Do you have a blog? Think other people on this blog would like to read it? Self-promote away, then! I’m turning the comments section over to you guys. Just leave a description of your blog and why other people here would be interested in it and a link.
Have fun!
After an unsuccessful attempt in previous years I thought that now I actually have a decent following that I might do a reader request week. Basically, I’m leaving the forum open to you guys. This week you can ask me anything you’ve ever wanted to know about my blogging, books, reading and personal stuff (to a point) and I’ll answer it in a post either next week or the week after that. If it’s a long question I might take a whole post to answer it or if there are similar questions I’ll do one post addressing that particular grouping.
Do you have something you’d like to ask me? Comment below! And if you don’t feel comfortable leaving a comment out here in the open, use the form on my Contact page to drop me a note. I’ll try to answer as many questions as I can.
Auto-buy authors are actually a pretty simple concept: you really like an author so when their latest work comes out you automatically buy it whether or not you’re really interested in the genre/topic/characters/etc. I personally have a couple of auto-buy authors.
John Heldt isn’t technically an auto-buy so much as an auto-review author for me. He’s contacted me to review all five of his books in the Northwest Passage series and it isn’t even a question of me accepting any longer. Basically he’s an auto-review author, one that I’ll finish his current series and automatically request a review copy for his next series. I have several indie/relatively unknown authors like that, to be honest and it would take forever to name them all. Some other notable ones are Diantha Jones, Carla J. Hanna, Katie Hamstead, Terah Edun, K. L. Kerr, Luciana Cavallaro, Vanessa Garden, Danielle L. Jensen and Krystal Wade. Those are just the ones off the top of my head and I know there are far more.
As for traditionally published authors one of my auto-buy authors is Julie Kagawa. Her Iron Fey series is guilty pleasure whereas I actually enjoy her Blood of Eden series on a more intellectual level. Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire) is a definite auto-buy/auto-request from NetGalley because I’ve never read a book by her I didn’t like. Mark Lawrence, with his The Broken Empire trilogy is now an auto-buy author and I can’t wait until his spin-off series The Red Queen’s War comes out.
Well, these are just some of my auto-buy authors. What are yours? Why?
Designed by: Melissa Stevens (Website)
Publication Date: April 1, 2014
Series: Orc Saga, Book One
Genre: Fantasy (18+)
After nearly a decade as the king’s whipping-girl, Princess Arianna has no intention of going quietly into marriage to some treasonous noble, or serving obediently as the king’s spy until her death is more convenient. When she discovers a handsome orc, chained and trapped inside a magic mirror, Arianna cannot help but see a lasting freedom from her father’s abuse.
Left to rot inside a mirror by the king, Bolthorn never imagined his prayers would be answered by a princess. Nor did he ever expect to meet so worthy a woman after knowing her father’s cruelty. He needs her help to escape the mirror before the king marches against the orcs, but all he can offer Arianna is ice and darkness in exchange for her aid.
If Arianna can free the monster behind the glass, perhaps she might free herself, as well. But once they cross the mountain, there will be no return, and the deadly winter is the least of what threatens them on the other side. Romance blossoms in this gripping fantasy adventure.
EXCERPT
About the Author
GIVEAWAY
(Cover picture courtesy of The Caster Chronicles Wiki.)
There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that’s what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she’s struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.
Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town’s oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.
In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.
You know what the funny thing is about this book? While it was absolutely dreadful I could not and still cannot muster up the effort of actively loathing it. It’s not even worth the effort.
My number one problem with the book is the writing itself. I had a very hard time believing that this was written in the point of view of a teenager boy because honestly, these two authors had no clue how to write male points of view. Throughout the whole novel while Ethan and Lena are kissing behind lockers, going out driving, etc. Ethan never once thinks of taking things to the next level. Are you kidding? As much as I hate to stereotype, we’re talking about a teenage boy here. Do any (straight) teenage boys you know wax eloquently on the styles of dresses girls wear without even a hint of lust? Ethan was just a conduit for the two female authors to write the story. The real story was supposed to be about Lena.
Unfortunately if you totally ignore Ethan, Lena really isn’t all that interesting. I mean, she acts scared about going Dark and says she’s scared but I just never really connected to her through that fear. I didn’t really feel any of her emotions. She was just an idealized girl-next-door like pretty much every other YA love interest/lead. There was nothing really special about her, even when she made her supposedly ground-breaking choice on the night of her sixteenth birthday.
Can we also talk about the cliché overload? I’m from a small town that’s pretty much the epitome of the small town Hell stereotype and yet I found the portrayal of Gatlin disgusting. Ethan thinks he’s above everyone in the town, even going so far as to say he doesn’t speak with a traditionally Southern accent because his parents were educated. I don’t care how educated you are, if you live in a region your whole life you’re going to pick up some sort of accent. The behaviour of the townspeople is absolutely ridiculous and unbelievable. I know what small towns are really like and although they can be incredibly, ridiculously vicious toward any outsiders, I highly doubt that even with the help of evil the events in Beautiful Creatures would not happen in this day and age. Possibly 50-100 years ago, but not now.
The only thing even remotely interesting throughout the novel were all of the magical elements, even though they were not clearly explained. I like the idea of Casters being able to choose to go Light or Dark at their sixteenth birthday. I don’t like how poorly the curse on Lena’s family was explained because I still am not totally clear on why they are not able to choose hundreds of years after the event. Kind of vindictive spirits, don’t you think? Although the idea was somewhat unique, not much could salvage Beautiful Creatures.
For all my criticisms, I still can’t honestly say that I hate this book. It was poorly written, badly paced and the characters were all Mary Sues but it was so boring that I had to really struggle with myself just to finish it. I couldn’t even ‘hate-read’ it (to use the trendy term). I just really don’t care about this book and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
I give this book 0.5/5 stars.