Book Review: The Lantern’s Ember by Colleen Houck

Jack barely remembers his mortal life before the deal.  So he focuses on his job of guarding a gate to the Otherworld, a world crawling with every horror, haunt, and spook imaginable.  He has spent decades moving from town to town not allowing a soul, human or inhuman past him .  But that changes the day he meets Ember O’Dare.

Ember O’Dare is a stubborn seventeen-year-old witch whose draw to the Otherworld is forceful.  Deciding to resist no longer she sets out to see this forbidden plane with the help of a mysterious vampire, setting a course that will change both worlds permanently.  Jack must do everything in his power to get Ember back where she belongs before both the earthly and unearthly worlds descend into chaos.  I recieved this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.  The book’s publishing date was September 11, 2018. 

The Lantern’s Ember was a phenomenal book that I knew I had to read since it is by a stunning author.  Not to mention the cover is breathtaking.   And I am so glad did.  The tale that unfolded in this book was gorgeously thrilling and I could not set the book down.  The book was filled with a wild array of characters and the world-building was unique to say the least.

The main character, Ember was courageous and ingenious and reading about her tale and world was a fun experience.  She drew me to her because of her kindness and my need to understand why her magic was different and stronger than other witches.  However, I was getting annoyed with how many times she passed out during the entirety of the book which was several times more than it should have been.  Besides this annoyance I adored Ember’s character who brought the book to life.

Besides Ember, the book was filled with an array of various characters.  And for a while there was three love interests: Ember’s best friend, Finney, the lantern, Jack who has been watching over her from childhood, and the charismatic vampire, Dev.  Besides that the book contained, witches, several kinds of vampires, werewolves, automatons, trolls, vampire bats, the boogeyman, wizards, pirates, and more magical creatures.  They all added to the stunning world-building and diversity of characters who traveled and adventured with Ember through the Otherworld.

The Otherworld was a magical world that lived alongside the normal world but its people were not human.  The world was filled with every kind of haunt and spook that one can think of but no humans were allowed to enter.  The world was far ahead of the normal world in technological advancements and it was exciting to read about some of the things we take for granted running off witchlight in a magical world.  In the end the world-building was truly a masterpiece.

I loved this book and would highly recommend it to all.  It brings to life the origin of Halloween in stunning fashion that was simply unputdownable. 

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Sharing Saturday Thirty

Saturday is here!  This is one of my favorite times of the week for I love this post.  Today we are going to do something a little different.  I am going to share book trailers for some of my favorite books and my opinions on whether they represent the book well.  This is going to be so fun.  I may start doing this more often during my Sharing Saturday’s so let me know what book trailers I should do.  Let’s get started!

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton:

The imagery is good.  It is blue and sandy much as the cover suggests it should be.  The blue-eyed bandit is decently portrayed but I think less time should have been spent on what authors and journals thought about the book and more on what the book is actually about.  The music is a wonderful addition adding drama and intrigue to the trailer.  I think overall that the book trailer decently portrayed the book but it did not show the true fire and spirit of the book.

Reawakened by Colleen Houck:

I think this trailer did a much better job of portraying the book than the previous one.  We are shown the magic of the world through the disappearing words and images and the book is thoroughly explained.  However, the music was horrible.  I did not think it went very well with the book.  I did like that certain images and creatures were shown that are seen throughout the book.  Overall, I think it did an excellent job of showing us Reawakened.

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco:

This trailer did a pretty good job of depicting the book.  The background was amazing and fully gave me a sense of the book.  However, I felt that what the book was about was not fully given.  Despite that, I love the little bit of music that was included which added drama and emotion at the perfect moments.  This trailer was suitable for the book but I think it could have been improved upon a little bit.

 

 

Author Highlights Four

Author Highlights is here!!  I only do these posts once a month and yet I have missed last month resulting in my plan to eventually post two in one month. So without further ado let us start Author Highlights Four.  The author is….

Colleen Houck

She is the author of the of the Tiger’s Curse Series andthe Reawakened Series.

I have read the Reawakened series  except for the third  and prequel books and I have not read the Tiger’s Curse series despite the fact that I own the first book in the series.

Rewakened is the tale of a girl who accidentally stumbles upon a resurrected Egyptian Prince whose job is to save the world from Seth and the end of time.  He drags her halfway across the world to Egypt and during that time Lily goes on the adventure of her lifetime.

See my post on Reawakened Here.

“Before I could even form a question, he murmured some words in Egyptian and we were sucked into a whirlwind.”                                    -Reawakened

The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she’d be doing over the summer was meeting Ren, a mysterious white tiger and cursed Indian prince! When she learns she alone can break the Tiger’s curse, Kelsey’s life is turned upside-down. The unlikely duo journeys halfway around the world to piece together an Indian prophecy, find a way to free the man trapped by a centuries-old spell, and discover the path to their true destiny.

 

“Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re hunting me. I’m not an antelope.”             -Tiger’s Curse

 

For more information on Colleen Houck and her books visit her website http://colleenhouck.com/.

 

 

 

 

Book Conference with Free Books!

So, this Saturday I went to a book conference with the authors Raul the III and Simone Elkeles. It was intriguing and I had never heard of either of these authors before. I managed to procure a Simone Elkeles book; How to Ruin a Summer Vacation. I haven’t read it yet but I am excited to start it. I did not purchase a book by Raul the III because I am not into graphic novels which is what he writes and illustrates.

Besides being able to meet the authors there were several forums that we could participate in. There were three forums with five or six programs you could go to. Each forum lasted an hour with fifteen minutes between each to find the next program you wanted to participate in.

For the first program, I participated in Impromptu Book Club which was a program allowing people to talk about the books they have read recently and whether they liked it or not. It was interesting for I got to see what other people thought about some of the same books I have read and the ones I have not. I was surprised occasionally by some of the hate for books that I myself adore. Furthermore, most of the people had not read some of my favorite books such as Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco or An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir which are quite popular books.

The second program was Like, Try, Why which a program dedicated to suggesting good books with diverse characters. Throughout the presentation, I was convinced to read several books that I have never heard of but sound really good. At the end, we got two free books. I managed to grab a signed copy of the Belles by Dhonielle Clayton. Yes!! I have been wanting to read that book for forever. The second book I grabbed was Emergency Contact by Mary H.K Choi. I am unsure about how good that book is gonna be.

For the third session, I went to a local author panel. The panel consisted of authors; Ashlee Cowes, Todd Mitchell, Colleen Oakes, and Heather Sappenfield. It was awesome to learn about these authors and how they write and why they write. Luckily, I had a book by Todd Mitchell so I got that signed.

At the end, we talked to the main authors Simone and Raul. Then we got to choose one free book and get our books signed by the authors. For my book, I grabbed Reunited by Colleen Houck. I got my books signed along with a poster and headed home. It was fun and enjoyable.

This is a poster I received from Raul the third. The backside which is in Spanish is above. The front side is in English and that is the side I got signed. To the right is a picture of the signature for The Secret to Lying by Todd Mitchell.

Reawakened by Colleen Houck

Reawakened is an awe inspiring tale of a normal girl who meets an Egyptian prince reincarnate.  He is on a mission to unite with his brothers and stop Seth, an evil god, from taking over the world.  Lilliana, the girl, aids the sun prince, Amon, in his journey as they travel half way around the world to stop what shouldn’t even be possible.

 

A third book in the Reawakened series will soon be arriving.

Reignited.