Book Review: Unborn by Amber Lynn Natusch

I was super pumped to receive an ARC of Unborn!

The cover: LOVE!

The blurb:

Born into mystery. Shackled to darkness…

Khara has spent centuries discovering everything about the Underworld―except her place in it. But when she’s ripped from her home, solving the riddle of her origins becomes more important than ever. With evil stalking her through the dark alleys of Detroit, she finds salvation from an unlikely source: a group of immortal warriors sworn to protect the city. Khara needs their help to unravel the tangled secrets of who and what she is—secrets many seem willing to kill for. But time is running out, and the closer she gets to the truth, the closer necessity binds her to an arrogant fallen angel.

Can their shaky alliance withstand that which threatens her, or will her soul fall victim to the unholy forces that hunt her―those that seek the Unborn?

From the author of the bestselling Caged series comes a pulse-pounding new romantic urban fantasy series.

--

My thoughts:

I was so excited for this read. I wanted my pulse to pound, but, sadly, it stayed at its normal sluggish rate throughout this entire book. And the romance? Where the hell was it? Oz starts out as an interesting love interest but by the end it’s all toast. Too much talking, barely any action. The spots that had me hooked were few and far between.

The mix of greek mythology and angels did not meld well in this book. The world building was just not up to par.Great ideas, poor execution.

I marked my kindle at 46% with the note of, “finally gets interesting.” But by then it was too late, I was already detached. Khara’s character was hard to connect to; she lacked emotion.

There was a lot of awkward dialog, one minute everyone is talking like they are from another era and then there’s some slang thrown. It would be funny, if Khara’s dumbfounded reaction to it wasn’t so odd. She states that she’s been around for hundreds of years, she reads books, and although she detests television, she had one for a while, also she spends six months out of the year on earth hiding in the woods somewhere. So tell me, how does this character not understand simple slang terms and other languages? Khara has had hundreds of years to learn Greek! Does not make sense.

This book is not for everyone, but it may still be for you. Try it out. Sadly, I don’t think I’ll be reading the rest of the series. This was the biggest disappointing read of the year for me :(

Book Review: The 100

This was a fast read. Typical YA, strong on the romance aspect. I loved the Science Fiction/Dystopian storyline of everyone living in space and waiting for the earth to recover from the apocalypse. Every character has a love interest. I liked the alternating POVs but I feel like it ended very suddenly. The cliffhanger wasn't bad, but it was slightly annoying. I will more than likely read the next book in the series.

#amreading

Post by M. R. Pritchard.

Mockingjay Trailer

Since I am a super Hunger Games fan, I was pretty excited to see this today!!

A Review: Of Bone and Thunder

ARC received from NetGalley

3/5 stars

First thing, let’s talk about the cover. Beautiful, amazing, intriguing. The cover drew me to this book. I love it. Pure fantasy.

Now let’s talk about the book.  I have a hard time connecting with books that have an epic war at the forefront of the storyline without knowing some background information. This is where I would have appreciated a LOTR worthy prologue.  The literary world says prologues are dead, but I think this book deserves one, especially since Of Bone and thunder is hailed as a LOTR-esque read. From a LOTR reader, what do I see that this book has in common with LOTR? Dwarves and Dragons and the hint of an epic battle. Except, I don’t care much for the battle, since, as a reader, I have not been introduced to the danger of the Slyt’s, as I have been to the evil of Sauron. I can understand why the soldiers didn’t understand their mission, because neither did I.

Moving on.

Of Bone and Thunder is told from multiple points of view. We see through the eyes of the enlisted men at the forefront of the battlefield, a man on the ground who just might be a secret weapon in winning this war, and the eye-in-the-sky dragon riders. There is war, deception, drug use, the mistrust of new technologies,  the role of women on the battlefield, and they are all artfully intertwined.

