REVIEW: And All the Stars by Andrea K. Höst

And All the Stars by Andrea K. Höst
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The plot was interesting, the protagonist was decent, and that’s virtually all the compliments I can give because I didn’t care much for the book. For a book that took place during an apocalypse, the mood was oddly sedated. I blamed the writing.

+ the writing

Superfluous details made the story dull. For example, the book began with Madeleine trying to free herself from a disaster which readers later learned was due to an alien attack, and these attacks were happening all around the world. Sounds like an exciting start, right? But it wasn’t when I read it. I didn’t even blink when Madeleine found herself literally turning Blue and manifesting powers, narrowly avoiding death because very few survived the mutation upon which readers also learn those attacks were biological. I should have felt EMOTIONS, but I didn’t. The first few chapters were dull.

The writing did become more streamlined when characters arrived on the scene and Madeleine was no longer by her lonesome self, but it was never enough to my liking. Throughout my reading, I picked through dialogue and action, trying to filter out extraneous details. I was at least blessed by the fact that the characters were not a frustration and had common sense.

+ the characters

I liked Madeleine. She could have been stronger and less aloof, but she strived whenever there was an obstacle and she never stupidly refused help. I liked how towards the end when the going got tough, the tough got going, Madeleine was tough. I only wish it didn’t took till the end for her to assert herself.

I can’t say I liked the other characters because I never connected with any of them. Everyone read like a blur to the extent that I didn’t even know if character so-and-so was a girl or boy, and honestly couldn’t care less. I didn’t know how many were in the group. The only character I ever got a good grasp on was Emily only because she was the youngest of the group, a fact frequently pointed out, and Fisher only because he was Madeleine’s love interest.

In addition to the writing, the characterization left a lot to be desired.

+ the plot

I didn’t like the way the plot dished its answers. Several questions were raised in the beginning of the book but very little answers were given, and in the times they were given it was by piecemeal. For example, it took a couple pages before readers learn the attack was because of aliens, and a couple chapters more to learn, yup, it was for certain, the world was being invaded by aliens. When the climax hit, the plot dumped its entire load of answers. The plot development was clumsy to say the least but finally I was no longer in the dark and allowed to see the big picture the plot stubbornly kept secret. However, one thing that continued to bemuse me through the ending was the lack of government presence, that is its trivial almost nonexistent role, because civilization in Australia hadn’t collapsed completely to the extend of anarchy and everyone was on their own.

I didn’t like how the ending was when the book finally started to shine. The plot took much time to build up the suspense and couldn’t seem to sustain suspense beyond a few scenes. It didn’t feel like much of an apocalyptic fiction. The twists reminded me of The Host by Stephenie Meyer. Go figure that it was the romance that grabbed most of my attention.

In Conclusion

I rate And All the Stars 2-stars for it was okay. Honestly, I think the book would have been better off if the twists were revealed in the beginning and accept the fact that the book was like the indie version of The Host. In other words, it would have been more interesting as a YA science fiction romance than a YA apocalyptic fiction.

Goodreads | Amazon

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REVIEW: Fighting Gravity by Leah Petersen

Fighting Gravity by Leah Petersen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The world building fell flat on its ass. The romance shovelled me crap. The protagonist tripped into a vexing stereotype.

+ the world building

Classism was a central theme in the world building, and it took no effort for me to believe in the fictional world. The bad news was that after the world building in the first few chapters there was no more world building thereafter. It was like building a house but stopping short of putting the plumbing.

The world building boiled down to the following: rich people were evil, poor people were perpetual victims, and the smart people were pawns of the rich people and indifferent to society ills. I understood that the book was trying to shine a light on the plight of the poor, but it did no service by offhandedly demonizing everyone but the poor.

What bothered me the most was the Imperial Intellectual Complex where the Empire segregated all their smart people. While it was believable as an academia, I didn’t like the disassociation between intellectualism and humanity.

+ the romance

If the romance was D/s, then I wouldn’t have minded the severe imbalance of power in the couple’s relationship, but it was not D/s. Peter’s treatment of Jacob pissed me off. Things were not a disaster in the beginning of their relationship, but they got very messy towards the end of the book, especially when Peter threw Jacob in jail and sentenced him to death but changed his mind at the last minute (because Reasons) and exiled him instead. That was just drama for drama’s sake, furthered by the matter that Peter was not a fully fleshed out character so his actions brought a sense of contrivance to the story.

