Lyrical Reviews

I'm claiming reading back!

2012-01-20T08:00:00.001Z

THIS BLOG IS NO LONGER UPDATED

I've thought long and hard over this and have decided to stop updating this blog. Recently, my enjoyment of reading has decreased to an alarmingly low level and this is mainly due to the pressure of having to read at least two books a week and reading books I don't necessarily want to read. I am an average pace reader but in order to get at least two reviews up a week, reading is consuming all my time and when I either have to do something else or don't feel like reading, I feel under immense pressure to pick up a book. Basically, this blog has made reading the ruler of me and it's no longer a pleasurable passtime.

So, I'm claiming reading back for myself, I'm taking it back to one of my favourite hobbies and if it takes me two months to read one book then so be it. I'm giving up the deadlines!

I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has followed and supported me over the last six months. Blogging has been a real experience and I will certainly still be following everyone else - but as a reader and a fan from now on rather than a fellow blogger.

I'm leaving this blog up for posterity but may eventually get brave enough to delete it. However, as of today, 20th January 2012, I am no longer posting any more content.

I wish everyone the best and thank you once again for your support.

Lyrical Brown

Interview: Dean Johnson

2012-01-18T08:00:00.000Z

Today, I'd like to welcome Dean Johnson, author of Moondreams, for one of my grillings. You can read my review of Moondreams here.

How would you describe Moondreams in a tweet (140 characters)?

A warm, toes-in-the sand, beach read about how relationships are the bricks and mortar of your foundation, but you must build your own house. (with a character to spare!!)

How did the story of Moondreams come to you?

When I was younger, there was a time when I was, I suppose, a bit aimless. I had dropped out of college, was working in an auto garage, was doing some stringer work for a couple of local newspapers, but really had no idea what or where I wanted to be.

The fragmented nature of the novel reflects that theme.

I took that, mixed in a little of when I met my wife, added a dash of a few childhood experiences, stirred in quite a bit of imagination, and cooked up Moondreams.

Both Kirah and Bryan are very strong voices, how did you come up with their characters?

I’d have to say that both Kirah and Bryan are composites. Each have some qualities of people I know, but neither is based any one individual. What gives them strong voice is that they both have a little part of me in them, I suppose.

What kind of research did you do for Moondreams?

While I was raised in the region where Moondreams takes place (Southern New Jersey), I had to make sure my landmarks were accurate and my descriptions precise. I visited a few sites for notes. I even pulled to the side of the road once to write out some notes on details of an old highway motel.

What are your writing habits? Are you the kind of writer who plans everything or are you a seat-of-your-pants writer?

I write a lot in my head. I have a tablet nearby at all times to jot down an idea or a detail of a unique setting I run into. I use my phone quite a bit to record ideas – especially when driving. I don’t know what’s worse: writing down notes on paper while driving or talking into my cell phone.

I usually have a scene in mind when I start out, but what I had in mind at the beginning isn’t always what’s there at the end. I love when this happens. The scene takes a life of its own.

What’s the most challenging and rewarding aspects of writing for young adults?

Writing for young adults is a balancing act. You have to be careful not to insult them by being too “young,” that is – your themes and scenes too antiseptic, you know, stuff Grandma would expect a young adult to read. On the other hand, your audience is still children and the adults that help make the decisions what their children (their students) read.

When and why did you decide to take the plunge and self publish your book? Did you always plan to publish it?

After I had written this book, I had a few friends read it. I made some revisions and sent it out into the wild, wild world of a dwindling publishing industry. I received a couple of wonderful rejections; you know, not a form letter. Had an agent show some interest, but for whatever reason, that didn’t pan out. So, I put the book aside and worked on other projects.

When I saw how the indie book world was growing and how more people were becoming interested in taking a chance on reading new authors, I decided to dip my toe in the water.

What’s the story behind the cover?

My wife took this picture. It is on the beach in Ventnor, NJ. I photoshopped in the moon and darkened the picture a bit. When my wife and I were dating, she lived in Ventnor, and she and I walked that beach countless moonlit nights.

If you had room on your shelf for only 3 books, what would they be?

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe and The Bible

What are you working now?

I am working on several pieces. I’ve finished a memoir called Winter of a Furious Season. It’s the story of a 17 month period when my wife and I were just married and had to deal with the illnesses and subsequent death of both my parents and my wife’s mother (her father had passed away before I had met her). It’s a story of survival amid a tsunami of cancer.

I also am writing a lot of small pieces. I recently had essays published in the Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, and the Atlantic City Press. I’ve had pieces in many other newspapers as well including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer to name a few. I will be collecting some of the pieces I’ve done over the past ten years or so and will probably publish them as ebooks.

I also have two other pots on the writing stove, both in the young adult genre. One is an historical piece about a young child misdiagnosed with a mental disorder in the late 1960s. The other is about a middle school young man who is a middle child of middle aged, middle class parents and how he develops an identity after borrowing a few others.

Review: India Dark - Kirsty Murray

2012-01-16T08:00:00.001Z

*NEW*
Extent: 336 pages
Publisher: Templar
Pub Date: 1st January 2012

A story of secrets, lies and lost innocence. MADRAS, 1910: Posey Swift and Tilly Sweetrick are caught up in a scandal that will change their lives forever. Singing and Dancing across a hundred stages as members of a troupe of Australian child performers, they travel by steam train into the heart of India. But as one disaster follows another, money runs short and tempers fray. What must the girls do to protect themselves, and how many lives will be ruined if they try to break free?

It's nice to get away from over populated genres once in a while and find a story that sticks with you because of its originality and poignancy and there are few books that do this better than those based on true stories. The originality is in the truth itself as no one writes fiction about real life - it's too dull, lacks perfection and doesn't have succinct beginnings, middles and ends. But once in a while some clever writer digs up a story worth telling and passes it through their magic keyboard to create a book that really moves you. Kirsty Murray is without doubt one of those clever writers.

India Dark's basis in truth is a real asset to this story as you're not just tagging along with fictional characters, you're empathising with real people. Hopelessness and desperation ooze off the page but it's made all more poignant by the fact that this really happened to real people. It's clear that the author has really studied her characters, she knows them inside out and knows exactly how each one would react to different situations. The chapters are told from the point of view of either the innocent Poesy Swift or the feisty Tilly Sweetrick who both have such distinct voices, the reader is drawn into seeing the story from two very different sides. Here's the clever bit: Tilly's voice begins very obnoxious so you immediately side with Poesy, thinking that her innocence and openness are allowing you to see what's really happening, however, as the story moves on, you begin to see that it's not Tilly who is obscuring the truth but it is in fact Poesy. She has sealed her eyes, ears and mouth with innocence tape, leading the reader through her enforced perfect world which leaves you stinging with pity as Tilly and the forces of evil gradually peel the tape off. In the end, I much preferred Tilly's voice as she actually had the maturity and the guts to save the children from a cruel fate.

The setting for India Dark is fascinating. I had no idea people used to tour troupes of performing children around the world and of course there's a lot of socio-political history that goes with it. Everywhere seemed to belong to one European country or another back in the early 20th century and Kirsty Murray has expertly captured the feelings, reactions and trends of the times, the strange mix of east and west that really weren't all that compatible. It's a real lesson in social history and the tour around southeast Asia and India is a colourful backdrop to the story. The episodes of travel work really well with the developing plot line and characters. It's a real treat to get a glimpse into life at this time and the author has created just the right tone for it to be authentic yet relevant to a modern audience.

India Dark is a real gem of a book by the fact that it's a real standalone story. It doesn't fuel any genre craze but instead it stays with you as a unique testament to the human condition. It's a cautionary tale of the danger of innocence and lies but also a tribute to unyielding courage in the face of hopelessness. A great way to start 2012!

Interview: Ciye Cho

2012-01-14T15:25:00.002Z

Today, I'd like to welcome Ciye Cho, author of Shiewo: A Fantasy Flight to Adventure, for one of my grillings. You can find my review of Shiewo here.

How would you describe Shiewo: A Fantasy Flight to Adventure in a tweet (140 characters)?

Shiewo Morose is the captain of a flying ship. With a song and a quest, this young woman is about to discover an adventure without limits...

I thought Shiewo was such an original story, where did the idea for the book come from?

I've always wanted to write a book about a flying ship powered by music. It's an idea that combines several of my favorite things: clouds, colors, music, and fantasy...

I love your cast of varied and original characters and Shiewo makes a great hero. How do these characters come to you?

When I assembled the crew, I thought it was important that they each had a different core trait (i.e. tenacity in Shiewo; shyness in Theo), but I also wanted to create characters that were unusual and unexpected. I think that coming up with characters is sort of like inventing imaginary friends...

How did you go about creating Shiewo’s colourful and fantastical world? Where does your inspiration come from?

My inspiration comes from some of my favourite subjects: meteorology, horology, nature, and music. For example, while musical flight is obviously impossible, each level of Shiewo's flying ship, the Odyssey, has a basis in real-world musical science.

What are the most challenging and rewarding aspects of writing high fantasy and setting a story in a world where anything can happen?

The most challenging aspect would be finding a way to present something fresh and original. The most rewarding aspect would be bringing readers into a world of your own creation--letting them see, hear, and experience things that don't exist.

When and why did you decide to take the plunge and self publish your book? Did you always plan to publish it?

I decided to self-publish a few months before the completion of "Fantasy Flight." I thought it would an exciting challenge that would allow me to expand my project creatively on my own terms.

What kind of writer are you? Do you have any rituals? Do you plan a story from start to finish or just see what happens?

"Fantasy Flight" evolved quite a bit over the course of writing... so I don't know if I really focused too hard on absolute planning. As for rituals, I like to draw cross-sections of every world I work on. I obsess over details, and I've probably sketched out every last gizmo and machine within the Odyssey.

What’s the story behind the cover art?

The cover showcases each character's personality and look. For example, Theo is shown with his perennial expression of worry, while Erduu is seen looking mighty zen-nish. As for Shiewo, if you look carefully you'll see that she's not really smiling or frowning; she's a complex character and I think the central image of her captures that well.

If you had room on your shelf for only 3 books, what would they be?

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, James and Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

Do you have any hints for what we can expect from the next book?

Book two of Shiewo's Odyssey will see the intrepid captain face off against Horologo's time serpent. Beyond that, you can expect time travel, action, oddball antics, and a bit of romance.

Review: Kevin's Point of View - Del Shannon

2012-01-11T08:00:00.002Z

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: 402 pages
Publisher: self-published
Pub Date: 4th June 2010

To escape the emotional turmoil of his father’s death 12-year-old Kevin Tobin has retreated inside himself, developing his imagination into a dangerous foil and a powerful ally. While he antagonizes everyone with his superhero antics, his ability to escape inside himself becomes critical to his survival after his life is once-again turned upside down a year after his father’s death. When a mysterious package arrives in the mail, Kevin and his best friend are hunted by a ruthless villain who is determined to retrieve the package, which holds the key to his plans for world domination. After enlisting Kevin’s teenage sister and her pizza-delivery boyfriend in a battle for control over time itself, the group escapes into the mountains west of Boulder, Colorado and eventually discover that Kevin’s entire existence is because of the love of someone we never expected.

Kevin's Point of View is Del Shannon's debut novel and shows a deep appreciation for the powers of imagination, family ties, and the desire of young boys to both escape reality and prove themselves within it. The fast-paced, adventure-filled storytelling style makes this a book with wide appeal for readers of all ages.

For a woman in her twenties, I have to confess I'm a real sucker for a middle grade male-oriented action adventure. But I need to be more specific: I like middle grade male-oriented action adventure that has depth and doesn't patronise the reader and it is without doubt that Kevin's Point of View fits very comfortably into that category.

I found the lead character, Kevin, immediately both intriguing and engaging. He is a boy who lives in his imagination, blocking out reality by immersing himself into scenes from superhero cartoons to the point where he no longer engages with reality. Del Shannon is expert at losing his character in his mind and nurtures the reader into empathising with his hero - he's troubled but he's courageous and determined to fix both himself and his family, whatever it takes. As for the baddy - whom I judge very harshly as they are always important to me! - Del's has to be one of the better written ones, a real ruthless, looming threat that gets your skin crawling and your jaw clenching through narrow escapes.

The story itself is cleverly wrought. You begin the book as if someone has just scattered all the pieces of the puzzle in front of you and with each turn of the page you can fit another piece back into place. Mystery is key to this plot and Del Shannon is skilful at creating it, knitting it in comfortably with substantial action sequences. In fact, once the action gets going, there are not many places to pause and take a breath. In some cases this can be a bad thing: maintaining a high level of action and adrenaline leads to blocking out the natural curvy line of highs and lows in a plot that bring dynamics to the story, moments of external threat mixed in with moments of internal reflection. I think what Del Shannon has done, however, is wrap all these moments up, creating strong dynamics within a high adrenaline environment. This is what gets me excited about well written books for boys - how the author goes about sustaining interest in the reader while also putting them through a spectrum of emotions and begging them to form an opinion. Kevin's Point of View is full of those little lightbulb moments when amidst the action realisation dawns and you figure out what's going on - and then it doesn't happen quite how you expected and when it does you're on the edge of your seat. Gasp, gasp, gasp.

This is definitely one of the better MG boys books I've read, it's thoroughly engaging, has plenty of high adrenaline action but yet contains a clever, well-constructed story with characters of great emotional depth. Boys will love it and as a twenty something year old woman, I have to say I love it too.

Review: The Iron King - Julie Kagawa

2012-01-09T08:00:00.004Z

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: 384 pages
Publisher: Mira Books
Pub Date: 21st January 2011

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

Well, I have to say this is one of my favourite novels to come out of the paranormania, and trust me there are not many paranormal books on my list of all time favourites.

Swooning females are not my idea of good heroines and there seem to be far too many about at the moment - I have to keep reminding myself what century it is. Julie Kagawa, however, has hit the proverbial nail on the head with Meghan Chase, however. Yes, she does have her swoony, pathetic moments but so does anyone who doesn't know how to fight powerful fairies. At the same time, however, the author gives Meghan plenty of alone time to show off her independence and resourefulness. It's nice to have a bit of strong, handsome, unfathomably-attracted-to-the-plain-heroine male saving the day action, but Julie Kagawa pushes her heroine, landing her into situations where she has to use her own wit and defend herself. That's why, for me, The Iron King rocks. All hail the female lead that is not just a cowering, incapable wreck!

OK, feminist rant over... I love the mythology of this book - it's so closely woven into the real world and the stories that we all know that the Fey world seems so real. It parallels Narnia but where C. S. Lewis created a whole new mythology, Julie Kagawa taps into the rich mythological history of our own world, making it less epic fantasy and more urban fantasy, a fantasy that is highly accessible and believable. More than that, you really get a sense of how greatly the author respects and treasures the magic you find in old stories, myth and folklore. The Iron King is a warning against sacrificing imagination, creativity and such grown up nonsense as "there's no such thing as fairies" for the sake of progress and technology. What happens when there is such a dramatic shift in our culture? What happens when we confuse myth, legend and imagination with uselessness? If it's not forward motion or efficiency improvement, it's worthless right? So wrong! The magic of stories consumes my free time, it's where I escape to in order to take a break from having constantly to progress the world. Don't get me wrong, I love my gadgets, I'd die without the internet and my phone is permanently attached to me - but so too is a book. I walk in two worlds, the technological one and the magical one. I agree entirely with Julie Kagawa's sentiments but she can rest assured that as long as people keep writing books like The Iron King, the magic will never die.

Sorry for absence!

2012-01-08T12:13:00.000Z

Sorry I haven't been posting in the last few days, I've had a horrible flu bug which has meant I can do little more than lounge on the sofa... Will be back shortly though! I'm doing everything this week that I said I was gonna do last week. :-)

xx

Review: Project New Age - Daniel Piros

2012-01-04T08:00:00.002Z

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: 162 pages
Publisher: Self Published
Pub Date: 26th July 2011

For sixteen years, they thought they were totally human. Now, three kids discover that their parents genetically engineered them as part of "The Project", and it's their destiny to save the world from... something... somehow... sometime... With no further information on their destiny, all the human-wolf hybrids can do is get used to their new forms, try to hide the ever-present ears on the top of their heads from the other kids at school, and listen to the police scanner, waiting for someone to commit a crime in the peaceful "town" of Keswick, VA.

Sometimes I don't have the patience to sit through a waffle-ridden 600 page epic with the story starting at around page 200. It's at times like these that I reach for a book like Project New Age. There's no hanging about in this book, you're hit with the story on page 1 and there is a distinct lack of waffle throughout. In fact, it's so devoid of waffle there were moments when I had to sit back for a few minutes and invent some of my own. That just shows you how well trained traditional published books have gotten me really.

In describing Project New Age, however, I think "traditional" is the last word I would use. It's pretty unique in every way really. It reads a lot like manga or a graphic novel where settings and descriptions are allocated to the artwork with only speech and space-time locators written down. Except, there's no art in Project New Age. At first I found this a bit unnerving, it's not something you find in 99% of books, but after a while I got it. Daniel has left the majority of the work up to you, the reader. Sort of, fill-in-the-blanks reading. Don't get me wrong, it's not devoid of all description, the story is just wrapped up more subtly than in other books. I thought it would hinder the plot and leave the characters in 2D but actually the story really builds and strengthens towards the end while I grew quite attached to the characters who developed very distinct personalities. Chris, for example, the narrator, can be witty and soft one minute and then deeply philosophical the next. If only there were more 15 year olds who thought as much as him!

Another original feature of Project New Age is that it takes a lot of elements that are very popular at the moment - paranormal, superhero, small town with a secret - but mixes them up and presents them with more than a hint of satire. So many paranormal books take themselves extremely seriously, striving to keep a frown on the reader's face, which certainly works if you're in that sort of mood (and I frequently am!) but Project New Age is a lighter alternative where the characters openly mock the threats in the story and some plot elements are more than a little bizarre - all I'm going to say is watch out for the parasitic guitars!

If you are looking for an orthodox read full of lilting, colourful descriptions, the likes of which would shower it in awards and have reviewers racking their brains to find novel adjectives to describe the description then you better look elsewhere. But if you want someone to talk to you straight and let you fill in the blanks with your own imagination and provide you with new ideas then look no further.

Self Publishing Spotlight: Project New Age by Daniel Piros

2012-01-02T08:00:00.002Z

Welcome to my Self Publishing Spotlight!

This month I'm very pleased to say my spotlight has landed on author Daniel Piros and his lupine superhero novel Project New Age.

For sixteen years, they thought they were totally human. Now, three kids discover that their parents genetically engineered them as part of "The Project", and it's their destiny to save the world from... something... somehow... sometime... With no further information on their destiny, all the human-wolf hybrids can do is get used to their new forms, try to hide the ever-present ears on the top of their heads from the other kids at school, and listen to the police scanner, waiting for someone to commit a crime in the peaceful "town" of Keswick, VA.

I'm afraid I have been useless and not yet posted my review of Project New Age - I've been too caught up in Christmas and New Year... But it will go up this week so stay tuned! For now, Daniel has written me fab guest post all about his writing journey.

Hello, and welcome to my fifth attempt to write my Self Publishing Spotlight. As you can probably tell, I’m very nervous. When this review comes out, it will be the first professional review and the first publicity for Project New Age. The first real test of whether my writing is actually any good. The old saying “build it and they will come” isn’t true. Books sell through publicity, not through being good. So if I mess up in this article here, I could turn everyone away from a book they might love.

So, no pressure, right?

I don’t deal well with stress. But I am good at overcoming obstacles. During the summer of Kindergarten, I went from a below-average reading level (to the point that my teacher gave me a “special” list of books to read over the summer) to reading chapter books. In one book.

Those “special” books the teacher recommended bored the hell out of me. I didn’t want to read them. I had my sights set on more interesting — and more challenging — books.

Eventually, my stubbornness forced my mom to let me try to read The Magic Treehouse books, which were the books my two older brothers were reading. She thought I’d finally realize that I couldn’t read anything that hard, and quit bugging her about it. But, by the end of the first book, I was reading every word by myself, without any help from my mom.

One book was all it took for me to learn to read, and learn to love to read.
Needless to say, Mom was surprised.

About two years ago, I finished another one of James Patterson’s Maximum Ride books. I was addicted to them. And I couldn’t find any other author who could satisfy the intense craving I had for more of his books. So I tried to write my own book.

I failed. Very badly.

But I enjoyed failing, so I kept trying. I became obsessed with writing novels. My mom worried about me a lot. Then, she read Project New Age, and urged me to self-publish it.

Seems like she has a habit of underestimating me, huh?

Well, I underestimated myself, too. Writing had always been a challenge for me. And I hated it. Or so I thought. Turns out, I love writing when I’m writing freely about something I’m interested in. When I’m writing about something I don’t care about (like an essay on Prohibition), I hate it.

Writing has now become my greatest passion and obsession. When I sit down at the keyboard, I can just type away, letting the ideas flow freely. What comes out is mostly humor, with some deep thinking beneath the surface.

Project New Age is largely a satire of superhero stories, although it does have some deep ideas in it. In school, too much emphasis is placed on the themes of books, what you can learn from them, how they can change your life and make you a better person, yadda, yadda, yadda. None of the books I’ve read for school have had that kind of impact on me. They just bore me. Reading is supposed to be enjoyable, so in my writing, I strive to make it so. That’s why my dedication reads, “I dedicate this book to anyone who enjoys it. And I apologize to everyone else.” If my books change someone’s life for the better with the meaning beneath the surface, and help them through tough times, that’s great. But I’ve found that the best thing when times are tough is to just laugh and have fun.

Life needs humor. People like to laugh. And when people take things too seriously, there can be a lot of conflict. For example, there’s a taboo against making jokes about religion, and look at the things that have happened when people take their religion too sternly. The Crusades. The Inquisition. Terrorists who call America the “Great Satan”. George W. Bush. If people would just take a step back and think, “Wait a second... I believe in a giant man in the sky who reads minds and grants wishes” and laugh a little, a lot of that conflict could be avoided. If people were more conscious of how crazy their own ideas sound, they’d be more willing to accept that others disagree, and even that their ideas could be wrong, and aren’t worth killing people over. Of course, that’s just my opinion.

