Top 10 Books of 2016

Another year of reading has come to an end and I'll be sharing my top 10 favorites of this year! I'm really excited to share what books I fell in love with and maybe give you an idea of what to read in 2017!

It's been an interesting year as I had some unusual favorites. The first new thing this year is I started reading Indie authors. I've always been a library browser and unless I've somehow come across an indie book in my local library, I've mostly read traditional. Honestly, I don't really care who publishes a book and have never checked. BUT to the best of my knowledge this is the first year I've really been picking up indie books on purpose.

The second thing is that I'm a pretty solid YA only reader. I'll branch out on occasion, but I rarely read adult fiction. I had a LOT of adult books on my reading list this year and surprisingly enjoyed many of them.

The last thing is going to have the people who know me chuckling. I hate Romance. I will go out of my way to avoid books in the Romance genre and I'm even picky about romantic subplots in other genres. I was amused to find 2-3 Romance books make my list as well as some books with strong romantic subplots.

I think all of this says that I'm picky, but that when someone does write a romance or an adult book that jives with me, I love it more than my normal fare. I like reading about characters who are closer to my age or mental maturity. I like a good romance. I just have hard time finding romance that isn't all insta-love and this is lust but let's call it love, and other popular romance tropes. And I have a hard time finding adult books that are both clean and have the engaging writing style of YA. (I like the writing style of most YA and that's why I'm drawn to it.)

I've organized my list starting from the book coming in at #10 and counting down to #1. Every book has genre(s), the blurb that comes with the book, a picture of the cover, links of where to find the book, and my brief thoughts on it.

#10 Operation Space Cats: The Rescue Mission
Genre - Children's, Christian, Sci-fi

Furry crew to the rescue!

When Tebbs, the curious cat discovers part of his human family is missing in space, he plans to go on a rescue mission with Granny. But first he must recruit a team to help locate them. Problem is, he’ll be sneaking the small crew aboard, and hoping Granny won’t find out.

Enter the space cats … A mixed bunch of furry felines who have many lessons to learn about what it takes to make a team great. Bravery, teamwork, and most of all faith!

When mishaps occur, and danger lurks ahead, they’ll need to rely on each other. Will the team falter? Or can they pull together to make their mission a success?

Join Tebbs and the team for a series of adventures that are out of this world. Adored by kids, cats and kids at heart!

OSC is a super cute children's book full of colorful illustrations. I'd recommend for 8-10 year olds, but it would also be great for advanced young readers or parents who like to read to their children. My 4 year old loved the pictures of the kitties and the rocketship. She's too young to really understand the story or to sit still through the whole thing, but she's quite happy just flipping through and making up her own story until she's older. 

Tebbs and his friends are lovable and will inspire children, while teaching valuable lessons. This is obviously way below my age range and that of course means it doesn't mentally engage me like a book geared towards an older audience, but I did enjoy it and seeing my daughter go crazy over it. We're definitely buying book 2 when it comes out!

Full review: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon.

#9 Augment
Genre - Young Adult, Sci-fi, Novella

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.

I read very little sci-fi this year, and most of it I felt underwhelmed by. Augment was my first sci-fi of the year, and definitely my favorite. The dedication between Viki and Halle was my favorite part of the story, and I loved reading a book(Especially in the YA genre) that had the character focusing on struggles that weren't romantic.

I would've liked it to be a little longer so I could've immersed myself more in the story. But this is another story that I'll be buying the second book of.

Full review: Goodreads.
Purchase: Amazon.

#8 Resistance
Genre - New Adult, Christian, Fantasy, Adventure


Could God ever love a half-blood all of society looks upon with such fear and disdain? Jace once believed so, but when a tragic loss shatters the only peace he’s ever known, his faith crumbles as the nagging doubts he’s tried to put behind him descend on his grieving heart. With them come the haunting memories of the bloodstained past he longs to forget, but can never escape.

Taken from home at a young age and raised to serve the emperor, Kyrin Altair lives every day under a dangerous pretense of loyalty. After her unique observation skills and perfect memory place her into direct service to the emperor, Kyrin finds herself in further jeopardy as it becomes increasingly difficult to hide her belief in Elôm, the one true God.

