Review: Dark of the Sun by Maynard Sims

Harry Beck awakes one morning next to another Bahamian tourist expecting another carefree day. He has no idea that his world is about to be turned upside down. He soon finds himself wrapped up in someone else's mess and has no idea who to trust. His closest childhood friends may not be the people he always thought they were.

Mystery, murder, and organized mayhem interrupt the tropical paradise in the Bahamas. Harry must quickly figure out what is going on and who is involved before he and his friends land in harm's way.

Plot (16 / 20)

While the actual crimes being committed in Dark of the Sun are not anything new, the quest to unravel the mysteries feels fresh. The action is fast and it seems like you learning everything at the same time Harry does. There are several twists and turns that I did not see coming and that is something I always enjoy. 

Characters (22 / 25)

Harry Beck is the typical hero character you would expect in a thriller. But you will still find yourself liking him. The support characters are interesting and the bad guys are not so over the top that they are unbelievable.

Climax / Ending (23 / 25)

As you might expect, this one has a violent climax that builds up from a lot of exciting action. I won't give anything away, but there is a satisfactory ending. Some of it was a little expected, but still enough originality to make the read worth the effort. 

Overall Impression  (18 / 20)

This is a fast read. The chapters are very short and filled with action. Dedicated thriller junkies should be able to tear through this one in a day. I think this would make a great beach read. I almost wish I had waited until this summer to read this one. I enjoyed it a lot and recommend it to anyone that likes fast action thrillers and police mysteries.

Cover (10 / 10)

I found the cover for this book truly amazing. It really sets the tone for the action in the novel. You get the idea that the book takes place somewhere tropical, which is correct. You also see a cool, confident man alongside the silhouette of a well figured woman. This gives an overall James Bondish impression.

Final Mo Score: 89

Book Details:

Dark of the Sun
by Len Maynard and Mick Sims
DarkFuse
Original Publication Date: March 5, 2013

Short Stories Page

I added a page to keep track of the shorter fiction I read. Too often, the short stories do not get the attention they deserve. So I will list each that I read on this new page and then try to compose a post about the ones I find especially interesting. I hope you enjoy this new feature.

Review: Entangled by Nikki Jefford

Graylee Perez wakes up one day in her twin sister's body. She learns that she had died suddenly in the middle of the night two months prior. Now she is forced to share her sister's body. One day Graylee is in control, the next her sister Charlene. Both sisters struggle to make this work with their friends, boyfriends, classes.... Graylee uses her every other day to try to learn why she died, and more  importantly, to seek out a way to live outside of her sister's body.

Entangled is the first book in Nikki Jefford's Spellbound series. The book is currently free at Smashwords so I suggest grabbing this one while you can. It is also available via Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Book two, Duplicity, is currently available while Enchantment, the final book in the trilogy, is expected in Spring of 2013.

Plot ( 18 / 20)

At first I thought this would be just another witch story, nothing different, nothing new. But I was pleasantly surprised. The story went in a direction I did not expect and I really enjoyed that. There are lots of books in the paranormal / dark fantasy genre and that makes it difficult to stand out. Nikki Jefford rises to the occasion and delivers a fun read. It was really nice to read a story where I was not able to predict where the things were going next.

Characters (22 / 25)

I found it very easy to like the main character, Graylee Perez. She is the normal, grounded counterpoint to her twin sister Charlene, who is very much concerned about her image and popularity. The most interesting character for me is Raj McKenna. He is confident and a bit arrogant, but also has a softer side that has been secretly longing for Graylee. I would like to have seen a little more depth with Charlene. I recognize the importance of differentiating her from Graylee, but seeing things from her perspective would have been interesting.

Overall Impression (15 / 20)

The beginning of the book felt a bit rushed to me, but I stuck with it and am very glad I did. The story moves along at a quick pace, without a lot of unnecessary exposition. I love stories where "special" people live among us "normal" folk and Entangled is a great example of this. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone that loves reading young adult or paranormal fiction.

Cover ( 8 / 10)

Normally, this cover would get a perfect score. It is beautiful in both color and composition. It would definitely draw me in and make me want to read this book. However, in this case, the beautiful cover does not seem to have anything to do with the story. I guess you could loosely associate the girl on the cover with a girl in the story, but it would be a stretch.

