A.J. Maguire

Tag: Reviews

  • Book Review – Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole

    This book took me a minute to get into, but I think that was my fault. I have been reading far too many Romantasy novels and needed a pallet cleanser. And I know some of you are going to gasp and be offended and say — There’s no such thing as too many Romantasy novels!

    To which I will say…

    There is if you are reading them one after another after another. Because the plotlines and characters really start to blend.

    SO.

    Yes, this book took me a minute.

    Because Diem (which, by the way, insofar as character names go is admittedly not my favorite, but I got over it) was so much like every other kick-butt female heroine from a Romantasy novel that my eyes were kind of glazing. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, we love tropes for a reason, so I put the book down and did something else for a while until I had enough distance from that trope that I could love it again.

    I enjoyed this book. While there were elements that were blaringly obvious and I wanted to reach into the pages and strangle the main character until she came around and paid better attention, there were other elements that I distinctly loved. The world and prejudices inside it were real. You could feel and understand the frustrations coming from the human element of society, even while you wanted desperately to see some sort of resolution that would not put innocent lives in danger.

    But most important.

    I loved that Diem made a mistake.

    Mild spoiler alert. Diem makes a choice that turns out to be a bad one. And it’s one that you know she is going to make. You see it coming. And you understand it. That in and of itself made me adore this book, but to top it off, the banter between Diem and the romantic interest is fun.

    I look forward to the next in the series.

    AMAZON LINK – Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole

  • Book Review – The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Caressa Broadbent

    A while back I picked up Six Scorched Roses by this same author and I enjoyed it immensely. It embraced some of the cliches of vampire romance novels but it did this in such a way that I was comfortable instead of rolling my eyes. I enjoyed this so much that I went ahead and snagged the novel The Serpent and the Wings of Night.

    I’m not gonna lie.

    I struggled through the first chapters of this book.

    The main character made me twitch every time they mentioned how dangerous the world was that they were living in, and how fragile they were compared to the vampires she lived amongst. Seriously. It was at least once a page and I was starting to feel like the author was beating me over the head with it and I nearly put the book down. But because I loved Six Scorched Roses, I continued.

    And I am glad that I did, because somewhere in the middle of it I started to realize that the mantra of weakness and danger was supposed to be there. It was drilled into the main character’s head by her father, and was a means of controlling her, and it was very satisfying to see when our little serpent began to see that control for what it was.

    So, my proverbial hat’s off to Ms. Broadbent. That was masterfully played.

    The world created was interesting, even if I found her pantheon a little confusing at times, and the action was brutally engaging. The vampires weren’t the undead that I grew up with, so I didn’t have my normal repulsion of them — aka, they’re alive, it’s just a weird kind of undying. I loved rooting for the characters and the romance built very nicely. I will note for my friends who read these reviews that it is an adult novel with adult scenes.

    At any rate, it’s a good book with an interesting slant on vampires and a lot of heart-pounding action.

    PURCHASE LINK for Amazon!

  • Book Review – Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

    Given how much I have enjoyed Sarah J Maas and her worlds, it should come as no surprise that this Romantasy has been on my radar for a while. I was lucky enough to be given a gift card to Barnes and Noble for Christmas and immediately set about snagging this book.

    MILD SPOILER ALERT — Only read on if you don’t mind a smidgen of talk about THINGS.

    First thing to note — I loved Xaden. Like, from moment one of him entering the stage, I quite enjoyed him. All the stuff I heard about this novel, I thought I would have moments where I didn’t like him but truth is… everything he did made sense. And everything about the world this girl was raised in had all my red flag alarms going off.

    Which means that the big reveal at the end didn’t really hit me the way it might have hit others.

    You mean the militaristic society banning certain books and allowing kids to plunge to death on Conscription Day just to see if they’ll have the wits to get across a parapet is hiding something evil? Who would guess?

    So the entire book I’m mostly watching Violet to see when she wises up, and munching popcorn while the emotions fester between her and Xaden. But I really dug into the narrative the moment we meet the dragons, because I love stories where dragons bond/speak/get on the level with humans. Tairn’s exasperation was excellent.

    I will say that Andarna probably shouldn’t have been so puppyish if they were trying to keep her age on the down-low from authorities. Any adult watching that scenario would be stroking their chin about the true nature of feathertails, and that’s based on maybe three interactions they get to see from afar.

