Star Wars Head-to-Head: The 30 Wildest Matchups You've Never Seen! by Pablo Hildago

What would happen if your favorite Star Wars characters, creatures, and vehicles that never got to duel were to go head-to-head? Thirty stunning battles include Darth Vader Vs. Yoda, the Millenium Falcon Vs. the Sith Infiltrator, and Ewok Vs. Jawa! Decide who you think would win these never-before-seen face-offs. Then check out what the experts have to say about these incredible showdowns!

This book was a hard one to decide on how to approach a review. The easiest option was to simply say,"Yes it was good." Or, "No it was bad!" Realistically that wasn't an option. So I approached this review as if it were a real championship. I reviewed each battle and simply compiled it into a list of my thoughts and whether I agreed or disagreed. Everyone knows I am a die-hard Star Wars fanatic. Yes, I even have a Star Wars shrine. As much of a die-hard fan as I am, some of these characters I don't remember. So here it goes...

Yoda Vs. Darth Vader:
I am an extreme fan of both, but this is the epitome of Star Wars conflicts. We all want to know who would win. I personally see them both battling til their deaths. Only (George) Lucas can deem the true winner of this fight. DISAGREE!

Obi-Wan Kenobi Vs. Boba Fett:
The winner is obviously Obi-Wan. It would be too off the wall for Boba who is still grieving over his father's death, as a grown man, to so easily subdue Obi-Wan. AGREE!

Luke Vs. Anakin Skywalker:
Yet another obvious win. We've all seen the movies. Although Anakin's self-sacrifice to save his loved ones, only becomes his ultimate downfall. Either way you look at it, Anakin or Darth Vader, the end is the same. Luke prevails over his father. AGREE!

General Grievous Vs. Palpatine:
This is a tough match-up. The skill of Grievous meets the power & knowledge of Palpatine. I see Palpatine winning. However, they both have a human heart that can be destroyed. AGREE!

Padme Amidala Vs. Zam Wesell:
Tough fight! DISAGREE!

Speeder Bike Vs. Wookie Gnasp:
Although I prefer the Speeder Bike for appeal factor I think the Gnasp would destroy a Speeder lightning fast! The movies feature so many downfalls of the Speeder than they do the Gnasp. DISAGREE!

Jabba's Rancor Vs. Nexu:
Based on the stats these two are in a close tie. I think Nexu would kill Rancor in a flash. DISAGREE!

AT-Atwalker Vs. Clone Turbo Tank:
Not sure how two vehicles battle, but I would think the Clone Tank would win. The Walker has too many weak spots, most notably the tall, long legs. This was proven in the movies battle scenes. DISAGREE!

Darth Maul Vs. Kit Fisto:
Aside from Vader, Maul is my favorite Darth Sith. I wished that he could battle Kit Fisto, but in the end... DISAGREE!

Han Solo Vs. Jango Fett
Not a Han solo fan. AGREE!

Jedi Starfighter Vs. The Interceptor
I've been a fan of The Interceptor since I was a kid, and saw the movies. AGREE!

Jawa Vs. Ewok:
One of my top favorite creatures in the Star Wars saga is the Ewok. The Jawa are a weak civilization. Without weaponry they're useless. The Ewok without a doubt would win! AGREE!

Star Destroyer Vs. Trade Federation Battleship:
Star Destroyer is an easy win. Just attacking the center of the Battleship with one good shot, crashes the ship. AGREE!

Clone Trooper Vs. Stormtrooper:
Clone Trooper is another easy win. They were created to perfection. They clearly surpass the inadequate Stormtroopers. AGREE!

Bantha Vs. Reek:
The Bantha should win. They're more intelligent. In the end, I guess it would be a toss up based on endurance?! DISAGREE!

Millenium Falcon Vs. Sith Infiltrator:
The Falcon is more advanced than Darth Maul's Infiltrator. AGREE!

R2-D2 Vs. IG-88:
IG-88 is a more formidable opponent, sorry R2. :( AGREE!

Tie-Fighter Vs. Naboo N-1 Starfighter:
Although the Starfighter by appeal is cool, it is a weak ship. The Tie-fighter is an amazing piece of weaponry. AGREE!

Jabba the Hut Vs. Jar Jar Binks:
Poor Jar Jar. Obviously Jabba would win. Jar Jar is far too clumsy to win a battle one-on-one. AGREE!

X-wing Vs. Grievous Starfighter:
The X-wing is a way better fighter and has better flight equipment. It appears that the aircrafts from episodes 4-6 are better equipped. Which should be obvious since the engineering is more advanced. AGREE!

Acklay Vs. Boga:
Boga is cool. She is fast, viscious, and can climb. Acklay is more hesitant. AGREE!

AR-170 Vs. B-Wing:
Based on control, the Hull and firepower could easily take out it's opponent. AGREE!

Chewbacca Vs. Wampa:
Chewie is a fierce competitor, but this would have been a great showdown. AGREE!

Princess Leia Vs. Aurra Sing:
Undecided. I don't remember Aurra.

Bossk Vs. Droideka:
Droideka should win because of their defector shields Vs. Bossk's regrowth of limbs. DISAGREE!

Snowspeeder Vs. Attack Gunship:
The Snowspeeder is just badass in so many ways! AGREED!

Lando Calrissian Vs. Gamorrean Guard:
Lando is awesome! He's a smart & skillful fighter. The Gamorreans are idiotic swine- pun intended! AGREE!

Y-Wing Vs. Vulture Droid:
Y-Wing offers more weapons to better the fragility of the Vulture Droid. AGREE!

Magnaguard Droid Vs. Royal Guard:
Hands down easy decision. AGREE!

Gungan Vs. Tuskan Raider:
Jar Jar Binks, hello!!!!!! AGREE!

Darkness, my friend by Lisa Unger

"After giving up his post at the Hollows Police Department, Jones Cooper is at loose ends. He is having trouble facing a horrible event from his past and finding a second act. Then, on a brisk October morning, he has a visitor, Eloise Montgomery, the psychic who plays a key role in Fragile, comes to him with predictions about his future, some of them dire.

Meanwhile Michael Holt, a young man who grew up in the Hollows, has returned, lookig for answers about his mother, who went missing many years earlier. He has hired local PI Ray Muldune and psychic Eloise Montgomery to help him solve the mystery that has haunted him. What he finds might be his undoing.

Fifteen-year-old Willow Graves is exiled to The Hollows from Manhattan when six months earlier she moved to the quiet town with her novelist mother after a bitter divorce. Willow is acting out, spending time with kids that bring out the worst in her. And when things get hard, she has a tendency to run away-- a predilection that might lead her to dark place.

Set in The Hollows, the backdrop of Fragile, this is the riveting story of lives set on a collision course with devastating consequences. The result is Lisa Unger's most compelling fiction to date.

Darkness was a novel that Lisa's publicist had directly contacted me to review for. This was the second novel she requested me to review, thankfully it wasn't as tragic as the first.

