26 Books to Read in 2015

I first learned about this challenge on Pinterest....


Link is here...

If you want that list in text, instead of an image, keep reading. Also below, I'll update the post throughout the year as I read book with the title and author of books that meet each challenge, along with a little commentary on them.

1. A book you own but haven't read.

I'm going to put the Sherlock Holmes novel "The Valley of Fear" here. I could've sworn I'd read all the Holmes stories before, but I had no memory of this one.

I think the Holmes stories work better as short stories. Both this and "A Study in Scarlett" are more two books in one... one part Holmes story, and the other an adventure tale that doesn't share any qualities with a Holmes story, other than giving the needless background on the crime Holmes solves... after he solves it.

So, I enjoyed half the book.

2. A book that was made into a movie

3. A book you pick solely because of the cover.

 Quickbane, by Chelsea Starling.

Really nice cover, and it was free. Story is decent, but could use a little tweaking, in my opinion. Read my review for more.

4. A book your friend loves.

5. A book published this year.

6. A book by an author you've never read before.
Star of Justice

I've known Robynn on Facebook (from mutual acquaintances) for a while now, and I finally got around to reading her book. Review here...

7. A book by an author you love.
 Realm Walkers, One Realm Beyond by Donita K. Paul

8. A book at the bottom of your "to be read" pile.

9. A book with a color in the title.

10. A book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit.

11. A book you started but never finished.

12. A book with a lion, a witch, or a wardrobe.

13. A book with a female heroine.

14. A book set in the summer.

15. A book of poems.

16. A book you learned about because of this challenge.

17. A book that will make you smarter.

18. A book with a blue cover.
 Mindstorm: Parley at Ologo by Cindy Koepp.
Cindy is probably my favorite living author. Everything she writes is fantastic.

19. A book you were supposed to read in school, but didn't.

20. A book "everyone" but you has read.

21. A book with a great first line.

22. A book with pictures.
Star Wars: The Jedi Path

It's an in-character instruction manual for Jedi initiates. A neat collection of Jedi lore from the Star Wars universe.

23. A book from the library.

24. A book you loved...Read it again!

25. A book that is more than 10 years old.

26. A book based on a true story.

Book Review: Anastasia (The Bolton Series Book 1)

Today's book is Anastasia, by Haven Lyanne Flores

From the "Back of the book":

"My family isn’t human. We are from a planet called Bolton. We moved to Earth when I was just a baby. After Earth fell apart my father decided to move back, leaving the only home I’ve ever known.
The people of Bolton have known of Earth for years. We’re the reason humans have nightmares, why they believe in certain things. We’re the creatures of the supernatural. The things that live under your bed go bump in the middle of the night.
We’ve lived in harmony until the powerful sorcerer, Daruka, started terrorizing the planet. Now we cower in fear, afraid of something more powerful than us. That was until I was born.
~*~
Anastasia had only known of the nomadic life caused by the third world war on Earth. The possibility of a permanent home never crossed her mind. When her family moves to a new planet full of supernatural creatures her life gets turned upside down.
Lost and afraid of something more powerful than herself will Anastasia be able to save the only place she has ever called home?"

Despite the bit of sci-fi in the opening, the book is solid fantasy.

The bad:

If the author didn't consult the fantasy cliche list while writing this book, the readers sure can re-create it while reading...

• orphan who doesn't know his/her parents aren't foster parents
• foster parents die
• orphan is the "chosen one"
• orphan isn't trained in any way until the moment of crisis
• ... and many more!

There are also a handful of typos. Not enough to distract me from the story, but....

The good:

Really, the cliches are the worst part of the story. Once you get past them, the story is engaging, and the world the story is set in is interesting and feels "real." There are other stories that use the "earth fairy tales and myths are based on real creatures/aliens" plotline (that's why it's a cliche), but the core idea used here is solid, and I've read books with worse implementations of it.

