Reviewing Your Universe

The Shapeshifter’s Secret by Heather Ostler

Published by Cedar Fort, Inc.

ARC provided through NetGalley

Rating: 3 Stars

Julia is a 16-year old teenager with an extremely overprotective father. When she starts experiencing moments of uncontrollable rage she thinks she’s losing her mind. Then she’s shot at, taken to another world through portals, and discovers she’s a royal descendant of a shapeshifting family—and realizes she isn’t crazy. But her life has become more interesting and exceedingly complicated than she ever imagined. Trust becomes paramount as she is thrown into life-threatening situations. Can she turn to the father that kept secrets her entire life, new friends in a world she knows nothing about, or her too-good-to-be-true boyfriend to keep her safe?

First, what a fantastic cover! I love everything about it: the color, the design. I can see Julia as this beautiful young lady. I wish I could say the story grabbed me as hard as the amazing artwork. Though I enjoyed the premise and was interested in how things turned out, I had a few problems with the characters and plot.

Ms Ostler tried very hard to keep some of the juicier tidbits a surprise and dribble pieces of information as the plot unfolded. As an author, I understand the idea behind such a practice. As a reader, I was frustrated on occasion because I didn’t have enough information to grasp what some of the scenes really meant.

Take Julia’s father. He is exceedingly overprotective. After having read the entire story, he had reason to be. However, the reader doesn’t know that. As Julia is a 16-year old teenager, I expected a little more attitude and irritation over her father’s strangling hold. In fact, I really wanted Julia to demand answers sooner than any were revealed.

Paranormal elements are my favorite additions to novels. Again, Ms Ostler introduced several very interesting species of creatures in her new Ossain world. The water nymphs were especially cool…but we didn’t learn why they were part of this world or how they fit into this plot other than Julia’s best friend happened to be an orphan on Earth but was really a water nymph from Ossai. Yes, it’s a little too convenient, but I liked Sierra so it worked for me.

Caleb was a great character, but we never really learn a lot about him. He is a Guardsman in the Union Guard. He is also a werepanther. Totally hot, but he only hit the page in a two-dimensional aspect. In fact, most of the characters were two-dimensional. Personally, the plot felt a little rushed and I attribute the lack of development to that hurried feeling.

The Shapeshifter’s Secret is really for younger teens. Adults will find this novel a little too sweet and angsty, with unrealistic parental and teenaged relationships. Still, I enjoyed the story and am curious about what will happen in Ossai next. If the next novel’s characters and emotional development are more indepth, I’ll give it a shot!

Reviewing Your Universe

Primal by Raven and Lain Bower  

(Vengeance #1)

Print copy provided by author

Rating:  4 Stars

Murder, intrigue and sex—oh my!

I’m a sucker for shape shifter stories, and werewolves are right up there among my favorites. Including elemental magic is a serious bonus for me. Combine a great storyline, interesting characters and break-neck pace, and I’m hooked to the last page.

Raven and Lain Bower pulled each of these important elements together in Primal to create a slam-bang urban fantasy that showcases a novel that is an equal part plot and equal part character-driven story—and those just do it for me.

Character development for me is a must. Arvon is the nearly-perfect alpha male that inspires a woman to look past his bad-boy faults and love him anyway. Wrey’s caring nature and ability to sort things out reasonably and intelligently had me rooting for her from page one. I loved the strength and vulnerability portrayed in both Wrey and Arvon’s character arcs.

So if I’m raving this much about a novel, why only four stars you ask? It came down to some character identity confusion. Each author has a different technique for imparting information in a story. Mysteries leave more room for switch and bait when setting up a plotline surprise.

As a general rule, I don’t have an issue with this particular writing device. However, I was confused for a bit at the beginning of the story. Multiple characters were introduced, initially using nicknames, and I had a hard time figuring out who was on first.

Because the writing was excellent and I liked the characters and story, the confusion didn’t deter me from reading on. Once I figured all the players out, it was game on. I devoured the book in one sitting—and am eagerly awaiting the second book in this trilogy. Seriously, I’ve just gotta know what happens next!

If you enjoy your urban fantasies with larger-than-life characters and a fast-paced plot that throws a few twists and surprises at you along the way, grab a copy of Primal and enjoy!!!

