L.R. Braden's Blog, page 19

Amazon Giveaway

COURTING DARKNESS releases this Friday! To celebrate, I'm giving away 5 copies of the first book in the Magicsmith series: A Drop of Magic (Kindle Edition). Enter this Amazon Giveaway for a chance to win!

My Alaskan Cruise, Part 3

Well, it took me the whole summer to finish telling you about my trip to Alaska, but here it is! SKAGWAY, ALASKA:If you like to hike, Skagway is a great Alaskan stop! The town itself is tiny, just a few central roads and the White Pass & Yukon Route railway station. We chose to skip the train and explore on foot. The Hike out to Yakutania Point was along a beautiful, tree-lined path that traced one side of the glacial run-off river that flows next to the town. The trail was wide and well-maintained, with very little elevation gain, and led to a rocky outcropping that jutted into the water.
Smuggler's Cove was actually the site of an old Tlingit settlement called Yakwdeiyi.aa, which translates roughly to "Canoe Road Cove." It was an ideal place for the natives to land and launch their canoes when traveling up and down the Lynn Canal. It wasn't until 1883 that U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander H.E. Nichols gave the cove its new, more evocative name. After Smuggler's Cove, we headed back across town and out the other side, headed for Lower Dewey Lake. The hike to Lower Dewey Lake started with a series of switchbacks that climbed the side of mountain. We gained about 500 feet in elevation in only half a mile. Once again, Alaskan hiking is a whole lot of steep up and down! After that initial climb, there's about a three mile loop to walk around the lake itself. There is also a trail leading farther into the mountains to Upper Dewey Lake. When we started out around the lake, we had no idea how big it was. I'd misread the map and thought the half-hour it listed as the estimated hike time for Lower Dewey Lake included circling it. Turns out that was the average time it took a person to hike up and down that initial incline and get a look at the lake... not walk around it. (In my defense, the distances were not listed on the map I got from the visitor center.
Anyway, we set out around the lake with no idea how big it actually was. There were no clear views of the length of it from the near end, just little fingers stretching into the trees and disappearing around bends in the path. There were a ton of mosquitoes, so definitely bring bug spray if you do that hike. After walking for a good long while... well past the half hour I thought the hike was supposed to take... we came upon a young man sitting on a rock cliff that overlooked the side of the lake. This was our first clear view of the lake, and the point at which we started to worry about the size of the thing, and whether or not we could get around it before our ship left. The two pictures above were taken from that spot. One looking up the lake, one looking down. Note that you can't actually see the end in either direction.
The man asked if we were there to dive. Apparently the rock is a popular place to go cliff-diving (not a sport I would have imagined people doing in Alaska). Even as he spoke, another man climbed up the path beside the rock, wet and shivering. He said he'd been diving there every summer for years, but the water that year was the highest and coldest he ever remembered. I guess that's what happens when you have a lake filled with glacial run-off and the glaciers are melting. Needless to say, we did not jump in the lake.
If I ever get the chance to go to Alaska again, I would love to spend a couple days in Skagway and do more of the hikes there! GLACIER BAY & HUBBARD GLACIER:We spent two days cruising along the coast of Alaska and viewing various glaciers, including Johns Hopkins, Lamplugh, Margerie, and Hubbard. The ship had a naturalist onboard, who told us various facts about the different glaciers, and glaciers in general. My favorite story was about the Johns Hopkins glacier. Apparently, that is where harbor seals go to birth their young. They do this to avoid babies getting eaten by their main predators, orcas (aka killer whales). You see, orcas hunt by sound. Air bubbles trapped in the glacial ice get compacted over the two hundred or so years it takes for the ice to make its way to the front of the glacier, so those air pockets are under a lot of pressure. When ice chunks fall off the glacier into water, they melt and the air gets released. This causes bubbles to form in the water that act almost like carbonation in soda. The water is full of a popping, fizzy noise that confuses the orcas, who rely on sound to find their prey. Pretty cool, huh? The Hubbard glacier was the largest glacier we saw, measuring about 6 miles wide where it hits the water, and about 3 stories (30 feet) tall. SEWARD & ANCHORAGE, ALASKA: Our very last stop on the cruise, the port where we got off the ship, was Seward, Alaska.
Seward was a lovely town at the edge of the Kenai Fjords National Park. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to take a tour of the fjords, but we did visit the park's visitor center. We also got to walk for a ways along a lovely boardwalk and path that traces the coast. At this point we were hauling all our luggage along with us (and one of my suitcase wheels had broken) so we didn't walk the full length of the town, though a person easily could. We ended up grabbing lunch in a local diner and waiting for the ride we'd scheduled to take us to Anchorage. The drive from Seward to Anchorage was pretty uneventful, but one item of note was the Cook Inlet (seen above). At first, I imagined the inlet was a large lake at the foot of a mountain, the likes of which I've seen at home. Except what I was seeing was ocean water, and it just kept going.
About halfway to Anchorage we drove past a humpback whale that had swum up the inlet and beached itself to die. It was a pretty grizzly sight, made worse by the tourists taking selfies in front of the carcass. Yeah... I don't get people. As we continued along next to the inlet, our driver told us some more about it, including that we should never try to walk on it no matter how solid it looked when the tide was out. The water in the inlet never got super deep, so it pulled all the way back when the tide went out, leaving what looked like sandy ground. Unfortunately, every year there are people who think it would be fun to go exploring on the dry inlet. Because of the fine silt in the water created by the glaciers, the ground holds just enough water to be treacherous. If your foot slips into the sand, the ground will seal around you like cement. It's nearly impossible for a person to dig their trapped extremity out once this happens. Then, when the tide comes in again, they drown. So, if you're ever tempted to walk across a sandy inlet when the tide is out... don't.
After that it was the usual hustle and bustle of travel to get home. One night in a hotel, several hours of flights and layovers, and at the end of it all... a rhubarb cake courtesy of my mother-in-law who picked us up from the airport.
All in all, a great time was had by all!

