Review: Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews

Title: Sweep in Peace
Author: Ilona Andrews
Series: Innkeeper Chronicles, Book 2
Genre: Science-Fiction/Urban Fantasy
Release Date: 13 November 2015

Dina DeMille doesn’t run your typical Bed and Breakfast. Her inn defies laws of physics, her fluffy dog is secretly a monster, and the only paying guest is a former Galactic tyrant with a price on her head. But the inn needs guests to thrive, and guests have been scarce, so when an Arbitrator shows up at Dina's door and asks her to host a peace summit between three warring species, she jumps on the chance.

Unfortunately, for Dina, keeping the peace between Space Vampires, the Hope-Crushing Horde, and the devious Merchants of Baha-char is much easier said than done. On top of keeping her guests from murdering each other, she must find a chef, remodel the inn... and risk everything, even her life, to save the man she might fall in love with. But then it's all in the day's work for an Innkeeper...

I think it's a fairly well-known fact that I'm a HUGE Ilona Andrews fan-girl. I try not to let this influence my reviews of their books, and in fact I think it makes me judge them a little more harshly in some lights, but the fact of the matter is that I just flat-out enjoy their stories. It's hard for me to find serious faults with them. And when I'm having fun, when I'm invested, and when an author can bring out the sort of emotions that Ilona Andrews manages - well, that results in an excellent review from me.

Dina's stuck in the middle of some serious peace negotiations - where neither side is really sure if they can even begin to compromise on their terms to reach peace. Each faction wants peace, I think that much is clear, but I think I've never had a fiction novel show me so clearly how hard it is to get to that when you've got years of war and devastation behind you. This novel struck at my heart for many reasons, not the least of which was the fact that war is devastating. I think that's clear from our current events, and peace is something we need now, more than ever. I find myself wishing that we could protect all of Earth's inhabitants with a peace summit - even one as difficult as the one here.

I wish I'd written this review yesterday, before I heard about the devastation that's happened in Paris, before I was reminded about how much we hurt each other on this planet. I'm finding it hard to think of anything else, now.

This is an excellent book. A great addition into the series, and I really, honestly, can't wait to see where they take us next. The world keeps getting bigger - when you have a full universe to work with, it should - and I find there are more and more characters that I care about and want to see a LOT more of.

The stakes are high in this novel, not just for the races seeking peace, but for Dina herself. If you've read The Edge series, you're familiar with George and Jack - we get quite a bit more of them here. And all I can say is that it's not enough. I need so much more with them, because it's more than obvious that none of their stories are finished yet either.

Ilona Andrews is my favorite author. With good reason.

Grade: A

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Review: Girl From Above: Escape by Pippa DaCosta

Title: Girl From Above: Escape
Author: Pippa DaCosta
Series: The 1000 Revolution, Book 2 (Serial)
Genre: Sci-Fi Erotica Romance
Release Date: 19 June 2015

"There’s no quicker way to get yourself killed than trusting someone in the black." ~ Caleb.

Caleb Shepperd knows Fran has her own motives for helping him escape prison, but he’s not about to let a little thing like past betrayal stand in the way of his next paycheck. Until he’s forced to meet with the sexy and psychotic pirate, Adelina Cande. They’ve met before. When he seduced her, cleared out her credit account, and left her for dead in-the-black.

Caleb figures Adelina holds a grudge when she plants a bomb on his ship and demands he steal a fleet freighter for her, that is, if he ever wants to fly again. Get him drunk enough and he’ll try anything once, but this time, he has to balance his own greed, with the needs of a vengeful pirate and the scheming of his dubious second-in-command, Fran. What could possibly go wrong?

In the heart of Chitec headquarters, #1001 enlists an eager young technician to aid in her escape. But it’s not freedom she wants. It’s revenge. The memories of a life that don’t belong to her demand she finishes what she started. She believes she killed Caleb, now she's targeting Chitec CEO Chen Hung, and not even the hopeful technician can dissuade her.

Synthetics don't make mistakes.

She thought she knew the truth.

She was wrong.

It's not often that a second book in a series (or serial) will get a higher grade than the first from me. This one does. And earns it. Partly because it blew through all my expectations and gave me something that I wasn't expecting - more than once.

Everything I said in the first one still holds. Our protagonists are not heroes - they're not good people, and yet....I still root for them. I think that probably says more about me than it does about them.

There's a HUGE twist at one point in the book. Something I did NOT see coming, and still really shocks me with its simplicity and I-should-have-known moment. Then there's the moment when I start to complain about something, thinking that one thing is going on, thinking that it should go a different way, and something even better than I imagined happening, happened. Hell yes. Loved it.

There's a lot of sex, or near sex, in these books. It's usually angry sex, without a lot of "good" emotions behind it. But it's freaking hot as hell. And, to quote my friend Navessa:

Also, I figure in a near-lawless space setting, sex would be as common as violence, which seems to be the case in these books. Now that I think about it, I tend to feel that way about any setting in which humanity breaks down.

It's a good point, and I definitely agree. Violence and Sex are BIG in this series. So is self-recrimination, questionable actions, double-crossing, and lawlessness. For a society that's supposed to be "perfect" with Fleet and Chitec...it's pretty fucking grim.

And the ending? I saw it coming, I knew it would happen from the moment the scene started, and still - I read that last sentence and groaned that I have to wait (at least) a month-and-a-half for the next book. I needs it, precious. I needs it, NOW.

Grade: A

Review: Girl From Above: Betrayal by Pippa DaCosta

Title: Girl From Above: Betrayal
Author: Pippa DaCosta
Series: The 1000 Revolution, Book 1 (Serial)
Genre: Sci-Fi Erotica Romance
Release Date: 21 April 2015

WARNING: 18+ only. Adult content. Including sex, drug use, violence, & swearing.

"My name is #1001, and I am not ready to die." I’d only just begun to live.

When Captain Caleb Shepperd is released from prison, all he wants to do is keep his head down and earn a living smuggling illegal cargo through the nine systems. So when a synth stows away on his ship, and brings with her a crap-ton of problems, including guilt-ridden secrets he thought he’d escaped, he’d prefer to toss her out the airlock. The problem is, she’s priceless tech, and he’s fresh out of credit.

