adventure

A Lady’s Submission (The Warriors of Ar’mora Book 1) by Frank Carlyle

 in Adult / Adventure / Book Reviews / Books / Fantasy / Fiction / Older Readers by

Book CoverSummary

“Last of a clan that once ruled over a vast trade network and determined the fate of empires, Mahlon Arn, has the task of reclaiming a place once lost and now hidden within the jungled corridors of a tributary river that feeds into the mighty Amazon River. It’s a past that almost no one remembers except for the few who dare to return and once more reclaim all that once was and begin to build what is to become.

Journey deep into the jungle and follow the story of a warrior who reclaims a kingdom, only to ache for the completion of a prophecy spoken over him by a dying father. A prophecy that comes in the form of a red haired fantasy lady, who is born up the river by chance and circumstance or perhaps by Divine will, and that must be claimed and utterly brought into submission by the man, who has been tasked to not only reclaim a past but to build a future based on righteousness.

A Lady’s Submission is the beginning of a five book journey into the exotic realms of a place that has never been spoken of and is now just beginning to be realized through the lives of the five remaining blood heirs of the House of Arn, of the kindred of people known to the ancient world as the Ar’morians. This is a tale of overcoming faith and erotic conquest. A reality of an ancient place comes alive in this tale of Christian Erotic Themed Fantasy Fiction.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

I was lucky enough to have Mr. Carlyle contact me over this book and ask me to read it and I’m so glad that he did because I really did enjoy this book. I will start off by saying that this is adult literature, as it is erotic themed. And while I don’t usually read blatant erotic literature (while Nalini Singh’s books (as well as others) do count but it’s much more than that), this one definitely needs to be reviewed.

First off, it’s written by a guy. I mean how rare is that?! All the erotic literature that I know is written by women, usually older women as the younger ones don’t want to write it, and so this book automatically caught my interest when I received the email as I was intrigued as to what a male author would be able to do with such a feminine topic. I have to say, I was definitely impressed. Instead of a lot of it being from the females perspective, it was mostly from the main male protagonist of the story which was quite interesting. I thought that reading about sexy thoughts from a guy would be strange, but it didn’t change how I read the story at all. It was just as enjoyable and an interesting touch. I wouldn’t have known that it was written by a guy at all and the different perspective was awesome. So kudos to Mr. Carlyle.

Next, this book falls into a new-ish category (one I’m not terribly familiar with) called Christian Erotic Themed Fantasy Fiction. Now, this is kind of interesting. It’s erotic literature with a christian twist which is different. This means that in the story the main female protagonist spent time praying to God and there were references to Jesus. Now I don’t have an opinion for or against something like this, but I know that some people may view strongly against this, due to the fact that sex and the bible don’t necessarily go hand in hand perfectly. No I’m not trying to start a war here, so please don’t bite my head off. I’m merely stating that when the bible and sex get mixed together, sometimes things can get messy which I respect and understand, but I don’t feel, that in this book, such a problem came up, so if that is a worry for a reader, I don’t believe that they need to feel that way. The writing was respectful and the incorporation of the religion and belief was interesting and added to the story in a very unique way. I was confused when God and Jesus references appeared, but once I realized the genre, then I understood instantly. So another bonus point for the author because he broke two barriers so far: being a male author and adding religious aspects.

Now, more about the story. It was a very decent story. It fit perfectly into the traditional erotic romance category. Think of a basic Harlequin novel, with the two aspects above mixed in, with a little historical kind of feel to it. For some reason, when reading it, I kept having this image of like Conan the Barbarian mixed with Game of Thrones going on. Maybe I’m just loosing my head but that’s what I was picturing the entire time.

The story was interesting and it was nice to see a real commitment between the male and the female. A lot of times the sex scenes which happen is more superfluous sex. I guess you could call it a hook-up a lot of the time and then the love develops through the novel. This one the love was there and it was an interesting story and development.

As a reader, I would have liked more of a story line, a little more something in the story, but that’s just a personal thing as I always like lots going on. But for erotic literature, this fit the bill perfectly in my opinion.

Overall, I thought it was fantastic and I would recommend it. It was only about 135 pages or so and I was able to read it in just over an hour or so (I read fast so maybe more like 2-3 for some readers) so it wasn’t a difficult read. I would say to check it out if you have some spare time and are looking for something. It is unique in my opinion and is different from other erotic literature stories, but not so different that it’s bad. A job well done in my opinion.

Happy Reading!

Poison Princess (The Arcana Chronicles) by Kresley Cole

 in Adult / Adventure / Book Reviews / Books / Creative / Fantasy / Older Readers / Otherworldly / Young Adult by

“Watch your six, Reaper, I’m on the hunt.”
A rasping chuckle. -Your Death awaits.-

-Page 368

Poison Princess cover Summary

“22 Arcana cards. 22 Chosen Teens. Let the cards fall where they may.

