Stardancer by Ariel MacArran

Another in the Tellaran series, Stardancer is set in a futuristic universe between two warring empires. The Az'kye are fierce and proud warriors who will stop at nothing to defend the honor of their people and their families. The Realm is a futuristic society similar to that of present day, who find the Az'kye's practice of binding rituals and slavery to be barbaric and uncivilized. Both deeply misunderstand each other. When Kinara's brother is killed in a battle between the Realm and the Az'kye, she sets out on an illegal mission to avenge her brother's death. Greatly underestimating the advancements of the Az'kye, her ship is taken, and the only chance she has of returning her crew home is to befriend, and come to love the commanding officer who would take her as his wife.

Ariel MacArran is a stupendous writer. Not just be indie publishing standards, but by any. This book, read for free with my Kindle Unlimited membership, held the quality I would expect from a company published book I bought in the store, if not surpasses it. There were so few editing errors that when I found one or two I couldn't be sure that they were really there. The pride she takes in the scripting and editing of her book is worthy of Az'kye honor, and the entire indie industry would be better off to take her example.

Kinara is a fierce commander, but she's also a woman. For the first time ever in reading the SciFi genre has the character reacted properly to being imprisoned. She does feel an attraction for Aidar, but as soon as she realizes what's going on, she snaps out of it and gets mad. She doesn't crumble to his will and despite his treatment of her, stand strong with her morals and beliefs.

The conflict of Aidar and Kinara's opposing cultures was a work of art. It was frustrating to no end the way Aidar wouldn't explain the working of his world to her, but that's to be expected. Having been raised there, even the simplest things he assumed she should be able to do were contradictory to everything she knew from her own home world. This is the first time, after reading many alien abduction leading to marriage and love stories, that the culture conflict was believable and well done.

Their romance is tragic, because the whole time you just wish they would sit down and talk things out, but at the same time neither of them are like that at all. But I'll tell you, their relationship is very well done. Things never get so dark and depressing that you just can't take it anymore and have to put the book down. Whenever something sad happens it is soon counteracted by another aspect that cheers you up. I won't say it isn't heart-rending at times, but just push through it.

Kinara's assimilation into the Az'lye society is also extremely well written. All aspects of the world are thought out and the rules that Ariel establishes are not broken, as she stays consistent in her work.

Being a romantic, I do wish there had been more time in which Aidar and Kinara were happy together. It seemed like every time they almost got past their differences and had a moment of happiness, Kinara or Aidar would do or say something that would tear each other apart again. It was really hard to read, because you felt so badly for the star-crossed lovers, and just wanted them to be happy.

While the cover isn't exactly appealing and didn't draw me in the way the cover for the Seer did, I urge no one to judge this book by its cover. The writing is intricate, descriptive, and utterly beautiful. I will be reading every book if Ariel's I can get my hands on.

I recommend this to any and all readers. This series is something worth investing time in.

Five Stars

Rosalie Williams

Stardancer on Goodreads

Perception by Lee Strauss

A perfect human. Beautiful, never succumbing to illness, living an extended life, Zoe has it all. Until her brother goes missing, and her utopian world begins to unravel around her, with a mysteriously charming "normal" at the center of it all with her.

Perception was free off of amazon, and I always have my reservations about free books, especially because editing errors eat at my soul–they're so easy to avoid! But that's beside the point. This is giong to be a short review because I honestly don't have much to say about this book. I read it in one night because I got it for free and didn't have anything else to read. It was fairly short, and to my amazement, didn't have any editing errors (that I caught anyway)! So that definitely put me in a good mood.

As far as the plot goes it was fast-paced and didn't get boring. I appreciated that, especially since it was two in the morning and I couldn't have lasted through anything tedious or slow. There is action the entire time, and it kept me excited. I did predict the ending, but that didn't keep me from liking it any less.

The romance is fairly bland, unfortunately. It's there, and I appreciate the effort, and I do like Zoe and Noah together, but  I just didn't feel that spark, sorry! I liked how protective Noah was of Zoe, but I think there was a bit of a dichotomy in his character, which took away from the romance aspect of the book. Noah is originally portrayed as a self-confident, pushy, arrogant guy. But then about halfway through, all that goes out the window, and suddenly he's a devout virgin Christian. I personally liked the bad-boy side of him more.

