Review: Storm Watcher

Storm Watcher by Maria V. Snyder
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Maria V. Snyder quickly became one of my favourite authors through her The Chronicles of Ixia series. It’s a wonderful fantasy series, one I’m rather addicted to, and awaiting the ninth book is driving me crazy. Thus, when I saw another of her books on NetGalley I decided I needed something to tide me over.

Storm Watcher is completely different to the series that made her famous. Storm Watcher is a middle grade contemporary read. It’s a decent read, and yet it isn’t quite the high of her young adult fantasy novels. For me, there just seemed to be something missing. It was lacking in the usual wow factor, being mediocre and failing to give us that something more.

The story comes with a lot of messages, many of which will be noticed by the younger reader. I believe being an older reader of this story has allowed me to see where things are lacking. For example, our main character has a fear of storms and his mother has recently died. It isn’t too hard to realise there is a connection between the two. I’ll give Snyder props for adding more than the one simple connection, yet it all felt too predictable from the start. It wasn’t merely in regards to the connection between the two; it was also in relation to the other aspects of the story. The way the character interactions developed. The way people felt towards each other. The way forgiveness would be earned. The way people would get what they wanted. It all seemed a little too predictable for my liking, feeling a bit like a carbon copy of many other books and mixed in with a slightly different dog story.

Moreover, the speed felt all over the place. Somehow, it was both too fast and too slow. I’m not quite sure how it managed this – and yet it did. The story progressed from one point in time to another, with the jumps seeming to appear out of nowhere. The story didn’t seem to move all that much though. Things were happening, but there wasn’t a lot. Thus, it was too fast and too slow all at the same time. I feel as though the story would have been much more enjoyable had the pacing been better. Furthermore, the ending seemed to come all at once. It was obvious where things would head towards the end of the story, and when it came about it was over extremely quickly.

Overall, it was a decent enough read. It is far from Snyder’s best, but it will be enjoyed by a specific group of readers. Unfortunately, I do not fall into the category of readers this was aimed at meaning I was more aware of the faults than I could have been.

As a final note, I’d like to thank NetGalley for allowing me to read this.

View all my reviews

Review: The Assassin and the Healer

The Assassin and the Healer by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having read and enjoyed the first five Throne of Glass books and impatiently awaiting the sixth, I decided it was time to work my way through the five novellas offered up in The Assassin’s Blade. I’d debated reading these stories at an earlier stage, yet I found myself too pulled into the main story to take a detour. I’m there now, though. I’m holding out that these five stories will tide me over until the sixth book is released.

Upon finished The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, I was unsure whether or not the stories would do much. The Assassin and the Pirate Lord was an okay read, but for the most part I really didn’t care. The Assassin and the Healer improved upon the first novella, yet it still wasn’t quite what I had hoped for.

I’ll start by saying this is a round up to four stars. I gave The Assassin and the Pirate Lord a three star rating, and whilst I considered doing the same with The Assassin and the Healer I decided I could not do such a thing. It was so much better than The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, much closer to being a four star rating. Thus, I rounded it up.

As with The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, this one gives us an insight into our main character’s life prior to the events of the main series. It’s an interesting insight, showing her in a different light. This short tale is made up of anger and pity. We see our main character as she is out to cause trouble for the world, to drown out thoughts following the events of the first novella. We see our main character as she takes pity on another, how she steps up to offer aid to another female of the realm. It was interesting to see her in such a way, and yet I feel as though this one didn’t really add much to the overall story. Fun, but not a case of life or death if you fail to read it.

Overall, it was an improvement upon the first novella of the series and yet I’m still of the belief that these stories will add much less than I’d originally believed.

View all my reviews

Review: The Assassin and the Pirate Lord

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Having read and enjoyed the first five Throne of Glass books and impatiently awaiting the sixth, I decided it was time to work my way through the five novellas offered up in The Assassin’s Blade. I’d debated reading these stories at an earlier stage, yet I found myself too pulled into the main story to take a detour. I’m there now, though. I’m holding out that these five stories will tide me over until the sixth book is released.

Having finished The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, I’m not sure whether they will give me what I’d been hoping for.

I’ve always wanted to see the assassin spoken about in the main series, and still she has yet to really emerge. This was the first story showing our main character in her element, truly in her assassin role, and yet it wasn’t the hard-hitting girl we’d been promised. I’m still left wanting so much more from her. I feel as though this story missed the mark in so many regards. The characters weren’t what I had hoped for. The story wasn’t what I had hoped for. As a whole, I didn’t really enjoy it. It was decent enough… and yet it was nowhere near enough.

Having read the main series in one stretch, going back to read these short stories later, I’ve already encountered the pirate lord of this novella. When he makes a reappearance, he – and the other characters – made this story seem so much more than it is. Our main character freed slaves. Hell yeah! Our main character caused a lot of trouble for the pirates. Hell yeah! Our main character made a lot of threats. Hell yeah! But wait – the story doesn’t actually feel that way. These aspects seem to be over and done with so quickly, they barely feel introduced at all. Everything felt too quick, felt half-complete. I feel let down, as though all I’d been promised was held back from me.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all bad. It was nice to see our main character before she became what she is in the main series. It’s a somewhat different side to her. It’s not the drastic change I had anticipated, but you can see the slight difference. Moreover, we get to meet Sam. I feel as though I know so much about him from the main series, that to finally meet him was a bit of a let-down. By the end of the story, though, I found myself enjoying him. I feel as though he’ll grown on me throughout these novellas.

