Sins of the Angels by Linda Poitevin

Sins of the Angels by Linda Poitevin(Cover picture courtesy of Were Vamps Romance.)

A detective with a secret lineage. An undercover Hunter with a bullet-proof soul. And a world made to pay for the sins of an angel…

Homicide detective Alexandra Jarvis answers to no one. Especially not to the new partner assigned to her in the middle of a gruesome serial killer case-a partner who is obstructive, irritatingly magnetic, and arrogant as hell.
Aramael is a Power—a hunter of the Fallen Angels. A millennium ago, he sentenced his own brother to eternal exile for crimes against humanity. Now his brother is back and wreaking murderous havoc in the mortal realm. To find him, Aramael must play second to a human police officer who wants nothing to do with him and whose very bloodline threatens both his mission and his soul.Now, faced with a fallen angel hell-bent on triggering the apocalypse, Alex and Aramael have no choice but to join forces, because only together can they stop the end of days.

[Full disclosure: I received this book as part of a blog tour.  Unfortunately the book didn’t ship in time, so I’m doing this review later than anticipated.  Either way, the review is still honest.]

I’m not a big fan of urban fantasy in general, but on occasion I do pick out a book that interests me.  Some are total duds and others are like Sins of the Angels: amazing.

The world-building in Linda Poitevin’s book is simply amazing.  And, if you’re so inclined, more than a little blasphemous.  God, in this case, is called the One.  And she’s most definitely female, which is something I’ve never seen before in fiction of any sort, let alone urban fantasy.  Sins of the Angels touches on quite a number of religious topics like free will, the fall of Lucifer and why there is so much destruction and chaos in the world.  Some of the conclusions the characters draw are fascinating from a theological point of view and they do reveal a lot about the characters themselves.  However, I wouldn’t recommend reading this if you’re a very orthodox Christian.  It does touch on some nerves.

With that said, I loved the characters.  I loved how Alex (Alexandra) was such a strong, independent character.  She’s tough and struggles with a horrific past as she tries to push down the memories that surface during her murder investigations.  At the same time, she can be vulnerable and stubborn especially when dealing with Aramael (who goes by Jacob Trent in human form).  Her chemistry with Aramael is great and I love how both of them slowly realize just how much of a connection they really do have.

I didn’t want to put this book down at all.  It’s 300 pages long and trust me, those pages go by very quickly.  The plot takes so many twists and turns, but it’s never difficult to keep up with them.  At the same time, you’re left guessing until the end and when Sins of the Angels does end you’ll be clamouring for the next book.  I know I was.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble     Goodreads

Anthology: Forbidden Future by The Masquerade Crew

Forbiden Future by The Masquerade Crew(Cover picture courtesy of Masquerade Tours.)

What becomes of mankind in the future? Is life better or worse?

Forbidden Future by James Wymore
When a time machine technician working the graveyard shift gets divorce papers from his wife, he decides it’s time to take the machine for a ride—no matter the consequences.

Jump by Jon Bradbury
Jesse Kendall thinks he’s seen it all. He’s about to see more.

Road Trip by Matt Mitrovich
Four friends drive to a college party and take an unexpected detour into the future.

Cacotopia by James Lauren
Kayne Adamson went into suspension to await a cure, but never imagined how long his sleep would last or the world he would awaken into. Is it really the utopia it first appears to be?

Society by Terra Harmony
Take a ride on the Energy of the Future where society gets a fresh, clean start—no matter who they have to leave behind.

The Mountains Haven’t by Kade Anderson
Something is very wrong in the downtrodden town of Dignity and only the town’s Watcher, Julia, can see what it is.

Between Utopias by Michael Trimmer
After being saved from a fatal heart attack by being transported to the future, David must choose from two opposite utopias.

[Full disclosure: I have had a close working relationship with The Masquerade Crew and its leader, Mark Lee, for a year.  I was going to become one of the editors of this anthology until circumstances not under my control interfered and I had to drop out.  With that said, this review is, as always, honest.]

I’m not a big anthology reader, but I really did love this one.  For one, I love science fiction and secondly I do love a good short story.  And believe me, there are some awesome short stories in here.

I’ll be totally predictable and say that my personal favourite was the anthology’s namesake: Forbidden Future.  The main character was well-developed and interesting and the future he was thrust into was somewhat believable.  And the ending was tragic and yet hilarious, but I can’t explain too much or that would spoil the awesome surprise.  I won’t critique each short story, but on the whole I could relate to the characters and the futures were interesting.  It’s hard to fit a whole new future into just a short story, but these authors were pretty awesome and managed to achieve it.  Some futures were fantastic, others terrifying.  There was a good balance in the selection of the stories because no two really predicted similar futures.

The one thing I had a gripe with was the editing.  This is The Masquerade Crew’s first anthology and some of the editing was, admittedly, a little rough.  There were basic typographical errors that should have been caught and I’m hoping they’ll be corrected in any subsequent editions.  I don’t think there were enough to really distract from the story, but they are there and they are noticeable.

