Elsewhere Online: March 2013

As you know from my Stacking the Shelves posts, I review for two other websites (bookloons.com and bittenbybooks.com). As I cannot post my reviews there and here, but I would still like to count the books I read for the challenges, I am going to have a post like this at the end of the every month listing the books I reviewed and what challenges the went towards.

Title: The Circle of Tivedon
Author: Ryan Shorten

Challenges: YA/MG Fantasy, Self-Published, 100 Books in a Year

Title: On the Ropes

Author: James Vance & Dan E. Burr

Challenges: Graphic Novel, Historical Fiction, New Adult, 100 Books in a Year

Title: I Hunt Killers

Author: Barry Lyga

Challenges: A to Z, 100 Books in a Year

Title: The Secret of Ella and Micha

Author: Jessica Sorensen

Challenges: New Adult, 100 Books in a Year

Stacking the Shelves: 3/17-3/30

For Possible Review (here and on Bookloons):

Deep Betrayal by Anne Greenwood Brown

Scowler by Daniel Kraus

Promises to Keep by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson

Heart of Glass by Sasha Gould

Running into the Darkness by D. A. Bale

Won:

Time's Twisted Arrow by Rysa Walker

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Forged in Grace by Jordan E. Rosenfeld

A Tale of Two Demon Slayers by Angie Fox

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Lucky by Alice Sebold

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

Early Review on LibraryThing:

After the War by Libby Sternberg

Requested from Paperbackswap:

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Jingo by Terry Pratchett

Healer by Linda Windsor

Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd & Ann Kidd Taylor

Bought at Wizard World Comic Con St. Louis:

The Legend of Oz: The Wicked West 1: Over the Rainbow by Tom Hutchinson, Alisson Borges, & Kate Finnegan

Bought on Amazon:

Tags by Walter Dean Myers

Flirting with Maybe by Wendy Higgins

Hoppy Easter Giveaway Hop (US/Can)

Hop: Hoppy Easter
Host:  I Am a Reader Not a Writer & Read Now, Sleep Later
Prize: Used The Secret Saturdays Vol. 1: The Kur Stone 

Form:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Follow:

The Book of Paul

The Book of Paul

by Richard Long

published by Open Eyes

2012

ISBN 978-0615648644

Why Read?: Review

Challenges: 100 Books in a Year

Richard Long has crafted a highly complex horrifying suspense in The Book of Paul.  This occult thriller sets the tone as the first of a seven-part saga.

A crummy apartment building houses tenants who have no clue how important they really are in the age-old fight between good and evil.  A broken sink brings together Rose, a tattoo artist covered in sexual piercing, and Martin, a loner who has never quite learned how to fit into society.  Little do these two know that their union will be seen by Paul, the powerful keeper of an occult book who is working to bring about an apocalyptic philosophy.  When these three collide, the world will never be the same.

I love occult thrillers, so I really wanted to love The Book of Paul.  The problem was that I could not connect with Rose or Martin – in fact, I was a tad put out by them – so I had trouble investing myself in their story, making this long book a slow read.  There is plenty of action and horror, but not feeling for the characters made it hard for me to pick up the book and want to read it.

I do think there are plenty of readers out there who will love The Book of Paul, but it was not for me.  Richard Long is supposedly writing a YA series, though, and I have a feeling that will be something that I will enjoy.

Rating: 2/5

Legend of the Oceina Dragon

Title: Legend of the Oceina Dragon
Author:  J. F. Jenkins

Publisher: Astraea
ISBN: 978-1-936852-03-1

Why Read?: Book Club
Challenges: Ebook, YA/MG Fantasy, Immortal, Free Reads, 100 Books in a Year

Thoughts: I really like Jenkins's concept and world-building for her Dragons Saga.  However, I did not understand why she made the characters - who were old enough to have just graduated from high school - still in high school.  The story would actually have worked much better if it was New Adult and trying so hard to be YA.  Also, some spots seemed to have some inconsistencies  making it feel a little rough like an ARC rather than a polished release.  It does end with quite a bit of intrigue, so I am curious to find out what happens next.

Rating: 2 stars

The Keeper of Lost Causes

Title: The Keeper of Lost Causes
Author:  Jussi Adler-Olsen

Publisher: Plume
ISBN: 978-0-452-29790-6

Why Read?: For Fun
Challenges: European, 100 Books in a Year

Thoughts: I think I will always prefer a good British or American mystery, but as Nordic mysteries good, The Keeper of Lost Causes is the best I have read yet.  Yes, it is graphic and hard to take at parts, but the secondary characters were amazing, and Carl grew on me, too.

Rating: 3 stars

Stacking the Shelves: 3/10-3/16

Requested from Paperbackswap:

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

Inkheart by Cornelia Fluke