Review: Debt of Bones by Terry Goodkind

Title: Debt of Bones: Sword of Truth Prequel Novel

Author: Terry Goodkind

Rating:1/2

Who Should Read It? Lovers of Terry Goodkind. I would really recommend that you do what I didn't do and read the other Sword of Truth books FIRST.

What I Have to Say: When I started this book, I didn't know that it was a prequel novel. I for some reason thought that it was the first book in the Sword of Truth Series. As such, I felt kind of lost. I mean, it was the before to things that I was supposed to already know, even though they hadn't already happened. That's just a weird feeling. I really wish I would have known so that I could have read it AFTER reading the books.

That said, I really enjoyed it. Not enough to make me feel the need to go immediately read the other books or anything, but enough. Enough to read through the whole thing without ever feeling that I wanted to stop.

BUT, it just felt, well. . .generic. And that could be because I hadn't read any of the other books to be curious about the back story, but, well,. . .I wasn't curious. I never felt like I got to know any of the other characters, and I kept going back to it getting it mixed up with other epic fantasies. It was short, and there just wasn't enough. . .feeling. Again, this could be because I was supposed to ALREADY know and love the characters.

If I could just get over the lack of caring about the characters, it really was a good, solid piece of epic fantasy. The story was convincing and enthralling. It was solid and well thought out, and despite me not loving it so much, it convinced me that Terry Goodkind is definitely an author worth reading.

Summary:A milestone of storytelling set in the world of The Sword of Truth, Debt of Bones is the story of young Abby's struggle to win the aid of the wizard Zedd Zorander, the most important man alive.

Abby is trapped, not only between both sides of the war, but in a mortal conflict between two powerful men. For Zedd, who commands power most men can only imagine, granting Abby's request would mean forsaking his sacred duty. With the storm of the final battle about to break, both Abby and Zedd are caught in a desperate fight to save the life of a child...but neither can escape the shadow of an ancient betrayal.

With time running out, their only choice may be a debt of bones. The world-for Zedd, for Abby, for everyone-will never again be the same.

Discover why millions of readers the world over have elevated Terry Goodkind to the ranks of legend.

Cover Story: Maybe it's just me, but I tend to find all Terry Goodkind covers relatively boring. This one is no exception.

Review: The Other Lands by David Anthony Durham

Title: The Other Lands: Book Two of the Acacia Trilogy

Author: David Anthony Durham

Rating:

Who Should Read It? This book is perfect for lovers of dark epic fantasy! If you loved the first book in this trilogy, you will love this one just as much, if not more. If you haven't read the first book in the trilogy but you love dark epic fantasy with a focus on the fantasy, read the first book and then love this one!

What I Have to Say:
Wow. Just wow.

I know I said it after reading the first book in this triology, but MAN, does David Anthony Durham sure does know how to do epic fantasy. Even though quite a bit of time has passed, The Other Lands seems to start off right where the first book in this trilogy, the War with the Mein, leaves off, and we are once again immediately drawn into the world of Acacia and the Akaran children. Without repeating or summarizing what he has said before, Durhamn subtly brings the reader up to speed on what happened in this first book of the trilogy, while still allowing for the story to progress. Durham seems to be quite good at this kind of thing. There are so many characters in the story that it seems like it might be easy to occasionally lose track. And yet, without ever repeating anything, when a character shows up again, through a word or an action or a thought or even sometimes an article of clothing, Durham reminds the reader who the character is without becoming wordy, redundant, or repetitive.

As in the first book, the world Durham has created is awe-inspiring - it is unique and amazing and creative while at the same time paralleling old cultures we have seen on our Earth throughout time. This time, though, we make our way over to the Other Lands, where an entirely new world and new culture that, honestly, is like no other I have ever read or even heard of.

With Durham's deft hand and engaging writing style, we learn what happens to the quota slaves, we begin to learn the truth behind the "league," and we finally come to really understand the kind of people that the Akaran children have grown up to be (and can I just say - I LOVE Mena and Dariel, but grrrr!!! Corrin!). The Other Lands actually focuses quite a bit more on characters than the War with the Mein, which seemed to focus primarily on world building, and Durham has proven to be just as adept at writing character-driven stories.

