The Crown of Embers, by Rae Carson

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Thistle

10816908Sequel to The Girl of Fire and Thorns. And oh my it was wonderful. I just want to hug this series!

In this book, Elisa is struggling to assert herself as queen and not appear weak. There are assassination attempts on her life. She has to learn more about her Godstone. And of course, there was the love story with Hector. So slow, so gradual, so compelling! I need to learn to write my love stories slower. And I love that we get just a little glimpse more into the world of the Inviernos. It sounds as if the next book will have even more.

I loved every single thing about this book. The pacing. The slow unveiling of knowledge. Seeing old characters show up and learning more about them. The way Elisa has grown so much but is still herself, without ever revisiting ground from the old book. I love Rosario’s development, and the natural way that Hector’s feelings for Elisa are revealed. I love all the rituals and religion.

I remember, years back, wondering why modern-day books couldn’t involve religion without it being a conflict for the reader. In this one, religion is just a given for the narrator. It’s simply there. There’s no questioning it, but there’s never any pushing of it on the reader, either. It helps, of course, that it’s a fantasy religion. But at the same time, the book is so steeped in religion that it COULD feel intrusive. But it doesn’t.

I will definitely need to own these books!!!!!

Posted in 2014, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Phantom – DONE!

Posted on April 30, 2014 by Thistle

Note: Originally posted on Facebook. Formatting added on repost.

Done. Eight years to the date, four drafts, hundreds of thousands of words in notes and manuscripts combined, and I have a final version of the very first novel I ever wrote. The manuscript still needs a six-month rest period and then a read with new eyes, followed of course by some touch-ups and edits. Mostly, however, it is done. For the first time, I am not only satisfied with a draft of this story, but pleased. More than pleased. I would give this manuscript a big long hug if I could. I’ve reread it three times in the last two days, and I can’t stop smiling.

I began Draft/Rewrite #4 on January 1st this year, and I wrote 74,000+ words in April alone (not all of them were kept!). Total word count for 2014 is about 142k, 115k of which went into this final draft. Each of the four drafts of Phantom took me four months to write, which I think makes for some awesome symmetry. Songs associated with this manuscript include:

  • “Losing My Religion” by REM
  • “I Got Shit” by Pearl Jam
  • “Ordinary Life” by Elizaveta
  • “Nearer, My God, to Thee” (hymn)
  • “Music of the Night” from the Phantom of the Opera musical

Most of this draft was written under the influence of Umbrella Brigade’s “B.D.U.” (which is NOT, however, associated with the text – only with the writing process).

The really lame, my-brain-is-melted description of Phantom: After a decade away, Sam Milam returns to her hometown when her father suffers a major heart attack. Once there, she must face estranged friends and family, memories of lost love and a devastating miscarriage, and the contempt of former fellow church members of the faith she left behind long ago. Sam finds an unexpected ally in Oliver Deboe, a family friend who helps her to understand that despite feeling as if her life got frozen in time at age twenty, she does have a chance to be happy again someday. [Women’s fiction – which is very rare for me to write.]

Some of my friends have read former drafts of Phantom, but over the years, this story has changed drastically and no longer resembles previous versions all that much. It has become so intensely personal to me that I’m not sure I will ever show the final draft to anyone. I guess we’ll see how I feel after the manuscript has a chance to rest and receives its last round of pre-beta-reader edits.

Now that I’m done binge-writing, I’m taking May off. It’s time to catch up on all the books I have bought/borrowed this year, all the movies I haven’t watched yet, all the saved blog posts I have yet to read/comment on, the submissions (for a different manuscript!) that I’ve neglected, my exercise/training regimen, the emails I haven’t responded to, and the house that desperately needs a thorough cleaning.

Also: Time to bask in the afterglow of writing the word END.

Posted in Writing | 1 Comment

The Girl of Fire and Thorns, by Rae Carson

Posted on April 17, 2014 by Thistle

Girl of Fire and Thorns, The 2Spoilers.

Once every century, God chooses a Hero. The child is meant to perform a service in His name, and is identified by a jewel known as the Godstone in the child’s navel, not present at birth, but granted shortly afterwards. Elisa is this child, given the Godstone on her naming day, and now, sixteen years old, she is to be married to the king of the neighboring country as part of a political alliance. Elisa is a scholar, but no warrior. She is very heavy and addicted to food, and while she loves her God and Godstone, she feels there might have been a mistake when it comes to her being chosen.

