Nicky Peacock's Blog, page 20

Book Review: The Winter People by Rebekah L. Purdy

Synopsis:

An engrossing, complex, romantic fantasy perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore or Maggie Stiefvater, set in a wholly unique world.

Salome Montgomery fears winter—the cold, the snow, the ice, but most of all, the frozen pond she fell through as a child. Haunted by the voices and images of the strange beings that pulled her to safety, she hasn’t forgotten their warning to “stay away.” For eleven years, she has avoided the winter woods, the pond, and the darkness that lurks nearby. But when failing health takes her grandparents to Arizona, she is left in charge of maintaining their estate. This includes the “special gifts” that must be left at the back of the property.

Salome discovers she’s a key player in a world she’s tried for years to avoid. At the center of this world is the strange and beautiful Nevin, who she finds trespassing on her family’s property. Cursed with dark secrets and knowledge of the creatures in the woods, his interactions with Salome take her life in a new direction. A direction where she’ll have to decide between her longtime crush Colton, who could cure her fear of winter. Or Nevin who, along with an appointed bodyguard, Gareth, protects her from the darkness that swirls in the snowy backdrop. An evil that, given the chance, will kill her.

About the Author:

Rebekah Purdy grew up in Michigan, where she spent many late nights armed with a good book and a flashlight. When not hiding at her computer and getting lost in her stories, she enjoys reading, singing, soccer, swimming, football, camping, playing video games and hanging out with her kids. She loves the unexplainable like Bigfoot, the Dogman, and the Loch Ness Monster (lots of good story material)! She admits to still having all the books she bought throughout her childhood and teen years, and she may or may not have an obsession with anything chocolate…

Website   Goodreads  Twitter Facebook

My Review:

The Winter People has a kind of Twilight vibe to it that most teen readers are going to lap up. It’s a beautifully told story with a protagonist that, although has her issues, is not some wet behind the ears girl you consistently want to slap back to reality.

From a writer’s perspective, it was told first person, which I love and unfolded neatly, and seemlessly making it easy to read, and hard to put down. There were the obvious YA fiction cliches in there, but at least in here they were wrapped in a different form, making them more interesting, yet still familiar enough to ear-mark it as a teen read. The prose was perfect and Salome’s voice was authentic without being annoying – a very hard and delicate balance to get right in this genre!

The front cover is gorgegous and the pages inside even had a lovely snowflake style design on the start of each chapter – so an amazing job done by the designers at Entangled.

Overall, I’d give The Winter People 5 out 5 stars – a beautiful modern fairy story that makes you feel cold and warm at the same time. A perfect winter read.

Filed under: Book Review Tagged: The Winter People by Rebekah L. Purdy

Book Review: Call me Grim by Elizabeth Holloway

Synopsis:

 

 

The truck should have turned Libbi Piper into a Libbi Pancake — and it would have, too, if Aaron hadn’t shown up and saved her life. The problem? Aaron’s the local Grim Reaper… and he only saved Libbi’s life because he needs someone to take over his job. Now, Libbi has two days to choose between dying like she was supposed to, or living a lonely life as Death Incarnate. Talk about a rock and a hard place.

And the choice goes from hard to sucktastic when her best friend shows up marked: condemned as a future murderer. Libbi could have an extra week to stop the murder and fix the mark… but only if she accepts Aaron’s job as Reaper, trapping herself in her crappy town forever, invisible and inaudible to everyone except the newly dead. But, if she refuses? Her best friend is headed straight for Hell.

About the Author:

Elizabeth Holloway is a writer of young adult fiction living in Southern Pennsylvania with her two teen children and their growing number of pets.

In addition to writing, she is a registered nurse, an avid reader, an out-of-practice artist, a karaoke singer, and music lover. She is still trying to decide what she wants to be when she grows up.

http://www.elizabethhollowayauthor.com/
https://twitter.com/eholloway300

My Review:

Call me Grim, as its name suggests, features Grim Reapers. These seem to become into fashion of late and with their main theme of death and dying make for perfectly exciting YA books. The story in interesting and the prose is expertly written. It’s also first person perspective which is my favourite, as it connects the reader to the character on a more emotional level – which is definitely needed here.

