Book Babblings

Fyre by Angie Sage

The Nitty Gritty: Our intrepid heros are nor 14 an thus ready to take their proper place in the Magykal world and in the Palace.

After the battle over the Darke the Castle inhabitants are still trying to shake off the Darke precense. With the ancient Alchemie Fyre lit they are ready to be rid of the Two Faced Ring forever.

In this heart stopping final book its up to Septimus and Jenna to finally erase the stench of DomDaniel and the Two Face Ring from the world.

Opening Line: "A flame burns at Midnight."

The Good: Once again Sage gives us nothing but twists and turns on every page. Even through the actionless parts Sage has a way of writing that just pulls us along by the nose like the Pied Piper.

Like its predecessors Fyre captivated from from page 1 to the very last page. And I always love Sage's little Endings at the end of her books. I always wonder what happens after the heros rides off into the sunset and Sage never disappoints. I love her teaser at the very end of the book *winkwink*

Sage gave us a proper send off to all the characters that we grew to love. It wasn't a final send off like we would never see them again, but it was a wrap up of six books that will leave fans satisfied.

The Bad: I long grew tired of Jenna. I have to say it was around Flyte that she really got on my nerves and it only got worse as the books progressed. I guess it was just that Jenna thought she could be bossy simply because she was a princess. Not because she actually had anything to contribute for half of the series. To be honest it wasn't until this book that she hand anything substancial and concrete to add to the pot. And I am so glad we didn't have to suffer through much of her mother. Who would have been just as bad if not worse than Jenna herself.

My Final Thoughts: Its hard to say goodbye to a series, and this time is no different. With a heavy heart I wave goodbye to the Dragon Boat and the Castle. Never feat I will go back and reread the tales of Septimus Heap for years to come

July Camp NaNo Fiction Idea

So I've been wrestling with this plot for an entire month. I first thought of it maybe back in early May and I wrote it down thinking I wasn't going to work on it but then the July Camp NaNoWriMo rolled around and I dusted it off to get ready for the ball.

Title: Grimm Hollows

Genre: fantasy

Protagonists: Dillon Grimm is a girl getting her butt kicked by life. She has a job that is going nowhere she is looking to go. She is a barista at Java the Hut. The job is easy enough and the people are ok for the most part, but she wanted more out of her life. As the daughter of Willow Grimm, the actress who made her mark on the world at age eight a lot was expected of her.

Other Main characters: Lennox, a dragon lord. He is going to be Diggy's best friend and love interest in this tale. The Pixie Queen is also going to play a big role. There are some other roles that I have yet to cast so to speak.

Antagonist: Thalia, the Goblin Queen and her son the goblin prince Devin. Thalia is power hunger and not content on just ruling the goblins under her charge. She is never one to get her hands dirty however and you will never trace anything directly back to her. She rules not through fear as her predecessors did. She rules passive aggressively so you are never sure if it was your idea to kill yourself or hers. Thalia is the first ever goblin queen and

Setting: Majority of the story will take place on the Hollows but some of the story will take place in the fictional town of Wysteria, NC.

Plot: Diggy Grimm is a girl with a plan. By the time she is 18 she wanted to be an international recording artist with a big contract and legions of fans.

Well she is 25 and working at a book store. Don't even get started on her love life. Her last date had more pimples than common sense. Life just seems to be passing her by until she gets a call that her grandfather has died. She hasn't seen him in years but she owes it to him to go to his funeral.

His final act left her with Grimm Hollows. The creepy old plantation house that used to scare as a child. Between her dead end job and stale love life Diggy decides to step out on faith and move into her childhood nightmare.

Strang things are afoot as Dillon tries to settle into her new life. The house magically cleans itself. Dillon swears a bumblebee serenades her at night. Its driving her crazy.

Grimm Hollows is not just a dusty old house. Its a Ever After settlement that protects fairy tale creatures as they live their lives in the mundane world. And Dillon is the new Godmother and protector. A role that she doesn't understand but is willing to give it the old college try.

The Goblin Queen has other plans for Grimm Hollows. She isn't content to just rule Goblin Square she wants all of the Hollows and its inhabitants under her thumb.

And the only thing standing in her way is Dillon.

Point of View: Is going to split between first person for Dillon and third person limited for everyone else.

Story Notes: I think I've cemented this plot. Might have to make a few changes to the plot but I feel its going to be smooth sailing. 

Book Babblings

The Selection by Kiera Cass

The Nitty Gritty: So its the Bachelor meets the Hunger Games, but without all the blood and running.

America Singer, a five, has been selected to compete for the hand of the young prince. Its a once in a lifetime opportunity and while every other girl in the country wants to go America doesn't.