Following the emperor’s declaration to enforce the worship of false gods under the penalty of death, many lives are endangered. But there are those willing to risk everything to take a stand and offer aid to the persecuted. With their lives traveling paths they never could have imagined, Jace and Kyrin must fight to overcome their own fears and conflicts with society as they become part of the resistance.
Resistance is marketed as NA but the characters are teenagers, so in my mind that's YA, but either way, I enjoyed this. For the first time I had to set a book down and grab a notebook to write down thoughts. I'd say this was a precursor to me wanting to write reviews on my blog as after this book, the habit of jotting down notes has become more frequent.

This is a book that should be a movie so that I can grab someone while watching it and be like, "Oh my gosh!" I loved the tension and the action in this book, as well as the tough situations the characters were in and what they had to overcome.

Full review: Goodreads.
Purchase: Amazon.

#7 Pride and Prejudice
Genre - Classic, Historical Romance

Elizabeth Bennet is young, clever and attractive, but her mother is a nightmare and she and her four sisters are in dire need of financial security and escape in the shape husbands.

The arrival of nice Mr Bingley and arrogant Mr Darcy in the neighbourhood turns all their lives upside down in this witty drama of friendship, rivalry, enmity and love.

After being madly in love with the BBC version of this story, I finally sat down to read the book. I was thrilled to find it just as engaging as the movie and that BBC did a good job of sticking to the heart of the story. I think I'll have a new appreciation for Pride and Prejudice when I watch it. Overall, a great read with the riveting dialogue I was expecting and several great new scenes and clips that I wasn't familiar with.

Full review: Goodreads.
Purchase: Amazon.

#6 Rose of Prophecy
Genre - Fairytale Retelling, Romance, Short story


She is afraid. Not because she is alone. Not because thick roiling clouds obscure the moon. Not because the wind rushes through the forest like a wild dragon. She is afraid because she is late. And to be late means death.

Her life had been happy once.

Despite the destruction wreaked by Tauscher, traitor to the King... Despite the distant war led by the Prince and fought with the help of her three brothers... Despite her own poorly-chosen nickname... Despite the absence of the luxuries she grew up with, Beauty enjoyed life.

Of course, that was also before her father left home on a hopeful errand but returned weary and ill, bearing a velvety scarlet rose which he claimed would never wither. But even life in the ancient hall, tucked away in the center of Mosswood, surrounded by roses of every description, overshadowed with mystery and home to a scarred figure who was more beast than man, wasn't too bad after a time.

But now...now, in a flash of light, Beauty finally glimpses the truth. And the cost. The price which must be paid, or the sacrifice which must be made.

It is a curse which even love alone may not be able to break.
I love retellings and I went into this with mediocre expectations as it is a short story. I didn't expect to be engaged with so little time to do it. I was pleasantly surprised when not only did I love this story, but it has taken my spot as the number one Beauty and the Beast retelling. There's a couple of things I can never quite go for in BatB, or its many retellings. I was excited to read a book that finally dealt with those.

Like I've always hated that the father told Beauty about his deal with the Beast. If you REALLY don't want your child to take your place, then don't tell them!! What kind of parent allows their child to go live with an angry, creepy beast or even tells them about the situation in the first place so they have to deal with the guilt?

A great story that finally fixes those bumps that've always annoyed me and managed to pull of the miracle of submersing me in the world with only a short time to do so.

Full review: Goodreads.
Purchase: Amazon.

#5 The Other Countess
Genre - Romance, Historical Fiction


England, 1582

ELLIE - Lady Eleanor Rodriguez of San Jaime - is in possession of a gold-seeking father, a worthless title and a feisty spirit that captivates the elite of the Queen's court, and none other than the handsome new Earl of Dorset . . .

WILLIAM LACEY has inherited his father's title and his financial ruin. Now the Earl must seek a wealthy heiress and restore his family's fortune.

But Will's head has been turned by the gorgeous Ellie, yet their union can never be. Will is destined to marry a worthy Lady so the only question is - which one . . . ?
After ordering this, I picked it up and there in all of its sickeningly bright glory was the infamous pink sticker of doom. It bore its red heart at the center as if mocking the fact that mine was sinking. "Not Romance!" I groaned. Why was there no warning? No bright red banner that flowed over my screen covered in hearts and fireworks while sappy music played in the background. I'd been suckered.

