Review: Talion

by:  Mary Maddox
published by:  Cantraip Press

The dying body has a thousand voices, and all of them speak to Conrad (Rad) Sanders. Fifteen-year-old Lisa Duncan has no idea she has attracted Rad’s interest. At a mountain resort in Utah, he watches as vivacious Lisa begins an unlikely friendship with Lu Jakes, the strange and introverted daughter of employees there. Lu enters his fantasies as well. He learns she is being abused by her stepmother and toys with the notion of freeing her from her sad life and keeping her awhile as his captive. Lu seems like an easy conquest who could be persuaded to act out his fantasy by turning against her new friend.



But someone else is watching over Lu.


Talion appears to Lu as an angelic vision. He offers her love and counsel, the courage to defend herself from bullies at school and a way to free herself from her stepmother’s violence. He seems to know beforehand what will happen. But Talion’s true nature is unclear. His guidance leads Lu into dark places, moving her inevitably closer to the world inhabited by Rad. When she and Lisa are thrust into that darkness, will Talion come to her aid? Or will he become the killer’s ally?

I will say that I really liked this book.  I liked it a lot more than I was expecting.  I enjoyed the characters.  Lu was a really great character. 

I thought the writing was really solid and quite good.  The thing that surprised me about this book was the level of violence that Rad inflicted on his victims.  You don't normally see that from female writers.  Usually it's kind of glossed over and male writers get more into the nitty gritty details.  There wasn't anything wrong with it because it was appropriate in the context of the story, but it was something that surprised me a bit.

My only negative about the book was that I was a little unclear on Talion.  I know if he was real, like a real angel coming to Lu or if he was a hallucination.  Maybe that was the intent of the writer, to leave it open to interpretation.

About Mary Maddox

Mary Maddox grew up in Utah and California. A graduate of Knox College and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she now teaches composition and literature at Eastern Illinois University.

She lives in Charleston, Illinois with her husband, film scholar Joe Heumann. Her interests include riding her horse, Tucker, and playing club and tournament Scrabble. Mary’s short stories have appeared in a number of magazines including Farmer’s Market, Yellow Silk, and The Scream Online. Her writing has been honored with awards from the Illinois Arts Council.

Talion, her debut novel, is available at Barnesandnoble.com as a trade paperback and at Amazon.com as both a paperback and a Kindle book. You can visit her at her Web site www.marymaddox.com and follow her blog at http://blog.marymaddox.com.

Review: Empty

by:  Suzanne Weyn
published by:  Scholastic

It's the near future - the very near future - and the fossil fuels are running out. No gas. No oil. Which means no driving. No heat. Supermarkets are empty. Malls have shut down. Life has just become more local than we ever knew it could be.



Nobody expected the end to come this fast. And in the small town of Spring Valley, decisions that once seemed easy are quickly becoming matters of life and death. There is hope - there has to be hope - just there are also sacrifices that need to be made, and a whole society that needs to be rethought.


Teens like Nicki, Tom, and Leila may find what they need to survive. But their lives are never going to be the same again.

I had a lot of high hopes for this book.  It sounded like it had a really great premise.  It sounded like it would be a really cool dystopian type novel. 

Unfortunately, this book just wasn't what I had hoped it would be.  I felt like the whole book was kinda preachy about consumption, not just about oil consumption, but all consumption on the part of Americans.  The book wasn't badly written or anything like that and the story carried well.  It just wasn't something I was in the mood to be chastised about.

I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading this book because it was pretty interesting, but be warned that it's a "tree-hugger" type book.

Winners

I'm a bit late in announcing the winners of two giveaways.  It's been a hectic week.  My oldest daughter turned 9 and her party sapped all my energy for awhile.  Carrying on...

The winner of Fragment by Marilyn Monroe is Jen @ I Read Banned Books

The winner of The Radleys ARC is Rachel

I've sent emails to the winners so check your email ladies.

Review and Giveaway: To Nourish and Consume

by:  Ryan O'Reilly

published by:  Black Oak Press

From Goodreads: A HAUNTING RETURN TO A FIERY LOVE TRIANGLE

Brian Falk and his best friend, Dabney, share a passion for the beautiful and wealthy Jackie, their childhood playmate and the prize catch of their social set. But, the young men are also drawn to each other—a secret, illicit connection that is cut short when Jackie chooses to wed the more moneyed Dabney.