I am unfamiliar with Lisa's previous novels, but it appears this is possibly a sequel to another published work. This was a combination of crime, suspense and slightly a psycho thriller. I was not truly captivated by the book until about chapter 15. The story was overwhelming up to this point, as chapter 15 arrived things began to clear up and I was able to sort the pieces and recount the prior pages into an organized one, for myself. I really got into the story of each character towards the end of the novel. It was such a gritty, dark story.

My favorite quotes:
"Surely you see that spending, your life fearing death is a death in and of itself."

""...suspense is for people with small vocabularies..."

"When did it become a badge of honor to be too busy, to have too much to do?"

"You might be in New York City. You might be in The Hollows. You might be on the moon. But you'll always be,(Willow). When you can be happy there, you'll be happy any where."

"Be yourself? Do your best? How could that be true for every one? Not everyone was nice and kind, talented, pretty, intelligent. Sometimes your best was not good enough to achieve what you wanted. What happened then? Were you just stuck with yourself, your life just whatever sad product of your "best" effort?

Jess Haines Guest Blog Day!

Hey Followers! Well July 15 will be an exciting day. I will be having an exceptional author, Jess Haines, as a guest blogger on here! I am excited to see what she has to say. You may remember her from the previous review I did for her novel, Hunted By The Others. Jess & her assistant Binah will be sending me Taken By The Others (In stores now), Deceived By The Others (July 5 in stores)and The Real Werewives of Vampire County (In stores Oct 2011). I will be hosting a Jess Haines giveaway as well. I will be giving away Hunted by the Others, Taken by the Others and Decieved by the Others to three lucky individuals. I will make a seperate post for the giveaway information. For now, you can view Jess's website at

www.jesshaines.com

Bound By Night by Amanda Ashley

Bound By Night

A VAMPIRE'S KISS IS FOREVER

Once featured in a horror movie, the crumbling Wolfram estate is said to be haunted by ghosts, witches, and worse. But Elena doesn't believe a word of it-- until she spends the night and wakes up in the arms of a compelling stranger...

Tall, dark, and disturbingly handsome, Drake is the most beautiful man Elena has ever seen. For centuries, he has lived alone, and Elena is the first woman to enter his lair-- and survive. And Drake is the first man to touch her heart and soul. By the time she discovers who he really is-- and what he craves-- it's too late. Blood lust has turned to love, and Elena is deeply under Drake's spell. But forever comes at a price for each of them...

I was contacted by Mandy to do this review for her. I couldn't have been more happier than to do another Amanda Ashley review since it's been awhile from the last one I've done. Mandy sent me an autographed ARC of Bound by Night, autographed bookmarks & book covers of Bound by Night & Bound by Blood. It was an extreme honor as always that she took the time to think of me, a lonely blogger in his hectic schooling. This was a welcomed relief from studies...

So this is my fifth book review for Amanda Ashley. While this wasn't my favorite, my favorite being A Darker Dream, it was at the top of the books I've done for her that has held me so emotionally rapt. Many of the happenings in this novel were so realistic that I couldn't help feeling the full spectrum of emotions carried throughout the novel.

As I have said before in my previous posts, I always write down my notes as I read the book so I can reflect when I finish it. This novel had one and one half a page worth of notes. At some point close to the end of the novel my first page mysteriously disappeared. I cleaned my entire bedroom in seek of this one piece of paper. Much to no avail I never did find it.

One thing that stood out for me with this book is the new vampire lore features Mandy included. One of those features is sheep and I don't mean the cute little farm animals. I mean the human kind that vampires would "farm" in order of maintaining their appetite for blood. I have never read or seen of this in any other vampire movie or book, and trust me I've been through enough! The other feature is that of the aging process of humans living off of vampire blood. It's sort of like a vampiric blood "Fountain of Glory."

Another thing that I immediately picked up on was the use of the names Elena and Cullin. I know that Mandy is a hard-core fan of both Twilight & The Vampire Diaries. I am wondering if Elena wasn't inspired by The Vampire Diaries, and Cullin (different spelling) from Twilight? Or is it just merely a coincidence?!

I found it extremely hard to not jump ahead and find out what happened. Although what I didn't find hard was just how much I despised Tavian Dinescu's character. In all of the books read for Mandy, I have never had a monster mortal or immortal in them that has caused me such intense disgust for. I found myself way more aggravated and upset with a fictional character than I ever have been in any reading from any author to date.

In chapter 20 I did begin to become frustrated with the events going on. I think they could have been played out drastically different, then again I am not Amanda and these are not my characters. On page 193 I was a little confused at how one character was said to be reading books but then it went on to say movies with no mention of movies prior to that? I think this is possibly an editing error, or I am simply not understanding how the author was trying to state this specific scene?!

If it weren't my prior knowledge to knowing how Mandy writes her books I would have been extremely upset, as a potential new reader, on how the novel ended. Thankfully for me, I can appreciate the way that Mandy doesn't do sequels, more like spin-offs. With that being said, I anticipate Bound By Night being in stores for sale in September 2011 for Mandy. I also can't wait for Kaitlyn's story that will be in stores October 4, 2011, the title Bound By Blood.

Thank you once again Mandy for the pleasure of these gifts, this review, your continued friendship and support. Best wishes and all my love.

xoxo

Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon

They say you can see things here, at the end of the world. Faces in the clouds and waves and leaves. Branches becoming arms and then branches again.

But there it was a flash of white.
Margrethe blinked repeatedly, and the sea air seemed to cut through her.
She wiped tears from her eyes and cheeks and leaned into the wind. The sea
seemed to shift from foam to water, from dark to light, swirling. In the distance,
rocks jutted. It would be easy to mistake one for the monstrous fin of a great fish, the prow of a ship sinking down.
And then: a curving, gleaming tail flaring out of the water. A moment
later, another flash and a pale face emerging, disappearing as quickly as it had
appeared. A woman's face. The tail of a fish stretching out behind her. Silvery,
as if it were made of gems...
Mermaid. The name came to Margrethe automatically, from the stories that had rooted themselves in her mind, the ancient tales she had read by firelight as the rest of the castle had slept.
She no longer felt the wind or the cold as she stood transfixed, watching
the mermaid move through the water. Margrethe had not known such things
could really exist, but the moment she saw the mermaid, it was as if the world
had always contained this kind of wonder...
As the mermaid approached the shore, Margrethe saw that she was carrying
something. A man.

So this just happens to be the third review I have done for Carolyn. I knew in 2010 this book was in route to being published. As with the two previous novels, I most certainly wanted to read it. Thankfully Carolyn offered to send it to me before I had to beg for it. LOL!

Carolyn Turgeon is like Calgon...take me away! From page one until page 240 her words develop such vivid imagery of the scene she writes about. In this novel it features the classic tale of "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen, only with the author's up-to-date adaptation. There are two princesses: Margrethe the human, and Lenia/Astrid the mermaid princess. The story is told from both of their perspectives alternating by each princess per chapter, essentially this is almost like two books in one.