Zoe tries to be that stubborn female protagonist that is so popular in YA these days, but she doesn't quite pull it off. Her stubborn attitude ends up making her look kind of stupid, especially since she always makes rash decisions, and then banks on Noah to get her out! There was no real substance to her character, so I didn't connect with her as much as I would have liked to.

All in all it was a nice one-night read, but let's just say I won't be investing the few dollars to buy the next book in the series.

Three Stars

Rosalie Williams

Perception on Goodreads

Under Different Stars by Amy A. Bartol

Author of the The Premonition series, Amy A. Bartol introduces us to her heart-pounding new series a little farther from home than her past books. Kidnapped from earth and taken to another world, Kricket is thrust into a society that she knows nothing about, and that knows everything about her. A lost priestess born from two people who never should have been together, everyone wants her working for them as the world crumbles into war. But with hands pulling from every side, Kricket's only hope is to stay with the man she loves, the only one she can be sure is truly fighting on her side.

Amy's books have always had stunning plots that warrant an extremely fun read, but prior to this novel her writing has been insufficient to support the action of the plot. Without warning Amy has transitioned to a colorful author with the experience and skill to create, and transport us to an entirely new world. Fast-paced and exciting, this was a one-sitting read that I couldn't put down. I was hooked by the first chapter, and was never let go.

The cover art for this book has also graduated to a new level. From amazon-author chic, to a real marketing cover. This is the kind of book I would see on the shelf and buy just for the cover. Because who are we kidding? Everyone judges books by their covers.

"I'm stone...nothing touches me...nothing."

Kricket is a down-to-earth (pun intended) heroine who grew up fighting against an abusive foster system. In all the excitement we just barely get a glimpse into Kricket's past and what she's gone through, but it's enough to develop and attachment to her, and really appreciate her character. While she does fall for a guy, she also doesn't put up with him being stupid. Since she can tell when people are lying, she gets fed up with him denying what they are to each other, and I really respected how she put a stop to his evasion.

"You know–stop right there, because you can't say stuff like that to me. You can't just kiss me in the fountains and then say you only want to be my friend."

The world that Amy creates is as imaginative as all her other plots have been, and I'm in awe at the little details she thinks of that never would have crossed most people's minds. From the creatures to the technologies, once you get used to all the new words used to describe what she sees, you are in a world as colorful as Avatar.

"You could never be a temporary situation for me, Kricket. I know that once I have you, I'll never be able to let you go. I want you as my consort...until death do us part, and than forever after that."

Trey is dreamy and I know that in the next books that a deeper look into his character will make the reader love him more than we already do–it's impossible not to. He comes to care for Kricket for her personality as they travel through the forest to Rafe, and while they do spend time apart, it's like they're always just on the edges of each other.

"My heart has found its way back to my chest and now pounds in it like it had never been torn apart."

A stunning beginning to a whirlwind new series, we will all be waiting breathlessly for the next book. If you think you know Amy Bartol as an author, think again, because this blows away her past novels, and rockets her writing into a galaxy as far away as Kricket's home.

"The sky bleeds above me like tears of black and the pinpoints of light streak horizontally with the speed of eternity."

Five Stars

Rosalie Williams

Under Different Stars on Goodreads

 

Indebted by Amy Bartol

The third book in The Premonition series, Evie is struggling to find her place in the violent world of angels and demons. Pursued on all sides for different reasons, Evie must discover who she can trust–before it's too late.

The writing in this book is eons beyond the previous two books. The first two, while the plot, dialogue and characters were strong, the writing made me feel like I was reading a self-published Amazon book that I should have gotten for free or $0.99. But this was a 180 degree turn around as far as the quality of writing, and even the editing seems to have been stepped up for this novel, as there were far fewer errors. This leads me to believe that the second book was a bit rushed, and she spent more time on this one.

I loved the plot in this. I came to actually really likes Brennus, and I feel bad for him because he really does love Evie, but she can never love him. He is fiercely protective of her–a trait that I totally love–but also treats her as an equal. He fills her in on plans and while he wants to keep her safe, he allows her to participate. He's also startlingly compassionate, and the funeral scene was particularly moving for me. I love how Amy wrote their accents into their words, and I very much look forward to seeing what roll Brennus and the Gancanagh will be playing in the next book.

