Looking for a great dark fantasy read this summer?

Ever heard of author Erin Kellison? Neither had I, until I clicked on a banner ad and ended up with a copy of her book Shadow Bound on my doorstep…

Shadow Bound is one of those unexpected great reads that you would never see coming. Look at the cover — does that look like the cover of a great book? Unfortunately not… it’s a very nice image, but I don’t think it accurately conveys the theme and intensity of the story. It looks more like… something for a YA Romance. Which this is definitely not.

Here’s the Publisher’s Weekly synopsis:

Kellison’s debut, a blend of suspense and paranormal romance, follows Adam Thorne as he attempts to unravel the mystery of the wraiths, possessed humans who feed on human souls. Desperate to free his brother from possession, Adam follows a flimsy lead to half-Fae Talia O’Brien, a young woman with a newly minted doctorate, a mysterious past, and magical abilities that stop wraiths in their tracks.

As the wraiths pursue Talia, determined to destroy her in retribution for her father daring to love and impregnate a human woman, Adam tries to protect her and understand her powers, and finds himself falling in love. Fast-paced without being frenetic, interesting and entertaining if not particularly challenging, this tale deftly avoids romance cliches while delivering plenty of action.

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

And it is! It delivers on all counts. The characters are interesting and multi-dimensional (though it takes awhile to get much from Talia, but I think that’s simply due to the personality of the character), and the plot is fast-paced and action-driven.

I also loved the concept of the wraiths, which seemed like a combination of Dementors from Harry Potter and the wraith from Stargate: Atlantis — very creepy, and truly evil. In a way, it’s very refreshing to see truly evil villains, because as great as it is to have villains with pathos, I think recent paranormal/fantasy has got away from that Truly Bad Villain that readers simply want to see destroyed at all costs.

A word of warning to the sensitive, however — there are two sex scenes in this book, but if you’re not comfortable reading these, it’s very easy to flip the page and get on with the story. Just something I thought worth noting, as I don’t want to scare anyone off the book for the sake of missing such a great story.

I should also mention that Kellison is on Twitter, and seems to love interacting with her readers! If you read the book and enjoy it, pop over there and send her a note.

And one final thing… when you get to the end and think “Oh noooes, a cliffhanger?!?”, never fear! Book two, Shadow Fall releases this month — some places are even putting it out early, so keep your eyes open.

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme started by The Story Siren to showcase books you’ve received for review, bought, borrowed, or swapped. Anyone can participate, and it’s a great way to showcase new books and encourage blogger/commenter interaction.

Here’s what came in my mailbox this week!

Perfectly Dateless – Kristin Billerbeck (YA)

Back on Murder – J. Mark Bertrand (Mystery/Suspense)

And that’s it for me! What came in your mailbox this week?

What’s ‘In My Mailbox’, you ask?

Well, it’s a weekly meme started by The Story Siren to showcase books you’ve received for review, bought, borrowed, or swapped. Anyone can participate, and it’s a great way to showcase new books and encourage blogger/commenter interaction.

I’m going to do my best to participate in this every week (Sundays are when most IMM posts go up)… as writers, we NEED to read and expand our reading horizons every week, so hopefully I’ll have a book or two each week that’ll inspire you to pick it up — or maybe you’ll have something to recommend to me in return!

So here we go! This week, I received 2 books in my mailbox:

The King’s Mistress – Emma Campion (ARC)

Releases July 6th, 2010

Scent of the Missing – Susannah Charleson (Review Copy)

Hardcover Released April 14th, 2010

Paperback Releases December 22nd, 2010

Reviews of both books forthcoming! I’m excited to read both of them, though I’m pretty sure I’ll need a box of tissues to get through the dog book…

I almost forgot! There’s one more book I wanted to remind you about that wasn’t part of the books I read for the tour this month… but which I read a few months back as a part of Librarything.com’s Early Reviewer’s Program.