Overall, it was an okay read. It wasn’t what I had wanted, but it did add a little more to the series. My hope is that the other novellas will add a lot more.

View all my reviews

Review: Feast Of Summer

Feast Of Summer by Regina Del Madrigal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ll start this review with a thank you to Regina Del Madrigal. Whilst roaming around Goodreads, as I so often do, I came upon a request upon her profile. She was looking for people to review her new book, Feast of Summer. Now my to-read list is already super long, but I gave the book a look and I was intrigued. It sounded exactly like what I was needing in the moment. After all, I’ve been on a massive fantasy binge and anything with the promise of witches and kidnap is right up my street. Thus, I dropped her a message. I received a review copy, and when things went a little bit weird with my Kindle and the file not working Regina was more than happy to send me a different format to help me out. In short, she was lovely. Of course, you care about the story more than you care about how lovely Regina Del Madrigal happens to be – thus, I’ll move forward.

As soon as I started the story, I was pulled into it. Very quickly, the world and the characters come to life before you. You get an idea of who is who, of what is what. Without things getting complicated, we’re quickly introduced to the world of Cora. Then, just as quickly, we watched as her world is ripped away and she is suddenly captive in a world she does not know. Despite how little time we spent in Cora’s village, we really did get a feel for so much. In fact, I would have loved to see more of it. I really feel as though that aspect of the story could have been brought to life in so many vivid colours. Considering how well it was brought to life in so few pages, I’m positive it would be great fun to see it all across a longer time period. In part, I think this is because I enjoyed the introduced characters so much.

Of course, we have the wonderful abduction aspect to keep us intrigued when Cora’s world is ripped away from us. I really did enjoy watching this unfold, finding myself engaged in the storyline in no time at all. I do have a slight qualm, though. I feel as though the synopsis ruined some of the surprise for me. “He had been ordered to kill her. He abducted her instead.” Those are two wonderful lines. They pull you right in. There is such promise, so much that you expected. However, it does ruin the story somewhat. I feel as though removing those two lines from the synopsis would make the book much more enjoyable. We spend so long not really understanding the motives of our captor. The book progresses with us in the dark, with us curious like our main character. Yet the information is lingering at the back of our mind. The synopsis tells us what is to come, in this one regard, before the information hits us. With this information held off until quite late in the book, I really think it would be better if we were unaware of the fact. There would be a bigger shock factor, more excitement when the reveal comes about. It is a brilliant storyline, I cannot deny that, yet I feel as though the synopsis gives more away than it really should.

Nevertheless, as I said, I had a lot of fun with this one. It was so addictive. I could have easily completed it in one sitting, had I not done the silly thing of picking it up at stupid o’clock at night when I was already tired. The story really captivates you, and you’re constantly questioning what will happen next. You have so many questions, you’re pulled in to the development, and putting the story down becomes extremely difficult.

That is not to say the story is perfect. I’ll admit that a couple of things diminished my enjoyment to a small degree.

Whilst I really enjoyed our main characters, I will admit to a bit of annoyance during the early captive stages of the story. I feel as though she gave in too early, that she was unwilling to do anything to fight back against what happened to her. I wanted more in the way of daring escape attempts, more fight from her. Nine times out of ten, I say this about such stories, though, so I guess I just expect more from captive females than I’m ever going to be given.

Another thing is that the story felt a little bit confusing at times. Sometimes things weren’t as clear as they could have been meaning one of two things happened. I backtracked to double check what I’d read over, and it would then click. I carried on reading until things fell in line. This didn’t happen much, but there were a couple of moments where this seemed to happen. Mostly it was when the action was occurring, where things needed to be clearer.

These, however, were small aspects. As a whole, the book was thoroughly enjoyable. I had so much fun with it, and I’ll be needing to take a look at Regina’s other work. I know for sure that I will need to take a look at book two, as I’m more than curious to see what comes next in this story.

It was a great read, and I’d once again like to thank Regina for allowing me to advance read this in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Review: Zombie Nation

Zombie Nation by Samantha Warren
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love a good zombie read, so of course I was going to give this one a read.

Zombie Nation is the first in the Zombie Juice series, and if it is an indication of what the series is to be like… well, be prepared for an addictive series. Whilst the zombie fighting scenes were rather lacking, it has everything else you need for a good zombie book. Questionable characters. Questionable situations. Questionable motives. Basically, a lot of questions. Not in the bad way of ‘I have no clue as to what is going on’ but in the good way of ‘I want to know more and find out all I can’.

It’s a super short read, one that can be completed in next to no time at all, and yet it manages to give you everything you could expect from an intriguing zombie tale. We’re introduced to the main characters, getting to understand their way of life in the zombie infested world. We get to know the community, how humanity is dealing with the outbreak. We get to see a small section of the world, and yet we’re promised to see so much more in the future books.

