The Mad Reviewer is Open to Review Requests (Temporarily)

[Update 30/12/14: 14 out of 20 slots are now full.  If you’re thinking of getting your submission in, hurry or you might miss out until mid-2015!]

So for the first time since I closed my review requests almost two years ago, I’m reopening them for an extremely limited period of time.  I will probably be closing them down again by the end of the week (or once I’ve accepted 15-20 requests), so if you’re thinking of submitting you better do it today.

I’m not one to beat around the bush, so keep reading for my guidelines of what to submit, how to submit and some general caveats.

WHAT I ACCEPT

Here are the genres of books I accept:

  • YA
  • Middle Grade (limited)
  • Science Fiction/Speculative Fiction
  • Fantasy
  • Contemporary/realistic fiction
  • Historical Fiction
  • Horror (limited)
  • Any combination of the above or other hybrid novels; if in doubt, send in the request anyway

Here are the genres of books I do not accept under any circumstances:

  • Erotica.  What you like to write may not necessarily be what I like to read.
  • Poetry.
  • Shameless slasher fiction.  I don’t need violence for violence’s sake.
  • Children’s books.  That genre hasn’t applied to me for several years and I don’t have children.

Continue reading →

Discussion: Your Favourite Historical Figure(s)

This is a topic that comes up frequently amongst historical fiction lovers, but as a lover of historical fiction as well as an extremely amateur historian, I just can’t get enough of it.  My question for this week is: Who is/are your favourite historical figure(s)?  Why?

Here are some of my favourite historical figures:

  • Julius Caesar.  His mixture of cunning on the battlefield combined with his impressive political savvy make me really appreciate him as both a man and the legend that he became.  When you read about it, his life essentially reads like an epic movie and it’s just plain awesome (aside from the whole violent death part).  Having the guts to order around the pirates holding you captive and seemingly always fighting with the smaller force and winning is pretty impressive.
  • Hatshepsut.  I’ve always had a soft spot for strong female leaders throughout history, and the Iron Lady of Egypt is one of my absolute favourites.  She presided over a golden age with minimal military activity and a new resurgence in trade from her Punt expedition.  And she did all this in an extremely sexist society where she was never, ever meant to take the throne.  The more I read about her, the more I love her.
  • Niccolo Machiavelli.  This is probably not the most popular choice, but having read The Prince I can’t help but admire his cunning.  His political theories ring true throughout history; having a background in Roman history certainly didn’t hurt his credibility.  And he presents them in a very concise way without adding in too much fluff like many of his contemporaries.

I could go on and on, but that wouldn’t be fair.  Now it’s your turn to answer the question: who is/are your favourite historical figure(s)?  Why?  How did they come to be your favourite(s)?

“Fairy Lovers” and Still More Weird Search Terms

Yep, it’s that time once again folks: time to round up all of the weird search terms!  If you’ve missed the previous installments of my weird search term series, here they are:

1.  “Why do People Hate Naked Men?” and Other Weird Search Terms

2.  “The Spread of Kidness” and More Weird Search Terms

3.  The Return of the Weird Search Terms

4.  “Game of Thrones man hatred” and More Weird Search Terms

5.  “Yes I Can Do” and Other Weird Search Terms

 

So what weird search terms are we up against today?

fairy lovers

mad brown girls porn photo

is it bad to read 100 pages in one day

5 hours to.read.100 pages

read to me the word lynburns

mad reviews

adult vacation partils

reading pages through 1 and 100

And the weirdest of all:

old building-ajacket-being escorted around by strangers

Any of these ones stand out to you guys?  What are some of the weird search terms that you’ve received recently or not-so-recently?

 

Seed by Lisa Heathfield

Seed by Lisa Heathfield(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

All that Pearl knows can be encapsulated in one word: Seed. It is the isolated community that she was born into. It is the land that she sows and reaps. It is the center of her family and everything that means home. And it is all kept under the watchful eye of Papa S.


At fifteen years old, Pearl is finally old enough to be chosen as Papa S.’s companion. She feels excitement . . . and surprising trepidation that she cannot explain. The arrival of a new family into the Seed community—particularly the teenage son, Ellis—only complicates the life and lifestyle that Pearl has depended upon as safe and constant. Ellis is compelling, charming, and worldly, and he seems to have a lot of answers to questions Pearl has never thought to ask.

But as Pearl digs to the roots of the truth, only she can decide what she will allow to come to the surface.


Lisa Heathfield’s suspenseful, scintillating debut features a compelling voice that combines blithe naïveté, keen observation, and sincere emotion.

