Lost in a Good Book

Merry Christmas (and Happy Boxing Day)!

26 Dec 2014 5 Comments

by Amy in Rambles Tags: boxing day, Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! A tad belated I know but it still counts. As much as I wanted to put a Christmas post up yesterday I soon realised it just was not going to happen despite my best intentions. So instead I’ll bring you the Boxing Day post instead! Today in Australia it is Boxing Day, a day of yachts and cricket. It is also the start of “the week of leftovers” and a time to regroup and recover after the chaos of Christmas (unless you are like me with a four day Christmas of events with various people nonstop in which case I’ll see you on the other side on the 29th). I do hope you all had a wonderful holiday whether it was Christmas or any other holiday this season.

My Christmas was very hectic at times but it was nice to have everyone over to celebrate, especially seeing people’s face light up when they see the presents you gave them. After a day of food and presents long into the night my feet and I were very pleased to get ourselves into bed.

Without the full recap and reliving of my Christmas I will share with you the wonderful bookish presents I received instead. I am a trivia nut and I love a good fun fact which means I also love telling people a good fun fact on any possible topic if the subject comes up. As a result I was given two awesome fact books from the genius elves of QI, the British quiz show with impossible rules and stomach aching laughter while you learn fascinating things you didn’t know were wrong or you just never knew you never knew.

The two books are 1339 QI Facts to Make Your Jaw Drop and the other is 1411 QI Facts to Knock You Sideways. Years ago I had received other books in the QI series like The Book of General Ignorance, The Second Book of General Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know Is (Still) Wrong , and even an animal edition of The Book of Animal Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know Is Wrong. I implore anyone who loves knowing things and learning everything they have been taught is wrong to read these books and watch QI, you won’t regret it.

But I digress. I also gave as many books as I received this Christmas. I gave two Spot books to the kids of friends of ours, and a book on WW2 for my mother, and I saw many other people get books during the day as well which is always a pleasure to see.

So after the festivities of yesterday, Boxing Day is a bit calmer. I have no doubt the Sydney to Hobart yacht race will be filling the TV, possibly with the occasional flick over to the cricket to see what is going on. I foresee more food, less presents, but a nice day catching up with family and friends once more.

I hope all your Christmases were filled with wonderful things and you were given great bookish things as well be they books or book related things. I also wish anyone going to the Boxing Day sales the very best of luck, I’m sure you have a solid system in place on how you will tackle the shops today.

Enjoy the rest of your silly season activities, and if Christmas was the first and last of them then enjoy some time off before the joy of New Years Eve. Have a wonderful time whatever it is you are doing and read something spectacular.

Obstacles by Christopher Reardon

23 Dec 2014 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, General Tags: christopher reardon, fantasy, four stars

Published: 1st October 2013
Publisher: Solstice Publishing
Pages: 265
Format: Paperback
Genre: Fantasy
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

A child will die. You’re afraid to live. Would you go to all lengths to save him? Darkness knows no bounds, as Alcott, an African American doctor sees all too well. The man is petrified by death. His fragile existence rests at the mercy of the universe. This fact is far too much for him to handle. From unyielding nightmares to elevator terrors, he’s lost in paranoia.

Assigned to look after an ill child, Alcott’s horrors only heighten. Gari is a nine-year-old boy with a fatal disease. He will surely pass on within the year. Alcott bonds with him more and more each day. Part of him knows this grim fate just isn’t right.

Alcott befriends a hospital patient. This lunatic forces him to lug home an ancient text on bringing back the dead. Despite the man’s obvious dementia, Alcott attempts the scheme. Charging up a cliff, he recites the chant over ocean gusts.

A god woman glides in from the horizon. She instructs Alcott on the trials to save Gari’s life. These fearsome Obstacles require true strength. From battling sharks to wielding a flail, he must prove fortitude against genuine danger. Alcott decides his fate at this moment.

Death’s claws shall not grasp Gari’s soul.

Note: I was provided a copy of this book for review

Obstacles is the kind of book that brings you the unexpected in an engaging and unique story. The complex magical realm of the obstacles and the rules and logics behind it are creative and unique and add a new element to the fantasy genre. The story follows Alcott, a live in doctor for the terminally ill Gari, who wishes he could save the young boy’s life. When he is given a mysterious spell book with a promise that is will save Gari’s life, Alcott pushes past his paranoia and his fear of death in order to try and save him.

