Tag Archives: Young Adult

Do you start if you can’t finish?

Thank goodness for novellas this week, because if it weren’t for short books I’d have almost nothing to report!

Cover of Lili Zander and Rory Reynolds' Dragons ThiefI stumbled upon the entirely excellent Dragon’s Thief by Lili Zander and Rory Reynolds (I agree, I do seem to have a thing for dragons right now – is there a problem with that?). It’s a reverse harem novella (one heroine; lots of heroes) so I’m pleased to have also found an RH novel I loved. Key for me is that the heroine has a really powerful goal which kicks in right at the start of the novel and powers her all the way through.

But my talking point for this week is because Dragon’s Thief is first in a series. I would have gone straight on to the next, but it’s not out yet (although available for pre-order). That’s fine, I’ll wait. Series are so common these days that I would have thought no more about it, except that a friend on Facebook then posed the question as to whether you’d read the first in a series before more were available, or you’d wait until the whole series was out.

A surprising (to me) number said they wouldn’t start until they knew they would be able to finish the series if they liked it. Partly this seemed to be due to the habit of bingeing which we’ve all fallen into. But equally, readers wanted to be sure that the series actually came to an end – with horror stories of books that ended on cliffhangers by authors who then decided they didn’t want to write any more or publishers who gave up on their authors mid-way through a series.

Interesting to note is that the authors of Dragon’s Thief were clearly aware of this – at the bottom of the description was a note stating that it’s the first in a series, outlining the release schedule and warning readers to wait if they didn’t want to have to stop part-way through.

I don’t mind at all. Of course, if you like a book it’s good to find more in the series or by that author to move on to, but I also find anticipation is part of the enjoyment. I’ve now got two dragon-related novellas to look forward to in February, which is perfect for a woman whose main dread in life is running out of books I want to read.

Over to you, reader. Will you start a series when it catches your eye, or do you want to have all the books lined up before you begin?

Oh, and if you’ll excuse a brief plug, this is probably the ideal moment to point out that my 4-book historical fantasy series, a clockwork war, is now complete and available to read (Kindle and KU). The series starts with The Clockwork War, which you can grab now.

A clockwork war series covers

Loving the end of the world

This week I have got firmly back into my groove of reading (I always think I’ll have loads of time to write at holiday time, but somehow, it’s much easier when I’m back in a routine of work/school).

I was helped by already being mid-way through Megan Crewe’s brilliant Fallen World series. As mentioned last week, I moved straight on to book two, The Lives We Lost, and because that was so entirely excellent I had to put all my other waiting-for-review books on hold so I could gobble up the finale, The Worlds We Make. Fallen World book 3 by Megan CreweOh my giddy aunt, I feel like I barely breathed while I was reading that. It was so tense I was constantly on edge in case Kaelyn and her friends didn’t make it. The resolution was utterly stupendous. I recommend you read this series even more now I’ve reached the end.

Because I’m eschewing my Kindle for late-night reading-in-bed, alongside Fallen Worlds, I also read Nicholas Bowling’s Witchborn. That was fabulous (catch my review).

Sea and Sand by Alex LidellAnd then yesterday I got back into my review reading and caught up with Nile, Dominic and Prince Tamiath in Alex Lidell’s Tides series. Sea and Sand is the third in the series and it’s out – wowzers, today or tomorrow, I think. It’s another glorious fantasy and while I didn’t warm completely to new-girl Kyra, I am now YET AGAIN waiting impatiently for the next instalment. If you haven’t read these books, you should check them out IMMEDIATELY.

Phew, back to normal has never felt so good!

Check back next week to see what I’ve been reading – and please do let me know if you try out any of these books. I’d love to know what you think.

Books and chocolate, and other utopias

My Christmas was, basically, books and chocolate. Sounds like a perfect festive season, to me!

Except that now I’ve got an even larger TBR pile than usual. I guess I’ll just have to read as quickly as I can, sustained by Green & Blacks and dark chocolate brazils. It’s a tough life, but I’ll do my best…

This week I zipped through Megan Crewe’s The Way We Fall. I’ve read Megan’s writing before (A Mortal Song is ACE) and it really shouldn’t have taken me so long to pick up something else by her (except – mammoth TBR pile, did I mention?). The Way We Fall is completely different, and equally fantastic.

It’s told from Kaelyn’s point of view, a girl who thinks herself a misfit and is missing her best friend fiercely … and then she needs to deal with a strange virus that means the island she lives on is abruptly cut off from the rest of the world.

The thing with Megan is that she writes emotion so well. It was all very small and understated, and yet my heart was cut into teeny tiny pieces in the way that good books can do to a person.

I loved it so much I’ve moved straight on to the next, The Lives We Lost (sorry to everything else waiting on my TBR pile).

