Natalina Reis's Blog, page 17

Legendborn – Review

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I give Legendborn an enthusiastic five stars. It’s been a while since I was this invested in a book. Everything about it spoke to me: the intricate plot, the well-developed characters, the glimpses of history mixed with fantasy and the legend of Arthur.
My own stories are mixes of different histories, different cultures so this one was just up my alley. Tracy Deonn was able to weave all these legends and lore from two very different cultures seamlessly, injecting new life into the old (and sometimes overused) stories.
As a lover of the underdog, this book didn’t disappoint me either. There was the protagonist, Bree, the only African American in a elitist Anglo-Saxon group, Sel who is viewed by all as a tool rather than a full-fledged member of the society (and who I totally fell in love with), and even Nick who seems helpless against his own fate and the will of his father.
The twist at the end was awesome too (no spoilers, lol).
Finally I must give the author kudos for not doing what some YA fiction writers do, which is water-down the language. The book is written in rich vocabulary, a reminder of the children’s books I read as a child that taught me language is a weapon with which the author either destroys or elevates you, feeding your heart and your soul.
And that cover! Perfection!

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Kiss of the Swan – Cover Reveal

Blurb

Once upon a time there was a captive queen who fell in love with a tormented hero.

When Cathal follows his cruel brother into the sacred and forbidden Swan Island, he walks straight into the hands of the King’s swans and the heart of their beautiful queen.

Eala lives in a gilded cage, a puppet controlled by the king of Nem. She wants nothing else but to be free from the king’s clutches and to live happily ever after in Cathal’s arms.

While Cathal is determined to break Eala out of her cage even if he dies trying, Eala is driven by the desire to protect him and her people at all costs.

Destiny, however, has other plans.

Secrets, long hidden and forgotten, resurface as Eala and Cathal realize nothing is what it seems except their love for each other.

Will Cathal be able to free his queen without dooming himself and her people to a life of pain and misery?

Kiss of the Swan is a reimagined and fractured fairy tale drawing from stories such as Sleeping Beauty and the Tale of the Six Swans. Let the magic of the swans fill your heart and leave you breathless.

Pre-Order Available for a Special Low Price

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Cover design by Adriatica Creation

Of Fire & Bone- New Release

 Author: Natalina ReisTitle: Of Fire & BoneSeries: Of Magic & Scale, book 3Genre: Gay Paranormal RomanceRelease Date: June 19, 2021Publisher: Hot Tree PublishingCover Designer: BookSmith Design NOW LIVE!Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3eUCwbxAll links: https://books2read.com/offireandbone As if having a powerful druid and a goddess for parents doesn’t suck enough, throwing a vengeful god into the fray certainly doesn’t do Aiden any favors.Aiden Mercer’s summer has been interesting—if by interesting you mean life-threatening and heartbreaking that is. With fall fast approaching, he’s looking for a quiet time in the arms of his boyfriend, Naël, the handsome merman.Alas, life never quite goes the way you plan it, does it? Unless Aiden finds a way to stop the wicked god Baburaj and his mother, Jhanvi from achieving their devilish goals, pain and destruction will hover over him like a starving vulture.In the third and final book in the Of Magic & Scales series, the familiar cast of zany but lovable characters is back, and they are bringing reinforcements for what promises to be an epic and sexy ending. Join Aiden, Naël, and their circle of magical friends in their final adventure.**No magical creatures were harmed in the writing of this book** Available now! Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3eUCwbx Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2K37eUK Amazon CA: https://amzn.to/3noAmUR Amazon AU: https://amzn.to/3kzMBfz iTunes: https://apple.co/2UlSTET Nook: https://bit.ly/32D2XxA Kobo: https://bit.ly/36uII6p Of Magic & Scales Series Available in Of Magic & Scales Book 1ON SALE FOR 99c! books2read.com/OfMagicandScales Of Scales & Fire Book 2 books2read.com/ofscalesandfire Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | InstagramAuthor of We Will Always Have the Closet, Desert Jewel, and Loved You Always, Natalina wrote her first romance in collaboration with her best friend at the age of 13. Since then she has ventured into other genres, but romance is first and foremost in almost everything she writes.After earning a degree in tourism and foreign languages, she worked as a tourist guide in her native Portugal for a short time before moving to the United States. She lived in three continents and a few islands, and her knack for languages and linguistics led her to a master’s degree in education. She lives in Virginia where she has taught English as a Second Language to elementary school children for more years than she cares to admit.