 

From a writer’s perspective, it took a while to really get into it, so the more impatient reader might find it hard to cling onto, but they really should, as the further in you get, the quicker the pace becomes. The protagonist’s voice was very authentic teen, bit not overly enough to make you want to head-butt her every time she makes a bad decision or says something overtly teenage.  It was a little YA cliché in parts – but that’s okay, clichés are there for a reason, everybody is used to that trope/theme so they feel comfortably and are easy to follow through the plot and character arcs.

 

The front cover is another winner from Month9 – who is their front cover designer? It definitely stands out and I simply can’t fault it from a marketing perspective.

 

Overall, I’d give Call me Grim 4 out of 5 stars, a wonderful read wither you’re a teen or an adult.

Filed under: Book Review Tagged: Call me Grim by Elizabeth Holloway

Book Spotlight: Vampire Secrets Blood and Snow Season Two Book 2 by RaShelle Workman

Synopsis:

A dream is a wish your heart makes… It’s been a month since Jasmine agreed to the wish that would keep Laeddin safe. By all accounts she should be happy. She’s attending high school, hanging out with friends, and spending time with Laeddin. but she isn’t. Ever since the sorceress ripped away a part of her, she hasn’t felt like herself. To make matters worse, the man with red eyes, the one that haunted her dreams, is appearing in real life. And demonic creatures keep showing up in Salem. The question on both counts is why? Jasmine must figure out who the man is and what the creatures want. Thankfully, she isn’t alone. Laeddin, Peter, Zoe, and some friends from the mansion next door will help. And then there’s the sorceress. she’s using what she took from Jasmine to inflict havoc on the human realm as well as other realms.

About the Author:

RaShelle Workman is the author of the popular Blood and Snow series. She loves to reinvent fairy tales teens and adults can sink their teeth into. Her stories include kissing, vampires, werewolves, witches, aliens, and more kissing. Her books: Sleeping Roses, Exiled, Beguiled, and Dovetailed have foreign rights contracts with a Turkish publisher. RaShelle is also one of the co-founders of Indie Recon LIVE, a self publishing conference that will debut October 10-11, 2014 in Sandy, Utah.

Her books include:


Sleeping Roses

Across the Ages

Exiled

Beguiled

Dovetailed

Blood and Snow (1-12)

The Cindy Chronicles

Vampire Lies (Blood and Snow Season 2)

A Beauty So Beastly 

 

Visit her website and sign up for RaShelle’s EXCLUSIVE mailing list. You’ll be automatically entered to win a Paperback copy of Blood and Snow volumes 1-4.

Connect with the Author:

Facebook | Twitter  | Blog | Website | Pinterest

Filed under: Book Review Tagged: Blood and Snow Season Two Book 2 ~ Vampire Secrets, RaShelle Workman

Interview with Michael Kleen

What do you love about being an author?

Being an author is strange because you are usually so detached from your audience. Reading is such a private thing–You never see someone reading your book. That being said, I love it when I can connect with my readers. When I meet someone at a book signing or conference who tells me how my books have inspired them, that makes everything worthwhile.

If you could have dinner with any literary character, who would it be and what would you eat?
Wow, that’s quite a question! I guess I would love to have dinner with Sherlock Holmes, and I imagine we would eat at a dingy old English pub.

If your story was to be made into a movie, who would you cast as the leads?
“Sonic Fear” has very few characters (it’s really an exploration of urban loneliness – how an individual can be detached from family and community and still surrounded by noise), but I think Shia LaBeouf might be good for the role. He’s such a tragic figure anyway. I think I would like Samuel L. Jackson to play the bartender.

Vampires – do you prefer them as sexy leads or blood hungry monsters?
Hm. I think there’s certainly a romantic and even erotic element to vampires, but they are, after all, creatures of horror. There’s an element of transformation in them–from human to blood sucker. We’ve all had romantic relationships go bad, and have known people with significant others who seemed to suck the life out of them. So I think there’s no contradiction in the idea of romance turning to horror. There needs to be a balance between the two.

If you had a time machine, which era would you go back to and why?
I’ve always had an interest in Civil War-era America. That’s what I focused on in my graduate work, and I would love to go back in time to the 1850s and 1860s and see what life was really like. I don’t know how long I could survive without the Internet though..