At last it was the only unread book in the house. I glared at it in loathing and disgust. "You wicked, wicked thing." I hissed. But it didn't seem to care. So I read it.

And I loved it. The romance is fun, a little sweet, but not too much, and there's this touch of humor throughout. Circumstances have put Ellie and Will on less than perfect terms, but fate throws them together after a particularly rough parting years back.

Staged in Elizabeth's court, the first part of the story is interesting and fun, and I couldn't help but feel for both parties. Ellie's father has a never-ending fool's quest that ruined Will's father and now Will has to try and recover the family finances. Meanwhile Ellie's living on the fringes of the court while her dad has found another sucker. The two meet and while Ellie recognizes Will, he has no idea who she is and starts a flirtation.

But when he eventually finds out, things take a sour turn. About halfway, things shift from the bustle and intrigue of court, to the quietness of the countryside where Ellie is now living in the village that's on Will's land. The two patch things up, but now Will has found a way to repair his finances in a beautiful Countess(who unlike Ellie, has money to go with the title).

What makes it interesting is that I rather liked the Countess who under her prickly exterior seemed a genuinely nice person. You have these people that are caught in this mesh of "We need to do this for family/our people." and despite the fact no ones really happy about the various situations, they feel trapped.

I loved the responsibility that each party felt and that Will's betrothed wasn't made out to be this horrible person that we should cheer against.

Full review: Goodreads.
Purchase: Amazon.

#4 Neverseen
Genre - Middle Grade Urban Fantasy


Sophie Foster is on the run—but at least she's not alone.

Her closest friends from the Lost Cities have gone with her to join the Black Swan. They still have doubts about the shadowy organization, but the only way to find answers is to start working with them. And as they settle into their new lives, they uncover secrets far bigger than anything they’d imagined.

But their enemies are far from done, and unleash a terrifying plague that threatens the safety of an entire species. Sophie and her friends fight with everything they have—with new allies joining them—but every choice has consequences. And trusting the wrong person could prove deadly.

In this game-changing fourth book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, Sophie must question everything to find a truth that will either save her world—or shatter it. 

I've been a fan of the KotLC series ever since it came out. I don't remember what compelled me to pick up the first book, but I'm glad I did. Every book of the series is a five star from me, even if there's a couple things I'm not fond of, the books as a whole are just SO FREAKING GOOD. 

My favorite character is Dex. He's the loner, the outcast, the social reject kind of kid. So by this point he's not so much because he's part of the group, but I can relate to Dex. He's not popular, or well-connected, or apparently devilishly good looking like Keefe and Fitz. His power isn't thought highly of and his parents are ruled a bad match, plus he has triplets for siblings(another prejudice in elvin society). He's so the underdog, and yet he's got a big heart.

I really missed him in this book, it has to be said, but the plot, the writing, and the characters will always keep me coming back. I actually wasn't sure where to put this exactly on my 10 list, so I just picked a spot. 

As always, the plot of this series just keeps jumping from one thing to another in a crazy rollercoaster that keeps you in the seat because you have NO idea what's over the next hill and you HAVE to see. It's intense, there's lots of surprises, suspense, emotion. Keefe delivers as usual(for awhile) with his famous quips and mannerisms.

There's always some introspective moments as characters take on big internal issues. It was torture waiting for the next book, but I survived! (trying to keep this spoiler-free since it's book 4)
 

Full review: Goodreads.
Purchase: Amazon.

#3 Lodestar
Genre - Middle Grade Urban Fantasy

Sophie Foster is back in the Lost Cities--but the Lost Cities have changed. The threat of war hangs heavy over her glittering world, and the Neverseen are wreaking havoc.

The lines between friend and enemy have blurred, and Sophie is unsure whom to trust. But when she's warned that the people she loves most will be the next victims, she knows she has to act.

A mysterious symbol could be the key--if only she knew how to translate it. Every new clue seems to lead deeper into her world's underbelly and the Black Swan aren't the only ones who have plans. The Neverseen have their own Initiative, and if Sophie doesn't stop it, they might finally have the ultimate means to control her.

