Phoebe Prince's Blog: HD Lynn, author, page 5

REVIEW: Moonburner

Moonburner by Claire Luana

Moonburner starts when Kai is born–and her birth must be kept a secret because she’s a special sorceress. Moonburners and Sunburners are at war, and Quitsu finds herself trapped in the middle of it. There’s a fire nation/water nation element to the Moonburner/Sunburner war, and I liked that.

There’s a nice touch of Japanese mythology in this story. It’s a genuinely diverse piece of fantasy. Kai is unique as a character, and her personality fits well with the moon goddess persona. Hiro, too, fits a certain stereotype, and he’s a strong and silent type sun warrior. My favorite character was Quitsu, though, and I found him endearing without being saccharine. I’m picky about my fantasy couples, but I liked these two together. They talked to each other, and I get the feeling that they’re soul mates (even though I dislike that term…) without it being too forced. Hiro complicated things, but I found myself rooting for Kai and Quitsu.

In general, Kai’s training seemed to drag a bit. I wanted a little more from this story in terms of action-based plot. I loved the characters and their relationships, though. Pura is a lovely character, but I wish she had more backbone. The supporting cast maybe wasn’t as well developed and made this story feel a bit thin.

The end sets up for the sequel, but Moonburner ends with a punch. There’s a nice touch of family verses service, and I liked how Kai has to become a leader verse just a figurehead.

Rating: 4 stars. This is a diverse high fantasy story with an interesting female character.

Authors beware: A new danger for KU authors

There’s a story like this everyday now, it seems.

Darrienia: The Forgotten Legacies Series

Hi all,

Anyone who follows me closely will know my book was removed from Amazon for almost a fortnight after they registered some unusual activity. At first I was at a loss. What was it, where had it come from? But since I have learnt a terrifying truth behind Kindle Unlimited, it is one all authors need to be aware of. It is a KU scam that could ruin your career and put your money into fraudsters’ pockets.

In this post I will detail my own experience, in hope you know what to look out for.

I was running a book promotion, a push to generate interest in my first book. After approaching blogs and book promotion sites I began to run a 99cents promotion on Darrienia, which at that time was number one in two of its categories. Book two is coming out at the end of the year…

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Think You Couldn’t Possibly Lose Your Amazon Publishing Account? Think Again.

Amazon needs to get real people to double check their algorithms before they pull stuff like this. Scamazon still exists, and it’s authors like this that are getting punished.

The Active Voice

There’s this indie author I know a little bit from the Kboards.com forum. Her name is Pauline Creeden, and she’s an ordinary midlister, like so many of us. I remember PMing her some time ago and gushing about how particularly beautiful one of her book covers is — the one for Chronicles of Steele: Raven. Here, I’ll include an image. Gorgeous, eh?

Anyway, today I tuned in to Kboards and noticed that Pauline had started a thread. It contained what’s surely the worst news possible for an indie author: Amazon had closed her publishing account. All her ebooks had been taken off sale. Permanently. Here’s the email she got from Amazon:

We are reaching out to you because we have detected that borrows for your books are originating from systematically generated accounts. While we support the legitimate efforts of our publishers to promote their books, attempting to manipulate…

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REVIEW: The Hereafter

The Hereafter by Jessica Boucher

The Hereafter features Nin and Dylan, two teens who find themselves dead. Neither of them have memories of their deaths. Nin ‘awakes’ at peace–on a beach and in a seemingly idyllic place. Dylan find himself dead in a dumpster–disaffected and angry and bitter. At first, Nin and Dylan seem like they can’t be different people.

This story plays with memories, which I love. There’s an insubstantial quality to the Hereafter, which alternates with ‘Before’ chapters. Boucher’s flowing, wispy prose aids to this atmosphere and lends itself best to Nin’s chapters and character. Nin and Dylan piece together their memories, showing that Nin’s life wasn’t so peaceful after all. The mysteries of both Nin and Dylan’s lives are all in their memories, which kind of leaves the current story in the Hereafter feeling a little thin on stakes. That’s  personal opinion, though, and if you’re okay with stories that are less action-packed, most of the momentum of the story taking place in Dylan and Nin’s memories will probably work better for you than it did for me.