Final Mo Score: 83

Book Details:

Entangled by Nikki Jefford

Self Published

Original Publication Date: February 20, 2012

Review: Bitter Blood by Rachel Caine

Bitter Blood is the 13th book in Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampire series. These books are written mostly for the young adult audience, but I would think most paranormal romance / urban fantasy fans would enjoy them as well. This series is way more tame than say,  Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake series. Don't expect a lot of naughty bits. You can expect lots of good drama, action, romance, and quite a bit of both good and evil vampires.

For those unfamiliar, Morganville is a small town in Texas, home to Texas Prairie University (TPU). It is also a town controlled by vampires. The main character in the novels is a young, super genius college student named Claire Danvers. She befriends three Morganville natives and moves in to their shared house. The series follows their exploits and the trouble that ensues from vampires and humans trying to coexist.

With the vampires' battle with the Draug behind them it is time to turn their attention back onto the town. Their leader, Amelie, has suddenly decided that the humans have gotten out of control and it is time to take back control. She issues hunting licenses for some of the vampires. The humans are not taking this lightly. A new Captain Obvious appears to rally the town in opposition to the vampires. To make matters worse, a ghost hunter reality show crew shows up to film in Morganville.

Plot (10/20)

While this is an interesting story, I found it somewhat lacking compared to the other books in the series. It seemed almost too easy to just have the vampires go back to their controlling ways and the humans failing to be organized enough to stand up to them. I felt that the author was trying to hit some kind of magical rewind switch.

It was not all bad, though. I really enjoyed the relationship troubles that were introduced between Shane and Claire and then also Michael and Eve. I had been thinking during the previous couple of books that things were getting too comfortable in that arena.

Characters (25/25)

This book, along with the previous 12, is all about the characters. It would be really hard to not fall in lover with Claire bear Danvers. I also really like Myrnin. It was neat to have a little bit of his point of view in this book. While not exactly a great guy, I also really like Oliver. He seems to be the deepest character in the book. Of course, it helps to also be one of the oldest.

Climax / Ending (20/25)

The ending was ok. I think the climax of this book is when Claire and Shane have their falling out and when Michael and Eve have their situation. It was kind of downhill from there, with a but of the book left afterwards. Some of the earlier books would end with a real cliffhanger. Spoiler, no cliffhanger here. Well, maybe a very minor question of what is to come. 

Overall Impression (15/20)

I enjoyed this read, but I have to admit, it wasn't as fun as some of the other books in the series. Still, I recommend reading it. The series is wonderful. You should read the series in order, though. This is one of those that you can really miss out on a lot if you aren't up to date on what has been happening. 

Cover (9/10)

I really like the cover of this book. Everyone has a picture in their mind of what characters look like. This one is not exactly how I picture Claire, but it is pretty close. Either way, it is a  very pretty girl and that makes for a nice cover.

 

Final Mo Score: 79

Book Details:

Bitter Blood by Rachel Caine

Penguin Group (USA)

Original Publication Date: November 6, 2012

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

From the Publisher: 

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

My Thoughts:

The idea for this novel is pure genius. Cinder is a unique adaptation of the classic Cinderella story in which the main character is a cyborg. You may be thinking this is something like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, where the story is the same with just a few things changed. I assure you it is not. While some of the key components to the Cinderella canon are present, the story is far from an exact telling.

There is, as you might imagine, a pretty heavy science fiction theme throughout the book. The world is very different from our own. The large territory of New Bejing is the setting for this first book in the Lunar Chronicles series. Science has improved, giving the world hover cars and fantastic body implants. However, a horrific disease wreaks havoc with earth's population. It makes the world more believable having problems that have not been solved.

Cinder is a very likable main character. She is smart and daring. Her love for he sister endears her to the reader. But her insecurity and self deprecating outlook give her that illusion of reality that truly strong characters must possess.

Like most young adult fiction today, the cover for the book is wonderful. It caught my eye as soon as I saw it and had me wondering what the book was about. It seems the old saying about not judging a book by its cover just does not apply with this genre. The covers of the books I have read over the past two years are getting more and more eye-catching.

