The Final Formula

The Final Formula is the first book in The Final Formula series by Becca Andre.

THE BLURB:


To a master alchemist like Addie, impossible is just another word for challenge.  When a fiery explosion destroys the Alchemica, the premier alchemy institute in the United States, she’s left with nothing.  No home, no colleagues, and no memory.  Learning what happened seems impossible, but she still has one strength, and in her opinion, it’s the only one she needs.  She hasn’t forgotten a thing about alchemy.

Addie brews a potion to restore her lost past, but remembers only the flames of the Alchemica’s destruction—and a man among the ashes.  A man with the elemental power of fire, who just happens to be the leader of the magical community.  He might know what happened, but getting him to tell her will require some…creativity.  The magical aren’t fond of alchemists.  Some say it borders on hatred, but Addie isn’t one to back down from a challenge, even if that challenge happens to be a man who can turn her to ash with a thought.



MY THOUGHTS:

When I read the first page, I worried that I would regret picking this one up. Happily, my first impression was wrong!

Our main character is Addie, and in the beginning her narration seemed to have a sort of forced quirky tone to it. The first several chapters were interesting enough, but I thought I was in for an overall kind of silly read.

But then I got sucked in. I'm not exactly sure what changed, but the tone no longer seemed forced, and Addie was the highly amusing narrator she was meant to be. By the end, she evolves into this truly conflicted protagonist, which adds to her interest.

The storyline was engaging and had an impressive number of layers to it. The characters were three-dimensional and all sympathetic in their own way.

In The Final Formula we've got chemistry and alchemy, magic, the undead, and a spunky (man I hate that term, but can't think of a better substitute at this time) heroine. And the romance is super hot (heh heh, a little Elemental humor there.)

Overall, this is a very impressive first novel. After my initial misgivings had passed, I couldn't put this one down. Well done!


MY RATING:

4.5 booksies

Author's website: http://beccaandre.com/

The Final Formula appears to be free to download for all ebook platforms at this time

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The Touchstone Trilogy

 

Andrea K Host wrote the new adult science fiction books in The Touchstone Trilogy, as well as the follow-up Gratuitous Epilogue. And they are awesome.

Book One: Stray

The original cover art, which was changed because the illustration conveys the impression the books are middle-grade fiction. The author prefers these covers, but I definitely would not have been nearly as inclined to read them like this, thinking they were for a younger crowd than they really are. Unfair, perhaps, but true.

THE BLURB:

On her last day of high school, Cassandra Devlin walked out of exams and into a forest. Surrounded by the wrong sort of trees, and animals never featured in any nature documentary, Cass is only sure of one thing: alone, she will be lucky to survive.

The sprawl of abandoned blockish buildings Cass discovers offers her only more puzzles. Where are the people? What is the intoxicating mist which drifts off the buildings in the moonlight? And why does she feel like she's being watched?

Increasingly unnerved, Cass is overjoyed at the arrival of the formidable Setari. Whisked to a world as technologically advanced as the first was primitive, where nanotech computers are grown inside people's skulls, and few have any interest in venturing outside the enormous whitestone cities, Cass finds herself processed as a 'stray', a refugee displaced by the gates torn between worlds. Struggling with an unfamiliar language and culture, she must adapt to virtual classrooms, friends who can teleport, and the ingrained attitude that strays are backward and slow.

Can Cass ever find her way home? And after the people of her new world discover her unexpected value, will they be willing to let her leave?

MY THOUGHTS:

I really, really liked these books! There were some imperfections, but nothing that prevented me from adoring the story told, wanting to read straight through, and being sad to leave the world within its pages.

The cons:

There are some typos and grammatical errors, but nothing overwhelming.

The entire trilogy (and epilogue) is written as Cassandra's diary. This worked well in some ways - you really feel connected to her and how she feels about everything she's going through (and she's funny!) However, it did leave something to be desired in other areas. Specifically, every now and again we end up with too much telling and not enough showing. Cassandra writes about events in her diary after they occur, so we don't actually get to "see" them happening. Something that does help a bit is the fact that she eventually acquires the ability to record events via the interface installed in her head, and play them back when writing about them. Still, though, every once in a while you wish for more "proximity" to the events and the atmosphere they engender, rather than just hearing about them after the fact.

