Review: The Reluctant Knight by Doug Glener

The Reluctant Knight

by Doug Glener

Publication Date: Jan 15^th 2013

Publisher: Paladin Publishing
Source: Author

Find This Book: The Reluctant Knight

Rating: 3.5/5

This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.

My overall impression of this book was that it was quirky and new. The concept really had a lot of potential. The book is about ninth grader Percival Adler and his adventure in the course of a week. He gets bullied by Huey, Dewey, and Louie, but the author never really says anything about them. Someone just tells them that it’s pathetic to pick on a freshman, implying that the bullies are older I suppose. The book seems a bit underdelevoped as a whole that I’ll get into later, but it also showed great potential.

It starts off with Percival running into the woods behind the school to escape his torturers where he comes across a door, which of course he goes through. These scene immediately reminded me of The Chronicles of Narnia when Eustace and Jill run through a strange door into Narnia in their attempt to escape bullies. Maybe that scene was inspiration? Or just a really suspicious coincidence... I hope it's a tribute because I enjoyed that parallelism.

Through the door, Percival meets Lord Arwain and his 7 knights. The knights each knelt before a reflecting pool and whispered words of hope to people. They’re basically all the angel of the conscience (you know, the stereotypical angel/devil on the shoulder?). On the other side of the coin is Raeben and his 7 followers. They each sat next to a pool of polluted water and encourage people to do bad things. In my comparison they are clearly the devil on one’s shoulder.

Percival, with the help of his two friends Chaz and Dillon, his older sister Guinevere, and a badass samurai (named Tesshu) must stop Raeban’s goonies from the dead and his plan to destroy… well the tri-state area really, though he’ll probably expand his vision eventually. I don’t want to say too much about the plot because pretty much everything is a spoiler, but I do want to say that I thought the historical figures and weapons were researched well enough. The characters were satisfactorily described (though I’m pretty sure Tesshu’s sword was never specified which was odd considering the author wrote the specific clothes that Tesshu was wearing. So I just assumed a Katana?) Anyways, King Alfred, Raeban’s minions and the myth of Raeban’s old home was really well gone and extremely enjoyable. The plot itself was absolutely great but the writing could have been more developed, which I hope will improve in the future :)

There were cons to the book though. As mentioned above, the main characters didn’t really develop. Sure they learn to band together and Guinevere actually stands up for her brother, but they seemed very flat and unrealistic. How are things really supposed to go back to normal after a week adventure like that? And Guys/her phone can't seriously be the most important things to Guinevere, what kind of girl is she?? The kids just seemed pretty 2-demensional and forgettable when could have been so much more. The fact that Percival’s parents just happen to take him out of school for the week but don’t confront the school about his bullies- Not very realistic. On top of that these “high schoolers” acted extremely childish and came across to me as elementary students at the oldest. Even the cover makes Percival look like a 5th grader. I mean, I know guys were immature in school, but no one was THAT bad in high school. The way their age group acts doesn't seem realistic at all.

Just one more thing that really ticked me off, the fact that Percival daydreamed about vanquishing the bullies to win the affections of the prettiest girl in class. She doesn’y even come back into the book, so it’s not even that big of a deal, but why “prettiest”? That’s demeaning! She couldn’t have been the funniest? Smartest? Anything that has to do with personality or talent instead of something you can’t control like looks? I mean, the whole point of THIS BOOK was that Percival wasn’t the hero type and certainly didn’t look like a hero yet he gets his adventure to prove himself. Yet he’s shallow enough to think like this about others?

In summary though, I enjoyed this books plot and the concept was just great. Obviously I nit-picked at this a lot but these little things honestly bugged me almost the entire book. However, the Pros definitely outweighed the Cons and I hope to see more in the future from Doug Glener.

Review: Script Kiddie by Michael F. Stewart

Script Kiddie (Assured Destruction #2)

by Michael F. Stewart

Publication Date:  August 31^st 2013

Publisher: Non Sequitur Press
Source: Author

Find This Book: Script Kiddie

Rating: 5/5

A copy of this book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Janus Rose is still up to no good in book two haha. She is now working on the side of good though. She is the newest member of the police department’s High Tech Crime Unit, where she’ll serve out her sentence of public service (from stealing data from old computers in book one). To evaluate Janus’s skills, she is given the laptop of a murderer and has to profile and expose the killer. On top of all that, her relationship with Jonny isn’t going so hot, Assured Destruction needs to hire a new employee that they don’t have the money to pay for, Peter is mysterious as ever, and Hannah is getting stalked by a creep. Can Janus possibly save everything?