Anastasia's character is both fascinating and dull. In the first quarter of the story, she's dull, uninformed, and completely unrelateable. After that, she seems to wake up, and actually experience some feelings, and respond to the situation like a normal person.

Overall, despite the stories flaws, I still had a fun time reading it... until the end. The end wasn't bad, in fact, it was quite good (it made me want to keep reading) but it hit a pet peeve of mine.

......

Yeah, spoilers here....

The book just ended. She finally arrives to the showdown with the big bad.... and that's it. Apparently, the showdown is going to be in book 2, instead of here, the culmination of the story where it belongs.

....

So... how to rate. The cliches and typos make some reviewers give a book an automatic one. I'm not one of them. I care a lot more about story and characters. While both had flaws, I still enjoyed reading the story.
I've read other books with none of these flaws that I was just so bored with that I just couldn't finish, so Anastasia should rank higher than that... but that ending...

Oh well, I'm a push-over, and as a whole I enjoyed it, so, three stars.

This is the place where I'd post an Amazon link, but since I've downloaded the book, I can't find it... anywhere... but I still read it, so I'll still review it.

Here's it's goodreads link

Book Review: Chronicles of Steele: Raven

Today's Book Review:
Chronicles of Steele: Raven, by Pauline Creeden

Pauline is also the co-author of Armored Hearts, and the author of Abiding Flame.

From the "Back of the Book":

"Human life has value.
The poor living in the gutter are as valuable as the rich living in a manor.
The scoundrel is no less valuable than the saint.
Because of this, every life a reaper takes must be redeemed.

Raven has lived by this first tenet since she was trained by her father to become a reaper. But since his death, she’s been spending years redeeming the lives she’s taken. By her count, she’s even and it’s time for that life to end. If she settles down and becomes a wife, she might just feel human again. But on the way to the life she thinks she wants, the baron of New Haven asks her to complete a task which she cannot ignore… Just when Raven decides to give up on her life as an assassin, she’s pulled right back in."

The story is steampunk fantasy, and the beginning reminds me a lot of the anime "Moribito". It distinguishes itself fairly quickly after that, and I happen to like that anime, so it hooked me into the story quickly.

The story has action, adventure, and cool gadgets.  Most importantly, it has characters that I want to spend time with, and the grow over the course of the story.

I'm not sure whether to give this one four and a half stars, or five. It was really good, and I can't wait for (and for sure will buy) the next book in the series... but I'm picky with the five stars I give out. This book was very, very close, but not quite as adored as the other five stars I've given, so I'll go with four and a half.

Don't believe me? Try the first quarter of the story for free here

Book Review: Abiding Flame

Abiding Flame is the latest sci-fi title from Pauline Creeden.

From the "Back of the Book":
"Darkness can be overcome… Terminally ill Lynette Lamb is forced to reunite her wayward son and grandson. Her options are as limited as her strength and mobility. Through a fateful series of events, the rejoined pair will leave Earth to become part of a colony orbiting a new planet. Sam Austin and his wife mourn the loss of their only child and decide to make a fresh start at the space station. The same ship holds the one who will fulfill the dark planet’s prophecy, but a demonic force boards to stop the vessel. The demon’s obedient but unwilling servant is sent on a suicide mission to keep the ship from reaching its destination."

The good:

The characters were awesome. Sam is pretty much your typical "everyman" surrounded by a whole bunch of crazy/evil. He reacts like we would. Bill great as a villain. He's evil, yet you can almost sympathize with him. Jeremy... well, I'd like to get to know his character better. At first, I thought he was going to be the main character, but it turns out not. I think he'll show up in a sequel though...

The plot is pretty good, with one minor caveat that I'll get into later. A one-line summary for the first half of the book is "What if you were the last person of your faith left on the planet?" The book takes a good look at how spiritual warefare might look, and blends that with a good sci-fi setting. This is one of the things sci-fi is good at--looking at something, and asking, "What if...?"

