Mailbox Monday May 16th 2016 #2

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

My Mailbox Monday #2

So this was a quiet week for new and new to me books.

ARC’s in my mailbox

Watching Edie

Purchased New

Wolf Storm

 

This Side of Home

Purchased Used

The Amber Room

 

I finally made it into the new used book store in my tiny town and I felt like I had fallen into book Nirvana I happened to score a Steve Berry book that I did not have yay!  Plus my new baby boy got to be loved on by the store owner I can see many, many more trips in my future.

Book Beginnings on Friday #1

This is a Friday Book Beginning post, a weekly meme hosted at Rose City Reader.

My Book Beginning

Mother of Eden by Chris Beckett

 

The trouble began on the waking I left Mikey with his dad on the Sand for the first time, and went out gathering bark with my uncle Dixon, my brother Johnny, and my sister Starlight.

This is the second book in this series and the sister Starlight is the main character and she will in fact turn everyone’s life upside down with a huge choice she makes.

Review 37: Dream World

Dreamworld. William Charles Krebs. Year 2015. [March] Publisher: Outskirts Press. Pages 536. [Source: Bostick Email]

First sentence:

On her seventeenth birthday, Liz Anderson was thrilled and hopeful; on her eighteenth birthday, she was resigned but still hopeful; on her nineteenth birthday, she was furious and determined.

From Amazon:

The Anderson's are in Ocorlampa. Florida to look at the college for their daughter, Liz. They saw their daughter move into a family home of the Wilson's At the same time a young man, Willie, has come to Florida to settle in so he can go to the local college. He finds a room with an elderly widow. Both of these young people find jobs at "Dream World" where they are destined to meet. Therefore, Liz and Willie, and begin dating. Neither are very experienced in dating, so it is new for them. They fall in love, but Willie gets scared as he is not ready for marriage yet, so he drops Liz without any explanation. Sue, who fancies herself 'the complete woman' pursues Willie. She does not think Liz is right for Willie and they have heated relationship. Liz is puzzled. Willie does not love Sue, and by Christmas has broken up with her, and then sets out to get Liz back. This takes some maneuvering to get Liz back, and signs up to be in the same class in the new term. Another young man, Mike, who is in the class becomes competition for Willie. The three of them end up going to lunch together. There is much lively discussion in class. Mike also got to know Sue. Willie & Mike got into a fight, and Sue claimed they were fighting over her. Read the book to see how it turns out.

My thoughts:

This is the first offering by William Charles Krebs.  The novel was very long and rather drawn out.  I finished reading it however it took me almost a third of the book to actually start caring about what happened to the various characters present in the story.  It was well written but, the pace was inconsistent and choppy, for most of the book it was relatively slow and hard to keep up with due to the slowness.  The story is that about a group of young people in what ends up becoming a love square instead of just a triangle.  The back if the book indicates that there are future novels possible, this would not be a bad thing unless they are over 500 pages as this one was.  I feel like it could have been about 200 pages shorter and left with a minor cliffhanger so to speak and it would have been a much smoother enjoyable read.  I know this seems to be a rather negative review and I do not mean for it to, I just was unable to derive nearly as much pleasure as I had anticipated.  I will gladly read another book by this author especially if it is a continuation of this story.

The Good:  The characters, the premise of the story as a whole.

The Not So Good:  The pacing of the story at times.

The Bad:  The overall length of the book.

Rating 6/10

Recommendation:  Literary fiction fans that like a little bit of romance thrown in for good measue.

*I received a digital review copy for free from the author via Bostick in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.*

Review 36: The Admiral

The Admiral. Sean Danker. 2016. [May] ROC. Pages 310. [Source: Penguin First Look]

First sentence:  

There were voices.  “An admiral?  Is this a joke?”

From Amazon:

He is the last to wake. The label on his sleeper pad identifies him as an admiral of the Evagardian Empire—a surprise as much to him as to the three recent recruits now under his command. He wears no uniform, and he is ignorant of military protocol, but the ship’s records confirm he is their superior officer.