Man this book was intense. Even after the scandal from book one, Janus keeps the Shadownet (deleting Jonny’s hard drive of course) and still tweets from all of her different personas. There is less mother-daughter action in Script Kiddie, simply because there is less ‘mother’. Janus is working with the police, getting driven around by Jonny, and spending extra time at school, on the internet, and manning the store. Her mom’s condition is getting worse and Peter is taking more control of things, much to Janus’s dislike, which I completely agree with. Peter gives me the heebie-jeebies and NOTHING is further explained about him! I’m awaiting a book 3 Michael!

While we wait I’ll highlight my likes and dislikes of Script Kiddie. The title of the name really bothered me at first. It seemed pretty ridiculous and childish after a cool name like ‘Assured Destruction’, but after the name was explained in the book the title instantly fit. The transition from Book 1 to Book 2 shows how, in perspective, Janus really is the bottom of the hacker hierarchy. Nowhere near the big leagues. A Script Kiddie. One thing that I REALLY hated was how much Janus thought about other guys (Karl and Hannah’s brother) and how much she relied on physicalities to sustain her relationship with Jonny. If she cared about Jonny, she wouldn’t compare him with others or point out his flaws or resort to being physical all the time. One thing I really enjoyed was Constable Ethan Chow and seeing him from different points of view before realizing it’s him. So adorable <3 but Jonny is still my favorite guy character. As usual, I love the incorporation of modern technology and social media in this series and also the way it ended yet again in a satisfying conclusion, but not a ‘happily-ever-after’. Realistic. This book dealt with more real world problems such as carding, illness, Internet stalkers, and debt. The book always keeps a light, yet serious tone with a subtle hint of dark throughout the plot and, again, was a really enjoyable read!

Review: The Riddle of Prague by Laura DeBruce

The Riddle of Prague

by Laura DeBruce

Publication Date: September 17^th 2013

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Source: Author

Find This Book: The Riddle of Prague  

Rating: 5/5

This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.

So my first introduction to this series was by giving the author my opinion of book 2’s cover options. That book clearly seems to be set in Paris with the sun as a big deal. In contrast to this book being set in Prague and with the moon. This was completely a ‘judge a book by its cover’ moment and I’m happy I liked the cover because I loved this book!

I don’t know much about Prague, but the book seemed very well researched and believable. I love fantasy books, but my favorite is when the author can take the fantastical and turn it into something completely feasible, and I think that was done incredibly well in The Riddle of Prague. Prague’s history, architecture, museums, and paintings are taken into account throughout the book. It felt like I could really be there experiencing some of these scenes.

Anyways, these people didn’t just magically become immortal, it was scientifically explained, and quite accurately so. When DNA replicates itself it gets worn down, so it can only replicate itself so many times before it’s destroyed and the person dies. Which, as far as my scientific knowledge goes, is completely true. So if one were to mutate him/herself to protect the replication process from destroying itself they could live indefinitely. They should still be susceptible to sickness; injuries, etc. so could die other ways, but could not die of old age.

The characters were well done, especially the immortal character’s pasts; my favorite being David and his affinity with poetry. I thought that right from the beginning Nadja wasn't all that she seemed, but could never be 100% sure. There were also plenty of other secrets to keep the book suspenseful and the pages turning. Hana came from America to reclaim her family’s house after the soviet’s iron curtain came down. She meets all these people at once and knows as much about them as the reader does, which was a nice change. The reader could discover and learn alongside Hana instead of Hana telling the reader information she already knows. Hana came to her conclusions, and I came to mine. Of course Hana made some stupid decisions, but they weren’t overboard and made the book seem more realistic. She met all of these people around the same time, so who should she trust?

When she goes to get documents signed to make The Rockery officially her property, she meets Alex and his little sister Thalia, children of a U.S. diplomat. He is a piece of familiarity in a foreign house/city/country/continent. Alex and Hana are so cute together and his little sister is so spunky!

The plot of this book is that Hana (with mainly help from Alex) acquires a notebook that contains a riddle to find a flask. This flask contains the key to immortality and too many people are looking for it. Don Julius and his goonies have Hana’s grandmother hostage and are willing to kill anyone to posses the flask. Simona and Michal seemed like a really cute couple and they want the flask to help humanity. David seems to just want to help Hana find it for the sake of Julius NOT having it. There are plenty of lies and deception, making The Riddle of Prague a page-turner. This book was an intense fantasy history mystery, and I loved every page of it. To the point where I was putting off everything I could to find time to read!

Review: Defy by Sara B. Larson

Defy

by Sara B. Larson

Publication Date: Jan 7^th 2014

Publisher: Scholastic
Source: Publisher

Find This Book: Defy

Rating: 5/5

I won this book in a giveaway on Goodreads. This has not altered my opinion in any way and my review will be honest, as usual.

