dies. Maybe Sharlene gets pulled into the fiery depths of hell. I will not spoil it for you. It is worth noting that, regardless, death is not an end in this mythology.)  There are some open ends that I am curious about in the story, and the characters were likable enough that I wouldn’t mind picking up the next installment.

See Details for Book on    Amazon    

Wolfshead by Craig Charlesworth

Title: Wolfshead
Author: Craig Charlesworth
Length: 6218 Kindle units
Rating: 4 stars

The Plot

Ordinarily I write my own plot summary for these posts. But today I am going to share with you the exact review request I got from the author, because I truly feel it must be experienced.

“Wolfshead is – at its most basic – a retelling of the original Robin Hood ballads of the middle-ages, but one which takes place against a backdrop of magic and mysticism. This version of Robin is a teenager, and as such often lacks confidence in his abilities, but he is thrust into the role of community leader when his father is taken prisoner by the Sheriff of Nottingham. In this retelling, Robin is a resurrected prince of the Faeries, who died many thousands of years ago but has been brought back to life to do battle with his evil brother Loki, in whose interests the sheriff acts. The cast includes witches, giants, and vampires as well as many of the traditional characters such as Guy of Gisbourne and Will Scarlet.”

Now, if you’re at all like me, I’m sure as soon as you read that, you thought, “Well, this I’ve 

GOT to see.”

The Good

All mocking aside, Wolfshead was a pretty good read. We all like a good Robin Hood story about the Chaotic Good hero triumphing over the Lawful Evil regime that may or may not bear more resemblance to the modern political structure than we would like. And it’s fun to see a twist on the old paganism vs. Christianity trope where we come down on the side of the nature gods.

I liked how this version gave Robin Hood a backstory to explain how Robert the normal teenager became an outlaw to save his town. (Though I was a little dumbfounded at the beginning when Robert performed terribly at the village archery competition.) All in all, I thought the story was good as an origin myth.

The Bad

I find the basic premise of the book delightfully absurd, which means that some people are going to find it completely ridiculous. And I confess, I did laugh a bit when Puck explains to Robert that he is the reincarnation of his brother. Laugh at, not with. But I got past it. I was a little more troubled when Robert told a bunch of other people that he was a reborn faerie because, well, yeah, not too believable.

Other than that, my biggest issue was that there was too much focus on a lot of minor characters. A lot of this seemed to go with the old-fashioned-book writing style (which for the most part worked quite well), where I think one used to see a lot of similar meandering away from the story. But nowadays it’s just annoying and takes away from the overarching story. I just… don’t care that much about the incompetent cook or the conflicted torturer when I could be reading main story.

Also, there were no vampires. I was promised vampires, and their lack was very upsetting to me.

The Romance

Like many traditional stories with a predominantly male cast, the romance was seemed like an afterthought and was fairly simplistic. We know that Robin Hood has to have his Maid Marian, and what they did with her was pretty interesting. She was a noblewoman without any money who had to work for Sir Richard. And of course both Robert and his nemesis Guy instantly fell in love with her. But other than her existence, Marian didn’t have too much to do with the story.

Of slightly more import was Will Scathelock’s sister Bryony, who grew up in Locksley with Robert and whom everyone thought he would marry. Of course, Robert feels that he likes her well enough, but doesn’t have that special romantic bond. Which is totally fair. But since she’s from the town, and the book is all about saving the town, she gets to do more plot-relevant things, like help carry the children to refuge at the church.

Will I read more?

I’m mostly meh on it. Not because it wasn’t a good book. It’s just not really “my thing.” I know, I know. Sometimes I’m such a girl.

See Details for Book on    Amazon     Smashwords

Spiral by Maddy Edwards

Title: Spiral
Series: Spiral
Author: Maddy Edwards
Length: 6399 Kindle units
Rating: 4 stars

The Plot
 

Natalie hates her birthday, and she doesn’t expect her eighteenth to be any better than usual. In fact, if anything, she finds that it’s worse. Her nightmares are stronger than ever, and she and her family and friends keep finding themselves in mortal danger. And her best friend Jackson never seems to be around when she needs him. But the weirdest thing of all is the new boy Pierce, who started school just a few weeks before graduation with a story of his long lost love  - with the same name as Natalie. Does he know what is going on with her strange powers? And if so, why isn’t he letting her know?
 