There was a section that was purely poetic to me, some may think in a morbid way. The portion I am speaking of talks about a comparison of human and mermaid death; with humans we rot and with mermaids they turn to foam. This was so beautifully written and phrased that Carolyn can even make death sound pleasant.

Unlike the Disney, way too cheer-y version, this take is definitely nowhere near that. In this version the sea witch is not some psycho lunatic mad woman under the sea. She actually has a very sad back story. I think this is one of the huge differences that made a significant impact upon this story. While on this topic, I felt that Lenia's character gave a more realistic offering for the spell of her transformation from mermaid to human. It was drastically more gothic than that of any other mermaid tale, yet it provided

Mermaid is a fairy tale book of melodic metaphors. When Lenia/Astrid saw Christopher again the lack of her ability to speak causes such a depth of sadness for the reader. Before I began reading Ch. 16 I went to check my email on Yahoo. As soon as I logged on I quickly seen an article about a mermaid book becoming a movie. I knew just what book this was for! I couldn't help but get excited for both the book and Carolyn.

During Chapter 16 I began to get so overwhelmed with frustration with the play of events. I expected one thing but got another. This was further expanded into Chapter 23. During that chapter there was a whirlpool of emotional events with the three main characters: Margrethe, Lenia/Astrid and Christopher. Upon reaching the ending of the novel I was even more frustrated with the ending. Society has turned fairy tales into splendid, glorious tales of happiness. Although I wasn't happy with the ended, the story ended just as it should have. It is a welcoming feeling to know that Carolyn has brought back a true and authentic adaptation of such a classic fairy tale...or in this case fairy tail!

Favorite quotes:
"No one could be whole in a universe so divided."

"Go and you will see nothing is as wonderful as our dreams can make it."

"How many of us can choose to leave one self, one world behind and embrace another, better one?"

"So much pain and euphoria, a sense that, even though her own heart was broken the world could contain such beauty and magic she almost could not bear it."

"I believed in beauty, in magic, because of you..."

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephanie Meyer

BREE TANNER CAN BARELY REMEMBER LIFE
before she had uncannily powerful senses,
superhuman reflexes, and unstoppable physical
strength. Life before she had a relentless thirst
for blood...life before she became a vampire.

ALL BREE KNOWS IS THAT LIVING WITH HER
fellow newborns has few certainties and even
fewer rules: watch your back, don't draw
attention to yourself, and above all, make it
home by sunrise or die. What she doesn't know:
her time as an immortal is quickly running out.

THEN BREE FINDS AN UNEXPECTED FRIEND
in Diego, a newborn just as curious as Bree
about their new creator, whom they
know only as her. As they come to realize that
the newborns are pawns in a game larger than
anything they could have imagined, Bree and
Diego must choose sides and decide whom to
trust. But when everything you know about
vampires is based on a lie, how do you find
the truth?

IN ANOTHER IRRESISTIBLE COMBINATION
of danger, mystery, and romance, Stephenie
Meyer tells the devastating story of the newborn
army as they prepare to close in on Bella Swan
and the Cullens, following their encounter to
its unforgettable conclusion.

Ever since this book was released I would go to the store in attempts of buying it. Money was never the issue. I was more concerned with the effects of my opinions on it changing how I felt about the Twilight Saga. This past Christmas the choice was made for me. My aunt had bought the book for me as a present. That day I read the entire story.

I was happy to return to the Twilight story but focusing on a different character, a different story and even a different perspective. I really enjoyed Stephanies enlightening foreword on her reasoning to include Bree's story in the saga.

During the Eclipse novel and more notably for those who don't bother reading books, the movie, Bree was portrayed as barely even a character to remember. She was also displayed as a weak and timid newly turned vampire. I believe if anyone were to read this book you would quickly change your mind.

I thought it was interesting how the book is layed out with no chapters. This definitely made it more clear how Meyer's didn't want Bree's life thought of as pro-longed but brief, and short like the title states.

Diego, another vampire character, who I don't remember from the books or movies is an addition to the cast of top characters, in my opinion. I think that Fred has the potential for another spin-off story featuring the Volturi.

Overall this added story was written in a new way that the previous Twilight saga was. I also find it comforting to know that she included certain parts from the previous four books to preserve pertinent scenes but specifically planted in Bree's story from her perspective. It's amazing how perspective can play a significant role on how a story evolves or can even change.

Blood Feud by Alyxandra Harvey

The action and romance continue as the Drake family faces a new vampire with a 200-year-old grudge

As the clans gather for Helena's royal coronation as the next vampire queen, the rifts left over from Lady Natasha's reign are slowly beginning to heal. But a new common enemy-Leander Montmartre-has a thirst for power that must be stopped before he destroys the newfound peace they've just begun to enjoy. With their new status as vampire royalty, it's up to the Drake family to unite the clans against him.
That includes Isabeau St. Croix, who is intent on confronting Montmartre's top lieutenant, Greyhaven, the evil British earl who left her for dead centuries ago when he turned her into a vampire. But after meeting Logan Drake-a vampire whose kiss is as sweet as the revenge she seeks-she'll have put her own mission aside to fight for the common cause.
This second adventure in the Drake Chronicles, has all the same butt-kicking action and heart-pounding romance that readers loved in Hearts at Stake, as well as exciting new revelations about the vampire dynasties to keep readers coming back for more.

So this is the continuation into the Drake Chronicles series. In the front of this novel there is a Drake family tree. I actually wished that it had been included in the front of book one as well to give the readers a heads up on the family lineage. I also didn't realize that Connor & Quinn were twins. Maybe I read over that info in Hearts At Stake?

I was disappointed that the story wasn't focused on Solange like I had expected it to be. However I do like the fact you get to know more on her eccentric brother Logan. I also enjoyed the prologue of Isabeau's history. A good thing for new readers is that the author recapped Hearts At Stake making it easy for people to follow. There was one section with a Marie Antoinette flashback that I enjoyed as well.

Some of the French terminology should have been translated or had a reference guide to in the back. The Montmartre/Greyhaven battle had an enormous intensity and impact on the end of this novel. It clearly set the pace for book three. However with the resolution of Montmartre and I am wondering what's in store for book three. Hopefully it is a Connor & Quinn conjoined novel that tells their story intertwiningly. Most of all though, I am hoping for the Nicholas & Lucy one! Does she get turned? Or does she live a human life to the end of her days with Nicholas???

Favorite Quotes:

"I don't know what it said about me that it kind of turned me on that she could probably kick my ass if she wanted to."

"Sense doesn't have a lot to do with being a man."

