Thinblade (Sovereign of the Seven Isles #1)

Title: Thinblade
Author: David Wells
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Kindle eBook
Rating: hmm 3.5 out of 5 paws


While out hunting Darius is shot and kill with a poison arrow.  While Alexander and his family mourn the lose of the heir they discover an ancient evil has came back into the world.  Alexander is now marked as the protector of the realm, and the one who could defeat this evil.  He travels to the mountain city of Glen Morillian and discovers before he can claim his throne he must find the Thinblade. Seven were forged to help protect royal bloodlines from evil forces. But the Thinblade was lost to years ago and no one knows where it is hidden.  Alexander begins his quest looking for the Thinblade and gaining alliances all the while fighting against the powers of a necromancer. 

I had this book on my kindle for quite a while from bookbub and it took me some time before I picked it out of the hundreds of books on there.  I almost forgot about it!  I like the idea of this novel: ancient evil has come back and young princling must learn to wield a special sword to defeat him among other things.  There is a lot that happens in this book from various battles to Alexander learning so much about himself.  It is a great beginning to a series.  I am looking forward to getting the other books and finding out what happens next. Lets start by talking about the cover.  Just look at it house gorgeous is it?  No wonder it caught my eye, I want to go there!!


Okay now to the story, it was evenly paced, some parts were slower than others but it seemed to keep an consistent pace throughout the novel.  There was a lot of telling rather than showing, but for me it seemed to work.  Everything was described in great detail, down to the food.  While this may become a little burdensome, it really drew me into the story.  It made me feel like I was there and could almost smell the feast that was happening.  There is some depth to the world that we don't get to see yet, but I am sure we will see in upcoming novels.  Some things we learn as characters learn them and I absolutely love it.  It makes feel like I am sitting beside Alexander listening to stories being told.  It is definitely a TELLING story, and I wonder if that will change once we have all the information we need and get into the heart of the epic tale.


The magic is a bit interesting in this in that mages aren't born with this innate talent (well some are) but develop it through trial and fasting.  The more talented you are the more specialized your magic is which is rather interesting.  I would have liked to have seen more of this throughout the story.  I also like the alchemy aspect of this with the potions and herb usage.  I like that Alexander appears to be rather powerful, but at this point he is too powerful for one who hasn't trained in his magic.


I would recommend it for those who like novels along the lines of Dragonlance.

Handlers of Dragons

Title: Handles of Dragons

Author: Kim Cormack

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure

Source: Ebook from author

Rating: 5 out of 5

This is the fourth book in the Children of Ankh series.  Kayn has discovered not only is she a dragon, but she is also Lexi's sister and Seth's daughter.  ALOT for her to handle at once.  She and Zach need to strengthen their bond if he is to be successful as her handler.  Things are going okay for her until Kevin gives her a flower from their childhood and she throws him off a balcony.  Then Lexi kills someone, so as punishment the two dragons and their handlers are sent on a few missions with NO contact with the rest of the clan.  The purpose is for the dragons to bond together and with their handlers.  Things tend to get a little dirty when Abaddon enter the mix along with some other creatures.  Kayn needs to learn how to control not only her dragon powers, but also her conduit and Guardian powers as well.  How is one girl supposed to handle it all?

I have been a fan of Kim Cormack's since the beginning of the series, and have yet to be disappointed with her work.  What can I say that hasn't already been said by myself or other reviewers?  This book picks up where the last one left off with Kayn discovering the truth about her lineage and her powers.  On top of needing to control her thoughts and feelings, Kayn must also learn to control new powers.  This is not a standalone novel, you do need to read the previous novels in order to understand the intricacies of the storyline.

Kim is able to weave together a tale that includes everything from dark humor to action/adventure and even a little romance.  No other author I have read has been able to bring about such humor in regards to two petite women going on a murder spree.  I love that the dragons are two women that on the outside people wouldn't assume are bad-ass, but then they single handedly kill thousands of demons and evil beings.  She also includes humor on various other things, I loved the mention of Kayn thanking someone simply because she was Canadian and that what they do, how could that not bring about a chuckle or two.

I am excited to see what Kim is going to do in the next book with the things that we have found out.  I almost wanted Kayn to get control of at least one of her powers or her unlocking something specific within Grey along with his fire ability.  It feels like there is a lot building up to something grander and more will be revealed in the next book.  I know we are nearing the end of the series as well and I hope Kim will continue to write and tell the story, maybe something from Triad or with the brothers.

If you fancy a good urban fantasy about immortal warriors this is for you.  If you fancy an action adventure with a lot of battles and fighting, this is for you.  Heck I'd say this was the book for anyone.  It's an intense novel that makes for a great read. 

