Cute!

I was looking at pictures of goats online for a 3D model I was making and found this adorableness!

Lenobia's Vow: Book Review

5/5 Stars

Lenobia's Vow (Novella)
House of Night Series
By P.C. Cast
St Martin's Press (January 31, 2012)

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

This story follows Lenobia, a horse mistress at the House of  Night Zoey is attending.  It takes place in the 1700's when Lenobia is but a teenager herself.  We discover she is a bastard child living on her father's estate as a servant girl.  Her mother is a very beautiful woman with grey eyes like her and her father desired her so much he had her brought from England to become his mistress.  There is much resentment from his real family towards Lenobia and her mother, and it doesn't help she bears a striking unmistakable resemblance to her half sister.  Her half sister that just fell ill and died, and no one outside of the property knows of yet.
Lenobia is pulled aside by her mother and told to flee the estate, away from a family that looks at her with disdain and a priest that looks at her in a very unpriestly manor.  There is a carriage about to arrive to take Cecile (Lenobia's half sister) to the docks, from the docks to a grand ship, and from that ship to the New World, New Orleans. Here Cecile's new husband awaits. Reluctantly Lenobia agrees to assume Cecile's life.   When the carriage arrives it dawns on Lenobia this the last time she will ever see her mother, and with a tearful goodbye they depart. Lenobia heads towards her new fake life; remembering her mother's words to be Cecile not to become Cecile. Now the only thing left to do is not get caught on the 8 week voyage to New Orleans.  But what Lenobia doesn't know is that something sinister is about to board the ship with her, and her life is going to change entirely in the most unexpected way.

Lenobia's Vow was a very quick read and not just because it's a novella.  It gives a little bit of background on Lenobia, one of Zoey's favourite teachers, and what had happened to her.  I would read this after you have caught up in the series because it gives background to her scars and also why she is so reluctant to fall in love, especially with a human.  If you love the series, and you like Lenobia's character, dive in! It's well written and a quick easy read.  The style in which it is written is a little different from her other books, but I think that it gives more character from Lenobia's perspective, and there is quite a bit of French text in it.  Most of it is repeated in English after they say it, and I was able to translate some of it myself (since I'm Canadian and they teach us french and I actually chose to learn it instead of staring at the ceiling not listening), but for those of you qui n'a pas etudier francais, you might want to google some of the words if it bothers you that much.

The Questing Beast: Ebook Review

4/5 Stars

The Questing Beast
By Ilona Andrews
Smashwords (May 16th, 2010)

Genre: Sci-fi 

Since it's a short I don't want to give too much away so I'll keep this as brief as possible. A small group of people are on a mysterious planet conducting research on its environment, and inhabitants; one of which are small furballs that eat metal so there are no laptops, no computers, no tv's, no internet for 2 years, all notes are taken by hand -ew. With 4 weeks left on the expedition sh** hits the fan and the only computer (which is really more like a server taking in information, sealed behind glass so the fuzzies can't eat it) get's a virus and all the data is corrupted.  Their only hope of not wasting two years of their life and salvaging the data is Nannybot (an odd robot that backs up information), which get's backed up one a week, so they're safe! Wrong. Someone else backed it up and now it's also infected with the virus, but Nannybot being an AI has made the virus infect it in an odd way.  Making it very hard to retrieve the data when the Nannybot is convinced it is a 14th centry knight who must capture the Questing Beast!

My Opinion:

Short and sweet just like the story!

I really like the way this short was written, and it was surprisingly funny.

Would I recommend this short? Yes! Would I read more books by this author? Yes!

Publishing Ebook How to: "I did it all by myself"

Now for the second instalment of creating your very own ebook. Last post I described what places you should plan on posting you book(s) on. Now I'm going to go into further details on how to do it.

If you have decided to go the route that is harder but makes you more money than doing it by yourself is the way to go.  Though you must keep in mind that some sites only allow aggregators to publish their books (ex Smashwords), like the Sony store.  If you’re American you’re in luck, you can publish (if you have the patience and requirements) at the iBookstore, Amazon.com is A LOT easier, and you can use PubIt! to publish on Barnes and Nobel. 