Natalina doesn’t believe you can have too many books or too much coffee. Art and dance make her happy and she is pretty sure she could survive on lobster and bananas alone. When she is not writing or stressing over lesson plans, she shares her life with her husband and two adult sons.

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Cover of the Month

They say not to judge a book by its cover but I need you to do just that. If you liked the cover of my book, Dating the Intern, please vote for it for the Cover of the Month contest on AllAuthor.com!

I’m getting closer to clinch the “Cover of the Month” contest on AllAuthor! I’d need as much support from you guys. Please take a short moment to vote for my book cover here:
Click to Vote!

Running Ragged

When you unpack your overnight bag at the hotel and realize that you forgot to pack your pajamas, your phone charger, and a book (three things you never, ever forget), you finally realize that maybe, just maybe, you have finally managed to run yourself ragged.

For the past few weeks I have been exhausted both physically and mentally, so much so that my body keeps complaining with aches and pains in places I didn’t even know could hurt, and my brain seems to be suffering from serious hiccups where I forget things, can’t focus on anything long enough, and feel irritated about the most mundane, silly things ever. This early morning person is having trouble getting out of bed in the morning, not wanting to go out at all, and with tears always on the verge of falling. It is time to reassess my life.

As I sat at a booth in an outdoor craft fair all day yesterday, it hit me: I overdone it. I have ran myself to the ground one day at a time. It took me a few years to get here but apparently I’m no super woman after all. I do have limits.

For the past five or six years I have been juggling a full-time teaching job, serious family issues, and a writing career. I have published (both traditionally and self-published) a total of fifteen books (to be sixteen in just a few more days) and written a few more (at the time of this writing I have three more finished novels and one in progress). At times, I’ve been proud of myself for handling all of this so well, but more often than not I feel guilty that I haven’t done more. I see writer friends who publish books every other month and I blame myself for not being able to do the same.

In comes the inner critic, pointing its long finger. You’re lazy. You don’t manage your time right. You don’t need so many hours of sleep. And on and on and on…. So I add guilt and despondency to my already overpacked work bag.

I was also surprised by how well I handled this crazy pandemic year and how unaffected I was compared to a lot of other people. Except I was missing the point. It just hadn’t hit me yet. But for the past few weeks, as the school year came to a close, it smacked me hard, to the point of feeling physically sick and emotionally done.

I have pushed myself too hard and it shows. Thankfully, the craziest ever, most exhausting school year is over and I’m hoping to be able to rest and focus on the fun side of writing (with a side of not so fun marketing) without pushing myself to the edge. I also want to use these few weeks to minimize by uncluttering my work space and my house in general because order relaxes me.

So yesterday was my wakeup call, my take-it-easy warning. On Friday as I got home from the last day of school all I wanted to do was to lie down and sleep, but I had to pack to go to this event. It was like torture and I, as I mentioned before, forgot quite a few important items. I was so tired during the event that the fact I sold ONE book in eight hours didn’t even bother me (I guess I can count that as a positive side effect, lol). I was so exhausted that Southern pulled chicken swimming in BBQ sauce and beans cooked with brown sugar seemed to be a great choice for my low-carb diet. I was so colossally pooped that I couldn’t keep my eyes open by 9 PM and still couldn’t get out of bed this morning.

At Blue Quartz Winery, Etlan, VA

I’m taking this week off. It doesn’t mean I won’t do anything, but I decided to take it easy and not stress so much about all the deadlines hanging over my head (and there are a lot of them), my new release next weekend, or my diet. I’m going to take in as many yoga classes as I can, do my daily walks in the neighborhood, write, read, do things I enjoy, and just write and breathe.

Did you ever push yourself so hard you felt you were fragmented? What did you do to fix it?

Demons Do It Better- Book Review

Demons Do It Better by Louisa Masters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was such a fun read. Just what I needed. Loved Sam, Gideon and especially Alastair (he reminds me of a friend I had). There were a few spots where there was too much information and I skimmed a bit, but I have a tendency to not care for certain details so maybe it was just me. The banter was perfect, the mayhem top notch, and the friendships believable and fun. Definitely going to keep reading this series. Congrats Ms. Masters!

