Title: Hope
Series: The Decendant Trilogy #2
Author: Theresa M. Jones
Publisher: Theresa M. Jones
Release Date: April 29th 2013
Add: Goodreads
Dates read: May 1st, 2013
Source: Provided by author
Rating:

Allison now understands who she is and where she comes from, but will it be enough to save the world? She went through a dangerous journey, dragging her young daughter along for the ride, in an attempt to stop the evil Rising Leader, Damien, from opening the Seven Seals and bringing about the Apocalypse.

But she hasn’t succeeded yet. The Rising still thrives and Lilith has made it her mission to open the remaining Seals so that she and her minions can rule the Earth.

David and Allison hope that love can conquer all, but in reality, love is never enough. Will they, along with the rest of the gang back at the Compound, be able to stop the Rising?

And where is The Descendant that is prophesied to save them all?

Alison's story continues. With Damien dead, Lilith has taken over the Rising and is now set on making sure Alison dies for her crimes against them. With Alison's new marriage to David, Samantha's powers due to come in any day, and a new baby on the way, Alison has far too much to worry about than focusing on Lilith.

Sophomore novels are difficult. They are hard to master because you have to convey a certain amount of information in a short period. Hope is helping to prepare for a time skip, and it needs to set things up to allow for that to happen. Hope does a decent job of it, but there was some lacking.

The characters are all the same. You get to read more about Lilith and meet a few of the other Rising members, but otherwise the characters have not changed at all. They are still very likeable and leave you wanting to hate the bad ones and root for the good ones.

The story was nice as well. It's a really good set up for the third novel. Information is conveyed nicely. It was the writing that stunted me. This novel felt rushed to me. I noticed quite a few errors that the editor obviously missed or that weren't fixed before publishing. Descriptive words were repeated in sentences too closely to one another. Scenes were either rushed or not described well enough. It didn't read nearly as smoothly and this was a final copy unlike the preview copies I read for Power. The mistakes are all tiny little things, but they are unfortunately noticable. I feel like it needed a few more read-throughs before handed off to the editor. I had expressed my thoughts to Theresa that I thought the release was a rush, but now I feel like a horrible friend for not reading this sooner and encouraging her a bit more to wait. Power sets you up to expect a certain level in her writing and Hope doesn't deliver it.

The story is what is most important, and it really was wonderful. I can't say much without spoiling it flat out, but I did really enjoy it. I just found that I couldn't lose myself in the story as much as I did before because I noticed the lack in the writing that I didn't expect. I hate to have to judge the novel by that, but people do judge those things. I would still recommend this story to anyone who is intrigued by the first book. It was a great story with wonderful characters.

Giveaway

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Power (The Decendant Trilogy #1) Goodreads Amazon Free till May 3rd! My Review

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In honor of William Shakespeare’s birthday (celebrated on April 26), authors Kim Askew and Amy Helmes, have dropped by with a guest blog post to announce a special contest!

Get A “Twisted Lit” Character Named After You!

We reimagined William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and “Macbeth,” with our “compulsively readable” YA books, Tempestuous and Exposure. Ever since the novels were published a few months ago through Merit Press we’ve encountered a frequent question: Which of Shakespeare’s plays will inspire your next books in the Twisted Lit series? 

While we’re currently hard at work putting our own spin on the Bard’s “Romeo and Juliet” we thought we’d look to you, the readers, to help us pick the fourth Shakespeare play that will inspire our next book in the series. Got a hankering for a new spin on “Hamlet?” Love to see “King Lear” get a YA update? Would you make much ado over our take on “Much Ado About Nothing?”

Go to our Facebook page (Facebook.com/Twistedlitnovels) and write on our wall to weigh in on which Shakespeare play you’d like us to revamp next. In doing so, you’ll be entered to have your very own name mentioned in one of our upcoming books (either as a character or some other fun reference). If you’ve always wanted to see your name in print — in a YA novel, no less — now’s your chance! The winner will also receive autographed copies of our first two novels, Tempestuous and Exposure.

We’re looking forward to hearing your suggestions! (And don’t forget to follow us on twitter at @kaskew and @amyhelmes.) 

* Winner will not be compensated for use of his or her name, and publication is not guaranteed. Details of plot and character used in connection with the name as it appears in the book are up to the sole discretion of the authors. Contest ends June 1. 

Kim & Amy

Title: Otherborn
Series: Otherborn #1
Author: Anna Silver
Publisher: Sapphire Star Publishing
Release Date: April 4th 2013
Add: Goodreads
Dates read: April 12th, 2013
Source: Provided by author
Rating:

London and her teenage friends live in a reprocessed world.