#1001 is not meant to exist. Created for a single purpose, she has one simple order: to kill. But not everything is as it seems. Buried deep inside, she remembers... Remembers when she was human. And she remembers what Shepperd did to her. She’s not ready to die, but she is ready to kill.

Novel length: Approximately 43,000 words. 155 Kindle pages. 177 paperback pages. (Not including sample chapter)
Genre: Space opera.

I feel awkward reviewing this because it's not an entire story. It's the beginning of the story. It does have a nice arc - for which I'm thankful - but it's so clearly just the start that I almost want to wait until I've read the next 2 books (which should finish it out, I hope) before I review and grade it. The ending can make a huge difference in how I feel about the earlier sections. However, this part of the story still made a really big impression on me and I have to talk about it.

One of my best friends recommended this book to me - in all CAPS - and we usually are on the same exact page when it comes to awesome books. So I immediately bought this one, and the second one from Amazon. (Sidenote: $2.99 for under 200 pages? Not cool. I'm going to end up paying around $9 for a full-length novel. Ugh. Do not like. Anyway.)

I flew through it. Read most of it on my lunch, and then did some sneak-reading because I just couldn't stop.

The world is interesting, but a fairly light background to the story and characters. It's a prop for them to play in front of. And I'm okay with that here. I would like to see it further explored, and see the implications of the characters' actions dig deep into that world, but that's for the second and third parts to live up to, I think.

What really shines here are the characters - which is kind of ironic, because none of the characters are what you would consider "good" people. Caleb (I love this name, I hate when it's shortened to Cale) is our "hero." And I use that term incredibly loosely. He's a womanizer, smuggler, asshole. He thinks with his dick, and has little regard for consequences. He also has a TON of guilt and self-recrimination (justly and rightly so).

Fran, Caleb's second-in-command (and only crewmate, so the title confused me a bit) fascinated me. She's Caleb in a female body. Everything I hate about him, I hate about her. They have little regard for anyone, including themselves. They're destructive and assholes. But...I love them. They're the kind of characters that I want to see - not redeemed exactly, but whole. I want to see them have the contentment they deserve, whatever that may entail. I want to see them stop hating themselves.

#1001 was a mystery for most of the book, though I began to guess about a third of the way in, so I don't want to spoil too much. Suffice it to say that I'm most interested in her. She has a hell of a story, and I'm really, really, really looking forward to seeing how Pippa DaCosta brings it all together.

The plot doesn't seem like much of anything until you get near the end - which is why I say that this is a starter story. It doesn't finish much of anything. What it does do is pull you in, sit you down, tie you up and demand that you finish. It builds beautifully, and upon finishing I immediately grabbed part two. I'm already lamenting the fact that the third (and final) part isn't available until December 2015.

Grade: B+ (I reserve the right to change this)

Review: The Culling by J.C. Andrijeski

Title: The Culling
Author: J.C. Andrijeski
Series: Slave Girl Chronicles, Book 1
Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction
Release Date: 31 August 2011

Jet is a 19-year-old skag, one of the humans still living free on Earth following an invasion of creatures called the Nirreth. Squatting in the ruins of Vancouver, Canada, Jet and her family eke out an existence underground, hiding from the culler ships. No one knows where the ships take the people they take, but they never return. When a culler finds Jet, she may discover the truth the hard way.

This was the longest short book I've read in a long, long time. It felt like one long set-up and everything took F...O...R...E...V...E...R.... to happen or explain.

I spent so much time in Jet's head, with her musings, that you'd think I had a good idea of who she is, as a person; you'd be wrong. I spent so much time in Jet's head, with her musings, about the world at large that you'd think I would have a clear idea of what's happening...wrong again.

Jet is a carbon copy of every other prickly heroine in the YA world. Thrust into circumstances beyond her control, she's trained with a sword - why I'm not entirely sure - and suddenly she's likely going to end up as the spark of the rebellion against their alien overlords. I honestly can't say much more about her than that, because even though I've just finished I don't remember anything else about her.

I'm still not sure what's happening in the world. At one point she mentions that it's warming the whole world over - that the Nirreth (the aliens that invaded several (how many? Not sure) years ago) ruined our world because they like it warmer so they're making it warmer. But then she talks about wearing a "winter coat," which threw me. Then there's the poisoned water, poisoned earth, poisoned air, meat, food. I have no idea how that happened.

Apparently the aliens are keeping the humans as pets, or something, and they've created domed (maybe) cities where they have fake skies, have bred T-Rex, and have decided they like watching humans fight. I don't even pretend to understand.

I skimmed a good portion from the 30% mark on, because it just didn't make sense, and it was rambling.

Additionally there were just too many inaccuracies that made me unable to suspend my disbelief for the rest of the story.
**140 square miles is not a large city by "old Earth" standards
**Doing what is expected of you, what you're told and what you're directed to do is passive.
**I still don't know how a bow (and arrows) can fit in a "tube," in a backpack.
**If aliens can catch your "bio-readings" without you actually being visible, and they have "heat sensors" to find you - isn't it probably likely that hiding is a bad idea?
**Your spine is in the middle of your back - no need to clarify that.

Needless to say, I hope, I won't be continuing this.

Grade: F

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Review: Queenie's Brigade by Heather Massey

Title: Queenie's Brigade
Author: Heather Massey
Series: Stand-alone
Genre: Science Fiction (Romance)
Release Date: 2 July 2011

Captain Michael Drake desperately needs an army to save Earth after a crushing defeat by alien invaders. When his damaged starship docks at a remote prison colony, he discovers Earth’s last best hope—an army to replace the one he lost.

But, Queenie, the feral goddess ruling the prison, has other plans for the rugged star ship captain. After imprisoning Drake and seizing his ship, she prepares to lead her blood-thirsty band to freedom before the invaders track them down.

Despite her intentions, Queenie secretly falls for the sexy, hotshot captain. Drake makes it plain he wants to win back Earth with her by his side. But is following her heart worth betraying her people?