    Next up…

    Having been through Basic Training, I thoroughly enjoyed the militaristic aspects of Violet’s training. Outside of the very real threat to the lives of these kids, I was right at home with the physical demands they placed on her and the struggle she had to overcome them.

    The romance built nicely, but as always, I warn Parents that there are explicit scenes in this book. Which, to be fair, I keep meaning to have a longer conversation about explicit scenes in books because they are so popular. Before I do, let me clarify by saying ‘kids’ in this book are consenting age, I’m just showing how old I am in calling them kids.

    My very conservative upbringing blushes at a lot of these scenes. If I feel they are gratuitous, I pass them over. My eyes literally skim the page hunting for the conversation that comes after because, quite frankly, while intimacy is important to keeping a romance healthy, its the vulnerable moments after that truly define that relationship.

    Because I am constantly trying to improve my craft, I did read a book recently that describes what makes a good intimate scene, and when I remember the title and who wrote it, I’ll be sure to update this post, but for now I’ll make note of what truly stuck out to me. What was explained was that you had to be able to say why only these two people could be having this scene at this time, what it reveals about them as individuals as well as them as a couple. And this makes so much sense to me that I have to wonder why I didn’t notice it before.

    Suffice, in this book, the intimate scenes made sense. I mean, some of it could have been put behind a closed door, but you don’t pick up a romantasy without certain expectations so… fans might have murdered Yarros if she closed that door too soon.

    The story was fun and I get the hype that surrounded it. The characters have stuck with me, even if some aspects of the world haven’t, and I’m excited to see what happens next.

    Fourth Wing – Rebecca Yarros

  • Book Review – Crescent City by Sarah J Maas

    Alright, so we already know I was a fan of Sarah J Maas’s Court of Thorns and Roses, so it comes as no surprise that I enjoyed this book. It is a big book that you can settle into for several days/weeks depending on your reading speed. Personally, I had some time off with my kiddo during the Christmas holiday and, because this book was one of my presents (thank you, Husband!) I dove right in.

    I started this novel Christmas Day and practically lived in it for three days. The world Maas created was fascinating and the characters felt real and raw. Admittedly, I feared I wasn’t going to like the book at the beginning because I just did not have anything in common with Bryce and the partying life she enjoyed. I’m far too introverted to ever enjoy that lifestyle, but we read books to experience new things and so I trucked along until I could connect with Bryce better.

    That said, this review comes with a strong parental warning. I know several parents read this blog and I would not recommend this for your younger crowds. It has raw language and heavy sexual overtones to it.

    Warnings aside, the story itself is excellent. I did cry at one part (NO SPOILERS) so the author gets applause from me there. I didn’t see the ending coming, but it was epic and heart-pounding and I quite enjoyed it. There were moments where the cast felt a little too big, but this was overshadowed by just how big the world is that she’s built here so while I might have had to remind myself who certain people were, those names added to the scope of the world itself.

    I loved the book and am excited to see what comes next for Bryce and Hunt.

  • Book Review – Six of Crows & Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

    That’s right, after I finished the Shadow and Bone Trilogy, I set out to read Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom Duology. Because I had to meet Kaz Brekker in a literary fashion.

    For those who don’t have Netflix and haven’t had the pleasure of seeing season one of Shadow and Bone, the creators of the show found a means to meld the characters from both the first series and what I will dotingly call the Kaz Brekker duology. So when I watched the show and got my first glimpse of the character Kaz Brekker, I knew I had to read his books.

    Imagine my surprise when the Shadow and Bones trilogy did NOT have this rough anti-hero gracing its pages?

    It’s alright, though. I forgave the author because I fell in love with Nikolai. Seemed an even trade-off at the time.

    I will note that I had an inkling that my husband would enjoy this character as well, so instead of just reading the novels on my own, we opted for the audio version and listened to the first novel together while on vacation. Fun note: I was right, my husband loves Kaz as much as I do, and he may have decided Inej was his favorite female character too. Which is saying something because he doesn’t normally get in tight with the women on the page.

    We both had one criticism for the novels, though. These characters felt much, much older than she was telling us they were on the page. It almost felt like the editors were forcing her to lower their ages so that she could fit the novels in the young adult market. Personally, I feel they would have been fine in the “new adult” section and letting them age up just a couple years.

