Natalina Reis's Blog, page 8

The Promised Neverland #5

The Promised Neverland, Vol. 5 by Kaiu Shirai
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The rollercoaster ride continues. Every time I think there is no possible new twist, Kaiu Shirai comes up with another. In this Neverland world nothing is what it seems and danger lurks in every corner. To quote one of the characters, even nature is against them sometimes.
Just ordered #6.

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You Can Do Magic -Blog Tour

R.L. Merrill has a new MM rock ‘n roll fantasy/paranormal romance (bi, gay) out in the Carnival of Mysteries shared universe: You Can Do Magic. This is also book three in Merrill’s Summer of Hush series. And there’s a giveaway.

From the author of Foreword Indies Finalist Summer of Hush and BookLife Prize Quarterfinalist Brains and Brawn comes a new installment in the series, a contemporary gay romance with a side of time travel and magic.

Musical prodigy Kallos Alexandrou has played his calliope for countless visitors at Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries, but his one-year residency has come to an end. Scars from a terrible tragedy in his past are the only explanation he has for his loss of speech and memory, but it’s time to move on, so when a music festival sets up next to the carnival, Mr. Ame sends him off with identification, a bottomless billfold, and a set of new clothes. Outside the carnival’s perimeter, Kal finds himself in an unfamiliar world surrounded by strange instruments and vibrant people like nothing he’s ever seen.

Ryan Wells is the troubled and celebrated lead singer of the metal band Backdrop Silhouette. He’s brought more than his share of baggage on the last cross-country Warped Tour, including harsh restrictions placed on him by his parole officer and the band’s label, but it’s the treatment from his bandmates that have him feeling unsettled. After a tough morning, he spots a strange young man playing carnival music on a keyboard backstage, and the sound takes him back to a particularly vulnerable time in his youth. Intrigued, Ryan asks the young man’s name, but he flees only to appear later as a replacement stagehand for the tour.

An invitation from the band Hush to ride on their bus gives Ryan and Kal a welcome distraction. They find the camaraderie and support they’ve both been craving…as well as a little magic and a fresh new romance. But the music business makes personal relationships difficult to maintain, and when the tour ends, Ryan and Kal will have to make a choice: move forward together on an uncertain path, or let fear keep them from trusting that sometimes you really can have everything you desire.

You Can Do Magic is part of the multi-author Carnival of Mysteries Series. Each book stands alone, but each one includes at least one visit to Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries, a magical, multiverse traveling show full of unusual acts, games, and rides. The Carnival changes to suit the world it’s on, so each visit is unique and special. This book contains a Depression-era calliaphone, a Ouija board with a purpose, and tour bus hijinks that will warm your heart and make you gigglesnort. Reading Summer of Hush and Brains and Brawn before this book will give you the full Warped Tour experience, but You Can Do Magic can be read as a standalone as well as the other books in the shared universe. Recommended 18+.

Warnings: Mention of prior sexual abuse, off-page, no descriptions

About the Series

Welcome, everyone, to the Carnival of Mysteries! In this shared element multiverse, we invite you to partake of an array of stories by an eclectic group of authors. You’ll find action, intrigue, mystery, danger, sweetness, and sorrow, but, above all, true love! So grab your ticket, indulge in some treats, experience a few thrills, maybe have your fortune read… there is something for everyone at the Carnival!

Get It On Amazon

Giveaway

R.L. is giving away a $30 Spotify gift card with this tour:

a Rafflecopter giveaway https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js

Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47298/?

Excerpt

Chapter One
Kal

A new day breaks
Under the blue skies above
A new crowd waits
All they need is a little shove
The Carnival is here
With mysteries galore
To satisfy your cravings
To leave you wanting more
We’re here today, gone the next,
Taking along our magic and song.
Come inside, take a peek
Surprises like these won’t wait long
Here we have the fantastical calliope,
come dance with our talented Kal
His music will delight and seduce you
With the power of the siren’s call
So step right up, and don’t be shy
For his time is coming to a close
Come shimmy and shake with this talented guy
And celebrate the last of his shows…

I’d memorized the ringmaster’s introduction, though it was more sensational than I deserved. And last night’s version had a new ending, one I’d been expecting, but hearing it brought a sliver of anxiety to my bones.