Book 5 of the KotLC series finally came out in November and I actually went and bought it instead of waiting for my turn at the library(waiting for this book is excruciating in that line). I've yet to be disappointed in this series, so I was confident in buying my own lovely little hardcover copy. 

Shannon Messenger delivered as usual and I loved this book quite a bit more than Neverseen. I'd mentally shifted my mind to accept that Dex is not going to be a key player(I'm not against being proved wrong!) and decided to focus on the other elements of the series. (I hate getting sucked into love triangle/squares anyway and Sophie's just a kid, she doesn't need a love interest yet.)

First, after the cliffhanger from Neverseen there was a LOT of interesting parts that tied into that. And then things are definitely ramping up as the plot thickens and more baddies with more sinister plans come out of the woodworks. 

There's a lot of awesome bits tucked in that I think can impact both the MG audience and adults. Messenger broaches things like appropriate behavior around girls in terms of physical contact, verbal/emotional abuse, discrimination, prejudice, looking outside of our bubble and noticing when someone needs a friend, that the end doesn't always justify the means, prejudice, not participating in a system that's flawed, forgiveness, not trying to change people to be like you, and something that particularly struck a cord with me. 

After needing to separate myself and my family from my psychopathic paternal parent, I've gone a long way on the road of healing. It's also given me a unique experience to empathize with people who are in unhealthy relationships with their parents. So often we're told that we should stay with our parents and we should make them a part of our lives, and the list goes on. I see people who are still fighting for their parents acceptance and love after their parent has treated them like pond scum. And I see people who keep themselves in an unhealthy relationship with a parent because they think they're a terrible person if they remove themselves.

I can not explain how much it impacted me to see Shannon Messenger tackle the idea of it being okay to remove yourself from harm. To see a situation that's easy for 10-14 year olds to understand and is at their level(not too intense or graphic) and then have a character step up and say, "No, we will not be treated this way anymore. We choose to not have you in our lives." was just . . . wow. And then Sophie stepped in and said one of the most powerful lines I've ever seen in fiction. I called my mom and read it to her, I read it to my husband. 

People NEED to know that it's okay to walk away from a parent who's relationship is negatively impacting you. Adults . . . I'm talking to you. It does not make you a terrible person. You should not feel that you have to remain in a situation that's causing you emotional, mental, or physical harm because that person is a parent who you're supposed to respect and allow in your life. 

This is a brilliant story with so much going for it that everyone should read it. 

Full review: Goodreads and ABB.
Purchase: Amazon.

#2 Friends and Foes
Genre - Romance, Historical Fiction

After five years of tracking and capturing spies on English soil, Philip Jonquil, Earl of Lampton, is in pursuit of his last quarry. But at a traveler’s inn, he encounters an unexpected and far more maddening foe: Sorrel Kendrick, a young lady who is strikingly pretty, shockingly outspoken, and entirely unimpressed with him. Indeed, Sorrel cannot believe the nerve of this gentleman, who rudely accuses her of theft and insults her feminine dignity. 

Doubly annoyed when they both end up at a party hosted by mutual friends, Philip and Sorrel privately declare war on one another. But Philip’s tactics, which range from flirting to indifference, soon backfire as he finds himself reluctantly enjoying Sorrel’s company; and, much to her dismay, Sorrel finds Philip’s odd manner to be increasingly endearing. 

In the midst of this waning war and growing attraction, Philip catches wind of the French spy he’s been tracking, and Sorrel inadvertently stumbles upon a crucial piece of the puzzle, making her indispensable to the mission. But can two proud hearts negotiate a ceasefire when cooperation matters most?
Once again, I accidentally snatched up a Romance. But again, I was pleasantly surprised. This book will adorn my shelves one day and I'm hoping to read the rest of the series soon!

It's a clean, slow-burn romance. It's sweet, it's sarcastic, it's funny. There's some sort of sub-plot besides the romance going on but you really only see that at the beginning and at the end. It's more there just to set the stage of why the characters are in a situation together and why they start off on the wrong foot and grate on each other's nerves.