The Good
 

Spiral has a unique mythology where the characters are unicorns who primarily have healing magic. As far as magic types go, healing is on the less-interesting-but-more-useful end of the scale, and I think Spiral does a good job at demonstrating why it’s pretty cool. Especially since the unicorns can also use their powers offensively, though this seems to be somewhat frowned upon.
 

One (kind of weird) thing I love about Maddy Edwards’s books is that her characters have such delightfully normal yet uncommon names. Maybe a little old-fashioned but in a good way. I feel this way about both Natalie here and Charlotte, the main character of Paranormal Public. When I was reading both books and found out what the narrator’s name was, I was pleasantly surprised.
 

The Bad
 

I found the mythology of Spiral kind of confusing. We get the story from two different

viewpoints – Natalie, who knows nothing about unicorns or magic, and Pierce, who knows everything. The result of this is that I feel like the reader never gets a clear explanation of how things work. Like, we know there are clans of unicorns, and there are other supernatural beings called Watchfuls and Visioners. Eventually we do get Watchfuls explained, but I still have no idea what a Visioner is. Except bad. They are very bad.
 

By the end of the book, there are a bunch of other things that I’m also not clear on, like why Natalie is special. We know that she is special, and we get some hints as to why, but I’m unclear what the overarching meaning behind all these things is. It’s possible that we’re not supposed to know at this point? Because I think there’s a lot going on with the overarching plot that Pierce doesn’t know about. And the ending is kind of cliff-hanger-still-in-the-middle-of-things. I’m hoping that the later books make some of this stuff clearer.
 

The Romance
 

In the first chapter of the book, Natalie hears Pierce tell the story of his Natalie, the girl who was his best friend in childhood and who he believes is his soulmate. A few chapters later, we see things from Pierce’s point of view and are shocked to find out that his Natalie is also OUR Natalie, who we’ve been reading about. She has had her childhood memories erased, and Pierce has been forced to stay away from her. Clearly these two people need to find each other and see whether the spark they had in childhood has lasted these many years apart.
 

But! Natalie has not spent her whole life pining after Pierce because she doesn’t even remember him.  And so she has a crush on her best friend Jackson, who seems to have no romantic interest in her whatsoever. Honestly, I kind of want to be on Team Jackson, since he has been there through all her troubles. But he really gets the short end of the stick. Not only does he have no chapters from his point of view, but he’s never around. So the love triangle aspect kind of falls flat. Which I guess is okay because Natalie and Pierce are clearly soulmates.
 

Will I read more?
 

After 6 solid books, Maddy Edwards definitely has a place on my reading schedule whenever she should happen to come out with a new book. As of right now, I think I like One Black Rose better than Spiral, but there are still many things to discover about the world of the unicorns that may make me change my mind.
 

See Details for Book on    Amazon    

Thrall by Jennifer Quintenz

Title: Thrall
Series: Daughters of Lilith
Author: Jennifer Quintenz
Length: 4230 Kindle units
Rating: 4.5 stars

The Plot

Braedyn is looking forward to an ordinary sixteenth birthday hanging out with her friends and maybe spending some time with the cute boy Lucas who moved in next door. She was not expecting to learn the following three pieces of news from her father: 1. She was adopted. 2. Her father is a hunter of succubus-esque demons known as Lilitu. 3. She is about to become one of the very demons her father fights against. Turns out this birthday might not be as ordinary as she was expecting.

The Good

Thrall was a very good book that brought up a variety of interesting issues about what it means to be a demon on the side of good. The book had a cast of interesting characters, including demon hunters, most of whom had lost someone to a Lilitu and were reluctant to work with a Lilitu at all, even one who had been raised to be on their side. There was also another Lilitu who had been raised by humans but who had chosen to join the side of the demons rather than stay with the hunters. Her perspective was particularly interesting, and I hope that we get to see more of it in the future books.

The Bad

Thrall kind of had me on an emotional roller coaster as I went through it. I took a break after the first few chapters and was feeling thoroughly “Eh” about it. Then I read a bit further that night and got really into it and read a few chapters past my bedtime. Then on night 2 I read another third of the novel, and when I had to come back for night 3, I didn’t want to read anymore. I felt like the world of the book was full of horrible people and that there was absolutely nothing anyone could do to make it better.

There doesn’t seem to be much possibility for a happily ever after in this world. If Braedyn uses her powers, it’s bad because they are evil powers that rely on manipulating people. But she needs to use her powers to fight against other demons, so she’s kind of in one of those catch-22 situations that even a deus ex machine can’t cure. And that makes me sad.

