The Devoured Series by Emily Snow

There are two books in this series, All Over You and Devoured (with a third coming out soon)  This series begins like so many where the MC is a girl who lacks a bit of confidence and comes from a bad family background and is trying to do better.  I say that as if there is something wrong with that story line, but I LOVE IT.  I find the pattern an easy read.  I am not sure whether to classify this as New Adult, but I think I will.  These books start with the MC Sienna, working on a video shoot for a rock band.  Now I also find that these books tend to have musician types.  Helps with the broodiness I guess.  Sienna is in charge of wardrobe and of course Lucas the protagonist sees her as his easy target.  Kind of a little Fifty Shades with him seeing the weak lamb and thinking he can over power and dominate her.  And all seems to be going as planned until she ends up at his house and he tells her to put handcuffs on and she says (as everyone should)  Yeah!  NO!  So he kicks her out.  Moving to book two...of course Lucas can not get her out of his head because she turned him down and decides to move to Tennessee, where she is from, to write music.  He finds a house in foreclosure and decides to buy it and it turns out it is Sienna's grandma's house.  So long story short, Lucas gets Sienna to work as his assistant for ten days and if she can get through it he will give her the house again.  Sparks fly and all seems well until Sam, the mysterious ex-wife shows her ugly head and Lucas turns Sienna away.  We don't know what Sam holds over Lucas but it must be bad.  I am waiting for the next book to find out.  I have to say this book, although follows a formula I am familiar with, is a great read and drew me into the characters and I have to say Lucas is on my list of book crushes.  I loved the epilogue at the end of Devoured and think it is super romantic.  The dialogue and character development is good and although back story is sprinkled through I didn't find any information dumps and the pace kept me reading.  4 Stars for sure and a recommended read for the February Month of Romance.

Find You In The Dark by A Meredith Walters

This is a YA contemporary.   It stars Maggie a reliable and middle of the road popular senior who is kind of bored with her life.  She had two best friends that she has known for her entire life and feels like she is in a rut.  What I really liked about this book is she has two normal, loving parents.  Maggie's life is slowly turned upside down as Clay comes into it.  Clay is a transfer student from far away and is broody and mysterious.  What Maggie doesn't know at first is that the reason he is all broody is because he suffers from Bipolar Disorder.  I loved this story as it followed Clay's struggle to deal with the medication, wanting to feel normal but unable to embrace normal when the meds rob him of his emotions and energy.  I see this in my classroom so many times.  Where a parent has to decide which is better; a child that can sit still in a coma and hopefully learn or a kid bouncing off the walls and struggling with emotional ups and downs, while hopefully learning.  I can't say which is best but in this case Clay's emotional roller coaster not only puts him at risk but also Maggie.  I love how this book takes us through her downward spiral as she tries to be the support she thinks he needs.  Tries to be enough for him to get well.  When eventually she figures out she can't.  I thought the character development, dialogue, and most of all the realistic depiction of the characters was spot on.  I felt so connected to Clay and his struggles.  I have to say my only complaint is that I want to read the next book and although a teaser is placed at the end of the book I can not find any reference to it being available nor a date of release.  Frustrating...the teaser just kills me and I need, NEED to see how Clay turns out.  Please finish it if it is not done and if it is I would love to read it for a review.
4 1/2 stars

World Building Post 4

This is an easy one to show.  The culture of the Navajo is very rich and they are a beautiful people.

This is my main character, Solomon.  *sigh*

A turning point in my story is when the boys take the MC to a Pow Wow and dance for her.

Porcupine quills are a popular addition to their colorful dress.

Monument Valley, where the boys originate from.

The Skinwalkers chosen form...a Raven.

This is Josiah,  one of the Holy Ones and Solomon's angsty brother.  He tends to have a bad attitude.

Solomon in hus dressed best!

And the bad guy.  Luke a.k.a Raven.  Kind of looks like Tonto from the new Lone ranger movie but I think they just found the same picture as me.  Hee Hee

World Building Post 3 Religion

My entire story revolved around the religious belief of the Navajo and the Holy People.  Here is a little blurb about them.  There are four Holy people, each representing a direction on the compass and each possessing powers derived from the elements.  Sort of like the Avatar, Air bender cartoon.  In Native American culture they believe the number four is spiritual.

 

 

 

Holy People: The Navajo believed in good and evil. They believed that everything in the universe had a purpose - be it good or evil. It was important that the universe remained in balance. If not, evil could take over. Their ceremonies were designed to restore harmony. 

Their Holy People were supernatural beings with the power to hurt or help the Navajo people. 

