Book Blast for ‘The Crumbling Pageant’

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I’m hosting Patricia Burrough’s book blast today!

 

This Crumbling Pageant

Title: The Crumbling Pageant (Volume One of the Fury Triad Series)

Author: Patricia Burroughs

Publisher: Story Spring Publishing

Pages: 607

Genre: Dark Young Adult Fantasy

The people of Ordinary England are unaware of a hidden magical England existing alongside–the world of the Magi. Their cathedrals are temples to the old gods. They are ruled not by poor mad George, but by the ailing King Pellinore of the House of Pendragon. The wars of the Magi, however, are no less deadly.

The Furys are known for their extraordinary music, their powerful magic, and their historic role as kingmakers. But the Furys have their secrets as well, none so dangerous as the Dark daughter whose Shadow magic spills from her unchecked. Unless Persephone Fury’s powers are concealed, she’s marked as a target for those who would use and abuse her power.

But these are desperate times, and this frightening daughter must make a good marriage. On the night of her debut, her world crumbles around her when she is abducted from the man she loves by the man she most loathes.

Evil powers circle, calling her to the destiny foretold at the moment of her birth, drawing her to the source of her power, to the one place she can finally be free. That can only happen, though, if she embraces the Dark magic within her.

Persephone is ruthless, devious, and clever, but when confronted with the truth, she must make horrifying choices. Can she defy destiny and seize her own fate?

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Book Excerpt:

Inside this rustic cottage she heard nothing but—

Her heart stopped.

She was not alone.

Whoever was with her was as still and watchful as she. Her fingers longed to flex in defence, but she kept them still. Was it someone she could overcome? With her magic tingling in her veins and her rage at what had been perpetrated upon her, she knew she could. She could overcome anyone who dared stand in her way.

She allowed her eyes to open completely and, after a moment, saw beyond the feeble light from the small window and into the gloom of the dark corner. Another blink, and shape emerged. Long legs stretched forward. Elbows were planted on the arms of a chair. Long, pale fingers steepled and glittering black eyes stared over them at her. A predator, watching. Waiting.

She shot up, the pain in her right shoulder tearing through her. “How dare you!”

His wand flicked out, aimed at her heart, though beyond the movement of that one agile hand, the rest of his body remained as still and dangerously relaxed as before. “Quite easily,” he purred.

Her purple gown, once a source of horror and then of wondrous pride, now was ripped open with a bandage and too much skin showing beneath it. She covered herself with both hands, enraged. “What sort of blackguard watches a young lady sleep?” she demanded, her heart pounding. “And… and…” She found herself unable to voice her shock and alarm at being faced with a wand again, much less the sort of man who would possess one.

A shudder of revulsion rippled through her.

“I’ve not been watching you sleep. I’ve been watching you awaken.” The wand twitched. “Consider carefully any move you make, because if I even suspect that you are about to attack me again, you will be chastened. Again.”

Chastened? Was that what he called it?

His voice was silky and menacing in the gloom. “Unless you’d like a wound in your left shoulder to match that on your right?”

She drew back in fear, despite herself.

“Ah, so we have an understanding.”

He twirled his wand through his slender, nimble fingers and then back into his palm again.

About the Author

Patricia Burroughs

Patricia Burroughs had insomnia throughout her entire teen years. This meant she read books in the middle of the night, and slept during class in the middle of the day. Unless, of course, she was hiding a novel inside a physics textbook. Who needed physics? She believed in magic. Eventually she turned her propensity for daydreaming and scheming into storytelling, which manifested in award-winning screenplays and books. She still can’t sleep at night, but now it’s her own characters keeping her awake.

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Giveaway Details:

Patricia is giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

Terms &Conditions:

  • By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
  • One winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive one $25 Amazon Gift Certificate
  • This giveaway begins November 2 and ends November 2.
  • Winners will be contacted via email on November 3.
  • Winner has 48 hours to reply.

Good luck everyone!

