Whimsical Wednesday ~ Cold & Flu Edition

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Humor, Whimsical Wednesday

Between the Blade and the Heart (Valkyrie Book One), by Amanda Hocking ~ 3.5 Stars

Tags

Fantasy, LGBT Relationships, Norse Mythology, Supernatural, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now 

319 Pages

Synopsis: Valkyries have one great responsibility to return immortals to the afterlife by slaying them. As a Valkyrie, Malin has always known that the balance of the world rests on her ability to carry out orders. But when Malin discovers that her mother spared the life of an immortal who was destined to die, her world is thrown into chaos.

Malin not only wrestles with the knowledge that her mother might not be who she thought—-she’s also thrust into the path of a gorgeous blue eyed guy named Asher who needs her help slaying the rogue immortal who destroyed his family. The balance of the world is at stake. And, as Asher competes with Malin’s ex for her love and loyalty, so is her heart.

I’ve enjoyed Amanda Hocking’s previous books and when I first heard about this new series with Valkyries my eyes immediately lit up. I LOVE Norse mythology! Between the Blade and the Heart wasn’t perfect, but it’s a pretty decent start and has me hopeful that some of the kinks will be worked out in the next book.

I wound up with mixed feelings about the heroine of the story, Malin. She’s bisexual which made me very happy. She’s kick-ass with a tough attitude which is perfectly in keeping of what a Valkyrie should be. But then there’s a love triangle between the new guy in her life, Asher, and her ex-girlfriend and as I’m not a fan of love triangles, naturally this got on my nerves. Making it worse was that I didn’t buy into the relationship that Malin had with either of them. There just didn’t seem to be any depth to them. And her helpless dithering between the two of them just didn’t  fit with the rest of her personna. 

Besides the Norse mythology, there’s a lot of other supernatural and mythological creature that live in this world. I had mixed feelings about this as well. There was a lot I liked, but at times it almost felt like too much was being introduced. That said, Amanda Hocking always impresses me with her world building and what she does here did not disappoint. It’s detailed and wonderfully descriptive and it’s most definitely unique. The plot itself was exciting and kept me turning the pages and I finished this in two sittings.

Overall, Between the Blade and the Heart left me feeling a slightly disappointed, but there are enough positives that I’m still looking forward to reading From the Earth to the Shadows, the second book in this duology. And I just won an ARC in a Goodreads giveaway so I’m a happy camper. So, if you’re a fan of Norse mythology I recommend you give this a try, especially if your already a fan of Hocking.

 

Trump Apocalypse Watch ~ January 28th, 2018

Tags

Trump Apocalypse

What happened today.

1. Trump refused to implement the Russian sanctions passed by a veto-proof majority in both the House and the Senate. He’s insisting they’re not needed. Laws? Checks and balances? What are those?

2. Trump organized the early departure of well-respected FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe as part of a political purge. Watch out Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. You’re next!

3. Trump’s Republican minions on the House Intelligence Committee voted to release a classified and partisan memo written by Chairclown Devin Nunes in order to smear the FBI and Bob Mueller’s investigation. I’m usually all for transparency in the government, but there’s a responsible way to do this that doesn’t risk exposing classified intelligence and sources. In addition, Nunes refused to let the Republican Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr view the memo. He’s also disregarded the Justice Department’s warnings that this action would be “extremely reckless.” And finally, the Republicans are refusing to allow the Democrats on the Committee to release their own 10 page rebuttal memo. 

And just think. It’s only Monday!

 

Cover Reveal ~ True Storm (True Born Trilogy #3), by L.E. Sterling

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Cover Reveal, L.E.Sterling, True Storm

I really enjoyed both the previous books in this YA trilogy, True Born and True North, so I’ve been eagerly anticipating the third book. Unfortunately it’s not coming out until May 1st, and I don’t have a premise for you, but I do have the striking cover to reveal!

