Book review....The Iron King

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

published by Harlequin Teen

February 1, 2010

Amazon description

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny—one she could never have imagined…Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school…or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth—that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

"Prince Ash, oh how I love you, let me count the ways." Yes, Prince Ash is my latest literary crush. Now I'm not talking I love him on an Edward Cullen level but he is right up at the top. 


About a month ago I came across a blog that conducted a "crush-a-thon" where two literary characters were pitted against each other and fans debated which one of the two were the most crush worthy. The finals came down to Prince Ash and Jace Wayland of Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series. Jace is wonderful in every way possible and I thought if this character is tough enough to go head to head against Jace he is definitely worth checking out. 


Not only did I find this new character to love but I was also introduced to a talented author. Julie Kagawa painted a beautiful world full of rich characters and scenery. The Iron King follows Megan Chase and her adventure where she finds out all the characters of "A Midsummer Nights Dream" and the land of Tir Na Nog are real. Her best friend Robbie, aka Robin Goodfellow, aka Puck shows her the way into the faery realm where she finds herself wanted by The Summer court as well as the Winter court. Faeries in Tir Na Nog do not like humans so Megan must watch her back as well as accomplish the mission that forced her into their world. 


I love strong female leads and this story does not disappoint. The authors portrayal of Puck steals the spotlight in almost every scene he is in. He has an excellent sense of humor and made me laugh out loud on several occasions. That leaves us with Prince Ash. Overall he is good looking, a great fighter, a total gentleman but can still be a bit of a jerk at times. (with good reason of course)


If your looking for a great faery story or romance with some butt kicking fight scenes this is a must read. 

I'll never see my book on the shelves in a book store.

I have dreamt many times of the day when I would stroll into my local bookstore and lay my eyes upon my very own creation sitting on the shelves. Propped on a pedestal, all shiny and new in all her glory for the world to behold. I would be armed and ready with a ball point pen and secretly sign random copies for an unsuspecting reader to find.

I realized that dream will most likely never come true. The sad truth is by the time my book would be ready to publish there will not be any book stores left to put it in. In my immediate area there are were three bookstores. One Borders *searches for tissue, RIP Borders* and two Barnes and Noble's. One of which is set to be demolished and a new Target will stand in its place. 

As much as I would like to be mad at Amazon for bringing death and destruction to my most beloved, I must admit something. I saw a blog post about "The Iron King" late one night and got really excited to read it. So I picked up my Kindle and downloaded it and began reading within two minutes. I said to my husband "This is so cool, I didn't even have to wait till the store opened. I bought it instantly." 

Then in dawned on me, I contributed to the destruction of my dream. What can I say? What are we suppose to do? Sit back and get upset or join in? (can we do both?)

The sympathetic character.

You never know when they will strike. Those "ah ha" moments. When something you have learned and been told a hundred times finally sinks in.

I have been coming across the phrase "sympathetic character" lately. One such place is the book "Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. The author discusses five basic plot elements and lists this as number one. It is followed by conflict, complications, climax and resolution. But without the sympathetic character nothing else that follows is going to matter as much. If we don't care about the character will we care about the story?

Cheryl Klein, senior editor at Arthur L. Levine Books worked on the U.S. editions of Harry Potter. She posted on her blog a very informative speech titled "A Few Things Writers Can Learn from Harry Potter".  One of the top things on her list is how readers sympathize with Harry. (read the speech, it's a good one)

That brings us to the moment it finally set in. I have been telling myself all along to make my characters likable and that is what it takes to make readers care about my story. But it is not just about being likable, it is about being drawn to a character and sympathizing is the way to do that.

I saw the new movie trailer for Real Steel. The first trailer didn't do much for me, it was mostly fighting robots and cool special effects. Of course I was planning on seeing it anyway because Hugh Jackman is one of the hottest men on the planet is a very talented actor and usually makes a quality film. But the second trailer really sucked me in. It shows a down on his luck, out of work athlete who befriends a child and takes on the task of teaching an old worn out robot to box, and all these characters seem to be the under dog. This trailer took me from a "Ya, that looks like it will be a good movie", to a "I will definitely be seeing that movie". Now depending on your movie preference this may not appeal to you; but for me after seeing what kind of journey our hero's have to face sucked me in and opened my eyes to the sympathetic character.

Book Review.....Hemlock Lake by Carolyn J. Rose

Description from Amazon

For generations only a few families held title to land in the isolated Catskill Mountain community of Hemlock Lake. But with the turning of the century one man, lured by easy money, sells his inheritance to a developer of luxury homes. As the contractor bulldozes farmland and forest, neighbors cry environmental rape, and someone threatens to burn what is built.

Hoping to stop the arsonist, but tormented by personal demons, Sergeant Dan Stone reluctantly returns to his family home on the shores of the lake. The previous autumn his wife died in its dark waters and his brother put a bullet in his brain. That tragedy sent Dan's father drifting toward death.

Isolated by his pain, Dan is thrust into the no man's land between newcomers and longtime residents who stonewall his investigation into threats, graffiti, theft, and a blaze that nearly kills the construction foreman. Townspeople blame outsiders, eco-terrorists, a ragged tramp haunting the woods and the mysterious creator of rock cairns that often mark the sites of crimes to come. But as summer sizzles on, the arsonist turns killer, and Dan suspects it's someone he knows well: a firefighter, a friend, or a woman with a killing in her past.

Hemlock Lake

Now for those of you that know me or follow my blog on a regular basis this book review may come as a surprise. For one, I have yet again read a "grown up" book and it's my third one this year. *Stands up, speaking to support group, My name is Kriston and I'm  addicted to young adult and children's novels* Second, this is not a fantasy, supernatural or paranormal story. Scouts honor... not a faerie, vamp or any member of the walking dead community to be found.