What did I love? The scenery and the mixing of magic, dragons, weaponry that deserve a fantasy novel of their own. Our most captivating characters, Jawn, a trained Thaum (think mind magician with electricity) and trained military officer in the Kingdom’s army, as well as Vorly and Breeze with their dragons are the plot points that kept me reading. Not only were these characters the most captivating, but the scenes were well written and imaginative. I think I did fly on a dragon while reading this, and I did that crazy mind-meld thing that Breeze and Vorly did using the crystals. But what we were given wasn’t enough for me. Deep in my heart, I wanted more dragons, More  magic of the Thaum, More Jawn, more Vorly and Breeze and Carduus. We are only given hints at the strongest characters and most interesting storylines, and then they are heavily coated in jungle sweat and frontline banter and combat. I really wanted to connect with the front line military men, but since (yes, I know I’m beating a dead horse here) I have no way to connect with this war, they were simply a lot of static in the storyline. That being said, Of Bone and Thunder is still a great read.  

Does Evans combine the best of fantasy and military fiction? Yes. Is it for me? Some of it is. I think my problem is that I just prefer more fantasy and less military fiction

If you’re more into military fiction than you are into fantasy, this is a good read for you. If you’re fond of fantasy, but not a fan of military fiction, consider moving on.

Find Of Bone and Thunder on Amazon.com 

 

#10 books that have stayed with me

I was nominated on Facebook to take the #10 books challenge.
These are the results:

This was a bit of a walk down memory lane. Of course there are plenty of books I would like to add but there just isn't room. Super-boo.

The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski

I guess I have to give any book that keeps me reading until 5am five stars. Not only did it keep me up until 5am, but when I woke up a few hours later, I turned on the coffee and read until I finished the book. This was a great read. I will say, I could sense a bit of a tragedy coming on, and when I started chapter forty, I wanted to kick myself in the teeth and then I got to the fourth paragraph and all was well with the world. 

The Edge of Never starts out sweet and while I felt like I easily could have put this book down during the first few chapters, I didn't, and then it was too late because I didn't want to put the book down. The author gave me everything I wanted from a NA romance read, it wasn't over the top, it wasn't raunchy. There was simplicity and fun and just enough "Deepness" to stick in my heart. My only negative idea was that I did get a little annoyed with every male character wanting to bone Camryn.
Great read.

A day spent in the garden

Spent the day outside today! Unfortunately, I wasn't reading. I was sweating it. 

Note to self, stake up tomato plants before the last week of august!

True story

#FreeBookFriday

Get the Kindle eBook for free this weekend!!

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Rainy Day revamp

Revamped the merchandise today. Everyone got a rainy day makeover (except Sparrow Man)

Review of Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M. Lee

I came across Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M. Lee via email from Amazon. In this email it was promised that I could read this book for free. A few clicks later the book arrived in my Kindle. I’m not sure what I owe Amazon for this, maybe a kneecap or my first born? Or can I simply pay them in gratitude?

So, let’s start from the cover. Can I just say, holy hell, have you seen anything so beautiful as this? Whoever did the cover work has talent and I would consider doing certain things to get a cover like that for one of my books. 

Before reading Gates of Thread and Stone, I perused a few reviews and saw some people liken this book to the Clockwork Princess series by Cassandra Claire. Well folks, you can’t judge this book on its cover, this is not your mother’s Cassandra Claire. Actually if Cassandra Claire’s books were an apple and you picked up Gates of Thread and Stone, you’d be holding a carrot in your hand. Ergo, they are on opposite sides of the spectrum.

It took me until about 12% before I started really getting into this book. At first there seemed to be a lot of information that wasn’t necessary or that I felt should have been reworked to fit into the story better. And I got a little uncomfortable with all the mackin’ Kai was doing on her brother. I mean, I have four brothers and not once did I gaze at them as they slept. Anywho, we find out why later in the book why this is acceptable. At 37%, the book really picked up, the story got really interesting and things started to come together a tiny bit, although there was still plenty of mystery. 

I see in my reading progress I noted that at 67%, this book got really good. And then I couldn’t put it down. Still, while reading I felt like there was something missing. It seemed to be plagued by vagueness and gloss and a bit dreamlike. But I kept thinking to myself, this is fantasy, let’s just go with it. So I’m still on the fence with some aspects of this book. I had a hard time connecting with Kai, I feel like her character needed more development. And I guess I’m a selfish reader because I yearned for more uses of Kai’s ability to dapple with the threads of time. I really enjoyed Avan and Reev’s characters, and truly, those two are what kept me reading. 