Is that striking or what? All the covers in this series have been gorgeous, but I think this is my favorite, probably due to those gorgeous purple undertones. So, anyone who’s already a fan of the previous two books, mark your calendars for May 1st. And if you’re new to this trilogy, you have plenty of time to catch up.

 

 L.E. Sterling had an early obsession with sci-fi, fantasy and romance to which she remained faithful even through an M.A. in Creative Writing and a PhD in English Literature—where she completed a thesis on magical representation. She is the author of two previous novels, the cult hit YA novel The Originals (under pen name L.E. Vollick), dubbed “the Catcher in the Rye” of a new generation” by one reviewer, and the urban fantasy Pluto’s Gate. Originally hailing from Parry Sound, Ontario, L.E. spent most of her summers roaming across Canada in a van with her father, a hippie musician, her brothers and an occasional stray mutt—inspiring her writing career. She currently lives in Ontario, Canada.

To find out more about L.E. Sterling and her books, please visit:

Website – https://le-sterling.com

Twitter – https://mobile.twitter.com/le_sterling

Facebook – https://m.facebook.com/LESterling22/

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7121486.L_E_Sterling

Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/L.E.-Sterling/e/B00EAE01WE/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1517184735&sr=1-1

If you’d like to check out my reviews of True Born and True North you can find them here:

https://cadburypom.wordpress.com/2016/04/22/true-born-the-born-trilogy-by-l-e-sterling-4-5-stars/

https://cadburypom.wordpress.com/2017/04/18/true-north-true-born-trilogy-by-l-e-sterling-3-5-stars/

Cleaving Souls, by Chauncey Rogers ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Thanks to the author for providing an ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

225 Pages

Synopsis: Some dangers you cannot outrun. Some nightmares do not end when you wake.

Something is watching Katherine Harris. She can feel it when she goes out. She can feel it inside her home. She feels it in her bed. Her husband, Alex, wants to blame her anxiety on her pregnancy, but he’s often away for work. He doesn’t know what it’s like to be stuck in a small town, to be trapped in a tiny house on a run-down street, to be alone. Kate does, and the feeling only grows worse.

Whatever is going on, Kat’s certain that it’s far more serious than pregnancy jitters. When Alex takes Kat on a second honeymoon to get her mind off things, it becomes far more dangerous as well.

Holy guacamole this was an insanely stressful read! Of  course I mean that in the best possible way. First though, I need to give out a warning to animal lovers like me who get wigged out when a cute pet dies in a book. There is a scene here involving a sweet dog. However, you can see it coming and skim over it, which is what I did. 

I was immediately hooked by the eerie prologue which immediately put me off balance, where I stayed for the majority of the book. The characters of Kat and her husband Alex are well-rounded and extremely relatable ones. They will probably even remind you of some that you know in real life. As these horrifying supernatural events start happening to the isolated Kat, my heart ached for her. I could literally feel the chilling menace surrounding her as well as her growing helplessness in the face of this unknown danger. And I also felt for Alex who loves and is completely devoted to Kat, yet doesn’t know what to do to help her. 

The plot takes an even more terrifying turn when Alex decides to take Kat back to where they spent their honeymoon—which unfortunately happens to be a cabin in the woods. I know what you’re thinking. One of the things you should always not do when dealing with unexplained creepy events, is to go on vacation to an isolated cabin. But this just ratchets up the tension even more. By this point, I had no idea what was going on. Were there really supernatural events happening or was Kat suffering from some pregnancy-induced psychosis? Well, I’m not telling! The only thing I’ll share is that when the big reveal comes, it’s shockingly brilliant and I never saw it coming. 

Cleaving Souls is the second horror book (after Rafael Chandler’s Mask Beneath Her Face), that I’ve read in the last few weeks that I unhesitatingly put up in the same category as Stephen King. This isn’t just some gore fest, although it has some “ew” moments. This is the type of story that completely messes with your head and stays there days after you’ve finished it. It’s a pulse-pounding thrill ride that I guarantee will keep you up into the wee hours of the morning reading. And once you’ve finished, good luck going to sleep! I highly recommend Cleaving Souls to fans of Stephen King and Dean Koontz’s early horror novels. It’s a quick read that you won’t regret picking up.