There is only one way to not take a loss and that is to have customers purchase your ebook off your webpage.  Quite a few people don’t have their own website and even less know how to throw a shopping cart on it.  I have my own webpage, but I don’t see the sense in making a shopping cart.  You might be asking yourself, why wouldn’t you want to make a 100% profit? My answer: Nobody knows who I am. why would they go to my site and buy me ebook? 

I think having your own site and own checkout is a great idea, but if you’re not established I don’t see it generating much income. If you’ve released a few ebooks and they are doing well then I would definitely consider this option and promote your website to your readers. Ex, put your website at the end of your ebooks, develop a fan page on facebook and tell your readers where to find your ebooks.

Now you have to decide where you want to release your ebook, the best thing to do is to release it on as many sites as possible. Please see my previous post for all the sites you can release it on.

Some tips:

Release your ebook for .99 cents (I know who wants all their hard work to get them less than a dollar, I sure don’t!) BUT people are much more likely to give an author they never heard of a chance for .99 cents.  Don’t fret though, you could set a goal for yourself like, if I sell 2,500 books I’m going to start selling my ebook at $1.99, and if your sales don’t drop after the price change you might say to yourself, if I sell 10,000 I’m going to change it to $2.99, etc, etc.  I wouldn’t go any higher than $3/4.99.

An Important thing to remember is once you start selling your ebooks don’t hike it up right away, you could deter people and then get less reviews than you want.  I am a strong believer in reviews if I see a book released with 300 reviews compared to one with 3 I am more likely to look at the 300 reviewed one, aren’t you?  SOMEONE out of those 300 is going to have a well detailed opinion, and we humans are drawn by popularity. We would trust a 4 star book with 300 reviews than a 5 star book with 3 reviews?

The more popular your book is the more popular it will become, period.  So don’t cut your books growth short too soon by hiking up the price to make a few extra dollars.

Option two (if you didn’t like the last option you’ll like this one even less) release your ebook for free and when it gets popular (set a goal for this two like maybe 10 reviews or 1,000 downloads or maybe just free for the first 2-4 weeks) start selling your ebook.  If you peeps have learned anything from my site, if it’s free I give it a go!

Next Wednesday: I'll be talking about converting you .doc to other files. 

77 Shadow Street : Book Review

4/5 Stars

77 Shadow Street
By Dean Koontz
Bantam (December 27th, 2011)

Genre: Horror, Sci-fi, Paranormal

It was odd reading this book, I'm not saying this as the content was odd or that there was something wrong with it, but that it had been so long that I'd read a book of this genre that that itself was odd.  It had been probably at least 6 months since I read one of his books (aside from picking up Lightning again to read it), and the last couple hadn't really been that scary more like a suspense than an actual horror.  It doesn't help either that most of the book I've been reading, while super natural aren't really scary or unnerving.  So I was a bit unprepared for this book.  When I first started to read 77 Shadow Street it was so creepy that I didn't even want to read it at night before I went to bed, I was afraid of having nightmares (sadly this happens often when I watch or read really scary stuff).  This is definitely one of his more chilling especially compared to what he's written lately. The story focuses multiple main characters from a soldier to a scientist, a song writer to a hitman, all destined for something terrible to happen.

Synopsis:

The Pentleton, an upscale apartment building that had been converted from a famous mansion, houses something dark and deadly, something that its about to unleash on its unsuspecting inhabitants.  Strange things begin to occur, things that can't be explained or comprehended.  A flicker here, a flicker there, the residents notice disturbing glimpses of alternate worlds, strange creatures, people that seem to be from a different era appear then disappear, and even the city disappears in a flash of lightning.  Something's not right.  But before the renters have a chance to understand what's happening, their world shifts and they're no longer in the Pentleton they live in, instead it has mutated in a landscape of nightmares.  Now they must band together or let this strange world devour them one by one.  77 Shadow Street is no longer their home but a homage to a future beyond disaster.

My Opinion:

It was refreshing to read such a scary novel by Koontz again, though most of his books follow human killers and sometimes mutated ones, few actually follow the theme of 'things that go bump in the night'.  This book is sure to leave you wanting to read during the daytime.  The creature creations he describes are disturbing to the say the least and the atmosphere so chilling it'll make your hairs stand on end.  If you're looking for something genuinely creepy this book will do it.  While it is not my favourite, it still had a very interesting concept, was of course wonderfully written, and had a shout out to Golden Retrievers at some point which is to be expected.  I would definitely recommend this book for others to read if this is a genre they enjoy, and as always I can't wait to see what he releases next!