Also, I have to mention that it read fast and kept me turning the pages, and read bits in every spare minute. Normally, this goes without saying, but I just gave up on another book written by someone else that just didn't suck me in, so I had to mention that here. Good books are like vacuums: They suck ...you into the story. ;)

The bad:

The book is going to be "too preachy" for some people. I don't think it is, as given the subject matter, a lot of faith and theology and such is going to come up, but I'll be shocked if at least one person doesn't rant about how preachy it is (and probably whines that the author should be "more tolerant" in the next paragraph, but I digress...)

Mostly what I dislike about the book is minor nit-picky things... - a part can't be machined and has to be crafted by hand because machines aren't capable of being that delicate (uh, yeaah...) - The ship is portrayed as large as a cruise ship... but is landed on Earth's surface at the beginning of the novel (this isn't really feasible, even given Star Trek type tech, it's extremely in-efficient to land such a large craft) - Jeremy gives away his Bible --one of the last left after the book was banned for being "hate speech"-- so someone else can read it, but it's okay because he typed a copy for himself (uh, if he had an e-copy, couldn't he e-mail it? And what happened to Project Gutenberg? The "Banned Books" website? I find it EXTREMELY unlikely that there isn't a single (non-hand typed) e-copy floating around somewhere, and that it's impossibly to send it to someone...)

And their's a few more, but you get the drift. Hey, If I can nit-pick Star Trek and love it, why not this? ;)

Overall, I liked this book, and want to read more... I really hope this is the first in a series, as it started to explore a theme that hasn't really been done much in sci-fi, and should be. Namely, what if there are aliens... what would that do to Christianity? The book ended before it really got to that point, but there are some hints that it's going to be explored farther.

I give it four stars.

Abiding Flame

Young Adult Author, Emerald Barnes, is releasing her latest novel, Entertaining Angels, today. It's a Young Adult Christian romance that faces the issues of self-esteem and weight in teens. It's a story that will hopefully grab the attention of girls - and boys alike - and help them understand that no matter what they are beautiful.

About Entertaining Angels

"I've read many books that tackle the issue of spiritual warfare, but I especially loved this one. Mads was alive and real and jumped off the page! Her character is so strong, she needed strong characters to balance her, and Barnes certainly provided that in the characters of Chase and Zach." - Author Precarious Yates

"This story is beautiful and so profound." - Author Sylvia Stein

"I would recommend Entertaining Angels as a graceful stepping stone to self-acceptance and self-love." - Author Christine Cunningham

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Madison Andrews can’t face her reflection in the mirror. All she sees is a big, fat nobody. Yet, deep inside she longs for something more, something that’s not skin deep.

Along comes Zach, the new guy in school. He’s smoking hot and totally out of her league. She somehow catches his eye, and he makes her feel beautiful for once. But just as she gets close to Zach, her nerdy best friend, Chase, won’t let Madison doubt her true beauty, no matter how many meals she skips. Even as Madison begins to realize that she is more than what she thinks, darker forces are at work, darker than the lies and mocking from her peers, stopping her from amounting to her full potential. Can Madison find true happiness in her own skin?

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A Word from the Author

Entertaining Angels is near and dear to my heart. Essentially, it's my story. I have struggled with my weight issues for many years, and I remember clearly the very first day I fell victim to the word fat I am more than that label. I am a Child of God, and He wanted me to see that. Making a long story short here, I have began to realize that although I am overweight, it's not who I am. I am so much more, and He wanted me to share that story with everyone else, especially young adults and woman who need to be reminded just how beautiful they are. If you do buy Entertaining Angels, I hope that it shows you just how beautiful, or handsome if you're a guy, you are.

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Giveaway Time!

Enter to win this autographed (by Emerald) tote bag with the Bible Verse Psalm 91:11 on it, and this notebook that says "God Makes Beautiful Things." (US Only please. If you're international, Emerald will send you an e-book and choose another winner.)

 

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Where can you purchase Entertaining Angels?

