The Firethorn Crown - ABB review

For today's ABB review, I'm happy to share one of those rare books that makes it onto my favorites list. A book I'll reread over and over and that'll have a spot in my library. Obviously I gave this one 5 stars. Here is my review for The Firethorn Crown by Lea Doué.

Princess Lily, the eldest of twelve sisters and heir to a mighty kingdom, desperately seeks a break from her mother's matchmaking. Tradition forbids marriage with the man Lily loves, so she would rather rule alone than marry someone who only wants the crown.

Fleeing an overzealous suitor, Lily stumbles into a secret underground kingdom where she and her sisters encounter a mysterious sorcerer-prince and become entangled in a curse that threatens the safety of her family and her people. Lily can free them, but the price for freedom may be more than she's willing to pay.


I'm a big fan of retellings, I love the genre, but sadly there's a lot of misses as well as hits. Now this story, wow, what a cover, it has to be said. That is a simply gorgeous cover. I've been burnt before, so I tried not to get my hopes up too high after seeing it and reading the blurb. But I couldn't get it out of my head and finally bought it. It immediately jumped to the front of my to-read list and despite telling myself not to get too excited . . . I did.

And I LOVED IT!!! Let me explain how much I loved it. I loved it so much I'm going to gush about it, and I almost never gush. I loved it so much that even though I'd been doing non-stop party prep for the past two days and the party itself the following day, I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning reading it because I couldn't stop.

I finally scolded myself into going to sleep, and after the party the next day, I was up until after 1am finishing. From the start, this book had me hooked.

Immediately we're thrown into a situation that we don't fully understand. Lily is in a maze, but they WHY is left hanging for a few pages. Is she fleeing? Playing? Lost? Trapped? Is this the underworld? I had to keep reading just to know what the heck she was doing!!

Then it's revealed what's going on and shortly after that Lily bumps into Runson. Ugh, that guy . . . I officially hated him for every scene he was in. The guy is a complete creep! He traps Lily, has no physical boundaries, and then he LICKS her hand. Yeah, licks it, like a cat, or a child. My children are in the hand licking stage because they like to play kitties.

People, hand licking is never romantic, it's just plain gross! Especially if the owner of the hand doesn't like you! Just . . . don't. So right away Doué did an excellent job of setting up Runson as repulsive and making me side with Lily. I wanted her to escape from him, and every time they crossed paths I got all "Noooooo, ick, run, blech." Runson's goal, of course, is to convince Lily to marry him. He thinks he's hot stuff and can't imagine someone would say no, and takes zero hints. When Lily's curse hits and she can't speak . . .  it makes things interesting.

I've had a hard time putting my love into words, so hopefully now that I've had a few days to think about it, I'll manage. The Firethorn Crown had everything I love to see in a book. It had well-developed characters I can loath or love as I'm supposed to, characters I want to see more of, a romance I can believe and cheer for, a plot that keeps me guessing(hard to do with a retelling), and amazing descriptions.

There's a certain difficulty that comes with the story of the 12 dancing princesses. Let's face it, that's a lot of characters. Like the dwarves in the Hobbit, if you have a large group in settings like this, it's best to NOT try and make all of them fully developed. I really liked how the sisters were handled in this regard, a couple of them stand out and are fleshed out with personalities, while others are mostly names.

Princesses:
Lily, the oldest and the MC. Lily knows how to lead and stand up for herself. She's not as upfront and bossy as some characters, but she's no shy flower either. Lily loves her sisters, and she'll do anything for them. She's not afraid to stand up to people, like her mother. I LOVED the scene where Lily told her mom off. So many times I read/watch stories where the characters HAVE to be polite and doormat-ish around their parents just because "it's my parent." No, I'm sorry, being a parent doesn't give anyone an automatic pass to act however they like.

The fact that Lily stood up to her mom, without name-calling or anything, and told her how it was had me cheering her on. I was jumping around and yelling, "Go Lily, Go Lily!" Her mom's so lost in her own personal world, she ignores her kids and how they're feeling. She doesn't care how they're feeling or what they want. And then when Lily is unable to speak and CLEARLY something isn't right, instead of parenting to figure out what's wrong she's like, "Yo, make me a declaration peeps that says anyone who does my job for me and finds out what's wrong can have any kid they choose to marry." And she just wants to know because she's annoyed that Lily isn't choosing a husband, not because she actually CARES(heaven forbid) about her daughters.

Melantha, I so want to hear more of her story. She's the princess packing daggers and who's friends with a prince who tends geese. She's the one wearing boots to go dancing and taking charge when Lily isn't able to speak.

Gwen is the second oldest and we're told would be considered "better" for the role of future queen. She's extremely proper, and stuffy.