There is a great realm of believability and realism through this story, and it is matched by a wonderful fantastical element. The premise of Reardon’s story is not to create heroes out of ordinary people, but instead is shows ordinary people trying to achieve the impossible in order to save someone in a truly selfless act. Alcott and the others participating in the obstacles all have their own reasons for partaking and we slowly see these reasons emerge as the story progresses.

There is a great amount of action and Reardon uses it well and balances the excitement and the fantastical well. The obstacles they all face show great imagination on Reardon’s behalf; they are clever and entertaining and filled with uncertainties that keep you guessing. The anticipation the contestants feel also translates across the page meaning you also feel nervous for the outcome and are unsure what will happen.

Reardon’s strengths are in his creativity and expression of these ideas and the design of the world as well as his ability to surprise without losing sense of the story. In saying this, there are a lot of things unexplored. There are a few mysteries that are easy to leave unanswered such as the origin and nature of the mysterious book, as well as some of the elements in the magical realm, but other areas were less mysterious and more flat.

Connection with the characters, even Alcott, was only on the surface I felt. The emotions and fears and hopes of characters were known, as these are the reasons for their decision to partake in the Obstacles, but you could not really connect with them as people. But this doesn’t make you not enjoy the book, it was more a realisation after the fact that you do not really know these characters, instead the story and the events pull you along and you experience the characters in how they experience the obstacles and interact with the people around them.

An argument can be made that more detail could be given about the mysterious world but the story was never really trying to be about the world, the focus was on Alcott and his mission, any information and details provided relate to his goals so any need for further detail is in part just curiosity and a desire to know the world completely.

One thing I did keep noticing was that while Reardon uses words well to capture scenes and create scenarios, the use of adjectives regarding dialogue is not very broad. Conversations are often described as being yelled or shouted, which do not always suit the actions they are describing, and even then it is noticeably repetitive and you realise how common it is. But once you get used to the language it is easy to move past it and refocus on the story itself.

The ending I found interesting as it could have gone in so many different directions. What makes it work I think is that the characters accept it, therefore the reader accepts it, despite its unexpected nature from what you thought would happen. It also leaves a few things hanging to allow readers to draw their own conclusions about what could happen next.

There are multiple twists and surprises through this story so you are never quite sure what is going to happen but you are intrigued to find out. Reardon’s writing is captivating and unique and Obstacles is a compelling story that shows how people are willing to go to extreme lengths to save the people they care about.

You can purchase Obstacles via the following

Amazon

Free on Amazon: Reveal by Brina Courtney

17 Dec 2014 Leave a comment

by Amy in General Tags: young adult paranormal

The YA Paranormal novel Reveal by Brina Courtney, is currently free on Amazon

You think seeing ghosts is weird? Tell me something I don’t know.

My childhood best friend Jeremy, happens to be a ghost.

Besides that, my life is totally normal. Well except that my dad went missing when I was six. But my mom makes it work. And I have annoying brother. See, normal?
So why does my life feel like a train wreck waiting to happen… oh yeah because now Jeremy is also missing.
Fate intervenes when Hugh, with his stunning golden eyes and similar dark hair, starts taking an interest in me. He divulges that he also shares my little “gift” of seeing the dead. Should I be freaked out? Yes. But am I? Okay, but only a little bit.

Senior year is hard enough as it is, but clearly I like a challenge.

Grab your free ecopy today!

Icy Pretty Love by L. A. Rose + Giveaway

15 Dec 2014 1 Comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, General Tags: ebook, five stars, giveaway, l.a. rose, new adult, romance

Published: 15th November 2014
Publisher: Self Published
Pages: 174
Format: ebook
Genre: New Adult Romance
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 5 Stars

Glass-doll beauty. A shy, proper smile. Georgette Montgomery is the perfect billionaire’s fiancé.

Or she would be, if she existed.

A dark past. A smile that hides everything. At nineteen, Rae Grove escapes her disaster life by pretending to be other people—specifically, whoever the man paying her that night wants her to be.

Until she’s offered enough money for a one-way ticket to a better life. All she has to do is fly to Paris and pretend to be the fiancé of young business tycoon Cohen Ashworth for one month. Within an hour of meeting Cohen, Rae knows three things about him:

1. He hates everyone and everything.

2. He has abundant wit and a knife-sharp tongue.

3. He uses 2 to make everyone aware of 1.

Before long, Rae’s determined to crack open his unbreakable shell. Cohen’s determined to stay unbroken.

