Best Seller, by Susan May ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Book Publishing, Supernatural, Thriller

I’d like to thank Susan May for sending me an ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

462 Pages

Synopsis: JEALOUSY IS A GREEN-EYED MONSTER AND HIS NAME IS WILLIAM BARNES.

A girl with power over luck. An obsessed author consumed with envy. Two nemeses drawn down a path from which only one will return.

After witnessing her mother’s brutal murder, ten-year-old Nem’s life seems destined for tragedy. Then she discovers an old journal which holds an incredible secret. Nem now possesses the ability to control the fortunes of others. It is said that luck is probability taken personally, and she’s about to get personal with her own brand of justice.

Decades later, the literary world hails William Barnes’ debut as a masterpiece. His best seller success, though, doesn’t survive his next two books. Readers abandon him, his publisher cancels his contract, and his agent isn’t returning his calls. 

Meanwhile his undeserving protégé, Orelia Mason, enjoys a meteoric rise in the charts, coinciding suspiciously with his fall. So William embarks on a plan to win back the life he’s certain she’s stolen. If people die along the way, well that’s their problem. He’ll discover though, that’s battling fate when luck is not on your side can be a deadly game. 

This is A Star is Born meets A Portrait of Dorian Gray and the consequences are not pretty. In fact they’re darn well bloody.

From the internationally best selling author readers call the new Stephen King, comes a dark and twisted tale of jealousy, revenge, and a very special power.

I first saw Best Seller reviewed over on Carrie’s blog at http://carriesbookreviews.com After reading her 5 star, stellar review, I knew I had to try to get my hands on this, and at her suggestion, reached out to the author on Goodreads. I was thrilled when Susan May graciously sent me an ebook and I’m even more delighted to say that the book is everything that Carrie said it was.

The story alternates between Nem’s and William’s POVs, and while right up until the halfway point, I had pretty much made up my mind who was the protagonist and who was the antagonist, everything wound up being completely upended much to my surprise.

The plot itself is creatively ingenious and manages to perfectly meld the real world difficulties of becoming a bestselling author (and remaining one), with a fantastic supernatural addition. Thanks to plenty of twists and turns which happen right up until the shocking end, the pace was breathtakingly fast which had me finishing the almost 500 page book in two sittings. 

Best Seller is a fun and exciting read from beginning to end, and I HIGHLY recommend it! This is the first book I’ve read by Susan May, but it certainly won’t be my last!

Whimsical Wednesday

Tags

Erma Bombeck, Whimsical Wednesday

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.’

~ Erma Bombeck ~

Aru Shah and the End of Time (Pandava Quartet #1), By Roshani Chokshi ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Adventure, Diversity, Hindu Mythology, Humor, Middle Grade Fiction, Thriller

Thanks to NetGalley and Rick Riordan Presents/Disney Hyperion for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

368 Pages

Synopsis: Twelve-year-old Aru Shah has a tendency to stretch the truth in order to fit in at school. While her classmates are jetting off to family vacations in exotic locales, she’ll be spending her autumn break at home, in the Museum of Ancient Indian Art and Culture, waiting for her mom to return from her latest archeological trip. Is it any wonder Aru makes up stories about being royalty, traveling to Paris, and having a chauffeur?

One day, three schoolmates show up at Aru’s doorstep and catch her in a lie. They don’t believe her claim that the museum’s Lamp of Bharata is cursed, and they dare Aru to prove it. ‘Just a quick light,’ Aru thinks. Then she can get herself out of this mess and never ever fib again. 

But lighting the lamp has dire consequences. She unwittingly frees the Sleeper, an ancient demon whose duty it is to awaken the God of Destruction. Her classmates and beloved mother are frozen in time, and it’s up to Aru to save them.

The only way to stop the demon is to find the reincarnations of the five legendary Pandava brothers, protagonists of the Hindu epic poem, ‘Mahabharata,’ and journey through the Kingdom of Death. But how is one girl in Spider-Man pajamas supposed to do all that?

Aru Shah and the End of Time is a phenomenal beginning to this new middle-grade series by YA author Roshani Chokshi (The Star-Touched Queen and A Crown of Wishes). A fantasy based on Hindu mythology, the two main characters, Aru and Mini, are completely relatable and despite their vulnerabilities, wind up putting the “Grrrr” in girl power. The story is beautifully told and is fantastically diverse. It also has all the thrilling action, adventure, and laugh-out-loud humor that Rick Riordan is himself famous for.