DNF at 38%

I was going to say that I feel badly for giving this such a low rating, because the writing and the premise is pretty intriguing. Plus there's an interesting dichotomy within Queenie herself. I think if I were reading about her alone, instead of adding in some manufactured love interest, I would be enjoying this more. As it is I find it hard to care what happens to either character.

Captain Michael Drake: Last surviving military captain in a war against the Calinthians - who have invaded Earth. He jumps his battered ship to a prison outpost, proceeds to be captured by the prisoners (who've taken over the prison), and then doesn't act anything like a decorated military captain.

The leader of the prison gang (and I'll get to her in a minute) is, of course, statuesque, beautiful, and has her breasts falling out of her jumpsuit (literally). So, naturally, he's distracted and attracted. He gives himself some grief about this, but in the end he needs her and her army to try and take back Earth. Then she brings out a member of his crew (a doctor), and proceeds to have her fingers broken, threatens to break other things, and this after the crew-member already looks pretty beat to hell. All so she can get the codes to his ship.

Which he then gives up. Seriously? This is the kind of military Earth has? One that caves without a qualm? He gives up his codes, and then he expects her to work with him, team up with him. If I were her, I'd scoff too. What kind of partner would he be? Not a good one, that's for sure.

Queenie: leader of the prison gang. She was brought up, by her mother and others, to unite the prison gangs under one leadership so they could take over, free themselves, and stop being used as cannon-fodder in a losing war. I understand that, and even empathize with it.

So, she rules with an iron fist (sometimes - I'll get to that later), and that's explains the torture of the captured crew (I guess). I have no patience for torture. Like sexual assault, and abuse, it's pretty much a final straw for me. I don't care the circumstances, I'm not really going to be able to root for you once you do something like that.

The problem with Queenie is that she's alternately portrayed as ruthless and smart - which would be awesome - and vulnerable and silly. She rules the gangs, but they're all just waiting for a chance to stab her in the back. She protects and wants to help her people. She demands obedience and that they not do anything to interfere with her mission, but she doesn't concern herself with them doing drugs. Lack of discipline, lack of order, is as much a problem to any real mission as any lack of obedience. And if a leader doesn't realize that, then they don't deserve to be leader any longer.

Every other character is a non-issue. They may as well be placeholders to give the two main characters something to react against.

Manufactured Love Story: Michael can't seem to keep his eyes off Queenie's gorgeous body - even when his crew's being tortured. Nor can he keep his libido under control. Queenie is, of course, drawn to the captain - who is like no other military person she's seen before.

She punches him in the face, several times. During her exertions her (ample) breast falls out of her shirt and all he can think about is taking it in his mouth. She flushes (Ugh. Why the need to be embarrassed. If she's the hardass that she's being portrayed as, why does she have to be virginal too - and I bet she ends up being a virgin). And then what's he do - strokes her thigh. She responds. He thinks that for her to respond like that she must still have a heart.

They're both idiots. And if they're humanity's last hope...well, we're doomed.

Grade: DNF

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Review: Break Out by Nina Croft

Title: Break Out
Author: Nina Croft
Series: Blood Hunter, Book 1
Genre: Paranormal / Science-Fiction Romance
Release Date: 1 July 2011

The year is 3048, Earth is no longer habitable, and man has fled to the stars where they've discovered the secret of immortality—Meridian. Unfortunately, the radioactive mineral is exorbitantly expensive and only available to a select few. A new class comprised of the super rich and immortal soon evolves. The Collective, as they're called, rule the universe.

Two-thousand-year-old Ricardo Sanchez, vampire and rogue pilot of the space cruiser, El Cazador, can't resist two things: gorgeous women and impossible jobs. When beautiful Skylar Rossaria approaches him to break a prisoner out of the Collective's maximum security prison on Trakis One, Rico jumps at the chance. Being hunted by the Collective has never been so dangerous—or so fun.

I'm so tired of these same, tired, bad tropes being brought out to play.

First - I'm not a fan of deception between my heroes, and the heroine here is hiding something BIG. Ugh. Gross.

Second - We're how many thousands of years in the future, and we're still calling women "whores". Give me a break.

Third - the hero has no common sense and does things that are likely to get him killed, apparently for the story. The heroine is unreliable, and apparently an idiot who doesn't even know what she's doing in her own training simulation.

Fourth - Get the heroine drunk trope, but not too drunk. Have hero check, several times, to be sure he's not taking advantage. Distraction. Heroine gets pissed at hero because she gave into her own desires. And then punch him.

And now - at 27% - I'm done.

Grade: DNF

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Review: Untimed by Andy Gavin

Title: Untimed
Author: Andy Gavin
Series: , Book 1
Genre: Young Adult Science-Fiction
Release Date: 19 December 2012
Source: From publisher in exchange for an honest review

Charlie’s the kind of boy that no one notices. Hell, even his own mother can’t remember his name. And girls? The invisible man gets more dates.

As if that weren’t enough, when a mysterious clockwork man tries to kill him in modern day Philadelphia, and they tumble through a hole into 1725 London, Charlie realizes even the laws of time don’t take him seriously.

Still, this isn’t all bad. In fact, there’s this girl, another time traveler, who not only remembers his name, but might even like him! Unfortunately, Yvaine carries more than her share of baggage: like a baby boy and at least two ex-boyfriends! One’s famous, the other’s murderous, and Charlie doesn’t know who is the bigger problem.

When one kills the other — and the other is nineteen year-old Ben Franklin — things get really crazy. Can their relationship survive? Can the future? Charlie and Yvaine are time travelers, they can fix this — theoretically — but the rules are complicated and the stakes are history as we know it.

And there's one more wrinkle: he can only travel into the past, and she can only travel into the future!

Look at that cover! How could I resist requesting this to review? Time and time again I've been burned by a pretty cover, but - fortunately - that wasn't the case here. Untimed is both better than expected, and a bit disappointing. I'll try to get into both reasons here.