The romance wasn’t romantic and endearing. Far from it. It was dysfunctional and abusive. There wasn’t even smut as a consolation; all the sex scenes happened off-page. I was expected to take the romance seriously. So seriously I did, and I did not like it one bit.

The couple had too many issues. None of them were resolved and very little were even addressed. I wouldn’t exactly label the romance as insta-love but it might as well have been given how I was led to believe that love will somehow, like fucking magic, conquer everything for the couple to be together.

Also, the glaring issue of heirs was never brought up. WTF. It was great that same sex relationships was a non-issue in the story but what about heirs? The book world-built how the royal family was uber important and how Peter was one the last few members. Thus, it seemed natural that the issue of heirs would have been addressed down the road. It never was, and it amounted to a plot hole.

In sum, this was not a romance of two people in love. This was a romance of a selfish, power-tripped Emperor and his naive, idealist scientist in an unbearably angsty relationship where they happened to feel moments of love.

+ the protagonist

I didn’t like how Jacob was stereotyped as a naive, idealist scientist. A prodigy? Yes. But smart? No. It was so pathetic how it took very little effort for the bad guys to bring Jacob down because all Jacob have to do was be himself. The story was strictly told in Jacob’s 1st person POV which meant I was supposed to be sympathetic, and I was in the beginning. After all, the story started with him as a child being forcibly taken away from his family in the slums. However, I quickly got disillusioned when Jacob grew into a reckless and thoughtless person with passing chapters.

Jacob never once seriously considered the consequences of being involved with Peter. FFS, his love interest was the Emperor, the most important guy in the story’s universe, the guy who can send him to prison if he’s displeased. Jacob didn’t think with his head, he thought with his dick.

Furthermore, Jacob treated his girlfriend like shit. I didn’t particularly see it as cheating but I could definitely understand if people did. Jacob should have firmly ended things with Kirti before he left the Imperial Intellectual Complex to be with Jacob. Instead, he let his relationship with Kirti remain ambiguous and took the coward's way out of letting the long distance disconnect their relationship. It was shitty of Jacob to leave things hanging with Kirti. Seriously shitty because previously Kirti and Jacob were childhood friends, like brother and sister, long before Peter ever came into the scene.

Later on, when he and Peter were on a break (if you can called your boyfriend almost killing you and then changing his mind and exiling you to a cesspool of a prison instead AND putting a restraining order against you a “break”) he used Kirti as a convenient bedmate. Though Kirti was willing, it was a bad move because their relationship was frayed and it didn’t need sex to complicate things. When he got back with Peter, once again Jacob failed to tell Kirti face-to-face. Even though they weren’t officially boyfriend and girlfriend the second time around, it was still shitty of Jacob, leveled up from seriously shitty to abysmally shitty. Jacob deserved a kick in the groin.

Thus, in addition to being a naive intellectual stereotype, Jacob was a dipshit. Admittedly, Jacob did try to improve himself and make amends, but it was far, far from enough. He never truly learned from his mistakes, and they were dumbass mistakes. I didn’t care how many things Jacob invented and how many times he revolutionized science, the dude was thoroughly a fuckwit.

I also did not like that the story positioned Jacob as a Jesus who would bring salvation to the poor. Suffice to say, instead of challenging classism as it intended, the book made things horrendously classist.

In Conclusion

I rate Fighting Gravity 2-stars for it was okay, and I’m being lenient. The book pushed my anger button more times than I care for.

Goodreads | Amazon

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REVIEW: Glen & Tyler's Honeymoon Adventure by J.B. Sanders

Glen & Tyler's Honeymoon Adventure by J.B. Sanders
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Over the top and gratuitous — I love it!

+ the characters

Glen and Tyler rocked. I liked how the book practically took no time in making the two knobheads realize they loved each other. The couple was adorable. I liked how Tyler quickly revealed himself as a secret genius. I liked how Glen balanced Tyler out by keeping Tyler down to earth, nice, and essentially from becoming into the evil lunatic stereotype that runs in Tyler’s dysfunctional family.

I liked how not all of Tyler’s dysfunctional family were evil and even though they were not evil they were still a shade of lunatic. As for Tyler’s exes, it was heartening to see that not all of them were evil exes; I wished Stacey stayed throughout the book. There weren’t enough strong female characters in the story for my liking among the supporting characters which largely consisted of dudes and their guns.