The instrument I played was actually a calliaphone—a more efficient and portable version of the forced-air organ—and I’d built it myself, that much I knew. It was my voice. It spoke all I knew to say, my own words lacking. I possessed the ability to speak, but I’d mostly forgotten how, therefore I preferred to let my music speak for me. I played for the crowds. I smiled for them, but I was transparent to the onlooker.

One year had passed in this way, one year of my life, and I had nothing of my own. No friends to help, no family to love, and no safe place to lay my head away from the carnival. What would I do, where would I go, and would someone see me for me?

The boss, Mr. Ame, told me soon it would be time to move on to the next phase. I’d no clue what that meant other than I would no longer travel with the carnival. There was nothing to pack, nothing to carry, only the clothes—and the scars—I wore on my body. I would miss my calliaphone and the crowds, but I knew it was time. My stay had been healing, educational. My time taught me plenty. The carnival would go on without me and my music, on to the next place to entertain…and seduce the locals. They’d fall under the spell of my fellow travelers. Some might even be chosen to come along.

I remembered little from my time before I, too, had joined the carnival. Humiliation and regret reverberated within the structures of my cells, but I didn’t recall more than that, much less the reason for the debt that forced me into servitude. The boss took me away from the darkness, and promised to set me free one day. But what was free, what would it mean, who would I be? A musician, a man, alone? I’d forgotten my past. I’d learned all I could in this place. Would I survive what lay ahead?

I took my questions to the man in charge, the one they call Errante Ame, and he confirmed that my time with the carnival was at an end.

“My dear, Kallos,” the boss said to me. “The world has done you wrong, not the other way around. You have been a part of something important here, and we shall never forget the joy your music has brought to our clan and our guests. But now it is time for you to move on, as all in the crew must do.

It is your choice where you’ll go once you leave the perimeter, what you will do with the time you have left.

“You have been invisible to our guests for so long, adored for your playing, of course, but who you are remains unseen, unspoken. A blank canvas, a puzzle. Only you can solve the riddle of your life. The time is near when you will set out on your greatest adventure, the journey to find your purpose. Being reborn can be frightening. You will have questions, but the answers you seek can be found within yourself. All you must do is follow your instincts, and your heart’s desire. Do what you feel is right and true. Be good to yourself and your fellow creatures, and walk the path of least harm.

“When the next sun rises, you will step outside the bounds of the carnival. You will have all that you need to begin anew. By the following sunrise, our carnival will have moved on. A traveling music festival will share these grounds with us tomorrow. Perhaps you can start there.”

I knew down deep in my bones that he was correct, that something momentous was about to occur.

Author Bio

Whether she’s writing swoon-worthy contemporary romance featuring quirky, queer, and relatable characters or diving deep into the supernatural to give readers a shiver, R.L. Merrill loves creating compelling stories that will stay with readers long after closing the book. Ro writes inclusive romance for the Happily Ever After collective, contributes paranormal hilarity to Robyn Peterman’s Magic and Mayhem Universe, and pens horror-inspired tales and music reviews for HorrorAddicts.net. A mom, wife, daughter, and former educator, you can find her rocking out in her Bronco with Great Dane pup Velma, being terrorized by feline twins Dracula and Frankenstein, or headbanging at a rock show near her home in the San Francisco Bay Area! Stay Tuned for more…

Author Website: https://www.rlmerrillauthor.com

Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/rochellerlmerrill/

Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/rlmerrillauthor

Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rlmerrillauthor

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9828914.R_L_Merrill

Author QueeRomance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/r-l-merrill/

Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/R.L.-Merrill/author/B00PI6Q1LI

Six Degrees of Norman Baker

When I started writing You Can Do Magic, I knew that there would be a musical tie-in, and what better sound that the magnificent maelstrom that is the Calliope? Whether you pronounce it as the Greeks, Call-EYE-opee or like other aficionados, Cal-ee-YOPE, there’s not doubt that once you’ve beheld the grand mechanical orchestra, you’ll be forever altered. Only, once I started watching videos and listening to the music, I thought, you know, if this contraption is going to be traveling with a carnival, it should be portable somehow. I discovered some videos when searching for calliope that used the term calliaphone instead. But Ro, what the heck is a calliaphone?

