Rabbit: Chasing Beth Rider by Ellen C. Maze

What do you do when what you have written gets you into more trouble than you could imagine?

Beth Rider is a writer who has finally hit the big time. Her new novel about vampires seeking redemption is selling like hot cakes and has become a best seller. Everyone is reading it, including some very unsavoury characters.

On a book tour to promote the novel, Beth is approached by a dark and menacing man who gives her a warning: Watch your back!

But the thing of it is, no one else saw the mysterious stranger. Beth tries to chalk it up to nerves, but something about the man frightens her and strikes a deep fear into her. Her worst fears come to life when the man attacks her in her hotel room.

That man is Jack Dawn, one of the Rakum, a race of darkness that has spread evil and then thrive on it. Jack knows that Beth Rider’s book is dangerous, that it provokes the wrong kinds of questions. Questions that could mean the end of his powerful race.

Deciding to take matters into his own hands, he marks Beth as a Rabbit. Forcing Beth to swallow some of his blood, she is now a marked woman. Unable to die, she can also be tracked by other Rakum who will find her and torture her.

But one Rakum stands for hope in the darkness.

Michael Stone smells Beth Rider before he sees her. He knows that scent; it belongs to one that is marked as a Rabbit, a plaything for his kind. He knows that Rabbits are usually those who are crooks or thieves, those that would deserve a slow and painful death.

However, when he realizes the scent of the Rabbit is coming from Beth, Michael knows something is wrong. More than that, he feels a connection to her that he has never felt with any other being, Rakum or human.  Smitten, and knowing that something is decidedly wrong, Michael decides to go against everything he has been taught as a Rakum and protect Beth from a world of darkness she knows nothing about.

As Beth and Michael try to hide from an entire race that means them harm, they are faced with a choice. But the wrong choice could cost them more than their lives; it could cost them their souls as well…

I had no idea what to expect when I began to read Rabbit: Chasing Beth Rider by Ellen C. Maze. None whatsoever. However, I love books that take a myth that has been written to death, vampires, and turn it on its head to make it into something new. I love it when an author is courageous enough to go against the grain and give readers something new that grew from something old.

However, it doesn’t always work. Sometimes, the book falls flat or what begins as a great premise isn’t carried off very well. Thankfully, Rabbit: Chasing Beth Rider by Ellen C. Maze suffers from none of these problems. In fact, Rabbit: Chasing Beth Rider is perhaps one of the best novels I have read. Ever.

Instead of relying on tired old cliché’s, Maze takes the old vampire myth and throws it out the window. Instead, she essentially creates an entire mythology and an entire race from the ground up. This is no easy feat for an author and many others have tried and failed. But Maze pulls it off with grace, skill and aplomb.

In fact, I find it difficult to believe that Rabbit: Chasing Beth Rider is Maze’s first published novel. The book is so good, so incredible, that it reads like the work of a seasoned pro.

Beth Rider is an immediately likeable character that I came to identify with and actually care for as the book hurtled towards its incredible and explosive climax. Michael Stone is wonderfully sympathetic and is the perfect white knight. Maze is able to write characters that simply leap off the page and you can’t help reading more to find out what happens to them.

Even better than that, Maze has given us a novel with a lightning paced plot that rivals the works of Dan Brown or Stephen King. Part love story, part mythology, part vampire tale and all heat, Rabbit: Chasing Beth Rider is the very definition of page turner. The book hooked me from the very first page and I could not stop reading, could not put the book down, until I found out what happened.

This isn’t your average page turner either. Surprisingly, Maze fills the book with some pretty heavy food for thought. The story deals with issues like faith, redemption, salvation, right and wrong, ones moral compass, light and darkness but Maze covers the heavier subject matter with a deft hand. She doesn’t beat you over the head with anything except a great story that won’t let you go.

If you’re looking for a book that has thrills, chills, a great plot, mythology and incredible characters, look no further than Rabbit: Chasing Beth Rider by Ellen C. Maze. Not only will the story hook you from page one, it will haunt you and stay with you well after you’ve turned the last page.

The Circle of Friends Book V: Heather by L. Diane Wolfe

 

Heather Jennings is lost within herself.

She should be happy, she should be thrilled. Having finished college, she’s been offered an assistant coach position at Clemson College, her dream job. Heather loves the thrill of the sport and the challenge of it.