+ the plot

The plot also rocked. It was a long book, but things were happening so fast that I never felt it was long and after I finished the book I wanted to read the sequel immediately. The plot didn’t start till halfway, which sounds like a bad thing and usually it is but in this book it was not. I enjoyed the couple’s little adventures as they slay random homophobes, save the world of hockey, and use their money to make the world a better place. I loved the enchilada of revenge fantasies and wish-fulfillment.

When the plot finally started, the thriller kicked in. I loved how Glen and Tyler always faced the danger together with — this is greatly important — open communications unlike in the other mm-romantic suspenses I usually read where the couple are apart, whether it be physical or mental distance or both, and they don’t share feelings and plans. In those romances, the suspense serves as the vehicle for the couple to reach a place of trust and love — not in this book. I liked the fact that book began with the two guys knowing each other for years and thus had a solid foundation of trust already built.

I loved how the good guys were on top of the danger with the planning, doing, and, most important, succeeding. It was a constant pleasure watching the bad guys get their comeuppance. It almost read like a video game where the warrior goes on a quest, collects allies along the way, defeats monsters, finds treasures to gets better equipment and magic, and ultimately rescues the princess or saves the kingdom or whatever the mission of the greater good is. However, in this story, the couple were together and rich — obscenely rich — and powerful from the start so it was more like a video game with cheats activated, and all that was needed of me was to sit back and enjoy the ride as they “PWN” one enemy after the next.

Only once did the plot’s over the top-ness got too over the top for me, and that was when couple and their bodyguards flew coach. During that scene, the plot paused for a couple pages and went out of its way to spotlight a political issue in the form of a random, woe-is-them gay couple. While I couldn’t agree more about the political commentary, I didn’t appreciate it. The airplane scene was cringe-worthy preachy and hideously contrived.

Other than that, the only thing would I have changed about the plot was the smut, to be specific its lack thereof, being the incorrigible smut fan that I am. The series spin-off the smut as erotica short stories. However, the short stories are illustrated which I am 100% on board.

+ the editing

But unlike smut, editing is not optional. The book, or at least its Smashwords edition, required another round of editing. I spotted several typos:

10.66% into the book: “Looks like Tyler fantasies are a Merriwether pass-time.” should be pastime.

11.69%: Glen’s Dad rolled back a little on his heals. should be heels

43.40%: It began to dawn on the reports that Tyler knew all their names. should be reporters

51.96%: Two instances of the name “Maureen” when it should be “Mary”

59.41%: “I surrender,” he said in a think accent. should be thick

67.32%: They never dock there, and probably haven’t ever seen it’s shores should be its

69.95%: The he raised his hands over his head. should be Then

And there's probably a few more I didn't notice. But what irked me was not the typos, it was the formatting. Paragraph indentations were haywire. The ebook was rendered readable only because of my magical reading app which super-thankfully allowed me to read annoyance-free and with undiminished enjoyment.

In Conclusion

I rate Glen & Tyler’s Honeymoon Adventure 4-stars for I really liked it, bumped up to a star for its re-readability. The book was a huge cheer booster. A big grin forcibly took over my face as I read it.

Update: 29 May 2013. Formatting issue is fixed.

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REVIEW: Witchstruck by Victoria Lamb

Witchstruck by Victoria Lamb
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I vacillated between 3-stars and 2-stars for this book.

+ why 3-stars

The book deserves 3-stars because the plot was always in motion and awash with political intrigue. I was pleasantly surprised that the book began in media res where Meg, her witchy aunt, and the imprisoned Elizabeth were conducting haruspex to divine Elizabeth’s future, specifically whether or not she would become queen one day. Right off the bat, readers immediately encounter the first of many conspiracies. I liked that the first few chapters were fast-forward telling of how Meg met and became part of Elizabeth’s inner circle instead of pause-the-present flashbacks. I liked it because it kept the focus on the present and not on the past which would have otherwise sluggish the story.

I liked that part of the suspense was always the fear that Meg would be discovered as a witch because then she would be burned at the stake. I was surprised when it actually happened and that it happened in the middle of the story as opposed to near the end. It was just one of the many examples of how the plot did not dilly dally moving towards important, crossroad scenes. The book never failed to convince me that the stakes were high and that it only takes one oopsy for everything to crash and burn (puns intended).