Sixteen-year-old Evie Greene’s horrific hallucinations predicted the apocalypse, and the end of the world brought her all sorts of new powers. With the earth scorched and few survivors, Evie teams up with handsome and dangerous Jack Deveaux in a race to find answers. They discover that that an ancient prophesy is being played out, and Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of teens have been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil. But it’s not always clear who is on which side… “

-From Kresley Cole’s website.

Review

Okay, this is just going to be an absolutely love fest. Because this book was absolutely fantastic! It was nothing like any of the other YA books I have read and it was just so well written. I will start off by saying that this is definitely an older YA book because of certain themes as well as some of the violent content. There are no curse words, and the few curse words that are used, Cole cleverly changes up so that she switches letters around to make the word something different. If you know the word then you’ll know what it should be, but if you don’t, it will just look like some made up curse word, which is extremely clever.

The violence in the book is a little graphic at times. Especially when it jumps to the present day. How the story is set up is that the main character, Evangeline, is telling the story to someone who welcomes her into the home and by the end of the story, the past has been told and her arriving in the home is the present and that is where the book ends to set up for the next book in the series. Parts of the themes in the book, especially the guy who she is telling the story to in the present, is extremely creepy and pulled on some nasty themes. There are a lot of implications of rape, though nothing happens. A younger reader wouldn’t completely get that but as an older reader, you know exactly what is being implied. Then the guy who she is telling the story to, think of like one of the creepier episodes of Criminal Minds (I hope most people know this show) and think of how twisted they get with dungeons and torture. That is kind what the guy is like, so it gets a little brutal.

Now the rest of the story is just lots of apocalypse stuff. Something happens, called The Flash, and everything goes to shit, essentially. You’re never clear exactly what The Flash was, but you’re told it was a solar flare, though it’s never clear exactly what caused it, and leaves questions to be answered later on in the series. Out in the world, there are some horrible people, and some nasty themes brought up again. Mentions of cannibalism as well as the enslavement of women too. It seems like during The Flash, when most people were killed, a lot of them were women, so women were scarce, so they were wanted by slavers and stuff. Younger readers would just think that women were special though older readers would know exactly what was going on.

The two main characters, Evangeline and Jackson, are traveling together and it follows them from when they met before The Flash to surviving together after it. There is some great character development between the two of them and a lot of advances as well as steps back too, though I did sometimes want to smack Jackson so damn hard. There was definitely some sexual undertones going on, sometimes a little more prevalent, so you can definitely say that there is a romance theme to the book, but it is by no means a major theme in the book at all.

I also really like the fact that this is called The Arcana Chronicles. I have never once read a book about the Arcana cards. I have once seen an anime about the Arcana cards, Arcana Famiglia and it was really good, but besides that I have not seen anything about these cards and this was totally awesome!

Overall this was a fantastic book and I definitely do recommend it. I can’t read the second and third book for a little bit as I have to wait for my next school break, so I’ll have to wait for the new year, and until then it’s going to kill me, this wait.

But until then, definitely check this series out and enjoy it!

Happy Reading!

The Young Elites (A Young Elites Novel) by Marie Lu

 in Book Reviews / Books / Fantasy / Older Readers / Young Adult by

The Young Elites book cover Summary

“From the New York Times bestselling author of the Legend series 

I am tired of being used, hurt, and cast aside.

Adelina Amouteru is a survivor of the blood fever. A decade ago, the deadly illness swept through her nation. Most of the infected perished, while many of the children who survived were left with strange markings. Adelina’s black hair turned silver, her lashes went pale, and now she has only a jagged scar where her left eye once was. Her cruel father believes she is a malfetto, an abomination, ruining their family’s good name and standing in the way of their fortune. But some of the fever’s survivors are rumored to possess more than just scars—they are believed to have mysterious and powerful gifts, and though their identities remain secret, they have come to be called the Young Elites.

Teren Santoro works for the king. As Leader of the Inquisition Axis, it is his job to seek out the Young Elites, to destroy them before they destroy the nation. He believes the Young Elites to be dangerous and vengeful, but it’s Teren who may possess the darkest secret of all.

Enzo Valenciano is a member of the Dagger Society. This secret sect of Young Elites seeks out others like them before the Inquisition Axis can. But when the Daggers find Adelina, they discover someone with powers like they’ve never seen.
Adelina wants to believe Enzo is on her side, and that Teren is the true enemy. But the lives of these three will collide in unexpected ways, as each fights a very different and personal battle. But of one thing they are all certain: Adelina has abilities that shouldn’t belong in this world. A vengeful blackness in her heart. And a desire to destroy all who dare to cross her.