Soon after graduation, a devastated Brian flees his hometown and, for ten agonizing years, tries to overcome the anguish that has all but consumed him. Now he is drawn back to try to answer some of the questions he can no longer ignore: Is he over Jackie? Was what he felt for Dabney really love? Does Jackie still love him?

As Brian desperately searches for closure, old wounds are reopened, a new love appears and revelations about his past throw his life into renewed turmoil.

I thought this book was fairly good.  It was well written and well constructed.  However, I just kinda kept waiting for something to happen. 

The main character kinda frustrated me.  I felt like he was stereotypical of a lot of people my age.  Sort of drifting around without a clue of what they want to do with their lives.  I don't know anyone like that though.  Most people my age have settled down and grown up.  I wanted to tell Brian to quit being such a baby and get over himself and deal with it!
About the Author:  Ryan O’Reilly’s is the author of critically acclaimed travel novel, Snapshot, which was published in 2007 and received rave reviews from Kirkus, Midwest Book Review, fellow authors and his many devoted readers and fans. He is also a freelance contributor to newspapers and periodicals across the country and a member of the National Writers Association and the Writers League of Texas.


I have two copies of this book to giveaway thanks to PR By the Book.   Just leave a comment with a valid email address on this post  before 11/23.  I have to ship these myself so US addresses only please.

Demon's Fall

By: Karalynn Lee

2 Stars

She was an angel at the gates of Hell.

Knowing he must gain Jahel's trust if she is to come to his bed willingly, Kenan treats her more as his guest than as his slave. When she reveals what brought her to the mouth of Hell in the first place — retrieving the soul of a young girl she was guarding — he even offers to help her complete her mission.When Kenan, an incubus, finds a caged angel for sale in the Hellsgate marketplace, he sees her as a challenge. Certain that his skills in seduction will work as well on a heavenly creature as they do on mortal women, he buys Jahel, intent on having her soul as a novelty in his collection.

Though he has promised Jahel freedom, Kenan soon realizes she has captured his heart instead. And as their passion for one another grows, they find themselves caught in a struggle between Heaven and Hell, one that will lead them to the very edge of the apocalypse...

Demon's Fall wasn't a bad story, but it wasn't a good one either. I think it'll be easiest to make a pro/con list for this book. Cons first, because I do want to end a positive note with Lee.

Cons:

This story has been done. It's been done to death. And it has been done better.

Still don't know why the hero/heroine are in love.

General silliness, plot devices not characters, chases, lukewarm sex.

Pros:

There was of seed of interesting world building. I don't think it was fully realized, but that could be to do restrictions on word count.

A cute nod to the fairy tale world.

My issues were with plotting, the writing was good. I may have rolled my eyes on occasion, but I never cringed. I think Lee could be a good writer. This book reads like an early effort of someone still learning. And I am willing to read more of Lee's work, I think in the future she could write a book I really enjoy.

Cara McKenna

By: Cara McKenna

4 Stars *

(* recommended to those who don't read the genre but are interested in trying it out)

For those readers who aren't comfortable with explicit sex scenes move along, nothing to see here.

Still with me? Good. Cara McKenna is the Good Stuff.

What has prompted me to review all of her work in one post is the quality of her writing. These books

Dirty Thirty

Backwoods

Ready and Willing

Willing Victim

Ruin Me

Shivaree

Brazen

are all fabulous without exception. McKenna is a very good writer, maybe it was unexpected - there is plenty of Erotica out there that I find wanting. Characters are blow up dolls jumping from one sex scene to the next, but in McKenna's books they are three dimensional and fully fleshed out. There is also a joy to her characters' interactions. Too many times the sex in Erotica is unrealistic thrusts and groans and orgasms by the bucket full. When McKenna writes, her characters are enjoying themselves, they enjoy what they're doing and not just on a physical level but on an emotional level too.

McKenna is also a master of sexual tension, I have literally found myself biting my lip and twisting locks of my hair around my fingers while reading. And then she snaps it, usually with a laugh. Absolutely brilliant.

Quickie reviews of each book:

Dirty Thirty - Caliguliberal, lol awesome. Blazingly hot read, but a real romance. Evan and Margie are so wonderfully in love. This is a little love story masquerading as pure Erotica.

Backwoods - Prequel to Shivaree. I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. Let me rephrase that, I'm still not sure how I feel about the character of Gabriel in this story. In most of McKenna's stories there's a character that, well, you never really get inside their head. You're not entirely sure why they're doing what they are doing. That's not to say they don't act in a consistent and logical manner, you are left wondering at their motivation. It's interesting and thoughtful, not maddening and sloppy.