World Building Post 2

Much of my story stems from Native Amercan Legend and the fact that research was required to write my book just made it that much more fun.  Many of the Native American tribes share the same belief systems of creation.  I took the legend and changed it to meet the needs of my story in small ways.  The legend of the skin walker was a huge influence in my story as the antagonist is one.  Here is a bit of history as to what and who they are and just one of the many articles I used to develop the world my MC has come to know.

Navajo Skinwalker Legend

The Navajo skinwalker legend is one of the more complex and terrifying stories, steeped in mystery and evil intent.

Many Navajos believe firmly in the existence of skinwalkers and refuse to discuss them publicly for fear of retribution. They believe skinwalkers walk freely among the tribe and secretly transform under the cover of night.

The term yee naaldooshii literally translates to “with it, he goes on all fours.” According to Navajo legend, a skinwalker is a medicine man or which who has attained the highest level of priesthood in the tribe, but chose to use his or her power for evil by taking the form of an animal to inflict pain and suffering on others.

To become a skinwalker requires the most evil of deeds, the killing of a close family member. They literally become humans who have acquired immense supernatural power, including the ability to transform into animals and other people.

According to the Navajo skinwalker legend, these evil witches are typically seen in the form of a coyote, owl, fox, wolf or crow – although they do have the ability to turn into any animal they choose.

Because it is believed that skinwalkers wear the skins of the animals they transform into, it is considered taboo to wear the pelt of any animal. In fact, the Navajo are only known to wear two hides, sheepskin and buckskin, both of which are only used for ceremonial purposes.

Those who have talked of their encounters with these evil beings describe a number of ways in which a skinwalker will try to inflict harm. Some describe hearing knocks on the window or banging on the walls.

Others have spotted an animal-like figure peering in through a window. According to Navajo skinwalker legend, they are seldom caught. Those who do track a skinwalker and learn of their true identity must pronounce the name of the evil one in full. Once this happens, the skinwalker will get sick or die for the wrongs they have inflicted against others.

Word Building Blogfest Day 1

Today we are suppose to look at what inspires us to use descriptive words to bring the reader into out worlds.
My book takes place in a location where I actually grew up and one where I vacationed.  Grayland, Washington is a costal fishing/loggin community.  It is named Grayland due to the constant gray weather and heavy rain, although there are some sunny days sprinkled in during the summer.  Tokeland is a small town near by which borders the Shoalwater Reservation where the "boys" in the story live.  I used these pictures to make a story book to use for aiding in my descriptive writing or when I needed some inspiration.

This is a cranberry bog where Emma is attacked by a Raven.

The community hall where Emma goes to the Cranberry festival dance.

Beach where Solomon and Emma have their heart to heart talk.

18 Things by Jamie Ayres

I was excited to get this book and support a fellow new author and put it on my kindle on its day of release.  The book is listed as YA Paranormal.  Having that title I read the majority of the book guessing when something paranormal was actually going to happen.  When I was at 88% read...finally the paranormal aspect came in.  It was a good twist, one I will not spoil here, but I found it distracting that it waited so long to come into play.  The theme of the story was interesting, come up with a list of 18 Things to do the year you turn 18 in a way to deal with the death of a friend.  I liked how the supporting characters moved through the main characters list and supported her.  My biggest compliment for this book is that I found the prologue and the first chapter very well written.  They totally pulled me in.  However, the pull of the book wained for me after that.  Being the mom of an 18 year old and a 16 year old I found the language the characters used immature. More middle school than high school.  I read some of the dialogue to my boys and they agreed.  There were many literary references in the book, I know the author is a teacher and can guess she probubly teaches English.  I had a hard time connecting to some of the references and wonder if younger readers may be at a loss as well.  The author chose to have the characters be huge Star Wars fans, which reminded me of the guys from Big Bang Theory.  I didn't mind that the characters were suppose to be geeky but there were a lot of references that I missed out on as I am not a big fan myself.  At the end of the book the MC gives a long speech that refers back to many aspects of Star Wars and I got a bit lost in reading it. Overall I thought the message was positive.  I kept waiting for a bit more spirituality and felt like the author was going to go for it and then pulled back.  I was confused as to where this book actually falls in the genre world.  My favorite line in the book is when a Dr. tells Olga, the MC that kids these days have it wrong when they text YOLO, You only live once.  They instead should text YODO, you only die once.  You live every day of your life but only die one day.  I would give this book three stars and would recommend it to a younger reader.  The next book in her series is sneak peeked at the end of this one and I have to say I give the author props for writing killer beginnings.  Not sure I will read the next book but the teaser makes me think I want to.