Cindy C. Bennett's Blog, page 64

A Royal Elf of Abalon

Some time ago, my friend, author Anna del C. Dye asked me if I would read her book, A Royal Elf of Abalon, for an editorial review. I agreed, and quickly found myself lost in this amazing adventure. Below you can read the blurb, my review, and then enter to win your own eBook copy of A Royal Elf of Abalon.

The deep relationship between Amaria, the princess of Abalon and Marken, the chancellor’s son, comes to a halting stop after their kingdom is almost annihilated. However, death isn’t the only thing this battle brings. Elfs come to their rescue and, as a souvenir, take the princess home with them.

Blinded by fury, the overprotecting queen orders the extermination of the mighty elfs. Her captains know they can never win, so they are pleased when Amaria intervenes so desperately that she loses her mother. The unprepared princess is left to care for a kingdom that will demand her true love.

A Royal Elf of Abalon is the stand-alone continuation of Anna’s Elf series. Once again she has crafted an exciting new tale full of jealousy, betrayals, and death. A Royal Elf of Abalon is a masterpiece created in the genre of Tolkien that you’ll love to the end.
My Review
A Royal Elf of Abalon is the latest by author Anna Del C Dye. It is the story of a young girl, Amaria, raised by her mother, the cruel queen Amathis. Amathis jealously hordes her daughters love and attention. When the kingdom is attacked by orks, Amaria is sent to safety. While there, she begins to discover the depth of her mother's cruelty. Upon returning to the kingdom, she meets one of the elves who came to protect the kingdom, Kurzan. Kurzan and Amaria quickly fall in love, though it is a forbidden love.

The story follows Amaria's journey from innocent young princess to wise and loving queen. Amaria quickly becomes a strong, admirable woman who must prove her worthiness to rule. Amaria learns who she can trust, and whose advice to take to heart as she learns to rule. As time goes on, and Amaria tries to discover a way to be with her love, secrets are revealed which may throw Amaria's kingdom into an uproar.

A Royal Elf of Abalon is a wonderful, epic fantasy with a strong heroine who has much to be admired about her. The story sweeps you in, and every time you think you know what is going to happen, Dye takes the story in a new direction to keep you guessing. Amaria and Kurzan's story is heartbreaking and wonderful all at the same time. There are many secondary characters who are equally enthralling. You'll find yourself caught up in their stories as much as Amaria's. Dye's great story is full of all the things that make a book great: forbidden love, intrigue, secrets, wars, elves, orks . . . there is more than enough to grab any readers interest and hold it until the end.



About Anna
Anna del C. Dye was born in Valparaiso, Chile amongst some of the world’s most famous beaches. Anna resides in Taylorsville, Utah. She and her husband Rod are the parents of three princes and a princess. Anna is an accomplished, multi-award winning author. She received the Editor’s Choice Award from the International Library of Poetry. She was awarded a Bronze medal for Elfs in a Conquered Realm. The first page of her A Kingdom by the Sea received a second place. Her short story entitled Amerine—Fairy Princess won an award in the Oquirrh Writers contest and was published by Kalkion Magazine. Her article, A New American Mother, was published by Desert Saints Magazine. Other articles about family and relationships have been published frequently in the MOMS CLUB® of Salt Lake Valley-West. She is the author of The Silent Warrior Trilogy, Curse of the Elfs, and now A Royal Elf of Abalon. Anna has also published an electronic book for fifth and sixth-graders name Emerine’s Nightmare.
Find Anna - and the Book
Anna's BlogA Royal Elf of Abalon BlogAnna's FBA Royal Elf of Abalon FBAmazonBarnes & NobleSmashwordsCreateSpace (print book)
Win Your Own Copy
Want to win your own eBook of A Royal Elf of Abalon? Just leave a comment below with your name and email included and at midnight 5/20/12 a winner will be chosen using random.org. If you don't win, I suggest you purchase your own copy before the end of May while they are on sale for $3.95 (will be $4.95 6/1/12). Good luck, and enjoy Anna's book!

Cindy C Bennett Books Movie Cast

One of my amazing reader, Lissy Goode of Lissy Goode: Books, Stories and More made a cool pic video of who she thinks should play the parts of Jen & Trev, and Kate & Henry should they ever be made into movies. I have to say, I agree with her choices. They're pretty good. You can see the video here:

Cindy C Bennett Books Movie Cast

Thanks, Lissy! That was fun to watch.

Time For Another Giveaway

It's time for another blog hop, this one hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and The Book Bug. This blog hop is to help promote LDS authors (which translates as clean reads, right?)
Plagerizing I Am A Reader, Not A Writer: "You might be surprised by how many popular mainstream books are written by LDS authors. Shannon Hale, Orson Scott Card, Janette Rallison, Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mull, James Dashner, Ally Condie, Stephenie Meyer, Bree Despain, Jessica Day George, Aprilynne Pike, Kiersten White, Robison Wells, Jason Wright, Heather Dixon, Obert Skye, Richard Paul Evans, Julie Berry, Mette Ivie Harrison, Becca Fitzpatrick, Lisa Mangum, Amber Argyle, Jennifer Laurens, Brodi Ashton... the list could go on and on."

