tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31074709378412264462024-03-05T03:58:59.910-08:00West Coast Book ReviewsWest Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.comBlogger91125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-83377909024736533462019-04-24T15:50:00.001-07:002019-04-24T15:50:19.806-07:00Review: Day 115 on an Alien World by Jeannette Bedard<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><strong>Someone needs to be alive to call for help.</strong> </i></div>
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<i>A dishonourable discharge left Margo unable to find honest work on Earth. Signing onto a colonizing mission heading to a new world promised a fresh start. Or at least that's what she'd thought. </i></div>
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<i>Strapped into a crashing colony ship, she realized how wrong she'd been.</i></div>
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<i>They hit the ground and the straight forward colonizing mission becomes a scramble for survival. Accidents keep happening—too many to blame on random bad luck. A trail of evidence leads Margo to a startling conclusion—one of her fellow colonists is a saboteur.</i></div>
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<i>Tomorrow is the colony's first communications window with Earth and their only chance to send a message home. </i></div>
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<i>Will Margo stop the saboteur before it’s too late? </i></div>
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<i>Find out now.</i></div>
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I picked this one up on Netgalley because I was first interested in the cover. The lone colonist in a barren world. I was pleasantly surprised to find how well the two perspectives were woven together until the merge into a big bang of a finish.<br />
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We hear Margo's part in her own words beginning before the launch in her own words as her journal is read by another crew member after her transport crashes and she's proclaimed dead. The two pieces tie together and build intrigue in each other, tying the early misfortunes of the crew with the current happenings as their numbers dwindle. When the two pieces come together it feels like a breathless race to the finish.<br />
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If you love seeing what happens (particularly in space) when a bunch of incompatible people and their secrets are crammed together in a tight space with a steady stream of mayhem to set things off (as I do), then <i>Day 115 on an Alien World </i>doesn't disappoint.<br />
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I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.</div>
West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-38962796563098959412019-04-24T13:51:00.001-07:002019-04-24T13:51:31.965-07:00Review: Constellation XXI by Edward Hoornaert<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Although Sienna Dukelsky had been the most promising student pilot at Keening AstroSpace Academy, she inexplicably settles for a routine, unglamorous job guiding incoming spaceships to safe berths at Farflung Space Station. Rumors, never verified, blamed her surprising decision on a boyfriend who got expelled from Keening.</span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic;">Crispin Hunt, fleeing enemy forces, is greeted by a tugship captained by Sienna, his former girlfriend. Love rekindles—until an old betrayal boils up. Her ship loses power while aimed dead on at the space station, forcing Sienna to confront the terrifying truth about Crispin and his cargo…and her routine job suddenly becomes the most important in the entire galaxy.</span></div>
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<i><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Edward Hoornaert’s romantic space opera, Constellation XXI, continues the Repelling the Invasion saga of the Dukelsky family, begun in The Guardian Angel of Farflung Station and Escapee.</span></i></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Constellation XXI is the third Edward Hoornaert SFR I have read and the most recent volume of his Repelling the Invasion series.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Hoornaert's characters are inherently good and easy to root for. It's what I like most about his stories. They are complex and real in ways I find easy to identify with. I've become very fond of the Farflung universe he's created and always enjoy settling back in to it and catching up with everyone.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Looking forward to the next one, this series is one I always watch for news on.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for my review.</span></span></span>West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-31346034799385950362019-04-07T11:44:00.002-07:002019-04-07T11:44:52.561-07:00Review: The Step-by-Step Guide to 200 Crochet Stitches by Tracey Todhunter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBfU3il1KsZC24OAExdeiwONUvVuAeqVozVwjjzVSmMDLeDKaE-HVc0_t-JgU5weO1iXSdjyzFseHxWHFWMQV-gWXvuy6mdBd-4KdYnoFF6Y6HoVERDfikvIdRHoelsYCW8wujJ_JM48s/s1600/cover154728-medium.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="255" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBfU3il1KsZC24OAExdeiwONUvVuAeqVozVwjjzVSmMDLeDKaE-HVc0_t-JgU5weO1iXSdjyzFseHxWHFWMQV-gWXvuy6mdBd-4KdYnoFF6Y6HoVERDfikvIdRHoelsYCW8wujJ_JM48s/s320/cover154728-medium.png" width="247" /></a></div>
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I thought I'd give Tracey Todhunter's <i>The Step-by-Step Guide to 200 Crochet Stitches </i>a try when I found it available on Netgalley. I've always been a knitter, first and foremost, but have taken on learning basic crochet when a particular project jumped out at me and made me say "I have to make that!"<br />
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The book is beautifully put together from the colours standing out against the white background to the easy to read charts. (The charts gave me shudders at first as I've never tackled charted crochet before but within a few rows, I was reading the charts more than the written instructions.) It didn't take long to want to make everything so I picked up some contrasting yarn and randomly picked three. Pictures are below.<br />
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Todhunter's guide is a great addition to any craft library. Comprehensive and colourful and one you'll be picking up over and over.<br />
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35 Embossed Shells</div>
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107 Honeycomb</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOJgrB6Y2W58Vi6rOgaOm-4p0s7_LZHh1CLxVyI79k8fB_YaR3ZV0rSrKEdSQmJFS7xEqW40QSfghL6iDmQtaVLDNpPu-_ggqSk_OB3sjMVruL5bvHRrNN2aJgg1Ac2s4kGDNbHAA2qkg/s1600/20190407_112228.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOJgrB6Y2W58Vi6rOgaOm-4p0s7_LZHh1CLxVyI79k8fB_YaR3ZV0rSrKEdSQmJFS7xEqW40QSfghL6iDmQtaVLDNpPu-_ggqSk_OB3sjMVruL5bvHRrNN2aJgg1Ac2s4kGDNbHAA2qkg/s320/20190407_112228.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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187 Flower Garden</div>
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I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.<br />
<br />West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-66060382593015952602019-03-14T13:44:00.000-07:002019-03-14T13:44:16.459-07:00Review: Edges by Linda Nagata<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">From the Edge of Apocalypse:</i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Deception Well is a world on the edge, home to an isolated remnant surviving at the farthest reach of human expansion. All across the frontier, other worlds have succumbed to the relentless attacks of robotic alien warships, while hundreds of light years away, the core of human civilization—those star systems closest to Earth, known as the Hallowed Vasties—have all fallen to ruins. Powerful telescopes can see only dust and debris where once there were orbital mega-structures so huge they eclipsed the light of their parent stars.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">No one knows for sure what caused the Hallowed Vasties to fail, but a hardened adventurer named Urban intends to find out. He has the resources to do it. He commands a captive alien starship fully capable of facing the dangers that lie beyond Deception Well.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">With a ship’s company of explorers and scientists, Urban is embarking on a voyage of re-discovery. They will be the first in centuries to confront the hazards of an inverted frontier as they venture back along the path of human migration. Their goal: to unravel the mystery of the Hallowed Vasties and to discover what monstrous life might have grown up among the ruins.</span></div>
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<i style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Edges</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"> is a new entry point into the classic story world of Linda Nagata’s The Nanotech Succession.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Edges</i> started out reminding me of <i>Think Like a Dinosaur</i> by James Patrick Kelly in which people are digitized then reinstated at a new location to allow for distant travel. In Kelly's novelette, only one version of each person is allowed. In <i>Edges</i>, things can be much more complex. Duplicates of individuals are not only allowed, they are central to the story.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">In <i>Edges</i>, world building and tech take the lead over the cast of characters and it took a bit to invest in the science of the story rather than the people in it. The ship, <i>Dragon</i>, is as more of a character than part of the setting. I like how the processes the people go through, duplicating and merging, are central to the complexity of the plot.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">I'm new to Nagata so have not read any of the books in her series The Nanotech Succession. In spite of this, I was able to keep up with what was going on in her universe without any difficulty. I didn't feel like the tale was slowed down by any back story, though I can't say if I'd read The Nanotech Succession I would think differently.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Overall, I liked <i>Edges</i>. It did take some time to get used to the amount of detail about the ship's workings and the transient nature if its crew. A good finish (lots of action) however I felt the initial premise of the book (finding out what is going on in the Hallowed Vasties) wasn't satisfied and will have to look to the next volume to find out since <i>Edges</i> is definitely more about the journey than the destination.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">I received a review copy from Netgalley.</span>West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-25766612641983298072019-03-12T13:59:00.001-07:002019-03-12T14:01:24.494-07:00Review: Beginners Guide to Colorwork Knitting by Ella Austin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMTGHAwDsZ9CLYIyGxrb7gWIYP_-xFcjV8NYVKpRMzq39JeG5NCCWVZ1_ZisI1Ypg9NEC73UuKWf5Us8Z_1wzAMPQLsEOYhRVZ1cn6JtuVLzNYA7RtM7HX5pv_YzoJDnMqSzWfghuNL6Y/s1600/43505823.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="255" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMTGHAwDsZ9CLYIyGxrb7gWIYP_-xFcjV8NYVKpRMzq39JeG5NCCWVZ1_ZisI1Ypg9NEC73UuKWf5Us8Z_1wzAMPQLsEOYhRVZ1cn6JtuVLzNYA7RtM7HX5pv_YzoJDnMqSzWfghuNL6Y/s320/43505823.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">If you long to knit stunning fair isle jumpers and brightly colored blankets for your home this is the perfect book. Learn all the techniques for how to start knitting with color and create really desirable projects as you learn. Choose from brightly colored stripy socks and work your way up to a patterned beanie hat and even a stunning sweater with a colorwork yoke. Even if you can only knit and purl--with this book you'll be making gorgeous colorwork accessories before you know it!</span></div>
