Review: The Ugly Teapot by Fred Holmes

– SPOILER FREE REVIEW –

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Title: The Ugly Teapot (Book One: Hannah)
Author: Fred Holmes
Genre: Fantasy, Middle Grade
Release date: March 30th, 2016

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Description:

Fourteen-year-old Hannah Bradbury loved her father so much that she worried about him constantly. After all, he was a photographer who traveled to the most dangerous places in the world.

To allay her fears, each time he came home he brought her silly gifts, each one with supposed magical powers: the Seal of Solomon, the Ring of Gyges, even Aladdin’s Lamp. It was that lamp Hannah found the most unbelievable, for it looked like an ugly teapot. Nevertheless, her father assured her it was real, and made her promise to save her three wishes for something very special.

Then . . . six months later . . . the unthinkable happened. Her father was killed while on assignment to Baghdad. And so on the day of his funeral Hannah did something she never thought she would ever do.  She took out that teapot and gave it a rub . . .

The Ugly Teapot by Fred Holmes is a timeless tale, filled with magic and adventure. More importantly, it will make you believe in the overwhelming power of love.

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The Ugly Teapot is a cute novel filled with action and both a heartwarming and heartbreaking message about family and loss. The best part? We’ve got Hannah as our main character – a realistic 14-year-old girl experiencing grief after her father’s death and trying to cope with it. Though in the end I found the story a bit clichéd, I thought it was an interesting way to deal with the theme of grief and moving on.

ARC Review: Bitter Sweet Love by Michael Faudet

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Bitter Sweet Love
Author: Michael Faudet
Genre: Poetry
Release date: October 25th, 2016

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Description:

Michael Faudet’s whimsical and often erotic writing has captured the hearts and minds of literally thousands of readers from around the world. He paints vivid pictures with intricate words and explores the compelling themes of love, loss, relationships, and sex. All beautifully captured in poetry, prose, quotes, and little short stories.

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ARC Review: Fallen to Grace by A.J. Flowers

– SPOILER FREE REVIEW –

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this ARC from the author for an honest review.

Title: Fallen to Grace (Celestial Downfall #1)
Author: A.J. Flowers
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal
Release date: December 2nd, 2016

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Description:

Azrael’s a wingless angel, and if that wasn’t bad enough, she’s the only one with a functioning conscience. Her bi-color eyes mark her as a moral hybrid, and when she breaks her enslavement to Manor Saffron by making a deal with a demon, she doesn’t expect to become Queen. She’ll have to survive her new royal magic, convince a legion of angels she’s worth fighting for, and find the breach in her Faustian deal, or risk a new master with horns.

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ARC Review: A Deadly Affection by Cuyler Overholt

– SPOILER FREE REVIEW –

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Title: A Deadly Affection (Dr. Genevieve Summerford Mystery #1)
Author: Cuyler Overholt
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery
Release date: September 6th, 2016

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Description:

In 1907 New York, a psychiatrist must prove her patient’s innocence…or risk being implicated in a shocking murder

As one of the first women practicing in an advanced new field of psychology, Dr. Genevieve Summerford is used to forging her own path. But when one of her patients is arrested for murder-a murder Genevieve fears she may have unwittingly provoked-she is forced to seek help from an old acquaintance.

Desperate to clear her patient’s name and relieve her own guilty conscience, Genevieve finds herself breaking all the rules she’s tried so hard to live by. In her search for answers, Genevieve uncovers an astonishing secret that, should she reveal it, could spell disaster for those she cares about most. But if she lets her discovery remain hidden, she will almost certainly condemn her patient to the electric chair.

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This book introduces a slow paced mystery with an array of complex characters set in the fascinating New York of 1907. Sadly, despite the characters being quite realistic, I never really warmed up to any of them and I felt like the mystery was unremarkable. I did enjoy the writing and I was impressed with how fleshed out the characters got to be, but in the end, there was something missing for me. I would recommend it to anyone interested in mysteries with character development and with a medical focus.

Review: Spring Delusions by Zahra Ammar

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Spring Delusions: Chaotic Poems of Despair and Blooming Hope
Author: Zahra Ammar
Genre: Poetry
Release date: September 19th, 2016

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Description:

Words are our only tools to express the physicality of the chaos in our minds. It is tedious and painstaking process to create something, anything. Emotions are not words, hence, to put them as such, requires quite a bit of searching, meandering and stumbling. I believe my affair with these alphabets will never be satiated. Yet, I have tried to sing some broken tunes, sketched some bleakness and shared fragments of my inner hope.

I have often had a love hate relationship with poetry. Its enigmatic power has often left me confused but also enlightened me. Although rhymes are fun and easy to tap your foot to, it is the rhythm or sometimes, the lack of it that can truly sear through the heart. For me, simplicity is key. It is graceful. It is alluring.

Each poem is handwritten, followed by typewrite for easy bookmarking and commenting and is accompanied by an illustration, meticulously and thoughtfully crafted. I refuse to acknowledge that illustrations are for children’s books only. There is no age limit to vision. Seeing is as much a part of feeling as reading and imagining is. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have in making them.

The poems I write do not follow any rule in particular. Although well-versed in writing verses, I opt to experiment with a variety of things, from alliteration to repetitions, and rhyme to meters, and mirroring to collating. Some poems have written themselves. Some, I have agonized over for days and nights. Writing and rewriting, getting it just right and then starting all over again. It is an organized pandemonium of the human self.

