Anna Dressed in Blood - A Book Review

   I have been remiss in regards to the blog lately, due to revisions of my current manuscript. Like so many writers, I tend to have really excellent intentions, and then get distracted by facebook, twitter and email. Oh, and all the talk on the news about zombie apocalypses, can’t forget that. Apparently we’re having one, if you weren’t aware. Time to stock up on canned ham and baseball bats!

    Anyways, while we’re all waiting for the zombies, you can form an opinion about Anna Dressed in Blood, and decide if you’ll give it a read, you know, before we all get eaten. Kendare Blake has received a ton of praise for this paranormal/horror/romance, and in my opinion, it’s well deserved. But will YOU like it? Let’s get right into this:

What’s to love:

-You cannot deny that Blake is a terrific writer. Well, you could, but I’d smack you. I always scan the first page and see if the writer can draw me in immediately, because if they do I’m sold. I was hooked on Anna from page one. Blake’s descriptions are vivid and at times blood chilling. Also, the narrator – Cas Lowood the ghost hunter – has a very real voice. At times I was laughing, other times I was wide-eyed, clutching the book tightly. At all times, I refused to put it down.

-The concept is intriguing: A ghost hunter comes up against an almost impossibly strong ghost with a tragic and terrible history. And instead of killing him, Anna spares him.

-The cover. It’s beautiful. Soooo beautiful. I may or may not be stroking it right now.

What’s not to love:

It’s red. No, I did not misspell “read”. I’m quite serious. When you open the book you’ll find the print is all done in red ink. I suppose it’s meant to go with the theme of Anna Dressed in Blood, but at first I found it off-putting. I did get used to it though, and after the first page or two you don’t even notice it.

In conclusion:

I thoroughly enjoyed Anna Dressed in Blood, and can’t wait to get my hands on the sequel. Girl of Nightmares is reportedly just as good, and some are saying it’s better.

   I give this book nine out of ten on my bookshelf and recommend it to anyone within earshot. I hear it makes good reading while waiting out a zombie apocalypse. 

Cinder - A Book Review

There’s been a fair amount of hype for this book, so I was very excited to read it – plus the beautiful front cover is a definite plus. Cinder, by Marissa Meyer, is a cyberpunk retelling of the old fairy story, Cinderella.  I’m normally not a fan of rehashing old themes – in fact – I’m pretty tired of people doing it, but Ms. Meyer has put a very unique twist on this.

Sixteen year old Cinder is a cyborg. She is a goodly percentage machine, due to a hover craft accident when she was young, (the government pays for the surgeries, but after that you are considered “property”). She is considered an “inferior” person in society, and practically a slave to her evil step-mother and step- sister (in another twist, the younger step-sister of the two is friends with Cinder). When Cinder’s younger step-sister falls pray to the horrible plague sweeping the kingdom, her step-mother blames her, and donates Cinder’s body to plague research. However, the scientist working on her soon discovers something that changes Cinder’s future forever.

What I liked about it:

The Writing: Marissa Meyer is an extremely talented writer. She pulls you in and doesn’t let go right from the very start. Though some people (on Goodreads and such) complained that there wasn’t enough description of the New Beijing that Ms. Meyer created – and that may be true – I was still taken with the descriptions (more of the robots, cyborgs and the stalls of the market).

The Plot: I did find myself predicting the plot once in awhile and not just because of the Cinderella story, but the other parts as well. Let’s face it, we know she’s going to turn out to be special, it’s a recurring YA (young adult literature) theme.

Characters: It was refreshing to have a heroine that was both realistic and strong. Also, she reacts to things in a way that you can relate to. Lately it seems like too much YA literature has heroines doing ridiculous things. Things I would never do in those circumstances, (ie: date a guy who is basically stalking me) which makes me enraged frequently throughout the book. Also, Prince Kai was actually likeable, which is a rare find in the books I’ve read lately. (I’m really sick of dark and mysterious/dangerous).