She's already in love, with a boy from a lower caste. Forced into the competition by the love of her life who dumps her before the big day America walks into the palace intending to head back home as soon as possible, but unknowingly America is pulled into the life of a Selected, and she finds herself warming up to the palace brat each day. 

Opening Line: "When we got the letter in the post, my mother was ecstatic." 

What's the 411: I will freely admit that I've never seen one episode of the Bachelor or the Bachelorette. I get stuck watching all the silly Lifetime chick flicks that my mom likes so I figure that is enough girly torture for me. So I am not sure how those shows work and I've never been inclined to watch them and this book has cemented that.

This book is hailed as a dystopia and I ain't buying it sister. Not saying that there is only one way to write a dystopia, but let's call a spade a spade. Yes there was a political upheaval, but there will always be war. The country was able to pull itself up by the boot straps and rebuild. The government doesn't rule by fear or threat, there hasn't been a drastic decline of society. Despite the claims by the narrator society seems to be the same as it is now. There are the super rich and the very poor and a nice spread in between. Yeah so I'm not buying what she's selling on that front. 

The Good: Hmm well it was a quick read and that was good. I like the idea of the Selection. It allows in girl int he country be she poor, rich, smart, talented, short, tall to become a princess. Its every little girls dream and it takes the real world competition of getting a husband and turns it into a fun little game for the world to see. But I would have liked to have seen Cass' critique on that system.

The Bad: Hmm well I do like a good character name and America Singer is just...not a great character name. Especially since as a 5 in the caste system America is part of a musical family and she is in fact a singer. I just think it was a little too on the nose for me and I'm just not a fan of the name America, though one of my favorite shows in the whole world starred America Ferrera. 

This book is a bit thin on the action side to say the least. There isn't a whole that actually happens in the book. Since its told from the first person POV of course we are limited to the amount of action we see, but the main character likes to hide up in her room for much of the book which makes for a slow and torturous read for us.

It likenens itself to a book about a vicious competition worthy of Death Race 3000. Yes I know I am showing my age on that one forgive me. However what we get is a school yard brawl over the last piece of bubble gum. I mean the only scuffle that happens is Celeste telling America to take off her dress and give it to her. I mean serious I don't know anyone that bold and even if she was it could have been a better confrotation that what it was. I've seen toddlers thrown down better than that. And after the performance Katniss Everdeen put in we were expecting something more from Cass than what we got.

The world building just doesn't make any sort of sense. I understand China invading the United States if we defaulted on our loans. But I do not believe for a moment that the rest of the world would sit back and let China take over the world. Not that I am arrogant enough to think that people would run to our rescue for our sakes, but that is what would happen. Countries have allies for a reason. So that when they are invaded they have backup. Kuwait was invaded by Iraq and they had an ally in the United States. We went to their rescue. That's the way it works. She just glossed over that fact like it wasn't important. Well if there hadn't been that little history lesson smack in the middle of the book it wouldn't have even come up, but Cass put it out there and didn't deliver.

And how in the hell did we go from a democracy to a monarchy? There's just no explanation for it. I mean I understand that the United States had been living as the American Chinese State, but I highly doubt that American fighting spirit was crushed and that they just rolled over and died so that we could go from a democracy to communism to a monarchy. I call BS on that one. Either make your explanations make sense or just avoid them. I mean the book would have been fine if she didn't go into any explanations about how the world got the way it did. All she had to say was WW 3 and we could have drawn up our own conclusions.  You can't just throw mad lib politics lines on the wall like a ink blot and whatever sticks is what goes into the book.

What the hell does the caste system have to do with anything. I mean for a country that was trying to throw off the shackles of China why would they create a stupid caste system? A system that isn't built on anything and to which nothing makes sense. After all this is a war torn country trying to rebuild itself is there a reason we are devoting entire groups of people to singing and dancing? I am all for the creative arts so don't get me wrong but it seems like there could have been a better use of time and talent in that instance.

It seems when China invaded the United States we got struck stupid or something. It just doesn't make sense. I believe Cass should have left the political science to the professionals.

And since when are countries named after people? I mean maybe its just me but I really hate that.

America's attitude I think was the biggest flaw in this book. On the one hand she was upset that her brother broke off from the family to live his life in peace without the burden of trying to carry his family when both of his parents are perfectly capable of providing for their family and then on the other hand she didn't want to got into the Selection which would have helped her family monetarily.

You can't have it both ways honey. It was like Cass wanted her character to be the underdog, but she didn't want her to be the underdog. I want her to be poor, but not starving. Though America did act like her family was starving when in fact they weren't.