Once again I would like to thank both Alyxandra Harvey for writing these awesomely kick-ass novels, and to Kate Lied who so kindly sent them to me when she didn't have to do so.
xoxo

Hater by David Moody

SOCIETY IS ROCKED BY A SUDDEN INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF VIOLENT
assaults on individuals. Christened "Haters" by the media, the attackers strike without warning, killing all who cross their path.
As a hundred random attacks become a thousand, then hundreds of thousands, it soon becomes clear that everyone, irrespective of race, class, or any other difference, has the the potential to become a victim- or a Hater.
People are afraid to go to work, afraid to leave their homes, and increasingly, afraid that at any moment their friends, even their closest family, could turn on them with ultra-violent intent. Waking up each morning, no matter how well defended, everyone, must now consider the fact that by the end of the day, they might be dead. Or become a killer themselves. As the status quo shifts, "ATTACK FIRST, ASK QUESTIONS LATER" becomes the order of the day...only, the answers might be far different than what you expect...
In the tradition of H.G. Wells and Richard Matheson, Hater is one man's story of his place in a world gone mad- a world infected with fear, violence and HATE.

This was a novel published a few years back. I contacted David in hopes of reviewing the novel. It took many months before I got my hands on it. David tried helping me and I contacted the publisher with no word. Luckily I was resourceful and used my previous contact of Katy Hershberger via Thomas Dunne Books who actually sent me the copies of Hater and Dog Blood. Without her help I wouldn't have been able to make the reviews possible.

The first thing that I want to say about this novel is that Guillermo Del Toro is turning it into a movie. Most people know him from Pan's Labryinth. I really enjoy his work and know that he will give the movie the credit it deserves. Another thing I would like to mention is the fact one of my previous reviews gave Hater a plug- David Wellington, another amazingly talented author.

This novel was an intense page turner from page 1 to page 281. I think of the book as a "Fight Club" on steroids. There's even a small, minute Alfred Hitchcock feel towards the end as well. My favorite sections were the Hater stories. Although they were my favorite stories, I am not sure which Hater side I'm on. Either way, I'm a Hater, as are you and everyone else!  This is a definite must read trilogy with books one and two currently in stores and book three on it's way.

Thanks again to David and Katy both for allowing me the opportunity to experience and review such a phenomenal piece of work. I can't wait to begin Dog Blood tonight.
xoxo

Blindsided by Priscilla Cummings

In many ways, Natalie O'Reilly is a typical fourteen-year-old girl. An excellent student, she has many good friends and a family who loves her. But a routine visit to the eye doctor produces devastating news: Natalie will lose her sight within a short time.
Suddenly her world is turned upside down. Natalie is sent to a school for the blind to learn skills such as Braille and how to use a cane. Outwardly, she does as she's told; inwardly she hopes for the miracle that will free her from a dreaded life of blindness. But the miracle does not come, and Natalie untimately must confront every blind person's dilema. Will she go home to live scared? Or will she embrace the skills she needs to make it in a world without sight? Her decision does not come easily.

Still another ARC I had requested and Priscilla had sent me, along with an upcoming interview. This novel is geared to ages 10 and up. It is written in their pov as well, although it has a deeper adult feelining as well. One cool thing the author features in the back of the book is a Braille guide to help decipher some of the captions in the story.

As I read the story I had conflicting emotions. The characters blaise sense of humor to their conditions, with my outsider view- not out of pity, but I felt more of an aggravation that anyone should have to be in the position of being blind.

There were so many scenes that stuck out in this story. One of them that stuck out most with me was the scene with Arnab and Natalie on the bench. It was heartbreaking and the compassion between the two was so intimate in the not so typical way that it made me emotional. This was the scene that began the flow of all of the sad events to come throughout the novel.

I began to look out for, and notice the various Braille signs and plaques in my own community, throughout the time that I was reading this story. When I did encounter it I was highly appreciative for it. Before I was simply indifferent. This novel was an eye-opener for me and has brought about a great enlightenment towards the blind community.

Favorite quotes:
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, or even touched- they must be felt with the heart." - Helen Keller

"The thing was, if you wanted to survive you had to keep going...Even when it hurt. Sometimes...you had to walk around the holes in your life, instead of falling through them."
xoxo

Water Ghosts by Shawna Yang Ryan

A MESMERIZING TALE THAT WEAVES HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY AROUND A COMMUNITY OF CHINESE IMMIGRANTS AND THE GHOSTS THAT HAUNT THEM.

Locke, California 1928. Three bedraggled Chinese women appear out of the mist in a small Chinese farming town on the Sacramento River. Two are unknown to its residents, while the third is the long-lost wife of Richard Fong, the handsome manager of the local gambling parlor. Left behind in China many years earlier, her unexpected arrival throws his already complicated life into upheaval. As the lives of the townspeople become inextricably intertwined with the newly arrived women, a premonition foretells a deep unhappiness for all involved. And when a flood threatens the village, the frightening power of these mysterious women is finally revealed.

This was another ARC I had requested. Shawna has allowed me the opportunity to review and interview her work. Originally I thought this was a debut author novel. In actuality it is a re-release under a new title. Previously the book was published in 2007 as Locke 1928. The cover image above is of the original publication, not of the one I was sent.

The lack of quotations during character conversations made this a hard novel to read for me. I was driven to read this because of the Asian culture that I am so intrigued by. The novel doesn't fall short on rich, cultural history. There were so many characters and stories intertwined amongst flash-backs. I think this was another thing that made it a difficult read for me.

There was one particular scene between the characters Alfred & Chloe. As I read it, it was so close to being like the shopping scene with Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. I don't know if that was an inspiration or simply just a coincidence.

Upon completion of Water Ghosts I am still confused if the women on the boat were ghosts of a mental or physical apparitions? While I am not putting down the novel, I think that if the book was written in a different aspect I could have enjoyed it more to its capacity I am sure it was meant to be. Thanks again to Shawna for allowing me to review this story and interview her as well.
xoxo

The Feathered Serpent by Junius Podrug

December 21, 2012

The fabeled Feathered Serpent, harbinger of the apocalypse, has begun his relentless ascent out of the bowels of the earth.
Beautiful astrobiologist and archaeologist Caden Montez is on his trail. Caden is in Teotihuacan, the ancient ruin she believes is the best site on earth to find evidence of visitation by aliens in ancient times. While exploring the "City of the Gods"- a place so eerie it terrified even the most ferocious Aztecs-she discovers that the Serpent has broken free of its two-thousand-year entombment.
Ancient Mayan priests prophesied that when the Feathered Serpent returned, he would open the gates to the End Time.
The Mayans's Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse is on the move, and humanity's survival hangs in the balance. Caden must stop the beast and is helped by someone who had once battled it: Tah-Heen, a champion in the gladitorial ball courts where the "game of life and death" was played- and the loser sacrificed- two-thousand-years ago.
A stranger in a strange land when a secret program brings him across the gulf of time, Tah-Heen teams with Caden to battle the diabolical foe that destroyed an entire civilization-and has come back with a vengeance.
History, mystery, cutting-edge science, and suspense unfold as the scientist and the warrior battle a preternatural beast that is intent upon bringing about the 2012 apocalyptic vision.

This was another ARC request that I had asked for. Junius so kindly sent it to me and autographed it as well. As I began to read it, the first chapter made me recall my childhood ambition of becoming an archaeologist "when I grow up." The story makes me think of X-Files meets the History Channel. The chapter/book set up makes it an easy and enjoyable read for anyone.

