"N.A. Tuesday": Promise (Soul Savers Book 1) by Kristie Cook

Genre: New Adult, SciFi, Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, 369 pages.

Price: $0 FREE (at time of post)
*$12.93 paperback

Publisher & Date: Ang'dora Productions, LLC. August 7, 2011

Book Link: Click Here

Listed Rating:  .3

Price I Paid: $0 (got it FREE on November 1, 2012)

My Rating: 

My Thoughts: The Promise of An Amazing Series!

       Seriously L-O-V-E this series. I couldn't believe I had put off reading this gem of a book for sooo long, but there it sat patiently waiting in my ever growing elibrary for the day I'd choose to read it. So it happened back in November 27, 2013 that I was bored, started swiping through my kindle while waiting to take our family Christmas photos (my mother's tradition that must be done every year) and lo and behold there it was, first I was intrigued by the cover, second the book description. I opened it, began reading and was immediately enthralled by the story and characters to the very end.

       In fact, I was so into the book that I even snatched up the next 3 books in the series, because by the time I read this book, 3 more in the series were out. Well there went my schoolwork for the week! Cause I read book after book and finished them up in 4 days time. Now I'm a huge fan and have been patiently, and at other times impatiently, awaiting the release of each new book in the series. The last and final book, Faith, is set to come out Feb 16th, Can't wait! Okay so now that's I've fangirled enough let me explain why the series and book is awesome.

       In the simplest way the series is basically Good vs. Evil with a new twist. It's Angels and Demons, but with a contemporary paranormal twist that just makes your mind go "Wow that's new!" Alexis is the protagonist in the series is a 19 year old girl in Promise, she knows her mom and herself are different, but her mom, Sophia, won't explain till she goes through the change, or Ang'dora, Alexis begins college and tries to begin her life as any normal freshman might, but things aren't normal for her even when she meets a beautiful swoon worthy man named Tristan Knight. Their relationship is something I won't spoil but it's one for the ages that's for sure, okay so maybe that was a bit of a spoiler, but that's all your getting from me. 

      Overall the advice I'd give any potential reader of this book, and subsequently this series, is you must read Promise to fall for the series. Then you will need to endure Purpose (Book 2), get renewed in hope for the characters and series in Devotion (Book 3) and be prepared to be amazed by everything in Power (Book 4). Then make sure to grab onto your kindle and a box of tissues when you read Wrath and Torment (Books 5 and 6) and then wait, or by the time your read this buy, Book 7, Faith. Soul Savers is just too good that after reading the books you just cant help but become a fan. So hopefully more fans will come from reading Promise as this series truly is unique and captivating.

           

"Misc. Monday": Blood Awakening (The Blood Burden Series Book 0) by Wenona Hulsey

Genre: Short Read, SciFi & Fantasy. 33 pages

Price: $0 FREE (at time of post)

Publisher & Date: Wenona Hulsey. July 7, 2011

Book Link: Click Here

Listed Rating: 

Price I Paid: $0 (had been FREE on June 16, 2012)

My Rating: 

My Thoughts: Warning This is A Prequel or Novelette Not A Whole Book

    So big heads up this is not a book it's a short novella prequel for the Blood Awakening Series. When I first downloaded this short story a couple years ago it was just listed as a book, so reading it now and getting through the story only to find it end so abruptly was a downer. 

    The story is about Nicole Keenan and her crazy weekend in Panama City, Florida with her BFF, Kat. Nicole just wants to get away and let loose. Drinks, rest and party is on her menu while Katy wants men on the menu too, but Nicole is more into relationships than one night stands. It's after possibly connecting with a new guy on her vacation that things go weird for Nicole. There is a strange dark mysterious man who makes her ill at ease and things don't go right the next time she see him again. 

     Overall I was really into the story and got involved in the "book", so I was disappointed to find I basically read a book teaser. Not gonna lie will probably checkout the next or first book in the series titled Burden of Blood (Click Here), but from the synopsis idk if it sounds like it flows from this book. In the end, I'm still half and half on whether this short is worth a read, but it's not long and hey it is free, so you decide.