I did get a bit lost in the details of deep space versus near space versus real space, Place Sight versus Combat Sight versus Path Sight versus Gate Sight versus Sight Sight, all of the talents and interface capabilities, etc.

The pros:

An amazing, beautiful, and thrilling story! It includes the perfect mix of world building, science, archaeology, cultural anthropology, ecology, ethics and moral dilemmas. (Not to mention psychic space ninjas kicking some major butt.)

I really enjoyed how, at the end of book one, the experiences of Survivor Cass get revisited with new meaning and are tied into the overall history of the world as it is rediscovered. It was lovely, and I was hooked.

And FYI, all of the books are Cassandra's diary just divided into three, so book one offers no real closure at the end. That was okay, though, because I did not hesitate to download book two the very second I finished book one.

MY RATING:

5 booksies!

  

Book Two: Lab Rat One

Original cover art

THE BLURB:
 

In the months since Cassandra Devlin walked off Earth onto another planet, she has grappled with everything from making blankets to helping psychics battle the memories of monsters. Not able to find a way home, she has instead gained friends and a purpose.

Unfortunately, that purpose brings with it the pressure of being more than a little valuable, and those she has befriended are also her guards, ordered to explore and control her abilities to find out just what it is a touchstone can do.

Test subject was not the career path Cass had been planning.

With no privacy, too-frequent injuries, and the painful knowledge that she must always be an assignment to her Setari companions, Cass can only wish for some semblance of normality and control.

And as her abilities become more and more dangerous, tests and training may be the only thing capable of protecting Cass from herself.

MY THOUGHTS:

Book 2 offered more of the awesomeness we got in book 1, plus some exciting new developments. And then there was the romance. Hot damn! Host spun it out just perfectly. All that tension...oo la la! Needless to say, I once again downloaded the next book immediately after finishing this one. 

MY RATING:

5 booksies!

 

Book Three: Caszandra

Original cover art

THE BLURB:

Cassandra doesn't know what she's for. But she knows she's running out of time.

Since Cass was rescued from the abandoned world of Muina, the Aussie teen has proven more than useful to the people of Tare. Expeditions to their home world no longer end in slaughter. The teaching city of Kalasa has been unlocked. After years of searching for answers, they are starting to make progress.

But space is tearing itself apart. Ionoth attack in ever-greater numbers. And "the useful stray" has been injured so many times that the Tarens hesitate to use her for fear of losing her.

With one particular Taren now her most important person, Cass is determined to contribute everything she can - and hopes to find some answers of her own. What is the link between Muina and Earth? Why are the reclusive Nurans so interested in 'rescuing' her? And what role in the crisis do the inhuman Cruzatch play?

Can Cass keep herself together long enough to find out?

MY THOUGHTS:

Book three was my least favorite. It did provide a satisfying conclusion to the fascinating story Host has been telling spanning space and time. My complaints are twofold: firstly, the first two thirds of the book dragged for me, with the action only picking up toward the end (at which point things got pretty darn exciting.) Also, the romantic relationship that was the focal point of book two just sort of fizzles out and fades to the background here. It's still there, but all of the tension was sucked out of it all at once and now everything is neatly tied up with string. The majority of the interactions between the two lovers are described after that fact, so we rarely even get to "see" scenes of them together anymore. I was glad they were together, I loved everything leading up to them getting together, but after the fact we lost all traces of the delicious tingling the scenes between the two of them used to bring.

Barring those issues, though, it did wrap up the series nicely.

MY RATING:

3 booksies

 Gratuitous Epilogue

I am actually still currently reading this one, but I won't be rating it anyway, because it's not a typical book. The author gives the perfect explanation as such:

THE BLURB:

What happens when the plot ends? A relentless barrage of weddings, babies, and planetary colonisation! Meandering through the two years following the conclusion of the Touchstone Trilogy, this self-indulgent collection of family reminiscence is more saccharine than dramatic, with the most action to be found in snowball fights.