There was a portion where the author actually noted a reference to his previous novel, which I think was a great idea for any one unfamiliar with any of his novels. It features a whole load of historically educational flashbacks. I liked the fact that Tah-Heen had a background story (which was a good portion of the novel). Tah-Heen's character is written with such a great combination of humor and naive-ity. The combining of Tah-Heen's story with present day meshed quite well without causing the reader any forms of confusion.

Not only was the story educational, but it also was ecologically and conservationally, (If that's even a word), thought provoking. The Feathered Serpent is another novel I would recommend to any historical or historical fiction fans out there. As I read this book everyone kept claiming, "I loved the movie!" I do believe that this is NOT the novel based off the Nicholas Cage movie. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm just not wanting any of my readers to assume it is, read the novel and be upset for the confusion.

xoxo

My Ultimate Sister Disaster by Jane Mendle

Franny, 14, thinks her older sister got the better deal. Zooey is a beautiful, statuesque ballerina with a cool name. Franny is not quite five feet tall, has no talent for anything, hair that never cooperates, and, let's face it, a horrible name (the girls' parents discussed J. D. Salinger's work on their first date). Though they were close as children, the sisters now spend little time together and argue when they're in the same room. With their anthropologist mother in Kenya and their father spending long hours working in his clothing store, Franny feels more alone than ever. When Zooey breaks her leg during rehearsals for a career-making role and is homebound for weeks, the sisters get to know one another all over again. It turns out that Zooey's life isn't so perfect. There are many elements to this novel, but ultimately the story is about sisters and misconceptions. Franny is immediately likable and sympathetic, and Zooey's diva-tude is conveyed perfectly, as is her gradual regression to typical teen when she's sidelined from dancing. Fans of Sarah Dessen and Deb Caletti will enjoy this lighter tale of teen drama.

This was another ARC request. I enjoyed the ease and flow of the chapters. It made the book very easy to read. This novel brought to mind my own recollections of sibling rivalry and various pointless arguments with my own parents, among other aspects of my own teenage years.

My Ultimate Sister Disaster is the type of book that tweens and teens alike would select from their school book orders or even book fairs. The story did jump around at certain points from one topic to another. However the age group it is geared for, I think, will be oblivious to this and will not affect their opinion on the novel itself. Overall I enjoyed this quick and relaxing read.

Favorite quote:
"Life sort of gets out of hand when everything and everyone in it has to be special."

xoxo

The Loving Dead by Amelia Beamer

Kate and Michael, twenty-something housemates working at the same Trader Joe's supermarket, are thoroughly screwed when people start turning into zombies at their house party in the Oakland Hills. The zombie plague is a sexually transmitted disease, turning its victims into shambling, horny, voracious killers.

Thrust into extremes by the unfolding tragedy, Kate and Michael are forced to confront the decisions they've made, and their fears of commitment, while trying to stay alive. Michael convince Kate to meet him in the one place in the Bay Area that's likely to be safe and secure from the zombie hordes: Alcatraz. But can they stay human long enough?

This was yet another ARC request. And another of my zombie reviews for Zombies vs Vampires. The Loving Dead without any doubt in my mind puts a new trend on a majorily outdated genre. Amelia weaves many aspects into the story without jeopardizing its entirety: Ikea, lesbian zombies joining the mile high club on a Zeppelin, economic crises, iPhones, Indiana Jones iPhone whip application, Halo, Alcatraz, Jenna Jameson, and so many more tangible things (well...excluding lesbian zombies).

The time frame of the final chapter frustrated me at first. Because I expected further details. In the end, however, I was happy with the results. This is a novel I'd recommend to any of my friends and fellow avid readers.

Favorite quotes:
"Gay guys, they got it easy. Everybody knows they're gay: they're the only guys who style their hair and when they check each other out, you know what they're thinking."

"Fighting the zombie apocalypse with whips & gags seriously. They obey whips. Also the iPhone Indiana Jones app. Worth a dollar."

"Every relationship will fail until one doesn't. So I've heard."

"I'd just about murder someone to be held."

xoxo

Dust by Joan Frances Turner

It started with George Romero, but then it almost always does. Friday night, October sometime in the mid-1990s, and the original 1968 Night of the Living Dead was the only thing on television. I'd never seen it and had no particular interest in zombies, but the only alternative was my contracts law textbook so why not? And from the moment poor doomed Johnny solemnly intoned "They're coming to get you, Bar-buh-rah!", the movie had me, and it kept me, and the ending was a punch in the gut. The grainy black and white, the clumsy acting, the slapdash storyline and foolish self-destructive characters and almost nonexistent special effects weren't deterrents, they were the whole point. It all looked like ancient footage from some amateur documentary, and real people act foolish at the worst possible times. I never saw the remake, or any of the sequels: It wasn't the idea of zombies, themselves, that had me, it was that particular story. I didn't seek out any other.











Flash forward to 2003, and Carnival of Souls. More cheap black and white, shot on a shoestring in the middle of nowhere, and when Mary Henry's hand emerged from the depths of a Kansas lake long after she should have drowned they had me, again. Were those technically zombies, though, or were they ghosts? It had to be the former, for no ghost appears in the flesh as she did, walks among the living almost but not quite one of them, inspires their unwitting yet visceral disgust: They could, so to speak, smell the decay all inside her. That fascinated me, as did the titular carnival at the Saltair Pavilion. Zombies like to dance, it turns out, to eerie, calliope-style music that seems to come from nowhere. Interesting.
What George Romero started Herk Harvey finished, and I couldn't get zombies, themselves, out of my mind. They were ubiquitous, actually, when you started paying attention, but the more I learned about zombies and the popular imagination the duller and less satisfying it all was. Zombies, it turned out, were nothing but a joke. Talk funny. Walk funny. Ugly. Smelly. Filthy. Can't speak English right. Eat disgusting food. Spread disease. Mentally inferior. Lights on, nobody's home. They'll steal and devour everything you hold dear, including yourself. Shoot them. Kill them. Cleanse the earth of their kind. It's a moral imperative.


I was urged at every step, in this particular mythology, to ally myself with The Good Guy, the clean upright English-speaking human alpha male and his ragtag gun-toting buddies who were making the world safe for the One True Species, one bullet-riddled skull at a time. The hell with that. Zombies--actually, Jessie's absolutely right, let's dispense with that misappropriated West African word--the undead are nothing but people who died. Your mother, "Good" Guy, your spouse, your sibling, your child, your friend, your neighbor, you yourself, and what if you only think they're all monsters? What if dead people still have minds of their own, can laugh and fight and form friendships and love each other and grieve--and kill, as you do, for malice and sport as much as from hunger? What if the moans and groans you hear are an actual language? What if the undead have a "life" span, slowly aging and decaying and crumbling into dust just as inert bodies do in the coffin? What if the creature in your crosshairs still remembers you, loves you, can't plead for what you once were to each other before you pull the trigger?