In a way, this one reminded me of the Newsflesh trilogy. Mira Grant gave us a zombie series with multiple layers, without forcing zombie scenes onto every page. This one is much the same. We have a bit of mystery and a lot of coming of age. If you ever wanted to know what teenage life in a gated community with the fear of zombies attacking is like, here is your answer. It is such a simple notion, and yet you’re pulled in from the start. Moreover, there is such promise of what is to come. Multiple aspects are hinted at throughout, and yet we’re given no real answers about anything.

In fact, if I’m being completely honest, I wish we’d been given some kind of indication of where things were going. The mysterious aspect of the zombie juice was introduced, and yet we know nothing more than the basics. Unfortunately, the basics are things we could have guessed ourselves. I wanted something more, something I didn’t work out. I would have much rather a longer read giving us some kind of indication of what we can expect from the whole zombie juice notion. Don’t get me wrong, it is introduced brilliantly in this. The zombie juice takes a backseat to the coming of age story, it makes an appearance to let you know it will be important throughout the series, but beyond that there isn’t much. I just wanted to know more in this first book.

Overall, it was a fun read. I’m not sure where the series will go – there are so many possibility and I feel as though we weren’t given much by way of clues – but I’m excited to see how things will end. My fingers are crossed that this series will turn out to be a lot of fun.

As a final note, I would like to thank the author for allowing me to advance read this in exchange for an honest review. It was certainly enough to leave me curious as to where things are going to go next.

View all my reviews

Review: Blood Ice & Oak Moon: A Coon Hollow Coven Tale

Blood Ice & Oak Moon: A Coon Hollow Coven Tale by Marsha A. Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Blood Ice and Oak Moon is the third Coon Hollow Coven book, yet don’t worry about reading them in order. You can pick and choose which of the books to read, or even pick just one to read should you wish. All of the books in the series stand alone. The series is about one community, with residents passing in and out of various books, but each book has a unique story to be told. Thus, you can pick the one that interests you most before deciding whether you wish to read them all.

Blood Ice and Oak Moon reminds me of a number of other books I have recently read, staying true to what is popular with the young adult fantasy crowd at the moment. We have the fae. Everyone seems to love the creatures at the moment, and this book is no different. As soon as the fae were introduced to the story I knew I needed to know more about them, I knew it would be my favourite aspect of the story. When did I become part of the in crowd? Honestly, I don’t know, but I’m loving all the fae stories at the moment. I need more of them in my life, hence why I came to enjoy this one so much.

At first, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get into the story. I was interested yet it felt like a three star rating to me. Yes, things were occurring. In fact, things start happening very quickly. Our main character encounters danger, being pulled into a darkness that will reverberate throughout the story. Despite this, I felt as though there was quite a bit of time in which very little was happening. We watched our main character trying to find her place in the community, and yet these scenes didn’t involve much by way of action. It was about showing us all the different characters on offer. Whilst I enjoyed getting to know everyone, I wanted more to happen. I wanted edge of the seat action as the witch and fae community came together.

I’m not entirely sure at what point my opinion changed. All of a sudden it went from a three star read into a four star read. Suddenly, there was action. There was a lot going on. We were focusing upon the magic and the darkness of the storyline, with thing moving forward. I think, mostly, it was just a case of me actually getting into the book. I wasn’t as pulled in at the start as I could have been, but once the story hooked me I was unable to put it down. I wanted to know what happened to characters. I wanted to know how events played out. I wanted answers to the mystery.

I’ll admit that some aspects of the story were a bit clichéd and obvious. Such a thing is so often the case with young adult fantasy novels, though. We know there will be a happily ever after for our characters. We know the events given a certain amount of attention will play out in the best way possible. This is not to say it’s a bad thing merely that you knew how the general story would end. Specifics were left for us to wait and see, leaving us unsure as to just how exactly they would work out, and that is where the fun was to be found. I’ll admit that I would have liked some of these specifics to have been given more attention, for certain scenes to have been played out a bit more, but I enjoyed them as they were. I just wanted more – I always seem to want some more.

Overall, it was a great little story. Despite my initial inability to get into the story, I really did find myself addicted to the tale.

As a final note I would like to thank the author for allowing me to advance read this in exchange for an honest review. I cannot wait to see what more is to come.

View all my reviews

Review: I Am a Zombie Filled With Love

I Am a Zombie Filled With Love by Isaac Marion
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This super short story can be read in a matter of minutes, and I certainly suggest you go and spend those few minutes reading it.

I Am A Zombie Filled With Love turned into Warm Bodies, and I can safely say both were enjoyable. Warm Bodies had so much to it, more levels than I had ever anticipated, and you can see them all brewing below the surface in this one. Concepts that grew in the full-length novel can be seen here, the basics ready to grow into something larger than life. If you look deep enough, you can see lines that made it to the full-length novel.

Even if you haven’t read Warm Bodies, you can read this one. It’s not a prequel; it’s the story before the story. Should you enjoy this, then it’s a sure sign you’ll love Warm Bodies.

Honestly, it’s so much fun. As I said, it can be completed in no time at all, so you should go and give it a read.

View all my reviews