Review: The Republic of Thieves

The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Overview:
It's been quite a while since I read the other books in this series, so I was worried I'd be lost, but I had no problem falling right back into the story and the world. In general, I enjoyed the book, though I didn't particularly like the ending. Not terribly surprising since this is one of the few series I read where I don't expect a happily ever after. Recommended for fans of court intrigue.
Characters & Voice:
The book alternates between narrative characters, spending most of the chapters with Jean and Locke, and a bit with their rival Sabetha. There were also chapters following the narrative of other, lesser characters. It was sometimes difficult to tell who was narrating, or which characters we were with until a few paragraphs in.
The main protagonist, Locke, is essentially a rogue. He is a criminal and a con man, but he does have a certain code and lines he will not cross. For the most part he comes across as extremely capable . . . except in his interactions with Sabetha. The author did a great job of making Locke tongue-tied and nervous around her. That said, I felt like his counter-moves were too reactionary. At times he seemed quite stupid and not at all his usual, high-functioning self. He proclaims several times that Sabetha is at least as clever as him and Jean, yet he gets caught off-guard when she makes the same or similar plays as him.

World-building:
This book definitely focuses on world building. The cast of characters is limited to a small, necessary number, most of whom we've met at least by reputation in the previous two books. There was a lot of attention paid to details like the architecture of the magi city, available foods, people's accents, clothing, etc. There were also references made to other areas of the world, like a brewing war in a neighboring land, so that the story didn't exist in a vacuum but was part of a larger, interconnected world.

Language & Mechanics:
The book is written as parallel stories, past and present. In the story of the present, Locke and Jean have been hired by one faction of the magi to swing the results of an election. The opposing party has hired their former friend and Gentleman Bastard, Sabetha to tip the scales the other way. Locke finds himself faced with the dual goals of defeating Sabetha in the election and winning the heart of the girl who got away.
The second story is a tale about the young Gentleman Bastards, back when Sabetha was still a part of their group and Locke won her affections for the first time. The two stories mirrored each other beautifully, managing to be complete stories on their own while twining together in a meaningful way.
Lynch does a great job of writing right up to a tense moment, then switching stories, jumping between the past and present to keep the reader in suspense.

Parting thoughts:
As I mentioned in the overview, I didn't like the ending. Not because it wasn't a happily ever after, which I no longer expect for anyone in Lynch's world, but because I didn't find it particularly believable. I don't want to give any more than that away, so you'll just have to read the book and make your own decision.

View all my reviews

Today marks the beginning of my blog tour for A Drop of ...

Today marks the beginning of my blog tour for A Drop of Magic! For the entire month of August bloggers will be sharing excerpts, guest posts, and information about my book. There will also be a giveaway for a $25 Amazon gift card.
To get all the details, check out the tour kick-off page at Silver Dagger Book Tours. Here's the schedule of all the sites that will be hosting stops. Please stop by to show your support! Aug 1
kickoff at Silver Dagger Book Tours
The Sexy Nerd 'Revue'

Aug 2
Book-Lover
Twisted Book Ramblings

Aug 3
Viviana MacKade – GUEST POST
Stormy Nights Reviewing & Bloggin'

Aug 4
Reign of Fantasy
Readeropolis – GUEST POST

Aug 5
Romance Novel Giveaways
Literary Gold
Scrupulous Dreams

Aug 6
Rita's reading room
The Magic Of Wor(l)ds – GUEST POST
Sylv.net

Aug 7
nanasbookreviews
2 chicks and a book
T's Stuff

Aug 8
Authors From Everywhere
Valerie Ullmer | Romance Author
Triquetra Reviews

Aug 9
Book Review Virginia Lee (BRVL)
3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, &, Sissy, Too!
Taryn Jameson