But no one escapes unscathed when two opposite worlds collide.

Note: I was provided with a copy of this book for review

This is a great novel. As she has demonstrated with her other novels, Rose is brilliant at telling a story and she uses her characters to tell her stories wonderfully. With Icy Pretty Love she offers something a bit different than before, but with the same style and skill as I have come to expect from her writing.

The story is not intense or even too serious but it is heart warming and the characters draw you in and you become involved in their lives and who they are as people; complexities, flaws, and strengths included. Rose has created characters that are real people, they are not overly special and held to a pedestal, they just are people, and they are trying to deal with their lives as best they can. Cohen and Rae have different lives, different pasts, and see the world through their own eyes and Rose contrasts these beautifully, using Rae to showcase their differences but also keeps their experiences and interactions grounded, making them authentic.

There is a greater focus on character exploration and development than on a sexual side as seen in Rose’s previous books, which is great if you are not a fan of detailed sex scenes or a strong reoccurrence of them, but this story isn’t actually about the sexual relationship between Rae and Cohen, or even romantic relationship essentially. It is about them discovering who they are as people, what they are doing with their lives and where they want to go. Perhaps that is why I loved it so much, Rae shows Cohen that there is beauty in the world and that being nice to people is important instead of being negative and horrible all the time. They learn and grow from being in each other’s company, some more than others, and they help to improve their lives and benefit from their time together.

Cohen comes across as rough and arrogant but even from the start there is something about him that makes you wonder, something secretive and unspoken, not just in his actions but in himself that hint that maybe his rough exterior is more mask than true nature. Granted he isn’t completely wonderful, but Rae brings new life into his world and with her optimism she aims to turn his view around. Rae notes multiple times it is hard not to keep sounding like a self help book in doing so but she is right about many things she tells Cohen, and as the month passes together you see their influences on one another flourish.

Cohen also hides a secret, and while I thought it was going in one direction, when I realised it wasn’t I was more intrigued to find out what it could possibly be, and I was not disappointed. Rose balances out the content in this story remarkably well and includes the information that is needed for the story while not keeping the mystery the focus of the narrative or making it a key point.

As for Rae, I loved her. She takes life as it is, tries to better herself, and even though she has had a rough life she does not let it get her down, instead she learns from it and it makes her strive harder. She also does not let it dampen her view of the world though she is not ignorant of the bad that does exists, and it was touching reading about her reactions as she explores Paris. Knowing where she has come from to where she ends up is a moment that makes you proud of her, and glad she has been given the chance she has.

Watching Rae influence Cohen is charming and captivating, as Cohen keeps his secrets close and you watch the pair get to know one another and figure out how their strange relationship will work. The characters are truly gorgeous, and the stories than surround them are divine. They are authentic, hopeful, lost, genuine, and Rose makes sure there is no exaggeration in her words that fault the flow of her narrative.

The negative moments of the story are balanced and there is not an overload of sunshine and lollipops but there is a strong grounded reality in the story Rose is telling us. There are secrets, revelations, surprises, and a wonderfully heart warming and real story being told and one that I look forward to reading again. Once again Rose has done a magnificent job.

You can purchase Icy Pretty Love via the following

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Giveaway

As part of her blog tour Rose is offering up ten ecopies of Icy Pretty Love.

Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway

About the author:

L.A. Rose recently made it out of college alive and with an English degree. She’s a habitual beach bum, a cuteness aficionado, and a not-quite-recovered romance addict. She’s a big believer in laughter as medicine and steaminess as…more medicine. You can never have enough medicine. Icy Pretty Love is her third New Adult standalone.

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Open for Business! (Again, finally, and once more)

15 Dec 2014 Leave a comment

by Amy in Rambles Tags: review requests

After being closed for a few months (so much longer than I had intended, I apologise) I am opening up review submissions once more! So if you have been hanging out to send me your book to read and review you can now send them through. I will not be posting a review before next year, but you can be one of the first books I review in the new year!

Fill out the form on the contact page and I look forward to another awesome year reading and reviewing your wonderful books. I have read some fantastic books this year that people have sent me and I hope next year is much the same.