Shattered Worlds Challenge: Curse Breaker

My blog is late this week, because I only finished Curse Breaker last night (not a slow reader, I’ve been taken up with lots of non-fiction reading this week, all about marketing, social media and advertising, yawn). Curse Breaker is just as lovely as I hoped it might be: a beautifully-realised fantasy world with some fabulous characters, a kickass heroine, heartbreaking prince and page-turning abilities that reminded me of Michelle Madow.

And do you know what, I’m more than halfway through my Shattered Worlds challenge, and I am so impressed by what a fabulous group of writers I’ve joined with. I only knew a couple of my fellow contributors before getting involved in Shattered Worlds (and them only through Facebook), but everything I’ve read so far is creative and powerful and well worth reading. When people are still blowing the tune that indie-published books are in all ways sub-standard I’m proud to be a part of a group blowing that myth out of the water.

Check back next week, I’m jumping into Elizabetta Holcomb’s time slip next.

Shattered Worlds challenge: black-eyed horrors and more boys

Death Knocks is available exclusively in Shattered Worlds. Click to grab your copy.

Well, my learn from my reading this week was to GIVE IT A CHANCE, FOR GOODNESS SAKE!

This week I picked Death Knocks from Shattered Worlds. It starts with two boys playing console games while they babysit one of their little sisters. I’m sorry to have to admit I’d probably have put it down right there if I was free reading because I am that impatient a reader. Fortunately, I gave it a bit more of a chance (and only a bit more – you probably get 3 pages of everyday life before the story kicks in), and I ended up glad I had.

Death Knocks is creepy as all get-out. It did a really good job of turning the everyday (a knock at the door) into something VERY unsettling. Told in alternate chapters by a male/female POV voice the characters were fabulous (I loved sidekick Marcus and his “shiitake!”), and the story rattled along, dragging me with it in the breathless way I love best. I’m so glad I stuck with it!

Next on my list is Audrey Grey’s Curse Breaker. I’ve been looking forward to this since I read an extract way back before the set even launched, so check back next week to see what I made of it.

Hooray for holiday reading!

Oh my goodness, I thought I might slacken off when I didn’t have my Alphabet Reading Challenge to keep my nose in a book. I’m delighted to say that hasn’t happened at all!

Rachel E Carter's Black Mage series
Start with the prequel and I bet you won’t want to stop.

Since blogging last I’ve had a lovely week off, taking a holiday by the seaside. I also caught up on some of the books I wanted to read “just because” rather than because they start with the necessary letter of the alphabet to fit my challenge.

Try the preview

I got through the whole of Rachel E Carter’s Black Mage series (terrific – the list of imaginary worlds in which I want to take a holiday grows exponentially!). I read an out of left field 5* book that just happened to catch my eye in a Facebook group I’m a member of. Ember Burning was unsettling in the best way – creative, eerie and populated by fabulous characters.

Cover of Cortney Pearson's The Perilous In-BetweenAnd finally, I read a book by a fellow author in the Shattered Worlds collection. I decided to start with Cortney Pearson’s The Perilous In-Between to check out her take on steampunk, and it’s glorious – delightfully fantastical and beautifully written.

I’m now back to work and writing hard on my clockwork war series – book two is about to go to my proof-readers, and I’m on the home straight to complete the writing of book three. While I’m doing that, my reading is research for what I’m going to write next (ideas are coalescing, but I’m not certain which story I’m going to pick just yet). I’ll keep you posted!

He could be my book boyfriend any day!

If you’ll excuse me a plug, Shattered Worlds is out now and today is the last day to get it at launch-day-bargain price of .99. Next week it will be going up to the regular price of $2.99, so if you’re dithering, dither no longer and grab a copy!

Amazon
Nook
iBooks

S is for … sand stunner

My S book for my alphabet challenge is Sand Runner, Vera Brook’s debut YA dystopian. Now, this was a last-minute addition and it offers a fascinating insight into my read/review process.

I review over on the Paisley Piranha website, with a group of other YA authors. Vera got in touch and asked if I’d like to review her soon-to-be-released Sand Runner, pointing out that maybe it could fill my “S” space (so points for paying attention, definitely). However, my heart sinks a little when I get asked to review pre-order books because one thing I do know is that I’m fussy. The number of books I start and discard is enormous, and the pile of books raved about by other people that have me scratching my head as to what the attraction could possibly be, is equally legion. What I always do is read the preview first to see if the book’s going to suitable – but that’s not possible with pre-release books (and, of course, I don’t want to ask the author for the first couple of chapters because then I’d have to say I didn’t want the rest and – argh! – confrontation!).

So, generally, if a preview isn’t available it’s going to be a no from me. However, Vera had a short story available, Look at Me (follow the link to check it out) so I could read that. It’s entirely excellent: well-written, unsettling, believable and a little bit heart-breaking. After reading that, I had no hesitation in saying yet to a preview copy of Sand Runner.

