A = Announcement of a Giveaway!

Welcome, welcome, one and all to the start of that crazy time known as April. Why is it crazy? Firstly, the A to Z challenge commences upon this date and runs through the end of the month. Secondly, the first session of Camp NaNoWriMo has been moved to April this year. And I'm doing both. At the same time. Yes, yes. I know I'm insane. (But I'm not the only one attempting this craziness!)

To celebrate me losing my mind, I would like to present....drum roll please...my first ever giveaway! I know this is highly belated but the time has finally come for you, my readers, to test your luck in a giveaway. Below you will find the widget by which to enter. And there are methods by which to enter daily so check back each day to improve your chances! You've got until the 14th to enter as many times as you can.

And what is the prize? Why, a copy of the fabulous YA Fantasy "The Eye of the Sword" by Karyn Henley! Some of you might remember my featuring "The Eye of the Sword" all the way back in August of last year for the CSFF blog tour that month. Need a review? Click here to read my review of the book!

Where angels walk the ground and the future is told in song, does a man of low rank have a chance at love with a princess?

In Camrithia, a land of shadows and mystical secrets, Trevin lives to serve King Laetham. But his heart belongs to the princess, Melaia. When the King sends Trevin on on a dangerous quest to find the missing comains—captains in the king’s army—he must leave Melaia to the advances of a swaggering Dregmoorian prince.

Challenged to prove his worth, Trevin throws himself into his quest. Striving to prove his love, Trevin undertakes a second mission—find the harps Melaia seeks in order to restore the stairway to heaven. Through fire caves, rogue winds, and murderous threats, Trevin remains steadfastly dedicated to his quest—even when he is falsely accused of a heinous crime. As Trevin’s time runs out, he realizes he must face the shame and horror of his own past and the nightmare that has come to life. Will he have the courage to finish what he has started?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

NB: I'll only be shipping to the continental US cause I've very little to spend on shipping costs. See the terms and conditions for full details.

Angel Eyes Tour Day 3

Time to announce the answers! (And don't forget about the other participants in this tour.)

By searching through Shannon Dittemore's website, Facebook page and interview, I gleaned these facts:

1. The title of the third book in the Angel Eyes Trilogy is titled "Dark Halo" (and what a cool looking cover to boot, eh?).

2. Shannon Dittemore names her biggest influences as J K Rowling and the Harry Potter series.

3. She supports the San Fransico 49ers who just made the Superbowl. No wonder she's pumped.

4. Her first agent was Jason Pinter and it was Holly Root who came in to save the day.

Bonus Question: Brielle is short for Gabrielle. An unusual nickname choice I thought, since Gabby is more popular.

Until next tour!

Remember to go buy Angel Eyes. Broken Wings is up for preorder as well with Dark Halo scheduled for release this August!

Angel Eyes Tour Day 2

On this, the second day of the tour, I thought we'd do a little scavenger hunt. First off, enjoy this interview with the author, Shannon Dittemore, on the Inspire Christian Writers website.

Now that you've read that (welcome back!) here are a few questions for you to dig up the answers to. All answers can be found either in the interview above or the author's website or Facebook page. 

1. In my review yesterday I mentioned that book 2 in this trilogy is titled "Broken Wings". What is the title of the third book?

2. Shannon Dittemore's names her biggest influences as which author and which books?

3. Shannon is a huge football fan. Which team does she enthusiastically support?

4. Her first agent unfortunately had to pull out on her before the deal was signed, but she snagged another at the same agency. What are both their names?

Bonus Question: What is the main character's nickname Brielle short for?

Comment with your answer below and the first person to get them right will get a little prize. What kind of prize? Well, you'll just have to visit tomorrow to see. Good luck! And remember, if you don't have the book already, give it a try here: http://www.amazon.com/Angel-Eyes-Shannon-Dittemore/dp/1401686354/

The other participants in this tour are also putting up posts today. Check them out here.

Answers are up! See Day 3's post here.

CSFF Blog Tour: Angel Eyes

Visit the post for Day 2 and Day 3 of the tour.

It's that time of month again! Time for the CSFF blog tour that is. If you were paying attention, you noticed that I haven't participated for the past two months. This was due to a technical mix-up which cancelled the November tour and I refrained from participating during December which preserved what sanity remained to me. But it's back on schedule this month. The book is "Angel Eyes" by Shannon Dittemore and it's book one in the "Angel Eyes Trilogy".