Amazon / Barnes and Noble

Realm Makers 2014 Re-cap

Realm Makers 2014 Re-cap

I got back from the 2nd Realm Makers conference yesterday. What a blast. I learned a lot, got to finally meet a bunch of awesome people for the first time, and let my geek flag fly high.

I'm a huge geek. Need proof? Grace Bridges posted this preview photo of her costume before the conference:

I guessed it within about two seconds. You give it a try (well, if you weren't there, or haven't seen it...) I'll post the full later on...

The campus at Villanova was beautiful.

Full of late 18th and early 19th century architecture. Well, most of it. There was this tunnel under the railroad tracks that we had to take to get from the dorms to the conference rooms. Brick walls, peeling white paint, flickering florescent bulbs, and the sound of dripping water. It was like something out of HP Lovecraft or Mary Shelly. The kind of place you expected to be haunted by monsters. And, in fact, it was.

 (Wait... that's just the Splickety staff. They always look like that. Never mind.)

Thursday night was the pre-party. If that's the kind of thing that you think you can miss, you should reconsider. What's it worth to you to see a literary agent, a New York Times best-selling author, and two editors read through five different submission samples and tell what they like, what they don't, and some ways they could be improved?

For me, that was one of the (many) most valuable things at the conference. There were all sorts of really cool classes, but I'll give you a few things that stood out to me:

- From Jeff Gerke: The rules of writing aren't as important as engaging a reader. Granted, most of these rules can help you do that, but the average reader doesn't care about POV, passive voice, three or five act structure, etc... they want to be sucked into the story, and if you can do that, they'll forgive a wide range of writing sins.

- From Kat Heckenbach: if you're writing YA (that's "young-adult, for those not in the know), you can't just have teen characters and write, you have to write that character without the life experience you've accumulated after those years. (Also, avoid slang, it'll just date your novel unless you're REALLY good at it.)

- From Travis Perry: Oh man, lots of good stuff here. Most battles in books and novels are very unrealistic. Most battles are fought not to the death, but to make the enemy surrender or turn and run. There was a bunch of fascinating human (and horse!) psychology behind this. Really good stuff that will make battle scenes better and more relateable, real, and engaging.

- From Steve Laube: "There are two kinds of people. Those you have read a slush pile, and those who haven't. You have no idea how far you ahead of [the other submitters] you are when you come to a conference like this to improve your writing."
I might be slightly miss-quoting this, but you get the idea...

- From Torry Martin (and the marketing panel): Don't just push your stuff on people. If you want to use social media to market, post a bunch of stuff that your audience will love/find of value to them. Also network a lot. Comment on other peoples' posts.

This really works. I went to Realm Makers for three reasons: to learn my craft, to network, and to gush about my favorite books to their authors. It really amazed me that when I stepped up and introduced myself, everyone said "Oh, you're Aaron, I've really been wanting to meet you!"
That blew my mind. I'm nobody. My book isn't out yet, I'm not famous. You're the author who writes ten times better than I do, why are you excited to see me? It was really cool.

- And last, but not least, what I learned from Tosc Lee (who's books I've REALLY got to read...): Everyone has a writing superpower. There's one thing we each do really well. Don't ignore it just to get the rest of your writing up to average. You'll just end up with an average book. Feed your writing superpower, and you'll end up with a super book.
Also, New York Times best-selling authors aren't some kind of super-being that we mere mortals can't ever dream of aspiring to. They have the same fears and faults as the rest of us.

And finally, one of the highlights of the weekend, the costume dinner. There's something wonderful about holding a literary conversation with a zombie when no one in the entire room thinks it's at all unusual.

Here's me and Grace Bridges of Splashdown books:

Me with Sir Fluffy (aka Jeff Gerke):

And lots more on my facebook page, and the Realm Makers page.