ENTER TO WIN!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: E.K. Johnston – A Thousand Nights

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E.K. Johnston
A Thousand Nights

A desert girl gives up her life to save her sister, promising herself in marriage to Lo-Melkhiin, who had killed 300 girls on their marriage night. Instead, she tells stories every night, and continues to survive despite the odds. When she discovers she can see magic, and that Lo-Melkhiin might not be who he seems, she is even more determined to save the man she thinks she might love.24820300

This novel felt quite shallow, but at the same time it was a really enjoyable retelling of a fable. If you were looking for something new and exciting, I’m afraid this wasn’t it. But in its style, it was good. Far better than Book of a Thousand Nights, which I was disgusted with.

Magic. It makes fantasy worlds work, and in this one the author has effortlessly used it to change the story and make it more interesting. It is not just her storytelling ability that saves her, it is her strength of will. In fact, I don’t even remember her name, but I can remember the way it felt to be inside her head.

The idea that magic can push talents forward, yet also warp them is an interesting one. I’d love to see more of this discussed, perhaps in a separate story. The world-building in this one made me want to read more. The detail to the costumes, all of it came through as a properly interesting and realistic Arabian novel.

How many stars do I want to give this? Maybe 3. It’s hard to decide. It wasn’t as gripping as I might have desired, but I did keep reading it.

3star

Thanks to the lovely folks at Macmillan Children’s Books who gave me a proof copy to read.

Review: Alice Pung – Laurinda

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Laurinda
Alice Pung

Linh Lucy Lam has never seen herself as a bright scholar, but she persists in trying to please her parents. After ‘beating’ the local Asian genius to get a place at a private high school, Lucy finds herself being torn apart by who she think she is, and who she might become.

22603951I listened to this as a talking book, and I have to say the reader was pretty amazing! Even my partner enjoyed listening to it. That being said though, that was what kept me listening, not the story itself. What was the point of this novel? Why would I care about Lucy? I cared about her little brother Lamb-ey more than anything else.

What I didn’t understand for the majority of the novel was who ‘Linh’ that Lucy was writing to was. I think, and I may be wrong, is that Linh is Lucy, but her true Asian (somewhat bogan) self. I couldn’t understand why Linh would leave if she was a real person. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

Lucy is super self-aware, and she’s aware of how stupid adults are. We see through her eyes what rich people are like – the question is whether this really how they are? I don’t know enough private schools to tell you. Bullying at high schools is normal, there’s even bullying of teachers, although perhaps not as dramatic as a tampon to the forehead… I certainly remember our public high school class evicting one poor teacher who we viewed as incompetent.

I don’t think I was satisfied by the ending. Yes Lucy managed to overcome things and become more of herself, but I wasn’t enthralled with her ‘amazing’ speech at the end. It all seemed too neat. Neat. Yes. That’s what this novel was in a nut shell. For all that it was exposing and trying to highlight the interesting nuances of multicultural Australia, it sometimes seemed to dig itself too deep a hole – then just fill it in with one well-placed sentence.

I’ll be giving this 3 stars. There are better novels out there, but if you want something easy to listen to that doesn’t require any thinking (or a light teenage novel), this one could fit the bill.

3star

Review: Alexandra Bogdanovic – Truth Be Told: Adam Becomes Audrey

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Truth Be Told: Adam Becomes Audrey
Alexandra Bogdanovic

Alex is a jilted, divorced wife. But what should make this novel different from the norm is that she got divorced because the man she loved was a trans-woman. Honestly, I don’t think the book hit all the right things in order to make this something special like it could have been.

17058464Poor, poor Alex. Dating a man for 10 years, and then suddenly finding out that he is a woman. But the person Adam was on the inside was the same, surely. Yes, he now won’t have a penis, but is sex with that all you were interested in? It frustrated me that Alex couldn’t even give Audrey the chance to explain. If anyone needed therapy, Alex certainly could have used some.

The majority of the text in this novel is devoted to talking about how Audrey and Alex met. And then about horse shows. And then about shopping to fix her feelings. And cats. And very little that was unique. It just sounded like a pity party. And hanging out with her buddies, the cops. Who cares who they were? They’re just your friends, and putting them in the novel didn’t really serve any purpose.