Aug 10
Always Love Me Some Books Blog – GUEST POST
Reviews and Promos by Nyx– GUEST POST

Aug 11
JB's Bookworms with Brandy Mulder – GUEST POST
Shalini's Books & Reviews – REVIEW

Aug 12
A Pinch of Bookdust
Luv Saving Money

Aug 13
Angel's Guilty Pleasures
Bedazzled By Books

Aug 14
Tome Tender
Book Corner News and Reviews

Aug 15
Books a Plenty Book Reviews
Books all things paranormal and romance

Aug 16
Cats Luv Coffee Book Reviews
Books, Authors, Blogs

Aug 17
books are love
Craving Lovely Books

Aug 18
Smada's Book Smack – REVIEW
Jazzy Book Reviews – GUEST POST

Aug 19
Dragon's Den
Inside the Insanity – GUEST POST

Aug 20
Breanna Hayse Romance
eBook Addicts

Aug 21
I'm All About Books – GUEST POST
Drako's Den

Aug 22
Girl with Pen
Maiden of the Pages– GUEST POST

Aug 23
4covert2overt ☼ A Place In The Spotlight ☼
Midnight Book Reader

Aug 24
All the Ups and Downs – GUEST POST
Momma Says: To Read or Not to Read

Aug 25
The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – GUEST POST
Paranormal Palace of Pleasures

Aug 26
Lisa Book Blog
Paranormal Romance Trance
Yearwood La Novela

Aug 27
Anna del C. Dye official page
❧Defining Ways❧ – GUEST POST
Word Processor, Romance, Cats, Kids and Creed

Aug 28
Better Read Than Undead
raeblake.com
SnoopyDoo's Book Reviews

Aug 29
Authors & Readers Book Corner
Sapphyria's Book Reviews

Aug 30
Stormy Vixen's Book Reviews – REVIEW
ⒾⓃⓉⓇⓄⓈⓅⒺⒸⓉⒾⓋⒺ ⓅⓇⒺⓈⓈ– GUEST POST

Aug 31
A Wonderful World of Words – REVIEW
The Bookshelf Fairy

Sep 1
Teatime and Books
The Book Dragon

Online Book Launch Party!

My debut book releases next week, and in honor of the occasion, I'm hosting a launch party!

I'll be giving away two signed copies of A Drop of Magic. I'll also be answering questions and posting behind-the-scenes looks, excerpts, deleted scenes, a sneak peek at book 2, Courting Darkness, and more.

If you're looking for a new urban fantasy series, stop by and see what A Drop of Magic is all about!

You can find all the details HERE.

Character Sketch: Mark

Please welcome the newest member of my character sketch family: Marc! BACKGROUND: Alex's neighbor, sort of. His house is about a mile farther up the mountain than hers, but she's never seen it. Marc owns and works at an investment company in Boulder, and is a regular at Magpie Books. He often comes in to drink coffee and read the paper on his break.

