Deadly Curiosities - Review

Title:  Deadly Curiosities

Author:  Gail Z. Martin

Series:  Deadly Curiosities #1

Synopsis:  “Welcome to Trifles & Folly, a store with a dark secret.  Proprietor Cassidy Kincaide continues a family tradition begun in 1670 – acquiring and neutralizing dangerous supernatural items.  It’s the perfect job for Cassidy, whose psychic gift lets her touch an object and know its history.  Together with her business partner Sorren, a 500-year-old vampire and former jewel thief, Cassidy makes it her business to get infernal objects off the market.

     “When a trip to a haunted hotel unearths a statue steeped in malevolent power, and a string of murders draws a trail to the abandoned old Navy yard, Cassidy and Sorren discover a diabolical plot to unleash a supernatural onslaught on their city.

     “It’s time for Kincaide and her team to get rid of these Deadly Curiosities before the bodies start piling up”

Review:  I had no idea this book was coming out.  I don’t know if I just haven’t been paying a lot of attention to new releases because money and time are getting a little tight (I’m getting married in 2 months to SuperSteve).  So a couple of weeks ago I gave myself a small shopping trip, because nothing calms my nerves like a trip to the bookstore.  I snatched Deadly Curiosities off of the shelf before my brain had fully processed what it was.  It had Gail Z. Martin’s name on it.  That’s all that mattered.  I love her Chronicles of the Necromancer Series and have read them multiple times.  It didn’t matter what this book was about.  It had to be mine.  Then I got home and set it on the table.  I looked at it. I was delighted to discover that it was an urban fantasy.  I didn’t start reading it right away because I knew that once I started that would be it, within a few days I would be finished reading it and I wouldn’t have a new Gail Z. Martin book to look forward to for awhile. 

     I’ve finished it now.  I’m very sad.  Even though I have many more perfectly good books waiting to be read, this one is done.  I will never get to read it for the first time again, and that first time was amazing.  Deadly Curiosities was awesome!  I loved everything about it.  The characters are wonderful, and I wish Teag was my gay best friend.  Sorren is mysterious and sexy, and Cassidy is the perfect combination of kick ass and smart.  The plot kept me on the edge of my seat right from the very beginning, and Gail Z. Martin’s storytelling abilities are always superb.  Go get this book now.  Oh, and Gail Z. Martin hurry up with the next one would you?  Thanks.

Publisher:   Solaris

ISBN:  978-1781082331

If you like this book you may want to read:

October Daye Series by Seanan McGuire

Agent of Hel Series by Jacqueline Carey

Chronicles of the Necromancer by Gail Z. Martin

Gluten Free Review: Glutino's Gluten Free Toaster Pastry

I was so excited when I found these in my grocery store!  Look at the picture above.  Don't they look delicious?  It looks like they will have a ton of filling and taste like apple pie.  The slogan on the box says "Like biting into paradise".  Sure, if your paradise is a desert.  These are disgusting!  Don't waste your money.  Look at this picture:

The actual product is nothing like the picture on the package.  There is hardly any filling, all you can taste is the "pastry" and it is so salty and dry that I couldn't even choke it down.  (There's 340mg of sodium in 1 single pastry by the way!)  DON"T DO IT!  Glutino should be ashamed of themselves.  This is blatant false advertising, the product is absolutely nothing like the picture on the box. Those of us who must avoid gluten are desperate for gluten free products, and Glutino is taking advantage of a captive audience.

Life As We Knew It - Review

Title:   Life As We Knew It   

Author:  Susan Beth Pfeffer

Series:   Last Survivors #1

Synopsis:  “When a meteor hits the moon and knocks it closer in orbit to the earth, nothing will ever be the same. 

“Worldwide tidal waves.

“Earthquakes.

“Volcanic eruptions.

“And that’s just the beginning.”

Review:  I love apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction almost as much as I love the subject of the impending zombie apocalypse.  Life As We Knew It is intended for young adults.  It is set up as the diary entries of a girl named Miranda.  The dying, the horror and the bloodshed that would be sure to happen during this type of apocalypse are only hinted at.  The main focus of this apocalyptic novel is a teenage girl dealing with being a teenage girl in the midst of a disaster.  Miranda is attempting to deal with her parents being divorced, her father’s new wife having a baby, her brother away at college and whether or not she is going to take skating lessons again.  And, oh yeah, the moon has been knocked into a closer orbit, causing freak weather, erratic tides and electrical storms, meaning Life As We Knew It is over.  Pfeffer’s novel is excellent and I highly recommend it. 