However, Graf-Martin Communications & Baker Publishing Group included it as part of their selection of tour books this month, and I figured… since I liked the book when I read it… it wouldn’t hurt to give it a little extra promotion, right?

So, in case you didn’t get a chance to read my review back in April, here’s a LINK BACK to my review of ‘Heartless’ by Anne Elisabeth Spengl.

The writing style is a bit ethereal, and it’s an unusual story & development for a CBA book… but ultimately, I enjoyed it, and have since recommended it to a number of people.

Who knows, if you like fantasy? You might like it too.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog posts to bring you… okay, fine, nothing around here is regularly scheduled. But that’s part of the excitement, right? Er… *cough*… anyway… at least there’s one recurring feature you can count on, and that’s the monthly blog tour brought to you by Graf-Martin, Revell, and Bethany House.

If you’ve never been here before, here’s a recap: the Blog Tour happens every month in the final few days of the month… then we go back to talking about writing and other interesting books. Easy as that!

For June, we have 2 books to look at. I liked them both (surprise!), but we’ll start with the second favorite today and move on to the one I liked best tomorrow.

Here we go…!

A Tailor-Made Bride – Karen Witemeyer (Historical Romance)

Synopsis (from the publisher):

My Thoughts:

I figured this would be yet another hum-drum historical romance, though the concept of a dressmaker as the main character intrigued me. So, I read it… keeping in mind that it’s Witemeyer’s debut novel… and found myself pleasantly surprised by the characters, the story, and the overall feel of the novel.

To begin, the main character seems like a flawless heroine — that is, until she meets the hero, a young liveryman. When you read a book like this, you expect that they’ll hate each other from the beginning (despite the initial physical attraction), so that’s nothing new… but the real gem of this novel was the way the love story played out. Both hero and heroine exchange heated words on more than one occasion, and the heroine goes out of her way to learn the hero’s real name so she can taunt him with it, simply because he hates it.

Yes, it sounds trite when I write it down, but I thought the heroine was pretty darn cruel with some of her insults and how she responded to the hero, and I liked it. It felt real and natural, and the relationship as a whole drew out very well to the expected conclusion.

On the other hand, some of the subplots were a bit weak, especially the subplot featuring the hero’s sister and the man who wants to marry her (but she doesn’t feel the same way). The man’s reactions are violent and severe, but we don’t really see this until more than halfway through the book. It felt as though this subplot was missing some buildup, or like it was inserted after the fact to fill up more space in the story.

I understand what the author was trying to do with it, but it didn’t work for me.

In Conclusion…

Despite the awkward proportions of the people on the front cover (seriously… look at where the man’s knee should be and then where his waist is, then look at the woman… what the HECK?!?!), the story itself is sweet, relatively well-drawn, and more realistic than some historical romances I’ve recently read. We have a main character and supporting cast who are depicted as real people with real flaws, and although some of the subplots weigh down the story, I commend Witemeyer for her realistic historical portrayal of the period and for giving us a love story that doesn’t seem overly ‘set up’, if you will.

It’s the kind of novel you’d pick up on a rainy day if nothing else was around, or that you could pass on to a family member (or your mother) without feeling too awkward about it.

I will say that the Christian element is stronger in this book than in some of the other Blog Tour books I’ve reviewed, so if that’s not your thing, I’m not sure this one would be up your alley. Still, I didn’t find that it overwhelmed the story, so each potential reader will have to make a judgment call based on their level of comfort with Christian content.

If you’re interested in learning more about the author and why she wrote this book, here’s a LINK to a Q & A she did with the publisher — enjoy!

Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available now at your favorite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Looking for a good non-fiction read for the summer? David Grann’s newest offering is a fantastic choice… and yes, this is going to be a slightly gushy review, because I honestly loved the book. I had no idea what to think when I picked it up, but I’m very glad I did. Read on!

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession – David Grann

Synopsis (from Amazon):

Acclaimed New Yorker writer and author of the breakout debut bestseller The Lost City of Z, David Grann offers a collection of spellbinding narrative journalism.