I really hate that she brought Aspen back into the picture. I just really hate these love triangles that female authors put their characters into. I just hate it and both men are always exact opposites as well.

Final Thoughts: There is nothing about this book what prompts me to keep reading this series. I just don't care what happens to America, nor Maxon, and especially not Aspen.

Writing Matters

Book Babblings

The Vampire Code by E.C. Adams 

The Nitty Gritty: Aurora Lake is the newest hot shot lawyer in New York City. Defending the wicked from justice while smiling for the camera is the life she loves living.

Until Sebastian Fiscard walks through her door. His brother, the vampire Robert Fiscard stands accused of murdering a human. Aurora is the lawyer they want to represent him in vampire court. She is the first human invited to take a peek into the secretive proceedings of the newly outed vampires.

Not everyone is happy with this arrangement. Between the fear of getting drained and the fear or getting shot by human extremists Aurora has her hands full, but if the sexy vampire turned bodyguard Sebastian  has anything to say about it Aurora will have only one thing on her mind.

Opening Line: "Sebastian Fiscard couldn't have been more than thirty-five when he died."

The Good: Any true Grisham fan would love to get a peek into a vampire court. I am no exception. I was happy to see that it was literally all cloaks and daggers. Well no daggers, but handguns were present. That was enough for me.

When she was in her power suit and in court Aurora was one tough cookie. I would certainly want her on my side if I ever got into trouble. She was tough, took no prisoners and held her ground. It made her a great and competent lawyer.

The Bad: For all the build up of the trial it was a relatively short procedure. I expected it to last at least the entire chapter, but it felt like the trial was the backdrop to the rest of the story when the novel blurb made it out to be the central part of the plot.

I am still reeling over the plot twist of Aurora's past. I am a fantasy junkie. Give me faires of give me death shall be etched on my tombstone, but I hate the obituary throwing in of the fantasy elements. The element felt obtuse and forced. And if left me completely confused. I mean it was so fast I had to go back and reread to make sure I had actually read what I read. Not sure if this is still a book about vampires or even about Aurora.

There are a lot of exclamation points in this book and I'm not entirely sure why. I have never been a fan of using exclamation points just for the sake of using them.

The romance seemed a little force. I didn't that build up to a great romance that I was looking for. It was like one minute she hated Sebastian the next she wanted to take him down to the floor and have her way with him. I don't know it it was the pacing or what, but it didn't feel real to me.  

Final Thoughts: I may read the second book of this series just to see if the confusion is cleared up. Depending on how I feel that day.

Book Babblings

Rogue Descendant by Jenna Black

The Nitty Gritty: Anderson Kane has had enough. He wants Konstantin dead and he is going to use Nikki to find him. She is a huntress after all. Too bad Nikki has a thing about being a instrument of death.

Nikki tries to keep out of the hunting business, that is until her adoptive parent's house is burned down. Still she resists hunting the man that orchstated the rape kidnapping and rape of her sister, until he sets fire to her condo and kills three innocent people in the process. With their blood on her hands Nikki agrees to hunt down Konstantin, but is she just playing right into his hands?

Opening Line: "It's time Nikki," Anderson said.

What's the 411: I'm still waiting for the magic. Not literal Harry Potter magic, but I am just waiting for something. I just don't understand why these aren't adult demigods. I mean to me that would make for more exciting books than just a descendant of Artemis being tasked with finding the person that burnt down her condo. I've seen more excitement on Dr. Phil, certainly Jerry Springer can put together a better show.

Nikki is the descendant of a mythical huntress and she couldn't find north of her life depended on it. I mean come on Thalia Grace could teach her and thing or two about being a huntress.

The world building in this series is really starting to bug me. The opening blurb talks about the ancient gods giving their children seeds from the Tree of Life. But in this series we have Norse, Egyptian, and Greek descendants running around. If I'm not mistaken only Norse mythology has a tree of life. So is Black trying to imply that all the gods are the same? If they are all the same where did the Olympians get their attitudes from? And why are there multiply mythologies mixing in this book? And if the blood lines don't mix then how did they all come about?

I'm just really confused about this. Black seems to be in no hurry to explain herself as Anderson doesn't bother to make appearances till he wants something from Nikki. And Nikki herself never seeks him out for advice, instruction or just to give him a smile. I am sure the son of a fury could use a pick me up every now and then.

The Good: I can't really say there is much about this book that I found good. Well no I take that back. Emma dying was the best thing about this book. I didn't care for her in the first book, I grew to hate her in the second book and this book put the final nail in her coffin for me. Her death was the highlight of the book.