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Liz's four rules for a knock-out knitting book:<br />
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1. Don't skimp on the pictures! Take them outside, for starters, and do it somewhere gorgeous and simple.<br />
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2. Feel with your eyes. Make sure the textures come to life. I want to feel gossamer laces between my fingers, caress the delightfully full and smooth touch of silk and the sturdy crunch of wool simply by looking.<br />
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3. Balance the pictures with a well composed layout. Keep it simple (my eyes aren't as young as they used to be.) Guide me with a grand font, keep me turning the pages, and reassure me nothing has been left out.<br />
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4. Make sure it's something I'd trash that wooden bowl thing on the coffee table for. If I'd leave it in the centre of the table for everyone who came through my door to see because I want them all to know about it, you've put together something special.<br />
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5. (I know, right!) Make me want to put confidence in my craft and pick up "real yarn" to realize everything the book has inspired in me.<br />
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Ella Austin's Beginner's Guide to Colorwork Knitting earns points for me in all four (five) categories. I found it an indispensable resource on basic colour theory. I usually find a variegated that I a) like, and b) has a matching solid. The book gives an easy to understand why when it comes to mixing colours and tones to come up with a balanced and beautiful palette.<br />
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I also look for a knitting book that will enhance the skills and resources I already have; one which will fit in to my way of doing things without forcing me to re-write anything. I was able to enhance my understanding of steeking and double-knit with an online video, then jump back to the book to help reinforce my understanding.<br />
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A great addition to anyone's knitting library. The pictures are beautiful and the patterns are easy to read.<br />
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Thank you to Netgalley for my review copy.<br />
<br />West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-67286105583950393242019-02-03T18:31:00.000-08:002019-02-03T18:31:29.813-08:00Review: Aurora: Aurizun by Amanda Bridgeman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj13NsOeTh79du-JwqqPNLsewT2q-fmuomBtDrom3XVhmukFHaeuOeqWOhT6TgOGqqHtcMqfuJSAQk4ySWGJEgX-qRXqGj11ny6CJUw_kV8s5c2VddJ55mYwxSTTtjZx31YRE7tUe_sORw/s1600/41987536.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj13NsOeTh79du-JwqqPNLsewT2q-fmuomBtDrom3XVhmukFHaeuOeqWOhT6TgOGqqHtcMqfuJSAQk4ySWGJEgX-qRXqGj11ny6CJUw_kV8s5c2VddJ55mYwxSTTtjZx31YRE7tUe_sORw/s320/41987536.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">The battle is over, but the war is just beginning . . .</span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic;">The Zeta invasion has occurred and the world now knows the truth: that an alien threat exists. While the UNF scramble to maintain calm, the pressure mounts to finally reveal their black ops ALPHA soldiers. The only question is, who will be entrusted to lead them?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic;">Harris is still reeling from the devastation that occurred during Decima, and when a startling discovery is revealed, he suddenly loses the trust of the UNF. Next in line is McKinley, but still recovering from his injuries, he’s struggling to accept what he has now become. Carrie, on the other hand, is the strongest she’s ever been, but her linkage to Harris, and his to the Zetas, sees them forced out and treated as the enemy.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic;">The power they once had within the UNF is lost.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic;">Without a ship or a leader, and with enemies closing in on all sides, the Aurora team must fight to regroup and claw their way back from oblivion.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic;">Carrie, Harris and McKinley face their most explosive showdowns yet, in this action-packed instalment that will leave readers on the edge of their seats!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>*****</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Aurora: Aurizun</i> is the seventh (count 'em, seven) in Amanda Bridgeman's intense science fiction series, <i>Aurora</i>. I've enjoyed them all and my reviews of some of them are below.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">If you haven't given this series a go, I recommend it if you:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">a) love strong character driven SF</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">b) love finding extraordinary adventure close to home and other corners of the solar system</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">c) love well crafted antagonists</span><br />
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); font-size: 14px;">d) love it when a story sends you crashing into the ending</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">The series has grown and developed in a consistent way since the outset. The world building has truly blossomed with the tragedy at the end of book six (<i>Decima</i>) and the aftermath in this volume. Bridgeman's characters continue to be one of the biggest attractions to me and I continue to jump into each book to find out what they are doing now. We've lost some and gained some along the way (a decade of story arc time has passed) and this has served to give each a real depth. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">For many reasons, Aurizun uses the past to anchor a sturdy pivot point for the next two books. So many transitions happen, Aurizun feels set to be the book that launches the rest of the series. Bridgeman continues to use her mastery of contrast to not only heighten the power of her imagery but to also keep the tension rolling throughout.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Aurora: Aurizun</i> was well worth the wait and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on book 8!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">My previous reviews can be found here for <a href="https://westcoastbookreviews.blogspot.com/2015/03/review-aurora-darwin-by-amanda-bridgeman.html" target="_blank">Aurora: Darwin</a> (Book 1), <a href="https://westcoastbookreviews.blogspot.com/2015/03/review-aurora-centralis-by-amanda.html" target="_blank">Aurora: Centralis</a> (Book 4), <a href="https://westcoastbookreviews.blogspot.com/2015/08/review-aurora-eden-by-amanda-bridgeman.html" target="_blank">Aurora: Eden</a> (Book 5), and <a href="https://westcoastbookreviews.blogspot.com/2016/11/review-aurora-decima-by-amanda-bridgeman.html" target="_blank">Aurora: Decima</a> (Book 6)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-35058110818905157012018-12-04T16:10:00.001-08:002018-12-04T16:10:11.006-08:00Review: The Subjugate by Amanda Bridgeman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEindFwyIIotidzZs-uBkvf4pyNxFXscNSJ3YVzxxy15vuO558Muh1Qrum9EmQSqjQibo7sNRbNBoYCXkrrg8W_et2nREEYhAp4vel_wd0xH7kc_ZJIC8Iw-46yiCgIiDZSxMVTQSxu0VKc/s1600/Subjugate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="330" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEindFwyIIotidzZs-uBkvf4pyNxFXscNSJ3YVzxxy15vuO558Muh1Qrum9EmQSqjQibo7sNRbNBoYCXkrrg8W_et2nREEYhAp4vel_wd0xH7kc_ZJIC8Iw-46yiCgIiDZSxMVTQSxu0VKc/s320/Subjugate.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
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<i><b style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Two troubled homicide detectives race to find a serial killer in a town filled with surgically reformed murderers, in this captivating near-future SF thriller.</b></i></div>
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<i>In a small religious community rocked by a spree of shocking murders, Detectives Salvi Brentt and Mitch Grenville find themselves surrounded by suspects. The Children of Christ have a tight grip on their people, and the Solme Complex neurally edit violent criminals - Subjugates - into placid servants called Serenes. In a town where purity and sin, temptation and repression live side by side, everyone has a motive. But as the bodies mount up, the frustrated detectives begin to crack under the pressure: their demons are coming to light, and who knows where that blurred line between man and monster truly lies.</i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">*****</span></div>
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Anyone else find themselves suddenly nervous when reviewing something new from an author you relentlessly follow for her other series? As an <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/128401-aurora" target="_blank">Aurora</a> junkie, I've done this before with Bridgeman's <i>The Time of the Stripes</i> and am doing it again with <i>The Subjugate</i>.<br />
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I have come to know Bridgeman's novels as solid fiction built around a core of realistic and motivated characters. She creates characters who aren't always nice, don't always have realistic expectations, become exasperated with themselves and most importantly, are never, ever, perfect. Kinda like us.<br />
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Then she sets them to work.<br />
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In <i>The Subjugate</i>, Salvi Brentt and Mitch Grenville hunt down a serial killer. Both detectives have their own hidden histories they need to reconcile not only to solve their case but to move forward. I love a good buddy story and was rewarded with this book, the plot comes from their relationship as much as it comes from their investigation. They struggle to see what lurks on the underside of everything while doing their best to avoid confronting their own demons. Their powerful interplay is the polish that links so much of this story together.<br />