It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt.”

-Qtd. from the Amazon.com

Review

So I’m back for Thanksgiving break and get a little bit of down time. Well…down time between writing research papers, studying and other bits and pieces, but I’ve found time to read! And it’s beautiful. I stopped by my local library, of course, and went to the recommended reading section as I just wanted something that looked good and was recommended and while I was going through the shelf, I picked this book up and my YA librarians voice carried over to me. “I just finished that one and it’s really good!” I didn’t need any more motivation to give it a book. If it’s on the recommended reading shelf and my librarian suggests it, I’m totally down to read it, and boy am I glad that I did. It’s exactly what I wanted!

So this book follows the protagonist and she essentially doesn’t fit into the society because of what she is, a malfetto. Malfettos are creatures that essentially had a sickness when they are younger and now have magical abilities and are marked. The people of the world view them more demonic because they get their abilities, in a way, from the gods. So of course they are naturally terrified of them and the governing people want them gone, but for other reasons. A small group of malfettos, known as The Young Elites want to overthrow the government due to the fact that they are surpassed. They also constantly look out for others who have abilities that are as powerful as theirs and such. That is where the protagonist comes in. She catches the eye of them and is brought in to use her abilities, though they are not exactly what they were expecting. Instead of just being abilities, they draw on emotions that are way stronger than expected, such as hate and fear with a mixture of passion, and some view that as an explosive mixture. Thus, she is unstable and it follows her journey of her time with the group and is, of course, a cliff hanger to lead into the second book, The Rose Society (which I still have to read).

Overall I thought this book was fantastic! It was a fantasy book, more medieval in nature, and that is why I loved it so much. I have always enjoyed books with the supernatural/fantasy element to them and this was perfect because it brought in YA protagonists. I will say that there are some more mature themes in this, such as brothels and hints towards gay relations, so I do recommend it for older YA readers, but other than that it was fantastic.

It was nice how the main characters developed and it kept you on your toes. Not everyone was who you thought they were and you weren’t always able to figure that out, which is nice. Sometimes in books you can see certain things coming and other times not, and this was definitely a ‘you-cannot-totally-see-it-coming’ book. But that was why I loved it! It kept you guessing as to what was going to happen and who was going to try to kill who.

There was also a little bit of romance in the book but nothing that it distracted you from everything going on. It was a nice little side thing going on but it wasn’t to the point that this could be called a romance book by any means thought it was also there enough to keep you interested and wondering what may happen as well.

It wasn’t a huge book, only about 344 pages which is average for a YA book and I read it in a few hours, which is just me. But it is also quite a simple read which is nice as well. The sentence structure wasn’t difficult to follow and it fit perfectly in the modern YA genre.

And that ending! Ugh. Don’t even get me started. I need the next one like ASAP!!!

Honestly, I thought this was a fantastic book and I can’t wait to read the next one! It just came out in October so it’s definitely hot off the press. I’m also excited to read her other series, The Legend Trilogy, the first book which I already have and am ready to start-up as soon as possible!

Happy reading!

The Ledge by Jim Davidson and Kevin Vaughan

 in Adventure / Book Reviews / Books by

Book cover The Ledge by Jim Davidson and Kevin Vaughan“An adventure story of friendship and survival on Mount Rainier”

Summary

“In June 1992, best friends Jim Davidson and Mike Price stood atop Washington’s Mount Rainier, celebrating what they hoped would be the first of many milestones in their lives as passionate mountaineers. Then their triumph turned tragic when a cave-in plunged them deep inside a glacial crevasse—the pitch-black, ice-walled hell of every climber’s nightmares.

An avid adventurer since youth, Davidson was a seasoned climber at the time of the Rainier ascent. But the harrowing free fall left him challenged by nature’s grandeur at its most unforgiving. Trapped on a narrow frozen shelf, deep below daylight, he desperately battled crumbling ice, snow that threatened to bury him alive, and crippling fear of the inescapable chasm below—all the while struggling to save his fatally injured friend. Finally, alone, with little equipment and rapidly dwindling hope, he confronted a fateful choice: the certainty of a slow, lonely death or the near impossibility of an agonizing climb for life. A story of heart-stopping adventure, heartfelt friendship, fleeting mortality, and implacable nature, The Ledge chronicles the elation and grief, dizzying heights and punishing depths, of a journey to hard-won wisdom.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

In all honesty, this book stressed the hell out of me. It was just things went from good to bad to worse. And I had to read this book over a few days to be able to make it. It’s not a long book at all, only about 253 pages or so and I’m used to reading that and way more in a shorter period of time, but with this book, I just couldn’t do it because of the content.