Where should I begin this review? I guess my first impressions of the book ought to be a good place to start. The cover is fairly standard for YA fantasy. I guessed from the beginning that the circle she's holding onto is a halo and I was pleasantly surprised to see how it was worked into the story.

But I'm discussing first impressions. The blurb on the back is intriguing and attracted my interest from the moment I ripped open the package to see the latest book I'd be reviewing.

"Once you've seen, you can't unsee. 

"Brielle went to the city to chase her dreams and found tragedy instead. She's come home to shabby little Stratus, Oregon, to live with her grief and her guilt . . . and the incredible, numbing cold she can't seem to shake.

Jake's the new guy at school. The boy next door with burning hands and an unbelievable gift that targets him for corruption.

Something more than fate has brought them together. An evil bigger than both of them lurks in the shadows nearby, hiding in plain sight. Two angels stand guard, unsure what's going to happen. And a beauty brighter than either Brielle or Jake has ever seen is calling them to join the battle in a realm where all human choices start.

A realm that only angels and demons-and Brielle-can perceive."

However, I didn't crack open the book until I was ready to review it and boy what a surprise awaited me. It took until the beginning of the first chapter for it to fully dawn on me that yes, "Angel Eyes" is written in not only first person POV but also present tense. Aye. Present tense. I almost stopped right there. It was so odd to read since past tense is the norm and therefore what I'm accustomed to reading. That same tense choice is precisely why I've been avoiding reading The Hunger Games (that and I've spoiled enough of the plot that I know I won't like how the series ends).

But, I thought, let's give this a chance. A review is no good if one hasn't read the whole book, good or bad, after all.

So I kept reading and nearly stopped again at the second surprise. The first chapter and indeed the set-up of the story in the rural town of Stratus reminds me of the first few pages of chapter one in Twilight. And that's not a good thing. Both have a girl who's not happy moving to a small, dreary town in the middle of nowhere. And both are complaining about it. Dreading it in fact.

After this nasty shock I was even more reluctant to read on. Nevertheless, I persevered and turned the next page - I had this thing called a review to write, remember? Strangely, though, each page I read drew me further into the story. Jake's entrance took myself as well as the main character, Brielle, by surprise. I eagerly anticipated the revealing of the angels and demons who took flesh around them. Bit by bit it drew me in until I wasn't so conscious of the present tense anymore, more the switching POVs between good and bad characters. The climax was suitably scary even if I knew instantly that the tragedy which befell Brielle couldn't be permanent.

All in all, by the end I was glad I hadn't given up at the beginning. I enjoyed it, even if it wasn't the typical fantasy or supernatural book I'd pick up somewhere and decide to read after browsing the first few pages.

Of course, the author's bio is on the last page in the book (after the page announcing the release of book two, "Broken Wings" this February). I was surprised to read that this was her first book. But I was also impressed. It's a decently written book for an author's first published work. I look forward to seeing where she'll take the trilogy from here.

In conclusion, this is a good YA supernatural fantasy book in the Christian tradition, despite the slow start. I would recommend it to the teens and young adults in my life. However, I think this author, Shannon Dittemore, has room to grow even within this trilogy and I'm looking forward to it.

You can find the book at here: http://www.amazon.com/Angel-Eyes-Shannon-Dittemore/dp/1401686354/

Also visit Shannon Dittemore's website and Facebook page.

Many other bloggers are participating in this tour. Check them out here!

As part of the CSFF blog tour I received a promotional copy of the book for this review.

NaNoWriMo 2012: Days 27 and 28 and Announcements

I think I've pretty well resigned myself to not writing for the rest of November. I just can't muster the motivation to do so. On the upside, I have found my productivity in other areas to increase as a result of discontinuing my focus on NaNo. If I find myself with the opportunity to write tomorrow or Friday, then I will do so. However, I am content with the 50k I have already written and am enjoying the break before I begin again at my task of chipping away at the remaining plotline.

Two announcements. Firstly, you may have noticed that I did not write a review this month for CSFF's monthly blog tour. This is because there was a snarl up with the mailing of the review copies for the featured book "Angel Eyes" by Sharron Dittemore. The solution by the tour organizer was to postpone it until January so look forward to the review in slightly under two months. I will not be participating in the December tour due to time constraints. But you can probably count on me to at least post something about the book and links to people who are participating.

Secondly, I am going to continue my Christmas tradition of a Picture Countdown to Christmas. However, this year there will be a slight twist. Look forward to the first post this Saturday, December 1st!

Until next time!