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Also, for me, setting and my own thoughts flavoured the story. I don't travel much but one of the few places I've visited is San Francisco so it was easy for me to envision where this book happens. At the time I was there, it was crowded, touristy, and I heard more car horns there in three days than in ten years where I come from. We also have a town named Bountiful nearby. In recent years, it has been in the news and not for really positive things which for me added a personal layer of suspicion to Bridgeman's fictional Bountiful.<br />
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In <i>The Subjugate</i>, we see what happens to an investigation when many of the tools the investigators rely on aren't available. We feel their blindness investigating the murders in a tech-free town and this gives that aspect of the story a palpable depth and gives the villains a nice boost of evil.<br />
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I recommend The Subjugate for lovers of gritty SF. Great cast of characters and a strong story make this a good read!<br />
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I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-22467391235776680492018-05-30T20:29:00.000-07:002018-05-30T20:29:49.454-07:00Review: Contrition by Haven Cage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><i>In the end, everyone must pay for their sins.</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><i>Trial after trial, Nevaeh's loved-ones have struggled to save her from a dark destiny. The time has finally come for her to return home and join the Earth-bound angels in a war threatening to destroy the Human race. </i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><i>Is it really Nev who's walking the Earthly plane, though? </i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><i>True, being surrounded by evil for weeks on end would change anyone, but Nev's friends suspect something is wrong with the Nevaeh they've extracted from Hell's grip.</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><i>Archard, Arkin, Maggie, and Malach prepare to fight the impending apocalypse brought on by the rebellious Dominions, while trying to accept the new Nevaeh and help her gain control over her powers. </i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><i>Will Nevaeh be able to save the world, or will she make everyone pay with their lives?</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Contrition is the third and final install in Haven Cage's </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Faltering Souls</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> Series. You can read my review of the previous books </span><a href="http://westcoastbookreviews.blogspot.com/2017/03/review-severance-by-haven-cage.html" style="background-color: white; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">. Contrition (with its gorgeous cover) picks up where <i>Severance</i> left off and though it remains true in so many ways to the first two books, it shines with a depth of spirit and empowerment in strong contrast to the darkness and depravity of <i>Severance</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">For starters, I don't read many alternating first-person POV books. What doesn't always come through is distinction from one character's inner voice to the next. In Cage's books, we get to </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); font-size: 14px;">know</span><span style="font-size: 14px;"> her characters from the inside out. They let us know who they are and also give us their own unique perspectives of each other.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">I love how Cage ties everything together from the first two books. Characters wrenched from us earlier in the series are taken from us again, for good or not, and others make devastating choices. Again, Cage lets her darlings tell their stories and I found their twists, turns, and heartbreak all the more real because of it.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Finally, Cage brings us home to the places and settings we've come to know. Her reminders and backstory don't leave me feeling like I'm skimming through an overdone rehash or having my face shoved in to a big, self-serving block of text. Ties to the past are light, complete, and extremely balanced with and complementary of the current part of her storyline.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">If you like your dark paranormal to quicken your breath, your villains unforgivably rotten and your heroes (and heroines) to wrap your heartstrings around their fist a good half-dozen times before they pull them then I recommend Falter, Severance and Contrition. I'm sad this series is over and I've become a fan of the author.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">I received a review copy of Contrition in exchange for my honest review.</span></span></span></div>
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West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-36685435944215623442018-04-14T17:10:00.002-07:002018-04-14T17:10:50.527-07:00Review: Reading 5x5<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo0sVuumD4sziMDYk1n1acM7yaIYdWSZLRCoHxCLqDbdjjNpqdYUFCn7L1DTe5fYWYCY8tXRj0XJUEY-pmS7o9An6UJkz5rA-5kYaJ6lcU26zWEa1MfD5sMoOtWqQ5AhbScKZ3PVuMmZY/s1600/38329104.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="304" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo0sVuumD4sziMDYk1n1acM7yaIYdWSZLRCoHxCLqDbdjjNpqdYUFCn7L1DTe5fYWYCY8tXRj0XJUEY-pmS7o9An6UJkz5rA-5kYaJ6lcU26zWEa1MfD5sMoOtWqQ5AhbScKZ3PVuMmZY/s320/38329104.jpg" width="204" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">What if you had different authors each write the same story? What would each of them bring to the piece in terms of style, tone, and resolution? That’s the question this anthology sets out to answer.</span></div>
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<i style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Reading 5X5</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> asked twenty-five authors to tell five stories in five different ways. We started with story briefs in five different genres – each brief with just the basic information required to tell a story. Then we asked five authors to write that story, each in their own way. The result is twenty-five great, fascinatingly different stories.</span><br />
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To put a fine point on it, I requested Reading 5x5 purely out of curiosity as a writer. As a reader, my initial thought was "who on earth would want to read the same story five times? Then do it four times more?" I was interested in looking at the mechanics of how such a collaboration might come together. What would a brief look like?<br />
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Part way through the first story, I zipped to the end to skim the first brief. By the end of the second story, I found myself enjoying the stories and had mostly forgotten about the briefs! Eventually I found each group of five sufficiently varied that I had little send of reading the same story several times. All in all, a nicely rounded collection of short stories. The similarities are there for one who might want to dissect the briefs and analyze the writing.<br />
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Other than one story which felt forced, the rest were four and five stars shorts, rich in description and world and satisfying in spite of limits of their length. Recommended for anyone who enjoys SF and Fantasy short stories.<br />
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I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-87336009281068674772018-03-21T19:23:00.003-07:002018-03-21T19:34:36.249-07:00Review: Inspired Shawls: 15 Creative Patterns for Year-Round Knitting by Laura Zukaite<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My review of Inspired Shawls: 15 Creative Patterns for Year-Round Knitting by Laura Zukaite (also known as Liz's four rules for a knock-out knitting book.)<br />
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1. Don't skimp on the pictures! Take them outside, for starters, and do it somewhere gorgeous and simple.<br />
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2. Feel with your eyes. Make sure the textures come to life. I want to feel gossamer laces between my fingers, caress the delightfully full and smooth touch of silk and the sturdy crunch of wool simply by looking.<br />
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3. Balance the pictures with a well composed layout. Keep it simple (my eyes aren't as young as they used to be.) Guide me with a grand font, keep me turning the pages, and reassure me nothing has been left out.<br />
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4. Make sure it's something I'd trash that wooden bowl thing on the coffee table for. If I'd leave it in the centre of the table for everyone who came through my door to see because I want them all to know about it, you've put together something special.<br />
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5. (I know, right!) Make me want to put confidence in my craft and pick up "real yarn" to realize everything the book has inspired in me.<br />
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I have to say, Inspired Shawls hits all the marks for me. The beach looks so much like the coast of Vancouver Island just north of my home! I've had as much fun browsing the pages as I have poking around the various yarn-makers websites (so I know where to by skeins from Art Yarns here in town.)<br />
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I'm very please with this book! Thank you to the publisher. I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-34605821705507563682017-11-29T19:15:00.001-08:002017-11-30T08:37:55.659-08:00Review: The Time of the Stripes by Amanda Bridgeman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">They survived the alien visitation. But can they survive each other?</span></i></div>