Project New Age relies heavily on the characters, particularly the narrator, Chris. Chris is half human and half wolf. He loves BACON!! and being petted and scratched behind his ears. He can also be very philosophical. Sometimes, he’s asking to be petted, or showing his great love of BACON!!, and other times — or even simultaneously — he’s talking about his views and philosophy on life. For example, towards the end of Project New Age, Chris says, “My thought is, ‘Believe whatever you want, just don’t let it interfere with others’. If that means you believe God is a flying spaghetti monster who turns into a giant pig, then that’s fine. Just don’t let it interfere with my spaghetti and bacon marinara.”
I have no idea whether Project New Age — or any book I ever write — is going to be successful. The odds are against it. But I’m not worried. I’m pursuing a career in Engineering, so I can make a steady income with that while writing on the side. That way, I don’t have to worry about selling enough books to support myself or whether I’ll have the next book ready in time. Writing will remain a free and enjoyable activity for me.

When I write, I don’t worry about what word works best or is the most descriptive. I just let the words flow naturally from my mind to my computer. It gives my writing a more natural, laid-back style. Conversational, I think it’s called. It doesn’t have much detail, but it seems to work pretty well, because I’ve gotten nothing but compliments on Project New Age so far.

I’m now almost done with the second book in the series. There are a lot of loose ends in Project New Age, so it was a little hard to tie everything up, but I think I managed pretty well. The second book isn’t quite as humorous as Project New Age is, simply because the plot gets a lot thicker and deeper. I think it’s still good, though.

I actually started working on the third book recently, which involves ghosts. Originally, I had no intention of having supernatural elements in the series, but I like it this way. It’s a lot of fun to try to figure out explanations for how things like that could work.

So, to any aspiring writers out there, my advice to just relax and write naturally. Don’t worry if you’re absolutely awful. I was when I first tried, but after writing a few stories, I got better. And don’t let writing become something you “have to do”, make sure you’re writing because you want to write.

Sound advice Daniel! Thank you so much for participating in my Self Publishing Spotlight, letting us in on your experiences with writing. Daniel's book is available in paperback from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com or in digital format from Lulu. Find out more about Daniel and his books on the Project New Age website.

To find out more about the Self Publishing Spotlight feature or to submit a book, click here. I'm especially interested to hear from authors planning to publish in 2012.

The Wishlist Diet #23

2012-01-01T17:23:00.000Z

*The Wishlist Diet is part of the In My Mailbox meme hosted by The Story Siren*

Well, I had a cracking Christmas! Look what Santa brought me - that's right, it's the boxset of the new UK signature cover hardback Harry Potter books. They are currently sitting pride of place on my shelf, making me want to read them all again for the hundredth time...

I shall resist and tell you what I will be reading this week.

To Read:

India Dark by Kirsty Murray
Dreaming Dangerously by Kathleen Harsch

To Review:

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
Project New Age by Daniel Piros

I have to admit, since Christmas, I have been downloading LOADS of books in the Kindle 12 Days of Christmas, getting some brilliant titles for 0.99p! So now my reading list is as long as a...really long thing... Anyway I'm not complaining, I'm very excited about what's coming up in 2012!

Can't wait to hear what you've got in store this week! I hope Santa brought everyone a mountain of books!

Best of the Bunch #December 2011

2011-12-31T08:00:00.001Z

It's that time of the month again: to decide which of all the books I read in December was the Best of the Bunch.

And the winner of the Best of the Bunch Award December 2011 is...

*dramatic pause*

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Suzanne Collins continues the amazing story of Katniss Everdeen in Catching Fire, the second novel of the phenomenal Hunger Games trilogy.

Well, it had to be, didn't it? I'm relatively new to the Hunger Games trilogy - I haven't read Mockingjay yet - but this month this was definitely the book that took my breath away. I don't know how she does it, but Suzanne Collins just has a way of burying her characters deep into your skin such that I just can't get enough of these books. Although at first I was slightly irritated by a re-hashed plot, I had a major revelation about halfway through that has now got me singing its praises from the rooftops! Read my full review here for more.

Congratulations Suzanne Collins!

Please share your Best of the Bunch award by adding your link below.

New YA Releases - January 2012

2011-12-30T08:00:00.000Z

Here's a look ahead at what's got me excited in the world of YA fiction for January 2012. Let me know if you'll be reading any of these!

Extent: 352 pages
Publisher: Ember
Pub Date: 10th January 2012
Format: Paperback

Athletic and strong willed, Princess Emmajin's determined to do what no woman has done before: become a warrior in the army of her grandfather, the Great Khan Khubilai. In the Mongol world the only way to achieve respect is to show bravery and win glory on the battlefield. The last thing she wants is the distraction of the foreigner Marco Polo, who challenges her beliefs in the gardens of Xanadu. Marco has no skills in the "manly arts" of the Mongols: horse racing, archery, and wrestling. Still, he charms the Khan with his wit and story-telling. Emmajin sees a different Marco as they travel across 13th-century China, hunting 'dragons' and fighting elephant-back warriors. Now she faces a different battle as she struggles with her attraction towards Marco and her incredible goal of winning fame as a soldier.

Extent: 432 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pub Date: 5th January 2012
Format: Paperback

Edgy Taylor sees demons when nobody else can. He also works all hours for the most brutal and abusive master in London. One night, when Edgy fears his master's temper may spell the end, a mysterious bespectacled old man intervenes to save him.

The man does not think Edgy is insane. Instead he takes dgy to the Royal Society of Daemonologie. Here Edgy discovers that chance had nothing to do with their meeting. And that chances are something he is about to run out of.

Extent: 320 pages
Publisher: Andersen
Pub Date: 5th January 2012
Format: Paperback

Furgul is a puppy born in a slave camp for racing greyhounds, and he has a terrible secret--he is himself only part greyhound. When the cruel owner of the camp recognizes Furgul's impure origins he takes Furgul to be killed, but Furgal manages a spectacular escape. Now Furgul must confront the indifference, complexity, warmth, and ferocity of the greater world, a world in which there seem to be two choices: live the comfortable life of a pet and sacrifice freedom or live the life of a free dog, glorious but also dangerous, in which every man will turn his hand against you.

In the best tradition of The Call of the Wild and Watership Down, novelist Tim Willocks offers his first tale for young adults, an allegorical examination of human life through a dog's eyes, infused with heart, heroism, and the mysteries of the spirit.

Extent: 277 pages
Publisher: Templar
Pub Date: 1st January 2012
Format: Paperback

There's no easy way to put this, so I'll say it straight out. It's time I faced up to the truth. I'm fourteen years old and I have Ishmael Leseur's Syndrome. There is no cure. And there is no instant cure to not fitting in. But that won't stop Ishmael and his intrepid band of misfits from taking on bullies, bugs, babes, the Beatles, debating, and the great white whale in the toughest, the weirdest, the most embarrassingly awful...and the best year of their lives.

Extent: 352 pages
Publisher: Indigo
Pub Date: 5th January 2012
Format: Paperback

'Sixteen's an interesting age: not quite a fully grown man, but not a kid either. Anything is possible when you're sixteen.' Finmere Tingewick Smith was abandoned on the steps of the Old Bailey. Under the guardianship of the austere Judge Harlequin Brown and the elderly gentlemen of Orrery House, Fin has grown up under a very strange set of rules. He spends alternate years at two very different schools and now he's tired of the constant lies to even his best friends, to hide the insanity of his double life. Neither would believe the truth! But on his sixteenth birthday, everything changes. The Judge is killed, stabbed in the chest with a double-edged sword that's disturbingly familiar, and from that moment on, Fin is catapulted into an extraordinary adventure. Through the Doorway in Fin's London, a hole in the boundaries of Existence, lies another London -- and now both are in grave danger. For the Knights of Nowhere have kidnapped the Storyholder, the keeper of the Five Eternal Stories which weave the worlds together. Because of the Knights' actions, a black storm is coming, bringing madness with it. Fin may be just 16, but he has a long, dark journey ahead of him if he is to rescue the Storyholder and save Existence!

Extent: 336 pages
Publisher: Templar
Pub Date: 1st January 2012
Format: Paperback

A story of secrets, lies and lost innocence. MADRAS, 1910: Posey Swift and Tilly Sweetrick are caught up in a scandal that will change their lives forever. Singing and Dancing across a hundred stages as members of a troupe of Australian child performers, they travel by steam train into the heart of India. But as one disaster follows another, money runs short and tempers fray. What must the girls do to protect themselves, and how many lives will be ruined if they try to break free?

Extent: 528 pages
Publisher: Razorbill
Pub Date: 5th January 2012
Format: Paperback

It is 1984, and fifteen-year-old Maya is on her way to India with her father. She carries with her the ashes of her mother, who recently committed suicide, and arrives in Delhi on the eve of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination.

Maya is separated from her father and must rely upon the mysterious, kindhearted Sandeep to safely reunite them. As her love for Sandeep begins to blossom, Maya must face the truth about her painful adolescence...if she's ever to imagine her future.

Extent: 352 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pub Date: 31st January 2012
Format: Paperback

Magic sparkles on the edges of the forest in a secluded village where a young girl named Evie possesses unusually strong powers as a healer. A gypsy's charms - no more than trinkets when worn by others - are remarkably potent when tied around Evie's neck. Her talents have not escaped the notice of the shy stonemason's apprentice. But Evie wants more than a quiet village and the boy next door. When the young king's carriage arrives one day, and his footman has fallen ill, Evie might just get her chance after all...

Extent: 277 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pub Date: 5th January 2012
Format: Paperback

For seventeen years, Eloise Hart had no idea the world of Faery even existed. Now she has been abducted and trapped in the Rath of Lord Strahan, King of Faery. Strahan was only meant to rule for seven years, as Faery tradition dictates, and then give up his crown to another. But he won't comply, and now chaos threatens both worlds.

The only one who can break his stranglehold on the Faery court is his wife... Eloise's aunt Antonia. Using Eloise to lure Antonia, Strahan captures his wife, desperate to end the only threat to his reign. Now Eloise must become the rescuer. Together with her best friends Jo and Devin, she must forge alliances with other Fae, including a gorgeous protector named Lucas, and Strahan's mysterious son, Eldric—who may or may not betray them.

Extent: 300 pages
Publisher: Alma Books
Pub Date: 19th January 2012
Format: Paperback

Corlie Roux s farm life in South Africa is not easy: the Transvaal is beautiful, but it is also a harsh place where the heat can be so intense that even raindrops sizzle. When her beloved father dies, she is left with a mother who is as devoted to her sons as she is cruel to her daughter. Despite this, Corlie finds comfort in her friend, Sipho, and in Africa itself and in the stories she creates for her brothers. But Corlie s world is about to vanish: the British are invading and driving Boer families like hers from their farms. Some escape into the bush to fight the enemy. The unlucky ones are rounded up and sent to internment camps. Will Corlie s strength and devotion to her country sustain her through the suffering and misery she finds in the camp at Kroonstad? That may depend on a soldier from faraway Canada and on inner resources Corlie never dreamt she had...

Have A Great Christmas Everyone!

2011-12-20T14:40:00.000Z

See you on New Year's Eve for December's Best of the Bunch!

The Wishlist Diet #22

2011-12-18T19:00:00.000Z

*The Wishlist Diet is part of the In My Mailbox meme hosted by The Story Siren*

Get in!

I am one lucky girl! My super amazing boyfriend bought me an iPad 2 this week to jolly up my commute into London and I have been glued to it all week. I have downloaded the Kindle app and now can't decide which device to use but I think the Kindle wins for reading because of the unlight screen. It can get a bit tiring staring at a lit screen for hours - not that I don't do that at work...

To Review:

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
Kevin's Point of View by Del Shannon

So it'll be just two reviews this week and then I'm off for a Christmas break! I'll be back on New Year's Eve for 2011's final Best of the Bunch award ceremony and a cracking Self Publishing Spotlight on New Year's Day. All that's left for me to say is:

Review: Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

2011-12-15T08:00:00.000Z

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: 472 pages
Publisher: Scholastic
Pub Date: 7th September 2009

After winning the brutal Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen returns to her district, hoping for a peaceful future. But Katniss starts to hear rumours of a deadly rebellion against the Capitol. A rebellion that she and Peeta have helped to create. As Katniss and Peeta are forced to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. Unless Katniss and Peeta can convince the world that they are still lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying. The terrifying sequel to The Hunger Games.

I pretty much looked like a fish washed up on the shore when I turned the last page of Catching Fire – gasp, gasp, gasp. I didn’t go anywhere without this book clutched in my left hand, it was so important that I keep it near me at all times in case something horrible were to happen to the characters.

I’d been waiting a long time to get back to Katniss and Peeta and investigate the fallout of their time in the Hunger Games. I think Katniss has developed wonderfully, she’s taken on a new kind of fragility along with her tough exterior. Naturally, she is still utterly confused and has a defensive wall so thick it must be impossible for any other character to read her. But that’s the great thing about being the reader, you are inside Kat’s head which actually makes her very easy for you to read. She comes across as a tough nut, which on occasion she really is, but you can understand the kind of emotional turmoil she is in. She’s pretty screwed up and I know in her situation anyone would be but she does have an enviable ability to keep it together and do what is necessary.

I can’t believe Suzanne Collins sent them back into the Games again! After a while I was actually pretty irritated at this. It began to feel a bit like the same record. I thought we had dealt with the sick horror of the Games in The Hunger Games and this book would be all about an uprising. Well, I know it is quite a lot about an uprising and when, at the beginning of the book, there was news of rebellions in some district I thought we were in for a great story. And then Kat and Peeta get stuck back in the Games and it’s the same old for over half the book. I thought at least that the tributes would have some kind of tacit understanding that when the Games began so did their rebellion and each of them refused to kill the others.

But then, I thought, maybe the author was trying to be a bit more subtle than that. The aim of the story is not to slap you in the face with what you expect – because how boring and predictable would that be? – but to listen more carefully to the dynamics of a rebellion in such a setting as the districts. A rebellion can only be effective if every district acts at once but when they are cut off from each other, how do they know when to act? I was being too simplistic and Suzanne Collins, of course, knows her story a thousand times better than I do. She’s really listened to the situation she has constructed and produced the best answer, that an uprising must happen from inside the Capitol. That, yes, the victors of previous Games must go back to the Games because despite what President Snow thinks, the worst thing to do is put experienced players back into the ring. It’s not a punishment, these tributes will have gone through it all before, will know the tricks of the gamemakers and will be rational enough to find a way out. Brilliant!

I’m so glad Suzanne Collins wrote this and not me, I would have made a terrible hash of it, wielding my sledge hammer of predictability. All credit to her for truly understanding the dynamics of the world she has created and the mechanics of the characters she has populated it with. I’m finding it very hard not to reach for Mockingjay!

Review: Shiewo: A Fantasy Flight to Adventure - Ciye Cho

2011-12-13T08:00:00.001Z

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: ebook (334 KB)
Publisher: Self Published
Pub Date: 6th June 2011

The universe of Orberana is a place of great wonder and peril, a dizzying landscape filled with clouds that can talk, clockwork beings that mark their own time, and painted animals that awake in the night.

Shiewo Morose is the captain of a flying ship powered by music. She is also a determined young woman on a mission: a quest to find the Wishing Fish that created Orberana.

Sailing above the clouds, Shiewo and her crew (Erduu the bamboo, Theo the cloud, Livingston the goldfish, and Felix the painter) are headed for worlds of crazed clockwork bureaucrats, tyrannic kings, and tornado children - worlds that will test not only the crew's bravery... but their very understanding of adventure.

Theirs is the odyssey of a lifetime...

Well, I thought I had a vivid imagination but it is as nothing compared to Ciye Cho’s. I feel utterly bland and boring now! Brace yourselves for this one because absolutely nothing is what you expect but absolutely everything is fantastical and beautiful.

The first thing that will hit you when you read Shiewo is the almost magical way that Ciye Cho stimulates your senses. Never in a book have I ever read of so many intriguing colours, tastes, smells or sounds, I don’t know anyone who can conjure up such a delight for the senses. The descriptions are just so vivid but I didn’t once catch the usual old clichés that swarm around aesthetic depictions, everything is expressed in a manner entirely unique. I can only compare it to drinking a delicious new fruit juice, only the fruits are from a different planet. It’s so refreshing to have an author who is not only incredibly well tuned towards the senses but clearly values that aspect of her story and goes the extra mile to bring the dizzying wonders of her fantasy world to her readers.

Not only this but the story is so engaging too. I love the way Shiewo’s adventures play out in episodes, it definitely lends itself to a cartoon serial, but the characters are what strings each adventure together. When you create a world where anything goes, where plants treasure Aeolian Harps and fish make very good helmsmen, you are in real danger of trying to make these quirky aspects carry themselves, but Ciye Cho hasn’t done that. You can empathise with every single character she has created, they have great depth and strong personalities. I’m reminded of the characters in the Wizard of Oz who each have a problem they would like to remedy – Ciye’s characters have a similar quest. They are a band of misfits, each with the flaws of any human, each setting out to find the Wishing Fish to solve their problems. I can’t believe how attached I got to a multi-coloured cloud! But that is Ciye Cho’s magic at work. The list of characters and the places and situations they find themselves in may sound completely mad but do not be put off by it because within the pages you will find a great depth of human emotion as well as classic adventure that tastes wonderfully unique.

I’m so glad Ciye was kind enough to send me her book because I would have missed an entirely new and thoroughly enjoyable dimension to story-telling. I cannot recommend this book enough as a way of unlocking the restraints on your imagination, even if you thought you had none!

The Wishlist Diet #21

2011-12-11T08:00:00.001Z

*The Wishlist Diet is part of the In My Mailbox meme hosted by The Story Siren*

To Read:

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
Kevin's Point of View by Del Shannon

To Review:

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Shiewo: A Fantasy Flight to Adventure by Ciye Cho

FINALLY I am giving in to the temptations of The Iron King by Julie Kagawa, there are only so many times you can hear people demanding that you read a book before you give in... I'll also be reading another self-published book this week, Kevin's Point of View by Del Shannon which sounds like a great MG book with loads of imagination.

This week I'll be posting my review of Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins and Shiewo: A Fantasy Flight to Adventure by Ciye Cho so stay tuned because they are both very high up on my recommendations list!

So, what you got this week?

Interview: Robert Day

2011-12-09T08:00:00.000Z

I'm thrilled to welcome Robert Day to my blog today, author of the fantastical Demon Gates. I just love it when a high fantasy is written well, which Demon Gates certainly is, and I'm so pleased Robert agreed to a grilling so I can dig a little deeper behind the scenes. Here's the blurb:

The land of Kil'Tar has a long and bloody history of war between the Kay'taari and the Ashar'an. Aided by Dragonkind, the Kay'taari have protected the world against the Ashar'an and their demonic followers for many centuries. With demonkind banished to the Voids, and the Ashar'an all but destroyed, Kil'Tar has enjoyed an era of peace.

However, the seals binding the portals to the voids are failing, and the Ashar'an are abroad once again. Both the Kay'taari and Dragonkind are nowhere to be found on Kil'Tar.

Can Valdieron, a young man raised in the small village of Shadowvale, fulfill his destiny and rid the lands of this menace once and for all, or will he falter, and condemn Kil'Tar to demonic destruction?

Hop over to my full review of Demon Gates.

How would you describe Demon Gates in a tweet (140 characters)?

Demon Gates is an old school epic/high/dark fantasy which pays tribute to the fantasy authors of the 80's who helped give me my voice.

How did the idea for Demon Gates and the Nexus Wars Saga come about?

Having read a lot of fantasy (and books in general) growing up in the 80's and 90's, I had a lot of ideas running around in my head. So one day I thought "How hard can it be?"... the result is The Nexus Wars Saga.

Valdieron is a fantastic hero character who develops really well throughout the book, how did you come up with his character and the characters of his companions?

I guess Valdieron was the conglomeration of many main characters I had read about. I like to think he embodies the characteristics people find relatable in a hero - humility, humour, respect, honour, purpose and determination. Hence, his companions all have characters which reflect these characteristics in Valdieron, as well as create their own persona.

Is there much research involved in writing epic fantasy? Did you find out anything interesting in your research for Demon Gates?

For me there wasn't. The process all seemed very natural, and once I started, things seemed to fall into place. There came a certain point, however, where I needed to write down all these extras in order to keep tabs on my story and not have it wallow in its inconsistencies. Fantasy is pretty much whatever you want to make it, and as I was paying tribute to my favourite authors while writing it, I wanted to make it as perfect as I could.

I’m always intrigued to know how writers of epic fantasy go about building their world. How do you create a whole new world? Do you make maps or notes on the world to help you?

As answered in the previous question, there ended up being quite a bit of world-building in order to give my work an authentic and in-depth feel. This included a lot of data on characters, locations, a timeline, bestiary, calander and a crude map showing the realm of Kil'Tar. Luckily I have never had too much trouble creating names, and this creation process proved relatively easy, though time consuming and constantly evolving. The biggest challenge is making everything believable.

When and why did you decide to take the plunge and self publish your book? Did you always plan to publish it?

When my initial creation reached about 250,000 words, I figured it had grown to the point of having a life of its own. Where initially I had been writing just to see if I could, the story came together in such a way that the idea of being a writer became a dream, albeit a distant one. After a few half-hearted attempts at soliciting an agent and publisher, these dreams died as I worked on refining the content. I split Book 1 from the manuscript and was left with a good part of Book 2. Once both were finished, I edited and edited and edited some more, and continue to edit to this very day. Then one day I was introduced to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, and realised the avenue for getting my work to an audience was available.

What kind of writer are you? Do you have any rituals? Do you plan a story from start to finish or just see what happens?

I am a lazy writer :) With The Nexus Wars Saga, I have a grand overview in my mind, but the story is constantly evolving and changing as I write. I have no rituals, other than trying to get out of writing whenever possible, even though I know I shouldn't.

What is the story behind the cover?

With the basis of the story being the age-old struggle between good and evil, the Demon vs Dragon symbolises the conflict within the series. I was lucky enough to find a very talented artist who worked with mye to create the image in the form of the yin/yang.

If you had room on your shelf for only 3 books, what would they be?

Besides my own 2? ;) They would have to be:

1) Magician by Raymond E. Feist. This is, and will continue to be, the book that gave me the desire to write.
2) The Hobbit. Like many people, this book was my introduction to fantasy, and from there I have never looked back.
3) A good dictionary/thesaurus. A writer's best companion.

Can you give us an idea of what happens in the next books in the saga?

The following books in the series continue Valdieron's quest to find and possibly unite the pieces of the Disk of Akashel. It also sees a few more main characters come into their own and play some hopefully important roles in the outcome of the story. You will also find out a few things about the nature of Valdieron's heritage and discover his destiny is greater than even he imagined it could be.

A huge thanks to Robert for answering my questions, I would definitely recommend Demon Gates to anyone who loves a great epic fantasy, or anyone who enjoys a good story and great characters.

Find out more about Robert Day on his website or blog.

