A Celtic Tale of Friendship and Adventure

Scotland's Guardian by Katherine Gerlach

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I highly enjoyed this tale of friendship, set in the Celtic Otherworld of Alba.

It follows Bryanna, a young girl who thought everything in life was normal: until the day a stranger turns up and kidnaps her father, and she is suddenly plunged into a mysterious alternate Scotland, populated with monsters from the darkest fables and characters from myth and legend. Some seek to help her, others to hinder her and even her best friend - red-haired Kaylee - could turn against her.

(view spoiler)[This book is the story of friendship, specifically between the two girls - one of whom has been charged with the (eventual) killing of the other. I enjoyed watching their friendship develop and how they supported one another, despite the fact that the main character had been warned about her friend's potential treachery. She refused to back down and give up on her. (hide spoiler)]

I also enjoyed the Celtic aspects, specifically in the forms of the creatures and the characters encountered along the way.

There is plenty of excitement and adventure, with a non-stop plot and more than a few twists.


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A Magical Fantasy Adventure

White Hart by Sarah Dalton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A beautifully written, well crafted and devised fantasy novel aimed at the 13+ market. The detail is rich, the setting beautifully realised and the characterisation excellent. We are introduced to Mae - a half-wild young woman who lives with her father on the very edges of civilisation. Her past times are climbing trees, riding her stag Anta and basically avoiding the trappings of femininity. But she has a secret - she is Craft-born, having a magical connection with elements and with it, power. Alas, such talent is what the kingdom needs and she finds herself unwittingly caught up in grief and thrown into the horrors of the deadly Waerg wood, where she shall have to face disaster and death at every turn, and something even more dangerous: heartbreak.

The plot takes off early, and never lets go. I loved Mae's personality - so stubborn and single-minded that she was responsible for a number of her own self-injury (physical and emotional) and over-complicated an already complex situation. Several times you wanted to shriek at her "just admit to it!". The character of Cas too was excellent - the pampered prince who, at first glance seemed just that but when one looks deeper, is revealed in his many layers. Likewise, Sasha.

The ending? Well, I would have preferred it without the cliff-hanger, personally. That seemed a little abrupt and sudden as though the author were going "oh, so you think the story is over now. You're WRONG!"

I wish I didn't have to wait to find out what happened next...





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Wizardry from a Local Author

Azrael's Twins: Book One of the Nearworld Tales by V J Mortimer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a rather delightful book, the story of two siblings - a brother and sister (not twins, as the title had lead me to previously believe) who live in our world, but one day they follow some squirrels and meet a phoenix. From that point on, their lives will never be the same again, as they are whisked away into a fantastical world, the world from which their parents originated, and begin to learn the craft of magic - and many other things besides.

It is impossible to read this book without drawing mental comparisons to the adventures of a certain boy wizard - with the wands and the broomsticks and magical castles in which places switch and shift - but there is enough originality here too, this is not merely a Harry Potter clone but a fun and engaging novel in its own right.

In terms of editing, it's pretty good, with no spellling mistakes noted thus fun! However, I did find a few missing closing " on dialogue (and one opening), and also - no final fullstop! - overall, pretty good for a self-published novel. It also may seem rather long - at over 160,000 words, but it moves at a rollicking pace and I finished it within only a few days.

An enjoyable read for the middle-school age group (9-13) and those of us who are young at heart.



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Paranormal Fantasy from the Pacific

When Water Burns by Lani Wendt Young

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This follow-up to "The Covenant Keeper" is as least, if not more, engrossing at its predecessor. Leila returns to Samoa, this time a stronger, more mature and more independent woman than the one who first made the journey to the island shores. However, she is still her hot-tempered, stubborn self and still flares up at the least provacation (although not it is more emotionally, rather than literally). The courtship between her and Daniel continues to be sweet, even if he can be a brick-headed chunk hunk at times. Simone comes more to the front in this novel, taking the role of "flamboyant best friend". However, aside from these formulaic moves, the plot has a freshness absent in many teen paranormal-style novels, the folklore behind the Telesa and their convenants is more fully explained, and the delightfully lyrical nature of the writing immerses one fully in the humidity of tropical Samoa.

I look forward to reading the final volume!


