Stacking the Shelves consists of books we received in the last week, hosted by Tynga's reviews.
It's been a very dull week blog-wise for me. I need to get back into the groove of blogging. However, it's been difficult because I've been working a lot of overtime recently. Who knows, maybe life will stop getting in the way of me and my blog...
It was the book cover that sold me. Playing with genetics and gene-splicing is a ton of fun (why yes, I did this in college). So of course, I'd be interested in reading about genetically altered teenagers. Thanks goes to Shelley Workinger for my review copy.
Eurich is thrown into a seemingly ill-fated destiny. After learning of
his legendary magic, he is convinced that he alone must stop an
impending doom, but nothing is ever as it seems. His best friends
Jason and Raine try their best to help him save the world, but help
isn’t what he needs —he needs a way across the barrier. Despite this fate thrust upon him, Eurich knows what is coming. The
world is headed toward Chaos due to a weakening barrier between
Earth and a world that has been hidden for millennia. Our world is about to take a sharp turn for the worse. Extra moons are rising in the sky, and
panic is at an all-time high. Worst of all, there are no explanations.
Author Bio
Although Asher Tensei is relatively young, he has already traveled the world as he has been
a military brat since the age of four. He has always wanted to share his creative writing,
and it was in Germany that he realized people also really enjoyed reading his stories. Mana
was composed shortly after and it instantly got the support of a small but enthused local
readership. Few could believe that Asher had written a full length novel during his fifteen
minute breaks while working at Burger King. He is very passionate about the fantasy genre
and graciously gives thanks to the one series that made him realize that writing high concept
YA fantasy was something he wanted to do--The Twilight Saga. He maintains, and frequently
updates, his site http://ashertensei.com/.
Everyone has a soul mate. But what do you do when your soul mate would rather give his soul to the demons than be with you? Seventeen-year-old Erin has a problem. Seth has been hers forever, but now an ancient curse is tearing him away. And the demons who invoked it will stop at nothing – even murder – to claim him as their own. How can she win against a curse so binding that it has damned countless others to this same fate – an eternity alone? The answer lies in the past. To find it, Erin and Seth must risk all, travelling back in time to a dangerous world where love is forbidden, and life – and death – hang on a pledge. Follow Erin and Seth as they travel to ancient Shenaya and confront the curse that has plagued their families for millennia. Caught in a war between the Angelic Guardians and the Gefallen, the disembodied dead, they must fight to keep their souls in tact and their love untainted.
This book has a lot of fantasy that I wasn't expecting. Soul mates, curses, prophecies, wars, etc. But I wasn't expecting to see a story of the past weaved into the present. It was a very different take to the fantasies I'm used to. And I believe it worked well.
Meet Seth and Erin, soul mates before they were born. I get that they were meant for each other, but it kind of made it difficult for me to see the romance between them since Erin was so accepting of the soul mate idea (can you tell I wouldn't be that accepting?). Anyways, the story starts with an African trip to meet their newlywed siblings. Seth's brother, Kyle, is on a quest to find some diamonds. And lo and behold, Seth and Erin happen to find a diamond. But it plunges them deeper into a fantastical story which is far from what they were expecting.
They find themselves in the middle of a war between the Guardians and the Gefallen, between good and evil. And they're forced to choose a side. I kind of felt for Seth the whole time because I wouldn't want to pick a side either. But they're thrown back in time to watch what happened in the past and how a curse prevents the citizens of Shenaya from truly loving and thinking for themselves. And this will help them choose sides and hopefully break the curse.
Here's what I thought about it: there's a lot of story-telling. I wasn't expecting to see the past through Erin's and Seth's eyes. And I believe this sets up the second book (which I'm hoping is more in the present than the first). Seeing all this prophecy, curses, and folklore was definitely different. Almost like angels-and-demons-feeling without the generic haloes and pitchforks. And I was a little confused with how the diamond plays into the story. I liked it, and I'm rooting for Seth...
