Category: books

Storm Damaged, by Kerry Adrienne

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(I do not own this image. Image belongs to Loose Id, LLC.)

Kerry Adrienne is the author of several novels in different genres. Her newest book, Storm Damaged, is a fantasy/sci-fi romance.

Humans don’t know that mermaids exist, but they have a large tribal society and prefer to keep themselves apart from humans. Except for Mari. Desperate to get away from her domineering mother and her controlling fiancé, she left life under the sea behind to open a tiny souvenir shop on the island. She’s happy there, until her landlord, Chase tells her he’s selling the bar under which her shop is located.

Suddenly Mari’s happy fantasies of a relationship with Chase, the former Navy diver who lost his brother in a diving accident and is now afraid of the ocean, go up in smoke. Chase wants to get as far away from the ocean—and memories of his brother’s death—as possible, but before he can, a hurricane moves in, trapping him and Mari on the island. Will she be able to convince him to stay, or will her sea life come back to haunt them both?

Storm Damaged is a breezy story of two people both running from something. Mari has struggled for years against her family’s expectations, as well as her fiancé, while Chase is intent on running away from what haunts him. Their journey towards each other is a fun, engaging read touched with a little bit of magic.

(Galley provided by Loose Id, LLC via NetGalley.)

Night Study, by Maria V. Snyder

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(I do not own this image. Image belongs to Mira.)

 

Maria V. Snyder is the author of Study Series, the Glass Series, and the Insider Books. Her newest book, Night Study, is the second book in the new Study Series. It released yesterday.

Yelena Zaltana has always lived a dangerous life. But now, with her Soulfinder abilities gone, her life is even more dangerous than usual. Not to mention the assassins, psychopathic grudge-holding mages, and threat of war between Ixia and Sitia. Oh, and the Commander, ruler of Ixia, seems to be making questionable decisions of late. Decisions that put Yelena, Valek, and everyone they love in grave danger.

Valek has always been loyal to the Commander. But the Commander is keeping secrets. Dangerous secrets. Secrets that could cause the death of Yelena and their future as war looms. Valek must find out the truth as he struggles to protect Yelena, bereft from her magical protection, and try to prevent the war that seems inevitable as violence and betrayal looms on the horizon.

Night Study is the fifth book in the Study series of books. It picks up the tale of Yelena, former poison taster but now Soulfinder, as she struggles with the loss of her powers, trying to find out what caused the loss and how she can counteract it. The relationship between her and Valek is deeper as they fight their unseen enemies together amidst a world torn apart by lies and deception.

(Galley provided by Mira via NetGalley.)

The Winter Girl, by Matt Marinovich

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(I do not own this image. Image belongs to Doubleday Books.)

 

Matt Marinovich lives in Brooklyn and has written for numerous publications. His first novel was Strange Skies. His new novel, The Winter Girl, hit shelves on January 19th.

Scott and Elise have come to the Hamptons because her father is dying of cancer. While she spends every day at the hospital, Scott stays home, growing more down with every passing day, as he focuses on his failing marriage, his lost job, and his ailing father-in-law, who hates him. Scott becomes fascinated by the empty house next door, where lights turn on with timers in a semblance of life. Soon Scott dares to go inside, hoping for a sort of escape.

What he finds is an empty house that speaks of secrets. Secrets that excite Scott, lifting his depression. Soon he enlists Elise in his explorations, as they seek to rekindle their marriage. But things in the house next door are not what they seem, and soon Scott and Elise are seeking a different kind of escape: from the darkness that surrounds them, hiding secrets they never imagined.

The Winter Girl is dark and twisted, full of shocking revelations, insidious secrets, and a history of violence only hinted at on the surface. This book is not for the faint of heart, nor is for the reader looking for characters that are likeable and uplifting.

(Galley provided by Doubleday via NetGalley.)

Frankly, My Dear…

Friday I spent a little bit of time in a place I never really imagined I’d be:  the house where Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone with the Wind.

The Margaret Mitchell House, where the tiny apartment the author and her husband lived in was located.

Gone with the Wind is my favorite book. I read it for the first time when I was 11 years old. I’ve probably read it at least 25 times. I’m reading it now (Sort of.). The name of this blog comes from the novel.  It’s not that I idolize the era it takes place in. I don’t. There was a lot wrong with that society, its practices, and its beliefs. It’s not that I wished I lived there. (Ha. I despise wearing dresses, so living where elaborate dresses was the norm is a joke.).