I’m so glad you asked! According to Music House Museum (musichouse.org), “Norman Baker of Muscatine, Iowa established the Tangley Company to build similar instruments in 1914. He patented the name “Calliaphone” for his particular design of instruments. The Tangley Calliaphones were built successfully until 1931, when Mr. Baker was forced to leave the business for legal reasons unrelated to building the instruments.”

Fascinating, right? When you hear authors talking about falling down the research rabbit hole, boy did I ever, because, “hmmm, legal reasons, you say?”

The story of Norman Baker is a long and nefarious one. See, Norman Baker was, at different points in his life, a vaudeville performer, the creator of a mail-order art supply company, the inventor of the calliaphone, a radio station magnate who battled the U.S. government over limits to his broadcasting capabilities, and, most puzzling, the founder of the Baker Institute where he claimed folks could come and be cured of cancer! Wild, right? I HIGHLY encourage you to watch this YouTube documentary/reenactment of his escapades, or, and here’s where the six degrees comes in, you can pick up the book Quacks and Crusaders by Eric S. Juhnke.

Mr. Juhnke, a history professor in the Midwest, is the son of my beloved college history professor Bill Juhnke. We attended Graceland College together in the 90s, and I even dated his roommate for a minute! I’m not sure if that’s exactly six degrees or not, but you can see now how far I got carried away with my research. So much of what I read about Norman Baker’s life and work was eerily similar to some of the stories that came out during the pandemic, and it helped shape hero Kal’s backstory into a haunting tale of abandonment and devastation. I’m not done delving into this part of American history, that’s for sure.

Thanks for checking out You Can Do Magic: Carnival of Mysteries. I hope you enjoy! For more fun, check out the other stops on the blog tour and pick up the books in my adjacent series, Summer of Hush and Brains and Brawn, both in KU for a limited time. And Stay Tuned for More…

The Promised Neverland, vol. 4 – Book Review

The Promised Neverland, Vol. 4 by Kaiu Shirai
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Let’s just say that while reading volume 4 I kept sending text messages to the friend who originally recommended this series to me, texts that were mostly, “What? OMG! This can’t be true! Holy sh**!” So many twists in this already seriously twisted story. They left me shocked and delighted at the same time, something all authors want from the readers. Kudos for another surprising layer of this very dark story. The question is: will the author be able to keep up this level of I-never-saw-it-coming in the next volumes? I am willing to test it out, lol. I have volume 5 already on my desk

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Kingdom of the Wicked – Book Review

Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book baffled me, I guess that’s how I would describe how I feel after reading it.

But first a few positive things: the author does a great job at adding flavor to the world of the story. I love that she uses many Italian and Latin expressions (always a win for me), the descriptions of the food left me salivating, and she did a great job at setting up Emilia’s world.

Now for the negative (hopefully constructive) points.

I’m not sure what it was but something felt off all through the story. I’m confused because this has everything I normally love in a darker fantasy: potentially great characters from witches to demons, great setting (Italy of yesterday), a promising budding romance between light and dark, a great mystery to be solved. Yet, it left me empty.

I almost DNFed it a few times but stuck to it because it held so much promise. I discussed it with a friend at work who is a mood reader like I am and I tried to explain to her what it was that just didn’t click with me and I think I have an answer. Maybe…
The protagonist’s emotions didn’t come through. There was all these horrible things happening to her and those around her, including to people she truly cared about and yet, even though she claimed (the story is in first person) to be distraught, it just didn’t feel like that to me.

Same thing with her relationship with Wrath, it just didn’t ring true. There was a lot of her telling the reader how bad he was and that she couldn’t possibly like him, but no true emotion. Funny thing is that Wrath came across as a better person than she was which I don’t believe was the point. So weird.

It seemed as if every “new” lead in the mystery felt like it just dropped out of nowhere. Mystery needs breadcrumbs and there were very few of those in this story.

I also didn’t feel a connection between events. Things just got “dropped” in the story from the great void, I guess. And I hate to say this but the MC came across as stupid sometimes. The original murder was in the monastery. Wouldn’t you think there was a connection between the murder and the monks who lived there? I could go on…

Even though it ended in a cliffhanger I don’t think I will be reading the next book. I want to feel emotionally connected to the characters and that didn’t happen with this story at all. I haven’t read the other reviews yet on purpose because I don’t want to be influenced by them but I am going to do it right after I post this review. Very curious to know if I was the only one who felt this way.

