I am sorry to say but I need to put my reviews on an indefinite hiatus. My husband has broken his ankle and requires a lot of care.
I will review the books I had on schedule, I just don’t know when I will be able to do so. If you have sent your story to me to review, email me and we will discuss the situation.
Thank you for your understanding.
You may have noticed that I did not release a review last week. A family crisis came up and is still on going.
I should be able to return to reviews next Saturday, Feb 8th.
Evelyn.
A new year and a new plan. As I said in a previous post, putting new reviews out every week wasn’t working. I have a young baby, and as much as I love reading and writing I love him more. He gets first priority. Therefore, I will now release new reviews on a bi-weekly schedule. The new schedule will be at the bottom of this post.
I also want a bit of time to read my favorite established authors along with the self-published stories I review here. I still would like to do posts that discuss my favorite authors and how they compare to the books I review, but I have to have time to read Sanderson’s or Martin’s work to do so.
It is interesting how niche my preferred genres are compared to other genres. If you go to the local grocery store’s reading section, you will find only one Fantasy novel right now, “Dance of Dragon’s” by George R.R. Martin. While I enjoy the Song of Ice and Fire (which is on the edge of what I personally can handle violently or sexually. There’s a yardstick for you if you ever want to submit something for review.) there are other good Adult Fantasy series out there. Come on Lucky, where is my Stormlight Archive? It just goes to show Adult Fantasy is not Mainstream. YA Fantasy does better, but not unless it is also a sappy Romance. Sci-Fi seems to be a bit more accepted, especially if it is a Sci-Fi Thriller. Nonetheless, Romances with Fabio clones on the cover and Political Thrillers dominate the shelves of the Fiction section.
There is still hope. If your story is good and you let people know it exists an audience will look for it. It is just with such a small audience your book had better be dang good.
But I digress, on to the new schedule.
Jan 25th “Over Mount Fuji” by Joel Huan
Feb 1st “Emeralds And Pearls” by C Spencer-Upton
Feb 25th “The Key and the Broken Wing” By Jessabell Tales
Mar 1st “Butterman (Time) Travel, Inc.” by PK Hrezo
Mar 15th “Glimpse” by Steven Whibley
Mar 29th “Stowaway to the stars” by Graham Keeler.
Apr 12th “Spirit” by Lauren Ritz
Apr 26th “The Hunter” by Luke William
May 10th “Black Redneck vs. Space Zombies” by Steven Roy
May 24th “One For All” by HL Henrikson
Jun 7th “The String Quartet” by Dan Hupalo
Jun 21st “The Cardboard Box Chronicles” by Arthur A. Author
Jul 5th “Aundes Aura” (The Válkia Chronicles) by Ryan Sullivan
Jul 19th “The Element of Fire” by Martha Wells
Aug 2nd “Moon Wreck: First Contact” a short story by Raymond L. Weil
Aug 16th “The Book of Deacon” by Joseph Lallo
Aug 30th “Talon of the Unnamed Goddess” by C. R. Daems and J. R. Tomlin
Sep 13th “Fall of Sky City” by SM Blooding
This schedule is subject to change.
As you can see, I have quite a lot of stories already planned. So for the time being I will not accept any submissions for reviews on my blog. I will let you know when I am accepting submissions again. It will be sometime this summer.
Onward!
Rosamunde has a good life. She made a pact with a faery and became a witch not too long ago, something her mother approved of. Rosa goes to a great school and has many good friends. Her sister doesn’t like their private school, but their mother believes it is the best place for them. Rosa feels her mother, the only other witch in town, is holding back her magic training. Her mother isn’t teaching her basic spells, causing Rosa to get in trouble with magic. However, whenever she brings this up her mother always logically explains why she is right, and Rosa always agrees even if it doesn’t make sense. Rosa’s mother also has reasons for Rosa not to date, for her family never leaving the town, and never to argue with Rosa’s mother. Rosa’s family is perfect because everyone agrees with her mom.
Rosa is beginning to think her mother has her under a spell.
Happy New Year! I hope you enjoy this review of “Small Town Witch” by Kristen S. Walker.
