Category: Romance
The Show by John Heldt
(Cover picture courtesy of John Heldt.)
Seattle, 1941. Grace Vandenberg, 21, is having a bad day. Minutes after Pearl Harbor is attacked, she learns that her boyfriend is a time traveler from 2000 who has abandoned her for a future he insists they cannot share. Determined to save their love, she follows him into the new century. But just when happiness is within her grasp, she accidentally enters a second time portal and exits in 1918. Distraught and heartbroken, Grace starts a new life in the age of Woodrow Wilson, silent movies, and the Spanish flu. She meets her parents as young, single adults and befriends a handsome, wounded Army captain just back from the war. In THE SHOW, the sequel to THE MINE, Grace finds love and friendship in the ashes of tragedy as she endures the trial of her life.
[Full disclosure: John Heldt sent me a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.]
I’m so glad that John Heldt decided to return to the story of The Mine to continue where he left off. Only this time, we get to see things from Grace’s point of view and learn how she found her way back to Joel when he fled back to his own time. Then, just when everything seems to be going well, tragedy strikes and Grace is thrust back into 1918. This is where things get interesting character-wise because we learn just how resourceful and intelligent Grace really is as she struggles to cope in another new time. We also learn a little more about how the time travel portals work, although John Heldt never gets into the scientific details. But that doesn’t bother me one bit because the Northwest Passage Series is meant to explore the effects of time travel on people, not how time travel is accomplished.
The plot isn’t what I would call fast-paced until the last 30 pages, but John Heldt’s writing style is so nice that it didn’t bother me at all. Grace drives the plot forward with her actions rather than just reacting to events and it makes for a much more human novel. We feel her anguish at leaving the love of her life and her two children behind, experience her struggle to adapt to a completely different time and feel her confusion about the handsome war hero John Walker. The secondary characters aren’t just two dimensional either; they all have distinct personalities, backstories and react to Grace differently.
The ending felt rather rushed after the steady pace of the first 150 pages, but I suppose it reflects the desperation Grace began to feel as her ability to go back to 2000 was about to be cut off. Still, The Show was a great addition to the story of The Mine and I look forward to reading the rest of the Northwest Passage series.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
*Only available as a Kindle ebook.
Starlet’s Web by Carla J. Hanna
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
A-list actress, 17-year-old Liana Marie Michael struggles to find herself when Hollywood’s obsession with youth and power threatens to destroy her future.
Liana is dating Hollywood’s hottest heartthrob while filming her seventh motion picture with sexy co-star Byron. Surrounded by a culture of casual sex and adult responsibilities, Lia feels lost and confused. With her film soon to wrap, her acting contracts up for renewal, her high school graduation looming and growing tension between her and smart, religious jock, Manuel, life feels overwhelming. Will Lia find the courage to share her love for Manuel, a guy unimpressed with Hollywood? In the eternal quest for youth, what life-shattering secrets has Lia’s mom been keeping from her? Can Manuel accept Lia’s role in Hollywood’s web of lies?
STARLET’S WEB is not only a love story. With fast-paced narrative that reflects Hollywood’s hyper-drive lifestyle, Ms. Hanna transports the reader into an actor’s daily life and demonstrates how difficult it is for young adults to break free from a path created by someone else – even when it is a successful one.
[Full disclosure: Carla J. Hanna’s agent contacted me and gave me a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.]
This is not the sort of book I’d normally read, but I’m glad I did, even if it was a little rough around the edges. What I mean by that is Starlet’s Web had great characters, a decent plot and a good message, but fell flat when it came to dialogue and having a believable ending.
Marie is a child actress who got her start at age 14 and is now 17 going on 18. And although it looks like she has everything she could ever want, Marie is far from happy. She’s in love with her best friend and thoroughly disgusted with the Hollywood lifestyle that promotes drinking, drugs and sex, even to minors. In addition to her hectic filming and publicity schedule, she also attends high school, which just adds to the stress. Some people might criticize Carla Hanna for making Marie drop dead gorgeous and being fully aware of it, but that’s not the most important part of her characterization. I don’t want to give too much away, but let’s just say that Marie, quite understandably, is not ‘whole’ in the beginning because of what she has gone through in Hollywood.
For a book with ‘spiritual elements’, Starlet’s Web never really degenerated into Preachy Mode. Marie’s journey of self-actualization and recovery feels real and the conclusions she comes to make sense in the context of the story. The only thing I really had a problem with was that this self-actualization was realized in the form of long speeches to other characters. I don’t know about you, but most people aren’t Greek orators and don’t give page long speeches without using a single contraction or any slang at all. There were times the dialogue was painful, but considering the rest of the story is very good, I suppose I can forgive Carla Hanna for that.
Near the end there’s a huge plot twist that actually explains a lot of Marie’s problems throughout the novel. It’s terrifying and definitely adds a lot of drama, but you’ll enjoy it if you’re the sort of person that likes generally happy endings. I felt that things were wrapped up a little too well considering the relatively dark tone of the novel, but that’s more of a personal preference than anything. Overall, Starlet’s Web was a great book that had me cheering for Marie the whole way.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Eve by Anna Carey
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Sixteen years after a deadly virus wiped out most of Earth’s population, the world is a perilous place. Eighteen-year-old Eve has never been beyond the heavily guarded perimeter of her school, but the night before graduation, Eve learns the shocking truth about her school’s real purpose—and the horrifying fate that awaits her.
