Etchings of Power by Terry Simpson

I am rather new to the epic fantasy genre (my husband is a huge fan and has been trying to get me into epic fantasy for years). I wasn't more than 3 chapters in when I knew this would be a book my husband would love. And truth be told by the time the book was finished it was a book I really enjoyed reading, and with any luck all the epic fantasy books I read will be of this quality.

The book takes place in the world of Denestia, which is made up of nations, and nations that not always get along. There world is being threatened, and that means that people who don't always get along or come from different backgrounds have to come together to fight against the enemy, the Shade.

I want to say first about this book that the writing is really good. In general, he was descriptive enough to paint a picture of what was going on but not so much so that the reader couldn't use their own imagination to create their own visuals to accompany. The plot was solid, although it could be mentioned that a lot of books incorporate a enemy that threatens the world, but that does not mean this book is not unique. The thing that makes this book unique is not the general plot like, but the characters within it. They all bring their own personalities, strengths, weaknesses, and personal demons to the reader in a way that allows the reader to empathize with them and create an interesting world and plot to read about.

Ryne is an interesting character while within the book he plays the part of the hero, he is a not a hero that doesn't have a past. Ryne doesn't remember a lot of his path, and often times within the book he has to stop himself from giving into what he refers to as "bloodlust". He often at battle with himself while trying to protect others. I found him interesting from the beginning of the book, from just his physical description alone. He's an 8 foot tall man who is covered in tattoos, tattoos that you find out help to supply him with some of his power.

I also appreciated that the book had a woman character, I'm a girl so I appreciate finding men authors who write women in their books that are more than just the romantic interest and play no real part other than that. Simpson doesn't do that, which I appreciate. Irmina is every bit as capable as the men in the story, and she can hold her own.

Overall, I am going to call this an exciting read. The world building is quite good, and well thought out, the characters vivid and easy to identify with, the plot is interesting. There was seldom a moment while reading this book that I thought it lagged, it kept me engaged the whole way through. I think this book will be a good read for anyone who enjoys epic fantasy books.

Checkout the author's website http://www.terrycsimpson.com/

3479 by Xchyler Conn

This is one of the first short stories I have ever reviewed. I have reviewed a few novellas, but they have all been longer than this story. This story is the beginning of the what I assume is going to be a longer story told down the line.

The basic premise is that there is a girl, Sammie, and she is about the graduate. And the way that there society works is that after you graduate you go through a series of tests, and if you score really well you are sent to war, and if you score mediocre you can go back home, only know one really knows how these tests are judged. Sammie doesn't know how she wants to approach these on coming tests, so she reads the journal of her great-grandfather, who it turns out was the friend of the current king.

The writing within the story isn't bad, although there are points in the story where the same phrases are repeated closely together that it messes with the flow of the story. Also the parts where Sammie is living her life, and the parts that are the journal are not well defined, or separated. So sometimes this leads to confusion as to what you are reading about.

I am not a huge fan of shorter stories, not because the writing isn't good, because I am the kind of person who wants to get lost in a book, or a series, and it's hard to get lost in a story that is short. That being said there is enough here for me to want to know what happens next, so I would like to see what the author has in the way of the next chapter. Although I will say this story ends rather abruptly and I think it could have been a way to end this story with more conclusion as to satisfy the reader better.

Freeblood by Marny Copal

Freeblood, is a rather interesting take on vampires and their servants. In Copal's universe vampires can create Fastbloods, which happens when a mortal drinks from a vampire three time and they become under that vampires control. A Freeblood however is someone who drinks vampire blood, but not the necessary three times from the same vampire. This allows Freebloods the added benefits of speed and healing, but without that pesky compulsion to listen to a vampires orders.

The story centers around Quinn, a seemingly ordinary girl, who watches her friend Jo-Jo get kidnapped. Quinn's cousin Kasey was there at the time and ends up refusing to be left behind while Quinn tries to find her friend. Quinn turns out to be anything but ordinary, and turns out to have had many experiences with the supernatural that she never told Kasey about.

There were a couple of things in this book that for lack of a better word, annoyed me at times. The primary annoyance throughout the book was often how the characters perceived situations and their subsequent actions. Kasey, who has never been exposed to the supernatural, is highly judgemental about things she doesn't understand forces herself into situations she really has no business being in. I realize she is a younger character, and it was probably the intention of the author to have her be a little on the annoying side, and it worked.

Quinn also became a subject of annoyance for me, I often times felt she acted first and thought about her actions only after they resulted in detriment. She has kind of this warped sense of "I'm the only one who can fix things, and I don't need anything from anyone, I can make it on my own", which is fine well and good, except she wasn't alone, and her actions directly affected and harmed other people. That being said, by the time I got to the end of the book, I understood Quinn more and her actions, and those of you who read the book will understand what I mean.

Another characters in the book is Del. He works for the Order, which is basically an organization that tries to police the supernatural community from getting to out of control. Del is not a bad guy, and as the book progresses I did end up liking him, I genuinely think he has the best intentions and does his best to protect his friends as well as serve the Order. I think the Order, and Del often suffer from what I can "black and white" syndrome. Where they only see things one way or the other, either you abide by what they believe or you are wrong and/or evil. They really are lacking in the areas of gray, and in my opinion the world exists in shades of gray, there is seldom a situation that is only black and white. But besides that I think Del was a good character and does pretty right by Quinn.

