ANGELBOUND – Christina Bauer

Posted by Daniel on April 16, 2019
Posted in: ROMANCE, SF/FANTASY, YA. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I wish I could remember how or why I came across this book.  I get books to read and review in a wide variety of ways. For whatever the reason, this one sounded quite interesting, and I was not disappointed.

Myla Lewis is a young woman – still in school – who is also a half-demon. She’s also one heck of a tough bad-ass.  Myla lives to fight in the Purgatory arena … anyone arriving in Purgatory can choose a trial by combat to determine whether they ascend to heaven or descend to hell. But things change for Myla when she meets the half-human, half-angel demon hunter Lincoln – a super sexy High Prince of Thrax.

Author Christina Bauer has created a really interesting concept with a wonderfully strong character. This is definitely intended for the YA romance reader (paranormal romances are quite popular today) which is not a category I would typically enjoy, but the strength of Myla’s character, combined with the Purgatory setting really makes this a strong, run read.

The problem with most small-press/self-published books is that they typically need a stronger editing hand, and this book is no different.  From “5 o’clock”  to “Frustration bolts through my arms and legs” there are moments here that remind me that this didn’t come from a major publishing house. Which is too bad, because there is enough here that this could have had success with a larger YA publisher.

I read small press books with the hopes of finding little gems, such as this.

Looking for a good book? Angelbound by Christina Bauer is an exciting YA paranormal romance.

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Angelbound

author: Christina Bauer

series: Angelbound Origins #1

publisher: Monster House Books

ISBN: 0989405028

paperback, 412 pages

THE FLIMFLAM AFFAIR – Bill Pronzini

Posted by Daniel on April 15, 2019
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized, WESTERN. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I’ve been reading Bill Pronzini books for about as long as I can remember.  His may not be a well-known name, but I know when I pick up a Pronzini book that I will get strong characters and a solid story. It has been a year or more since I last read a Pronzini book, but when I saw this up as an ARC, I immediately requested it.

Sabina Carpenter and John Quincannon run a detective agency in San Francisco near the turn of the century (1897). Quincannon is investigating gold theft from a railroad company when the book opens, and Sabina is enlisted to investigate a medium who is fleecing the recently bereaved men and women of San Francisco. And a case of counterfeiting brings John back to his days when he worked for the Secret Service and a man he thought was dead haunts him again.

The mysteries here are well thought-out and developed allowing the reader to experience them along with our detectives. The throwback to Quincannon’s earlier days is a nice addition – especially for someone like myself who really only remembers a couple of the earliest books.

I enjoyed the relationship banter between Sabina and John – as I mentioned at the start, strong characters are a hallmark of a Pronzini story after all. This definitely made me want to read more of the ‘Carpenter & Quincannon’ mysteries.

And while I truly felt this was an enjoyable read, I can understand where the appeal may be limited.  I happen to really like western fiction (the first Quincannon book was an early favorite of mine) and historical fiction, and when combined with a good mystery, this is right up my alley. But I know too many people who won’t read books that are ‘westerns’ because of preconceived notions of what that means. Let’s hope that a good mystery will draw them in.

Looking for a good book? The Flimflam Affair by Bill Pronzini is a turn-of-the-century mystery with strong characters.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Flimflam Affair

author: Bill Pronzini

series: A Carpenter and Quincannon Mystery #7

publisher: Forge

ISBN: 0765394375

hardcover, 240 pages

quotes – April 2019

Posted by Daniel on April 13, 2019
Posted in: OTHER. Tagged: . Leave a comment

…when guys continually laugh at the same things, it means more than sharing the same sense of humor: it’s sharing the same world of referential knowledge, the same moral philosophy. Your laughter acknowledges similar wiring without revealing anything.
Wayne Gladstone – Agents of the Internet Apocalypse

 

They say knowing is half the battle, but they don’t tell you there is no second half, and fifty percent of anything is never a solution.
Wayne Gladstone – Agents of the Internet Apocalypse

 

It takes a village to raise a village idiot.
Loretta Ross – Death and the Red-Headed Woman

 

I was a little drunk.  Not drunk in any positive sense but just enough to be careless.
Ernest Hemingway – The Sun Also Rises

 

It’s a lovely nose. Go on, point it at me.
Ernest Hemingway – The Sun Also Rises

 

We’re all just dumb animals that ruin everything we touch.
Howard Odentz – Dead (A Lot)

 

If I understood what you were talking about, I’d no doubt have a neat retort.
Jonathan Stroud – The Whispering Skull

Joy has a way of interfering with misery.
Susannah J. Ural – Don’t Hurry Me Down to Hades

 

Don’t read your old diaries when you’re depressed.
Lorna Lanvik – Best to Laugh

 

It is not easy to live in a world of men. It seems they do not think as I do.
Judith Redman Robbins – Coyote Woman

BODY & BLOOD – Amanda Havard

Posted by Daniel on April 12, 2019
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, YA. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I really struggled with this book.