But part of her knows that her heart isn’t really in it.

Part of her heart is held in check. Her father, Thomas, is dying of terminal cancer. Heather is constantly afraid that the next phone call she gets will be from her mother telling Heather that her father is dead. Though she doesn’t say it, the fear is eating away at her.

Another part of her heart is held by Matt Gardener. Friends since high school, Heather has carried a flame for him for years. A flame that went unanswered. Matt never felt the same way about her as Heather did for him. Instead, he fell in love with Heather’s college roommate, Sarah. Eventually they married and now they have children.

After that heartbreak, Heather chose to keep herself alone and isolated from the opposite sex. With too much to lose if she let herself love again, Heather prefers to keep herself alone. But that all changes when she sees Matt’s brother Mark again.

The two are instantly attracted to each other and soon they are in the midst of what Heather never wanted: a serious relationship where love is involved. Added to that, Mark wants nothing to do with marriage or children, two things that Heather has come to realize she wants more than anything.

Heather’s world is further complicated when her dream job becomes a nightmare. One of the team members of Clemson’s Lady Tigers reacts badly to Heather’s position of authority within the team. Challenging her at every turn, Brandi seems to have made it her life’s ambition to make Heather’s job a living nightmare.

With everything in her life so upside down, Heather’s confidence begins to fail. Soon, Heather is only a shell of her former self.

But when a life changing event shatters what confidence that remains, Heather will have to fight to regain control over her life and begin to believe in the healing power of love…

I have been both anticipating and dreading The Circle of Friends Book V: Heather by powerhouse author L. Diane Wolfe. I’ve been anticipating the book because it is the last book in her phenomenal series. And dreading much for the same reason.

Having been a long time fan of L. Diane Wolfe’s The Circle of Friends Series, I gobbled up each offering, each new book, knowing that the end was coming; knowing that the end would eventually have to happen. And the end is here.

I had wondered how Wolfe would end The Circle of Friends Series. Each book in the series has been better than the last one; she has given herself a heavy task of topping herself. How do you end a series that has everything you could wish for?

In The Circle of Friends Series you have love, hate, betrayal, friendship, devotion, abuse, relationships, family, buried secrets and earth shattering events. How do you end a five book series and top all that?

Thankfully, L. Diane Wolfe’s The Circle of Friends Book V: Heather is the ultimate ending to the series and she finishes off the series with her best and most emotionally charged novel yet.

Heather has always been one of my favourite characters in the series and I wondered how her story would play out. What I didn’t expect was to become so emotionally involved with her during the reading of the book. I ached for Heather, I yearned for her to find love. I needed her to find the healing she needed.

It takes a very gifted author to make her characters so incredibly real. It takes an even more gifted author to fill her pages with so much emotion, you can’t help but become emotionally involved. Wolfe has always succeeded in giving her readers character that we can care about. But in The Circle of Friends Book V: Heather, she has gone above and beyond that.

Wolfe has given us characters that we can love and know as well as our own friends and family. She has given us characters that feel like family, our family; we know them so well by the end of the novel and this helps to fuel the books emotional charge.

What I love so much about Wolf’s writing is that she gives us real people living through very real situations. Not only can we relate to them, but we feel for them because they are so real and because they are living through things that each and every one of us have gone through.

A lot of authors would not be able to handle such an emotional storyline, but in The Circle of Friends Book V: Heather, Wolfe handles the emotion and plot with grace and aplomb. Instead of having it read like a saccharine after school special, The Circle of Friends Book V: Heather is one of the most intense and real novels ever written.

Wolfe has given us what in the end is the ultimate study of human nature. She has let us into the lives of these incredibly real people and their plight. Even after reading the novel, I am haunted by these characters: Heather, her father Thomas, her mother Lauren, her sister Dawn. Matt and his brother Mark. These characters are real to me, living breathing people that I now feel like I’ve known for years. This is the power of Wolfe’s writing.

Though I have been silently dreading the ending of The Circle of Friends Series, I am thrilled that Wolfe has ended the series with Heather’s story. Not only is Heather’s story the one that most readers have been looking forward too, it carries the most important message.

Yes, Heather has a lot to deal with during the course of her story. But Wolfe shows us that with the power of love, we can overcome anything. With the healing power of love, even the most devastating blow to our self confidence can become a positive.

