Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Intelligent post-apocalyptic sci fi...

Love, and everything that goes with it, is a curse in Delirium. People have operations to change the part of their brains that causes them to love, to hate, and even to feel. Society is perfectly in order, and there is little crime. But is it worth the price?

After meeting Alex, Lena doesn’t think so. She’s feared that the virus of love has run through her veins her whole life because her mother succumbed to it. After meeting Alex, she learns to embrace her emotions. The society built around her is a bunch of lies, and the only way to break free is to escape and never go back again.

I loved this book. The constant intensity of an oppressing society held my attention throughout. The characters are all very well rounded, (even the flat toned ones that have had the operation-which I’m sure is hard to write). The best relationship is between Lena and her best friend, Hana. I enjoyed reading about them whenever they were together.

This book ends on quite a cliffhanger! I’ve already preordered the sequel, Pandemonium. Excellent job, Lauren Oliver. You’ve got my attention!

Birds of a Feather by Leslie Soule

Alexis decides to write a steampunk story about her grandmother. In her alternate history, her grandmother belongs to The Birds of a Feather, an organization of freedom fighters from the French Revolution. Her grandmother, Diane Falcon, is planning to lead an expedition into the enemy city-state of Lyon, otherwise renamed Coeur De Lion. She must infiltrate their headquarters to find the Universal Solvent and stop their flying war ships. Or does she have a plan of her own?

Birds of a feather is an awesome steampunk short story. I loved the idea about a girl writing about her grandmother, and the teen voice shines through. With spies, potions, a duel, love lost, mechanical birds and guardians, this story is a feast for the imagination.

The twists and turns in Birds of a Feather will keep you guessing until the end. What does Diane Falcon really want? In a way she must choose between love and freedom for her people, and she chooses right.

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Soul Quest by Amy Jones

In Soul Quest, Angels walk the earth, but they’re not all good. It’s the Aengels Liv has to look out for, because they steal people’s souls. They’re the culprits behind the September 11th attacks. They feed off humanity, and the angry souls fizzle around their faces in death masks.

Liv is not a normal high school freshman. She’s also an Oracle of Earth. One of four human-born Oracles, Liv has the power to battle the Aengels and the even more powerful Daevas, Aengels that have undergone full transformation. It’s up to her and the other three human-born Oracles to save humanity from their destruction. Guided by her Guardian, Beau, Liv must fully realize and develop her talents along with her friends. But being an Oracle of Earth has its downfalls. Her love interest, Jedd, is a normal human, and her powers threaten to come between them.

Soul Quest is rich with re-imagined folklore and has a great teen narrative voice. Set in the year 2015 with flashbacks dating back to Sept 11th, 2001 it deals with the tragedy in a unique way. Amy Maurer Jones has imagined her world with fully realized mythological beings in various forms. This is one complex world cool enough to lose yourself in.

I especially enjoyed the chapters in Liv’s point of view. I loved reading her thoughts on starting high school, falling for her best friend, and discovering her powers. She is a strong character that jumps right off the page.

I recommend this book to anyone that enjoys teen paranormal love stories.

To purchase click here.

Psyche's Prophecy by Ann Gimpel

Lara McInnis is a psychologist with a psychic gift. Although she’s kept her gift hidden, she uses it to help understand her patients. She excels at her job until one pair of patients block her insight. This couple has big problems, and she can’t see the danger lurking behind the husband’s belligerent demeanor. Her involvement with them sets her on a roller coaster ride of horrors, and she must fight her way out of it to survive.

Meanwhile, the price of oil is going up. The city has major power outages, and riots have broken out in other parts of the country. Lara, her boyfriend, and her psychology student have all had the same dream signifying something precarious about the earth. Lara must consult a psychic to determine the meaning behind the dream.

With multiple threats brewing, Psyche’s Prophecy builds up with intense suspense, keeping me from putting it down. The paranormal aspect of it is very interesting, and the characters are so well developed they seemed like real people. I especially enjoyed the deepening relationship between Lara and her boyfriend, Trev. They learn to trust in each other, and their love pulls them through the hardships they face. Ann Gimpel uses her own expertise as a psychologist to make this story believable. Her prose flows in beautiful sentences, making it fun and easy to read.

To purchase click here.

Review: Christmas Holly

Christmas Holly
Sutton Fox

Christmas for Holly Clark meant a slew of jokes about her name and a stint as The Ghost of Christmas Future. She’d doomed to save ten souls before she goes on, and after saving nine, the tenth seems one too many. People aren’t making the right choices, and she can’t force them to change.

Her last soul to save is Greg Marshall, the love of her short life. Torn between past and present, he’s never gotten over her death. Can Holly teach Greg how to move on and love again? Or are they both doomed?

I loved loved loved this short story. Full of Christmas spirit with a new twist, it is a must read every holiday season. With animated, witty characters and a true love story at its heart, Christmas Holly holds a great message: enjoy the present and appreciate those that are in your life.

To buy this ebook click here.

Black Widow by Sheila Deeth

A precursor to the Merlin Myth

Nimi sees a man painted in blue that no one else can see. He visits her at night and when the others in the tribe are busy, giving her the gift of passionate love. But he’s also a secret advisor to the tribe’s affairs, whispering in their ears when they need his judgment. He pulls away from Nimi, taking his love with him until he fails when she needs him most. This turns her into a black widow, a sorceress of a woman who comes back to haunt her seventh child, and in turn, to haunt him.

Black Widow is a tale filled with blood, passion, and grit. Told in elegantly written prose, the story reads like verses of a poem, telling a tragic tale of warring tribes, clashes of gods, and unfulfilled love. This is not for the faint of heart. Deeth holds nothing back in her realistic world of brutality and vengeance. This tale is an ingenious interweaving of so many fantasies and myths.

Available at Gypsy Shadow Publishing
www.GypsyShadow.com

Once Upon a December Nightmare by Cherie Reich

Wild Child Publishing

Amazon Buy Link

A chilling story of an urban legend dating back to the Civil War.

Four friends travel a seldom used back road in the middle of a cold December night on a joyride straight to hell. Two are sisters, two are boyfriend and girlfriend, and two are best friends. Only when the claws come out do we see where the loyalties lie.

Once Upon a December Nightmare is very scary. Reich plays upon what we all fear most: the unknown. She incorporates a neat dose of Civil War history, and creates her own urban legend. The characters are excellently done with well rounded back stories and secrets that lead them to their own brutal ends.

The imagery is stark and chilling with “brake lights” that “ bathe the trees in red” and a forest of trees that “lines the path like enemy soldiers”. Sounds are littered throughout deep silence like a great horror movie. The forest “cracks like a gun shot” and you hear the sound of “clothes ripping.”

Don’t read this story in the dark!