I read, first and foremost, for characters. Interesting characters will make me beg for more, for the story to never end. And that's where we run into my main issue with Untimed. Every character in this story felt like a ... placeholder, for lack of a better word. There was nothing particularly memorable about any of them. Charlie is a typical fifteen year old boy, one who thinks about sex a lot (in some pretty ridiculous circumstances). The only thing remarkable about him is that he can travel in time. I will definitely give points to Andy Gavin for making Charlie feel like a stereotypical teenager, because he definitely does - complete with the over-inflated sense of superiority and rightness. But though I wanted to smack Charlie sometimes, I mostly just used him to experience the story through.

Yvaine, likewise, is almost as boring. Though she's got a lot more experience than a lot of authors give female characters it still makes her almost a caricature. She's sexually forward (Yay for no slut shaming!), smart-talking, tough, and capable. While I liked her, I got SO irritated with her speech. I'm not a fan of the Scottish dialect being written out, in most cases, and there were 63 uses of 'dinna,' among various others. By 5% into the book I knew this was going to irritate me.

I have some other minor, nit-picky things, that I almost feel bad for bringing up - but they took me out of the story!! You can't learn to fence from a movie, regardless if it was The Princess Bride or not. I admit, I laughed at the ridiculousness there. CPR requires 30 chest compressions per 2 breaths, not 10 and 10 - and this frustrates me beyond belief because I wish everyone knew CPR. Then there's the weird moment when they end up in Shanghai (and remember that traveller changes them to make them fit in) and their hair changes to "Asian"-style (what the hell is that?) but they still have white features. I admit this bugged me more than a little bit, and I'm still not sure what to make of it.

Onto the good! And there is plenty of good. The world is fascinating. Time travel is handled in an interesting and easily understandable way. Actions have consequences, but 'time' makes up for a lot of things too. I will say that some of it seemed mighty convenient, but after his iPhone turned into a paper notebook when he travelled back 200 years, I decided to go with it.

The thing that's got me most interested though is the Tick-Tocks and the Regulator. Supposedly the Regulator was the first of the time-travellers, and he died in the Time-War....anyway, he died, but not before he was able to write a bunch of encrypted pages for future travellers to find.

Time War, anyone? (picture copyright by Aaron Gittoes)

My image of the Tick-Tocks (also from Doctor Who - The Girl in the Fireplace)

So the Tick-Tocks are trying to work against the travellers - for what reason we're not quite sure. Are they trying to mess up the future by adjusting, ever so slightly, things in the past? Or are they trying to set right the changes made by other travellers? These are the questions that are flying through my mind as we travel with Charlie and Yvaine.

I was fascinated not only by the alternate histories and contemporary times that Gavin creates - which are imaginative and detailed - but also by the very real histories that he uses and doesn't flinch from. From teen-pregnancy, drinking, drugs, and slavery, Gavin doesn't flinch from showing the ofttimes harsher and dirtier side of humanity. Some of these topics are barely touched on, but it's clear that the themes are important and consequences of actions and decisions are a main thread in this world.

And then we get to the end, rocketing through time and space, and hit "To be continued..." like a brick wall! I have to say this was the most disappointing thing to me because I had no idea going into this book that it wasn't a stand-alone novel. I've emailed the author to find out any other information I can, because there's nothing on Goodreads, the author's website, or anywhere else I've been able to find.

I've been waiting until I get my review written to decide how I'm going to grade this. The things that Gavin does well, he does really well - and you can definitely see his videogame programmer roots at work in the action and intense world created here - but I really would like some characters that I can grab onto and root for. Right now they're kind of like ciphers. Here's hoping they grow up in the sequel(s).

Grade: C+

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Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cress
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series: Lunar Chronicles, Book 3
Genre: Young Adult Science-Fiction
Release Date: 4 February 2014

Rapunzel’s tower is a satellite. She can’t let down her hair—or her guard.

In this third book in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker—unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can.

After the intense enjoyment I got out of both Cinder and Scarlet, I was PUMPED to read this book. I looked forward to the release, and even paid nearly $9 for the ebook - when my limit is more like $5.

To say I was disappointed is a bit of an understatement.

I've now waited eleven days to try and write this review. It's not that the book is bad, because it's not. But it definitely is a transition book. There's, almost quite literally, absolutely nothing happening throughout this whole book. I was bored out of my mind while reading.

So it's a bridge book. Lots of series have them. I get it, there's stuff that has to happen to get us to the climax. I just wish it'd been done so that I felt some investment, or felt like there was something going on. 85% of the book I was wondering when the hell something was going to happen other than traveling from here to there - this close to the end, traveling's not what I want to read about.

Another problem for me with this book was Cress herself. She names herself a damsel-in-distress. I can't stand damsels-in-distress. I want my girls to save themselves. To be a little fair to Cress, she does a pretty good job of contributing to the saving, and planning, and I think there's a good opportunity, and that Meyer is setting this up, for Cress to realize her own agency. Unfortunately, it didn't happen enough for me in this book.

In fact, there were a lot of character issues, in that I didn't feel like characters were acting 'in-character' or realistically. This one is harder for me to talk about without spoilers, so I'm going to be fairly vague. Something traumatic happens to one of the main characters - disabling traumatic - and it's just shrugged off. No big deal. 'Oh, I lost a leg ? No big deal. I'll just attach this wooden crutch to my knee and carry on walking.' WHAT? I can't buy that anyone could deal with this kind of thing so easily. I don't care how capable you are, or how much of a front you may be putting on. Nope, not buying it.

All that being said, the world still fascinates me. The story is still, over-all, interesting, and I can't wait for the final book: Winter. We got to meet Winter in this book, and I'm already half in love.

Long story, short: Slow, slow book - until the last 15%, where it picks up considerably and became fun to read again. Honestly, so little happens in this book though, that I think you could read a few key chapters, or maybe even the last 15%, and be prepared to finish out the series next year when Winter releases.

Grade: D+

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Review: Starglass by Phoebe North

Title: Starglass
Author: Phoebe North
Series: Starglass, Book 1
Genre: Young Adult Sci-Fi
Release Date: 23 July 2013

Terra has never known anything but life aboard the Asherah, a city-within-a-spaceship that left Earth five hundred years ago in search of refuge. At sixteen, working a job that doesn't interest her, and living with a grieving father who only notices her when he's yelling, Terra is sure that there has to be more to life than what she's got.