Whether he’s reporting on the infiltration of the murderous Aryan Brotherhood into the U.S. prison system, tracking down a chameleon con artist in Europe, or riding in a cyclone- tossed skiff with a scientist hunting the elusive giant squid, David Grann revels in telling stories that explore the nature of obsession and that piece together true and unforgettable mysteries.

Each of the dozen stories in this collection reveals a hidden and often dangerous world and, like Into Thin Air and The Orchid Thief, pivots around the gravitational pull of obsession and the captivating personalities of those caught in its grip. There is the world’s foremost expert on Sherlock Holmes who is found dead in mysterious circumstances; an arson sleuth trying to prove that a man about to be executed is innocent; and sandhogs racing to complete the brutally dangerous job of building New York City’s water tunnels before the old system collapses. Throughout, Grann’s hypnotic accounts display the power—and often the willful perversity—of the human spirit.

Compulsively readable, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes is a brilliant mosaic of ambition, madness, passion, and folly.

My Thoughts:

This book is one to be read slowly… savored, piece by piece, story by story, until you find yourself so in awe of the discoveries Grann made during the course of his research that you truly wonder where the line between fiction and real life begins.

There are twelve tales in this book, all true stories. The narrative is clear and readable, but the subject matter is what will really have your jaw dropping: Hunting the giant squid; investigation into the thousands of miles long network of underground tunnels in New York that really exist and which may literally collapse at any moment; the infiltration of the Aryan Brotherhood into the U.S. prison system; and more.

If ever there was proof that truth is stranger than fiction, this collection is it.

I’ll admit that I enjoyed the stories in the first half of the book more than the second, but I think that might have been personal preference. I’ve gone on to recommend this to numerous people since reading it, and I plan to re-read it sometime soon simply because the stories were so fascinating that I bet I’ll get even more out of it on a second run through.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I received this book… but if this is indicative of Grann’s journalistic abilities, I hope he has a long and very lucrative career! He definitely knows how to chase down a story… and how to tell it, too.

I know I don’t often put a rating on my books these days, but this one is a solid 5 out of 5.

(Full Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from Doubleday. I was not required to write a positive review.)

And the final stop on our blog tour is… fiction, the third in a series for which I’ve previously reviewed the second book. You can find that review here, from our February blog tour.

Did you see which book it was? Yes, that’s right… Janice Thompson’s ‘Weddings By Bella’ series.

It Had to Be You (Weddings By Bella, Book 3) – Janice Thompson

Synopsis (from publisher):

Get ready for a double dose of wedding frenzy!

Bella couldn’t be happier that two of her long-feuding relatives have finally admitted their love for one another and are getting married. Their forties-style wedding is sure to be a night to remember. But when the Rossi house begins to fill up with family from Italy–and an old mobster from New Jersey–life starts to get complicated. Will a friend from the past drive the happy couple apart once more? And will Bella ever have time to think of her own rapidly approaching wedding amid the chaos?

Full of humor, plenty of Italian passion, and a bit of Texas gumption, It Had to Be You will have you laughing out loud and wiping a tear from your eye.

My Thoughts:

Why, oh why did I agree to read this when I was less than impressed with book #2? Well, I have a good reason. When I was browsing around online a few days after posting my own review, I came across a rather positive review of the book on someone else’s site. The author of that review had a few similar qualms to mine (notably, the lack of any flaws in the main character), so I clicked through to read the comments. Turns out the author took a moment to comment on the review and mention that in book #3, we’d see more of Bella’s flaws and she’d have some tough things to work through.

“Oh, well in that case,” I thought, “Maybe I’ll read the next book if it’s available, because I’m curious to see how that pans out.”

Lucky for me, the third book came up for offer on this blog tour, and I accepted. And read the book with an open mind and a view toward what the author said she was trying to accomplish with this installment.