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<i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">No-one had heard of Victoryville before. But when an alien spaceship appears, hovering over the town, the whole world suddenly knows its name.</span></i></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">After twenty-four hours and a failed military assault, the ship disappears without a trace. When the outside world restores communication to the town, thousands are reported missing.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Those who remain in Victoryville are irreparably changed. However, only some have been left with strange red marks upon their skin.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Quarantined from the outside world and segregated within, alliances are made and relationships are shattered, as everyone fights for the truth - and for their own survival.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">From the best-selling author of the Aurora series, The Time of the Stripes is a sci-fi thriller where The Leftovers meets The Lord of The Flies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>The Time of the Stripes</i> is the new alien invasion novel from <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/128401-aurora" target="_blank">Aurora Series</a> author Amanda Bridgeman. I know Bridgeman for intense character and action driven science fiction set locally and by locally I mean on earth and other locations within our solar system.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Aurora Series is grand in scope of setting and character through a long plot arc targeted to reach nine novels and <i>The Time of the Stripes</i> takes the same high level of action and depth of the human spirit and jams them into nine days in a single small town.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The setup is what I’ve come to expect from any tale in which a cross-section of society is presented as a familiar yet potentially explosive mix of people forced together in terrifying conditions. We all know them. They're our friends, family and neighbours. My bar for a well put together cast in the face of disaster sits high and Bridgeman nails it. I loved that each of the main characters remained true to who they were throughout the story. Also, Bridgeman has no qualms about displaying the dark and the cold complexities of her villains and I wasn’t disappointed with the mix of queasiness and apprehension with which she rewards her readers when her antagonists are about.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">While <i>The Time of the Stripes</i> is set in a fictitious community and documents events we haven’t seen the likes of in real life, Bridgeman takes the intimacy of a small town invasion and uses it to highlight many of the social issues for which we feel very strongly. In spite of being able to know what is right and good, it’s all too easy to see how a small town physically cut off from the outside world and facing the extreme unknown can descend in to discrimination and violence. This microcosm of the bigger world in general is all the more scary when put in terms of regular people we can all relate to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As I’ve come to love from her books, Bridgeman builds tension through the action of her characters and points all the pieces of her plot toward a finely explosive finish. I also love that each scene is the next piece of the story and we don’t find ourselves bogged down in retelling of parts of the story from different points of view. Every piece has a purpose in driving the story as a whole.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This is the kind of smart scary story that gives me a book hangover. I recommend you pick up a copy and get ready for the ride.</span></div>
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<br />West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-18930087921257266622017-07-30T09:08:00.000-07:002017-07-30T11:54:32.868-07:00Review: Bloodstorm by Donna Maree Hanson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>The planet of Margra is drawing closer to the brink as Shatterwing's debris field grows increasingly unstable.</i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Salinda and Garan fight Gercomo in dragon form, with unexpected consequences and end up making matters worse. Laidan’s life is saved but at great cost.</i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Sartell has become dangerous with conspiracies and betrayal everywhere. Brill and Danton gamble with their lives to find the location of the stolen dragon wine while Mandin gambles with her life to save her daughter.</i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Nils searches for the writings of his grandsire, Trell of Barr, which may contain the much needed information on how to avert moonfall.</i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Gercomo’s influence and power within the dragon herd peaks just as he is able to reach out to old human allies and the battle begins…</i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">If you want to know what it feels like when a story is poised on the edge of something dark, dangerous and brilliant then take this series on. And by poised I in no way mean paused. The middle two books in this series have had me on my tip-toes teetering toward the edge and leaning into a delicious slow-burn build-up.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">My journey from Deathwings to Bloodstorm has also seen me do a complete flip-flop on a character. (This is the brilliance I mentioned.) When Hanson can introduce a character as the epitome of mistrust, mistress of debauchery and in all honesty a shameless representation of someone owning the gates to the darkest hole of humanity and then turn that character sufficiently to become someone whose hand I want to hold as I tell her how I believe in her and that she can make everything right... yep, brilliant. Henceforth, consider me at the head of #TeamToola. Until the next instalment, perhaps.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">With the fourth volume of Dragonwine, Donna Maree Hanson, successfully continues her build to the finish while masterfully keeping her grip on all the character and plot lines, relaxing and pulling as needed without losing a single one. Moonfall remains present though solely in the urgency emphasized by Hanson's characters and continued focus on the final outcome of the story.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Bloodstorm also makes me want to do something I haven't before wanted or needed to do midway through a series. While there has been enough back story to help me remember important points from the previous books without flooding me in detail, I want to go back to book one and start over to experience those bits and pieces again.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">If you haven't taken a swing at this amazing dark fantasy series yet, you can download yourself a copy of book one Shatterwing complete with the gorgeous new cover <a href="https://www.instafreebie.com/free/Ry5F4" target="_blank">here</a> from Instafreebie.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-1241160940467207892017-06-30T23:00:00.000-07:002017-06-30T23:00:08.454-07:00Review: Of Angel's Blood by Martyn Currill<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisfNCS9cMmI14fq3xPH7tO8NrSKbWwsncoGZfjLe1ZTIBsfVt9V-e9GlHrX_u-HKztVLg0tQX5dAiilzNRPwS2LcwGQuYivquhLhwqP2H8mT38MRgBKKkyDTlBUjCb7UHTLJ3LNpFk7o8/s1600/of+Angel%2527s+Blood+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisfNCS9cMmI14fq3xPH7tO8NrSKbWwsncoGZfjLe1ZTIBsfVt9V-e9GlHrX_u-HKztVLg0tQX5dAiilzNRPwS2LcwGQuYivquhLhwqP2H8mT38MRgBKKkyDTlBUjCb7UHTLJ3LNpFk7o8/s320/of+Angel%2527s+Blood+1.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Sharriana Grey lies dead, and The Order is now prospering under the rule of Deimos Black. But even as he struggles to rebuild in the wake of his insurrection, a dark, malevolent power begins to rise against him, a being so powerful even he may not be able to match it...</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Read, in his own words, of the threat to all he held dear - and the lengths he must go to defend it.</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>***</i></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">This July brings all the things you might expect to follow the longest (or shortest) day of the year, including swords, blood and vampires.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">Deimos Black takes the time to share another chapter in his life with us. This one even darker than the last. Personally, I'm always a little let down when a book two comes off as a rehash of its predecessor, rebounding from the same adversaries with the same tricks as before. (This book doesn't, making that clear right now.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i style="font-size: 14px;">Of Angel's Blood</i><span style="font-size: 14px;"> doesn't try to make Deimos "human" again and pit him against the same struggles. The changes he experienced in </span><i style="font-size: 14px;">A Life in Blood</i><span style="font-size: 14px;"> become his new normal and the darkness he faces becomes subsequently tougher. Currill dares to do the right thing and explore what happens when Deimos must face the absolute evil of his new vampire family. When it counts, he doesn't shy away. Instead, he includes us and draws us down with him in the open, blunt and sometimes shamefully painful way he does in book 1. He brings us along in a desperate and consuming challenge to who he is and I could not look away.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Deimos remains an articulate and consistent narrator who continues to bring his observations and feelings to life.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">I also loved his dialogue and the way he brings his friendships to life. Second only to Deimos himself, the real people he surrounds himself with give this story heart and make all the action meaningful.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">And speaking of action, while there is less than in <i>A Life in Blood</i>, there is plenty where it's most important and </span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;">where I found myself hanging on most tightly to my plot-feels. (It's a thing.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><i>Of Angel's Blood</i> has the courage to ask what happens when we step completely away from who we are and what happens to our very selves when we get to the other side. When the path is dark and desperate, will the soul remain intact? </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Turn on some lights and get yourself a copy. Deimos Black continues to mark all the X's in blood.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Oh, and here's my blurb =)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Deimos Black, former vampire hunter and human, has already shared both the best and worst days of his "life" with us. Through his insurrection and assassination of </i></span><i style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Sharriana Grey, former leader of the Order, he's brought a tentative peace to the world's vampires.</span></span></i></div>
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<i style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">With this peace, however, comes what may be his undoing. A</span></span></i><i style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> dark, malevolent power rises against him. Vampires killed or driven mad by indescribable means pile up and Deimos himself becomes the focus of the being who seeks to consume all he holds dear.</span></span></i></div>
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<i style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Read, in his own words, the lengths he must go to defend everything and </span></span></i><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><i>most importantly, himself.</i></span></span></div>
