Mercy's Prince - ABB review

If you don't already know this about me, I'm a devoted paperback reader. I LOVE having a physical book in hand, holding it, smelling it, turning the pages, everything. I also can devour an interesting paperback in short order and I process everything really well.

But in an effort to support more indie authors, I found myself needing(darn not being a millionaire!) to go the ebook route. A sad fact of life is that ebooks are cheaper than paperbacks. And I like to know I'll love a book before I buy a paperback, so this way I can save money and just buy a copy for my library if I enjoy a story enough.

Mercy's Prince was the first novel I've read on Kindle. Previously I'd stuck to novellas and short stories, because for reasons I can't fathom, I read and process a lot slower when I'm reading on electronics. It's a sad fact of my life.

I know what you're over there thinking, but I have to explain what it means when I say I loved this book so much it was killing me that I couldn't go through it faster.

Mercy's Prince by Katy Huth Jones is told from the POV of Mercy(the FMC), Valerian(MMC), and Caelas(antagonist). 

The story starts off with a gripping battle where Prince Valerian watches his brother, Waryn, be murdered by one of the monsters of the Horde. I'm watching the events unfold and Valerian is stuck there in shock, unable to react. I see how this is going to go, and then the crown prince is dead, because Valerian isn't prepared mentally for battle.

Immediately I felt terrible for Valerian. The guy has to live with this for the rest of his life!!! Knowing he could've saved his brother, but didn't because he was frozen. Ugh! I couldn't do it.

Now Valerian's the new crown prince, and he's not trained for the role, and gosh darn it, the guy is like "Me no want!" Caelas, Waryn's best friend, is furious about it. And essentially no one is happy the quiet, peaceful Valerian is going to someday rule.

 

Mercy is a young woman living in the secluded village of the Brethren(people who've sworn to never kill). Her father hasn't been the same since her mother's death, and Mercy has taken the role of parenting over her little brother, Raphael. She's also engaged to the village leader, Gabriel, who's the age of her father.

What makes the whole impending marriage even creepier, is the fact that Gabriel is a Seer and can read minds just by having eye contact with a person. What was really done well is that I jumped to conclusions and had preconceived notions about people, and then I had a good lesson in not judging people before I know them.

A lot of the story's appeal to me was that the author took the time to write people, meaning she didn't care how much page time someone had, she made sure they stood out. And she made sure they had motives, hopes, dreams, fears, and that there were consequences when things happened. 

Mercy's village is tested when the men are called to war and they decline because of their oath of peace. As a result they're all hauled away to the Keep and locked up for a time. Despite the wooden wall around the village, the women are vulnerable in the simple fact that they've lost half their workforce and all of the men's duties now fall to them. As the fiancee to Gabriel(the village leader), Mercy is looked to for leadership.

The king decides that Valerian should choose the punishment for the Brethren men and Valerian is torn. On one hand, the law says they should be killed for refusing to fight in time of war, and on the other it seems extreme. He writes up the declaration he "should" make, sentencing them to death, but after some thinking he strikes on an idea that should satisfy the spirit of the law without killing.

BUT HE LEAVES THE FIRST PAPER ON HIS DESK!!! *headdesk* There's no WAY that's not coming back to bite him. The person screaming at fictional characters, yeah, that's me.

Don't conserve paper!!! BURN IT! Shred it!! Argh! Blood pressure rising. 

So Valerian gets sent on his first mission as crown prince. While he's on this trip--checking in with all of the garrisons--Caelas is plotting and planning. He's decided to take matters into his own hands and show himself as so much better than Valerian that the king will decide to make him the heir instead.

Caelas goes sneaking through Valerian's things and yep . . . I KNEW IT!!!

That so came back to bite Valerian. Caelas now has the perfect way to ruin Valerian's life. I won't go into details, but Mercy goes out for an early morning walk--needing a break from the heavy emotions that the returning men have caused--and it's the last moment she has of her old life.

Everything changes that day and I won't deny it, I had tears running down my face the whole chapter. Darn authors who make me cry! Their books should come with a free box of tissues.

Mercy and Valerian meet and travel together. Caelas though, that guy just doesn't quit!! He's on a mission! No longer satisfied with just stealing Valerian's throne and ruining his reputation, he's decided that Valerian just needs to be . . . eliminated.

It's so hard to hit on all of the points that make this novel amazing. There's so much packed into it, that it'd require a REALLY long post to cover everything. I'm going to narrow it down to a few points.

1. Characters - I can't express how well done the characters were. I'll just focus on the villain for this. Caelas had a lot of human qualities to explain his actions, and though it didn't make me feel for him, it wasn't like he was just evil for the sake of evil. The guy lost his best friend, his position of power, and now someone he's always despised will one day be his king. He's got motive, and that's good. And he's also nasty. His thoughts show you that what he treasures is cruelty, ruling with an iron fist, and dominance. 

2. Cause and effect - There's a lot of things happening in the character's lives and too often I find that fictional characters don't have the full range of effects and consequences when it comes to what happens. To give an example, mid-battle Valerian chose to cut off the leg of a comrade to save his life. He reacted, and afterwards there was a litany of effects. Valerian had to worry if the man hated him, the man WAS really mad at him, and when Valerian went to visit him there was a lot of both of the characters working through what had happened, accepting, adapting, and forgiving.