So let me start by saying I really like this novel, in fact I more than like it. This story follows a mans life after he loses his brother and true love to a tragic accident. While coming to terms with his inner demons, his old hometown treats him like an outcast while he is trying to protect them from a crazed arsonist.

The characters we get to know make a great team, their wit and banter will make you laugh and they love disrupting Dan's life every chance they get...and these are his friends.

Carolyn is a talented writer and this book was fun to read. The writing is superb, the setting believable  and the story moves along at a good pace. If you are looking for a good mystery this book is worth checking out.

My how time flies...when your not writing.

Last weekend was nine weeks since I had written anything new. I finished revising act one, then nothing. Every night for two weeks after that my fingers hovered over my trusty keyboard and nothing. Nothing except cutting words, over 20,000 in fact.

Lets not think about how many hours it took to write those 20,000 words (30-40) that at one time I thought were poetic, beautiful and necessary. But guess what, they weren't. Okay...moving on.

So I cut a 1/4 of my novel out, not a problem, just rewrite it. Let's think, what should I write? After all I've read every  "how to" book lately to help me hone in my craft. I am a novice after all. Let's see what have I learned? Don't use adverbs, show don't tell. Don't fill in with back story, flash backs or dreams....don't do this....make sure to do that..... AAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

So while trying to follow all the rules I ended up following none, because I wasn't writing. I felt overwhelmed. Now I'm not saying a person should not read books to help themselves, because I have learned a lot of valuable information form these books. I just need to take them in moderation.

Now here is the kicker, even though I wanted a break from my story and the work, I was miserable not writing. After a few days the voices in my head  my characters wouldn't shut up. I'm not really sure what I've learned from my little hiatus, if anything, but back into the trenches I go. Before writing this post I added over 1600 words to my manuscript. Man, I forgot how good it felt and remembered why I started writing in the first place.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2

Collection or obsession?

The energy in the theater had a life of it's own. Movie patrons were bursting at the seems with excitement. People were laughing, munching popcorn, seats were sparse and it was only 10:00 am!
Like millions of others, my anticipation could barley be contained, yet a dark cloud kept creeping over my head. The realization that is has finally come to an end.

Part two starts off with the exact scene that ends part one, then dives into action without missing a beat. I've read The Deathly Hallows twice but the technique in which the movie was filmed kept my anticipation at a high. I was amazed at how captivated the audience was, no one stirred or fussed or got out of their seats.

I went to the first showing, opening day because that is when all the die hards go. I knew that every person in the theater was just as excited as me. We laughed out loud, clapped, cheered, and several times I heard sniffing as people dabbed the tears in their eyes. Yes I was one of the tear dabbers.

About half way in I realized something. It's not only the story that I covet and love, it's the feeling that I get when watching.  The directer slipped in a few tributes to the first films, that reminded me of how I felt when it was all new. For me this film was a roller coaster of emotion and a ride I never wanted to end.

Now in my opinion, the person who really stole the show was Alan Rickman as Professor Snape. He did not get  very much screen time but he owned that role. The flashback scene was ripping and Mr. Rickman showed Snape's tragic and undying loyalty to the one and only person he ever loved, with expertise. This movie is epic. If you skip it you'll be missing out.

There is one last thing I need to do to finally put my Harry Potter obsession to rest. That is to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando Fl. I plunked my first quarter into the "Send Kriston to the Harry Potter theme park" fund.

The Menacing and the Magical

Having just seen The Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides, I found my inspiration for this post.

Mermaids


Mermaids are like beautiful maidens form the waist up, with the tail of a fish below. They carry a comb and a mirror, they are to be seen combing their long beautiful hair and singing with irresistible sweetness on a rock beside a sea. 


But mermaids have a darker side. They lure young men to their death and their appearance presages storms and disasters. According to such beliefs they not only bring misfortunes but also provoke them, and avidly seek human lives, either drowning men or devouring them.
(From The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures


So what is the moral of this story? Things may not be what they seem. What do you take from it?

Book review....Divergent

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Flap copy description

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves… or it might destroy her.


So I have to admit, I have never been drawn to "dystopian" stories. There's no magic, faeries or demon slaying and the thought of a dismal future in a post apocalyptic/anarchy setting has never been to my liking. But recently there seems to be a number of them popping out at me and an employee at my local Borders recommended it. I originally bought Divergent from Audible to listen to on my iPhone. I love it. In fact I love it so much I went back to Borders and bought the book to add to my collection of favorites.  I am reading it now to make sure I didn't miss anything and wanted to recommend it as soon as possible.

This book is written in first person, present tense which is something I have not come across a lot. Coming from that point of view really gets you deep into the characters head and in the "now". I think it helps add an urgency to the events as they happen.

Tris is a  great character. She is strong and independent (I love strong female leads!) and very likable. I found myself cheering for her from beginning to end. Coming from a person who is afraid of everything, it was fun reading of her daring feats and bravery. I would not say this is a love story but there is a romantic story line weaved through the chapters in which I enjoyed. Parts of the story were a little hard core and the romance gave it a good balance.

Now be warned, there are a few violent scenes, nothing offensive according to my standards, but there was one thing that I found unnecessary. There is also a scene toward the end that contradicts a couple of previous scene's that are pretty major. I don't know if I just missed something but it left me a tad confused. But I enjoyed the story so much it was easy for me to over look.

Over all, I love this book and Veronica Roth has spun a tale to be proud of. The character growth and pace of the story are spot on. Pay attention to her folks, I have a feeling she's going to have a lot to offer.