The plot is so much more than I described above. The book is so much more. Elisa is a fantastic character. She’s not well-versed in politics or court life, as the second daughter of a king. She detests her body but won’t make changes to it, and she’s embarrassed by the attention it causes her to receive. She has never met the man who will become her husband, and prays that he will be old, ugly, and fat, so that she doesn’t have to feel bad about her own body on his behalf. Beyond that, there is a constant threat of war against another country who seem to have harnessed the power of some sort of sorcery, something that is considered distinctly heretical in Elisa’s and her husband’s countries.

Elisa’s husband, Alejandro, is nice enough. The opening scene, at their wedding, was enough to catch my interest. He is kind, generous, and friendly. He respects her fear of intimacy and never tries to push himself on her, but also exhibits no disgust about her body. His first wife died, and he has a six-year-old son, but he doesn’t compare her to a previous life or expect her to do anything more than hopefully become his friend. Later, it’s revealed he has a mistress, but by the end, you know that he loves that mistress, and that he thinks he would have loved Elisa as well, if they’d ever been given the chance to find out. He wasn’t perfect, but he wasn’t a bad person either, and I loved that.

Elisa herself goes on a major journey throughout the book, first joining a new culture, then being kidnapped, then forming a rebel army to fight against the Invernios who are attacking the borders of her new country. She becomes stronger, losing some weight – though she doesn’t become tiny, skinny, or fit, just smaller – and learning to do things that she shied away from in the past. She makes hard decisions, and loses some people she cares about. By the time she is returned to her husband, she’s unrecognizable to him, though his son, Rosario, who only met her once, knows her immediately.

I’m doing a terrible job reviewing this book. I really, really liked it. This is set in a fantasy world with Spanish-flavor culture. Religion is a huge portion of their society, and there are all sort of rituals and manuscripts and monasteries. I learned so much more about what I needed to do for my own fantasy series from reading this book. I loved the world-building, and I think that over the next couple books, I might learn more about the Invernios, and maybe understand this war from their point of view. I hope so, at least!

Can’t wait to read the others!

Posted in 2014, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

And Then She Fell, by Stephanie Laurens (audio)

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Thistle

cynsterHenrietta doesn’t believe in the necklace charm that has been passed down through the ladies of her family and, for years, to her. She doesn’t believe it will help her find her “hero,” but instead believes she will remain a spinster for the rest of her life. After all, she’s 29, and has become known as the “Match-breaker” in the upper social circles, because she’s the one people come to for information when they’re considering a potential match. When James, a friend of her brother, angrily confronts her for breaking off his potential match shortly after Henrietta’s younger sister, Mary, insists that she start wearing the necklace, Henrietta has no idea that fate has been set in motion for her.

Totally genre-fiction, a cross between a romance novel and a mystery novel, set in old-world London. Apparently, there are a bajillion of these novels from this author, all dealing with the same several sets of families. And I mean that – I counted several dozen of them on Goodreads, and that’s when I stopped counting. I had no idea, when I randomly grabbed this audiobook, that it was one of tons. Thankfully, while older books were referred to, this one had its own unique plot that was easily followed and wholly complete. There was a little teaser in the epilogue for the next book, but the story of this one was completely wrapped up.

So there are three parts of this book I want to discuss: the romance, the mystery, and the technical stuff. I’ll start with the technical stuff.

I was drawn into the story right away, even though I knew it was genre fiction and expected flat, dull writing. The writing wasn’t all that bad (except in one instance, which I’ll elaborate on in my next section). The plot started right away, the story was interesting, and though the POV flipflopped constantly, it felt deliberate and manageable. I never got confused whose eyes we were seeing through, even when the POV flipped every two to three sentences. The audio production was great, perfect reader for it, and the setting was believable and interesting. I was surprised at how the two story arcs were timed, because 1) I didn’t realize there were two story arcs when I started, and 2) I’m not terribly familiar with this particular genre of fiction. Maybe it’s normal. But it still took me by surprise, and that leads me into talking about the two arcs themselves.

Romance. I expected something like a historical fiction rom-com with a bit of sexiness thrown in. I did not realize that this was going to read like a Harlequin romance. I found the first couple kisses tantalizing, but they seemed to come very fast. Henrietta and James accepted their romance in the first 2 or 3 disks (of 9). Within days, they were having sex. For twenty-minute segments of the audiobook. It was…awkward, all the members and sheaths and heats. It was also a bit silly, and while believable for these characters despite the time period, very exaggerated. The first scene wasn’t too bad, until it started being referred to as “love-making” (which it most decidedly wasn’t), but the second, third, and semi-fourth were…excruciating. I was laughing through the ridiculous language throughout, and the prolonged extent of the prose. Seriously. It wasn’t quite Bad Sex Award bad, but it was rather ridiculous.