Reed really isn't in this book too much, but I liked all the scenes he was in. I do feel like his character may be slipping a little, because I don't feel the same chemistry between him and Evie that I did in the first book. To be honest, I was leaning a little more towards Evie and Brennus by the end of this.

Here's the thing though. People are always coming after Evie, and I love the plot, because it's exciting and fresh. But nothing really bad ever seems to happen to her. It's always red-shirts that are dying, and I feel like that makes it unrealistic. She's always crying about how awful her life is, and yet compared to most people (especially other people in the group) nothing terrible has happened, and yet they all treat her like she's survived worse things than them. Shall we recap? She hasn't been physically tortured (Russell, Brownie, Reed, Zephyr and probably Buns, though it doesn't mention it). She hasn't been raped (every girl in the Gancanagh castle). She hasn't had the love of her life turn on her (Reed, Brennus and Russell). So I just don't understand why Amy is making it out that her life is so bad. Sure she's always running, but she seems to have escaped the worst of it.

I'm very interested to see where the plot leads. I'm not completely sure if the fourth book is the last, but I think it is. The story ended with a lot of potential, and I hope that the ending lives up to the excitement of the rest of the series. I can honestly say I can't predict the ending, which is very new to me. I just hope that it's a good one, and doesn't ruin the series for me.

Four Stars

Rosalie Williams

Indebted on Goodreads

Intuition by Amy Bartol

Taking place right where Inescapable left off, Evie is living with Reed and still trying to survive. After being attacked by non-Fallen angels, Evie realizes the risk that protecting her Reed faces, and decides to take matters into her own hands–even if it means leaving the man she loves.

The second book in this series is strong on plot, just as the first one was. There was one lull in the story that was a little boring, but for the most part it kept me invested. The narration switches to Russell at one point, which is interesting to see another perspective on everything that's going on. I do like reading from Evie's POV more, but it was a nice change.

While the writing did improve some, I noticed a lot more little issues with this one, like missing quotation marks at the end of a spoken sentence, or a word in the wrong tense. It didn't bother me too much though, and the writing was a little better so it makes me even more optimistic for the next book.

There's an introduction of a new "villain" in this book, and I really like his character. Brennus is intriguing because he loves Evie and will do anything to get her back, but unlike Reed's love for Evie, he wants her because she makes his life better, not so that Evie's life can be better. This dichotomy really shows the difference between Reed and Brennus' love.

The time Evie spends with Brennus is interesting and kept me on the edge of my seat. The slow shifting of her thoughts and feeling toward the Gancanagh is really intriguing, and while I didn't want her to become one of them, it was just a really good part in the story after things got a little boring with her and Russell up in Canada!

I liked that Reed, even though Evie left him, doesn't hold that against her and try to push her away. He's upset that she did it, but realizes why she did, and accepts the blame for his part in her leaving. All in all I think it made them a better couple, and once they were together again it was like breathing a fresh breath of air after drowning.

I very much look forward to the next book.

Three Stars

Rosalie Williams

Intuition on Goodreads

Inescapable by Amy Bartol

Inescapable is about Evie, a young girl's first year at college. She leaves her adoring uncle to pursue her dreams at a nice college on a full academic scholarship. She is greeted, however, by a hostile sophomore named Reed, and a warm-hearted Russell, whom she suspects there is more to than meets the eye. Though she feels like her relationship with Russell has more to it than is apparent on the surface, Evie can't deny her attraction to Reed, who is quickly warming to her to.

I would like to preface this by saying that I read a negative review about this book before buying it. I saw how high the ratings were and since the only option I had for reading it was to purchase it myself, I wanted to get an insider's look at what I was spending my money on. I honestly wish I hadn't because the review tainted my reception of the first half of the book. The beginning of a book is the hardest part for an author, because they have to begin building unfamiliar characters, while simultaneously hooking the reading with an exciting plot. I think if I hadn't been so pessimistic to start off, I would have let myself enjoy the beginning more.