And I think I'll make a meme of this one:

Book Review: Forever Layla

Book Review: Forever Layla

From the "back cover":

"Layla isn't her name...or is it?
What if the woman you envied most is the person you are destined to become?
In 1994, high school senior David Foster was the lackey and soundboard geek for his best friend's grunge band. During spring break, the band lands a dream gig playing at a motel in Myrtle Beach, SC. David expected all the girls to ogle the guys on stage, but when a beautiful blond "Bond Girl" approaches him and calls him by name, he's shocked to find out she knows more about him than a stranger should.
She even knows about his notebooks and his visions of time travel.
What she thought was a quick time-travel-sightseeing trip takes a surprising turn when she meets the young adult version of the man she'd heard stories about as a child. His fairy-tale romance with the woman he'd loved, Layla, inspired her to accept nothing less than a love just as strong...but hopefully not as tragic. When she won't tell the younger version of him her name, he calls her Layla--and the world as she knows it changes forever."

Fair notice: I received a free copy of this book for an honest review.
(Short version of the review: It was so good I bought a Kindle and paperback copy. And no, I don't know the author.)

First, the genre. It's being marketed as romance. If you don't like romance, but love time-travel books, you still need to buy it. I'd call it sci-fi and romance.

If I'm counting right, this is Melissa Lee's fifth novel. Her first few were good, and they keep getting better and better.

I love everything about this book. The romance is just right. Once again, Melissa Lee paints a picture of romance that is accurate and beautiful, and, better yet, isn't confused with lust. Parts of it get a little weird.... but if they didn't, it wouldn't be a time-travel story ;)

Speaking of which, I generally don't like time travel stories. I've been a sci-fi fan forever, so usually the bad physics and lack of thought in a story ruins time travel stories. Pick a Star Trek episode with time-travel. Most of have you thinking "Why didn't they just...."

Forever Layla avoids all these pitfalls. The story is solid, and it had me thinking about it for days. It's beautiful how all the parts fit together, even when you mentally re-construct the timeline from another characters point of view. I could go on and on about the great stuff in here, but it'd all be spoilers... on the one hand, it wouldn't matter too much, because one of those books, you know the kind, the ones that you can re-read again and again and delight in noticing little hints and things you didn't see, or wondered about the first time through. But people don't like when I do that, so I won't. I'll let you discover them on your own. Go read this right now.

How would I rate Forever Layla? Well, let's put it this way. It's easily in the top five books I've reviewed here so far (and that's facing some pretty stiff competition.... including Armored Hearts... also by Melissa Lee (and Pauline Creeden....))

Five Stars. Easily five stars.

Forever Layla: A Time Travel Romance 

What, you haven't bought it yet? What are you waiting for? It's on sale for 99 cents, for crying out loud. I'd pay six to eight bucks for the eBook of this... and I'm cheap!

(I got a free review copy, and I STILL paid for this, it's that good!)

My Writing Process Blog Hop

Hello! Today we're talking about about my writing process. Who's we, you ask? A bunch of authors doing a blog hop.

I was invited by Celesta Thiessen, so when you're done reading this post, go check her site out, as well as more friends of mine (that you'll find linked below...)

So, I'm supposed to answer four questions about my writing process:

1) What am I working on?

I'm working on a few things. I'm finishing edits for A New Threat (coming this summer from AltWit Press), working on the second draft of the sequel to that book, and doing the second draft of a completely unrelated book, Wings of Truth.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Since I have a few projects, I'll answer for both of them.

A New Threat is pretty much standard space opera, as far as plot goes. There's telepaths, spaceships, sentient cat aliens... What I think sets it apart are characters. You can only do so much with a plot and still have it flow and make sense, but there's almost infinite variations with characters. And when you apply those different personalities to a "standard" plot, you get something unique.

Here's the blurb for A New Threat: "When an alien ship lands unexpectedly in the middle of her clan's territory, Bast is sent to investigate as part of her scout trial. After an accident, she meets these new visitors. She and her senior scout Rrrark are invited to return with the aliens to their home planet to open diplomatic relations. What started out as a simple mission becomes complicated when they discover a pirate scheme that might be more than it seems. Are Bast, Rrrark, and two of the aliens called Psygens capable of stopping the pirates?"