But when she inadvertently witnesses the captain's guard murdering an innocent man, Terra is suddenly thrust into the dark world beneath her ship's idyllic surface. As she's drawn into a secret rebellion determined to restore power to the people, Terra discovers that her choices may determine life or death for the people she cares most about. With mere months to go before landing on the long-promised planet, Terra has to make the decision of a lifetime--one that will determine the fate of her people.

I'm conflicted about this book, or rather how I think about it. On the one hand it does some things really, really well; others it does satisfactorily, but some things frustrated the hell out of me. I'm going to try and talk about all of these things.

The stuff it does really, really well: Diversity. First of all, this is a Jewish spaceship. Peopled solely by Jewish people. It's so nice to read about some religion other than Christianity, honestly. I loved that. Then there's the fact that the book opens with a letter from a lesbian woman to her daughter. I nearly did a fist-pump at that. The fact that gay is not shuffled to the back like it's something that never happens. I really appreciated the fact that the author used this science fiction setting to explore the issues of homophobia and gay rights. The right of choice is a strong theme throughout the book.

Other things worked for me, but didn't raise that 'hell-yes' feeling in me. Like how Terra reacted in certain situations. How she felt about her situation, and her role in the greater scheme of things. The way the community developed and changed over the 500 years they were traveling to their destination was eminently believable. The writing was straight-forward and easy to read through. This was a quick read - I'd fly through 20-30 pages before I even realized I had. I was glad that romance wasn't a focus, really glad actually, though I think it probably will be in the next book.

But, yeah, there's always a 'but'...But, there were things that left me shaking my head in frustration. I'm a character reader. I love characters, they are what makes me invest in the story first and foremost. Second is the world. Preferably I'd have both of these in my books. Great characters that feel real in a world that fascinates and intrigues. Unfortunately Starglass fell down for me in both categories. The only character that is really developed in this book is Terra. And she's so damn passive that I could never really love her. She accepts whatever she's told, by whomever deigns to tell it to her, and just goes along with it. Eventually she starts to question, but it was a little too late for me. Though she spends a good deal of the book working towards personal agency, time and time again she simply falls into patterns that leave her following someone else's plans. However, this is the first book. I will say that by the end I had hope that maybe, just maybe, Terra would show the growth I might have glimpsed in her last act in Starglass.

I mentioned that I like intricate worlds, and I kind of expect them when you're on a spaceship that left Earth 500 years ago. This could have taken place in a walled community cut off from the rest of the world. There was little to no advancement in technology - except for the fact that kids are grown in hatcheries instead of born now - computers are pretty much a non-entity; jobs are shopkeepers, bell-ringers; guards; bakers; botanists, etc. Then there's the fact that they set sail, as it were, for a planet that they know NOTHING about. Five hundred years flying through space and you don't even know if this planet you're heading towards has air we can breathe, water to drink, or if it's at all habitable. It strained credulity for me. I had a hard time swallowing the lack of advancement in a people that could build a spaceship like this.

I didn't even really get to get a good feel for the fact that we're in space until near the very end - when we finally reach our destination.

Conflicted. Still. I was hoping that writing my review would give me a better idea where to rate this.

Grade: C+

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Review: Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews

Title: Clean Sweep
Author: Ilona Andrews
Series: Innkeeper Chronicles, Book 1
Genre: Sci-Fi / Urban Fantasy
Release Date: 2 December 2013

On the outside, Dina Demille is the epitome of normal. She runs a quaint Victorian Bed and Breakfast in a small Texas town, owns a Shih Tzu named Beast, and is a perfect neighbor, whose biggest problem should be what to serve her guests for breakfast. But Dina is...different: Her broom is a deadly weapon; her Inn is magic and thinks for itself. Meant to be a lodging for otherworldly visitors, the only permanent guest is a retired Galactic aristocrat who can't leave the grounds because she’s responsible for the deaths of millions and someone might shoot her on sight. Under the circumstances, "normal" is a bit of a stretch for Dina.

And now, something with wicked claws and deepwater teeth has begun to hunt at night....Feeling responsible for her neighbors, Dina decides to get involved. Before long, she has to juggle dealing with the annoyingly attractive, ex-military, new neighbor, Sean Evans—an alpha-strain werewolf—and the equally arresting cosmic vampire soldier, Arland, while trying to keep her inn and its guests safe. But the enemy she’s facing is unlike anything she’s ever encountered before. It’s smart, vicious, and lethal, and putting herself between this creature and her neighbors might just cost her everything.

Ilona Andrews originally wrote this as a serialized publication, for free, on the web. I read the first couple of chapters as they were released and quickly came to realize that I'd never have enough patience to wait week to week to find out what was going to happen. So I deliberately ignored that it existed. I was anxiously awaiting the day when it would be available for me to buy.

Clean Sweep has an utterly original idea; sure there are werewolves and vampires and magic, but it's all so much more than that. There's intergalactic travel, and aliens, doors through space and incredible weapons. I'm not sure how they do it, but the husband and wife writing team of Ilona Andrews always manages to come up with the most interesting stories and tell them in the best way possible. I'm always utterly engrossed in their books and devastated when I finally reach the end, because there's no more to read.

I've known for a long time that I can count on finding an abundance of subtle humor in books by the Andrews. Clean Sweep is no exception. I laughed out loud more than a few times while reading it. Another thing I can count on is kick-ass heroines that hold their own, don't cow to the uber-alpha heroes (who manage to not be assholes), said heroes that are actually complicated and interesting character in their own right, and beautifully described action scenes.

I know you've read that blurb, and if like me you hate love-triangles (with the passion of a thousand fiery suns), you might be slightly concerned. There is a love triangle that's formed in this book, BUT - hold onto your hats - I liked it. I really liked both Sean and Arland and, most importantly, how Dina reacted to them. The chemistry is fantastic, and I just find myself wanting more, more, more! I have my guesses about who she'll end up with - it's pretty clear to me - but I'm still going to enjoy each moment of the dance between the three of them.