Body & Blood is the third book in The Survivor’s series by Amanda Havard, and perhaps if I’d read the first book or two this would have been an easier read because I would have understood the characters a little better. On the other hand, if I had read the first book (or two) I probably wouldn’t have bothered with this third book.

I don’t typically read the description of a book(such as that on Amazon or on Goodreads) before I read the book – I don’t want to be influenced – but reading the Goodreads description would have probably stopped me and saved me some time.  Here is the beginning of the Goodreads description:

How many answers you seek are just a part of you, waiting to be found?

The game has changed.

Fresh from her first brush with mortality, a fragile Sadie Matthau is playing human with Cole Hardwick while the Survivors endure unimaginable tragedy. Wrought with the first deaths of their own kind, a tyrant who will torture them, and an opponent more terrifying than anyone could have foreseen, the Survivors are facing their end.

Told from three points of view, The Survivors: Body & Blood is a bloodcurdling, mind-bending, heart-stopping ride. As Sadie and the Winters uncover more enemies, more history, and more answers, they find themselves brought closer together and ripped further apart. And all the while, a haunting Alexander Raven lurks at the edge of Sadie s lifeline, at the darkening fringes of her mind.

As the Survivors descend into chaos, Sadie realizes a painful truth: the deepest of secrets leave the darkest of marks.

Caught between a terrifying fantasy and her own grim reality, Body & Blood is the story of Sadie s dance with her demons, future, past, and present.

Lots of exciting adjectives and adverbs (this reads like a film trailer), but nothing that really describes anything to a prospective new reader.  Who are “the Survivors” mentioned in the description and series title? “Fresh from her first brush with mortality” and “playing human” … clearly there’s something paranormal or other-worldly here, but what?  Is the answer in the book?  Yes… but not too early. So those of us who have not read the other volumes, aren’t clued in very well.

I felt like the book was mostly talk.  The characters stood around and talked to one another – about plans, about what they would do, about how to solve their problems. Then something might happen, and they’d stand around and talk some more. This was one of the driest fantasies I’ve read in a long time. It was definitely NOT the bloodcurdling, mind-bending, heart-stopping ride I was hoping for.

Looking for a good book? Body & Blood by Amanda Havard might appeal if you’ve read the first two books in the series … and then again, it might not.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Body & Blood

author: Amanda Havard

series: The Survivors #3

publisher: Chafie Press

ISBN13: 9780983319085

hardcover, 356 pages

THE ADVENTURERS GUILD – Zack Loran Clark & Nick Eliopulos

Posted by Daniel on April 10, 2019
Posted in: CHILDREN'S, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

People have asked me what is the hardest part about writing book reviews and it’s an easy answer … reviewing perfectly average books. Books that are outstanding and books that are terrible are easy to review because you can go in-depth on why you think they are outstanding or terrible.  But there is almost nothing to say about a book that is incredibly average.

This is just such a book.

Zed and Brock are friends.  Both are coming of age and their futures will be determined soon as they learn where they are to be accepted to study and train.  Brock hopes to be a part of the Merchant’s Guild while Zed is wanting to join the Mages Guild. Instead, however, they are both enlisted into the Adventurers Guild – a dangerous guild lead by the eccentric and frightening Alabasel Frond. As Guild members, they are the last defense their community has against beasts from another dimension, which is difficult in itself.  But Brock and Zed discover a plot to undermine all of Freestone (their community).

There’s nothing ‘wrong’ with this book.  It’s sure to be an exciting adventure for most who pick it up, but at the same time, there’s nothing about this book that makes it stand out in a field full of fantasy adventure books for young readers. I had thought that the characters would be something that I could get behind … the early chapters of the two of them sharing their hopes for the future definitely had me interested.  But it became a book less about the characters and more about the adventure. This is fine, and exciting, but we see this in children’s lit all the time.