For those who truly just want to know what happens next, no matter how mundane, read on for the everyday, ordinary lives of psychic space ninjas playing house.

MY THOUGHTS:

No inciting incident, just the day by day lives of Cassandra and the Setari after they no longer need to worry about saving the world. And that's okay with me, because as I said, I was not ready to leave the world Host created here. Plus, I like babies :)

Author website: http://www.andreakhost.com/

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Stray:

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Revelation (The Phoenix Project #3)

Revelation is the third installment in M. R. Pritchard's The Phoenix Project dystopian/science fiction series.

THE BLURB:

Plucked from society, the Funding Entities had a plan for Andromeda Somers and Adam Waters. The ones who planned the Reformation were priming them for a greater role. One that Adam will never live to realize. He knew too much and now he’s dead, leaving Andie to raise their baby alone. But not all is lost; the Entities want Andie to uphold the principles of the Phoenix District, so they’ve released Ian to her. The only problem is Andie’s not sure what to do with her husband now that she has him, especially since there is a seemingly insurmountable rift in their relationship. They can’t talk, they don’t touch, and it seems Ian is always sneaking off in the middle of the night. He’s definitely not the husband she remembers. But Andie has changed also; she’s done things she’s not proud of, she altered the human genome for Burton Crane, she had an affair, she even killed a man.

Now, Andie struggles with her guilt as she tries to raise the next generation of Sovereign and fulfill her duties as the District Matchmaker. Sam is training to become a Volker, Ian keeps pressing her to go back to the way they were, Catalina is getting older, and Raven has never uttered a sound since his birth. As Andie tries to maintain control and protect her family, one thought lingers and threatens to disrupt everything she’s worked so hard to protect: she must return to Crystal River for her last test, and Crane always causes the most havoc when she’s away.

MY THOUGHTS:

Things didn't happen nearly the way I had expected them to between book #1 and this one, but that is not a bad thing! New twists introduced into the story here allow room for future installments to take us to even more intriguing and compelling places. The scope of the story has even more ground to cover now, keeping the series fresh and interesting.

Fans of The Phoenix Project will not be disappointed in this book.

MY RATING:

3 booksies

Author website: http://mrpritchard.com/ 

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Edgewood

Young adult science fiction/paranormal novel by Karen McQuestion.

THE BLURB:

Wandering the dark streets at night is Russ Becker’s way of dealing with his relentless insomnia and the angst of life. But that changes forever the night he witnesses a strange astronomical event, then discovers he’s developed incredible superpowers.

And he’s not alone. Three others in his town—sexy Mallory, arrogant Jameson, and mysterious Nadia—have had the same experience and acquired intriguing powers of their own. As if Mallory isn't special enough with her good looks and high IQ, now she can control peoples’ minds. Jameson thinks he’s the coolest because he moves objects with his thoughts, and shy Nadia struggles to understand her new empathic abilities.

At first the four secretly relish their newfound gifts while keeping them hidden. However, things get serious when they learn they're being hunted by an organization that wants them for its own nefarious purposes. Russ has always picked his battles wisely, but when the bad guys threaten his family, they're about to find out they messed with the wrong teens. What transpires will change all of them in ways they never imagined.

MY THOUGHTS:

Everything about this book sounds good in theory. The plot certainly seems interesting, the main character, Russ, is a likable and at time humorous narrator. McQuestion's writing is among some of the most sound I've encountered so far in the world of self-publishing. I don't think I came across any editing errors, or if I did there weren't many at all, and not significant enough to remember.

However, the book sort of fell flat for me, for no reason I can put my finger on. There was nothing "bad" about it, but nothing that excited me either. Quite possibly if I had read it 15 years ago I might have come away with a different impression.

If Edgewood sounds like your cup of tea, definitely give it a try. There was nothing here for me to dislike, but in the end all I felt about it was, "Meh". Perhaps you'll enjoy it more, especially if, unlike me, you actually fall into the target audience :)

MY RATING:

3 booksies

  

Author's website: http://www.karenmcquestion.com/index.html

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daynight

daynight, a young adult dystopian novel by Megan Thomason, was a fairly fun read despite some issues. It could have used more polish, but still managed to tell an interesting story that kept my attention.