    That said, I loved these books. Kaz Brekker has become my favorite anti-hero. The actor who plays him in the Netflix series has nailed his personality. I give a hearty round of applause to him for that. He read these books, he understood who he was playing, and he put him to life in such a way that I, as a newfound Bardugo fan, have no complaints.

    Inej is fantastic. She is able to walk the line between feminine grace, kindness, and necessary ruthlessness.

    Likewise, the rest of the cast were engaging and I was cheering for them, and wincing during failures, from start to finish. The city of Ketterdam felt alive and the magic of the Grisha remains interesting to see in action. If you enjoy fantasy, these books will satisfy.

    From a writer’s standpoint, I’ll note that Bardugo nails dialogue in these two books. If you’re an author, I recommend reading these two novels in particular to watch how she is able to work through heist plans via the dialogue on the page, making it all feel fresh, easy to follow, and colored with the characters who are speaking.

    Five of five stars – with a note that it does feel more adult in places, with themes that parents will want to watch out for. There are brothels discussed, but no explicit scenes on the page to be worried about.

  • Book Review – Black Powder War by Naomi Novik

    Our family started the Temeraire series on the road trip to New England and we were excited to see where the story went in this third book. Laurence and Temeraire are now staples in our household, to the point that we’ve taken to nicknaming our cats after the dragons.

    (Nicknames only, because to me they will always be Pest – for constantly sitting on the back of my chair while I’m typing – and Nuisance – for his equally disruptive behavior while I am writing with pen and paper.)

    It is particularly delightful to see my ten-year-old son getting involved in the narrative. He enjoys Temeraire’s confusion with humanity, and more important to this novel, his conversations with Lawrence regarding the treatment of dragons in human society.

    There wasn’t as much battle in this one, but the tension is still there. Without spoiling the novel, there was a lot of flying to be done and intrigues that had to be averted as the greater war against Napoleon took a huge step forward.

    We’ve already snagged the fourth book and will be starting it soon. If you’re a family that enjoys reading, and particularly reading together, then this is a series I highly recommend. The narrative is beautiful and the characters are memorable.

    Plus, dragons.

     

  • Book Review – The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

    I liked this book so much, I listened to it twice. The first time was just for myself, and the second time I played the audible version for my son in the evenings before bed. Admittedly, the book is about a female magician, but my son liked it just the same.

    Without giving spoilers – because I hate giving spoilers in fiction – I can tell you that this book is tightly written. The story follows Ceony Twill as she begins her apprenticeship as a paper magician.

    The idea of magic being connected to different materials and crafts was interesting to me, and to my son. It was fun to “watch” as paper was made to do amazing things with magic, and in fact I believe this is what kept my nine-year-old son listening.

    The magic system alone kept me fascinated, even if I did find some of the descriptions in the book a little clunky. This happened a couple of times in the book for me, drawing me out of the storyline because the descriptions seemed so odd, but it’s nothing to stop a reader from going on.

    As an author, those descriptions are something that I’ve highlighted for further review and I’ll touch on them in a later post. Suffice to say, the book as a whole is excellent, Ceony is a relatable and proactive character that I was able to get behind and root for until the last page.

    I’ll be grabbing the next book in this series and highly recommend it.

  • About Reviews – April Round Robin

    My mother always taught me that if I didn’t have anything nice to say, I shouldn’t say anything at all. While I haven’t always followed that advice, I’m certain many authors wish critics would.

    I’ve had one or two reviews that scoured my work to the bone, which … let’s be honest here … required a pint of ice cream to get me through. Mint chocolate chip is the greatest comforter in times like these.

    But when push comes to shove, negative reviews are always the ones that I learn from. I’m not a world-renowned author, not yet, and I’m still honing my craft. So anything that teaches me how to be better is good.

    Sometimes painful, but good.

    Positive reviews help sell a book, but not nearly as much as word of mouth. Like it or not, people talking about your book is still the number one way to push those sales up – or so all the professionals tell me.

    I’ve sent my books out to reviewers for their honest opinions and come back with some positive results there, but those results never last for very long. To be honest, sometimes the only result of a positive review is my own feeling of accomplishment; somebody read my book and understood what I was trying to say!