A romance taking place in the afterlife…it’s kind of odd and yet sweet. Boucher’s writing sells the sweet romance aspect of this, and what initially attracted me to this book was the idea of how this type of afterlife romance would develop. Dylan and Nin bond over their problems, and Dylan opens up to Nin about his frankly shitting life. This drives Dylan away from Nin, but she has her own problems when she begins to remember her old boyfriend and Mrs. Frost. Both of these characters are intensely sympathetic…which was a bit boring to me? If you like commentary romance and contemporary YA, I think this story will work better for you than it did for me.

I don’t want to ruin the big twist in the story, but it did deliver. This story is 100% raw emotion and driven by the character’s feelings. There’s an underlying theme of forgiveness and atonement in the afterlife, which becomes pronounced the more the story progresses. There’s a fluidity to this story and a non-linear aspect to it that’s enchanting. It reminded me a bit of Everyday, which I really liked.

Notes: 3 stars not because it’s bad, but because it wasn’t 100% my thing. I think it was just too slow for me, but it’s beautiful writing and a lovely, non-linear YA magical realism story.

REVIEW: Too Like Lightning

Too Like Lightning by Ada Palmer

This book may be brilliant. It certainly is weird. It’s 18th century literature set in the 2246. There may be a revolution coming. There may not be. We never find out, and it could be so esoteric it might not even matter. Thus is this book.

I’m not sure I’ll even know what to think of this book even now that I’ve finished it. I’m a huge fan of China Mieville’s work, so I’m well attuned to reading the New Weird and speculative fiction. However, there’s something less accessible about the characters in this story than in any of Mieville’s works. The best author comparison is probably to Stephen Baxter, who works well with ideas and high-concept worlds but not with character (or at least, not as well).

Sometimes the real world is sad, so books are sad. This might be the thesis to this story. It’s a line Servicer (criminal/slave) Mycroft tells Bridger (pseudo-God/wonder-child) when they’re discussing French literature. For a book set in the far future, the themes are firmly planted in Revolutionary (pre-Revolutionary) France. There’s the noble figures (a literal Louis XVI) and clergy figures (a literal person named Jehovah). There are brothels and even a scene with a French chef. I don’t think I’ve read a book this obsessed with that time period that’s not set in that time period. In that way, it becomes speculative political science fiction, drawing on ideas of the past and twisting them into a strange, new future.

Be prepared for a slow, dense read. Not a bad thing, but there’s no real rhythm to this book or none that I could hold onto. This might be one of its charms, but it is a challenge. Some of you will hate that. Some of you will love that. This is definitely a book for the sci-fi minded, ‘big ideas’ crowd. Maybe this is where I confess that I need to attach to the characters in a story a bit more than I did in this one. Mieville walks that sweet line between amazing ideas and relate-able characters, and Palmer fall a tiny bit short in the character department. There are some amazing character moments sprinkled throughout the story, but you never know when you’re going to get them and they’re brief and fleeting. The best scene is arguably when we discover Mycroft’s crime, and my second favorite scene was when Thisbe and Carlyle go and investigate JEDD Mason.

This book is obsessed with religion. There’s no religion, but that’s all that gets talked about is religion. And cults. So many cults. The sensayers have a particular role to play in the story, and they’re new age priests (kind of) that are assigned to talk about religious issues with people (talking about religion is regulated). There’s more discussion about religion and the nature of godhood in this book than any other, and while we don’t find out exactly what Mycroft’s particular cult belief was (or if we do, I missed it), there’s a clear implication that his crimes were religiously motivated. I mean, in a book with a literal god figure (Bridger can create life from inanimate objects) and another person named Jehovah and several people that are priests…well, religion discussion may be taboo in the future, but it’s alive and well in this story. The set-sets are arguably the most secular figures in the story (their bodies have been hooked up to wires, allowing them to become living computers), and a point of controversy throughout because the religious will always push back against the secular.