It made everything more real by having people go through events and not be unaffected by them. Prison changed some and not others, death effects everyone different, trials break some and make others, and lots of other situations.

3. Plot - Besides the slow-brewing romance, Mercy's Prince revolves around Valerian and Mercy's journey of the heart. They're discovering themselves, their newfound gifts, the extreme changes in their lives, and stepping up to accept new roles. There's also the massive Horde that threatens the kingdom. Always lurking  in the corner is the knowledge that these monsters are deadly, they've suddenly all but vanished, and you don't really want to relax and hope it's because they died off or moved on, because what if they haven't!!!

In addition there's lots of fun elements. Dragons of all shapes and sizes. Some smarter than others, some dangerous, some peaceful.

And Kieran, the Scottish inspired squire who's loyal, funny, and loves Highland dancing! There's even a world-appropriate version of the sword dance!

I gave Mercy's Prince five stars and already have book 2 sitting on my dresser. Though book 1 wrapped up nicely in a way that you could stop if you wanted, it's a world and characters I know I want more of. Katy Huth Jones clearly poured her heart into this story and it shows. 

Check out Mercy's Prince!

Connect with Katy on Facebook!

About the Angry Book Blogger series and disclaimer found here. 

The Angry Book Blogger

After the success of my first contemporary book review, I briefly imagined a future where my entire blog was comprised of nothing but reviews. This was not helped by my husband stating that I should rename the blog to "Angry Book Blogger" and write nothing but book reviews full of memes. Also not helpful to have several people hearing the idea and going DO IT.

Bad people! Temptresses, all of you!

In seriousness, I do love reviewing books and I try my best to be honest and helpful. As much fun as it can be to vent some of my irritation at a book(It is VERY cathartic), I don't want people to think that I hate all books or that I'm rubbing my hands over here and cackling with pleasure every time I dislike a book at the thought of reviewing it.

There's books I love, like, dislike, hate, and books I'm neutral about. I write reviews for readers mostly, not that I don't enjoy writing a positive review in hopes that it might brighten an author's day, but reviewing is my way to tell readers, "Hey! You may like this, here's why." or "Warning, warning, if you dislike these things, this is not the book you're looking for."

I'm not out to "get" anyone and as much fun as it'd be to dedicate a blog to ABB(Angry Book Blogging) I don't want to give the wrong impression. I'm also not keen on confrontation. Unneeded stress and drama. So yeah, I'd worry that someone would eventually get annoyed by my style and decide to bite my head off or something. But then I got to thinking on that last point and realized that I do avoid a lot of things because I'm not looking for a fight or to be attacked on the internet. I'm just not, but people like to see strong opinions. I've decided to let myself have a few on things like books and movies because they're entertainment and having a difference of opinion on such things is not the end of the world or life changing, etc.

To that end, I'm hoping to start putting together book reviews in the style of my Angry Book Blogger personality. They'll be posted on Mondays as long as I have content. If I don't have something for a week, then Monday will be a boring, boring day for y'all.

To make this a balanced endeavor, I'll be reviewing books that emotionally charged me in some way. These will be books that made me mad, sad, happy, intrigued, etc. So they won't all be negative, but I'm hoping to add my ABB flair just the same. Unless this blows up in my face, I'm hoping this'll be a fun way to interact with you and garner some laughs, and who knows maybe interest you in a new book or save you some misery.

The Truth About Winter - Short story

Around wintertime I often end up discussing winter with my friends around the world and everyone's got a different notion of winter. For those without snow, or little of it, there's this romanticized idea of winter. There's the pretty postcards and pictures, the movies and commercials. Everyone things are trying to "sell" the idea of a white winter. But the truth is, winter sucks. It does. Now I'll say that people who live with a real winter don't all hate it, but I do.

What winter means to me is layers of clothing, yet rarely warm, heating bills, higher electric bill, scraping ice, shoveling snow, dangerous roads, getting stuck while driving, snow plow costs, etc. Winter is expensive, dangerous, tiring, and just plain miserable. I love my state, but I hate winter.

So I got this idea for a story about my character Cali from Heart of the Winterland that takes place within the first chapter of the book, or so I imagine, where the enchantment is lifted and Cali is thinking clearly and she's now suffering through winter without the spell to keep her happy. I tried to put a humorous twist on it, while showing some of the nasty truths of winter that hopefully people who've experienced that can identify with Cali's day.

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“Ouch!” Princess Calisandra popped her stinging fingers in her mouth.

“Princess! Are you alright?” Cali’s guardian, Voice, darted over and hovered anxiously around her. “Let me see. They might be broken.”

Cali glared at Voice and refused to take her hand from her mouth, even though she now felt rather silly standing there with her mouth full of fingers.

“Don’t be stubborn. You’ve been so cantankerous lately,” Voice scolded.

Finally yanking her fingers out, and shoving them behind her back, Cali waved the orb away. “I’m fine, Voice. I just slammed them in the door.” She snatched the cloak from the hook by the door—the reason she’d come back inside in the first place—and making sure Voice didn’t get a peek at the hidden hand, she backed out the door, this time without pinching her fingers.

Safely outside, Cali turned on the top step and adjusted her cloak hastily. Snow fell from the sky—when didn’t it?—and a sharp wind whipped around the castle.

