Category: scifi

Books, great reads, Reviews, scifi, steampunk

The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr

Karen

diabolical-2

This book has been on my TBR forever but for some reason I just never got around to it, that was my loss. I LOVED this book, let me tell you why, but first the blurb:

Magic, mystery, and romance mix in this edgy retelling of the classic The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde–in which Dr. Eliza Jekyll is the daughter of the infamous Henry

In an electric-powered Victorian London, Dr. Eliza Jekyll is a crime scene investigator, hunting killers with inventive new technological gadgets. Now, a new killer is splattering London with blood, drugging beautiful women and slicing off their limbs. Catching “the Chopper” could make Eliza’s career—or get her burned. Because Eliza has a dark secret. A seductive second self, set free by her father’s forbidden magical elixir: wild, impulsive Lizzie Hyde.

When the Royal Society sends their enforcer, the mercurial Captain Lafayette, to prove she’s a sorceress, Eliza must resist the elixir with all her power. But as the Chopper case draws her into London’s luminous, magical underworld, Eliza will need all the help she can get. Even if it means getting close to Lafayette, who harbors an evil curse of his own.

Even if it means risking everything and setting vengeful Lizzie free . . .

This book was amazing! It was a steampunk twist on Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde with even a dash of Frankenstein thrown in for good fun. You follow the main characters Eliza and Lizza as they try to solve a murder, escape the Royal enforcers and figure out who they really are. The world build is perfect, I mean spot on, I normally have a hard time with steampunk and honestly sometimes, especially when Eliza was talking it did seem a little verbose but all and all I enjoyed it immensely. The story itself broke a lot of my rules, too many plot lines, too many characters, too much going on but guess what I DIDN’T CARE! Yeah I liked it that much. She even has an adorable little robot Hippocrates who likes to keep things logical thank you. Read it! I’m still on this book high, so I don’t want to talk to much lest I reveal something I shouldn’t.

Book two The Devious Dr. Jekyll just released on October 27th Hyde-2  acquiring now, I’ll let you know what I think of that as well.

Here is its blurb: Solving the infamous Chopper case has helped crime scene physician Dr. Eliza Jekyll establish her fledgling career in the chauvinistic world of Victorian law enforcement. But the scrutiny that comes with her newfound fame is unwelcome for a woman with a diabolical secret. And there is the mercurial Royal Society agent and wolf man Remy Lafayette. Does he want to marry her, eat her, or burn her at the stake? Though Eliza is uncertain about Remy, her dark and jealous shadow self, Lizzie, wants to steal the magnetic and persistent agent, and usurp Eliza’s life.

It’s impossible to push Remy away when he tempts her with the one thing she can’t resist: a bizarre crime. The search for a bloodthirsty ritual torturer dubbed the Pentacle Killer draws them into a terrifying world of spies, art thieves, and evil alchemy, where the price of immortality is madness?or damnation—and only Lizzie’s dark ingenuity can help Eliza survive.

As Eliza and Remy race to thwart a foul conspiracy involving the sorcerous French, they must also overcome a sinister enemy who is all too close: the vengeful Lizzie, determined to dispose of Eliza for good.

Happy reading!!

Books, Reviews, scifi

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Karen

red queen

This one I’m torn with, I have things I liked about it and things I didn’t which will probably put me in the minority since it’s such a popular book. But let’s do this right fist the official blurb..

This is a world divided by blood – red or silver.

The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.

That is, until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.

Fearful of Mare’s potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime.

But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance – Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart…

Pros first. The writing was amazing, first YA book I’ve read in awhile that had a solid plot and well written characters. Mare, who this story was about, at the beginning I liked her, unfortunately it didn’t stay that way but I’ll explain why. The prince brothers Cal and Maven, best characters in the book. They actually stuck to character, which was nice for a change. Loved the villains in this book, great job. The world building was spot on, I understood where they lived and the divide between the silvers and the reds. In fact I enjoyed the concept, if you have a super power and have silver blood you’re a silver (let’s call them upper class) if you have no power and have red blood your a red (servant class). I enjoyed the idea of having the power but not the right blood color, very cool.