Hazel is the only blonde in the group and seems to be considered the prettiest. It's stated that she wants to catch a man who's high ranking. But then she meets someone who doesn't qualify, but who she is attracted to nonetheless. I'd be curious to see more of her story just based on her potential love interest.

Neylan I found the most fascinating of the 11 sisters. She's kind of . . . strange. There's something about her. Like she has a gift or something. Almost like she has some sort of uncanny intuition and always knows what to say and would probably make most people uncomfortable with her way of talking. I really liked her.

Bay, like the list of sister's below, I didn't get a good impression of(whether by design or personal draw to certain characters), but she has an ex-sorcerer bodyguard and since sorcerer's are like outlaws in this world and none of the other sister's has a bodyguard, I'm so voting for she's an undercover sorceress. Even if I'm wrong, I've got to know why.

Coral, Ivy, Wren, Ruby, Azure, and Junia didn't stand out to me though I know Coral had red hair and two of those girls were twins and I think Azure was Melantha's twin.

I think by not trying to make all 12 princesses stand out, the author allowed herself space to work on the other characters. There's a lot more men in this retelling than I'm used to, and I loved it. Besides the ever creepy, can't take a hint, Runson, there's Prince Holic, the man who's supposed to be there for Lily, but finds his attention occupied elsewhere.

Holic, even though he's obviously not Lily's love interest, is a nice guy who fills that role of a big brother. I liked that the male roles weren't "king who only gets angry about his daughter's slippers and makes the stupid proclomation" and "King of the underworld who's just evil" and "Love interest for FMC."

Then there's Prince Orin, who spends his days as the goose boy. I mean, talk about down to earth! Sure, it's also obvious he's not Lily's love interest, but he's a neat guy who wants to help and is pretty much down for any crazy thing the girls come up with.

And then, there's Tharius. The prince of the underground realm. Wow, he was *shudders* dark and scary, but also so very real. Like the guy has been underground his whole life, his parents are dead, and the only people left are a few old courtiers and shadow people(fake). You can tell he's never really had parents to teach him right from wrong or how to act around people. He's lacking social skills and morality. Yet there's some part of me that was going, he's a product of his circumstances. There was something about making him more human that made him scarier. He was a whole different type of evil.

And last, but certainly not least, is Eben. Eben is a guard who right from the start whewwww. The chemistry between him and Lily would knock anyone of their feet. It's so rare I meet two characters and right from the start I'm thinking, you need to get together!!! But this time, I so did.

One of their very early interactions, Eben's obviously jealous. He knows he's a guard and Lily's the crown princess. And boy, does he FEEL it. I'm yelling at the book, "Argh, Eben!!! She loves you! You don't need to be jealous." He so badly wants to take Runson to the woodshed, but Lily not giving the command makes him wonder why. The tension between Runson and Eben . . . feel the heat.

And then there's this maze in the middle of the garden that's all strange and weird-like(it's midnight, I'm allowed to be all over in this review). No one but the princesses go in, except for the hand licker. The maze changes, grows over, shifts, adds things.

The first time the girls go into the underworld, I had chills. I wanted to crawl under my blankets. I'm thinking, "Go back, go back! Scary! Danger!" It was like watching giant spiders hide in trees over a path while unsuspecting victims walked beneath. You just KNOW something bad is coming.

What was absolutely brilliant is how the girls don't go forward out of stupidity, but because going back is impossible. I always get annoyed when a setting is sending bad vibes. The creepy organ music starts playing, darkness creeps in, the plants wither, there's no animal noises, and Sally May just skips along the path singing as loud as she can in her bright yellow cloak.

Not this time folks! Girls start thinking, oh yeah, something ain't right. They try to go back a few times and DENIED!! I'm like AHHHHH, too late!!!

Next thing you know, they're stuck in Tharius's curse and they have to break it. The girls can't speak about the curse or they'll faint. Lily "shouldn't" speak at all or she'll doom them all. So there's Lily, having to remember not to talk and Runson's like ooh, she can't say no!! Not like he was ever good at listening.

Between Runson in the above world, and Tharius in the underground kingdom, Lily has almost nonstop pressure to marry someone and remembering not to talk is a drag. Tharius gets more demanding the more she hesitates, but luckily the sister's protect each other and find ways to take the pressure off of Lily.

Now besides all of the great storytelling and characters, I absolutely LOVED the descriptions. Beyond words really. I just want a picture of this world. A picture of the kingdom under stone, and the maze. So vibrant and real.

"They passed topiaries with leaves of moldy jade trimmed into mangled geometric shapes, feathery tulips of coal-edged plum, and roses of blackberry, indigo, and grizzled sage, the colors somehow vibrant and dark at the same time. Pale baby’s breath and moonflowers offered contrast to the deep hues. Near the edge of the pathway huddled clusters of pitch-black mushrooms with cracks that oozed an orange glow, like the lava fields described by Travelers from the north."

