The Mage's Servant by Phillip B. Dillon

A Brief Summary:
Willem never wanted to be a hero, however, when Gothar brutally murders his master he has to take up the hero's mantel. With the help of Ryder a young thief, and an ancient hero who has long been thought dead, he has to stop Gothar and his legion of demons. Or you know die trying.

My Review:

I was wondering Imgur the other day and discovered the author was giving this book away for free. Being the type of person who can't turn down a free book I grabbed a copy, and I'm glad I did.

The characters are clever and well written, the way magic worked had a clever new twist, and the story was well written.

I loved Willem. He is so sweet, and has a big heart. Also he has a natural talent for magic and he and Ryder make a great team.

All in all great book, good for middle school readers to adults. It's a quick read and is well paced.

I received this book in exchange for my free and honest review.

Dragonkin Trilogy Blog Tour and Guest Post!!!

Title: Wytchfire (Bk 1)
Series: Dragonkin Trilogy
Author: Michael Meyerhofer
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing
Publication Date: April 28, 2014
Genre: High Fantasy

Amazon | Barnes & Nobles | Kobo | iTunes

In a land haunted by the legacy of dead dragons, Rowen Locke has been many things: orphan, gravedigger, mercenary. All he ever wanted was to become a Knight of Crane and wield a kingsteel sword against the kind of grown horrors his childhood knows all too well.

But that dream crumbled—replaced by a new nightmare. War is overrunning the realms, an unprecedented duel of desire and revenge, steel and sorcery. And for one disgraced man who would be a knight, in a world where no one is blameless, the time has come to decide which side he’s on.  

Title: Knightswrath (Bk 2)
Series: Dragonkin Trilogy
Author: Michael Meyerhofer
Publisher: Red  Adept Publishing
Publication Date: May 26, 2015
Genre: High Fantasy

Amazon | Barnes & Nobles | Kobo | iTunes

Rowen Locke has achieved his dream of becoming a Knight of the Crane, and he now bears Knightswrath, the legendary sword of Fâyu Jinn. But the land remains torn, and though Rowen suffers doubts, he would see it healed. His knightly order is not what it seems, though, and allies remain thin.

When Rowen and his friends seek an alliance with the forest-dwelling Sylvs, a tangle of events results in a midnight duel that teaches Rowen a dangerous lesson and leaves him with a new companion of uncertain loyalties. The sadistic Dhargots still threaten the kingdoms, but another menace lurks in the shadows, playing a game none can see. As Rowen struggles to prove his worth—to his allies and to himself—chaos raises its hand to strike. A price must be paid, and not even the wielder of Knightswrath will remain untouched.  

AUTHOR BIO:

  Michael Meyerhofer grew up in Iowa where he learned to cope with the unbridled excitement of the Midwest by reading books and not getting his hopes up. Probably due to his father’s influence, he developed a fondness for Star Trek, weight lifting, and collecting medieval weapons. He is also addicted to caffeine and the History Channel.

His fourth poetry book, What To Do If You’re Buried Alive, was recently published by Split Lip Press. He also serves as the Poetry Editor of Atticus Review. His poetry and prose have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Brevity, Ploughshares, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Rattle, and many other journals.

He and his fiancee currently live in Fresno, California, in a little house beside a very large cactus.  

 Favorite Dragon-Themed Book of All Time

Dragons and fantasy often go together like shirtless men and unsanctioned martial arts tournaments. That being said, my favorite dragon-themed fantasy books are the ones where the emphasis is on human character development, and the dragons themselves are almost peripheral. George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is an obvious example, though others that I grew up on included many of the Dragonlance books by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, and The Pit Dragon Chronicles by Jane Yolen.

I think my favorite, though, is Martin’s YA novel, The Ice Dragon. On the surface, the story is quite simple: a young girl named Adara befriends an ice dragon, which appears only occasionally throughout her life, set against a background of her homeland being threatened by fire dragons from the North. But, as is true of any good book, there’s a lot more to it than that.

The book is short (just a little over a hundred pages) but it deftly establishes Adara’s character, plus her feelings of detachment from her family, by using the ice dragon as a metaphor. Like all good metaphors, though, it’s visual, fun, and not too heavy-handed. The book also takes a lot of familiar notions and turns them on their head. For example, the ice dragon appears to be good, and Adara’s friend, yet its very presence is the natural harbinger of frozen desolation.

Especially when working in a genre like fantasy where readers come to the table with certain must-haves, it’s important—and tricky—to show respect for the genre by giving readers at least some of what they ask for, but also be unique and original by occasionally turning those notions on their heads. For instance, dragons are a bygone race in the Dragonkin Trilogy. Men covet their bones, and tell stories about their tragic fall, but otherwise, they exist only in dreams and visions.

Or do they?

AUTHOR LINKS: Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Publisher Page

 

This tour was organized by Good Tales Book Tours!

If You Were Me and Lived In... China by Carole P. Roman

A Brief Summary:
Open this book to take a journey to China. While you're there you'll learn about the history, the food, the culture and much more.

My Review:
An incredible way for children to catch a glimpse into another country. A book that would be fun as a read together or a solo read. It contains all sorts of information designed to spark a child's imagination. Along with a helpful pronunciation tips to help keep kids from getting frustrated. I'm definitely going to give this book to my sister (a second grade teacher) for her class, I'm sure they will love it.

I received this book from the publishing company in exchange for my free and honest review.

Burnt Edges Blog Tour, Giveaway and Guest Post!!

