Ink and Bone (first novel) was really interesting with a great concept and an interesting group of characters. Book 2, Paper and Fire, was also pretty good, since it added backstory and complexity to several characters and to the narrative scenario overall. I don’t like the third installment of the series, Ash and Quill. The first half is filler, scheming around but nothing really being said or done. In fact, some of the key characters become irritating or questionable to the point of unlikable. The […]
NKOTB > BSB > ‘NSYNC
When I was twelve and thirteen, I loved New Kids on the Block. Specifically, I loved Donnie Wahlberg. Like, with a passion that only thirteen year old girls harbor. I wasn’t as bad as my friend Heather, who loved Jordan Knight so much that the had the sheets and pillowcases and sleeping bag and shoestrings, but I loved him exactly as much as my parents (and their budget) would allow. I saw them in concert three times (my father is a SAINT; he’s the one […]
Hot Off the Presses
Crimson Son 2 by Russ Linten (2017) – It’s not often I have the opportunity to review a book before it’s published, but I was a Beta reader for this book, so I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone and give the author this review since it’s officially out there now. In the first book, Crimson Son, we’re introduced to the world of Crimson Mask. It’s a world very similar to ours except that governments have created super-powered heroes called Augments. But we’re […]
“Holding the leaf inches away from the fire, I repeated the words that my family had been taught since basically the beginning of time: ‘My name is my self, and I give them both freely…'”
The Quick family is responsible for keeping their town safe. They receive offerings, take something from the person, and use that to maintain the cliff on the outside of town. If they were to stop? Rocks fall, everyone dies. The one rule of the Quicks is that they don’t steal from family. Guess how well that works? In the meantime, Aspen has been spending the summer with his grandma and aunt. Being the upstanding guy he is, Aspen gets his best friend’s girlfriend to break […]