This is the first book in the new Rick Riordan Presents imprint which empowers other authors to write stories inspired by mythology and folklore of their own heritage. Roshani has three more books planned for the Pandava Quartet, which I can’t wait for. Sadly the next book, Aru Shah and the Song of Death doesn’t come out until next April so I’m going to be on pins and needles waiting for that. However, as part of this new venture put together by “Uncle Rick”, J.C. Cervantes’ book, Storm Runner, which is a contemporary mystery based around Mayan mythology is coming out in September. And in January 2019, Dragon Pearl, by Yoon Ha Lee goes on sale. This is said to combine Korean mythology and space opera! To say I’m excited about this new imprint, doesn’t quite do my feelings justice. These are the kinds of books that if I was still a children’s librarian, I’d be pushing them into the hands of every middle-schooler who walked through the door!

To Megan…A Dedication

Absolutely heartbreaking news about a wonderful member of our blogging community. You will be missed Megan!😰

TeacherofYA's Book Blog

I normally don’t do posts like this…I have lots of book reviews to write and the rest of my ALAMW trip to tell…but I felt it necessary to share with you a person that was taken too soon. A person that was a good friend and that I will miss dearly.

Her name was Megan. People also knew her as BookSlayerReads – she had a blog and Instagram and recently started a candle business that she was very excited about. She also had recently changed some of her names to FictionintheClouds. We formed a group awhile back for reading Harry Potter, and we (my friends Sammi, Tiff, and I) were very close. We talked about her family, we talked about our book obsessions. We talked about everything. She and I would even talk about personal stuff from time to time.

When I found out she was gone, I couldn’t believe…

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Glimpse, by Jonathan Maberry ~ 3.5 Stars

Tags

Addiction, Adult Fiction, Horror, Supernatural

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: March 27th, 2018

352 Pages

Synopsis: How far would you be willing to go to save those you love?

Rain is a young woman trying to rebuild herself after years of drug addiction and abuse. Ten years ago, at the age of sixteen, she gave up her baby after the father , her first love, dies in Iraq. Now, three years clean and on the way to a job interview, Rain borrows a pair of reading glasses from an old lady on a Brooklyn train. The lenses are cracked and through the crack she catches a glimpse of a little boy running and screaming. The boy looks so much like Rain’s dead lover. Like their son must look like now.

Rain realizes that the glasses give her quick glimpses of her lost son Dylan, who needs her to find him. Dylan is important to our damaged, hopeless world. But he’s in terrible trouble because evil creatures—-the Shadow People—-are trying to corrupt and destroy him. If Dylan dies, then hope dies. 

But how does a recovering junkie fight supernatural monsters? And how far will one woman go to saver her lost son?

One of my favorite horror trilogies is Jonathan Maberry’s Pine Deep, and I also have quite enjoyed his long running Joe Ledger series. So when I saw the standalone novel Glimpse, I was quite excited. After finishing it last night, I don’t think it’s one of his best novels, but I’m still glad I read it.

Part of the problem is that this is a horror story, but it takes quite awhile for things to get going. I don’t mind slow burning plots most of the time, but in this case it just seemed to take too long for the excitement to build. 

Another issue for me was with these two characters, Gay Bob and Straight Bob. I’m not sure why Maberry chose to bestow upon them these unfortunate monikers, but it was annoying and distracting and I know other reviewers have commented on this as well, so I know it’s not just me.

There were parts of the book I loved. Rain, the main character is complex yet entirely empathetic, especially when more of her background is revealed. She’s coping with guilt, grief, memory loss and trying to recover from drug addiction, so when she’s first introduced she’s in a very fragile state. Yet she’s determined and doesn’t run from this supernatural fight. And Monk, the tattooed, psychic private investigator, Rain teams up with, in my opinion deserves a series of his own. And then there’s the bogeyman of the story who is such a nasty piece of work that most of the characters won’t even use his name. He was a fantastic villain. 

To me, Glimpse was reminiscent of Stephen King’s Dr. Sleep and Joe Hill’s NOS4RT2, so if you’re a fan of these, you may want to try this. Despite the few issues I had with it, there was still a good part of the book I enjoyed. The story is complex and the characters are memorable and although it’s technically a standalone, I could see it being developed into a series and if that did happen, I’d definitely keep reading. 

 

After Anna, by Lisa Scottoline ~ 3.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Legal Thriller, Mystery

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: April 10th, 2018

352 Pages

Synopsis: Nobody cuts deeper than family…

Noah Alderman, a doctor and a widower, has remarried a wonderful woman, Maggie, and for the first time in a long time he and his son are happy. But their lives are turned upside down when Maggie’s daughter Anna moves in with them. Anna is a gorgeous seventeen-year-old who balks at living under their rules though Maggie, ecstatic to have her daughter back, ignores the red flags that hint at the trouble that is brewing. Events take a deadly turn when Anna is murdered and Noah is accused of the crime. Maggie must face not only the devastation of losing her only daughter, but the realization that her daughter’s murder was at the hands of a husband she loves. New information sends Maggie searching for the truth, leading her to discover something darker than she ever could have imagined. 