Cover and Title:
The title is good, in fact it is so good that it is the title of a song. When you google “Small Town Witch” it’s the song that comes up first not the book. Still as the book gains popularity this might change. As for the cover I’ve seen worse, but I’ve also seen better. Hopefully later editions will have a more professional looking cover.
Okay onto the content.
Plot: B-
This book surprised me, but not in a good way. For the first two-thirds, I thought the book was Sweet Valley High with a likeable, bi-sexual witch as the main character; a slice of life story about a magical teen growing up in a magical town. The parents seemed a bit controlling, but teens always think their parents are controlling. A slice of life type story isn’t one I prefer, but it does have a big audience and having a witch as the main character is a nice twist. Heck, having the character be bi-sexual without having the story overly sexualized should attract the young LGBT community.
The problem is that a whole new plot about the family being mentally controlled and abused by the mother takes over two-thirds of the way in. It is actually a good plot, but it completely changes the tone of the book. And worst of all it just stops at the end. Rosa does come to accept her situation and takes steps to end it, but much is left unresolved for later books.
Why is this a problem? The book starts out set up for one audience and ends for another. Fortunately, the two audiences do tend to have tastes that overlap, but not everyone likes both types of stories. If I were not reviewing this book, I would have stopped reading long before it became interesting for me.
Hopefully, Ms. Walker will improve her ability to keep a consistent tone in later books.
Characters: B+
Rosamunde is a well written character. She acts like a normal teenager, with unique abilities. Her abilities just happen to be magical. She is nice, intelligent, creative, and loyal, but she is not perfect. She makes mistakes, but understandable ones, especially because she has not received proper magical training. Her character is great.
The rest of the cast however is hit or miss.
The faery she made her pact with, Lavender (well that was one of his names in the story), was a lot of fun to read about. He likes to tease Rosa, but not cruelly. He gives her good advice and helps her discover the spells that have been cast on her. It is a bit creepy when he flirts with her, because he is so much older, however even he admits that and would never force her to return affections. I found his flirting more playful than serious.
Unfortunately, Rosa’s other friends tend to blend into each other. Rosa is friends with a couple who are both half -fey. They also seem like two halves of one character, talking over each other’s lines, agreeing with each other, giving Rosa the same advice, etc. I suppose couples can be like that in real life, but one character could have done both parts. Rosa is also friends with a Kitsune ( a boy that can turn into a fox) and a girl who has vampires for parents. Either character could have been more interesting if one of them had been dropped and their scenes were given to the other character. Yes, the boy is Rosa’s love interest for the story, but she is bi-sexual so the vampire girl could have filled that role easily. There were seeds of interesting characters here, sadly none of these characters blossomed.
Rosa’s family isn’t much better. Mom and Dad seemed like typical parents. Though that may have been intended to make the discovery of the mind control spell all the more shocking. Rosa’s sister just seems grouchy, which is a shame. If she were more well-rounded her part in the story would have been more compelling.
World Building/Setting: A
Rosa’s world is awesome. Ms. Walker clearly researched her mythical characters. She even uses the term “witch” correctly, something other fantasy writers have gotten wrong. If this had been a mere slice of life story, the world alone would have been enough the keep the reader engaged. She even used Japanese mythological characters by adding a Kitsune to the cast.
She also does a decent job of drawing the reader into the story. I felt like I was in the garden with Rosa working, walking through the school, or lost in a place between worlds with her.
If all you need is a neat setting to be interested in a story, this book is for you.
Theme: B-
Stand up for yourself no matter who is holding you down. This theme is good, but not as realized as it could have been, mostly because the plot that focuses on it doesn’t come until near the end. Friendship is another theme. Trust in good friends. Be friends with people who are different. It’s good stuff, though once again not as strong as it could have been. If the tone of the story came across clearer I think the themes would have as well.
Grammar/Style/Word Usage: A
This is a well written and well edited book.
Overall grade: B
“Small Town Witch” is an enjoyable read for a slow rainy day. If you like what you have read in this review you can pick up your copy on:
Site news:
My husband has a new school schedule, so it turns out Saturday is a better day to release new reviews.
I will try to put up a new schedule for the blog by Monday.
My next book to review is “Over Mt Fuji” by Joel Huan. Looking forward to it.