Publisher:   Graphia

ISBN:  978-0152061548

If you like this book you may want to read:

The Dead and the Gone (Last Survivors #2) by Susan Beth Pfeffer

The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle (see BookGirlR’s review here)

Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling

Patient Zero - Review

Title:  Patient Zero

Author:  Jonathan Maberry

Series:  Joe Ledger #1

Synopsis: “Monday, 1300 hours: Joe Ledger kills terrorist Javad Mustapha, AKA Patient Zero, with two point-blank shots from his Glock .45.  Wednesday, 0800 hours: Patient Zero rises from the dead…

     “When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week, there’s either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills… and there’s nothing wrong with Joe Ledger’s skills.  Ledger, a Baltimore detective assigned to a counterterrorism task force, is recruited by the government to lead a new ultrasecret rapid-response group called the Department of Military Science (DMS) to help stop a group of terrorists from releasing a dreadful bioweapon that can turn ordinary people into zombies.”

Review:  Patient Zero is a wonderfully dense read.  It’s a zombie story, and we all know how much I love zombie stuff, but it’s so much more than that.  Patient Zero is an action packed thriller in which the real bad guys aren’t zombies, but terrorists wielding a biological weapon that turns ordinary citizens into zombies.  Even after finishing this novel I was still thinking about it, and the main character Joe Ledger.  Joe’s voice is distinct and wow is he funny.  I had a crush on Joe within the first 2 pages of Patient Zero, sorry SuperSteve, and was terrified something bad was going to happen to him.  I’m glad there are more novels in the series, and I’ve added them all to my wish list.  I’ve also added Maberry’s Rot & Ruin series for young adults to my wish list.  If you like edge of your seat thrillers and zombie horror novels pick up Patient Zero, you won’t regret it.

Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin

ISBN:  978-0312382858

If you like this book you may want to read:

Dragon Factory (Joe Ledger #2) by Jonathan Maberry

Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon (see BookGirlR’s review here)

Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End by Manel Loureiro (see BookGirlR’s review here)

The Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Grant (see BookGirlR’s review of Feed here)

Scorcher - Review

Title: Scorcher

Author:  Kelly Edwards

Series:  Forces of Nature

Synopsis:   “Supervillains are people too.  They’re not always megalomaniacs with dreams of world domination.  Sometimes they’re just people doing whatever they must to get by.

     “Aidan Grey is a college student with goals for the future, a drive to succeed, and a little time for romance.  She’s also a woman with a secret.  At eleven, she was orphaned due to the accidental use of her pyrokinetic abilities.  She was taken in by the secret criminal organization known as Iris and trained to use her abilities for the organization’s profit.

     “Marty Knox is a police detective who loves his family, tried to genuinely make a difference in the world and falls hard for Aidan.  He shows up just as Aidan is starting to question her loyalties to Iris and she’s surprised to find that she can’t resist him, even if it would be dangerous to get involved with someone on the right side of the law.  What Aidan doesn’t realize is that Marty has a secret of his own, one that would endanger both their lives if discovered by Iris.”

Review:  Let’s start with the bad so we can get to the good.  I read another review that mentioned “superfluous language”, that the first few pages are overly descriptive, and that “Finally, there was no flow to it, no rhythm. I'm not looking for poetry, but some serious editing needs to occur” (see this review here on Amazon).  I’m going to tell you that all of this is true, to an extent.  When I first started reading Scorcher, 2 years ago, I stopped before reaching the end of the first chapter.  Those first few pages are, to be very frank, horrible.  It’s all telling, no showing.  Page after page of stilted exposition that needs an editor in a bad way.  Today I picked up the novel again, determined to get through it and either write my review or contact the author to explain why I had not posted the review.  I ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting and craving more.  Seriously, my butt hurts now. 