What didn’t come through to me was the ‘special nature’ of their divorce. It seemed like any other divorce, and why would complaining about your husband becoming a woman be a special complaint to knock down other people’s relationship woes?

Ok, so Audrey is portrayed as a grasping, lying pig. The author says that Audrey refused to cooperate with helping write the novel, and that the author didn’t want Audrey getting her grubby hands on any money from it. I think that Audrey may have been given the short shift. Why would she want to revisit her old life? Did it ever occur to the author that Audrey might have been able to move on?

The final thing that broke it for me was the fact that Alex couldn’t get Audrey’s pronouns right. As a friend to a trans-person, and sometimes making mistakes when referring to the past, then some excuses are ok. But really, she should be able to remember the correct pronouns, its simply just polite. Even if you now hate the person involved.

I was so disappointed in this novel. I had requested a copy to review, based on the hype on Twitter, but it didn’t live up to expectations. 2 begrudging stars from me, because I did manage to finish it. I so wish it had added more to queer literature like it had the potential to. It’s not as unique as it is billed to be.

2star

Review: Gayle Forman – I was Here

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I was Here
Gayle Forman

When Meg committed suicide, her best friend Cody cursed herself for not seeing it coming and not being there for Meg. As Cody digs deeper, wanting to expose why Meg did it, she finds herself chasing down the rabbit hole at someone else’s expense.

18879761I picked this up as a talking book, expecting it to be a wonderful novel about exposing why someone would want to commit suicide. Instead I found a messed up, self-centred teenage girl who was more filled with regrets than anything else.

This novel just felt too… convenient. Girl meets boy, girl blames boy, girl gets together with boy, boy screws things up with girl, girl and boy both grump, girl and boy get together happily ever after. I was disgusted with her. Ugh! Didn’t Cody learn anything?

No no, Cody hadn’t learnt anything. Anywhere. She chases things single-mindedly, at the cost to other people, and then bails! And for her, lies and promises might as well be the same thing. I was disgusted at her. She was so bloody clueless. Depression might have a stigma about it, but seriously, get a grip!

I listened to what felt like hours of this without making any progress. The ‘action’ only really happened in the 2nd last hour, and by that stage I was only still listening because I was hoping for a redemptive ending. Failure! No redemptive ending.

The author says that this was based on some interviews she did with some suicide survivor families. There was so much more she could have done with this novel that she didn’t. Creating a happy ending didn’t make me satisfied about the amount of time I had invested in Cody doing the right things.

2 stars. I finished it begrudgingly. Don’t read it. Read Hold Still, Suicide Notes or my personal favourite, The Last Time We Say Goodbye. That last one left me wanting more, and I wanted to listen to it all the time.

2star

Review: Catherine Jinks – Theophilus Grey and the Demon Thief

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Theophilus Grey and the Demon Thief
Catherine Jinks

Philo runs a tight-nit team of link-boys whose role is to guide Londoners home in the dark. Their secondary goal is to collect information about all of the people of importance – and carry it home to their master for rewards. When thieves start dropping senseless to the ground, Philo can’t seem to get any information about it. What appears to be a simple argument between rival groups gets more complicated the more Philo thinks about it.

Philo and the boy26700148s are unique. Philo seems a very alert kid, yet unworldly in his own way. He’s far to used to taking orders! But you do see his character develop in the novel, and that’s a big thing for me. I can see the other link-boys getting more time in the sequel. They’re easy to remember the differences between them, which is important for someone like me who forgets names.

This novel twists and turns just like the streets of London. Just as you think you’ve worked out who the culprit is, the amount of information you have changes, and you are forced to reevaluate the whole situation. You feel with Philo when things go wrong, and you match his confusion with your own. I got right inside the character.

I’ve never been to London, but I have read a series of novels about being in London. Olden London somehow seems more interesting than current London to me! This noel effortlessly puts you into Philo’s shoes, and opens your eyes to the everyday life of Georgian Londoners.

There is plenty of room left open for a sequel, but at that same time I was entirely satisfied with the story. I finished it in a brief gasp, and hated that I had gulped it so quickly! The story was just so compelling towards the end that I had to keep reading.