Shivaree - Still not sure about Gabriel (but there is a 3rd book coming, so yay! please I'm begging - closure). Hot & thought provoking.

Ready and Willing - "It's exactly two o'clock according to my cable box." Lines like this are one of the reasons I love McKenna's writing. Her characters live in the same world we do, they are all people we could bump into. Perfectly relatable. This book is also a testament to the strength of McKenna's story telling. Abby, the female lead, is choosing to have a baby all on her own, a choice I'm not really on board with. In fact I put off buying the book because this. I ended up liking Abby, and while I still don't like her choice, I do like her and understand her decision.

Willing Victim - This was my introduction to McKenna. I love this book, I really can't recommend it enough. A hot hot hot story that turns into love and ends on a happy note, but not with the traditional puppies and rainbows happily ever after.

Ruin Me - This was my 6th Cara McKenna and the first one I didn't approve of the story line. Couple in committed relationship but something just isn't right, so the male half of the couple says go ahead screw the other guy and get him out of your system. Not cool. Know why I read this book, even with a plot I knew I would hate? I had just read read 5 of McKenna's books and she was too perfect, I picked this up because I was sure this was going to take her down a peg in my mind. It didn't, again - she made me understand and like her characters even when I didn't like their choices. Ruin Me made it possible for me to pick up Ready and Willing.

Brazen - A quick little novella that left me wanting more. This is a rare short story that keeps me thinking about it after I finish.

Read the blurbs on the books themselves and pick one. You won't be disappointed, and I bet you'll end up a fan girl just like me.

Lipstick in Afghanistan

by:  Roberta Gately

published by:  Gallery Books

Gripped by haunting magazine images of starving refugees, Elsa has dreamed of becoming a nurse since she was a teenager, of leaving her humble working-class Boston neighborhood to help people whose lives are far more difficult than her own. No one in her family has ever escaped poverty, but Elsa has a secret weapon: a tube of lipstick she found in her older sister’s bureau. Wearing it never fails to raise her spirits and bolster her confidence. With lipstick on, she can do anything—even travel alone to war-torn Afghanistan in the wake of September 11.

Violent nights as an emergency room nurse in Boston did not prepare Elsa for the devastation she witnesses at the small medical clinic she runs in Bamiyan. As she struggles to prove herself in the male-dominated culture, a tube of lipstick she finds in the aftermath of a tragic bus bombing leads her to a life-changing friendship with Parween, a young woman who has lost her adored young husband to the Taliban’s treachery. In Parween, Elsa finds a kindred spirit, fiery, generous, and determined to fight back against the restrictions that plague the women of her small country.


Together, they risk their lives to rebel against the Taliban and bring opportunity to the people of their village. But when they must stand up and fight for their own survival, Elsa discovers her only hope is to unveil the warrior within.

I was really interested in reading this book.  I loved The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.  I didn't love this book as much.  It had a great premise and I liked the idea of the story.  However, for me, the writing just wasn't the best. 

I felt like a lot of the scenes were very abrupt.  I found myself reading with an eyebrow raised a lot of the time.  I didn't believe what was going on.  Not that it was outrageous, but that I didn't feel like was going on was "real".   I couldn't get any emotion connection going on with the main character and I didn't particularly like her.  It's hard to get into a book when you don't like the MC.

I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading this book, because like I said the story has a great premise.  It's a quick easy read.   Go check it out and see if you feel the same way about it.  It might be a great book for a book club.  I'm sure there would be quite a lot to debate about it. 

Don't Blink

By James Patterson and Howard Roughan
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

New York's Lombardo's Steak House is famous for three reasons - the menu, the clientele, and now, the gruesome murder of an infamous mob lawyer. Seated at a nearby table, reporter Nick Daniels accidentally captures a key piece of evidence that lands him in the middle of an all-out war between Italian and Russian mafia forces.

I listened to the audio version of Don’t Blink. It was a quick easy “read”; a pretty typical mafia story, with death threats and back stabbing. I won’t say I loved the book, but it was entertaining enough to listen to the whole thing. I would have liked a bit more romance. What little there was could have been left out of the story. I was able to guess the twist fairly early on. The beginning is a bit gruesome, so I don’t recommend eating when you read it if you are the queasy type. The narrator did a decent job, however his female voices sounded alike. It made it hard to know who was talking sometimes. 3 stars on Goodreads.

