Monthly Archives: February 2019

Provided for Review: Shadow of The Fox by Julie Kagawa

This book was provided for review by the folks at Netgalley. Thank you!

One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single terrible wish—and the land of Iwagoto was plunged into an age of darkness and chaos.

Now, a new age is about to dawn.

Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll.

There are many who would claim the dragon’s wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll…at any cost. Fate brings Kage and Yumeko together. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart.

With an army of demons at her heels and the unlikeliest of allies at her side, Yumeko’s secrets are more than a matter of life or death. They are the key to the fate of the world itself. (via Goodreads)

The story of collecting items to summon a magical creature and grant a wish is a trope that has been used throughout history. The incredibly popular manga/anime ‘Dragonball’ uses it to great success. Even the movie ‘The Fifth Element’ uses a variation of the trope.

Shadow of the Fox can be added to the list. Based heavily on Japanese mythology, culture, and traditions, it is a version set in what to some will be a familiar land.

Kagawa has done an admirable job creating a world that is both familiar and unique. She has taken known Japanese folklore and twisted it just so. In the characters she has created, readers will recognize the physical and personality type traits that are seen so often in modern Japanese storytelling.

While the book is aimed towards almost all readers, I personally think those who have at least some knowledge of Japan and it’s stories will enjoy Shadow of the Fox more. As someone who is a very big manga/anime fan, I enjoyed seeing the mixture. Not everyone will like it though and some might even find it confusing.

Manga and anime fans – especially those who enjoyed titles like ‘Naruto’ or ‘Dragonball’ – will likely devour this book. Personally, I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Provided for Review: The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson

This book was provided by the kind folks at NetGalley. Thank you!

The Bird King is the story of Fatima, the only remaining Circassian concubine to the sultan, and her dearest friend Hassan, the palace mapmaker.

Hassan has a secret–he can draw maps of places he’s never seen and bend the shape of reality. When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultan’s surrender, Fatima befriends one of the women, not realizing that she will see Hassan’s gift as sorcery and a threat to Christian Spanish rule. With their freedoms at stake, what will Fatima risk to save Hassan and escape the palace walls? (via Goodreads)

The Bird King is one of those novels that offers a unique mix of truth and fantasy. Set in 1491, it is the story of a young concubine and her witnessing of the fall of the sultanate and the only life she had ever known. When her dear friend is threatened with death, she makes a bold and daring choice. In their travels they meet both friend and foe, as well as some who are both.

The shift of story from almost non-fiction to fantasy is quite smooth. Wilson weaves a tale of friendship and love, of loss and betrayal, and does it in a way that is very realistic. She incorporates non-human characters in a natural way, having them interact with the human characters that is very believable.

One of the story points that really stuck out to me was how Hassan’s sexuality is treated. It is explained that he prefers the company of men and has no interest in women. Aside from the few Christian’s they meet, no one cares who Hassan lays with. Also, the fact that he is homosexual isn’t treated as a big deal, it’s a part of who he is just as much as his ability to draw maps of places he hasn’t seen.

Fatima loves Hassan just as Hassan loves Fatima in return, however they do not end up a couple at the end of the book. Their love is the love of good friends and the fact that it doesn’t change nor is it made light of that I found enjoyable.

On the whole, I greatly enjoyed reading The Bird King. There is some subject matter that some might find triggering, but I believe that the majority of readers will like this book as much as I have. I heartily recommend it to all my readers.

Books, bookshelves, and behind the scenes…

When @the_writereads approached me on Twitter to join their queue for Site of the Day, I of course jumped on the chance. As I looked through my posts to pick some to share, I realized that while I have plenty of actual reviews, there weren’t many other kinds of posts.

So now, I’m going to rectify that issue…

My business cards. If you’ve seen my reviews on Goodreads, you’ll see that I use them as my logo.

These are my actual current bookshelves. I had twice as many books at one time, but the great flood of 2016 destroyed a good many of them. Believe me, there is nothing harder for a book lover than having to shovel sodden books in to a wheelbarrow to be taken away.

These are some of the books I’ve purchased or were given to me since starting this blog. Because of limited shelf space, I don’t buy books like I used to and instead rely on e-books and my local library.

And finally, my partner in crime and the best friend a girl could ever have. That is Emma and she is my baby. She also oversees any photoshoot I do, as you can see. She makes sure just the right amount of dog hair is included.

So far it’s been an interesting whirlwind of a ride. My 5 year anniversary will be coming up soon and I am hopeful there will be many more!

Provided for Review: The Fairy’s Tale (The Pathways Tree #1) by F. D. Lee

This book was provided for review from the author via Facebook. Thank you!

Enter the world behind the stories, where ‘Happy Endings’, ‘True Love’ and ‘Rags To Riches’ are all just a means to an end – and a promotion. Here we meet Bea, a cabbage fairy who dreams of being so much more. She wants to be a Fiction Management Executive (godmother division), but no one at the General Administration will take her seriously – until now.

