Mini Reviews: Anathema + Queenie's Brigade

ANATHEMA (Cloud Prophet Trilogy #1)
Megg Jensen
206 pages
CreateSpace
Available Now
Received from author for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Forget prophecy. Make your own destiny.

Sheltered from the outside world with no hope for escape, slave girl Reychel dreads her fifteenth birthday - when her master’s symbol is burned on the back of her bald scalp. Her best friend disappears the night before, leaving her to face the branding ceremony alone. She soon discovers nothing is as it seems when people desperate for freedom beg for Reychel's help.

Can Reychel learn to believe in herself?

MY THOUGHTS
Anathema is an incredibly quick read, having an almost fairy-tale quality to it as we watch a slave girl with no idea who she is learn destiny has a unique plan for her. The short page length is both a benefit and a detriment to this tale, drawing us into the story instantly but also denying us some of the rich character development we find ourselves hoping for, Reychel being someone we root for superficially instead of with our full hearts and minds. Her relationship with love interest Mark forms rapidly after only a couple brief interactions just as her friendship with fellow slave Ivy deteriorates with equal quickness, and our time with each of the two of these secondary characters is so short we feel a bit detached from the changes taking place, existing as spectators to the action rather than engaged participants.

Additionally, allegiances shift with shocking speed to create a bit of confusion as to who is to be trusted and who isn’t, and though some of the befuddlement in this epic character chess match seems intentional, we are still left at the end a bit bewildered at how fast everything has happened. Overall, however, Ms. Jensen has written an intriguing first installment with a likable heroine who piques our interest as well as a world positively ripe with possibilities moving forward. Hopefully future installments will provide us with a way to sort through all the constantly-changing relationships so we can have a single focus to latch onto and hold tight.

Rating: 3.5/5

QUEENIE'S BRIGADE
Heather Massey
Adult SciFi Romance
e-book
Red Sage Publishing
Available Now
Received from author for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Captain Michael Drake desperately needs an army to save Earth after a crushing defeat by alien invaders. When his damaged starship docks at a remote prison colony, he discovers Earth’s last best hope—an army to replace the one he lost.

But, Queenie, the feral goddess ruling the prison, has other plans for the rugged star ship captain. After imprisoning Drake and seizing his ship, she prepares to lead her blood-thirsty band to freedom before the invaders track them down.

Despite her intentions, Queenie secretly falls for the sexy, hotshot captain. Drake makes it plain he wants to win back Earth with her by his side. But is following her heart worth betraying her people?

MY THOUGHTS
Queenie’s Brigade thrusts us forward in time to a world of space travel and science fiction, Earth faltering under the onslaught of a more advanced conquering empire as her remaining line of defense is reduced to a single ship. Despite the fact that this is a novella, Ms. Massey manages to make each word count, the Relentless and her crew as well as Queenie’s prison environment easy to picture given the information we’re provided, and the heavy threat of a seemingly unwinnable war is clearly felt.

Though the world and the faceless villains are well-executed, our hero and heroine themselves leave a little to be desired. This is a sci-fi adventure with underlying romantic themes, however, the romance itself is something we can't wrap our minds around quite as well as we can the situation we’ve been dropped into. Queenie is supposed to be a mix of toughness and vulnerability, but somehow neither trait is fully believable on her, and Drake’s fairly instantaneous attraction to her is a bit puzzling. He can’t help but notice some of her finer features while he’s being held prisoner, but such observations come to him at inappropriate times (like when she’s torturing one of his crew members), so it’s extremely hard for us to see through his eyes when what we’re seeing with our own elicits remarkably less positive emotions.

Ms. Massey does do a very nice job drawing the romance out so it’s not a case of two enemy strangers falling into bed and declaring love mere hours later, but even with the added time we’re granted with them, the story itself seems as though it would have held up perfectly well, if not better, if that element were removed entirely or explored more thoroughly in a later installment. There’s clearly a great deal of potential for more at the conclusion of this tale, and though the relationship didn’t quite appeal, it’s still a world I wouldn’t mind revisiting in the future.

Rating: 3/5

Mini Reviews: Happy Birthday to Me + Remembrance

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME
(Birthday Trilogy #1)
Brian Rowe
Paranormal Young Adult
314 pages
Self-published
Received from author for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Seventeen-year-old Cameron Martin has a huge problem: he’s aging a whole year of his life with each passing day!

High school is hard enough; imagine rapidly aging from seventeen to seventy in a matter of weeks, with no logical explanation, and with prom, graduation, and the state championship basketball game all on the horizon. That’s what happens to Cameron, a popular pretty boy who's never had to face a day looking anything but perfect.

All Cameron wants to do is go back to normal, but no one, not even the best doctors, can diagnose his condition. When he finds love with a mysterious young woman, however, he realizes his only hope for survival might be with the one person who started his condition in the first place...