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This painting was actually used in the movie. Gorgeous dress, but not my style.

But the characters are so vividly realized I feel like I know them, as is the setting. I think Margaret Mitchell did an astounding job creating characters and bringing them to life. I still laugh, and cry, every time I read the book.

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Where she actually wrote the novel (Although not the actual desk or typewriter, which is on display at the Atlanta library.). She used a towel to cover her work when unexpected visitors dropped in.

I did not know that Ms. Mitchell had her husband burn the first draft (there was only one copy) of the novel after her death, as well as any other projects she was working on. I didn’t know that she never intended to publish it at all, and wanted it back after she did let a publisher look at it.

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A story the author wrote as a girl.

I knew she worked as a reporter for a while.

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Ms. Mitchell was so short that the legs of the desk she used as a reporter had to be shortened.

What I did know:  still my favorite book. Ever.

New Year, this Time with Some Actual Goals

Happy new Year 2016 Images (20)
(I do not own this image.)

Happy New Year!

I used to make very complicated, intricately planned-out lists of resolutions every year. A few years ago, I stopped that, but this year I decided to give it another go. I ended up with three separate lists (Life, Writing, and Reading), each with eight goals.

Here are my Writing goals for the year:

1) Finish Witches HTRYN.

2) Finish 1st draft of Siren Song. 

3) Finish 1st draft of The Fall.   

4) Start Camelot

5) Revise Casting Shadows.

6) Finish copyediting classes and make X dollars at it per month.

7) Have 500 followers on this blog. (I can dream, right?)

8) Have 200 followers on my personal blog (It’s a goal.)

HNY

Here are my Reading goals:

1) Read Gone with the Wind (for at least the 25th time. I normally read it every year, but it’s been a few years.).

2) Read 1 book per month from my TBR shelf.

3) Read all books on the reading list for my American Women Writers class (8 total).

4) Read one classic per month.

5) Read one book of poetry.

6) Read 2 books per month to review.

7) Read one inspirational book per month.

8) Read 75 books total.

The Poison Artist, by Jonathan Moore

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(I do not own this image. Image belongs to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.)

http://www.amazon.com/The-Poison-Artist-Jonathan-Moore/dp/0544520564

http://www.amazon.com/The-Poison-Artist-Jonathan-Moore/dp/0544520564

Jonathan Moore finished law school in New Orleans, which probably gave his fiction that creepy twist. Now he works for a firm in Honolulu, after an eccentric career past. He was short-listed for the Bram Stoker award. His new novel, The Poison Artist, hits shelves January 26th.

Caleb Maddox is a toxicologist who studies the effects of pain. His work is demanding and all-consuming, leading to a fight with his girlfriend that leaves him wounded and emotional. He goes to a speakeasy to brood, and over absinthe, sees an alluring woman who whispers in his ear after getting his blood on her fingertips before leaving. Caleb is fascinated and must find her.

But a rash of dead bodies in San Francisco delays his search for Emmeline. One of the men vanished from the speakeasy the same night Caleb was there, so he feels obligated to help his medical examiner friend solve the case. Caleb remembers nothing that will help the detectives, but continues to help his friend in secret while also continuing his search for the tempting Emmeline. Soon the hunt for the killer entwines with Caleb’s obsession with Emmeline, linking with his past in ways he never imagined.

The Poison Artist is a haunting, creepy tale full of twists and turns. Caleb is a conflicted man driven by the horrors in his past. His obsession with Emmeline drives him to places he never believed possible as he seeks to unravel her mysteries.

(Galley courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via NetGalley.)

But You Did Not Come Back, by Marceline Loridan-Ivens

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(I do not own this image. Image belongs to Grove Atlantic.)

Marceline Loridan-Ivens is a French writer and film director. Her memoir, But You Did Not Come Back, is available on January 5th, 2015.

When Marceline was fifteen, she and her father were arrested by the government. He told her that he would not come back. They were sent to concentration camps, he to Auschwitz, and she to Birkenau. The three kilometers separating them might as well have been a million. Occasional glimpses of her father kept her going, but the note he managed to get to her kept her hope alive even in her horrendous, terrifying surroundings. She made it out of the camp alive and came home. Her father did not come back.

