K.N. Salustro's Blog, page 15

Review – Clockwork Boys

[image error]An surprisingly and extremely entertaining read. There are a few typos and some words that I think were missing or out of order, but wow was this a fun book. Darkly funny with a pack of endearing characters, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My single star shave off was entirely for technical flaws, plus somewhat slow pacing in the beginning, and the narration does have the tendency to abruptly shift between characters without a chapter break. Beyond that, though, I really loved this. There are a numb...

Thoughts on “Seraphina”

[image error]Did Not Finish

It’s time for an unpopular opinion.

I could not enjoy this book. I was bored through most of it, due predominantly to the pacing. It’s so slow and I just was not captivated enough by the world or the characters to keep going.

I actually found Seraphina herself very hard to pin down. I saw so many reviews that said she was a wonderful character, but I mostly found her inconsistent. She’s disgusted with the half-dragon part of herself and is terrified of someone discovering it… b...

Review – The Alice Network

[image error]Wow, did I love this book.

Historical fiction is a different beat for me, one that I avoid for no real reasons other than personal preference, but I thought this book was amazing. Between the powerhouse female leads, the rich settings, and the intertwining of two narratives from different points in time, this hit all the right notes for me.

Both Charlie (short for Charlotte) and Eve grow so much over the course of the book, and Eve has a second arc later in her life as she sets out with Charl...

Review – Warcross

[image error]4 stars on goodreads, 3.5 in my mind.

I liked this book a lot, but I did not completely love it. I feel the need to start with the negatives this time, because I do think they’re outweighed by the positives, so bear with me a moment.

I personally found a lot of the dialogue a bit difficult to accept. Emika’s main line for the first third of the book is, “Thanks,” but most of her opening up and speaking more than one word is when she is with Hideo. This frustrated me a bit as I really wanted t...

STAR HUNTERS FANART CONTEST — Win an arkin plush!

Because I love and appreciate my readers so much, and to celebrate the upcoming release of Light Runner, I am holding a fanart contest!

The task? Design your own arkin. What would make the coolest / cutest / best version of the species? What kind of arkin would YOU want to own? Take your inspiration from this post about the species and let your imagination run wild.

The prize? Whoever designs what I consider to be the best arkin will win a plush of that arkin, made by me. That’s right, I’ll b...

Cover Reveal – LIGHT RUNNER

Behold! The cover for Star Hunters #3: Light Runner.

[image error]

Light Runner features cover art from Josef Bartoň, and is now available for pre-order from Amazon and Smashwords. Light Runner is set for publication on June 19, 2018.

This is quite a large book, coming in at over 100,000 words. There’s a lot going down in this third installment, with Lissa and Lance returning as the main leads, but you’ll see more from the Star Federation and the Seventh Sun, too.

The hunt draws to a close. Will you join?...

Review – Every Heart a Doorway

[image error]I really enjoyed this, though I didn’t love it. The past couple Seanan McGuire books I’ve read have all had very abrupt endings, and this one was no exception, but it is an imaginative, intriguing, portal fantasy novel, even if it is a quick read.

I wish some more time had been spent with each of the characters as I never fully felt like I got to know any of them as well as I would have liked. There is a solid cast here, though, ranging from nonsensical Sumi to the highly logical and oh so cr...

Review – The Stone Sky

[image error]What a freaking incredible series. These books… just read them if you even remotely enjoy fantasy. They are breathtaking and wonderful and painful and terrifying and beautiful all wrapped into an epic trilogy.

This books was a little slower than the others, taking a much more deliberate pacing between the events Essun and her daughter Nassun experience, but I was fascinated by the history Hoa slowly reveals through the lens of his past. After I’ve gotten over the impact crater this series lef...

Star Hunters Book 3 Update

Hey, all!

Some exciting stuff is in the works for book 3, including a title AND cover reveal. I’m hoping that this will happen very soon, so stay tuned for that. This will happen on Tuesday, March 22, 2018.

[image error]

On top of that, there will be a contest announcement the weekend of March 24th celebrating the release of the book. This will run for a couple of months at least, and I’m hoping it will be as fun for you all as it will for me. I’m very excited about it. Hope you are, too!

Now, if you are...

The Thing About Dystopias

Did dystopias “lose their teeth”?

Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot of articles that take swings at the dystopian genre. These have rankled me for a few reasons, not the least of which is that it seems to have become somewhat trendy to shit on dystopias now that women are dominating the genre, but I’ve seen some valid criticisms, too.

Yes, there’s been a surge in the idea of dystopias that categorize people, and that seems have pulled consumers into the fantasy of sorting themselves into those...