Category: Young Adult

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What I’m Reading: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

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Young Adult Book Review: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

I finished this series a while ago but I am just so behind on my book blogging! Long story short, I love The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater. In fact, The Raven Cycle Series is definitely in my top 5 favorite YA Fantasy Series.

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The Raven King was a fantastic ending to this series. While I didn’t love Blue Lily, Lily Blue, The Raven King was the wrap up that I was looking for. And, if you listen to the books on audio, you also get some really cool themed music.

Have you read The Raven Cycle yet?

JEH

book review · books · Young Adult · Young Adult Books

What I’m Reading: Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Steifvater

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Young Adult Book Review: Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Steifvater

In the third book of the Raven Cycle, we see more of Blue, as suggested by the title, though don’t get me wrong, the story is still fairly evenly split between the main characters. I’m writing this blurb a bit after finishing the last book on the series, and looking back, I would say that this was my least favorite book of the series, and it felt the most like filler.

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I was, throughout the series, most enamored with the Raven Boys themselves. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adored the entire series, and I like Blue  but if I had to pick a favorite book, it wouldn’t be this one. This one felt like it was just waiting for things to start, for the mystery to begin to close, though it wasn’t closing yet. As always, the writing was both fun and exciting and charming all at once. I do highly recommend this series, especially for adult readers of young adult fantasy, since there are some more mature and adult like story-lines as well.

4.5/5 Stars

JEH

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What I’m Reading: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

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Young Adult Book Review: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

I finished this book a long time ago, but am terribly behind on book reviews, so you’ll actually see what I thought of the entire Raven Cycle series in very short order (hint: I loved it).

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The Dream Thieves, picked up right where The Raven Boys left off. If you haven’t read the first book of this series, you should do so right now. You can find my write-up on the first book here. Don’t worry, my reviews are never long because I absolutely detest spoilers (I’m the kind of person who sticks fingers in my ears and hums so that I don’t hear anything I don’t want to know). What I will say is that The Dream Thieves is just as good as The Raven Boys, and expands more deeply into the main characters (the book is shared among many), and the magic of the world. It’s beautiful.

I actually listened to The Dream Thieves as an audiobook, and it was fabulously read by Will Paton, who does the entire series. This is great for continuity. Paton is great at voices without over doing it, and I can listen to the book without feeling dozy (Although that might also because of the fast-paced adventure).

5/5 Stars.

JEH

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This Writer’s Life In October 2018

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update, so I figure it’s about time. I’ve been busy lately. I just finished a new book, a beautiful ghostly story about two sisters. I’m not planning to self-publish this one, but am hoping to find an agent or a press that will pick it up, which is a bit different for me.

Since I’ve now finished two literary projects, I’m taking a break by moving back into the comfortable world of Avalum. Artifacts of Avalum Book 3, The Chain, is moving along nicely and I plan to have a good draft done before NaNoWriMo begins in November, when I hope to write something new. Here’s a picture of the cover art for the The Chain, I just love it. As always, it was done by Leah Keeler.

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Other than writing, I’ve been working on being more environmentally responsible. I’m trying to switch to using only reusable coffee cups. While to-go cups are convenient, they create a lot of waste. I imagine there will be the occasion where I need to use a disposable cup, but I’m definitely trying to reuse where I can. Here are a couple pictures of some of my favorite travel cups.

I’ve been using these mugs to enjoy way too many pumpkin spice lattes, but it’s good to enjoy fall while it’s here,  because in Saskatchewan, it’s just way too short.

JEH

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A Writer’s Summer 2018 in Review

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It was a busy and fantastic summer! As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I went to the ocean for a fabulous vacation and had a great time. Even though I was on vacation, I was hoping to get some writing done (a writer’s job is never done, is that right?), but I actually didn’t do much work at all and it felt nice.

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Now that my full-time writing life is at an end for now (I was back to the day job July 9th), there is a bit too much work in my life. I’m still working away on a bunch of projects, which I will blog about later this week, so most days it feels like I’m working two jobs (8-5 Monday to Friday, and Wednesday evenings and Saturday or Sunday mornings on writing, plus whatever other time I can fit in). I’m also trying to get back to the gym, so we’ll see how that goes!

But back to vacation. I’m still in that half-place where vacation feels like it was something you actually did, not just dreamed, and I definitely wish I was still sitting ocean side. I hit up some new cafes, drove over 3,000 km, through prairie and mountain, rivers, lakes, and ocean (okay, we took the ferry over the ocean). As a writer, it was great to experience all of that, and not just take the airplane shortcut.

I had some adventures, I even found what could vaguely possibly be a large black pearl on the rocks. What do you think?

