Beneath the Rainbow

This week has been unusually wet and cold here on the Côte d'Azur and I think even my cat has caught a cold. The poor thing has been sneezing and sleeping more than usual. I do feel sorry for him, but we both rather like this new cat that just wants to crawl on your lap and cuddle. I'm sure he'll be soon back to tearing the wallpaper of the wall and putting his teeth into anything that moves.
So with this Clicquot needing less attention, I've been motoring on with reading books and here is the next 5 star review:

Beneath the Rainbow by Lisa Shambrook 

If I stuck to my usual genre, I would have missed this little gem. I’m so glad my review group took me out of my comfort zone. I just started reading this book without knowing anything about it because I was asked to do a review, and I’m so glad I did.

The author did not pick an easy topic. The death of a young child and its aftermath has been handled with great sensitivity and Lisa Shambrook has managed to create a beautiful story that brought a few tears to my eyes. But I wouldn’t say this is a depressing book, far from it. This is a story about living through difficult times but eventually letting go and embracing life again with the help of remembering the joyful times.

I can tell that the author is a keen gardener by the knowledgeable descriptions of the many flowers in the story, which are so important to the young road accident victim Freya and her mother. I thought the bluebell illustration at the start of each chapter was a lovely touch.

I also think faith is very important to this writer as she places Freya in heaven to look down on her grief stricken family, but I wouldn’t class this as a religious book. That said, I don’t think this book would look out of place in a Christian book shop or school. I highly recommend this book to readers of all persuasions.

 

Untamed

It has been quite a day. Not only was it glorious sunny weather and did I get to finish the excellent untamed by Steven Jeral Harris while getting a tan, I also got two five star reviews from my fellow reviewer group members. So I feel all warm and glow for more than one reason.

One thing I do wonder now I read a lot of self published books; why the hurry to publish? If you want to sell a product, do you not want it to be the best it can be? I sometimes get taken aback by the amounts of mistakes I spot. I'm a Dutch woman who has to speak French all day for work. I know my English is less than perfect. Maybe that is why I'm maybe less complacent than an English or American writer and sought the help of a professional before I put my work out there. Anyhow I never include that the book has 'editing' issues in my review as that can be corrected in the Kindle age. Plus I'm still angry at all my teachers who just took their red pens to correct spelling but failed to give me any feedback on my writing!

Untamed by Steven Jeral Harris

This book gripped my by the throat like the supernatural beast from the very first chapter and didn’t let go! This is a supernatural thriller of the best kind, exciting, very scary at times, but with well written believable characters.

Iva Hill is a teenage girl plagued by illness and insecurity. She thinks that her life will change little when her mother gets a new job and moves her to New York State. It is the town her mother grew up in and she gets re-acquainted with her uncle Frank, a local detective. He is investigating a gruesome murder that leaves him bewildered and worried. Iva’s mother enrols her in the local college. Things take an unexpected positive turn and slowly Iva begins to make friends and thinks she is getting the life she always wanted; a normal one. But the town is hiding a dark secret and Iva’s new found ‘normality’ puts her in grave danger. The-worried-mother versus girl-reaching-adult hood relationship is well described and you can feel the warmth, but firstly and foremost this is an exciting book with lots of action. I would recommend this for young adults, but with a warning that there is swearing, violence and a torture scene, but nothing that shocked this not-so-young adult.

Twist In The Tale by Matthew Williams

I'm always a sucker for a freebie, so I downloaded it ages ago to my kindle when it was available for free. I read it while commuting to Monaco in 2013. To say that this review was long over due is an understatement. However the book is very, very short, so the review too is rather brief. But hey you had a post from me yesterday.

Twist In The Tale by Matthew Williams

This is a bundle of short stories, each with a twist at the end. They are written from a number of different perspectives, an interesting mix of first and third person views. Mr Williams’s style is light and breezy and I read the book during a few train commutes, for which short stories such as these are ideal.

Changes

You might have spotted some changes recently. Firstly I thought I’d better change the heading of my blog. The line ‘as she struggles to write the follow-up’ was outdated. The follow-up to Language in the Blood, Blood Ties, came out in January.

If you recently visited my Amazon page you may have noticed that the cover of Language in the blood has changed from this:

To this:

I believe that I should explore every avenue of book promotion. I have little faith this will work but I gave advertising on Amazon a shot. I was very surprised that they rejected my campaign. It took a bit of back and forth but the reason they rejected the campaign was the design of my cover. It fell foul of their blood and violence rules. (What!) A toy dog lying on a marble floor smeared in ketchup was judged to graphic. I used their software to design a new suitable cover and now the campaign is running and having very little effect as predicted. I did like Amazon KDP’s cover design software and probably will use it again as it was just so easy to get a professional look in very little time. So which cover do you prefer? I hope to go back to the original as it had a very distinct look that I carried forwards to book 2 and sums up the quirky nature of the books.

The Truth Finder

Motoring on with reviewing books.It is always a good sign when you get through a sizable book quickly. It was nice to read a well edited book, not all self published efforts are!

The Truth Finder by Penny Luker

The Truth Finder is set in the fifth millennium, in a world destroyed by nuclear wars. There remain but three inhabitable cities and the land in between (The kingdom of light). Some of humankind has evolved to possess special powers. Vrail is one such young boy. He is a Truth Finder, one who has the ability to read minds. At the start of the book we find him alone at the age of 17 after the death of his father. We follow his at times perilous journey into manhood. The author describes nicely how Vrail experiences his gift is as much of a curse as a blessing as he finds his own place in this dangerous world. Even though the story is set in the future, the land between the cities has more of a ‘Shires’ feel about it. People go about farming the land and use horses for transport. Some of this book reminded me about the Hobbit. Vrail also enjoys normality next to a cosy fireside and at times wishes he wasn’t special. I think this book will appeal to a young adult that likes to read adventure/fantasy.

My problem with the Truth Finder was that it screams for a follow up and I hope Penny is hard at work on book number two. There was a wealth of information to take in about this new future world, but I feel I’ve hardly scratched the surface of what there is to know about the cities. We got to meet many fascinating characters, but apart from the main character Vrail, we don’t know too much about any of them. Especially Vrails neighbour Grace, a fellow thruth Finder and the woman he is closest to seems very interesting. She is over 300 years old! She must have some interesting stories to tell. I’m looking forward to reading the follow up and I hope Penny goes a bit deeper into the many characters she has introduced me to.