Review: KISS OF SNOW

Kiss Of Snow by Nalini Singh
Book 10 of the Psy-Changeling series

Genre: adult urban fantasy

About Kiss Of Snow:

Since the moment of her defection from the PsyNet and into the SnowDancer wolf pack, Sienna Lauren has had one weakness. Hawke. Alpha and dangerous, he compels her to madness.

Hawke is used to walking alone, having lost the woman who would’ve been his mate long ago. But Sienna fascinates the primal heart of him, even as he tells himself she is far too young to handle the wild fury of the wolf.

Then Sienna changes the rules and suddenly, there is no more distance, only the most intimate of battles between two people who were never meant to meet. Yet as they strip away each other’s secrets in a storm of raw emotion, they must also ready themselves for a far more vicious fight…

A deadly enemy is out to destroy SnowDancer, striking at everything they hold dear, but it is Sienna’s darkest secret that may yet savage the pack that is her home…and the alpha who is its heartbeat…

Source: Info in the About Kiss Of Snow was taken from the author's website at http://www.nalinisingh.com/snow.php on 20/03/2011.

If I am to talk about this book in one line it would be:

Little red and the big bad wolf.

My Thoughts:

I read this book right after Play Of Passion, so I was looking forward to this one after having just read the wonderful ending from the last book! Ms. Singh has shown once again how wonderful a story teller she is with this book! I was kinda expecting this to be better than the rest of the series, Hawke being alpha of the pack and everything, which raised the expectation bar up a couple of notches. Usually that is not good because I end up getting disappointed. But, Ms. Singh did not disappoint!! Even though this is book 10 in the series, Ms. Singh managed to add another twist to the Psy-Changeling world. Some serieses ends up reading like "same old, same old" by book 10. Not Ms. Singh!! However the story telling quality, though still compelling, didn't feel as good as I seem to remember it was with the first few books. Or maybe it's just me getting too used to it. Or me getting jaded. Or the novelty wearing off... whatever... it wasn't a 5 out of 5. But, the ending was wonderful! The story was wonderful! I recommend this series to everybody!!

Maybe I'm reading too much fairy tale, but I couldn't help thinking of Red Riding Hood (RRH) with this book. It wasn't a Red Riding Hood rendition of course, but I can't convince my subconscious. By the way, that RRH image is not really correct but I think it's quite symbolic.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story Telling Quality = 4.5
World Building = 5
Character Development = 4.5
Writing Style = 5
Plot = 4
Pace = 4.5
Story Itself = 4
Ending = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Psy-Changeling Series:
Click on the cover image for more info.

Thank you to Tyraa of Tyra's Book Addiction for hosting a contest which made it possible for me to win a copy of Kiss Of Snow by Nalini Singh.

In The Mail: PUSHING THE LIMITS

This is what Mr. Mailman had waiting for me when I got home today!

Thank you to the publisher/PR team for the review copy of Pushing The Limits by Kate McGarry received!

Pushing The Limits by Kate McGarry

About Pushing The Limits:

"I won't tell anyone, Echo. I promise." Noah tucked a curl behind my ear. It had been so long since someone touched me like he did. Why did it have to be Noah Hutchins? His dark brown eyes shifted to my covered arms. "You didn't do that-did you? It was done to you?" No one ever asked that question. They stared. They whispered. They laughed. But they never asked.

"An edgy romance that pulls you in and never lets go. I was hooked!"-Gena Showalter, New York Times bestselling author of the Intertwined series

So wrong for each other...and yet so right.

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal. But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible. Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

Source: Info in the About Pushing The Limits was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10194514-pushing-the-limits on 13/06/2012.

Hay Festival, Wales 2012

Hay Festival

This Hay Festival is slightly different from the 2010 that I attended. For starters this festival is one week long as opposed to the 3-day affair it was back then. And this time around there is a food court plus various many other food booths dotted around the venue as opposed to two years ago where I had to go to town about a couple of miles away to get a can of coke! Though the grounds layout was exactly the same as it was then. But the bestest thing about it is that I got to meet Cassandra Clare, Philippa Gregory and Maggie Stiefvater! Plus I got a signed book from each! OMG!!!! *squee* The organization that I saw two years ago is still evident but maybe because there are so many more people and events and authors and sponsors to manage this time around, it has gotten just a little frayed at the edges now. But it seems that the organizers are good at thinking on their feet and compensating, plus I think they have enough manpower to pull off a last minute ditch that they needed to do to cope. The result, as far as I can see, was organized chaos and good fun!! Fun for us festival goers and a big, nasty ulcer that bores through the layers of the stomach of the organizers (I imagine). And loads of enterprising locals.