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Shimmering New Zealand

The Dreamtime by Garth LAWLESS

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This story has a strange sci-fi feel that, for some reason, puts me in mind of the sci-fi movies of the 80s - the ones with the really cheesy special effects and light shows. I suspect part of the reason is the monochromatic colours the characters wear - since they are divided up into Guardian groups known as "Ghosts" and their job is to protect the dreams of people from the evil spread of darkness, and the influence of the VELI. This is one of those books that looks and feels self-published. And it is. Despite belong published in 2012, it feels dated. The combining words together and internally capitalising them added to the 80s vibe (at least in my brain).

That's not to say it isn't a good book but it could do with a bit of a polish and another edit or two. Overall, it was an interesting read with an original plot. However, the ending left rather a lot of the plot hanging. Also, it felt a little rushed at times, as it thrust us into this strange and otherworldly realm, with Guardians, the Shimmer, where you can enter into SingleView and ActionView to help you fight... There was a lot of jargon, and it felt somewhat like the author was so familiar with his world that he had neglected to fully explain it to the reader. Plenty of potential, and I'm sure the world will be further explained in the sequels.

The main character is twelve, but given the complexity of the world, I would say it is more suited for the teenage market. However, it is an accepted fact that youngsters prefer their protagonists to be older than they are. Therefore, it would be more suitable for Cole to be fourteen or fifteen. (The amazon site says Cole is thirteen, I could have sworn he was 12 in the text. I shall have to double check).



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A debut with potential

Rise of the Fallen by Ivory Autumn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A fun read with potential, but one that requires work to make it flow smoothly. The plot seemed rather disjointed, with some very fast paced moments where a lot of action occured in very little period of time, vs long periods where nothing happened at all. The characterisation was awkward. Hero, Andrew, seemed to be the main character, but it also seemed that Ivory (the author) was scheduled to fill that position. At one point, they've just rescued Ivory from one danger (the Fog Locker) and not many minutes later she gets bored of the boys tomfoolery, wanders off by herself and is immediately in a situation in which she needs to be rescued from again. And the other two boys (Freddie and whats-his-name) seemed largely redundant to the plot. Overall, it could have benefitted rather from a professional edit.

In other editting news, I am happy to report that there were no misspelt words. However, Ms Autumn just suffer somewhat from comma overload and, whilst it was clearly spell-checked, in many situations the wrong word had been used - I started making note of it partway through and discovered: "Now give me your best shot. I promise I'll be fare." (she did spell "fair" correctly earlier on in the book); "...gazing at her with a mesmerizing glair." (A "glair" is a bonding agent made from egg white); and finally "The close they wore was softer than sealskin." There were several more earlier on too.

Overall, the plot has promise, and the premise is interesting. The illustrations are a delight. However, it needs another edit or two and a bit of a polish before it is to the standard of a traditionally polished novel.



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Dreams and Realities?

Dreamscape by Paul Kidd

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Paul Kidd is a wonderful, fresh voice in fantasy - and perhaps because all of his recent books have been self-published, they have retained that sense of originality, and have not been editted to fit into a specific niche. "Dreamscape" is no exception - it takes the reader and slowly immerses them into the ideal, peaceful world of a young girl. With a surreal elegance, it portrays the world the way she conceives it - and it appears she shares some of Kidd's interests - wargaming, cafes, swordplay etc. After you have settled in and are enjoying the easy ambience, discord is introduced - slowly, innnocently at first, just a few indications that things are not all pearls and roses. Then more discord follows, until her delightful, delicious world risks total destruction. Or worse. Commercialisation. I cannot help but feel that Kidd's concept meshes rather neatly with my ideal of the afterlife.

There are issues of course. Mainly with formatting - the margins are not justified, leaving the right margin a raggedy mess of lines. And at one point the font size increases by one or two points for several sentences. The occasional typo slips through the editor as well - but none of these detract too much from the overall feeling of the book. Indeed, the only factors that actually bugged me were that the words "deliciously" and "gorgeous" were used on almost every page for the first third of the book and that his tortoise lived in a pond. And the latter could have been entirely Steel's fault.