Something About the Author: 

Chauncey Rogers is a fellow WordPress blogger and if you’d like to learn more about him and his work, please visit: http://www.chaunceyrogers.com

Biography: Chauncey Rogers was born in Arizona, and since then has hopped back and forth between the mid-western and western United States. He married in 2012 while attending school in Utah. His favorite movie since he was three is Jurassic Park, and he Wishes very badly that Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster were real, though he doesn’t believe in them as much as he used to.

Lovely Lyrical Lines ~ Walk on Water, by 30 Seconds to Mars

Tags

30 Seconds to Mars, Lovely Lyrical Lines, Walk on Water

(Do you believe?) Walk on water

Can you even see what you’re fighting for?

Bloodlust and a holy war

Listen up, hear the patriots shout: “Times are changing”

In the end, the choice was clear

Take a shot in the face of fear

Fist up in the fiery light

Times are changing 

Do you believe that you can walk on water?

Do you believe that you can win this fight tonight?

(Do you believe?)

Look at the sky, see a dying star

White lies, it’s a man on fire 

Making love with the devil hurts

Times are changing

A thin line, the whole truth 

The far right, the left view

Breaking all those promises made

Times are changing 

Do you believe that you can walk on water?

Do you believe that you can win this fight tonight?

Do you believe that you can walk on water?

Do you believe that you can win this fight tonight?

Do you believe?

Do you believe?

Do you believe? Walk on water

Do you believe? Walk on water

Do you believe? Walk on water 

Do you believe? Walk on water

Do you believe that you can walk on water?

Do you believe that you can win this fight tonight?

(Do you believe? Walk on water)

Do you believe that you can win this fight tonight?

Do you believe? Walk on water 

Do you believe? Walk on water

 

Written by: Jared and Shannon Leto

International Holocaust Remembrance Day ~ January 27, 2018

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Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Holocaust Remembrance Day 2018

As current events show, it is now more than ever before, imperative that we remember the Holocaust. There are some photos below from the British Army’s liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany. They are graphic, but I felt it was important that they be shared. I hope no offense is taken.

One of the pictures taken by the British Army as they liberated Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945

It was about 5pm on 15 April when the miracle actually happened: the first British tank rolled into the camp. We were liberated! No one will ever forget that day. We did not greet our liberators with shouts of joy. We were silent. Silent with incredulity and maybe just a a little suspicion that we might be dreaming.

~ Bergen-Belsen survivor, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch ~

A prisoner, too weak to move because of starvation, sits in agony.

A mass grave at Belsen. The man standing in the middle was Dr. Fritz Klein, the camp “doctor”. He was convicted of two counts of war crimes and executed in December of 1945

Here over an acre of ground lay dead and dying people. You could not see which was which…The Living lay with their heads against the corpses and around them moved the awful, ghostly procession of emancipated, aimless people, with nothing to do and no hope of life, unable to move out of your way, unable to look at the terrible sights around them…Babies had been born here, tiny wizened things that could not live…A mother, driven mad, screamed at a British sentry to give her milk for her child, and thrust the tiny mite into his arms, then ran off, crying terribly. He opened the bundle and found the baby had been dead for days.

This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life.

~ BBC radio broadcaster, Richard Dimbleby in an historic broadcast days after the liberation of the camp.~

Women inmates using boots from the dead (there’s a pile of them in the background) as fuel for their cooking fires.

But we went further on into the camp, and seen the corpses lying everywhere. You didn’t know whether they were living or dead. Most of them were dead. Some were trying to walk, some were stumbling, some on hands and knees, but in the lagers, the barbed wire around the huts, you could see that the doors were open. The stench coming out of them was fearsome.