MY THOUGHTS
Despite its supernatural premise, Happy Birthday to Me is written in a way that makes circumstances seem fairly believable, the emotional depth and poignancy achieved during certain scenes enough to have us blinking rapidly to stave off tears as our hearts beat with a sympathetic rhythm for Cameron’s unenviable predicament. Unfortunately, the beautifully crafted quiet moments are often overshadowed by some seemingly unnecessary situations and behaviors that have us shaking our heads in dismay, the over-the-top reactions of friends, family and classmates to Cameron’s “disease” yanking the veil of believability from our eyes as quickly as the meaningful moments are able to raise it. We can’t help but long for more of the intimate family moments between Cameron and his image-obsessed parents as they all mature and come to understand just how much precious time they wasted on superficial trivialities, as those are the ones that are the most intriguing.

There is one rather large issue I had with this book and it’s completely personal in nature so it will most likely not be problematic for most readers, but it bothered me enough that I feel the need to mention it. My point of contention is likely directly linked to the fact that I’m rapidly approaching my 30th birthday and am therefore a bit more sensitive to the age issue than I would be normally, so I fully acknowledge that upfront. With that said, I found the utter shock and awe both Cameron himself as well as his peers expressed at seeing him at ages 28 and 30 to be a little off-putting. Cries of “is that you in there?” from his friends upon setting their eyes on his apparently ancient 30 year-old face seemed a bit overdramatic, and I’d like to think that if my 17 year-old self and my current self were side by side, my 30 year-old visage wouldn’t be completely unrecognizable and mind-boggling compared to my 17-year old one. I freely admit the reactions were most likely ratcheted up a notch for dramatic effect, and granted aging fifteen years in only fifteen days would be quite jarring, but there was a certain extremity to the reactions regarding his progression from 17 to 30 that rubbed me the wrong way.

Personal age issue aside and despite the somewhat questionable sincerity of Cameron's overall change of heart toward the end, the touching moments are well-done and it’s clear that Mr. Rowe is a talented writer, so I do look forward to more from him in the future.

Rating: 3/5


REMEMBRANCE
Michelle Madow
Paranormal Young Adult
314 pages
Available Now
Received from author for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
New Hampshire high school junior Lizzie Davenport has been reincarnated from Regency Era, England ... but she doesn't know it yet.

Then Drew Carmichael transfers into Lizzie's school at the beginning of the year, and she feels a connection to him, almost like she knows him. She can't stop thinking about him, but whenever she tries talking with him about the mysteries behind her feelings, he makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with her. Reaching him is even more difficult because she has a boyfriend, Jeremy, who has started to become full of himself after being elected co-captain of the varsity soccer team, and her flirtatious best friend Chelsea starts dating Drew soon after his arrival. So why can't she seem to get him out of her mind?

Even though Lizzie knows she should let go of her fascination with Drew, the pair of them soon find that fighting fate isn't going to be easy.

MY THOUGHTS
Remembrance is a well-written debut from Ms. Madow with a nicely paced story that keeps our desire to turn the pages relatively high, however, the plot itself and the characters we follow as it unfolds have some frustratingly all-too familiar qualities. Prevalent YA fiction elements appear in all their recognizable glory, with a new hot boy at school and instant electric attraction that turns swiftly into epic and transcendent love failing to be done in a way that elevates them out of the realm of trite and into something new and refreshing.

Elizabeth is a difficult young woman to fully support as, instant love aside, she allows all those around her to be insulting and, at times, downright cruel without ever straightening her spine and defending herself. Drew blows hot and cold on a fairly unparalleled scale, either ignoring Elizabeth entirely or verbally berating her one minute and then comforting her and soothing the burns he caused the next. He’ll shred her heart with seeming ease and then come sauntering back cooing apologies and feeding her excuses she’s all too willing to swallow, somehow convincing her their love is stronger than anyone could possibly understand despite all evidence to the contrary.

Ms. Madow shows a great deal of promise in her creativity and writing style, her characterization in this book just presents more problems than we can ignore in order to become thoroughly engrossed in the story.

Rating: 2.5/5

IMM #35

In My Mailbox was created by Kristi over at The Story Siren and is a great way to see what other bloggers are reading and reviewing. I always love seeing what everyone else got for their week!


FOR REVIEW:
Kiss of Frost by Jennifer Estep
Hades by Alexandra Adornetto
Remembrance by Michelle Madow
Torrent by Lisa T. Bergren

BOUGHT:
Cascade by Lisa T. Bergren

WON:
Hourglass by Myra McEntire

A huge thank you this week goes out to Jennifer Estep, Feiwel & Friends, Michelle Madow, Lisa T. Bergren, and Heather from Buried in Books for surprising me with so many fabulous books when I came home from vacation yesterday!