Fleeing the only home she’s ever known, Eve sets off on a long, treacherous journey, searching for a place she can survive. Along the way she encounters Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Separated from men her whole life, Eve has been taught to fear them, but Caleb slowly wins her trust…and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life.
I started reading Eve after I finished Kushiel’s Dart, which was around two in the morning. I intended just to read up to chapter 10, which would give me a good head start on tomorrow’s reading.
Yeah, right.
Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t stop reading Eve, something that’s extremely unusual in dystopic YA for me. That is how I came to read until four in the morning on Sunday. Staying up late to read on the weekend is not exactly unusual for me, but staying up late to read dystopic YA? That’s new. I have nothing against dystopian YA, but it like if you’ve read one book, you’ve read them all in terms of plot.
True, I could predict most plot twists in Eve. Really, it follows the basic plot arc of all dystopia, not just YA. Yet, somehow, Anna Carey managed to keep me in suspense, flipping pages furiously to find out what happened next. It may seem like a contradiction, but I did predict the basic plot of the story and find it suspenseful at the same time. Why? Because the characters intrigued me.
From the book’s blurb you get the impression that Eve and Caleb are your typical YA couple, but they’re not. Eve has led a very, very sheltered life and she has been conditioned not to trust men. They don’t fall in Insta-Love but you get the feeling that this is a typical first love with all those messy, intense emotions and all of the ups and downs of a rollercoaster.
The world-building is good, but it never crosses into the realm of “Wow! That was amazing!” The way the King of New America rose to power seems plausible, as do the labour camps for orphaned boys, but I would have liked more detail about the plague. What it was, how it started, etc. But that’s probably just me who likes the gory details, so I can’t really complain about that. I suspect it will be covered in more depth in the next two installments of the Eve Trilogy.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
Goddess Interrupted by Aimée Carter
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Becoming immortal wasn’t supposed to be the easy part. Though Kate is about to be crowned Queen of the Underworld, she’s as isolated as ever. And despite her growing love for Henry, ruler of the Underworld, he’s becoming ever more distant and secretive. Then, in the midst of Kate’s coronation, Henry is abducted by the only being powerful enough to kill him: the King of the Titans.
As the other gods prepare for a war that could end them all, it is up to Kate to save Henry from the depths of Tartarus. But in order to navigate the endless caverns of the Underworld, Kate must enlist the help of the one person who is the greatest threat to her future.
Henry’s first wife, Persephone.
As you may or may not remember, I was sort of disappointed in The Goddess Test. It just didn’t live up to its full potential, but I saw that the sequel did have potential, so I went ahead and bought Goddess Interrupted anyway. This time I went into the novel with a completely open mind (with no expectations about how the tests would go) and I think that was what made the difference.
I found Kate a much more sympathetic character in this second book and Henry is actually trying to move on from Persephone. They actually start to *gasp* fall in love for real, not the fake teenage love that happened in the first book. The secondary characters like Ava, Kate’s mother and even Persephone herself get a lot more page time and their backgrounds are fascinating. Persephone is probably my favourite character in the novel, not because she’s especially sympathetic, but because she’s very complex.
The plot, as in the first book, was very good and the cliffhanger Aimée Carter puts at the end of the novel is brilliant. No doubt even fans who have a ‘meh’ attitude toward the book will be anxious for the last book in the trilogy, The Goddess Inheritance. Which, by the way, releases on February 19, 2013 according to Amazon.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
The Mine by John Heldt
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
In 2000, Joel Smith is a cocky, adventurous young man who sees the world as his playground. But when the college senior, days from graduation, enters an abandoned Montana mine, he discovers the price of reckless curiosity. He emerges in May 1941 with a cell phone he can’t use, money he can’t spend, and little but his wits to guide his way. Stuck in the age of Whirlaway, swing dancing, and a peacetime draft, Joel begins a new life as the nation drifts toward war. With the help of his 21-year-old trailblazing grandmother and her friends, he finds his place in a world he knew only from movies and books. But when an opportunity comes to return to the present, Joel must decide whether to leave his new love in the past or choose a course that will alter their lives forever. THE MINE follows a humbled man through a critical time in history as he adjusts to new surroundings and wrestles with the knowledge of things to come.
I know what you’re thinking: “Another time travel romance. Are you kidding me?”
How do I know that? Well, I was thinking the exact same thing when I read the blurb John Heldt gave me when he asked me to review his novel. I was really skeptical when I started reading because the reason Joel time travelled was a planetary alignment. A planetary alignment for crying out loud! With a premise like that, could The Mine possibly be salvaged?
Actually, yes.
Pretty much all of the clichés you’ll find are in the beginning of the novel. What sets The Mine apart from a lot of time travel is that Joel, the protagonist, actually knows something about 1940s America and works hard to hide the fact he’s from the future. This is a huge contrast to the bumbling, secret-spilling protagonists who know nothing about the era that seem to populate every time travel novel.
Joel is a great main character: resourceful and intelligent but wracked by guilt when he has to hide his knowledge of upcoming tragedies. Despite his best efforts, he grows attached to his adopted family and even falls in love. Not Insta-Love, mind you, but real love that takes time to develop.
Despite the admittedly shaky start, John Heldt pulled things together in fine fashion. And the ending plot twist was actually unexpected because of the tone of the writing, but was highly satisfying. The climax was so heartbreaking that I was tearing up, but managed not to dissolve into hysterics like I did at the end of Flowers for Algernon.
So if you like romance, historical fiction and/or amazing characters, I would highly recommend this self-published novel.
I give this book 4/5 stars.