A Review of The Goddess Test, by Aimee Carter

“The prize is immortality. It’s not something we give out lightly, and we need to make sure it is something you can handle.”
- Henry (a.k.a. Hades)

Kate’s mother is dying and wants to return to her hometown of Eden, Michigan. Kate wants to spend as much time with her mother as she can before it’s too late. Then she meets Henry, a man who can bring people back from the dead and wants Kate to be the Persephone to his Hades – if she can past a series of tests. He also promises to keep her mother alive for as long as she fights for immortality.

I liked this book, particularly the growth of the relationship between Kate and Henry. It’s a Harlequin imprint, so I expected a bit more…illicit material, but luckily there wasn’t. And I’m a sucker for ancient pantheons and portrayals of the realm of the dead, so I was hard-pressed to put this book down (read it in one very long sitting).

There were, however, a few flaws with the structure of the plot.

The test themselves didn’t seem very test-like. I didn’t want epic battles or anything, I appreciated the subtlety, but some of the tests were a bit…disappointing as actual tests of character. And the fact that the Greek gods were testing Kate on the seven deadly sins was off-putting. Not only are the seven deadly sins a Christian concept, but the Greek gods are not embodiers of those virtues. Quite the opposite.

Even a week later, I still don’t understand how the Greek gods – let me repeat: the Greek. Gods. – can possibly keep someone out of their pantheon for succumbing to lust. I’m sorry, but that’s ridiculous. Zeus whored his way across half of Greece, seducing anything that moved. Can we say double standard?

If you like the Greek pantheon, you’ll probably enjoy this book. (Since they go by different names, half the fun is guessing the identity of the gods.) But it’s definitely more of a beach read

My Rating (out of five stars)
★★★

First, the winner! Unfortunately, only two people submitted their names. So I gave them each a number, according to when they submitted, and:

Now for the book review…

A Review of Mistwood, by Leah Cypess

“She didn’t know how, and she didn’t know why, but she was suddenly sure it was a game she knew how to play.”
- on Isabel

The kings of Samorna have an immortal, all-powerful guardian called the Shifter. She is a creature of the Mistwood. Faster and stronger than any human, she can take the shape of human, animal, or mist. When the kings need her, they find her in her woods; and when they are safe, she returns.

When Isabel returns to the castle with Prince Rokan, she encounters several problems. Everyone is lying to her, she can’t remember anything before Rokan fetched her, and her powers aren’t working properly. And with the prince in danger, she doesn’t have much time to sort it all out.

I picked this book up on the recommendation of my favorite author, Tamora Pierce, and I’m so glad I did. Not only was the premise intriguing and the court politics ensnarled, but the story inspired my own imagination.

It had a lot of factors I like in stories: shapeshifting, hidden identities, court politics, legends come to life. To the very end, I was guessing who belonged to which side. And Isabel’s plight of the servant who is both duty-bound and unwilling to serve was an interesting development for me to watch.

The one thing I found lacking? Tension. It didn’t matter if it was a verbal duel or a physical fight – I had trouble sensing any real tension in the story. (Granted, it may have been a creative choice, since the Shifter is supposed to be unemotional and rational.)

Overall, I was highly pleased with the book, and will heartily recommend it to you in turn.

My Rating (out of five stars)
★★★★

A Review of Story Engineering, by Larry Brooks

“Welcome to the breakthrough in your writing journey you’ve been looking for.”
- Larry Brooks

Couldn’t have said it better myself. In fact, the review that pushed me to buy this book said that if you only had one book about writing on your shelf, make it this one. And I whole-heartedly agree.

Brooks outlines the essentials of writing, what he calls the Core Competencies: concept, theme, character, story structure, scene construction, and voice. Four are skills, two are talents. A story can exist without one, but you need all of them to make your story excel.

The story structure section alone made this book worth it. It’s all the important things your creative writing teachers never bothered to teach you – and it’s a lot more complicated than inciting incident -> rising action -> climax -> resolution. I finally saw what wasn’t working with my drafts, and now I have the knowledge to fix it!

The other sections held many interesting insights, admittedly a lot more than I could absorb in one reading. So as soon as I’m done lending this book out to my writer friends, I’m going back through it.

This is where you stop reading my post and go buy this book.