Because of this change, to a more character-driven story along with a little bit of magic and a new entirely unique, entirely creative culture, The Other Lands seems a bit more fantasy and a bit less epic than its predecessor. Some people might not love this, but I found it to be absolutely fantastic, and I can only hope the third book in the trilogy (HOW am I going to wait to read it?) will continue in this vein.

Durham is a great story teller telling a great story. The characters are all well-developed with strong voices, but Durham's voice also shines through, clear and strong. It is a beautiful and beautifully written book that will leave you absolutely DYING to finish the trilogy!

Summary:Queen Corinn Akaran of the known world has a primary goal that is to topple the Lothan Aklun and so she sends her brother Daniel, disguised as a slave, on an exploratory expedition to the Other Lands. Daniel soon discovers a mainland that is a more lush, exotic, and expansive than the Known World.

Cover Story: I asbolutely ADORE the cover of the version I read, which I think is the British cover. THe odd looking bird, the ship sailing towards huge rocks in rough water - absolutely beautiful! The American cover (which you see in the Amazon tag) is also lovely, but it just seems to pale in comparison to the British one, in my opinion. If you get a great feeling from either of these covers, though, you're going to love this book!

Disclosure: This book was sent to me for review by Transworld Books. This in no way affected my review.

Review: White Cat by Holly Black

Title: White Cat

Author: Holly Black

Rating:1/2

Who Should Read It? Everyone who has ever enjoyed a YA book. For serious! Especially those who enjoy male protagonists but find good ones hard to come by.

What I Have to Say:
I seriously ADORED this book. Unexpectedly adored this book. I'd read several reviews of it, and everyone said it was good, but after how I felt about "the Spiderwick Chronicles" (liked but certainly didn't love), I never felt over inspired to read it. Then a friend gave me a copy, and I was looking for something a little different, so I gave it a try.
And I am SO glad I did.
Cassel grows up a non-curse worker in a family of curse workers, and this has caused some resentment and some problems for him throughout his life. When he wakes up one morning to find that he has sleep-walked to the school roof after a dream in which a White Cat steals his tongue, his entire world changes.
Holly Black does an AMAZING job of subtly creating a world that is similar to ours but also completely different. The world she has created is fascinating. Curse workers work with their hands, so everyone wears gloves. The idea of being touched by bare hands actually repels some people. She slowly develops it throughout the book in such a way that you're dying for more, to know more, without ever realizing why.
Cassel's attempt at coming to terms with his past and allowing himself to live in the present, dealing with his manipulative brothers and his jailed mother.
White Cat was filled with twists and turns that will keep you wanting more until the very end. As the plot develops and Cassel learns more about his somewhat mysterious past, you'll find yourself rooting for him despite some of the horrible things he's done.
The only unfortunate thing about this book is that it doesn't keep you guessing. Some of the bigger plot points were extremely obvious very early on in the book. Luckily, this didn't really take away from anything. And I would recommend against reading the summary beforehand. It gives way too much away.
Definitely worth the read!

Summary:Cassel comes from a family of curse workers — people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail — he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love — or death — and your dreams might be more real than your memories.

Cover Story: I guess it's alright. It's got the right feel, even if I don't love the real person on the cover making it seem like a movie cover for the book. It's better than the original brown cover, though.

I CAN'T WAIT TO READ THE NEXT BOOK IN THIS SERIES!!!!

(Not really a) Review: Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares

I just finished Sisterhood Everlasting, the last of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series by Ann Brashares.

And I'm still crying. It was one of the most poignantly beautiful stories I've read in ages. My heart is in a million pieces right now, but they are all beautifully broken.

It's this weird feeling that I don't know how to describe - a mixture of betrayal at the author's choice, a sadness so profound I don't know how I will ever come out of it, hope, and the feeling that the world, despite how screwy it is, has an endless amount of beauty and love to offer if you just stop for a minute to look for it.

My heart has been in a very weird place, lately, and I think that reading from this weird place caused this book to have an even more profound impact on me than if I had read it from a normal place. It's like my heart had been flattened out and was being slowly drained and sucked into a black hole, and this book turned the black hole into helium which proceeded to fill up my heart until it burst into a million pieces. A million heart-wrenchingly sad yet hopefully beautiful pieces.