The Bear and The Nightengale

Title:  The Bear and The Nightengale
Author: Katherine Arden
Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tale
Source Library Book: Hardback
Rating: 4 out of 5


Amid the Russian wilderness, winter seems to last forever.  Vasilisa spends her time huddled around the fire to listen to stories told by her nurse, her favorite being about Frost; the winter demon who appears in the night to claim souls.  Soon after her birth, Vasilisa's mother passes away and her father goes to Moscow to find a new wife.  Her new step mother forbids the family and the rest of the estate to honor the house, yard, and forest spirits and honor the Christian God instead.  But Vasilisa personally knows these spirits are real, and the family rituals are more important than others realize.  Soon enough crops begin to fail, and creatures of the forest venture closer to the homes.  Her stepmother and the new priest combine their efforts to force the young girl into either marriage or the convent, but Vasilisa will have nothing of it and escapes into the sanctuary of the forest.  What she finds will change her forever.

This book came up as a recommendation because I loved reading Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and I was skeptical of the comparison.  While this book doesn't have the same theme or idea as Night Circus, it still spun a spell around my mind and soul and Katherine Arden's talented writing drug me deep into her tale. The book was enchantingly dark, darker than I expected but I loved it, couldn't get enough of it.  Arden has been able to craft a world that lingers on the fence between the seen and unseen and pokes at the mystery of the beyond. She has transformed this Russian folklore into something magical and fresh.


I have always enjoyed reading books based on folklore, especially folklore that I am not accustomed to and this novel was the perfect opportunity to introduce myself to something outside my realm of knowledge.  I appreciated the fact that while Vasilisa honored the house/yard/forest spirits, she also did not discount the faith of her step-mother, priest and brother.  She seemed to respect them and simply asked the priest to respect her own beliefs and allow her to practice as she has always done.  This was a powerful aspect of the novel as we are reminded that she is a young woman not 16 yet (I believe by the end she is 14 or so). Vasya is a strong-willed independent character who continues to grow into herself and the things she believes in.  There is a lot to be said in her character not being willing to sacrifice herself to fit what everyone else wants her to be.  That's powerful in and of itself. 


I loved how Arden uses some traditional Russian words, it helped put me into the setting and made me want to learn more about the language.  There is a glossary at the end as well as an Authors Note about the terms that help the readers understand the usage of these terms.  She has a very lyrical writing style which is perfect for this kind of a book as it really makes the story feel like a folklore/fairy tale.  She does a great job in showing the relationship between good and evil as well as the transition between old beliefs and new and how it could become a battle ground of faith and self preservation.


I highly enjoyed reading this novel and plan on checking out the second book in the series The Girl In The Tower.  This book had everything I was looking for in a read, magic, some adventure, and folk lore.  It was the perfect choice for my vacation last week.  If you enjoy novels like fairy tale retellings and spinning of folk lore, give this book a shot I'm sure you might like it.


Check out some other reviews of The Bear and The Nightengale:


Arlene's Book Club

Once Gone

Title: Once Gone
Author: Blake Pierce
Genre: Mystery, thriller, suspense
Source: Kindle Ebook
Rating: 4 out of 5 paws


Throughout the forests and other rural lands women are turning up murdered and posed in chilling poses.  FBI Agent Bill knows exactly who he needs/wants on the case, his former partner Riley Paige.  The question is is she ready to return to work after her own ordeal?  Riley is the best FBI Agent, she sees and thinks of things differently than the other agents.  She is determined to figure out the motive for these killings and find the latest victim before it is too late.  But is she confusing this monster with the one who haunts her dreams?  Can Riley look past her past and face the case in front of her or will her trauma cause her to fail the women and potentially lose her job?  It becomes a race against time as Riley fights the bureau and herself to discover who the killer is in time.

This was one of those novels that sat on my kindle for a while now and I haven't gotten the chance to read it until now.  I am happy I picked it on a whim the other day.  It is a chilling tale from the beginning to the end.  There are elements about the way the bodies are posed that give it a unique chill.  You will find yourself trying to figure out what dolls have to do with the murders and why the killer poses the women as dolls.  I found myself unable to put the novel down even when someone was speaking to me.  This is one of those stories that drags you into the depths of the tale and holds you captive until the very end.  Once Gone is a book that will have you dreaming about the story once you close the book....if you can close the book.


I absolutely love the character of Riley, she is flawfully strong.  What I mean is she is a powerful character with a ton of strengths, but also completely flawed and doesn't fully think before she acts.  I found myself yelling at her for doing something stupid only to remind myself that I would probably have done something equally stupid.  I love how Pierce shows her struggling with things in her personal life as much as her professional life and what happens when she muddles the two.  I love how her brokenness is portrayed and you can feel the emotions coming of the page, the fear, frustration, anger she feels throughout the book is palpable.  It is bone chilling at how well Pierce is able to draw out emotions from the readers.  It is something that will stick with you once you finish the book, nagging at you until you pick up the next book in the series.  I know I am dying to pick up Once Taken.