It's so hard to say what the best part of this was because it really boiled down to the two main characters. The romance (obviously) was good, the dialogue was stellar, and everything was so vivid and engaging. I started this right before bed and was like nooooo, I have to sleep! But the next night I stayed up until one in the morning to read the rest because IT WAS THAT GOOD! I couldn't put it down and I even laughed out loud in a few places.

The back and forth banter between Philip and Sorrel was humorous and witty. The private thoughts they each had were hilarious too. It was almost like a modern day Pride and Prejudice feeling(modern part being the writer and writing style, the story itself isn't modern). There was that same engagement with the dialogue and it had me hooked.

It was really hard to know where to rank this one. Actually, my top 3 were all really close.

Full review: Goodreads.
Purchase: Amazon.

#1 The Firethorn Crown
Genre - New Adult, Fairytale Retelling, Romance

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.

As I said, it was really close between my top 3. So what decided The Firethorn Crown as the winner? Three things: First, I read this as an ebook and I'm a very, very, very slow ebook reader and what normally takes me a couple weeks to read on Kindle took me 2 nights to finish. Second, that was around planning a party. I stayed up late the night before the party to read this, had to force myself to stop. Then after the party, I stayed up all the next night to finish. So picture me drop dead tired, running around like crazy, and I'm staying up late to finish a book in record time. THAT HAS TO MEAN IT'S GOOD. The last reason is that I went and ordered myself the paperback shortly after(my husband's giving it to me for Christmas, yay!).

Now this book I read after starting my ABB review series here on my blog, so I have an entire post dedicated to the book and why I love it. I won't say too much here because it'd just be repeating stuff. But this was an amazing retelling that is my favorite one for the 12 Dancing Princesses. Great characters and plot, amazing descriptions, and overall just an absolute pleasure to read.

Full review: Goodreads and ABB.
Purchase: Amazon.
    
And there's my top 10 for the year! A lot of good finds for the year, and some that have made it onto my all-time favorites list. Hopefully there'll be something that grabbed your attention and you'll have another book to add to your 2017 pile!

Infected - ABB Review

This weeks ABB review is of Infected: The Shiners by Tara Ellis. Infected is a YA novel that starts on the brink of what can best be described as an apocalyptic event. I gave it 4 stars.

An alien plague. A sixteen-year-old girl. A fight to save the world.

When a rare meteor shower unleashes a mind-altering infection, the people Alex loves begin to change. They’re smarter, faster, emotionless, and they have a plan. One that doesn’t include her.

Guided by cryptic clues left behind by her deceased father, Alex follows a trail of increasingly shocking discoveries. Earth’s history isn’t what she learned in school, and a new hive mind threatens to rewrite the future.

Alex is a fighter, but pursued by both friends and an unknown enemy, it will take everything she has to fulfill her destiny. Desperate to save her little brother, she flees to the mountains surrounding her home, where the only chance for humanity has lain hidden for thousands of years.

Infected starts off right before everything in Alex's world changes. She's already been through the loss of her father two years prior, but that's just a precursor as to what's coming. On the night of the Holocene meteor shower, Alex, her family, and pretty much her whole town is out to watch the show.

Every five thousand years this shower goes past and it's been the talk of Alex's family, even before her father was killed. I already knew from the blurb what this shower is going to bring, but Alex doesn't know that.

This story starts off really slow, despite beginning at such a key moment. I'm not sure why it felt slow, but it did. 

I was also frustrated by Alex and her brother's Jake super-sensitivity to wrongness. They didn't actually have any powers so their ability to automatically sense something was off felt more like the author was making sure the readers didn't miss the foreshadowing. 

It was a lot like being on an Easter Egg hunt and Mom's stopping by each egg, no matter how cleverly hidden and shouting, "OH WOW I THINK THERE MIGHT BE AN EGG HERE."  And you're going, "Wow, Mom. I'm like 12 years old now. I can find my own eggs." 

So after awhile I'm looking sideways at Alex and being like: 

In all honesty, I don't think it was the author's intention, but it did take some of the fun out of figuring out when things were hints at "this shows things are about to go off the rails."