CSFF Blog Tour: The Eye of the Sword - A Review

Welcome to the August CSFF Blog Tour! This time around, the featured book is Eye of the Sword by Karyn Henley. (Doesn't the cover look great at right? And it reflects the main character and turning point in the book too. More on that below.) I decided to jump into this, my first blog tour, head first thus I ended up reading the book and crafting a review. So, without ado, I present my review of Eye of the Sword.

First, I must make something clear. This book is book 2 in what looks to me will be a fantasy trilogy. I was not able to read book 1, Breath of Angel, beforehand so I made do with summaries online. Book 3 (which I'm assuming will be titled Blood of Man due to the advertisement in the back of Eye of Sword) has not been released yet and I have no idea when it will be published.

Plot and Universe

I shall focus first on the plotline and construction of the world. This book, in my opinion, is well written and well paced. The plot is engaging and just when you think you've figured out what's going to happen, Henley throws in a twist to keep you off balance. The outward plot is fairly straightforward though. It is constructed around a quest archetype where the lowly knight must prove his worth by seeking firstly an oracle (at the king's command) and secondly the two remaining harps (at the princess' request). However, the quest could be seen as having a deeper meaning because the main character, Comain Trevin, discovers more than an oracle or harps. He discovers himself. I won't say too much more because that would give away the biggest plot twist in the whole book.

The pacing of the plot kept me eagerly turning the pages to read what happened next. The first few pages were an excellent hook, not because of surprising characters or twists, but because the universe or storyworld was well painted in a few strokes with well chosen world specific words. I don't know whether this hook would have been as effective as if I'd read Breath of Angel because the term that intrigued me was, to my knowledge, explained in the first book. But coming into the second book with no previous introduction left me curious as to how the world was built and kept me reading. I wish, though, that the author had included some form of summary of book 1. It would have helped in establishing what events had preceded book 2 and also what had been "discovered" by the characters by that point in time.

This lack of summary led to my not quite being sure of many of the universe's constructions and systems. For example, the opening pages give a list of characters and, also, the ranks of angels in this world. However, the latter was only briefly touched upon in Eye of the Sword leading me to believe that the full description of the angels was found in book 1 and Henley assumed the readers would be familiar with it. I wasn't, so I ended the book with very little enlightening as to how the system worked or was constructed. This was also true of other things mentioned like the Draks.

The Christian Perspective

Good wins over evil and the lesson of forgiveness is well expounded in this book. Therefore you can tell it was written by someone who holds to the values of Christianity. However, the part with the angels bugged me. I hate to use the word, but the only one that comes to mind is 'heretical'. I've read several stories before where the concept of angels and demons are twisted into a fantasy which doesn't mirror reality, but I never expected to see it used in a book by a Christian. It read to me like a half-hearted attempt to insert God into a fantasy world and modify Him and his angels to fit the world. I didn't like it. I wouldn't have minded as much if the author hadn't used Biblical terms to suit her fancy. If, let's say, Henley had created a different term for the angels and not claimed that that they had any relation to the angels in the Bible then I would have been perfectly fine with it. However, the angels turned into an odd fantasy device which distorted reality. This was the one sour bit in the whole book. The rest I loved.

Overall, I liked this book. I would recommend it to anyone who's interested in YA fantasy that is based in a Christian worldview. The virtues taught are of forgiveness, bravery, courage, righteousness, and the consequences of actions which are good and useful for the teaching of children. Read it, read book 1 if you feel like it, and join me in waiting for book 3. I really want to know what happens!

Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this book by the publisher for the purpose of reviewing it.

Book sold here: Eye of the Sword (Angelaeon Circle Series #2)
Author’s Web site
Author's Blog
Author's Facebook page

CSFF Website
CSFF Blog Tour Participants

Until next time!

CSFF Feature

Last post I mentioned two features which will be starting on this blog. This is an elaboration on the first feature I mentioned.

A few months ago I discovered CSFF and decided to join. What is it? Well, the full title of the site should explain it: Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour. It is a site where bloggers gather to promote Christian books that are Sci-fi and Fantasy which is a genre that is shockingly under represented in the publishing world. More information on how it works can be found on the CSFF website, but the general overview is as follows: once a month a book tours (is featured on) all the participants' blogs for three days. At least one post is required from each participant over the three day tour.

A clue! (photo credit)

The next tour will take place in late August. Since I'm new, I'm not quite sure when the dates will be, but it'll probably take place the third week. I won't say which book is on tour yet, except that it is fantasy and I requested a review copy so I'll be posting a review for one of my three posts. Look forward to it!

Until next time!