She shows us that, with the healing power of love, anything is possible.

Sins of the Flesh by Caridad Pineiro

 

Caterina Shaw is fighting for her life.

A talented cellist, she is quickly going blind. With no options left to her, she agrees to undergo a highly experimental gene treatment. The treatment restores her sight and turns her into someone she barely recognizes.

The experiment also turns her into a supposed murderer. Accused of a viscious murder she knows she didn’t commit, Caterina takes her life into her own hands.

On the run for her life, Caterina tries to piece together what happened to her and come to grips with her new life. She knows that she will have to prove her innocence, that she will have to fight for her life, if she has any way of figuring out who the murderer really is.

She doesn’t know that someone has been hired to find her.

Mick Carrera is a mercenary and has been hired to find and capture Caterina Shaw. He’s been told that she is a vicious killer and that she must be stopped at all costs. But when Mick does track Caterina down, the description of her he has been given does not match what he sees.

Caterina is wounded and vulnerable and an incredible mystery. She heals quickly, more quickly than a normal human should. And her skin can take on any hue to camouflage herself. Mick knows that something horrible has been done to Caterina and before he can decide if she is a murderer, he must first find out what was done to her.

Normally he stays emotionally distant from captives in order to finish his mission, but there is something about Caterina that pulls at him and at his heart. Soon, the two are giving into the passion that consumes them even as a dangerous group is plotting their next move, with Caterina as the pawn…

Sins of the Flesh is a flat out incredible read. I was pulled into the story from the first page and kept enthralled until the last page was turned. My meagre plot summary can’t even come close to the emotion, thrills and passion that Sins of the Flesh contains. It only scratches the surface.

Sins of the Flesh has something for everyone: passion, lust, romance, science fiction plot lines that tangle the reader up in its spell. It has engaging characters with depth and emotion and more thrills than a novel three times its size.

It takes a very talented writer to find the perfect balance of all these elements and Caridad Pineiro manages this with aplomb and flair. She has created the beginning of a series that can only get better. And that’s saying something as Sins of the Flesh is the best romantic suspense novel I’ve read in years. It truly is her best book yet.

What I love most about Sins of the Flesh is that nothing is what you think its going to be. Caridad keeps the reader constantly on the edge of their seat with more twists and turns, thrills and chills than a roller coaster. Sins of the Flesh is a wild ride from start to finish that leaves you wanting more.

Caridad’s strength lies not only in her writing, but in the incredibly real characters she creates. You become emotionally involved with Mick and Caterina and the secondary characters of the novel. These are people you care for, people you root for.

It’s sometimes difficult in the romantic suspense genre for writers to create believable characters with depth, but Caridad has created a whole cast of characters that seem to live and breathe off the page. By the end of Sins of the Flesh, you know these people. She has created a world and its people that you would swear really exist.

Thankfully, Sins of the Flesh is the first in a series. The book had a satisfying ending but it did leave a few strings dangling to tempt me with more. I can’t wait to find out what happens and what sinfully delicious story Caridad will give us next.

This is the best romance I have read in years. If you read one good book this fall, make it Sins of the Flesh by Caridad Pineiro. After the first sinful bite, I can guarantee you’ll want more.

 

The Mark by Jason Pinter

 

 

Things are not looking up for Henry Parker

His relationship with his girlfriend is suffering and his new job writing for the New York Gazette is not the thrilling dream he thought it would be.

But his luck looks as it’s going to change.

Jack O’Donnell, the New York Gazette’s star reporter, gives Henry Parker a chance. He needs a bit of help with a story he’s working on. Nothing too strenuous or exciting but he would get credit for the work.

For Henry, the chance to work with his idol is worth anything. But for Henry, it could cost him his life.

Jack is writing a story on the criminals of New York. Henry is given the task of interviewing ex con Luis Guzman. But when he shows up at the apartment, things go incredibly, horribly wrong.

When someone dies, Henry is fingered as the killer. Having no choice but to go on the run for his life, Henry gets help from the beautiful NYU coed Amanda. Together they must find out how Henry became wanted by the NYPD, the FBI and the mob.

Or die trying.

If you think this is your average run of the mill, cookie cutter thriller, think again. The Mark is an incredible book that pulls you in from page one and doesn’t let go. Pinter’s first novel did two things: it reinvented the thriller genre and gave voice to one of the most intelligent protagonists of our time.