West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-32584626326125037492017-06-30T18:58:00.001-07:002017-06-30T19:40:37.436-07:00Review: Deathwings by Donna Maree Hanson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Life on the ravaged world of Margra is more difficult than ever… Salinda and Garan blasted the evil Gercomo into the sky. Except … he didn’t die, he transformed into a dragon. Final moonfall looms ever closer and the world is on the brink of destruction. </i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Gercomo’s vile influence spreads among his dragon herd and he is reaching for power in both the human and dragon worlds. </i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Salinda has the means to stop him and save the world. </i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>And Gercomo wants her dead. </i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">It's hard to believe it's been more than two and a half years since I first reviewed <a href="http://westcoastbookreviews.blogspot.ca/2014/09/review-shatterwing-by-donna-maree-hanson.html" target="_blank">Shatterwing</a> and <a href="http://westcoastbookreviews.blogspot.ca/2014/10/review-skywatcher-by-donna-maree-hanson.html" target="_blank">Skywatcher</a>, the first two novels in the Dragon Wine series by Donna Maree Hanson. The pair of dark and fantastic tales drove the plot of the first right into the second and have been dressed up into a single volume (in addition to stand alone titles) with gorgeous new covers that brilliantly reflect their grim and gritty nature. While the ending contained a satisfying amount of flame and fighting, enough remained to leave me wondering where the tale might go so I was excited when I heard she had four more novels planned.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">I recently read <i>Deathwings</i>, book three, and am very pleased it holds up well both in its continuity of the plot of the first two and in the way in which it remains true to the original world building and treasures the nature of the characters we continue to follow.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Deathwings</i> picks up in the rubble and carnage following the ending of <i>Skywatcher</i>. Hanson winds the characters up with a heavy mix of personal failures and desperate goals then sends them off on their interconnected trials. Even though it has been so long since I read <i>Shatterwing</i> and <i>Skywatcher</i>, I reconnected quickly with the characters and fell into the story and setting.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">My favourite character thus far is Nils, a time-traveller of sorts who woke after a thousand year sleep to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">find himself the only living person in his vast underground city. He is always portrayed as isolated and alone, pale, invisible and even hiding in the shadows. Even his name, Nils, (I associate it with nil, or nothing) enhances the idea of him being on the outside. Ironically and in spite of Nils and his lost society existing on the outskirts of the surface dwelling Margran society, he may be keeper of the only clues that may save the surface dwellers from their falling moon.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">It's also hard to describe these books without using words like grim and dark over and over. Deathwings is written with an incredible economy of words in that people, places and even thoughts have been described in a way that maximizes the impact of Hanson's words. She shares the ugly and the beautiful with a deft hand for quickly creating memorable imagery.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Having read much of Hanson's work, <i>Deathwings</i> is the most powerfully written tale I've experienced from her yet. Her words build tension and power the action. Not once did I find a distracting choice of word or 'dropped in' patch of back story to bump me from my engagement.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">As a middle book in a series of six, <i>Deathwings</i> secures its place as the plot anchor both wrapping up the first half and setting up the volumes yet to come. It's such a great feeling to be in the middle of a series you love and know you still have three full stories to read for the first time. I look forward to more adventure and recommend you fill out your fantasy collection with this quintet.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-88350792222722179802017-06-03T13:09:00.001-07:002017-06-11T09:56:23.562-07:00Review: Darklands by M.L. Spencer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Compelled to obey the dark god he pledged his soul to, Darien finds himself tasked with delivering the people of the Black Lands from under the curse of darkness which shrouds the skies. With the enemy mage Azár, Darien sets out across a barren darkscape to assume his place as the leader of a people who despise him.</i></span></div>
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<i><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">As he journeys deeper into the shadowed waste, Darien is confronted with difficult truths that force him to question every loyalty he has ever held. For there, in the brutal proving grounds of the north, Darien will be inexorably forged into the most dangerous adversary the Rhen has ever faced.</span></i></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">My fabulous brother in law and fellow Virgo knows just how pull my strings. He gives me, oh say, book three in a series, then watches in full-on amusement as I drop everything, helpless against the impulse to run to the book store for books one and two.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Being "she who must have the entire set" can seem like a nonsense compulsion, but getting more books isn't really a bad thing at all, right?</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">So when M.L. Spencer offered ARCs of Darklands, I readied myself to burn through the first two.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">When she said I wouldn't have to read the first two in order to have a good grasp of the goings on in book three, I decided the only way to know for sure was to hold back my inner collector and start reading.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">First, I was super happy to see Darklands was edited by the fantastic Morgan Smith, writer of solid, honest heroines and immersively tactile fantasy worlds.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">Though loaded with repercussions, heartache and grief from the previous two books in the series, Darklands opens with its own </span><span style="font-size: 14px;">ominously laden action. The line between life and the afterlife quickly blurs and left me with the feeling of straddling both sides of the conflict filled streams winding through the book.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">I also loved the balance of voice between the various characters. To me, none stood out over the others and each clearly availed me of the differences in the way they see each other. Each change in point of view made a point of pushing the plot further or pivoting it around in a new direction while maintaining a great feel of being its own small story.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">I also felt a good sense of The Rhen and The Black Lands though I suspect much of the setting for book three is in areas not yet explored in books one and two. Though there are a good part of the lands I didn't get to by jumping in to book three, they have the solid feel of the place where your best friend, mage mentor, etc. grew up and gave them life through their first-hand telling.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Darklands is a complete, dark, anything goes fantasy that brings together one of the ultimate challenges in fiction, the balance between life and death, and with it what happens when the very balance of light and dark is thrown awry. Find room for Darklands on your bookshelf and in your escape time. At night. Outside.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">So, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to Virgo my way through Darkstorm and Darkmage.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">I received an advanced review copy from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.</span><br />
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West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-8278617173857764172017-03-21T20:09:00.001-07:002018-05-30T13:30:00.001-07:00Review: Severance by Haven Cage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><i>In Severance, a dark, adult urban fantasy novel from the Faltering Souls series, Nevaeh has to face the overpowering gravity of her choice to save those she loves while striving for strength to fight her greatest threat—herself.</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><i>Nevaeh Richards makes her declaration. Living a life in which she has few possessions, she sacrifices the only thing of worth she has to offer—what the Dark One wants the most—all for the slim chance of redeeming the souls of George, the man who raised her, and Gavyn, the Light Celata who holds a piece of her heart.</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><i>Her gifts are unfurling now, but so is a fierce, unpredictable beast inside her. While she struggles to keep herself—and the beast—in check, she has to play the part of a Dark Celata and fulfill every wickedly tempting task the evil beings command of her. Each mission she goes on, each time she uses her gifts, the line she toes between the woman she used to be and the monster she reluctantly yearns to become grows thinner.</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><i>As Nevaeh deals with her own turmoil, Archard watches the world he's accepted as his own begin to suffer for the mistakes he’s made. The sacred laws which segregate the realms and hinder demons from freely moving among humans are less and less effective with each passing day. He’s failed to keep Nevaeh out of Evil’s clutches, and so the shadows of Hell are creeping through. In an attempt to right his wrongs—and heal the hole in his heart—Archard chases his elusive woman, but every lead that should bring him closer to Nevaeh only ends with more questions about who she is, where she comes from, and how to save her—if he can save her at all.</i></span></div>
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Severance picks up several months after the heart-lurching ending of Falter, Book 1, and while building on the previous story it moves things along with good action, stronger characters and easy to visualize settings. Also, this is sort of a combination review of both books one and two since I found I can't really talk about one without touching on the other. (I tried!)</div>
