L.K. Evans's Blog, page 21

Indie Challenge Book 4 - Soul Catcher by E. L. Todd

Soul Catcher by E.L. Todd
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hmmm...so I’m writing this review before I decide the number of stars to give it because, honestly, I just don’t know. Right off the bat, I’ll tell you that I’ll be buying the second book. I want to know what happens and I’m invested enough in the characters that I need to know what happens.

I guess I’ll start with what I didn’t like.

There were some unfortunate info dumps using confusing past and presence tenses that called attention to a few of them. They were short and contained information that I honestly forgot. I tend to glaze over paragraphs reciting world history when there’s no dialog or sensory additions that keep me focused. That being said, they were pretty brief.

A lot of information was redundant. A. Lot. I think what made this so blatant was the fact that the character POV shifted within a paragraph. It’s a head-hopper. As I’ve said before, I really, and I mean REALLY, enjoy multiple character POVs. What I don’t like is when it hops from sentence to sentence between characters, which happened in this book. It never grounds me to a scene, and this book was no exception. One minute we’re hearing the thoughts of a character which are generally reciprocated in the next sentence by another character. Then repeated a few paragraphs later.

There were some odd analogies. Like second hands on a clock, a pressured hose. It didn’t seem to fit with the time period and kinda threw me off a couple times.

Here’s something that doesn’t bother me, but thought I would share with people who are thinking of picking this book up: there is rape, there is sex.

Now, what I liked.

The characters themselves did not blow me away, but I really cared what happened to them. Aleco is a tormented man, which immediately draws me to him. I like characters with horrific pasts, and Aleco gives me that character. I wish the book would have had more slower scenes so we could get to know them better. Perhaps even more interaction with other characters, more dialog. Not to say I don’t know Aleco’s character well, but I wanted...something more in depth. Accacia was a character that sloshed from emotion to emotion. I didn’t have a problem with her until about half way through the book. I didn’t like her actions towards Aleco and it turned me off from her.

Some of the descriptions were a little flat, but other times they blew me away. There were times when Todd described physical sensations that were nothing shy of brilliant. I felt myself aching in sympathy. Love that!

The plot was nothing new or earth-shattering, but I found myself enjoying it. Besides one too many flashbacks, it moved along fine for my taste.

Now that I’ve written this, I’ve decided to go with 3 stars on Goodreads, 4 on Amazon because of their different meanings. I like this books. And, as I said, I will be buying the next one.

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Indie Challenge Book 3 - I, Zombie by Jo Michaels

I Zombie by Jo Michaels
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What an enjoyable read. I sat down this morning thinking to give this a few chapters before I started on my list of things to do today. Before I knew it, I’d finished the book.

First of all, let me say that YA is not a genre I’ve ever found myself enjoying. The relationships always feel too committed to me, like they can’t live without one another nor do they know how to become their own person. It’s usually why I steer clear of YA. With that said, obviously this book fit differently for me. For one, I finished it in one sitting which means it held my interests. The story moved at a quick pace that didn’t allow me to grow bored and look for something else to do. Nicely done, Ms. Michaels. Two, is that the characters were very separate in their identities. Sure, there were close relationships, but the main character was a strong girl on her own. She didn’t need them to survive. I enjoyed that very much. She wasn’t all co-depend on the male lead. Refreshing.

Second of all, since I don’t read zombie books, I don’t know if the view point of this novel was original. It struck me as original, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this from the zombie point of view. The effects of zombieness were very creatively described.

The writing was clean and smooth and pulled me right into the story. There’s hardly any description which is a bonus for me since I usually skim over excessively descriptive passages.

While I didn’t latch on to any one character, I did tear up which surprised me. I guess I was more invested than I thought I was when reading. Or it could have been how well those sad scenes were written. Not sure, but, either way, it pulled at my heart.

I’d recommend this to any lover of YA and zombie books.

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Indie Challenge Book 2 Gods of Sand and Stone by W. Shuler

Well, I'm happy...no, ecstatic to report that book 2 of Keepers of Arden finally has an ending I can get behind. YAY!  Now it's time for some major editing.

I'll be taking a break from reading while I get caught up on book 2 so this might be my last review for a week or two.  Gods of Sand and Stone by Walter Shuler
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Well, I hate to say it, but this fell short for me. I love characters who have experienced something horrible, who’ve been to the bottom, who have an internal struggle that tears at my heart. Conn should have been that character. All the elements were there.

