Tag: books

Bribing Myself

So, despite loads of homework and reading for school, I managed to do mini-outlines for two more chapters in the werewolf story. Progress, although of the infinitesimal, snail-like variety. Three chapters down, 29 to go…but it will get done. And I promised my best friend/co-writer that I would convert ONE chapter of our zombie story to first-person this weekend. I’m also thinking about trying out Scrivener. Anybody out there used it or have any opinions or comments about it?

I also have this sitting on my desk, waiting to be read:

Personal bribery at its best...
Personal bribery at its best…

I know, I know. The Wheel of Time series has dragged on forever. I’ve heard all the complaints. Seen all the bad reviews for the series in general. I know. Also, I don’t care. I haven’t opened it yet. IF I get all the stuff done that I need to this weekend–homework, writing, revision, blogging, cleaning, re-decorating, planting–THEN I will start reading it. If not, well, it’ll have to wait. It’s been years since I started reading the series, I don’t think a few more days will hurt me.

Where Have I Been?

…that’s a good question. Let me see if I can give you the simplest answer. (Simple. Ha. There IS no simple answer. But I’ll try to explain.). For the first time ever, I started NaNo but didn’t finish it. I think I wrote about 18k words, and then hit a wall. Not a wall in my writing, a wall in my life. For the past four months, I’ve been struggling with depression. And also, apparently, denial. But about halfway through November, I hit this wall, and realized I wasn’t getting any better on my own. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t focus on anything (Good luck with writing…). I didn’t want to be around people. I was sad and hopeless all the time. Thank God, I have good friends, some of whom have been through this. I finally listened to them, saw a counselor and my doc, and now, six weeks later, thanks to meds and some other changes I’ve made, I’m feeling MUCH better. It’s hard to overstate just how much better I feel now. I feel like myself again. And that is SO nice.

I’ve started being active in my crit group again. I’ve started revising my Werewolf story (again). I’m even planning on starting a new story, if not today, then Saturday. And I plan to start blogging here regularly again. I’m back. You’ve been warned….

True of Blood, by Bonnie Lamer

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True of Blood is the first in the Witch Fairy series by Bonnie Lamer.  This series, available only in eBook format, combines witches, fairies, and ghosts in an intriguing contemporary young adult fantasy world. 

Xandra Smith has gotten used to living a weird life.  Home is a remote, snowbound mountain, and she and her little brother, Zac are homeschooled and have no friends.  Not to mention her parents are ghosts….killed three years before in a car crash.  Now their scientist aunt takes care of them so people don’t ask questions about their unique family life.

Things get even weirder on Xandra’s 17th birthday, when she finds out that her mother was a powerful witch who fell in love with the King of the Fae and got pregnant.  The child was prophesied to open the Fae realm, bringing death and destruction to the human world.  In an effort to save to the life of her unborn child, Xandra’s mother renounced her magical heritage and fled.

Now, with Xandra’s powers unbound, the Fae have tracked her down, aiming to deliver her to her evil father, who wants to use her dying blood to complete the prophecy.  But not all of the Fae want the prophecy fulfilled.  Kallen, a true-blood fairy, agrees to protect her and teach her how to use her magic.  However, Xandra’s Witch Fairy powers are greater than anyone suspected, and learning to control them proves a dangerous and difficult task.  Now Xandra must fight not only the evil Fae who want her dead, but also her own untamed magic to save her family and her world from those who would see it in ruins.

 True of Blood is a well-written, engaging read that combines witches, fairies, and ghosts together in a unique way.  Xandra is a typical, if somewhat unconventionally raised, teenager, and her interactions with her family and with Kallen are believable and enjoyable.  The bickering between her and Kallen is amusing, and the growing feelings between them subtle and well done.  True of Blood is a good beginning to what promises to be an enjoyable series.

What I’ve Read Lately

Okay, so I’ve been slipping lately. I haven’t blogged about books in…weeks. Sad. I know. I’ve been reading, I just haven’t had time to blog! But I’m going on vacation this week for two weeks (Yay for going home!), so I thought I’d do a quick and dirty review of what I’ve read lately.

Patrica Briggs, Silver Borne: I like this series a lot. Great MC, very nice love interest, and the character is always getting in way over her head. What’s not to like about werewolves, shapeshifters, vampires, and the fey all rolled up in one well-written story?

Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction: I just discovered Ms Elkeles (courtesy of Kristen Nelson’s blog), and was hooked from the first page of Perfect Chemistry. Rules of Attraction is about the brother of the MC of that book, and I was hooked just as quickly and just as thoroughly this time around. Gritty, realistic writing about teenagers in general, and teenagers involved in gangs in particular. I’ll be checking out her other books as well.

Diana Rowland, Blood of the Demon: I have a somewhat nebulous connection to the author (I know her mother), which is how I discovered her first book (Mark of the Demon). I read the first book straight through in less than two hours, and this one as well. Lots of action, tension, a flawed but likeable MC, not to mention a murder mystery, a hot cop, and a smoking demon. You better believe I’ll be buying anything else Ms Rowland writes.