This is a prime example of a perfectly middle-of-the-road book. It will be exciting for some and just another fantasy for others.

Looking for a good book? The Adventurers Guild by Zack Loran Clark and Nick Eliopulos is a young reader’s action-adventure fantasy that doesn’t have much to make it stand out on a shelf full of similar adventure stories.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Adventurers Guild

authors: Zack Loran Clark and Nick Eliopulos

series: The Adventurers Guild #1

publisher: Disney-Hyperion

ISBN: 148478801X

hardcover, 320 pages

THE LAGER QUEEN OF MINNESOTA – J. Ryan Stradal

Posted by Daniel on April 8, 2019
Posted in: OTHER, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Beer?  Minnesota?  I’m in!

J. Ryan Stradal’s The Lager Queen of Minnesota is a story of family and the pursuit of dreams. Edith Magnusson is famous for her pies since they were named third best pies in the state of Minnesota. Edith’s sister is Helen Blotz. Helen turned the family soda business into one of the top breweries in Minnesota. Diana Winter has been a bit of a rogue, but when given a chance to learn the beer business she takes to it immediately. But just as Diana is about to launch her own brewpub, during the rise in popularity of IPAs, she’s also ready to give birth.  Diane needs help and it comes from an unlikely source – Edith Magnusson.  Can a rhubarb pie IPA be the next best thing?

Stradal really captures the Midwestern/Minnesota vibe. There’s an entrepreneurial spirit here among these three women (and in many of the other characters), coupled with subtlety and understatement. If you know many Minnesotans you will recognize this trait.

The early sections of this book mostly follow Edith and her pie making, which confused the heck out of me.  Twice I flipped to the front of the book to make sure I was reading the correct ARC because there was no sign that I was on the path to what the book was presumably about.

Books with female leads are incredibly popular today and it’s great that Stradal takes on the challenge of bringing three women into focus, but the problem here is that Stradal only gives us superficial female characters.  They do some really wonderful things, and they struggle in a male-dominate world, but when you really get into it, there isn’t much depth to these women. The genders could be changed and it wouldn’t change much in the story.

Still, I enjoyed my visit here overall.  The rise and struggle of the characters is interesting, even if I didn’t feel they were too gender-specific, and of course, small brewery in Minnesota will almost always have a special appeal to me.

Looking for a good book? The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal is a fun look at the building and running a small beer business with Midwest ethics.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Lager Queen of Minnesota

author: J. Ryan Stradal

publisher: Pamela Dorman Books

ISBN: 0399563059

hardcover, 384 pages

SORCERERS OF THE NIGHTWING – Geoffrey Huntington

Posted by Daniel on April 5, 2019
Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, Uncategorized, YA. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Growing up, Devon March learned that the monsters in his closet were real – not figments of his imagination – and that he was stronger than those monsters. The latter was something that his father would tell him repeatedly. But when he is orphaned at age fifteen and sent to live with distant family at Ravenscliff Manor he learns a great many secrets about his family, his past, and himself.

The beginning of this book was much more terrifying than I expected – particularly for a YA book – but the initial horror really only provides a setting for the book.  The rest of the horror is typically implied by the opening chapters.

The character of Devon March is almost atypical in YA literature.  Despite being a fish out of water, he is confident and sure of himself.  So many YA characters suffer from angst and anxiety and overcome great odds just to muster a call to action. Not so Devon. His desire is to understand his past and what is in store for his future and how the monsters and demons he encounters are a part of his life. This is quite refreshing but definitely took me by surprise each time Devon did something responsible.

The supporting characters are a bit less clear. Cecily seems forever horny, Mrs. Crandall is the uptight caretaker, and Alexander the boy with a great many secrets. But beyond these impressions there isn’t much to them.

This is an older book (one of the oldest books in my ARC queue) and I hadn’t heard much about it, but I definitely enjoyed this journey. Following Devon on his journey to understand himself is really interesting.  The horror aspects of monsters and demons will appeal to certain younger readers. While it’s not a ‘must read’ book, it is a book that will be enjoyed when selected.

Looking for a good book? Sorcerers of the Nightwing by Geoffrey Huntington is a well-crafted YA horror book.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Sorcerers of the Nightwing

author: Geoffrey Huntington

series: The Ravenscliff Series #1

publisher: ReganBooks

ISBN: 0060014253

hardcover, 278 pages