But You Did Not Come Back is a novella-length letter that Marceline wrote to her father, the man she never knew as an adult. Her experiences in the concentration camp colored the rest of her life, and through it all, her father’s memory lived on, her grief over him shadowing every day. Eventually, Marceline found her calling as an activist for refuges and as a documentary filmmaker.

Her heart-wrenching tale is filled with emotion and sorrow, grief and determination, in this memoir of one of the darkest times in history.

(Galley provided by Grove Atlantic via NetGalley.)

 

This Is Where It Ends, by Marieke Nijkamp

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(I do not own this image. Image belongs to Sourcebooks Fire.)

Marieke Nijkamp is from The Netherlands. She is the founder of DiversifYA. Her debut novel, This Is Where It Ends hits shelves January 5th.

This Is Where It Ends is told by four different characters, over the course of 54 minutes. It is a tale of love, of family, of friends, and of violence. It is the story of a school shooting, something horrifically more common today than ever before.

When the semester starts in Opportunity, Alabama, everyone is gathered in the school auditorium to listen to the principal’s beginning-of-semester speech. That is the last normal thing they experience that day. When they get up to leave, the doors won’t open. And someone starts shooting.

The author weaves together the viewpoints of four different characters, telling a tale that is sadly familiar to today’s society. It is a story of a small town ripped apart by violence, and by people forever scarred by the actions of one person.

(Galley provided by Sourcebooks Fire via NetGalley.)

This was not an easy book to read. It’s a hard topic, but one that is far too common today. The characters are diverse and vividly-imagined. The setting feels familiar. The details bring the story to life.

Side note: I knew going in what this story was all about. I was also clear that this story was told from multiple POVs. Which is why, for the life of me, I cannot figure out why someone on Goodreads gave this one star, and listed their reasons, starting with 1) “I really, really hate violence.” And, 2) “I hate multiple POV books.”

Um, okay. So you requested this book, when it was clear it was about violence and told from multiple characters’ viewpoints, which you hate, but you gave it a bad review for these reasons? Hmmm….sounds like the problem is with you and not with the book. I’m just saying: if the book is about something you hate, why even read it? More importantly, why give it a bad review, when it’s your fault you didn’t like it, not the author’s?

The Widsom of Dead Men, by Oisin McGann

 

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(I do not own this image. Image belongs to Open Roads Integrated Media.)

Oisín McGann is an Irish author and illustrator. His newest offering, The Wisdom of Dead Men, is in his series of books in the Wildenstern Saga; a steampunk Victorian adventure set in Ireland.

Women are turning up dead. Women of the working class, with no obvious connection to each other. They are found alone, frequently in locked rooms, apparently the victims of spontaneous human combustion. Law enforcement isn’t sure what to make of the cases. Neither is the clergy. Naturally, turning to the powerful Wildenstern family for help is the only solution.

Berto Wildenstern, the newest head of the family, doesn’t really have time for a murder investigation. He’s too busy trying to keep the rest of his scheming family from killing him for how power and position. His brother Nate, although taxed with protecting Berto, finds the time to investigate the deaths. With the help of Berto’s wife, he encounters a history the Wildenstern’s claim to know nothing about, a history that just might be linked to the deaths.

The Wisdom of Dead Men is an adventure tale wrapped up in a murder mystery, with a side of family intrigue thrown in for good measure. The Victorian setting is vividly realized, as are the mysterious engimals, the living machines that no one knows the origins of. The Wildenstern family are bloodthirsty and conniving, but they aren’t all bad.

(Galley provided by Open Road Integrated Media via NetGalley.)

Books: What I’ve Read Lately

After a computer snafu a few weeks ago, when I saw an early Black Friday deal for a hard drive on Monday, I jumped at it. (The old one was 6 or so years old.) It came in today, so I’ve spent the past few hours trying to gt it set up and all my files transferred over. (Thank you, DropBox.) Instead of a review, here’s a list of some of the things I’ve been reading lately, in no particular order:

  1.  Shock of Night
  2. Queen of the Night
  3. Death Before Decaf
  4. This is Where it Ends
  5. The Poison Artist
  6. Did I Mention I Need You?
  7. Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic
  8. Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic
  9. Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic
  10. Currently Reading:  The Range, by Dave Farmer