How did that turn out? I’ll tell you honestly — I enjoyed this book a lot more than the previous one, that’s for darn sure. But then again, that’s not saying much. In all seriousness though, I had a much easier time working through this book and relating to the characters than in book 2. Maybe that’s because the author had two previous books in which to develop the characters and establish the family dynamics? Still, it worked better this time.

Now, the rest of what I have to say about the book may dive into spoilery territory, so if you plan on reading the book, go ahead and stop reading the review now. I mean it! If you’re not sure about whether you’ll read it or not, and are interested in my qualms, keep reading — but I’m warning you, I will give away one plot point in particular at the end… mind you, it’s a rather predictable plot point, but I warn you nonetheless.

So… ***SPOILERS AHEAD***

Yes, the family dynamics worked better. Yes, Bella’s character, and the supporting characters, were better shaped, and I didn’t want to scream at them as often. However, there’s still the issue of the “too perfect” hero and heroine.

Bella’s fiance is absolutely flawless. He keeps a few secrets from her now and again — which is presented to us like this is something terrible — but the secrets are actually surprises. So, nothing harmful or things that you’d typically consider a “secret” kept from a significant other. Yes, we read romances for strong, capable men, but no one is perfect. No one is in a good mood 100% of the time. Especially in the months leading up to a wedding!

But even I could look past this. What I really wanted out of this book was to see something change in Bella. I wanted to see her weaknesses, her frailties, anything to be able to connect with this all-too-perfect heroine that, in the previous book, did nothing but make me want to scream at her. This time around, Bella actually did get flustered. She lost concentration, she wasn’t always in a good mood… and it was clear that the author was taking her down the “doing too much & not caring for yourself” road (maybe Bella should have read “No More Christian Nice Girl”!).

This was a good sign! A flaw (albeit, a pretty weak one…)! And here’s your spoiler, because Bella’s overexertion lands her in the hospital with a diagnosis of exhaustion. Yeah, we saw that coming. But then it gets bizarre… because instead of teaching Bella a lesson about doing too much and not taking care of herself, we get a moment of NON-FORESHADOWED PERSONAL CRISIS where Bella “realizes” that she’s been trying to “prove herself to everyone”, yada yada. Wait… what? This is the flaw? This is the thing she needs to confront?

Okay, okay, that’s fine and all… but we learn about it only in the last few chapters of the book?!? If Bella was so concerned about failing and ruining her business and such, shouldn’t we have seen hints of it throughout the novel? Instead, we get an overworked Bella who seems to be doing it because she’s a workaholic… not because of some personal crisis.

When you throw out reasoning like that at the last second, it negates all the character building work from the rest of the book. It felt random, and I still don’t know why we didn’t see real hints of it throughout the rest of the novel. Honestly, it spoiled the book for me. I’d been having a decent time reading it until… total randomness. Sigh.

In Conclusion…

Look, I know this author has a large following and has written a lot of books, and I think that’s wonderful! Like I’ve said before, she has a wide audience who clearly love her style of storytelling, and I don’t begrudge that one bit. So, Janice Thompson, if you read this (since clearly you read blog reviews!), please know that I respect you as a successful author who has found her niche market. I really, truly mean that!

However, since not every book is for everybody, I think I’m justified in saying that I don’t like how this one ended and I felt a bit cheated by it. Still, looking at the book as a whole, I had a much better experience with this one than the previous installment, and I do think this one could be read as a stand-alone without the previous two.

Ultimately? Stick it in the church library! I know folks who would love to read this kind of thing, and even though I didn’t particularly care for the writing style, the characterization, or the plot “twist” with Bella, I know it has an audience out there with readers who like their romances very sweet and very innocent (and with perfect people).

So, if that’s your thing? Don’t let me discourage you!

And for your own reading pleasure… here’s an excerpt you can read, to see for yourself whether it’s the kind of thing you’d enjoy or not (note: it’s a PDF).