It will not be to everyone's tastes - the slow build led me to wonder if there would ever actually be in conflict - the essential element for ever novel, anywhere. The occasional repetition. And it seems to be a little gamer-centric - somehow people who wargame, or what-not, have more worthy souls than, say, accountants (although he did give politicians a part - the key is passion, but who's to say an accountant can't be passionate about numbers?) and there is a reasonable population of furries, but it's entirely up MY alley, and I loved it. Thank you Paul, I've now gone and acquired some more of your books for my kindle - I am so happy you are still writing, and writing well.

I bought the actual book of this on Amazon (published via LuLu) but it is now available on ebook too - although not cheap, so I would recommend you try the sample first.

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A strong build becomes a real let down

Dark Earth by Jason Halstead

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This novel started strong - the characters were interesting, the writing good and the emotions portrayed convincing and powerful. Eric's dedication to his daughter was admirable and Jessica was appealing and interesting. There were some truly tense scenes and good horror/suspense novel fare. Then things started to go downhill. The warder was a weak and pointless character, serving only to dump some information and then essentially commit suicide in a truly stupid manner. And it deteriorated further when Jessica crossed the bridge and Eric trailed after her.

Firstly - I get the impression that Jessica crossed the bridge on her voalition - nobody had captured her or whatnot, so why was it just immediately assumed she had been captured by the Evil King (cliche)? The squalid, dark and nasty lives of the peasants seemed exaggerated and unnecessary, with the only ray of light being the Smith. Now, there's a tale I would like to hear more of. Instead, it appears as though the author no longer wanted to make much effort - plot points were rushed; emotions were told, not shown and there was repetition of phrases and other such grammatic errors that choke the plot and show that the editor lost interest about partway through (and with good reason, as so did I).

Dark Earth was nowhere near as interesting as Mundania (and can you say "rip-off", I could not help but think of Xanth and Florida). It was a generic fantasy kingdom ruled by greed. Yawn. And as for the concept of the Dark Earthians taking over our world - well, that's ridiculous, given their fickle loyalties, their selfish behaviour and their primitive weaponry, I would say it was all one big farce.

And why was Jessica - by far the most interesting character - relegated to little more than a trophy to be rescued and owned. She served no purpose and showed little initiative throughout the latter part of the plot. I would suggest that the author were to step back from the first person narrative - something like this would be much stronger were we able to see what Jessica was going through - to discover who had captured her as she went through the gate and to feel her distress at watching her father tormented.

On the plus side - the kindle version was free.



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Sexy Lycanthropy

Changeling Moon by Dani Harper

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Buy it on Amazon for $1.99 (kindle)

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and found it rather difficult to put down. At first I was sceptical - werewolf novels are a dime a dozen and tend into the cliched. But I vey quickly found myself hooked. This is probably more romance/erotica than I normally read* but I enjoyed the characters and the plot was well paced. Connor was suitably loveable - then again, I am rather drawn to sexy veterinarians - a good way to display his compassionate and empathic side. This doesn't really bring much new to the werewolf genre - there are no startling revelations or dramatic twists to the common mythology, although it does combine somewhat some of the vampire mythos to the werewolf mythos. It is not entirely generic either.

All in all, a worthy read, although now I'm hooked - the prices on her other books are a wee bit higher!

This is the story about a young female reporter with minor psychic powers. After her "curse" forces her from the city and into a small country town, she thinks life is going to be less stressful. But she's wrong, for within the first few pages she is attacked by a rather large wolf and begins to uncover the secrets of this small farming town. Then she starts to fall for the rather sexy veterinarian, Connor MacLeod, who has some rather interesting secrets of his own... Well, not very secret, because you as the reader know he's a werewolf shapeshifter from the start. But that doesn't mean Zoey is going to be so easily convinced!


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* Who am I kidding? I read Nalini Singh.

A new voice in NZ fantasy

The Silver Hawk: Chronicles of Tyria: Book 1 by Ms Beaulah H Pragg

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I first came upon this book in a local bookstore and was intrigued - CreateSpace published novels are not readily available in NZ bookstores, and this one had a sign beside it proclaiming "local author". Upon coming home I did some further research and decided to purchase it on ebook. And I am very glad I did, for it was very well written. The plot was refreshing, and the author has some clever ideas - the concept of the two siblings - Mikael and Maat, watching a civilisation that they had created and in which they had "cast" themselves as gods, was rather nifty. It also worked well for the narrative, allowing the plot to skip several years in a heartbeat and follow the progress of various characters and their exploits. The politics also seemed quite well thought out, and the personalities of the characters well developed. With a couple of interesting twists and an ending that was complete-but-not-quite, it is definitely designed to make you seek out more. And do you know what? I think I shall!