His next book is scheduled to be released next month and it is the fifth in the Odd Thomas Series. I have yet to actually read this series, my sister read the first two and said it wasn't his best, but the series keeps on going. Makes me think if I should give it a go at some point. Possibly after I'm done reading the Frankenstein Series.

House of Night Series : Review

4.5/5 Stars

House of Night Series

By P.C. & Kristin Cast

St. Martin's Press

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance, Vampyre, Magick

Before I continue I have to say I'm excited to see that a film adaption is planned, yey! I think it'd be smarter to go the tv series route, but that would probably require a lot of unnecessary fluffing. So you either have movies that cut too much or TV shows that add stupid parts. Can't really win, since no one wants to make mini-series in NA. More info check out the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Night

House of Night is a series of YA (young adult) Vampire books and novella's written by P.C. Cast and her daughter Kristin Cast. I had seen the covers to these books in grocery stores, drug stores, book stores etc... and I become intrigued because they were so lovely. I went to the library and picked up the first book Marked and read it within a few days. I then went back and grabbed as many books in the series as I could and within a month I read the series in its entirety. Since I read them before I started this blog and one consecutively after the other it's sort of turned into a big blob and I can't remember where one books ends and the other begins. Because of this I will dedicate this blog to the series and not the books individually. I will however give a short synopsis about the first book from Amazon:

Enter the dark, magical world of the House of Night, a world very much like our own, except here vampyres have always existed.

One minute, sixteen-year-old Zoey Redbird is a normal teenager dealing with everyday high school stress: her cute boyfriend Heath, the school’s star quarterback who suddenly seems more interested in partying than playing ball; her nosy frenemy Kayla, who’s way too concerned with how things are going with Heath; her uber-tough geometry test tomorrow. The next, she’s Marked as a fledgling vampyre, forcing her to leave her ordinary life behind and join the House of Night, a boarding school where she will train to become an adult vampyre. That is, if she makes it through the Change—and not all of those who are Marked do. It sucks to begin a new life, especially away from her friends, and on top of that, Zoey is no average fledgling. She has been chosen as special by the vampyre Goddess, Nyx. Zoey discovers she has amazing powers, but along with her powers come bloodlust and an unfortunate ability to Imprint with Heath, who just doesn’t know how to take “no” for an answer. To add to her stress, she is not the only fledgling at the House of Night with special powers: when she discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school's most elite group, is misusing her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look deep within herself for the courage to embrace her destiny—with a little help from her new vampyre friends.

I really like the character's and the story line, and the authors really get you hooked in and wanting more. The characters are such individuals (except for the 'twins'), and they all function very well in the story. The authors' draw you into this magical world that Zoey lives in, which is unique, dangerous, enchanting and yet still pretty believable. Cast isn't trying to cram as many supernatural beings into series as humanly possible, unlike other series *cough* Sookie Stackhouse *cough cough*. I enjoy the style it is written, the majority of the series is from Zoey's perspective and by the words selected by the authors' you feel that it is told from the perspective of a teenager. That also goes the same for the other character's, you pick up strong personalities.

My only complaints are I am older than the characters in the book so all the crying and boy drama can get tedious. A lot of bad stuff happens within a few short months after Zoey is Marked, and the character's seem to be balling through half the series. Also Zoey is constantly being chased after by multiple boys/men and half the story is about her trying to deal with that. ***SPOILER**** It goes from her being in involved with Eric/Heath, Eric/Heath/Loren, briefly just Loren, then heart broken Eric and Heath, a crush on Stark, then Eric/Kalona, then Eric/Heath/Stark/Kalona, then Heath/Stark/Kalona, then just Stark, and now we have circled around again (I'm assuming from the latest book) to back to Heath/Stark. GAH JUST PICK SOMEONE!

***SPOILER OVER****Aside from that it's a great series, a very interesting take on Vampyre's, and I would definately recommend to anyone who likes Vampyres, 'magick' and the super natural. I'm not really sure if I have a favourite book, since again it's just a big Zoey's a gifted vampyre's who's life's gone to hell blob, but I suppose I would go with Burned. If you haven't read the series, try out the first book, and if you're hooked then you'll enjoy the whole series. Cast has 3 novella's planned, one of which I've read (Dragon's Oath), the novella's give the history as to what makes the professor's the Vampyre's they are. Lenobia's Vow was just released so when I read that I will blog about it. And novel #10 is hitting shelves October of this year I believe, and it is titled 'Hidden'. I'm not sure when the Neferet's Novella is being released but that's soon also.