I REALLY wanted to get into this story. But I didn’t. Here’s why:

It was rushed.

The scenes that should’ve pulled me in, that should have torn open my heart, that should have reduced me to tears were too understated, too rushed, too...plain. I wanted to stay in those moments, but instead I was plunged forward. This was an extremely short book and had plenty of opportunity to be something incredible. I like the story idea. I like the potential of the characters. I like the fantastical places they visited. There were gods, odd lands, fights, and a little romance brewing. Again, all things I enjoy. But as I said, I never got a chance to settle into them. I like...no, I love fast paced books if they’re done well, if they focus on the right areas. This wasn’t one of those books, for me anyways. You'll note that are plenty of 4-5 stars, so it just goes to show that every reader is different.

I’m actually quite frustrated, to tell the truth of it. I really wanted to like this book. It had soooooo much potential. Unfortunately, I won’t be carrying on with the series.


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Indie Challenge - Book 1: The Avatar of Calderia

Here's my first book towards my Indie Author Reading Challenge. Below are my thoughts on the book. The Avatar of Calderia: Book 1: Awakenings by David M. Echeandia
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First, the disclaimers:

1. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
2. Reading is subjective. This is just my opinion.

I’m confused. I’ll say that from the start. I’m confused cause I’m not a 100% sure how I really felt about this book. This review might reflect my puzzled state, so bear with me. And, honestly, this went from 2 stars to 4 stars back to 2 then to 3 and up to 4 and back to 2. Confused? Join the club.

I enjoyed the actual writing. I know that might be weird for some, but it was easy to read. Not in a simple way or dumbed down way. The sentences flowed brilliantly in a relaxing prose that I quite enjoyed. I would have lost myself completely except...

And herein comes my bafflement. I hate to say, but a lot of this book felt like a prologue. I wasn’t there in the story during several chunks. It was like I was being told what was happening instead of immersing me into the scene. Some parts were brilliant, and I think that’s why I had such a hard time with it. When it came to Reagen, each scene with him was what I would have preferred. I was there. I felt his sadness, sat at the table with Doughal and him, listened to the banter, and understood the interaction of soldiers. It made me want to be there all the time. Opposite from those scenes were chapters like Rak’koth taking over Surrikand where the whole time it read exactly like a prologue to me. Then there were chapters that fell in the middle of all that. They didn’t immerse me, but they didn’t read like a prologue.

Now, all that being said, I’m excited for the second book. I’m curious what happens. And that says a lot because--as anyone who follows my reviews will know--I’m a character reader and I wasn’t latched on to any one character in this book. Killian and Ellie are probably the ones I hope to connect more with in book 2. With all the backstory set and the plot for book 2 well on its way, I hope I can connect with them more.

I actually found Ellie to be interesting. She’s tough, but has a very sensitive side. I’m curious if Echeandia can keep her character strong in book 2 and not turn her into a damsel if she falls in love (which, unfortunately happens to a lot of strong female characters).

I’ll mention this next part just as an FYI. It didn’t bother me in the least, but I know it might some. This is an ADULT book that is sexually heavy. There is rape. There is sex....several of such scenes I found very well written while others...meh.

Lastly (and of pure personal taste), this book was too descriptive for me. I’m not a fan. A paragraph or two should set the scene for my tastes, but Echeandia was thorough in his descriptions which I found myself skimming regularly. Let me inform any skimmers and anti-description readers that it is very easy to skim those sections and not lose a thing from the plot or story. Echeandia, whether by accident or on purpose, set up descriptions in consecutive paragraphs that are easy to bypass. Nothing major is hidden in them. So, Mr. Echeandia, I thank you for that.

I know I’ve said a lot of negative things about this book, but I want to finish with one sentence that sums up how I feel. I will, I repeat, WILL buy the second book.

My ramblings are done.

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The Last Two Reviews for 2013

Below are the last two books I read in 2013. I'm going to say, I ended it with a bang. The Name of the Wind was simply amazing and is right up there with Blood Song. My top list is getting a little competitive, which isn't necessarily a bad dilemma to have.