     When I began comparing the bad to the good when starting this review I began thinking about some other author’s first novels.  Exposition, telling versus showing, is something that many authors struggle with (myself included).  And the “superfluous language” that the previously mentioned reviewer commented upon is a common byproduct of exposition, trying to get the reader more involved Edwards throws in too many exciting adverbs and adjectives.  Keep reading however, after those first few pages Scorcher gets much, much better.  I love anything superhero or supervillian related!  The telling stops and the showing begins (there are a few lapses here and there, but they are few).  The main characters are developed well, as are many of the secondary characters.  I would like to learn more about many of the agents that work with Scorcher and Chill.  Maybe there could even be more novels about their individual stories?  The relationship between Marty and his “normal” family is heartwarming.  Yes, it could have used a little more editing, but the plot is strong, and the relationship between Aiden and Marty is intense and believable.  It’s like a comic book in novel form, without all the distracting pictures!  At the time of this review the Kindle copy of Scorcher is only $2.99, buy it here, you’re definitely getting your money’s worth.

      

     BAM!  POW!  Scorcher dragged me in kicking and screaming.  When can I get my hands on the sequel?

**I received a free copy of this novel from the author in exchange for my honest review**

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

ISBN: 978-1480214484

If you like this book you may want to read:

The Sign of the Zodiac Series by Vicki Pettersson

Those Who Walk in Darkness by John Ridley

Feature & Follow 5.18.14

This week's Feature & Follow asks the question: Have you met a favorite author and have a picture? Share. I have not met any of my favorite authors. I honestly am not sure that I would ever want to. I feel that meeting my favorite authors may disappoint me. You see, I have what I admit are idealized fantasies of what my favorite authors are like. Were I to actually meet any of them I am sure that I would be disappointed when they were not what I had imagined them to be. I do however love to have autographed copies of my favorite novels from my favorite authors. Here's a picture of one:

Please take a minute to say HI! And follow my blog.  I will be having a giveaway when BookGirl's BookNook reaches 100 followers!

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!

Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don’t just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don’t say “HI”

Fevre Dream - Review

Title:  Fevre Dream

Author: George R. R. Martin

Synopsis:  “Abner Marsh, a struggling riverboat captain, suspects that something’s amiss when he is approached by a wealthy aristocrat with a lucrative offer.  The hauntingly pale, steely-eyed Joshua York doesn’t care that the icy winter of 1857 has wiped out all but one of Marsh’s dilapidated fleet; nor does he care that he won’t earn back his investment in a decade.  York’s reasons for traversing the powerful Mississippi are to be none of Marsh’s concern – no matter how bizarre, arbitrary, or capricious York’s actions may prove.  Not until the maiden voyage of Fevre Dream does Marsh realize that he has joined a mission both more sinister, and perhaps more noble, than his most fantastic nightmare—and humankind’s most impossible dream.”

Review:  I’m not a huge fan of Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series.  Don’t get me wrong, they are wonderfully written novels.  The story just doesn’t do it for me.  That has always made me sad, because I admire Martin’s gift with words and the way he puts them together into sentences, which then form paragraphs.  You see where I'm going with this right?  I don’t have to be sad anymore, because I have discovered that he has written other novels and these novels are just as well written and catch my fancy better than A Game of Thrones. 

     Fevre Dream is a wonderful historical story of horror and vampires, and steamboats on the Mississippi River.  Since I picked it up I haven’t wanted to put it down.  When I reached the last few pages I was sad because it was almost over.  Even now, an hour later, I’m still grieving.  I feel sorry for whatever I choose to read next because I know it won’t even come close to being as good as Fevre Dream.  The mystery of who, or what, Joshua York really is grabbed me right off.  I knew the truth, and watching Abner Marsh come to the realization so slowly made me want to grab him and shake him until he figured it out.  Martin’s amazing description of the rich history of this time period flowed off of the page and into my brain so vividly that I could see the swirling muddy water of the Mississippi and smell the smoke in the air.  The ending was perfect and could not have met my expectations better even if I had written it myself.  This is not your typical vampire novel, it’s way better.  Do yourself a favor and add it to your summer reading list!

Publisher:  Bantam Books

ISBN:  978-0553577938

Looking for more novels that give a different spin to the classic vampire tale?  Try these fantastic novels:

Sunshine by Robin McKinley (Find out why this is BookGirlR's favorite book here)

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman

A Taint in the Blood by S. M. Stirling

Blood Rights by Kristen Painter