How can you not be impressed! It was simply exquisite and I'm immensely jealous of Doue's talent. Falling asleep here, and I don't want to give anything away, but this has been my favorite book this year, and I've read some really good books.

I'll be buying myself the paperback of this book, and when book two does come out(which better be soon!), I'll buy the paperback of that right away because I can't imagine being disappointed by it. I know I'm sleepy while writing this, and I've never been good about ranting in favor of books. It's so hard to fully express why I love stories, and I can only hope I did this one justice.

I can definitely recommend this one as my top read of 2016 and say that the beautiful cover matches a beautiful story.

Yeah, I'm going to be that annoying person who harasses an author telepathically until they release the next book.

Follow Lea on Twitter!
Check out her website!
Like Lea on Facebook
Pick up your copy of The Firethorn Crown today!

About the Angry Book Blogger series and disclaimer found here. 

About the Angry Book Blogger

About: My Angry Book Blogger(ABB) series features reviews that have inspired a lot of emotion from me. These are posted on Mondays, though if I don't have content for a week there'll be nothing that Monday.

Disclaimer: I receive no compensation for any review done on my blog(or elsewhere). All books reviewed are books I have selected out of my personal reading pile. I buy, borrow, download for free, or win all books reviewed unless otherwise stated. All reviews are unsolicited. I do not accept review requests as I have a very busy life between family and writing. And when I do take time to read, I have a massive to-read pile.

My promise: Opinions posted in my reviews are just that, opinions. I'm not out to make or break anyone. I want to offer my opinion to hopefully help readers find something new to read or avoid a book that may have issues they also dislike.

I know many readers are afraid to post reviews below 3 stars(and some even afraid to post 3 star reviews). I am not one of them. No, I don't want a review to come back and bite me, but I feel honesty in the reading world is essential.

Variety: I post negative and positive reviews here for three reasons.

1. Balance - I like to offer more than just one extreme.

2. Relief - If you've ever had the burning desire to tell the world about an amazing book, or the desire to rant endlessly about a terrible one, you'll know what I'm talking about. It's a great release for me to be able to slap emotions churned up by a book on a post that in turn intrigues or incenses other people.

3. Trust - This is the biggest reason. When I tell readers that I LOVED a book, I want them--I want YOU to believe me. If you know that I'm not afraid to share a negative experience with a book, you can believe that when I say I had a positive one that I mean it. I WANT people to trust me when I say a book is good.

Authors(myself included) need to take negative reviews in stride. Cry to a close friend, but keep it private. And we shouldn't make readers afraid. Sadly, too many negative experiences have caused reviewers to hide their dislikes.

Reviews are great for authors to learn, to grow, and yes, good ones are great pick-me-ups. But I see negative reviews as being a resource for readers only. Most of the time, they'll only upset the author, so best to avoid reading them. Think of it this way. If you were looking online at a shirt and you see a negative review(or several) that says, "I'm broad-shouldered and this was very tight on the shoulders." and you are built the same, you can move on. That negative review just saved you a lot of time and hassle and money. It saved the person selling the shirt from having another unhappy buyer and another negative review.

I've been saved from lots of bad purchases by negative reviews. I've also not paid attention and bought items that I read the reviews for later and realized there were people who warned against the problem I faced. THANK YOU! Thank you to reviewers of all sorts. I don't want to be annoyed by picking up something that won't work for me. And sometimes the issues stated are not issues for me and I buy the product.

Thank you to reviewers out there who give their best, honest opinion without personally attacking the creator/seller. Thank you to the people who read and enjoy my ABB series.

My Mission: To take bad experiences and save you the pain. To vent some frustration while making you laugh. To introduce you to amazing stories and get you excited along with me. And again, to make you laugh. I like making people smile and if the humor in any of my reviews makes you happy, I feel successful. So even if you just drop me a comment ever and say, "Thanks for the laugh!" I'll be preening like a peacock.

Fairytale Anthology Interview with Author Matthew Dewar

I'm so excited to share this! My writer's group has been hard at work to put together an anthology of fairytale retellings: From the Stories of Old.

Today I'll be interviewing one of the authors, Matthew Dewar, on his story The Female Warrior: a retelling of the ballad of Mulan.

Kristen - For your story in the anthology, you choose the Ballad of Mulan. Did it make writing your story easier or harder having a ballad to work from?

Matt - At first I almost chose something else to base my retelling on, because the Ballad seemed confusing and quite the challenge as it was relatively sparse on details, but the more I read it, the more I realised that it was perfect. The lack of specific details gave me a huge amount of freedom in my retelling.

Kristen - That addresses exactly what went through my mind. I was trying to decide if lack of details would make it difficult, or give you more freedom. I love that you saw the freedom it gave you and ran with it.


So what made you choose Mulan and what inspired the creation?