They were lying in the doorways—tried to get down the stairs and fallen and just died on the spot. And it was just everywhere. Going into, more deeper, into the camp the stench got worse and the numbers of the dead—they were just impossible to know how many there were…Inside the camp itself, it was just unbelievable. You just couldn’t believe the numbers involved…

This was one of the things which struck me when I first went in, that the whole camp was so quiet and yet there were so many people there. You couldn’t hear anything, there was just no sound at all and yet there was some movement—those people who could walk or move—but just so quiet. You just couldn’t understand that all those people could be there and yet everything was so quiet…

It was just this oppressive haze over the camp, the smell, the starkness of the barbed wire fences, the dullness of the bare earth, the scattered bodies and these very dull, too, grey uniforms—those who had it—it was just so dull. The sun, yes the sun was shining, but they were just didn’t seem to make any life at all in that camp.

Everything seemed to be dead. The slowness of the movement of the people who could walk. Everything was just ghost-like and it was just so unbelievable that there were literally people living still there. There’s so much death apparent that the living, certainly, were in the minority.

~ British Soldier, Dick Williams ~

Women SS camp guards moving bodies to a mass grave.

A sign erected by the British Army at the entrance of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. May 29, 1945. © I AM (BU 6955), CC BY-NC-ND

~

 

 

Words To Remember ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

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Ursula K. Le Guin, Words To Remember

Photo by: Dana Gluckstein/MPTV Images

No, I don’t mean love, when I say patriotism. I mean fear. The fear of the other. And its expressions are political, not poetical: hate, rivalry, aggression.

 

S.T.A.G.S., by M.A. Bennett ~ 2.0 Stars

Tags

English Boarding Schools, Mystery, Secret Societies, Suspense, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: February 13th, 2018

304 Pages

Synopsis: At St. Aidan the Great School, or S.T.A.G.S., new things—new people—are to be avoided. Unfortunately, Greer MacDonald, token scholarship student, is very much a new person. She has just transferred to S.T.A.G.S., and finds herself being ignored at best and mocked at worst by the school’s most admired circle of friends, the Medievals. 

So imagine Greer’s surprise when this very group invites her to an exclusive weekend retreat at the private estate of the parents of their unofficial leader, Henry de Warlencourt. It’s billed as the weekend of “huntin’ shootin’ fishin’,” And rumor has it that the invitee who most impresses the group will be given the privilege of becoming a Medieval themselves.

As the weekend begins to take shape, however, it becomes apparent that beyond the luxurious trappings—the fancy clothes the maid lays out on Greer’s bed, the elaborate multi course dinners held in the Great Hall—there are predators lurking, and they’re out for blood.

I have to confess that while reading S.T.A.G.S. my overwhelming feeling was one of frustration. In theory, all the elements of this story should have worked. An English secretive society of elites who host an annual weekend retreat every year, inviting a few “inferior” classmates, holding out the promise that one of them may be chosen to be part of their group? Sounds intriguing doesn’t it? Well, unfortunately the premise was much more interesting than the actual story.

The first problem for me were the characters. Despite my best efforts, I could not connect with any of them. Greer did not fit the role of your typical outsider except that she was a scholarship student. She’s extremely intelligent, yet time and again shows a lamatable lack of judgement. At first her referencing classic films was enjoyable, until it started happening almost every other sentence. That grew old rather quickly. Her on again, off again, romantic feelings toward Henry, made no sense, especially once she discovered what he and his friends were up to. And the other characters were just two-dimensional and unremarkable.

The plot itself started out interestingly enough, but didn’t have nearly enough action until the last few chapters of the book. While I liked the history that’s revealed about S.T.A.G.S., the ending left me confused as to their motivations. I can’t really explain without including spoilers, but there seemed to be a big set-up, but the reveal left me disappointed.

S.T.A.G.S. ending leaves open the possibility that there may be a sequel, but if so, I don’t think I’ll be continuing with it. Between the uninspiring characters, numerous plot holes, and not enough action, there’s just not enough there to tempt me. That said, this has received many 4-5 star reviews on Goodreads, so if the premise intrigues you, please check it out for yourselves.