What I loved about The Mark was that everything about it was unexpected. Unlike most thrillers, Pinter gives you the time to become emotionally involved with Henry and his troubles before pulling the rug out from under you.

He allows you into Henry’s life, into his mind and then turns the tables and changes all the rules.

Not only has Pinter given us a well great mystery, he’s also given us a well written thriller with a great plot and believable fleshed out characters. He also doesn’t give you a lot of time to breathe.

It’s also a wonderful study of what happens to someone in danger and what they are willing to do. It’s a look at what one man is pushed to do in order to find the answers and a thrilling portrayal of a shadier side of life that most of us will never see.

From page one you’re pulled along into one of the most emotionally charged suspense thrillers that I’ve read in years. Those that have overlooked the suspense genre in the past few years would be wise to pick up The Mark and enjoy it’s brilliance. I loved every twist and turn The Mark is amazing make your heart race suspense.  

Henry Parker is here to stay and I for one couldn’t be happier. I can’t wait for the next thrill ride.

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

 

The earth as we know it no longer exists.

The world is an empty place, destroyed by the Waterless Flood. It is a world where gene spliced animals now roam free; animals like liobams (a lion and lamb hybrid) and Mo’Hairs (multi-coloured sheep used for growing hair replacements) and rakunks (racoon and skunk hybrids).

It is no longer a world for humans.

But yet, two people have survived the Waterless Flood: Toby is holed up inside of AnooYoo, a health spa that catered to the rich and Ren, locked inside a safe room inside Scales and Tales, a high end sex club.

While both continue to fight the land and the animals in order to survive, they both reflect on how they arrived at their places in life. Through a series of flashbacks, we’re shown Ren and Toby’s story and we learn about the Gods Gardeners.

Both were involved with The Gods Gardeners, a religious sect that preached love for everything, every plant and every animal. They are a religious sect that is separated from regular life and shunned by society at large.

But The Gods Gardeners is also a sect that hides secrets. People do not have a past, only a future. But secrets, even if they are not spoken, have a way of breaking free, despite our wish to keep them silent…

My meagre plot summary in no way comes close to covering the entirety of the plot in The Year of the Flood. It is an epic, sprawling novel that moves back and forth between past, present and future effortlessly.

There is no way I could convey to you everything that is in this novel. The Year of the Flood touches on a multitude of subjects including science, religion, the environment, love, desire, cannibalism, war and so on. It would at first glance that there is too much that is covered in The Year of the Flood, that Atwood has filled it too full.

But it is not too full; Atwood manages to pull of the impossible and creates an incredible novel that speaks to the heart, to the mind and to the spirit.

I was incredibly excited when I learned that Atwood’s new novel would be a sequel to Oryx and Crake, perhaps my most favourite of Atwood’s novels. I wondered if she’d be able to write as good a novel as Oryx and Crake a second time. Thankfully, The Year of the Flood is better.

Though the future she presents is grim, there is a dark humour present. Her characters are also incredibly realized and well developed. You care about these people from the first page. It is almost impossible not to.

In the end, though, The Year of the Flood wasn’t a sequel. It is more of a companion book to Oryx and Crake. In fact, The Year of the Flood covers the same time period and overlaps with the plot of Oryx and Crake.

Also, there is a balance between the two. In Oryx and Crake, we focused a lot on the relationship between men: between Snowman and his father, Crake and his father, between Crake and Snowman themselves. In The year of the Flood, the characters that Atwood focuses on and develops are female: Toby and Ren, Amanda Payne and more.

It is a story of the love between daughters, between young girls and elder women, a story of friendship between girls that grow into women. Where Oryx and Crake was inherently male, The Year of the Flood is inherently female.

Though The Year of the Flood is told from Ren and Toby’s point of view, the novel is really about the story of three women (Ren, Toby and Amanda) and their will to survive in a cruel and harsh world. It is a story of hope, despite all odds. A story of the power of love.

Once again, Atwood presents us with a dark novel tinged with humour that is unclassifiable. Despite the darkness, I did not want The Year of the Flood to end. Part parable, part science fiction, part speculative fiction, part literary tale, part cautionary myth, The Year of the Flood is Atwood at her most dark and her most incredible.