Conclusion: I started reading this book at twelve at night (I couldn’t sleep) thinking I would just read a couple chapters and go to bed. Four hours later my husband knocks on the door of my study, points out that it’s four in the morning and asks why on earth I’m not in bed. I crawl back into bed, shocked that I’ve been reading for so long, and before I fall asleep all I can think is that I can’t wait to finish it tomorrow morning. Regardless of what anyone else may so in any other review, if a book can make four hours seem like a couple minutes, it has my vote.

Rating: I give this an eight out of ten on my bookshelf scale.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone - A Book Review

I have nothing but good things to say about one of my most recent reads, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor. I found the book while I was lurking in the book store (I might as well bring a tent and just camp out in the aisle, the amount of time I spend there). I was drawn to the remarkably handsome cover (see above picture) and when I flipped through I was elated to see it was in (gasp) THIRD PERSON. I find myself irked with the constant flood of first person narration that seems to have saturated the young adult market. I swear if I come across one more story of a magical girl falling in love with a bad boy-who-isn’t-really-a-bad boy type of character I’m going to stab my eyeballs out with my feather pen. (Yes, I do have one. I swear I’ll do it). Below are the reasons Daughter of Smoke and Bones is one of the best reads of all time…

                THE MAGIC:  The idea of wishes as a form of magic has always interested me, and the way that Taylor describes it is just fascinating, likes nothing I’ve read before. ( And I have read a LOT.)

                THE MYSTERY: It becomes evident that the main character, Karou is not quite human. But what is she? It doesn’t become apparent for quite some time. I absolutely LOVE that, unlike most books, I wasn’t able to guess what she was right away, and when I found out I was shocked because, low and behold, it was completely ORIGINAL. Now there’s a thought….

                THE WRITING: Well gosh-darn and golly gee! If the writing wasn’t just refreshingly fantastic for once! Not only does Taylor spin an engaging tale with a twisting, surprising plot full of mythology and spooky and fantastic settings, the English language will sit, stay and roll over for her. Damn, I may or may not have been absolutely green with envy.

                Would I recommend this book? You bet your acronym  I would! I give this 9 out of 10 on my bookshelf scale.

The Cobra Event: A Book Review

Fun fact: This book alarmed Bill Clinton so much that he had his intelligence experts read it to see if it was actually possible.

                This post is partially because I should have starting doing book reviews a long time ago, and partly because this book makes me frustrated, and I want to rant.  I can’t complain, since I didn’t even spend ten dollars on the thing. I found the book at the “Free Store”, which is the pile of junk along the road that the local garbage man puts out (I find lots of books there, one man’s trash, right?).

The Cobra Event is a thriller about biological warfare.  The writing is overly descriptive, mechanical and dry, but for some reason…I can’t put it down. Maybe it’s the absolutely chilling concept, or the extreme detail that makes me wonder if the author knows a little too much about all this. The Cobra event has me frustrated, because in some parts I feel like Preston thinks the reader is a complete moron, such as when he describes a sample tube “about as big as your pinky” and has the character put a cottons swab tip in it, then goes on to describe the fluid inside and mention AGAIN…there’s a cotton swab tip in it. Uh…I know. I got that the first time, thanks bud.  In spite of my annoyance I find the book strangely fascinating.  It reminds me a little bit of the movie Contagion, except that in this book it’s deliberate and in the movie it was just a flue type thing that was killing everyone off.

So, I may snort in annoyance every few pages, but I can only blame myself because I keep reading. It’s one of those things, like cheap candy. It doesn’t taste that good, but it’s there so you eat it. Okay, I guess that isn’t a good comparison. Cheap candy doesn’t make me paranoid. I swear, this book is bad for my nerves; every time somebody sneezes I jump out of my seat.

“Oh my gosh, you think you have the common cold but in a minute your brain is gonna turn to mush and leak out your ears, get away from me!”

Next up: I've been hearing a big internet buzz about The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. I hold in my greedy little hands a brand new hardcover copy! (I may or may not be stroking it and whispering my precious.)