One day a strange, solemn Plotter pulls Bea into his office and offers her the chance to make her Dreams Come True. All she has to do is finish a straightforward story by getting a poor girl married to a rich man. Simple. Easy. It practically tells itself. Except Bea soon realizes that the heroine doesn’t love the hero, and the so-called ugly sister is much more important than the Plot suggests. Plus, she’s pretty certain that there’s an actual, real life villain in the mix – and why is it so important that the Plots always stay the same, anyway?

Bea soon discovers there’s something rotten behind the simplicity of the stories, and suddenly she is faced with a choice, and it seems whichever option she picks will be wrong: Will she commit treason by changing the story and saving her characters from their endings, or follow the Plot and save herself from the sinister Redaction Department?

After all, what kind of fairy godmother really cares about true love?  (via Goodreads)

I don’t think there is a person around today who wasn’t raised on fairy tales in one aspect or another in their childhood. No matter what our background, we were all exposed to these tales as children and as adults. And while the stories themselves might have different casts of characters and different settings, the end results were almost always the same with lessons learned and love found.

The Fairy’s Tale takes us behind the scenes of the stories; asking the question, what if the events in the fairy tales weren’t completely random like they seem? What if the events were carefully plotted out as part of some grander Plot? Who are the individuals doing the plotting? And lastly, what happens when the so-called “characters” don’t want to be part of the story?

Lee has penned a top notch fairy tale within a fairy tale with The Fairy’s Tale. (Try saying that 5 times fast!) Her characters are well thought out and well rounded and each adds their own little piece to the story as a whole. Many questions are posed and while some are answered, there are just as many that have an answer alluded to but are not answered out right either. This keeps the reader guessing and keeps them reading.

There are an additional two books to the series that will hopefully answer the questions left dangling and wrap up any loose threads.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Fairy’s Tale and am grateful for the opportunity given to me. I heartily recommend this tale to my readers and will be looking forward to more from the author!

Provided for Review: Populace by A.M. Wilson

This book was provided for review from the folks at Netgalley. Thank you!

America 2151. New York. Washington. Chicago. Los Angeles. All wiped out from nuclear blasts.

The New United States of America is centered in Omaha, where the Leviathan Corporation provides a muted, controlled existence for its populace. Synthetic drugs keep them sane. The people are safe – for now – from the threats on the outside.

Summoned to the president’s office, unlikely hero Thomas Ignatius Stout receives an extraordinary mission: Hunt down and return, dead or alive, the vicious killer responsible for destroying the lives of millions and millions of Americans, Joe Ikowski, who remains a thorn in the government’s side.

Tom accepts his burden and leads an expedition past Omaha’s protective barrier and into the great unknown. That’s when Tom’s journey really begins.

Taking him from Kentucky to Arizona to Mexicali and the Rocky Mountains, Tom finds far more than he is searching for – and starts to learn the deeply complicated, disturbing truths of his own identity and a world in which he had only before scratched the surface. In this poignant page-turner, a novel that blends elements of science fiction, political thrillers and an Orwellian-style future, rising novelist AM Wilson takes readers on a wild ride inside what could become the future of the United States, if we ruin ourselves from the inside. It’s a novel that will make you think, no matter what you think of America.  (from Goodreads)

Much like the blurb provided by Goodreads says, Populace starts with a distinct Orwellian type future.

A series of unknown events leads to the major cities of the United States being wiped out in a series of nuclear blasts. With those cities and the surrounding areas unlivable, a new capital is created – in Omaha, Nebraska. Those who reside inside the walls are cared for to an extent; food, shelter, and entertainment are all provided for by the Leviathan Corporation. Drugs are also provided in untold quantities to keep the population calm and therefore controllable. The people of Omaha do not question their lot in life, they simply exist, living moment to moment.

Thomas Stout is one of these individuals. Working for Leviathan in one of their countless buildings, he is little more than a face in the crowd. He begins to question his place in and purpose in Leviathan, but unlike the protagonist in Orwell’s 1984, Thomas is not tortured but is instead given a seemingly random mission. He is sent in to the wild unknown beyond the walls around Omaha; his mission to capture Public Enemy Number One, Joe Ikowski.

Populace is an odd book. There are portions that feel very probable, as if they could possibly happen in the future, while others seem completely random. The beginning of the book, before Thomas leaves Omaha, is well written. Nicely paced, the prose gives a feeling of the drabness that certainly surrounds the characters on a daily basis.

Once Thomas leaves the city though, the story tends to go off the rails. The writing becomes disjointed and at times I found it difficult to keep track of who was where and doing what. Also, Wilson does not always provide full details on the characters, what their motivation is, etc. and doing this left gaps in the story. And while certain revelations at the end supposedly fill in those gaps, I found it rather unsatisfactory.

On the whole, Populace was a good idea with maybe not the best execution. Fans of dystopian type futures could enjoy it but this book definitely isn’t for everyone.