I was happy I read The Name of the Wind as it's a nice way to study how someone handled telling a story of a story. My next series is kinda like a medieval apocalyptic fantasy. There will be two main characters the books follows. One section will a journal of one of the characters while the other point of view is from the other main character's perspective as they read it. It's allowing me to try a different style which I'm finding quite fascinating and rather enjoyable. I humbly bow to Mr. Rothfuss as I do not think I will come close to his talent, but I'm excited to try, nonetheless.

Don't worry, I'm still working on Keepers of Arden. Book 2 is in time out right now. Thoroughly misbehaving and driving me up the wall. Book three is well on its way and already proves to be less of a headache. But there's a lot more action, more so than the other two, therefore those scenes will take me a while to flesh out. Book 4 is elusive. It flights around my head like young sparrow. Soon, I'll have to catch it, learn its secrets, and then release it. But that day is far off.

Anyways, here's the reviews: by Patrick Rothfuss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well, I’ve recovered.

I read a little of this book the first day I got it. Only got about a hundred pages thought it before I was content to do something else. It was a slow beginning and slow beginnings tend to make me set aside a book and pick it up occasionally. Well, I didn’t have occassion to pick it up again until yesterday. Got through another little boring section and then something happened. Something that was written so well that I couldn’t hardly put the book down last night. I woke up early cause I couldn’t sleep and I needed to read it. So what does this mean? The character went through something that completely pulled me into his life. Nothing that followed, no matter how boring or mundane, could pull me out of the story after that.

There are no spoilers in this review. I will simply say that there will be those who connect with Mr. Rothfuss’ writing and are drawn into this story. There will be those who cry, such as myself, because of the way he writes tragedies. On the other hand, there will be those who don’t like the writing or ‘flashback’ type feel of the book or the rather slow parts. I loved it. I loved the hints you got from Mr. Rothfuss when he hopped to current times. They gave me little tastes of what was to come and it made me read on, curious at times, dying at others. As for the slowness, yes it is. However, once that major moment happened for me, I rather enjoyed the slow parts.

There’s something very quiet about Kvothe that draws me to him, while there’s other traits that make me frown. But I still adore him. I’m a character reader who only tends to give five stars when a character suffers so much in their life and somehow pushes through it. Kvothe is that character for me. I loved him. And I loved this book.

I won’t be buying the second one. Not yet anyways. Once the third one comes out, I’ll spend a week reading all three. I don’t know that I could handle the wait if I read the second book. I hate waiting.

And there it is. My ramblings.

View all my reviews Swords of Winter by G.L. Lathian
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow, what a quick and enjoyable read (thank you for recommending this, Amber). It’s a great setup to future books, and, by the end, I was thoroughly invested in the brothers. Now, I must confess that I have a soft spot for stories that have siblings...a very large soft spot. I’d be hard pressed not to like a book that focused on a close sibling relationship. Anyways, let’s get on with it.

The formatting of some of the paragraphs and the dialog tags often left me trying to figure out who was speaking. Since there is a cast of characters at times, mostly male, it needed some proper names, clearer tags, or proper punctuation when keeping with a single character’s dialog that spread over multiple paragraphs. It was easily discovered by reading to the next paragraph, but when reading you might notice it.

The middle kinda dragged for me and I skimmed over a training scene. My boredom was short lived since the story picked back up quickly. There’s a lot of getting to know townsfolk and my mind might have wondered during some of these scenes. But, like I said, it moved quickly over those sections.

What I loved was the brothers’ relationship and I also loved their father. The family dynamic was done very well. The brothers were believable characters, holding different quirks and thoughts, but staying close the entire time.

There were hints dropped that have me dying for answers. I will definitely be purchasing the next book in the series. Very excited for it to be published.

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My First Reading Challenge

So I've never participated in a reading challenge. I just read what I want when I want. However, I never knew of all the wonderful book bloggers out there until I wrote my first book. In my exploration of marketing, I've discovered wonderful websites that have really opened my eyes. I'm still tentative in my postings since I'm a rather shy person. Huh, an author who is an introvert? Shocking. Of course, that's my sarcasm making an appearance. I'm a fan of it. We've become good ol' friends. I digress. Back on topic.

Because I'm self-published, I've decided to participate in a reading challenge called 'Indie Fever'. I'm really excited to discover new books and authors. I'll post my reviews, as well as my progress, on Goodreads, Amazon (except for progress), and my own blog. 
Since book 2 is being extremely needy right now, I'm going for amateur (1-24).  I feel like an underachiever, but I need to finish book 2 and get it published. 
Anyways, I'm excited for this challenge. It should be fun!