What life advice do you wish you’d been given sooner?
Find a stable career BEFORE embarking on a writing career. As most writers know, the business doesn’t really provide a firm financial foundation, especially for someone starting out. I dove right in, expecting to make a big splash early on. Being a professional writer turned out to be grueling and full of disappointment. You need to be able to weather the storm between book projects and disappointing royalty checks. Having another, stable source of income makes the good times even better. I wish someone had told me that when I was in my early 20s. Then again, I’m not sure I would have listened.

Do you believe in faeries?
No.
If you were a supernatural creature, what would you be and why?
I guess I would be a ghost because then I would know part of me would live on forever. Plus I think it would be ironic to haunt something and have people write about it.

Where do you write best?
It may seem strange, but I love to sit at restaurants and write. I find someplace with a nice atmosphere and sit down with a pen and pad of paper. I enjoy the background noise and the sense of being somewhere active, surrounded by people but not disturbed by them. While I was at Eastern Illinois University, I used to love to go to the coffee shop in the University Union and get a chai and scone and work on my stories or articles.

Lost in the Witching Hour

What was the last book you read, and what were your thoughts on it?

Haunted Kansas by Lisa Hefner Heitz. It is an excellent book, and one of the last books on ghost stories in the Midwest to retain the feel of the old academic study of folklore. Even though it was published in the early 1990s, the stories are fresh and beautifully retold. Pretty much everything you read online or in other books today about the ghost stories of Kansas came from Lisa Hefner Heitz’s work.

If you didn’t write in your genre, which other would you prefer and why?
This is hard to answer because I write about a lot of different subjects and in different genres. One genre I’ve always wanted to break into (no pun intended) is true crime. I recently wrote an article about a famous murder case in Rockford, Illinois for the anthology Secret Rockford. I always feel somewhat uncomfortable when I write about that topic though – like the act of writing about crime is fundamentally exploitative. That feeling keeps me from really exploring the genre.

Where can fans find you online?
My main blog is Mysteriousheartland.com, but I also maintain a personal website at Michaelkleen.com. My Amazon.com author page can be found at http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Kleen/e/B002TQYU6I/
Filed under: Interviews with other authors Tagged: faeries, Ghosts, horror, interview with horror author, Lost in the Witching Hour, Michael Kleen

Cover Reveal: The Soul Thief by Majanka Verstraete

The Soul Thief by Majanka Verstraete

Expected Release: November 11, 2014

Publisher: Booktrope

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal

When Riley is injured in a car crash and sees a girl stealing a boy’s soul, she’s convinced she’s hallucinating. But when she sees the same girl at the hospital later, she knows she wasn’t dreaming. That’s when Riley learns her secret heritage and who she really is: a halfling Angel of Death.

Riley must come to terms with her new reality and supernatural abilities, but before she can do this, girls her age start dying in mysterious circumstances. It’s up to Riley to figure out why, what the innocent victims have in common, and what she can do to stop them.

Add to Goodreads

About the Author Majanka Verstraete begged her Mom to teach her how to read while she was still in kindergarten. By the time she finished fifth grade, she had read through the entire children’s section of her hometown library. She wrote her first story when she was seven years old, and hasn’t stopped writing since. With an imagination that never sleeps, and hundreds of possible book characters screaming for her attention, writing is more than a passion for her. She writes about all things supernatural for children of all ages. She’s tried to write contemporary novels before, but something paranormal always manages to crawl in. Majanka is currently studying for her Master of Laws degree, and hopes one day to be able to combine her passions for law and writing. When she’s not writing, reading or studying, she likes watching “The Vampire Diaries” and “Game of Thrones,” spending time with her friends, or playing “World of Warcraft.” http://majankaverstraete.com

Filed under: Social Media Links Tagged: Majanka Verstraete

Interview with Ryan Tandy

Tell us about your publishing journey…

I started writing about three years ago, but have been focus on prose for the last 12 months or so. I’ve tried journalism, film & TV scripts and graphic novels, but genre fiction is the thing I enjoy most. I’ve had a few short stories published so far and am looking to bring out my own collection in the next few months as an ebook.

What do you love about being an author?

Being able to take the twisted ‘What If’ scenarios that spring into my head and make them into something that (I hope) will entertain people.

If you could have dinner with any literary character, who would it be and what would you eat?

It would have to be the great gonzo journalist Raoul Duke (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). I imagine any consumption would be 95% liquid but we’d have a hell of a party!