When the love story seemed to wrap up by a third of the way through the book (are Harlequin novels always that fast??), I wondered what the hell else was going to happen. Well, it turned out to be a murder mystery, with a stalker trying to kill Henrietta. The thing is, it wasn’t like most mysteries. With mysteries, there are always suspects, and someone trying to figure out who the killer is. There are twists and turns and progressions, and it keeps the reader guessing. This was nothing like that. The mystery progressed step by step without intrigue. The murderer showed up at the beginning, disappeared in one section of the middle, and by the end, was captured. There was never any mystery about his identity. The whole plot was focused on luring the guy out and catching him, whoever he was, before he got to Henrietta. In a normal mystery, there would have been red herrings – maybe Mary’s insistence that Henrietta wear the necklace, however, means the person she’s interested in will be the murderer, or perhaps one of the policemen involved, and that’s how the murderer stays one step ahead! No. Nothing like that. It wasn’t difficult to discern who he was, and I was never anxious for the safety of any characters.

So the mystery plotline wasn’t the greatest, especially as it was 90% separate from the romance part of the book. This again might just be my ignorance of the genre, however. In any case, while the book was mostly fun, especially in the first half, I have no desire to delve into more of Laurens’ world. It was good, once, as a distraction, and now I’m done.

Note: Audio production read by Matthew Brenher.

Posted in 2014, Adult, Prose | Tagged , | Leave a comment

It Starts With Food, by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig

Posted on April 15, 2014 by Thistle

foodAll right. I finally read the book behind Whole30. I’ve always scoffed at Whole30 before, but after having most of my gluten-related symptoms come back after 4-5 months gluten-free, I know I need to do some sort of elimination diet to figure out what else is going on. I also know I have a lot of issues with sugar and that my defenses against it have become useless, and that I struggle with fatigue, depression, insomnia, skin issues, and carb cravings. I suppose, in a way, I always knew it would come to this. At the same time, Whole30 scares me – it’s SO restrictive! But that’s the way an elimination diet goes. At least it’s not just eating rice the whole time.

In the end, I decided to check this book out because many of the smartest people I know are eating this way. Paleo-eating, while not proven yet, has become the bedrock for many athletes and body-builders and holistic practitioners. Even my regular family doctor said I was likely to do better if I ate a lot fewer carbs. I already know I have carb sensitivities, and my diet has always been more stable when I eat fewer of them. I also know that when I cut out grains and such, though, I tend to get really, really sick, and that’s the big reason I’ve stayed away. In reading this book, however, I learned that the sort of sick I get is apparently a normal reaction to cutting out grains, and that unfortunately, it’ll likely last for 1-2 weeks before it gets better, along with a host of other nasty issues.

The book itself was a bit asinine. I really don’t like when these sorts of issues are “dumbed down” for the general population. I prefer to be respected as a person. So, in terms of writing, and really, in terms of science, this isn’t the best book I’ve ever read. Most of the issues discussed were ones I’ve already learned about. But there were a few places that resonated with me:

And if that [bedtime] snack is sugar or rich in refined carbs, it pushes insulin levels up, which may lead to a blood sugar crash in the middle of the night. This affects melatonin secretion, which governs our sleep patterns, and means you could wake up at 2 a.m., unable to get back to sleep.

Yep…

Experience has shown us that most people with an imbalanced hunger mechanism fall into one of two camps: hungry all the time, or not really hungry at all.

Sounds like Jason (the not really hungry bit)…

Simply limiting added sugar (“I’m going to have one sweet treat per day”) leads to incessant battles of willpower, continued cravings, and small sugar hits, which keep your brain focused on sugar.

Yeah, don’t I know it.

There’s a lot of discussion of hormones and how they work, including a bunch about hunger levels in the morning. I remember a time when the first thing I did upon waking was have breakfast. That’s how I grew up, and that was what was natural for me. Then slowly, over my weight-loss journey, I started eating later. Then, over time, I just stopped being hungry first thing in the morning. I’m usually hungry about 2-2.5 hours after I wake up now. And apparently, that’s a hormonal imbalance. That makes sense, given that by the time you wake up, you haven’t eaten anything in roughly 10-12 hours. The fact that I’m not hungry in the morning, but AM hungry an hour or two after a big dinner is wrong. I always thought that was habit – one I acquired in college, which, coincidentally (or not), coincided with when my insomnia started – and I could break it if I tried, but maybe it’s more than that.

