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Muse (Muse #1)

by Janica L. Stoff (Goodreads Author)

3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 · rating details · 29 ratings · 11 reviews

The last thing Callie expected to receive for her sixteenth birthday was the power to freeze time. Before she can adjust to her new talent though, she discovers that her worst enemy, her best friend, and six other girls are all descendants of the nine Greek Muses, and are now blessed with various magic abilities.

Between visions of the future and ghosts of the past they com...more

Paperback, 297 pages

Published March 19th 2012 by Asimi Publications (first published March 1st 2012)

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2012 Debut Authors (Young Adult & Middle Grade)

439th out of 794 books — 4,502 voters

Self Published Young Adult Books

472nd out of 1,033 books — 1,643 voters

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Apr 10, 2012 Sarah's Reviews rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2012

All Callie wanted for her sixteenth birthday was a drivers license - what she got, was the magical ability to freeze time. Pretty cool, unless you don't have a clue what's going on, and the only person who seems to know is your least favorite individual in the whole world. Then there's the matter of the monster on it's way to kill her. . .

MUSE is an easy flowing young adult read with strong links to Greek Mythology. It contains some language ("hell", The Lord's name in vain), injuries, fighting...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Kathy Schneider rated it 4 of 5 stars

I hadn't really been in a reading mood recently so I wasn't really expecting to get very far when I picked up Muse the other day. However once I started it, I just couldn't put it down. I love the characters in this story. They just jump off the page. Callie seems like exactly the kind of girl I would have loved to have for a friend when I was her age and her adventures are exciting and fun.
It's a blend of high school drama, Greek mythology, and teen fantasy and they work so well together to cre...more

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Mar 04, 2013 Witchmag rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: paranormal, read-2012, young-adult, zzz-reviewed

Read the full review at Witchmag's Boekenplank

I liked the concept of this book. However I wasn’t exactly thrilled with how it’s executed. While reading the book I felt that I was holding an unpolished gem. That could have shone like the brightest star, if only someone had taken the effort to polish it. Unfortunately, the story was unable to shine and throughout I only got glimpses of what great book this could have been. Such a shame…

As I said, I thought the concept was pretty interesting. I lov...more Read the full review at Witchmag's Boekenplank

I liked the concept of this book. However I wasn’t exactly thrilled with how it’s executed. While reading the book I felt that I was holding an unpolished gem. That could have shone like the brightest star, if only someone had taken the effort to polish it. Unfortunately, the story was unable to shine and throughout I only got glimpses of what great book this could have been. Such a shame…

As I said, I thought the concept was pretty interesting. I love my mythology, especially the Greek one and I absolutely love retellings. It’s great to read a well-known story from a different point of view. It makes you think twice about the original one and discover lots and lots of little details you’ve never seem to notice. Like this story, with the nine muses. Although I knew they existed, I’ve never really paid attention to them. Except when I had to learn about the for my exams (and quickly forgot everything afterwards. It WAS boring…) So I liked refreshing my memory and read about them in a not so stern and I-have-to-remember-it-later book.

I was also happy with the powers. Every muse has a different one. But there seemed to be no reason behind which muse had which powers. As if they were given at random. Each muse was given a “sphere of influence” wouldn’t it be logical if that muse had powers that matched that sphere of influence?

That was the highlight of the story for me. The rest was full of dirt and grime and I had a hard time finishing it. Mostly because of how the girls reacted emotionally. Some things just aren’t possible. Or happen way too fast to make it believable. For example, I can’t believe it’s possible that someone, who’s been pushing people away for years, who build up a massive wall to keep people out, can change in a heartbeat. That’s not how human emotions work. It’s a process that can take quite some time and isn’t fixed with one big fight. This is one of the many examples I could give you where the feelings where not in line with what was happening. And don’t let me get started about the romance in this book!

Then we have the girls, the nine muses. We experience the story though the eyes of Callie, who isn’t exactly the best protagonist out there. She’s unable to make life or death decisions, unable to open her mouth (even when her boyfriend is taken by her “friend”), behaves like a little child who is not able to see the consequences and is capable of ditching her BFF in a heartbeat. Just because she doesn’t have powers… Not someone you’d be able to love, don’t you think? And she stays this way the entire story. There’s no character development at all…

And that was just the tip of the iceberg with things that I didn’t like. But I’ll stop here to spare you guys my ranting.

Conclusion: 1 heart. The only thing I liked was the concept with the muses. It was very refreshing to read about them, since most books only focus on the “big and well-known” gods. However I didn’t like how it was executed. The book didn’t feel credible at all. There’s also a protagonist that I just couldn’t stand, with nada character development and use of human emotions in the most strangest and unbelievable ways. I hope you’ll now understand my low rating for this one.(less)

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Jun 11, 2012 Mandy Sickle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, first-in-series, owned-books, paranormal, 2012, read2review, reading-diaries-reviews, ebooks

I received this book in a giveaway, however it's a autographed copy so I'm super lucky.

