Review: James Maxwell - Enchantress

Title: Enchantress

Author: James Maxwell

Website: http://www.jamesmaxwell.com/

My rating: 5 Stars

Kindle:

Wow. I don't even know where to begin with this one. This story is the first in a series of the Evermen Saga. It is, basically, about two children who lost their parents at an early age. We get to follow them as they grow in their own unique ways, through the laughter and tears, through the good times, and when all hope seems to be gone. Yet it is so very much more than just that.

I really enjoyed the majority of the characters in this novel. It follows a basic belief of mine that, for the most part, 'bad guys' truly believe they are doing what is best for the world, as wrong as that is sometimes. In some cases, their end goal would be better for humanity, but the steps they take to meet those goals are absolutely horrifying! This book does a really amazing job of portraying this.

The world has magic that relies on essence, with each area knowing and guarding the knowledge of a particular type of runes, required to be drawn with the essence and activated with words. Each land specializes in a different area of these runes. Personally, I was thrilled with the magic system. It's different from what I see used in a lot of other fantasy novels. I love seeing different magic systems and how the author succeeds in keeping a balance between being powerful yet still having limits.

The different lands (and people from those lands) were fascinating. The author paints a sharp picture in my mind of what these lands look like. The vivid detail had me completely drawn in, I felt like I was there, next to the character I was currently reading the viewpoint of. I really would have enjoyed reading more about the enchanting school, I could probably enjoy an entire novel on that alone!

Overall, I am extremely impressed with this novel. There were times that I wasn't so confident that my favourite characters would survive. That's fairly hard to do to me because of the unspoken law that unless they're really minor, characters just do not die in fantasy novels. Well, for the most part anyway. A few authors are known for it, but in my experience it's pretty rare.

Yet but once again, I'm left setting down my e-reader, wondering what in the world I'm going to do. It's going to take a few months before I'm able to get the sequel, and I could just cry with the want to continue on. I'll revert back to my 5-year old self and just sit in the corner and throw a tantrum for a little while until I find something shiny to occupy me! Back to being serious though, if you enjoy long fantasy novels, this book is a must! And (I know, never start a sentence with "and", sue me) at the time of writing this review, the first book is FREE!!!! What have you got to lose? Just be prepared to get sucked into the swirling vortex that all book lovers yearn to find. You have been warned.

Review: R. Moses - A Shadow of Lilies

Title: A Shadow of Lilies

Author: R. Moses

Website: http://www.eclecticcycle.com/
My Rating: 5 Stars

 

 Kindle:

 



I'll be completely honest. I chose this book to read/review next because the cover looked the best out of the few that appeared on my e-reader. I know, I know. Never judge a book by it's cover. I just pulled a big no-no. However I'm really glad I did. I was hooked from the prologue alone. The story is about a girl who literally gets hauled into Hell. I don't really want to go into much more detail because I feel most of the elements would be better to experience while reading, however I'll do my best to give a review regardless.

The characters, for the most part, are very well written. It seemed like it would have been so easy with this kind of story line to make specific characters flawless. A lot of writers are prone to giving their characters very little flaws or 'weak' flaws that will not lessen the character or his/her morals in the overall sense. This is a very big pet peeve of mine so I was extremely impressed in this regard.

I also loved the descriptions of everything. Who would have thought I'd find Hell so beautiful? I'm torn here, I'd really love to visit this place, yet I'd rather not have a run in with the Devil. Maybe I could sneak in for a quick peak and leave again? *Sigh* Such problems I have. Back to the point, everything was described nicely, yet not overdone. Just the right amount in my opinion at least.

The plot itself was enough to keep me turning through the pages. I found myself annoyed when I had to do normal things (like eat, for instance) and Heaven help the poor bugger who could plainly see with their own eyes that I was peering into my e-reader with feverish eyes and yet still dared to interrupt me, grasping me from my happy place and slamming me back into reality! The only tiny issue (that I wouldn't even call an issue) was that I felt a little bit of it was slightly too true to form. I seen a little bit to disregard this closer to the end of the book, and of course there is more to this story that I could be pleasantly surprised by.

Overall, I (obviously) loved and enjoyed this novel. The only serious let down is not being able to get the others for some time. I'm itching to read the rest of this story. The ending was enough to leave the reader satisfied yet still wanting more.

Review: Rowan Starsmith - The Little Dragons

Title: The Little Dragons

Author: Rowan Starsmith

Website: http://www.rowanstarsmith.ca/

My rating: 4 Stars

Link to a FREE download of the e-book on this page of her site:
http://www.rowanstarsmith.ca/Find_The_Little_Dragons.html

 

It's been awhile since I could write a review due to ongoing computer issues. During that time, I didn't read anything that I'd want to write a review for because I wanted it to be as fresh in my mind as possible. The first book I loaded up on my e-reader after getting my laptop running again just happened to be this one. I knew it would be a story I wouldn't want to put down.

The story is about the downfall between groups of people who used to live peacefully with dragons, using Dragon Priestesses working with their familiars, Little Dragons, to keep a peace treaty of sorts with the Great Dragons until the Kings Men took over the lands and started killing off the dragons and Dragon Priestesses. They did not succeed with killing the Great Dragons, therefore everybody has to live hiding/sleeping by day and going about their business by night when the Dragons are asleep, lest they get attacked/killed by a vengeful Dragon during the daylight hours. A group known as the Healers are seeking the knowledge that the Priestesses once held. They are also looking to find out if there are any Little Dragons still alive.

I had a strong feeling that the characters were true to themselves, with their flaws being quite believable. That said, if you are sensitive or highly insulted by LGBT relationships, this book is not for you. I, for one, sincerely appreciated reading the stories of those characters. I am straight, however I FULLY support the rights of ANYONE in love. I won't turn this review into a debate or a place to preach, I just wanted to let it be known to the author (should she read this) that the world of writers could learn a lot from her in this area.

Moving on, there were times I was extremely annoyed with specific characters, while rooting for them at the same time. I wasn't annoyed by the writing of the character, I was annoyed by the characters actions. The only part that slightly pulled me out of the story was a spelling difference of the character Liandra, sometimes spelled Leandra. This may have been addressed in the newest version of the book. My copy was downloaded a few months ago.

The world setting was not overwhelmingly descriptive, but there was enough to make me feel like I'm a part of the story. I would have loved a bit more description (This is not exactly a flaw, I just got done a major re-read of all of Robert Jordan books who is well known to be extremely descriptive, so there's a good chance I'm feeling that way because of that).

Overall there were a few twists and turns I did not see coming, a few that I did, a few that made me cry, and a few that made me jump for joy. I do feel like there could have been a few more meetings/reunions before the end, but I am satisfied with the story as a hole, and hope to see more fantasy genre novels from this author.