There’s a little something for everyone in Forbidden Future.  There’s stories that get very technical for those fans of hard science fiction, but there’s also more character-driven stories for people like me who don’t necessarily understand a great deal of science.  Yet in all the stories the main characters are interesting and characterization certainly wasn’t sacrificed in the world-building process.  Each author had an unique voice and so did their characters.

Overall I’m pretty happy with the anthology.  It never really had a weak story that I just wanted to skip through; all of the stories here were pretty strong.  I look forward to future anthologies by The Masquerade Crew.  And with the anthology on sale on Amazon for $.99 until December 7th, where can you go wrong?

I give this book 4.5/5 stars.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble*     Goodreads

*Unavailable

Calling all Authors!

In my first post about my Reading & Reviewing challenge I mentioned that I would be initiating an open call for writers to submit books.  Well folks, here it is!

If you’re an author I would like you to provide the gift of 1 free ebook for my reading and reviewing challenge.  It doesn’t matter if you’re traditionally published or self-published, a writer who stays in one genre or  someone who writes in multiple genres.  I want all types of books submitted because the people participating in my reviewing challenge are all unique in their reading tastes.

I know what you’re asking now: what do you stand to gain from providing a free book?  There are two main things:

1.  Publicity

I will be publicly listing and thanking all of the authors who provide free books for my challenge participants.  The Mad Reviewer is not a big blog by any means, but I will promote the heck out of my thank you post.  It’s a great chance for exposure because if your book sounds interesting to me, I might just request a copy for myself.

2.  Reviews!

Reviews are a huge thing for authors.  Although I can’t guarantee that if you submit a book you’ll get a review, you stand a much greater chance of getting a review than if you have a ‘free’ day on Amazon.  Why?  Because your book will be going into the hands of someone who has already proven they are an avid reviewer.  Every single person in my reading challenge has to write a review for the books they’ve read to prove they have read them.  Some people aimed for the top level of 104 books read and reviewed, others achieved the 12 books read and reviewed.  Either way, your chances of getting a review are much higher because depending on how many submissions I get, the winners of my challenge will be picking the books they would like.  If you’re interested in a book to start with, you’re probably going to enjoy it and in turn, review it.  It’s a win-win for authors and reviewers.

If you would like to submit a book as a prize, please comment on this post with your name (or pen name), the title of the book you’d like to submit, a blurb and a link to Amazon and/or Goodreads.  I’m keeping a spreadsheet of all of the authors who submit their books and I’ll be sending it to the winner and the three runners up.  They can choose which books they like and I’ll let you know if your book has been chosen as well as what format the winner would prefer.

Thank you so much and I hope to be in contact soon.

The Best and Worst of November 2013

I can’t believe it’s December already.  Where did November go?  Obviously it was in a sick, flu-filled haze for me but it still seemed irregularly short.  Now I have to start thinking about holiday shopping.  Ugh.

On a slightly more cheerful note, the good news is that yesterday (November 30th) The Mad Reviewer got its 100,000th view since January 13, 2012.  I almost did a happy dance at that news because it hasn’t even been two years of blogging yet!  In addition to that, in November I received 5,827 views, which includes 3,865 unique views.  That’s significantly up from September, the last month where my stats weren’t inflated by a controversial post.

So what were the best articles this month?

1.  Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal

2.  The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome

3.  The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

4.  How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour

5.  The Giver by Lois Lowry

Meh, none of these are a surprise.  With the popularity of The Hunger Games as a novel study book as well as the popularity of Game of Thrones, it’s not that shocking that these two were vying for the #1 spot all month.  I mean, the Game of Thrones article only beat The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome by 10 hits.  That’s pretty good.

So what were my worst posts this month?

1.  Black Ships by Jo Graham

2.  Firelight by Sophie Jordan

3.  The King’s Man by Pauline Gedge

4.  Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

5.  The Scourge by A. G. Henley

All of these listed here as the worst posts are all about pretty darn good books, especially Black Ships and The Scourge.  It’s not that surprising how such good books get ignored in favour of novel study books or popular TV shows (since the GoT hits come mostly from show-related search terms).  That’s just how the internet is, but it doesn’t make me any less proud of these reviews.

Other than being miserable for two weeks, November was a pretty good month for me.  How was it for you?  Are you excited about the upcoming holidays in December?

One Month to go in The Mad Reviewer Reading Challenge!

Yes, it’s November 30th and almost the end of another year.  My second blogging anniversary is coming up in January, but more importantly my reading and reviewing challenge will be coming to an end at 11:59pm on December 30th.  I’m hoping to announce winners the very next day, but it may be a couple days afterward as I collect the names and enter them into my draw.

So I’m basically finished.  I’m going to review a few long books (Cleopatra’s Memoirs, 11/22/63, etc.) and then add any of the long books I didn’t count from the rest of this year.  I’ve read and reviewed far more than 104 books this year and although I won’t reach my 500 review goal I’m pretty happy with how this blog has been running.

My question for you guys now is: If you’re participating in the challenge, do you think you’re going to finish?  What level are you finishing?  Will you try again next year?

And if you’re not involved in the challenge, read all about it here and tell me this: would you like to participate in the 2014 version?  Why or why not?