This isn't a review, as it never could be. But I am left utterly bewildered and utterly enchanted, and I would almost recommend that, if you haven't read all of the Traveling Pants books, you go out and do so now. Because for this book to fall into its proper place, you need to have first read the other four (just watching the movie won't do), and you NEED to read this book. Now.

Review: the Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

I miss Brizmus Blogs Books. It's time to get back into book blogging, and what better way to start than with this?

Title: the Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Rating:

Who Should Read It? Heh, I think this should be pretty obvious. Fans of Twilight, of course!

What I Have to Say:
Maybe as I'm getting older, my book tastes are maturing. . .though given that that seems extremely doubtful, I'm going to have to say that this book just doesn't live up to it's Twilight predecessors. Don't get me wrong, it was a fabulously enjoyable read, but it just didn't elicit that "ohmygod this is an AMAZING story" feeling that the 4 twlight books did. And then the whole - love immediately happens after two people have known each other for, like, 2 seconds. I'm feeling sort of over that lately. I got my fill of that in Twilight. And the Host.
But then, what can you really do in a short 192 pages when you've got SO MUCH going on. I'll grant her that. And the fact is, it really was good. Bree was sort-of awesome. I liked her pretty much immediately (which, let's face it, is more than I can say for Bella, whom I never really started to like), and I was sad when her inevitable end came. Seriously sad. I might have even cried (I can't actually remember, but it does seem cry-worthy).
I could go on about all the positives and negatives of the book, but this is one of those books where, if you're gonna read it you're gonna read it, and if you're not, you're not.
So we'll end here. It was a great read, even if it doesn't have in it all the emotion of Twilight and even if we do see repetitive themes.


Summary:Fans of The Twilight Saga will be enthralled by this riveting story of Bree Tanner, a character first introduced in Eclipse, and the darker side of the newborn vampire world she inhabits.

In another irresistible combination of danger, mystery, and romance, Stephenie Meyer tells the devastating story of Bree and the newborn army as they prepare to close in on Bella Swan and the Cullens, following their encounter to its unforgettable conclusion.

Bree Tanner can barely remember life before she had uncannily powerful senses, superhuman reflexes and unstoppable physical strength. Life before she had a relentless thirst for blood... life before she became a vampire.

All Bree knows is that living with her fellow newborns has few certainties and even fewer rules: watch your back, don't draw attention to yourself and, above all, make it home by sunrise or die. What she doesn't know: her time as an immortal is quickly running out.

Then Bree finds an unexpected friend in Diego, a newborn just as curious as Bree about their mysterious creator, whom they know only as "her". As they come to realize that the newborns are pawns in a game larger than anything they could have imagined, Bree and Diego must choose sides and decide whom to trust. But when everything you know about vampires is based on a lie, how do you find the truth?

Cover Story: Totally loving it! So Twilight, and that hourglass just adds the perfect touch. Perfection! :-)

Review: Wildthorn by Jane Eagland

Have you entered my Book Blogging to Save Japan contest yet! Do something to help Japan in this time of crisis, let me know what you did (either in a comment or by e-mail - zedster.tbb(at)gmail(DOT)com), and be entered to win! Ending in two weeks, so check it nowish! :-)

Title: Wildthorn

Author: Jane Eagland

Rating:

Who Should Read It?
A GREAT book for all fans of YA, especially those that like a lot of intrigue and a bit of mystery.

What I Have to Say:
I really really really LOVED this book, and I desperately wanted to feel like I could give it 5 stars or even 4 1/2 stars. Unfortunately, though, there were just some parts that felt over-contrived. If that makes sense. As difficult as it was to get to the point in which things worked out for Lou, things worked out just a little bit too easily for her. Things always ended up being pretty much EXACTLY as you expected them to be.

That said, this book read SO smoothly. I had barely started before I was finished - almost like I got so into it that I never even really felt myself reading.

The story starts off when Lou ends up at the doors of a mental institution, where she is told she is crazy, and she must be schizophrenic, as she doesn't even seem to know her own name. The more she tries to convince the people there that she is not crazy, the crazier she seems. No one believes her, except for one exceptionally sympathetic worker, Eliza.