“Stupid horses. Why can’t Voice just use her magic to feed them?” she muttered to herself as she stomped down the stairs. Switching her tone to match Voice’s she continued, “It is about responsibility, Princess.”

Her boot hit the next step and she slipped. Arms waving in the air as she fought to keep her balance, Cali tumbled backwards and landed on her butt. Pain radiated through her tailbone and rolled onto her stomach, burying her face against the snow-covered step. The same evil step that’d caused her fall.

“I hate this country,” she groused.

The pain settled down to a low thrum, and deciding she’d had quite enough of the steps digging into her face and stomach, she rose and more carefully this time, continued the rest of the way down.

More snow had fallen over night, and the path she’d carefully cleared yesterday was gone, the snow now up to her thighs. She plowed through the powder, feeling it creep into her fur-lined boots.

She’d almost reached the stables when she tripped . . . again. The snow rushed up to greet her and she thrust out her arms to catch herself. Not that it mattered— with how deep the snow was—she still ended up buried.

“Blast it all.” She pushed herself to her knees and reached for whatever had tripped her. A broom. Of course. She’d wondered where that’d gone. Belia, one of the mares, had a habit of confiscating various implements from the stable and leaving them in different locations.

Since she couldn’t exercise all of the horses each day, Cali would open the stall doors and let the horses play out in the courtyard. Most of them thought rolling in the snow and kicking it in the air was more than enough fun, but some, like Belia, thought their time could be better spent.

“Stupid horse,” she muttered, picking the broom and herself up. Snow frosted her entire front and her hood had fallen off. She absentmindedly flipped the hood back up and too late discovered it was full of snow from her most recent fall. Snow plopped onto her head and fell down over her face. She reached up to rub her eyes clear and was rewarded with a soaked mitten that removed the snow, but left a wet streak across her face for all of two seconds before it froze.

She looked back at the castle and saw Voice hovering in the window. The orb darted behind the curtains when she saw Cali glance her way. “Oh, sure, like I didn’t see her there watching,” Cali grumbled. There was no way she could go back now. Whatever dignity she had left needed to be salvaged.

Broom in hand, Cali made it the rest of the way to the stables without incident. She kicked the snow away from the stable door, and pulled it open just enough to squeeze inside. Musty, hay-scented air greeted her, aggravating her nose until she sneezed.

Sniffing from both dust, hay, and the cold, Cali stuck the broom back in its proper corner and glared down the center of the stable where a grey mare poked her head out.

“If I wanted this laying out in the snow, I’d put it there myself,” she said crossly to the horse who tossed her head unremorsefully.

She pulled off her snow-filled mittens and threw them on a pail. Her hands were red from cold and she blew on them to warm them a bit before starting her work.

Cali wandered down the row, opening the stalls one at a time and checking on the horses. The work had its own monotonous rhythm. Stalls needed to be cleaned, horses needed to be checked, food and water replenished, and if all went well, there’d be no disasters. No injuries or illnesses, no horses pushing her into a bucket of water or a pile of manure. Today went well.

She loosed the horses into the courtyard so they could exercise. Normally she liked their antics, but today nothing cheered her up.

One of the colts frolicked past her and kicked snow into her face. She spit it out and glared at the young horse. Totally unconcerned, he went racing back towards his mother.

She brought them back into their stalls after a bit, not wanting to stay out very long. After making sure the broom was in its usual place and the horses were brushed clear of snow and safely tucked into their clean stalls, she backed out of the stable and shut the door.

The snow had covered part of her tracks from earlier and she had to forge a new path. More snow fell into her boots, and the snow that had fallen in her gloves earlier had melted while in the warm stables. Soggy gloves were about as useful as chipmunks in the larder.

At last she stomped up the steps and into the castle. The layers were peeled off one by one. First the semi-frozen mittens that had chunks of wet snow clinging to them. Then the snow-covered cloak, and her boots which resembled blocks of snow. She threw the lot in front of the nearest fireplace and sat down to remove her wet stockings, compliments of the snow that’d invaded her boots and then melted.

She shivered as she rushed to her bedroom. The lower part of her pants were soaked and even though her tunic had escaped most of the weather’s damage, it too lay cold against her skin.

As soon as she reached her room, she began stripping down to her undergarments as she hurried to the adjoining washroom. Voice always had a hot bath drawn to greet her after her stable chores. Sure enough, she bumped the door open with her shoulder—still removing one of her pant legs—and saw the steaming bath.

Leaving her pants to lie in the doorway, she finished undressing and climbed into the tub with much wincing and “Ooh, hot! Hot!”

As she adjusted to the heat, she settled back and washed the ice crystals from her face and gave a sniff. At least the dripping nose would be gone in a few hours, if she was lucky. Sometimes it turned into a full out cold and she was stuffed up and miserable for weeks.

Cali buried her face in her hands. “I’ve got to get out of this country. If the weather doesn’t kill me, I’ll die of boredom.”

These Broken Stars - Book Review

Outside of my classic challenge, I don't normally do book reviews here, but this week I came across one of those rare books that just boiled my blood. In trying to write a review(on a book that I skim-read after 35%!) I found that I had so many issues with the story, the review was too long. 