I really wanted to love this story, but unfortunately I really didn’t like it much. I hope the characters redeem themselves in the next volume for the sake of the readers. The potential is there.

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Fourth Wing – Review

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is going to be a long, weird critique. But first let me tell you, I did like the book. It was entertaining, had good characters (Xaden was the perfect male lead, a tormented warrior who hides behind a mask of toughness and cruelty), awesome twist at the end (not going to spoil it for you), dragons (can’t go wrong with dragons), and the romantic sidestory (apart from the graphic sex) was mostly well written and heartfelt (my favorite part is when in chapter 32 Violet meets Xaden at the parapet). I’m glad I read it and I will definitely read the next in the series.

But was all the hype deserved (crap, I had to wait weeks to get a hold of one copy. In this day and age of print on demand, this sure smelled suspiciously of a marketing coup)? No, it wasn’t. I have read equally or better books that got much less (or no) hype. Kudos to the publisher for pulling a good marketing coup. Even the disclaimer at the front of the book was a brilliant move to attract the attention of eager readers looking for something that moved them, something new and exciting. Except there wasn’t really anything terribly new in the story. After all, everything has been already written one way or another and Yarros did a great job at remixing some elements we have seen before (okay, maybe older people have seen before). The book really isn’t as violent as it claims to be. The Hunger Games was so much more violent and shocking. The idea of factions fighting against each other was used very successfully in the Divergent series.

Now for what really got on my nerves. One—and this might be due to the narration since I listened to the audio book before getting the print copy—every character in this book sounds so freaking immature. They act like young teenagers. And yes, they were young, but they were in this tough military academy where their lives hung by a thread, you would think they would act a bit more mature? Maybe I’m wrong. Or maybe it was the voice actress’s reading that made them sound like that. Not sure.

The other thing that annoyed me was the tough sex. When did this idea that for sex to be good it has to be somewhat destructive? I remember years ago watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s episode when she has sex with Spike for the first time and the whole building comes down around them. That kind of made sense. Buffy and Spike were powerful mystical beings. There was also the underlying feeling that Buffy thought of that relationship as something bad, something to punish herself. Which makes the scene logical. That’s not what is going on in this book. Here it feels as if it’s all for spice level and no other reason.

In conclusion, absolutely read the book. It’s a good ride into an interesting fantasy world, just don’t get sucked into this almost mythical wonder surrounding it (AKA hype). There are a lot of just as good—if not better—books out there.

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The Promised Neverland 3- Review

The Promised Neverland, Vol. 3 by Kaiu Shirai
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another excellent installment in the series and what a few surprises. I was floored with a couple of them. Still love the mix of sweet illustrations with the darkness of the twisted plot. Brilliant! Starting volume 4 right away.

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Love on the Brain – Review

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ali Hazelwood is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers. Yes, it is true–like other reviewers pointed out–that this story shares a lot of resemblances to The Love Hypothesis, but it also departs from it enough to stand on its own.
I loved the Marie Curie recurring theme, the bits of obscure science trivia, Bee’s inner dialogue, her friend/assistant Roccio, even the antagonist (which I wasn’t totally surprised by). The humor throughout the book made me smile. But I think what I liked the most is that Hazelwood manages to turn pretty graphic sex into real heartthrob romance, a rather endangered skill these days.
I didn’t give it five stars because I thought Bee’s reluctance to accept she was indeed in a relationship with Levi might have been believable in the beginning, but toward the end it just became an obvious plot device to keep readers on the edge of their seats. Minor annoyance really in the grand scheme of the whole lovely and hilarious story.
And, Ms. Hazelwood, please no more “big-everything” guys. Smaller guys are just as sexy as they are
Great job. Can’t wait to read her next book.