It is somewhat predictable, but also unpredictable at the same time.  You can almost predict what Riley is going to do based on her actions throughout the novel, which is not a bad thing because that means the reader completely grows to understand Riley.  But then you can't predict how things will turn out or what direction Pierce is taking things.  I love it.  I couldn't be more excited about randomly picking a book from my Kindle library.  I am honestly surprised not more people are talking about how amazing this book and author is.

I wonder to myself why it took me so long to really dig into this book because it is fantastic.  I am recommending it to anyone who is looking for a good compelling mystery novel.  I know I will never look at a doll the same again.  Blake Pierce really set the stage for this series and I am excited to see what is in store for Riley and readers.

Shadow magic (audiobook)

Connor was just a normal teenage boy with a father who taught ancient languages.  His world completely changes with a visit from his aunt, who happens to want to kill him.  He is transplanted into another world, Tir Na Nog,  where there is a prophecy of the son of the handed king.  There he meets another family member, his uncle, as well as his mother.  After a quick battle he is separated from his parents and he teams up with 3 other companions to find his way across Tir Na Nog to find his parents.  Everyone within the realm wants to kill him and Connor must work with his companions to find their way to their destination.  Along the way Connor discovers things about his friends as well as himself and grows stronger in the process.  Will Connor succeed in his quest and make it safely to his family?

I listened to this book as an audio book via LibriVox, and it is read by John Henahan himself.  I am not sure how I feel about audiobooks.  I tried it to see if I would enjoy them while I am at work or driving.   I found I had a hard time paying attention to the story because it quickly became background sound to the other things that I was focusing on, so I ended up listening to it when I wasn't doing something.  I enjoyed this book a great deal when I was able to finally focus on it.  The author read it while slight inflections in his voice when different characters were speaking.  That was a hard things to work through, knowing when someone was speaking and who.  When I read the dialog it is easier to understand when dialogue belongs to different people.

The story was very interesting and humorous, children in the age range (it says 7-10 but I would say 8-15) would greatly enjoy this story and get lost within.  I enjoyed the use of different Celtic folklores like imps and leprechauns.  There is a lot of action throughout the book, enough to keep readers (or listeners) interested and eager to find out what happens next.  The narration reads (flows) much like a teenager is speaking/writing which adds to the effect that the main character is in fact a teenager.  He acted and spoke the way a teen would rather than someone older than they were supposed to be.  Some of the descriptions were hilarious such as when he describes himself dismounting as resembling a giraffe on an escalator.  It was refreshing to "read" a book that had battle scenes and the sense of war, but didn't have a lot of blood or gore.  It focused more on respecting the people, plants and animals of the land, such as asking a tree for permission before picking an apple or asking a boar if it was alright to kill it.

I would recommend this book to young reads and older readers as well, it is refreshing to read something youthful and airy for a change.  I anticipate reading the other books in this trilogy, I may also listen to it on audiobook if it is available.  I give this audiobook a 4 out of 5 rating, and think I will give audiobooks another change, but I am not sure if they are for me.  We shall see...

Happy reading!

Heritage: S.M Boyce

Heritage is the third book in Boyce's Grimoire Saga.  It picks up with Kara in turning to learn how to control her Isen power enough to lead the other vagabonds.  Braeden is working to learn the inner workings of his kingdom to help the other Bloods plan an attack and finally defeat his father. Braeden has to learn how to gain the trust of the other bloods.  Kara has to learn how she can learn the vagabonds and how to sway the other bloods to her mission.  As part of her training, Kara visits the home of her grandfather, a notorious Isen who killed millions of people.  She had thought she'd known all about him until she took a trip through his memories and discovered the truth about him and herself.  This helps her accept her powers and learn to control them.  Now she sends her vagabonds back to their kingdoms and campaigns for the assistance of the other bloods to join her cause for peace.  Will Kara be successful?

After reading the previous two novels in the saga and loving them, I found this one to be lacking a certain..opf.  I love the idea of Kara being an Isen, it adds a deeper quality to her character and a twist in the story.  I have a feeling there is more to this surprise in the next novels.  There was a lot of re-cap from the other novels, and while having a recap can help remind readers of what happened previously, it started to take away from the story.  It started to feel like the momentum of the series started to slow down in the beginning of the novel, but once Kara revealed her powers the story picked back up. I was sucked back into the story, eager to know what will happen next. 

It almost felt like that story didn't progress much until about the last 75% of the novel.  There was a lot of build up to what will happen towards the end.  A lot was predictable, but then again Boyce tells the reader things will happen.  It does push the story along a little bit, but I think this book is intended to focus more on Kara learning her identity, who she truly is and her place within the world.    Throughout the other two books, Kara didn't feel connected to the people she was fighting to save, and now she does as well as change the viewpoint of Isens.  It is something that was needed to give Kara that connection to everyone and everything to really fight for unity.