Matt - Mulan is inspirational in that she doesn’t rely on anyone to help her. She perseveres, and it is that strength of character that saves the day. I wanted my story to be inspirational in some way to the reader and show them that no matter the odds, there is always a chance at success. I took Mulan’s character and plonked her in the future where the world has been corrupted by greed. She handled herself quite well if you ask me!

Kristen - That she did! As you know, I had the privilege of getting a peek at an early draft and I was impressed even then(with Mulan and you!).


Can you share an excerpt from your story?

Matt - “Despite all the deaths, and all I have done, when I die, nothing will change if I can’t do something right now. Bundling up all my energy, I launch myself between the two men.”

Kristen - Love that line! And leading right up to a conflict which I guess we'll have to read the anthology to hear how that goes!


If you were to participate in a later volume, what story do you think you’d tell?

Matt - Good question! I would love to contribute again in the future and I have a few ideas bouncing around. One idea I have is for a retelling of The Elves and The Shoemaker that I think would work quite nicely. 

Kristen - For some random questions! You live in Australia and we’ve talked a few times about the wildlife there. Is there anything in Australia that WON’T kill you? Have you ever had any scary encounters?

Matt - Probably the only thing in Australia that won’t kill you is the koala bear, as long as you keep an eye out for their nasty cousins – the drop bears! 

My Dad and I were fishing on a boat once and we weren’t catching anything. I was bored and hot so I decided to jump in the water for a swim. Just before I was about to jump in, I saw this huge shadow swim up to the boat and it looked like a dolphin. The closer it swam, the more I realised it was a shark, not a dolphin. If I had have jumped in a few seconds earlier, who knows what might have happened.

Kristen - Oh gosh LOL. I think I would've been terrified at the thought of what almost happened. I can see the shark, swimming along, minding his own business, and then out of nowhere this human lands on his head. The shark's already been having a bad day, he had a fight with his best friend, you see, and this . . . this is the last straw.


Last question. You recently traveled to Canada, what was your favorite part of that trip and do you have any pictures you’d like to share?

Matt - I saw killer whales in their natural habitat and hiked up a few mountains. I won a snowball fight and spent the day at Disneyland with a fellow writer and friend, Katelyn Barbee, who is also featured in this anthology. The highlight of my trip was watching the Vancouver Canucks take on the Arizona Coyotes in ice hockey. I love ice hockey and I wish Australian winters were cold enough to play! 

Here is a picture I took from the top of Banff Mountain. Imagine waking up to that view every day!

Kristen - You say you wish they were colder, but I seem to remember you talking about being freezing in your nice balmy weather and bundled up in layer about layers. :D I don't think you could handle ice and snow like Canada!

Thank you for stopping by, Matt. My mom bought me a copy of the anthology for Christmas and I loved it!

From the Stories of Old is available on Amazon(Kindle or paperback).

Matthew lives in Perth, Australia, where he works as a physiotherapist and group fitness instructor. He enjoys taking his dog for walks, and making the most of the Australian sunshine and beaches.

Add Matt on Facebook!

Follow Matt on Twitter!



If you're interested in following the blog tour check out the previous stops by the other authors!

Julian Elliot on his retelling of Urashima Taro
Allie May on her retelling of Sleeping Beauty
J.L. Bernard on his retelling of The Little Mermaid

The Redemption - ABB Review

Today's ABB review is for The Redemption by M. L. Tyndall, which I gave 2 stars.

Lady Charlisse Bristol sets off on a voyage in search of a father she never knew, only to find herself shipwrecked on a desert island. Near starvation, she is rescued by a band of pirates and their fiercely handsome leader, Edmund Merrick. Will Clarisse win her struggle against the seductive lure of this pirate captain? While battling his attraction to this winsome lady, Edmund offers to help Charlisse on her quest-until he discovers her father is none other than Edward the Terror, the cruelest pirate on the Caribbean. Can Edmund win this lady's love while shielding her from his lecherous crew and working to bring her father to justice?





The strong points of this is the writing style, little to no errors, three-dimensional characters, a very visual world(you could see what was happening), and the author clearly did her research on seafaring as the sailing aspect was impressively written.

For those things, I gave it two stars.

The book started off strong. Charlisse has taken control of her life and fled her uncle's home to find her father. She's shipwrecked alone on a tiny island, but is able to fend for herself to a degree. Now I personally hate it when there's royalty, or some other "pampered" person who is put into a "take care of yourself" situation and they're either completely useless and brain-dead or they're magically skilled and prepared for any hardship.

Why? Because just because someone isn't used to hardship doesn't mean that they're unable to think logically. But it also means that unless they had an unusual upbringing, to be ready for a quest where they're roughing it is laughable. I want a balance, and at the start, it looked like Charlisse had that. She knew enough to find water, bring a bucket, hide in the trees at night, but she didn't really think past that to things like fire, shelter, or fishing so when she ran out of fruit on the island, she wouldn't starve.