[Full disclosure: I requested and received an ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

If you know anything at all about cults, or have even read any first-hand survivor accounts of former cult members, Seed will hold absolutely no surprises for you.  I wish it had been a more unique and less predictable take on how cults keep and manipulate their members, but Lisa Heathfield really doesn’t stray from the typical cult modus operandi.  That’s not a bad thing because it makes it realistic, but for me it was so predictable that it got a little boring at points.  It won’t be true for everyone, but for anyone with the aforementioned knowledge of cults you aren’t going to encounter any surprises.

That said, Lisa Heathfield does paint a very realistic picture of what someone raised in a cult would be like.  Pearl constantly wants to please Papa S., wants to be his Companion without realizing what that fully implies (and yes, it means exactly what you’re thinking) and laughs off Ellis when he tells her of the wondrous things in the outside world.  She’s been kept naive about absolutely everything and while she questions some things, she doesn’t question them like you or I would.  It’s more realistic than if she were questioning everything and you’d think it would become annoying, but it doesn’t.  Lisa Heathfield writes very good characters and while sometimes I was exasperated with Pearl, her character still rings true.

As I said, the plot is predictable for people who know a little about cults, but somehow that adds to the overall suspense toward the end.  I knew how things were going to end and I knew how they were going to get there, but I was still anxious to find out what happened.  Heathfield’s pacing was a little slow in the middle (thus my occasional boredom) but despite that she really ratcheted up the suspense toward the end.  Particularly in the barn scene.

I would have liked for a little more even pacing throughout the novel so that it didn’t drag so much in the middle, but this is her debut novel so you can’t really expect everything to be perfect.  Her character development was still amazing and in the end I do have to say that I enjoyed Seed.  Will it ever be on the list of my top 10 favourite novels?  No, not really.  But it is quite a good book and a decent debut so I think we can expect great things from her in the future.  Heathfield has a good grasp of psychology and with a little practice, she can write some truly terrifying novels in the future.  I for one can’t wait to see what she comes out with next.

I give this book 4/5 stars.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble     Goodreads

The Vampire’s Bite by Eve Grant

The Vampire's Bite by Eve Grant(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

She’s responsible and takes life too seriously

Susan Ethans is a model student: perfect grades, a dream scholarship, and a promising career ahead of her. But her grades alone aren’t enough to flirt with the hot guys on campus. She doesn’t want to end up being a wallflower, but there isn’t much she can do about it.

A vampire bites her

A madman bites her neck and drinks her blood. She tries to get away, but he drains her life away until she collapses.

She thinks she’s going to die, but she wakes up at an eccentric millionaire’s home. She feels healthy, renewed, and even smarter. Something is changing within her.

He has everything… except love

Nicholas Hill has power, money, and an English accent to die for, but he speaks like a man from the 19th Century. His notions of propriety and manners make him different to every other man in the world. Susan is instantly attracted to him and knows that he likes her, but something tortures his soul and doesn’t let him follow his heart.

Will an ordinary girl change a powerful businessman’s life, or will their personalities clash until they can no longer stand each other?

[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

This is mainly a character-driven novel so first I’m going to talk about the main character: Susan.  Susan is essentially the same kind of person that I am.  She works hard to please everyone at the expense of following what she really loves as well as having a social life.  When she becomes a vampire and is intoxicated by her new powers, I can totally understand her suddenly wanting to leave it all behind despite working so hard for her spot in university and her scholarship.  Sometimes you just want to say “screw you” and leave it all behind and a life-changing event like realizing you’re a vampire can do just that to a person.  So while I know that a lot of people will hate Susan for giving up everything, for me she was definitely easy to relate to as a character.

The Vampire’s Bite is ridiculously short at only 85 pages, so we really do have quite a fast-paced plot.  Susan herself sometimes slows it down, however.  She takes interludes to describe everything in great detail as she comes into her new powers, but then never really goes anywhere with those new powers.  I would have liked for her to have more interaction with Nicholas simply because then things would be explained, but that was not to be.  I really would have liked for Eve Grant to extend her book for a little more detail, rather than shoving the explanation into the sequel because while it does make the plot fast, it leaves you with more questions than answers.

With all that said, The Vampire’s Bite is not a bad book.  It will never be high literature and for myself it’s more guilty pleasure than anything.  I wasn’t intrigued enough to want to read the sequel, but some of you might if you give it a try.  If you’re into the modern vampire (suave, sophisticated and rich) then you’ll probably like it, but if you’re new to the whole vampire thing it wouldn’t exactly be the first book I’d recommend.  In the end, it falls somewhere around the middle: it’s not great and it’s not bad.  It’s just a solid ‘meh’.

I give this book 3/5 stars.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble     Goodreads