So let's start with the bad things, so that I can get them out of the way before highlighting all the great parts of this book. Most blatantly is the issue with writing. Most of the writing isn't terrible. It isn't These Broken Stars good (thought that's a high standard to compare things to) but it also isn't terrible. The biggest issue Amy Bartol has is with those little tag sentences at the end of dialogue. She uses them far too much, and doesn't understand how not to make them repetitive. "She said (insert adjective here)" was used far too many times. But keep in mind this is a debut novel for Amy, so my hope is that her writing will improve throughout the series.

The other issue I had was her repetition. These seems like a book that wasn't edited by someone who knew what they were doing. Amy would use a fancy new word, and then use it again in the next sentence, then we would never see it again in the rest of the book! It's easy to fall into that trap, because the word sticks in your brain and as you're writing since you just used it, it's convenient to just put it back in again (See! As I was typing this sentence "easy" came to my head immediately, and I had to pause for a moment and settle on "convenient", so as not to do exactly what I'm critiquing.) Another repetition I saw was in Buns' speech. She uses "sweetie" in literally every sentence. This really bothered me at first, but it isn't something I couldn't get over.

Now on to the good stuff!

The storyline was very exciting, and so much was happening I never really got bored. The secret at the beginning wasn't hard to guess, but there's a twist to it that I didn't see coming. I like also that as she began to gain power she didn't just become some super-ass-kicking-ninja-girl overnight as so many girls do in YA novels these days. She gains power, but it's "young", the way it should be.

The romance is really great. I hate the love triangles these days where the girl can't make up her mind and it ends up pushing both the guys away. Evie is very clear in what she wants, and doesn't tell anyone otherwise. Reed is beyond sweet, but also fierce and protective, which is basically the perfect male lead. Russell is great, but I think his character got almost handicapped due to the strange way Amy chose to write his dialogue. Usually when a character has an accent the author will simply introduce the character that way, and write their words in proper English. But nope! Amy chose to literally sound out is accent, and I did find that annoying and it detracted from his character. Besides people with southern accents do know you to say "you" they don't always say "ya". So all in all I am team Reed, but I'm hoping to see better development of Russell's character later in the series.

Evie is a good character. She's supposed to be smart, and all the allusions the author uses does make her appear very well read. The only downfall with this is that Amy chose to explain EVERY allusion to make sure the reader realized how very smart Evie was in understanding this or inferring that. I think it's safe to say that most intelligent people can understand the allusions without detailed explanations, because they didn't seem like Evie, they seemed like Amy trying to make us understand how great Evie was. If she'd left well enough alone, I think I would have liked Evie even more. In the end I did like Evie, she didn't annoy me to death, but I didn't love her either. Like I said, hopefully she'll be fleshed out a little more in the following books.

The ending is surprising and I can honestly say I did not see that coming. I'm usually very good at predicting endings and plot twists, but absolutely not this one!

Most of the worst aspects can be chalked up to writing inexperience, so I'm going to maintain faith that the series will get better as it progresses and her writing matures. Why am I not putting it on my favorites shelf? The plot certainly deserves to be there because I can honestly say I did really love the story. I think reading it again without the pessimism so fresh in my brain because of the review will make me like it even more. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the book because there could be a really good world here. But it doesn't make the shelf individually just because of the poor writing. It's not the descriptions, it's not the dialogue (Because that was pretty good) it's basically just the tags on the dialogue that really took away that last star and a place on the favorites shelf. I wish a better writer had written with storyline because it is absolutely fantastic, and this book could have been so vivid.

I have hope for the rest of the series, and look forward to reading them. I just pray that the writing improves and the plot keeps being fast-paced and exciting.

Four Stars

Rosalie Williams

Inescapable on Goodreads

Angel Eyes by Shannon Dittemore

Angel Eyes is about young ballet dancer Brielle, returning home after the alleged murder of her best friend Ali by Marco (Ali's boyfriend). Depressed and cold (physically and mentally) Brielle has a hard time adjusting back into her old life, especially after meeting hot (don't worry, only his hands are hot) boy Jake, who may have more connection to her past than she first realizes.

Angel Eyes isn't a long book, and yet I was unable to finish it. I listened to it on audiobook, and it seemed like it just kept going on and on. The writing is elementary and repetitive, and the storyline is slow, adding to the laborious listen. The point of view switches between Brielle, Damian and Kanin, the latter two being angels. The switches are confusing and unnecessary. They add a lot of length to the book which it could do without. The story probably would have been better with just Brielle's point of view.