100 Follower Giveaway Winner!

2011-12-08T19:00:00.000Z

Well, my 100 Follower Giveaway ended on Sunday so it's time to announce the winner.

Drum roll please...

Congratulations to Jasmine1485!

Your books are winging their way over the seas to you in Australia so enjoy!

Thanks to everyone who took part in the giveaway, I really appreciate your support and I'm sorry I couldn't buy books for everyone because if I won the lottery I definitely would! For now, I just hope I can live up to your follows and provide you with some great posts and useful reviews so please stay in touch and leave comments - I read and appreciate every single one.

Review: The Dragon's Eye by Dugald Steer

2011-12-07T08:00:00.001Z

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: 286 pages
Publisher: Templar
Pub Date: 1st October 2006

Adventure! Villains! And dragons, dragons, dragons! Brought to us by the creators of the runaway NEW YORK TIMES bestsellers DRAGONOLOGY and THE DRAGONOLOGY HANDBOOK, the Dragonology Chronicles are a series of dragon adventures told by one of Dr. Drake's young students. In Volume 1 of the Chronicles, THE DRAGON'S EYE, Daniel Cook and his sister, Beatrice, spend the summer with their parents' eccentric former tutor, Dr. Ernest Drake. Not only do Daniel and Beatrice begin to study dragonology, but they are also soon caught up in the race to find the stolen Dragon's Eye jewel - which has the power to reflect the true Dragon Master - before it is stolen by evil dragonologist Ignatius Crook. The two must work with Dr. Drake — as well as many friendly dragons — to foil Ignatius and recover the Dragon's Eye.

I love the Ology World books, especially Dragonology, and I think it’s even better when you’re a big kid who has had to accept that dragons don’t exist. Dragonology takes the subject of dragons utterly seriously, detailing different species, behaviour and tips on how to track and train them. The Dragon’s Eye is the first in a spin off series of YA fiction novels and ever since I read Dragonology I have been a little bit intrigued about what these books have to offer.

Well, quite a bit actually. I think the real strength in The Dragon’s Eye is the fact that it’s based on a pseudo-factual book, Dragonology. There’s a great sense that the book is based on real life events involving real creatures because there’s a boxful of literature that says so. The fantastical becomes the actual. It pulls on all the information you can find in the Dragonology books and gives it a storyline, and if you’re lucky enough to have the Ology books, you find yourself using them as some kind of reference guide despite the fact that you know it’s all made up. If you haven’t read Dragonology then fear not because The Dragon’s Eye is not dependent on it, you can still easily understand and enjoy the story as everything is explained. In fact, if you don’t know anything about dragons you’re in for a deep end learning experience as the lead characters don’t know anything to begin with either but end up experts.

The language has a wonderful Victorian quaintness about it, giving it an authenticity of the period and adding to the realism. Mixing this with the fantastical element of dragons makes for a great adventure story. I think my only real niggle is that it can be a bit too quaint at times. The lead characters are 12 and 13 so you imagine this is roughly the target reader age and it feels a little like the author is a bit out of touch with what 12 and 13 year olds are reading these days. It just lacks a bit of guts, you never feel like the heroes are in any genuine danger, the kind where the way out is not clear and there’s no one to rescue them. I found it a bit patronising at times and I’m sure modern young teens would feel the same – they can handle a lot more emotional depth in a story than this book allows.

Having said that, I still really enjoyed The Dragon’s Eye. Sometimes you just want a happy, heart-warming story where the good guys are guaranteed to win and that is certainly what is on offer here. There are also some incredible pencil drawings dotted around the book which add a great dimension and a visual treat. There should be more illustrations in books I say! Overall, this is a good story, harmless fun that’s toasty warm and that’s not just because there’s a lot of fire-breathing going on.

Review: Moondreams by Dean Johnson

2011-12-05T08:00:00.002Z

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: ebook (453 KB)
Publisher: Self Published
Pub Date: 6th March 2011

Kirah, just home from her freshman year at college, contemplates the strange lamp and the unfamiliar mirror in her bedroom, at least what used to be her bedroom, what used to be her sanctuary. But things are not what they used to be. Even her best friends seem to be different, especially Ramon who suddenly has more than a friendly interest in her.

Fortunately, Kirah’s mother and stepfather make good on their offer of a month at a New Jersey shore beach house in exchange for an appearance on the dean’s list each semester. A little distance from Ramon, parents, “her” bedroom, is just the distraction she needs.

Along with a couple of friends who still appear somewhat normal, Kirah heads down to the shore.

Bryan had been working at the Auto Center for the past year after dropping out of college midway through his sophomore year. While he has grand ideas about his future, his actions do not match his ambitions. Searching for direction, Bryan clings to anything that comes his way, including a girl with two friends in a car with a flat tire.

To Bryan Kirah is everything he needs to be. To Kirah Bryan is the distraction from all the change she is longing for. Through each other they find what they were looking for, only it wasn’t what they thought it was at all.

A few chapters into this book I was scratching my head, I couldn’t figure out what the plot was let alone where it was going. But I persevered and I’m glad I did because by the end I had realised something: that books are not always about plot, but they are always about stories.

Moondreams focuses on the lives of two people, a girl and a boy, Kirah and Bryan, and how all the events of their lives lead up to their meeting. The story bounces back and forth through time, flashing back to significant events. At first I didn’t understand what was happening. Why do I need to be told about all these details? Why is this reading like a fictional biography? Where is Dean Johnson going with this? At the same time I was intrigued, perhaps this was building up to something. I was right. This story is essentially about a moment and everything that builds up to that moment. It’s actually really clever and I take my hat off to Dean Johnson for doing it so well. A book is usually a snapshot of someone’s life, a period when something exciting is happening with a beginning, a middle and an end but Moondreams takes that snapshot and explores how it came about, the decisions that Kirah and Bryan made earlier in their lives that brought them to a point where their paths crossed. It really makes you think about your own life’s course, all the significant choices you made that led you to meeting someone and what would have happened if you’d done something differently. It’s almost like an exploration of fate, if you believe in it.

There’s another part to this story, however, that gives the meeting of these two people a point and makes Moondreams a real heart-warming tale. Kirah and Bryan have both reached crucial points in their lives, massive junctions and they can’t make one of those significant decisions that shape their existence. They are stuck in holes but their meeting provides the shovels each of them needs to dig themselves out. Perhaps their meeting is the most significant event of their lives, deciding what they will do with the rest of it. It’s easy to visualise the story as two lines gradually heading towards each other and when they cross it’s only for a very short time but it’s a turning point, and then the two lines forever head out in different directions.

Moondreams is a brilliant piece of writing and an even more brilliant idea for a story. It has taught me that stories don’t always have to be about action and adventure, a snapshot of life, they can be about someone’s whole life, a fine weaving of innumerable decisions and chance events that determine where your next step will take you. It’s really not just a story but the story, the one that begins at the very beginning, has an infinite number of middles and an ending at every turn that’s completely open – life.

The Wishlist Diet #20

2011-12-04T08:00:00.000Z

*The Wishlist Diet is part of the In My Mailbox meme hosted by The Story Siren*

To Read:

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Shiewo: A Fantasy Flight to Adventure by Ciye Cho

To Review:

The Dragon's Eye by Dugald Steer
Moondreams by Dean Johnson

Hooray! I'm finally reading Catching Fire and it pretty much hasn't left my hand since I got it... And what's even better is that it's the new look UK cover - sooooooo much better than the original UK covers which I have been refusing to buy because they would let my shelf down. I'm also smashing through my self published review requests and this week it's Shiewo: A Fantasy Flight to Adventure by Ciye Cho - sounds magic!

So... what you got this week?

Self Publishing Spotlight: Lastborn by Rachel Forde

2011-12-01T08:00:00.000Z

Welcome to my Self Publishing Spotlight!

This month I'm very pleased to say my spotlight has landed on author Rachel Forde and her gripping high fantasy Lastborn.

Nara-Ya is a pugnacious adolescent girl on the run from a powerful sorceress. Fate lands her in the company of her polar opposite, the soft-spoken Donovan Brennan, who is simultaneously struggling to lead a Resistance movement, regain a throne for a wronged King, and prevent a war between the land he lives in and the land of his birth.

Brennan walks a fine line between his principles and success; Nara-Ya, by contrast, knows what she has to do to survive, and circumstances shunt her towards the life of a fighter and warrior. However, as war looms, as her friendship with Donovan grows into something more, and as Nara-Ya is forced to confront her darker instincts, she begins to question her destiny, and is forced to make a decision that will alter the fate of their world.

Lastborn is a complex and engaging story set in a fascinating fantasy world. This is a definitely a story for you if you love feisty, independent heroines because Lastborn has one of the feistiest of them all! You can read my full review of Lastborn here.

For now, Rachel Forde has very kindly written me this brilliant guest post about world-building, creating cultures and avoiding classic mistakes when writing a world of your own.

On Writing Culture

An important aspect of world-building in any book is culture. Unfortunately, it's also one of the trickiest things to get right, mainly because we all have a bias toward the culture and context we grew up in. We understand that world and its forms and values, and we judge other worlds by that standard.

We see the world around us through a filter - I'm a Euro-American, middle-class female, so I have a certain set of assumptions through which I interpret the world around me: I favor freedom over stability, individuality over conformity, equality between men and women, and even though I'm religious, I feel more comfortable with science than I do with magic and the supernatural. I'm not claiming any of these things are better or worse than the other - it's about what works to create a happy, stable society, not about what one powerful, wealthy society can force on another - but it does create a challenge when trying to depict village life in a Native American-ish society, or develop the inner motivations of a character from a pseudo-East African culture.

There are some mistakes that writers and storytellers frequently make:

1. Stereotyping and oversimplifying culture because of a lack of research. Not all Native Americans live in tipis. In fact, one tribe can be as culturally different from another as Norwegian culture is from Italian culture. The Daniyaasi tribe in Lastborn, (very) loosely based on the Ojibwe, has a different way of life and social structure than the Hakchi, Wakanka or Kidasa tribes, and their languages are mutually unintelligible.

2. Ethnocentrism, or assuming that one culture (usually our own) is the standard by which all should be judged. We all do this to some degree, no matter how tolerant we think we are. And please note that this doesn't mean we have to approve of everything that another culture does - I think the character of Faduma was being needlessly mean by calling Ayuma a "whore", but I also know how the actions that spurred the insult would have been understood in Faduma's home culture, and what the consequences would have been to everyone involved. I can empathize with Faduma's fear and frustration without agreeing with it.

3. Denigrating one's own culture as "inferior" compared to others. This one happens a lot, either by non-western authors who are overly enamored by Western culture, or by western authors in a misguided attempt to avoid sounding racist. Ethnocentrism is ethnocentrism, regardless of which ethnos is at the center. Ephola takes a pretty strong hit in Lastborn, because it's based on my home culture and I feel more free to criticize it, but the Makedans are not saints either, and there is much that is good about Ephola. Balance is key.

4. The "Noble Savage." Avatar. Ugh. Not a book, per se, but the most blatant example I've seen of this in a long time. In a nutshell, the "Noble Savage" stereotype claims that so-called primitive cultures are superior because they are so simple, while our (western) culture is needlessly complex. Once you unpack it, this is a very back-handed compliment. It treats indigenous people as if they were children, and underestimates the complexity and depths of the world they inhabit. Anyone who thinks "primitive" cultures are simple should try conjugating a few Ojibwe verbs, or untangle the web of kinship and clan connections in rural Somalia.

I don't claim to be an expert at this. Speaking candidly, one of my biggest regrets about Lastborn is that most of the protagonists are culturally "in-between". This was certainly easier for me to write, and probably reflects my insecurity about writing believably from another's culture point of view. Even so, I can't recommend it enough that every writer at least try to write character POVs from another culture's perspective. Even if the result is imperfect, it's an exercise that can benefit us outside of our writing, as we live and work among those who may not see the world in quite the same shades as we do.

So there you have it! A huge thanks to Rachel for participating in the Self Publishing Spotlight, her book Lastborn is available now - and I highly recommend it - from:

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Smashwords

To find out more about the Self Publishing Spotlight feature or to submit a book, click here. I'm especially interested to hear from authors planning to publish in the new year.

Best of the Bunch #November 2011

2011-11-30T08:00:00.001Z

It's that time of the month again: to decide which of all the books I read in November was the Best of the Bunch.

And the winner of the Best of the Bunch Award November 2011 is...

*dramatic pause*

Into the Gauntlet by Margaret Peterson Haddix

The explosive finale to Scholastic's mega-selling series.

Throughout the hunt for the 39 Clues, Amy and Dan Cahill have uncovered history's greatest mysteries and their family's deadliest secrets. But are they ready to face the truth about the Cahills and the key to their unmatched power? After a whirlwind race that's taken them across five continents, Amy and Dan face the most the difficult challenge yet- a task no Cahill dared to imagine. When faced with a choice that could change the future of the world, can two kids succeed where 500 years worth of famous ancestors failed?

Well, I'd like to award the whole of the 39 Clues series but this one is the last book. I have really enjoyed these little books, they are meant for middle grade kids but as a woman in her twenties they really appealed to me too. They are short reads but stuffed with everything you can hope for in an adventure series and they have a real emotional depth that makes them not at all patronising. I really admire middle grade books that respect their readers' mental and emotional complexity and these really do, so if you fancy a great adventure with plenty of action, intelligence and breath-holding moments, read the first book The Maze of Bones and you'll be hooked!

If you want to know more, hope over to my full review of Into the Gauntlet including my thoughts on the whole series.

Congratulations Scholastic!

Please share your Best of the Bunch award by adding your link below.

New YA Releases - December 2011

2011-11-29T08:00:00.003Z

Here's a look ahead at what's got me excited in the world of YA fiction for December 2011. Let me know if you'll be reading any of these!

Extent: 313 pages
Publisher: Dystopia Press
Pub Date: 22nd December 2011
Format: Hardback

LONDON, 2012: It arrives and with that the world is changed into an unending graveyard littered with the bones, wreckage, and memories of a dead past, gone forever. LONDON, 2032: Twenty years later, out of the ashes, a new world begins to rise, a place ruled by both loyalty and fear, and where the quest to be the first to regain lost knowledge is an ongoing battle for power. A place where laws are made and enforced by roving gangs-the Bloomsbury Boys, the Gardners, the Red Lady's Gang-who rule the streets and will do anything to protect their own. THE FOUR: Zane, Titus, Erin, Eve. Living in this new world, they discover that they have abilities never before seen. And little do they know that as they search post-apocalyptic London for Titus' kidnapped sister that they'll uncover the secret of It, and bring about a reckoning with the forces that almost destroyed all of humanity.

Extent: 192 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pub Date: 15th December 2011
Format: Paperback

Two brothers, Simon and Jem, are itching to start their summer holiday with their granddad - a whole month at the lake. They have been coming there for years, and know every part of the bays, the bush, the water and the neighbouring farms. It 'belongs' to them, and they can't wait to reclaim their kingdom. But Simon also has scores to settle with Jem, even though their mother has warned them that she's running out of patience with their fighting. The friendly lake has changed, though. There are barbed-wire fences, the farm has become a holding yard for old houses guarded by a fierce dog, and there's a caretaker whose wife and kids look terrified. What's going on behind the new fences? Why can't Simon stop himself from being mean to his brother? And just how far will he go to face up to his fear and find out what's really happening?

Extent: 320 pages
Publisher: Square Fish
Pub Date: 6th December 2011
Format: Paperback

Thirteen-year-old Simon Renier has no idea when he boards the M.S. Orion with his cousin Forsyth Phair that their journey to Venezuela will be a dangerous one. His original plan—to return a family heirloom, a portrait of Simon Bolivar, to its rightful place—is sidetracked when cousin Forsyth is found murdered. When the portrait is stolen, all passengers and crew are suspects. Simon’s newfound friends, Poly and Charles O’Keefe, and their scientist father help Simon try to find his painting, and his cousin’s murderer. But will they succeed before they land? Or will the murderer and thief escape into the jungles of Venezuela?

Extent: 464 pages
Publisher: Scholastic
Pub Date: 1st December 2011
Format: Paperback (gorgeous new editions!)

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

Extent: 192 pages
Publisher: Scholastic
Pub Date: 6th December 2011
Format: Hardback

Amy and Dan are in a race for their lives...and the enemy may be even closer than they think.

When seven members of their family were kidnapped by a sinister organization known as the Vespers, thirteen-year-old Dan Cahill and his older sister, Amy, vowed they'd stop at nothing to bring the hostages home. But then the ransom comes in and the Vespers demand the impossible. Amy and Dan have just days to track down and steal an ancient map. The only catch? No one has seen the map for half a century.

Now Amy and Dan are on a desperate search that will lead them to the Nazis, spies, a mad king and some of history's dirtiest secrets. It's the race of their lives...and one misstep will mean certain death for the hostages.

Extent: 528 pages
Publisher: Hyperion Books
Pub Date: 13th December 2011
Format: Paperback

Based in Egyptian mythology and set in modern-day Washington, D.C., Sisters of Isis follows the lives of Meri, Sudi, and Dalila, three fifteen-year-old girls who have just discovered they are descendants of very powerful ancestors - Egyptian pharaohs. From these ancestors they’ve inherited magical powers of transformation, the ability to cast spells from the Book of Thoth, and, as they will soon learn, the responsibility of protecting the world from the evil forces of Chaos.

100 Follower Giveaway Closes In 1 Week!

2011-11-28T20:42:00.000Z

Fanfare please! On Monday 28th November I officially reached 100 followers so my giveaway will end on Sunday 4th December. That means the winner could get their goodies in time for Christmas!

A huge thank you to everyone who has followed me, I'm very proud to have so many people following my blog and I hope you all enjoy my reviews. Of course, there's still time for more peeps to enter, I don't want to stop at 100! Not that I'm greedy or anything, but you've got until Sunday to enter. The giveaway will close at midnight on 4th December and I will pick a winner at random so keep your fingers crossed.

Click my button to navigate to the giveaway post.

Review: Lastborn - Rachel Forde

2011-11-28T08:00:00.000Z

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: ebook (619 KB)
Publisher: self published
Pub Date: 4th July 2011

The exciting first installment of the Sixth Cycle series.

Nara-Ya is a pugnacious adolescent girl on the run from a powerful sorceress. Fate lands her in the company of her polar opposite, the soft-spoken Donovan Brennan, who is simultaneously struggling to lead a Resistance movement, regain a throne for a wronged King, and prevent a war between the land he lives in and the land of his birth.

Brennan walks a fine line between his principles and success; Nara-Ya, by contrast, knows what she has to do to survive, and circumstances shunt her towards the life of a fighter and warrior. However, as war looms, as her friendship with Donovan grows into something more, and as Nara-Ya is forced to confront her darker instincts, she begins to question her destiny, and is forced to make a decision that will alter the fate of their world.

Here’s one for those of you who like complex plots. Lastborn is a high fantasy novel crammed with diverse cultures, political unrest and interesting characters – plenty of material for a thoroughly engaging story and Rachel Forde does not fail to provide.

I have to say, I love a story that surprises me, gives me something new and refreshing to chew on and you’d be hard pressed to find a character more refreshing than Ayuma, the heroine of Lastborn. At first glance, she seems like quite a normal character, a heroine with spine but nothing more. As the story unfolds, however, it’s clear she’s a little bit more than that. Ayuma is clearly pretty damaged which is understanding seeing as she was enslaved and abused throughout her childhood. She’s uncontrollably violent at times, vengeful and clearly disturbed. Having said that, she is not unlikeable. I loved the way that Ayuma’s (lead female) and Donovan’s (lead male) roles are reversed – Ayuma is the strong, protective hero figure while Donovan is the meek and gentle one. I felt like jumping for joy to find a girl leading the way for once! Feisty, independent and strong heroines are my all time favourite characters and Ayuma’s dark, disturbed edge makes her wonderfully original and engaging. It’s great to see her grow and mature throughout the story too.

As I said before, Lastborn has a really complex plot but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s highly political and you have to keep up with which country is upset with which country and which people come from where (I was longing for a political map to help me out!) but once you’ve got the hang of that, it all gets rather intriguing. It makes the world that Rachel Forde has created very convincing and dynamic. There are clear influences from native American cultures as well as African and Western Victorian cultures, the author has captured an entire world within her pages and given it great depth. Plus there are some great baddies! My favourite has to be the Urqaani queen who reminds me of the White Witch from the Chronicles of Narnia, her mere presence has you trembling in your boots (or slippers in my case!) and she’s a great adversary to Ayuma. You don’t get much better than two incredibly strong and powerful women facing off against one another!

In all, I enjoyed Lastborn. It’s complexities create a dynamic world and an intriguing storyline. The characters are anything but dull and for the most part completely unexpected with wonderfully threatening antagonists. The writing was also of a quality that brought me moments of brilliant imaginative clarity, the scene easily taking place in my mind’s eye where I could see every detail.

Rachel recently contacted me, worried that she had wrongly classified her book as a young adult book but I would agree with her original assessment. Yes, there is some violence but it’s not overly graphic and nothing that an older teen couldn’t handle – you have to trust me on that one because I can’t watch films rated over a 12 or read adult books for fear an unwitting author plants something nasty in my far-too-vivid-to-be-good-for-me imagination. I’ve certainly read some young adult books that were more disturbing!

The Wishlist Diet #19

2011-11-27T08:00:00.002Z

*The Wishlist Diet is part of the In My Mailbox meme hosted by The Story Siren*

To Read:

The Dragon's Eye by Dugald Steer
Moondreams by Dean Johnson

To Review:

Lastborn by Rachel Forde

I'm going to read an actual paper book this week! The Dragon's Eye is a spin fiction series of the brilliant Dragonology, published by Templar. If you haven't heard of the Ology books before I suggest you have a look, they are exactly the kind of books I wish I had when I was a kid! Then I'll be back on my Kindle with Moondreams by Dean Johnson.

I'll be posting my review of Lastborn by Rachel Forde on Monday. Rachel is taking part in my December Self Publishing Spotlight so if you are interested in hearing what it's like to self publish a book then stop by on 1st December for a guest post from the author.

It's also time for the November Best of the Bunch Awards so pick your favourite read from November, make an award post and add your link to my Best of the Bunch Award post on 30th November. I'd love to know your hot recommendations from this month!

The Hunger Games - New Covers!

2011-11-25T08:00:00.002Z

I just had to share these beauts with everyone! I have been refusing to buy The Hunger Games books because the UK covers are gash and horrible and I don't want them anywhere near my aesthetically pleasing bookshelf. I was on the verge of sending my boyfriend off to America to buy the American books for me as their covers are gorgeous in comparison (ok, he was already going on a business trip...) but hooray and indeed hoorah because now there is no need! Scholastic have seen the light and are publishing Suzanne Collins fantastic books in these rather special new jackets.