My Alaskan Cruise, Part 2

KETCHIKAN, ALASKA: Our first stop in actual Alaska was a little town called Ketchikan. I say "little town" because that's how it appeared to me, used as I am to the sprawling metropolis of Denver, but from what I saw, Ketchikan is about as big as cities get in Alaska. It had one major road in and out of town, an airport, and several places to dock cruise ships. There was also a line of hangers at the water's edge where seaplanes docked, and the noise of them taking off and landing was pretty much constant. We decided to spend our day in Ketchikan hiking. So, bypassing the tourist shopping area by the docks, we headed straight up the road in the middle of the above picture, and I do mean "straight." Alaska is basically mountains that spring straight out of the sea, so everything is very steep. It was quite a workout for our calves to get up that first hill.
Once we made it over the first ridge, we took a left at the Ketchikan public library (which I was amused to see had the same summer reading program advertisements as we have in my own library) and followed the road up above the town to a set of wooden stairs that would take up even higher to the actual trail. The Rainbird Trail follows the ridge line above the town from one end to the other, so we were able to walk from the cruise ship terminal to the University of Alaska campus on the other side of town without having to walk through the city proper. Because we were up on a ridge, there were many nice overlooks where we could look down over the town and the surrounding area.
The forests of Alaska are lush and dense. While many of the plants on our hike reminded me of home, everything was amplified. The trees were taller and there were more of them. The ferns and other bushes covered almost all of the forest floor. Lichen, moss, and mushrooms clung to everything. It was both very familiar and very strange compared to my usual, Colorado stomping grounds. Once we reached the far end of the trail, after a pleasant, and not terribly difficult stroll through the forest, we descended into town at the far end and walked to a wonderful restaurant called Goldpan Pizza for lunch. After our mean, we scaled the steep road back up to the trail again, and went back the way we'd come. In retrospect, the repeated hikes up and down the roads were the only really difficult part of the hike. The trail along the ridge was quite tame by comparison. ;) JUNEAU, ALASKA: After a day at sea, during which our calves *mostly* recovered from the steep hills of Ketchikan, we arrived in the capital city of Alaska: Juneau. Juneau is the only port we actually purchased a tour for, because we really wanted to make sure we got to see whales on this trip. The tour we got was for glacier / whale viewing, so we started the day with a bus ride to the Mendenhall Glacier just outside of town.
You can see the bottom of the glacier in the picture to the left. When the visitor center (where I was when I took the picture) was built, a person could reach out and touch the glacier. When we were there, the glacier was a mile and a half away, across a lake created by the melt and runoff. The second, and larger part of our tour was whale watching. We went out on a smaller boat (although it was sill pretty large) from a marina north of town and traveled up the Saginaw Channel. As you can see from the pictures, we were able to see a pair of humpback whales traveling together. The naturalist on board was able to identify the larger whale from the patters on its fluke, and told us it was a mother and baby. The mom's name was Flame, and her baby's name was Bunsen. (Cute, right?) We actually got to see Bunsen jump out of the water in a full breach, which was very cool. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it since it was over almost as soon as it started.
One thing that surprised me: whales are not as big as I had imagined. As someone who grew up in a land-locked state and only ever saw whales on TV and in stories, I pictured them as massive. In reality, a full grown whale is about the size of a bus. That's not to say they're small... just smaller than I was expecting. That's pretty much it for this leg of the journey. After returning to the cruise ship we had a fun dinner at a hibachi grill and went to an awesome aerial dance show that we weren't allowed to take pictures of. Stay tuned for the final chapter of my trip, which will include Glacier Bay, Skagway, Seward, and Anchorage.

Free Giveaway!

I’ve teamed up with 20 fantastic authors to give away a huge collection of Urban Fantasy novels to 2 lucky winners, PLUS a brand new eReader to the Grand Prize winner!
From now until July 17th, you can win my novel, A Drop of Magic, plus books from authors like Lola Stvil, Ashlyn Chase, JC Andrijeski, and more—just by following me and other great Urban Fantasy authors on BookBub!
Enter the giveaway by clicking HERE!
Good luck and enjoy!

Review: The Wicked King

The Wicked King by Holly Black
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Overview:
A fast-paced romp in Faerie. I read this whole book in a day and a half, and I can't wait to see how the story ends in the final book. A word of warning: like many middle books, The Wicked King creates more questions than it answers, so you may want to pick up the third book before you dive in to save yourself from my current frustration.
Character & Voice:
The characters are where Black's story really shines. Each and every character in her story is unique, with rich histories, individual motivations, and compelling personalities. Even the characters I don't like pull me into their stories and enrich my reading experience.

As in the first book, the main character and narrative voice is Jude, a mortal taken to Faerie as a child and raised by her parents' killer. In this book, she is the seneschal of the High King, Cardon. Jude is already quite hardened from the events of book one, so her character feels more consistent than it did in Cruel Prince. She is still proud and head-strong, and she still makes some decisions that make me want to shake her, but her motivations are clear and believable.

The secondary characters are expanded upon in this book. We see a lot more of Cardon's backstory and get to know him a bit more as a person. We also get more insight into the members of the Court of Shadows. Jude's family remains about the same. Her father, Madoc, is still the General with his eye on becoming the power behind the throne, but now he sees Jude as standing in his way. Her brother Oak is in the mortal world with her sister Viv. And Jude's twin, Taryn, who remains my least favorite character, completes her marriage to Locke and proves she is every bit as conniving as I thought her in book one.

World building:
While Black's world remains rich and engaging, there was not a whole lot added in this second book. Jude spends some time in the Undersea, but she sees little of it. Other than that, most of her time is spent in the palace. We do get a little insight into the Tower of Forgetting, the prison where Cardon's brother, Balkin, is locked.

Language & Mechanics:
Black's writing style is smooth and clear. She expertly drops just enough details to keep the reader grounded and engaged while never coming across heavy-handed. I didn't find any noticeable mistakes, so I was able to read straight through without interruption.

Overall, I love Black's writing and the story she is telling with this series. I'd recommend this book for readers who like coming of age stories, dark fantasy, and love-hate relationships.


View all my reviews

Cover Reveal & Release Date!

It's official: A Drop of Magic will release on July 31st ! Without further ado, I'm happy to share with you the cover art and back cover copy for the book: Amazon | Barnes & Nobel | Kobo | Google | Apple If you want to be the first to see news about cover reveals, release dates, sales, and more in the future, you can sign up for my newsletter here: emailJoin My Mailing List