The Draw In

What draws people into a book? What makes someone stop everything and read a book from cover to cover. Is it the cover with a pretty picture or bright colours? I personally prefer covers that are not too cluttered, if there is a picture, I like it when it has something to do with the book, even if you do not find out until after the book is finished. I have not had the chance to read this book yet, but the cover is clean and inviting and I like that the next two in the series have the same idea but slightly different and a different colour. I think this cover is just so pretty and if you have read the Gracling by the same author, the bow and arrow mean alot.

The bad covers. This is just plain scary, it looks more like a horror than a romance book. I would not even pick this book up, or anything else by this author. As much as we shouldn’t, we all judge a book by it’s cover.

Does the title tickle our fancies or make us step away and find another book that will statisfy us. Short titles like “Shiver”, “The Keep” “The Knight” seem to be more appealing than long winded titles.  Unfortunately even the one-word idea might be a trap, “Clay” does not appeal to me in anyway, it does not spark any intrigue.

The description of the bok itself needs to be inviting and well written, it really does not matter how many people have told you it is “must read” or how many glowing reviews it has recieved, if the blurb is not your cup of tea, the likelyhood of you ever reading it unless you have to or your bored is very low. People keep telling me read Magician, but I just cannot seem to pick it, there is just one word that is putting me off “alien”, I am  not a science fiction fan and I associate alien with it. Perhaps one day I will bow under the weight of peer pressure and read it, but today I have many books that I actaully want to read. I have a problem with books that do not seem real, yes this is odd because I mainly read fantasy, but I think there is such a thing as too much imagination, it has to be logical and put in such a way that it is real in the story. Hard to explain but this is probably why I do not read Sci-fi because alot of it is too far fetched.

So with a great title and cover, and a killer of a decription there is no reason why any book cannot be appealing.

That is all for now, bookworms.

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A shade of vampire

I got a Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest for free in exchange for an honest review.

When I first got offered this book I was skeptical, in my mind it was going to be a cross between twilight and 50 shades of gray. Thankfully it was not! There were quite a few parts that reminded me of twilight but with any vampire romance book there is that danger, if not unavoidable trap. The similarities: a girl falls for a vampire even though she has seen exactly what evil creatures they can be; the vampire falls for the girl before getting to know her; there is someone else that wants to harm or kill the girl; there is at least another man/vampire who wants to be with her; there is another female vampire that resents the girl for being the one the male vampire picked and last of all (well probably not, but all I can think of right this second), even though the male vampire finds the girl’s blood the sweetest blood he has every smelt, he somehow manages to resist.  Most of the similarities mentioned are the cringe-worthy parts of Twilight.

The book is fairly short at 152 pages, a quick read. Thankfully there were no sex scenes, I am  not fond of sex in books just for the sake of it, if it is intergral to the story then fine but the whole new fad with new adult books that are basically young adult novels with adult issues, most of thbe time sex. I personally think the authors are shootign themselves in the feet when they do that because they are ruling out a whole generation of readers. But hey, I still read them and just ignore the dirty bits.

Okay, back to the book. Sofia is kidnapped by vampires on her 17th birthday and is taken to an unknown island of eternal night, known as the Shade.  The prince of the vampires awakes from a 400year sleep and Sofia is enslaved to his harem. She soon realises that the safest place in the shade is at the prince Derek’s side and in his good books. Will she survive?

Good points: Easy to read, well edited, enjoyable and best of all you actually see vampires for what they are, they do not go into sunlight and their known predators and prey are humans.

Bad points: Too much like twlight (in the basics, not the actual story line), not long enough, the first few chapters did not have enought charcater development.

Time for me to read another book, so I bid you goodnight bookworms.

Long, short and everywhere in between.

Is a story better if it a long one with lots of details and lots of action or is it better if it is short and gets straight to the point? Is a story better if it is told in one book or over a series of books? All depends on the story, right?

How long is a long book? 600, 800, 1000 pages or more? Depends on your view but anything more than 1000 pages is just plain mean. I think about 600-800 is a decent size for a long book. If you have read a Diana Gabaldon book especially  the Outlander series, which so far has eight books in it, each book is 1200+ pages. I really do like the look of this series and want to give it a go, but the sheer length is putting me off. How long it must have taken her to write them, this is definately the definition of dedication. Perhaps one day i will get around to reading it, but a book that is longer than all 3 Lord Of The Rings put together, scares me a little.

Ok, to the other end of the spectrum, short books. I am not talking about short stories which are perfectly accecptable if you like them, I am talking about the books that have seem to become popular since the Kindle has come about that are more like a chapter than a book. The Witches of Santa Anna by Lauren Barnholdt are about 40-50 pages per book, yes I did say per book. The first two if not three, do not even mention witches of any kind. I bought the first 7 as a bundle and just prentended it was a normal lentghed book. Each “book” just finishes like a chapter would, rather than a book. Even books that end with cliff hangers have some sort of rounding off, these “books” just end. These “books” annoy me, I think the authors are just trying to get money, they charge over £1 for each one. Seriously? They would probably earn more money if they made the 7 into one full length book and probably more respect from readers and writers alike. The worst one I have seen that someone charged people for, was a 19 page book. How they even got a story to fit in that is beyond me, but hey, I’ll just avoid it at all costs.