Isn't that a vast improvement? If you haven't seen the original UK covers, here they are along with the US covers.

UK:

US:

I know what's going on my Christmas stocking wishlist!

I'd love to know what everyone else thinks! And what you think about re-jacketing books in general. Sometimes I think it's a great idea - especially with this series and the new UK Harry Potter paperback cover designs. I know some people might hate me for saying this but I really don't like the original UK Harry Potter covers, for me they are really dated - but then again the series does date back to 1997! If you haven't seen them yet, here are the new UK Harry Potter paperback covers.

Gorgeous, no?

Sometimes, however, re-jacketing really iritates me, especially when they do it halfway through a series so you end up with half the books in one style and the other half in a completely different style. If you have UK covers you may know what I'm talking about with Alex Rider and Artemis Fowl. It completely blows my lid because I'm one of those people that has to have beautiful books all lined up with their spines in perfect condition and all looking like they belong to each other. If they change the covers halfway through I have to save up to buy the same books again! Then again, maybe this is what publishers are trying to achieve...

Love to know what everyone thinks!

Review: The 39 Clues: Into the Gauntlet - Margaret Peterson Haddix

2011-11-23T08:00:00.001Z

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: 327 pages
Publisher: Scholastic
Pub Date: 31st August 2010

The explosive finale to Scholastic's mega-selling series.

Throughout the hunt for the 39 Clues, Amy and Dan Cahill have uncovered history's greatest mysteries and their family's deadliest secrets. But are they ready to face the truth about the Cahills and the key to their unmatched power? After a whirlwind race that's taken them across five continents, Amy and Dan face the most the difficult challenge yet- a task no Cahill dared to imagine. When faced with a choice that could change the future of the world, can two kids succeed where 500 years worth of famous ancestors failed?

The first thing that comes into my mind when I think of The 39 Clues? Fun! They are like drinking squash without diluting it. Ok, that’s sounds disgusting, but what I mean is that they are such quick, easy reads but at the same time they are jam packed with action, adventure, intrigue, betrayal, ecstasy, despair, revelation, excitement, terror… Need I go on? I don’t know how they manage it but each book is stuffed full – they are the little books with the big stories.

Amy and Dan make great heroes and a really believable brother and sister. So many times I read books where siblings have uncomfortably close relationships when in reality 99% of siblings have a great deal of love and friction. These two squabble and fall out all the time but so too do they work extremely well together, pulling on each other’s skills and knowledge to work in the only effective team in the clue hunt. The pair are great role models for kids (and me!), showing that hard work, courage and self-belief lead to great rewards. Probably a great attribute to these stories is that the vast majority of the other characters are the bad guys, everyone is an enemy in the clue hunt but each person has something to give to the reader, whether it’s the mistakes they’ve made, the lessons they’ve learnt or the way they change. Each character begins as an enigma but as they series grows, their true characters unfold.

I finally got around to reading the 10th book in the series, Into The Gauntlet, which marks the end of the original clue hunt but opens the story up to an even bigger adversary… About that I shall say no more! What I really enjoyed was actually how touching this book was and naturally it’s all down to the kids. Throughout the series the parents or older relatives of the clue hunters have always represented the element of the insane, the obsessive and often the psychotic. At first, the children kept up with their parents but some of the decisions those adults made during the clue hunt have led the kids to start questioning their motivation. At last, when they are all forced together, completely cut off from the poisonous influence of their elders, the penny drops for all of them and their inherent morality takes a stand. I think it’s probably true that the young generation find it hard to maintain the grudges of the older generations, especially when those grudges cause them to take action that is morally wrong. I had thought that the ending would be horribly superficial but I’m so glad it spans most of the book and is as serious as it is because it gives the whole series a point.

I’m a real fan of this series, and even though it’s meant for middle grade kids, they are definitely the kind of books that can also be enjoyed by older teens or adults because they are never patronising. In fact they deal with some pretty heavy issues and I’m glad the writers haven’t shied away from that. I have delved into the online side of the books as they are designed to go hand in hand with a really excellent website – and yes, I have spent hours playing the games and solving the mysteries so I can verify it is a really enjoyable website. The creators have taken great care to bring the clue hunt to life with the cards, the website and the hidden messages in each book and personally I think they have really achieved what they set out to do. It’s a great series: lots of fun but with serious edges, easy to read but not patronising, definitely one I’ll keep reading.

Review: Demon Gates - Robert Day

2011-11-21T08:00:00.002Z

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: ebook (825 KB)
Publisher: self published
Pub Date: 14th October 2010

The land of Kil'Tar has a long and bloody history of war between the Kay'taari and the Ashar'an. Aided by Dragonkind, the Kay'taari have protected the world against the Ashar'an and their demonic followers for many centuries. With demonkind banished to the Voids, and the Ashar'an all but destroyed, Kil'Tar has enjoyed an era of peace.

However, the seals binding the portals to the voids are failing, and the Ashar'an are abroad once again. Both the Kay'taari and Dragonkind are nowhere to be found on Kil'Tar.

Can Valdieron, a young man raised in the small village of Shadowvale, fulfill his destiny and rid the lands of this menace once and for all, or will he falter, and condemn Kil'Tar to demonic destruction?

I always get a bit nervous when I read high fantasy novels as I’m a real fan of snappy, fast-paced stories and relevant, relatable characters. I always get worried that I’m going to commit the reading sin of all reading sins and start skipping pages to get to actual plot. With Demon Gates, however, I have sighed a huge sigh of relief.

Demon Gates took me back to the moment when I first opened The Fellowship of the Rings. It was a moment when I first grasped how thick the book was, how tiny the type was and how wafer thin the pages were and I sank in despair wondering if this was a book I would ever finish. But when I think back to when I read The Lord of the Rings, I realise that that is exactly what high fantasy is all about. It’s not about quick reads, the author has designed a whole new world for you to explore, the joy of reading comes from the epic nature of a high fantasy, that’s why the fantasy section of the bookshop is filled with fat books. And that is what I have re-learnt from reading Demon Gates.

The story has been constructed so well by Robert Day, balancing both the personal journey of young Valdieron and the overarching epic storyline of the impending escape of the demons on the world. I think Robert has found just the right mix to keep the plot both grounded and fantastical. Valdieron has been a real pleasure to travel with and the time spent on his character over the pages has fleshed him out into someone I’m really quite fond of now. The author’s skill really shows through by the end of the book where you feel both that you have been on an epic journey of adventure and discovery but at the same time you are certain that you ain’t seen nothing yet! There’s a tangible sense that the story has only just begun, that Valdieron has succeeded only in the easiest of his tests.

Possibly one of the greatest assets of Demon Gates is the fight scenes. I love a bit of swashbuckling action and this book is filled with it. The descriptions are so vivid, you’ll be standing there right amongst the action, ducking at the opportune moment. What is really clever is the way Robert Day has written Valdieron’s battle training into his sleep, eradicating the need to spend endless pages on his training rather than getting on with the story. At the same time, Valdieron’s skills do not develop overnight, as it were, his development unfolds across the whole story, keeping it realistic and keeping him human (if indeed that is what he is… Bit of a hint there!).

I really enjoyed Demon Gates, definitely one of my favourite high fantasy stories. It’s clean, it’s not confusing, it’s personal as well as epic, it’s definitely suitable for older teens as it’s not overly graphic and most importantly it’s a really engaging story that has been really well crafted. A definite recommendation whether you are into high fantasy or not, it’s an accessible and enjoyable venture into the genre.

The Wishlist Diet #18

2011-11-20T08:00:00.001Z

*The Wishlist Diet is part of the In My Mailbox meme hosted by The Story Siren*

To Read:

Lastborn by Rachel Forde
Moondreams by Dean Johnson

To Review:

Demon Gates by Robert Day
The 39 Clues (#10): Into the Gauntlet by Margaret Peterson Haddix

It's a big self-published week this week! I'm trying to catch up on all the reviews that I have promised but as yet have failed to deliver... So, this is definitely the place to be if you are looking for some recommendations on 0.86p books! I think I've been really lucky with self-published books so far, they've all been pretty darn good - although now I've said that I hope I don't now come across a shocker... This week I'll be reading the book that will feature on my December Self Publishing Spotlight, Lastborn by Rachel Forde, plus Moondreams by Dean Johnson which sounds really intriguing.

As for reviews, I'll be posting my 39 Clues review, taking in all 10 books of the first series. Also, there will be a self-published book, Demon Gates by Robert Day that I'm really enjoying. I love a good high fantasy!

So, what are you reading this week? Don't forget to enter my 100 follower giveaway! I'm just 15 peeps away!

Interview: Julia Suzuki

2011-11-18T08:33:00.001Z

I'm thrilled to welcome Julia Suzuki to my blog today, author of the highly original and magical Yoshiko and the Gift of Charms. I just loved this special book and I'm so pleased Julia agreed to a grilling so I can dig a little deeper behind the scenes. Here's the blurb:

This epic novel, first in the Land of Dragor series, is aimed primarily at eight to twelve year-olds but with appeal for all ages transports the reader to the magical Land of Dragor, where seven dragon clans live hidden from man. Their great war is over and the dragons live peacefully among the smoking mud pools and around The Fire Which Must Never Go Out, but the terrible years when they were enslaved by humans have left a lasting scar and they are told they can never soar above the mountains and leave their safe haven to explore the outside world. There is unease in the air of their mist-filled valley, and the coming of a strange egg heralds a new era. Unlike the normal delicate lilac, this shell is multi-coloured like the contents of a treasure chest. The newborn hatchling is called Yoshiko, but he is immediately treated with suspicion by the elders, and is lucky to survive. The last time a coloured egg was laid, legendary warrior leader Surion was born from a red shell, and with his gift of fire the dragons went to battle with the humans. Will Yoshiko bring a blessing to the clans, or a curse? Could Dragor be about to meet its saviour, or its destroyer?

Chameleon-like Yoshiko is bullied and tormented as he grows up, taunted at fire school as he struggles to produce a jet of flame. Desperate to hide his colour changes, he flees from school one day and finds himself on the fabled mountain of Cattlewick Cave, home to the mysterious and reclusive elder Guya. This chance meeting changes Yoshiko’s life, and as he develops from hatchling to youngling, he is inspired to spread his wings and venture outside Dragor. He returns with magic gifts – but only time will tell if they heal or harm Dragor.

Hop over to my 5 star review of Yoshiko and the Gift of Charms.

How would you describe Yoshiko in a tweet (140 characters)?

Yoshiko is ambitious, determined and driven but sensitive with the desire to fit in and be loved!

I thought Yoshiko was such an original story, where did the idea for the book come from?

The idea came from personal challenges while growing up as a child who used to get rather embarrassed – his colour change reflects that blushing. I created the idea when the dragon became a logo for my business, which is all about health, wealth and beauty. Yoshiko strives for everything that a lot of us do - acceptance, love and to fulfil our purpose. My quest is to share the secrets as to how that may be obtained after years of personal development studies, conquering my own challenges and learning from others.

Yoshiko is a great hero character and I especially love the character of Guya. How do these characters come to you?

With regards to Guya, a lot of him is based on a wise man I know who mentors many people. I often refer to speaking to him as like 'having conversations with God' for he seems to have answers I can never find elsewhere. His father was a judge and an Indian Ambassador who taught him much of his knowledge which led to a hugely successful business career. He certainly has inspired me and when I am faced with a challenge, he is the first person I talk to. As for Yoshiko, to me he’s the kind of friend everyone wants, a real loyal, kind individual who you can rely on.

How did you go about creating the Land of Dragor with all its myths and legends?

I started with an initial idea and it just grew, it’s difficult to say exactly how but I’m a big dreamer and I read a lot about spiritual things so it seems to come easily to me.

Yoshiko has some wonderful messages for young children (and me!), were these messages important to you when you wrote the book?

Absolutely yes and yes again! I wanted to share the happiness and success principles I have learned in my life as I have been blessed with working and knowing some incredible people. I love to help others, to overcome any problems or just make them smile and take them on a journey of adventure. Spreading messages in an exciting storyline – that was my mission.

Being a successful business woman as well as a former professional dancer and model, what made you turn your hand to writing children’s books?

My career has been in licensing and branding and I always wanted to create an incredible brand. As soon as my thoughts for Dragor developed I had a burning desire – 'fire in my belly' – to write and build it. I felt it was my purpose above all other things. I just felt that it was meant to be.

What kind of writer are you? Do you have any rituals? Do you plan a story from start to finish or just see what happens?

I create the outline, the start and the end and a large mind map. Then I expand and fill it in. I write when I feel in the right frame of mind, it works for me that way.

When I received a copy of Yoshiko, I fell in love with it instantly as an object, it is just beautiful to hold – a proper book! What do you think of the book’s design and the artwork? What was it like to get your hands on a finished copy?

I had huge input in the design, and I would not stop until it was just as I wanted it (keeping the design team up late at night at deadline time until they had it spot on). From the gold writing to the rainbow and mist around Yoshiko, I was determined to create a beautiful looking book - to me, presentation is very important. The Dragor logo also took a lot of development. I am an absolute perfectionist and this first edition hardback is limited edition, so it had to be very special right down to the red ribbon. Hold on to it – there aren’t many first edition hardback books in print so, I advise people to buy it quickly :)

When I held the first copy I felt very proud of course, and more so when my ten-year-old son Elliot said he loved it.

If you had room on your shelf for only 3 books, what would they be?

Enid Blyton – The Enchanted Wood

CS Lewis – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Beatrix Potter – The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher

Do you have any hints for what we can expect from the next book?

Expect a stronger human element, a huge twist and a lot more fun, partying and action in Dragor. I cannot give away too much more :)

A huge thanks to Julia for answering my questions, I would definitely recommend Yoshiko and the Gift of Charms to anyone who wants to read a great, original story and maybe learn a few things about life!

Find out more about Julia Suzuki on her website, Facebook or follow her on Twitter at @TheLandofDragor. Also, check out the Land of Dragor website for some great fun!

Review: Yoshiko and the Gift of Charms by Julia Suzuki

2011-11-15T08:00:00.000Z

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: 275 pages
Publisher: Steve Brookes Publishing
Pub Date: 8th April 2011

This epic novel, first in the Land of Dragor series, is aimed primarily at eight to twelve year-olds but with appeal for all ages transports the reader to the magical Land of Dragor, where seven dragon clans live hidden from man. Their great war is over and the dragons live peacefully among the smoking mud pools and around The Fire Which Must Never Go Out, but the terrible years when they were enslaved by humans have left a lasting scar and they are told they can never soar above the mountains and leave their safe haven to explore the outside world. There is unease in the air of their mist-filled valley, and the coming of a strange egg heralds a new era. Unlike the normal delicate lilac, this shell is multi-coloured like the contents of a treasure chest. The newborn hatchling is called Yoshiko, but he is immediately treated with suspicion by the elders, and is lucky to survive. The last time a coloured egg was laid, legendary warrior leader Surion was born from a red shell, and with his gift of fire the dragons went to battle with the humans. Will Yoshiko bring a blessing to the clans, or a curse? Could Dragor be about to meet its saviour, or its destroyer?

Chameleon-like Yoshiko is bullied and tormented as he grows up, taunted at fire school as he struggles to produce a jet of flame. Desperate to hide his colour changes, he flees from school one day and finds himself on the fabled mountain of Cattlewick Cave, home to the mysterious and reclusive elder Guya. This chance meeting changes Yoshiko’s life, and as he develops from hatchling to youngling, he is inspired to spread his wings and venture outside Dragor. He returns with magic gifts – but only time will tell if they heal or harm Dragor.

Sometimes you read a book that is like a big mug of hot chocolate – it’s very satisfying and warms you all the way through – and sometimes those books have some very interesting sprinkles you’ve never seen before and some uniquely coloured marshmallows you’ve never tasted before. That’s how I would describe Yoshiko and the Gift of Charms in a nutshell – or should I say a mug?

Dragons almost always take on the role of sidekick in a fantasy story and are often portrayed either as unruly pets or ethereal creatures. It is just wonderful to find a story where dragons are the main characters and humans are the mythical race. The Land of Dragor is a beautiful place to escape to, rich in detail, legend, myths and lore which is impossible not to get wound up in. In the same breath, Dragor also shares a lot of similarities to the human world: young dragons must attend school and undergo the same challenges that any human child might. I think this is what I find so captivating, Julia Suzuki has created a world of fantasy with an original mythology but has kept it grounded and relevant to children.

Yoshiko is a fantastic hero character, just like any child he has his fair share of flaws when he begins his journey – he’s self-conscious, self-pitying and has unusual physical attributes, all of which open him up to bullying from the spiteful Igorr. But as the story unfolds, so does Yoshiko’s character. His hard work and determination improve his abilities and confidence, and bring out the courage that was hiding inside him. Yoshiko is a wonderful role model and the story is peppered with important messages for children and, as an adult who loves a good story, I certainly appreciated them too! The book is packed with other well-formed and engaging characters from the overgrown bully Gandar and his terrorised but equally nasty son, Igorr, to the wise old recluse, Guya, who is definitely my favourite character. Everyone you will find in life, you will find within the pages of Yoshiko and the Gift of Charms and I think that is what is at least partly at the heart of this book: it’s a fantastic exploration of character. Each of the seven dragon clans have different character traits and flaws but this story is about finding the cure for those flaws and overcoming them. It’s about identifying why a character behaves the way they do and not judging them based on their flaws but based on what they have been through and what they have achieved, looking at what they can do rather than what they can’t.

Yoshiko and the Gift of Charms is simply a wonderful story filled with subtly delivered lessons on life which you really cannot stop learning. That’s why, if this were a film, I would give it a U certificate because it is meant for everyone and has something to give to everyone who reads it, whatever your age. I have been thoroughly charmed and fallen in love with Yoshiko and the Land of Dragor and I cannot wait for the next book – especially if it is in the same beautiful hardback format as the first!

The Wishlist Diet #17

2011-11-13T10:26:00.000Z

*The Wishlist Diet is part of the In My Mailbox meme hosted by The Story Siren*

To Read:

Demon Gates by Robert Day
The 39 Clues (#10): Into the Gauntlet by Margaret Peterson Haddix

To Review:

Yoshiko and the Gift of Charms by Julia Suzuki

And I'm back!

I had a very nice blog holiday, thank you very much, but now I'm back in action with a new blog background to boot (I thought the nice summery green leaves were a bit out of season...).

So, this week I'll be reviewing Yoshiko and the Gift of Charms by Julia Suzuki, one of the books I read at a nice leisurely pace on my blog holiday. I really enjoyed this book, I have a lot of warm feelings towards it so watch out for my review! I'll also be reading the 10th 39 Clues book which I'll bundle up with a review of the preceding 9 books as well as a self published book, Demon Gates by Robert Day. This one has been on my pile for AGES but I've finally organised myself so it's first on my new list!

Finally, for a chance to win 2 shiny new books of your own choice, please enter my 200 follower giveaway. You don't have to perform millions of tasks to enter, just follow my blog and you're in! You can enter by going to my 200 follower giveaway post.

100 Follower Giveaway

2011-11-10T13:30:00.005Z

Enter my 100 follower giveaway and you could bag yourself 2 brand new books of your own choice!

Sound good? All you have to do to enter is use the Rafflecopter form below - follow my blog and maybe tweet about it if you want 2 extra entries. Make sure you pass me on to lots of your friends because the giveaway will be open until 1 week after I hit 100 followers so the more people enter, the quicker you could win! The giveaway is open internationally but if you are under 16 please make sure a parent or guardian has given you permission to enter.

If you are a blogger, leave a comment with your blog URL, especially if it's a YA fiction blog as I always love to see what other people are reading!

Head to The Book Depository to pick your books if you're feeling lucky!

I Need Jane!

2011-11-06T08:51:00.000Z

Sometimes it all gets to be too much and you just gotta reach for a Jane Austen novel!

I'm on a blog holiday, taking a rest from manic reading and reviewing to hang out with Jane at a leisurely pace. I will be back, however, in a week or so, you can't keep me away from YA for too long!

xxx

Self Publishing Spotlight: Seven Days on the Mountain by Scott Whitaker

2011-11-01T08:00:00.004Z

Welcome to my Self Publishing Spotlight!

This month I'm very pleased to say my spotlight has landed on author Scott Whitaker and his gripping survival thriller Seven Days on the Mountain.

Callie Grady wakes in the middle of the night to explosions and screams. It’s her birthday, but the only present she receives is the end of the world.

Or so she thinks. The world is on fire and Callie and her family flee their rural town and head to the mountains where they hope to hide out in the cabin that’s been in her family for generations.

Only there is a new civil war and US soldiers massacre fleeing citizens on the highway. War planes skewer the skies above. Chased into the hills, her family is attacked and her mother is killed. Helped by friends from her childhood, Callie and the surviving members of her family attempt to rebuild a life while the world rages about them.

Taken to “Uncle” Jessup’s mountain home, everyone must adjust to life in the new America, where the country reels from a new civil war. The survivors rely on solar power, elbow grease, and old fashioned hard work as they try to recover from loss.

However, isolation from the world isn’t all bad, as “Uncle” Jessup teaches them to hunt, fish, and scout the mountain and Callie wrestles with idea that she may be attracted to her childhood friend Alex Jessup, or Johnny Penny, or even worse, both of them.

It isn’t long before danger threatens and Callie, Alex, and Johnny are forced into the wilderness by marauding soldiers bent on establishing control of the mountain. They leave behind a dying “Uncle” Jess, his wife, and Callie’s father and brother. The last thing they see before they leave is the steady approach of deserted soldiers. Deep in the woods, the fate of their loved ones weighs upon them and soon Callie, Alex, and Johnny decide to return to either save their family and friends or die trying.

However the mountain has other things in mind.

Winter hurls snow and ice upon them. A deranged madman holds up in a fire watch post and sets a trap for the unsuspecting heroes; an aging actress holds court in the mysterious ruins of an apple orchard, a haunted cabin and insane bear bar the way up mountain while the back roads teem with bands of bored soldiers with itchy trigger fingers.

Will Callie and her friends survive the journey up the mountain?

Seven Days on the Mountain is a gritty survival thriller, a modern re-telling of The Odyssey, and you can read my full review of the book here.

For now, Scott has kindly written me a guest post about Seven Days on the Mountain and his experiences in self publishing, with a few wise words to boot!