Go!

My Rating (out of five stars)
★★★★★

A Review of Poison Study, by Maria V. Snyder

“To Yelena, our newest food taster. May you last longer than your predecessor.”
- Valek

Yelena is a prisoner on death row when she’s offered the chance to become the Commander’s food taster. Valek, the Commander’s right-hand man and top assassin, teaches her to survive, but her life is in danger from more than poison. Her past tormentors are close – in more ways than one – and illegal magicians from the south have marked her as their next target.

I could not put this book down. Or at least, only when I had to. It’s a unique and promising premise, and complicated when Yelena is poisoned herself and forced to return to her poisoner every day for the antidote.

The characters are complicated and interesting. With such a cesspool of ambition and secrecy, the intrigue develops with every conversation.

The only problem I had was anticipating different plot twists. I’m not sure if it’s because they were easy to figure out or I’m just improving at recognizing what would make a good conflict. There was, however, one twist I did not anticipate – you’ll just have to read it yourself to find out!

My Rating (out of five stars)
★★★★

A Review of Storm Glass, by Maria V. Snyder

“My skill. Singular. The One-Trick Wonder.”- Opal

Opal can only perform one trick: breathing magic into her glasswork. So when it’s discovered that someone has sabotaged the glass orbs that Stormdancers fill with storms, she’s called on to solve the problem. One adventure leads to another as she deals with kidnappers, diamond counterfeiters, ghosts from her past, and blood magic.

Aside from the few times I got annoyed at Opal, this was a great book. This had a different style of magic than I was used to, and it was very interesting to see how it worked. The pacing was a little unusual, because it felt more like three books tied together than one.

I bought this book because I had picked up its sequel at the used bookstore (without realizing it was a sequel) and was intrigued by the magic. Her other books seem good too. I already know I’ll like the characters, because they feature prominently in the Glass series.

Snyder has joined my list of authors to watch!

My Rating (out of five stars)
★★★★

A Review of Paranormalcy, by Kiersten White

“I hate the vamp jobs. They think they’re so suave. It’s not enough for them to slaughter and eat you like a zombie would. No, they want it to be all sexy, too. And, trust me: vampires? Not. Sexy.”
- Evie

Evie has the unique ability to see through glamours, which means she gets sent on missions to bag and tag vampires, werewolves, and other paranormals. Events take a twist far from normal however: she catches an intruder who can take on the shape of any person he wants, and something is out there killing paranormals. And if it’s killing paranormals, there’s no way Evie can stop it.

If I hadn’t fallen in love with this book by page one, I had by page two. Evie is a fantastic character. I love her attitude, and her fascination with Lend (the intruder) was nearly as high as mine.

The plot and characters kept me turning pages long into the night, hoping I could just answer that one question – only to have three more pop up.

I’m normally not a fan of faeries, but Kiersten handled them perfectly for me. Mysterious, tricky, and dangerous. And as you can tell by the quote I picked, the vampires are made fun of. Couldn’t agree more with you, Evie.

Interestingly, I followed Kiersten’s blog long before I picked up this book. She always had helpful posts, and they were a blast to read, so I thought it was about time I gave her book a chance – and I’m so glad I did. Can’t wait for the sequel!

My Rating (out of five stars)
★★★★★

A Review of Firelight, by Sophie Jordan

“Will’s not my savior. He’s a killer.”
- Jacinda

Finally, a paranormal romance that doesn’t feature vampires or werewolves! Jacinda is a draki, a descendent of dragons who can disguise herself as a human. When her family escapes to a desert (and human) town, Jacinda’s inner draki is in danger of dying. The only thing that can save her? A boy named Will, who just happens to belong to family of draki hunters.

Like most paranormal romances, Firelight was fairly predictable. Girl falls for dangerous hot guy, tries to resist, realizes she doesn’t want to. I finally stopped paying attention whenever Jacinda tried to swear off the guy, because I knew it wouldn’t last five pages. The romance was also a bit too gooey for my tastes.

I know Jordan wanted/needed to make Jacinda relatable, but I think it would have been interesting to see bigger differences between human and draki culture and way of thinking – not just instinct. She was pretty 21st century American female human to me. Slightly different attitudes toward basic values would have made her character more believable to me.