The book executed the political intrigue very well in the sense that things were in shades of gray, barring the few outright bad guys. I empathized with Elizabeth’s plight but I also empathized with her opponents’. I liked the fact the book kept things neutral, e.g. the Spanish and Catholic were not all invaders/bad guys and the English were not all pitiful oppressed citizens/good guys. The book left readers to decide for themselves. I also liked the fact that even Elizabeth’s family were split on the political issues because it added another level of realism to the book. Suffice to say, the book was no fluffy YA historical with a paranormal twist. The danger was real, the issues presented were serious.

Finally, I liked that there was no real love triangle. The book did flirt with the trope, to the extent that there were 2 love triangles by the end, but it was an obvious plot device to force Meg and Alejandro to face the fact that the dopes love each other and should stop kidding themselves. There was never any serious rival that could throw their burgeoning relationship off track.

+ why 2-stars

While there were many reasons to like the book, there were many other reasons that kept the book a few steps short of the goal. The biggest reason was Meg, who can be frustrating at times. The girl had a tendency to let her emotions get the better of her and make poor decisions. I liked that she’s aware of it, but I didn’t like that she didn’t do anything to prevent it. Admittedly, Meg does try to fix her mistakes but had she simply set aside a couple minutes and think things through she wouldn’t have made the mistakes in the first place. It was not as if Meg was a stupid girl. In fact, she was bright which was why she disappointed me so much. Meg was not a weak heroine, but she was not a particularly strong heroine either. The only thing that managed to somewhat redeem her in my eyes, that stopped me from being indifferent to her, was that she at least accepted help when she sought to fix her mistakes and that she didn’t take long to realize her true feelings for Alejandro.

Speaking of Alejandro, I also had an issue with him. His characterization was slippery. I could never get a firm grasp of Alejandro’s reasons for doing things even though he revealed them at the end. His reasons raised more questions than they answered. He was such an odd character to the extent that he didn’t felt like a character; he felt more like a vehicle of the plot.

I also didn’t care for Meg and Alejandro as a couple. He’s a priest-in-training and Spanish. She’s a witch and English. He’s cursed by a witch. Her blessing as a witch can be a curse. The couple reminded me of Romeo and Juliet; I despise such romance.

Finally, there was a deus ex machina near the end of the plot. Meg almost got killed and but by chance saved herself at the end with her peerless witchy power. However, there were witnesses, of which she made enemies. What did she do to fix things? She cast a wide-area amnesia spell. Now, I wouldn’t have minded the deus ex machina had Meg simply cast the spell a couple chapters ago because then she would have fixed the problems sooner and NOT almost got herself kill and rely on chance to save herself at the last minute. Not to mention saving the people she wanted to save which was why she almost got herself killed. FFS.

In Conclusion

I rate Witchstruck 2-stars for it was okay. It was good book, but here’s the thing — it could have easily been a great book. That said, I still recommend the book because it’s one of the better Young Adult books I have read.

Goodreads | Amazon

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REVIEW: The Darwin Elevator by Jason M. Hough

The Darwin Elevator by Jason M. Hough
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

CAUTION: minor spoilers

The only thing that kept me invested in the book was the plot. The one character I rooted for died at the end. The other two characters that I liked were purely supporting characters; combined they contributed to less than 10% of the book. Everyone else was unremarkable and nettling. Let’s just say I was a little surprised and greatly disappointed that a few of those characters were still alive by the end of the book.

+ the world building

Good news first, the science fiction was accessible. It didn’t take but a few chapters for me to understand the world building, and I was only passively reading. Whenever the book introduced a new thing, it immediately and succinctly explained what that thing was.

Now for the bad news: I found part of the world building shaky. To be specific, I found it very hard to believe that the immunes were near the bottom of society hierarchy and not at the top. As the very few, lucky people who were immune against the apocalyptic alien disease, hence the name, they could live, travel, and, most importantly, scavenge outside of the bubble city. The normal people, a.k.a. the non-immunes, needed the immunes way more than the immunes needed them. However, the immunes were greatly and inexplicably more underprivileged than the wealthy and powerful who were non-immunes. It made little sense. The immunes had all the potential to be the wealthy and the powerful, yet they were only a little better off than the masses.