Luckily, or not, a band of pirates lands on her island and she waits until they pass out drunk before sneaking in to get some food. Turns out one pirate isn't asleep. Merrick drinks little, and therefore is sober and alert. Since Charlisse is ill, he makes sure she's brought back to health, yada yada.

Charlisse is in her historical undergarments(white) and goes for a brief dip in the ocean. She comes back, and well, we know how that is. Merrick does a leering glance from head to toe. She tells him off and later in his pov we get to see him mentally berating himself. I won't lie, I got REALLY excited!

I'd just been complaining about men in books being creepers and not respecting women and not having the character think, "oh gosh, I should treat women like people and not candy displays."

But from that point on everything went downhill. I mean COME ON. Where do I even start. Okay, let's start with the creeper Merrick. Because Merrick is the "least" creepy guy, it's supposed to make him good. Charlisse isn't officially a prisoner, but this guy is her only ticket off the island and it's not safe outside of his cabin, so she lives in the cabin.

Occasionally she sees Merrick, usually at dinner and bed. Despite knowing how frightening it'd be to be female and trapped on a ship with all men who want to get a piece of you, Merrick does nothing but make Charlisse uncomfortable. He gets in her personal space, says creepy things, and despite regretting leering at her, he KEEPS doing it. I respect the struggle, but the whole sorry, but go right back to doing the same thing is not cool.

When I thought you know, nice, romantic pirate, I was thinking something more like Wesley.

The guy is supposed to be reformed and working on being a better person, but he just barely restrains himself from taking advantage of Charlisse and never stops being on that edge where Charlisse(or the reader) can be 100% sure of his motives. And suddenly it magically becomes okay. Like, he kisses her, and then they're in love, and from that point on all the stuff he's doing is okay because he now loves instead of lusts her?

BUT get this!! They only spend a little time in the evenings together where they do nothing but fight while he makes her uncomfortable and she's not sure if she should be scared of him or not!!

Charlisse is a terrible character who has zero control of her own destiny and is like a prop that's bounced from place to place. First she's stowed in Merrick's cabin, then she's scurried off to a house to hide while Merrick does man things, and then the ONLY time Charlisse takes any initiative since the very beginning of the book is to leave the house to go to a tavern with no weapons, defense, or telling anyone where she's going so that she can speak to Edward the Terror, the most ruthless pirate on the seas, and ask him nicely to admit he framed Merrick. Say what??!!?!

AND THEN she gets snatched by one of the nasty men in the tavern, duh, she knows it's not a good place, and is rescued by Edward because he wants to kidnap her for himself. She's then stuffed in the hold of the ship for x amount of time, only to be brought out by the other bad guy, Kent, and stuffed in his room for awhile, and then Edward finds her and brings her to his room, and there she pretty much stays until Merrick rescues her. And I mean, he first attacks the ship, rescues her that way, and then rescues her from a pirate who decides to snatch her for some fun play time because she didn't stay in the room because she wanted to watch. And then she's again snatched by Kent and used as leverage. I mean really? really? Am I the only one seeing this!! Sorry for double memeing you, but it has to be done . . .

Charlisse is almost always someone's hostage, or stuck in someone's cabin, even if it's "for her own safety." And let's break the above paragraph down now that we know how many times she's been kidnapped/used for leverage.

FIRST, everyone and their neighbor(sorry, but there's no polite way to say this) wants to bang Charlisse. Is there no other women in this world? Because EVERY. SINGLE. MAN. Has absolutely no goals beyond screwing Charlisse. Merrick at least holds himself back, but every pirate and tavern dweller does not. Desensitizing people to rape, or in this case attempted rape, is so not cool. But the sheer amount of times Charlisse is almost raped in this book made it really, really hard to not after awhile not care. Part of the issues is Charlisse didn't care! Trying to put myself in that position, I would imagine I'd be pretty shaken or emotionally messed up. Charlisse is unfazed, and because she's not reacting and it becomes a frequent plot device, I stopped being fazed by it.

So Kent, the other bad guy is shown to be a problem and Merrick just keeps letting him go, and he keeps coming back and causing issues. He's on his upteenth attempt to get his paws on Charlisse and she kicks him so hard in the stomach that he flies backwards and hits the wall and is knocked out. But then Charlisse is "too weak" to move the bloody idiot away from the door so she can get out. I kid you not, she sits down on the edge of the bed and waits for him to wake up. I AM NOT JOKING!! She's so weak she can't move the guy? Right, yeah, whatever. Even if she is, what person wouldn't keep trying. Inch by inch, with hours to spare, she could've done it. She doesn't tie him up, shoot him, nothing. I'm sorry, if someone made multiple attempts to rape me, and I was "too weak" to move him away from the door, I'd be taking the pistol and shooting him.