Title: Burnt Edges
Author: Dana Leipold
Publisher: Booktrope
Publication Date: June 2015
Genre: Women’s Fiction

Familiar abuse or an uncertain future? Which would you choose? This is Laurel Lee Page’s dilemma when she is faced with an unplanned pregnancy at nineteen. Born into a broken family, guilt and shame are all she has ever known. No matter what she does or whom she meets, Laurel appears to be living a condemned life.

However, she is determined to find independence and freedom in spite of her family’s legacy of hatred and self-contempt. Set in Southern California during the tumultuous 1960’s, Burnt Edges is a contemporary novel based on true events that prove strength can emerge in the most horrific of circumstances.

Amazon ~ Barnes & Nobles ~ Goodreads

 Title: Show Me the Money

by Dana Leipold

Work hard and you’ll be successful, right? Well, that’s what everybody says but one thing they don’t mention is exactly how hard you have to work nor do they really define what “successful” means. That’s because it means something different to each one of us.

For me, I was hoping to say good-bye to my day job and become a full-time author. I naively thought I could accomplish that after publishing my first novel. See the word “naive” there? Well, that was me. Now I know better.

The money did not come…and I had to go back to a desk job with my tail between my legs. As I sit in my cubicle licking my wounds I wonder, what did I do wrong? Why didn’t my book sell better? There are probably 1,001 reasons…one of which was the content I chose to write about. Abuse, incest, and family dysfunction is not exactly an uplifting read so my market was very small. But this was a story that I HAD to write, not one I wanted to write.

I’m also an unknown entity since I’m a self-published, debut author. The stigma about self-published books is waning but it’s still there. Most people will not take a chance on a book by an unknown author–especially an indie author–unless someone they know and trust tells them about it. I’m also learning that reviews do not sell the book as much as I originally thought. What sells books is the cover, the blurb, and the sample…but you still have to get the book in front of people.

What also sells a book is…more books. One won’t do it. That means I’ve got to get writing, and writing, and writing. It’s going to be tough because now I’ve got the job but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. But here’s how it really is:

It’s easy to tell yourself that you have all these challenges in life or that you can’t ever get started because you get side-tracked by kids, bills, a day job, the twit in your head, or whatever but that’s just a bunch of bullshit!

You are avoiding the truth: you aren’t sure if you can do the hard work to get where you want to be.

You’ve worked hard in the past and you’ve done some amazing things so just stop all this crap and get to it! The hardest part is getting over that initial “block” that you think is there. Once you get your mind set and you start working, it’s just a matter of momentum.

Once again, you are falling into that rut. You start off with lots of energy and excitement and things look great. You get signals and signs that you are on the right path but then, like always, the universe wants to know if you’re really serious and it asks you to do the work…then you lose your steam, you start to poop out. THIS is the very moment when you need to pull all your strength, your energy, and your determination and just keep going. Don’t stop and have a pity party. You are on the verge of creating what you are meant to create in this life.

Do the work, make it as perfect as you possibly can, and the money will come.

 

AUTHOR BIO:

Dana Leipold is an author and member of the Association of Independent Authors. Her debut novel, Burnt Edges, depicts the unwavering resilience of a young woman in the face of family violence and abuse.

She has self-published two other books: a collection of limericks in Dr. Seuss-style for adults entitled, Stupid Poetry: The Ultimate Collection of Sublime and Ridiculous Poems, and a non-fiction book entitled, The Power of Writing Well: Write Well. Change the World.

Leipold lives with her husband and two children in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter

   

GIVEAWAY

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

This tour was organized by Good Tales Book Tours!

Those Girls by Laura Saft

A Brief Summary:
Every school has those girls, you know the ones pretty, popular, and seem to have it all together. What you don't know is those girls have just as many if not more problems than the rest of us.


My Review:
This book brings me right back to high school. The girls that seem perfect from the outside, I was never one of them personally but I knew a few of them.

Of the three girls my favorite was Alex. She is the most down to earth/ relateable of the girls interested in music and the boy next door. Alex's main vice is smoking weed. Mollie is my second favorite desperate for love and for her boyfriends approval and admiration. Her boyfriend, however is someone I don't love, he's borderline sociopathic.

Veronica I really didn't like, probably because I had a hard time empathizing with her. She is desperate for love, that's just not me. She does a lot of crap without remorse most of the time, I really don't her behavior or attitude.

I'd definitely read a sequel, if only to figure out what happens next in these girls lives.

I received this book courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for my free and honest review.

The Long Paw of The Law by Laurie Anne Marie

A Brief Summary:
The aftermath of a breakup is always hard to deal with, but when your boss is murdered and the police have the wrong man in custody your priority's have a tendency of switching. Ashley is just a cook, but when life turns on it's head she decides to step out of her comfort zone and solve the case. Will she be able to do it, read and find out.


My Review:
This book was adorable, just what you want from a cozy mystery. Ashley is a very likable protagonist, if a tad bit obsessed with her weight. Then again who trusts a skinny cook?

I really enjoyed how she worked with the police instead of going off and doing completely her own things, it makes it more realistic to me. She's still terrible at listening to direct orders from the detective getting her into all sorts of sticky situations.

As far as the characters when I loved Ashley's parents, doting and worrying over their only daughter. They added a lot of humor to the story. Also I really liked Ashley's friend Sean. I look forward to seeing that relationship develop in books to come.

All in all a sweet easy to read mystery. It sets up the world well enough that I'm inclined to want to read the next books in the series.

I received this book courtesy of the author in exchange for my free and honest review.