Yay for Presents

Thanks to my Mom and her generosity at Christmas, I'll be able to offer paperbacks of Keepers of Arden. Right now, I'm waiting for my typographer to return my back cover so I can get the ball rolling. No definite date yet, but I'm hoping I can order my first set of books in late January. So excited! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! Now, back to book 2!

My Review of Sir Edric's Temple by Thaddeus White

I know I'm a little behind on getting you a review of D.Z. C.'s book, People Like Us, but it's a slower read for me. Not that I'm not enjoying it, I am, but it's a laid back read that I can revisit in-between some other books. Sir Edric's Temple by Thaddeus White
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sooooo, this was different. And, for me, not in a bad way. I will say, those easily offended by characters who hold loose morales might want to steer clear. My own morales can stay perfectly intact without me feeling guilty for enjoying the escapades of unscrupulous characters, but I know not everyone is like me. I’d hate to see this book rated poorly because someone took offense to the character’s actions, so I highly recommend you read the sample on Amazon.

Sir Edric is a sleazy knight who looks out for himself, but I was completely caught up in his story and ensnared by the dry humor and internal ramblings of this terribly flawed character. He is far from perfect and he does not strive to be perfect. He’s a womanizer, a drunk, and a generally selfish person who stumbles into righteous acts quite by mistake. If you want to laugh and if you can understand a little warped dry humor, I’d highly recommend this book. It’s short and a wonderful surprise.

In conclusion, sometimes imperfect can be a perfect fit to what you needed. And I needed a good laugh.


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My review of The Protector by Mark Matthews

The Protector by Mark Matthews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First and foremost, the disclaimers:
1. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
2. Reading is subjective. This is merely my opinion.

Throughout this review, you’ll see me refer to David Eddings’ series. The Belgariad. I grew up on David Eddings, reading and re-reading his Belgariad and Malloreon series all through grade school and high school, so I’m quite familiar with them. This book reminds me very strongly of the Belgariad series, so be prepared to see Belgariad mentioned a few times below. Now, on to the review.

First, what bothered me.

My first issue has me straddling the 3 and 4 star rating (if I could, this would be a 3.5 star). It was the romance between two main characters, Barrett and I’ll leave the other nameless so I don’t totally ruin it, in case you don’t see it coming. Barrett is supposedly 24 years old in this book, and I totally ate up that fact until the budding romance started. I would peg these two characters, based on romance alone, to be more young teen. It’s a little childish. It reminded me of the Belgariad romance, but the Belgariad fit better since the main character was like 13 or 14 when the romance started. Of course, as I complain about nearly every book I read, the romance started too soon, mere weeks after meeting. I just have a hard time swallowing such fast paced love. Flirting? Absolutely! Kissing? Sure! Fooling around? Why not. Undying love and marriage? Hold your horses. I need to work up to that. So, there you have it. I was annoyed by the romance. Is there any book I’ve read where I could handle the romance? Ummm...the Belgariad....and only the Belgariad. Not because I enjoyed their courtship (I actually didn’t), but because I understood it. It took quite a bit of time and then after they married, there were a boat load of problems to work through. It wasn’t so clean cut. Not that The Protector didn’t have a few ups and downs, but it seemed fake at times.

Secondly, every great once in a while the humor felt a little forced, like I should have been laughing when I wasn’t. It’s damn hard to get me to laugh aloud. I mean, really hard. I didn’t do it with this book, though it wrestled a few smiles out of me. Still, sometimes I felt a little guilty when I wasn’t smiling.

Now, on to the fun stuff.

What I enjoyed about this book was how it felt like I was on the journey with the group of characters. Not a lot of time was skipped, and when it was it was a few short days of travel here and there. It kept me tied into the story. Much like the Belgariad, they traveled from place to place and had a good set of adventures along the way. The pace was well thought out and kept me interested. After all, I read it in one sitting.

For those of you who are die-hard map followers, be prepared. They travel a lot with no map for you to reference. I’m a map glancer. I take a look at it and then dive right in. I rarely ever look back. Take heart, though. This book didn’t lose me. Like I said, I was along on the journey and never felt lost. We moved from kingdom to kingdom in an orderly, well thought out manner.