 

R.I.P. Ursula K. Le Guin ~ 1929 – 2018

Tags

Literary Icons, R.I.P. Ursula K. Le Guin

Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Photo by Beth Gwinn/Getty Images. 2001

I don’t know how many of you have heard, but literary icon and one of my personal idols, Ursula K. Le Guin passed away yesterday afternoon. She was the first woman to win the Nebula Award and Hugo Award for Best Novel, for her 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness. She went on to win these awards several more times throughout her career. This prolific and gifted writer wrote twenty more novels, and according to the New York Times, “a dozen books of poetry, more than 100 short stories (collected in multiple volumes), seven collections of essays, 13 books for children and five volumes of translation, including the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu and selected poems by the Chilean Nobel Prize winner Gabriela Mistral.”

Ursula’s novels made me realize that fantasy wasn’t always just about wizards and dragons (although her racially diverse Wizard of Earthsea and the subsequent novels that make up the Earthsea Cycle are among my favorite fantasy series of all time.) Her groundbreaking stories questioned everything from race, to gender identity and equality, to the environment. She was an influence on so many other writers like Margaret Atwood, China Mieville, and Neil Gaiman. 

Surprisingly she was never given the Nobel Prize for Literature, but in 2014 she was awarded the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, which is one of literature’s most prestigious awards. 

Ironically, during an interview with author China Mieville she expressed her fear that her legacy wouldn’t last once she was gone.

Why do all women writers get forgotten extremely quickly? That’s a real anxiety Simply from watching what happens to women writers. They go much faster than men writers do.

Well, for the millions of us who read her books, stories, and poetry, she not only took us to new places, she made us look at our society and what happens around us in a different light, and as a result, I don’t think that fear will ever come to fruition. To illustrate this I’d like to share the touching tribute bestselling author Naomi Novik wrote in the New York Times today.

For Ursula

I want to tell you something true

Because that’s what she did.

I want to take you down a road she built, only

I don’t want to follow it to the end.

I want to step off the edge and go into the underbrush.

Clearing another way, because that’s also what she taught.

Not how to repave her road but how to lay another

Even if it meant the grass came through the cracks of the pavement, and the thicket ate it up.

~

I want to show you something that I dug up out of the earth inside

Because she spent her life picking away at the tunnel veins

And in the next one over, through the walls I heard her working,

The rhythmic steady tick-tick-tick of her knocking at the stone, a music of the sharp end

Of a pen digging into paper

And tried to learn a rhythm of my own, how to get the weight swinging.

~

I want to take your hand and put it on the breathing monster’s side

In the dark room where we can’t see what we’re touching

We only feel it’s in here with us, too vast to touch all at once.

Here, it’s rough and scaly, and here, it’s smooth and hard as bone

And it’s turning even as we try to make it out.

But she did her best to tell us of every part that she could reach

Calling back sometimes from the far side, muffled by its bulk

And sometimes she put our hands on a tooth’s serrated edge

But never without kindness

The teeth were there anyway, and she wanted us to know where we kept cutting ourselves

She never told the lie that the teeth were the only part that mattered.

~

But I’ll do all that tomorrow.

Today I’ll pack some tools, a wide-bladed knife and rake

Nothing with a motor, it’s work I want to do by hand

And I’ll wave to you, going the same way

Maybe we’ll see someone wandering, and call them over to come walk with us 

As far as the road goes.

~

Together we’ll rake up the leaves and cut the grass

And pull back the thornbush branches, even if we’ve forgotten our gloves

And in the morning we’ll say goodbye and go our ways again

Maybe you and I will walk together toward that high hill we caught a glimpse of, a few turns back

We thought maybe the road would go there, but it never did.

So let’s go and try to find it

And if we can’t quite get there, at least leave another marker on the way.