The books go as follows:
Marked
Betrayed
Chosen
Untamed
Hunted
Tempted
Burned
Awakened
Destined

Novella's:
Dragon's Oath

Paraprosdokians

Parapros-what-a? Yea, I'm thinking the same thing. What the fef is this crazy word and what does it mean?? The explanation is much simpler than the word itself. They are are figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently humorous.


Google it, it's fun! Go on


Here are a few I really enjoyed:


- The last thing I want to do is hurt you.. But it's still on my list. 


- Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak. 
  
- If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong. 
  
- We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public. 
  
 - War does not determine who is right - only who is left. 
  
- Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. 


- I thought I wanted a career. Turns out I just wanted paychecks. 
  
- In filling out an application, where it says, 'In case of emergency, notify:' I put 'DOCTOR.' 
  
- I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you. 


-  A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory. 


- There's a fine line between cuddling and holding someone down so they can't get away. 
  
-  I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not so sure. 
  
- You're never too old to learn something stupid. 

How to Publish an Ebook (Children's Picture Book)

This is still applicable to those who do not want to publish just picture books, but this is the main focus of these posts. Over the next several weeks I will be posting about my experiences and what I have learned about publishing an ebook. I hope anyone looking for knowledge on the subject will find this very helpful, and I'm trying to cram as much information as possible so you don't have to jump for site to site to try and find about different publishers.

That being said, let's begin, :)

For any people (like me) that want to get their Ebook off of their desktop and into the hands of readers, here’s a how to.  The Ebook I released Waffles the Goldendoodle Teaches the Doggy Alphabet (based on our dog) may be a picture book but I’m sure anyone releasing a novel could find this helpful.

You have everything typed, drawn, proofread, and whatever else. So the question you ask now is: do I want publish this myself or have another website do it for me?

If you’re wanting to release an ebook, and by now you should have done some research, you should have noticed, Holy Crap there are quite a few formats! Don’t believe me? Wiki will tell you here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebook#Formats  if you scroll down to the bottom it will also tell the most popular locations for Americans and Canadians to sell their ebooks.

The most popular formats are epub, pdf, and quite a few will take TXT.

So now that we know what formats we need where do we publish our ebooks? Good question.  More places than you probably thought there were.

Where to publish:

-          Amazon.com (Kindle)

-          Kobo  (pretty self-explanatory)

-          Barnes and Nobel (Nook) (Use PubIt!)

-          Google Books

-          Sony Store

-          Android Market

-          iBookstore (Use iTunes Connect?)

-          On your own webpage

-          Countless other small sites sell books

o   Blurb

-          Ebay

-          Ebookservices.com (sells to libraries?)

-          Epubbud

-          Lulu

Now what you probably want to know is, how you get it on these sites.

Stay Tuned!

Across the Universe : Book Review

4.5/5 Stars

A Million Suns
First in Across the Universe Series

By Beth Revis

Razorbill (November 29th, 2011)

Genre: YA Sci-Fi, Romance

I get the feeling this book plays homage to the Beatles.  I am really enjoying this series, and I wish I would have discovered it later because the third book isn't coming out till sometime next year *sigh*. I almost need a special book calender so I don't forget about the series I've read. I've been trying to read stand alone books or finished series that way I don't have to wait - I hate waiting. Some may find it exciting I do not, it makes me growl at my Kobo.

