Category Archives: Challenges

Book Review of Maggie Secara’s The Dragon Ring

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The Dragon RingAuthor, Maggie Secara sent me a copy of the first and second of her Harper Errant series, The Dragon Ring and King’s Raven. I’ve only read the first so far, but I figured I might as well go ahead and review it.

Description from Goodreads:
Reality TV host Ben Harper has a problem: he owes the king of Faerie a favor. So now he has to track down the three parts of a Viking arm-ring, and return them to their place in time. This takes him through the wolf-haunted forests of Viking Age Wessex, the rowdy back streets of Shakespeare’s London, and a derelict Georgian country house. Partnered with caustic, shape-changing Raven and guided by a slightly wacky goblin diary, Ben must rediscover his own gifts while facing his doubts and the queen of Faerie’s minions, who will do anything to stop him.

The Dragon Ring, the first in the Harper Errant series, is a time travelling epic adventure which takes you to Old England, and beyond.

Review:
The Dragon Ring is a bit like a grownup Harry Potter, with bawdy ballads and raunchy riddles. There’s a magic book or two, endless magical music, self-regulating clothing, time travel, mystic doors, mythical beasts, prophetic icons, bewitchments, bespelling, and even an imaginative curse on occasion. And poor Ben Harper is stuck right in the middle of it all.

Image a young Alan Titmarsh, or better yet, Justin Ryan or Colin McAllister contracted by the King of Faerie to save the world. Not the likeliest of heroes I’ll admit, but Ben does a decent job of it. He seems to have an amazing knack for simply accepting the absurdities that come along with the unexplainable magic in and around the land of Fae. If he hadn’t been American, I would blame it on that much-touted stiff upper lip. As a reader, I had a little harder time of it. Some of the ‘it’s magic, just accept it’ felt a little too convenient for me. Most especially when considering the diary that miraculously held ALL the answers.

I was extremely disappointed in the treatment of Mellis’, Ben’s wife, character. Her role was important as a motivator to Ben, but she seemed to be pointedly left out of much of the book. She might as well have been a cardboard cutout. Then, in the mere 10 or so percent at the tail end of the book that she was active for, she managed to fall and twist an ankle (though I give her credit for not whinging about it) and lose an important artifact. As enamored as Ben was with her, I would have liked her to have a little more depth.

The narrative style is marvellous. There is a lot of humour in it. The writing is tight and elegant. It strikes the right tone for a book about Oberon and Titania. The book does feel a tad like it goes on forever and a day, though. Plus, it isn’t the sort of book that builds to a peak and then settles back down before ending. It kind of builds to a plateau and then continues on until the end. Ben is given his tasks, and then he systematically goes about completing them until he is finished. It’s very much a ‘quest to collect the magical shards’ kind of story.

I’d especially recommend the book for music lovers. There are a lot of music references and melodies play an important role in the story. Additionally, thespians and Renaissance festival regulars will likely have little trouble relating to Ben and his personality. All-in-all an interesting read. I have the sequel, King’s Raven, which I also look forward to reading. (Speaking of Ravens, Raven was my all-out favorite character in the book.)

Book Review of Rachel Francis’ Life on Fire

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Life on FireYesterday, as I was trolling my TBR list, muttering to myself about how I could have so very, very many books and still not pick anything to read, my daughter reached over and said, “How about that one? It looks interesting.” Well there you go, decision made (and proof positive that covers matter).

Rachel Francis‘ PNR novel, Life on Fire, was downloaded from the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
Anna grew up in the peace of Caroline, a small East coast town barely warranting its own school district. When that serenity is shattered by murder, no one feels safe. One, two, three attacks and no end in sight, Anna falls into a deep depression, spurred onward by the sudden departure of her best friend.

It’s then she notices the strangers around town. Anna enters a world of magic when she comes face to face with two of the newcomers, leaving her changed forever. Saving her hometown may be second only to keeping a centuries old war from boiling over.

Review:
Life on Fire takes the same old, same old and spruces it up enough to be interesting. Anna is a regular, small town girl until her life is endangered and she awakens to her inherent, and previously unknown, paranormal powers. These powers are of course the most powerful there can be. But not to worry, there is an emotionally damaged hotty available to fall in love with her and help her through the transition. She in turn will of course sooth his injured soul in a way no one has been able to before. As well as effortlessly help and earn the admiration of everyone around her.