We’ll see. I’m reserving judgement on Whole30. Perhaps I will try it out in the near future and then reintroduce foods slowly – slower, even, than the book says to – to find out exactly what I’m reacting to. And if this makes me feel good longterm, and feels sustainable, I might just keep on it.

Posted in 2014, Adult, Prose, Wellness | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Protected: Panic, by Lauren Oliver

Posted on April 9, 2014 by Thistle

This content is password-protected. To view it, please enter the password below.

Posted in 2014, Prose, Young Adult | Enter your password to view comments.

Cress, by Marissa Meyer

Posted on March 29, 2014 by Thistle

cressCress is third in the Lunar Chronicles, after Cinder and Scarlet. To recap previous feelings, I’d wished Cinder was standalone, and left out all the moon-alien-people, which felt superfluous. Then, in Scarlet, I didn’t mind so much, because the story had fleshed out a bit more – and Scarlet put Cinder into better perspective for me. I was worried, however, that Cress was a retelling of Rapunzel, because I’ve never, ever liked retellings of Rapunzel (probably because I don’t like the original fairy tale, either). I was willing to give it a shot, however. The verdict?

I think I’m going to need to buy the books in this series.

They just keep getting better and better! I loved Cress (the character), loved Thorne, loved Cinder and Scarlet and Wolf and Kai. I loved the exploration of Africa, and the way all these plotlines entwined. I loved the humor in it, especially from Thorne. I was anxious the whole time reading it, and could not put it down. It was brilliant. Each book just keeps getting better. I can’t wait to read Winter and see how Meyer wraps this all up!

Oh: Also want to note – I’ve been reading these at intervals, without rereading before I get into the next book, or even going back to read my reviews. Meyer handles perfectly the retelling without retelling too much, just enough to jog my memory, and she also puts in little details for people who are diehard fans of the book. The scene where Wolf is cradling a can of tomatoes, for instance, which refers back to something I barely remember, but remember enough of to know this is incredibly sweet, and for diehard fans, it would be an amazing little detail. I really appreciate that.

Posted in 2014, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Not My Daughter, by Barbara Delinsky (audio)

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Thistle

notmydaughterSpoilers.

Susan Tate lives in a small town in Maine, a single mom of a 17-year-old daughter named Lily, and the high school principle. She’s struggled to overcome her past – getting pregnant at 17, being disowned by her family for it – but now, she’s suddenly faced with a new struggle: Lily is pregnant, and not only is she pregnant, but she and her best friends all got pregnant together. On purpose.

This is a very broad novel, discussing teen pregnancy, pact behavior, family issues, parenting, friendship and loyalty, morality, small-town narrow-mindedness, politics, truth, and blame. It is decently written, but a bit…over the top, I suppose. It tried to tackle too much, for me, and in addition to that, it all wrapped up a bit too neatly. Bad things happened, but in the end, they were all overcome. Susan kept her job. Lily’s sick baby healed well with no complications. Everyone was friends again at the end. Susan started a new relationship with her estranged mother. Susan and Rick got together. Happily ever afters for everyone. Even the three pregnant girls…they aren’t HAPPY anymore about what they’ve missed out on in becoming mothers, but their pact, well, it worked. They have each other to lean on, at least, and considering that was a BIG part of the epilogue, it felt almost as if the author was saying, “Well, if you get pregnant young, at least do it with a few of your friends, so you have a support system.” Cringe.

It was the sort of book I would have stopped reading, normally, especially as this was an audio performance and I didn’t particularly like the narrator. Kept putting accents in that drove me crazy. I listened to it mostly while flying to Portland and back, though, and I needed SOMETHING to do, so I kept going. It wasn’t a BAD book, but it’s completely unmemorable, and I know it’s not going to stick. The sort of book I said I’d make sure I’d give up if I came across this year. I guess at least it was entertaining enough to get me through two days of travel.

Posted in 2014, Adult, Prose | Tagged | Leave a comment

Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell (audio)

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Thistle

fangirlSpoilers.

Cath and Wren are identical twins and starting college together. Then Wren tells Cath that they shouldn’t room together, which spins Cath’s world into chaos. Suddenly, she has to face the anxieties of starting at school alone, from trying to find the dining hall (and knowing how to navigate all the untold rules within) to dealing with her aggressive roommate and her roommate’s weird boyfriend. On top of this, Cath’s Simon Snow fanfiction has become so incredibly popular that she is torn between posting it regularly and keeping up with her schoolwork. Plus, her dad is bipolar and isn’t exactly up to taking care of himself now that Cath and Wren are gone. Plus, her ten-years-estranged mother is trying to waltz back into her life. Plus, her fiction writing teacher seems to think that fanfiction – Cath’s favorite form of writing – isn’t really writing at all. And so on.