I’ve given this a very generous 5 stars. I realise that I’m heading out of the target age zone for this novel, and so its entertainment value for me is potentially less than it was before. But it was a brilliant novel that I would suggest reading again.

5star

Thanks to Allen & Unwin for providing me with a complimentary review copy of this novel.

Review: Garth Nix – Newt’s Emerald

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Newt’s Emerald
Garth Nix

The family emerald has been stolen, and Lady Truthful’s best friends have been implicated. Lady Truthful sets out on a quest to find it, and in the mean time, perhaps find someone to steal her heart.

24737347I expected more from Garth Nix. This is too light a novel, with a protagonist who seemed weak and unlikeable. Lady Truthful is a sucker. She’s naive, and doesn’t even make an attempt to hide that. Her aunt isn’t much better. The whole thing left me wanting. Just for substance, for anything.

Ugh. This is a romance, an unconvincing girl-to-boy in disguise novel. Masquerade ball? Overdone and typical for the enemy to appear at that time. Enemy disguised as someone you trust? Tick. Being exposed as a woman in front of a shipload of men? Tick. Believe me, I’m not giving anything away here. You’ll see it coming from a mile away.

I know I should make some more comments on the structure of the novel, the world-building, the character development. Honestly though, I just can’t find enough to like about it to make those informed comments. I shouldn’t need to talk about them, the book should be speaking for itself.

I give this 3 begrudging stars. If I didn’t already know the work of Garth Nix, then it would be 3. I am tempted to give it less, but that’s just because I know his work can be so so much better.3star

Thanks to Allen & Unwin for providing me with a complimentary review copy.

Review: Richard Gardner – Righteous Release

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Richard Gardner
Righteous Release

David Chambers is part of a religious sect – one that is so closed minded that eating with non-followers is anathema, and planning your own life is secondary to helping the others of your church. When he finds himself engaged to a woman he can never love, he decides to head into the wild world and try his luck there.

25042667I confess: I read this novel, and didn’t know how I felt about it. So I just kept putting off my review, and putting it off, and then, damn. I seem to have forgotten most of the points I had thought of about why I liked it, and yet couldn’t give it any less than about 3 stars.

The ending, the ending! Arg! Perhaps the ending is what left me feeling so confused about this novel. I didn’t understand how his loyalties could shift so rapidly. As shallow as it may sound, it was only a woman!

And his friend Rachael? I couldn’t understand how she could settle for it. Perhaps for her (despite seeming to have a questioning mind which to me meant that she would never be happy in such an enclosed environment), having children and a secure life was the most important thing. Which to me, would never be good enough. I need something more in life (but we all know that I think differently to other folks).

The balancing act between the characters and the intertwined plots could have been used to more effect. I found some of the writing clunky and difficult to read, and it did interfere with my enjoyment of the novel (and my ability to read it in a single sitting – I read it over a couple of weeks, interspersed with other novels). For a debut novel though, taking in such a broad and contentious topic, it was fantastic.

I think I’d recommend this novel to read, but only if you can suspend your disbelief that some people can be so damn stupid!

 

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Review: N.R. Bates – The Fall of Icarus

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The Fall of Icarus
N.R. Bates

I got this very thin paperback as part of ‘The Sharp Edge of Lightning‘ blog tour. I’m sorry to say that I delved into this one first, thinking that it would be painless and give me a good insight into the author’s style. Instead, I got concerned about the other novel I was supposed to be reviewing.

25357738Each of the short stories (there are three) has an interesting premise, although I enjoyed the the explanation about the original story of Icarus the best. The elevator was quite inspired. But like many other short stories, it left me wanting for what it really meant, or the enjoyment of it. I didn’t start reading them in order to have an active role in interpreting how it reflects a conversation on society, I did it because I thought they were light fiction!

This is a very short review, which is usually what happens when I leave a review hanging around to write for a couple of months, and also when it is a set of short stories. There are other things out there to read if you like thought-provoking short stories, I’d even suggest Peter Carey. Perhaps I should just stop volunteering to read short stories in general…

2star