There were a lot of factor which added length to this book when it shouldn't have. 1. The point of view switches which as I said before didn't add anything to the story. 2. The long internal monologues. Brielle and both the angels spend a lot of time mulling things over in their heads, and it ends up taking way to long. As a listener of this book I found my mind wandering a lot, and when I realized I hadn't been paying attention it was sad because I hadn't actually missed anything. 3. The descriptions of the celestial are long and confusing. The idea is definitely there for this to be very cool, but the writing just isn't the caliber necessary to pull it off. The descriptions are complicated and almost vague, though detailed. It's a paradox that I just can't figure out. The author was clearly trying to convey this deep meaning about fear and how it's so difficult to get over because Brielle can see how it clings to people and multiplies like black tar blah blah blah. But she is clearly trying way too hard, and her elementary writing style just doesn't pull it off. The overall confusion of the entire book makes the storyline much too long and for listeners it just doesn't hold your attention.

Another issue is that the audiotape was divided into 8 sections, all about an hour and twenty minutes long. The first week of the book takes place in the first 5, and the last 3 are about one afternoon. As you can imagine this makes the story feel very awkward. There is no emotional connection to the story, so this long climax does nothing to you.

There is no romance between Jake and Brielle. Their conversations are awkward if they're personal, or one of them goes off on a long rant and the other just sits there listening. For example Brielle telling Jake about her "dark past" or Jake explaining everything about the world of angels to her. The explanations are long, and Jake does a horrible job, so it's no wonder Brielle is so confused the whole time!

Finally, the finale is long and boring. The descriptions are far too long to be reasonable, and half the characters you have no idea who they are. The action is stunted and badly composed. The dialogue during the fighting is worst of all. There's either a really long and basic description of the movements with no mention of sound whatsoever, or there's only talking and you imagine the characters just standing there.

Dittemore needs to go back to writing basics and review how to incorporate the 5 senses into writing to allow the reader to connect more fully with the plot and the characters. I could not finish this book, I will not finish it, and I do not recommend it. I'm giving it two stars because I liked the beginning, but it just went downhill from there.

Two Stars

Rosalie Williams

Angel Eyes on Goodreads

The Last Princess by Galaxy Craze

The Last Princess is a novel about the royal family after the devastating Seventeen Days destroy almost all of England. After the annual Roses Ball is attacked by Cornelius Hollister's army, only Princess Eliza escapes, thanks to mysterious help from a Sergeant. Siblings taken captive, Eliza sets out on a journey to avenge her murdered parents and captured siblings.

This was a one sitting book, and not in a good way. I knew that if I put this book down I would not pick it back up again, and since I own it, I wanted to have it read (I hate owning books that I haven't read). Reviewing my notes it's very difficult to decide what to say about this book. So let's start at the beginning.

The characters never become multi dimensional. Eliza sometimes shows courage, but then there is never a connection with her. She makes stupid yet valiant decisions, and it makes her an unrealistic heroine. Sergeant Wesley is innately kind, but as with Eliza, there is no connection with her character. Their romance is flimsy and practically nonexistent, when she suddenly declares she loves him.

There are a lot of inaccuracies in this book. Some mainly being the way the wild foxes acted in the forest. Wild foxes are extremely aggressive when they're starving. Living just outside of Yellowstone National Park, every year we get a story about a starving fox attacking a tourist. They don't snuggle into your hand. The other main one was the horses and more specifically the travel. Eliza travels 380 miles in less than a day on horseback. That's nearly impossible in a car, much less on a horse. Also, horses can't run flat-out for very long. Contrary to what John Wayne movies lead you to believe, you can't run a horse for very long or they die, and yes, True Grit got that part right, horses will run themselves literally to death.

So I will wrap up this short review by saying this: There is no connection with the story whatsoever. The writing is two dimensional and the characters are flat. The story lacks those things that make it seem realistic and draws the reader in. I considered abandoning it halfway through, but decided that it was necessary to read it to its conclusion. Unfortunately it was a waste of my day, and I wish I'd spent it reading a better book, or hiking, or cleaning, or baking, or doing classwork. Honestly, I'd rather do about anything than read this book again.

One Star

Rosalie Williams

The Last Princess on Goodreads