(For that matter, what if your incredibly tedious guns don't even do the job? That's the first determination I made when I sat down to write Dust, that there would be no Deus Ex Firearms whatsoever. Fire itself, that'd work to kill them, but then fire has the disadvantage of spreading like, well, wildfire. As does bio-weaponry, but then we're getting ahead of ourselves.) If Dust could be summed up in one sentence, it would be a lyric from Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: "The history of the world, my sweet, is who gets eaten and who gets to eat." It presupposes a world where the living dead are not some new aberration but have existed alongside the humans they once were for thousands of years, an uneasy harmony occasionally broken up by unfortunate incidents such as, say, the famous Pittsburgh Massacre of '68. Other elements came into play: the Greek myth of Erysichthon, which haunted me since I first read it as a child, about a man the gods punish for his hubris with a hunger so insatiable he ultimately devours...himself. Luc Sante's beautiful, unsentimental prose poem "The Unknown Soldier," in which the forgotten dead assert their right to speak for themselves. The eerie photographs and morbid newspaper clippings from Michael Lesy's Wisconsin Death Trip. The unsettling banjo music in the end credits of the cult horror film The Last Broadcast, which inspired the notion that the undead express their strongest emotions through telepathic music: "brain radios." That and eerie waltzes in Carnival of Souls inspired the spontaneous psychic dances, the only moments of true peace and harmony the undead ever enjoy.


Eating, in this world, is identity: The living eat dead meat. The dead eat meat so recently living that it's still warm and pulsing with life. The dead find the living's dietary habits as abominable, disgusting, taboo as the reverse. Every human alive, in our world as well as theirs, pins a far greater part of their self-image than they realize on what goes into their mouths. It was a joke then that Jessie, the fervent vegan in life, began a ravenous flesh-hunter in death, and yet it was also entirely to be expected.


Armed with the facts--such as they were--in September 2003 I jotted down a sparse page of disjointed notes: character names, story locales (the Calumet Region of northwest Indiana, besides being my easily accessible home geography, was both underserved in fiction and had enough urban-suburban-rural-industrial variety to make it interesting), a little folkloric rhyme the undead liked to sing amongst themselves but never made it into the book. The slang--"hoo" for humans, "rotter" and "feeder" and "bloater" and " 'maldie" for each other--also came early because it was fun to think up. Jessie simply walked in right at the start and announced herself, an angry, lonely girl abused in life, abandoned in death, yearning for love and acceptance but furious at the world. It was inevitable she'd take instantly to the jarring, aggressive, insatiably hungry culture of the undead, also inevitable that she'd write off her human family entirely only to have them return to be her undoing. Joe started as a parody, one of those "teen angel" hoods-with-a-heart-of-gold from the fifties pop songs who dies in a drag race gone wrong, and then he surprised me by showing himself as lonely and yearning as Jessie, if not more so, under the brutal surface. It was inevitable, again, that they'd both fall in love. Florian, a literal walking skeleton, was always meant to be the paterfamilias of Jessie's surrogate family, but I never expected him to turn out gentle, genuinely wise, the only true parent she ever really had.


Actually they all surprised me, as I worked little by little on draft one, draft two, draft three through 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007. Renee, the lamb thrown into a pit of snarling wolves, grew up amazingly fast and became not just Jessie's friend, but her ally. Linc--only kindhearted from Jessie's perspective, no human would want to run into him--was supposed to be merely Joe's foil, the "geek" to his "jock," but then quietly, stubbornly, relentlessly worked his way up from the margins of the story to the center. Teresa, the gang leader, was even more selfish and cruel that I'd imagined. (The rival gang the Rat Patrol were exactly as selfish and cruel as I'd imagined, so at least I had some control over the proceedings.) Lisa, Jessie's neurotic mess of a human sister, proved she could be there for Jessie in death as she never was in life. Jim, her brother, began as the most cardboard sort of villain, missing only a mustache to twirl, then I remembered that the truest antagonists are those who genuinely believe they're acting out of kindness and love. Only when Jim tried to "save" Jessie, did it become clear how much he--like all Good Guys--utterly feared and despised what she'd become. Death him/her/itself, the trickster, the demon, the angel, the destroyer, the salvager, was there from the beginning, though he didn't announce himself right away to me any more than to Jessie: Like any trusting parent, he first and foremost wanted to let his undead children try and fend for themselves.


Since the first inspiration for Dust was a pair of B-movies, other midnight drive-in fixtures seemed entirely appropriate: The meteor that causes extraterrestrial chaos upon landing. The semi-secret laboratory with "noble" purpose gone horribly wrong. The pandemic plague--but why just consider what would happen if the living became undead, why not consider what might happen if the undead were brought back to life? Untouchable life, even? What if Death the trickster, in his eagerness to consume the earth, thus ultimately ended up tricking himself?


It's all well and good to talk about Herk Harvey and banjos and falling meteors, but what truly inspired Dust was of course my own fear of death. There's another song, by the musician Exuma, that embodies it: "You won't go to heaven, you won't go to hell/You'll remain in your graves with the stench and the smell." What if the "afterlife" took place right on earth, and you rotted slowly, inexorably, feeling the first bugs nest and hatch on your body? What if you actually had to watch your loved ones grieving you, as Jessie and Renee both did, and be yards away and yet an eternity removed, unable now to be anything to them but a monster? What if pain, fear, longing, grief, the hungers of the body don't stop when life stops? What if Death isn't an angel of mercy, but a real live son of a bitch?


As it turns out, then, for me as for everyone else the undead were an embodiment of fear. But they surprised me, yet again, by becoming embodiments of hope as well. Life doesn't end after death, not really. To become something new, alien, unimagined, is not to lose oneself, one's identity and thoughts and needs and wants, they just express themselves a little differently. Nobody's lost to anyone forever; if there is no afterlife, there is at least the "eternity" of memory. To lose one family is to gain another. Betrayal by loved ones can lead to new, stronger bonds that are about real trust. Nearly everyone's stronger and more capable than they imagine, when put to the test. Flesh is just flesh and if it rots, well, that's only natural.


But that's all very Hallmark Hall of Fame and ultimately it was also about having some fun whistling in the graveyard. Dust was a chance to play with all sorts of notions of life and death: ordinary mortal existence, living consciousness trapped in dead decaying bodies, seemingly "live" flesh rotting and dying from the inside out, invulnerable immortality through the back door. As Jessie says, "How many kinds of living and dead and living dead and dead living had I been in just these few months, these few days, after the stasis of plain old human living and dying? I deserved some kind of existential medal." Tell me about it, it was hard to keep up. It also felt like finding the pulse of something real, and true, about life and death under all the campiness of traditional zombie mythology. Both the B-movie folklore and the insomniac anxieties inspired the book in equal measure, and both deserve their due. It starts with a silly story, some actors shuffling around sideways in worn-out clothes, and ends with real people, real fears, real hopes. But then, it almost always does.
--Joan Frances Turner (taken from Amazon.com)

This was an ARC I had requested which turned out to be a traveling ARC. This is also a part of my Zombie vs Vampire month of reviews. I think that Joan has a great twist on zombie fiction. This was told from the zombie pov. The role reversal makes the reader sympathize more with the zombies than the humans. She manages to give the zombies a "life" and personality.

