ebook – BELINDA CRAWFORD

Sci-fi books on my TBR pile

October 3, 2017 by Belinda Crawford

Like a lot of bookworms, my to-be-read pile is huge, like monster kanji huge. Genre-wise there’s just about everything in there, from romance to action, crime and (of course) almost every shade of sci-fi and fantasy you can imagine. Here are a few of the sci-fi ones I’m really looking forward to reading. Descriptions from … Read more

My Bookshelf on WWW Wednesday

February 26, 2014 by Belinda Crawford

I’m currently reading Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz and Alliance by Mark Frost. I started watching the television spin-off of Witches of East End. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible either, so I thought I’d give the book a go. So far, I’m 8% of the way into the ebook and, like … Read more

Top Ten Tuesday – Bookish goals for 2013

January 8, 2013 by Belinda Crawford

For this round of Top Ten Tuesday, I’m breaking my list up into two sections. The first section is for this year’s writing-related goals and the second are my reading-related goals. Writing goals I completed the first draft of my first book, Hero, just after Christmas, so I think it’s only fair if I have … Read more

Pledged by Gwynneth White

October 4, 2012 by Belinda Crawford

Pledged, a paranormal-romance for young adults, makes a good first impression. The cover is well designed, the book trailer impressive and the blurb intriguing, however the story, while good, wasn’t great.

Immediately engaging, with excellent descriptions of place, I felt that the story moved too quickly and that too much happened. Seth and Erin, the protagonists, seemed to spend all of their time jumping from one event to another with little or no time for the reader to take a breath and really get to know them. Perhaps, if the plot hadn’t had so many twists and turns, and so many characters, White could have spent more time involving us in Erin and Seth’s plight. As it is, White has us following three romances (one of which is love/lust triangle, making it doubly complicated) and two father–son relationships, which is too much for a single book.

Enchantment by Charlotte Abel

March 25, 2012 by Belinda Crawford

The cover of 'Enchantment' — Not so sure about the bike...

A disclaimer before I start; I didn’t read the entirety of this book, so if some moment of literary genius occurs at the end, forgive me. Additionally this book was provided to me, free of charge, by the author for the express purposes of a review.

Enchantment, a YA paranormal romance, is the start of the Channie series by Charlotte Abel.

From Amazon.com

While other girls are wearing push-up bras, Channie Belks is trying to hide the fact she’s a witch.

Sorta hard to do after her parents slap a chastity curse on her for flirting with “dirty-minded, non-magical, city-boys.” She can’t even walk by a hot guy without zapping him.

There’s a way to break the curse; but one mistake could kill her. It’s not worth the risk … until she meets Josh.

Suddenly, the threat of death isn’t such a deal-breaker.

Demon Girl by Penelope Fletcher

March 16, 2012 by Belinda Crawford

Demon Girl, an independently published ebook by Penelope Fletcher, is the first in the Rae Wilder series and, if you’re feeling brave, it’s currently available from ManyBooks.net as a free download.

Originally released in 2010 the ebook is currently being re-edited (praise be to the gods of writing). The new edition, with a shinny new cover and re-titled Glamour, is due for release at the end of March 2012.

This review is in response to the 2010 version.

What it’s about

On a post-apocalyptic earth humans live in heavily fortified compounds, protected from the demons that roam outside their walls by the militaristic Sect.

Rae is different, faster, stronger, quicker to heal, but she doesn’t realise how different until, on one of her forbidden runs outside the Wall, she meets a boy. Breandan is just as strange, if not stranger, than she is and he tells her things, things about herself, that could see her exiled, imprisoned or dead.

Drink, Slay, Love by Sarah Beth Durst

March 7, 2012 by Belinda Crawford

Pearl is a sixteen-year-old vampire… fond of blood, allergic to sunlight, and mostly evil… until the night a sparkly unicorn stabs her through the heart with his horn. Oops.

'Drink, Slay, Love' by Sarah Beth Durst — The ebook version of the cover.

If you like your vampires dark, Goth, not quite soulless and with just the tiniest hint of My Little Pony, then Drink, Slay, Love could be for you. It’s the third work from author Sarah Beth Durst and reads like the opening of a series (although I could find no news of a sequel).

What I liked and didn’t like

Pearl was the best part of the book, confident, arrogant, viewed humans as cattle yet remained vulnerable under all her bluster. It was almost a shame that she grew a conscience because it dulled her superior attitude, which was a lot of fun.

The development of her character was a strong yet subtle thread that ran through the book with none of the long, blah, blah, blah blocks of inner monologue that can pass for character development.

While the first two-thirds of the book were good, maybe even great, the final third did its best to fall in a heap.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

February 24, 2012 by Belinda Crawford

This is my first attempt at a book review. Let me know how you think I went.

Cinder, the first book in The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, is a retelling of the classic Cinderella story complete with cyborgs, plague and a tantalising hint of the Japanese anime Sailor Moon.

Synopsis

Cinder is a cyborg, an orphan with no memory of her past and a collection of gears and wires were an arm and a leg should be. Her adoptive mother resents her, tolerating her only because of her ability to draw a wage, one of her two sisters hates her and the other, who’s actually nice, becomes fatally ill. All of this leads to Cinder being forcibly volunteered as a test subject for plague research where she uncovers her past and discovers hidden talents.

There’s also a prince with a broken android, a lunatic queen, a ball, a fairy god-scientist and a small prosthetic foot.