Giveaway Winners

Well, my first official giveaway has now come to a close.  The winners have been chosen.  For category #1, you had to name your favourite historical figure and tell me why.  For category #2, you had to name your favourite book and tell me why.  Since I love history, I chose the winner in category #1.  So, drumroll please.

The winner is Erin for her comment about poor Lady Jane Grey:

My favorite historical figure is Lady Jane Grey.  I’ve always felt bad for the fact that she was unwillingly made to be queen and then betrayed and executed such a short time later.  Now I wish that she wasn’t always so overlooked by history.  Most people don’t know who she is, or that she was handpicked by Edward VI to be queen, and nobody ever seems to wonder why he might have done that.

Since Michelle Hansen is an author and she is the one offering up a prize pack, she picked the winner in category #2.

The winner is James Wymore for his comment about Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut.

Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut is my favorite book.  It was the one I read that made me want to write books that meant something to people.

Winners, I have given your email addresses to Michelle and she will contact you soon about your prize packs.  Congratulations on winning and thank you to everyone who entered and tweeted about my first giveaway.  There will be more giveaways in the future, I can promise you that.

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.

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The Enchantress by Michael Scott

(Cover picture courtesy of Michael Scott’s website.)

The two that are one must become the one that is all. One to save the world, one to destroy it.

San Francisco:
Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel have one day left to live, and one job left to do. They must defend San Francisco. The monsters gathered on Alcatraz Island have been released and are heading toward the city. If they are not stopped, they will destroy everyone and everything in their path.

But even with the help of two of the greatest warriors from history and myth, will the Sorceress and the legendary Alchemyst be able to defend the city? Or is it the beginning of the end of the human race?

Danu Talis:
Sophie and Josh Newman traveled ten thousand years into the past to Danu Talis when they followed Dr. John Dee and Virginia Dare. And it’s on this legendary island that the battle for the world begins and ends.

Scathach, Prometheus, Palamedes, Shakespeare, Saint-Germain, and Joan of Arc are also on the island. And no one is sure what—or who—the twins will be fighting for.

Today the battle for Danu Talis will be won or lost.
But will the twins of legend stand together?
Or will they stand apart—
one to save the world and one to destroy it?

Some people hated the ending of The Enchantress, while others loved it.  As usual, I fall somewhere in between, with my overall verdict amounting to the ever-eloquent “Meh, it was okay.”  Michael Scott tied most of the plot lines together and what Josh and Sophie do at the end makes sense if you think about it.  It was somewhat satisfying, but I have a few bones to pick.

The plot was incredibly fast-paced throughout all 500 pages of the novel, something that is very difficult for an author to maintain.  I certainly respect Michael Scott’s ability to do that.  what I really didn’t like was what he did in order to maintain such a fast pace: he indulged in head-hopping.  “Head-hopping” is basically reviewer-speak for “this dude switched points of view so many times no one had any idea what was going on.”  I’m okay with switching POVs occasionally, but Michael Scott switched three, sometimes four times in one short chapter.  That’s going overboard, don’t you think?

Alas, my favourite villain has gone soft by the end, but considering all of the hints Michael Scott dropped throughout the series, it’s not that surprising.  What is surprising is how much Dee changes in a short span and how much more we learn about Virginia Dare.  I won’t give any spoilers, but we do learn some surprising things about their pasts and true personalities.

The ending had a nice twist that I didn’t see coming, but it did make sense.  Pretty much all of the loose ends were tied up, which is nice, but it also leaves potential for a sequel.  Overall, not a bad ending, but it could have been better.

I give this book 3.5/5 stars.

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Divergent by Veronica Roth

(Cover picture courtesy of Veronica Roth’s blog.)

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

(Summary courtesy of Amazon.)

My feelings about Divergent are pretty mixed for two reasons: One of the themes hits close to home and Veronica Roth perpetuates a terrifyingly common stereotype that has been around for thousands of years.  I don’t like bringing my personal life into reviews so I’ll discuss the latter point, which is not mutually exclusive.

I don’t like the portrayal of the Erudites, the group that is devoted to knowledge and learning.  The Erudites are the bad guys who are logical to the point of being emotionless and extremely greedy for wanting more progress in society.  Meanwhile, Dauntless (except for a few schemers) are portrayed as virtuous and self-sacrificing and Abnegation is humble and does all of the charity work in the city.

Tris is mad at her brother for being good at lying and hiding his intellectual tendencies, even though she should be happy for him.  It’s funny how Erudites as a whole are portrayed as the only ruthless, greedy sect that has been corrupted by a thirst for knowledge.  All this definitely falls in line with the smart=evil that popular culture seems to think.  Apparently if you’re smart, you are an unfeeling robot, even though anyone who has met a truly intelligent person knows that isn’t true.  This falls in line with the very religious tone of Divergent because, according to Christianity (to use just one example, although a lot of religions are guilty of this), it was mankind’s thirst for knowledge that led to our banishment from Eden.

The idea of five different factions is interesting, but also pushes at the boundaries of credibility.  People don’t fit nearly into 5 (six if you count the factionless) factions, no matter what you do.  I know the factions are supposed to be just about the virtue you value the highest, yet in practice they only push that one virtue.  There would be a lot of Divergent people if such a society really existed.  However, the rest of Veronica Roth’s world-building is basically sound and she does have a unique premise.

Tris is an okay character.  She’s brave and when she falls in love it isn’t Insta-Love.  Four is an interesting character as well with an intriguing backstory that I would really like to learn more about.  The secondary characters are decent enough, but they’re nothing to brag about either.  What redeems Divergent, however, is the fast pacing and Veronica Roth’s admittedly addicting writing style.  It will be interesting to see where she steers the narrative in Insurgent.

I give this book 3/5 stars.

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