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Aspircholy-Not a Vegetable

As a linguist and a writer I am of the opinion the English language needs a new word, one that will translate and classify these feelings I have been having for a while. I think technically it’s envy or jealousy but in truth it is not. Let me explain. Envy and jealousy both evoke very negative feelings, some that in fact are normally accompanied by ill-wishing and even thoughts of revenge. If you’re envious of someone you might be sticking needles in that voodoo doll you bought on your last trip to New Orleans, right? Same with jealously which blinds you to facts and creates a sort of psychosis that makes you say and do some serious stupid stuff.

That is not what I’m feeling. Much to the contrary, this feeling is one of contrasts; if on one hand I am “envious” of someone’s success, I do not begrudge him/her that. In fact I am excited and happy for them. I want them to succeed. I’m happy that they are reaping the well-deserved fruits of their hard work and hope it only gets better. So what do I call this frustration and heartache I feel when I see other writers being successful while my books languish in total obscurity, collecting cyber dust on their pretty cyber covers?

The “experts” claim that the closest word to describe what I am feeling is “aspire” or “admire”, which I do, but there’s another layer to it. Aspiring to do something or admiring someone does not normally bring heartache with it, that terrible feeling of failure and/or rejection. It’s almost like a blend of aspiration and melancholy, so maybe we should induct the word aspircholy into the dictionary. Before you reject the idea hear me out.

The word aspire literally means to strive for and the suffix choly comes from the Greek word for bile. So if you put them together in a noun you get bile-producing admiration which is a lot less negative that envy or jealousy, right? Come on, guys, work with me. The word even sounds like asparagus and broccoli put together which everyone knows are great for your health.

All kidding aside what are some words you wish actually existed to express feelings or name something that so far no-one has been able to clearly classify?

Dowser Series #5 – Review

Maps, Artifacts, and other Arcane Magic by Meghan Ciana Doidge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I continue to love Jade and her slightly airhead personality. She’s smart and strong but doesn’t believe herself to be and that’s just my kind of heroine. I missed Kandy–so glad she made a short appearance through a phone call–in this book but I’m sure she’ll be back stronger than ever. This installment of the Dowser Series also includes the budding romance between Jade and the Sentinel and let’s just say that sparks fly at some point.
Great story, great characters, great writing, awesome sense of humor. There was a scene in particular when Jade, Kett, and Warren (I may have his name spelled wrong) meet with three clueless young adepts that had me laughing out loud. Good thing I was not in public.
Highly recommend.

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The Longest Year

It was an unprecedented year for pretty much everyone around the globe. The pandemic not only (beside the obvious health crisis) closed businesses and made people lose their minds over toilet paper and hand sanitizer, but also caused the weirdest, most exhausting school year in recent history.

Which makes me think of my own teachers when I was in seventh grade. That year the old Portuguese colonies were given back their independence leading to a massive exodus of refugees. Our tiny country was flooded with thousands of people fleeing dangerous and unstable situations in the former colonies. Most of those refugees were school age children. Schools were overwhelmed and “new” locations had to be found on the fly.

That year I attended four different school locations, most of which were improvised and not appropriate for schooling. I am now in a position of looking back and thinking, “Holy crap, how exhausted those poor teachers must have been back then, trying to teach kids who were tired of being moved around from one building to another–each one farther away than the previous location–in classrooms that were not classrooms and with close to zero materials.

Colonia Balnear do Seculo/Vacation Club for children of low income families and one of my school locations

I wonder how many of those teachers came back the next year. How many decided to change careers or retire early. It’s been a lifetime but I finally understand why one of my young teachers burst into tears and ran out of the classroom on a particularly bad behavior day or why others just had us do “busy work”. Why so many of my teachers were often absent that year. It wasn’t because they didn’t care or because they were bad teachers. They were just bone-tired, exhausted. How do I know? Because I feel the same as this crazy school year comes to a close.

I’m an elementary school teacher (one of my two full-time jobs), a specialist who teaches language-based curriculum to children whose first language is not English. The 2019-20 school year ended with a bang when we were all sent home and told not to come back until further notice. Most of us didn’t come back until early 2021 when schools began to bring a small percentage of children to the school buildings one grade at a time.

Others, like some special education and English as a second language teachers were required to be in the building from the very beginning of the school year. I was one of them. My co-teacher and I had a small group of newcomers (children with no English) in person and many more virtual. We nearly went bananas for the first couple months as we tried to figure out how to teach one first grader, one second grader and over thirty fourth graders in person and virtually all at the same time while keeping up with different schedules for art, music, library, and PE. But we made it. After the initial chaos we actually found an effective rhythm. But it hasn’t been easy.