Lisa Scottoline is known for her breathless, fast-paced plots, and After Anna is another fine example of this. However, I did have a few issues with this story and I don’t think this was one of the author’s best. 

While I love evil teenage girls, to have one who wrongfully accuses an innocent of man of sexual assault made me uncomfortable given the current social climate. Of course cases like this happen, but I don’t think now is the right time to include that as part of a plot, given the #timesup and #metoo movements and our misogynistic assaulter-in-chief.

The other problem I had was with the somewhat awkward dialogue. With the exception of Noah’s young son Caleb, the characters don’t always come off as believable or relatable and the stilted way they speak doesn’t help. Noah is also just way too perfect to be realistic, and while Maggie is a sympathetic character, the way she puts all her trust in this teenager who she’s never met whose actions are highly suspicious, and immediately believes her accusations over the denials of the husband she adores, didn’t make sense.

A good chunk of the book is spent in the courtroom, so if you’re a fan of legal thrillers, as I am, I think you’ll enjoy this. There’s an unnecessary prison subplot though that I felt added nothing to the main narrative. The last quarter of the book turned into a crusade and the entire resolution resided with the villain voluntarily coming clean. The speed in which everything was tied up at the end, wasn’t believable and left several gaping plot holes.

I’m a fan of Lisa Scottoline, so although I don’t think After Anna is one of her best novels, it won’t stop me from reading her future books. There are many reviewers on Goodreads who enjoyed this more than I did, so I’d encourage you to check out their reviews as well if you’re mulling over whether to try this.

 

 

 

Zenith (The Androma Saga #1), by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings ~ 1.0 Stars

Tags

PTSD, Rape, Science Fiction, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Teen for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

534 Pages

Synopsis: Most know Androma Racella as the Bloody Baroness, a powerful mercenary whose reign of terror stretches across the Mirabel Galaxy. To those aboard her glass starship, Marauder, however, she’s just Andi, their friend and fearless leader.

But when a routine mission goes awry, the Marauder’s all-girl crew is tested as they find themselves in a treacherous situation and at the mercy of a sadistic bounty hunter from Andi’s past.

Meanwhile, across the galaxy, a ruthless ruler waits in the shadows of the planet Xen Ptera, biding her time to exact revenge for the destruction of her people. The pieces of her deadly plan are about to fall into place, unleashing a plot that will tear Mirabel in two.

Andi and her crew embark on a dangerous, soul-testing journey that could restore order to their ship or just as easily start a war that will devour worlds. As the Marauder hurtles toward the unknown, and Mirabel hangs in the balance, the only certainty is that in a galaxy run on lies and illusion, no one can be trusted.

From it’s gorgeous cover to the science fiction premise starring an all girl crew, I really thought I was going to love Zenith, but for me it turned out to be a bloody mess. 

First, a trigger warning and a spoiler. There’s a female character who for some reason that’s never fully explained, has the power to compel people. And in one scene, she compels a male character into having sex with her. It’s technically not aggressive, nor is it explicitly described, but to me that’s rape, pure and simple and I feel like it would have been remiss of me not to bring it up. There’s also a lot of violence, so this is definitely meant for older teens.

As for the rest of the story it has way too many characters and POVs (six) that sound too much alike leaving me utterly frustrated. The worst one of all is Andi who simultaneously looks forward to killing people because of the sense of power it gives her, yet wrings her hands and bemoans her actions, until the next time that is. The other characters are for the most part no better, and many of their actions made no sense and bordered on being ludicrous.

As far as the plot goes, nothing, absolutely nothing happens until the last 40 pages or so. This made it tortuous to read and to be honest I would have given up before the halfway mark, except that I was sent this by the publisher and felt obligated to try to finish it. Adding to all this is lazy, derivative, uninspired world building in which I could easily pick out scenes that were eerily reminiscent of ones like for instance, the Mos Eisley cantina in Star Wars.

I could keep going, but I’m stopping now because I’m getting steamed up again just thinking about it. I think you all know by now that I hate slamming a book like this. These two authors no doubt spent a lot of time creating this. In my humble opinion though, Zenith had no business being published in its current form. The only reason I can think of that could explain why it was pushed through, is because Sasha Alsberg is a celebrity Booktuber. The co-author, Lindsay Cummings is a fairly well established YA author and I’ve read a few of her books and enjoyed them, so I’m not sure what happened here. I’m absolutely floored that the editor gave their stamp of approval to this. I’m giving Zenith 1 star for the admittedly cool concept and pretty cover. Otherwise, I’m sorry. I simply cannot bring myself to recommend this to anyone. Needless to say I won’t be picking up the sequel.