Currently 99c on Amazon for the Kindle ebook

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Not much bark nor bite, but a few laughs.

How to Date a Werewolf by Rose Pressey




This was a fun read. Not especially remarkable and it certainly had a number of flaws, but it was an enjoyable, entertaining tale that was of about the right length to keep the reader amused. Indeed, my only major bugbear is the capabilities of the werewolves when they were in wolf form - how can one hold a gun? And also that the author went a different way with the ending than I had perceived (nothing wrong with that - my ending was perhaps a little too predictable).

Riley is a werewolf and she runs a dating agency for supernaturals, as well as ordinary humans. Alas, for all her efforts to matchmake others, she has had no success finding a mate of her own. This she blames on a family curse - that is until the day Jack moves in next door. Cynical, but living for the moment, Riley is persuaded into several dates. But things go from good to bad when a pair of scruffy werewolf start dogging her trail and someone keeps sending her threatening bullets (although how sending someone a silver bullet is a threat, I do not understand - surely you're actually giving them potential weapons to use against you!). Is it Lily? The discgrunted psycho-bitch whose love match went tail-up? Or is something more sinister afoot?

Alas, for all the possible greater depths, "How to date a werewolf" never gets deeper than the paddling stage, but that does not make it a bad read and it is rather amusing.



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Elves and Humans

Griffin's Daughter by Leslie Ann Moore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


For some reason, this has been labelled "paranormal". It's not - it's fantasy. Set in a medieval style kingdom, where elves and humans share a border and neither thinks too fondly of the other. Jelena is the product of an unlikely allegiance between elf and human - neither one nor the other, she is reviled by the humans and her lowly position eventually forces her to run away and seek her elven heritage.

The elves were not entirely convincing as a species - they felt more like another race of humans, rather than a distinctly different people - their language was relatively coarse and their customs not significantly different from their human neighbours. I feel the author could have accentuated the differences more - even without having her elven folk live in trees or what-not.

However, as far as self-published works go, this one was very well done. The characters were well developed, the plot moved at a steady pace - although there were a few sidetrack plots to tie up loose ends (such as what happened to cousin Magnes). Editting errors and spelling mistakes were minimal and did not detract from the storyline.

It was interesting, and engrossing and definitely deserves the recognition it has received. However, like almost all self-published tales - it ends on a startling revelation to tempt the reader into purchasing the next instalment. As I have read the reviews of the latter instalments, I am not sure that I shall be tempted, but we will see...

Find it on Amazon in Kindle or real book format.
I read the "young adult" edition - not sure what the difference will be.



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The Bee's Knees

Petal Storm by Paul Kidd

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I have always been a fan of Kidd's writing style, and I own pretty much his entire collection of books - almost all of which are self-published. Kidd certainly makes one appreciate the true glory that can be found in these somewhat quirky, speculative works of fiction - the likes of which your typical publishing house won't touch - not because they're poorly written, but because the concept is just slightly too risky for them to take. Well, their loss.

"Petal Storm" is a story of bees. Rather, anthropormophic bees that ride hornets and live in a very matriachal society. Kidd has carefully captured much of general bee nature and habit here - the bees are led by one female, a queen, and the other workers are all neuter-females - incapable of breeding. The drones largely stay away, except when required to fertilise her many eggs. They behave in a manner that is quite believable if you were ever given a world in which bees were the sentient lifeform. He has also taken careful consideration of things like water droplets, and other such things, that on such a minute scale are rather different from how we humans perceive them.

Around this exciting and original premise, he has spun a story of manipulation and politics - of a Hive with not only one Queen, but two princesses, an unheard of situation. The two princesses are set on destroying each other, so that one can take the throne when their mother dies - as is the bee way, but events are conspiring that might make traditions have to change. The main characters - most of them neuter-females, are lovingly crafted. Kidd can often be commended for creating characters with the sort of personality that means you remember them, relate to them and feel like you know them a little bit.