Maybe that makes me a terrible person, but the guy has sinister intentions, and guess what? He wakes up and tries again!!! TWICE!! (it's amazing how many times Charlisse almost gets raped and doesn't) She stayed up most of the night, with a gun in her lap, to do who knows what, fell asleep, and then he woke her up and had the gun back. But that nights rest was enough to rejuvenate her and Charlisse had no weakness issues for the rest of the book.

This book isn't called the Redemption for no reason. Everyone and their dog gets redeemed in this story. I'm not against redemption, but some of these people were just unbelievable. I think I've already crossed the spoiler line, so I'll just say one of them was Edward. The guy is a terrible person who slaughters people just to get to someone. He frames Merrick, tells him he hopes his daughter is beautiful because . . . well just guess. He then snatches his daughter and stows her in his ship with the intent of forcing himself on her, but after two false starts, he decides to bury her in the hold and leave her to rot. Which gives Kent an opening to drag her up to his room. 

There is no sign ever that Edward is a good man, or is changing. But suddenly, at the end, Merrick is like "hey, I know we're like mortal enemies, but let's put the past behind us." And he goes sure!!! For my daughter who I all of a sudden love and respect . . . I won't spoil the rest, but yep, that happened.

The reeaalllly fun part about all of this is reading the blurbs for the next two books and well, yeah, it made me laugh. 

There's other issues with this book, but I think my big 3 should be enough to cover it. To recap:

1. Charlisse is a prop with no agency or purpose besides being the "thing" all of the men are fighting over. She's completely incapable of taking care of herself or thinking logically. She survives through sheer dumb luck and other people looking out for her. It's characters like Charlisse that are the reason readers are demanding strong, female characters.

2. Constant attempted rape and lewd behavior towards Charlisse used as a plot device. Charlisse has no ill side effects from repeated attempts, and the only point of the behavior was to constantly put the FMC in danger and try and toy with reader's emotions. Bad form.

3. Merrick doesn't fight his old nature and win. Instead he repeatedly behaves inappropriately towards Charlisse, and despite saying he regrets it(to himself) after most instances, he never changes, but instead we're told that they now love each other so it's okay if he acts like that. That's not winning over a bad habit, but rather the author writing in an excuse so the character doesn't have to change.

About the Angry Book Blogger series and disclaimer found here. 

The Spirit of Christmas

If you've been to the stores at all since Halloween, I'm sure you've seen the Christmas decor. Every store is eagerly pushing Christmas presents, candy, decorations, and more in everyone's faces.

Now I love Christmas, don't get me wrong. It's my favorite holiday. But I do struggle with businesses pushing the next holiday as soon as one ends. If you buy your Christmas candy now, chances are you'll eat it before Christmas and then have to buy more. You'll buy your presents for the year, but week after week of seeing more options, you'll buy a few more things.

It's a good business practice, but not one I admire, especially for Christmas. It's so easy to get sucked into the "getting" part of Christmas. So, yes, I know it's early, but because of the nature of this post, it needs to be early!

Every week my daughter goes to a Wednesday night class at church. Because of the long drive, I stay until it's over and sit in a hall, out of the way and write. I even have a table and chair now! For awhile now, there's been a box wrapped in Christmas paper by my table. It's not a large box, and it has some assorted items in it. This past Wednesday, I finally asked about it. Next week the kids will be taking whatever has been donated in that box and packing shoeboxes to send to kids in underprivileged countries.

The fact that I'm right there every week and have a daughter in the class and haven't heard about this tells me the other parents are probably unaware as well. I struggled with if I should or shouldn't write this post because I'm not here to look down on everyone or pat myself on the back. But I couldn't get it out of my mind. 

I've bought my children's presents, and we have a tree that'll go up and ornaments to go on it. But I couldn't stop thinking about how many children around the world won't have that. They may be short on clothes, food, heat as well. Isn't part of Christmas about giving? About looking beyond our little bubble and doing some good. No, we'll never reach everyone, but we could make a difference in at least one child's life. 

A few days later, I took my daughter(she's 4) to the dollar store. Nothing fancy, but that's okay. I explained to her as best I could how she and her siblings had all the presents in the corner wrapped up, but that their were other kids who won't have presents. I told her we were going to pick out some things for them. They wouldn't be for her, but for her to give away. 

I wanted her to be a part of it and not just do it for her. I want to instill a generous spirit in her, and all of my children. So we went shopping. She wanted to pick out the biggest toys there were for the kids, but I had to explain about shoebox size LOL. 

We had a lot of fun picking out things kids would like that weren't breakable, perishable, needed batteries, etc. Some things we got that I hope will be fun are coloring books, some sticker/crayons/picture combos, a few stuffed animals, some character figures, puzzles, crayons, cars, and necklaces.

