Book Trailer: Some Fine Day

Take a little peek at the upcoming SOME FINE DAY by Kat Ross, out July 2014:

The blurbage: "Sixteen-year-old Jansin Nordqvist is on the verge of graduating from the black ops factory known as the Academy. She's smart and deadly, and knows three things with absolute certainty:
1. When the world flooded and civilization retreated deep underground, there was no one left on the surface.
2. The only species to thrive there are the toads, a primate/amphibian hybrid with a serious mean streak.
3. There's no place on Earth where you can hide from the hypercanes, continent-sized storms that have raged for decades.
Jansin has been lied to. On all counts."

My take: The weather has been on my mind lately, so this is very timely. I'm looking forward to the book.

Strange Chemistry: http://strangechemistrybooks.com/

Kat Ross:
website: http://www.katrossbooks.com/
twitter: https://twitter.com/katrossauthor

Review: When the World Was Flat...

When the World Was Flat (and we were in love) by Ingrid Jonach

Some of the ideas were very interesting. I will keep an eye out for more from the author.

It has taken me awhile to write this review, mostly because this is a book that straddles romance and sci fi. but for me doesn't completely fit into either category. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but does make it does mess with your expectations. The beginning starts out like many YA romances. There is a definite touch of something "other" but there is lots of love-hate-love that is pretty standard. Then the sci fi aspects kick in and you are walloped (just like our MC) with the expansion of life, the multi-universe and everything.

I kind of like how the inter-dimensional travel worked. There were some developments that I thought could have been explored a bit more, especially in the end where lots of stuff was happening very quickly. The final sentence is actually very close to how I felt at the end of reading it.

I wasn't sure about the love interest, but then I don't think I was really supposed to be. However, since the love interest basically took up a good portion of the book, I'm left a little "Hmmmm."

If you are a romance super-purist, you might have some issues. Scratch that. If you are a romance super-purist you WILL have some issues.

For me, not having this be a conventional romance saved it. The sci fi fan in me wanted some more answers to the very interesting questions raised, but some ambiguity isn't bad either.

It was a quick read, and the last quarter flew by, and like I said, I will check out the author's future books. If you are a fan of romances that don't quite follow the rules and also like some sci fi, you should give this one a try.

[received an ARC]

Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Indiebound

Ingrid Jonach
website: http://www.ingridjonach.com/
twitter: https://twitter.com/IngridJonach

Strange Chemistry: http://strangechemistrybooks.com/

Review-a-palooza

Hey all!

I know I've been pretty scarce lately. I will likely be making up for that with a whole lotta posts this week.

While the past couple of months have been filled with a few personal family triumphs, I have to say that they have also been filled with enough stress to make me crawl in a little hole and hide away.

I've mentioned before that my youngest has some health issues. She is actually doing very well, but she also needs to go to more doctors appointments than other kids. She is old enough now to remember the doctors office, but not old enough to understand why she needs to go to the doctors, or that at this visit there will be no shots. She can't say a lot of words, but she says "All done" and "Mama" really well.

I know she needs to go. I know I need to put on my big girl panties and deal, and I know that we are very lucky and that there are parents dealing with more serious health issues (and my heart goes out to each and every one).

It wears on you.

I've missed writing though, and so, it's a new year and I'm gonna rock out more posts here, at Stellar Four and over at SF Signal.

Review: The Cormorant

The Cormorant (Miriam Black #3) by Chuck Wendig

I might just love Miriam Black. OK, no might about it. I do. I love every crass comment, every time she throws herself into a fight most would run from, that she still has hope she can change things (no matter how many times she has burned, stabbed, and shot at that little shred), and the heartbreaking way she horribly pushes everyone away.

If you haven't read Blackbirds and Mockingbird, stop here, and get to readin'. I'll try not to be spoilery, but this is book 3, so some hints are inevitable.

If you believe something long enough, it becomes true. Miriam believes she is poison to those around her. Is it true, is it something she's made true, maybe both? Given her upbringing, her traumatic past, her "gift" of being able to tell when someone can die, and then throw in her personality I'm thinking it is the last one. Being around Miriam is dangerous, but there is also a growing list of people who owe her their lives.

CORMORANT is everything I could hope for in a book 3 - consequences from events in books 1&2 come home to roost, Miriam has a turning point, a story arc is completed, and we have a new goal for the next installment.

After getting a taste for changing fate, Miriam has been trying to change the fates of others who die violent deaths. This generally means taking out the perpetrator of the crime. She's become a vigilante, but is she making the right choices? You know The Trespasser has something to say about this, but can she trust it? Can she trust herself?

Pretty soon Miriam is getting messages from someone with an axe to grind, she encounters more people with powers similar to hers, and she sees her mom for the first time in years. The clock is ticking, she has little time to save those around her and herself, and she needs to explore the new power she uncovered at the end of Mockingbird.

Fast-paced, action-packed, I devoured this book like yummy word-candy.

And the end, the last line. I freaking loved it and wanted to cheer.

Miriam Black books are on my auto-buy list, and I can't wait for book 4.

THE CORMORANT Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Indiebound

Angry Robot: http://angryrobotbooks.com/

Chuck Wendig:
website: http://terribleminds.com/
twitter: https://twitter.com/ChuckWendig