To Elder, the ship he and two thousand other people inhabit seems to be wrapped in elaborate lies all created by Eldest, the leader and protector of Godspeed. Ever since the Plague the ship has been based on an Eldest System, where a man is born 16 years before the next generation of inhabitants. Soon the Season will begin and the next gen that Elder will lead will be born. But there's a problem Eldest is getting old, and he should already be retired, but since the Elder before the current Elder died, and  Eldest hasn't passed on the ship to its new leader. Actually, because of the disgrace of the previous Elder, Eldest is withholding information from him, information about the ship and how to run it. It's not until Eldest deems Elder worthy enough to continue his lessons on becoming Eldest, and Elder researches the ship itself, does he discover there's secrets hidden deep within. There's a secret level of the ship - and not a small one for that matter - that Elder never knew existed, and is compelled to discover what its hiding - something he never could imagine. Descending into the lower levels of the ship Elder finds himself in a strange room full of rows of metal boxes, he pulls open box 42 and he can scarcely believe what he is a seeing. A girl his age -unlike everyone else on the ship - encased in ice, with sunset hair and pale skin - she is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. If only he could just talk to her, touch her. Elder is caught by the residential doctor peeping at the girl, and questions Doc about the frozen people. Doc explains they were frozen before Godspeed left Sol-Earth and will remain frozen until they reach Centuri-Earth, 50 years from now.

But something unexpected happens, the fire haired girl is unplugged, and awaken by accident, or is she? Shortly after she nearly dies from waking up alone in the cryo chamber, others start to become unplugged. Some aren't as lucky as her and they don't survive. Someones trying to kill the frozens but why? And why does Amy - the strange and beautiful girl from Sol-Earth- keep claiming that there's something wrong and unnatural about the 'normal' residents on Godspeed? The closer Elder and Amy become the more Elder realizes there's something unsettling happening on Godspeed and it all leads back to Eldest. Now the pair must discover what secrets Eldest has cached inside the ship.

I think what I liked most about this it definitely fills in the missing gaps from A Million Suns which I accidentally read first. I can't say whether or not this book would be predictable because I already knew what happened, but I still enjoyed it a lot none the less. I really like the characters, and the interesting setting of the series. It's an interesting change from the books I normally read, and while I very much enjoy this series, I probably still won't be reading a lot of sci-fi. Revis does a great job developing the misconstrued world that the inhabitants of Godspeed reside on. I also like that there's more to the book than meets the eyes, everyone believe Eldest is a benevolent 'grand-fathery' leader, but that's far from the truth. The truth everyone aboard Godspeed believes is fabricated and manipulated in dark and clever ways.

Though this series is marketed as Romance, it's more of an unspoken one. So if you want some gushy love scenes, you'll have to look elsewhere. I really like this series and I would recommend it, even to non Sci-fi fans. They're pretty quick reads, more in the pacing than the novel's length, so if you're skeptical just give it a shot.

Dangerous Angels (Weetzie Bat) : Book Review

1/5 Stars - Uncompleted

Dangerous Angels

Compilation of Weetzie Bat Series

By Francesca Lia Block

Harperteen (June 2009)

Genre: YA Modern Fairy Tale? 

I picked up these series of books for free off of Kobo. From the reviews and short synopsis it looked interesting, and worth a read. After about 30 pages I had to put it down. The story line was ridiculous, and I don't know how to describe the style it was written in, it was almost like point form. Everything seemed clipped from the dialogue to the story; there really was no describing for the characters or the world around them. It was like reading the bones of the story with no meat, and I felt like I couldn't connect to the character's. From what I read the story goes as follows:

Weetzie (a strange girl that makes her own outfits) meets a good looking guy at school (or 'duck' as she calls them???). They become friends hang out, go clubbing, and she finds out he's gay -which is fine. She meets his grandma (who he lives with), and Weetzie likes the grandma, and one day the grandmother gives her a gold relic. Weetzie polishes it and out pops a genie, she tries wishing for world peace and endless wishes -which is a bust- so she tries a different tatic. Instead she wishes for a cottage for her and her gay friend to live and that her gay friend(I don't mean to keep calling him the gay friend it's just I was so uninvolved in the story I can't remember his name! Maybe it was Dirk?) have a man or 'duck' and she has a 'Super spy lover man' (something like that). So in the next two chapter's the grandmother dies and they inheret the cottage (not what she has in mind and nobody seemed that sad about it???) and her gay friend meets a surfer NAMED DUCK, and they get involved and he moves in. A couple months later whilst Weetzie is working at a Cafe she meets a man named Super spy lover man (yes that is his name :|). After that I couldn't bring myself to read anymore. Most of the reviewer's found it uplifting in someway, maybe if I were able to get by the strange writing style it would have been good. But as far as Weetzie Bat goes, I would not recommend.