If your story was to be made into a movie, who would you cast as the leads?

As the story is set in Britain I’d prefer the actors to be British. I based the Grandfather character on an older Brian Blessed, but he’d probably need to age a few more years before playing the part. For the grandson I’m a big fan of Russell Tovey.

Vampires – do you prefer them as sexy leads or blood hungry monsters?

Blood hungry monsters every time! I utterly loath the way Hollywood and YA fiction has taken all of these chilling, nightmarish creatures and turned them into tortured pretty boys. The best representation of vampires I’ve seen recently is in the film Stakeland, which cast vampires as a feral, more terrifying alternative to the zombie in a post apocalyptic scenario. If you haven’t seen it yet I’d advise catching it as soon as possible.

If you had a time machine, which era would you go back to and why? 

Lost in the Witching Hour

The Victorian Era, just so I could try and solve the mystery of Jack the Ripper.

What life advice do you wish you’d been given sooner?

I wouldn’t say I have any particular piece of advice I wish I’d had sooner. If I could take my accumulative knowledge and experience and plant it into my 16 year old self it would probably give me an advantage, but at the same time it would take away the fun of learning from my long list of mistakes!

If you were a supernatural creature, what would you be and why?

A werewolf, purely because I’m a huge fan of werewolf films!

Where do you write best?

My office at home; I’ve got the attention span of a concussed Labrador puppy so I need to be somewhere I can minimise distractions!

What was the last book you read, and what were your thoughts on it?

The last book I read was Idiopathy by Sam Byers. It’s an odd book to place in terms of genre but I’d happily recommend it. Very sharp satire of many aspects of popular culture mixed with a tale of people trying to deal with their own unhappiness with life in general. A little bleak and not the sort of thing I usually read but very entertaining.

If you didn’t write in your genre, which other would you prefer and why?

Science fiction; I’m a huge fan of the genre and certain books and films that have left an indelible mark on me. Some of my horror stories do occasionally stray into that territory but I’m yet to write a straight Sci-Fi story as of yet, although I do have a few ideas.

Where can fans find you online?

Check out the website and blog at http://www.ryantandy.net/ or follow me on Twitter @TheTandyMan

Filed under: Interviews with other authors Tagged: horror, Lost in the Witching Hour, Ryan Tandy, supernatural fiction, werewolf

Book Review: Crown of Ice by Vicki L. Weavil

Synopsis:

Thyra Winther’s seventeen, the Snow Queen, and immortal, but if she can’t reassemble a shattered enchanted mirror by her eighteenth birthday she’s doomed to spend eternity as a wraith.

Armed with magic granted by a ruthless wizard, Thyra schemes to survive with her mind and body intact. Unencumbered by kindness, she kidnaps local boy Kai Thorsen, whose mathematical skills rival her own. Two logical minds, Thyra calculates, are better than one. With time rapidly melting away she needs all the help she can steal.

A cruel lie ensnares Kai in her plan, but three missing mirror shards and Kai’s childhood friend, Gerda, present more formidable obstacles. Thyra’s willing to do anything – venture into uncharted lands, outwit sorcerers, or battle enchanted beasts — to reconstruct the mirror, yet her most dangerous adversary lies within her breast. Touched by the warmth of a wolf pup’s devotion and the fire of a young man’s desire, the thawing of Thyra’s frozen heart could be her ultimate undoing.

CROWN OF ICE is a YA Fantasy that reinvents Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” from the perspective of a young woman who discovers that the greatest threat to her survival may be her own humanity.

About the Author:

Vicki Lemp Weavil was raised in a farming community in Virginia, where her life was shaped by a wonderful family, the culture of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and an obsession with reading. Since obtaining her undergraduate degree in Theatre from the University of Virginia, she’s gone on to acquire two masters degrees, living in places as diverse as New York City and rural North Carolina. She’s currently the library director for a performing an visual arts university. Vicki loves good writing in any genre, and has been known to read seven books in as many days. She enjoys travel, gardening, and the arts. Vicki lives in North Carolina with her husband, son, and some very spoiled cats.

Author Links:   Website  |  Twitter  |  Facebook  | Goodreads |  Tumbler

My Review:

The Snow Queen is one of my favourite fairy stories. It has themes and characters that are rare in traditional and older stories and when I read it I always feel really Christmassy for some reason. For a cold story, its kind of warming.