Happy New Year to everyone out there. I’ve been reading through, “Small Town Witch.” It’s a good YA book, but sadly I won’t have the review out this Friday. Illness and the Holidays made it a bit difficult to find time for reading.
Ironically, I will most likely be reviewing the book when it was originally scheduled on the 7th. I will also have a new schedule up this coming week.
I hope you all have a wonderful 2014.
Evelyn.
So this Friday I was going to review “Catalyst” by Adam Wolf, but while reading the opening I found it a bit too violent for me.
Nothing against the author or her book. The little I could read seemed well written. I’m just not a good judge of overly violent or sexual works. There is a reason I said on my “What I Review” page that I do not review erotica or horror. It’s not that I have anything against the genres. I just tend to be so uncomfortable while reading them that it is hard for me to give any work that contains such elements an objective critical eye. I’ve tried, but it doesn’t work.
Normally I check with the author before I begin reading a story, but I dropped the ball on this one. I do apologize to Adam Wolf and hope she can get her work reviewed somewhere else.
If you want to check the book out yourself, here are some links:
So what does this mean for Friday’s review? Well I am trying to catch up, but I like to give the books I can review a well thought out one. So I’ll try to have the review done by Friday, Dec 27th, but if I don’t I will either put something else up or I will have the review out by Jan 3rd.
In the mean time, Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Joylous Kwanzaa. Pleasant Winter Solstice. Happy Holidays and may you have a wonderful New Year. 😉
I have learned much from this blog so far and have enjoyed the books I have reviewed. My next review will be “Catalyst” by Adam Wolf. However, it will not be coming out until the 27th.
If you have read the “About Me” section of the blog, you know I have responsibilities that take up my time. I’m finding it harder and harder to get a review out on a weekly basis. Therefore, for the time being, I’m going to release new reviews on a bi-weekly schedule.
I will put up my new schedule up after my next review. If I find more time, the reviews will come quicker.
I still would like to have other posts on this blog discussing various things, but such post also depend on time.
For now, have a Happy Holidays. I will be back on the 27th.
Evelyn
“There is a struggle between the two groups that has gone on across the ages, and I have learned that I am one of them, reborn. I was the first, an immortal named Arianna, and she chose to come back as a mortal so that she would have the choice between a mortal existence and immortality in the service of humanity for the rest of her days.”
— Alexandria from “Immortal Reborn – Arianna’s Choice” (Children of Angels) (p. 420)
The Nephilim were the offspring of angels and humans. Some were born to the fallen, who followed Lucifer and were cast down. Others were born to angels who served God faithfully and brought his goodness to the earth, teaching all of the Trinity and God’s works. These Angels were blessed by God to take human wives and have families. Ganymede was the first to be given this blessing. His daughter, Arianna, was the oldest, purest, and most powerful of the Nephilim until she died.
Alexandria is a unique girl, with a kind heart and a grace and beauty that seems almost inhuman. As a child, burdened with visions she did not understand, Ganymede came to her and sealed them away until she could handle them. Years later, after a Dark Nephilim viciously attacks her, Alex must face these visions, or memories, from her past life. She must choose to live as a mortal or take up the mantle of her former immortal life.
This is the premise of the Fantasy/Romance, “Immortal Reborn—Arianna’s Choice” by Natalie D. Wilson.
Cover and Title:
Though I no longer grade the stories I review based on the cover, I feel it is important to address how the self-published author chose to market their book. The cover of “Immortal Reborn—Arianna’s Choice” is bland. I guess the lake could be a symbol of one of Alexandria’s later visions, a very important one, but someone looking at the book online for the first time won’t know that. The lake is a pretty picture that would fit beautifully on a resort brochure, but gives little else. I have seen book’s with worse covers, and I don’t think the cover would discourage readers. However, I don’t think it attracts readers either. Ms. Wilson might want to consider revising the cover.
The title is a bit confusing. I, at first, thought the trilogy was named “Immortal Reborn” because that title is used for all the books in the trilogy, and that “Arianna’s Choice” was the name for this book. I am not so sure now. The hyphen between the two titles doesn’t help.
On to content.