Find it here if you are interested on Kobo (no longer free): http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Dangerous-Angels-The-Weetzie-Bat/book-bPbAaqIhM0yX2Afbr2P3Jg/page1.html?s=GdE9-4pLu0mc1xiGKdg9hA&r=1

Tips and Tricks #1

I get these e-mailed to me from my mom, and they are so simple and clever, it makes you wonder how you never though about it, or even got through your life without some of these! Thank god for people for more common sense than me!

So here enjoy and hopefully you find these very helpful:

Use a (clean) dustpan to fill a container that doesn't fit in the sink
 
Place a rubber band around an open paint can to wipe your brush on, 
and keep paint off the side of the can
 

Use a staple remover to save your fingernails 
when trying to add things to your key ring! 
 


Put wooden spoon across boiling pot of water to keep from boiling over. 


Use bread clips to save flip-flops with split holes. 


How to put shoes in the dryer
 


Use sunglasses or a small convex mirror to avoid people 
sneaking up on you while wearing headphones at work 
 

How to keep the straw from rising out of your soda can 
 

Out of AA batteries? Use AAAs and tin foil in a pinch. 
 

Use a microfiber cloth to prevent frost from forming on the windshield. 
 

Use a comb to keep a nail steady for hammering 


Use a post it note to catch drilling debris. 




Dab some nail polish on the top side of your phone charger plug 
so you can feel which way is up when plugging in in the dark. 

Coupons and Codes! Yey!

I've decided to start compiling lists of sites that offer amazon.ca, indigo and kobo coupons. So if anyone wants to purchase a book this may save you some cash money!

Kobo

http://www.bargainmoose.ca/tag/kobobooks/
http://www.retailmenot.com/view/kobobooks.com
http://www.coupons.ca/kobo
http://promotionalcode.ca/codes/kobobooks-com/

Amazon.ca

http://www.ultimatecoupons.com/coupons/amazon_ca_coupons.htm#b
http://www.retailmenot.com/view/amazon.ca
http://www.couponsnapshot.ca/m110047-Amazon.ca-online-coupons-codes.html

Chapters/Indigo

http://www.retailmenot.com/view/indigo.ca
http://coupons.redflagdeals.com/i.php/all/Chapters.Indigo.ca_255/
http://www.bargainmoose.ca/tag/chapters-deals/
http://www.simplyfrugal.ca/tag/chaptersindigo/



Coupons, Codes save money on Kobo, Indigo Chapters, and Amazon.ca

How to load a new template into the new blogger layout

Go to your blog, hit the design tab in the right corner

Go to Template on the left side

Click Back-up/Restore

****You need to back up your old template or else everything will be lost****

(Copy and paste HTML code in a txt or doc file, but I suggest look into this further so you don’t lose anything)

Click Load template

Find the XML file for you new template

Note : if your new template is in a zip you must extract the files to a different folder

-          Shift select all the files then hit the extract button and choose the destination

A Million Suns: Book Review

4.5/5 Stars

A Million Suns
Second in Across the Universe Series

By Beth Revis

Razorbill (January 10th, 2012)

Genre: YA Sci-Fi, Romance

(I get the impression Revis is British). I had seen this book a couple times and been a little reluctant to pick it up, it sounded a bit like Pandorum (a sci-fi horror movie, that I really liked BTW). So finally I decided why not, it has a pretty cover, sounds pretty good, I'll give it a shot. The funny part is after reading it, it really has little to do with Pandorum, there are similarities for sure, but not enough to say they're almost the same. But my misconception of the book isn't what takes the cake, the fact that it's the second book in the series and I thought it was a stand alone novel is what the kicker is. Yup that's right, I started the series completely out of order. I did have the nagging feeling that it seemed there was more of a back story I was missing, but in all honesty I didn't have to read the first book in order to easily follow the second. So my next book in like is of course the first one of the series, Across the Universe (makes me think of the Beatles movie). Unfortunately everything that happens in the book now, I'm going to know a head of time, so a lot less surprise and suspense, but I think I'll still enjoy this.

If you want to read this series I'd stop here, because there's about to be some major spoiler's. But I will tell you that, the series is about a ship called Godspeed that has left earth with a few thousand people on board, some of which are frozen since the journey is a couple centuries long, and the 'frozens' mission is to arrive at Centuri-Earth their new home and help cultivate it. The series focuses on two characters, a young man that goes by Elder (because he is in line as ruler of the ship that follows the 'Eldest System'), and a young woman Amy (who is a frozen that was awaken accidental before the ships arrival to Centuri-Earth, and is also the only person on the ship born on Sol-Earth and not on the vessel itself). Not only is her awakening harsh and painful but the people are just as cruel, her skin is pale and her hair is fiery red which is a sharp contrast from Godspeeds mono-race inhabitant who all have darker skin, dark hair and eyes.