Dina is a great character. She's young, with some tragedy under her belt - and there's an overall mystery to her past and present that I'm dying to see solved - but she's got this great sense of life about her. She's vivid and uncompromising - I mean that she won't give up. She loves life and cherishes it. She wants to enjoy it, so she sets out to follow her path and earn what she wants. She's logical and thinks (why is this such a rarity in books these days?); Dina doesn't let anyone else control what she does or doesn't do, and she takes her responsibilities seriously. And when two alpha males start showing interest in her she doesn't fall all over herself in an attempt to please one, or both, of them. She maintains herself. I love that.

Speaking of the two males: Sean and Arland. Sean's a werewolf stronger than other werewolfs; the alpha-strain werewolf, bred to be faster, stronger...more. I liked that he didn't really know the truth of everything when it started. He takes it pretty well though, and at the end I can completely understand (and agree with) his decision. Once he realized that Dina's not a helpless female, I loved how he treats her. With respect and care. Intent on keeping her safe, but at the same time realizing that she's able to do that herself too. He trusts her to keep herself safe, and helps her when she asks for it. I can't help but respect that. And ... well, hell, I just want him. When he starts flirting? Damn. Sexy as heck.

And then there's Arland. Just as sexily flirtatious. When he turns on the charm I admit I wondered at his motivations at first, but by the end I was healthily intrigued. He's honorable - in fact that's nearly everything to the vampires - but he's also a predator, through and through. And I love, love, love how he reacts to coffee. Made me laugh out loud. He treats Dina like a warrior, worthy of respect. There's no looking down on her because she's a woman - he knows that women can be just as powerful, just as deadly as the males. Misogyny? You can trust that you won't find it in this book (or any book by Ilona Andrews).

Though I normally hate the grand-standing that happens between ALPHA males in books, I loved how Arland and Sean came to terms with each other. How they got to know one another, and gained some respect for each other. Their last interaction made me laugh out loud and had a grin splitting my face for the last few pages of the book. In fact I'm still grinning like a fool here.

I haven't even touched on the plot. It drives the entire story - isn't that what is supposed to happen? Yes, yes it is. Maybe I've been reading too much crap lately, I don't know, but it's such a breath of fresh air when I read a book that combines all the things I love into a single set of bound pages. The plot here is fascinating. It allows us to learn more about the characters, the world, and pulls the reader through the pages of the book to inhabit the world we're reading about.

I want to live there by the way. I want to visit this inn, travel the worlds, meet these characters.

Ilona Andrews' books always reduce me to feeling like a squeeing fangirl, mostly because that's what I become. With such great characters, an actual plot, in an intricately conceived world...who can blame me?

Grade: A-

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Review: One Enchanted Season by C.L. Wilson, Erica Ridley, and Elissa Wilds

Title: One Enchanted Season
Authors: C.L. Wilson, Erica Ridley, and Elissa Wilds
Series: N/A
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Paranormal Romance, Sci-Fi Romance
Release Date: 5 December 2013

Three bestselling and critically acclaimed authors of paranormal romance weave stories inspired by classic holiday songs.

'tis the season to enchant...

In C.L. Wilson's UPON A MIDNIGHT, an angel helps a troubled woman heal the wounds of her past so her soul can relearn how to sing.

Erica Ridley delivers magic with LET IT SNOW, in which a treasure hunter breaches an enchanted castle only to become trapped inside with a cursed princess and a suspicious tree.

And in SNOWMAN, Elissa Wilds weaves a tale of forbidden love that bridges two very different worlds, when a snowy stranger appears at an isolated mountain cabin seeking much more than shelter from the storm.

Step into a world where the nights are long and dark, snowflakes sparkle like fairy lights, and the hearth fires burn as brightly as the passion of newfound love.

I'll be honest, I only requested this because of C.L. Wilson. I loved her Tarien Soul series and she hasn't released another book since the finale of that series in 2010. I feel like I've been eagerly anticipating her next book forever! Then I saw this, not only a new original short story, but a sneak peak at her full-length novel, The Winter King due out 29 July 2014!! I had to get it.

Thankfully her story was the first one in the anthology, so I didn't have to skip to it. "Upon a Midnight" was a nice, sweet story about a woman finding peace from her past and her guardian angel learning exactly what it means to be made for someone.

Upon a Midnight by C.L. Wilson
Kat has some seriously emotional baggage that's being carried around with her. Though she loved her parents, and was loved in turn by them, her father kept them on the run and her life with them was about upheaval. When they died in an accident, she was sent to live with her horrible grandparents - seriously, these two....I was so mad at them, at what they did to Kat. She bears the scares, deep and painful still, of these experiences and they affect her every day life. On top of all that, Kat worries that she may finally be going crazy - just like her father.

Micah - have I ever mentioned how much I love that name? - is Kat's guardian angel. He was made to protect her, because Kat's so much more than she ever imagined. And it's imperative that she be able to do the task she was destined for. Unfortunately, her history may just make that impossible.

I loved Kat. I loved how, even with her past, she didn't let it ruin her. She forged ahead, determined to still help others. I really admired her. Micah was perfect, but what I loved most about him was his support of Kat. His purpose is to protect her while she completes the task, however when she believes she won't be able to do it, he doesn't demand or insist, he supports. I love that.

My only, tiny, niggle with the story is how quickly Kat was able to deal with her issues. There's so much intense emotional history that it's hard for me to quite believe that she was able to put it all behind her so easily. I was so happy that she was that this didn't bother me a lot, but I think I would have liked more time spent on her healing from the trauma of her past.

Grade: B

Let It Snow by Erica Ridley
Full disclosure - I did not finish this story. In fact I only got about two percent into it. My problems completely stemmed from the world that couldn't decide what it wanted to be. You had characters sending out pleas to gods - plural - and planning to go to midnight mass for Christmas Eve. That made me pause and wonder, but I went with it and kept reading.

You have a main character that carries a sword, talks of magic, and mentions how he purchased a pirate ship - and then you find out a few paragraphs later that airplanes are still flying the friendly skies. Wha--?? M'kay, then. Moving on.

That's when I come to the point where the "hero" of the story is beseiged by six bounty hunters. I'm just going to add the quote and my exact notes from when I read it:

...when a pair of bounty hunters used silver bullets to announce their presence. Four more bounty hunters fell in behind them.