So…I first heard of Rainbow Rowell last summer when everyone and their mother started reading Eleanor & Park. The book was not at all interesting to me, so I ignored the hype. Then came NaNoWriMo, and Rowell wrote a pep talk about her experience with NaNo in 2011, when she wrote Fangirl. Fangirl did seem interesting to me, and so when I recently saw an audio version on my library’s shelf, I decided to give it a try.

Ha. I listened to the first tiny bit, maybe 15 mins or so, just to test the book, and decided I liked it. Then, yesterday, I listened to the next little bit of it when I ran at Comanche. Then, today, I came down with a bad cold – and spent the entire rest of the day listening to this book until every word was done. It was that good.

I loved just about every part of this book! I loved that Cath never gave up on her fanfiction despite what her teacher said. I love that she never rekindled a relationship with her mother, but DID fix up the relationship with her sister. I love that bad things happened, and that nothing was easy, even as the book was hopeful and light. I love that it made me laugh. I love Cath’s love interest, Levi, who was not at all the typical YA boyfriend type. I love that Cath got revenge on the guy who stole their co-authored story.

The only thing I didn’t love was that the end seemed to push on too long. After everything was pretty much worked out, there were a few scenes of “extra drama” that seemed like they needed to be cut. Arguments between Cath and Levi that felt like plot points which ought to have been dealt with throughout the book, rather than getting tagged on at the end. That sort of thing. Otherwise, though, the book was great.

Performance: The audio performance was likewise fantastic. When I first started listening, I wasn’t sure about it – Simon Snow was so obviously stand-in for Harry Potter that I was a bit put off with all the pre-chapter sections reading from it, and later from fanfiction – but I ended up enjoying it. I loved that Rowell was able to make the fanfic sections sound different in writing style from the Simon Snow bits, and both different from her own writing. That takes talent, and the two narrators (Rebecca Lowman and Maxwell Caulfield) did a fantastic job setting these all apart just with the way they spoke. It was great. The sort of audiobook I’d love to own.

Posted in 2014, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

A Clash of Kings, by George R.R. Martin

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Thistle

clashSpoilers.

Second book in the series, following A Game of Thrones.

Well, this book pretty much just continued the first one, with the addition of new characters. It’s all about war and a split up of a unified country. More people died – though really, the only major character who died was Renly, and he was never THAT major – and more lived than expected. Some of the ones who DID die (hem, Theon), I’m glad they did. Theon’s plotline seemed superfluous and stupid.

Little things:

– Danys’ sections were incredibly dull. I hope she gets a better plotline in the next book.

– I really like the Hound and hope he comes back.

– The Lannisters are still bastards. I know Catelyn didn’t kill Jaime when she asked for Brienne’s sword, but I do wish she had.

– The Lady of Light is messed up, and that scene with the pregnant birthing of a shadow was hair-raisingly creepy.

– Arya’s life seemed pretty pointless here, too, but her plotline was interesting to read. I think she was smart not to trust Roose Bolton with her identity. I’m looking forward to getting to know Gendry better, and I hope they all make it to Riverrun.

– I experienced my first disappointment in Martin, when I thought Bran and Rickon had died with no scene to show it. It felt…dishonest, or anticlimactic, or something. But then it turned out to be a twist, and they weren’t dead, so that was okay. It was a strange feeling, though. So far, Martin hasn’t let me down. I don’t mind characters being killed off, but I want them to get the dignity they’re worth when it happens. I don’t want it to feel gratuitous in writing, as well as in life.

– Sometimes I forget that this takes place in a magical world, and then something will surprise me. I keep thinking there will be an explanation, and then some lady squats and births a shadow that kills someone. Yeah…

– I really dislike Littlefinger.

– I’m coming to like Tyrion more and more.

This isn’t really a review, but a bit of fragments. I always did have trouble reviewing a second book in a series. I did enjoy this one, though a hair less than the first, probably because there seemed to be a few pointless plotlines, plus the temporary disappointment. Also: every person’s plotline pretty much ended on a cliffhanger, so there wasn’t any closure here like in the first book. That DOES bother me. On the other hand, this book was much faster to read than the first.

Posted in 2014, Adult, Prose | Tagged | 1 Comment