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 Spirit Well - The Mythology

In order to prepare for this tour I read not only "The Spirit Well" by Stephen Lawhead but also its two prequels - "The Skin Map" and "The Bone House". Perhaps if this series proceeded in a strictly linear fashion I would have been able to untangle the third book from its prequels, but that proved impossible. As such, consider this three part review to cover the whole Bright Empires Series with a special emphasis on "The Spirit Well" when I can manage it.

For today's topic I thought I would focus on the world building or mythology Lawhead has created for this series. (I shall post a spoiler warning here. Nothing sufficient to give away major plot points is written, but there are details from all three books so if you haven't read the first two, expect to be spoiled. You have been warned.)

On the surface it poses as a copy of the real world with the addition of alternate timelines, dimensions and time or "astral" travel. However, once examined closer one can see the intricate weaving of fact and fiction which Lawhead has presented us with. "Home World" as it is called is the part of the world which is a carbon copy of our own. It is supposed to be the original timeline and dimension from which all the others derive and also represents the boundary between time that can be traveled and "the absolute future" to which no one can travel. However this world is crisscrossed with ley lines which connect the dimensions. Kit's great-grandfather, Cosimos, explains it as the connecting points and lines formed by stacked soap bubbles.

This ley line idea comes from old Celtic beliefs. However, Lawhead has woven it into his world seamlessly and also into multiple cultures' mythology. In "The Spirit Well", Cassandra is introduced to the ley lines by a Native American who calls them "Ghost Roads" to the Spirit World. That it is almost impossible to distinguish where the ley lines of Lawheads's creation, Celtic myth, and the myths of Native Americans' each begin and end is a testament to Lawhead's skill as a writer.

He doesn't just restrict himself to borrowing ley lines and old myths. In book two, "The Bone House", Kit travels by accident to prehistoric times and meets cave men straight out of Evolutionary theory. Or perhaps not. Lawhead again has changed them to suit his world. He has given them back the humanity and intelligence that Evolution stripped from them and he even has introduced a key plot point through Kit's interaction with them.

In one of the flashbacks in "The Spirit Well" Lawhead takes Arthur and his son Benedict back to Ancient Egypt. Arthur is an Englishman born into the Christian tradition, however he studied with and became friends with a priest of the Egyptian god Amun. This particular flashback has Anen complaining about how the Pharaoh refuses to listen to the priests and is now promoting the worship of one new god. If you know your history, you'll recognize this new "god" as the one worshiped by the Jews and therefore Christians. However, Arthur keeps the fact that he believes in this God quiet, saying that his policy is to not impose his beliefs on the cultures he is visiting.

I think this approach can be applied to Lawhead's direction for "Bright Empires". He doesn't discard bits from other beliefs, mythologies or even "science", but chooses to embrace them and mold them to fit his world. However, though he takes this approach, one can tell the Christian undertones. I have full faith that the good guys will win and find some way to beat the bad guys, though I was quite disappointed to find that "Bright Empires" has two more books in the pipeline instead of being a trilogy. I wanted to read the end already!

But, I have reached the end of the available books and you the end of this post, unlike me, all you have to do is wait until tomorrow for part two of my review. I'll try to explain why "Bright Empires" is told in such a fragmented timeline and it works. (Versus the last book I reviewed.) So, tune in tomorrow! And while you're waiting, check out more below:

To buy the book, click here.
Or you can visit Stephen Lawhead's website or facebook page.

And don't forget to visit the other participants in the blog tour here!

Until then!

CSFF Blog Tour: The Telling - A Review

(Pardon for posting this a little late. A bout of sickness knocked me off my feet and computer for a few days.)



Welcome to this month's CSFF Blog tour! The book this time is "The Telling" by Mike Duran. I don't normally read supernatural suspense thrillers so this one was definitely in a genre I'm not too familiar with. But, here are my thoughts.

True to the horror/suspense genre Duran doles out the hints and clues in small doses. Even the details of the main character's, Zephaniah Walker's, face aren't totally revealed until several chapters in. I found this to be an interesting approach to take, with regard to details, because it was attempting to dangle a hook to lead readers along. True, the whole history behind the scar on Zeph's face is important to his backstory and the book's plot, however it wasn't quite the revelation that I thought it would be after being dragged along for that length of time.

The whole book was like this. Small details being trickled here or there, in a very obvious fashion I might add, leading up to an unsatisfactorily small reveal or climax. Not that the book wasn't interesting. It was a fun read and kept me reading, though I wouldn't describe it as a page turner. I'm not quite sure whether I, as the reader, should feel insulted by how obvious all the clues were or whether that was just a result of the author not being the most adept at hiding the clues. The ending was fairly easy to guess and many pieces were overly easy to connect. The fragmented nature of the book seemed to be the author's method of hiding the clues, but it didn't completely work.

If you like the genre, then I'd suggest you read it. It's fun, a fairly unique take on demons and hell, and something you can justify spending an afternoon on. However, it's not a masterpiece so don't expect masterful red herrings and twists and turns you don't see coming. To the astute reader, the ending is easily discernible from a ways off.

Want to read it? Buy here: The Telling.
Or, visit Mike Duran's website or Facebook page.

Other tour participants can be found my CSFF Blog Tour page as well as links to past tour related posts.

Disclaimer: As part of the CSFF Blog Tour I received a free copy of this book to review.