Crown of Ice was a masterful re-telling of it and had a dash of Angela Carter in its prose. Wonderfully manipulated by the author into a YA book and was enjoyable as an adult too.

From a writer’s perspective, it puts you right into the action straight on the first page and seamlessly weaves flashbacks into the present – a rare thing to find in modern books, as I’ve read far too many recently that just slap them in whenever and however the author can to either pad out their story or shoe horn something in they’ve forgotten! With the story told from the Snow Queen’s POV it was also very reminiscent of Sarah Pinsborough’s book, Poison which is a re-telling of Snow White, mostly from the Evil Queen’s point of View. I truly think as  a reader and a writer that the evil characters are more interesting than the arrow straight heroes – and actually, seem realer.

The front cover is gorgeous! Stunning visual that will serve the book well when would-be readers are flipping through Amazon, Goodreads and the like for their next YA fantasy fix.

Overall, I’d give Crown of Ice 5 out of 5 stars – a must read – especially on a winter’s night wrapped up by the fire with a mug of hot chocolate and purring cat on your lap – or on a train or anywhere else!

Filed under: Book Review Tagged: @chapterxchapter, @VickiLWeavil, Angela Carter, Crown of Ice by Vicki L. Weavil, Month9Books, sarah pinnesborough, The Snow queen

My book, Bad Blood – Out Now!

Synopsis:

“I am Britannia. I am your protector. I will fend off the hungry hordes of undead hands that reach toward you. I am your steadfast defender. I will stand between you and the zombie masses as they try to taste your flesh. I am strong, unyielding, and dedicated to your survival. All I ask from you… is your blood.”

A five-hundred-year-old bloody game of vengeance will need to be put on hold if vampires are to survive the zombie uprising. Britannia and Nicholas, bitter enemies and the only two surviving vampires left in London, have to work together to save un-infected humans and deliver them safely to a vampire stronghold in the Scottish Highlands. Unable to drink the zombie ‘bad blood’, the remaining vampires need the humans to stay alive. But will the vampires tell the survivors who they are and what they want from them? Will Britannia be able to hold back her vengeance for the greater good? Is survivor Josh the reincarnation of Britannia’s murdered true love? And can she bring herself to deliver him to the ‘safe’ hold? Survival instincts run deep, but bad blood can run deeper.

Buy Links

Amazon UK       Amazon US      Evernight Teen

Excerpt:

We ran to the hospital. On the way, we encountered hardly anyone, alive or dead. Where were they all? When we arrived at the hospital car park, I understood. Zombies were pack animals. A massive crowd of them were crammed in and around the main building like they were waiting for a concert to start, all barely paying attention to their surroundings and seemingly swaying against the force of gravity. The other thing was the smell. When watching horror films filled with shuffling zombies, the horror came from their ghastly looks—the reminder that death has a tight grip on us all, well, most of us. But what the filmmakers should focus on—if they could—was the acidic rank odor zombies gave off. They had been dead barely twenty-four hours. It took a normal human body at least thirty-six hours to really start to smell, and that was with a vampire’s heightened senses. These guys smelled like they’d been out in the sun for three weeks covered in rubbish and besieged by wily maggots. They were mostly intact, though. Maybe this hospital had been Zombie Ground Zero. Most had turned so quickly their comrades hadn’t had time to feed.

“Maybe we should try a less populated target.” Nicholas twitched his nose and turned away from me to dry retch.

“Maybe you should grow a pair.”

“Maybe you should act like a lady.” He now had his hands on his hips, squaring up for yet another argument.

“Acting like a lady isn’t going to help now, is it? What do you want me to do? Drop my handkerchief in front of the zombies and watch them fight one another to scoop it up for me? Moron!”

“Always to the ‘nth degree with you, isn’t it?”

“Shut up. Look, the doors are holding, and they’re outside, not inside, which means there must be some people left in there alive to have barricaded this place so tight.”

“Or maybe there are just more zombies in there.”

“Well, there’s definitely a blood bank in there, and that’ll help matters no end!”

Nicholas looked thoughtful then nodded. He of course didn’t want to actually say aloud that I’d had a good idea. “So, how do we get past them?”