Confined within Capital City’s concrete walls, London has done the impossible and the illegal. She’s created something New- a song. But her mentor, club owner Pauly, is not impressed. Since the historic Energy Crisis forced everyone behind walls generations ago, the Tycoons have ensured there is truly nothing new allowed under the sun. Pauly warns London to keep her song to herself, if she knows what’s good for her.

What he doesn’t know is that London is keeping an even bigger secret: she dreams. And she’s not alone. London’s band-mates and friends have begun dreaming as well, seeing themselves in “night pictures” as beings from another world. As Otherborn, they must piece together the story of their astral avatars, the Others, in order to save their world from a dreamless, hopeless future.

When Pauly is murdered and an Otherborn goes missing, London realizes someone is hunting them down. Escaping along the Outroads, they brave the deserted Houselands with only their dreams to guide them. Can they find their friend before the assassin finds them? Will being Otherborn save their lives, or destroy them?

London was the first. She was the first to dream, the first to create. Now it's spreading to her bandmates. But dreaming, and creating, those are things of the old world. They have no place in the current world. When two people close to her are murdered, and a third goes missing, London knows there is more to this than she can easily see. But what she will discover is more than she ever imagined.

I should not have liked this book as much as I did. I'm usually not a fan of dystopian novels. I have trouble with thinking of a future world where everything is destroyed for one reason or another. Books are an escape to me. Dystopian worlds are too often bleak. That isn't what I want from a novel. But when Anna Silver sent me the first chapters to see if I would be interested, I couldn't look away. I was kidnapped by this book from the beginning, and it still hasn't let me go. I may have finished it, but this is like, playtime in a prison yard more than actual freedom.

The characters are intriguing. You don't fall for them right away. The more you learn about them, the more you get hooked on them. London and Rye are the main ones, which is nice enough, but I wouldn't have minded seeing more of Kim and Zen. Maybe they will have a slightly larger role later in the series. The characters were nicely fleshed out and flawed. Everything you really want in a character. They aren't annoying or grating, but they aren't overly fantastic either. They just are, and that works.

The story and writing are what really sealed this book for me. The plot is so original and intriguing. It leaves you with so many questions, wanting more that you just can't get right away. A lot of questions get answered, but they only open more. The writing style was my favorite of anything though. The writing is almost lyrical. You feel like you are floating on the wind as you read through it. The writing is perfect and effortless. Never was there a spot where I wanted to stop for some reason. There weren't any jutting edges between chapters. It all flowed together in a perfectly, unbroken line.

All around, just pleasantly surprised with this novel. If you are a fan of dystopians, you will love it. If you aren't, but are a fan of the supernatural, dreamwalking and such, then you should give it a shot too. I bet you will find it worth it like I did. Highly recommended.

Want to read Otherborn?

Paperback | Kindle | Nook

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Anna Silver is giving away a Kindle Fire as part of her Otherborn release celebration! Don't forget to enter!
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So, I haven't been reading much to update anything, so my blog has been horribly empty. I don't want people to think I have died or anything though, so here. Have a list of things I learned this week.

Things I learned this week:

• The Eliptical is murder on someone who hasn't worked out well enough in two years. It should not be the first thing you do when you walk into a gym. It will make even the tredmill painful to walk on.
  
• The pain the eliptical brings, will cause any grown woman to wish she was a man when it comes to having to pee every 40 minutes from the unusual new constant intake of water that her diet has brought on.
  
• It is far easier to read at the gym on the tredmill or stationary bike than it is in my mother's house. Who knew?
  
• Water and exercise are supposed to help you sleep better. This is apparently not true for the first two weeks. Lame.
  
• Water is excellent for plotbunnies, except when you are trying to stick to one project and suddenly you want to write six other stories that you hadn't even planned.
  
• Novels are easy to screw up and hard to fix. I don't know if this is a general truth or just a lack of confidence.
  
• It is really hard to place an order for a new blog layout (which will bring about my move to Wordpress at the same time) when I can't decide what my colors should be. I know the technical ideas... but that dang top header... No idea what I want it to look like.
  

So, as you can gather, I got a gym membership. I want to lose about 60lbs before my husband returns from deployment. I mean, besides reading and working on my novels, I don't have anything else to do. I think 60lbs is doable by November. Difficult, but doable.

I'm just starting to read again, so I will have some reviews up starting next week which will begin with my spot in Anna Silver's Otherborn blog tour on the 16th. Really liking it so far.

Hope everyone had a great week and has a great weekend!

With the demise of Google Reader, I thought I would follow suit in adding my blog to Bloglovin'. Seems a lot of people are switching over there, so here is my button.