THE BLURB:

Meet The Second Chance Institute (SCI): Earth’s benevolent non-profit by day, Thera’s totalitarian regime by night. Their motto: Because Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Life(TM). Reality: the SCI subjects Second Chancers to strict controls and politically motivated science experiments like Cleaving—forced lifetime union between two people who have sex. Punishment for disobeying SCI edicts? Immediate Exile or death.

Meet Kira Donovan. Fiercely loyal, overly optimistic, and ensnared by the promise of a full-ride college scholarship, Kira signs the SCI Recruit contract to escape memories of a tragedy that left her boyfriend and friends dead.

Meet Blake Sundry. Bitter about being raised in Exile and his mother’s death, Blake’s been trained to infiltrate and destroy the SCI. Current barrier to success? His Recruit partner—Miss Goody Two Shoes Kira Donovan.

Meet Ethan Darcton. Born with a defective heart and resulting inferiority complex, Ethan’s forced to do his SCI elite family’s bidding. Cleave-worthy Kira Donovan catches his eye, but the presiding powers give defect-free Blake Sundry first dibs. 


Full of competing agendas, romantic entanglements, humor, twists and turns...


MY THOUGHTS:

I did like this book, although as I said there were a few things that rubbed me the wrong way.

I thought the book was far too long for its genre. The writing itself got long-winded and times, and could have used some cutting and tightening.

There were a couple of instances when the author told where she should have showed. Specifically, there were times when something huge and terrible happened, but the characters lacked any evidence of emotional response. Later they would reflect on how awful they felt, but we never saw that. This didn't happened often, however.

For me, the aspect about the book I found the most intriguing wasn't the competing agendas and political plots, but the atmosphere created by throwing a bunch of 18-or-so-year-olds together in this strictly dictated society and expecting them to form relationships (in fact, to "cleave", heh heh) with one another to suit the regime's purposes. This resulted in a lot of romantic tension and emotional angst, as well as a dash of hubba hubba. And then Kira is expected to choose between the guy she fantasizes about, and the one she never thought she would want until they were thrown together in collaboration against the scheming leaders of Thera.

This part of daynight did get a little silly at points, when everyone has only cleaving on the mind all the time, and then hitting on mass forced-pregnancies of genetic siblings. And even though the romantic tension was what I found the most fun, even I got frustrated by the love triangle by the end.

daynight wasn't perfect, but it was mostly fun, and it's the first book in a series so there's more of the story to tell. I do plan on picking up book two, arbitrate, someday.

MY RATING:

3 booksies

 

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Foreseen

Foreseen by Terri-Lynne Smiles is book one of The Rothston Series, which is being called science fantasy. Personally I'm thinking we could have gotten away with calling it science fiction, but whatevs. It's can also be considered 'new adult'.

THE BLURB:

The Rothston Institute can secretly manipulate the decisions of anyone in the world – from ordinary friends to government leaders – using the abilities of its operatives known as adepts. Having discovered that she possesses these special skills, college student Kinzie Nicolosi is training to assist them to protect humankind from destruction. A student missing an exam? A construction worker fired for an industrial accident? A Congressman ruined in scandal? Necessary consequences of honing her skills for the greater good. But Kinzie brings more than her remarkable talent to Rothston. She bears an unexpected power that rivals Rothston's own… and the clash may be something none of them can control.

MY THOUGHTS:

This was a pretty good book. It wasn't perfect, but for the most part I did enjoy it.

Point of view switches between Kinzie and Greg, two college students who are both likable and relatable characters. For the most part this worked just fine. I did have an issue every now and again with keeping track of lapses in time from one chapter to the next, when POV switched. This was a fairly minor problem, though, and didn't detract much from enjoying the book.

The only other unfortunate point associated with the changing POV is that there was one instance in which Kinzie acted in a way that seemed very out of character. However, that scene is told from Greg's POV, and so we never see exactly how Kinzie justifies her seemingly incongruent actions. 