In short, the world building positioned immunes as the underdogs, and I couldn’t accept that bullshit.

+ the characters

I also couldn’t accept Skyler as a protagonist. He was utterly lacking. The book tried to portray him as self-deprecating but it just came off as low self-esteem to me. It vexed me that for someone who was an immune and a natural leader, he was not a person of power and couldn’t be more disinterested. I didn’t like how Blackfield pushed Skylar around when in my belief it should have been the other way around.

Blackfield was a one-note villain, a thug boss whose ambitions greatly surpassed his wits. I don’t know how the dude stayed alive for such a long time. Hell, I was very surprised that he survived at the end because indications led me to believe that the dude would perish by middle of the story or, if he was lucky, by the last quarter of the story. Lo and behold, he turned out to be the main villain, and I was greatly disappointed that our heroes didn’t successfully eliminate the dirtbag.

Neil was my favorite character, the one I rooted for, because he was a person of power and didn’t hesitate to do what needed to be done, even if some of those things were ethically sketchy and for his own interests. There were times when it looked like the old dude was the main villain but I was never convinced that he was because the things that he did sat right with me. He was the only one who realized that the apocalypse was perhaps the beginning and part of something bigger, and goddamn it he would prepare for it, even if he had to start a civil war, though in his defense it was bound to happen anyway because of Blackfield and Russell. I was very surprised that at the end it was Neil, the manipulative mastermind, who died and not Blackfield.

Another thing that surprised me was how Tania remained wholesomely intact and stepped up to fill Neil’s place at the end after he died because for near entirety of the story the woman was a complete damsel in distress. Tania was a beautiful smart scientist and one of the few people that Neil trusted and allowed in the know. However, the woman was head-banging fragile and gullible. It was as if she was walking around with a paper stuck on her back that say “Manipulate me. Victimize me. Make me your pawn!” Oh look, here comes Skyler taking an interest and becoming her white knight in shining armor. Suffice to say, I didn’t like Tania. By the time character growth decided to wave its wand on her like a fairy godmother, it was too late for me to care, that is I couldn’t care less about her fate. If anything, the story would have done me a favor if Tania was done away and Kelly or Samantha would step in as the leading lady of the story.

Kelly was Neil’s right-hand woman, his go-to fixer, while Samantha was Skyler’s. The two ladies were the definition of kickass bitches, and I love them! I was disappointed that they were not given a greater role and not part of the multiple third person POVs the story was told in. No, those POVs, except Neil’s, went to weak ass characters.

+ the plot

The plot was told in multiple 3rd person POVs, limited to less than a handful of characters with Skyler as the predominant POV. While I strongly prefer exclusive 1st person POV, the shifting 3rd person POVs worked to the story’s favor because it minimized my vexation against the characters I didn’t like.

Due the shifting 3rd person POVs, I expected to suffer disjointed plot lines for a chunk of the book but to my pleasure I was wrong. The plot lines from each of the characters started to converge from the get-go. It took me almost no time to discern the relationship between the characters and their relevancy.

The plot was always in motion, and more importantly it ran with a clear goal. I did skim a few pages towards the end but it was only because I ran out of patience with certain characters and not because I was bored. The plot regularly tossed action scenes and in its down time, clandestine scenes were afoot.

In Conclusion

I rate The Darwin Elevator 2-stars for it was okay. I liked the plot but I prefer strong characters over a strong plot, though honestly a good book should have both. The book did excite me enough to read the sequel.

If you’re looking for a post-apocalyptic fiction that is heavy on the science fiction part, rather than the survival part, and takes place outside of America, try The Darwin Elevator, which takes place half in Australia and half in space for its main settings.

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REVIEW: The Prince of Galerir by Anna Lee

The Prince of Galerir by Anna Lee
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

With an appealing blurb, I was sure this book would be a shoo-in for an enjoyable read. It was not. By the last third of the book, I skimmed in a rush to get it over with.

I didn’t mind the cheesiness because it caged the angst. I didn’t even mind — much — the ridiculous melodrama that rolled in halfway through the story and flooded it through the ending. What I did mind — strongly — was the preachiness, which became the straw that broke the camel’s back. While I couldn’t agree more about what the story preached, I didn’t appreciate it. The moral messages were anvilicious and unwanted.

