The Awesome Indies has announced my AIA Seal of Excellence in independent fiction award for ‘Lethal Inheritance’.
If you feel like giving a helping hand, pop over there and share the post link with your social networks. Also if you buy the book from there, you will be supporting the site.
It’s nice to know that my own work meets the standards I set for receiving the Seal! I was worried there for a moment.
I’m back at Book Broads today for Stacy’s review of Stalking Shadows.
She starts by saying she ’just got done with Stalking Shadows and it was really good,’ then gives a run down on the story and finished by saying that she’s looking forward to reading more of the story.
Pop on over to read the review and leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Lethal Inheritance.
http://bookbroads.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/stalking-shadows-blog-tour.html
The Sweetest Dark
Shana Abe
Random House Publishing Group, Bantam
YA fantasy, historical paranormal
This book is totally gush-worthy, the best young adult fantasy I’ve read in a very long time, perhaps ever. Why? Because it’s heart-achingly beautiful. The prose is poetic, the words as ethereal as the girl who turns into smoke and then a dragon. The story is unique with a dreamy pace all of its own, and the characters are rich and endearing, particularly Jesse who as well as physical beauty has the beauty of a pure soul.
It’s a bittersweet tale, but oh, so sweet, and not the frivolous saccharine of some stories. The sweetness here is somehow soulful, the characters bearing witness to another layer of existence, not apart from our world, but hidden within, like a silken undergarment. Jesse, Lora and Armand share an existence where stones have their own melody, boys can belong to the stars and connections between people can be so deep that they communicate without words as easily as they breathe.
It’s a simple story, orphan girl ends up in posh school due to the war, meets magical boy who knows her soul and much more. The local Duke’s son takes an interest in her, and it could have dissolved into a typical angst-ridden love triangle, but thankfully it didn’t. The girl is not torn, her heart is clear, and the magical boy is not jealous, he sees too far, knows what’s to come, shares wisdom beyond his years. The Duke’s son has our sympathy, for despite his popularity and his riches, he is a lonely soul.
Lora is a Drakin, only she never knew it until she met Jesse who has been waiting for her all his life and calling her to his side. His absolute dedication to her is not an ordinary love, it is completely magical, forged in the time beyond time, undeniable and unassailable, and thankfully the author does not cheapen it with the idea of love at first sight, or the entanglements of a mind that wants to diminish it with labels.
The tension in the majority of the book is in the character relationships and Lora learning to transform into a dragon, but the end sees an unexpected event that raises the stakes to where many lives are at risk and people have to push themselves to their limits and beyond, because if they don’t hundreds will die.
Death hovers in the background of the whole story, dead parents, dead brothers, the price of a gift and the deaths of the war that comes closer as the story progresses, but it is not morbid, on the contrary, this stark background gives the story a fragility and vibrancy that leaps off the page and into your heart.
Yeah, I loved it! 5 stars
Today I’m with Stacy at Book Broads. She wrote a review of Lethal Inheritance today and will be publishing one of Stalking Shadows in a couple of days.
Stacy’s review isn’t just high praise, it makes great reading. This reviewer has a unique and enjoyable voice. I loved the way she described the book. She didn’t miss the light-heartedness in the story.
“One wrong word and you are a human pancake”
Thanks Stacy for the delightful review.
So pop over and give her some support AND you get another chance to WIN Lethal Inheritance
http://bookbroads.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/stalking-shadows-blog-tour-giveaway.html
Today I’m at Twisted Sense with Nikki who has written a double review, one for Lethal Inheritance and one for Stalking Shadows–and she’s keen to read the next one.
She says (among other things)
“Lethal Inheritance is a wonderfully intense, magical, frightening, love-driven YA book whose audience definitely is not limited to Young Adult.”
And on Stalking Shadows . . .
“The magical world remains, with an exceptionally well-written ribbon of “real world” weaved throughout.”
Pop over and share the love and enter the giveaway for an ebook of Lethal Inheritance.
Posted in about my books
Tagged 5 stars, Blog tour, Book Review, Fantasy novels review blogs
Sometimes I wake up and know I have to do something. Today I knew it was time to play around with the Stalking Shadows cover. The photo has been bugging me for a while. The model liked it best and I went with her opinion, but there was another option. I also felt that the figures were too small. The cover felt a bit too young. Here’s my improvement. I think it’s more personal.
Posted in about my books, Book Covers
Another stop on the blog tour. Today I’m at Crazy Four Books with the delightful Brenda. It seems that Stalking Shadows left her speechless. I quote, ”I can’t even begin to describe all of the action you’ll find in this highly imaginative journey.”
Curious? Pop on over and see what else she has to say. You’ll also get the opportunity to WIN A COPY of Lethal Inheritance, book one in the Diamond Peak series.
http://crazyfourbooks.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/vbt-review-and-giveaway-stalking.html?show
Some of my readers may have noticed that this is a very relaxed blog tour. I booked visits for every second day, so I’d have some breathing space, which was just as well because my computer crashed yesterday and I had to do some time consuming damage control.