Rachel Caine, Kiss of Death: I love this series (Morganville Vampires). LOVE. I loved this before I started reading Ms Caine’s other series (Weather Warden, Outcast), which I also love…but not as much as these books. This one didn’t disappoint, either. (Okay, confession time: I got four much-anticipated books in the mail in one package, which made choosing which one I read first QUITE difficult, but this one won, hands down.) Claire’s a great MC, and I love her to death, but I love Shane, Michael, and Eve, too, and they’re always getting in more trouble than I can even imagine.

P.C. and Kristin Cast, Burned: Another series I love. Although the previous book in the series ended in a devastating (for me, anyway) way, and I wanted to fling the book across the room. This book…was more about internal conflict. All of the characters struggled with major issues, but there wasn’t a lot of overt action. Still a good read, though. Can’t wait for the next one. (And, for the record, I think this series and the Morganville series are both WAY better than Twilight. Just sayin’.)

Jenna Black, The Devil’s Playground: I sound like a broken record, but…I liked this book a lot. The series is fantastic. Great premise. An exorcist with an attitude in a world where demons are not only known about, but they can legally possess willing humans? You gotta love the originality of that idea!

Lisa Shearin, Bewitched & Betrayed: Not only does the MC of this series have an awesome name, Raine, she has a great family background—they’re all thieves—and a smart mouth which lands her in trouble frequently. This book…okay, at the risk of sounding juvenile, I’ll just say it…ROCKED! I. Couldn’t. Put. It. DOWN! It was like it was glued to my hand! I was just as frustrated as Raine was with all the crap that kept getting dumped on her head, but I knew she’d figure a way out of it. I just couldn’t imagine how. And…Mychael. I love Mychael. He is one of the best male characters I’ve run across, and I’ve now officially put him on the list of Fictional Guys I Adore with Rhett Butler and Jaime Fraiser. ‘nough said.

Jamie Ford: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: This book is not my usual fare, being more mainstream and literary than everything else on this list, which is definitely skewed sharply in favor of fantasy. (I can’t help it. I love fantasy.) But this book…was very moving. Touching. Made me laugh. Made me cry. Made me want everything to work out just right so BADLY! If you haven’t read it, you should.

More YA Books!


Okay, so this time I read two books by P.C. Cast: Elphame’s Choice and Brighid’s Quest, which takes us back to Ms. Cast’s mystical world of Partholon.

I read her original Partholon books, the Divine books, several years ago, and loved them. They made me laugh. They made me cry. And they made me want to visit Partholon. (Sexy centaurs? Being able to control your own dreams? I’m SO there!) These two YA books kept the same familiar feel of the Divine books, but added another layer to the world.

From Ms Cast’s website:

ELPHAME’S CHOICE

Worshiped. Set apart. Unable to connect with others.

Though most girls believe they are different, Elphame knows she is. Odd. Strange. Unique. No one in Partholon has her abilities – or her connection to their goddess. And she has a destiny she is about to discover…

A restlessness has infused her, leading her to the other side of her country. There, the remnants of an evil war still linger. Will Elphame be able to redeem both her country and her soul mate, a survivor of that war? The choice she makes now may bring disaster – or a future in which she may never again be alone.

The characters are what I truly love about these books. Elphame was a great character, very easy to relate to, despite her obvious differences. I felt strongly for her, and how she’d always been apart from everyone around her. Then there’s her brother, Cu, who’s a fun-loving rogue, popular with the ladies–until he falls in love. Brenna–the scarred healer who has never allowed herself to be seen. And Brighid, the centaur Huntress who has broken from her family and herd to live her own life.

Both these books are coming-of-age stories, about finding your own path in life and doing what makes YOU happy, no matter what other people think you should do. That’s a hard thing to learn for a lot of young people (and even for those of us not so young anymore), and Ms Cast handles it well, all set against the vivid backdrop of Partholon.

Magic Under Glass

Okay, so I finally managed to read an actual book this week: Magic Under Glass, by Jaclyn Dolamore.


From Ms. Dolamore’s website:

Nimira is a music-hall girl used to dancing for pennies. So when wealthy sorcerer Hollin Parry hires her to sing accompaniment to a mysterious piano-playing automaton, Nimira believes it will be the start of a better life.

In Parry’s world, long-buried secrets are about to stir. Unsettling rumors begin to swirl about ghosts, a madwoman roaming the halls, and Parry’s involvement in a group of corrupt sorcerers for whom the rules of the living and dead are meant to be broken for greater power.

When Nimira discovers the spirit of a dashing fairy gentleman is trapped within the automaton, she is determined to break the curse. But even as the two fall into a love that seems hopeless, breaking the curse becomes a perilous race against time. Because it’s not just the future of these star-crossed lovers that’s at stake, but the fate of the entire magical world.

I was drawn to Nimira from the opening lines of the book–I felt immediately sympathetic for her and her situation, and wanted desperately to see her dreams come true. She comes from a life of privilege, yet she’s forced to dance in a troup that barely earns enough to keep her alive while she dreams of more. And Holln Parry seems like the answer to her prayers.

Then she meets Erris, a fairy prince enchanted in the body of an automaton, and everything changes for her. I loved how expressive Erris was, even trapped in a wooden body, and I immediately fell for him myself, and wanted to help him. The world had a very Victorian, Old England feel, and it was vividly done, down to the details of the society that looked down on the “trouser girls” like Nimira. I will say I was so quickly drawn into the world of this story that I finished the entire book in one day. I loved it, and I can’t wait for the sequel to come out (whenever that is)!