Seven Days on the Mountain was my second complete novel¹ and my first crack at Young Adult Fiction. I wrote it in 2006 in three months and revised it later that fall. An experiment; I wanted to see if I could replicate and thus learn YA pacing. YA fiction is gritty, realistic, and pushes boundaries. Some of the best sci-fi written today is YA, and I wanted to see if I could work within its boundaries. What resulted is a story of a fierce young woman who must rely on more than strength and savagery to survive a series of trials. Odysseus is a character known for his brain as much as his brawn, and I wanted a young girl who was naive, but emotionally stable, forced to become something more than a teenager; she's forced to develop a killer instinct to survive, she's forced to face death, she's forced to learn how to take care of herself.

I liberally adapted the the trials of Odysseus. The cyclops is a gross toad of a man who has taken residency in a watchtower. Circe and Calypso are merged into the life of an eternal fallen woman who lives in a mysterious ruined orchard, the Scylla and Charybdis are an insane bear and a haunted cabin.

This was my first self published work. I had a brief flirtation with landing a top agent. She was interested in Seven Days, but ultimately passed on my manuscript, encouraging me to look elsewhere because it was marketable. My first and only rejection by an agent and I remained encouraged. I knew what the business was like, a by product of Emerson College² and Boston University's writing programs, I had worked with literary rising stars and veterans alike; I'd heard it all.

Persistence. Patience.

Business is business. When Kindle and Nook exploded I decided to try self-publishing. On my terms. I didn't want to pay for my book to see the light of day, even though I continue to seek mainstream publication for all my projects³. I get paid more often than not these days, and that's fine by me⁴. But most of all I love playing with language, and the music of words. Sure I'd love a fat contract and a chance to indulge my talent.

Maybe I'll land one.

Persistence. Patience.

To do it on your own adds to the thrill. An experiment of its own. My voice is what matters. And how I explore it.

Persistence. Go on your nerve. Write against your grain. Be mindful of the craft, the collective sound of syllables as they play under your typing fingers.

I published my first chapbook of poetry in 2005. The Barleyhouse Letters is a narrative lyrical half tale of two sisters whose life is full of mysteries. I left holes in the story so the reader would make their own deductions. The North Street Playhouse performed a reading of it that following winter, and it was thrilling to hear other people read my words.

My second chapbook of poetry, Field Recordings, was more of a unified collection of poems about the Delmarva Peninsula, a place invigorated with pioneering spirit, where we⁵ live. It won the Dogfish Head Poetry Prize⁶ in 2006, and went on to win the Delaware Press Association for best verse.

My latest chapbook of poems, News From the Front, was published by The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. It's a collection of war themed poetry. Many of the poems discovered life elsewhere: The Delaware Poetry Review, Anderbo, Xanadu, & Winning Writers: War Poetry.

Currently I'm working on a free verse YA novel about juvenile delinquents, a YA magical realism epic⁷, and short stories that all take place in various end of the world scenarios.

Follow me on Twitter, Posterous, and Blogger.

¹ There's a redneck drug dealer magical realism 890 page whopper in my attic, a ghost story about a haunted house and marsh that's almost done - once I realized I was re-writing The Shining I didn't complete it, and a YA flood dystopian end of the world magical realism steampunk adventure that I'm putting the final touches on.

² It was a chilly September afternoon when I sat in on my first creative writing workshops, led by poet Martin Espada, at Emerson College in the fall of 1992. We were on Tremont St. in Boston, and Andre Dubus held a graduate workshop across from the narrow office where our class met. I don't remember what we discussed in that first workshop, but Espada captured my imagination and I was hooked. At first came structured assignments and then... a free for all. Everyone brought their slice of the lit pie to class each week and I discovered new authors, rediscovered classics, picked up remainders out of the trash on Charles Street. Each new author was like a door into another room. Every new reading experience gave me permission to try similar techniques, content, style, or theme. This is true for film, theater, and television, observations on the 57 bus, or the Green line, or at the grocery store. People are everywhere. And they all have stories.

³ Persistence. Patience.

⁴ Currently I'm an associate editor and reviewer for The Broadkill Review. I've had the pleasure of reviewing large publishing house books, indie books, and self-published books.

⁵ Between college and grad school I met my love, Michele, whose own voice of poet and playwright influenced my own. Her influences became my influences and vice-versa. We both published occasionally back in those days, poor, living in the city. Then as many stories go, we moved to the country, to rural Virginia, and had a family.

⁶ The prize includes a giant check, two cases of Dogfish Head Beer, and a reading in the beautiful small town of Milton, DE. It's worth the B&B if you go in for that sort of thing. The beer is particularly tasty.

⁷ See footnote 1

So there you have it! A huge thanks to Scott for participating in the Self Publishing Spotlight, his book Seven Days on the Mountain is available now - and I highly recommend it - from:

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

To find out more about the Self Publishing Spotlight feature or to submit a book, click here. I'm especially interested to hear from authors planning to publish in the new year.

Best of the Bunch #October 2011

2011-10-31T08:00:00.001Z

It's that time of the month again: to decide which of all the books I read in October was the Best of the Bunch.

And the winner of the Best of the Bunch Award October 2011 is...

*dramatic pause*

Arrival by Chris Morphew

Luke is having a rough year. When his parents split up, his mum drags him to Phoenix, a brand-new town in the middle of nowhere.

But Phoenix is no ordinary town. There are no cars, no phones and no internet. Luke thinks this is as weird as it gets.

Then he discovers that someone is plotting to wipe out the human race. Phoenix is suddenly the safest and most dangerous place on earth.

And the clock is already ticking.

There are 100 days until the end of the world.

As you might have gleaned from the blurb, Arrival takes place on the verge of an apocaplypse and in true YA style, it's up to 3 teens to save the world. Amazing!

This is a proper action-adventure-mystery-thriller, a really gripping read with plenty of tension and a wonderfully frustrating lack of answers by the end that will have you reaching for the next book, Contact. It's so well written, similar to Michael Grant's Gone series but less gory (thankfully!), and a real asset to the story is that it's set in Australia which is such a refreshing change from the US or UK. I wish there were more Aussie books available in the UK and if anyone knows of any please let me know!

Anyway, you can read my full review of Arrival here.

Congratulations Chris Morphew!

Please share your Best of the Bunch award by adding your link below.

New YA Releases - November 2011

2011-10-30T08:00:00.000Z

Here's a look ahead at what's got me excited in the world of YA fiction for October 2011. Let me know if you'll be reading any of these!

*please note I don't read hardbacks (with the odd exception) so although some of these have been out in hardback for a while they will be on this list as they are now coming out in paperback or on Kindle*

Extent: 384 pages
Publisher: Puffin
Pub Date: 24th November 2011
Format: Paperback

In search of a future that may not exist and faced with the decision of who to share it with, Cassia journeys to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky - taken by the Society to his certain death - only to find that he has escaped, leaving a series of clues in his wake.

Cassia's quest leads her to question much of what she holds dear, even as she finds glimmers of a different life across the border. But as Cassia nears resolve and certainty about her future with Ky, an invitation for rebellion, an unexpected betrayal, and a surprise visit from Xander - who may hold the key to the uprising and, still, to Cassia's heart - change the game once again. Nothing is as expected on the edge of Society, where crosses and double crosses make the path more twisted than ever.

Extent: 320 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Pub Date: 15th November 2011
Format: Paperback

Colt McAlister was having the summer of his life. He spent his days surfing and his nights playing guitar on the beach with friends. He even met a girl and got his first car. But everything changes when his parents are killed in a freak accident.

He's forced to leave his old life behind and move to Arizona with his grandfather. The only person he knows at the new high school is a childhood friend named Dani. And Oz, a guy he's sure he's never met but who is strangely familiar.

But what if his parents' death wasn't an accident? His mother, an investigative reporter, was going to expose a secret mind-control program run by one of the world's largest companies. Before she could release the story, what if agents from Trident Biotech made sure she couldn't go public?

Vowing to uncover the truth, Colt gets drawn into a secret world of aliens, shapeshifters, flying motorcycles, and invisible gateways.

The Invasion has begun.

Extent: 368 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pub Date: 10th November 2011
Format: Paperback

Striking out into the wasteland with nothing but her baby sister, a handful of supplies, and a rumor to guide her, sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone survives only to be captured by the people of Sylum, a dystopian society where women rule the men who drastically outnumber them, and a kiss is a crime. In order to see her sister again, Gaia must submit to their strict social code, but how can she deny her sense of justice, her curiosity, and everything in her heart that makes her whole?

Extent: 528 pages
Publisher: Doubleday Children's
Pub Date: 3rd November 2011
Format: Paperback

The squabbling Norse gods and goddesses of Runemarks are back! And there's a feisty new heroine on the scene: Maggie, a girl the same age as Maddy but brought up a world apart - literally, in World's End, the focus of the Order in which Maddy was raised. Now the Order is destroyed, Chaos is filling the vacuum left behind... and is breaching the everyday world.A chilling prophecy from the Oracle. A conflict between two girls. And with just twelve days to stave off the Apocalypse, carnage is about to be unleashed...

Extent: 224 pages
Publisher: Matador
Pub Date: 1st November 2011
Format: Paperback

Fifteen-year-old Molly is gauche and awkwardly tall, a great disappointment to her parents who only have time for their careers. Constantly at loggerheads because Molly is determined to become a swimmer, the family go to stay in a 17th century manor house now used as a religious retreat. Inadvertently, Molly triggers a time-chute and reappears in 1648, at the end of the Civil War, to find she has taken the place of Molly Hampton, the eldest daughter in a Puritan family. After suffering a beating, an entire morning spent in chapel, a smelly privy, a muddy farmyard, and cold water to wash in, Molly labels the seventeenth century "barbaric" and is hell-bent on escaping back to her own life. But the manor house belongs to Sir Richard Blaisdale, a Royalist family, and is barred to her. Forced to continue with the charade, Molly meets Richard, supposedly her best friend, only to find herself falling in love with him. Gradually, Molly begins to change her mind believing that she can stay and take Molly Hampton's place, little realising that danger and disaster lie in wait for her...Time Breaking, the latest riveting offer from author Barbara Spencer, is written for young adults aged 12 -16.

Extent: 224 pages
Publisher: Medallion Press
Pub Date: 1st November 2011
Format: Paperback

Teenager Jack Lawson lives an average and ordinary life in a typical southern English town, until the day a white fox introduces himself as Jack’s guardian spirit and gives to him a mysterious talisman. Jack’s life continues to spin out of control when his friend Alex, after warning that the town is in grave danger from demons controlled by the Cult of Dionysus, is kidnapped by the cult. Enlisting the help of his friend Lucy, Jack embarks on a journey unlike one he could have ever imagined—one filled with sublime mysteries and fantastical adventures. A story written by a teenager for a teenage audience, this work encourages readers to reconsider their assumptions about the fantasy genre while deciphering the book’s parallels with real-world mythology and philosophy.

Interview: Jason Beineke

2011-10-28T09:55:00.000+01:00

I'm very pleased to welcome Jason Beineke, author of Blackstone: Drawing the Circle, to my blog today for a grilling. Jason was kind enough to send me his book after it featured on Leighanne's Lit's Best of the Bunch September 2011 and I thought it was a brilliantly written piece of epic fantasy. Here's the blurb:

Blackstone is a mercenary sorcerer who does not rule any valleys and has yet to be bound to another sorcerer. Undertaking work for the sorceress queen, Spiral, he finds himself the expendable pawn in an assassination mission. Turning against the queen he fights Spiral’s loyal sorcerers and finds himself tasked with the guardianship of the marked man’s son. As the two flee from Spiral they have to work through their mutual bitterness and distrust of each other. A new tangle is thrown into their relationship when Blackstone frees a werewolf from her cage set in a town square and reverts the werewolf back to a young woman, cursed since childhood with lycanthropy.

Fleeing from the townsfolk who had previously kept the young werewolf, Loralune, captive, the three person band must confront Loralune’s transformation under the full moon, the posse that runs them to ground and a sorceress looking for revenge against Hiroe and Blackstone. Survival against these threats leaves them vulnerable to other, more insidious dangers.

Click to read my full review of Blackstone: Drawing the Circle.

How would you describe Blackstone: Drawing the Circle in a tweet (140 characters)?

A mercenary sorcerer, an orphaned squire, a cursed werewolf, running from tyranny, falling into nightmare.

How did the idea for Blackstone come about?

As with most of my writing I was first gifted with the image of a single scene in the book while I was doing data entry and listening to heavy metal music one night at work. The scene is now incorporated in the chapter, "Bitter Spaces", in the book. Often I come up with an ending to a story or novel first, then the opening and work on filling in the spaces in-between in my mind. This can be a long process, as evidence by the fact that Blackstone: Drawing the Circle was first dreamed up in the late 1990's.

Blackstone, Hiroe and Loralune are a wonderful group of misfits, how did these characters come to you?

Blackstone was heavily influenced by the character, Gats/Guts, from Kentaro Miura's Berserk manga. It is, by far, one of the best fantasy mangas I have ever read. It is still an on-going series, but it is definitely NOT for children. To learn more, please check out the following Wikipedia entry.

I am unsure what the influence for the character of Hiroe was. He appeared in the same original scene snippet as Blackstone did. Often, there is a mental relationship between myself and the characters that I write. It is possible that Hiroe represents an idealized version of what I wish my own adolescence had been. I cannot be sure. His name is also unusual and really did not fit the cultural setting I put him in. However, I would have been extremely hard-pressed to have come up with a different name for him. He has always been "Hiroe" to me. His hair queue, however, was not always a part of him, but came to “grow” on him over the years that the series gestated in my mind.

Loralune the Moonhavoc was the third character to come to me and I think she was there to help balance things out between Blackstone and Hiroe, injecting the feminine into the trio. I also knew that I wanted her to be a vibrant and active character in her own right and not shunted aside into the background. She will definitely have a powerful role in the second novel as more of her own past is revealed and she asserts her dominance. I am looking forward to see how readers react to her.

Spiral was influenced by the Hindu god, Shiva, in the form of Nataraja, "The King (Lord) of Dance". Her appearance was influenced by Freya from the manga series, Ragnarok, even though the character of Freya only appeared for a few pages in the series.

Snowflake just came to me one day while I was struggling with the first major battle scene. In the world of tropes, she is the most "tropy" of the characters in the series, but her impact has definitely been lasting!

Is there much research involved in writing epic fantasy? Did you find out anything interesting in your research for Blackstone?

It might surprise people, but there is a LOT of research to be done in epic fantasy! I model the setting for the series on the Asian continent and while to date there has not been that much in common between the Phoenix continent and the Asian continent, it will become a bit more apparent in the coming books. The second book is largely situated in a mirror of the country, Dagestan, a southern Russian Republic in the Caucasus. To learn about the cultures of the Caucasus I read a lot of novels and non-fiction related to the area, history and cultures. Among my research material was Nicolai Gogol's Taras Bulba, and Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokov, Voyage to the Caucasus by Alexandre Dumas (pere).

One must never forget that topography and geography play such a vital role in fantasy fiction. These two things take on their own characteristics in a good story and deeply influence the living characters of a work.

The scientific level of a fantastical society is probably the most difficult thing to work with. How much science/technology is there? Is it consistent throughout the book or the cultural segment in the book? Future Blackstone novels will deal with this somewhat, but most particularly when the group travels to an equivalent of Sun Ce's court during the Three Kingdoms period of China. By the first century AD, China had invented and forgotten an incredible amount of technology that 1400 AD Europe would have been hard-pressed to copy.

One almost needs a degree in Medieval History in order to properly convey the fantasy world when it is set analogous to Medieval Europe. What were the customs, the clothing, the foods, the environmental stressors on a people, the role of religion in everyday life, political structure and hierarchies, etc.? Patrick Rothfuss has done a wonderful job of scene setting for his books, Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear. I am deeply envious of him for this.

Tamora Pierce has done a lot of travel in regards to researching for her novels. Her Circle of Magic series is based in a Mediterranean setting and also pulls in Chinese culture as well. Allison Goodman’s Eon and Eona were also set in a Chinese Empire world and one could tell that there was a LOT of research done on the part of Ms. Goodman to convey the social subtleties involved in the novels.

Lastly, what is the structure of magic in a world? Readers might well think that writers just make this up as we go along. To a large extent we do. However, the good epic fantasy writer will map out the magical system of a world. Is it Chaos manipulation, invocation, tapping of ley lines, weaving, etc?? It can become quite complicated. With Blackstone, I have not set too many definitions as I wish the story to be more character and plot driven than driven by the magic. To that end, I have also had to focus on making sure that magic is not a deus ex machina. As the series progresses, one will see that having magic definitely does NOT solve all that many problems (like transport).

I’m always intrigued to know how writers of epic fantasy go about building their world. How do you create a whole new world? Do you make maps or notes on the world to help you?

The first thing a fantasy writer has to think of is how does the world/geography impact the story and its characters? In the Blackstone world I make general use of the Asian map and have tweaked it in my head to suit my purposes (such as changing the overall shape to roughly resemble a rising phoenix, with the Indian subcontinent taking the place of the phoenix’s tail). As with magic, set locations are a bit fluid. I will not be creating an actual map to go with the Blackstone series, but will be descriptive where I feel it needs to be.

For my upcoming NaNoWriMo project I will be carefully constructing a map (based on Southeast Europe, particularly Bulgaria, Hungary and Turkey), filling in names and producing notes on different features. This will be a very "set" landscape and will create definitive boundaries for me to work within.

It should not be assumed that most fantasy writers work as I do in setting up their worlds. Since I was first writing as a teenager, I have usually "borrowed" geography from a real-world setting and restructured it for my own purposes. I know that many fantasy writers do not do this and take time to create their own, original maps.

As for populating a world, there is a lot of leeway to a writer. What are the racial, social, cultural, musical, historical and environmental impacts on a race? One also cannot forget religion and ethos and how they affect society. (I purposely removed religion from Blackstone as sorcerers fill much of the space that would otherwise be taken up by a "belief system", which will be explored in depth with the fourth novel.)

One of the best books to show archetypes of creating worlds was Frank Herbert's Dune. On the one hand it always rankled me that each world had such an overarching archetype applied to it. However, I feel that Mr. Herbert was trying not to bog the reader down in too much detail and information. We had the sands of Arrakis and its spices, the waters of Caladan that produced rice, the industrial wastelands of Geidi Prime, etc.

When and why did you decide to take the plunge and self publish your book? Did you always plan to publish it?

Basically, I was getting tired of receiving instant rejection notes from agents. Most of them were not interested in a male-centric YA series and one can see something of a dearth of male-centric YA books on the market. At one time adolescent males read--a lot! I know I did and was influenced strongly by some really great fiction from a lot of writers with both female and male lead protagonists. Nowadays our adolescent males are too involved in video games and mindlessly wandering malls, among other pointless endeavors.

So, being tired of knocking on doors and having the doors slammed in my face, I said to heck with it and took the plunge. It has been expensive (my cover artist may be in China, but he ain't cheap!), required a major investment in time and placed me on a rather steep learning curve. However, I have found myself immersed in many communities, made many friends and had my writing skills challenged, which has forced them to grow. Would I like someone else to take care of the marketing, promotion, submissions to reviewers and sending me a royalty check? Yes! Am I in a hurry for that to happen? Not really.

Blackstone was always meant to be published. When it appeared more and more likely that the life of the book hinged upon a small group of people controlling the classic publishing industry I said to heck with it and went to the Amazon Kindle Self-Publish route. Many thanks to Jeff Bezos for again blazing the trail! Other services are now out there, such as Smashwords, but it was Bezos who freed many writers from the constraints of the publishing world.

What kind of writer are you? Do you have any rituals? Do you plan a story from start to finish or just see what happens?

As stated earlier, I usually get hit out of the blue with the finale of a story, then backtrack to create the beginning and work on filling in the spaces in-between. That is why it took a decade to write this book. I also had writer's block for most of that period as well. I would come up with the scenes, the dialogue, etc., but could not bring myself to type it up. Since that block has finally fallen away (circa 2009), it is like the dam has burst for me, creatively.

When it comes to the actual writing, I find that I do my best work at night and the later the better. Most of Blackstone: Drawing the Circle was written after midnight (I had an evening job so that worked out well). I have to write in chronological order, I can't bring myself to skip around and then sew it all together. Particularly tough scenes or chapters will hold up the entire work until I slog through it. Not the smartest way to do things, but it's how I find myself writing. Having a beer next to me doesn't hurt and I also listen to a lot of music, most of it being instrumental and from movie soundtracks. Hans Zimmer has become one of my muses!! My recent novelette "Night of the Tower" was scripted in time with a number of pieces from Vanessa Mae's Choreography album.

The Blackstone series has a lot of books lining up in my brain, waiting to be birthed. The next books will be Butcher’s Winter, Masquerade of the Black Sun, Fields of Gold and City of Shadow, Alone and Jade Tiger. This will be followed by the second set of novels, the series entitled Love’s Dread Wage. Outside of the Blackstone world I have at least a dozen other writing projects swimming in my head. The question right now is finding the time to get these works done.

What is the story behind the cover?

One of the reasons that I went with the indie publishing route is because of book covers! Some book covers are absolutely horrid and have little writer input to them. This was one of Glen Cook's gripes about his Black Company series, the covers often had little do with the books (he had other issues with the publisher as well). Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller series have much better foreign covers than domestic American covers. The cover used for Name of the Wind in France just blew me away, it was gorgeous! The one used in the States was an utter travesty and I nearly didn't read the book because the cover put me off so much.

In regard to the cover for Blackstone: Drawing the Circle I had the picture drawn up in my mind, but I have no artistic ability (which is why I am not a manga-ka). I was able to relate what I saw in writing and thankfully I found an incredible artist in Lin Bo (http://0bo.deviantart.com/) who was able to bring off the cover beautifully. I differ a little bit with Lin on how Hiroe and Corvus look on the cover, but I am not complaining as the overall cover follows what I wanted.

Seated upon the thrones are the different adversaries particular to each of the protagonists. For Blackstone it was Spiral, whom he first employed himself to, then turned against her. For Loralune the Moonhavoc it is the Warden of Wachen, who had caged her and tormented her. In one of the rough drafts for the cover, the Warden was holding a chain in his right hand that appeared to dangle from him backwards towards Loralune, implying the "leashing" of the Moonhavoc. It subsequently disappeared in the final version >_< For Hiroe, all of the antagonists featured here have caused him troubles, but the most lasting effects are from the Dream Reaver seated before him. The children in front are the different versions of Corvus, the fetch that serves Spiral. He was fun to write about, and I had fun killing him, too :) Should I ever get the back cover done one will see that Blackstone, Loralune and Hiroe are each holding a sword behind their backs, as though getting ready to plunge the tip of the blade into the breast of their antagonist.

