Book Review

The Paper Magician (The Paper Magician Trilogy #1) By: Charlie N. Holmberg

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The Paper Magician (The Paper Magician Trilogy #1) By: Charlie N. Holmberg

Plot:

Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper, that will be her only magic…forever.

Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined—animating paper creatures, bringing stories to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.

An Excisioner—a practitioner of dark, flesh magic—invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man.

Review:

I love this cover a lot, I’m apparently drawn to simple covers.

Really enjoyed the world that was created here. The way magic worked was interesting. Magicians were tied to one type and once bonded that was it. You could only work magic with manmade materials, so paper, plastic, smelting metals, stuff like that. The thing is man is man made so this creates an Excisioner, which is bad. I don’t understand why they couldn’t have used their magic for good like healing, but they all appear to be evil.

Ceony and Thane were compelling and I was so not expecting what happened in the last act. There was a lot of character and world building in this book, but it never got boring it was too interesting.

I did think Ceony bonded very quickly with Thane, especially after her attitude about the whole being bonded to paper thing. She also seemed to be a planner but didn’t do hardly any of that in her rescue attempt. I guess heat of the moment thing, but still seemed slightly out of character.

I’m really excited that the rest of the series is already written and I get to visit the world immediately.

4/5

Geekomancy (Ree Reyes #1) By: Michael R. Underwood

geekomancy

Geekomancy (Ree Reyes #1) By: Michael R. Underwood

Plot:

Ree Reyes’s life was easier when all she had to worry about was scraping together tips from her gig as a barista and comicshop slave to pursue her ambitions as a screenwriter.

When a scruffy-looking guy storms into the shop looking for a comic like his life depends on it, Ree writes it off as just another day in the land of the geeks. Until a gigantic BOOM echoes from the alley a minute later, and Ree follows the rabbit hole down into her town’s magical flip-side. Here, astral cowboy hackers fight trolls, rubber-suited werewolves, and elegant Gothic Lolita witches while wielding nostalgia-powered props.

Ree joins Eastwood (aka Scruffy Guy), investigating a mysterious string of teen suicides as she tries to recover from her own drag-your-heart-through-jagged-glass breakup. But as she digs deeper, Ree discovers Eastwood may not be the knight-in-cardboard armor she thought. Will Ree be able to stop the suicides, save Eastwood from himself, and somehow keep her job?

Review:

I could not finish this book, I got over 60% of the way through before I bailed, so I’m not going to give it a star rating.

The sample for this was great but I’m really glad that I bought it on sale. I like pop culture references in books (see the Twenty-Sided Sorceress series and Ready Player One) but this book just went too heavy handed. I got lost in them and had to wade my way through the book and ended up missing information because my eyes would just glaze over and then I would get lost. It was too much.

Halfway through I stopped and went to Goodreads to check out some reviews. I couldn’t understand why I was having such a hard time, but apparently I wasn’t the only one.

I couldn’t connect with Ree as a character and didn’t understand why one minute she was all about stopping the suicides from happening and then the next minute she was at a burlesque show getting drunk. It didn’t make sense.

Did not like.

 

Alien Tango (Katherine “Kitty” Katt #2) By: Gini Koch
Cool cover

Cool cover

Alien Tango (Katherine “Kitty” Katt #2) By: Gini Koch

Plot:

For Alien Super-Being Exterminator Katherine “Kitty” Katt, anti-alien conspiracies, threats from outer space, and a couple of killer alligators are all in a day’s work. It’s been five months since Kitty joined Centaurion Division, working with the aliens from Alpha Centauri. She and Jeff Martini have grown closer and life looks rosy. But when an experimental spacecraft is unexpectedly returned to the Kennedy Space Center, Kitty and the rest of Alpha Team are called on to investigate and are immediately embroiled in life-or-death situations that scream “political conspiracy.” The team must survive murderous attacks, deal with a mysterious space entity that has seized control of a group of astronauts, and evade a woman who’ll do anything to eliminate the competition when she develops an obsessive crush on Kitty’s old high school boyfriend. And that’s all before the evil masterminds decide Kitty’s extermination is vital…Alien Tango is the thrilling second installment of the Alien series.

Review:

Okay, so this series, so far, is clearly wish fulfillment. The author wants aliens to be on the planet, they need to be hot, smart, funny, and into Earth girls. Kitty is also very much a Mary Sue character. Every man wants her, women like her, she’s super smart, and sees things before anyone else. That being said, I don’t care about any of that. It’s wish fulfillment, so what. It would be awesome if that stuff were true. I get wanting to be as awesome as Kitty and enough bad shit happens to her, that her life isn’t perfect.