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Review: The Call by Peadar Ó Guilín

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Title: The Call
Author: Peadar Ó Guilín
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Horror
Release date: 30th August, 2016

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Description:

Thousands of years ago, humans banished the Sidhe fairy race to another dimension. The beautiful, terrible Sidhe have stewed in a land of horrors ever since, plotting their revenge . . . and now their day has come.

Fourteen-year-old Nessa lives in a world where every teen will be “Called.” It could come in the middle of the day, it could come deep in the night. But one instant she will be here, and the next she will wake up naked and alone in the Sidhe land. She will be spotted, hunted down, and brutally murdered. And she will be sent back in pieces by the Sidhe to the human world . . . unless she joins the rare few who survive for twenty-four hours and escape unscathed.

Nessa trains with her friends at an academy designed to maximize her chances at survival. But as the days tick by and her classmates go one by one, the threat of her Call lurks ever closer . . . and with it the threat of an even more insidious danger closer to home.

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The Call is a pretty grim novel with a unique, twisted and nerve-racking concept that hooked me from page one. It introduces Nessa, a kick-ass main character that can’t walk quite well as the result of contracting polio as a child. Having a disabled character in an action-packed story such as this one is something we hardly see and I really enjoyed how the author did it.

I thought the concept had a lot of potential, but, by being so fast-paced and having so many points of view, there was hardly any time to explore all the themes or characters I would have wanted. Still, it was a very entertaining read that I’ve seen people describing as gruesome and not for the faint of heart, although I didn’t find it that graphic or gory (that might be my seemingly heart of stone talking).

Review: The Key by Sara B. Elfgren & Mats Strandberg

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Title: The Key (The Engelsfors Trilogy #3)
Authors: Sara Bergmark Elfgren & Mats Strandberg
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Release date: November, 2013

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Description:

The final installment of the Engelsfors Trilogy—an international sensation with rights sold in 29 countries—The Key combines thrilling action and dark magic with all the passion and drama of teen life. The result is nothing less than explosive.

By the end of the second book, Fire, the remaining Chosen Ones know they are the last defense against the mysterious, demonic forces that have been plaguing Engelsfors.

The Chosen Ones are still coming to terms with their loss when evil strikes again, barely a month after the showdown in the school gym. They have no chance to recover, and no choice but to rally together to try to prevent the apocalypse—even while their personal dramas threaten to tear them apart.

Time is running out for the Chosen Ones to fulfil the prophecy and save the world, but whether they succeed or not, one thing is certain: Everything will change.

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– REVIEW FOR THE CIRCLE (#1) AND FIRE (#2) –

A fantastic ending for a great trilogy. The writing, the plot, and the characters all got stronger with each book, resulting in a story that I never wanted to end. Was this book perfect? No, not really. It started of slow, it was probably longer than necessary, and there were unecessary moments here and there, but I was so involved in the plot and the girls’s lives that I didn’t mind. So I’m giving it all 5 stars and know that I’ll carry the characters with me for a long time.

Review: Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

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Title: Poison Study (Study #1)
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Release date: October 1st, 2005

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Description:

Choose: A quick death…Or slow poison…

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She’ll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly’s Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can’t control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren’t so clear…

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This book was. So. Much. Fun. The perfect start for a fantasy series. It’s fast-paced, with great characters, and with an interesting world that the author brings to life little by little throughout the novel. I can see it becoming one of those comfort books I turn to when others have disappointed me.

ARC Review: The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

– SPOILER FREE REVIEW –

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Title: The Other Einstein
Author: Marie Benedict
Genre: Historical Fiction, Adult Fiction
Release date: October 18th, 2016

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Description:

A vivid and mesmerizing novel about the extraordinary woman who married and worked with one of the greatest scientists in history.

What secrets may have lurked in the shadows of Albert Einstein’s fame? His first wife, Mileva “Mitza” Marić, was more than the devoted mother of their three children—she was also a brilliant physicist in her own right, and her contributions to the special theory of relativity have been hotly debated for more than a century.

In 1896, the extraordinarily gifted Mileva is the only woman studying physics at an elite school in Zürich. There, she falls for charismatic fellow student Albert Einstein, who promises to treat her as an equal in both love and science. But as Albert’s fame grows, so too does Mileva’s worry that her light will be lost in her husband’s shadow forever.

A literary historical in the tradition of The Paris Wife and Mrs. Poe,The Other Einstein reveals a complicated partnership that is as fascinating as it is troubling.

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I’m grateful for this book because it introduced me to Mileva Marić, Albert Einstein’s first wife, who I didn’t know about before. This novel is a fictionalized account of Mileva’s struggles in life as a woman of science in a time when it was pretty much impossible for a woman to attend university and much less to persuit science. I think my expectations for this book let me enjoy it, as it is more a character study than a tale of scientific discoveries.

ARC Review: The Universe of Us by Lang Leav

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Title: The Universe of Us
Author: Lang Leav
Genre: Poetry, Romance
Release date: October 4th, 2016

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Description:

Lang Leav presents a completely new collection of poetry with a celestial theme in The Universe of Us.

Planets, stars, and constellations feature prominently in this beautiful, original poetry collection from Lang Leav.  Inspired by the wonders of the universe, the best-selling poetess writes about love and loss, hope and hurt, being lost and found.  Lang’s poetry encompasses the breadth of emotions we all experience and evokes universal feelings with her skillfully crafted words.

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