I assumed it was a rhetorical question, so I started down to the car park entrance, where most of the zombies were mobbing. I opened the outer door as quietly as possible.

“Ladies first,” Nicholas whispered in my ear.

“I thought we’d agreed I wasn’t a lady.” And with that, I shoved him as hard as I could into the throbbing throng of zombies.

Published by Evernight Teen http://www.evernightteen.com/

Filed under: Book Review, Nicky's Posts - My ramblings... Tagged: bad blood, battle of the undead trilogy, Britannia, dangerous heroes, Evernight publishing, Evernight Teen, horrors set in UK, Jack, Josh, Nicholas, Nicky Peacock, Philippe, Teen reads, vampires, Vampires VS Zombies, YA horror, YA Urban Fantasy, zombies

Interview with Amy Braun

Tell us about your publishing journey…

I was writing casually for a few years before I decided to make it a career. Once I realized it was what I wanted to do more than anything else, I decided to go the route I think every new author tries, and went looking for agents and publishers. I wasn’t having a lot of success and didn’t want to devote my time to a single project when I have so many more I want to accomplish, so I abandoned that and began trying my luck at open submission calls. These turned out to be a huge success, since I received four acceptances in the span of a few months. This was about the same time I chose to go the indie route, self-publishing my first short story, Needfire, in August of this year. The indie route may not provide the most profit, but for now I would rather work on putting my stories out there for the world than crossing my fingers and hoping an agent/publisher says yes.

What do you love about being an author?

Pretty much everything. I love coming up with new ideas and powers and alternate realities. It’s just so exhilarating when I’m walking around thinking about a story and then bam! New idea. I write by the seat of my pants, so I love writing a scene, being absorbed in it, and putting down the first thing that comes to mind. I love finishing a piece of work, reading it over, and being proud of what I’ve created. I love new challenges when I find open submissions, and I even love working with editors to improve my skills and become a stronger writer. So yes, I love everything about writing.

If you could have dinner with any literary character, who would it be and what would you eat?

Hmm, this is a tricky one. I’m a huge fan of anti-heroes, but a dinner with most of my favorite characters would probably end in violence, so I’m going to go with Atticus O’Sullivan from Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid Chronicles. Atticus has lived for over 2,000 years, and he would have so many stories to tell. I’d probably have some kind of lamb stew and bread or comfort food, something to match the heaviness of his stories. Another character I’d be willing to have dinner with would be Robin Goodfellow from Rob Thurman’s Cal Leandros series. Yet another character who has literally lived since the dawn of time, who would have a lot to share and be more than willing to talk about it. Though I’m pretty sure the dinner would involve a fancy, dainty steak, lots of alcohol, and endless attempts at seduction.

If your story was to be made into a movie, who would you cast as the leads? 

If Needfire we being made into a movie, I’d like to see Ophelia Lovibond as the main character Sophia, Alex Pettyfer as Issac, and Steven Strait as Reyes. For Charlatan Charade, I would try to get Taylor Kitsch to be Ethan, Luke Bracey as Nick, and Jake Abel as Adam.

Vampires – do you prefer them as sexy leads or blood hungry monsters?

Blood hungry monsters, though I do love it when they add in a little bit of sexiness. I always preferred vampires, because they’re a highly intelligent predator. They know exactly who to provoke and seduce you, and you probably won’t know you’re in a trap until their fangs are lodged in your throat. As millions of internet memes have said: Vampires are monsters, and monsters don’t sparkle.

If you had a time machine, which era would you go back to and why?

I’d like to go back to medieval times. I love history and watching people live without any semblance of technology would be pretty amazing. Sure, it would be a lot more dangerous and I’d probably catch some kind of disease, but there’s only so much history books can teach us. Experiencing such a different time would be incredible. I’d love to see what medieval Greece or Japan or Egypt was like. Those three cultures have my favorite histories, and seeing them first hand would be spectacular.

What life advice do you wish you’d been given sooner?

Go with your gut. Most of the time I do, but I wish I hadn’t wasted time trying out certain careers when writing was the one thing that I constantly succeeded at. I’m grateful for life experience and all that, but I have literally a dozen different stories I want to write, and I can’t help but wonder if they’d have been released while I was focusing on other options.

If you were a supernatural creature, what would you be and why?