I felt uneasy with the fact that the all the bad guys were only bad guys because they were homophobes and, on the opposite end, all the good guys were only good guys because they were not. The story was so troublingly black and white that I couldn’t swallow it. I wanted a fluffy fantasy, not something that was the equivalent of a bible fable. It was the equivalent of a bible fable. *gag*

In Conclusion

I rate The Prince of Galerir 1-star for I didn’t like it. What a shame. Excise the preachiness and there was a great chance I would have liked it.

Goodreads | Amazon

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REVIEW: Dragon Run by Patrick Matthews

Dragon Run by Patrick Matthews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dragon Run was exciting and fun!

+ the plot

The first half was good. I liked how exposition was conveyed without tipping into info-dumping territory. Never once did the story feel slow going. In fact, there was always suspense which surprised and thrilled me.

Once the plot hit the half mark, it ran faster. There was CONSPIRACY. It appeared Al’s induction as a rank zero triggered converging schemes into motion. Hot damn!

When the plot reached last quarter mark, it ran furiously. Revelations struck, bam! War against the evil dragons began, bam! The hero rushed to accomplish his mission before all hope was lost, bam, bam, bam! Action, action, action. I loved it!

+ the characters

I liked Al a lot. He had a lot of anxieties and insecurities in the beginning but near halfway in the book he began to discover courage, resourcefulness, and this thing called thinking on your own. He began to grow into the hero I hoped he would become. I liked how what made him a hero was his inner strength, not his status as a rank zero which thankfully never devolved into a special snowflake.

What I loved most about Al was the fact that he learned from his mistakes, in particular how he continued to practice his sword skill — on his own, without anyone’s provocation — because he knew it was survival skill he must learn. A hero learning from his mistakes and trying to be smart and practical? Say what? Hell yes! The kid rocked the story in the last half with his awesomeness. I never felt like he was out of his depth or too young for the task. Hot damn, Al put a lot of the adult heroes I read in my adult books to shame. A lot, a lot. Ocean wide.

I also liked Al’s friends. I loved that Trillia and Wisp reappeared by the half mark and teamed up with Al to save him which quickly turned into save the world from the evil dragons. Two boys, one girl, one mission to the save world; it’s a true and tried formula.

I liked Al, and Wisp was okay, but I loved Trillia the most! She was a lady, but she was no damsel in distress. If anything, she would be the knight in shining armor on a white horse who would ride to rescue her dudes in distress, Al and Wisp. I would not have been surprised if that happen in some form. She was so awesome but fortunately for Al she never shone so much that she took the spotlight away him, although to be honest I wouldn’t have minded it much.

I pitied Wisp. He was just pitifully average in comparison to his heroic friends, but I’m glad he turned out to be a true friend and a helpful person (read: not a burden) in the mission. I quickly forgave Wisp for his single act of betrayal against Al.

+ niggles

The characters were great but there some niggles with the supporting characters, besides the one with Wisp for being pitifully average. Readers never learn who Lady Sapphire truly was or what specific role Al’s father played in regard to the Third, a clandestine militia who went anti-Dragons because their Dragon lord betrayed them. It was not as if there was a lack of opportunities because there were many. Then there was Al’s sister who was always mentioned but never in-depth as if she was insignificant which struck me as odd. I liked that the plot always kept things moving, but it did to an extent where I felt like an inch of depth was sacrificed in the process.

My last niggle was the ending. It was great, but I wished there was an epilogue to extend the celebratory mood and allow me to see the aftermath.

In Conclusion

I rate Dragon Run 4-stars for I really liked it. I decided to bump it a star because it was a fun read which I don’t get enough of lately, especially when one of the last books I recently read had a protagonist who was only a year older than Al but it was a brutal read. Dragon Run was a great followup after that book.

I recommend Dragon Run if you’re looking for a fun read. Don’t let the fact that it’s a Middle Grade book deter you if you don’t usually read Middle Grade like me. If you love the movie How To Train Your Dragon and desire a similar entertainment, try Dragon Run.

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REVIEW: Passion's Storm by A.J. Marcus

Passion's Storm by A.J. Marcus
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The story didn’t meet my expectations.

+ what I liked

I did like the characters to a small extent. I liked how Daniel, aka Torrent, wasn’t a complete pity party after his breakup with Burt as I feared. I liked Corran, aka Redwood, for his patience and persistence with Daniel. The smut, one lengthy scene in the middle and a short one at the end totaling two scenes, was hot. That was about the extent of my like for the story.