As a rule, I write long reviews. I can't help it. But this one was ridiculously long. I tried rewriting it, but that was also long. But I did want to share my thoughts because this is a book that's gotten loads of high ratings and positive reviews. In retrospect the top-rated positive reviews weren't really more than "OH. MY. GOSH. I LURVES THIS!! MORE LILAC AND TARVER PLZ!! Heart, heart, love forever!!!" Which is fine, but it doesn't really tell me WHY someone liked the book. The top-rated negative reviews were much more detailed as to what the problems were. But I don't think it's easy to fully convey how bad something like "The MMC couldn't stop talking about how beautiful the FMC is" can be. Because there's not a scale for that!

So in all of it's ranty glory, here's my review for sci-fi romance YA novel These Broken Stars which has been labeled "Titanic in space with star-crossed lovers."

It’s been awhile since I hated a book this much. I mean, I really, really, really HATE this book. I only read this far for two reasons: I wanted more content to add to my list of dislikes and the plot itself(crash landing/survival/strange planet) was interesting. But when I’m reading a book that only has two characters and I hate both of them, there’s only so much I can stand.

The cover is beautiful, the blurb enticing. I was so excited to read this, had such high hopes. Within the first chapter my heart was already sinking. It started off well enough, the writing is strong and the setting was so interesting, but then the MMC meets the FMC.

“Her fair, flaweless skin says she’s one of them, but her gaze says she’s better, above, untouchable.

She’s wearing the same hue as a navy dress uniform, bare shoulders holding my gaze for a moment—she sure as hell wears the color better than any sailor I know. Hair: red, falling down past her shoulders. Nose: a little snub, but that makes her more pretty, not less. It makes her real.

Pretty’s not the right word. She’s a knockout.”

So begins Tarver’s long obsession with how Lilac looks. I kid you not, there’s not a single pov chapter from him where he doesn’t find a way to talk about how gorgeous she is despite injuries and dirt.

Lilac then attracts him to her table(by dropping a glove) and they have a conversation. Tarver doesn’t know she’s a LeRoux and therefore untouchable. Lilac has a pleasant conversation with him, but afterwards her “best friend” warn her that if she ever talks to him again she’ll tell her father and bad things will happen. (we later learn that Lilac’s father finds a way to permanently “remove” any boy problems.)

Next encounter Lilac brushes him off nastily to “save him.” Despite this when the ship starts experiencing problems, Tarver risks his life to jump over a railing and rescue her, then follows her to a pod which is the only one to escape a ship. 

All of this tech and no one thought to have a manual release on the pods in case of the power going out? 50k people and not one of them reached their pod in time to release it before the power went out? And the ship is getting dragged out of hyperspace because it’s too close to a planet and gravity is pulling it.

These people have the knowledge to terraform planets, build spaceships, access hyperspace, but no one thought of a way to navigate around planets and avoid this problem? Shouldn’t the ship being going so fast that gravity wouldn’t have a chance to catch hold of it?

 

Suspended my disbelief and continued. We get into the pod and Lilac decides to hotwire the pod to release them. Now . . . get this, she goes “I don’t have wire cutters so I’ll just use my fingernails.” In what world ever were fingernails a good substitute for wire cutters? She does indeed cut and split these wires with her fingernails. I want to know what her fingernails are made of . . .

 

Now we get to the meat of the issue, because as I said, the plot itself was interesting. I love survival stories.

I read YA fiction for several reasons, one is there’s certain things I DON’T want to read about. During the evacuation, Tarver take the time to remark that normally he’d love the sight of all the women pouring out of their chambers in their pajamas. Now, you don’t comment on something unless you notice. He’s commenting, so he’s noticing. I expect most of these women are adults and Tarver is 18 with Lilac at 16. He’s technically an adult, but it still gave me the creeps. If I ever have to quickly evacuate a place and don’t have time to get dressed, I’d rather not think about the barely adult boys checking me out. Yuck. Like, there’s other stuff going on dude, focus.

They get in the pod and Lilac passes out. Tarver mentions how he has to struggle not to peek down her tempting dress. Come on! World is ending, person’s knocked out, and all Tarver can think about is a little fellow down south.

This doesn’t improve as (later in the book) Tarver discusses having a boner after cuddling with Lilac for warmth and later having sex(not graphic) with her.

He also alternates between being frustrated with her(understandable) and admiring her. Now, there is NOTHING to admire about Lilac. Tarver will go, “Oh, Lilac is so brave and determined.” And he’s referring to the fact that despite him being a soldier and her being a debutante with no practical skills and wearing high heels which she doesn’t have the commonsense to remove even after they get stuck multiple times in the metal grate floor of the pod, she still insists on traveling with him to a lookout spot. He says, stay here, I’ll be back. She refuses, and follows, making a simple scouting mission take way longer than it should’ve, demanding breaks, and get this, they stop for a break and she looks around, “Where will I sit?” Because of course princess can’t sit on just anything. Tarver lays out his jacket on a log for her . . .They barely make it back before nightfall when who knows what comes out. And she’s what? No, Lilac is stupid and selfish and prissy.

 

Lilac says early on that she’s so glad Tarver was attracted to her for her and not her wealth, when the reality is he was attracted to her ravishing beauty of which we’ll hear no end of. Sorry, being wanted for your looks isn’t a step up from being wanted for your money.