The other issue, a stand alone book or a series of books? Always a series if the story is well-thought out and doesn’t just drag and seem like the author is trying to fill in pages so they can make another book out of it. The worst case I have come across of this is the House of Night series by Kristin Cast and P.C. cast. The first one is a well rounded book and there are no points that the reader is itching for something to happen, when I was finished I was happy to continue with the series. As the series goes on, each book just gets worse and worse. The main character is too obsessed with boys to worry about the world’s impending doom and for about 75 pages literally nothing more than sitting around happens. Needless to say I stopped reading them, I felt as the writer’s were trying to get money off the readers and with writing that bad it is daylight robbery.

Enough ranting for tonight. I will say goodnight now bookworms, until next time.

Be it Magic?

Now it’s time to delve into the depths of books that can be classed as magic or not, it is entirely up to the opinion of the reader.

The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson (The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages). The Lord Ruler has reigned over Luthadel for 1000 years, the Skaa are enslaved. A different kind of uprising is in progress,a  Skaa street urchin – Vin, must learn Allomancy to be have any hope at all. Allomancy is a way of ingesting small amounts of metal and using it in varying ways to influence metal and people. Different metals have different properties. The first time I read this I was a bit unsure of people eating metal and then having “powers” but the more I read the more I felt a pull towards it. Since not everyone in the population can do this, it could be classed as a magical ability or a special genetic quirk. However you would like to categorize this book, I would definately recommend it.

The Healing Wars by Janice Hardy (The Pain Merchants, Blue Fire, Dark Fall). Sisters Nya and Tali can take pain from other people and into thier own bodies to heal others. Tali is apprenticed to the Healers’ League, Nya’s gift is slightly different and against the law. With her skill is in demand, she must hide and try to save her sister. As far as I am aware this book is fairly unknown, I want this to change. This series is clever, imaginative, very entertaining and heart wrenching. Nya is put in impossible situations and comes up with genius ways out. Okay, the number of times she ends up captured and manages to get out is a little unrealistic but I can let that slide.

Time for one more? Gracling by Kristin Cashore. People who are born with each eye a different colour, have a special skill called a Grace and are known as Graclings. Katsa’s Grace is killing. When the father of a King from another Kingdom is kidnapped Katsa uses her skills to work out what is going on. When all clues lead to another of the Kingdoms the situation gets dark and mysterious. The prquel is Fire and a very enjoyable story but I would have enjoyed it more if it was a stand alone book rather than prequel, trying to work out how they were linked annoyed me. The sequel to Graceling is Bitterblue, I have not found time to read it yet, but it looks promising.

Now that I have shown you the way of not-so obvious magic you can explore on your own and make up your own mind. That is all for now bookworms. I will find more interesting books and topics for next time. Thank you reading.

Emma

Magic!

For anyone who likes fantasy books, magic is a must. Of course the queen of magic if not all of fantasy is J.K. Rowling. She puts the reader under a spell that binds them until they are finished the book. It does not matter how many times you read the Harry Potter books fans will always be captivated on the every read. A good book is defined by how much you enjoy it, a great book is defined by how many times you can read it and still enjoy it as much as the first time round.

What is classed as magic? In my opinion anything is actually classified as magic or some books that people do things cannot be explained especially when it is more than one person. It can be hard to define because if a book had multiple that could move objects with their mind that is not really magic but if they said a word and had to tap into some engery within themselves then that could be classed as magic. Confused? I’ll leave it up to you to decide which books you class as magic or not.

Since J.K. Rowling holds the crown which other authors are biting at her heels hoping for some more recognition for thier hard work. Let’s start with some that are cleary defined as magic.

An enjoyable series that is aimed at the same age range as Harry Potter is The Black Magicain Trilogy by Trudi Canavan ( The Magicain’s Guild, The Novice, The High Lord). The series is set in the city of Imardin and during it’s yearly purge of the city, a young street girl manages to throw a stone through their magical sheild protecting the magicians. Since she untrained they have to find her before she causes harm to herself or others. Since the series is aimed at younger readers it is easy to understand and not too much violence (enough to understand what is going on but does not go into great detail). They are good enjoyable books that captivate your heart and you don’t want to end. There is also a spin-off series that is set about 20years after the final book and a prequel book that is set a few hundred years before, which is personally my favourite of the lot.

Now time for my favourite book of all time, I think I have read it about 10 times, believe me it’s good. The Study series (Yelana Zaltana novels) by Maria V Snyder (Poison Study, Magic Study, Fire Study). Yelana is about to be executed for murder when she gets a life changing choice, choose the noose or become a food taster for the Commander of Ixia. Having magic in Ixia is punishable by death and when Yelana discovers she can do magic she has a whole new set of problems to overcome. It has everything you could want in a book: magic- check, romance (not the mushy kind) – check, battle scenes – check, lovable characters – check. There is also another series (the Glass Series) that is in the same world as the Study series but had as different main character- one that appears later in the Study series.

Frost Arch (the Fire Mage trilogy) by Kate Bloomfield. In a world where mages rule and humans are enslved. Avalon has trouble controlling her fire magic, decides to leave her family and find a job in Frost Arch her life seems dismal, will she be able to overcome everything and save her friends and family? I have only read the first book so far and loved it. Romance has not occured yet but that is part of the charm it is about friendship and loyalty, I am rooting for a certain male charater to woo her. Just reminded myself I need to read the next book sometime soonish.

The not-so obvious magic books (and more magic books and much more) will have to wait for another night as sleep is calling. Have you read all the books yet in this post? What you waiting for? Get reading.

Until next time bookworms.

Emma