Plot: C+
This is a character driven plot, which is not a bad thing. Some of the best books I have ever read are character driven. However, if the plot is going to be character focused there had better be a big transformation in the character by the end. That’s not what happens in this book. Alexandria is the same amazing person all throughout the story, or at least all the characters will go on and on about how amazing she is. I’ll come back to this in the next section, but this is the biggest flaw with the plot. Alex learns many neat things about herself, but she doesn’t really go through a character journey. Maybe such changes will come in later books in the series.
Another flaw is all the unimportant things the reader is shown. How many times do I need to be told about how wonderful her showers were, or how well she slept? This book badly needed a content editor to cut a lot of the fat out of this plot.
There are good things in the plot. Readers who enjoy love triangles will not be disappointed, though it is pretty clear one member of the triangle doesn’t have a chance.
Also there are some very exciting parts, from the first attack on Alex to the climatic battle at the end. Sadly, those thrilling parts are few and far between. The focus of the story is Alex readjusting to the world of the Nephilim, which would be more interesting if the writing were tighter and they showed a bit more of what the Nephilim did besides horseback riding.
Characters: B-
Let’s start with the main character. Alexandria, is interesting and well developed, but not very well-rounded. She is a perfect “Mary Sue” character. A Mary Sue is an author/reader insert character. Excellent examples of Mary Sues in fiction are Bella Swan from the Twilight Saga or Raine Benares from the Raine Benares series. (One of those series I love and the other not so much.) The appeal for those who read (and often those who write) Mary Sue characters is to live out a personal fantasy.
And in the case of the Immortal Reborn series, it is quite a fantasy.
Alex is beautiful, graceful, talented in languages, and rich. Yes, she had a hard childhood because of the visions invading her life, but they don’t make her seem all that different from other children. She has a family who loves her because they see her as absolutely perfect, with or without her visions. Then after she learns she is the reborn soul of the first Nephilim, Arianna, she finds out she is even richer (Arianna accumulated ridiculous amounts of wealth over the centuries and Alex gets to inherit it all), has superpowers, and a whole bunch of friends who think she is the best thing under the sun and have no issues with the fact that Alex and Arianna are in fact two different people. All the good guys love her and all the bad guys hate her. She is the most powerful being on earth. And she has two handsome men vying for her affection.
Even though Alex is a Mary Sue character, I have read about far worse Sues. She’s a more interesting character than Bella Swan. She was enjoyable to read about, though I did tire of all the other characters saying how awesome she was. I would have liked some conflict between Alex and Arianna’s old friends. Perhaps some resentment that even though she looked like Arianna and had the same soul, this wasn’t their old friend. Sadly, there is none of that. They treat Alex like Arianna and Alex just instantly remembers these are her best friends. So many missed opportunities.
Jack is the mortal corner of the love triangle. He’s an ex-soldier and professional bodyguard hired by Alex’s family to keep an eye on her. For a human, he’s competent though soon finds the battles of the Nephilim beyond his skills. Alex falls in love with him in less than a week. Though I found that a bit hard to swallow, he’s a nice guy and not as bland as he could have been.
The immortal corner of the love Triangle is Gaius, the child of an angel and a Roman mother. He was Arianna’s main squeeze for centuries and the feelings are still there. As I said, Alex meets anyone Arianna knew and instantly feels for them again what Arianna felt. Sparks fly between her and Gaius. Knowing Arianna has been reborn as Alex, he has been watching her since she was reborn. Yet, Gaius says the choice of who she wants to be with is hers. She can choose to be mortal, be with Jack, and let the world suffer again without the most powerful Nephilim to protect it after she gives up her powers for good. She can be immortal and be with Jack, and then watch Jack die one day leaving her alone. Or she could take up where Arianna left off with Gaius and have a perfect loving immortal relationship. When Gaius points this out to her, he says it in kindness. There is no real conflict in this love triangle, between the two men. They both will accept whatever Alex wants.
No other characters stand out. There are a few with interesting histories, but after their entrance into the book they all join the chorus that either spouts exposition, talks about how awesome Arianna was, or about how awesome Alex is. Several characters just felt like extras. Alex’s brothers seem like the same character, as do her parents. There is a butler too, who seemed pointless. All the Nephilim also share the same personality based on whether they are good or bad. There is one, Rohan, who almost had a personality of his own. He wasn’t as perfect as the rest of the good Nephilim, which was refreshing. Sadly, there is so little of him in the book that only the rebellious and loyal part of his personality are shown.