But then . . . it happened. I'm about 25% of the way into the book and crap hits the fan! I mean I'm sitting there going WHAT!!! Whoa, no way. Whoa. Oh dang.

And it didn't stop. First there's this note from her dad that's like, "I'm probably dead, and if you're reading this A, B, and C has happened. You have to do this, and you can't do that." I'm going AHHHHHH, he knew! I mean it was fre-aky. I got the heebie-jeebies just reading that letter.

From that point on I was just sucked in. It was scary as heck! Like not horror scary but like, pass me a blanket and a cat, read this in the daylight, and DON'T SNEEZE kind of scary.

 It's hard to explain that creeping sense of doom. Everything is wrong, horribly wrong, and I'm staring at the page unable to look away. Nowhere is safe. No one is safe. The world is just screwed up!!! And then she locks her door, sticks the chair under the knob and I'm shouting, "Why the fungus are you barring the door, but leaving your brother unprotected?" No, no, no, go grab him and have a slumber party in your room. Then lock the door, the window, like 50 times and take turns standing watch. IT'S NOT SAFE!

And then she wakes up in the middle of the night because her mom comes home late(yeah, when it says everyone's messed up, it really means everyone), she goes and listens by her bedroom door and can sense her mom's on the other side aware that she's doing just that. Oh my gosh!!! How does she sleep after that? Her mother was creeping me out!

And then the school goes from, "Hey we're closed because there's an epidemic." to "We're open, precious." I'm going, no bad, don't go, don't go!!! Warning bells are going off. AND SHE GOES!!!

I'm now hiding under my bed with my blanket and covering my eyes. I just know it's NOT going to go well. And then I sneak out, read some more and it's back to "oh crap, oh crap. Oh freaking no way." Alex walks into the room and every head in the class swivels towards her and gives her the deathly stare of ultimate doom.

The whole time she's at school, I'm just waiting for things to fall apart and then they do and I'm like AHHHH. And then we find out what happened after school and I'm like AHHHHH.

My experience with this book can be summed up in one short video. Yeah, this was me.

Then finally Alex decides, okay brother and friend dude, we need to bail . . . like yesterday. She rushes home and bad stuff is going down and I'm like IT'S TOO LATE!!! They're going after Jake! Not Jake! He's just a kid! Alex is on the big sister warpath though and she's like . . . you mess with my brother, I mess with your face.

They narrowly escape and they're fleeing to someone who'll hopefully help them. You'd think okay downtime. YOU'RE WRONG!! I was on such high alert that I was like, trust no one trust no one. The guy they went to see would be like, "Have a cookie." And I'd be going, "Why? Is it poisonous?" And he's say, "Let me take your bags." And I'd be like, "No, you just want to steal them!" I don't think I would've trusted my own mother by that point. It didn't matter if nothing creepy was happening, I was way beyond trust and relaxing.

Now the pieces are starting to fall together and smart guy helps them understand some things. Now they have to find the cure, or rather, they have to find where the cure is being stored and activate it to vaccinate the population.

But we're dealing with people who are not only emotionless, but super fast and smart. I mean, our characters are going, "we need to stop and buy food." One goes into the store to buy something to eat and they can't stop worrying afterwards that that one little stop would be their undoing.

See . See. See. It's not just me that was uber-paranoid! And then every time she leaves her brother alone I’m like, NOOO something bad’s going to happen!!!

I'm pretty sure Tara Ellis was cackling when she wrote this book.

Overall, this was a gripping story that had a slow start, but once it took off it just snowballed all the way to the end. I flew through the rest of the book and had lots of AHHHHH moments. It was that blend of terrifying that made you go, oh no, oh no, oh no, but it won't make it so you're unable to sleep or haunted by nightmares. 

The characters were well-done, as was the tension. I liked that Alex and Chris were friends, but that(at least in this book) it wasn't heading straight for a romance. It's nice to see two characters who can just be friends and not immediately set off fireworks. I liked how Alex and Jake solved the clues and how the three were trying to figure out how to operate in a world gone mad.

It was interesting how the virus chose to infect people with the most mixed bloodlines. I'd be essentially screwed if this virus hit. It made me think if people had known in advance there'd have been some crazy marriage restrictions to keep bloodlines pure. 