What I want to do is share the idea of reaching outside your home this year. I know so many of us worry about money and think we can't give enough to be worth it. But that's the beauty of community and lots of hands that give. Every gift, every dollar, every box or stocking helps. We don't need to save the world, we can just make one little kids day.

So this Christmas season, I want to challenge you to reach out. I want to advocate making the holidays special for not just you, but for someone else.

There's lots of ways to get involved. Maybe you know someone in your community who could use some cheer. Free wood for a furnace, a free Christmas tree, the offer of watching someone's pets for free while they travel to see family, helping someone with their shopping, paying for the person in front of you at the grocery store.

There's the shoebox program that my daughter is doing. 

Samaritan's Purse is an outreach program that loads shoeboxes with whatever you can fit in it(barring some things like liquids, war toys, etc. which they will list on their site) that they then collect and ship to children in other countries. Last year my daughter's class had their boxes sent to Guatemala.

This is a great one for hitting places like the dollar store that have little things that fit easily in a box, but you can also add shirts, socks, in addition to toys and hygiene items.

Angel tree reaches out to families in the US who have a parent in prison. Not only are these children who will be missing a parent on Christmas, but these our mother's or father's who are missing a spouse. Angel tree connects the parent in prison to their family. The parent in prison signs up for the program and then makes a list of what they think their children would like. This is a great one to organize with a church where a tree is set up and people can choose an angel off the tree with a family, or a child's name on it and shop for them.

You can also donate directly on their website where volunteers will do the shopping and delivery.

Solder's Angels and A Soldier's Child reach out to deployed troops and family's of both active soldier's and veterans. What I really love about Soldier's Angels is that they don't just have options to donate money or gifts, but you can adopt a family, or a soldier. Plus they have opportunities for people who are more creatively inclined and prefer homemade gifts. Handcrafted items are a great way to add a personal touch, brighten someone's day, and perhaps work more within your budget or personal talents.


Be an Elf is a site where you are forwarded letters to Santa and then respond with mailing a gift to the child!


Make a Wish is about donating money or gifts towards fulfilling a child's wish. These are children who've been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness.

Obviously this is just a few, and I tried to find wider covering ones. There's lot of state and local opportunities to give and support people during Christmas. Other countries will have different organizations as well, but I wanted to give people a place to start for ideas. :)

It doesn't have to be grand or expensive. Believe me when I say, I get it! We went super stingy mode with our grocery shopping this week so that we could buy gifts for the shoeboxes. Luckily the kids love PB&J and pasta! And my husband and I don't mind living off tacos and salad for a week. All that to say, I hope this encourages people to find some way to help out in their community or around the world. I'm excited about this, my daughter's excited. She couldn't stop telling the cashier that the presents were "for the kids!!"

Because it takes time to plan out this stuff, or ship it, that's why I'm doing this post now, to give people some time if they want to do a similar idea. And I wanted to put the idea in people's heads. So while the season is upon us and we're grumping that it's too soon(guilty), or dreading family get-togethers(no point in denying it! I know some people do!), or getting so caught up in the panicky rush we forget to remember the spirit of the season.

Light up someone's Christmas this year. :) Nothing is too small to make a difference. And it's a great lesson for us and our children to think about other people and have a generous heart.

Author Interview with Keely Brooke Keith

This month I'm doing a bonus author interview! Keely Brooke Keith is a fiction and non-fiction author. She writes blended genre books, as well as writing resource guides. Her newest guide is: The Writer’s Book Launch Journal: A Guided Book Marketing & Promotions Planner

Let The Writer’s Book Launch Journal guide you through the marketing and promotional tasks every author should do to ensure a successful book launch. Filled with checklists of essential tasks, an abundance of publicity suggestions, and questions to personalize your promotions, The Writer’s Book Launch Journal will lead you on the journey to a fun and fulfilling book launch.

Kristen - You started out as a fiction writer. What prompted you to take what you learned from launching your own books and publish writing resource guides?

Keely - Over the years of writing several books and being immersed in publishing and book marketing, I lived the struggles, joys, and confusion of being an author. Being both traditionally and independently published, I wanted to see every issue from every angle. While there was plenty of writing advice available online, wading through myriad blogs for a relevant nugget of wisdom was as life-sucking as the problem that drove me there. With each writing, publishing, and marketing hurdle I encountered, I amassed lists and spreadsheets and dog-eared resources. After going through a season where I had to stop writing and just work it all out, I realized I needed to create a series of guided journals for writers.

Kristen - What a great idea! It made me tired just reading that and imaging all of the work. I've barely dipped my toe in the marketing pond and it already feels like a swamp that wants to swallow me. 

One of the burning questions I think readers will have is why should they choose this book. There’s a lot of resource guides for writers out there, and it can be overwhelming to try and decide if a book is worth it. What makes your book different from other books on the same subject? Or from what we could easily learn from Google?