I will add a few of my faves to the list: Sherry Gammon, Karey White, Stephanie Worlton, Joyce D Pastena, Anna del C Dye, Shannen Crane Camp, Jenni James, Mandi Tucker Slack, Lani Woodland... yeah, I agree. The list could go on and on.

So which author am I choosing to highlight? Me! Why me? Because I can then give away lots of stuff. So here's what's up for grabs:

Heart on a Chain (eBook)
Immortal Mine (eBook)
Geek Girl (eBook)
Reluctance (Short Story eBook)
Beautiful Beast (Short Story eBook)
Pick Your Own Book at Amazon.com ($15 gift card)

That means 6 winners!

Once you've entered using the Rafflecopter form below (you may have to click on "more" to see it) then scroll down to the linky list at the bottom and hop over to some other blogs to win lots of other great stuff!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Love for Reviewers!

I can't tell you how great it is when Google Alerts finds a surprise review for me. This week, I found Alyssa.

Thanks to My Secret Romance Book Reviews for the seriously amazing review Alyssa wrote for Heart on a Chain . Here are some of the highlights of her review:

Gahhh- Why did I take so long to read this book? This definitely deserved a 4 ½ star rating. Oh, and FYI: have some tissues handy.

I came across Heart on a Chain. It was heartbreaking. It was emotional. And it was just what I was looking for. (And trust me: four/five star reads are few and far between for me- I don't give that kind of rating out too often.)

[Kate] is by far, now a favorite heroine of mine. She’s very shy and very sweet- she’s lost and alone in a world where she’s been surrounded by so much ugliness.

I’m typically not hardly EVER a fan of nice heroes. But Henry... oh Henry... *moment of silence* ...there are just no words.

Cindy Bennett did a fantastic job evoking emotion in her readers. I absolutely loved her writing style- she never rushed the plot, and she really allowed the characters to develop gradually, just as it would happen in the real world. This was my first novel by Cindy Bennett, and it most definitely won't be my last. If you're looking for an intense and enormously absorbing read, then this is the book for you. :)

I mean, wow, huh? What a great review to totally make my day! Click here to go to My Secret Romance Book Reviews and read the rest of what Alyssa had to say.

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Win $125 for Your Mom (or Yourself, if you prefer)

Last month Brad Wirz of Gone Reading came on the blog to tell everyone about the worthy cause of his company, which is to raise money to develope libraries all over the world. Can you imagine living somewhere where there was not a library? You can read that post here.

To help bring further awareness to their cause, Gone Reading is having a giveaway honoring Mom's, just in time for Mother's Day in 2 weeks. You can enter for a chance to win the prizes ($100 in Gone Reading merchandise and a $25 Amazon gift card) for the mom in your life or for yourself. They have some really cool tee's that you can see scattered through my post here.

Below is Brad's email, telling about their cause:

"Lots of exciting stuff happening at GoneReading! We’ve signed a new fundraising partnership with Ethiopia Reads, will soon test a fundraising program for public libraries, and are talking with two national online booksellers about strategic partnerships. Also, we’ve begun wholesaling our t-shirt line into independent bookstores! It’s early for projections, but our year-end donations to reading-related charities should make a dramatic jump in 2012!
We’ve also just announced a unique, $125 giveaway for Mother’s Day called “The Month of Mom”, which you can read about here. Because Mother’s Day represents such an important gift-buying season, it’s important for us to get the word out."
You can enter the drawing here. Good luck, ya'll!

*Please keep in mind all of the pics of the t-shirt fronts on this page are copyright of Gone Reading, so please don't copy them and use them for your personal use. Thanks!

Jericho Solus: A Great Book

Today it's my turn to host the Jericho Solus Blog Tour as stop #3.

“They watch me—the feeling as acute as a sharp, cold blade against my skin. I may have lived an ordinary existence, but I can fight. Though my memory is like a beast cowering in the shadows, I know in my core I can fight, as if it’s what I’m wired to do.Her breaths echo in my dark cell. Is she real? She fills my emptiness with heat, and God help the people that harm her. I am the Solus. My name is Jericho, and killing is what I do best.”

Jericho’s captivity begins a journey to a forgotten past, forgotten comrades, and forgotten love. His remembrance pulls him back in time to reveal an unexpected metamorphosis to his current state. As memories move Jericho back through history, his captors propel him forward into a surreal world, until both time lines combine to expose who and what Jericho is.