There are a few minor bugbears - the occasional typo or missing word, and the fact that the bees have hair (why?). And the cover of the paperback version seems to depict a human girl with bee wings. I have chosen to perceive the characters rather truer to their intended identity.

This is an exciting story, and may well become one of my top 5 picks for books I have read this year (not ones released this year).

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And here's my interpretation of the bee girls:

Strong build, but failed to climax

Available here on Amazon for $0.00. Can't beat that price!

The Golden Bell by Autumn Dawn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I really did enjoy this book. Although it is the fourth set in the un-aptly named "Dark Lands", I found myself instantly hooked, and although I did feel rather like there was a little more that I was missing, I was certainly never lost nor confused in the plot.

The characterisation was good. The two main characters - Rain and Fallon, were both well developed. Particularly Rain, with her occasional feral streaks and quick temper. Also, one has got to love a genius engineer. She did seem to fall a bit too easily into Fallon's bed, but that can be forgiven. He was rather sexy, and although you could sense that he wanted to be controlling, he also allowed her freedom and did not pressure her. All good points in a man.

The sex scenes were quite steamy, and well written, and not too prevalent in the plot. Sexual tension was also kept to a relative minimum, allowing more room for the plot to be established.

Now, about the plot... It started strong - Rain being rescued from a Charmer, exiled to the Dark Lands and trying to establish a place for herself amongst the Haunts, as well as uncovering her father's murderer.

That's where it fell down. It almost feels like the author ran out of steam. Like she had a certain word length she wanted to finish it in and didn't wish to exceed this. There was no build - the murderer was unveiled and defeated, without being an apparent threat to Rain or her new way of life. What's more, despite the fact that the evidence was shaky and that Rain took matters into her own hands, there were no serious repurcussions of what she did. No climax, no threat, no tension. Very frustrating - and left me feeling cheated.

On the other hand, I liked the writing style, enjoyed the characters and found the setting intriguing, so I would be interested in reading more by this author - at some point.





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The Eyes of Sandala by Cathy Benedetto

To celebrate my acquisition of a kindle, and my desire to read and support self-published authors (being one myself), I have decided to rekindle (hehe) this blog to help support these authors. Now - this does not necessarily mean that I will be writing nice things about the books! If they're poorly written, or weak, then I will not lie, but I shall hopefully find a few pearls for anyone seeking something a little bit different.

This particular book is available here on Amazon. Ebook is $4.99.


The Eyes of Sandala by Cathy Benedetto

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


At first, I somewhat enjoyed this book. It did seem to follow rather traditional plotlines - involving invading armies against the kingdom. Character development, particularly the relationship between Ariann and Tahjeen could have been stronger. As it was, many of the characters came across as somewhat flat and I had trouble remembering who was who and the romance was somewhat unconvincing. A bit more dialogue might have helped. With the male declaring soon after their meeting that they were "destined to be together" it all seemed rather predictable and cliched from there on. There were no surprises, and after the first 60% or so, I started to get bored of it. I set it down. I read another couple of books. I picked it up again. I read a few pages, put it down, and then finally decided I should just finish the jolly thing.

What a waste of time. The ending felt flaky and incomplete, like the author was trying for a cliff-hanger but didn't build up enough to make the reader care. Because the characters were flat and two dimensional, I could barely remember their names, let alone who did what and where. Added into that, was the editting - or lack thereof. I can cope with the occasional spellnig mistake, and the split compound words, whilst odd, was fine. What I did not understand was the lack of line spacing between some of the paragraphs. One minute you'd be reading about the bad guy and what he was thinking/doing, the next it would suddenly shift to the good guys - somewhere else entirely, in the same block of text, this compounded the confusion already garnered by having too many characters and too many names without having enough developed personalities for you to remember who was who. I would suggest that the author takes the time to read through her story at various font sizes in order to pick up on this structural errors.

I liked the concept of the Shala - especially the colour-changing eyes, but the zoologist in me would like to point out that big cats cannot purr.

At $4.99 - a complete waste of money. I'm going to stick to freebies from now on. At least when they suck, I don't have to angst about wasting money on them.


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