Overall, the setup is a Young Adult Dystopia with magical/fantasy elements. When I step back, I see elements of Hunger Games, Divergent, and Red Rising, with the cadets and the training, etc. The author did a great job of mixing the dystopia with the mythology but I wanted more. There was so much more that could have been said or delved into with relationships and events instead of glossing over them. So while I enjoyed the last half of this book very much, I still have that nagging feeling that something was missing. Also, this is the only book I’ve ever read and kept asking myself, where is the rest of the world? Are we on a flat plane where there is only Ninurta, a forest, the void, and Etu Gahl. Humans are mentioned, a Rebirth, the one week of sun but… where is the rest of the world?

After all is said and done, I find that Amazon knows me a little too well. It's creepy really.

Bonuses: the ending brought everything together; when I was done I was satisfied and even consider reading this again.

I recommend this, 3/5 stars.

Sparrow Man Kindle Version Now Available

But it here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MLUIIV0

Happiness is....

Review Lux Series by Jennifer Armentrout

My first introduction into the alien/human world created by JLA was by reading Obsession, and I loved it! Over a year later (because I'm cheap and have been stalking this series yet never reading), Obsidian goes on sale for free and I finally swoop down and dig my claws into that mother, and I couldn't put it down.
So here I am, having read the entire series in 7 days (so lucky that the last book was just released), and I loved it all! 
This series starts out as YA romance, but I feel by book five all of our favorite characters have definitely become adults, matured & changed, and the romance is very strong, especially in the last 2 books, but it's not overwhelming as in some YA books, there's a whole lotta plot and twists and turns and ups and downs that kept me on my toes and kept me reading. Plenty of humor and awesome one-liners. The ending had me scared for a bit, but it turned out to be perfect. 

Now I'm sad that it's over :(
Enter ensuing book hangover... 

I'm just going to go ahead and rate all the books in the series 5/5 stars

Review of HORNS by Joe Hill

 
Overall, this was a thrilling read! A great mix of love, heartache, godliness, and the supernatural. I enjoyed the ups and downs of the story and many times I felt like I was hanging around my brothers as a kid, the dialog was real.

The only negative I have about this book is the ending, which seemed to drag on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. People were supposed to leave but then showed up again, other characters showed up and the interactions that followed didn't seem to add anything to the story, just drew it out. And how many times to we need to read about Lee beating the crap out of Ig in the bowels of that building? It was a repeated scene that got old.
 

Overall, a good read. The ending could have been a bit better, and less drawn out. I'm excited for the movie!

4/5 stars

A movie I'm kinda excited about!

I'm reading HORNS by Joe Hill right now (finally)! I was a bit nervous, since Joe Hill is Stephen King's son, I was afraid of never sleeping again. But it's good. I'm about 1/2 way through.
Oh, and the trailer = pretty awesome!

Get More: Movie Trailers, Celebrity News

Sparrow Man Goodreads Giveaway!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Sparrow Man

by M.R. Pritchard

Giveaway ends September 22, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Spring 2015 Release!

Follow Meredith's board Let Her Go on Pinterest.

July Newsletter includes 26pg sneak preview of SPARROW MAN

Here's the link: http://eepurl.com/WlKgD

  

 This book was a round-two contestant in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards 2014 and I received some excellent feedback from the VINE reviewers. So excited!

Blurb:

Meg Clark has turned out to be everything her father and the people of her little North Country town of Gouvernour, NY, have been saying her whole life: nothin’ but a piece of white trash. And that’s how she lives; she’s even got the tattoos to prove it. Well that’s how she was living, until she got knocked up and engaged. In an effort to hide her past and turn herself around, she spent her inheritance from her dead mother on the perfect little house with a white picket fence. Then something terrible happened and Meg got sent to county lockup so her fiancé, Jim, wouldn’t have to. And then everyone started waking up…dead. 

Good thing escaping from County wasn’t hard. Jim told her exactly how to get free. Now Meg is running and the walking dead are following. In a last ditch effort to find weapons to protect herself, Meg finds Sparrow instead. A tall, strange man with a quirk, Sparrow has an obsession with feathers and the only goal that’s on his mind is finding an old barn on Route 37 with a snowy owl in its rafters. 