 

Once they leave the mother ship, I stopped having any hope of liking Lilac. She’s so nasty and insulting. She claims it’s because of her father, but this is the girl we have to remember ends up having sex with Tarver and cuddling with him and making out with him. They’re not stuck there long enough for her to go through such a switch. And he shows no outward sign of liking her, so she had no reason to assume more insults were needed.

And she’s wearing these RIDICULOUS shoes. High heels that get stuck in the metal grate floor of the pod. Now you think one of those two bozos would’ve tossed those shoes. Oh no, instead Lilac spends several days walking around with them. Her feet get really messed up and the solution is bandage them and then put the dumb shoes back on, but oh, we snapped off the heels. It’s at that point I looked up a picture of high heeled shoes and tried to imagine someone snapping off the heels and walking in them. THROW THEM AWAY ALREADY! Walk barefoot, walk with bandaged feet, I don’t care just please, give up on the shoes!

The first night she hogs the blankets, wants Tarver to sleep outside, etc. Every time Tarver is out of sight she freaks out that she’s pushed him too far with the nasty angle. Then he comes back and she’s right back to being a witch.

But oh, she’d “rather he remembered her as a bitch than weak.” Really? Well you’re now both, but don’t worry, Tarver’s so gobsmacked by your looks he doesn’t care.

 

The entire trip is full of Lilac being stupid. She’s a hazard. I would’ve left her to be eaten. All she does is whine, and complain, and argue, and insult. She has zero skills and isn’t even a pleasant person worth saving. If she hadn’t been stunning, Tarver probably would’ve left her, but it’s all good because eventually he gets laid.

Lilac trips over a stick and doesn’t bother to try and stop herself and lets herself fall flat on her face, but 3 paragraphs later she’s “determined not to give him the satisfaction of pitying me. I’ll show him how much a LaRoux can handle.” Oh yeah, you in your princess dress and high heels, neither of which she’ll ditch and her getting a break every 15 minutes, walking dreadfully slow, and falling on her face is soooo not pitiable.

 

Here’s one of my “favorite” parts.

“I’m sitting in a patch of afternoon sun on one of the blankets, spread over the nasty forest floor. Not that it matters all that much, as I’m already carrying half of the forest along with me in my dress. [They have a mechanic suit she could be wearing] The hem is in tatters and the skirt is muddy. I can only imagine my hair and skin are as dreadful [Oh, poor baby!]  . . . I must try and bear it as best I can.”

 

I mean, come on! Why does this book have so many high ratings?

Then Tarver comes back and wants her to get off the blanket so they can get going. She gets up, allows him to pack it(I swear she hasn’t done anything this whole trip, not even dedicated her ruined dress for firestarting) and then says that he left her standing awkwardly with her arms wrapped around herself against the chill. Oh gosh, I’m so sorry his packing up your blanket and carrying it because you HAVE to keep moving is so inconvenient.

Now I made it about 35% of the way through but honestly, you can’t have your MC’s be that annoying for that long when they’re the only characters. I skimmed the rest and read the last chapter (which is like . . . what happened?).

 

I planned on going back to where I left off and slowly going through the rest, but was greeted by this on the first page “If I’ve learned anything about Lilac it’s that she doesn’t like to fall apart in front of people.” .  . . oh yes, Lilac OBVIOUSLY hates to fall apart in front of people. Because that’s not at all what she’s been doing the entire freaking trip.

 

But good ole Tarver has to keep being moonstruck over her. I feel like the authors were using Tarver’s pov to try and get me to like Lilac, but nothing Lilac said, thought, or did was likable.

I get that people have different tastes, but why oh why did so many people like this? All I can say is if Tarver's only qualification for a girlfriend is looks, then it's good that's all he got. The two of them deserve each other. 

I wish this book had been a light/no romance book with two likable characters. I could've overlooked the plot stuff and the fact that only 2 people out of 50k survived(please, the odds on that?). And all but pretty much 3 chapters of this book take place on the planet that's a fairly typical Earth wilderness. Not much sci-fi going on or "Titanic".

So yes, I hated this book and I'm happy to not waste anymore time on it.

About the Angry Book Blogger series and disclaimer found here.

Twitter and A Book Taught Me

If you've ever stepped into the chaos that is Twitter you've probably been overwhelmed--at least at first--by the flood your feed undergoes. Who only follows 10 people? Or even 100? Now, I'm sure there are people who only follow that many, but as I've seen from my own "followed persons" most everyone quickly passes over that 100 mark and goes into the thousands(or even 10's of thousands!).

Now, if you're like me, you think "how in the world do people keep up with this?" I'm a person who's got a very small social circle. I've got 4 siblings, my mom, kids, husband, a smattering of inlaws, and probably 5-10 other people I associate with. Then there's my writers group which I probably interact with a good 20+ people through there.

When it's all said and done, that's not nearly as many as people who have tons of family, coworkers, friends, etc.

I like to invest in people. I like to find people who I can connect with and build a relationship with them. Twitter was not designed for people like me. It's designed for people with a lot of patience, time, and willingness to make it work.

In most situations, you have to make Twitter "smaller". You have to form lists, make a spreadsheet of hashtags to interact with, etc. It's simply not possible to interact at a deep level(or even a surface one really) with that many people.

