Category Archives: Challenges

Book Review of Flash Bang, by Kellen Burden

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Flash BangOver a year ago, I downloaded Kellen Burden‘s Flash Bang from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
Sebastian Parks is drowning in a flood of his own creation. Dishonorably discharged from the Army, he’s wracked with night terrors and an anger that he can’t abate. Unemployable and uninterested in anything resembling a normal job, Parks makes his living in fugitive apprehension, finding wanted felons on Facebook and thumping them into custody with his ex-military buddies John Harkin and Eric “Etch” Echevarria. When the body of a teenage Muslim boy is found in front of a downtown Denver nightclub Parks, Harkin and Etch are called on to do what they do best: Find bad men and make them pay.

Review:
Wow, color me impressed! I went into this book with very few expectations, but I sure didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. Parks is such an incredibly compelling character. He’s funny in a sarcastic, ironic, somewhat desperately sad sort of way. You really feel him and hope ’till the end for his better tomorrow. The book is told from his first person point of view and the narrative is definitely indicative of his mental headspace. Here is an example (pulled pretty much at random):

When we’re done eating, she sighs, a very satisfied, pleasant sound. I don’t remember the last time I sighed because I was content, and there’s something about the way she does it that makes me hope for myself.
Says: “Okay. So, to business.”
And I nod, say: “I really appreciate you doing this for me.”
Says: “Tarik’s geography teacher didn’t have a lot to say about him.

Notice the use of Say (him)and Says (the other person in a conversation). This is how a lot of the book is written and it takes a little while to get used to. It’s not technically proper and it’s undeniably clipped, but stylistically, for a strong, damaged, silent-type, ex-CID soldier character it works perfectly.

And the man is damaged. He’s a bit of an anti-hero. Though not named, he’s obviously suffering some PTSD issues and struggling with guilt and feeeeeelllings. His two partners are fairing better, but they are all pretty much propping each-other up to one extent or another. (And I do love finding this in a book.)

There are a couple running…not gags, so much, but funnies that pop up more than once. My favorite being the “He said ‘Oh’…not like…but like someone asked who stared in Die Hard and you said Bruce Willis.” It’s dryly funny in context, believe me. I think I highlighted about half the book just because I found so many of the passages memorable for one reason or another—humor or poignancy or just blatant, unexpected honesty.

This book was a surprise hit for me. It’s gritty, and violent, and darkly noir-like. I found myself telling my husband about it in the exact same manner our seven-year-old reports the grand adventured of Phineas and Ferb at the dinner table. Though it’s only Jan. 4, I wouldn’t be surprised to find I finish the year with this still in my top 5 reads of 2015.

Book Review of Liberty & Other Stories and There Will Be Phlogiston, by Alexis Hall

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Liberty and other storiesI received a copy of Liberty and Other Stories, by Alexis Hall, from Netgalley. These stories constitute #2-4 & 6 of the Prosperity series. (Yeah, I don’t really get the numbering either.) I read and reviewed the first one, Prosperity, here. It happened to have been one of my top reads for 2014.

Description from Goodreads:
An instructive story in which vice receives its just reward.

Inspired by true and scandalous tales of the Gaslight aristocracy, we present the most moral and improving tale of Lady Rosamond Wolfram.

Weep, reader, for the plight of our heroine as she descends into piteous ruin in the clutches of the notorious Phlogiston Baron, Anstruther Jones. Witness the horrors of feminine rebellion when this headstrong young lady defies her father, breaks an advantageous engagement, and slips into depravity with a social inferior. Before the last page is turned, you will have seen our heroine molested by carnival folk, snubbed at a dance, and drawn into a sinful ménage a trois by an unrepentant sodomite, the wicked and licentious Lord Mercury.

Reader, take heed. No aspect of our unfortunate heroine’s life, adventures, or conduct is at all admirable, desirable, exciting, thrilling, glamorous, or filled with heady passion and gay romance.

