Saving Fate by Billy Wong

Links for Book Descriptions: Goodreads & Library Things

 

I won an ebook of this book from a giveaway on Library Things.

 

One of the things that drew me into this book big time was the presence of strong female characters. Too many times you see in fantasy novels that the princess needs to be rescued by a knight in shining armor and is completely helpless so I was glad to see quite the opposite here. Reading Saving Fate reminded me why I loved Xena: The Warrior Princess so much. Bold, strong, and determined women.

 

There are a couple of nice plot twists that happen towards the end of the book. Though, I feel bad that Mark spent all that time tracking down his mother and the interactions between them after that point are quite sparse, leaving me wishing there was just a little more.

 

My Verdict: Four stars out of Five

Scenters by Andrew Connan

**Nota Bene: Some spoilers are present in this review.

Read at your own risk**

Links for Book Descriptions: Goodreads & Library Things

 

I won this book in a First Reads Giveaway on Goodreads.

 

The idea of Scenters was original and interesting. The book had such great potential but I felt that the plot points and characters could have been fleshed out more.

 

The book at 174 pages and very large font is fast paced (I think I read it in less than an hour). I normally don't see fast paced as a negative thing but I was left wishing this book to have more pages.

Mr. Thrapp, as the antagonist, was intriguing but was kinda flat.

 

Beyond just being "evil", I did not understand the purpose of his actions - ie. why was he taking the birds out of people? His letter to his mother was curious and I wish the content would have been addressed more later as I felt it had the potential to reveal more about his background.

 

Also, I have an idea what the "birds" represent but I wish it was explained at some point.

 

The book ended with many questions left unanswered for me: What does Uncle Tito know? What was Thrapp's motive? How many more Scenters are out there and how do they use their powers (for good or evil)?

My Verdict: Three stars out of Five

Plague City by Matthew Milson

 **Nota Bene: Some spoilers are present in this review.
Read at your own risk**

Links for Book Descriptions: Goodreads & Library Things
 

I won an ebook of this from a giveaway from Library Things.

 

Wow, this story surprised me in a good way.

 

Henry Coal, the mayor of an unnamed city, is responsible of bombings in the city to fight against the Plague but lies about his involvement and instead places the blame elsewhere. The only other person that knows is Mama Ruth, who runs a soup kitchen, as she assists in these "Purging"s.

 

The conversation between Ruth and Henry concerning the purgings was interesting and I wished there was more background provided on how they knew each other.

 

Reading the story was basically watching Henry descend into madness, as he loses all care for anyone else but his wife and later his Plague infested body chases after his wife in order to kill her. And I think my jaw literally dropped when Eve, his wife, decided to shot herself instead of Henry because she loved him that much. I was shocked. The ending was just as surprising as well.

My Verdict: Four stars out of Five

Assured Destruction by Michael Stewart

Links for Book Descriptions: Goodreads & Library Things

 

I won this ebook from a giveaway on Library Things.

Janus Rose is a high school girl that works at her mom's shop, Assured Destruction, that recycles and shreds used electronics. However, Janus doesn't always shred them and will sometimes dig through the hard drive looking for people's secrets. She will then use this information to create fake profiles of them on her secretive and private Shadownet network.

It starts off simple enough when Janus picks up a hard drive that a mother of one of her classmates drops off but then everything spirals into a much more complicated web of events, hence the mystery. And I must say, I was shocked by the so-called culprit. It was not who I was expecting at all, in fact I think it was the person I expected the least.

Janus is a likeable character and perhaps invested myself too much into her at times (becoming near the point that I was ready to shed tears over some of the terrible drama she had to endure) from relating to her too much (I was stuck in a web design class in high school and ended so far ahead of everyone else that I would just have days sitting at a regular desk doing whatever while my classmates caught up). And I was relieved that everything was set for Janus by the end of the book or I would have probably actually cried.

And if this is really book one of a series, I would jump into reading the sequel. No doubts about that.

 

My Verdict: Four stars out of Five

The Kaiser Affair by Joseph Robert Lewis

Links for Book Descriptions: Goodreads & Library Things

 

I won this ebook from a giveaway on Library Thing.

 

I will start off by saying that I am a huge fan of steampunk.

 

Anyways, The Kaiser Affair was a rather delightful read. I enjoyed the dynamic of the relationship between Bettina and her husband Arjuna. They kept me chuckling a lot with their verbal exchanges but I also found their relationship as rather sweet.

It would have been nice if there had been a section of the book that talked about how they got together as I was really curious but still that did not take away from the story.

 

Bettina and her husband are called in by the Minister of Justice to locate her brother Ranulf Kaiser, whom escaped jail just a couple of weeks before he was to be released. Their pursuit leads to dealing with talking birds and shadowy cults, venturing to a drifting isle, and an expected twist on as to who is really pulling the strings (which took me by surprise).

 

At the end of the book, I am left longing to read more adventures involving this husband and wife team because I fell in love with them so much.

My Verdict: Four stars out of five.

Tethered Twin by Mike Essex

**Nota Bene: Major spoilers are present in this review.
Read at your own risk**

Links for Book Descriptions: Goodreads & Library Things

Wow...just wow. This was such a great read and it kept my interest the entire time. My mind is still reeling from the ending (in a good way).

 

The whole twin concept was so original and not something I ever seen done before. It was interesting how the resistance group was named "The Deck" and the ranking followed that of a playing deck. I was surprised to find that the members of The Deck were born without twins.

 

Emmie is a likeable protagonist. She just want to find the answers behind her brother's death and by the end help protect everybody.

 

I was happy to see Tobias grow into a multidimensional villain. I first just saw him as a creepy, power hungry dude but as I learned of his background towards the end, I started to feel a bit sorry for him.

 

He actually reminds me a bit from Van Grants from Tales of the Abyss (a Japanese RPG game) because they were both experimented on and then sought to take revenge (by using any means necessary and regardless the casualties of innocent people).

 

The mystery about the leader of "The Deck" was interesting and my jaw literally dropped when I found out that it was none other than Emmie's father, who was also working under Tobias to get back for the death of her mother.

 

Hands down, I would definetely read any sequels to this amazing book.

My Verdict: Four stars out of Five.

Heart of the Demon by Cynthia Garner

**Nota Bene: Possible spoilers may or may not be present in this review.
Read at your own risk**

Links for Book Descriptions: Goodreads & Library Things

I won this book in a First Reads giveaway on Goodreads.

 

I enjoyed this book a lot, reading it all within one day, and I would be interested in reading other books by this author. The plot was entertaining and the characters were well done. Though, I kinda wished for more information about Finn's mother as I was wondering who she was and about her relationship with Lucifer.

 

The amount of variety of demons and preternaturals were fantastic and interesting. I giggled at Lucifer having such a sweet tooth and being quite possessive of cheesecake. It made me laugh so hard.

My Verdict: Four stars out of Five