This book will appeal to a wide variety of readers. Marissa Meyer successfully mixes the young adult, science fiction, dystopia and mystery genres into a fast paced novel you will find quite hard to put down.

The Author:

Marissa Meyer was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington, home of Almond Roca and Stadium High School, which was made famous when Heath Ledger danced down the stadium steps in 10 Things I Hate About You. Marissa didn’t actually go to Stadium High School, but she did attend Pacific Lutheran University where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing. She still lives in Tacoma, now with her husband.Cinder is her YA debut.

Rating: 4/5

Book Details:

Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: January 3, 2012

Disclaimer:

I received a review copy of this novel from the publisher. 

Review: Everneath by Brodi Ashton

From the Publisher:

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she’s returned—to her old life, her family, her boyfriend—before she’s banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can’t find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance—and the one person she loves more than anything. But there’s just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.

As Nikki’s time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole’s queen.

My Thoughts:

Everneath is author Brodi Ashton's debut novel. As such, I had no expectations when I started reading. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. The story is loosely based on tales from Greek mythology. A girl is tricked into spending time in the Everneath, only to be given a brief period to set things right before having to return and spend eternity below.

At first, you might think this is the second novel in a series. The story starts with Nikki already in the Everneath. But this is the author's first novel. You get the back story spread throughout. I was a little concerned for a bit that all the flashbacks would hinder the flow of the novel, but it actually fits together quite nicely.

What would a young adult novel be without a little romance? Certainly not this story. Nikki and Jack have that deep, connected romance. Cole wants Nikki to be his queen, while Julianna, Nikki's best friend, has her eye on Jack. Only one word comes to mind, angst.

This was a good book and I recommend it to lovers of Dark Fantasy and Young Adult novels. One last tidbit. I love that the rock band is named The Dead Elvises. Awesome!

The Author:

Brodi Ashton received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Utah and a master’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics. Brodi has an active following on her blog, which can be found at www.brodiashton.blogspot.com. She lives in Utah with her family. Everneath is her debut novel.

Rating: 4/5

Book Details:

Everneath by Brodi Ashton
Harper Collins Publishers
Publication Date: January 24, 2012

Disclaimer:

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Audiobook Review: Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick

From the Publisher: 

The noise between Patch and Nora is gone. They've overcome the secrets riddled in Patch's dark past...bridged two irreconcilable worlds...faced heart-wrenching tests of betrayal, loyalty and trust...and all for a love that will transcend the boundary between heaven and earth. Armed with nothing but their absolute faith in one another, Patch and Nora enter a desperate fight to stop a villain who holds the power to shatter everything they've worked for—and their love—forever.

My Thoughts:

Silence is the third installment in Becca Fitzpatrick's teen series, following Hush Hush and Crescendo. The series tells the story of Nora and Patch. Patch is a fallen angel and Nora is a normal teenage girls, or is she? The problematic romance between the two keeps readers turning pages.

Silence begins with Nora having amnesia. As a reader, I had no idea what was going on for a bit either. Slowly we are filled in on the pieces of the story that are missing as Nora searches to learn what happened to her and who she is. It was a little frustrating to read the very beginning, but once I figured out how things were unfolded, I did not mind. If you get stuck, hang in there, it does get better.

Quite a few questions are answered this time around. Some I already knew, Nora was learning them against her amnesia. Others bring the story around to where I had thought it might be leading. I would not say things were predictable, but it was no surprise the way things panned out. As if with any good series, there are many new questions at the end that have me not-so-patiently waiting for the fourth book which is to be published in Fall 2012.

The narrator, Caitlin Greer, does a great job capturing the personalities of the characters. Since most of the book is from Nora's perspective, it is easy to associate her voice with that of the main character's. This was an Audible purchase for me and everything went smoothly.

The Author:

Becca Fitzpatrick's first book, Hush, Hush debuted as a New York Times bestseller. She graduated college with a degree in health, which she promptly abandoned for storytelling. When not writing, she's most likely running, prowling sales racks for shoes or watching crime drams on TV. She lives in Colorado.

Rating: 4/5

Audiobook Details:

Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick
Narrated by Caitlin Greer

Simon Pulse

Publication Date: October 4, 2011