I just want to start off profusely thanking Sara Larson and Scholastic for an arc copy of Defy! I loved this book and it’s characters and have definitely become a fan :) I can’t wait until it comes out and I’ll have people to talk about it with haha. But for now I’ll have to settle for a review.

Defy is about Alexa Hollen, a girl disguised as a guy to serve in the king’s army. Her parents were killed when she and her twin brother, Marcel, were 14. Male orphans are forced into the army, and female orphans are forced into the breeding house where once they hit puberty they are raped to breed more men for the army. To save herself from that fate she and Marcel become twin ‘brothers’ and she now goes by the name Alex. She is pretty badass and unbeatable in a sword fight, which earns her a spot on the elite prince’s guard. How she manages to do all of that without revealing her secret, I have no idea. However, she’s no match for a sorcerer that abducts the prince, herself, and her fellow guard Rylan. Being in close quarters soon makes it obvious that she isn’t a guy, but fortunately for the reader, unfortunately for the characters, everyone has their share of secrets as tensions rise! Now Alex/a must trust the very people who might break her heart in order to stop a war and save the kingdom from an even deadlier enemy.

So as mentioned above, I LOOOOVVVVVED this book. I didn’t read it in one sitting (time not permitting), but I wished I had. I did, however, finish it in less than 24 hours since it showed up at my house though, so that must count for something. This book was so beautifully written that I found it hard to believe that Larson was a debut author! For me, the mark of a good author is A) me wanting to quote parts, scenes, or something a character says (Check!) and B) developing the characters to the point where the reader can just KNOW who is talking without it necessarily being specified (Check!). Alexa’s brother, Marcel was easily one of my favorite characters in the book. Even though he wasn’t in it long, he was so intellectual and caring, always protecting his sister even when she didn’t know it. This book’s Love Triangle consists of Rylan, her long-time friend and crush, the sweet, caring, concerned, brotherly type, and then there’s Damian, the lazy spoiled brat who isn’t all that he seems. In fact, it turns out that Damian is actually a great guy in his own right and god did I ship Damian and Alexa together <3

Most importantly, Alexa was a well-built character that is respectable and a great role model. Despite all she goes through, she learns about love and sacrifice, but most importantly she learns about how to be herself. With great side characters to back her up, she manages to make it through the intense plot twists in this splendid face-paced novel. Another enjoyable aspect of the novel was the setting in the rainforest. I found the concept and it’s affects on the characters intriguing and refreshing.

I just have a couple things I’d like to say about what I didn’t like about the book, because there was a couple. There were plenty of unexplained parts that would’ve really added to the book if they had been addressed/ addressed in detail. Such as how some people caught on to the fact that she was a girl. Never explained, they just know! Also, how the heck did she possibly keep her secret, especially whenever it was her time of the month…. I think that would make her gender quite obvious. How Hector became king in the first place, building up the land and countries’ history would’ve been nice too. I felt like the reader didn’t know anything at all until the end of the book, which doesn’t work with huge chunks of information. Lastly, I wish that the whole ‘sorcerer’ thing had been better clarified, especially since it seems to be more complex than other author’s versions of sorcery and magic. There are clearly different kinds of sorcerer’s and I feel like the reader should have been enlightened, especially considering the number of characters who are sorcerers. Actually, I lied; I have two more last things to nit pick about, though they have nothing to do with things not being explained. At the beginning of the book there were so many names all at once that it’s hard to keep track of who’s who in the palace. And also why was Tanoori added to the book? She didn’t detract from the book of course, but she didn’t seem to add anything to it either.

All in all, this book is completely worth reading, despite it’s little irks, and I can’t wait till book 2 (which will hopefully answer some of my questions). I think it will definitely get good reception and that fans of Graceling and Iron Fey would enjoy this novel. Either way I’m definitely looking forward to getting my hands on more of Sara B. Larson’s works in the future and watching her grow as an author :) 

Review: Brunderfold by Jason M. Burns

Brunderfold

by Jason M. Burns

Publication Date: Sept 17^th 2013

Publisher: Plymoth Rock Creative (PRC)
Source: Author

Find This Book: Brunderfold

Rating: 4/5

This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.

The book is about Aiden Holmes and his father Don (letter is read about Don’s experience) and how they face this boogeyman named Brunderfold. Let me just say that Brunderfold was extremely creepy and scared the heck out of me in every scene he was in. He reminded me of Smeagle/Gollum except without the 'pity me/lovable' side. Brunderfold is basically a book monster that eats the imagination of children and the book titled 'Brunderfold' grows with each of his actions (self written). He also travels around by coming out of books. So Don trapped Brunderfold in locker 13 when he was a kid. Aiden opened that locker and accidentally released Brunderfold, which is our big dilemma.