"Friday Favs": Imaginations by Tara Brown

Genre: Y.A. SciFi, &Fantasy, Dystopian, and Post-Apocalyptic. 382 pages

Price: $0.99 ebook, $12.59 paperback (at time of post)

Publisher & Date: Amazon Digital Services, Inc. June 24, 2013

Book Link: Click Here

Listed Rating:  .4

Price I Paid: $0.99 on July 15, 2013

My Rating: 

My Thoughts: Emotional and Psychological Roller Coaster

       OH MY FREAK'IN GOSH!! Seriously this book! I remember like it was yesterday. I had read through this book like a freaking maniac and was speechless by the time I was done. There were times I would just get up and walk away from my kindle to go for a little walk. I mean I've read books from the Dystopian genre before, and will probably continue to do so as they are a dime a dozen, but Tara Brown, or A.E. Watson for her Y.A. pen name, is just crazy good at drawing you into the book's world and the character's emotions that you really get lost when reading.
      Imaginations is about a world where the people live without yesterdays. They live by repetition so that habits form routine and guid their life since they have not memories. The people are reset every night so that there is peace in the world, which the society see as a Utopia. Now as a history major and enthusiast since forever you could see how this world creeps the heck out of me. However the reader is shown quickly that all may not be as squeaky clean in the world as the society would believe. Gwyn is the character whom the reader is shown the world through, she is naive and thinks the world is as it should be and that the last city of men is good, but she meets a boy and has a  . . . memory! Oh the horror! Things go cray cray from there and it's a great mess that you just have to read to understand.
        Overall I seriously can't help but not recommend this book and it's sequel Duplicities(Click Here) enough to my friends. I love Tara Brown and all her books, but her YA. persona are a thing of wonder. Her YA.books are clean but sooo edgy that you are always enraptured and emotionally raw after reading her books one can't help but share about her books, if only to make someone else feel like you do so you can commiserate together. Take my huge fan advice and try out her books, the prices are great and you won't be disappointed and if you are then  . . . my bad. But seriously if you want Dystopian, love triangle mess with adventure, face paced confusion thriller and "OMG! That did not just happen!?!" moments this will be your book.

"Romance Thursday": The Messenger (Mortal Beloved Romance Book 1) by Pamela DuMond

Genre: Y.A. Romance, Time Travel, SciFi, Paranormal & Fantasy, 257 pages

Price: $2.99 ebook, $9.99 paperback (at time of post)

Publisher & Date: Pamela DuMond. December 2, 2013

Book Link: Click Here

Listed Rating:  

Price I Paid: Zip,**I received a free copy in return for an honest review**

My Rating: 

My Thoughts: Great Concept but Felt Lost At Times

     This book has all the potential of a great series as it involves time travel, love, family, loss and secrets seeped in mystery. However the flow of the story itself was lacking a smooth storyline as the main character was lost, I as the reader felt more lost at times.

     Madeline Abigail Blackford is the protagonist of the story, She's a girl who lives with anxiety and fear that stems from an accident that took her mother from her at the age of 6. She has no recollection of the event only that her mother was there and then she was no more, now Madeline lives with all these anxieties and just tries to live her life as best she can with her family and friends. It's not until another accident when she is almost killed that she hears a voice, her mother's, and next finds herself in Rhode Island 1675 amidst an America Indian war in someone else's body and life. Abigail needs to play her part and live in her new life while trying to discover what she really is, a Messenger. However where there is good there is evil and forces are against her and Madeline only has one wish which is to spend more time with a certain boy who makes her feel different and whole, despite her being from a different time and place.

      Now as for how I felt about the writing style, the book felt stagnate at times and maybe it's because this is the first book of the series or something like that, but it just felt weak in the plot flow. Sometimes it felt like scene and then scene and then scene. Madeline herself wasn't much for a heroine at times till she maybe the middle of the book, but that was when I finally connected with her and the book. I especially couldn't handle some of her speech choices, which just seemed to juvenile to me, but I had to remember she was only meant to be 16yrs old, yet she could fall into true love with someone soo I left it as it is, Y.A. fiction.  