There's a bit of Egyptian lore mixed into this which both complimented Alex's heritage and what's going on in her world. There's some funky dreams and two instances of a strange voice calling her, but I honestly didn't think much about them. I never expect my dreams to make sense and I was so caught up in the drama that I forgot to think about what the voice might mean. 

I will be reading book 2 in the future and again, this book got 4 stars from me.

Find it on Amazon.

Learn more about Tara Ellis and her other novels on Facebook and Twitter 

About the Angry Book Blogger series and disclaimer found here.

Reading Challenge Update #4

Books 7 and 8 of my classic reading challenge are complete!

Wuthering Heights was a book that I finished and felt very . . . strange about. I'd say it was the most surprising of all my books in the fact that I didn't expect such a story to grip me. I gave it 4 stars and it really does deserve every one of them. It's a story I'll never read again because it's not one of those things I wish to revisit. That sounds worse than it is, but the truth is there's so many books out there I haven't read that I rarely ever reread anything, no matter how much I liked it.

Wuthering Heights isn't a book I'd choose to reread even if I was in the mood because it wasn't one of my favorite books ever, but also because it was so depressing. Truly Emily Bronte was a skilled author and the fact that she could write a book where every character was detestable and still manage to grip the reader is amazing.

This is a book about people. Lots of people. At least that's how I see it. People who make bad choices and then those choices effect other people and in turn those people become horrible human beings and pass on more darkness. There's this feeling of watching a car pileup where the car after car rear-ends the person in front of them when reading Wuthering Heights. It's an extremely well-written book with such a variety of characters who each stand out as individuals to such a degree as to seem real.

The people within the pages of Wuthering Heights elicited a good deal of emotion from me. I shed a few tears, I despaired, I avoided reading it before bed or late at night as the amount of depression it exuded was so intense I knew it'd disturb my sleep. More than that, I've never before faced such a desire to reach through the pages and kill so many fake people. It's true! I hated most everyone in this book and wished them horrid deaths of which I would've carried out myself if I could've leapt through the pages.

And here's where the spoilers come in as I rant(I'm sorry, but this book messed with my emotions and now I'm going to take it out in writing).

Mr. Earnshaw is the first character of the story within the story. He wasn't the world's greatest dad and had some flaws, though he wasn't a horrible person. Despite not being able to adequately raise his two kids, he goes out and "adopts" a kid he picks up on the road without consulting his wife or children on their feelings. This leads to some tension in the house. The boy, Heathcliff, becomes friends with the daughter, Catherine(who we'll call Cathy to avoid confusion later). But the Earnshaw's other child, Hindley, never gets along with Heathcliff. Earnshaw brings this kid into his house and causes havoc, dooming his family to suffering long after he's gone. He then plays favorites with Heathcliff and listens to Joseph(who sadly lived through the duration of the book) about how evil his children are.

This just causes more strife between the three youngsters that sets up the rest of the book. Earnshaw dies and Hindley becomes man of the house. I couldn't quite forgive Earnshaw for his poor parenting, but that turned out to be the least of my character quibbles.

Joseph, as referenced earlier, was the crotchety old manservant who's dialogue was nigh on unreadable. I could only make out about half of what he said with great difficulty. It was enough. Joseph drove me bonkers. He was a ranting loony bird who wanted nothing more than to tattle and cause trouble. He was a nasty, gossiping old man that probably was mentally unwell.

Now man of the house, Hindley might've turned out to be a tolerable person if he hadn't lost his wife and had to deal with Heathcliff, but as it were he turned into quite the villain. Hindley made life miserable for Cathy and Heathcliff. He was a mean man who became worse with drink, which he was often drunk. His treatment of Hareton is what made me lose all sympathy for him. How anyone could be so nasty to their child . . .

I HATED Heathcliff and Cathy. They deserved each other. They were selfish, vicious, poisonous people. Neither one cared for anyone or anything but themselves. Even their love was selfish. They said they loved each other, but they didn't treat each other like they did. Cathy's worst crime was involving the poor Lintons. The parents died from whatever disease she had. The son married her and ended up in a terrible marriage. The daughter got caught up in the whole mess and married Heathcliff who abused her terribly. Her son then got dragged into it and he(his name being Linton) turned out to be a horrible person as well. Spineless little worm who had just as nasty a disposition as his father(Heathcliff).