+ what I didn’t like

What didn’t work for me was the writing. It was easy to read and competently edited, but it didn’t suit the action-filled, superheroes-packed plot. A consistent strong sense of action was terribly lacking despite the shit that hit the fan.

My biggest issue with the story was the setting. I didn’t like the superhero organization. I thought they should have cut Daniel more slack for his brutality against supervillain Blaze. They shouldn’t even have put him on the front line when they knew he was an emotional wreck.

Hell, his breakup wouldn’t have happened in the first place if the organization provided protection details for the superheroes and their lovers whose identities got leaked and made public to everyone, especially the bad guys. What kind of superhero organization is it when loved ones of identity compromised superheroes keep getting kidnapped, held hostage, tortured, etc.? Bad enough that they suffered a security leak, worse that they implemented no contingencies after the fact. Management should have been fired across the board.

Later, the story revealed that one of the management may have colluded with a supervillain. It was not an outright betrayal, but enough to warrant an investigation and suspension. Unfortunately, it never happened, and the issue was never addressed after the revelation. I understood that Daniel and Corran getting together was focus of the story, not the conspiracy plot line, but it would have been nice if the plot line had small steps towards a resolution.

In Conclusion

I rate Passion’s Storm 2-stars for it was okay. It was solid superhero story and a nice romance, but it just didn’t excite me. Bummer.

Goodreads | Amazon

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REVIEW: The Narrowing Path by David J. Normoyle

The Narrowing Path by David J. Normoyle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I did not expect how violent and gruesome the book was going to be, especially not one where the protagonist is a 13 years old. I read many YA dystopian books, but The Narrowing Path was certainly one of the most violent I’ve ever read.

The book echoed Lord of the Flies and, for a more contemporary example, The Hunger Games. Case in point, the prologue showcased a macabre scene of dead kids. Fortunately, the imagery was brief and not as graphic as it could have been. However, it was only the beginning of the horrors to come because more kids would die throughout the story. If I was a bleeding heart kind of reader, I would have bled to death and beyond because so many died.

I was disgusted. I was horrified. I was depressed. Dark emotions swirled in me as I witnessed the survival game the boys of noble birth, cleped Greens, were forced to participate in. A part of me wished I remained as confused as I was in the beginning so I did not have to face the cruelty in crystal clear vision.

The Writing

It was a dizzying experience in the beginning because the story had a learning curve due to the lack of exposition. It expected readers to learn what was going on and what the made-up words mean by piecing context. Eventually I understood things, and part of the things I understood was the “life’s an unfair bitch” full of insurmountable shit that Bowe faced.

The Characters

+ the protagonist

I really felt for Bowe. I pitied him so much that I felt like I have used up every piece of my body and soul to do so because by the end I felt hollow.

Nonetheless, sometimes the kid frustrated me. I admit I could cut him further slack because anyone else in his situation would have committed suicide because, hell, his family, the Bellangers, did and his adopted mother, Chalori, did too. Bowe had been brainwashed, excuse me, socialized to think the noble’s way, a.k.a. the Green Path, was the only way to live, and to undo harmful socialization, to challenge everything he had been taught was right, is a long process demanding patience. Not to mention that he was only 13 years old and each day could be his last day of being alive. Talk about PRESSURE. Nevertheless, the wait tired me and I did not enjoy how he was forced to learn his lessons the hard way, the bloody way, the “friend dies on you and allies betrays you” way. The book practically gave the concept of childhood innocence a big “Fuck You.”

I did like how he managed to keep his compassion and learned empathy despite the betrayals and bloody deaths that regularly, regularly splattered him. I liked how these things were viewed as weaknesses by everyone else yet they turned out to be his strengths and his way to survive. I liked that Bowe fought against the idea that survival meant conquering people, killing enemies, and walking a path of blood.

+ everyone else

Regarding the other characters, the cast was so large I still had a little trouble keeping track who was who by the end of the book. Nonetheless, I did not fail to recognize how diverse the cast was and how dimensional each character was. Hell, I even had sympathy for a few of the antagonists, including the ones who ended up betraying Bowe, coming from a reader who abhor betrayals and typically wishes for a quickly realized, painful and lasting comeuppance. It spoke volumes about the story’s ability to make me empathize the characters.