Happily, by Chauncey Rogers ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adventure, Fairytales, Humor, Juvenile Fiction

Thank you to Chauncey Rogers for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: April 3rd, 2018

314 Pages

Synopsis: 

If the shoe fits, wear it.

If it doesn’t, make it.

Laure is a street urchin just trying to get away. Where the rest of the world sees an enchanting love story, Laure sees royal incompetence and an opportunity to exploit it. She’ll have wealth and a way out of a life she detests., if she can only manage to hoodwink the royal family and live to tell the tale.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, you know you’re reading something special when you’re doing everything you can to put off getting to the end of a book. Happily is one of these treasures. 

Back in January, I read Chauncey’s thriller/horror novel, Cleaving Souls, which kept me up reading until the wee hours of the morning. Happily did the same thing only for entirely different reasons. This isn’t quite a fairytale retelling, as Cinderella doesn’t even make an appearance until the end of the story. To give you an idea of how different this book is, here’s how it opens:

Before I start, however, we need to get a few things straight. First, I don’t like questions. They get people off track, they almost always would have been answered if the person had just kept listening, and they’re usually stupid. Yes, stupid. Whoever says otherwise is an idiot. Second, I’ve been told to tell you my story. Not my life story, so forget about learning about my childhood. Just the story of the glass slipper and my engagement to the prince—-the whole story. I don’t want to do this twice; let’s get it right the first time, shall we? There are only a few hours until the wedding ceremony, so sit down, get comfortable, and let’s get this over with—-that way you can leave, which will be great for both of us. Because the third, final, and perhaps most important thing for you to understand is this: I don’t like you.Try not to take it too personally—-I don’t like most people. Really, you’re probably in good company. You’re probably in pretty bad company, too, since there are a lot of idiots, creeps, and perverts who I don’t like either. There’s a group of people that I particularly dislike, however, and my story starts with them.

And that sassy, sarcastic voice belongs to Laure, the snarky, stubborn, cranky heroine of this book. As the story begins, she’s a street urchin who thinks of no one except for herself. But as the story develops it’s obvious that behind her self-absorbed exterior lies so much more. When she meets up with the adorably sweet Luc, he brings out the best in her and before you reach the halfway point, it’s obvious these two are soulmates.

As always, I’m not going to give away any spoilers, but let’s just say the story has a lovely romance, rollicking adventure, plenty of humor, fantastic world-building, and one of the most imaginative plots I’ve come across in a very long time. The only reason why I’m giving this less than a perfect 5 stars is because I thought everything came together a little too quickly at the end. But this is a very minor complaint.

In the end, I cannot recommend Happily highly enough for children and adults. Chauncey has taken an often retold story, and given it a unique and refreshing spin, filled with teachable moments. If you’re a fan of fairytales like: Ella Enchanted, Ever After (with Drew Barrymore), The Princess Bride, and Aladdin, you need to read this ASAP! It’s a beautiful escape from real world woes, and I guarantee you’ll be utterly captivated. And if you read this review Chauncey, I’m putting in my request for a sequel now. PLEASE! Oh, and I’d like to thank Chauncey’s young daughter for requesting that her dad write a story for her. Because of her wish, we are all beneficiaries of this fanciful tale.

 

World Poetry Day 2018

Tags

”Pain Ends”, Inspirational Poetry, Katy A. Brown, World Poetry Day 2018

Pain Ends

Breathe in the fresh air,

Put your mind at ease.

Let down your hair,

Let it flow in the breeze.

🌹

Let your eyes wander

To all the beauty to be seen.

If those toxic thoughts you still do ponder,

Then let out a scream.

🌹

Scream until the pain is gone,

Until you no longer feel afraid.

Open your eyes to a new dawn,

Let the darkness fade.

🌹

Pick the sadness up off the floor,

Sweep it into the wind.

Close the door on self-hatred.

Never let it back in.

🌹

For the lies it would often tell you,

You will no longer agree.

Happiness and love are what you should hold on to.

They are whom you should give the key.

🌹

Pay no attention to the toxic thoughts,

Listen to those who adore everything you are.

Overthinking was what you once were taught,

But now those thoughts you put in a jar.

🌹

Focus on your goals,

Never lose your fight.

It’s time to open new scrolls.

Everything will be all right.

 

~ Katy A. Brown ~

Whimsical Wednesday

Tags

Eeyore, Whimsical Wednesday