If you had room on your shelf for only 3 books, what would they be?

Dune by Frank Herbert
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Mask of the Sorcerer by Darrell Schweitzer (this was a huge influence on the Blackstone series, and it also has one of the worst cases of Crappy Cover Curses every seen!)

Do you have any hints for what we can expect from the next book?

The second book has been written and is currently awaiting proofing, editing and the cover (and funds for cover art are not really present at the moment). The title of the second book will be Blackstone: Butcher's Winter.

Surviving the tribulations of an angry werewolf and the dreaded dream reaver, Hiroe and Loralune manage to bring the badly injured Blackstone to the town of White Oak. White Oak is a sanctuary valley where all are welcome so long as they harm none. Here they are introduced to the sorcerer, alchemist and troubadour, Musty, who oversees the healing of Blackstone and the lifting of Loralune's curse. As Blackstone recuperates, Hiroe finds himself drawn into brotherhood with other youths of the town. From there he falls in love and contemplates spending the rest of his life in the quiet valley.

But the bliss of sanctuary never lasts and Blackstone's band learns that Musty has his own enemies and they have followed him to White Oak. Driven into exile, the quartet slog their way through snow covered lands as winter tightens its grip upon the world.

One day they come upon a runestone and halt to assess their path. Before they can complete their plans they are driven past the runestone by a presence so powerful as to make all three sorcerers quiver in fear. What they run to is not any more pleasant for they have crossed the boundary into the lands of Darbeni, home of Blood Eye.

Maintaining his life force and power by feeding on the blood of children, Blood Eye has reduced the populous of his nation into cattle, overseen by the animated bodies of their own stolen children.

Unable to leave Darbeni until Blood Eye is brought down, Blackstone and his band find themselves ushered to the forefront a rebellion not of their choosing or liking.

Even fighting the combined might of Blackstone, Loralune the Moonhavoc and Musty, Blood Eye proves able to resist them and only their combined cunning will buy the group any hope of surviving this winter of butchery and horror.

A huge thanks to Jason for doing the interview, I hope everyone enjoyed it!

If you'd like to know more about Jason and his books then stop by his blog at jasonbeineke.wordpress.com or follow him on Twitter at @JasonBeineke. Blackstone: Drawing the Circle is available to download now from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com.

Review: Seven Days on the Mountain - Scott Whitaker

2011-10-26T08:00:00.000+01:00

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: ebook (404 KB)
Publisher: Self Published
Pub Date: 28th June 2011

Callie Grady wakes in the middle of the night to explosions and screams. It’s her birthday, but the only present she receives is the end of the world.

Or so she thinks. The world is on fire and Callie and her family flee their rural town and head to the mountains where they hope to hide out in the cabin that’s been in her family for generations.

Only there is a new civil war and US soldiers massacre fleeing citizens on the highway. War planes skewer the skies above. Chased into the hills, her family is attacked and her mother is killed. Helped by friends from her childhood, Callie and the surviving members of her family attempt to rebuild a life while the world rages about them.

Taken to “Uncle” Jessup’s mountain home, everyone must adjust to life in the new America, where the country reels from a new civil war. The survivors rely on solar power, elbow grease, and old fashioned hard work as they try to recover from loss.

However, isolation from the world isn’t all bad, as “Uncle” Jessup teaches them to hunt, fish, and scout the mountain and Callie wrestles with idea that she may be attracted to her childhood friend Alex Jessup, or Johnny Penny, or even worse, both of them.

It isn’t long before danger threatens and Callie, Alex, and Johnny are forced into the wilderness by marauding soldiers bent on establishing control of the mountain. They leave behind a dying “Uncle” Jess, his wife, and Callie’s father and brother. The last thing they see before they leave is the steady approach of deserted soldiers. Deep in the woods, the fate of their loved ones weighs upon them and soon Callie, Alex, and Johnny decide to return to either save their family and friends or die trying.

However the mountain has other things in mind.

Winter hurls snow and ice upon them. A deranged madman holds up in a fire watch post and sets a trap for the unsuspecting heroes; an aging actress holds court in the mysterious ruins of an apple orchard, a haunted cabin and insane bear bar the way up mountain while the back roads teem with bands of bored soldiers with itchy trigger fingers.

Will Callie and her friends survive the journey up the mountain?

Here is a story that has made me realise that the heroes of many other dystopians that I read and love have a pretty cushy existence. Seven Days on the Mountain definitely harks back to the good old dystopians that used to appear on the bookshelves as a testament to their own merit rather than as a passenger on the me-too band wagon of recent years. Not that I have anything against the majority of those passengers, a lot of my favourite books fall into that category, but Scott Whitaker’s creation makes no attempt at claiming popularity through zeitgeist, it is an examination of humanity the likes of which has endured in literature since the dawn of story-telling.

I love post-apocalyptic and dystopian novels, and the reason I love them is because they really put humanity to the test. Of all the post-apocalyptic and dystopians novels I have read, I think the most effective explorations of humanity are those that take place on the brink – just when life and society as we know it collapses. Characters undergo a deprivation, rather than a privation; they have had the luxuries of a modern, western society and then the proverbial rug is pulled out from under their feet. What do they do? How do they survive? How do the new parameters of life affect them? This is exactly what happens to Callie: one day she’s living the cushy life of an average American teen and the next the world she has adapted to is lost. Scott Whitaker plunges Callie into the gritty realities of bare bones survival. It’s a world where Darwin rings true for humans once more, where only those who can adapt fast can survive and there is no room for the weak. It’s brutal and I love it! Callie is a wonderful hero who, although she starts off as a scared little girl, soon finds out how quick she can learn and how tough she can be. The story is a testament to the strength that a person can find within them when it is really called for, not just physical strength but strength of the mind and heart too. In a survival situation, there will always be people who are driven to the edge of insanity or whose natural evil blossoms – as Scott has shown in his villains – but there will also be those whose goodness and mental fortitude strengthen and in the end prevail. Callie undergoes an extraordinary journey through the horrors and brutality of a world without rules, she goes from being a scared little girl to a female fortress, a fighter and avenger.

Seven Days on the Mountain is gritty and tragic but it is also an immensely satisfying read due largely to the realism that Scott Whitaker has created. It is a brilliant study of humanity and it gives me hope that a person could have the strength of mind and the conviction of heart to survive any situation, to root out evil and restore balance to life.

Review: Darke - Angie Sage

2011-10-24T13:42:00.000+01:00

*NEW*
Extent: 656 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pub Date: 3rd October 2011

Angie Sage's Magykal series continues in frantic, high-spirited fashion in this latest number. To save the Castle and the Wizard Tower from certain destruction, Septimus Heap wades into the Darke to battle evil; but he isn't alone: Jenna, Marcellus Pye, Alther Mella, Marcia Overstrand, and even Septimus' problematic brother Simon assist in the fray. A nice mix of action and wit.

The Septimus Heap books have to be one of my favourite children’s series and definitely go a long way towards filling my Harry Potter hole. I never buy hardback editions of books – I can’t afford to spend over £10 on one book! – but for Angie Sage’s books I make an exception because each tome is just such a beautiful item and the pages deserve to be thick and crisp. Each chapter has a beautiful pencil drawing on the first page which gives me huge green eyes of jealousy that I can’t draw like that but really add a magical, tangible dynamic to the story.

I have to specify when and where you need to read a Septimus Heap book: on a chilly winter’s evening, preferably with a howling wind outside, when there’s no on else at home and you can curl up in the comfy chair by the fire complete with duvet. OK, that setting is not essential but that is definitely where you can feel the full benefit of the wonderful warming sensation you get from reading Angie Sage. It’s like reading a big mug of hot chocolate with a generous serving of whipped cream and marshmallows. Darke is especially in need of a duvet because Septimus and in fact the entire Castle find themselves swallowed up by a terrifying Darke Domaine. This is what I love about Angie Sage, she always manages to conjure up something completely different for each book, putting her characters in new situations so they are always developing in new ways. That, in my opinion, is the true skill of a great series writer. Septimus’ world is just so stuffed full now with engaging settings, fascinating mythology and colourful characters, it really feels like you are stepping into Angie’s world every time you open a new book. It’s always a thrill to meet with old characters again and discover some new ones. In Darke, you actually get to know a lot better many of the other characters apart from Septimus as the story divides between several character groups. Sep’s sister Jenna blossoms into a courageous leader, selfless Beetle takes heroism to a new height while the wayward Simon redeems himself.

I think the strongest message in the Septimus Heap books is definitely that of family which is perfect for the middle grade/young teen age group it’s aimed at. Very often Angie Sage introduces a lost soul character who struggles through the book but in the end is either rewarded or redeemed by finding his lost family. Quite a few characters end this way in Darke, which is actually a nice resolution at the end of the Darkest book in the series. Angie Sage has really struck a great balance between the looming threat of the situation and lighter moments. She pushes her characters to the edge but always reins in the tension with characteristically witty moments, making the characters more flawed and endearing – even the baddies!

I cannot urge you enough to explore this series, even if you don’t usually read books geared more towards younger teens. It’s definitely one of those Harry Potter moments where anyone can read them to enjoy a brilliant story and a big grin session. They are not overly “young” to read and have a decent level of complexity both in the world Angie Sage has created and in her stories to make them engaging whatever age you are. I’m in my mid-twenties and I just love them – and I can’t wait for more!

The Wishlist Diet #16

2011-10-23T08:00:00.001+01:00

*The Wishlist Diet is part of the In My Mailbox meme hosted by The Story Siren*

To Review:

Darke by Angie Sage
Seven Days on the Mountain by Scott Whitaker

The observant amongst you may notice that I'm not reading anything this week. I'm taking a blog holiday for a couple of weeks, which will most likely involve reading Jane Austen at a leisurely pace! I'll still be posting my reviews this week, a great Q&A with epic fantasy author Jason Beineke on Friday, new releases for November on Saturday, Best of the Bunch October 2011 on Halloween (which I hope everyone will join in with!) and my November Self Publishing Spotlight on 1st November. Then you won't hear anything from me until Jane has recharged my batteries, which will most likely be 14th November.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy my posts this week and the beginning of next week and I'm dying to know what everyone else is reading this week.

Interview: Christy G. Thomas

2011-10-21T08:00:00.004+01:00

I'm very pleased to welcome Christy G. Thomas, author of Sidhe's Call, to my blog today for a grilling. Christy sent me her book back in August and I thought it was just so good I just had to find out more! Here's the blurb:

Bound by duty, sixteen-year-old Morgan must begin forewarning human deaths. After all, that’s her job as a newly-appointed Ban Sidhe (banshee), a death caller. Conflicted when the Inner Ring—the elite group of ruling Sidhe—assigns a fifteen-year-old boy, Aidan Tanner, as her first death to keen on her road to adulthood, Morgan must make a critical decision. Will she help end such a young life or follow her instincts and refuse to make the call? And if that isn’t difficult enough, Morgan’s help is needed as the Sidhe and human worlds are about to face a crisis foretold in the Thousand-Year Sidhe Prophecy. With the lingering pain of her mother’s absence and the mystery of her father’s recent disappearance, the young Ban Sidhe feels lost. Aided only by her overly-critical twin sisters and an eccentric seer, Morgan must confront her weaknesses and make the hardest decision of her life. Alone.

Aidan, on the other hand, is a seemingly average human teen who has to deal with his parents’ inexplicable red-eye drive from the Salt Lake Valley to Northern Idaho. While being away from his friends for Spring Break seems like torture enough, it is the recent discovery of his father’s secret that leaves him troubled. While struggling to keep his anger in check, Aidan finds that no matter how hard he tries to hold himself together, his once-simple life is splitting apart. But the more he discovers about his father’s family and history, the quicker he comes to understand that appearances are deceiving. Beyond that, Aidan doesn’t realize that a young Ban Sidhe is seeking to call his death.

You can read my full review of Sidhe's Call here.

How would you describe Sidhe’s Call in a tweet (140 characters)?

Living hidden within rural Idaho, a young and shy banshee must call forth the death of a young boy. Will she do it? Or will she rebel against her ancient kind's mysterious traditions?

Where did the idea for Sidhe’s Call come from?

The idea of writing a book about a Ban Sidhe (banshee) came from my thoughts about supernatural and faery beings in general. I thought, I wonder what life would be like from the banshee's point of view? Since my primary exposure to Ban Sidhe was through Americanized versions like those found on Scooby Doo, I didn't know much about the myth surrounding the Sidhe. But once I began to explore the history, I was hooked. This led me to begin thinking like a Ban Sidhe, but I also put a human bend to her thoughts. If I had a socially conscious girl, who actually felt compassion, what would her responsibility to the Sidhe cause her to do and think?

But the overreaching theme of finding purpose in death came from my experiences of losing my brother eight years ago from cancer when he was in his early thirties and my father's death just a few years ago. The same questions Morgan asks herself are often the same ones I found that I asked myself. They were ideas that I simply could not let go.

Morgan and Aidan have very distinct voices, how did these characters come to you?

Morgan was the first character I thought of - in fact, her Incantation scene was something I thought up during a long trip home from Utah. I still remember the cliffs near King Hill in Idaho sending my mind racing with ideas. Everything for her seemed to come together.

However, I originally wrote Morgan's parts in third-person (except the final chapters—they were originally first-person). I made this change once a first draft was complete, but I have not regretted the decision for a moment. At that point, I felt like I knew her so well that I had to tell her story in her own voice. It was necessary, in my mind, because she was a part of me.

Aidan was a blend of many students who have walked through my door. I teach high school language arts, so I have a vast number of teens who inspire me to create and write. I must say, writing his chapters, even though they were in third-person, were always a delight. I wanted him to be a bit moody, but not too annoying. I wanted people to empathize, but not pity him.

What kind of research did you undertake to write Sidhe’s Call? Did you find out anything particularly interesting?

There was originally the research on banshee myth, which is not as large of a compendium as other mythologies with which I was familiar, but it took hours of reading and searching for information online to feel as though I knew enough to get started with building a Sidhe world. Most interesting to me was that once I started researching Sidhe in general, I opened up a whole pantheon of creatures and lore. Two of my favorite creatures I encountered and added to the novel(s) were kelpie and cu sith. I was intrigued with how both species operate—their "rules," as it were, to how they survive and roam the earth.

When and why did you decide to take the plunge and self publish your book? Did you always plan to publish it?

Ever since I wrote the final words of Sidhe's Call, I knew I had to publish. Somehow. I went the traditional route at first--querying agents, getting a couple of bites, and the typical rejections. This went on for a few months, and it was full of the highs and lows of which every author speaks. But I believed in my work, and I thought that if I really believed in its potential, why not promote it myself? I decided that rather than having an agent decide my future, I would let my audience decide. In July 2011 I decided to take the plunge, and here I am! If an agent comes along later, great. If not, I have my fans, and that's even better.

What kind of writer are you? Do you have any rituals? Do you plan a story from start to finish or just see what happens?

When I am not teaching, my most productive writing times are in the morning, usually before the family is up and about. Sometimes I just sit down and write whatever is on my mind—sometimes it's simply fleshing out an idea that has been percolating in my brain for a few days and will not give me rest. Sometimes if I write it down, the obsession is out of my system and I can continue on with the story or file away the idea. This is what kind of happened with Sidhe's Call. I had an idea, but this one would not let go.

Once I start an idea and decide to continue with the project, I typically write out a rough plot structure. But I add and subtract details as they come to me in the writing process. I also worked on character charts as I wrote the story, planning what to save for other books in the trilogy.

One of my odd writing rituals is that when I have writer's block, I take a shower. It relaxes me, gives me some think-time, and I can process as the white noise of the water blocks out other distractions. Plus, my husband is always grateful when after three or four hours of furious writing I finally get around to taking a shower at ten in the morning.

What is the story behind the cover?

My husband and I discovered Winchester Lake when we were dating, and it has been our go-to place for seclusion and beauty in the Idaho mountains. In fact, the first time we went camping there it was the middle of winter and we were the only ones crazy enough to freeze to death and tent camp with our two dogs. What has stayed with me all of these years is my first glimpse of the frozen lake and the ice-fishers. Winchester Lake, although slightly modified for my book, is on the cover. The photograph is one which I took during my summer visit, even though I did not know at the time that I would be using it for the cover of Sidhe's Call. When I was thinking of a design for the cover, I remembered the picture. I knew it was perfect. I know it's not a traditional-looking young adult book cover, but I don't have a very traditional young adult novel, either.

If you had room on your shelf for only 3 books, what would they be?

Unfair question! Right now it would have to be: Lord of the Rings, The Sun Also Rises, and 1984.

Apart from Sidhe’s Call, what is your top young adult fiction recommendation from 2011?

Sadly, I have not read any new releases from the current year, but I have read some amazing works released near the end of 2010. So, I'm going to cheat and recommend Scorch Trials by James Dashner, which has the third in the series coming out this year. For once I found a young adult book which I could not predict and kept me wondering. I would recommend the third one, but of course, it has not been released yet.

Do you have any hints for what we can expect from the next book?

Unsolved murders, a bit of humor, a trailer park, a green cloak, and more twists in Morgan's on-going tale!

A huge thanks to Christy for doing the interview, I hope everyone enjoyed it!

If you'd like to know more about Christy and her books then stop by her website at ampletimetowrite.wordpress.com or follow her on Twitter at @ChristyGThomas. Sidhe's Call is available to download now from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com or you can get it in paperback from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com.

Review: Blackstone: Drawing the Circle - Jason A Beineke

2011-10-19T08:00:00.003+01:00

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: eBook (372 KB)
Publisher: Self-Published
Pub Date: 6th July 2011

Blackstone is a mercenary sorcerer who does not rule any valleys and has yet to be bound to another sorcerer. Undertaking work for the sorceress queen, Spiral, he finds himself the expendable pawn in an assassination mission. Turning against the queen he fights Spiral’s loyal sorcerers and finds himself tasked with the guardianship of the marked man’s son. As the two flee from Spiral they have to work through their mutual bitterness and distrust of each other. A new tangle is thrown into their relationship when Blackstone frees a werewolf from her cage set in a town square and reverts the werewolf back to a young woman, cursed since childhood with lycanthropy.

Fleeing from the townsfolk who had previously kept the young werewolf, Loralune, captive, the three person band must confront Loralune’s transformation under the full moon, the posse that runs them to ground and a sorceress looking for revenge against Hiroe and Blackstone. Survival against these threats leaves them vulnerable to other, more insidious dangers.

I think high fantasy is one of those genres that can go epically wrong as well as epically right, it is the domain of extreme imagination and a big mistake is to think that all readers are going to get along with the writer’s imagination, with a completely new world. I am very happy to say that Jason Beineke’s book is one of those high fantasies that has gone epically right.

Often my big beef with high fantasies is that authors can lose their characters in their efforts to establish the world they have created but in Drawing the Circle, the characters are really at the forefront of the story. I’m not saying Jason has neglected his world-building, far from it. He has a really beautiful, lyrical way of drawing the reader through Blackstone’s world, creating vivid settings and fascinating cultures. Jason’s heroes are really complex and engaging. I love a band of misfits thrown together by fate, and these three really are on the peripheries of society: a mercenary sorcerer, an orphan of unknown potential and a werewolf. I’m particularly grateful to Jason for going back to the roots of lycanthropy, before changing into a wolf at the full moon became sexy. He creates a terrifying experience for readers and a real sense of pity for Loralune, forced to undergo this painful and hideous transformation at night. Hiroe and Blackstone’s relationship, I think, is the real cornerstone to this story. Two people who come together because they were fighting on opposite sides in a battle and then forced together by Hiroe’s slain father. Resenting each other’s presence to begin with, the growth in their relationship is really touching to read and is a real testament to the written character.

Beware, however, because within these pages you will encounter some of the most hideous evil forces that usually only inhabit the darkest parts of your worst nightmares. I’m a real advocate for the “bad guy” and Jason’s dark forces really turned my stomach, sitting vividly in my imagination not only whilst I was reading but also when I had put the book down. It’s a great test of an evil character if they stay with you long after you’ve finished the book!

I’m really glad Jason sent me his book to read as it really is the kind of book that keeps my faith in epic fantasy and leaves me wanting more. The characters are really strong and individual and as the story developed I became really attached to them, but it’s not as if the story itself was any less important. It’s a really gripping story line with a fantastic twist that has strange dreamlike qualities: you have an inkling that something isn’t quite right but you’re not sure if your suspicions are correct. It keeps you turning the pages, busting to know what is actually going on. And now I’m busting to read the next in the series!

Find out more about Jason Beineke and his books on his blog.

Review: Arrival - Chris Morphew

2011-10-17T08:00:00.002+01:00

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: 320 pages
Publisher: Scholastic
Pub Date: 7th July 2011

Luke is having a rough year. When his parents split up, his mum drags him to Phoenix, a brand-new town in the middle of nowhere.

But Phoenix is no ordinary town. There are no cars, no phones and no internet. Luke thinks this is as weird as it gets.

Then he discovers that someone is plotting to wipe out the human race. Phoenix is suddenly the safest and most dangerous place on earth.

And the clock is already ticking.

There are 100 days until the end of the world.

Firstly, I just want to get off my chest the fact that I am so pleased to find a book written by an Australian and set Down Under. There are tragically few Aussie books on the market in the UK and far too many US books (not that most of them are not brilliant reads, there’s just a huge imbalance) which makes it so refreshing to find a book in a genre I love set in a country I barely get to read about. For once I haven’t got my terrible attempts at American accents going through my head! Not that my Australian ones are any better...

I don’t know why I haven’t heard more about Chris Morphew, I found Arrival and the subsequent Contact through specific searches for new releases. I’m scratching my head because this book is just brilliant and people should be raving about it! I don’t know if there is such a genre as pre-post-apocalyptic but that’s what The Phoenix Files are and I just love exploring this situation: humanity is on the verge of extinction through an evil plot and their only hope is three teenagers. Epic!

Chris Morphew is a master of writing mystery, he expertly laces in a layer of threat that constantly flutters under the surface and has you checking over your shoulder despite the fact that you're just in a comfy armchair. He has a similar talent to Michael Grant in the Gone series whereby he raises hundreds of questions but by the end of the book he’s only scratched the surface of answers. It’s infuriating but unbelievably compelling at the same time and exactly how a thriller should be: mystery masochism. What’s even better is that the author has created a fantastic voice to take you through the mystery. Luke is witty, sharp, attentive, wonderfully ironic in places and above all highly inquisitive which is my number one quality in a hero – I can’t stand passive heroes! Jordan and Peter are also fantastic characters, Jordan is a great heroine, feisty and courageous, while Peter is loyal, funny and clever when he wants to be. They make a great team and I would definitely trust them with safeguarding the future of humanity.