So that notion needs to go right out the window. *opens window and launches mass-interaction idea*

Everyone's got a different way of handling Twitter, but mine's been game hashtags. Twitter games enables me the most freedom with positive results. I can join if I feel like it, and pass on days I don't. I can find a current game that fits me, and I've fallen in love with Tweetdeck which allows me to schedule tweets ahead of time. I can add a picture, the hashtag(s), and whatever I want it to say, set a time, and I'm good to go.

This means if I want I can get all the game tweets for a month scheduled in advance, and then just check the hashtag everyday(or whenever I want) and see what other people have to say.

I also get a lot of responses in various forms to game tweets, and if I'm participating in a game, it's most likely because it appeals to me and what other people playing post is interesting. In that way it makes it easier to build a surface relationship at least with other people.

For the month of September, I joined Fellowship of Fantasy's #ABookTaughtMe game and found the prompts interesting, as well as what people posted throughout the month. I decided to share at least a couple with my readers here as well as some more details that I couldn't fit in a tweet. Darn the restrictive word count on Twitter!

One of the things I loved the most about this game is it allowed me to reminisce about some old favorites, and see people post other favorites and have something to connect over.

Day 1 - A Book Taught Me About Love.

The month kicked off with a REALLY hard one because so many books have love as a central theme, or just happen to have a really good romantic subplot. Then there's love of a non-romantic nature. Love between siblings, parent to child or vice versa, etc.

In the end this was an easy one as I just picked my all time favorite romance and one of the few "romance as a main plot" books that I've liked.

Lynn Kurland has 9 books currently in this world and they're set in storylines of 3, which each set taking place after the one preceeding in terms of time line.

It's the first trilogy about Morgan and Miach that I love. It's romance, not lust. It's an adventure. It's magic. It's mystery. Besides having a lovely world and back story, it's the chemistry between the characters and how the romance is handled that really makes me love this series.

My favorite thing about this day though was that someone put my book as their choice. :D It's always a great feeling to see someone mentioning my book or characters on social media.

Day 6 - A Book Taught Me About Nature

This one was a choice that just jumped out at me. As a kid I thought running away and surviving on the land would be an awesome adventure! To tell the truth it sometimes still does. :D My Side of the Mountain was like a wish-fulfillment story. Kid runs away, not because something terrible happened, but because he wanted to see if he could do it.

Not only was there all the lovely bits where Sam is being smart and figuring out how to survive, but there's this amazing sense of peace and tranquility from a story told from perspective of someone surrounded by nothing but nature.

Day 11 - A Book Taught Me About Heroism

I'm so excited to share this one because it's one of my favorite stories of all time.

I don't think I'll ever fall out of love with this story. Addie and Meryl are princesses. But while Meryl is brave and outgoing, Addie is shy and quiet. Addie's the typical princess who wants nothing more than to stay home with those closest to her and sew, hide from spiders, and one day meet her true love.

Meryl wants to go on adventures, fight dragons and ogres, and save the kingdom. She wants to find the cure for the deadly Grey Death that plagues the land. She's destined to become queen and wishes to be a hero. The only thing holding her back is Addie's desire for her to wait for adventure until Addie is married.

But this isn't Meryl's story, it's Addie's. Because when Meryl contracts the Grey Death, her days are numbered and now Addie must choose between staying safe and spending those last days by her sister's bedside, or go out in search for a cure. 

Addie may not be a hero, or brave, but she loves her sister. And so she sets out on what seems like the most hopeless mission, to save her sister. 

Armed with only a handful of magical objects, the occasional aid of a sorcerer-in-training, Addie's journey is fraught with dangers and she learns not only that there's a hero inside of her, but that she doesn't need to be Meryl to be brave. 

This is a story of surprises, with an ending you won't expect, and it's my definition of a hero: someone who does puts their life in danger to save others despite being terrified. 

Day 18 - A Book Taught Me About Growing Up

I hear a lot of people talk about how they identified with x book character growing up. And for the most part, I don't really have a personal understanding of that. I've never tried to identify as characters. I see all the ways we're different, rather than the ways we're the same.

It's a bit of a curiosity to me to try and see oneself in a character, but it seems to be common. It's also one of the reasons, I believe, that writers are encouraged to write diverse characters. And I mean diverse in every sense of the word. What they do, how they act, personality, looks, hopes, dreams, weaknesses, strengths, etc. Because the world is full of diverse people and readers want to find that person who's "like them" in some aspect.

Which is why this was a fun prompt for me.

Ha, yes, I'm the fantasy lover(with a strong leaning towards YA/NA) and I'm telling you the one character I remember thinking "She's like me" at any point in my life was Berta. A character from an adult inspirational fiction novel. 

This book meant a lot to me as a child. I was the weird kid that was reading books way above my reading level and I've now backtracked to mostly YA lol. So I probably first read this book when I was about six at a guess. 

I've read it over and over, though not in recent years as I no longer see myself in Berta.

Berta was the plain older sister who became intensely jealous when her beautiful baby sister was born. The two girls could've been such good friends, but Berta read into every situation and Glenna was more than beautiful. She was vivacious and happy and magnetic. Everyone loved her. Glenna was the soft-hearted one that wanted everyone to be happy, while Berta was more reserved and observant.

It came to a point where Berta decided she'd be whatever Glenna wasn't. Berta's battle with herself and the competition between her and Glenna progressed into her adult years, and I use to read about Berta as an adult thinking "That'll be me one day". And honestly, it could've been. 