I’d probably be a werewolf. I like being in a group, going for long walks in or near forests, and am fiercely loyal. It’s a hard choice to make, because there are thousands of supernatural creatures out there!

Where do you write best?

When I’m in a room with a comfy seat with a couple snacks, some water, and music. I can write virtually anywhere, however. The writing part of my brain only shuts off when I sleep.

What was the last book you read, and what were your thoughts on it?

I finished Partials by Dan Wells a couple days ago. It was a really great dystopian story with a really cool twist near the end. The main character kind of makes me crazy sometimes, but I’m really enjoying the series and am wondering how it’s going to end.

If you didn’t write in your genre, which other would you prefer and why?

If I didn’t write urban fantasy or horror, I’d be in the hardcore fantasy genre or possibly sci-fi. I like reading fantasy and while I’m not very big on sci-fi, I do have one sci-fi trilogy that I’d like to write.

Where can fans find you online?

I’m all over the place. My blog is called Literary Braun, I have Facebook and Twitter pages, am an authorized author on Goodreads, Amazon, and Figment, and can be found on Instagram and Pinterest.

 

Lost in the Witching Hour

Filed under: Interviews with other authors Tagged: Amy Braun, Lost in the Witching Hour

Book Review: The Girl and the Clockwork Cat by Nikki McCormack

Synopsis:

Feisty teenage thief Maeko and her maybe-more-than-friend Chaff have scraped out an existence in Victorian London’s gritty streets, but after a near-disastrous heist leads her to a mysterious clockwork cat and two dead bodies, she’s thrust into a murder mystery that may cost her everything she holds dear.

Her only allies are Chaff, the cat, and Ash, the son of the only murder suspect, who offers her enough money to finally get off the streets if she’ll help him find the real killer.

What starts as a simple search ultimately reveals a conspiracy stretching across the entire city. And as Maeko and Chaff discover feelings for each other neither was prepared to admit, she’s forced to choose whether she’ll stay with him or finally escape the life of a street rat. But with danger closing in around them, the only way any of them will get out of this alive is if all of them work together.

About the Author:

Nikki started writing her first novel at the age of 12, which she still has tucked in a briefcase in her home office, waiting for the right moment. Despite a successful short story publication with Cricket Magazine in 2007, she continued to treat her writing addiction as a hobby until a drop in the economy presented her with an abundance of free time that she used to focus on making it her career.

Nikki lives in the magnificent Pacific Northwest tending to her husband and three cats suffering varying stages of neurosis. She feeds her imagination by sitting on the ocean in her kayak gazing out across the never-ending water or hanging from a rope in a cave, embraced by darkness and the sound of dripping water. She finds peace through practicing iaido or shooting her longbow.

Website  Facebook Twitter Goodreads

My Review:

I do like a good bit of steampunk, it does seem to be gaining popularity at the moment, especially in the YA market – which is great to see. The Girl and the  Clockwork Cat was a well written, and thought out book, with an interesting storyline and some lovely prose.

From a writer’s perspective, I did have a problem with the dialogue. As the book was set in Victorian England there were a lot of ‘bloody’ cliches in how the characters spoke. Although this can feel more ‘realistic’ to readers from other countries, as an English reader/writer I unfortuantely cringed. It illicited the kind of ‘Dick Van Dyke’ accent in my head so felt a little patronizing to me personal – and ruined the character interaction, which apart from that aspect was great. I always try to give a bit of advice whenever I criticise part of a book (it’s only fair to give a solution if you raise a problem) but it’s a bit difficult here from a cultural perception stand-point. I’ve read some really good English dialogue written by authors from other countries and some much worse than what you’ll find in this book, the only advice I can give is to tone it down and perhaps speak to people in that conutry – harder to do when your characters are set back in time, granted. I think all too often TV Shows and movies are used as research points for dialogue and its understanding that, although some are as historically accurate as they can be, others are merely staisfied with an over-the-top charactiture. I’d have been happier if, as this is a steampunk novel for made-up swears and parts of language to have been included.

The front cover is beautiful and will no doubt garner attention on the virual bookshelves

Overall I’d give The Girl and the Clockwork Cat 3 out 5 stars. Cog me! It’s nice to read some steampunk!

Filed under: Book Review Tagged: Clockwork Cat, Entangled Teen, Steampunk, The Girl and the Clockwork Cat by Nikki McCormack