The storyline of the 'adepts' deals with physics and quantum foam, which (despite how it may sound) is pretty interesting. 

The plot with the Rothston Institute gets dealt with nicely, but at the end it was the romantic relationship I was really interested in, and I would have liked to have seen more of a discussion between the two involved about how they might try to resolve the issues that had split them apart before. You can see how it could be fixed, but I still wanted to see the actual exchange between the two addressing it. Then again, maybe that's exactly what we get in book two. Some day maybe I'll pick that one up and find out. 

MY RATING:

3 booksies

Author's website: http://www.terrilynnesmiles.com/ 

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Kade's Dark Embrace (Immortals of New Orleans #1)

So one day not long after discovering Bookbub, I saw there was a book called Luca's Magic Embrace being offered for free for a limited time. It was the second in an erotic paranormal romance series, The Immortals of New Orleans. Not wanting to jump in with book 2, I went ahead and downloaded the first book in the series, Kade's Dark Embrace.

This one did not work for me. Not to say there is nothing redeemable here, but there were scores of problems. Before I get into that, though, here is


THE BLURB:


After a series of girls are ritualistically murdered on the cold streets of Philadelphia, seasoned detective, Sydney Willows, is forced to work with sexy, alpha vampire, Kade Issacson. While working the case, Sydney finds herself inexplicably drawn to Kade, fighting the passion she feels towards him. Kade, determined to solve the case and mete out justice, is captivated by the independent, fiery detective. As he attempts to protect her from a very real murderer, Kade grows concerned that the beautiful, but very human detective, could easily end up dead should she tangle with supernatural forces that are beyond her control.

The investigation leads them into a dark and dangerous world, deep in the heart of New Orleans, where together, they search for the perpetrators of the Voodoo killings. Sydney soon becomes the target of the killer and ends up fighting for her life and love in the Big Easy. If she makes it out alive, will she give into the intoxicating desire she feels for Kade?

MY THOUGHTS:

The writing here needs a lot of work. Dialogue tends to run on too much, Sydney and Kade begin every sentence with each other's name even when it's only the two of them speaking and no one else to possibly be addressing. That's just not realistic.

Successive paragraphs switch from telling us what Sydney is thinking and feeling to what Kade is thinking and feeling, bouncing back and forth. I think it would have been better to stick with letting us into Sydney's mind, leaving Kade more of an enigma, his actions the only evidence we have to judge his motivations.

The plot takes a backseat to the erotica and is entirely forgettable (which is saying something, when it's ritualistic murder we're talking about here). Not enough research was done on realistic police procedure.

The main character is not very likeable. I can tell the author was going for a tough, no-nonsense female protagonist, but she went a little too far with it because Sydney just ends up coming across as a stubborn a-hole.

The erotic scenes were good. However, there were a few situations in which the sexual tension was awkward and unbelievable. Here is a waterlogged corpse noted to have an overwhelming stench of decay turning everyone's stomach, and yet they can hardly stop themselves from tearing each other's clothes off and humping. Here is Sydney just after taking a tumble in fluids we have been told reek or urine, feces, and vomit, but Kade can barely contain his need to take her right then and there. Even horny alpha vamps have to draw the line somewhere.

As I said, not everything here is a loss, and because it's the first book, I can believe that Grosso's novel-writing-know-how may have grown since. And so I will probably eventually get around to reading Luca's Magic Embrace, if only because I hate to own it and not read it (even if I did get it for free). But I'm not in a rush.

MY RATING:

1 booksy

 Author's website: http://www.kymgrosso.com/


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Hounds of Autumn

Hounds of Autumn is a steampunk murder mystery written by Heather Blackwood. I had heard the term steampunk before, but before reading this novel I did not know for sure what it was. Turns out it's a branch of science fiction that features steam-powered machinery, oftentimes set in 19th century Britain (Victorian era) or America's Wild West. It was new to me, and I found it to be fun and interesting. (Note to self: try out some more steampunk).