      Overall, fantastic idea that I can see leading into a great series, I will most likely look into the 2nd novel before passing final judgement on the whole series. I only wished the plot flowed better and wasn't so fragmented at times. In my opinion the story really picked up a bit more towards the remaining third of the book and was perhaps the best part of the story.  So if you want a clean Y.A. involving time travel, family, love, loss and a whole mess of secrecy and needs unraveling this book will be your choice of adventure.

"Wednesday's, Wonderings & Wanderings": Judging Books By Their Covers

We have all heard that wise old saying, "Don't judge a Book by it's cover." And for the most part I will say it is most definitely true, BUT I will prove that the saying maybe a bit too old to apply when talking about contemporary book covers.

You see back in the olden days, not even that long ago really, about 100 years ago maybe less, book covers were hardly a thing to really behold. I mean seriously I'm talking plain Jane books here. Sure some would have frilly drawings on the cover to set itself apart and grab your attention, like this book here shown above, however more than most would just be the solid binding on its own. Reason number one price. $$$! Book production was, and rather still is, an expensive production, especially hardcovers. Which is probably why any book lover may own more paperbacks in their library than hardbacks, one because of price and two because let's be honest hardbacks are a lot harder to handle when reading and carry around than paperbacks.

      

Now let's fast forward to today's advertising mass marketed media driven world. Everything must be top notch or it will be lost in the world. The examples to my right are just snippets of some of the more popularized books. They all use texts and color as their main selling points. Blue, Red and Yellow are the "IT" colors of advertising because they are attractive to the eye. Having Script on the book's exterior can help too in drawing the reader in to reading the front and get them interested. Both are things which back in the day old book covers weren't able to provide readers. So they relied on word of mouth, other advertising and the Author's prestige.

However, now a days many of the book covers have to be more and more movie poster quality in order to catch the readers attention or the book won't get huge attention. In fact two industries now exist in this time that didn't exist in the 1900 or the past when cover art wasn't a thing. Number one indie or self publish authors is a huge industry now, everyone and their mother can now be a published writer. That was definitely a career to be envied back in the day, but now with a click of a mouse your work can be published anywhere and everywhere you desire and for how much you choose (though it doesn't mean it'll be bought or read) Then there is the second industry of Cover Art Design, which in the wake of all those indie authors came the demand for unique and special cover art. Graphic Artists can now focus on this as an art form and get paid to design book art for authors who other wise would not have flashy book covers. The whole economics of supply and demand is starting to come into play here, and I might have actually learned something back in that high school class of economics. 

In any case it's clear the book industry world has definitely evolved from just caring about what the books said inside, but now it's about the presentation too, in fact it may be more about the exterior. So the saying "Don't judge a Book by it's cover," may still apply, but how can a reader be put at fault when authors and the book industry fuel them to see nothing but the cover as proof of what is on inside of the book? Should we all perhaps move to restore the old images of books and lessen the media hyped version of book covers? Or are readers too far gone to the point that movie like pictures for cover art are all they want and expect?

Option A

So in truth if you had to pick between reading Option A or Option B, Which would you choose?

Option B

"Y.A. Tuesday": The Secret DNA Code by Michael Don Fess

Genre: Y.A. Fiction, Action & Adventure, Mystery, Thriller, & Suspense. 214 pages

Price: $4.95 ebook (at time of post)

Publisher & Date: FessBooks.com. August 8, 2014

Book Link: Click Here

Listed Rating: **NOT LISTED**

Price I Paid: Zip,**I received a free copy in return for an honest review**

My Rating: 

My Thoughts: Interesting Story Involving the NSA, Iranians, Attaches, FBI, and  DNA

      This book was definitely written based on an interesting concept which is: what if our planet's history was written and stored in our DNA? (cue alien creepy music) Seriously though unique idea, as far as SciFi goes, I had never heard of this concept or theory before reading this book and might go all nerd later and research a bit more on this topic. 