Sharing Your Universe

Christine Ashworth's been with us all week, and I'd like to share her latest release with you. Check out her ebook Blood Dreams!

Blood Dreams:

It's December, and Los Angeles is in the grip of a serial killer – or so Gregor Caine would like to believe. But the moon grows fat as it builds toward the Winter Solstice. An old woman searching for a friend gone missing believes danger is coming, and the Blood Dreams that keep interrupting Gregor's sleep portend a swarm of demonic activity.

After summer's setback, Kendall Sorbis is finally getting started on his Revenge Life List. First up, open a portal to the Chaos Plane. Second, invite the Caines to come and play...

Buy links:

http://www.amazon.com/Dreams-Crescent-Brothers-Novella-ebook/dp/B00882JN96/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339085519&sr=8-1

You can find Christine here:

Website and Blog: http://christine-ashworth.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/CCAshworth

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/ChristineAshworthAuthor

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4768755.Christine_Ashworth

Changing Your Universe

I'd like to welcome fellow Crescent Moon Press author Christine Ashworth to Changing Your Universe. 

We're all the sum total of our life experiences, but there are moments when someone or something affects us, possibly even influences the direction our lives will take. Here is one of those stories.

Changing My Universe

I am no stranger to change. In my 30+ years of working for someone else, I have been laid off 3 times, quit twice, resigned once and fired once. All of these caused me to change, to shift and go with a new flow. One of the times I was laid off, I actually decided to stay home and write.

But the biggest change in my life happened when my mother died at the age of 77. While it was sad that she was gone, she’d lived with MS for 50 years; at the end she couldn’t walk, lift herself, roll over in bed, or hear very well; it was an infection that entered her bloodstream that killed her, only indirectly related to the MS.

Losing her, however much expected in the back of my mind, still came as a shock. I had been writing for six years, and hadn’t sold anything. And if I were honest, I hadn’t really been writing, though I’d completed seven novels. I hadn’t fully embraced it as a job. Once I realized my mom would never hold my book in her hands, the knowledge galvanized me.

My mom wouldn’t be able to hold my book, but my father was still with me. HE could hold my book, if I worked my butt off to get published. I could do it for him. You see, my father is a writer, a quite successful one in that he’s had over 300 novels published in the course of 40-plus years, from a wide variety of publishers (and many that no longer exist). Having not one, but two children of his published “legitimately” would please him to no end.

In my house, self-publishing was equated with vanity publishing for a very, very long time, so that was not the way for me to go. (Not so anymore; my father has self-published 3 books by this point. At 83, he’s still going strong; he has several novels ready to go.)

As for me?  Unfortunately the book I wrote after my mother died will most likely never see the light of day. It’s dark, vicious, bitter, and the feedback I’ve gotten from first readers from a publisher has been “I couldn’t get past the first sixty pages. Too dark. Great writing, but too dark.”  Even now, five years past the writing of it, I can’t find it in myself to revamp it again to make it lighter.

But after that experience, I took a deep breath and went with my gut to write a novel about a different kind of hero – a tribred, a family of brothers with demon/human/Fae bloodlines going back centuries. All three races are strong within each brother; each handles their burden in a unique way, which includes finding love when they least expect it.

That was the book that sold, three years after my mother died. Book 1, DEMON SOUL, came out in March of 2011. A short story called BLOOD DREAMS, a bridge of sorts between book 1 and book 2, released June 1, 2012. DEMON HUNT, book 2 in the series, will release this summer; and book 3, DEMON’S RAGE, will hopefully be ready to publish by late- 2012 early- 2013.

These are darker books with threads of humor, deep family connections, and love that knows no boundaries. The roots of these books lie within that dark and bitter book I wrote right after my mother died, sitting in her kitchen, tears streaming down my face at two-thirty in the morning.

I haven’t decided yet if I will continue on with the Caine Brothers series after RAGE comes out; it may be that the darkness within me is getting easier to bear, and I can move on to lighter fare, which is where my sunny and skewed personality usually fits.

My mother’s death gave birth to the professional writer in me. So in a very real way, she’s with me every time I sit down to write.

Bio:

Christine Ashworth is a native of Southern California. The daughter of a writer and a psych major, she fell asleep to the sound of her father's Royal manual typewriter for years. In a very real way, being a writer is in her blood-her father sold his first novel before he turned forty; her brother sold his first book before he turned twenty-five.