Atwood shows us that even in the darkness there is light. And even in the most cruel of situations, there is beauty.

Androgynous Murder House Party by Steven Rigolosi

 

RENT EVERYTHING!

Looking to throw a party with flair, verve, pizzazz? Why not rent a belly dancer, a cotton candy machine, a fortune teller, a 1950s jukebox, or a mime? From tame alligators to dancing zebras, we have everything you could possibly want to make your get-together memorable. Call us at 212-555-9090, or visit our Website at www.whataparty.com for the full list of rentables. You’ll be glad you did!

 

 

Robin Anders is dissatisfied with life. An independently wealthy person and an incredible snob, Robin wonders if this shambles of an existence can be called a life?

Hoping to alleviate the boredom, Robin agrees to the requests of Lee, an ex lover, and opens up the Long Island estate house that has been closed for some time. They will have a weekend party and everyone will come: Lee, Alex, Chris, Law and J. The weekend will be fun, they promise; it’ll be lovely.

Robin wonders if the party is a good idea; after all, isn’t it asking too much of someone to tolerate friends who are also charlatans and entertain them at the same time?

But, despite better judgement, Robin agrees. Robin hopes the weekend will go quickly, that it will not be too horrible. Thankfully Robin has a very large supply of pills and alcohol to help numb the tediousness.

Lee agrees to inform everyone and Robin will get the house ready. Robin gets everything she needs for the weekend party from an ad in the back page of The Clarion, a local newspaper. Robin is even able to rent live peacocks to strut outside the house. Nothing is as grand as a peacock.

But when Robin arrives at the Long Island estate, things go from bad to worse. A chandelier in Robin’s bedroom falls to the floor; it would have crushed Robin to a blood pulp had Robin entered a second earlier.

Other weird things begin to happen, each of them a near death experience where Robin could have died. Thankfully, Robin survives each of these transgressions by taking a lot of pills. Even if one is shaken on the inside, one must appear calm on the outside.

Robin does begin to wonder, however, if someone means to do her in. Robin wonders if one of her friends means to commit murder, with Robin as the intended victim?

When Lee is found dead, Robin knows that there is something suspicious going on and that one of the people in their group is a murderer. Robin decides to investigate, to find out who amongst them is a killer, stepping directly into the line of fire.

But there is a bigger mystery than murder afoot that the reader will have to try to figure out on their own: Are Robin, Lee, Alex, Chris, Law and J men or women? Gay or straight? There is only one way to find out…

Let me say two things right off: First, Androgynous Murder House Party is an incredible book. It kept me guessing from page one until the very last page. Androgynous Murder House Party is the third book in Rigolosi’s Tales From the Back Page Series and each book just keeps getting better!

Secondly, Rigolosi should be heralded and commended for writing Androgynous Murder House Party. It was incredibly hard to write this review without giving anything away. I’ve never realized how hard it was to write something without gender and that’s just a review. I can only guess at how hard it was for Rigolosi to write an entire book without giving away who was who and what was what.

Aside from being a top notch mystery, Androgynous Murder House Party is an incredible feat of word craft that left me breathless. Not only is it a book written completely without gender, it is also a very tongue in cheek portrayal of the upper class or the very rich.

It’s a wonderfully sardonic and very funny glimpse into a portion of society that most people would rather avoid. Rigolosi manages to pull off the tone and cadence of Robin’s voice perfectly.

Not only is Androgynous Murder House Party an incredible mystery, it’s also a perfect tongue in cheek portrayal of a society and its people. Even better, it presents the reader with an even bigger mystery to solve that of gender.

Steven Rigolosi has once again reinvented the mystery genre with his best book yet. Androgynous Murder House Party is funny, sarcastic, fresh and edgy. If you read one book this year, make sure that it’s Androgynous Murder House Party. You won’t regret it.

But if you do, send your regrets now. Or regret it later…

Generation A by Douglas Coupland

 

 

I always await the publication of a new Douglas Coupland novel with something approaching the anticipation of Christmas morning. I need it now now now and I can’t wait to open it and see what’s inside.

Thankfully, Generation A by Douglas Coupland is the greatest of gifts and one of the best books I have read in a long time. It may even top my current Coupland favourite, JPod.