Characters:

I really liked the characters in this book (aside from Brunderfold), which isn't always the case in books I read. The dad was lovable, Aiden was lovable, Ethan was ADORABLE, heck even Ronnie was likable. Chester was by far my favorite <3. One thing I disliked was that there didn't seem to be much character depth to Olivia. There was basically nothing to her and it felt like she was only there to cause tension between Ronnie and Aiden and to be the love interest. It didn't feel like there was any substance to her at all. Aside from that, I felt like all of the character's actions and background were believable (except the ending. You're telling me that this book has been around for who knows how long, and NO ONE thought of ripping up the book? NO ONE???)  I also enjoyed the character growth and how the reader doesn’t know about the bad thing Aiden did until later in the story, it gives the reader a chance to like the main character without the bias, which is what all of the other high school kids in the book are going through. 

Writing:

The detail in the book was great and really captured the characters thoughts, appearances, what was going on around them, etc. Burns told the book in new and interesting ways. This book had extremely creative description, while also not going over the top, which was something I LOVED. Brunderfold was well written, face paced, and unique. I hope to read more from Burns in the future, though maybe not a Brunderfold sequel…

Loose Ends:

I have a couple critical points I would like to, well, point out. This book ends up leaveing me with more questions than I started out with…. What happens to the other kids!? Carrie and Tricky Dan weren't dead... and how can Brunderfold just create a Volume two for himself? That completely defeats the whole purpose of Aiden and Don's story! Now there basically feels like there was no point to this book. It just starts all over again! Also, does Aiden ever read his dad’s letter? What’s up with that? Most importantly, where did Brunderfold even come from? Don found him in the library, so what was going on before that? Why does Brunderfold need imagination, and if he does so much then how come nothing happened why he was trapped for 30 years?? There were just a lot of loose ends for me and the book obviously didn't leave the reader with a ‘final’ feeling.

For the above reasons I can’t possibly give this book more than 4 stars but I’ve seen some of my concerns in other reviews as well so this will hopefully be avoided in future writing :D

Review: In Your Dreams by Amy Martin

In Your Dreams

by Amy Martin

Publication Date: August 15th 2012

Publisher: Self Published
Source: Author

Find This Book: In Your Dreams

Rating: 3/5

A copy of this book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book really unique to read. The concept of a character having a something about them that they like/hate at the same time isn't new, but the way it was in this particular book was great. The book’s main character is Zip. She lives with her mom, her grandparents live next door, and her dad lives in Chicago. Her parents are divorced which obviously isn’t so abnormal nowadays. Her dad gave her the nickname ‘Zip’ years ago because she’s a fast runner. She plays basketball, loves to read, and what do you know, has new neighbors moving in next door.

Kieran and Kayla are the new kids to town. He has a sleeping disorder. He can't control when he sleeps and sometimes passes out at inconvenient times, such as during school. He also has dreams of the future that always come true. They are only small scenes that don't normally make sense until the event actually happens, but they're always accurate. This happens to him because his mother was taking a new drug while pregnant. Interesting stuff happened back in the day (no spoilers) and now the only person who might know the formula is his biological father. Their hope is that if the formula was revealed a cure could be developed to help Kieran. But does Kieran want to change? Obviously he wants to be in control of when he sleeps, but having those dreams is part of who he is. It's what he's grown up doing. Could he really give that up to be like a normal guy?

Zip just happens to be there when Kieran has his first episode in school and they end up becoming close friends, much to his sister Kayla’s dislike. The formation of their relationship was super cute <3

The main problem of the book was that Kieran's real dad is getting released from jail and might come to manipulate Kieran. His buddy Frank is already in this town and Zip thinks she might be getting the dreams too. Everything goes down on the most important night of the year: Prom. There were engaging twists and turns throughout. This book actually made me not want to read it. The file sat on my phone for like a week because I didn't want to find out what happened on Prom night. I didn't want to hear about anything bad happening. My curiosity won out. I'm glad it did because it was nowhere near as bad as I thought haha. The book was good, obviously, but it doesn't leave me dying to read book two. The book doesn't end in a cliffhanger and I honestly think it could have been a stand alone book. I have no clue what book two will be about, but I most certainly will read it, it's just not going to kill me to put it off a bit.

Typically I put constructive criticism in my reviews but there wasn't really anything that stood out to me. Which can be taken as a compliment and a criticism. I liked this book but there wasn't really anything about it to make it stand out from other books, aside from the fact that Kieran's condition came from his mom taking drugs during pregnancy. What I mean is, in the future I probably won't remember this book, it doesn't have that 'omg' quality that makes a book unforgettable. I’d recommend it if you want a short refreshing read, but I don’t think that the book is something that will stick with you.