Thursday, December 20, 2012

Interworld

"Author's Note: This is a work of fiction. Still, given an infinite number of possible worlds, it must be true on one of them. And if a story set in an infinite number of possible universes is true in one of them, then it must be true in all of them. So maybe it's not fictional as we think."


Before now I have only read Neil Gaiman's graphic novels, and while I was sometimes scared by them, I still enjoyed them. Enough so that I finally decided to pick up this novel that I have had on my shelf for a while. Of course, I didn't knwo there was a second book to this, so while I technically should not have read this now, I am glad I did. I enjoyed this book!

This book was a quick easy read, which is great right now since I have been bogged down with a book I didn't particularly like. I also loved the idea of the story Gaiman and Reaves wanted to tell, the concept of multiple universes is one that I am always drawn to, then you add a ton of characters who are all the same person ut not and things get interesting.

I enjoyed the story, the characters, and everything in between. Gaiman gave me a story that I felt drawn to. Of course now it has me wishing I had the next book so that I could finish the story. I can't wait to get to read what happens next.

I also look forward to getting to read this book to my son. While I enjoyed reading this book, I have to say that I think my son will enjoy it more. It seems more like a book directed toward young adults, even teens. The writing style is simple, direct, funny, and just unbelieveable enough to leave you waiting for what happens next. I do think everyone should give Gaiman a chance, maybe not with this novel, but with one of the many stories he has written over the years. He is a great writter! Here is another book I can keep on my shelf and recommend to others.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Candle Bay

"In their rooms, some guests read or made love, but most of them slept, blissfully unaware of the fact that their innkeepers were losing their minds." -Candle Bay, (p. 160)


I went ahead and picked this book up for my All Hallows Read this year, meaning I opened it on Halloween day. I had gotten my hands on a few books and so I felt confident I could get this read before NaNoWriMo hit hard enought o distract me from reading, maybe even before the month of November started! I realize now that while this was not a wholly ambitious idea, it was a false sense of hope for my reading goal for the year.
In picking this up I believed it to be a horrow noel, after all it does say "Pinnacle Horror" at the top of the spine. Silly me! This was simply a romance novel with not much juice to it. Sure there were raunchy jokes that I wouldn't want my daughter reading until she was married, but nothing to make anyone blush at really. And sure it was a story about vampires, with a nice tale, one that I had not heard before and actually got me interested enough to finish the book, but the story was not nearly as spooky as character Coastal Eddie's warning on the radio each night at midnight.
I gave this book 2 stars on Goodreads, something that I am pretty sure has only happened once before! Like I said, I loved the vampire tale that they spin throughout the novel, a legend that only one person knows all the details to and he isn't giving much away. That may have been the only thing keeping my from giving up the second star altogether. Well, that and I liked the characters. I will say this, Tamara Thorne does a great job of giving her characters personality. They had me giggling and gringing the hwole way through! But that was it, the only two redeeming qualities of this book.
My last problem, and I promise I will be done with the shaming of this novel, was its horribly anticlimatic ending! I worried about this from about 2/3 of the way through when I say the number of pages left dwindling and I knew the ending would be too short. But I had no idea that it would only take up 2 pages! With a 1 1/2 page epilogue that leaves you not really curious, followed by a 2/3 page letter from the author that seemed like more of a plea for support on her next novel and a half-handed explination at why there was no real ending!

I cannot recomend this book to anyone, sorry, I just was not happy with enough of it to even suggest it as a single day read for the heck of it. Maybe if you are a writer and want to know what a reader DOES NOT want in an ending, you could pick this up, start about half way through, and see what a horrible ending looks like.

I am sorry that I could not support this book more, I really am. For Amanda Pearce, I wish I could give a better review, but I cannot.

Here's hoping the next book is awesome enough to make up for this.

~*~If you have read this book and believe I am completely wrong in my view of it, please feel free to let me know! I hope for Tamara Thorne's sake there is someone out there to defend this novel. Please speak up if you are that person! Maybe the readers will believe you over me!~*~

Friday, December 7, 2012

Looking for a book?

Well everyone, with last months novel writing, I haven't been able to update and give you any new books. So instead I will give you a list of books that other people think are good! Now, I haven't been able to read any of these books, at least not the winners, but many of them are now on my to-read list. Maybe we can discover and enjoy them together. So go take a look at what readers deemed to be the best of the books of the year. Let me know which ones, if any, you decide to read!

GoodReads Choice Awards 2012