Wings of Truth is a little different. I like to describe it as "Romeo and Juliet in space... with a happy ending, and some techno-mage sword fighting thrown in."

Okay, so I need to work on the blurb for that one... but I'm really excited about it.

3) Why do I write what I do?

Why does any of us do what we do?

...

Sorry...

I've always loved sci-fi. It all started almost before I can remember, when we came home from church on Sunday afternoons and Dad would turn on Star Trek, Dr. Who, and Battlestar Galactica (In that order, I think... and I believe Buck Rogers was in there too...) Some people get excited about some Super Bowel Sunday thing (did I get that right?) We got excited for sci-fi. Our family had a special night were we had snacks and got to stay up late to watch the premier of Star Trek: The Next Generation when it first aired.

I've always loved to read too. Science fiction (among almost every other genre) was always on my list. Tom Swift, Jules Verne, Anne McAffery, and tons of others.

So, why is sci-fi my favorite? If you haven't noticed, I'm a bit of a geek (or nerd, or whatever of the two terms is currently the most popular...) and I love the tech. What cool stuff can we make based on the latest discoveries? How can it benefit mankind? What if it goes wrong. And the adventure. Jules Vern stated that he didn't write sci-fi, he wrote adventure stories. All good sci-fi has adventure elements to it. What's out there? What would it be like to go see it in person?

4) How does your writing process work?

Well, I start with a thousand typewriters, then I get some pet monkeys....

... Okay, not really, but it feels that way some days.

All my best ideas come from dreams, or thinking and uh, heavily modifying a dream idea. My subconscious is MUCH better about this than I am...

Next, I pretty much just start writing. I usually have an idea of a few major milestones I want to hit in the book, and how it ends, but not necessarily how to get there. My brother and I used our imaginations a LOT growing up, which has helped for this part. Instead of forcing the plot how I want it to go, I get into the mind of the characters and think about what that kind of person would do in this situation, and how the other characters would react to him or her doing that, and it all kinda snowballs from there.
A lot of times I find that I've hit every character moment that I wanted to hit in a book, but the plot is a little lacking. In that case, it takes a lot of heavy mental lifting to figure out what needs to be added, cut, or re-arranged.

An example: Near the end of A New Threat, the good guys captured the bad guy. The characer arcs were all wrapped up. Then, one of my wonderful beta readers (who gets a character named after her in book 2 for this...) pointed out that not only had the bad guy been captured off-screen, it was mentioned almost in passing, and one of the minor characters caught him.

Oops.

When I read that feedback, I face-palmed and re-wrote the whole scene. It's MUCH better now!

Who is on next week? These fine people!

1. Cindy Koepp, author of the awesome Remnant in the Stars (seriously, if you love sci-fi, go read this book!)

With the supportive sound effects and antics of her African Grey, Cindy Koepp writes science fiction and fantasy from a Christian worldview.

2.

3. 

Cover Reveal, Forever Layla

Cover Reveal, Forever Layla

A friend of mine has a new book coming out soon. Here's the details:

Title: Forever Layla

Release date: May 27th 2014

Publisher: AltWit Press

Here's the synopsis (I got to beta read this, and if you love sci-fi time travel, or romance, you're going to LOVE it!)

What if the woman you envied most is the person you are destined to become?

In 1994, high school senior David Foster was the lackey and soundboard geek for his best friend's grunge band. During spring break, the band lands a dream gig playing at a motel in Myrtle Beach, SC. David expected all the girls to ogle the guys on stage, but when a beautiful blond "Bond Girl" approaches him and calls him by name, he's shocked to find out she knows more about him than a stranger should.

She even knows about his notebooks and his visions of time travel.