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Cage's characters and settings quickly won me over and remained consistently strong throughout both books. My faves in Falter were Gavyn, George and Naveah. Why? Well, they're honest, loyal and above all else, good. Cage let them show who they are enough for me to be certain of my opinion. She built on this foundation by proving it in their interactions with each other.</div>
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Cage shows us her settings the same way she does here characters. Gavyn's restaurant, the streets and even Hell are solid and most importantly, memorable. Her character interactions with those places bring them to life to the point where the next time the action took us to a place we had been to before, the mood lingered, flavoring the current scene. As a visual reader, these books kept me in my element. Putting them down felt like I was really leaving places I knew.</div>
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I always feel that unless the action moves the plot and takes full advantage of the characters and the scene, it's lost an opportunity to be as driving and strong as it can be. The action (both small and omg wth nooooo) uses everything at it's disposal.</div>
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Both Falter and Severance are easy to get lost in. Cage's writing was strong in Falter and even better in Severance. I haven't read much new adult, but I found these books solid and dark, dark, dark.</div>
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I recommend Falter and Severance for all lovers of dark new adult fantasy. I loved both and will dive in to book 3 as soon as I can!</div>
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West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-89450738990755658102017-02-12T13:36:00.000-08:002017-02-12T13:36:23.066-08:00Review: A Spell in the Country by Morgan Smith<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>What if you weren't what heroes are made of? What if your life was an open book? What if you were just an ordinary soldier, with ordinary skills and ordinary goals? What if you weren't "The Chosen One" but still had to try to save the world? "A Spell in the Country" is the story of that soldier - a young woman driven not by prophesy, but by circumstances and coincidence, and by the strengths and weaknesses that anyone might possess. Lured into treason and only narrowly escaping the gallows, Keridwen was desperate to build some kind of life for herself. But between demons bent on death and mayhem, treachery at the very heart of the kingdom, and a prince who had every right to nurse a grudge against her, what were the odds that she could stay out of trouble for long?</i></span></div>
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<i><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">*****</span></i></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">I had such a good time reading A Spell in the Country. I'm currently reading Casting in Stone, also by Morgan Smith, and I adore her heroines. In spite of their circumstances, engagement in vivid and gory battles, and struggles, they display a sturdy, forthright and almost (shall I sa</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14px;">y) cheery disposition against all they face.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">In A Spell in the Country, Keridwen quickly finds </span><span style="font-size: 14px;">herself</span><span style="font-size: 14px;"> bounced from facing the noose to a solitary trip to obscurity posted at Penvarron, a sad and so out of the way post even the even the Camrhyssi wouldn't be likely to trod within spy-glass distance if they chose to invade.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Keridwen finds her niche at Penvarron, leading her soldiers with the same pragmatic and insightful tone in which she tells her story, describes the dead and lends her snide opinions (quite rightfully) of those she must tolerate. She can also be counted on to speak up no matter how unwelcome the truth may be.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Smith's delightfully clean and engaging prose lures us through twists, deceptions, revenge, dice games and pints. For Keridwen, trouble lurks under every stone and through every poorly lit corridor. A Spell in the Country has magic by the bushel and although the story is told by Keridwen, Smith's secondary characters are as well developed through Keridwen's eyes as I've seen lead characters in other books.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">I recommend adding this one to your shelf!</span></span></span>West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-24865427091769366702017-01-29T15:16:00.001-08:002017-01-29T15:42:23.356-08:00Review: Demorn: Soul Fighter by David Finn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><i>Bay City is home to the Soul Fights and a welcome respite from the War. </i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><i>Demorn, exile and assassin, has journeyed across the Glass Desert to aid an old friend. But the conflict that is tearing apart Firethorn follows her to the city. As a catastrophic comet descends upon the Bay, Demorn fights to untangle a web of conspiracies surrounding her friends and enemies alike. As she uncovers past sins from those she trusts the most, Demorn is slowly drawn into a desperate, last-ditch plan to avoid the destruction of everything, never sure where her loyalties lie. </i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><i>Meanwhile, Demorn’s old friend is developing into something more…</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">I started reading Demorn with the first volume, <i>Blade of Exile</i>, a few months ago and though my inability to force order on the events persisted through the second book, <i>City of Innocents</i>, and into this third volume, <i>Soul Fighter</i>, I continued to find myself caught up in each and every chapter and sentence. I felt like I'd found myself dropped in the middle of an intense car chase. I didn't know who was chasing whom but the cars were beautiful, the drivers were intense and hilarious, the passing landscape and buildings made it impossible to keep my eyes on the road and the special effects were frickin out of this world.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Oh, and did I mention since <i>Soul Fighter</i> hits many other POV's than just Demorn's, her wisecracks take on an ultra layer of humour when heard through the lens of someone else.</span></span><br />
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<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">... They say I'm not a </span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">werewolf, there's another name for it.'</span></span></i><br />
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><i>[Demorn] rolled her eyes. 'I doubt it's going to be as cool as "a werewolf" is.'</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">I also loved how easy it is to picture Demorn and the other characters. They have a very superhero feel and don't change their outfits every second page. If I could draw anything more than stick figures ... well stick Demorn will have to suffice. This reliable imagery coupled with 'signature' expressions give the story a fun comic book/video game feel.</span></span><br />
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Couldn't resist. Demorn is awesome and <i>Soul Fighter</i> is intense and addicting. Get some of that gymnasts chalk, coat up your hands and hold on.</div>
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I received a mobi copy from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.</div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span>West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-4825924259630775432017-01-15T09:50:00.004-08:002017-01-18T06:55:38.444-08:00WCBR Book of 2016, a Giveaway and Other Treasures!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Happy 2017!<br />
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This January brings a first for WCBR. Of all the great reads I enjoyed this year I have picked a favourite. I can be a choosy reader and don't have unlimited reading time (wishes I did!) so my year end tally ended at around 75 books read and of those I reviewed about a third. Thinking back to the one story which gave me the biggest feels and celebrated both an original and fantastic tale, my Book of 2016 is...<br />
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Dragon of Ash & Stars by H. Leighton Dickson<br />
*fireworks*<br />
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You are welcome to read my review <a href="http://westcoastbookreviews.blogspot.ca/2016/08/review-dragon-of-ash-stars-by-h.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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<i>Wait, you said something about a giveaway?</i></div>
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<b>Yasss!</b></div>
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I'm hosting a Canada/US giveaway of Dragon of Ash & Stars.</div>
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1st prize: A signed paperback copy</div>
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2nd prize: An audible.com copy</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">You can enter the giveaway <a href="http://gvwy.io/uojl9jk" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></b></div>
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<i>And something about Treasures?</i></div>
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<b>You bet!</b></div>
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Check out my reviews for some of my other favourites this year. One of the reviews has an easter egg. (You'll know it when you see it.) Just comment on the review to say you found the easter egg for a chance to win a $10 gift card for Amazon, Kobo, Play Store or iTunes. There will be one winner for this giveaway and my hope is you'll take a couple of these books for a spin or be adventurous and check out a new to you author! (This giveaway closes at midnight PDT on January 28, 2017)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9M1OfjBXBD4xw30qghZB6UDxy2Zgqwj0ce3-1oVHKsrsR684Q03QBzwaFrxE2LwY5A07Zks-m4OFjjqU4mRQbW9339JULfB4w8LssD6WY2vjO1A5IrLHyrqtEs7Db_TbSItuhuvSg99k/s320/32664360.jpg" target="_blank">Aurora Decima by Amanda Bridgeman</a></div>
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<a href="http://westcoastbookreviews.blogspot.ca/2016/12/review-life-in-blood-by-martyn-currill.html" target="_blank">A Life in Blood by Martyn Currill</a></div>
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<a href="http://westcoastbookreviews.blogspot.ca/2016/04/review-cold-stone-and-ivy-by-h-leighton.html" target="_blank">Cold Stone and Ivy by H. Leighton Dickson</a></div>
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<a href="http://westcoastbookreviews.blogspot.ca/2016/11/review-years-best-science-fiction-and.html" target="_blank">The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novellas 2016</a></div>
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<a href="http://westcoastbookreviews.blogspot.ca/2016/09/review-2017-young-explorers-adventure.html" target="_blank">2017 Young Explorer's Adventure Guide</a></div>