Anyway, once again I must say that “emotionally powerful” is not really a flaw, but it did make me hesitant to read more at certain points, so I’m putting it under the bad.

The Romance

Okay, this is the real section where the book loses the half a star. I didn’t really buy the relationship between Braedyn and Lucas. I mean, they know each other for about two days before he tells her that he likes her. She says she doesn’t feel the same, so they stop spending time together. This is all totally logical. Except that, even though they spend none of their time together, they can’t get over their feelings for one another. And I just can’t help but think that if you only know a girl for two days, and she doesn’t want to go out with you, don’t you get over that? Especially when you’re at a brand new school and have girls throwing themselves at you? I feel like you would. Three day rule, people. Irrevocably in love with a girl who doesn’t want to give you the time of day? Not buying it.

In fairness, for the structure of the story, I see why it had to be done this way. I just felt it lacked verisimilitude.

Will I read more?

Emotional upheavals aside, Thrall was a good read, and I suspect that there is more to be developed in future books. I am interested to see more about the Lilitu. I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more of an attempt to make them in some way sympathetic so that Braedyn would be at least a little tempted to join the other side, just to make the story a bit more interesting. But it was plenty interesting on its own, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the series goes.

See Details for Book on    Amazon   

Neiko's Five Land Adventure by A.K. Taylor

Title: Neiko’s Five Land Adventure
Series: Neiko’s Adventure Saga
Author: A.K. Taylor
Length: 3957 Kindle units
Rating: 1 star

The Plot

Captain Neiko Kidd is the champion of the Seven Tribes in their fight against the giant winged Cracked Skulls who want to steal their territory – when she isn’t living the normal life of a high school senior. Her enemies have devised the perfect plan to defeat her: If they make her toys come briefly to life, everyone around her will think she has gone insane. Unfortunately, in the execution of this plan, the Cracked Skulls inadvertently create a portal between their land and the world of Neiko’s toys. And the life size versions of some of these toys are very scary indeed.

The Good

A lot of imagination went into the creation of Neiko’s various worlds. I particularly liked the way many of her toys/characters from Qari were hybrids of various animals. One of the ones we see the most is a scorpion with a cobra for a tail. Now, I don’t know about you, but if I saw a three-foot long scorpion with a cobra coming out of its tail, that would pretty much qualify as the scariest thing I had ever seen. But it seems to be about average scary for this world, which is saying something. I especially liked that the story was accompanied by images of many of these creatures, so I was able to get a better picture of them in my head.

The Bad

When I got the review request for this book, it was accompanied by an article about how the author had created the alternate worlds in the story as an escape from high school bullying. Ordinarily I am wary of a pitch that talks more about the author than the book, because I feel like it means the book can’t stand on its own merits. Neiko’s Five Land Adventure has not changed my mind about this, but I am nonetheless glad that I got the info before reading, because otherwise I would not have had a freaking clue what was going on.

Everyone in the story seemed, to some extent, only to exist in Neiko’s head. The characters were all very fixated on what she found important. These Indian tribes (and we’re not going to get started on the existence of “secret Indians” that are somehow different than Native Americans) have serious conflicts with the Cracked Skulls over land and resources, yet they don’t mind that she misses meetings about their future to go play with her cousin. I would think this would be a huge deal because the hour-long meetings seem to be the extent of their combat activity. And everyone was way too interested in the games she played with her toys.

And the dialogue, dear God, the dialogue. If I ever have to read such bad dialogue again, I pray that God strike me blind to save me from my own folly.

The Romance

For some inexplicable reason, other than that she is the most super-awesome human ever, several of the villains are in love with Neiko. I’m not sure whether this was supposed to make them seem more sympathetic or extra creepy in the rape metaphor kind of way. It definitely came off more as the latter, but I’m not sure whether that was the point. I can’t really go into too much detail about this without massive spoilers, but at one point a character is held hostage by another for many years as an attempt to woo her, and she later describes this experience as being in some ways like “friendly dating.”

Neiko herself is in love with one of her Indian friends, but since she only mentions it twice, and he does not seem to share her affections, I’m not going to spend too much time on that here.

Will I read more?

Not if there is any way that I can help it.

And, yes, I do realize that harshly critiquing a book based on the imagination of a girl who was terrorized by bullies makes me a horrible person. I’m hoping that my commitment to the honest evaluation of literature that comes my way will even the karmic scale.

See Details for Book on    Amazon     Barnes & Noble