Notes:

Nina, Pinta, and Apollo XI….
Haven’t read a book that wants to defy a rating this hard in a long time.
Important pieces of information kind of just ‘pop up’ in this story. Once again, there’s a distinct lack of rhythm that makes this story hard to read.
I give up on notes. There’s too much. There’s SO MUCH.

Rating: 4 stars

The genius of this book is evident, even if you don’t like it. The real disappointment is that there’s not a real ending to this story (that’s dualogies for you).

REVIEW: Hair in all the Wrong Places

Hair in all the Wrong Places by Andrew Buckley

This is the teenage werewolf book I’ve been wanting to read. It’s not perfect, and in some parts it’s a little confusing, but this is an enjoyable read for those who want a werewolf book that’s actually about werewolves. Colin is a boy living with his misanthropic grandma, and he thinks he’s a huge loser (and maybe he is, but maybe it’s just a high school thing). Colin gets bullied relentlessly at school by Gareth & Co. This is when he decides to run away, but there’s a werewolf plus a car attack that gets in the way. He hallucinates a lot, and I liked the instant post-bite action. None of that waiting a month for the next full moon here.

I like the awkward teen vibe Colin has going for him. It’s not forced. There’s a definite Teen Wolf vibe to Colin’s transformation. It’s fast/immediate. Colin has a friend (seriously, a single friend), and I guess part of the point is that he doesn’t really like or know anyone at school. This gives Colin’s character a feeling of isolation early on. He could’ve used a wacky friend.

There’s clearly something going on with Becca and her dad, Mr. Emerson, early on. Becca’s secret comes out later, and there are several mysteries surrounding people in this book that get dropped all together towards the end. You might guess the big secret, but you might not. It’s a standard enough paranormal twist, but there’s a certain level of confusion as to what is going on between different people in this story that it made me uncertain where it would resolve itself. A little surprise: not a bad thing.

Creepy dude, creepy dude, who are you? Silas Baxter, werewolf and werewolf hunter. There’s quite the conspiracy happening. It 100% involves Becca’s father, and that’s obvious. I wanted him to ultimately become more likable throughout the book, but Mr. Emerson never does. What kind of relationship does Becca have with her father? We never really find out. There’s a lot of strange people in Elkwood—the twins, Garth, Becca, her dad, Colin’s grandma. It feels like everyone else is in on this conspiracy except Colin. (And they are.) That’s okay, because Colin finds out soon enough what’s happening, and this story never makes you wait too long to get to the interesting parts.

Notes:

Colin’s grandmother’s hearing—red riding hood shout out.
Werewolves and car attacks—two terrible things colliding.
I hope the entire town is werewolves ala The Howling.
The entire town is definitely SOMETHING.
Every teen’s dream: waking up chiseled and ripped.

Rating: 4 stars

This was a solid, enjoyable YA read about teen werewolves. If that’s your itch to scratch, you’ll like this book.

REVIEW: Shadows

Shadows by Christi J. Whitney

Shadows picks up at graduation, about 1-2 months after Grey ended. Sebastian graduated, he’s still estranged from his friends and still a gargoyle. I thought we might get a moment where he reveals his secret to Katie early on, but it doesn’t happen. Instead, Sebastian agrees to go back to the Romaney clan. This is clearly trouble.

Do I ever love the brotherly relationship between Hugo and Sebastian. Grey surprised me when it focused on it towards the end without ever letting up on also focusing on the romance with Josephine. It’s nice to see characters who love their family, friends, and have romantic interests. We learn a lot more about the Romaney family in this novel, including their particular family dynamic. The Romaney’s (with Nicholas as bandoleer) are more authoritarian than the Corsi clan, which made me miss the relationships between the Gypsy Ink Corsi’s even more as the novel progressed.

There’s a lot of talk about how Sebastian should accept himself and his gargoyle nature. There’s a lot I don’t know about this. That’s partly because the nature of the Shadowen is kept secret. It seems like a not-so-good idea to me. This plot thread remains unresolved by the end of the story. There’s a narrative split between the acceptance camp and the repression camp, and it’s ultimately not clear which way will solve Sebastian’s problems controlling himself.