It is a true story and I would never have read this book if it hadn’t been the college wide book for next year but in all honesty, it was a really, really good book and had some fabulous lessons in it.

The main one that was said in the ending was, while the author literally fell into a trench while coming down from the mountain, life can make you fall into trenches, like a turn of your health for the worst or financial problems, and you cannot give up, even if you are left alone and it seems like you have no where else to turn to. You have to at least try because you never know, you just may come out of it alive and survive as a stronger person.

Essentially this book was just about this man who was hiking with his friend and there are trenches and if you fall into them, they are usually only about 30 feet deep so your partner can save you, but this one was way worse, about 100+ feet deep and he was dragged in along with his partner and it was about the story of how Jim was trying to get out.

I’m not a huge fan of the cold, nor confined spaces, and this mixed all of those ‘I do not likes’ together into one book and I had to take it bit by bit because of how it was written. Because it was in first person, you felt like you were with Jim during the entire experience and I just found it really quite stressful and upsetting.

But, while it is all that, it was a fabulous book because of the lessons you can learn in it. The perseverance was fantastic and it was incredible that he was able to do as well as he did.

I highly recommend this book! It’s not a hard read at all, as some non-fictions are. And it’s not boring. It’s sometimes a little monotonous with the talking about the climbing gear and such since I don’t really have any knowledge of those kinds of things, but even if you don’t know about it, it really doesn’t make that much of a difference and you can read it perfectly fine.

Please do check this book out. But I tell you now, prepare for an emotional rollercoaster.

Let me know what you think and happy reading!

Maleficent (2014) – Movie Review

 in Books-to-Movie / Creative / Fantasy / Movies by

This post contains affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure here.

Starring

Angelina Jolie – Maleficent
Elle Fanning – Aurora
Sharlto Copley – Stefan

Summary

“Explore the untold story of Disney’s most iconic villain in this wickedly fun twist on the classic SLEEPING BEAUTY. In an unforgiving mood after a neighboring kingdom threatens her forest, Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) places an irrevocable curse on the king’s newborn daughter, the Princess Aurora. but as the child grows, Maleficent finds herself becoming fond of the girl. And as the conflict between the two realms intensifies, Maleficent realizes that Aurora may hold the key to peace in the land. Journey beyond the fairy tale in this soaring adventure that is “visually arresting, brilliantly designed” (Andrew Barker, Variety).”

-From Amazon.com

Review

Honestly, I’m speechless. This movie was absolutely stunning. The visual effects were beautiful, the characters were portrayed amazingly well, and the story of such an evil villain, and showing how she wasn’t necessarily what others saw, was so creative.

In the Sleeping Beauty story, and in the movie, you always disliked Maleficent, and you were supposed to because she was the bad guy, oh, sorry, bad woman. But in this movie, it showed why she was portrayed to be the bad woman and how she changed as she watched Aurora grow and looked after her.

So the story was the first amazing thing about it, how they were able to twist such a well-known story and make you feel for her. But then the other amazing thing was the visual effects. From the moment the movie started, it was magical and the creatures, from fairies to the water creatures, was just stunning.

Some of the creatures were kind of creepy looking, but they were supposed to be. It was all about judging someone by how they looked throughout this entire movie. They judged Maleficent and her friends because they were magical beings and the one Kingdom wanted to destroy them because of it.

Now Angelina Jolie, playing Maleficent was amazing. She played that part SO well. She took on that role and really was just….amazing. I don’t know how else to explain it because she had the personality down pat and was able to get all the subtle things down. Jolie was able to walk around with an air of grace but deadly grace when she went evil.

This, is probably one of my favorite scenes of her portrayal of the character in the movie with the way she looks down and acts all innocent but has this deadly air to her.

So, to me, besides the story, the visual effects were the best thing to me as I’ve always been interested in how they do it and such and it’s amazing how magical they can make a movie nowadays.

All in all, this is a really really good movie. It was PG-13, so it’s not for children, and it really wasn’t, especially with all the violence. For being based on a Disney movie, this really was Hollywoodized (not a word, but I’m making it one now) which is kind of annoying but as a near adult, it didn’t really detract from the movie for me and I still loved it, but if you want your younger kid to watch this, this really isn’t for them because of the nature of what happens. It is quite a dark movie, lighting wise (for parts of it), and dark also in the nature of what happens.

I highly recommend it, even if you don’t really like Disney movies, because I don’t love Disney movies but still absolutely loved this. It take the classical fairy tales and adds a twist to them.

So let me know what you think and enjoy!