This book is for pure fantasy lovers. Those who like the whole premise of good and evil would enjoy it. While it is young adult fiction, I would not recommend it to the young teens out there (there's some more mature themes in the book).
Thanks goes to Swallow Press for providing me a review copy.
Swallow Press is graciously offering five ebooks of Pledged to my readers. The winners will be emailed a coupon code that can be used to retrieve their copy from Smashwords.
This giveaway is open internationally (as long as you can access Smashwords).
Giveaway ends on Thursday, September 6 (moved from Monday to give an additional three days).
You can enter via the Rafflecopter form below. You can enter by doing one of the following:
Free entry. Just click to enter.
Leave a comment on this post. Answer the question: Do you believe in soul mates?
Tweet about the giveaway. Leave a link to your tweet in the comments section
Miranda has Shakespeare in her blood: she hopes one day to become a Shakespearean actor like her famous parents. At least, she does until her disastrous performance in her school's staging of The Taming of the Shrew. Humiliated, Miranda skips the opening-night party. All she wants to do is hide. Fellow cast member, Stephen Langford, has other plans for Miranda. When he steps out of the backstage shadows and asks if she'd like to meet Shakespeare, Miranda thinks he's a total nutcase. But before she can object, Stephen whisks her back to 16th century England—the world Stephen's really from. He wants Miranda to use her acting talents and modern-day charms on the young Will Shakespeare. Without her help, Stephen claims, the world will lose its greatest playwright. Miranda isn't convinced she's the girl for the job. Why would Shakespeare care about her? And just who is this infuriating time traveler, Stephen Langford? Reluctantly, she agrees to help, knowing that it's her only chance of getting back to the present and her "real" life. What Miranda doesn't bargain for is finding true love . . . with no acting required.
I was enticed by this description almost immediately. I mean, it's Shakespeare! And love! But I totally wasn't expecting what I got. I believe it was a good story but very different from what I expected.
Miranda kind of humiliates herself with her attempt at Shakespeare acting. And while in the dumps, Stephen kind of whisks her away to Shakespearian time in England. Now if you don't remember what was going on at this time, let me refresh your memory. Queen Elizabeth, daughter of King Henry VIII, is ruling. For those who don't know anything about Henry VIII, he went through wives like we go through shoes or clothes. And Catholicism doesn't support divorce. So, in order to keep from beheading his first wife in order to marry his second, he created his own church (note I am oversimplifying quite a lot here). He still later beheads half of the wives he marries, but that's beside the point. Elizabeth has just brought England back to Protestant rule after Mary's reign (who was a devout Catholic). So, there is a lot of religious tumult in Shakespearian England.
So, why the brief history lesson? Because I kind of forgot about the history when I picked up this book. And there's a lot of religion in this book. It's not the preachy kind; it's there because it's in England's history. But the story between Miranda (who goes by Olivia), Stephen, and Shakespeare is tied to this history. So, you're going to get an interestingly good story.
What I liked best was the ties between today's humor and the historical fiction. Miranda tries to one up her mom by doing something her mother could never do: sleep with Shakespeare. But she kind of finds some unexpected romance along the way. And it's beautiful.
Who should read this? I'd say fans of historical fiction and fans of Shakespeare. If you're a fan of English history, then you'll probably enjoy this. Just note, this is speculative historical fiction since we don't really know what Shakespeare did in his early days.
Stacking the Shelves consists of books we received in the last week, hosted by Tynga's reviews.
So, the past two weeks have been super busy for me. And this kind of resulted in me not being able to read for almost a whole week (sad, I know). Now I'm trying to play catch up with all the books I need to read. But the good news? We moved into our house. It was long and tedious. Now all I have to do is unpack everything. I'm really looking forward to buying more shelves and unpacking my book collection that's been sitting in boxes for two years.
The epic finally to the Women of the Underworld series. Honestly, I'm a little sad to see this series end. But I'm really looking forward to this book. I'm hoping for some amazing happenings...
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