Meg’s headed to Kingston, where she and Jim agreed to meet if they ever got separated. But sometimes, crossing the border brings more than just freedom and protection and safety. Sometimes it brings questions that someone like Meg would prefer not to answer. And everyone keeps asking questions, including Sparrow. He thinks she’s hiding something and he’s not impressed by her stories of the sins she’s been committing all her life. While Sparrow’s the one who’s a bit cracked in the head, it never occurs to Meg that she could be the one who’s not remembering something. Like what really happened that day she killed those seven men.

Movie Review: Wolf of Wall Street

Since I'm cheap, I rarely ever go to the theater anymore. Instead, I stand awkwardly at the RedBox Kiosk outside of Price Chopper and rent movies. The process is easy, my husband even gave me specific instructions on what to do: I hit the "return" button, insert the movies and then I hit the "pick up" button and swipe my credit card. It's easy enough, I just find the waiting 5 minutes while the machine searches for the movie uncomfortable, because you know people are watching you and if there's a line behind you, it's even worse. So I get my movies, then I pop my own popcorn, drink a beer, and watch them in the comfort of my own home.

So we just rented,

The Wolf of Wall Street

This movie was really great. I was not prepared for the inappropriateness, the copious amounts of drugs, alcohol, and fornication that would be displayed across the screen. But there was a story behind it, and it was entertaining. 

I wish this were actually someone's creative thinking, but instead it's based on the true life of Jordan Belfort. If you drop whatever morals you have and can separate yourself from the fact that Mr. Belfort actually lived this life, deceived these people, wasted this money, and snorted coke out of some strippers butt-crack, then you might find this enjoyable.

I feel like Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill (kinda almost stole the show), and Matthew McConaughey did a great job with their characters. And when did Matthew McConaughey become such a creeper? He used to be a hot dude, now... I barely have words.

When this movie was over, I was entertained. And then I felt weird. I think it was because of all the infidelity. Movies like this just seem to stress the fact that shallow rich men are whores and my soul aches for their wives.

Note to parents. Get all children out of the room before this movie starts or they will forever be damaged.

Rating (with basic human morals ignored)  9/10

 

Book Review! "Monster in His Eyes"

Monster in His Eyes

by J.M. Darhower

 

So, I started this book, and while I was reading I did a lot of thinking, thinking about how I'm over reading stories about sassy poor little co-eds who find some hot rich dude to solve all of their problems, money wise, food wise, clothing wise, and sexing wise. I've never read 50 Shades but while I was reading this I kept thinking, "Is this 50 Shades?" I guess I just wanted more character development in the beginning. There's more to a relationship than money and fornication.
That being said, the second half of the book started to get pretty twisted and I couldn't stop reading. And then... holy hell, twisted isn't even the word for the last quarter of the book.
Also, the philosophy musings tie in quite well. However, this book was missing a teeny tiny bit of magical somethingness. Hopefully I can explain later after I've let the book stew in my head for a bit.

Fellow writer having a book sale! #FREE

Book Review! The 5th WAVE

I've been book stalking The 5th WAVE for over a year now. And then it went on sale. And then I read it and was totally blown away. Not what I expected. I loved it. Except for that last page. If I had this in paper form, I think I'd rip that last page right out of the book and burn it. I literally found myself, multiple times, so engrossed that my mouth was hanging open and the world could have exploded around me and I would have never known.
What I didn't realize was that this is part of a series. And now I have to wait until September to read the second book. I might go crazy waiting to find out what happens with everyone, and Evan, what the hell happened to Evan! Not cool, Rick. Not cool at all.
(Since I finished this at 3:40 in the morning, I need a nap, and then I might alter this review a tad.)

Saratoga has a new cover!

eBook: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H2P7W0W

Paperback with new cover coming soon!

Let's giveaway some free eBooks!

For a limited time, to celebrate the release of REVELATION, Book 3 in THE PHOENIX PROJECT SERIES, Books 1 AND 2 are free! 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BN1EFCE
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D50BCW2
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IZPH9NI

On fangirling