THE BLURB:

They say that the moor has eyes.

It is 1890, and the windswept moors hold dark secrets. Chloe Sullivan is an amateur inventor whose holiday takes a dark turn when her friend and colleague, one of the few female mechanical experts in the British Empire, is murdered.

A black mechanical hound roams the moors, but could it have killed a woman? And what secrets are concealed within the dark family manor?

Accompanied by her naturalist husband and clockwork cat, Chloe is determined to see her friend’s killer found.

But some secrets have a terrible cost.

MY THOUGHTS:

This was a fairly enjoyable read with decent writing. The author was successful in creating a haunting ambiance for her murder mystery set on the moors of Great Britain. The mechanical elements were fun and quirky (such as Giles, the mechanical pet cat.) The protagonist is intelligent, curious, and driven. As one of very few women in her field, Chloe has an ally in her husband, Ambrose. He respects her and helps her maintain a life in the pursuit of learning and invention that most other women are not allowed in their world. 

In the end I can't say I was too attached to any of the characters or cared too much about what happened to them, but still I enjoyed the book overall because of two of the aforementioned points - the steampunk aspect was new and interesting to me, and the story was stirringly haunting.

MY RATING:

3 booksies

Author website: http://www.heatherblackwood.com/

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Descent (Books 1-3)

Next I tried the Descent series by S.M. Reine. I downloaded the first three books in the series, which includes a total of seven books. The author describes them as an occult/supernatural flavor of paranormal fiction. I believe this kindle bundle of the first three books is permafree; at least, every time I see it on Amazon.com, it's free to download.

I've decided to include my reviews of all three books together in this post.

Book 1: Death's Hand

THE BLURB:


Elise Kavanagh doesn’t want to hunt demons anymore. It’s been five years since she killed her last enemy, and life has been quiet since then. She went to college. Got a job, and then lost it. Made a friend or two. Lived a normal life. Now her former partner, a powerful witch named James Faulkner, wants Elise to fight one more time. The daughter of a coven member has been possessed, and Elise is the only exorcist nearby.

Becoming a hero again would mean risking discovery by old enemies. But digging into the case reveals that it might already be too late–bodies are disappearing, demons slither through the night, and the cogs of apocalypse are beginning to turn once more. Some enemies aren’t willing to let the secrets of the past stay dead…

MY THOUGHTS:

I have mixed feelings on this one. 

The writing was good, but for me the near-constant fight scenes overshadowed the plot. I got tired of reading about fighting and then some more fighting, and just wanted for the storyline to advance already! 

The promise of the story hidden beneath all of the fighting was interesting enough to make me want to read more in the series, and hope that the plot was allowed more screen time (page time?) than the violence and gore and battle tactics. I was hoping to learn more of the back story of how Elise and James got their start. I wanted more ELISE, rather than just more Elise fighting. And I was certainly looking forward to more of Elise getting back in touch with her sexy side!

Overall, I wasn't thrilled with the book, but the writing was decent and I heard the series only got better, and so I definitely thought there was potential here.

MY RATING:

2 booksies

Book 2: The Darkest Gate

THE BLURB:


When Elise Kavanagh retired from demon hunting, she swore it would be permanent. But an attack from a powerful necromancer forced her back into the business, and now she’s trying to balance her normal boyfriend and normal job with everything supernatural.

Mr. Black is a demon hunter gone rogue. He’s enslaving angels and stealing ethereal artifacts in pursuit of forbidden immortality, and an old grudge drives him to make his final stand in Elise’s territory. Destroying her life and killing her friends isn’t the goal, but it’s a definite perk.

A demonic overlord offers to join against Mr. Black and protect Elise’s loved ones. All she needs to do is ally with the demons she’s sworn to kill, at the cost of her morals–and maybe her immortal soul. But once she crosses that line, there’s no turning back.

Nothing is sacred when Heaven and Hell collide on Earth…

  
MY THOUGHTS:

The writing in book two was still pretty good, and the story still had great potential, but there were some things that bothered me. 