Sebastian’s life with the Romaney’s is rough. There are new levels of terrible explored, and when you think it’s not going to get worse, it does. No one likes him, and a big mystery about the nature of the Shadowen develops. One of the gargoyles from Grey returns, but he’s a true, mindless monster now. The fear that Sebastian is going to turn is real. THE FEAR IS REAL. Like in Grey, Shadows pays off the emotional stakes at the end of the story. I suspected Shadows was going to have a downer ending, but that still didn’t prepare me for how angry it made me. I need book 3 right now I’m not okay with my feelings at the end this book.

Josephine got a personality! She’s still a quiet, sometimes ‘too pure’ character, but the rigid family structure of the Romaney clan shaped who she is. She doesn’t have real friends; she’s being groomed for an important role in gypsy society, so she’s carried that responsibility from a young age. She’s a girl who never got to be a child, and she’s clearly repressed a lot of feelings. It’s difficult to empathize with a guarded character because, well, they don’t emote much, but Josephine comes into herself in Shadows. It’s official: I believe in her as a love interest.

The new Romaney clan characters are strong. Zara, Phoebe, and twin Francis, who got some but not a lot of time last book, stand out. There are a lot of effortlessly likable characters in this story. There are also a lot of detestable characters in this story. Quentin wins the most hated character, hands down. I typically don’t like when ‘the other woman/the other man’ is the default bad character, but the twist at the end of the story sold me on Quentin as a villain with his own, particular motives beyond ‘easy love triangle antagonist.’ Augustine makes an appearance again, and while he appeared more of a nuisance in Grey, he’s advanced to the stage of The Chessmaster in Shadows. Augustine has a plan, and while some of it’s clear, most of his secrets remain mysteries. Shadows ends on the biggest of cliff hangers, so don’t expect resolution, even the bitter sweet kind, like in Grey.

Notes:

Do I ever love this series. More gargoyles, please.
The Marksmen are douchebags. Every time their names show up, I fill with RAGE.
Josephine: a real character.
I live for Crowning Moments of Heartwarming. I swear, if this book doesn’t deliver, I’ll be sad. I’m afraid we’re going to get The Empire Strikes Back ending. 0_0
More flying: a positive.
So many open-ended mysteries. In general, good on not focusing the story on them.
THAT ENDING. I guessed two of the plot twists (that we’d see a trial and what Augustine’s connection to the Romaneys was), but I was still not prepared.

Rating: 5 stars. Need the next book now. I do like how this series is clearly paranormal yet stays away from some of the more toxic elements of paranormal romance. Sebastian might have a bit of Stockholm syndrome going on, but it’s refreshingly not the girl who’s coerced into the forbidden relationship.

REVIEW by Trish: The Ugly Princess: The Legend of the Winnowwood by Henderson Smith (@hendersonwrites)

Pure Textuality

What would you give up to be beautiful? I don’t mean attractive, or pretty or any other term you could conjure up to describe that thing most women seek to be or most men seek to be with. I mean staggeringly beautiful, men falling at your feet with hopeless adoration as they gaze upon you dumbfounded. That beautiful. I could become that beautiful if I chose, but only with a steep price. Would you pay the price? Does that call to your heart?

It doesn’t call to mine. Yes, when I look at the girl in the mirror, I see a young woman of average height and slight build. I see her lovely emerald green eyes and I see her coarse, orange hair poking out in all directions like some unnatural haystack. I see the forty-seven warts that line her face, which accompany one large lump and two small boils…

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REVIEW: Traitor

Traitor by Nicole Conway

Traitor is the third installation in the Dragonriders Chronicles, following Fledgling and Avian. This series is not a trilogy, so don’t expect the adventure to end here, which isn’t a bad thing. I wanted to read the ending of this story, but I’m glad it wasn’t rushed because Traitor was a surprising yet exciting installation in this series.