I think the best thing you can do in a thriller is to create an unknowable enemy, I guess you could call me a thriller agnostic. The organisation that brought Luke to Phoenix is right in his back garden, running the town, but they are faceless. You only see the minions of the organisation in the security force and the possible effects that the organisation is having on other characters. They are like a virus, infecting everyone but invisible to the naked eye. It adds a great sense of immeasurable threat that keeps you sat bolt upright in the chair you are usually found slouching in.

I’m so glad I happened upon these books as I’m always hungry for a great mystery thriller and a good world-ending scenario always goes down well! I’m definitely reaching for the next book, Contact, and the third one better not be far behind it or my head may explode and you don’t want that on your conscience do you Chris?

If you are in any doubt as to whether you should read this book, maybe I should just read you the first sentence: “The end of the world is one of those things that you never really expect to end up being your problem.” Get it, read it, love it!

The Wishlist Diet #15

2011-10-16T09:51:00.000+01:00

*The Wishlist Diet is part of the In My Mailbox meme hosted by The Story Siren*

To Read:

Darke by Angie Sage
Dreaming Dangerously by Kathleen Suzette Harsch

To Review:

Arrival (The Phoenix Files #1) by Chris Morhpew
Blackstone: Drawing the Circle by Jason A. Beineke

Much excitement this week as I splashed out on one of the few series that I actually buy the incredibly expensive hardback for because the books are soooooo beautiful. I LOVE Angie Sage's books and Darke is the 6th in the Septimus Heap series - I am enjoying every single page so far! I'll also be reading another self-published book this week by Kathleen Suzette Harsch, a paranormal story about a girl who dreams the future. Sounds great!

So, what have you got this week?

Interview: Stephen Wallenfels

2011-10-14T08:00:00.002+01:00

I'm so excited to have Stephen Wallenfels, author of the amazing survival thriller POD, on my blog today. POD won my September 2011 Best of the Bunch Award, so it is officially the best book I read in September and I'm thrilled to have this opportunity to dig a little deeper...

You can read my full review of POD here.

How would you describe POD in a tweet (140 characters)?

When alien ships invade the greatest danger is not from the skies.

Where did the idea for POD come from?

Where most of my ideas come from — a dream. Only this one was different than most because it felt so real I had to get up and make sure it didn't actually happen. The dream started with me wandering downstairs in the gray of early dawn, looking out the living room window, and seeing a giant sphere sitting in the middle of the road. A scan of the backyard revealed many more extending to the horizon. After waking up, and making sure there is no alien invasion underway, I started to play the "what if" game. That led to the concept of POD, which started out as a short story titled, Pearls of Death.

How did the characters of Megs and Josh come to you?

POD (aka Pearls of Death) was a 12,000 word short story told from Josh's POV. I wanted to tell the story in real-time, and from the POV of a teenager because their worldview is changing and they have a great potential for an interesting character arc. Megs was added when my beta readers wanted the story to be longer. At 12k words it is getting long for a short story, so I added another character in a different setting. I chose LA (same timezone), a parking garage (cover, but room to move around and hide and be scared). So I sat down to write and Megs is the one that spoke to me first. After three pages I was in love.

I've read on your website that you also have a "regular" job, how do you juggle writing with working?

It's tough. No doubt about that. Although I really like my job, in a perfect world I would be writing full-time. So I get up at 3:45am every day except Sunday, boil a mug of tea, and write until 6am, have a quick breakfast with my wife, then write again until heading off to work at 8:30am. Sometimes, if I have the energy, I will edit the work I did in the morning. Otherwise I just read and relax. Go to bed by 9:30 and do it all over again the next day. An important thing to note is that if I'm not writing, I'm typically thinking about writing. When my characters want to talk, I have no choice but to listen.

POD is your debut novel, what was the process of getting published like? Did you always plan to publish POD?

Getting published is tough, and the way things happened for me is the way things happen for most. Lots of luck, mixed with equal amounts of unrelenting determination and persistent self-doubt. Ultimately I believed so much in POD that I applied to a week-long writer's workshop, was accepted and learned how to do things right. It was incredibly helpful, and at the workshop is where I met the man that eventually accepted my manuscript and became my publisher, Stephen Roxburgh. Yeah, I was lucky. But sometimes you have to put yourself in the way of luck, otherwise it will miss you by inches and you will never know.

Megs and Josh both have really strong voices that make them so engaging as characters. How do you go about creating voices like these?

I listen to them, challenge them, and allow them to surprise me. I resist outlining because in my chaotic world that limits the realities of life—which is really a chain of surprises linked by periods of tension where we wonder, what next? Good writers are good listeners.

What do you think of the cover design?

The UK design is amazing. Lots of mystery with an ominous, other-worldly look. Plus, the feel of the book, the texture, is different and does a great job representing what I wanted to express inside the pages. I also like the Aussi design for different reasons - very...cinematic. It helps me see where I would love POD to go - the big silver screen. But not in 3D, please!

If you had room on your shelf for only 3 books, what would they be?

This is a very, very tough question. It is essentially Sophies Choice only with books. And if you ask me this same question next week, my answer would probably change. But for now, here they are the chosen three: The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein (the cycle of life and the heartbeat of human nature) The Road, by Cormac McCarthy (the best father-son love story ever written) The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell (dramatic story, stunning prose, epic).

Apart from POD, what is your top teen fiction recommendation from 2011?

For sheer "can't put it down" adventure with an intriguing plot and a heroic, conflicted protagonist, I'll have to jump on The Hunger Games band wagon. Suzanne Collins wrote a terrific book. I read it in two days while I was in LA, supposedly jumpstarting the second half of my sequel to POD. But I got so wrapped up in The Hunger Games that I stayed up way too late reading. I'll have to admit I struggled through the second book, Catching Fire. It took me three months to finish. Another fine YA book that is not on a lot of popular reading lists but won a "boatload" of critical acclaim is Ship Breaker by Paolo Bagcigalupi. In terms of sheer brilliance of writing and an unforgettable female antagonist, read Winter's Bone, by Daniel Woodrell. Rea Dolly is the real deal. That book may be 2010, but I just had to fit it in.

Do you have any hints for what we can expect from the next book?

Earth is fundamentally changed. Josh and Megs must survive in this new world while humanity ponders these nagging questions: why did the PODs come here, why did they leave, and are they really gone?

A huge thanks to Stephen for stopping by, I hope everyone has enjoyed the interview. I cannot urge you enough to get your hands on a copy of POD, it is just brilliant!

Find out more about Stephen Wallenfels on his website and find out more about POD on Goodreads.

Review: Heist Society - Ally Carter

2011-10-12T08:00:00.000+01:00

*NEW*
Extent: 352 pages
Publisher: Orchard
Pub Date: 1st September 2011

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her to the Louvre...to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria...to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own--scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving "the life" for a normal life proves harder than she'd expected.

Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has good reason: a powerful mobster's art collection has been stolen, and he wants it returned. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat’s father isn’t just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.

For Kat there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it’s a spectacularly impossible job? She’s got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family’s (very crooked) history--and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

There’s something really engaging about stories where the heroes are the bad guys. I especially love heist films and thought something like that could never work in a book but oh how wrong I was! Ally Carter has taken a heist plotline and made me even happier by adding one brilliant element – a female lead.

Heist Society is not exactly a serious story, but then life would be pretty dull if it was full of worthy books. Kat is a fantastic heroine: feisty, intelligent, cool, independent, strong… If I was ever to turn to crime, Kat would be my role model. I always thought bad guys make the best characters and this book is stuffed full of them. The story hits you from the first page, there’s no hanging around getting to know everyone and their surroundings, you’re just whipped off into an engaging tale and I really love this as it’s fast-paced and keeps you on your toes – just like the life of your average crime family really.

This story is reminiscent of Gone In Sixty Seconds, only with paintings and teenagers. The relationship between Kat and her father is really interesting, she’s the only one motivated to help him despite the fact that she doesn’t owe him anything, in fact he already owes her a lot. I love the way the roles reverse and Kat’s mission in this book is to protect her father, although he doesn’t really deserve it. She is the one to take control of the situation, despite being a young and relatively inexperienced member of the family and that’s what makes her such an engaging character.

As the story progresses, you start to get the feeling that you’re not aware of everything that’s going on. This is the element I thought wasn’t possible in a book as obviously you have to hide the final clever plan of the heist or there’s no real brilliant ending. It’s harder to hide things from the reader than it is from a viewer in a film because the reader is far more involved with the characters, looking at what is happening through their eyes rather than as an external observer. Ally Carter has really mastered the skill of disclosing only so much to a reader but at the same making the reader feel like they know exactly what is going on. Then, when you get the end and you think you’ve figured out what’s going to happen, everything turns out differently and far more cleverly than you thought. It’s genius! The plot that you thought was so simple becomes nested within layers of complexity that keeps you guessing right to the last page.

This is definitely one of those books to have on hand if you want something light-hearted yet clever, with fiery characters and a fast-paced plot. I will definitely be reading more Ally Carter in the future!

Review: Running on the Cracks - Julia Donaldson

2011-10-10T15:00:00.000+01:00

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: 256 pages
Publisher: Egmont
Pub Date: 2nd March 2009

Leo’s running from her past. Finlay’s running into trouble. Together, they stumble into a crazy new world of secrets, lies, and Chinese food.

But someone is on Leo’s trail...

When I was a kid, I always thought that running away would be a really glamorous and exciting thing to do so I have a strange attraction to runaway stories that still lingers into my adult years. Of course, the truth is, it’s not glamorous and exciting at all. It’s incredibly dangerous and as such is an extremely desperate act, especially when performed by a child, and Julia Donaldson has really excelled in capturing the dark side of running away while painting wonderful silver linings onto Leo’s plight. It’s hard to imagine someone who writes brilliant picture books could turn her hand to something much more threatening but clearly Julia’s story toolbox is well stocked.

From the first instant I met her, I fell in love with Leo. She’s one of those heroines who takes action at every turn and is courageous in the true sense that she knows there are things that are more important than fear. She’s a real survivor and that is what I really love in a lead character. I think it’s probably best to describe the other characters in this book as “a motley crew”. Julia Donaldson has written a rainbow of characters that you know you would find if you took a slice out of society in any large city. It’s almost as if her research consisted of going and sitting in a park one day and copying down every character she found walking by.

It’s not just great characters that make this book, however, there’s a real intelligence in the writing. A teen or older reader would probably recognise quite soon that underneath all the colours of the characters and the bright spots of hope, something very sinister is lurking. Uncle John is not just any old bad guy, he is the worst kind of predator and his short chapters dotted throughout the book are a real anchor to the story. If you were feeling uplifted at the end of the preceding chapter it won’t last long as you feel even your internal organs repelling against this man and the worst kind of dread runs down your spine. A bad guy rarely truly gives me the creeps – mostly because I love a good baddy! – but here is one that had my toes curling in revulsion. Mary makes for another sinister element in this story. Although she starts the story well and takes Leo in, she becomes increasingly unbalanced and spirals into an unpredictable and unstable character that threatens Leo’s safety and success.

I think what really makes this story is that it is so realistic – nothing is hard to believe and it has its foundation in a shocking truth that haunts too many children and teens today. That’s what I think young adult books should be all about: telling the truth, helping growing minds to explore and deal with both the good and bad forces in life. The characters are colourful, the writing clever and there’s a beautiful circularity to the story that goes a long way towards healing the wounds that the plot opens in your mind. A really worthwhile read!

Giveaway: The Crimson Shard by Teresa Flavin

2011-10-09T08:01:00.002+01:00

After my very exciting blog tour post from Teresa Flavin, the folks at Templar Publishing have very kindly given me a copy of The Crimson Shard to give away to one of you lucky readers! You don't have to be a follower to enter but you do have to be a UK OR ROI RESIDENT to be in with a chance of actually winning. Here's a bit about The Crimson Shard to get your mouth watering for some art-based magic and time travel...

Extent: 304 pages
Publisher: Templar
Pub Date: 1st October 2011

This sequel to The Blackhope Enigma is imbued with alchemy and intrigue. During what seems like an ordinary museum visit, tour guide Throgmorton lures Sunni and Blaise through a painted doorway into eighteenth-century London. When Throgmorton demands secret information from the pair about their Blackhope escapades, they attempt to flee, encountering body snatchers, art thieves and forgers in this gripping time-travel adventure.

Extract

Sounds good, no? To enter, all you have to do is fill in this form and keep your fingers crossed! The giveaway will be open until midnight on 16th October 2011. I won't give away any of your details except for the winner whose name and address I will send to the publisher so they can send out your prize. They have promised to eat those details afterwards though!

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Interview: Teresa Flavin (The Crimson Shard Blog Tour)

2011-10-09T08:00:00.001+01:00

Today I am absolutely thrilled to be hosting the penultimate stop on Teresa Flavin's The Crimson Shard blog tour. I love Teresa's books, they are really the kind that you open, don't know what to expect but know it's going to be good! You can read my full reviews of The Crimson Shard as well as its predecessor The Blackhope Enigma if you like. For now, I'm very excited to say Teresa has offered herself up for my questions and here is what she had to say...

How would you describe The Crimson Shard in a tweet (140 characters)?

Two teenagers meet magic, time travel, trompe l’oeil trickery, art forgery, thievery & bodysnatching in the dark streets of Georgian London.

Where did the idea for The Blackhope Enigma and The Crimson Shard come from?

Both were conceived as ‘What If?’ questions. A) What if you could walk around a labyrinth, saying the right password, and be transported into a Renaissance painting so that you could walk around and see everything up close? B) What if you could walk through a super-realistic trompe l’oeil (fool the eye) mural of a doorway and enter the colourful, but very dark, world of 18th century London? Both the Renaissance and Georgian London fascinate me and I knew I wanted to write about them in my stories.

How did the characters of Sunni and Blaise come to you?

I think they are both based on aspects of myself. I was obsessed with becoming an artist when I was a teenager and hung out with other kids who were, too. We spent all our free time in the art classroom and dreamed about going to art school. My agent suggested making Blaise an American and I’m glad she did. I really got to know him then and it was easy to write a bit about the experience of being a foreigner fitting in to a new country, since I went through this myself. Sunni’s insecurity about her artistic abilities is something I, like many artists, have also experienced at times, so I could write with some authority about her feelings.

You really get to the nitty gritty details of life in the city in 18th century, did this make for some interesting research?

Definitely! When I decided to write about this period, I did a research trip to London and wandered around the back streets of the City of London and Spitalfields. People see the City as a place of businessmen and skyscrapers, but it has many fascinating churches and historical buildings tucked away in its narrow lanes. I also obtained some excellent books from the Museum of London and checked out its great collections of objects from the city’s history. These resources kicked things off nicely and as I worked on the book, I learned more from newspaper articles, historical bloggers and trips to several 18th century houses.

What inspired you to take the step from illustrating children’s books to writing teen fiction? What were the greatest challenges you faced?

When I began experimenting with writing my own stories, I thought they would end up as picture books that I would illustrate, but the ideas I wanted to work with were too complex for young children and I wrote far too many words. I hadn’t really read much fiction for children at that point, but I had stories that I thought might appeal to young teenagers and ‘tweens’. I didn’t really know what I was doing, not having written a long story before, but I forged ahead and had a great deal of advice from my agent. There were some moments where the challenge seemed insurmountable, especially when I had to do my first rewrite of the manuscript, but I was determined to get the book right. I muddled my way through and then did more revision to the second draft. Each version got stronger and I learned more about the writing craft. The challenges never go away, just as they never go away for artists either, but the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment is immense.

Art is such an integral element in The Crimson Shard, who is your favourite artist and what is your favourite work of art?

That’s such a tough question! I could answer it differently every day. So, for today, I’ll say that if I could have any painting for my own wall at home it would be Vermeer’s The Art of Painting for its gorgeous textures, light and detailing.

What do you think of the cover designs?

I could not be happier with the cover designs. In fact, I get a thrill every time I look at them. A design studio called The Parish in London designed them and I think they completely captured the feel of the books. I am also really happy that I was able to contribute some ideas for elements on the covers and that the designers used one of my illustrations on each book (the labyrinth on The Blackhope Enigma and the carved bone shard silhouette on The Crimson Shard).

If you had room on your shelf for only 3 books, what would they be?

At least two of them would probably be volumes of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels and stories, unless I could get them in one complete collection. Assuming that I could, my other two choices would be Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

Apart from The Crimson Shard, what is your top teen fiction recommendation from 2011?

I am going to recommend Wonderstruck, the new book by author-illustrator Brian Selznick. He wrote the wonderful The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which featured hundreds of his beautiful black and white illustrations juxtaposed with the text. It won the Caldecott Medal in the USA, which is one of the highest accolades for an illustrator, and Wonderstruck, which also cleverly combines text and images, is being tipped for prominent awards, too. I love the way Selznick weaves together the stories of two children in different time periods and creates absolute magic.

Do you have any hints for what we can expect from the next book?

I can guarantee that it will feature art, magic, history, mystery and a bit of romance!

I'd like to say a huge thank you to Teresa for her fascinating answers and also to Templar Publishing for both sending me The Crimson Shard and for inviting me to take part in the blog tour. If you like the sound of The Crimson Shard then you are in luck because Templar Publishing have also given me a copy of the book for a giveaway which you can enter here - and I strongly suggest that you do!

For more on Teresa Flavin, check out her website and Twitter!

The Wishlist Diet #14

2011-10-08T20:18:00.000+01:00

*The Wishlist Diet is part of the In My Mailbox meme hosted by The Story Siren*

To Read:

Arrival (The Phoenix Files #1) by Chris Morhpew
Blackstone: Drawing the Circle by Jason A. Beineke

To Review:

Heist Society by Ally Carter
Running on the Cracks by Julia Donaldson

Well, the second book in The Phoenix Files series is now out in paperback so I thought I'd better get on and read the first one! I'm also very lucky to have been sent the first Blackstone book by self published author Jason A. Beineke after he featured on the wonderful Leighanne's Lit as her Best of the Bunch award winner for September 2011. I'm really looking forward to it, I love a good high fantasy!

As for reviews, I really enjoyed both Running on the Cracks by Julia Donaldson and Heist Society by Ally Carter, definitely discovered a new favourite author there! My reviews will be up this week.

Finally, don't miss my stop on Teresa Flavin's The Crimson Shard blog tour tomorrow as there'll be a fascinating interview (as in her answers are fascinating not my questions!) plus a chance to win a copy of The Crimson Shard.

So, what have you got your nose in this week?

Interview: Artemis Hunt

2011-10-07T08:00:00.000+01:00

Today I have the lovely Artemis Hunt on my blog to provide the As to my Qs about her book Snow White and the Alien which I reviewed earlier this month. It's a great story and you can read my full review here.

How would you describe Snow White and the Alien in a tweet (140 characters)?

Tangled meets the Day the Earth Stood Still!

Where did the idea for Snow White and the Alien come from?

Emmm... from Tangled actually. I loved (100X) the movie, and immediately wanted to write an updated version of a fairytale. Then I began to wonder how these medieval folks would cope with an alien invasion....I mean, we modern folks would have difficulty coping with one, talk about people who have only pitchforks and swords!

It hasn't been done before, and I hope I succeeded.

Snow White has undergone somewhat of a character overhaul from her fairytale origins. How did you go about creating the characters of Snow White and Aein?

I studied the original Grimm fairytales. There are plenty of sites for that. Did you know the original versions which led to the Grimm collections are very, very dark?

I don't really like the character of the original Snow White. She was too passive, and she was only 7 years old! I like active characters, who seize opportunities and are in charge of their lives and events around them.

Since Aein was an alien, I immediately set out to make the reader empathize with him. (You be the judge if that worked, but a lot of readers tell me it did!) I made him an underdog in his own world, crippled, but determined to rise above his disabilities. We all can identify with characters like that.

Then of course I morphed him biologically in a chrysalis into a gorgeous youth in our world. We all can identify with desiring someone like that too!

What kind of research did you undertake to write Snow White and the Alien? Did you find out anything particularly interesting?

The fact that all the original stories (around Europe) that led to the legend of Snow White were really dark. There's a version of the dead princess in a glass coffin in almost every European country.

When and why did you decide to take the plunge and self publish your book? Did you always plan to publish it?

I took the plunge 2 months ago. I wanted to try self-publishing, thanks to Joe Konrath! If I didn't try, I would never know, right?

In the meantime, I queried Snow White as well. I told myself if I didn't get a 50% hit rate, I'd self-publish it. I didn't get a 50% hit rate, so here it is. (I actually got 20%). I have still some requests pending that I didn't fulfill because the book is already out on Amazon.

Is Snow White your favourite fairytale?

Hmmm....I think that would be Cinderella. But where Disney movies are concerned, it's Tangled.

What is the story behind the cover?

It's my (agented) friend and beta's idea! She wanted a Twilight vibe, but to suggest it's different from Twilight, there's no apple but a moth in the girl's hands. Any sort of insect is very significant in my story.

If you had room on your shelf for only 3 books, what would they be?

Haha, I'd just buy a computer (which I have), and put it on my shelf! That way I'll have 1000 books!

I've stopped reading physical copies already. I'm a bit of an environmentalist. But if I have a shelf for only 3 books, I would cram The Blind Assassin, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the first Harry Potter.

Apart from Snow White and the Alien, what is your top teen fiction recommendation from 2011?

From 2011 itself? Oh dear, I'm still catching up with the older publications. I'm reading Wither by Lauren DeStefano. I read Incarceron by Catherine Fisher but wasn't in love with the characters.

Do you have any hints for what we can expect from the next book?

In the Snow White canon? An all-out alien invasion, and how the medieval people must employ their wits to cope with it! Snow White, being the rightful ruler of her kingdom, must lead the assault, and Aein must decide whether his allegiances lie with the woman he loves, Snow White, or his own beloved family and people.

I love conflict!

But my next book is part of my Ether World Chronicles series. It's called The Hunt for the Catalyst, a completely original contemporary YA fantasy. It will be released within the next month. I hope you will consider reviewing it too.

I certainly would! A huge thanks to Artemis for doing the interview and I hope you enjoyed it.

If you'd like to know more about Artemis and her books then stop by her website at www.artemishunt.org or follow her on Twitter at @ArtemisHunt1. Snow White and the Alien is available to download now from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com or even on Smashwords.