At the tender age of seventeen, Christine fell in love with a man she met while dancing in a ballet company. She married the brilliant actor/dancer/painter/music man, and they now have two tall sons who are as scintillating as their parents, keeping the dinner conversation lively.


Christine's two dogs rule the outside, defending her vegetable garden from the squirrels, while a polydactyl rescue cat holds court inside the house. Everything else is in a state of flux, leaving her home life a cross between an improv class and a think-tank for the defense of humans against zombies.

You can find Christine here:

Website and Blog: http://christine-ashworth.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/CCAshworth

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/ChristineAshworthAuthor

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4768755.Christine_Ashworth

Reviewing Your Universe

Gift by Andrea J. Buchanan

ARC approved by NetGalley

Rating:  3 Stars

High school is difficult enough on the everyday kid. Throw in reincarnated souls, unfinished business and the ability to wield electricity and you’ve got one heck of a story line.

Daisy’s character is the right combination of strength of character, engaging personality and vulnerability. She faces difficult choices, and finds support from a group of friends she wasn’t looking to find.

The secondary characters help the story shine—mostly. Vivi is strange and fragile and engenders sympathy. Kevin is the perfect boyfriend. He’s got his own issues, but is willing to keep an open mind and help Daisy any way he can. I didn’t connect with Danielle, the best friend. She seemed selfish and shallow and very unaccepting when it came to her best friend.

Though the pace was a bit slow, I enjoyed reading Gift. And anybody that likes a little romance and mystery with their paranormal will too!

Gifting Your Universe

Friday's are giveaway days on My Little Page of the Universe. Contests run for a week. Winners are drawn at random. Reading fun is enjoyed by all!

Today, Diane Haynes has graciously offered a Rift Healer goodie pack. Here's what one lucky winner will receive:

Contents of Goodie Bag

Rift Healer Book

Mini Wand with Amethyst stone

Rift Healer Keychain

Purple Rift Healer Pen

2” Clear Quartz Crystal

Map of the Enchanted Forest

Decorated Rift Healer Bookmark

Greenman Postcard (print of Diane’s watercolor painting)

Purple Pouch

You know the drill. Just leave your name and email addy and a winner will be chosen and notified next Thursday! 

Sharing Your Universe

Today we have two awesome things going on. First, we've got a cover reveal for my friend and colleague Christine Ashworth. Check out Demon Hunt's awesome cover!

DEMON HUNT 

Tribred Gregor Caine decided long ago to deny his blood legacy. So he isn’t happy when paired with a full-blooded Fae to hunt the demons threatening to overrun Los Angeles. As they fight side by side, he finds she calls to both his Fae and his demon blood; a call he can’t resist. 

Warrior Fae Serra Willows crossed into the Human Plane to help destroy the demons released from the Chaos Plane. Finding and shutting down the portal between worlds is more challenging than she expected...and Gregor and his world more seductive than she had ever imagined.

As the killings escalate, Gregor and Serra realize one of the most deadly demons from the Chaos Plane has marked Serra as his own. To save her, Gregor has to face his greatest fear—losing his humanity to the darkness in his blood. But in a race against time, that darkness could become his greatest strength. And he will kill to claim Serra’s love.

Christine’s Bio:

Christine Ashworth is a native of Southern California. The daughter of a writer and a psych major, she fell asleep to the sound of her father's Royal manual typewriter for years. In a very real way, being a writer is in her blood-her father sold his first novel before he turned forty; her brother sold his first book before he turned twenty-five.

At the tender age of seventeen, Christine fell in love with a man she met while dancing in a ballet company. She married the brilliant actor/dancer/painter/music man, and they now have two tall sons who are as scintillating as their parents, keeping the dinner conversation lively.

Christine's two dogs rule the outside, defending her vegetable garden from the squirrels, while a polydactyl rescue cat holds court inside the house. Everything else is in a state of flux, leaving her home life a cross between an improv class and a think-tank for the defense of humans against zombies.

You can find Christine here:

Website and Blog: http://christine-ashworth.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/CCAshworth

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/ChristineAshworthAuthor

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4768755.Christine_Ashworth