Review:
I find myself in a quandary. I love the Prosperity universe. I love the characters of this series. I greatly enjoyed learning a bit of their history. I found myself surprisingly aghast ant the subtle perversions of The Sound of Music, something I quite liked.

But I’m not a huge fan of short stories as a medium and I’m even less fond of such stories told in a series of correspondences and/or interviews/depositions/testimonies/etc. Which is how most of the stories in this book are told.

So, here I am, completely thrilled to have spent a little more time (not enough, mind you) with Milord and Rueben, Miss Grey, Dil and Byron. I even liked the new character, George. I still love the narrative style and voices. I still love the writing. I’m still enamoured with the amazingly effective use of pauses. I still think there’s an enviable intelligence to the story, as a whole. I still think the covers are to die for. I still think the editing is superb and this is a stellar example of a book. But the fact that I don’t particularly care for the type of book it happens to be kept me from being completely blown away. That I liked it as much as I did, despite not liking shorts says a lot though.

So, I’m not sure where that leaves me…’torn’ I guess, between fangirl squeeing and lacklustre praise of the work as a whole. I’d still read anything Alexis Hall writes, so it can’t be too off-putting.

There will be PhlogistonI downloaded a free copy of There Will be Phlogiston from Amazon. It is, confusingly, book 5 of the Prosperity series.  At the time of posting it’s also free from the publisher.

Description from Goodreads:
An instructive story in which vice receives its just reward.

Inspired by true and scandalous tales of the Gaslight aristocracy, we present the most moral and improving tale of Lady Rosamond Wolfram.

Weep, reader, for the plight of our heroine as she descends into piteous ruin in the clutches of the notorious Phlogiston Baron, Anstruther Jones. Witness the horrors of feminine rebellion when this headstrong young lady defies her father, breaks an advantageous engagement, and slips into depravity with a social inferior. Before the last page is turned, you will have seen our heroine molested by carnival folk, snubbed at a dance, and drawn into a sinful ménage a trois by an unrepentant sodomite, the wicked and licentious Lord Mercury.

Reader, take heed. No aspect of our unfortunate heroine’s life, adventures, or conduct is at all admirable, desirable, exciting, thrilling, glamorous, or filled with heady passion and gay romance.

Review:
Like with the end of Liberty, I find myself torn between absolutely loving this and ending on a disappointed note. I’ll start with the disappointment, since it’s pretty cut and dry.

This book is listed as 150/262 pages long (depending on if you looks at the ebook or Kindle edition), but it’s literally half that long. At exactly 50%, the story ends and the rest is all sneak peaks of the other stories in the series. I was really bummed too, because I had been excited about starting the next chapter and getting 75 or so pages of Arkady, Jones and Ros’ new life together. I really wanted to see that work, see how it works. I felt cheated out of something substantial that not even a little of that was included.

Other than that rather serious complaint, I loved the story. I love the way one man’s refusal to accept ridiculous social dictates resulted in, not only his own happiness, but freeing two others too. I loved that, by the end, there was a wonderful flexibility in what was promised to be the future relationship. I simply loved Jones. I liked Arkady. I liked Ros. But I loved Jones. I don’t think it would be possible not to.

Like everything else I’ve read by Hall, I think the writing is wonderful, the humor subtle but undeniable and the sex hot. I did think the editing was only passable. I noticed a few mistakes and I didn’t in any of the previous books. But hey, this is a freebie, so I’m not complaining and honestly there weren’t that many. They were only even notable because of the previous lack of them.

I’m really hoping there will be more books in this series…and that they’ll be books, not short stories (just a personal preference). Definitely recommended.

Lastly, because each of the stories contained within Liberty technically has their own cover and because I think they are all so freaking marvellous, I’ve included a nice little collage of them for you to admire. Enjoy.*Screen Shot 2015-01-02 at 13.17.44

*Note to Mr. Hall. Seven is a terribly inconvenient number to fit nicely into any sort of attractive patter. Could you perhaps correct this by adding one or two more books to the series?