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Tiger Daughter-Book Review

Tiger Daughter by Rebecca Lim
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reading this book was purely coincidental. I happened to be doing a signing at a super cute indy bookstore and this book was displayed right behind my chair. I had a lot of time in my hands so I started reading it just to see if it was good and the next thing I knew was I couldn’t put it down. I bought it, of course and just finished it yesterday.
It’s a quick but hard read in terms of thematic content. It reminded me of so many of my students who come from impoverished immigrant families and who often have to face a lot of discrimination or be stuck between their family’s cultural traditions and their new lives.
This book touches on more than just cultural and ethnic discrimination. It also touches heavily on misogyny, losing oneself, emotional abuse, suicide…
But on the upside, it also offers a bright side of hope, of believing in second chances and change.
Well done, Ms. Lim. Highly recommend it.

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Paralyzed by Fear

I’d like to say I have writer’s block, but I’ve had it before and this is NOT it. I wish it was since it would eventually pass on its own. But this is more of a paralysis caused by bitter frustration and fear and I can’t seem to be able to get rid of it.

I have been published for over seven years now and I am yet to create some traction. In fact, my writing career is more similar to a cheap pair of flip-flops, skittering around a wet surface than anything resembling a pair of sport shoes or hiking boots.

This has always bothered me, of course but I’ve never been a quitter so after the initial blues my new releases always seem to drag in, I shake myself off and set my intentions on the next book.

The next book is IT! The one that will put me in a reasonable number of readers’ radars.

Then the next one comes along and it falls flat again. I cry a little, then I shut my inner critic up and start again.

Except, I am finding it very hard to do that this time. I am not sure what changed. Maybe my antidepressant meds are not working as effectively as they were before. Maybe age is making me less resilient. But what I know for sure is that ever since my last release, one I put more work behind than ever before, I have been terrified of publishing anything.

The irony of the whole thing is that I have a book ready, one that I had so much fun writing and yet, here I am paralyzed by doubt and the fear that once again, my newest “baby” will not make it very far. It’s taking me forever to format it and even longer to set up a simple cover reveal day and even more importantly, a release day. I haven’t hired any tour companies or lined up any ARC reviewers. I stare at the calendar and all comes back blank.

I have also started a prequel for this book. I even hired a graphic artist to custom design a cover for it. I have a sequel planned (as much as this pantser plans for her books) and yet, I can barely write one hundred words without being assailed by fear and doubt.

I was at a book signing just last week, one I have been going to for years now. It’s always a well-organized event where I get to meet writers I have now known for years but who I only see once a year. My table looked beautiful. It really did. I went in with a writer friend and 23 other writers and participated in a bingo that forced those playing to come to our tables to get a signature. Many people did come and it was great to talk to them, but only two or three even gave my books a second glance. I’m not going to lie, I had to fight tears of frustration.

Me at my table- 2023

Why aren’t people even curious about my books? In comes doubt flooding in. I must be doing something wrong. Maybe I was never meant to be a writer. I probably suck big time. I just don’t have what it takes to be successful.

*Sigh*

Today I made myself look at the calendar half-way objectively and set myself some dates. I do now have a launch date, a cover reveal date, and I even contacted a tour company to see if I can get some reviews for my book around release day. But I am still moving at the speed of a slug and sweating bullets (you know what happens when you throw salt on slugs, right?) with each move.

Image from Canva

Have you ever felt this way? And if so, what did you do to “snap” out of it? I’m open to suggestions. And maybe a pat in the back, lol. *sigh*

Chain of Thorns – Review

Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cassandra Clare is back in force with The Last Hours. After a disappointing Dark Artifices, she more than made up for it with this series. I loved everything about it: the characters (Cordelia, James, OMG Matthew, Alastair and Thomas, Lucie and Jesse, Anna and Ari, and even Grace) both good and evil and those in between were well developed and awesome, the sarcastic bite and funny banter we got used to in Mortal Instruments is back, and the writing is fabulous as usual.
One of the things that didn’t work for me in The Dark Artifices series was the chaos of characters. There were so many and they were so obviously there to check an item in the diversity list that it just didn’t work for me. It just didn’t flow naturally. Things have changed with this series. Still a lot of characters and POVs as per Clare’s usual but very well managed and the diversity card is seamlessly and masterfully incorporated in the story, giving it a very natural flow.
Congrats Ms, Clare, you’ve done it again. Love it and highly recommend it for fantasy and romantasy lovers YA and adult.

P.S. – that bonus scene at the end was awesome.

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