I’m being trite I know. I did say the same old plot was livened up a little bit though. It’s the characters that add the spice. Wendrick is a wonderfully conflicted character, by far the best in the book IMO. He carries his own heavy burden of ability, responsibility and basic guilt for what he is. David and Rosalyn have an interestingly tempestuous relationship, and Anna has a strong, loving family. Anna was my least favourite of the bunch. In a book that walked the standard genre line so unwaveringly it was the small divergences that kept it from being boring and Anna didn’t stray too far from the standard PNR heroine. She therefore didn’t hold my interest very well. I didn’t hate her or anything. She was just kind of a null for me.

Her and Wendrick together were pretty good however. This isn’t exactly a case of instant-love, or rather I think the author tried to pull it back from insta-love. It’s pretty quick though. And even if not quite instant, the love between Anna and Wendrick solidifies with very little outside influence. He is inexplicably drawn to her and she pretty much goes on a systematic campaign to make him her own. There isn’t really any falling in love as much as finally accepting the love.

Though the main character is 22, this reads like a YA book. Anna still lives at home with her parents. Wendrick is several hundred years old, but acts like a stroppy teenager. David sulks through the whole first half of the story and Anna has dealt with one of her best friend’s crushes for years. There is one mild, largely inexplicit sex scene. It’s the only reason I hesitate to call this YA.

My main complaint is that the dialogue is incorrectly formatted throughout the book, such that a spoken sentence is often on the same line as the response of the person spoken to. Creating confusion about who is actually speaking after all. A made-up example (cause I’m too lazy to go find my kindle and pick out a real one): ”Sit there.’ John sighed, but sat.’ In this case John would be the person spoken to, not the speaker. It’s obvious on a second glance, but it takes that second glance and disrupts the flow.

For an easy, mindless couple hours of entertainment Life on Firefits the bill.

Mist on the Meadow

Book Review of Karla Brandenburg’s Mist on the Meadow

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Mist on the MeadowI grabbed Karla Brandenburg‘s Mist on the Meadow from the KDP free list. 

Description from Goodreads:
For her twenty-fifth birthday, a family legacy is passed on to small town pastry chef Marissa Maitland as a Kundigerin, which means she has come into secret psychic power. She will know things about people at the brush of a hand, and use this to help them—but she cannot talk about being Kundigerin without suffering pain.

Named executor of his grandmother’s estate, Wolf Harper must find something called a “Kundigerin” before he can sell the place. If he could sell his remaining family too, he would. Keeping the family business afloat is his priority, in spite of his uncle’s bad management putting them in the red.

Wolf runs into Marissa—literally, at an icy intersection—and is enchanted by her beauty. One bite of her baked goods bewitches him and enflames a passion Marissa shares. But Marissa blurts long-buried details about the car accident that killed his parents, and knows far too much about the problems at Harper Electronics, neither of which she will explain. Should he be afraid of her?

Review:
This was a pretty good read. I really liked some aspects of it–Marissa’s family & friends, her work ethic, Wolf’s self-inforced control issues, the writing. I especially liked the way Wolf’s slightly crazed, desperate behaviour countered the traditional masculine role without making him feel wimpy and the fact that Chuck may not have gotten his comeuppance, but he didn’t get off scott-free either if you look at the karma of his life. However some things irked me.

Brandenburg doesn’t seem to be bound by her own rules. One of the first things Marissa learns about being a Kundigerin is that she isn’t allowed to talk about it. However, throughout the book she seems to speak fairly freely about it. Granted she avoids the actual word, but she still reveals herself on more than one occasion. Additionally, it is quite explicitly explained that females are Kundigerin and males are Secret Keepers, but Wolf seems to have Kundigerin powers of his own. Plus, since Marissa doesn’t seem to know much about her abilities the reader doesn’t know much and as a direct consequence there were times (the final confrontation for example) where I only had a hazy understanding of what actually happened.

A more personalised dislike was the fact that I thought that the whole misunderstanding with the ex-girlfriend was pat and trite. I could have done without all of the resulting self-doubt. She knew how he felt about her, so why feel so insecure? And lastly, After the mystery wrapped up (a little too nicely if you ask me) and everyone who deserved saving was saved there were still several chapters of just plain mush. No romantic trope was missed. Wolf systematically worked through every ‘awww’ moment possible. So much for everything in moderation.

Having laid my irritants on the table, let me reiterate that I enjoyed the read despite them. Brandenburg is a talented writer who sculpts believable characters that readers can easily relate to. I think the plot escaped the bounds of the story a little bit, but there is still a gem in here that is worth looking at.

On a side note, though it makes sense in the context of the book, the cover doesn’t do the book justice. Overlook it and give it a try.