My problems, I think I figured out the twists too early. Therefore I started to get really annoyed with Mare, who had no problem participating in killing silvers but was appalled that the silvers killed back. I’m never a fan of the everybody wants you thing, though the end helped with this a little, but I think I’m over lead female characters that do selfish stupid stuff and don’t understand why things go wrong. So done with that.

There is a fantastic part at the end where a character straight out tells her, I was your friend and you betrayed me, now I’m going to die. Your fault. I was cheering for him, she doesn’t seem to grasp that when you use people they can get hurt, even with the ending I don’t feel like she really got it.

Would I recommend this read? Yes I think it’s good enough to recommend. I will read the next one and see how it goes. Some characters are interesting enough that I want to read more about them.

Books, great reads, indie author, Reviews, scifi

The Unspoken Agreement

Karen

I have always felt there was an unspoken agreement between an author and us readers when we purchase a book and frankly lately I think the rules have been out the window. So I’m curious, is it just me that feels this way, having these expectations of my writers? Do I need to adjust to a new way of writing? Or are some books just not playing by the rules? Allow me to explain.

When I buy a book it’s like the author and I have made a contract. A simple one, I will give money to your seller and you will deliver a story. I don’t have to like it but it must follow the guidelines of all stories. Sound simple? Apparently not. This is how I view a story: A beginning, if it’s the first time we are meeting everyone with character and world building when appropriate. Then a middle, this is where your plot comes to life, the climax of the story as it is, whether it’s bad guys seemingly defeating good guys, or a big fight, big reveals, this is when we get the meat of the story. The all important end, the big finish, where you frankly actually finish the book. No cliffhangers (I will discuss this), no unrelated twists, just bring it home. Make it complete.

What I feel like has been a trend in some writing lately…

The Cliffhanger. Why do authors do this? Especially with book one? I have yet to meet a reader that loves this, so why do it? Is it because you just couldn’t think of an ending? Is it because you want me to be forced to buy your next book (doesn’t work with me, you cliff hang I abandon)? Or is it because you knew from the beginning that you would write three books so it doesn’t matter to you? Well that sucks. Let me tell you there are many extremely successful series out there that have 8,10,20 books and you know what, no cliffhangers! Every book is a complete story by itself. We feel satisfied when we read it, like an episode on tv.

The Plot. Ever read the back of a book, then read the book and the blurb has nothing to do with the story? I bought the book because this is what you told me the story is about. Can’t always blame the publisher, indies are also committing this crime, it’s kind of like false advertising. See this whale??? Sorry we are sending you home with a guppy. I might have been interested in your original story, I like guppies, but it’s just not going to sit right with me the whole time cause all I can think about is that whale. Blurbs should match the story and the plot should follow that. Having a plot is good too, some now don’t even have a plot.

The beginning. World and character building are paramount. In fact too often characters are left with no personality, shallow as it were, and books can fall very flat. But some authors swing too far the other way making whole books out of world and character building. That’s great if I already have book 2 and 3 but if this is all I have, then I don’t have a story, just a really long resume. And 200 pages of that gets boring. I know a lot of authors say they are setting up the next book, but I’m not buying, you got to sell this book to me, not the next one.

So the big question is, are my expectations to great?

Books, great reads, Reviews, scifi

Pale Moon Walking by Paula Altenburg

Karen

I received a free copy of this book from netgalley and lately my reads from there have not been great, this was the gift in the group.

Summary: Basically you have aliens, the wild west, a guy that the government has been experimenting on (with alien blood) and a chick sheriff. Yeah and a little chemistry to keep things interesting.  I know it sound awesome right? It was!

I’d like to point out that first this book is well written. You start to appreciate that when you get a couple of books in a row that aren’t. Second the concept, see above, was actually fulfilled. Sam, one of the main characters, was interesting and likable, plus the whole alien blood making him manifest his new talents was pretty cool. Then you have Libby, she does the whole tough girl stay away from us thing well, but I still liked her as well. Even though the aliens were called Sky People (yikes!) I found the story building rich and was caught up before I knew it.

A romance with a scifi twist, well worth the read, enjoy!