The book itself is well written, even the characters who annoyed me in various parts of the book are all written quite well. The book is easy to follow along with, filled with action, and generally a good book and read. I think it's possible this book would be acceptable for upper YA audiences, as the episodes of violence aren't horribly gruesome, and there is no real romance and certainly no sex in the book. I think readers of urban fantasy would also enjoy this book, but as mentioned before if you are looking for romance this isn't the book for you. Overall I would say solid book.

Fate of the Fallen by Sharron Riddle

Another book about angels has come my way, and I must say I was hooked from the first chapter. This book basically follows a family of brothers and sisters who were born from a Fallen Angel and a Goddess. This book mixes religion/mythology together, but does it in a manner that is enjoyable and doesn't feel contrived. Even though the book follows the family, the books main character is Eva. And boy is Eva a fun character to follow along with.

Eva, and all of her family, work for the DMA, which essentially hunt down and kill demons who have come out of hell and wreck their havoc on earth. Eva and her brother Abaddon are sent to dispatch of one of the largest gatherings on earth that Eva can remember. Eva, while being the youngest is also the strongest, so that is why she is sent with her brother who is the oldest. The demons end up being a part of a plot that would essentially end life as everyone knows it, human, angel, and demon alike. I can't say anything more than that without giving away all the secrets of the book.

Eva is a rather cheeky character, she is sarcastic, a bit girly at some moments, and always says what's on her mind. She is a strong heroine that is to be sure, but she is also not appreciated like she should be by her family, in fact most of her family treat her like she is a pariah and blame her for their mother's death. Even in spite of all of that she shows up when her family calls, although she stands up for herself. She is wildly underestimated by many, but she never lets it get her down, she uses it to her advantage. She is a great character to follow the story along with, and even in moments where there is no action she keeps the reader engaged just through personality alone.

Rahab is another character I want to touch on briefly. You really don't know what to think about him in the beginning, you are made aware that he played some kind of role in the death of one of Eva sisters, and everyone acts like at any moment he is going to strike and kill them all. But as you get to know him he ends up being a surprising and in some regards, quite vulnerable character. But he always has Eva's back, so he's a good guy in my book.

The book bring family dynamics to a whole new meaning. To say this family is dysfunctional would be putting it mildly. They all seem to hide things from each other, lie outright, do basically whatever they want, and then make Eva feel bad for being who she is, when they all have done about a million times worse. At the term "daddy issues" doesn't even begin to explain Eva's issues with her own father.

Overall, I think this is a pretty good book, there is a little something for everyone. There is romance for the paranormal romance folk. The urban fantasy people will really love the progression of the story as well as Eva as a main character. And for those of you who like a lot of action, this book is not going to disappoint. I sincerely hope this book ends up having a sequel, the ending of this book makes me believe if there was a sequel it would be a pretty entertaining read for sure!

The Ghost in the Crystal by Matt Posner

Today is YA day on UFR, two YA reviews in one day. I am not an everyday YA reader, I normally need to be in the right mood for me to read them, and today's earlier review got me in the mood, so I added this book to the mix. I got the distinct feeling early on in this book it was going to have a similar like flare to Harry Potter, which it did.

Now just people you can easily draw similarities between this book and Harry Potter, does not mean this book is is not unique. Religion plays a huge role in this book, as the school the young magicians attend is merged with a school for Jewish studies as well. Due to this there is a lot of Jewish references within the book, that I am not sure I understood completely, but it definitely added for a different flare and feeling for the book.

The book follows Simon, and his group of friends through their first year at the School of the Ages. Simon from very early on in the book is being haunted by a spirit and has no idea what to do about it. To make matters worse every time he tries to talk to anyone about it the spirit prevents him from doing so. Simon gets the feeling this spirit is never going to leave him alone and worse that this spirit is not a friendly spirit.

As will any young 13 year old at a new school, a lot of the children find conflict with each other, so there is a lot of the young drama within this book, although with a magical flare. You spend a lot of the time in this book getting to know the characters in the book, and not just the haunting spirit problem. You learn that Goldberry has a sick mother she cares about and an overbearing father who makes life interesting both at school and at home, and not just for her but also for Simon. One of Simon friends has a crush on another that seemingly is going nowhere, and that creates some interesting situations for the group of friends.

All in all the book was an entertaining read for YA readers, which leads me to the end. I of course do not want to tell you what happened in the ending of the book (it would be too spoilery and serve no review purpose), but I feel like it can't go unmentioned. I have a feeling, especially if you are an adult reading this, you are going to have some kind of reaction to the end of the book. And I do admit to wondering if this ending was even needed or if it is too much. I can honestly say I don't know how I feel about the ending, but you will understand what I mean when you read the ending of the book. I think the ending could make or break this book for certain people.