Cover of Vera Brook's Sand Runner
Click to find out more.

And it’s equally stunning. I loved it. The dystopian world is close enough to our own to be highly believable, with disturbing elements you could picture coming to pass. Just my cup of tea!

Sand Runner is out on June 2nd, so not long to wait!

 

Check out my next project!

I am so excited to share this with you – my next release will be part of a set with 22 other novels by a group of uber-talented YA writers: Shattered Worlds

Escape into twenty-three epic worlds that will leave you breathless.

 

 

.99 for a limited time!

From dystopian nightmares to gorgeous steampunk and fantasy settings to fairy-tale retellings and beyond, SHATTERED WORLDS has every story you’ve been dying to get your hands on!

This unique Young Adult/New Adult collection, inspired by the creative minds of today’s New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling authors, promises to satisfy your cravings for action and adventure as you experience rune magic and time-travel, overthrow corrupt governments, meet reapers and aliens, battle dragons, fall hopelessly in love, and break ancient curses, right alongside some of the bravest characters in fantasy fiction!

Each book within this collection is exclusive to the set and can’t be found anywhere else.

Preorder now for your passport to SHATTERED WORLDS!

Featuring Titles from:

USA Today bestselling
author J.L. Weil 

USA Today bestselling authors Armitage & Culican 
New York Times bestselling author N.R. Larry 
Rebecca Rode 
Kristy Tate 
A.G. Henley 
USA Today bestselling author Jane Redd 
Miranda Hardy and Jay Noel 
Ali Winters 
Audrey Grey 
Elana Johnson 
Megan Linski 
Elizabetta Holcomb 
Cindy M. Hogan 
Liz Long 
Julie Hall 
Cameo Renae 
Jen Minkman 
Cortney Pearson 
Ainsley Shay 
Katy Haye
USA Today bestselling author Emily Martha Sorensen
Nichole Giles

 

Get Your Copy Today!
 

 

E is for … Elementary, my dears!

My “E” pick was the Elementals series by Michelle Madow. I was really pleased that I’d got a bit ahead of myself where my schedule’s concerned, so I had chance to read this series in one, glorious gulp (I got through them in a week; not that I’m boasting or anything. Ahem). It’s a cracking YA-take on the Olympian gods, with their teen descendants charged with saving the world.

Elementals boxset graphic

Elementals is a smashing read (click on the graphic to check it out), but I don’t want to focus on the book today as I’ll be writing a review on the Paisley Piranhas site next week (do check it out if you’re interested in reviews and recommendations for YA books).

What occurred to me about my Alphabet Challenge this week is how some letters seem to be vastly more popular than others when it comes to titles. I’m noting down potentials as I go through and getting my reading lined up in a manner that’s most unusual for me, which is bringing up patterns I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.

I could have read about six “C” books; there are two I want to read for both “N” and “M”; and I could fill my “S” slot roughly eight times over (check back later in the year to find out what wins!).

Of course, it’s no surprise that X, Y and Z are proving harder to fill (oddly enough, Q is presenting no problem because “Queen” is starting to overtake “Girl” as the word you absolutely have to have in your title these days *starts plotting a “Queen” book…*) I am, though, surprised that “H”, “I” and “K” don’t seem to crop up very much as title openers in books I come across (rather than actively searching).

So, if you have any recommendations (YA preferred, but I do read outside my genre now and then), please let me know!

My free reading challenge: pay with a review

My challenge to keep reading without paying for a book for myself until Christmas continues…

This week I have been mostly fighting my TBR pile, which – even containing only free books – has reached teetering levels. I’ve spent this week reading, reading, reading in a vain attempt to slim down my teetering TBR pile (it’s okay, I love it really – if my TBR pile ever ceased to be dangerous I’d start to get worried about running out of things to read).

As a writer myself, I do feel a little guilty at getting free books, but as a writer I also know the value of getting an honest review from a reader, so I’ve promised myself that I’ll write a review for every book I finish – at least while this challenge is on, but I do try to review books I read under any circumstances.

Drowning in books

This week I’ve written and scheduled reviews for two books I got as free review copies, cross-posted blog reviews to Goodreads and Amazon, and I’m also working my way through (reading and making review notes) my downloaded giveaway books from a fortnight ago, with one of those reviews live this week, another scheduled, and another partway through reading. Phew.

All my reviews can be found on the Paisley Piranha blog site. The Paisley Piranhas are a group of four YA writers who review YA books (and the occasional film) on our site, as well as hosting book blitzes, cover reveals and author interviews. If you’re looking for something good to read, check it out.

I’ll be back next week with more on my free reading challenge. It’s midway through September – can I last until Christmas?