      As for the book itself, a reader is introduced to a wide array of characters from FBI agents to Saudi Attaches to the Grad Students who are most notably the main characters and everyone else's main objectives. Grad Student Boris 'Bo' Samaritan decides to try and unlock the secrets of worlds past in our very own DNA after hearing about research done in Europe where scientist put info like modern day digital file into DNA strands. Bo simply thinks the reverse is possible and that if there were higher beings out there what better place to put file of great importance than human DNA which will always exist. Bo quickly recruits his friend Ken Himlauger and from then on things begin to roll as they start to try and decode the possible messages left behind in our DNA, that is unless religious extremist can get to them first and their scientific exploration.

      Now the way the book is set up is simple, so a reader is easily taken from scene to scene almost as if one were reading a screen play instead of a crime novel or mystery book. In fact the author time and geographically stamps each section, so you know when and were each part you are reading is taking place in the story, in a way it felt like those CSI shows and how they do the time stamps, in order to keep the story line in chronological order. My only issue with the formatting was I never got a Date stamp, so I'm still unclear as to when the story began, when it all happened, how long it all really took place, etc. So it could have all been over a week or a month.

      Overall, the book was a good read, I won't say light as the subject matter can be rather lofty, but it wasn't too difficult to follow especially when the author made sure to repeat the books main purpose numerous times. I will say the book overall was a little iffy at times in being politically correct, but hey most books when dealing with religions or extremist usually go one way or the other, so I admire Fess for hitting on extremists from a lot of religions that would have been affected by having a DNA message released. Like said this books concept is unique, the dialogue is more script than novel but the pace is steady and in the end the book makes you think. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a clean light SciFi-ish read that includes a bit of intrigue concerning NSA, death threats and all the U.S. Government Big Brother trappings to help protect the Secret DNA code.

"Misc. Monday": The Mermaid's Sister by Carrie Anne Noble

Genre: Historical Romance, Fairy Tales, Folklore & Fantasy, Action & Adventure, 237 pages

Price: $4.99 ebook, $9.18 paperback (at time of post)

Publisher & Date:  March 1, 2015

Book Link: Click Here

Listed Rating: .2

Price I Paid: Zip, Due to Amazon Prime subscription.

My Rating: 

My Thoughts: To Wish or Not Wish?

       This book was such an interesting very imaginative story that was wonderful to read from beginning to end. I am extremely close to my sister, so I must admit that is one thing that drew me to this book. Another was just the premise, the girls turn 16 and her sister begins turning into a mermaid?! (okay not exactly the plot but close) So I thought let's try this one out. Immediately when reading this book I felt like I was reading a Tolkien-ish kind of journey with Wizard of Oz type fantasy meets Peter Pan like adventure and mischief type stories meshed into one book for Y.A. So if you like stories with mermaids, spells, potions, faeries, dragons, circus, and wishes, Oh and maybe a HEA, you should pick this book.

         The heroine of the story is 16 yrs old when first introduced, her name is Clara. She lives with her Auntie Verity and sister Maren in the Llanfair Mountains of Pennsylvania in 1870. However, you are quickly told that Clara and Maren were brought to their Auntie in strange ways. Auntie Verity is half Fairy and an apothecary master, but was alone for a time until she was mysteriously delivered a huge conch shell, which held Maren, and a stork carried Clara to her a little later. Maren obviously being from the sea, never really seemed to be an issue for the family till the girls 16th birthday (darn that puberty) then Maren begins to show her true nature, which is a mermaid and starts changing daily little by little. Poor Clara is left with this problem of wishing nothing more than to help her sister be well and have what she wants, which is to be of the sea, but to do that means Clara will not get her wish, which is to always have her sister with her.

         Overall, I loved this book and I'm sooo sharing this with my sister. It's clean refreshing and unique which are rare traits for a lot of Y.A. books. Plus the world it's set in but not really set in makes it all magical and I just really like the fairy tale aspect not being written in a cheesy Disney princess way but in a more semi-real sojourner kind of way. I must say I will definitely read more from this author in the future, especially if she does more from this unique world she has created.