Anyway, my main problem with the book is that another love triangle was created. Actually two were. Just as the first man was realizing she was taken and not leaving Jeff another one comes out of the wood work. If this happens again I’m going to be super annoyed. I can deal with Armani wearing aliens that are the hottest thing in the universe and I can deal with them being super smart and nice, but I’m tired of reading about women who have tons of men after her. It’s annoying and over done and I’m tired of it.

So there.

Back to this book. A major problem in the Jeff/Kitty relationship is about to be taken care of in the next book, but a lot of the ground work was sort of thrown in this one. Her future in-laws seem to like her though she’s a very confrontational my way or the highway person. They’re all wrong she’s right, it doesn’t matter that it’s true, it’s kind of annoying thinking about it now. While I was reading I loved that she owned these people, but now it’s like god is there no one else with balls in this universe?

I’ve already bought the next one, and peeking ahead I can see myself reading the rest of this series, but it’s probably not going to wind up being one of my favorites.

3/5

When an Alpha Purrs (A Lion’s Pride #1) By: Eve Langalis

When an Alpha Purrs

When an Alpha Purrs (A Lion’s Pride #1) By: Eve Langalis

Plot:

A lion’s pride isn’t defined only by those he commands but also resides with his hair, so when a human dares to butcher Arik’s mane, he gets his revenge—and claims her as his mate. A billionaire CEO and leader of the largest East Coast pride, Arik is a ladies man and a lion. Used to commanding others, and obedience, he can’t believe it when a hairdresser with tempting curves chops off a hunk of his precious mane. But her biggest mistake is in running from him. Run as fast as you can, little mouse, because this cat loves to chase—and pounce. Oh, and he also likes to nibble on tender bits. What he doesn’t expect is to fall for a human woman, a woman who can make the impossible happen because everyone knows lions can’t purr…until now.

Review:

As soon as I finished the last Kodiak Point book I pre-ordered this one. I was definitely in the mood for a funny shifter book and this filled that need.

I liked how arrogant Arik was, normally it could have irked me but he was just so funny and ridiculous I couldn’t help it. Kira was fine, but was the weakest part of the story. Well, honestly, I think the length of the story was the weakest part. It needed to be longer and I’m not just saying that as someone who never wants these stories to end.

Kira was a human and not familiar with the whole shifter society and her introduction to it was very violent. I didn’t buy her accepting it so quickly, she really fought against it and then abruptly changed her mind. It seemed rushed and not the full story.

I look forward to the next book, I just hope it’s more complete.

3.5/5

Lois Lane: Fallout (Lois Lane #1) By: Gwenda Bond
Lois Lane

This cover is freaking awesome and I love it!

 

Lois Lane: Fallout (Lois Lane #1) By: Gwenda Bond

Plot:

Lois Lane is starting a new life in Metropolis. An Army brat, Lois has lived all over—and seen all kinds of things. (Some of them defy explanation, like the near-disaster she witnessed in Kansas in the middle of one night.) But now her family is putting down roots in the big city, and Lois is determined to fit in. Stay quiet. Fly straight. As soon as she steps into her new high school, though, she can see it won’t be that easy. A group known as the Warheads is making life miserable for another girl at school. They’re messing with her mind, somehow, via the high-tech immersive videogame they all play. Not cool. Armed with her wit and her new snazzy job as a reporter, Lois has her sights set on solving this mystery. But sometimes it’s all a bit much. Thank goodness for her maybe-more-than-a friend, a guy she knows only by his screenname, SmallvilleGuy.

Review:

I’m not a huge fan of Lois Lane, but I love superman and I read a blog by the author, Bond, over on Chuck Wendig’s website and I thought it sounded interesting. I fell in love with the cover, I read half of the kindle sample, and then I decided I had to own this book in hardback.

First off, the quality of the actual book is great. The slipcover is cool and the cover under that looks just as good. The paper is white, not the normal cream color, and because of that the words just pop off of the page.

Next, the book itself is really good. I’m always wary of YA books because you never know when you’re going to have to deal with the stupid emotions of teenagers and all their “issues.” Thankfully there was almost none of that in this book and what little there was, was completely acceptable and actually went with the story. There was no made up issues with boys or adults treating them unfairly just because they’re adults. The book was about real issues, involving bullying in hologames. Err.. Real issues with a cool twist.

I want a hologame now! Give it to me. I must wage war!!!!!

Anyway, halfway through the book I was dreading finishing it and wishing I had started the series when a couple more were already written. Goodreads has it listed as a series, but a quick internet search gave me nothing on the publishers website or the authors. My hope is that Bond is already locked in a room somewhere writing the sequel and that DC is telling her she can have whatever she wants. That’s the dream, we’ll see what happens.

Fallout was one of those books that while reading I told myself this is a solid four star, I really like it, but it’s missing something extra to push it to love. However, as I wrote my review and started to really think about the book my love grew for it. I’m still withholding the full five stars, but it is definitely more than a four.

4.5/5