The only person I felt bad for was Hareton. Poor Hareton. Caught up in the middle and used by Heathcliff to the point where he didn't even realize it. Nelly, the storyteller, at times seemed decent yet she lacked the backbone and the resolution to do good when good needed done most. The person who she tells the story to, Lockwood, is a shallow man who just wants entertainment and briefly entertains the idea of marrying Cathy and Edgar Linton's daughter(Catherine, hence the wanting to avoid confusion), but then moves on despite knowing the terrible history to leave everyone to their fates and only returns to hear the rest of the story by chance.

Isabella not letting Hindley kill Heathcliff upset me. WHY!!!?? Her reason was stupid and I think of how much suffering could've been avoided if she'd just shut her mouth.

I think that was a good part of the problem. People kept having these stupid weak moments of sympathy and those moments screwed themselves and other people over later or just enabled the monsters in this book to keep going.

Little Catherine wasn't as wicked as her mother, but she was exceedingly dumb and didn't listen to common sense. No one deserves to get tricked into a house, locked in, and forced to marry anyone(and beaten), but I couldn't help yelling that if she'd just used her brain or listened to Nelly or her father none of it would've happened.

So WHY the four stars? Because it takes a powerful good writer to pull that much emotion from a reader. Because the story drew me down, down into the quagmire of misery and I never once fought to escape. I couldn't look away, couldn't stop reading. No matter that the ending couldn't be good(and really, it did end up being only tolerably brighter than imagined), no matter how I hated the characters, I had to keep going. I know they're fictional characters, but I wish all sorts of evil on Heathcliff and Cathy's heads(even though they're also fictionally dead).

I held off on giving this five stars because of two reasons. One, I'll never read this again. I couldn't put myself through that trauma. And two, it was too long. By the time I hit about 70% I was emotionally spent and felt like I'd been ran through the wringer for days without rest. There's only so much a person[I] can take of that kind of emotional abuse through writing before it gets to be too much. I powered through the last 30% because I needed to finish and move on to brighter things.

I also felt that this book did a great job of showcasing the various forms abuse can take and how it negatively impacts so many people. Emotional manipulation, physical abuse, mental abuse, emotional abuse, deception, etc. It's so hard to notice those things when you're stuck, but I hope people read this and by seeing it happen to someone else, maybe they'll be able to identify abuse in their life if it's happening and take steps to remove themselves before they end up like any number of these characters.

A powerful book and I'm glad I read it.

  Book number 8 was Dracula, which I'm sorry fans, but I hated. I not only gave it 1 star but it became the first book of my challenge that I did not finish. I didn't write a review for this(outside of this post) as I like to either finish a certain percentage of a book or have a solidly good reason beyond "wasn't holding my interest" or in this case "I don't like horror and this was horror and I knew that."

This was the last book I chose for my challenge and I only chose it because of the number of people who'd recommended it to me when I was taking suggestions. I am not a horror reader, at all. I hate horror stories, movies, books, etc. I fully accept that it was silly for me to choose a horror novel, even an old one when people had less disgusting ideas. (I'm sure modern horror books are way worse)

I honestly tried to suffer through this, and it wasn't "scary" but I don't take nasty elements well and I tried to ignore the first few references to vampire snacks since they were fairly detail-less, but when children were brought into the picture and a mother stood outside begging . . . I won't go on, but I'll say that it made me ill. I put the book down at that point and realized that I'm not in the camp of "read something that disturbs you just because" camp. I've very sensitive when it comes to children being hurt, abused, killed, etc. and I can honestly take very, very, very little of that in my fiction and seeing even a title of a news article on such a subject will make me tear up. Mommy hormones, I swear.

Anyway. I can't say much on this one that'll be a good review for those who enjoy the horror genre or where this falls in storytelling terms. I didn't enjoy it and I'll choose more wisely in the future.

My last post for books 9 and 10 will be coming soon! Eek, the end of the year is almost here and though I've finished all my books for both of my challenges, I'm very behind on my blog posts.

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.

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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.

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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