review – Page 2 – BELINDA CRAWFORD

Katana by Cole Gibsen

August 24, 2012 by Belinda Crawford

Katana is the second book from American author Cole Gibsen. It blends martial arts with the supernatural in a story reminiscent of films such as The House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, except without the teary ending.

The story follows Raleigh, your average teenage skater-chick (not that I’ve ever known any), as she discovers that she’s a reincarnated samurai with supernatural powers.

What I liked and didn’t like

I’m often disappointed with martial arts books and Katana is no exception. I’m not sure what it is I’m looking for in such a novel, but so far I haven’t found it. It may stem from my own involvement with karate, which I’ve been studying for a few years now, or it may be something else entirely.

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.