I did enjoy this story, it was different from the previous ones in that it had a different air to it.  While it was slower and had a different feel to the story, it was one that is needed for the series.  It does deviate a little bit, but it is a necessary deviation.  I enjoyed reading it and look forward to reading the next one.  I do suggest not only thing book but also the series.  I give this novel a 3 out 5 rating.  S.M Boyce is doing a great job at developing a story and world.

Steel Maiden

Elena would do anything to escape the Pit and establish a new life for her and Rose, even stealing from the Temple of the Sun priests.  She thought she was able to do it until she went to sell it to the buyer, and he betrayed her.  Now the priests has forced her to join a race for a magical stone with the promise of releasing her and Rose unharmed.  There is a secret to Elena that no one else in the race knows about, she has magic and possibly the power to overcome the priests.  Soon Elena finds herself in the middle of a rebellion against the priests and struggle for power.  All the while coming to terms with her new-found gifts and accepting who she has to become in order to accomplish her task.

This was a fairly easy book to read as it basically gives the reader a play by play of what is happening.  The sentences are very short and sequential.  "I shifted nervously.  The wound at the back on my neck throbbed.  The pain was increasing as we neared the city."  While this makes the book easy to follow and understand, it makes it feel like the reader is being spoon fed information.  This happened and then this happened and then this....Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading this book, I think there were ways to accomplish the same thing without it feeling completely laid out. Elena is an interesting character in that her magic is different from what have seen in other fantasy novels.  She has the ability to weld any weapon and is immune to other magic.  Richardson does a good job at bringing that ability to life in her character and the misunderstanding some of the people have towards magic-users.  I liked how she showed prejudice through this, once the other members of the race found out she was a magic user they reacted to her differently treated her worse than they did when they thought she was just a peasant woman. 

There were times when it felt like I had already read this book, the idea of a woman being chosen to be the king/priest's champion to capture a magical relic and discovers magic within herself.  It felt like it's been done before.  BUT, Richardson takes that idea and creates something new and unique with it. Some things were a little predictable like Mad Jack being a part of a rebellion within the Pit or Prince Landon betraying her, but any reader could see these things happening as we begin to feel like we are inside Richardson's head with this book.  We can see clearly her intent with the storyline and what she was doing.  There was no room for confusion.


I think she has a great beginning novel with Steel Maiden.  It gives the readers enough story to help launch their interest and keeps them wanting more from the story.  I know I am eager to find out what happens in the next book and where Richardson's story will lead readers.   Overall I will give this book a 3.5 out of 5 rating because There were strong and weak elements, Richardson could have taken the Steel Maiden thing so many different places and I hope she does so in the next novels.

Heir Of Fire

I am falling more and more in love with this series.  In the third installment we find Celaena begins to train and learn more about who she is the power that resides in the fae form.  While she is training she learns that there is someone or something targeting demi-fae and sucking the life energy out of them.  Meanwhile things at the castle are heating up and Chaol discovers more of the king's treachery as Dorian begins to fall for one of the healers who has a secret of her own.  Celaena grows stronger in her power and gains more allies to become the queen she is meant to be, but is she ready to take on this role and power that comes with it.  Is she ready to begin a battle save her kingdom and her people and rebuild all that they have lost?

I think so far this is one my favorite books in the series.  I loved that there was more of her fae form and she comes to accept who and what she is.  I also suspect a new potential love interest in Rowen.  Even though the book doesn't focus on that and doesn't suggest it, as a reader who loves the characters I want to ship them even is Maas doesn't.  I wish we had a little bit more from Rowen, but the mystery adds to the charm of his character.  I expect to see great things from him in the next novel, and interested to see how Chaol will react to his presence.  I liked how all three books have flowed together seamlessly.  It didn't feel like I have stopped reading the series for a couple of months.  It picked up right where the last one left off and provided enough backstory to remind readers of what happened in the previous novels, but not too much that made readers think it was simply re-telling the previous volumes.

Sarah Maas is an exceptional story teller.  I admit I was a little weary of the series when I started it, but I simply cannot wait to get my hands on the next book and have already started telling people they need to read this series.  Mass captures her readers from the very first words and develops a world that makes readers want to visit become a part of. I found the Blackbeak story line interesting as well and look forward to seeing more from them and seeing how Manon changes as we already started to see.

Overall this is a fantastic book that fantasy lover will enjoy greatly.  If you haven't started reading this series then you need to begin it,  I give this book in the series a 5 out of 5 as it just keeps getting better.  Characters remain flawless and continue to develop even when you think they can't anymore.