That being said, I'm going to give this book a good rating. I think it's an interesting way to write a fantasy YA book, and the use of religion within it makes it truly interesting. It also does not force religion on the characters or the reader, some of the characters aren't Jewish and while there is some conflict between the Jewish population and the non-Jewish population, I think the thing to take away from the book is finding a way to accept people who are different than you are. I think this is a good YA read in my opinion.

Check out the website for the series http://schooloftheages.webs.com/

Semester Abroad by Elizabeth Kirke

This was a fun ride from beginning to end, and one of those books that puts together a wide variety of magical creatures in one book. The book starts off with Jen going on a semester aboard a ship, where they visit various different countries and basically immerse the students in local culture. All is going as planned until one night she sees a girl push a guy off the ship, and shocker of all shocker, no one does anything to help the guy. And then when Jen starts to panic, thinking this guy needs a life jacket, they all look at her like she's crazy. She quickly catches on that something more is going on her, and she spends the next few days trying to figure out what is wrong with this group of people she happened to stumble upon.

As it would turn out everyone in the group is some form of "magic" (or magical creature), and the reason why Jen notices the differences of the magics from the non-magics is because Jen is a magic too. This all makes for a lot of information in a not a lot of time. It was confusing for Jen and in parts a little confusing for me as a reader too. I think that is largely in part to the fact that the group is semi-big and explaining all of the details of each of these different creatures abilities is difficult. Thankfully you start to catch on after a couple of chapters.

I really like the wide variety of people and abilities in this book, it makes it a lot more interesting in my opinion, and in the down time, when Jen is just hanging out with the group, she asks a lot of questions. It keeps the reader still interested in the people and in the book itself without requiring there be all action all the time.

I'm not entirely sure if this book is intended YA or not. I actually looked around a little bit online to see if I could find out, but alas, no luck. I think this would make a great YA book, for the older crowd of YA. There isn't any sex in it and while there is violence I don't think it's gratuitous. That being said I still it makes for a good fun read for the average adult urban fantasy reader.

The characters were fun to get to know, and all had very distinctive personalities. I think if I had to pick a favorite it would be TS, the resident werewolf. He just has such a great friendly personality, and I feel like he brought a lot of comfort to the main character Jen throughout the book. Charlie was also a fun character, as a fire elemental, he has strong emotions, and is fierce when protecting the ones he loves.

While I did like the secondary characters, I think Kirke did a good job with Jen. She was completely naive to magic when this whole journey started, but she never acted dumb. She was willing to learn, acknowledging she didn't know everything, and always had a question at the ready, which made it easier for me as a reader to learn the world as well. I also appreciated that Kirke didn't make her some kind of magical savant, she didn't catch onto everything quickly, and I can tell through the series she is going to have a lot of learning to do. I think it is going to be a fun ride watching Jen learn magic throughout the book.

Overall, I think this is a fun read. Like I said early I think this reads as an upper YA book, but I'm a person who is very picky about the YA I enjoy, and this is definitely one I like. It does have some series subject matter (with some violence), but generally speaking its a relaxing fun read. I could easily see myself curls up on the sofa on a rainy day with this book, the perfect escape.

Author Elizabeth Kirke's blog http://elizabeth-kirke.blogspot.com/

The Traitors Daughter by Paula Brandon

I really like the cover for this book, and I have to admit it did attract me, and made me want to find out more about the actual content of the book. The book blurb wasn't the most intriguing blurb I have ever read before but it had enough of pull for me to want to try it out.

Regardless of what I was expecting, this book was not at all my kind of book. To begin it started off kind of bizarrely. It started off with what I assume was suppose to be one part humorous and one part background information that would want the reader to want to know more. I'm not sure it accomplished either. The man it starts out with has built an automaton and this, essentially clone, believes he is superior to the man who built him. He is demanding, short, and arrogant. I think his offhand comments are intended to be humorous, and maybe they would have been if the situation itself hadn't been so confusing.

From there it immediately leaves that scene, which is somewhat jarring, and then turns to what appears to be some kind of political power struggle between families who are always vying for power over each other. My first real bone to pick, is the author is constantly introducing new places and people, and they all have completely unpronounced names, which makes it hard to remember who is who. So by the end of the first chapter, I was decently confused as to what was going on and what was the point of it all.

The writing style in general was fairly unimaginative, and did nothing to really draw me into what was going on. I wish I could give specific reasons as to what with the writing style was not appealing, all I know is that about a quarter of the way through the book, I really wanted to stop reading.

I struggled to find any characters I could really pull for or identify with. Jianna is probably the character who came closest to me liking, but fell short. Jianna is pulled from her sheltered life into a bad situation early on in the book, and in other books where a main character is kidnapped or something similar, I almost always feel myself pulling for that character, this was not the case with Jianna. I mean I felt bad for her, but her reactions were not organic, and because I didn't really believe in the character it was hard for me to want to pull for her or have empathy for her.

Perhaps there is an audience for this book, I suppose it leans more towards sci fi than historical fantasy. Honestly it reads more like a political thriller with bizarre magical elements thrown in for kicks. This is not a book for the urban fantasy fan, nor a book for anyone looking for romance.