Generation A is set in a world that is incredibly familiar to our own. But clearly quite a few things have changed. There are drugs we can take to slow down our lives. Things like apples are incredibly hard to come by. And bees are extinct.

That is, until five people, in different corners of the world get stung by five separate bees. The Wonka Children, so they call themselves, struggle to live in a world after they have become celebrity/freaks where, because of a bee sting, they become famous.

If it sounds bizarre, that’s because it is. And delightfully so.

The novel is told from the five points of view from the five sting victims. Don’t worry, the chapters are told in delightfully short bursts (no chapter over ten pages here, folks) to fit into our high tech life-style. When you’re on the run, your reading time is quick.

Coupland manages to cram some incredible things into those short chapters. After reading Generation A, I’ve been exposed to nakedness, religion, voyerism, different religious beliefs, call centres, references to the Simpsons (Mmmmm….honey), parody’s of American culture, the point and purpose life, whether it is better to believe in a higher power versus not, the ideas and fundamentals of what makes people real.

I could go on.

It is a delightful mental marathon that makes me want to keep up. It is such an intelligent piece of writing and it reads like Dan Brown on crack. I mean that in a very good way. Think of Hunter S Thompson mixed with Oscar Wilde, Margaret Atwood, Carol Shelds and Jack Kerouack.

It is an incredibly environmental book, but it is also a very intense look at our culture and our dependence on media and media devices. It is about our dependence on a lot of things. It is wonderfully funny and humorous and at the same time rather grim and mysterious.

In short, it is a joy.

The Bride’s Farewell by Meg Rosoff

 

I have just finished an amazing book.

It is part fairy tale, part love story. It is a cross between Charles Dickens and Lemony Snicket. It is part Brothers Grimm and part historical melodrama.

In other words, it is unclassifiable.

I am speaking of The Bride’s Farewell, the new novel by the New York Bestselling, Carnigie Award Winning author Meg Rosoff. This is her fourth novel for young adults, but even there I would say that genre does not suit her.

Meg’s novels are for young adults in that they feature a younger cast of characters. But the themes her books deal with are much more adult; incredibly darker and moodier than most juvenile fiction published today.

Her first novel, How I Live Now, featured a young girl and her cousin that have survived a bombing in a future not unlike ours; and fell in love. Her second novel, Just In Case, concerns a boy who, to escape Fate, reinvents himself; he even imagines an invisible dog for himself that other people can see. Her third novel, What I Was, can be described as a boarding house love story between two boys.

Quite obviously, Meg Rosoff never writes the same book twice.

I was eagerly awaiting to see what Meg Rosoff would give us with The Bride’s Farewell. I wondered what the setting would be. In Rosoff’s novels, the characters and the place around them play equally important roles.

She is a beautiful storyteller. For me, she seems to have written each of her books carefully, choosing each word so that it feels right. Though her books may be short in length (each of her four novels are around the 200 something page count), the emotion and the power in her novels makes the books feel stronger, somehow; more vibrant.

I’m always a little nervous when I begin a Meg Rosoff novel. Since no two stories are the same, I wonder where she is going to take me; what story she is going to tell. Her novels remind me of the novel in verse books written by Ellen Hopkins. Though Rosoff writes in prose, her books mirror Hopkins’ in that they always present us with stories that are engaging, beautifully written and emotionally charged. And each time you open one of their novels you wonder where you are going to end up.

When I read a Meg Rosoff novel, I treat the book as if I am pursuing a gem. So clearly I had high expectations for The Bride’s Farewell. Meg Rosoff’s new novel has been one of my most anticipated reads of 2009.

I am delighted to say that I was not disappointed in the least. 

Quite the contrary, in fact. I think that The Bride’s Farewell is Rosoff’s best book to date. It concerns sixteen year old Pell Ridley who runs away from her home on her wedding day in the year of eighteen hundred and fifty something.

She leaves home with only her horse Jack and her brother Bean, a boy who does not speak. What she returns with is so much more.

I won’t say any more of the plot then that, only to say that you should experience the story as I did. Meg Rosoff writes novels that are not just merely read; they are explored. Each page brings you deeper into the story of Pell and what happens to her that, by the end, you will never want to leave her world. 

Ultimately, The Brides Farewell is really about three things: It is about family and courage. And the incredible power of love.

Through stunning words, vivid imagery, Meg Rosoff has given us a delightful historical novel that reminds us of something important.