It took me a while to get through the novel. There was parts where it seemed monotanous and never ending but in the end I did appreciate the fact Joan so kindly gave me the opportunity for this review. I think because of my lack of zombie experience my review, IMO, seems biased. Although I would like to say that if you're a die hard undead fan, as many of my friends are, you will appreciate Joan's magical journey into the mind and "life" of these undead characters and the society they manage to make for themselves.

Favorite quotes:
"...but I was tired and my bullshit tank was down to fumes."

"I hate people who can make you feel guilty when they've pissed you off..."

xoxo

Dead Set Anthology (edited) by: Joe McKinney & Michelle McCrary

The Dead Have Risen!

We were once a race seven billion strong. But today, our world has become a wasteland overrun by the living dead. Rivers of zombies flood the streets. They never rest. They never relent. Their hunger for the living is insatiable. And with every careless mistake we make, their numbers swell.

Scenes from the end of the world...

Michelle McCrary and Joe McKinney have brought together twenty original tales of the end of our world from horror's brightest talents. Within these pages you'll find a madman longing for the good old days of Hometown America, a company that deals in the dead, a radio DJ who holds the living together with her voice, and a soldier haunted by the living and the dead alike. This is the end of the world as you've never seen it before.
Featuring stories from Lisa Mannetti, Lee Thomas, Bev Vincent, Harry Shannon, David Dunwoody, Nate Southard, Boyd E. Harris, and a host of others, Dead Set will take you on a guided tour through the ruins. The zombie story has finally come of age.

This was a first for me. I haven't done an anthology review yet. This is also the start of August's Zombie vs Vampire month.

Resurgam by Lisa Manneti:
I would have liked the story to focus on Auden & Sheri or Cruncher & Sykes or just have the past & present come together more fluidly. Also, you have no clue what happened to Sheri?

Jailbreak by Steven W Booth & Harry Shannon
This was a fun read. It was written iin a John Carpenter style.

Recess by Rob Fox
A new twist on zombies. Occasionally you see zombie children featured in film and novels. But never soley focused on them like this story.

Biting The Hand That Feeds You by Carrie Voorhis
Hilarious. Morbid. Sad.

Judgement by Stephanie Kincaid
Almost seemed lik you weren't going to read anything about any undead. The ending was very abrupt.

Hatfield the Usurper by Matthew Louis
Read like a movie. Favorite quote: "He could almost smell the waft off the pages of a newly opened paperbac, almost see the typeface racked up in wonderful rows and clumped in intoxicating paragraphs..."

Ruminations From Tri-Omega House by David Dunwoody
Good story, I likedthe Richard Matheson reference. But it wasn't explained- did Prof. Rand bite Larry before the story began? When Rand was chasing Larry it didn't seem like he got to him?

Zombies On A Plane by Bev Vincent
Not much to say on this one. I didn't care for it one way or another. Like a story without a plot to it.

Category Five by Richard Jeter
Not a fan of this one either. The zombie interaction was too minimalistic for even a short story.

Survivors by Joe McKinney
Written with some action-packed intensity as Dead City (previous review). Balls to the wall fun!

Piere & Remy Hatch A Plan by Michelle McCrary
Good "ol' fashioned" zombie story y'all!

Recovery by Boyd E Harris
Fun but sad story. Features B rated movie sense of humor. Adopting recovering zombies almost like pets- hilarious!

In the Middle of Poplar Street by Nate Southard
Fun story but I wished the ending would have been more lengthy. Did Ginny kill the zombie? Or did the zombie kill her? Favorite quote: "...scared people get angry because they don't like being afraid, and they think it's somebody else's fault that they were so scared in the first place."

Seminar Z by J.L. Comeau
Interesting story. Unsure whether I liked or disliked it. Another story that the ending was just...

Only Nibble by Bob Nailor
I was hesitant to like this one. The last sentence was my deciding factor, What a great story.

Inside Where It's Warm by Lee Thomas
Generic and typical zombie story, with a possible half zombie/half human. I'm not quite sure but that was my take it.

Survivor Talk by Mitchel Whitington
Another great story. One that didn't have a predictable ending Background story. Zombie action that didn't jeopardize the entirety of the story.

The Zombie Whisperer by Steven E Wedel
Fun, psychological twist. A definite entertaining read.

Good Neighbor Sam by Mark Onspaugh
Originally started out interesting but ...zzzzzzzzzzzz!!! I had to force myself to reread it for the sake of this review to get a more accurate opinion. The second time around it reminded me of House of Wax but with zombies/ It was based in Ohio with the mention of Lancaster, my hometown.

That Which Survives- Morgan Ashe
This was an ok story. A medical twist.

Overall I really enjoyed this anthology. Some of the stories made me wonder why I don't read more zombie fiction, while others confirmed why I do not. Those stories I think should have been omitted for the sake of the novel's entirety and substituted for some more worthy ones.

Thanks again to Joe McKinney for sending me this gift.
xoxo

Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

ON THE DAY SHE WAS ABDUCTED, Annie O'Sullivan, a thirty-two-year-old realtor, had three goals-sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever-patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van she's about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all.

But nothing could be further from the truth.

Through sessions with her psychiatrist, Annie retells the terrifying story of the year she spent captive in a remote mountain cabin. Interwoven is a second narrative recounting the aftermath of her escape and her struggle to piece her life back together.

This is another novel that is way off from my typical reads, but it looked interesting and I am thankful that Chevy allowed me to give it a shot. I originally contacted Chevy and she had her publicist send me the ARC.

This story is written based on a nightmare the author had. I can't even begin to fathom the feelings that she had, but I think that in writing this novel it had to put her at ease in some sort or another. As I began reading the story the song "Jesus Take The Wheel" by Carrie Underwood came to mind. The main character Annie has so many things that she is forced to overcome. Although Annie is fictional, her emotions and feelings portrayed throughout the story are so vivid that you're not just reading them, it's like you're feeling them yourself.

There's also a sickening reality to David's character. There are so many fucked up souls out in the real world which makes David so easily terrifying for any reader. The story is written in almost two combined novels in one. The sessions with Annie and her psychiatrist and the time after the fact ofher brutal and disturbing kidnapping. As you read, the novel weaves both points of view into one. When the pieces finally come together it was a shock at why and how Annie's events all came into play.

There were two scenes that I had taken note of. The first is the part when Annie and Luke hug. This is the first intimate moment after her tragic events. For me this scene had such an overwhelming surge of sadness. The second scene was when Gary & Annie have sex. I was particularly confused on this. I am not a victim of rape, a rapist, nor a psychiatrist. So I find it hard to believe fictional or otherwise that a rape victim would EVER want to have sex. The control thing made sense to me. The sex...not-so-much?!