Synopsis:

Aboard the Godspeed, a ship that has voyaged across the universe, a young man named Elder has assumed the role of leader of the ship far before his time is due. Eldest is dead, Orion is frozen and he was the next in line as leader. Elder has vowed to make a great change for the inhabitants of the ship. Refusing the assume the title of Eldest, and work in the ways of the past, Elder takes the residents of Godspeed off of Phydus, a drug that turns everyone who consumes it into submissive worker bees. Now that everyone can think for themselves they are not happy; some turn lazy and depressed and don't work, others aggressive and greedy. From Elder giving them free choice the ship is going to spiral out of control, and what's worse Elder discovers the terrible secret that Eldest hid from everyone including himself. With problems and tension continuously mounting, a rebellion seems to be reaching a boiling point, and it definitely doesn't help any that Elder has shown favour to the 'freak' Amy the only girl close to his age and also happens to be the only one on board that wasn't born on the ship.
A bread crumb trail is left for Amy to discover a giant secret that Orion was hiding and he scattered across the ship in cryptic clues. The ship is falling apart, the people are losing it, Orion's clues could be their only hope of salvaging everything.

Opinion:

I enjoyed this book and I had a hard time putting it down. I was on to who the 'bad-guys' were, but I was still a little shocked when my uncertain prediction came true. This story is definitely an interesting idea, and even if you don't like sci-fi it's still a great read. I liked the characters, the pacing was good, really kept you on the edge sometimes. The twist at the end was pretty good and the book itself was a lot different than the genre's I'm use to and I think that's what won me over, the idea behind the book itself. You could also notice other inner workings, satire, and deeper meanings. Like how 99% of the people on the ship are repelled by Amy just because she is different, she is still just as human as they are but her outward appearance and knowledge of Sol-Earth terrifies and disgusts the denizens aboard. The fact that once free thought was put into place many are not grateful for this, they want a new leader or their own power, they don't want to work, they turn on each other, some hoard, some even become violent and others murder. I would definitely recommend this book, and do plan on reading the first and third.

The third book in the series is planned to be released January 2013, and she has released a few short stories giving background to characters of the book - I'm not sure if I'll read these.

Madison: Ebook Review

2/5 Stars

Madison 

By Merriam Smyth

Self-Published

Genre: Supernatural, Paranormal Romance 

This is a free kobo ebook. I'm not sure what to categorize this as, it's too long to be a short story and too short to be a novella. It's less than a hundred pages long which surprised me. I would lump this book into a 'paramormal' romance. Here is the description for it given by the author (I don't want to give too much away):

Madison's first glimpse of Damien Stone was fleeting - she walked by him, greeting him with a smile. He was nothing more than a stranger. Damien barely acknowledged her existence until he caught her scent - she was his. But his appearance in her life forces a change she doesn't understand, a change he wants to help her understand.

This is sort of vague, but you are right in concluding that the "change" definitely has a supernatural aspect to it. While the story was pretty good, it was short, and it leaves you with a feeling of 'that's it'? The story is some what enticing I wasn't extremely drawn in. I think the biggest problem with the book I had was that, it was difficult to read. For reasons I don't entirely comprehend the author decided, "Who needs chapters? I don't! And why don't I NOT change the spacing either to signify a new chapter while I'm at it!" I had to re-read several parts, because the story would suddenly switch character perspectives with nothing to show it was a different person! This was very frustrating and confusing. It's hard to enjoy something when you have to keep reorienting yourself. Though, I just discovered today that there are two copies of the ebook available, perhaps one actually has chapters!? A girl can hope!

I would not recommend this book due to its lack of coherency, but if it sounds good to you (it is free of course) then maybe try both versions and hope that one of them has sort of division. X.x.

If you're interested in reading it here's the Kobo link: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Madison/book-wVot8YSPO0m6RUaHbhf4BQ/page1.html?s=xSbQuWG7qEqfhL4MZm8GOw&r=2

Not available for Kindle.