Secrets: You Tell Me Yours and I'll Tell You Mine...maybe

by:  Barbara Holstein

published by:  Enchanted Self Press

From Goodreads:  Following on the heels of the best-selling book The Truth, SECRETS is the continuing diary of a girl moving into her teen-age years. The Girl has plenty to fill her journal. The pages reveal a new school, a new baby in the family, new friends, a new guy and a new set of issues to face. Share the secret world of an almost-teen as she learns which secrets to share and which to keep to herself.

This is second book in The Truth series.  In this book the main character has moved a few towns away.  She's struggling between keeping her old friends and making new friends.  She's getting older and realizing that life isn't always perfect.  She's also coming to terms with her crush and that he might not be the most awesome guy ever. 

I liked this book as well.  I had considered giving these books away, but I'm going to save them for my daughters.  They reminded me of Are You There God, It's Me Margaret?  That same sort of time of life and all the problems a young girl has. 

I would recommend this book and the one before it called The Truth.  Check out my review of that one below. 

Review and Giveaway: Fragments Audiobook

by:  Marilyn Monroe, Stanley Buchthal (Editor), Bernard Comment (Editor)

produced by:  Macmillan audio

In a nutshell Fragments is a collection of poems, letters and notes that Marilyn Monroe wrote.  It's titled Fragments for a reason for sure.  She did not seem to like to write in full sentences, which made it difficult to follow on the audiobook at times. 

This audiobook made me feel deeply sympathetic towards Marilyn.  Her life and death was before my time and I had a basic idea of her life, but this book gave me far more insight into the kind of person she was. 

The thing that impressed me the most about this audiobook was the reader, Isabel Keating.  She did a fabulous job.  A lot of this writing looks to be scraps, fragments, and scribbled through and she had a great way of reading it.  Her voice was SO perfect for this part and she had this little laugh that she did a couple of times that was just excellent. 

Keep in mind that this is an abridged audiobook.  It's only about 3 hours long (from about book that's about 250 pages long).  It does have a pdf supplement on the second disc with scans of some of the letters.

Thank you to Macmillan audio for sending me this audiobook.  I won it from their Facebook contest.  Check out their page here.

Since they were so kind to do that, I'll pass along my copy.  If you'd like it just leave a comment below with a valid email address and I'll randomly pick a winner on 11/17.  US addresses only please. 

The Truth: I'm a Girl, I'm Smart and I Know Everything!

by:  Dr. Barbara Holstein

published by:  The Enchanted Self Press

From Goodreads:  THE TRUTH ... how do we carry the truth from girlhood to adulthood? That priceless truth that we all recognize as kids? How do we walk over that bridge into growing up, carrying the Truth? How do we not hide it? How do we not forget what it is? How do we recognize THE TRUTH in our children and help them carry their most precious selves into adulthood? What would the world be like if we could carry it with us into adulthood without damaging it? If we could pass the gift of early wisdom and brilliance along to our children, helping them to hold on to their most precious jewels? THE TRUTH, My Secret Diary, I'm Ten, I'm Smart and I Know Everything, is a delightful, humorous secret diary, written by a girl who is 10-11 years of age. She is wise and yet so innocent. She makes us cry and laugh and remember ourselves. Behind this very easy read is the psychological message to the women reading THE TRUTH that they can and must recapture the fire and passion of their girlhoods not only for themselves to flourish and be happy, but for the next generation to also have the gifts of good emotional and spiritual health.

I thought this was a pretty good for young girls.  I read through it fairly quickly and it was all easy to understand.  There was nothing inappropriate in there. 

It's written as a diary.  I think most young girls would probably enjoy it and relate to it.  I would recommend it to girls that are around 9 or 10 maybe a little older.  I gave this book to the girl that lives down the street who is 10 and she brought it back the next day saying she really liked it and could relate to the main character. 

My one little criticism about this book were the cultural references.  They were really outdated.  The TV shows and movies were very old.  There was one spot when the girls were "jitterbugging".  Really?  How many 10 year olds right now jitterbug?  I checked the publication date thinking maybe this was an old book, but it wasn't.  Published in 2007.  However, when I asked the girl who read the book about it, it didn't seem to bother her.  I don't think she got that these things were shows MY mom watched.  So, in the end I guess it doesn't really matter. 

You can see more about this book on The Truth for Girl's website.  Tomorrow I'll be featuring the next book Secrets.

**A note to our readers.  These will be the last children's books featured on this blog.  We started a new blog specifically for the books our kids are reading.  It's called Recess Readers.  We aren't quite started yet, but give us a week or so and we'll get it going.**