Now I went down a different path and thank goodness, I didn't have to learn the same hard lessons Berta did. 

But I did understand her self-criticism and feeling like she didn't measure up the to the younger, more perfect siblings. Not because anyone ever said that to me, but because I decided they were better than me and therefore read into every situation as validation of that.

Being an adult, I now wonder if Glenna struggled with hidden things like my younger sister's do/did. 

This story taught me that it's okay to be the sparrow and that we have our own special gifts and are loved just the same.

Day 21 - A Book Taught Me About Fear 

I was sure I wouldn't have anything for this because, frankly, I don't like reading anything that'd fall into this category. But then I remembered one of my mom's favorite books.

If you've never read this book, you're missing out! Especially if you ever read to kids, this is a great one. It's one of those fun interactive books where Grover talks to the child and the person reading it gets to go crazy with the voices as Grover panics over the child turning the pages.

Day 27 - A Book Taught Me About the World

This is the only book I'm sharing here for the challenge that is a recent favorite. It's Across a Star-Swept Sea. It's actually a sequel, but stands alone and I slightly preferred it to the first book.

This is a recent(within the last 2 years) read. A YA steampunk novel that revolves around how the world is needing a change and how one young woman is doing her part to make it better. I think the above quote says enough about it. :D

And that wraps up some of my favorite choices for that challenge. I'm probably going to take the next month off, but I'll be looking for new games in November!

What Twitter games are your favorites?

Reading Challenge Update #3

I've got two more books on my classics challenge complete and the reviews are in!

Sticking to trying to balance the bad with the good, I have The Little Prince and Jane Eyre.  I know, I know, I promised to do Wuthering Heights, but I like my balancing act and I bumped it out to update 4.

First up is Jane Eyre, which I finished at the very end of August. I gave this one two stars, which for me was "Okay, but I'd never read again." The author had a penchant for suddenly writing lengthy descriptions of things that didn't appeal to me. I'll never understand why there needs to be an entire page dedicated to describing one tiny room, especially when the room doesn't really matter and the overabundance of description ensures that I now will not picture the room at all thanks to the overload of details.

I didn't care much for the writing style, and that's a big factor. The plot was decent enough, but the main characters were rather ho-hum and Adele's tendency to always speak in French(without translation) made me not even bother with her dialogue.

Here's a clip from my Goodreads review. And this touches on my issue with Jane who I felt was a bit snobby with those she considered beneath her and star-struck by those she saw as her equals or above her. Her moaning about how much pain it causes HER to stand up to these two men when she shouldn't feel bad at all about what she's doing just made her pathetic to me.

"I know Jane's supposed to be this revolutionary character of independence, but I felt she rarely showed that. What I noticed was a restless boredom. She wanted to be constantly entertained and have new experiences. I'd hate being so dissatisfied with good things in life because they were "normal" and hence dull, but it's not a negative trait and I imagine she and Mr. Rochester traveled a lot to help her get that taste for adventure.

I also felt she had this weird thing where she didn't think much of people unless she felt them extremely intelligent. And those she did find intelligent she kind of lost her head over. It was sad how the whole time she was telling Rochester "no" after the botched wedding that all she could think about was "poor him, and I'm so cruel, blah blah". Same thing with St. John. She had it in her head that these men were suffering and it was her fault and they were like wounded lambs.

In summary, I didn't hate or love this book. It falls flatly into the okay category. I didn't love or despise any of the characters. The plot was okay, the writing style was the worst of it all(I hated it), and I thought the last bit after Jane returns was the best part and that the characters well-suited each other and I don't resent them coming together in the end
."

And then we have The Little Prince, which I'm happy to report that I loved! This was a definite five stars and I had no idea what to expect going into it. I'd never even heard of this book until it was recommended to me.

The Little Prince is a children's book, but in a lot of ways I think it'd speak more to adults. It's written in a way that is easy to understand, but also has a lot of complex themes running under the surface. The book deals with love, death, life, and being an adult. I think as adults we sometimes do miss the silliness of our actions, or get stuck in routine, or lose our imagination.

My daughter came to me yesterday with a picture and like all parents I tried to guess what she drew, and of course was wrong. Now she'd drawn the same thing over and over--a circle with a bunch of short lines spiking off the edges. Here's where the fun part comes in, despite drawing the same thing repeatedly, she informed me that each thing was different. Two were eggs, one was a daddy long leg, one was a sun, one was daddy, etc.

Now that people, is imagination. I thought they were all suns. Anyway, I think that's a good reflection of how children think versus adults. And if you have a parent in your sphere of social media or friends that shares stories, I'm sure you see this. Or of course you may have kids yourself! Kids say and do the craziest things, but at some point we lose that creativity and innocence.

The Little Prince is told from the eyes of an adult who remembers what it was like to be a child and he covers the story of the little prince who is a child also. It's hard to put into words more than that, and even my Goodreads review was rather short and didn't do the book justice. But you know, it's a short book and the best I can say is read it! It won't take long and even if you hate it, you won't have wasted a ton of time, but I hope you love it because there's a lot to love even though it ends sad.


Next update will be for Wuthering Heights(I promise this time!) and Dracula.

Author Interview with Heather Hayden

Welcome to Heather Hayden, the author of Augment.