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<a href="http://westcoastbookreviews.blogspot.ca/2016/05/review-argenterra-by-donna-maree-hanson.html" target="_blank">Argenterra by Donna Maree Hanson</a></div>
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<a href="http://westcoastbookreviews.blogspot.ca/2016/09/review-translucid-by-zen-dipietro.html" target="_blank">Translucid by Zen DiPietro</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_2027919905"></span><span id="goog_2027919906"></span>Thank you so much for entering and keeping up with me past year. Enjoy all your reads in 2017.</div>
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<br />West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-60208348215248785972016-12-27T17:26:00.000-08:002017-06-24T08:49:42.948-07:00Review: A Life in Blood by Martyn Currill<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><i>When a young vampire hunter is saved by one of those he is sworn to destroy, he is forced to question everything he was taught. He soon learns that there is far more to vampires - and to the conflict he was born into - than he ever realised, and he finds himself siding with sworn enemies to pursue their cause. Read, in his own words, the story that altered his life as he recounts the night of his salvation and his entry into the hell that followed.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">I will start this review with a confession: I don't seek out vampire novels.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">*waits for the collective gasp*</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">It could be so many vampire novels rely on over-cliched vampire cliche's or stereotyping which make many vampire characters feel flat and unoriginal. (Not the case with this book. Gonna make that clear right now.)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">So when a writer guaranteed to wow me with amazing and original work and can make this grown woman fan-girl with a single post shared <i>A Life in Blood</i> by Martyn Currill, I'm not sure if I eeped or clicked first. The end result put this book in by hands, blurb unread.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">Diemos Black, vampire hunter, finds himself healing at the hands of the very creatures his family has hunted down and destroyed for centuries. I loved his voice as narrator. He is smooth, observant and capable of bluntness when called for. We aren't spared his pain nor his victories. His consistent way of telling reliably cements the many aspects of <i>A Life in Blood</i> together.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">I found out quite quickly that vampires and Currill's vampire lore are only a part of this story and the characters. Just as gender, age, experiences or appearance put a character together, being a vampire only describes each character only in part.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">I appreciated <i>A Life in Blood</i> as a British military action story first. It sets great characters on a solid foundation of hunter/vampire family history and couples the whole thing with exciting combat scenes, military tech and genuine relationships then finishes it off with enough flash and bang to leave me catching my breath at the end.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><i>A Life in Blood</i> is a solid military-fantasy (that's my word for it) that </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "\22 merriweather\22 " , "\22 georgia\22 " , serif;">confidently </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">marks all the X's in blood.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span>West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-26192321934190875992016-11-26T12:48:00.002-08:002016-11-26T13:02:53.523-08:00Review: The Impending Possession of Scarlet Wakebridge-Rosé by S.L. Saboviec<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><i>Scarlet Wakebridge-Rosé, busy executive and less-than-stellar mother and wife, has a problem that only an exorcist can solve. Except she’s not precisely a devout Catholic parishioner any longer, and to gain assistance from the Church means telling a whopping lie of omission.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Fortunately, she discovers Father Angelo Ambrosio, whose commitment to helping the afflicted means he’s willing to overlook the things Scarlet prefers to keep hidden. Unfortunately, his sordid past keeps him under a microscope with the bishop, who’s not so liberal in his views.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>But the demon harassing Scarlet is relentless. It makes its motives clear: in a previous life, she struck a bargain, promising it her body on her fiftieth birthday. Now, she and Angelo must unravel the mystery surrounding her forgotten past in order to stop the possession by next week or risk losing her to the depths of Hell forever.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>This stand-alone novel set in the Fallen Redemption universe extends the series to modern day. Enter a world where humans reincarnate, demons interfere in daily life, and the currents of fate carry us all to our destinies.</i></span><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i> </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Years ago, when I first realized I could choose to read (rather than what I was assigned at school) I was drawn to scary books and two of the first novels I read were The Amityville Horror and The Exorcist. That was back in grade seven and since then, hauntings and possessions still give me the absolute creeps so my choosing to read The Impending Possession of </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818;">Scarlet Wakebridge-Rosé surprised me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Scarlet's predicament comes across will the ominous tension and lurking danger I expected but for many more reasons than a cruel demon. We have Scarlet's challenges with her own religious identity and her struggling marriage, Father Ambrosio's struggle with his past and of course good and evil. Every aspect of this story is contrasted as good and evil, depending on which character you hear from. These contrasts, bound together, provide much of the tension and drama of the story.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I found this book smooth (and creepy) at the start. It definitely drew me in and held me there, so much so I read the whole way through in a couple of sittings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I loved Scarlet because she is my own age and like me, deeply loves her family even with her imperfections and fears. I also appreciated she didn't engage herself in any ridiculous butt-kicking or fights I know I couldn't pull off. She is a very capable, real and relatable woman.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I definitely recommend </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Impending Possession of </span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Scarlet Wakebridge-Rosé, a side by side novel with Saboviec's Fallen Redemption series which I look forward to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-35798157255777448402016-11-19T11:27:00.000-08:002016-11-19T12:08:57.534-08:00Review: Aurora: Decima by Amanda Bridgeman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">The tenth year war is coming . . .</span></i></div>
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<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Carrie Welles has survived more attacks than she can count, but each one has made her stronger. She refuses to be a victim anymore. While her nemesis, Sharley, continues to be a threat, she works with Harris and the Aurora team to protect the future, vowing to raise her children and fight as the soldier-mother she was destined to be.</span></i></div>
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<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Saul Harris has had visions of the Zeta ships hitting Earth years before they’re due, but has no proof to warn the UNF. Scraping together a small contingent of Alpha units, he prepares for the onslaught as best he can. He embraces his gift and ‘connection’ with Welles and they dig further into his ancestry, only to have more haunting truths come to light.</span></i></div>
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<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">As the invasion approaches, the new Aurora team members must find their place in the crew, while old team members reunite. They must band together with the Originals and their fellow Space and Earth Duty troops if they are to defend Earth against this attack.</span></i></div>
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<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">But is it too little too late? Have Harris and Carrie done enough to protect their future? As they fight for survival against the Zetas in a battle that stretches across the UNF Space Zone, they soon realise the price of their freedom might be higher than they were expecting to pay.</span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">I received an ARC! (Squeee!!!!) And sent it to my Kindle and opened it up. I admired the great cover balancing the hope of the upturned dishes with the darkness and the night sky and the ominous bold title font I've come to see as the series brand.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Then I put it away for three whole days. A few reasons. I didn't want it to rush to that place of waiting for the next and being unable to read it again for the first time. Also, this series has frequently torn my heart out, tossed it on the road and stomped on it, occasionally leaving it there to be run over in traffic and lit on fire, before tenderly making it whole and slipping it back in my chest. I know what will happen, I'll read headlong into catastrophe and I want to, for sure, I just wanted the anticipation to build. For this series, I'm a literary thrill seeking danger junkie. It's become an Event with a capital 'E.' Some books I read because I'd be reading something anyway. I read Aurora because of the emotions.</span>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Aurora: Decima</i> did not let me down.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Decima</i> rushes fast forward through a decade in time to the early arrival of a Zeta invasion and focuses on what the Aurora series does best - character and action driven science fiction. With book six in the series, Bridgeman took her foundation of characters and their relationships to the next level. They grew from well developed to complex and where the action went (and there's a lot,) I felt the added intensity of my attachment to Aurora's crew.