Whether he is an Evagardian admiral or a spy will be of little consequence if the crew members all end up dead. They are marooned on a strange world, their ship’s systems are failing one by one—and they are not alone.

My thoughts:

I am glad that I have the rule that if I start a book I finish it, this particular book was a very slow starter for me, but once I connected to the characters and the plot I was hooked and ended up spending an insomnia night reading it.  This story was creative and new and well written.  So we find ourselves on a ship on an unknown planet, what can possible go wrong you might be asking yourselves, the answer in a nut shell: anything and everything.  Once this story finally found its footing and pace it was a very fast read. 

The Good:  The story, the pace, the fact that I wanted more and did not want it to end.

The Not So Good:  The fact that it took me a few chapters to really connect to the subject and story.

The Bad:  Nothing specific comes to mind.

Rating 8/10 (Due to the sluggish start)

Recommendation: Space travel fans and sci-fi lovers

*I received a digital review copy for free from the Penguin First Look in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.*

Brief Hiatus

So I was an absentee blogger last week.  I was quite busy in the real world what with being admitted to the hospital to give birth to a baby boy!  I am proud to announce that as of Wednesday, April 27, 2016 I am the proud mother to a bouncing baby boy named Christian Paul.

Now the real fun will begin how am I going to balance lack of sleep with a newborn and a highly compulsive need to read.  I can honestly say that up until yesterday I had not picked up a book since Tuesday.

The attached picture was taken about 15 minutes after I had this beautiful baby.

Review 35: Remember to Forget

Remember to Forget (Revised and Expanded). Ashley Royer. 2016. [April] Publisher Blink. Pages 304 [Source: Netgalley]

First sentence:

When I was younger, I loved when it rained.  I liked running outside and jumping in the puddles and splashing through the streets.

From Amazon:

In Remember to Forget from Watty Award-winning author Ashley Royer, Levi has refused to speak since the tragic death of his girlfriend, Delia, and can't seem to come out of his depression and hindering self-doubt. Desperate to make some positive change in Levi’s life, his mother sends him to live with his father in Maine. Though the idea of moving from Australia to America seems completely daunting, Levi passively accepts his fate, but once he lands faces personal struggles and self-doubt at the same time he and his dad battle through resentment and misunderstanding. And then, while at therapy, Levi meets Delilah, a girl who eerily reminds him of someone he lost.

My thoughts:

Let me start this by saying how emotionally powerful this story truly is at least it was for me, granted I am not sure if it was the writing or the pregnancy hormones that are ride rough shod over my system, I personally am going to give the credit to the author as that is where I truly believe it belongs.  As with other reviewers I did not start off liking the main character Levi however, within a few chapters I was finding myself more and more intrigued by him and his reasoning for becoming totally silent.  The growth of Levi from the beginning of the book until the end is amazing and believable.  I cried several, yes several times during the course of this book.  Any author regardless of age that is able to bring me to tears is remarkable.  The story of loss and growth and mourning were so believable.  The descriptions were well written and I had no problem envisioning what she was trying to convey.  I do not give out 10/10 very often but, this novel deserves nothing less than that!

The good:  The character development, the pacing, the story, basically everything.

The bad:  Nothing I truly find nothing to complain about.

Rating 10/10

Recommendation: Absolutely, if you like a good tear jerker and emotional ride then look no further and pick up this book!

*I received a digital review copy for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.*

First Chapter, First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Antonia Barclay and Her Scottish Claymore 4/26/2016

This is my first foray into First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros – Anotonia Barclay and her Scottish Claymore.  Thank you to Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea for hosting this.

Chapter 1

The Fraternal Plague

Scotland 1586

It is a fact understood only by those females similarly afflicted, that the bad influence exerted by multiple brothers upon an only sister proves as timeless as the wind and as pernicious as the plague.  And while those brother harbor fairly fond feelings for their sister, they unanimously agree that she’ll never truly be one of them, given the unfortunate nature of her forty-sixth chromosome.

So what do you think?  I love the time period and location.