Too much action again, to the point where I skipped over fight scenes to actually see where the story was going. And character development isn't perfect here, because I honestly couldn't have cared less if any of the characters died. Elise was basically just an asshole to everybody, including her new boyfriend and her BFF James. And I just couldn't see why she and Betty would be friends - I wasn't buying it. 

However, these were all things that could be further developed in following installments, and so I was determined to at least read one more before deciding if it was worth continuing.

MY RATING:

2 booksies

Book 3: Dark Union

 

THE BLURB:


Every fifty years, the most powerful ethereal and infernal beings convene on Earth to resolve conflicts with mediation by kopides–humans born to police relations between Heaven and Hell. They’re meeting in Elise Kavanagh’s territory this year, and she used to be the greatest kopis in the world. But she’s not invited.

An old friend, Lucas McIntyre, asks her to attend the summit in his place. But when she arrives, she discovers that a human faction called The Union has taken charge of the summit, and they’re not playing nice. Worse yet, someone has killed a prominent Union member…and now they’re demanding blood
 


MY THOUGHTS:

Even though the writing was always decent, I detected a HUGE improvement in book 3! I was impressed with the evidence of how the author's style had matured.

That being said, the author has since started referring to this as 'book #2.5'. It is much shorter than the other installments, and other readers have remarked on how it seems to be more of a 'filler' than a complete book.

All in all, though, this story still just lacks a certain something - maybe it's just not for me. With the marked improvement I noted here, perhaps the series does only continue to get better as it goes along, but I think this is where I'll step away.

MY RATING:

2 booksies

Overall I give the first three books in the Descent series 2 stars - "it was ok." There wasn't much I actively disliked about it, but in the end I just wasn't really feeling it. Certainly consider giving it a shot, though, and see what you think!

Author's website: http://authorsmreine.com/

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Saratoga

My third indie book was also written by M. R. Pritchard, although not part of The Phoenix Project series. (My next posts switch to different authors for a while before returning to the third installment of Phoenix.)

Saratoga is a young adult paranormal romance. Although I like the books of The Phoenix Project, Pritchard's novels outside of the series are my favorites of hers so far.

The original cover art

Updated cover art

THE BLURB:

Demi has it all figured out. She is going to be a ballerina just like her mother wants. Since the dance studio is the only place she feels like she fits in, it’s the perfect plan. All she wants is a normal life, one where she and her parents aren’t moving to a new place after another one of her accidents.

Demi knows she is far from normal. She can feel it every time she walks near a park, or a tree, or a flower. She has a gift-or a curse; green things call to her. They tug at her soul and she has no idea how to control it. That is, until she meets Dylan, a boy with a similar gift. Dylan shows Demi the path to discovering who she is and what fate holds for each of them.

MY THOUGHTS:

This was a fun read. It draws on Greek mythology and ties it together neatly with young adult paranormal romance. The last quarter or so of the book ramps the excitement level up to crazy heights, bringing us through hell and back, literally. It also works in some pressing truths about humankind that prove this to be more than your average "coming of age with a supernatural twist" story. 

This is Pritchard's book that I could most easily see turning into a major motion picture some day.

MY RATING:

4 booksies

Author website: http://mrpritchard.com/

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The Reformation

Not surprisingly, my next venture into the world of self-pub was the second installment of The Phoenix Project series, The Reformation by M. R. Pritchard.

THE BLURB:

Trying to escape from the Phoenix District got Andie two things, a broken arm and a broken spirit. While Andie feels like she might be losing it, she has a bit of hope to hold onto. Everyone else in her family may have been taken away from her or have gone missing, but she has Lina. So she’s going to do what Burton Crane ordered her to do and genetically alter the Residents brains so they’re the cooperative, docile humans he requested.

While analyzing the Residents’ genetic data, Andie finds that there’s more than one District. And while Andie tries to hold on tight to the few things she has control over, Crane has one last surprise for her.

This is the Reformation. Society has been fractured and this is just the beginning of changes to come.

MY THOUGHTS:

This book continues the story of a morally-questionable new world order, and the struggle of those stuck inside of it to keep their loved ones safe. Andie is a smart and bold protagonist, and as much as her participation in the outcome of the Reformation chafes her, her daughter's safety depends on her cooperation.