Available now at your favorite bookseller from Revell,

a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Day 3 of the blog tour… and onto a book that, despite the title, contains a measure of wisdom that I think almost ALL women could use sometimes.

No More Christian Nice Girl: When Just Being Nice — Instead of Good — Hurts You, Your Family, and Your Friends – Paul Coughlin & Jennifer D. Degler, PhD

Summary (from the publisher):

Be the Strong, Confident, and Caring Woman You Were Meant to Be

Tired of doing all you can for others while your relationships remain stuck in neutral–or headed in reverse? Paul Coughlin and psychologist Jennifer Degler show how being nice can harm you and drain the life out of your relationships. They explore the keys to fulfillment at home, work, church, and even in the bedroom. You’ll discover that emulating the real Jesus is the key to transforming from a Christian Nice Girl into an authentic, powerful woman of loving faith.

My Thoughts:

This is one book I wish I’d read even just six months ago. The concept of this book is that Christian women are so often taught to be “nice”, that “nice” is the only acceptable way of behaving, because that’s how Jesus behaved. Conflict, confrontation, anger, and standing up for one’s self (if it causes conflict) is no way for a nice woman to act, according to our example in Scripture… BUT… the authors point out that this is absolutely not the case.

Jesus didn’t avoid conflict, he got angry, he yelled at people, he stood up to those who asked things of him that he didn’t care to give or do for them, and he made a lot of enemies. But he also was good, which means he acted out qualities like caring, helpfulness, love, righteousness, and justice. And as Christian women, we have to stop buying into the “nice” description and be GOOD instead.

“Nice” gets you walked all over. “Nice” brings stress and anxiety because you’re trying to be everything to everyone. “Nice” brings eventual emotional breakdowns because you’re spending all this time doing things for other people that resentment and frustration will build to a breaking point. “Nice” means staying in emotionally or physically abusive friendships or relationships because you don’t want to rock the boat, or get anyone upset with you.

And in the end, the person you’re hurting? Is yourself. We’re not supposed to be “nice”. We’re supposed to be “good”. From my perspective, women from all backgrounds — religious, social, economic — are all susceptible to this “nice” mindset, and we’re experts at feeling false guilt when we say “no” to things or refuse to do something.

Until a few months ago, I was a “Christian nice girl”… and then I realized that’s no way to live. I started saying “no” to things, and gave myself permission to sit down and relax. I’ve always been one to stand up for myself — I don’t avoid confrontation — but in certain settings, I’ll sometimes wait until it’s too late to say anything. I’ve been in some bad friendships that I clung to because I didn’t want people getting upset with me. But you know what? Living that way, being “nice”, was hurting me. I don’t want to be “nice” anymore, I want to be GOOD. And that means acting in MY best interests AS WELL AS the interests of others.

The book also reminds you that sometimes this will be seen negatively by the world, since many people have a double standard for women and men. Men who say ‘No’ are viewed as strong, competent players who know what they want and aren’t afraid to go out and get it. Men get into conflict and it’s looked on as part of the way they relate, no harm done. When many women act the same way, they’re viewed as aggressive, heartless bitches. Unfortunately, that’s just the way the world works sometimes, and until the people around you realize that you’re no longer willing to be their doormat, you’re going to encounter this from some people.

I could talk for hours about this subject and this book, but instead I’ll leave you with a few links to some additional information about the book and the authors.

**EDIT: WordPress is giving me some trouble inserting links, so I’ll come back and try to do it later. I have a book excerpt and an author Q&A to link you to, but you can also reach them through the book page linked to the title of the book at the top of this post. Thanks for your patience!

Available now at your favorite bookseller from Bethany House,

a division of Baker Publishing Group.

In the same vein as yesterday’s book, today’s book explores those instances in life where thing don’t (or didn’t) go the way you planned… but unlike yesterday’s book, this one is specific to women and women’s issues.

What Happened to My Life?: Finding New Passion, Purpose, and Joy – Danna Demetre

Summary (from the publishers):