 
By Government-enforced mandate, genetic augmentation and implant technology cannot coexist in the same human body. Sixteen year old Viki's life has depended on her implants since she was five.
Now her implants are failing.

When Viki discovers that the malfunctions are due to illegal augmentation, she is determined to find those responsible. However, Agent Smith of the Search and Retrieval Bureau is also looking for the geneticists who augmented Viki, and his orders are to capture them by any means necessary--even if it requires risking Viki's life by using her as bait.

Viki's friend Halle, a rogue AI, is doing its best to help her search, but Halle has its own problems. Agent Smith had been closing in on the AI before being reassigned to Viki's case, and Smith's partner is still on the hunt. Searching for the geneticists risks exposing Halle, but Viki and her friend must find them first--they are her only chance for survival.

Heather is currently working on a sequel, Upgrade. And here's what Heather had to say when I interviewed her.

Kristen - Which writers inspire you?

Heather - Oh dear, this question... It’s so hard to answer, because there are so many answers. Though those who have read my earlier books would definitely say I was influenced by Brian Jacques (because I spend so much time describing the food). I’d say that it’s really more a conglomeration of Jacques, Asimov, Cherryh, Beddor, Colfer, Novik, Collins, Jones... I think you probably get the idea! Most of the writers are fantasy and science fiction, though; they all introduced me to fantastical worlds.

                                  
Kristen - Haha, I never thought about how much time Jacques spends on food descriptions. I love food descriptions, though, especially when they make your mouth water.


What’s your favorite method for coming up with names for your characters and locations?

Heather - I like to choose names that have a meaning associated with the character. It’s a bit cheesy, but I find it fun! As for locations... Sometimes I do the same thing, other times the name just sort of pops up. When I’m at a loss for either, I turn to the mighty search engine of Google to help me locate potentially interesting names.

Kristen - Not cheesy at all! At least not to me, as I do much of the same thing. Even if the readers never know, it's like a private little thing that you'll see every time you read or talk about your story.



If you could be any one of your characters, who would it be and why?  

Heather - Hm, that’s such a difficult question to answer! First there’s Sharque from The Astrals who actually was me at one point—the original story was based on a role-playing game my friends and I used to play. She’s grown a lot as a character, though, and the resemblance isn’t really there anymore. Plus, she has super-awesome water-manipulation powers! And she doesn’t have to worry about drowning, and she’s a great swimmer—all things I wish I was! But then there’s Halle, the AI from Augment and Upgrade, who can do pretty much anything it likes in the Cloud (though I guess in our world, that wouldn’t be quite as useful, and limited by the reaches of the Internet.) And Viki, Halle’s friend, who’s a great runner—something I am not. And in stories I haven’t brought to light yet, there are mermaids and pegasi and cats and androids and dragons and all sorts of other amazing characters! It’s hard to choose just one. But for the sake of answering the question, let’s go with Sharque. I really want to be a better swimmer!

Kristen - I love swimming! I wish I had more time to go. I'd definitely love a pool of my own.


Do you use any references to mythology or real-world folklore in your stories, or do they contain their own folklore?

Heather - Augment and its sequel, Upgrade, are science fiction, so they don’t really have any references like that. My fantasy trilogy of magic and demons has some grounds in the religious mythology of our world, but also their own myths. Another book I’m writing, The Astrals (working title), has myths and legends surrounding various different races, including the astrals, which is the race of several main characters, and the elementals (not saying more on that to avoid spoilers!) And for an upcoming anthology, I’m writing a retelling of the selkie myth, so that’ll definitely have references to the original. As well as my own twists, of course. I love writing fairy tale retellings!

Kristen - Have you ever created your own race for a book you wrote? 

Heather- Actually, yes! I almost answered no, and then remembered that the astrals from The Astrals (working title) were in fact of my own creation. Sort of. Originally I called them goddesses/gods/deities, but in reality their powers aren’t quite the same, though they are inspired by deity myths, and they do draw power from the belief of other races (mainly humans.) However, they aren’t immortal or all-powerful and must train hard to develop their powers so they can become a “mature” astral. They also must journey through the world as their final test of their maturity—this journey is where the story in The Astrals begins, as four young astrals set out to test their powers. Unfortunately, their path has plenty of obstacles on it… But getting back to the main question, I changed the name when I decided that “deities” didn’t really work for them. I think the astrals is one of the few races I’ve actually created for a story; most of the time my stories only involve humans (and the occasional AI, android, elf, dragon, or mermaid.)

Kristen - I've done the same with races in my novels. It's fun to take races that have been already created and tweak them a little and come up with something unique to your world.

Thank you for letting me interview you and I can't wait to read Upgrade!

I've had the pleasure of reading Augment. If you're interested in my review, you can find it here.

Augment is available on Amazon!

Though a part-time editor by day, Heather Hayden's not-so-secret identity is that of a writer—at night she pours heart and soul into science fiction and fantasy novels. In March 2015 she published her first novella, Augment, a YA science fiction story filled with excitement, danger, and the strength of friendship. She immediately began work on its sequel, Upgrade, which continues the adventures of Viki, a girl who loves to run, and her friend Halle, an AI. 

Learn more about Heather on Twitter or her blog, both of which consist of equal amounts of writerly things and random stuff she’s interested in.