Jaevid goes to Northwatch to fight the Grey Elves with his former instructor and now flight partner, Jace. Jaevid is shocked by the war and the destruction it has caused along the boarder between the two kingdoms. Felix joins him on the front, where a man that could be his real father(!) is stationed. However, these relationships isn’t tapped into in this novel because battle calls, and Jace and Ghost are knocked out of the sky over Luntharda. Jaevid dives down to save him, and they’re both captured by the Grey Elves and their princess, Araxie.

Sometimes, new characters can destroy the flow of a series or take too much focus away from the main characters. Not so with Araxie. She’s an important character, but she meshes fluidly into the existing world. She’s another battle hardened badass, and she leads the interrogation of Jaevid and Jace. During his interrogation, Jaevid learns that the royal grey elf family, including Araxie, are his relatives. This doesn’t sway their opinions, however, and they decide to deliver Jaevid and Jace to their forest god, Paligno. It’s this god that saves Jaevid, awakening him to the full extent of his powers.

Jaevid has never had a family he really felt close to, considering his father, Ulric, is a cruel man and was possibly driven mad by stealing the god stone. Jaevid and Araxie learning to trust each other and discovering their familial bonds endeared me to them. Their relationship is also a neat way to introduce us to the world of Luntharda, which is a complete departure from the dragon rider academy atmosphere.

One thing that I saw coming and hoped to hell like it would happen was the relationship between Araxie and Jace. Some fantasy bungles the romance elements–hard–either by trying to make the relationships star-crossed or by only having a character there as a love/sex interest. In Avian, Jaevid/Beckah grew naturally from the plot and from who the two characters were. In Traitor, Araxie/Jace follows a similar pattern, but the personalities of the two characters make the relationship new and fresh. Both Jace and Araxie are battle hardened people, and their relationships builds around them learning how to put down their defenses and open up to each other. I liked their romance better than Jaevid/Beckah’s, but the building of this relationship consumes a major part of this book, so if it doesn’t jive for you, this entry in this series might not work as well for you.

Ultimately, most of this story takes place with Jaevid navigating the new world of Luntharda. A lot of plot elements are finally revealed, and Jaevid devises a plan to end the war. We don’t learn this plan (next book!), and the second half of this story involves escaping Luntharda. Nothing happens with the major plot during this section, but there’s a lot of character growth during this journey. The character, Kiran, from Fledgling, returns to escort to the boarder of Luntharda, and Kiran ultimately ends up following Jaevid to his human home out of loyalty. If you’re interested in Kiran, there’s a short story at the end about him.

Notes:

Killer trees! I repeat: killer trees
The dreams return, but this time, they’re more varied.
Blue was the best. RIP Blue.
If Jace gets fatally injured one more time…I’m going to lose my freaking mind. I was expecting him to die the entire time. He’s the new Lyon of this novel.

Rating: 5 stars

I didn’t love this story quite as much as Avian, but this series definitely has hit its stride and never looked back.

REVIEW: Charming (Pax Arcana #1)

Charming (Pax Arcana #1) by Elliot James

John Charming works at a bar in middle-of-nowhere Virginia because he’s a werewolf (well, part werewolf) on the run from the Knight’s Templar. The Knights are sworn to uphold the Pax Arcana and protect the monsters of the world from human discovery. (The world building of the Pax Arcana feels a bit familiar…hmm…) If this book would’ve been more about the Pax Arcana and awesome vampire hunts, it would’ve been awesome. Instead, it’s about John’s stupid love life, which is terrible and boring. Sig, a Valkyrie, walks into John’s bar to hunt a vampire, and the will they/won’t they starts almost immediately. It’s like this author was told urban fantasy was all about the angsty relationships and forgot that those only work if they’re a side-story or the ‘B plot’, and John’s relationship with Sig felt like the ‘A plot’ of this story.

I’m a bit disappointed John isn’t a real werewolf. Disreputable bartender? Check. Renegade Knights Templar? Also check. Werewolf? That’s a stretch. Don’t go into this expecting a shifter heavy book.

Didn’t care as much for the ‘old’ myth and modern technology blending. It felt forced instead of creative; it was more like the author wanting you to know how smart he was verses John authentically being presented as intelligent. The book was heavily self-referential and wanted to appear smart, but there were some stupid things it did to undermine the credibility of the story. When a story gets too referential–to the point where it’s mocking its own plot–it can mean there are serious problems in the story. Instead of being meta, it highlighted the things that already bothered me about this story.