The festival ran the usual gauntlet of author talks and panel presentations. A detailed schedule is in the thick programme you can buy for a pound at the entrance. Plus there is a big screen of schedule updates constantly running at the main foyer. The strange thing I noticed though is that, the festival seems to lack the presence of big publishers. I saw Google's banner, but not Penguin, or Simon & Schuster, or Orion. I find it really strange for a book festival not to have book publishers getting involved in it. It was the same two years ago. I don't know whether this is the organizer's choice or the publishers just didn't want the exposure of this particular festival... can anybody fill me in on this? Because this particular quirk of this book festival just dumb-founded me...

Festival Link(s):
www.hayfestival.com

Review: THE BRAVE TALE OF MADDIE CARVER

The Brave Tale Of Maddie Carver by Stacia Kane
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook

My synopsis of The Brave Tale Of Maddie Carver:

A short story ebook set in an urban modern-day world where dark powers are apparently awakening and a brave woman's fight for the light. (I think)

Review:

The cover was created by the author and I think she did a bloody god job of it!

This is a short story ebook freebie by Stacia Kane as a gift to her readers last christmas 2010. I thought that was really nice of her!

This is the first time I've read a work by this author and I think Stacia Kane has a very good "voice". The story telling quality is compelling. But seeing that this is a short story, I think the story got cheated out of a proper world building and character development. I felt that there were a lot of potential there that were not fully realised which left the reader feeling not very satisfied. That something was lacking... hanging... I guess there wasn't enough room for proper plot build up... But seeing that this is a freebie, one can't really complain... However, having sampled Stacia Kane's work, I think that her books would be moderate to fast-paced with compelling story telling quality, which I always like in a book! :)

Below is my quantitative breakdown of this book:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 3
Story itself = 3
Ending = 2.5
World building = 2
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = 4.5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries


Buy Link:
The Brave Tale Of Maddie Carver is a free story from Stacia Kane which can be downloaded at:
pdf direct link
Scribd
Smashwords
Stacia Kane's: On The Books

Guest Post: Pat Lawrence

‘Pat Lawrence’ is part of the fiction. ‘Pat Lawrence’ is a pseudonym for our husband and wife writing team of PAT Adsit Burke and Daniel LAWRENCE Burke.

People often ask us, “How do you do that? How do you collaborate?”

· Do you each write a draft and then combine them?

· Do you write alternating chapters?

· Does one of you write the descriptions and the other write the dialogue?

· Do you sit and write every word together?

The answers to these questions are: Not really, No, No, and Definitely Not.

Collaborative writing is like riding a tandem bicycle: one author steers, but both authors provide the energy to move, watch to avoid the hazards, agree on which direction to turn, and settle on the final destination.

Our novel collaborations begin with agreement on a single idea that serves as the overarching theme of the entire work. That theme for Jarred Into Being was that each individual life is profoundly influenced by the lives which intersect and surround it. Next, we agree on the major plot elements that need to occur to craft an interesting story that will illustrate that theme. In Jarred, a young girl’s loss of her parents places her in great peril because the characters now intersecting and surrounding her life want to possess her rather than protect her. The conflict in the novel arises out of the fact that our main character, Eva, is unwavering in her determination not to be possessed, and she continually battles for independence and freedom from the powerful and corrupt forces who would dominate her.

After that, draft one begins in earnest. We create the incidents and the characters which dramatize the main character’s plight. One of us (the partner who steers the bike to continue the analogy above) writes sections—maybe a chapter, maybe several—and submits those to the other partner. That partner reads, edits, searches for flaws, plot failures, and adds suggestions for additions or deletions and returns the sections to the other partner who incorporates the suggestions into the ongoing manuscript. That process continues section by section until we reach what we agree is a satisfying conclusion to the book.

For draft two, we separately read and revise the entire work from beginning to end, and then we each submit our suggested revisions to the other for consideration. Finally, in draft three, we collaborate and discuss all the suggested revisions we have both made and ultimately agree on what emerges as our final version.

This collaboration process works well for us. We enjoy it, and we agree on the most important aspect of writing: always make it interesting. In fact, throughout the entire process we constantly challenge ourselves and each other by asking: “Is that last sentence, paragraph, chapter compelling enough to capture and hold the reader’s interest?” The answer MUST BE “yes.” If the answer is “maybe” we immediately employ our ironclad rule: rewrite.

Ultimately, we both have learned that the two most important words in a husband-wife collaborative writing team are—“Yes, dear.” Happy reading.

www.patlawrence.net

Jarred Into Being by Pat Lawrence

About Jarred Into Being

THE WOLVES ALWAYS DEVOUR THE SHEEP
After the tragic death of her parents, Eva Lange must battle for her freedom; indeed, her very life. Fleeing her aunt's abuser, she falls prey to a murderous drug lord and his wife in their luxurious lair of lust. Using her wits, beauty, and sexuality to save herself and break the bonds of captivity and degradation, Eva struggles against corruption and powerful political forces to reclaim her independence and save the life of the man she loves.

Source: Info in the About Jarred Into Being was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12538158-jarred-into-being on 07/06/2012.