She reminds us that we cannot get where we are going, if we do not remember where we came from.

Though the book may seem grim at times, The Bride’s Farewell is ultimately a joyous novel about the search for who we are and the happiness we find at discovering our place in the world.

Choices Meant For Kings by Sandy Lender

 

When we first met Amanda Chariss, she was on the run from a madman.

Evil sorcerer Jamieson Drake has been chasing Chariss since she was a young child, with hopes of one day possessing her for his own. Chariss, with the protection of her Wizard Hrazon, knows that one day she must kill Drak or be killed.

Chariss has the geasa, magic older than time, and she must use it if she and the people of Onweald are to stay alive. She knows that her time of battle is coming and that the battle is soon.

Drake has enlisted the help of a Dragon who now walks in the human form of Julette. Older than time itself, she uses Drake like a pawn. She has her own plans, her own agenda and knows that she must help Drake to get what she wants. Of course, the fact that she is a Goddess doesn’t hurt either.

When Choices Meant for Kings opens, Juliette has traveled to the distant lands of Lorendell to visit with King Vrel Wendan. She wants the Dreorfahn army for her use so that she can conquer northern Onweald. She wants to take them for her own. But there is more going on than meets the eye.

There is a prophecy in place. When Jake Taiman and Tiaha Wold marry, Juliette’s powers will increase and she will be more powerful than ever. Powerful enough to do away with Drake once and for all.

Amanda Chariss is now the Protector of the Master, God of Onweald. After questioning the corrupt Emperor, he admits that the Dragon Juliette has plans to conquer Onweald. Chariss knows that she must once again do all that she can to protect the land, and the Master, that she loves so much.

But something goes horribly wrong…

Choices Menat for Kings is an absolutley amazing book. It’s no mere book but instead it is a piece of word art that leaves you breathless. Instead of thread, Sandy Lender uses words to weave her tapestry and the results will leave you breathless.

When I read Sandy Lenders first novel in the trilogy, Choices Meant for Gods, I was held spellbound. I normally can’t stand the genre of high fantasy; I find it dry and tedious. But Sandy Lender’s gorgeous first novel re-invented a tired genre and helped me to believe in magic again.

I wondered how she would follow up such an incredible debut. The answer is with a huge, resounding bang. The middle novels in trilogies tend to be dry fodder, making the middle book boring and redundant. Not so with Choices Meant for Kings. If it’s possible, there is even more action, more romance, more suspense than the first novel. Sandy Lender has avoided the middle book blues and given us a second book in a trilogy that truly sings.

I was hooked from the first page of Choices Meant for Kings and couldn’t put it down. I felt like I was there with Amanda, Nigel and Hrazon, so vivid is the world that Lender has created. I lived with them, breathed with them and felt my heart race with their adventures.

Not only is Choices Meant for Kings an incredible love story but it’s also one of the most amazing high fantasy novels that I have read in years. It’s simply that good. Do yourself a favour and read Choices Meant for Kings.

You won’t regret it.

Harry Potter Should Have Died by Emerson Spartz and Ben Schoen

 

It is rare that I don’t like a book and even rarer still that I return a book to the bookstore for refund or exchange. I did so with this book.

From reading the back of the book, I was expecting the book to be theological discussion on elements of the series of Harry Potter books. I was expecting a deep look into the mythos of the series and the elements of symbolism and magic.

Well, my expectations seemed to have been too high for this book. Each chapter is set up thusly: A Question, an argument for Yes and for No and the verdict of the authors.

Well, while some questions were valid (Did Harry Potter die in Deathly Hallows?) others, such as “Who would you rather make out with: a Demontor or Voldemort?” or “Would you rather shave Hagrid’s back or give Voldemort a foot massage?” left me shaking my head.

Instead of a really in depth look at the series, we are presented with a random series of questions with no order and answers with little to no substance. In fact, in reading the book, it felt as if I was in the middle of a flame war on a message board. Not a comfortable reading experience.

The authors previous book, Mugglenet.com’s What Will Happen in Harry Potter Seven, was only a NYT Best Seller because people were so desperate to find out what would happen at the end of the series.

I highly doubt the authors will achieve such a feat with this book. I was incredibly disappointed with Harry Potter Should Have Died. Proceeds from the sale of the book are going to charity, but I still wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.