But as I said before, it’s not about vampires! Jacinda was fiery (literally) and likable, Will was properly mysterious, and the bad guys were equally creepy. It was – simply – a nice, light book.

A cute, quick read to help make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but nothing too groundbreaking.

My Rating (out of five stars)
★★★.5

    

I started to read two books recently. One was the “hit” fantasy Graceling, by Kristin Cashore. The other was the epic sci-fi Off Armaggedon Reef, by David Weber. What did they have in common?

Very bad writing.

Graceling failed in its character design and plot. Off Armaggedon Reef failed in its style. I simply could not read one more word in either of them. Here’s why.

Graceling
Katsa was a Mary Sue. Plain and simple. In a world where people have magically-enhanced talents called graces, Katsa is graced in killing. This means she’s excellent at wielding weapons, hand-to-hand combat, seeing in the dark, building fires, climbing trees, falling asleep, not freezing to death in the equivalent of Antarctica…you see what I mean. She’s perfect at every single thing she tries.

It’s not until half way through the book that we learn she’s not graced in killing, she’s graced in survival. Cashore might have thought this was a valid explanation, but I was tried beyond my patience. To me, it seemed like a thinly veiled excuse to have a Mary Sue.

When I was so fed up with the main character, it was hard to care about what she did. I didn’t care about the villain, or her friends, or her trials. After I realized that, I stopped reading.

Off Armaggedon Reef
I did not get very far in this book, but there were many things that annoyed me:

• Starting the book with a character who dies in the same scene. What was the point of getting attached to captain who dies over 700 years before the actual plot begins?
• Starting the book with a scene whose only bearing on the rest of the novel could have been covered in narration rather than narrative. Following all those people who died in the first scene (again, over 700 years before the actual plot) was a waste of my time.
• Including scenes that do not advance plot or characterization whatsoever. It’s a large book. Trim down.
• Future naming conventions, which boil down to adding “y’s” in every place possible. Pick some different letters! Better yet, don’t make the old names so obvious. Take a page out of Hunger Games, with altered names like Peeta (probably used to be Peter) or topical names like Thresh from the agricultural district and Glimmer from the luxury items district.

In case you were wondering, the name Wyllym was the last straw.

I can only implore you not to make the same mistakes as these authors. It’s a sure way to lose readers.

Have you read either of these books? Do you agree or disagree with my complaints?

A Review of His Majesty’s Dragon, by Naomi Novik

“No, my dear. I would rather have you than any ship in the Navy.”
- Laurence

It’s the Napoleonic Wars, and both sides are trying to build their dragon corps. The latest aviator for England is a Naval captain who found a dragon egg on a French prize ship and befriended the hatchling. Captain Laurence and Temeraire strike up a wonderfully sweet friendship and join the corps to help defend the country from Napoleon’s boldest move yet.

The premise is fun, and Temeraire is the most adorable dragon I’ve ever met. He’s clever and curious and sweet. There were a few heart-wrenching moments with him and some of the other dragons.

But the novel, however, quickly plateaus. I’m not sure if it’s the writing, or the tone, or the non-existant character development. No matter how many battles there were, the novel never seemed to go anywhere. It was just flat.

My Rating (out of five stars)
★★★

A Review of Eon, by Alison Goodman

“Women have no place in the world of the dragon magic.”
- Prologue

Eon is a candidate to become the next Dragoneye, someone who bonds with an energy dragon and shares its powers. Unfortunately, Eon is really the girl Eona, and therefore forbidden to learn dragon magic. Other problems include: the 150-year absence of the Mirror Dragon, a dying emperor and his power-hungry brother, and a mean and ambitious leader of the Dragoneye Council.

Almost all events connected to the energy dragons were predictable, right down to the big reveal that I called in the first few chapters. It was very obnoxious, and I may have had a few sharp words with Eon for being so thick. However, the political situation always had unexpected turns, so I guess it evened out. The world building was exquisite, and the characters realistic and likable.

One aspect I found interesting is that there is only one romantic subplot in the entire thing; it doesn’t involve the main character, and it’s between two men. Another unexpected, but appreciated twist.

Now that the predictable bits are out of the way, I’m excited to see how everything turns out in the sequel.

My Rating (out of five stars)
★★★★