If I were asked for a brief review (which we all know I don't do-often!) I would have to say this is one ROYALLY FUCKED UP novel worthy of a wonderful Lifetime movie adaptation! I thoroughly enjoyed it and it is written with such a profound no-holds-bar style of penmanship.

Favorite quotes:
"You can be as happy as you've ever been in your life, and shit is still going to happen. But it doesn't just happen. It knocks you sideways and crushes you into the ground, because you were stupid enough to believe in sunshine and roses."

"...no one is a lost cause, but I think that's bullshit. I think people can be so crushed, so broken, that they'll never be anything more than a fragment of a whole person."
xoxo

Purchase novel here:
http://www.amazon.com/Still-Missing-Chevy-Stevens/dp/0312595670/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280502537&sr=8-1

Dead City by Joe McKinney

TEXAS? TOAST.
Battered by five cataclysmic hurricanes in three weeks, the Texas Gulf Coast and half the Lone Star State is reeling from the worst devastation in history. Thousands are dead or dying-but the worst is only beginning. Amid the wreckage, something unimaginable is happening: a deadly virus has broken out, returning the dead to life-with an insatiable hunger for human flesh...

THE NIGHTMARE BEGINS
Within hours, the plague has spread all over Texas. San Antonio police officer Eddie Hudson finds his city overrun by a voracious army of the living dead. Along with a small group of survivors, Eddie must fight off the savage horde in a race to save his family...

HELL ON EARTH
There's no place to run. No place to hide. The zombie horde is growing as the virus runs rampant. Eddie knows he has to find a way to destroy these walking horrors...but he doesn't know the price he will have to pay...

This is a novel I had contacted Joe in order of doing a review. He not only sent me Dead City, but also Dead Set (a zombie anthology), a bookplate for both Dead City & Apocalypse of the Dead (Dead City sequel due out later this year). I will also be posting our interview with Joe when I begin resuming my author interviews in a few months.

This is also my first zombie review! Without a doubt this story has one intense action introduction. It was a page turner that I just didn't want to put down. The great thing about this novel- is the fact Joe weaves in all of the major contents of what a novel truly needs to make it pop! Comedy, sadness, drama, horror, action. There was not one slow point in the entire book. I was on the edge of my seat in suspenseful horror.

I can't wait for Apocalypse of the Dead to come out. I typically am not that big of a fan of zombies, but I think Joe has twisted my arm. Thanks again to Joe for allowing me this opportunity. Stay tuned next week for the Dead Set review, and details on a Joe McKinney contest for the month of August!
xoxo

Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn

When modern technology clashes with ancient monsters, seventeen-year-old Kay and her unlikely dragon friend, Artegal, are caught in the middle. Can their friendship stop a war?

While Carrie is not a debute author, her novel is a 2010 Debute Author Challenge novel. This is her first young adult novel. I was intrigued from the beginning. It makes you want to read further to learn about the border between the Dragons and Silver River. The story has the same type of excitement I felt as a kid with the Everlasting Story. If you're an Eragon follower this book will appeal to you as well. There was a cliffhanger type ending that leaves you wondering...Is there more to the story?

I only have one complaint with this book. I feel that there should have been more details regarding the dragon side. It seemed to be more human based. That may have been the author's goal, I don't know. As a reader, I just wished to have read more on the dragon lifestyle. Congratulations to Carrie on the success of her novel. Thank you to both Carrie for her interview, and the opportunity to be able to do this review.
xoxo

The Summer of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells

After getting dumped by her boyfriend, sixteen-year-old Mia Gordon is looking forward to spending a relaxing summer in the Hamptons with Corine,  her gorgeous and popular cousin. But Corine has better things to do- like ditch Mia at a party.
That's where Mia meets boy-next-door Simon Ross. After devising a secret signaling system, Mia and Simon meet up nightly to swim in the cool, dark ocean and lie on the beach, talking and looking at the stars. Neither feels like they belong in the exclusive resort community.
Mia isn't looking for love that summer, but she finds it. She finds a funny, artistic boy who lives boldly. She finds someone who understands her. And she finds herself.

This was another of my 2010 Debute Author Challenges. I contacted Amanda and her publisher sent me a copy to review. This was a hysterical-uplifting and yet sad summer story. It is a book that I could imagine reading on a beach as I soaked up the rays, sadly when I was reading this the weather was not warm nor was I near a beach! I think this story has the potential of a new decade version of Dirty Dancing. So many young adults would love to read a story like this. It has all the factors that teenagers live for. It is a story that has life lessons and talks of struggle and hardship and moving on. Congratulations to Amanda for her success in this debute novel.

Here are a few quotes I really enjoyed:

"Or maybe that's just the curse of really beautiful people. Everything around them must look so ugly and second-rate."

"It's a long way from Payless to Prada!"

"The surest way to hurt yourself is to give up on love, just because it didn't work out the first time."

The Secret Life Of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life Of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. they escape to Tiburon, South Carolina- a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about devine female power, a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

The biggest motivation for me to read this book was the movie version. The movie was such a heart wrenching story. In my opinion the books are always better than the movies and so I had to prove my point. For me, I was comparing so much of the book to the movie. If I can recall right, the way that Lily & her mother are described in the story are nothing alike the movie adaptations. I also feel that there were many parts of the story left out of the movie, such as; the parts where characters appear to be daydreaming or something and really thinking of critical moments that give the story a very strong depth. I can't remember June apologizing to Lily in the movie version either. In the movie T-Ray found Lily by a map not a phone call like the book states. That was another part that had me a bit confused but I can see how it is possible to do so. My last gripe between the movie/book versions is that in the book at the end when T-Ray comes to take Lily, it is the Daughters of Mary who stand up for her. In the movie version it is Rosaleen, June & August.

Overall this was a beautifully written story that addresses racism and cruelty. It is easy to see looking back in time that slavery times and segregation are not that far behind us.The story is an eye opener into people's ignorant perceptions and beliefs that certain people are more important than others. That thought process hasn't changed. We still encounter racism in various forms of race, gender, sexuality, religion. If there is any book that can be an educational tool, it would be The Secret Life of Bees. However more than breaking racist barriers, this is a tale of family and of voids. Family knows nothing of sex, color, race, politics and religions! Family knows what it is- simply that, family.

I sincerely can't express how much of an inspiration this book is. Thank you Sue for such an elegant use of words. They have blended together and created a beautiful story that will live on for ages.

Occasionally I find quotes from books that have a sense of purpose and/or meaning to me in one form or another. Here are a few that I just couldn't forget....

"Loss takes up inside of everything sooner or later and eats right through it."

"The world will give you that once in a while, a brief time-out, the boxing bell rings and you go to your corner, where somebody dabs mercy on your beat-up life."

"From now on when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I planned to say, Amnesiac."

"If God said in plain language 'I'm giving you a choice forgive and die,' a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin."

xoxo