+ the love interests

However, I did not particularly like how the female characters were portrayed, in particular Bowe’s love interests. Bad enough there was a love triangle and Bowe haven’t fully understood what it means to take an interest in girls and to be in love because he was still a growing boy. I hated how Bowe fought with Iyra every time they met even though she had been nothing but helpful to him, saving his damn ass many times. I hated how he threw elitism in her face because he could not face his own true feelings for her, reminiscent of a boy harassing a girl in his fucked up way to show his like for her. While it indicated how Bowe still had great room to mature, when I juxtaposed his treatment of Iyra against his treatment of Zofila, I discovered a small but noticeable current of sexism in the nascent romance and I worried for what the future could hold.

While I like that Bowe was at least nice to Zofila, here’s the thing: she was a fucking damsel in distress as opposed to Iyra who was fucking kickass. Through Zofila, readers learn that while the boys of noble birth were forced in a survival game, the girls of noble birth were forced in one of their own. The only way girls of noble birth could survive was by whoring themselves out to ascors, the officially recognized nobles, who would care enough for them that when the time comes for the sexennial apocalypse the ascors would remember to take the girls to the Refuge with them.

Meanwhile, Iyra needed no help from anybody despite being an escay, a.k.a. a proletariat, who was supposed to be more disadvantaged than her upper class peers. In fact, immediately upon her introduction in the story and to Bowe, readers learn she was a member of The Guild, a secret society made up of escays in which to mention their name was to invite death.

Thus, on the table, what we have is a protagonist who was a jerk to a girl who had agency and needed no rescuing, Iyra, but a gentleman to a girl who did not and needed to be rescued at the end, Zofila. See my worries, now? I strongly hope that Zofila will take control of her destiny in the sequel, Bowe to make amends to Iyra, and Iyra to keep on being her kickass self and teach him to be a gentleman to all girls, no matter their class.

The Plot

The story felt long but it was sure as fuck never boring. I really appreciated that the plot spaced out its dark scenes because the story made me easily heavy hearted. I also appreciated that even when shit hits the fan, things never dropped down to a depressing as shit level where I thought it was better for Bowe to commit suicide and save himself enormous suffering.

The thing I didn’t particularly like was the lackluster ending. Success was attained at very the last minute but it wasn’t due to anything ingenious on Bowe’s part as it was pure luck and it wasn’t truly a success as much as it was a case of delaying the inevitable. There was no celebratory scene afterward, either. It was like “he’s still alive,” the end, and now we wait for the sequel. *blink* *blink*

In Conclusion

I rate The Narrowing Path 3-stars for I liked it. Despite a dizzying beginning and lackluster ending, the story engrossed me. What I love best was the marrying of the survival game and the political machination. The quality, the complexity of the story, was easily on par of an adult fantasy.

I totally would recommend it for readers who want a hardcore, read brutal, YA dystopian. I also recommend that if you do pick up the series, go ahead and connect to the characters but avoid forming attachments.

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REVIEW: Taming the Bander by Summer Devon

Taming the Bander by Summer Devon
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Despite being an atypical shapeshifter romance and the absence of insta-love, the book was uninspiring. I cared little for the couple. Their relationship lacked that indescribable quality that makes me believe they belong together.

As individuals, the characters were dull. Jake was aloof to the extent of obliviousness; dude was a dope. I found it somewhat difficult scrounging up pity for him when he and his cousin got betrayed, embezzled, and lost their wealth. Vaughn was supposed to be this grouchy, hurting guy, but I found him rude and a shade of selfish. He was also a shade of flaky; dude keep oscillating between like and dislike/distrust/avoidance for Jake.

I breezed through the book without ever once connecting to any character or concern for what would happen. The most I ever felt was that I wanted the crook to be caught and the money be returned to the victims, and that’s only because I dislike the idea of unresolved betrayals.

The world building was a little puzzling. It never gave a clear cut answer as to whether the existence of shapeshifters was this secret everyone knows but doesn’t speak of or if it was truly a secret and would change the entire world if people found out. I tried to grasp Vaughn's concern about hiding his secret but it was hard when he didn’t particularly do much to keep it as a secret. Who the hell shapeshifts in an area that anybody can easily wander across?

In Conclusion

I rate Taming the Bander 2-stars for it was okay. The book was a forgettable read.

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