What she thought was a quick time-travel-sightseeing trip takes a surprising turn when she meets the young adult version of the man she'd heard stories about as a child. His fairy-tale romance with the woman he'd loved, Layla, inspired her to accept nothing less than a love just as strong...but hopefully not as tragic. When she won't tell the younger version of him her name, he calls her Layla--and the world as she knows it changes forever.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Melissa Turner Lee holds a BA in Communications with a concentration in Journalism from the University of South Carolina. She has studied fiction writing since 2008, attending various writing conferences and workshops, along with guidance from professional writing coaches. She resides in Spartanburg, SC with her husband and 3 sons.

Blog | facebook.com/MelissaTurnerLee | @melissatlee1975

Hey, look, there's even a giveaway!

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And, the moment you've all been waiting for... the cover!

Book Review: First Impression

Today's book review  is First Impression, by Pauline Creeden.

(Notice: I received an advance reader copy of the e-book for a fair and honest review.)

From the "back of the book":


"Chira Kelly thought she didn't need anyone...until she met Ben.
Because of one ugly rumor, Chira lives as an outcast at her school. Which is fine with her, because she works better alone. Always has, always will. And at least she has her one and only true friend, Tasha. When Tasha insists that they join a group to visit a possibly haunted abandoned old schoolhouse, she's wary, but joins her friend. Because of that decision, their lives are in jeopardy as a malevolent spirit targets the group. Tragedies and accidents pick them off one by one, and Chira finds herself drawn to the one person who can see the truth. But can he protect her?"

From the author of Armored Hearts, and a handful of other novels, Pauline Creeden brings us the first book in a new series. The book is marketed in the Paranormal Romance genre, and while it does fit that bill, it's also a paranormal mystery, if that's more your style.

Insert standard "The characters are awesome" line here. (Hey, if they weren't, my review would be a LOT shorter. ;) ) So, lets talk about them.
Being a romance, the characters hit all the genre requirements: the loner, misunderstood girl, the loner, brooding boy, the best friend... fortunately, none of them go overboard into cliche land. For example, Chira has the (almost genre required) crazy step-dad that hates her for no reason that she can discern, but she handles this by avoiding him, studying hard, and hanging out with her best friend (as opposed to brooding and moping...)

Her best friend's family provides a second home for Chira, so between that and her relationship with her mom, she avoids cliche and stays relate-able.

The whole "ugly rumor" (as mentioned in the blurb above) really brought me back to junior high (yeah, I wouldn't want to be that age again...)

Also, the love interest is a nice guy who you want to root for, instead of the creepy stalker type, like you'd find in some other paranormal romances *cough*.

The writing is nice and clean, and pulls you into the story without getting in the way. The whole world is filled out nicely with one tiny exception...

So, what didn't I like about this book? Only two things really:

- owls wings DO NOT make noise
- it's written in first person, present tense

Yeah, the first one's a nit-picky point, but it bothers me. Possibly because I've been about six feet away from a wild snow owl, and it flying away in complete and utter silence is one of the coolest things I've not heard.

The whole first-person present thing, I'll admit, is just a preference. I just don't like it. The only thing worse is 2nd person present (I'll quit reading those... yes, I hated the "Choose Your Own Adventure books...anyway...) A book written in firs-person present tense has to have REALLY good writing if it wants to keep me engaged, along with great characters and an interesting plot. This book had all three.

So, how to rate this one. I'd say four and half stars. Allow me to explain...
No, a book doesn't have to be "perfect" for me to give it five stars, and I'm not opposed to giving five stars to a book written in first-person present tense (though it would have to be as well-written as this one is...)

So, why not five stars? For me, one star is: "Ewww. I hate this, and am never reading anything by this author again." Two is: "I didn't like it." Three is: "Eh, it was okay, I guess..." Four is: "I really liked it!" Five stars is: "I LOVED this book and am totally fan-boy geeking out over it! I'm totally buying anything related to this awesome book!"

First Impression didn't quite do that for me... but it was close. It was more than four, but not quite five... Still, I'm definitely going to read more books in the series.

First Impression