My newcomers classroom this year.

We thought life would go back to some normalcy once all the grades were back even if only partially in person, but it just got crazier. Parents were allowed to decide whether their children would be coming to school in person or only virtually every quarter since. What people obviously were not aware of was that every time there was a change even if only by one student, it meant a whole lot of changes for anyone in the school. Keep in mind that we were required to keep students apart by at least 6 feet, the kids were not allowed to share materials and they couldn’t sit together in the cafeteria as before. Considering the size of our school, this became a real challenge even with only a fraction of the school population. Since the beginning of 2021 we, teachers and other school personnel, have been constantly adapting to new schedules, new groups of kids, new everything. It has left us exhausted and brain-drained.

Despite the craziness of this school year, teachers are still being asked to teach summer school, to tutor, to take classes during the break when they really should be recharging and getting ready for next year because it will be another crazy year. 2021-22 will be the year that those on the top will demand that us in the field will perform miracles and make up for a whole year and a half of mostly missed instruction.

Under the Power vs Novoland

It’s no secret I love Chinese period/fantasy dramas. After having watched amazing productions like Eternal Love, Ashes of Love, and The Untamed I have apparently become much pickier about what I watch.

I am currently watching two C-dramas, Novoland Castle in the Sky (2016) and Under the Power (2019). I started watching the former because of the actor who plays the main male character. I had just finished watching Joy of Life (I’m still mad that the second season hasn’t been released yet after that ending) and loved it. I particularly loved the way Zhang Ruoyun played the main character so when I found out that he played the main role in Novoland I was super excited. Imagine my disappointment when I quickly realized the show left much to be desired.

Novoland Castle in the Sky (series poster)

This shows fails in so many ways. The acting is terribly over-dramatic (I’m guessing these were all novice actors at the time), the settings are obviously cheaply made and poorly finished (you can actually see spots of paint where it bled over the edges), and the plot (which has so much potential) is so ridiculously repetitive I got tired of it really quickly. The only saving(ish) grace is the female main character played by Gabrielle Guan who does the best acting of the show. I might go back to it at a later date and finish watching it, but for now it’s on the backburner. Life is too short to watch mediocre stuff.

By contrast, Under the Power is one of the best C-period dramas I have watched to date. The acting is excellent, the characters (including the supporting ones) are well-rounded, beautifully crafted, and believable (even when in the middle of a kung fu fight), and the settings feel real and “finished”.

Under the Power (series poster)

Tan Songyun, who plays the main female role, is amazing. She’s a natural. Her acting does not feel like acting. She plays a likable, strong female who is not perfect but very smart. She’s a mixture of a tomboy and a girly-girly and it comes across so real and adorable. Unlike other C-drama female characters, Xi Shui, does not get constantly tricked, and however kind-hearted and generous, she does not allow herself to be stepped on. I also love that the romance between her and Lu Yi, played by the great Ren Jialun (who I was not crazy about before but am now), does not fall into some of the usual traps of C-drama (like going along with the family’s idea that they are incompatible due to class status or whatever) and they both solve their relationship problems by doing the sensible thing: talking about it.

Picture by OnDemandChina English Official Channel

There is a lot of humor from how the two main characters romance develops from a mutual dislike to admiration and respect and eventually love and also from some of the supporting cast. Xie Xiao (played by Ethan Yao) is hilarious as the clueless, immature friend who is capable but always sticking his foot in his mouth. Or Xi Shui’s brother, Yang Hue (played by Lu Hong), who is shy, loyal, and awkward, doggedly and humbly pursuing the love of his life despite her indifference.

Even the villain, the despicable Yan Shi Fan (played by Han Dong) is amazing. The contrast between his genteel ways and love for art and his immoral, unsavory desires and cruelty is played to perfection by this actor.

Yan Shi Fan (series poster)

I do hope this drama breaks another of the C-drama common traps, which is a terrible ending (either one of the main characters dies or then there is this ambiguous ending that leaves you guessing). I want all of these characters (minus the villain: kill him, please) to have their happy ever after. I’m in the last ten episodes of the series and both excited about and dreading the end. I totally recommend this drama to anyone who loves C-drama with romance, mystery, and some history.