Lance had his sword in hand and through the chest of the closest attacker before the hunter had a chance to pull the trigger a second time. Two razor-edged claymores appeared in Sancho's mitts from out of nowhere, and for several adrenaline-filled minutes, the only sounds were the clang of swords, the sharp report of gunfire, and a series of wet thuds as the bodies of the would-be assassins hit the ground and stayed there.

Bounty-hunters "announcing" their presence by firing a gun - how inept are they that they can't hit an unaware target?

SIX bounty-hunters, presumably with guns, can't take out two lonely guys with only SWORDS?

Sancho (Lance's friend) can apparently wield TWO CLAYMORES at a time - do you have any idea how BIG these freaking swords are? They're HUGE. They're meant to be handled TWO-HANDED.

Then the bounty hunters are apparently still firing their guns and still can't hit our hero.

I'm done.

Grade: DNF

Snowman by Elyssa Wilds
I admit, I had little patience by the time I started this novella. Then it seemed like maybe I'd be in for a treat, because it started off interesting enough - even if I wanted to smack the heroine for idiocy in a snow-storm, at least she recognized that she'd been stupid. But then we get to the part where other female characters can't even be bothered to be given a name. It just rubbed me the wrong way.

After that, I'm not sure if I just lost what little interest I had, or what, but I started skimming and all I saw was 'blah, blah, blah'.

I knew it was time to give up here too.

Grade: DNF

OH! And the preview for The Winter King? LOVE. I'm SOOO excited!!

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Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Title: Red Rising
Author: Pierce Brown
Series: Red Rising Trilogy, Book 1
Genre: Dystopian Science Fiction
Release Date: 28 January 2014

Darrow is a miner and a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he digs all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of the planet livable for future generations. Darrow has never seen the sky.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better future for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow and Reds like him are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow joins a resistance group in order to infiltrate the ruling class and destroy society from within. He will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

That blurb up there, it doesn't even begin to do justice to the mastery that lies in these pages.

I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.

That, right there, is how it starts. Instantly hooking me and not letting me go for nearly 400 pages. I wasn't expecting this. I expected another standard-fare dystopia - we've all read them. They are everywhere now, aren't they? The underdog hero fighting against a corrupt system for a brighter purpose. It seems like it shouldn't be so much more than that. I'm not a huge reader of science-fiction, and when I found out this takes place on Mars far in the future, I had my doubts.

But there enters Darrow, a protagonist unlike any other I've read. He's the best Helldiver there is, able to quickly and nimbly gather the precious Helium3 that's so needed. He spends his life happily doing all he's known. He's a pawn, gullibly believing the lies that have been told him his entire life. Not even considering another possibility than the 'truth' he's always known. Until tragedy strikes, and his wife, Eo, is killed by the ruling Golds.

Eo was with us such a short time in the novel. We heard about her, and then only saw her for a couple of chapters, then she's gone. And still it felt like the still-beating heart of me was ripped out. She's such a dynamic character. A dreamer. The catalyst for change - no matter the cost. And the cost is high, not just to her, but to Darrow. And she's never forgotten. I was nearly 90% into the book when Eo was mentioned (one of many, many times) and I started crying again.

Thus starts Darrows first transformation - from ignorant, accepting youth to rage-filled, betrayed husband. His need for vengeance is deep, and he gets his chance. All he has to do is give up everything about himself, everything Eo loved, to become one of his enemy. He'll be reshaped into a Gold, a Trojan Horse slipped in their midst to bring down the corrupt regime. He's to become the knife between the ribs they never saw coming.

I mentioned Darrow's first transformation, but it's not his last. He learns and grows, adjusts and readjusts. He knows he's not the strongest, or the smartest. He doesn't have the strategy perfected. He can't win this on his own. Darrow's fallible. God, how I loved that. He makes mistakes, mis-judges things, hell, he does things that made me cringe. And yet, I was always right there with him. From beginning to end I couldn't help but root him on, willing him to find a way.

It's not just Darrow that's great here, either. He's surrounded by such complex characters, with diverse motivations - sometimes I wasn't even sure where loyalties lay, who was going to betray whom and for what. We learn, right along with Darrow, that the Golds aren't all cut from the same cloth. This changes the way Darrow, and I, saw things. Obviously, some stick out more in my mind than others - and I hope we haven't seen the last of them. But still, I wasn't sure who to trust, and even when I gave trust it was wary and worrisome. What if they were biding their time? I spent most of the book on the edge of my seat....needing to know.

"You do not follow me because I am the strongest. [Redacted 1] is. You do not follow me because I am the brightest. [Redacted 2] is. You follow me because you do not know where you are going. I do."

I read for characters, you might know that by now, that's what will always intrigue me and pull me through the story. But I love worlds, too. Pierce Brown has created such a diverse, complex, intriguing world that I'm in awe of it. The color system he's devised, the way and reason it's implemented, how each group is kept under the thumbs of Golds - blew.me.away. It was logical - imagine that. How it came to be made sense and it was absolutely heart-breaking. I think this world devastated me so much because I can imagine it happening. It scares the ever-living-hell out of me.

On top of all this awesomeness you have the writing that immerses me so deeply into the world, the story that I couldn't let go of it. I can't do this novel justice, I could ramble for ages on how it made me feel, how I laughed out loud, cried and pleaded, and at times it even made me squeal in delight. Red Rising is, hands down, the best science-fiction novel I've ever read. Pierce Brown is brilliant, and I can't wait for the second novel in this trilogy - already I'm anticipating having all my expectations shattered.

Grade: A

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Review: Lexicon by Max Barry

Title: Lexicon
Author: Max Barry
Genre: Sci-fi Thriller
Release Date: 18 June 2013

At an exclusive school somewhere outside of Arlington, Virginia, students aren’t taught history, geography, or mathematics—at least not in the usual ways. Instead, they are taught to persuade. Here the art of coercion has been raised to a science .Students harness the hidden power of language to manipulate the mind and learn to break down individuals by psychographic markers in order to take control of their thoughts. The very best will graduate as “poets”: adept wielders of language who belong to a nameless organization that is as influential as it is secretive.