The story centers mostly from Callie's point of view, she's your typical teenage girl trying to make it through school when she wakes up on her birthday to have the ability to freeze time. Her grandmother encourages her while her mother tries to kill it before anything can happen. Through they story Callie learns that she's a descendant from the Greek muses and that she's not the only one there are nine of th...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Shirley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bout-of-books-may-2012

I had heard absolutely nothing about this book until I received a request from the author asking me if I wanted to read it. Janica L. Stoff then sent me a paper back copy in exchange for an honest review. It took me a while to actually pick it up and get started. For that I am genuinely sorry because it was a refreshing read.

I love paranormal and fantasy stories and I’m a sucker for anything that deals with mythology. Because of that, it should be no surprise that I liked Muse. Callie was one of...more

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Sep 09, 2012 Kristilyn (Reading In Winter & Winter Distractions) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: physical-book, read-in-2012, review-books-completed

Thank you to Janica for sending me a copy of this book for review!

I found this book to be a delight from start to finish. It was perfectly paced and had just the right amount of action to keep me interested the whole time. In fact, when I started reading it, I was reminded of the TV show The Secret Circle — once I got the show in my head, it was hard to read about the main character, Callie, without seeing Cassie from the show, or to read about Clio without seeing Faye. That’s not to say that t...more Thank you to Janica for sending me a copy of this book for review!

I found this book to be a delight from start to finish. It was perfectly paced and had just the right amount of action to keep me interested the whole time. In fact, when I started reading it, I was reminded of the TV show The Secret Circle — once I got the show in my head, it was hard to read about the main character, Callie, without seeing Cassie from the show, or to read about Clio without seeing Faye. That’s not to say that the book was that similar to the TV show — actually, it was kind of neat to see those characters in my head as I read.

I loved that the story was about the Greek muses and that the girls received their powers on their 16th birthday. While it might be assumed that they would all have the same powers, it’s nice to see that they don’t — and that they don’t even know what their powers will be. It was great to see the girls get closer as the book goes on. Of course, there are ups and downs in the friendship, which is just natural, but it really added to the flow of the book.

And romance! Yes, there’s romance! It’s not hot and heavy, but perfect PG romance — suitable for a younger YA read. I thought the love interests may have hooked up just a little too quickly — just a wee bit of instalove — but it totally worked out in the end. And there’s mystery! Right when I thought I knew what was going on, I was totally wrong, which I loved! There’s nothing worse than guessing what’s going to happen in a book right away.

The writing is great — maybe a bit of flow problems the odd time — but it’s definitely a fun book to read. No mention of a sequel or anything, but the book does end with a cliffhanger, so we might meet these characters again!

(As a side-note, I did want a few more fun things to happen with Callie’s power. I mean, she can FREEZE TIME! Maybe it’s just me, but I wanted just a few more shenanigans – I know I would totally be wreaking havoc on people. Maybe I’m just not serious enough.)

Read more reviews on my blog, Reading In Winter:

(less)

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Sep 19, 2012 Robin Tidwell rated it 5 of 5 stars

“The last thing Callie expected to receive for her sixteenth birthday was the power to freeze time.”

So where’s the sequel? When is it coming out?? Yes, “Muse” is that good!
Callie and her friends (or, in some cases, frenemies) form an alliance to fight evil with good – of course, it takes both time and thought to determine exactly who is the enemy and who and how they must fight. This group of high schoolers, however, is smart, savvy, and fearless and will likely triumph if all goes according to...more

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Jun 23, 2012 Nicole marked it as lost-interest

Shelves: arcs-and-first-reads, ya, fiction, mythology, light, friendship, skimmed-or-dnf, read-in-2012

I won a copy of this through First Reads and was pretty excited about it because I love Greek mythology. But I'm abandoning it (for now) because I'm just not getting into it. I'm withholding a star rating since I only read about a quarter in. It isn't bad but it's a bit "younger" YA than I was expecting and doesn't really mesh with my current reading proclivities.

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May 16, 2012 Nicole Deatherage rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: may-reading-challenge-vampires-go

3.5 star rating.

I really wanted to like this book enough to give it a 5 star rating, but it was just a little too juvenile enough for my tastes. Callie was a likeable enough character, but there was something missing from the book as a whole. There wasn't enough Greek Mythology, and I figured out who the bad guy was like...five seconds after the character was introduced.

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Nov 14, 2012 Andrea rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is not my normal genre but I LOVED IT! Cannot wait for the next one!

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Mar 08, 2013 Ayanami Faerudo rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2013

..... Whut?

Good concept. Terrible story development. Dang it.

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Aug 13, 2012 Pedro rated it 5 of 5 stars

I happy to have received the book through the Goodreads giveaway program.

When Callie receives the power to freeze time in her sixteen birthday her life is turned upside down. To make the matters worst, her worst enemy seems to know her secret and a evil creature plots against them all.

It is a light and very pleasant reading reading. The style allows the reader to step on and find himself unable to leave it. A very good book, i just can't wait to read more from this author.

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Shelves: power-heroines

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