You can still follow my via RSS if you wish, you will just need a different reader. I switched to Feedly, what about you?

I'm back!!

So, I am finally in Texas and mostly settled into my room at my mother's house. My husband officially left for his deployment this morning, so now the 9-12 months of waiting begins.

I am caught up on my emails, but not my RSS feed. I have been writing pretty much non-stop the past two days, so while my novels are getting serious work-outs, I haven't been reading, which means I still have no reviews to post. I have to have my car checked out tomorrow though, so I am planning on dragging my Kindle along with me, so hopefully I will have a review to post this week. I am like, 14 books behind on my reading challenge for the year, which is making me sad. As it is, I am probably going to have to drop a few of the ones I had chosen to do. I never expected that prepping for this move and deployment was going to eat up so much time.

Anyway, I am back, so things will pick back up here very soon. I will be moving over to a wordpress self hosted system here in the coming months, so that will be an adventure. I missed my blog so much!

Title: Power
Series: The Descendant Trilogy #1
Author: Theresa M. Jones
Publisher: Theresa M. Jones
Release Date: February 7th, 2013
Add: Goodreads
Dates read: February 6th, 2013
Source: Provided by author
Rating:

Thousands of years after the battle between the angels, when Lucifer was defeated by Michael in the Heavens, the war is still being fought on Earth by the humans who have their Power, the Angel’s Power.

Allison Stevens is a 21 year old single mother who gets thrown into the middle of this battle when Damien, the Leader of the Rising, decides to hunt her down and kill her because he fears she is the descendant prophesied to save the world.

David, a member of the Order, takes Allison under his wing in order to show her the ropes, and hopefully groom her into being the one they have been waiting for. The only problem is that they start to grow more attached than a teacher/student relationship should allow.

But that isn’t all. Damien wants to open the Seven Seals and bring about the apocalypse and it’s up to Allison to not only save herself and her family, but save the world, all while trying to keep her heart from breaking.

No problem… right?

Alison is a young single mother who has just had her Power awakened. A descendant, born with the Angel's Power in her, Alison is thrown into the world of the Order. Training with Order member, David, so that she can face the leader of their enemies, the Rising, she discovers her strength and Power as she learns to control her abilities. The Rising leader, Damien, fears her to be the Descendant, the prophesied one who is descended with all the Angel's powers, and the only one who can kill him. He will stop at nothing to see her dead, but Alison isn't going down without a fight.

Being that I have known Theresa Jones since she was about 10 years old, I was granted the pleasure of cheating. I was allowed to read the very first draft of this novel, and I have to say, the changes since then are fairly large. This novel has truly transformed. Seeing my name in the acknowledgements was the best gift I could have gotten.

This novel is really easy to read. The writing just flows, taking you on the journey. I would have liked to see a bit more emotion building. I got a tear in my eyes once or twice, but I would have really liked to be consumed by the novel. I thought at first, that maybe since I had read it before, that I was uneffected, but enough had changed that I feel I should have still been more moved. The lack of it wasn't enough to kill anything, just to make me miss having it there. I also would've liked a bit more uncertainty. There is a point where things are slightly predictable, thought that might be confidence leaking off the pages.

I really like the characters. Alison is a sweetheart who is just so full of love. Her reactions to things can be a bit heated, but she seems like the type who feels all her emotions quickly and strongly. Although she was forced to mature early for her age when she became a young mother, she still is the type to feel an emotion first and ask questions or find rational thought later. David is wonderful, though felt stiff at times. It might have to deal a lot with his age though. Samantha is precious, and I really would've liked to have seen more of her, but I know that this wasn't her story. I felt like Damien could've been more fleshed out as a character, but I was generally happy with him.

The plot is really easy to follow. Things are explained well, in a way you can grasp them easily without it making you feel like you are being talked down to. The story was really nice. Angels and Demons aren't usually my thing, but they are there in the history of this novel and not so much in the pages of it. I loved the way the powers were explained and described. It was really easy to imagine it in your head and just made me happy. More characters need awesome magic like this. The basis of things were simple. I feel like there will be much more to this, but that it will unfurl more in the future installments. I wish the tension building for the climax had been a bit more drawn out. While it was needed, the set up of the novel was just a little long compared to the climax, and the climax started off right after a short time skip, giving the tension less time to build up. The climax was well written, once again, would've liked a bit more tension, maybe a some more action, I was just left longing for it.

This was a really good start to the series, a great novel, and a fabulous debut. Completely worth picking up. Definitely recommend this to everyone.

Giveaway!

Theresa M. Jones is hosting a giveaway as part of the book tour. So enter to win!