Not every character needs to be well-rounded and realistic, but it would have been nice to have some variety.
The last thing I will bring up in this section is the point of view. It’s omniscient third person, meaning the point of view jumps from head to head. It’s not a very popular point of view in genre fiction these days. There were a few times the transition from Alex’s point of view another character’s was abrupt and confusing. However, most of the story is seen through Alex’s eyes so it wasn’t as distracting as it could have been. I do hope, if Ms. Wilson continued using this point of view in later books, she perfected the technique. Omniscient third done right can be enjoyable, but it is very hard to do right.
Worldbuilding/Setting: B-
The background of this story is fantastic. Ms. Wilson does an excellent job building on Christian lore. The scenario of the story is captivating. There is great potential in the idea of good Nephilim battling evil Nephilim for the soul of the world. Their battle will not end the world, but it will determine if it is a nice place to live or not.
The problem is we never see the good Nephilim doing all the good work they claim they do. Alex comments at one point about how much money the Nephilim have. Her guide, John (who I didn’t talk about because he fades into the background quickly), says all of that money is used to care for people around the world. Alex is impressed by that and then we never see the Nephilim do anything. The rest of the book is spent on two lavish estates, where the characters party and go horseback riding. Alex goes horseback riding twice in the book. Okay, so where all this charity and love the good guys are supposed to be spreading.
Now fans of the book could argue, they were teaching and training Alex during this time trying to reintroduce her to their world. And to a point that makes sense. Still, there could have been something more than lip service to the good work they do. Alex and Gaius go on an outing together in the book, doing all the romantic things couples do. These are two half-angels. Couldn’t a portion of that outing have been spent serving in a soup kitchen or giving blankets to the homeless. The next book they do finally do some charity work, but it would have been nice to see some of the good work God charged them to do in this book.
I will give Ms. Wilson one more compliment before I move on. She does a good job drawing the reader into the scene. The three times Alex had to fight in the book, I felt it. I felt the pain of Alex’s first near fatal attack. I mourned with Alex the first time she had to take a life. And I was thrilled by her part in the climax.
Themes: C+
There is so much squandered potential in this story. This is the story of the children of angels fighting for the soul of mankind, or at least it is supposed to be. What it really amounts to is Alex discovering how awesome she is and everyone loving her. Even the main conflict, will Alex choose to become an immortal doesn’t have much weight. Alex’s choice is to either live fully as a human and live a nice boring life, where her enemies could always find her and kill her and her family, or she could fully become the most powerful being on Earth(seriously, one of the mysteries is how Arianna was killed by someone far weaker than her) and live happy life forever. There are no consequences for Alex choosing an immortal life. Of course there is a claim that Arianna chose to come back as a human so she could experience whatever is good about being human, but it’s never really clear why.
I think here again a content editor would have helped Ms. Wilson work these good ideas into something wonderful. Sadly, the themes of this book fall flat.
Grammar: C
This book has many typos, starting with Ganymede being referred to as a profit (The return received on an investment) instead of a prophet (a messenger from God). This book needs a copy edit badly. If this book had an editor, they should be fired.
I am sorry to be so harsh, but self-published works need to be edited more than they are. Too often writers put out books they barely edited. I believe Ms. Wilson did do her own edits. This is not a second draft. However, no author catches all of their mistakes and Ms. Wilson missed too many of them.
This book could be so much better with a good Content and Copy editor.
Overall: C+
This book wasn’t quite ready to be published. The good news is, writers can make new editions of their Self-Published works. Ms. Wilson could hire and editor and improve this story. If she does so, I’m willing to review this again and hopefully give it a better grade.
This book is Available on:
It has been a bad week, but I won’t whine here.
The Review for “Immortal Reborn–Arianna’s Choice” is written and will be out tomorrow morning.
Thank you again for you patience.
My son’s health is improving, but getting the review out is taking much longer than I hoped.
So I’m going to push back last Friday’s review to this coming Friday.
Thank you again for your patience.
Indie Epics 