Author Archives: Sadie

Book Review: Nette, by Barbara Rayne

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nette

In a world where gender was distinguished by the eye color, blue for female and brown for male, she had the misfortune of being born as brown eyed girl. Being ugly and a freak to everyone was the least of her troubles. Immortal and destined to be a queen, her mere existence was a threat to the king. After everyone she loved was brutally murdered, she had no choice but to pursue the path she was destined. In a world that made it obvious there was no place in it for her, immortal Nette will have to make room even if it means killing them all.

This book is suitable for any age or gender, because it’s a story about a girl that has been stigmatized in a society just because she was different. To make it more absurd, the first reason was the color of her eyes. Her immortality just added to the fire!
Be it the color of the skin or worshiping a different God; I see hatred in our present society as equally absurd. I wanted to show how different people are treated, how our noble deeds can be overpowered by hate, and I spiced it up with a bit of romance.

My Review:

This is a book about a girl who was never given the chance to be happy. What little happiness she does find is hard-earned and well-deserved. I’ve always liked this type of storyline. Life is hard, and I like it when characters work for their word count. It makes me root for them all the harder, and you defiantly sympathise with Nette in this book. She is good-natured, strong-willed, and likable. Though from a very different genre, she reminded me a lot of Scarlett O’Hara in her ability to face disappointment head-on, straighten her back, and get on with the difficult task of getting on-to hell with society’s (or the nobility’s) opinion. I found myself really hoping that the next chapter would bring a lasting happiness, and this kept the pages turning.

It is very easy to fall into pace with Nette, since the story is told in the first person from her point of view. You are never left wondering what she is thinking, as you are in her head every step of the way. The story starts when she is very young. Too young, in fact, to understand what is happening around her. The reader, like Nette, must face the unknown assailants and figure it out. It then follows her amazing and prophecied life.

The story is fast-paced and engaging, and there is a colourful cast of supporting characters. I particularly loved Raul. The only thing that kept it from being a 5-stars (other than that I am very chincy with my 5-stars) is that it felt a little rushed at times—I would have liked a little more explanation of the whos, hows, and whys-and Rayne has a habit of dropping particles that takes some getting used to. This should in no way discourage readers. It is a fun and imaginative book that is well worth the read. I’ll definitely be up for reading another of Rayne’s books in the future.

Book Review: Flag of Bones, by Elle Pepper

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flag of bones

Twice brought to hang at “Pirate’s Cove” Captain Jalen Shenn, Captain of the Free Boards Dragon Wynd, finds himself driven by a promise made twenty years before to take a figure to a place where even those who fly the black flag fear to go.

With the Empire chasing him from every friendly port, his most trusted crewman turned traitor to his boards, and the mystery of his wife’s location still plaguing him, Jalen must find the truth of why the Shenn name is so feared that they would wage war for the very mention of it.

With nothing left and no place left to turn but Deep Waters, Jalen is faced with a choice, Defy the Empire and fly the black flag, becoming the man the Empire fears him to be, or hide under the Blue flag of Freehold and never find the reason for this war that has plagued him all his life.

And when everything is on the line Jalen will make a choice that will shape history for hundreds of years to come.

My Review:

There is sooo much potential in this book. The writing is beautiful. It has a lilting musical quality to it that makes it a pleasure to read. It also makes the layered meanings of the phrases believable. I really liked the way that a single phrase or gesture could have both a surface meaning and a secondary meaning, enabling the speaker to relay two messages at once. It is a testament to Pepper that she is able to relay both meaning in an easily followable manner.

Pepper has obviously put a lot of thought into the peoples of her world. The men in this novel (there isn’t a single woman) are men of loyalty and honor-bound by strong codes of conduct. These codes, tied as they are to real spiritual consequences, are so strong that people are often willing to die for them. The problem is that these codes/beliefs/religions aren’t adequately explained to the reader. Nor is the social structure of the world or the nature of the species that people it. As an example, I’m still not certain if the ‘dragons’ are actual dragons or simply a tribe that has some special skill and claims the totem of the dragon.

As much as this novel has to offer (and it is a lot), reading it is like reading every third page of the second book in a series without having read the first. I kept flipping back to see if I had missed pages. It is roughly 120 pages long, but I think it should be closer to 320 long to accomplish its task. So much preceded the start of the book and is left unexplained at the end. It would be a pleasant 320 pages to read, though. Pepper really is a talented writer. I’d be interested in reading the rest of the books in the series, but I would be more interested in reading the rest of this one first.

Book Review: The Plaza, by Guillermo Paxton

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the plaza cover

Plaza. Spanish: in Mexican culture, a slang word describing the territory of a certain drug cartel.

“I’ve been a reporter for years, and a resident of Juarez, Mexico all of my life. I’ve never seen anything like it. No one thought the drug war would be like this…My town has become the battleground for drug cartels. Even the police are being killed on a daily basis. Bands of teenagers working as paid assassins & extortionists are hitting every business, no matter how small. Things I took for granted like going to a restaurant, getting a haircut, or even an evening at the movies with my family put all our lives in danger. Robberies and public executions have become common place. Now when I report only five homicides in twenty-four hours, it is considered a good day.” – Saul Saavedra, crime reporter for The Juarez Daily in THE PLAZA.

In just one year’s time he saw his city change from a decent place to live and work to a crime-infested inferno. He reports the happenings in a city that is experiencing total social decay and writes against the government that at best does nothing about it. Two major drug cartels battle it out in Juarez and Saul soon finds himself in the crossfire between Juarez Cartel/Zetas alliance and the Sinaloa Cartel.

Based on true events in the city of Juarez, The Plaza is about the people, the government and the cartels that make up both the innocent victims and the criminals that are the pawns in the drug war of Mexico.

My review:

I’m not sure how to classify this book. It didn’t strike me as a novel. There was no single main character, obstacle to overcome, or satisfying conclusion to a challenge. If anything, it struck me as a memoir of a place (Juarez). The book explores the devastating and destabilising effect of the Mexican government’s war on drugs by chronicling the lives and deaths of those affected by the cartels’ increasingly violent bids for power. The subject matter was really interesting. It isn’t something I know much about. Pat titles like “The War on Drugs” or Terror or whatever roll nicely off the tongue, but not infrequently. We tend to forget that somewhere far away from our comfortable lives, that saying is a reality. It really is a WAR, and people are dying. The Plaza effectively reminds the reader of this and is, therefore, important.

I did find it repetitive at times. The chauvinistic nature of Mexican culture and the rarity of women moving into positions of power was twice highlighted using the case of Michelle, for example. I actually thought I was on the wrong page and reading the same passage for a moment because the two sections were so similar. There were a couple of such occurrences. I also didn’t see the point of the serial pedophiliac rapist. Unless it was meant to highlight the fact that a side effect of the mafia wars was that the police were too distracted to look for non-drug-related criminals (which was made elsewhere, also in reference to young girls disappearing), I didn’t understand how Juan related to the story. It felt like it was just an added titillating element, an unpleasant one at that.

I would have liked to know how the author was related to the events. Is he one of the characters, related to someone in one of the mafias, someone who lived in Juarez at the time, someone unrelated but interested enough to do some research, or is the book a completely fictionalised account based on the circumstances in Mexico? Regardless, if you are interested in how America’s exportation of the ‘War on Drugs’ is being played out in other places, The Plaza is one for the TBR list.