Now that I’m done with so much writing, I’m going to take a reading break, before delving into a bunch more writing. I went to my two favourite book stores yesterday, and picked up some new reading and some new writing books. Aren’t they pretty?

It’ll be a short break though, as I’m planning on releasing Book 3 of the Black Depths Series in March 2016!

Sirens are typically defined as winged women who can compel sailors onto the rocks, leading them to their death. In my world of Neptunian’s, sirens are a little bit different.

This is my definition for the Black Depths Series

Siren: a humanoid female who has the power to compel humans (female or male) to do her bidding. This power is gifted by the sea, and is to be used to protect colonies of Neptunians and the sea (or any body of water) from harm. Sirens can often be vengeful and quick to act, and are known for their extremely competitive nature (between sirens). Human hunters highly prize siren catches, as a siren’s tongue, once cut out, can grant any human the power of compulsion (one time use). Sirens cannot compel other Neptunians, except with dark magic, which is forbidden.

So. First Off. What is a Sea-Witch?

If you haven’t yet read Tales of a Redheaded Sea-Witch, then you won’t be familiar with my world of Neptunians. If you have, then you can probably write this entry as well as I can (maybe even better), but here goes.

Sea-witch: a humanoid female with magical powers over water, given by the sea. Can exercise magical powers at will, or create potions or other more complex spells with the use of a tether. In return, sea-witches are required to look after the sea (or other body of water), to protect it from harm and pollution. Typically, whenever a sea-witch comes into her powers, her hair will turn red, marking her as the Sea’s own.

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I tweaked the cover art a bit from the original design, opting for blue instead of green. Here is a pic of the ebook cover art.

I also changed the ebook covers of Tales of a Redheaded Sea-Witch and Windbound, to emphasize that these are a series. Windbound will be FREE for the next five days on Amazon, as a promotion, and Tales of a Redheaded Sea-Witch is currently on sales for 99 cents! Get your copies now!

First, this book is a bit of an odd sort. It’s realistic fiction with a slight science fiction twist, or maybe a hint of a dystopian future, but mostly it’s about the characters.

This book revolves around two teens, Lane and Sadie, who have been diagnosed with Totally Drug Resistant Tuberculosis, which isn’t a thing – yet. At first, I wasn’t sure what to think of this “possible future scenario”, but I was so pulled in by the characters that I put that aside and kept reading anyway.

I have to say, that I more or less expected the ending right from the get go, so there were no big shockers for me. But it was well written, and the characters were true and compelling, which kept me flipping pages all the way through, but I did slow down a little at the end. And, well, maybe I didn’t really feel a need to read the last couple of chapters.

The book did get me interested in doing some research on TB, and where that stands, and how possible this near future setting could be. If that’s your cup of tea, and you like strong characters who may or not fall in love, then this book is for you.

4/5 Stars.

See more of my recent book reviews by clicking the following links:
Emmy and Oliver
Finding Audrey
The Girl at Midnight

If you haven’t read Tales of a Redheaded Sea-Witch, it will be going on sale November 30th, to only 99 cents, to celebrate the launch of Broken Tide, which will be priced at $2.99. I hope to finish up the draft of Dark Shores (Book 3) in Decemeber, and release it in late February or early March.  To that end, I have designed a placeholder cover for Dark Shores, to motivate me for the rest of NaNo. Here it is! (Not the final art)

I picked up this book because I loved the cover. I love that it doesn’t have a person on it. It’s so mysterious. Kind of mythical looking. And it’s purple, my second favourite colour.

I browsed the first chapter in the book store, and loved it (the prologue I wasn’t so sure about). I loved how this story began, with a wild run through an asian market, the heroine stuffing a BBQ Pork bun in her mouth. I instantly wanted to eat a BBQ pork bun.

Well, the rest of the book, it was good, but not as good as the cover and the first chapter. Which means I feel a little let down with the rest of it. A lot of people seemed to be comparing this book to Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments Series. Well, I’m not a big fan of that series, and thankfully, I didn’t find the two to be all that similar, with the exception that the series are both fantasy based, have a strong female lead (Echo is a much strong MC than Clary, IMO).

Overall, The Girl At Midnight was a good book, but after the first chapter, the pace seemed to slow down, it become a lot more lovey-dovey when I was cheering for a good girls adventure. So it just turned out that it wasn’t what I had expected. Now, I hope the following books to come will change that, regain some adventure and originality, which was lacking by the end of the book. Still, Echo was compelling, I’d love to know more about her past.

I will read the following books, because, as mentioned, it was still a good adventure, just not great, not mind-blowing. But then again, when was the last time I read a book even close to that….

4/5 Stars.