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One of my favorite things about this trip (other than spending precious time with my family), was that I got to revisit Nessa, my hero from the Black Depths Series, and take the same ferry she does when she starts her journey in Sea-Witch. I had to take a copy of the book along with me, just so I could get Nessa’s photo on the boat. Here it is:

I think she looks fantastic there! I love the Black Depths World, and maybe one day I will write a second series that takes place in it (I have an idea, just no time). For now, here are a few more pictures from my vacation.

I hope you had a great summer!

JEH

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What I’m Writing Now: Artifacts of Avalum Book 3

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Well, now that Artifacts of Avalum Book 2, The Circlet, is out, I’m all ready to finish up AOA Book 3. I can’t remember if I’ve released the title of this book yet (I’ve just been so busy writing). But if I haven’t, here it is:

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I’m looking forward to writing this finally instalment in Aurora and Garret’s love story. I’ll actually be doing this lakeside, which sounds like a nice break from my cold basement. Cold dark basement to beautiful blue lake: which would you rather?

Catch up with me in two weeks when I have the cover reveal for book 3!

JEH

book review · books · Covers · Young Adult · Young Adult Books

What I’m Reading: Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

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Young Adult Book Review: Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

I was really looking forward to reading Carve the Mark since I enjoyed reading Divergent, though, in all honesty, I didn’t enjoy Divergent all that much. To me, the Divergent series pales in comparison to the Hunger Games.

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Carve the Mark is a Fantasy-Science Fiction, almost Star Wars like with its mythical current force and closely aligned planets that may or may not take some time to travel between (I’m not sure, this wasn’t really clear).

I’ll admit, I had a few pet peeves with this book, one being that I feel like so many people who have never habituated in really cold climates just don’t understand cold climates. Anyway, there was something about Carve the Mark that I like, though I didn’t love it.

The characters were strong, the world was interesting (not quite as much as Star Wars), but inevitably I felt there were questions that I had no answers to, and that always bugged me, mostly in regards to how the current makes sense. Overall, I’d give Carve the Mark 3/5 Stars, but maybe that was because I had higher expectations because of Divergent.

JEH

book review · books · reading · Young Adult · Young Adult Books

What I’m Reading: The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

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Young Adult Book Review: The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

When I first heard about this book, I was tempted to pick it up straight away, but it’s a good thing I didn’t since I received it in the OwlCrate box that month. Melissa Albert’s writing style was a bit different than I’m used too, with some sentences that took a couple reads to understand, but once I adjusted, I quickly fell into the pages of the story.

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Now, I enjoyed The Hazel Wood, but something about the ending didn’t quite jive with my expectations at the beginning of the book. I loved the beginning. I loved the promise of the mystery and the shadowed back story, but I felt the end took this twist that was unexpected but also not quite as full as I was expecting. It was fast and happened really quickly, when it probably could have had much more time devoted to it.

The main character Alice as fun and loveable, as were Finch and Audrey and most of the other characters. This book is very fairy tale, but modern, which I really like. Now, apparently, this is the first book in of two, or possibly a trilogy, I’m not sure. But according to GoodReads a second book is expected next year. However, The Hazel Wood ends well as a standalone, so I don’t really feel like I’d have to pick up the second book. I’m thinking that maybe the second book is about different characters in the Hazel Wood world, so it will be interesting to see how that ends up.

Here’s a quote I that I loved, from page 128 of The Hazel Wood:

“Everyone is supposed to be a combination of nature and nurture, their true selves shaped by years of friends and fights and parents and dreams and things you did too young and things you overheard that you shouldn’t have and secrets you kept or couldn’t and regrets and victories and quiet prides, all the packed-together detritus that becomes what you call your life.”

Overall, I’d give this book 4/5 Stars, but if there were room for decimals, it would probably be just a bit below a four. Have you read The Hazel Wood yet?

JEH

book review · books · reading · Young Adult · Young Adult Books

What I’m Reading: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

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Young Adult Book Review: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

I love Holly Black. Is that enough of a book review? Lol. Since reading What I’m Reading: The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black last year, I’ve wanted more Holly Black. It took me a bit to get into The Cruel Prince, but by the end I was madly in love. For an adult reader of Young Adult books, this is perfect. It’s dark, and dangerous, and rather violent (which maybe isn’t the best for young readers), and it drew me in like a piece of fairie fruit.

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Main character Jude is typical Holly Black, she’s tough and cocky and she’s going to succeed in life or die trying. One thing I wanted more of was Vivi, Jude’s older, half fairie sister who was mysterious and aloof. One thing I loved to hate was Taryn, Jude’s twin sister. This book is richly detailed, full of fairie magic, and takes place almost entirely in The Shifting Isles of Elfhame, for which there is this gorgeous map at the front of the book. I love books that come with maps.

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I loved the tiny tie-in’s with The Darkest Part of the Forest. The Cruel Prince, however, is the first book in a new series, The Folk of the Air, the second book of which, The Wicked King, is expected in 2019 according to GoodReads. I can’t wait. Have you read The Cruel Prince yet?

5/5 Stars

JEH