And now, for my review. I want to begin by assuring you that my review is not influenced by my personal or business relationship with Jeff. I was lucky enough to read Jericho Solus as Jeff was writing it, for critiquing and editing. I'm already a fan of Jeff's other books (The Bounds series) but I really love this one. I could hardly wait for him to send new chapters as he wrote it. Really like the cool cover as well. Here is my honest review:

Jericho Solus grabbed me from the first page. It begins with a young boy asking his grandfather about a legend. The legend is fascinating, and I could probably have read a whole book of just the story of the legend being told. There's a reason for the legend being told, and a reason it is being told to this particular boy. And that's as close to a spoiler as you're going to get from me about that!

From there we jump into Jericho's story. He wakes to find himself in a strange room. Actually, a strange environment would be more accurate. As this part of the story unfolds, I found myself not only intrigued by exactly what was going on and why, and curious about how it was going to play out, but also enthralled by Jericho's dreams that are actually memories being restored to him. It isn't long before the reader figures out that Jericho isn't who--or what--he thinks. I love the idea of being something/someone other than what you completely believe you are.

Jericho Solus is written like a 3-part play. Each part is Jericho's story in a different environment, and as a different entity (though the same, if that makes sense. If not, read the book and it will). The parts are all important to his journey. And they are all part of the legend in some way.

The book is described as speculative fiction. It is that, but it is also fantasy, sci-fi, romance (a legendary romance), and history served up as fascinating fiction. Really, there's something for almost everyone. I highly recommend this book. I can't reiterate enough how much I genuinely love this book. If you have the creativity to suspend your disbelief enough to take the ride, you won't be disappointed.

Here are all the places you can find Jeff and his book.

Jericho Solus Blog

Jeff's Blog

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

Winner!

Winner of the Autism Awareness Hop is: Linda Kujaca.

Congrats, Linda! I'll be contacting you by email to confirm your shipping address for the book.

Thanks to everyone who joined the hop, and for your support of this awareness campaign.

Small Blogs, Big Dreams and Small Books, Big Stories Go Together . . . Right?

Thanks to Forbidden Passions Reviews and Walking on Bookshelves for hosting this blog hop. I'll have 2 winners of my two latest short story releases: Reluctance (already released) and Beautiful Beast (releasing May 1). Giveaway is international as the giveaways are both ebooks. Enter on the Rafflecopter form and then hop to the other blogs on the linky list for more chances to win.


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English Language Part II

A couple weeks ago I wrote a post about the idiosyncrasies of the English language. I enjoyed researching them so much, I decided to share a couple more with you.

Our Strange LingoThis was written by Lord Cromer, published in the Spectator of August 9th, 1902 and extracts were quoted in an SSS pamflet in 1930.

When the English tongue we speak.
Why is break not rhymed with freak?
Will you tell me why it's true
We say sew but likewise few?
And the maker of the verse,
Cannot rhyme his horse with worse?
Beard is not the same as heard
Cord is different from word.
Cow is cow but low is low
Shoe is never rhymed with foe.
Think of hose, dose,and lose

And think of goose and yet with choose
Think of comb, tomb and bomb,
Doll and roll or home and some.
Since pay is rhymed with say
Why not paid with said I pray?
Think of blood, food and good.
Mould is not pronounced like could.
Wherefore done, but gone and lone -
Is there any reason known?
To sum up all, it seems to me
Sound and letters don't agree.

* * * * *

This is attributed to Vivian Buchan, NEA Journal 1966/67, USA,
published in Spelling Progress Bulletin Spring 1966 pdf, p6, Reprinted from Educational Horizons.

Phoney Phonetics.One reason why I cannot spell,
Although I learned the rules quite well
Is that some words like coup and through
Sound just like threw and flue and Who;
When oo is never spelled the same,
The duice becomes a guessing game;
And then I ponder over though,
Is it spelled so, or throw, or beau,
And bough is never bow, it's bow,
I mean the bow that sounds like plow,
And not the bow that sounds like row -
The row that is pronounced like roe.
I wonder, too, why rough and tough,
That sound the same as gruff and muff,
Are spelled like bough and though, for they
Are both pronounced a different way.
And why can't I spell trough and cough
The same as I do scoff and golf?

Why isn't drought spelled just like route,
or doubt or pout or sauerkraut?
When words all sound so much the same
To change the spelling seems a shame.
There is no sense - see sound like cents -
in making such a difference
Between the sight and sound of words;
Each spelling rule that undergirds
The way a word should look will fail
And often prove to no avail
Because exceptions will negate
The truth of what the rule may state;
So though I try, I still despair
And moan and mutter "It's not fair
That I'm held up to ridicule
And made to look like such a fool
When it's the spelling that's at fault.
Let's call this nonsense to a halt."







Three More Days to Win!

 You still have time to win in the Annual Autism Awareness Giveaway Hop. Be sure to enter to win, and to hop on over to the other blogs listed on the linky list for over 75 more chances to win other great prizes!