Well that and the fact that Sita hates Nikki and she spoiled the second attempt at a Jamal sexual encounter for Nikki. I will admit that I literally laughed out loud during that scene. Her love life is one more bad date away from being worse than mine. And that is saying something.

The Bad: For 307 pages this book had very little going on. I mean we get a condo burning down, a house burning down and then someone strangles Emma (thank you for that) and Nikki dies again. That's about it. Just not seeing how that takes 307 pages. Well Black did fill that space with Nikkie whining about not wanting to hunt Konstantin because she wasn't a killer. Give me a break honey.

I am so over her hang up about being a foster child. I mean seriously how many times in a day does a foster kid who was adopted by a good family think about when they were a foster kid? She still refers to the Glasses as Stephs parents which is really starting to get on my nerves. These people opened up their home and their hearts to a child that wasn't their own. They treated her like she was their daughter and she can't even give them enough to call them 'my mom and dad' its always Steph's mom and dad. That is beyond disrespectful. And what's worse they gave Nikki money and she won't spend it. They took their own hard earned money and gave it to her so she could have a better life and she won't spend it. They gave her a condo free and clear and she pays them rent. Why? Because she is stupid and still living her life like a foster kid. And she has the never to try and save someone else from their problems. Hello girlfriend fix yourself first before you try and save someone else.

Nikki's attitude that she alone can fix all the broken people in the Libri house is the most annoying thing about her. Jamal clearly wants to be left alone to work out his own demons but Nikki just won't take a hint. What's worse is that she refuses to understand where he is coming from. I think Black making Jamal a formal slave and then not fully understanding the dynamics of slavery and its impact on Black America was a mistake. No I am not saying that non black authors can't write black characters, but what I am saying is that you just cant write a minority character and just say 'oh well' when cultural clashes come up.

I'm not even sure Black understands the struggles that Jamal is going through with trying to have a funtioning sexual relationship with Nikki. I mean Nikki thinks is hot to touch Jamal's scars during sex. She knows he hates that but she keeps doing it! And then she gets all upset when he stops right before they have sex! Girl it is not that hard to keep your hands off the man during sex. Puhlease.

Well its Book 3 and still Nikki has no idea what she is doing as regards to being a huntress. I mean how hard is it to goggle Artemis? She has never just sat down and explored what it means to be a huntress. So she just relies on dumb luck to get her through things. Everyone thinks she is this great hunter and even fight to get on her good side and for 3 books she's done nothing more than zone out and get a feeling about something.

As being the herione of the series I am finding Nikki seriously lacking. I mean Dorothy Gale put up a better fight than Nikki has given us. Being a self proclaimed bleeding heart is one thing, but just sitting back and allowing a vicious dog like Konstantin the pleasure of roaming the earth because vengeance is wrong just make my balls itch. And I am a bonafide female.

There is a different between vengeance and justice is a fine line for sure, but Konstantin has never been innocent and he had never been called to task for any of his misdeeds. Its seems like to me Nikki thinks someone has to be caught in the act of doing something bad to be guilty of being bad. Her sister was raped and beaten yet she had a conflict about Anderson killing the man. I call BS on that. If a guy looked at my sister wrong I would rip his head off let alone rape her. I would have killed him myself and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

The characters haven't changed from Book 1. There isn't any growth going on. Everyone is still the same. Sure Jamal is more on a even keel but that is about it. Nikki is still blissfully ignorant to the cruelty of others. Anderson is still too cock sure to be true. Blake is..I'm not even sure what Blake is. In the first book Black made him out to be a sex god sort of player and then she clipped his wings by handcuffing him to Steph thus neutering him or any other really good side plot she could have written for him. I do like that his has history with Cyrus, but she never goes into that.

Where the hell is the mythology in this book!!?? I mean is it just me? Being a fan of Percy Jackson and the Olympians I will freely admit that I love mythology and I was expecting this book to be chocked full of it. I am still waiting for it. I mean Emma was a descendant of Nyx and all she could do was turn the lights out? And what are the Olympians doing? I mean what do they do all day? What do the Libri do all day? What the hell is their purpose in life. I mean hell Percy and his friends couldn't even drive and they were saving the world left and right. I mean we got Blake in his room knitting sweaters, Leo or whoever in his room checking the stock market. What the hell?

I mean I can't call it. Its a book about the descendants of mythological gods and goddess and the most magical thing in the book is a jealous tiger.

Final Thought: Ok I've given this series three books and it has gone absolutely nowhere and I am getting off the ride.

GIVEAWAY TIME!!

Ok my lovlies this i my first Book Giveaway and I am proud to announce its for the newly penned A Little Too Far by Lisa Desrochers!! So good luck to everyone and happy reading!! a Rafflecopter giveaway