Not thrilled with Sig. There’s way too much time devoted early in the book to how much she likes John and vice versa. I’m not feeling it. I mean, seriously, we could be getting a bloody vampire show down, and John and Cahill, the cop, are having these boring conversations about Sig and her love life. “I’ve known Sig for twenty-four hours…” is about right. Cahill is a creep, which makes John and Cahill’s scene about 100x worse and sufficiently awkward. This is only the first of many, endless awkward scenes between John and just about everyone in this story.

John’s personality: it will make or break this book. It’s the biggest positive, to me, but not as humorous as some might find it. John points out how half-assed his man-pain is, and it’s a meta instance of the character defending a weakness in the narrative. Meta is great when it’s actually humorous, but John’s tragic past never quite clicked with me. There’s all this teasing about the Knights, but he doesn’t actually fight them. They never directly come after him. That’s a shame because the Knights and the other elements of the world-building were much better than John and Sig’s story, which is the center piece of this novel. The vampire hive house was gory and fantastic. The ‘smart vampire’, Anne Marie, is the real mystery to this story. The twist ending didn’t work here and sunk what hope for the story I had. I spent this entire story hoping it would be awesome, but nope! The entire story is really about John’s love life, even up to the bitter freaking end.

Molly and Choo are too good for this story. So is Parth. Parth is also the best. This story is much better when it focuses on its action piece set-points. Some of John’s fighting feels like the fantasy equivalent of Bullet Time, but those scenes are still gripping. Anything is better than the soggy, white-bread relationship between Sig and John.

Maybe I’ll have to go into a full rant about special reasoning and map reading in fantasy soon, but another instance showed up here. I mean, have people used topo maps in the woods before? Here’s the full quote:

Last night I visualized a map of the area I was in like a man. And I knew exactly where I was on that map. Men can’t do that without landmarks. Wolves can’t do that. But I could.

First, you would’ve had landmarks. I get the point is that wolf-senses are heightened and that enables a better understanding of where one is, but this is illogical. The speed at which the information was processed is the key, I think, to this scene. But you, a normal human, do this type of special awareness all the time when you go ‘off trail.’ Yes, the key is landmarks, but there are lots of little tricks to knowing if you’re lost and how lost you are. Here’s an example: I hiked a ‘trail’ (I say this lightly) through a canyon system. It was mostly washed out, so there was a fair amount of knowing when to leave the wash, what side branch to take, and where we would get ‘spit out’ if we followed the route correctly. There were certain sets of landmarks we used to help guide our progress. This took TIME, but in and of itself, this isn’t some kind of super power. Processing this type of information at speed is what would be difficult.

I wanted to like this book. I actively hate read this book to give it a chance as if every new plot twist would refocus the book on its more interesting elements. That never happens. This book kept getting worse and finding new, creative ways to let me down. Every time something interesting happens, the focus shifts to John and his whiny past or John and Sig’s boring relationship.

Notes:
The opening scenes inter cut with brazen info dumps about the Pax Arcana is bold. You only get away with that if you’ve got the MC character’s voice down solid.
Initial chemistry rating Sig/Charming chemistry: frigid.
Say it softly: discount Harry Dresden.
Of course John has a dead fiance. But she’s a Steelers fan. Forgiven.
Stupid fantasy world-building detail: human blood is nearly 100% oxygenated. When you go to the doctor, they put the little thing on your finger, and it should read about 98%. You can’t be ‘more oxygenated than human blood’.
Sig stirred coffee with her finger. SHE IS THE REAL MONSTER OF THIS STORY.
Stupid fantasy world building detail: mainlining insulin would make you PASS OUT.
“I saw some TV show that called it vervain”—Vampire Diaries shout out!

Rating: 2 stars

You can finish this book. You’ll probably be continually let down, but this story keeps holding out sweet, sweet hope to you that it’ll become the interesting story you want to read.