Here is where Pritchard first exercises her talent for punching readers in the gut right at the end of the book, leaving them speeding to the next book to find out more.

MY RATING

3 booksies

Author website: http://mrpritchard.com/

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The Phoenix Project

The Phoenix Project marked my very first foray into the world of indie authors and self-published novels. The author, M. R. Pritchard, is someone I know in person. When I heard she had written a book, I was quick to get my hands on a copy and read up. The Phoenix Project has since developed into a series, with three books currently available and a total of six books planned. (Book 4 is due out this winter!) Pritchard has also published a young adult paranormal romance, Saratoga, and has a dark fantasy titled Sparrow man due out this August.

My reviews of Pritchard's novels will be a bit different than others. I think the fact that I know the author and have done beta reading for some of these books would make it difficult for me to come up with a truly objective and unbiased review. I'll probably just transfer the initial impressions I documented on Goodreads and Amazon.com here.

So, ladies and gentlemen, for my virgin book review post, I give you The Phoenix Project by M. R. Pritchard.

THE BLURB: 

Andie Somers has finally found a perfectly balanced life. After leaving her high pressure position in a genetic research lab, she’s now found solace in nursing. Too bad the balance doesn’t last long. One night Andie’s life is thrown off kilter when a suspected seismic event occurs.

Now, Andie is going home to find her family, even if that means escaping a hospital on lockdown and abandoning some of the city’s most critical patients. She may never work as a nurse again but she doesn’t dwell on that thought for long when she can’t reach her husband and daughter. There is one thing on her mind and that is to get home.

Fleeing a city that’s been thrust into chaos isn’t easy, and since it seems most things electronic no longer work, including every vehicle around her, Andie makes the decision to walk the forty miles north to her home. She meets Adam on the highway. Running into a Phoenix local wasn’t in her plan, but two heads are better than one and with the havoc surrounding them, what better partner to have at her side than one with a military background?

If only she had forewarning to the secrets Adam harbors. Andie’s life is about to change forever. She thought making it home was the hard part, but getting there is just the beginning.

MY THOUGHTS:

The Phoenix Project begins with the world as we know it, before events shatter it into a contemporary dystopia. It brings together behavioral sciences, hard sciences such as genetics, and paternalism - a mix that leads to a morally questionable new world order. In the middle of the drastic changes is Andie, a woman who only wants to keep her family safe.

My initial review of this book on Goodreads mentioned some spelling and grammar issues, but the book has since been updated to a newly edited version.

It did take me about 50 pages or so to get into the story, but then I was hooked and it reeled me in completely. None of the other books in the series (or any of Pritchard's other novels) presented this problem for me. Once I got past that point, I could hardly put the thing down before finishing it. I found the plot line to be original, and the pacing was spot-on.

The story is told as a first person present tense narrative. We only learn things as Andie does, which adds to the intrigue.

MY RATING:

3.5 booksies

Want to know more?

Author's website: http://mrpritchard.com/

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A note on my rating system

Goodreads and Amazon qualify the stars of their rating systems differently, which I find very frustrating! Especially since the former now belongs to the latter, you would think there would be some consistency. But on Goodreads, 2 stars means "it was ok", whereas on Amazon, 3 stars means "it was ok." I personally like to use the Goodreads system, if only because I began rating books there first.

Just to make things fun, I use a book image instead of stars. (Fun, right?) And then because I'm lacking inspiration at the moment, I shall call these 'booksies', and they shall be my booksies.

Here is my breakdown: 1 booksy = I did not like it (usually meaning I actively disliked it); 2 booksies = it was okay (basically I didn't like it all that much, but didn't hate it); 3 booksies = I liked it; 4 booksies = I really liked it; and 5 booksies = I loved it (usually reserved for my favorite books of all time.)


Also, in each post I put a link to buy the book on Amazon.com, but that doesn't mean that is the only place to find it. I also include links to each author's website, which would be the best place to see all sellers for their books.