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Additionally, I've noticed the growth in Bridgeman's writing has been used to full advantage in handling the growing complexity of her plots. In <i>Darwin</i>, book one, there was a bluntness to her prose. Her writing felt a touch gritty and rough around the edges which was perfect for the calculated violence which introduced the darker scifi side consistent through the series. I experienced emptiness, foreboding and failure as she pulled us through, sometimes with not much more than a brittle sense of safety to catch our breath and step in to the next chapter.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">While Bridgeman's voice held fast through <i>Pegasus</i>, <i>Meridian</i>, <i>Centralis</i> and <i>Eden</i> and contrasted the growing connections and sense of family among Aurora's crew with danger and those very dark sub-plots, she added a delightful smoothness to her prose. <i>Decima</i> is by far the most ambitious in the series in terms of number of characters, places, subplots and time and holds together beautifully. I found myself dug into a story I knew would sting me (that whole heart thing) and was rewarded when it did.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Favourite scene? The make-up argument. I went back and re-read it three times. Also re-read the big battle at the end. I continue to love and recommend this series.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">At time of review publication, you can start the series with <i>Aurora: Darwin</i> <a href="https://www.instafreebie.com/free/uZTUH">here</a> with a copy direct to your inbox.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">You can also read my review of Aurora: Darwin <a href="http://westcoastbookreviews.blogspot.ca/2015/03/review-aurora-darwin-by-amanda-bridgeman.html">here</a>.</span>West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-54932194263977970432016-11-07T12:25:00.003-08:002016-11-07T14:27:34.572-08:00Review: Strange Magic by James A. Hunter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Yancy Lazarus is having a bad day: there’s a bullet lodged in his butt cheek, his face looks like the site of a demolition derby, and he’s been saran-wrapped to a banquet table. He never should have answered the phone. Stupid bleeding heart—helping others in his circles is a good way to get dead.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Just ask the gang members ripped to pieces by some kind of demonic nightmare in LA. As a favor to a friend, Yancy agrees to take a little looksee into the massacre and boom, he’s stuck in a turf war between two rival gangs, which both think he’s pinch-hitting for the other side. Oh, and there’s also a secretive ass-hat with some mean ol’ magical chops and a small army of hyena-faced, body- snatching baddies. It might be time to seriously reconsider some of his life choices.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Yancy is a bluesman, a rambler, a gambler, but not much more. Sure, he can do a little magic—maybe even more than just a little magic—but he knows enough to keep his head down and stay clear of freaky-deaky hoodoo like this business in LA. Somehow though, he’s been set up to take a real bad fall—the kind of very permanent fall that leaves a guy with a toe tag. Unless, of course, he can find out who is responsible for the gangland murders, make peace in the midst of the gang feud, and take out said magical ass-hat before he hexes Yancy into an early retirement. Easy right? Stupid. Bleeding. Heart.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">So I requested this one since it has a male MC. I really enjoyed the last (and only) testosterone kicking UF I read so why the hell not. Plus there's smoking, drinking and if I cross my fingers and wish like a teen girl at a boy band concert there's </span><span style="font-size: 14px;">likely to be lots of bad words, stupid judgement and broken bones. Maybe some squishy and gross indestructible monsters, unrealistic bearing of unbearable injuries and male vs. male banter I'd never get away with during an evening out with the ladies.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Let me tell you, crossing fingers pays off just fine, thank you very much.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Honest to God, just a few pages in I've been battered by all of the above in addition to an unfortunate stitch in my side and chunk of something lumpy half way down my throat following the Noob-male-UF reader mistake of snorting back a laugh.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Yancey Lazarus just doesn't let up. If he isn't being beaten, shot, lit on fire or driving a knife into your tickle spot with his non-stop self depreciating rants he's running for his life bemoaning all the stupidity leading up his flight.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">Will this book hurt? Yep. A lot. You're gonna like it too.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">Thank me later.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for my review.</span></span>West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-41089049285261785802016-11-05T07:28:00.000-07:002016-11-05T07:28:04.396-07:00Review: The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novellas 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>The second volume of Prime Books’ annual anthology series collecting some of the year’s best novella-length science fiction and fantasy. Novellas, longer than short stories but shorter than novels, are a rich rewarding literary form that can fully explore tomorrow’s technology, the far reaches of the future, thought-provoking imaginings, fantastic worlds, and entertaining concepts with all the impact of a short story as well as the detailed depth of a novel. Gathering a wide variety of excellent science fiction and fantasy, this anthology of “short novels” showcases the talents of both established masters and new writers.</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">If you think novellas are snack sized pieces of full-meal novels, be prepared with an empty stomach for this awesome collection.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">The 2016 volume of Year's Best Science Fiction and Novellas will leave you unhitching your belt a notch (or three) and you might want to pace yourself for this assortment of dark themes and tight and </span></span><span style="font-family: "merriweather", "georgia", serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">thorough</span></span><span style="font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> world building.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Each novella is so well done and dense with well formed plots they have as much action and personality as I'd expect to find in a novel. This gives each of these stories a sense of urgency and completeness we don't always see in this size of works.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">My absolute favourite character is Maurice in <i>The Bone Swans of Amandale.</i> He's a loyal and sarcastic rat-shifter and in his own way, an adorable and (as you'd expect from a rat) kinda gross anti-hero.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">This wide selection of dark novellas is well worth exploring and feels more like a bundle of complete novels than shorter works. I'll be diving in to the 2015 edition and keeping my eye out for the next one.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Highly recommended.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">I received my copy from Netgalley.</span>West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107470937841226446.post-30353702888092548122016-11-04T12:53:00.003-07:002016-11-05T07:13:22.996-07:00Review: Jumper's Hope by Carol Van Natta<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Reunited lovers must outwit a ruthless government agent, or their rumored deaths will be real this time.</i> </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><br />
<i style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Two retired elite special forces veterans discover their battles aren't behind them after all. Someone considers them loose ends, and will stop at nothing to erase their knowledge of a secret government project. Their service left them both with wounds that will never heal. Do they still have what it takes to survive?</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><br />
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<b style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Kerzanna Nevarr's</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"> elite special forces days of wearing Jumper mech suits and piloting Citizen Protection Services' ships are long gone. The dark legacy of her service forced her to learn to live a quiet life. And she had to do so alone, without the lover who died before her eyes. </span><br />
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<b style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Jess Orowitz</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">, veteran of CPS's secret spy organization, Kameleon Corps, made the mistake of trusting his superiors. He's paid a horrific price—fractured memories, constant headaches, and the death of the only woman he ever loved. Retirement on a quiet farming planet has kept him in an emotional deep freeze, but safe. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">But now, Kerzanna is being hunted for reasons she can’t guess, and even more stunning, the man who helps her escape is Jess, her supposedly dead lover. For Jess, discovering Kerzanna is still alive is only the first of the lies and betrayal he uncovers. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Worst of all, their hunter is someone with CPS intel and lethal resources. Someone who believes the only obstacles standing in the way of success are one broken-down ex-Jumper and a fractured Kameleon. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Together, are they strong enough to escape death one more time? </span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jumper's Hope, the fourth in Van Natta's Central Galactic Concordance series, keeps a firm grip on the original world building in its predecessors while expanding in to new characters and adventure. I found it delightfully action filled and loaded with surprises I didn't see coming though they made complete sense when the story threw me in to them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I loved that her crop of bad guys is even more endearing and creepy than we first ran in to them. (How does she do that?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Also, and I'm going to put this out here, Van Natta is a master at making you fall in love with her characters entirely by showing them to you through the eyes of another. She fills her characters with so much empathy and understanding of each other, as I reader I felt completely immersed in their relationships so when the bad things happened (and the did) there was a fantastic double (triple) whammy of worry for everyone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I completely and whole heartedly recommend this series.</span></div>
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<br />West Coast Book Reviewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14580365909919015416noreply@blogger.com0