This book moves flawlessly back and forth between Louisa's time at Wildthorn, the mental institution, and her memories of growing up with her mother, her doctor father, and her terrible brother. This book moves back and forth between past and present so smoothly that, if you don't think about it too much, it's difficult to know whether Lou's memories are memories or figments of her imagination. Is she actually Louisa Cosgrove? Or is she really the crazy Lucy Childs?

I really enjoyed every aspect of this story, except maybe the love story. I don't want to say too much about it, as I'm afraid it will give to much away, but it really just felt out of place to me. I was totally incapable of believing it, even from a fictional point of view.

Anyway, overall, this book is mysterious, well-written, and full of mystery and intrigue! It will keep you easily reading and excited right up until the very end.

Summary:Seventeen-year-old Louisa Cosgrove longs to break free from her respectable life as a Victorian doctor's daughter. But her dreams become a nightmare when Louisa is sent to Wildthorn Hall: labeled a lunatic, deprived of her liberty and even her real name. As she unravels the betrayals that led to her incarceration, she realizes there are many kinds of prison. She must be honest with herself - and others - in order to be set free. And love may be the key...

Cover Story: It's kind of fabulous. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like the corsette might be symbolic for all the different ways that Lou found herself trapped throughout her life. Wonderful cover!

Disclosure: This book was received for review from Net Galley. This in no way affected my review.

Review: Karma Bites by Stacey Kramer and Valerie Thomas

As I think has been evidenced by my lack of presence in the blogging world lately, I haven't really been feeling the desire to say anything about books lately. I want to read them and not feel like I HAVE to have something to say. It's weird, as I used to feel like I was just DYING to get something out every time I would finish reading something. Anyhow, I'm going to give this a try here, but it's been a while. Also, have you entered this awesome contest yet? If not, you should. So go do it. Now.

Title: Karma Bites

Author: Stacey Kramer and Valerie Thomas

Rating: 1/2

Who Should Read It?
This is a book that will really appeal to middle grade readers. It's absolutely brilliant for the age range to which it's aiming, and adults might still enjoy it for nostalgia purposes.

What I Have to Say:
Karma Bites was cute. Really cute. An absolutely adorable read for any middle grade reader, I think. I feel like the problem I have, a lot of times, with middle grade books, is that I am so far away from being that age that I'm just totally incapable of understanding the main character. Which leaves me finding them absolutely annoying and unsupportable. Franny Flanders, while slightly annoying at times, managed to escape the annoying middle grade main character stereotype.

She was funny and ballsy and ridiculous, and even though she often had absolutely nothing going for her, she managed to be just the right amount of OCD neurotic ridiculous (which is something, I must say, I can totally understand). And maybe that's why I almost ended up loving her at the end. She messed up EVERYTHING, but in that way that it's just messed up enough so that everything is okay. And this is something I also do regularly in my daily life. Which made her, despite our age difference, totally relate-to-able.

Franny Flanders aside, the rest of the characters, from the into the occult Granny with the magic box to Alden, the supposed love of Franny's life who once managed to touch her ear for a whole few seconds, to her two best friends who can't talk to each other, were all just the right amount of ridiculous. I loved reading about everything and everyone Franny managed to screw up.

Unfortunately, there were also times when this book lagged. Some things that were funny in the beginning just kept going on and on and on and on and on (and then on and on some more), when I really wished they would just end. The twists never really felt like twists, instead feeling more like inevitabilities. The plot was just too easy at times. And then, while I'm into magic and therefore loved that aspect of the book, I'm also tired of reading about stereotypical cliques, and without those, this book couldn't have existed.

Still, my final conclusion is that it was an overall pleasant and funny read, best read in one sitting.

Summary: Life seems to have it in for Franny Flanders.

Her best friends aren’t speaking, her parents just divorced, and her hippie grandmother has moved in. The only karma Franny’s got is bad karma.

Then Franny gets her hands on a box of magic recipes that could fix all of her problems. It could even change the world! Finally, life is looking up.

But Franny is about to learn that magic and karma aren’t to be played with. When you mess with the universe, it can bite back in unexpected ways.

Ouch!

Cover Story: I really enjoy this cover! I don't know why, but it sort of reminds me of a Goosebumps cover. I used to LOVE those books back when I was, like 10. Definitely got the nostalgia feeling going on!

Disclosure: This book was sent to me for review for the publisher, which in no way affected what I had to say. :-P