Looking forward to 2015 and reading challenges

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2015 treeOk, so it’s apparently 2015…and where’s my hover-board, McFly?  2015! This is mind-blowing to me, but hover-board or no, I do have a whole new year ahead of me…we, we have a whole new year ahead of us. It’s a blank slate, just waiting with unlimited potential to be… well, something, anything.

For me, it will undoubtedly be full of books, books and more books. Then of course, these pages will be full of me pontificating about said books, because that’s what the space is dedicated to—me, books and my opinion about books. Makes me sound a little megalomaniacal, but it is my blog.

So, 365 days and probably several hundred books are in my immediate future. I need a plan. I need to share that plan with you, so you know what to expect and I’m held to some manner of accountability…and, frankly, so I can pretend to have accomplished something.

I’Screen Shot 2015-01-01 at 18.06.30m breaking it down like this. On the broadest, most general level, I have committed to read 200 books, with no limiting factors, as my Goodreads challenge. Honestly, I’ve committed to 200 books the past two years and upped it partway through both times—to 225 the first year and 250 the second—and still surpassed it both times. So, 200 is probably on the low side. However, like the past two years, I hope to stop reading so damned much and concentrate more on my own writing. I always seem to fail at this.Screen Shot 2015-01-01 at 16.55.12

Anyone who claimed reading can’t be an addiction is full of horse caca. I need the emotional fix as badly as my caffeine and considering I practically need to be surgically removed from my tea or coffee cup (depending on when and where), that’s saying something.

I’ll also be participating for a third year in book r3vi3ws‘, Indie Fever IndieFever15challenge. I consider this an easy challenge, really, since the vast majority of the books I read these days are Indie/SP. But I’ve signed up at the Fanatic level. This requires I read 75 or more Indie/SP books in the coming year. I don’t anticipate a problem on this front.

Unexpectedly, I’ll also being doing book r3vi3ws’ First Reads FirstReads15challenge. I say unexpectedly because I accidentally signed up for it, meaning to register for Indie Fever. But in the end, I figured I might as well stick with it. I read plenty of new-to-me authors and I really like letting fate have it’s way on occasion. I’ve committed to the Expert level, or 51-75 books written by authors I’ve never read before.

Next, I’ve also signed up for Samantha Lin‘s Author A-Z challenge. Last year, I made a point to read a book by an author for each letter2015-authors-banner of the alphabet, but I never officially signed up for a challenge. This year, I’m getting credit for my effort. I think this challenge is fairly self-explanatory. No levels or anything like that, just trying to make sure each letter of the alphabet is represented by the last name of an author.

I’m also signed up for Evie-Booksish’s TBR pile reading challenge. xSWiAe6Lord knows I need this. I buy books so much faster than I read them. As the name would suggest, the goal here is to read books that have been sitting on your To Be Read pile for a while. It isn’t specified, but I’m setting my limit at two years or more. I’ve signed up for the ‘First Kiss’ level, which requires I read 21-30 such books.

the-mad-reviewer-reading-challenge-2015

I’ll also be participating in The Mad Reviewer‘s Reading and Reviewing challenge. I signed up for the Mad Reviewer level, which means reading and reviewing 104 books. They can be Indie, SP or Traditionally published. Again, I anticipate no difficulties in achieving this goal.

Lastly, though not really a challenge per se, I’m committing to read at least 36 review request books. By this, I mean books I’ve received from authors requesting reviews. That’s three a month.

I’ll be starting the year with Liberty and Other Stories, followed by There Will Be Phlogiston, which is an Amazon freebie, BTW. They’re both by Alexis Hall and constitute Prosperity, #2-5. I’ve had these books for a while, but saved them to read in the new year. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by Hall and wanted to ensure I gave myself a good chance at starting 2015 on the right foot. Here’s hoping!