Tag Archives: won

Book Review of I Died In A Bed Of Roses, by Kevin Strange

I won a copy of Kevin Strange‘s I Died on a Bed of Roses through Goodreads.

Description:
Cult horror filmmaker Brian Sully has isolated himself to a simple life on the Oregon coast after being publicly shamed by the lead actress of his most recent B-Movie monster flick for sending her pictures of his dick. Brian’s years of isolation have left him on the brink of suicide. But after his best friend and producer books him at a 20th anniversary horror festival honoring their first feature film, Brian Sully’s life is about to change. Is true love real? What if you fell in love with something not quite… Human? Would you pursue it? Would you let anything stop you? Even death? I DIED IN A BED OF ROSES is Kevin Strange’s first ever crack at the paranormal romance genre. But if you’re expecting a mushy love story, well, you don’t know Kevin Strange!

Review:
I’m never entirely sure how to review bizaro fiction, let alone bizaro horror, because it’s, you know, bizarre. This one starts out pretty well, which was a relief. The cover left me fearing it might just turn into male-centric wank fodder. (It doesn’t. It’s very male-centric, but not a wank fest.) I’m afraid it does peter out though, veering off into a rushed, simplistic, deus ex mechana climax and ending. This is maybe not surprising, since the author says in the beginning that the book was written during a weeklong writing retreat and the beginning was birthed more easily than the end. It’s not bad. It’s actually pretty finny at times. But I think this will definitely be a case of finding the right reader for the book.

……Ok, I just want to say wank one more time.

Book Review of The Covens of Elmeeria, by Miguel Lopez de Leon

I won a copy of Miguel Lopez de Leon‘s The Coven’s of Elmeeria through Goodreads.

Description:
Princess Nia and her people have always publicly hated all witches. Witches are evil. Witches are cruel. But in one night, Nia must convince a deadly coven of sorceresses to help her defeat an army, or her family will be executed. Nia has always been adored by the masses. She is beyond reproach. Her one secret is that she was born a witch. 

The Covens of Elmeeria centers on Crown Princess Nia and the beautiful garden kingdom of Elmeeria. Nia and her parents, King Roo and Queen Bloom, are loved and celebrated by their people, but are also guarding a grave secret. Both Queen Bloom and Princess Nia are witches, and are terrified that the people of their kingdom will find out about them. What makes matters worse is that outside the great wall that surrounds Elmeeria is a banished coven of sorceresses, despised and ridiculed by the populace for their strange, dark powers. The popular royals want no association with the isolated enchantresses, but after their realm is invaded, Nia must travel through forbidden and treacherous lands to find the coven’s lair and beg them for their help. 

Nia desperately wants to prove that she can be a strong, capable leader, but what she doesn’t realize is that all power comes with sacrifice, and that to save the lives of her family she might have to lose the love of her people.

Review:
I won this through Goodreads and thought it looked like something my oldest daughter might like. But it’s categorized as Young Adult and the YA genre covers a lot of ground. I opted to read it before giving it to her, to be sure it falls on the Middle Grade side of YA , instead of the New Adult side.

I’m happy to say, for anyone wondering, I figure my 9yo will be fine reading it. But I’m still reluctant to give it to her. It’s simply not very good. (For the record though, the Annie B’s sea salt caramels I ate while reading it were excellent.)

I found this book to be  littered with what I consider problematic gender stereotypes. I cannot tell you how many times I rolled my eyes and huffed in irritation. It was like a man’s idea of what a woman’s life was like, based entirely on the ill-informed media stereotypes perpetrated by other men. Seriously, no depth at all! Plus, when I hit the 50 page mark and was still reading about Nia’s mother trying to marry her off and meeting princes and what beauty treatment or too tight dress they were wearing I almost just threw in the towel. Yes, I know some of this was part of the later duplicity, but I was still bothered by it. As I was by the surprise villain whose motivation weren’t touched on in the least.

Then there was the writing, which was largely telling. Worse still, I thought at one point that  if I had to read the words, ‘very,’ ‘Nia knew,’ or any more adjectives I might have to give this book up.

The thing is, if I do give it to my 9yo, she’s not going to notice a lot of these things. Despite my best efforts, she’s been inculcated with the girls, i.e. princesses wear pretty dresses and swoon over boys message since birth. My voice is just one dissension in the title wave that is the rest of the world. So, I have a decision to make. Do I bite my tongue and let her just enjoy it or do I toss it as something I’d prefer she not read and reinforce the message that all girls are pretty, but don’t relate to other women and the best they can hope for is to persuade someone to come fight for them?

 

celine

Book Review of Celine, by Peter Heller

I won a copy of Peter Heller‘s novel Celine through Goodreads.

Description:
Working out of her jewel box of an apartment at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, Celine has made a career of tracking down missing persons, and she has a better record at it than the FBI. But when a young woman, Gabriela, asks for her help, a world of mystery and sorrow opens up. Gabriela’s father was a photographer who went missing on the border of Montana and Wyoming. He was assumed to have died from a grizzly mauling, but his body was never found. Now, as Celine and her partner head to Yellowstone National Park, investigating a trail gone cold, it becomes clear that they are being followed–that this is a case someone desperately wants to keep closed. 

Inspired by the life of Heller’s own remarkable mother, a chic and iconoclastic private eye, Celine is a deeply personal novel, a wildly engrossing story of family, privilege, and childhood loss. Combining the exquisite plotting and gorgeous evocation of nature that have become his hallmarks, Peter Heller gives us his finest work to date.

Review:
Generally very good, though I thought Heller went a little overboard in some scenes trying to make Celine come across as too badass. The scene with the biker comes immediately to mind. It’s a thin line, where on one side it works and Celine is cool and the writing interesting, and on the other her coolness feels forced and the whole thing is cringe-worthy cheesy. But mostly it worked; I liked Celine and loved Pete. Though if I’m honest, I couldn’t figure out why Hank, who was barely a character at all, was given a point of view.

This is ostensibly a mystery, but that’s really just the framing to allow the reader access to Celine’s history. She’s a fun character and it’s not often you come across elderly, debutant PIs with emphysema as main characters. The writing is very good, though the whole things is quite slow and some of the leaps of logic the characters make to solve the mystery are a bit unbelievable. This is a book you read for the characters, not the action. It was my first Heller book and I finished it happy.


What I’m Drinking: Touch Organic, Mint Green Matcha