The settings were wonderfully described. I hate long, drawn out descriptions, but Mr. Matthews was able to give me plenty of information to keep me in the story without boring me to tears. Yay! Smells, sights, and sounds were alive. I really did feel like I was there.

The world was well thought out. The races and kingdoms weren’t crammed down my throat in the beginning, trying to immerse me immediately. Mr. Matthews eased me into the history through dialog and stories. It prevented me from feeling like I was in history class listening to the droning voice of a professor. And it didn’t even rely on a prologue! Yay!

The story itself is light, which agains remind me of the Belgariad series. Stuff happens, some not so pleasant, but the vibe is upbeat and the characters joke among each other with regularity. It gave the book a carefree feeling, but that did drain the tension from some scenes.

Quite a few of the characters I could exchange with those in the Belgariad books and the stories would still flow effortlessly. One character in particular hit very close to Pol. Funny thing, I didn’t really latch on to any one character. But I didn’t in Belgariad either. That’s very odd for me. If I don’t latch on to someone, I usually don’t like the book. But like the Belgariad, the characters had their quirks and the story was enjoyable enough to make up for the lack of my whole investment. Tylor was my absolute favorite though. His sense of humor was awesome and his abilities were incredibly fun to read about.

Please note, this is not a dark book. This is not a horribly traumatized cast of characters. This is a very clean cut fantasy. It is a break from the dark books out there and has a completely followable plot.

So, you might be wondering why, especially for a character driven reader such as myself, I would award this book four stars. What tipped it for me was because of the nostalgia it brought. I was young again, enjoying a story that didn’t hurt my brain, sitting astride a horse while gazing at what they saw and listening to their conversations. It was a break from reality and a quick little adventure.

Would I read it again? Probably not. Will I buy the second book? Absolutely.

So there you have it. My ramblings are done.

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My First...

Well, I'm still trying to recover from the Thanksgiving Gorge Fest. I'm just going to say it: too much food for one day. However, turkey is awesome! Now, before I had eaten myself into a coma, I did something I've never done before. Deep breath. Here goes. I read a sci-fi book. Gasp! I'm sure there are many questions you have, so let me try to clarify just how significant this moment is in my life.
I've never read sic-fi because, honestly, I'm not a techy person and I was always worried I'd feel like a total idiot while reading it, which is not something I ever want to feel. Sure, I like Star Trek as much as the next gal (I actually do like Star Trek, that's not sarcasm), but watching a moving and having the visibility of what they're doing is completely different than reading a book and having to come up with the picture in your head. Imagination I have. Just not when it comes to gadgets.
Wow…have I been missing out. Of course, I only have two books to judge it on, but I felt right at home. I'm sure that the fact they were by my favorite fantasy author (as of now, anyways) had everything to do with it. The main character was so engaging that I didn't notice if there might have been terminology I didn't get. Never once did I find myself saying: WTF is that?! (BTW, if cussing makes you uncomfortable, feel free to replace the F* word with fudgesicle) 
Since I'm a sharing person (except when it comes to my Mom's oatmeal peanut butter cookies), I'll let you know what books broke me out of my exclusive fantasy and horror comfort zone. They are by Anthony Ryan, who can do absolutely no wrong, and they are called Slab City Blues. What makes it even better? The first two are free on iTunes right now.  There are four in the series so far and I've read the first two and have purchased the second two.  Why haven't I devoured the second two? I'm savoring-yes-savoring those fine pieces of work. I don't want to blow through them and leave myself nothing by Mr. Ryan until July of NEXT YEAR when his second book in the Raven's Shadow series is released. NEXT YEAR!! Ugh! Sorry, got distracted there. Anyways, if you get a chance, I highly recommend reading Slab City Blues. They are short stories so it takes no time at all, but for that brief hour you'll be someplace crazy with a character you want to get to know. Hopefully he'll think you're cool enough to hang out with.
Well, there are my ramblings for the week. In a few days I'll have a new review for you all. I'm reading People Like Us by D.Z.C. It's my first thriller/crime book. It's my goal, now that I've been eased out of fantasy, to start checking out other genres. I'm rather excited.

P.S. If anyone is looking for Mr. Ryan's website, it is: http://anthonystuff.wordpress.com