    Since Sedition was first published eight years ago I’ve held a 4.36 star average on Goodreads and about the same on Amazon, which I suppose is quite good considering there are a lot of things wrong with my early novels. But the only thing this knowledge serves is to push me to become better.

    Maybe it sells one book every three months or so, but at the end of the day it still only pushes me to be better. I don’t have time to check reviews every day or even every week. I check them once or twice a month, see if I have anything new, and then I get back to work.

    See what some of my fellow authors think about reviews …

    Marci Baun  http://www.marcibaun.com/blog/
    Dr. Bob Rich https://bobrich18.wordpress.com/2017/04/22/how-to-get-reviews
    Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
    Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
    Victoria Chatham http://victoriachatham.blogspot.ca
    Helena Fairfax http://www.helenafairfax.com
    Rachael Kosinski http://rachaelkosinski.weebly.com/
    A.J. Maguire  https://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/ (YOU ARE HERE)
    Margaret Fieland http://margaretfieland.wordpress.com
    Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
    Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com

  • X-Men Days of Future Past – Review

    I’ve never been shy about my inner Geek.

    Well, I can’t really call it my “inner” Geek, can I? I’ve posted about playing Star Trek Online with my kid (we’re watching Voyager now, by the way) and I’ve talked about nearly every comic-based movie I’ve gone to see in recent years.

    So … the cat’s out of the bag, so to speak.

    I am a Geek. I love comic books, super heroes, novels with magic in them, and the occasional game. And, of course, I love movies that highlight these things as well.

    It’s no surprise then that I loved X-Men Days of Future Past. It’s counterpart – X-Men First Class – went a long way with repairing the whole X-Men mythos after the fairly disappointing renditions done earlier. (I’m sorry. Rogue is my favorite character and they sort of broke her entire story in those early X-Men movies, which made me hate them.)

    In any case, X-Men First Class and X-Men Days of Future Past made my Geek-self happy. And, as was the case in X-Men First Class, much of this had to do with the casting of James McAvoy as the young Charles Xavier.

    (Allow me a moment to fan-girl squee.) X-Men-Days-of-Future-Past-character-bio-James-McAvoy-as-Professor-X

    I know Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine was sort of the main character in this film, and yes, I do so love that man as Wolverine but … If you can’t get Professor X right, then the whole X-Men regime falls flat on its face. McAvoy has this captivating voice, much like his counterpart in the film, Patrick Stewart, and it was fun to watch them play against one another.

    I did have some consistency questions for the plot but in light of the whole I really don’t care. (It’s a movie about mutants with super powers, let’s not try and treat it as gospel, shall we?) All in all, I quite enjoyed this movie and look forward to any and all future installments.

  • Star Trek Into Darkness Review

    That’s right.  This science fiction geek totally went to see Star Trek this weekend. I’ll admit that I sorta knew what was coming because I follow Tor.com and they had some reviews up there (they said not to read the bottom comments due to spoilers, but I read them anyway because … yeah … I just couldn’t help myself.)

    Anyway, I enjoyed the movie.  No, scratch that, I loved the movie.  My mother and I had several debates about it because she is … Well, let’s just say I’m a Trekkie because she was a Trekkie first.  I was sort of born into it.

    She was not so happy about certain plot elements that mirrored the old movies.  Me, I liked the fact that they did this.  As a storyteller myself I can see why they did it and where they were going.  My mother, on the other hand, was hoping for something new.

    And, let’s face it, the whole point of Star Trek is to see something new.  They “boldly go where no man has gone before” and encounter “new life and new civilizations.”  So I do see where she is coming from.

    (Mild spoiler: the very end of the movie seemed to suggest that any future movies within the Star Trek genre were going to head out into unexplored territory.  At least I hope that’s what that whole sequence meant.)

    That said, I’m going to have to agree with some of the other reviews I’ve read on this subject and that is on the matter of James T. Kirk himself.  The last movie left his character rather smug.  I mean … of course, they were going to make him Captain.  He basically saved Earth.

    This movie ripped that smugness away from him.  It helped him grow up.  The Captain Kirk that is now at the helm of our beloved Enterprise is one we can rally behind more fully.

    So!

    I loved the movie.  I loved the character growth within the movie.  I even loved all the tongue-in-cheek brushes we had with the older films.