Review: The 10pm Question - Kate de Goldi

2011-10-05T08:00:00.000+01:00

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: 245 pages
Publisher: Templar
Pub Date: 1st March 2011

Twelve-year-old Frankie Parsons is a talented kid with a quirky family, a best friend named Gigs, and a voice of anxiety constantly nibbling in his head: Could that kidney-shaped spot on his chest be a galloping cancer? Are the smoke alarm batteries flat? Has his cat, The Fat Controller, given them all worms? Only Ma, who never leaves home, takes Frankie’s worries seriously. But then, it is Ma who is the cause of the most troubling question of all, the one Frankie can never bring himself to ask. When a new girl arrives at school--a daring free spirit with unavoidable questions of her own--Frankie’s carefully guarded world begins to unravel, leading him to a painful confrontation with the ultimate 10 p.m. question. Deftly told with humor, poignancy, and an endearing cast of characters, The 10pm Question will touch everyone who has ever felt set apart.

Worry-prone Frankie keeps his family secret under control--until a bold, inquisitive girl enters his life--in this warm, witty, and captivating YA novel.

I rarely call a book a gem because I’m always waiting for a book like The 10pm Question to come along before I do. My gems have to be completely understated and not well known but 100% worth reading – and here is a book that fulfils all those criteria.

The story follows Frankie Parsons who is afflicted to some degree with OCD and suffers from an anxiety disorder. His character is so carefully put together and so beautifully written I was not long into the book before I was completely immersed in his story and utterly attached to him. As a teenager I had an anxiety disorder so I could really sympathise with Frankie and can say from experience that Kate de Goldi has caught his problems so expertly yet so delicately at the same time. Nothing ever leaps out and smacks you in the face, the author uses a perfect level of sensitivity, mixing in a wonderfully subtle wit to create a delicious story that you can make up your own mind about. It’s one of those that doesn’t expressly tell you what it’s trying to achieve it just opens up the floor for debate and lets you think and make your own decisions.

Frankie is not the only great character, all of Kate de Goldi’s characters are immaculately formed and loveable in their own unique way. They feel like real people; nobody has special powers or overwhelming destinies to fulfil, they are just normal people with all the flaws and oddities that normal people have. The 10pm Question is really like a slice of life, like you’ve fallen into a fly-on-the-wall documentary and you get to see all the colours of life, all the textures of humanity, and all the shades of internal conflict. This is probably best demonstrated in the actual 10pm questions that Frankie poses to Ma. It’s almost like thought for the day but through the eyes of a twelve-year-old. These moments at the end of each chapter are like Frankie’s little reconciliations with life. They are the point in the day when Frankie connects most with his mentally ill mother, who is the source of all his anxiety, and they are without a doubt some of the most touching scenes I have ever read in a book. Ma clearly cares deeply for her son but due to her illness it is hard for her to show it by being a “proper” mother, but in these moments she can do something for Frankie, she can try to allay some of his worries and fears and she is, despite everything, the one person in Frankie’s life who can actually do so.

If you haven’t heard of The 10pm Question before I’m actually quite glad. It’s the kind of book I just want to wrap up, take with me everywhere I go and never let anyone else read it because it’s such a personal story. Having said that, if you don’t read it, you’ll be seriously missing out on one of the most touching, caring, witty, beautiful stories you will ever have the pleasure to read.

Review: The Alchemyst - Michael Scott

2011-10-03T08:00:00.000+01:00

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: 375 pages
Publisher: Doubleday Children's
Pub Date: 24th May 2007

The tomb of Nicholas Flamel is empty. The greatest alchemist of his day supposedly died in 1418, but rumors continue to swirl that he continues to walk among us. Could it be true that this magician/chemist has access to the secret of eternal life? Could the Book of Abraham, which he purportedly owns, hold the key to this elixir? If it does, the theft of this single ancient volume could destroy the world as we know it. An exciting tale.

Well, this one must have been one heck of a research job! I love a good dose of mythology and in The Alchemyst, Michael Scott seems to have pulled on the full resources of myth and folklore, dredging up long forgotten characters in tales of old to create an incredibly comprehensive world of magic. More than that, he has brought these legends right up to date, making them relevant to the modern audience. I love the way these ancient and incredibly powerful creatures are at home with mobile phones and eBay.

The best characters in The Alchemyst are actually the adult characters, especially Dr John Dee – he’s probably the best developed and the one that is easiest to conjure up in the imagination. And besides I love a good baddy! However, this brings me to the two main teen characters, Josh and Sophie. I’m afraid to say that I just don’t like them. They are supposed to have two of the rarest auras which in the history of humanity are only found on those with incredible talent, intelligence or courage but the twins are two of the most stupid, wet characters I’ve ever come across in a book. There are great chunks of the plot that are dedicated to their stupidity which could have been completely cut and would have made me feel a little better about the pace of the story. I like my heroes to have a bit of spark, a bit of something that you can identify with, even if it’s a flaw, that makes them hard not to like but if the twins were a colour they would be a particularly wet shade of grey. I actually found myself cheering on Dee at one point because I wanted the stupid twins to fail and preferably die and for two new likeable characters to pop into their shoes and actually be a bit effective.

It’s possible that Michael Scott meant them to be like this and in the next books they are going to have personality overhauls, which they better because at the moment I’m really torn. I love the world that Michael Scott has created but I hate the heroes and at times the writing can be a bit young and cliché. I have to keep reminding myself that the twins are in fact 15 so that’s about the target audience but they can be very childish and the writing is hitting a bit low on the target. 15-year-olds (and I!) need to be stimulated a bit with edgy, clever writing but sometimes it just gets a bit too predictable.

So, this is a bit of an internal marmite book for me – I both love it and dislike it. I’m hoping the twins are going to get a bit of a grip in the next book because I do really like the story – if they could just grow some spine and stop having panic attacks whenever one of them gets a scratch or chips a nail that would suit me fine!

The Wishlist Diet #13

2011-10-02T15:10:00.000+01:00

*The Wishlist Diet is part of the In My Mailbox meme hosted by The Story Siren*

To Read:

Heist Society by Ally Carter
Running on the Cracks by Julia Donaldson

To Review:

The Alchemyst by Michael Scott
The 10pm Question by Kate de Goldi

Karen @ Book Light Graveyard has chosen Ally Carter as her Best of the Bunch book for two months running now so I thought it was high time I gave her a try and Heist Society sounds amazing. I'm also gonna be reading Julia Donaldson's adventure into YA with Running on the Cracks - I'd just be happy if it's as good as The Gruffalo!

So whaddaya got this week?

Self Publishing Spotlight: Kit-in-the-Candlestick by Nixie Turner

2011-10-01T08:00:00.004+01:00

Welcome to my Self Publishing Spotlight!

This month I'm very pleased to say my spotlight has landed on Yorkshire based author Nixie Turner and her enchanting book Kit-in-the-Candlestick.

When Mopsa discovers the secret that lead to the death of her father, she runs away and finds herself late at night in the doorway of a mysterious shop on one of York’s ancient streets. She tries the door handle and tumbles inside, only to find herself banished to the strange and inhospitable land of Lethe.

Pursued by hidden enemies, and in a desperate race against time, she attempts to discover the whereabouts of a missing girl and unlock the magic within her amethyst necklace. On her journey, she meets Tom, a boy as lost as she is, and together they try and find their way home.

Kit-in-the-Candlestick is an enchanting tale wonderfully told and you can read my full review of the book here.

For now, Nixie has very kindly written me a magical guest post all about the inspiration behind the story and a look at what we can expect from her in the future.

It was a lovely old green door that inspired me to write Kit-in-the-Candlestick. I saw it when on holiday in the Peak District and thought it must be a ‘portal into faerie’. It was a gothic arch and led into a walled garden that made me think of Narnia and The Secret Garden and all those other wonderful stories where you could escape and explore new worlds and meet fantastic and fantastical creatures.

I love stories, superstitions and folklore. Hallowe’en was always a magical time for me when I was a child. It is a night where anything could happen; where our world grows close to that otherworld, a world of witches and werewolves and spells. Autumn is my favourite season and Hallowe’en has a great part to play in that. The dark nights and smell of wood smoke in the air, and that sense of indescribable anticipation – would this year be the year where all my beliefs became concrete, would I actually meet with a creature of the night?

I always use the spelling of Hallowe’en with the apostrophe in it. I think it looks more magical, more other don’t you?

However, I am digressing, as I am here to talk about Kit. For me, it was a joy to write. I am terrible for going off at tangents. I am a story magpie, picking up shiny bits of tales as I go along and trying to incorporate them into whatever I happen to be writing (did you see that whole paragraph and a half on Hallowe’en that had no relevance to my writing this for you now, but it caught my fancy and I simply had to write it?)

Kit includes lots of Yorkshire folklore, some has been forgotten and some live on in more remote parts of the region. Much of it was inspired by my eccentric older female relatives – imagine mad old ladies in jumble sale clothes roaming the fields in search of three legged goats and ancient sheep, with a rag-tag collection of cats in their wake. Yes, that’s them, and yes, I do worry that one day, that will be me.

The main character in Kit is Mopsa, a young girl who finds herself lost in another world, similar to ours but with so many contradictions. It is about the people she meets there and her struggle to find her way home. I often get asked about the name, Mopsa. It comes from a very minor character in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, which is a play about a mother and daughter who are cruelly separated, but eventually find each other again.

My next book is currently titled The Dragon Girl, but I may be changing that as my nephews feel that an auntie who writes books is quite cool, but an auntie who writes books and calls them girly names like The Dragon Girl, is most certainly not.

So there you have it! A huge thanks to Nixie for participating in the Self Publishing Spotlight, her book Kit-in-the-Candlestick is available now and I highly recommend it to escape to a magical new world. Kit is available from:

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

For more info on Nixie and her books, you can find her on her:

Website Twitter Facebook

To find out more about the Self Publishing Spotlight feature or to submit a book, click here. I'm especially interested to hear from authors planning to publish in the new year.

Best of the Bunch #September 2011

2011-09-30T08:00:00.001+01:00

It's that time of the month again: to decide which of all the books I read in September was the Best of the Bunch.

And the winner of the Best of the Bunch Award September 2011 is...

*dramatic pause*

POD by Stephen Wallenfels

POD's - strange alien spheres hover menacingly in the sky, zapping anyone who ventures outside.

Josh is 15 and stuck in his house with his OCD dad. They're running out of food... Megs is 12, alone and trapped in a multi-storey carpark. The hotel next door is under the control of dangerous security staff, but Megs has something they want, and they'll do anything to get it...

When the aliens invade, the real enemy becomes humanity itself.

What would you do to survive?

I had a hard time this month chosing between POD and We Can Be Heroes by Catherine Bruton but I think what clinched it was the fact that, although We Can Be Heroes was amazing, I could actually bring myself to put it down in order to fulfil the daily functions of life. POD, on the other hand, once I'd picked it up I just couldn't put it down, it was a proper one-sitting book that just had me hooked from one page to the next.

POD is the definition of brilliant science fiction: putting humans in an extreme situation and seeing how they react. It's a real exploration of the survival instinct and the teen protagonists have some of the strongest voices I have ever read. Whether you like science fiction or not this is definitely one to put at the top of your TBR pile! You can read my full review here.

Congratulations Stephen Wallenfels!

Please share your Best of the Bunch award by adding your link below.

New YA Releases - October 2011

2011-09-29T08:00:00.001+01:00

Extent: 320 pages
Publisher: Scholastic
Pub Date: 6th October 2011
Format: Paperback

For the first six months, Peter's life in Phoenix was pretty normal. Hanging out with his friends, frustrating his parents, sleeping through school. Then he found out the world was ending. The Shackleton Co-operative is planning to exterminate the rest of humanity - and they're going to use "Tabitha" to do it. But who is Tabitha? What's really going on inside the Shackleton Building? And why does Peter's dad's name keep turning up in the search for answers? As Peter and his friends struggle to contact the outside world, they're going to find out just how far Shackleton is willing to go to make sure the secrets of Phoenix stay hidden. And the clock is still ticking. There are 88 days until the end of the world.

Extent: 304 pages
Publisher: Templar
Pub Date: 1st October 2011
Format: Paperback

This sequel to The Blackhope Enigma is imbued with alchemy and intrigue. During what seems like an ordinary museum visit, tour guide Throgmorton lures Sunni and Blaise through a painted doorway into eighteenth-century London. When Throgmorton demands secret information from the pair about their Blackhope escapades, they attempt to flee, encountering body snatchers, art thieves and forgers in this gripping time-travel adventure.

Extent: 656 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pub Date: 3rd October 2011
Format: Hardback

Septimus is on the threshold of his fourteenth birthday, which falls on the shortest day of the year. While everyone celebrates and the Castle is lit with the traditional candles, Septimus has greater concerns on his mind. He has finally reached the period in his Apprenticeship known as Darke Week. During this crucial time, he hopes to undertake the very dangerous mission of restoring Alther from Banishment, following the attempted invasion of the Castle of Syren. But while this preoccupies him, other Darke things are afoot in the Castle.

Extent: 336 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pub Date: 4th October 2011
Format: Kindle

The year is 2032, sixteen years after a deadly virus—and the vaccine intended to protect against it—wiped out most of the earth’s population. The night before eighteen-year-old Eve’s graduation from her all-girls school she discovers what really happens to new graduates, and the horrifying fate that awaits her.

Fleeing the only home she’s ever known, Eve sets off on a long, treacherous journey, searching for a place she can survive. Along the way she encounters Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Separated from men her whole life, Eve has been taught to fear them, but Caleb slowly wins her trust...and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life.

Extent: 400 pages
Publisher: Macmillan
Pub Date: 7th October 2011
Format: Paperback

What if you were bound for a new world, about to pledge your life to someone you'd been promised to since birth, and one unexpected violent attack made survival—not love—the issue?

Out in the murky nebula lurks an unseen enemy: the New Horizon. On its way to populate a distant planet in the wake of Earth's collapse, the ship's crew has been unable to conceive a generation to continue its mission. They need young girls desperately, or their zealous leader's efforts will fail. Onboard their sister ship, the Empyrean, the unsuspecting families don't know an attack is being mounted that could claim the most important among them...

Fifteen-year-old Waverly is part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space; she was born on the Empyrean, and the large farming vessel is all she knows. Her concerns are those of any teenager—until Kieran Alden proposes to her. The handsome captain-to-be has everything Waverly could ever want in a husband, and with the pressure to start having children, everyone is sure he's the best choice. Except for Waverly, who wants more from life than marriage—and is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.

But when the Empyrean faces sudden attack by their assumed allies, they quickly find out that the enemies aren't all from the outside.

Glow is the most riveting series debut since The Hunger Games, and promises to thrill and challenge readers of all ages.

Extent: 576 pages
Publisher: Puffin
Pub Date: 6th October 2011
Format: Paperback

Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper. His best friend is a kid named Leo, and they’re all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for “bad kids”, as Leo puts it. What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea — except that everything seems very wrong.

Piper has a secret. Her father, a famous actor, has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he’s in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn’t recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?

Leo has a way with tools. His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What’s troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper’s gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all—including Leo—related to a god.

Extent: 320 pages
Publisher: Puffin
Pub Date: 6th October 2011
Format: Paperback

London, 1976: a summer of chaos, punk, love ...and the boy they called Billy the Kid. It was the summer of so many things. Heat and violence, love and hate, heaven and hell. It was the time I met William Bonney - the boy from Belfast known as Billy the Kid. I've kept William's secrets for a long time, but now things have changed and I have to tell the truth. But I can't begin until I've told you about Curtis Ray. Hip, cool, rebellious Curtis Ray. Without Curtis, there wouldn't be a story to tell. It's the story of our band, of life and death ...and everything in between. This characteristically gripping novel from award-winning author Kevin Brooks will rock you to the core.

Extent: 400 pages
Publisher: Scholastic
Pub Date: 6th October 2011
Format: Paperback

In a future land once known as Britain, nomad tribes are preparing to fight a terrifying enemy - the first-ever mobile city. Before London can launch itself, young engineer Fever Crumb must journey to the wastelands of the North. She seeks the ancient birthplace of the Scriven mutants. In the chaotic weeks before battle begins, Fever finds a mysterious black pyramid. The extraordinary secrets it contains will change her world forever. The seventh awe-inspiring adventure in the World of Mortal Engines series by a superb writer at the height of his powers.

Extent: 384 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pub Date: 4th October 2011
Format: Kindle

Benson Fisher thought that a scholarship to Maxfield Academy would be the ticket out of his dead-end life.

He was wrong.

Now he’s trapped in a school that’s surrounded by a razor-wire fence. A school where video cameras monitor his every move. Where there are no adults. Where the kids have split into groups in order to survive.

Where breaking the rules equals death.

But when Benson stumbles upon the school’s real secret, he realizes that playing by the rules could spell a fate worse than death, and that escape—his only real hope for survival—may be impossible.

Review: Kit-in-the-Candlestick - Nixie Turner

2011-09-28T08:00:00.000+01:00

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: eBook (228 KB)
Publisher: Self Published
Pub Date: 21st May 2011

When Mopsa discovers the secret that lead to the death of her father, she runs away and finds herself late at night in the doorway of a mysterious shop on one of York’s ancient streets. She tries the door handle and tumbles inside, only to find herself banished to the strange and inhospitable land of Lethe.

Pursued by hidden enemies, and in a desperate race against time, she attempts to discover the whereabouts of a missing girl and unlock the magic within her amethyst necklace. On her journey, she meets Tom, a boy as lost as she is, and together they try and find their way home.

Kit-in-the-Candlestick is a fantasy novel for older children and young adults with magic, mystery and romance.

I love it when I come across a self published book like this. What you get is what you get. You know there hasn’t been some big shot editor focused on brand image that has told the author what to cut, what to add and what to change. What you get on the page of a self published book is exactly what the author alone envisaged and when the book is as well-crafted as Kit-in-the-Candlestick, you know the outcome is entirely based on story-telling talent.

I love the characters in this book, they are the kind of big round charismatic characters that sit very easily in your imagination; the good guys are warm and friendly while the bad are threatening and malicious. The story’s heroine, Mopsa, not only has an ace name but is also very easy to sympathise with, she is naturally inquisitive and emotionally strong. Her personal journey is a real asset to this story. She starts the book in the shadow of her over-protective mother but as she is plunged into the unknown she gets to know herself better by fending for herself, making decisions, taking her life into her own hands and eventually defeating her own demons. Mopsa experiences a lot of life on her adventure and has to deal with a lot of new emotions and fears which in the end turn her into a much tougher person.

I think another fantastic aspect of Kit-in-the-Candlestick is that it is paced so well. At no point does it start to feel ploddy or too fast you have to turn back a few pages to study what just happened. Each chapter develops the plot and throughout there is a sense that the story is building towards a big WHY. You don’t know where you are, Mopsa doesn’t have a clue either but the mysteries of this almost Narnian parallel world gradually peel back and the best part is that I couldn’t guess what was going to be the answer. At no point did it become predictable, the plot sort of twists its way through the book, keeping you on your toes, keeping you guessing, the answers unbearably just beyond your fingertips. Then, at the end, all the threads of guesswork are neatly sown together in one of those endings that are just so satisfying that you end up grinning like an idiot and knowing there was no better way to put it.

Kit-in-the-Candlestick is quite simply a really well written story, pitched perfectly for younger teens. It takes you to exciting new places through the eyes of a fantastic heroine on a whirlwind adventure. It has the old magic feel of an Narnian story mixed with the unnerving lost feeling of Alice In Wonderland, you’re not quite sure what’s going to be around the next corner but you know that everything happens for a reason. I thoroughly recommend it!

Review: Timeriders: Day of the Predator - Alex Scarrow

2011-09-26T08:00:00.000+01:00

*DON'T MISS*
Extent: 448 pages
Publisher: Puffin
Pub Date: 5th August 2010

Liam O'Connor should have died at sea in 1912.

Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010.

Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2029.

But all three have been given a second chance - to work for an agency that no-one knows exists. Its purpose - to prevent time travel destroying history . . .

When Maddy mistakenly opens a time window where and when she shouldn't have, Liam is marooned sixty-five million years ago in the hunting ground of a deadly - and until now - undiscovered species of predator.

Can Liam make contact with Maddy and Sal before he's torn to pieces by dinosaurs - and without endangering history so much that the world is overtaken by a terrifying new reality?

There are a few books for which I refuse to read the blurb. I don’t want to be in any way prepared for what’s going to happen within the pages, I want to enjoy the full effect of the mystery and often the terror that lurks within. On the second book, the TimeRiders series has entered that list of books and that list also has another accolade: they are the most gripping, well told stories I have, do or ever will read.

Many sequels just plod along in the same ilk as their predecessors, the characters doing the same kind of things with the same kind of bad guys and the same kind of situations. After loving the first TimeRiders books I am so pleased to find that book 2 has done exactly what I crave in a sequel: something completely different! The kids are on their own now, stuck in their two day time bubble without a clue as to what will happen next – and that is just how I felt as a reader, I was nervous too, scared, my imagination pitching me all manner of horrific world-ending scenarios. So clever was it of Alex Scarrow, then, to throw his readers into a world-beginning scenario, or at least the first cycle of evolution on the planet. I think, whereas book 1 is about what happens when you mess with time, Day of the Predator takes you on a journey to try to comprehend the massiveness of Earth’s history, the massiveness of time itself and how arrogant humans are to think they know even the tiniest part of it. It’s genius to create an “enemy” in a species that has no record on Earth. I’ve recently been watching a load of dinosaur documentaries on the BBC, and in the last decade alone there have been dozens of new discoveries. It is probably quite likely that if you were to be transported millions of years into the past, almost every species you came across would be unknown to humans. It just gives you a real sense of what we don’t know and that is terrifying and a brilliant premise to a gripping story.

I am fairly rapidly coming to the conclusion that Alex Scarrow is some kind of story-telling genius, he taps into our greatest fears as humans, the unknown, and then he thinks of everything – every situation, every outcome, every potential time contaminant – and puts it on a plate for you to chew over. He must be a very philosophical person and he’s certainly turned me into a philosopher – never do I ask so many “what if” questions then when I’m reading a TimeRiders book. And it’s not just the big details it’s the little ones that really plug the holes in your suspension of disbelief, like using significant dates in history to cover up potential time contamination: only ever do something risky if you know there is going to be an earthquake later that day that will destroy all records and everyone you spoke to. It introduces some really interesting human moments amongst the action with moral dilemmas and wonderfully subtle characters development, the testing and building of relationships.

The author thinking of everything is a real asset to these stories, giving them a frightening level of realism, and exploring the fact that we know nothing makes for a fantastic sequel. Terrifying, gripping, touching, amazing.