Whip-smart orphan Emily Ruff is making a living running a three-card Monte game on the streets of San Francisco when she attracts the attention of the organization’s recruiters. She is flown across the country for the school’s strange and rigorous entrance exams, where, once admitted, she will be taught the fundamentals of persuasion by Brontë, Eliot, and Lowell—who have adopted the names of famous poets to conceal their true identities. For in the organization, nothing is more dangerous than revealing who you are: Poets must never expose their feelings lest they be manipulated. Emily becomes the school’s most talented prodigy until she makes a catastrophic mistake: She falls in love.

Meanwhile, a seemingly innocent man named Wil Parke is brutally ambushed by two strange men in an airport bathroom. Although he has no recollection of anything they claim he’s done, it turns out Wil is the key to a secret war between rival factions of poets and is quickly caught in their increasingly deadly crossfire. Pursued relentlessly by people with powers he can barely comprehend and protected by the very man who first attacked him, Wil discovers that everything he thought he knew about his past was fiction. In order to survive, must journey to the toxically decimated town of Broken Hill, Australia, to discover who he is and why an entire town was blown off the map.

As the two narratives converge, the shocking work of the poets is fully revealed, the body count rises, and the world crashes toward a Tower of Babel event which would leave all language meaningless. Max Barry’s most spellbinding and ambitious novel yet, Lexicon is a brilliant thriller that explores language, power, identity, and our capacity to love—whatever the cost.

As a lover of language - how we use it to not only communicate but change the world around us - this book was immediately interesting to me. Words are important, a sentiment uttered more than once in this book and implied throughout. To put it bluntly, words mean things, and should be chosen with care and respect.

I'm not even quite sure what I was expecting of this book anymore, but it does start out running - and you better be prepared to chase after to keep up. You're thrust right into the action, on a bathroom floor as Wil gets a needle shoved into his eye and questions hammered at him. Then there's shooting and running and all sorts of other things being thrown at you. I will say that the book hardly had a slow moment. There was a 10% section somewhere near the middle that didn't seem to be bursting with fights, but that was it. Otherwise it was non-stop. Unfortunately, this didn't exactly appeal to me. I enjoy some good action, but it's characters that I care about most and here the characters never came alive for me.

Honestly, I find I have trouble even describing them. Instead of the actions of the world shaping them, and their choices, I felt like they were players on a stage with pre-determined events. They moved from one event to the next. It was the events that were important here, not the characters.

The language aspect, which I was really looking forward to, was mostly glossed over, or used as a platform to talk about social media, media bias, and speak about society today in general. I enjoyed these thoughts objectively - I've thought them before; that I make too much of myself available on social media and the internet, enabling companies to compile data about me to better sell to me, or convince me of whatever they want. With targeted advertisements flooding websites, it's not hard to believe some of the things the Poets do or plan. I liked this in the same way I like a good debate though, in person. It's interesting and fascinating - but written down it just becomes a bit dry. And these moments - either clippings from news sources about events in the book, or messages on internet discussion boards, or comments/discussion from readers served only to slow the book down and bog down the action. Interesting, but ultimately it felt redundant, and I felt that time could have been better used elsewhere.

More time spent on explaining what the hell is going on would have been appreciated. The book jumps from character POV to character POV, with barely a word that it's happening. It jumps from timeline to timeline to timeline, we're working with about 4 different and distinct timelines here, and it sometimes took me pages to figure out which timeline I was in. I spent the first 30% of the book with no clue as to any of the basic structure of the world, the motives of any of the characters, or the reason things were happening. When I finally did begin to get an idea, I felt like the book was doling out information like it was a precious commodity. Perhaps that's fitting in a book about the importance of words, but I didn't like feeling like a mark that was being 'compromised' - in case you're wondering, they compromise you and make you do whatever they want.

I think it kind of succeeded though because I did end up finishing the book, despite my wanting to DNF it several times. I almost did the last time at 80% of the way in, when I could barely make myself care how it all turned out. I did though, and I can't really determine if I'm glad or not. After the hell the characters were put through in the book it all tied up a bit too neatly for me.

Perhaps this is a case of this book just not being for me. It's possible that what I was hoping for and what I got were simply on widely separate ends of the spectrum. I can't pretend that I enjoyed this book though. I vacillated between confusion, boredom and irritation too much throughout.

Grade: D-

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Review: Yes, Captain by Rebecca Royce

Title: Yes, Captain
Author: Rebecca Royce
Series: Stand Alone
Genre: Futuristic Romance
Release Date: 7 August 2010


Five years ago Lizbeth had to deal with the sudden disappearance of her captain, and best friend, Acton. In the middle of space, surrounded by nothing but stars, he simply disappeared off the bridge. And that’s when she realized that she was in love with him. Now, finally, she’s located him. In the far reaches of an area they’re not supposed to breach due to alliances, Acton is on a little planet called Earth.

After convincing the acting-captain to let her go in to get Acton, Lizbeth finds herself directly in his path. He nearly runs her over, but doesn’t recognize her, or himself. In fact he thinks he’s a human lawyer named Charles. With no time to explain she transports them back up to their space vessel and hopes he remembers who he is.

Because they’ve got trouble. They’re somewhere forbidden and the dangers increase with every moment. As they reacquaint themselves with one another, and their shared passion they’ll have to outwit a traitor, who wants only their deaths.

Yes, Captain is a quick fun read that centers on a futuristic race from another planet who look and act much like humans. The characters are interesting and when I started reading I wanted to know more.

The plot is quick and keeps moving at a fast pace. Somewhat to the detriment of the story. Things are moving along so quickly that it’s, at times, hard to get to know the characters or understand their motivations. While it’s a fairly simply story and you don’t need a lot of explanation, I wanted more insight into the characters. They were appealing and had a ton of potential. Unfortunately I felt like some of the potential of Yes, Captain was lost due page count. I think it, easily, could have done with a longer format and more depth.

All in all, Yes, Captain is a quick read that’s enjoyable if you aren’t looking for too much world-building or depth.

Grade: C-

Book Link | Kindle | Liquid Silver Books