Keely - The guided journals I’ve created for writers are different than most writing books and online searches in two ways. First, I researched the writing books and websites, so that automatically takes the leg work out of it for my reader, plus I added what I’ve learned through experience. Secondly, my guided journals aren’t info dumps like most books and blogs, but rather they are guided journeys that use questions meant to prompt a deep and lasting understanding in the writer.

Kristen - And I see that there's actually a check list with your newest release, at least, that allows people to plan out their book launch in an organize fashion. I know lots of writers who love to keep their writing lives organized and would find a format like this appealing.

Now, you’ve written several resource guides. Which one would you say has been your most popular to date and can you tell us a bit about it?

Keely - When these first 4 journals were released, I thought the most popular would be The Writer’s Purpose Journal because so many of my writing friends struggle to stay motivated in their writing, but The Writer’s Book Launch Journal has been the best seller thus far. Who knew writers wanted someone to guide them through book marketing? Ha!

Book promotions can be intimidating for authors. Since the day I signed my first publishing contract, I’ve kept lists of marketing ideas. With each book launch, I try them and add to them for my next launch. I have both traditionally published friends and indie friends who’ve asked for my list (and a couple of publishers too). So, I created The Writer’s Book Launch Journal and spread the to-do lists over 12-months to turn it into an easy to follow plan for any author.

Whether you’re an indie author or signed to a publisher, The Writer’s Book Launch Journal will guide you through the marketing and promotional tasks every author should do to ensure a successful book launch. Filled with checklists of essential tasks, an abundance of publicity suggestions, and questions to personalize your promotions, The Writer’s Book Launch Journal will lead you on the journey to a fun and fulfilling book launch.

And since some authors want the information in The Writer’s Book Launch Journal but prefer to scroll through the checklists on their computer, I’ve also written the ebook The Writer’s Book Launch Guide: A Step-By-Step Plan to Give Your Book the Best Launch Possible. This ebook is a good companion to The Writer’s Book Launch Journal because the tasks are explained in more depth. I recommend getting both the journal and the ebook together.

Kristen - I like trying to add some fun, personal questions to show readers the person within the author, so here's some for you. Fall is in the air. What's your favorite Fall drink and what would you spend the perfect Fall day doing.

Keely - The leaves are changing here on the rolling hills of Middle Tennessee, and the foliage colors are just as beautiful on crisp days under a clear blue sky as they are in the mist of overcast days. Either way, give me a hot apple cider and a walk through the park, and I’m a happy camper.

Kristen - Our leaves are close to 100% now and I keep telling myself to go take pictures. We've got one of those very scenic roads. What is your favorite book? I know that can be a hard question!

Keely - That is a hard question. I think I answer it differently every time I’m asked. I’m loving The Poetry of Robert Frost right now.

Kristen - Thank you so much for stopping by Keely, and best of luck with all of your writing. 

For anyone who's interested in Keely's guided journal series, here's summary's of her other three books.

The Writer’s Purpose Journal: Discover Your Motivation For Writing

Do you want to write but don’t know where to start? Are you halfway through your manuscript and feel blocked? Have you lost your enthusiasm for writing? Let The Writer’s Purpose Journal guide you on a journey to rediscovering your purpose as a writer. Using questions to prompt soul-searching journal entries, The Writer’s Purpose Journal will lead you through your beginnings as a writer, your influences, your goals, and your motivations to help you remove blocks and find fulfillment as a writer.

The Writer’s Character Journal: Create a Varied Cast of Believable Characters

Let The Writer’s Character Journal guide you through creating the varied cast of believable characters you’ll need for your next novel. Using questions to prompt brainstorming, The Writer’s Character Journal will help you flesh out your characters’ pasts, quirks, relationships, strengths, fears, flaws, and more. Complete with a character index and numbering system for 18 characters.

The Writer’s Scene Journal: Track Essential Elements To Craft Unforgettable Scenes

Let The Writer’s Scene Journal guide you through crafting unforgettable scenes for your next novel. Using a list of essential elements, The Writer’s Scene Journal will help you brainstorm your scenes' setting, plot, characters, sensory details, symbolism, and more. Complete with a scene index and numbering system for 45 scenes.

All are available now: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Connect with Keely online: Website | Twitter | Facebook

Keely Brooke Keith is the author of The Land Uncharted and Aboard Providence. Her novels are known for blending genres in unconventional ways. Keely also creates resources for writers, including The Writer’s Book Launch Guide and The Writer’s Purpose Journal. When she isn’t writing, Keely enjoys playing bass guitar, preparing homeschool lessons, and collecting antique textbooks. Keely resides with her husband and their daughter on a hilltop south of Nashville where she dreams up stories, hoping to encourage, comfort, and inspire readers. She is a member of ACFW.

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.