Blind Date with a Book

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As odd as it may seem, I very seldom visit a book store.  Several years back I had a vision of becoming an old hoarder lady who dies after a stack of books topples over on her.  I resolved then to get books from the library whenever possible as a means of staving off dying under the weight of the written word.  That said, my quest for a better critique group lead me to Book People of Moscow.

The critique group was a flop.  One man proudly informed me that, “sometimes the fringe element of society tries to join, but we just don’t allow that.”  Being a card carrying member of the fringe element myself, I wasn’t impressed.  Their rotation for getting work critiqued left a lot to be desired as well.  Members are eligible to have up to 3,000 words critiqued twice a year.  At that rate it would take 17.5 years to work through a novel.  A pair of orangutans with type-writers could produce something publishable in less time.

DSCF2523But, the experience wasn’t all bad.  I did manage to pick up a date; two actually.

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Book Review: The Vanishing Throne

Vanishing Throne_final front cover.pdfThe Vanishing Throne, a novel by Elizabeth May (Book 2 of The Falconer Trilogy.)
Set for release June 7, 2016.
Suggested Price; $17.99 USD.

The end is only another beginning.

The Falconer, Aileana Kameron, wakes up trapped on a cliff in a strange world with no idea how she got there.  Tortured repeatedly by her captor, Lonnrach, over daysweeksmonthsyears Aileana loses her memories and nearly loses hope.  Rescued by her lover and his sister, Aileana escapes her prison and returns to the human world only to find that Scotland has been decimated by war.  The few humans who survived now live in a Fairy city, hidden deep underground.  But life isn’t as safe or comfortable as it was before the war, nor has the war really ended.  The fae may have won, but Lonnarch will stop at nothing until the last Falconer is killed and in the process he may destroy them all.

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Book Review: Beware That Girl

GirlBeware That Girl, a novel by Teresa Toten.
Set for release May 31, 2016.
Suggested Price; $17.99 USD.

Beware That Girl is a rags to riches story that left me shaking my head.

Kate O’Brien, a pauper and con-artist with a brilliant mind, gains admission to Waverly, an elite all girl high school in New York City.  Despite the fact that it’s not a boarding school and all the characters are high school students, everyone’s parents are neatly tucked away on foreign business trips, living in London, deceased, or incarcerated, leaving the girls unattended to ruin their lives.  Oh, and all their parents let them drink, and so do all the restaurants in the city, actual laws be damned.

If the author doesn’t have the girls engaged in a cascade of bad decisions, then she’s busy dropping names of designer labels.  Tiffany’s, Doc Martins, Jimmy Choo, Chloé, Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Patek Philippe; please kill me now.  And don’t get me started about the name dropping of artists.  It served as a constant reminder that nearly all the characters in this book are shallow and unlikable.

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