Nov 12 2013
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Top Ten Tuesday – Top Ten Book Covers I Wish I Could Redesign! (11/12/2013)

Top ten Tuesday pink

 Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

 Let’s face it, despite the old saying, most of us always consider the cover when deciding whether or not to pick up a book. I’ve always been a firm believer that the cover can tell you quite a bit about a title. Often times, publishers award the most desirable covers to the books they think are going to make them the most money. Even though it’s not a foolproof method, you could say that books with beautiful covers usually deserve a second look. That doesn’t mean a good book can’t have a crappy cover, as quite a few of my redesign selections today are among my all-time favorites. So without further ado:

 Top Ten Book Covers I Wish I Could Redesign! 

Interestingly enough, three of my ten covers were illustrated by the same person… I guess it’s safe to say his work just doesn’t speak to me. I’ve also included two Richelle Mead books because, as my favorite, I need covers that will help entice people to pick them up. There’s nothing worse than handing a customer a book with the disclaimer “don’t let the cover throw you off, it’s excellent!” The added visual really does help me get people excited to try new series. I realize a few of these actually have been redesigned, but I include them on my list anyway because I still don’t like how they were done.

  I love covers, so as a bonus I decided to include my:

Top Ten Favorite/Least Favorite Cover Redesigns:

Favorite Changes – Before:

Favorite Changes – After:

 Least Favorite Changes – Before:

 Least Favorite Changes – After:

 I liked the old designs better… I’m almost embarrassed to hand the Dawn Cook series to anybody now – it’s one of my favorite Dragon stories, but you’d never know it from the new covers.

I hope you enjoyed the extra mile I went this week. What book covers would you like to redesign? 

Nov 11 2013
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Book Review: Perdition by Ann Aguirre

PerditionTitle: Perdition

Author: Ann Aguirre

Series: Dred Chronicles #1

Genre: Urban Sci-Fi

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

The Overview: The prison ship Perdition, a floating city where the Conglomerate’s most dangerous criminals are confined for life, orbits endlessly around a barren asteroid. Life inside is even more bleak. Hailed as the Dread Queen, inmate Dresdemona “Dred” Devos controls one of Perdition’s six territories, bordered on both sides by would-be kings eager to challenge her claim. Keeping them at bay requires constant vigilance, as well as a steady influx of new recruits to replace the fallen. Survival is a constant battle, and death is the only escape.

Of the newest convicts, only one is worth Dred’s attention. The mercenary Jael, with his deadly gaze and attitude, may be the most dangerous criminal onboard. His combat skill could give her the edge she needs, if he doesn’t betray her first. Unfortunately, that’s what he does best. Winning Jael’s allegiance will be a challenge, but failure could be worse than death…

Perdition 2

The Review:

All I have to say is, Ann Aguirre has definitely become one of my favorite authors. She consistently delivers highly entertaining books, Perdition being no exception. I have now made my way through at least one book of her four different series and it amazes me how different they are from one another. She just knows how to tell a good story, whether it’s about an orphan living in underground ruins (Enclave) to a psychically gifted space traveler (Sirantha Jax), she makes everything fresh, exciting, and highly entertaining!

The Jax series has become one of my all-time favorites, so you can understand why I was especially excited to read a spinoff from the same universe. With its amazing characters and an awesome storyline, Perdition takes place exclusively on a giant, unguarded prison. It reminds me of that one Stargate episode where the team ends up on a planet that’s been similarly converted to a orbiting prison. You know, the one were they meet that crazy lady… Anyway I love the concept of that episode, and Aguirre presented her twist on that idea in a way that was interesting and new (figuratively speaking, of course… it is a prison after all).

In my mind, there is a difference between atmosphere and setting. I have had minor issues with this author’s settings in the past, but have always loved the mood and feel she gives us with what she does describe. In this novel she did a great job balancing the two which made the world-building my favorite element of the story.

This was followed very closely by how much I enjoyed the characters, especially the main protagonist, Dred. She was one badass chick. I loved her because she had to find and maintain an inner strength well beyond what normal human beings have to endure, and only seemed to get stronger from it. The side characters were all just as memorable, with that hint of mystery surrounding them promising fun discoveries in the future. I’ve always said I love how Aguirre creates relationships, and not just the one surrounding the love story. She manages to form a deep connection between characters every time, which makes me care for them that much more. That is the one consistency in all her works that I most love and appreciate.

Overall, this was an excellent first novel to a new series, and I sincerely hope it develops into a five-star one like the Jax series did once it gained momentum.

Recommended Reading: of course I’m going to geek out about this one to anybody who has already read Sirantha Jax, but I would also feel comfortable pitching it as a standalone series. I would mention it to anybody who enjoys either urban fantasies or space operas (doubly so for those who like both). Readers of her Enclave series would probably like these too, provided they don’t mind a little more, shall we say “adult” content.

by Niki Hawkes

Other books you might like:

Nov 9 2013
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Writing Diaries – Who Has Time to Write?

Writing diaries

I don’t know about you, but I often have difficulty finding the time to write. Between work, family, friends, and the obscene amount of time I spend composing this blog, I’m lucky if I write more than 5000 words a week. This is especially ironic because one of the main reasons I started the blog was to build a platform for my future novel (but has since developed into a passion all its own). It saps up most of my creative energy, leaving me with the constant mental state of “I’ll make up for it tomorrow…”

Writing a novel is difficult for many reasons, but the biggest one is nurturing that motivation to keep going. As most budding writers can relate, it takes a great deal of your free time with few gratifications – even once the story is complete. You have to really want to make it work. I don’t even remember what free time looks like anymore because, if I have a moment to myself, I’m either writing or stressing about writing (which is totally unproductive and not relaxing in the least). The trick is to figure out a schedule that will allow you to feel like you’re making strides within your novel while not placing unreasonable expectations on yourself.

Life gets in the way, and it does your creative energies no good to stress if you don’t have a chance to sit down at the computer every day. When this happens, I’ll take a moment to think about my next scene and maybe jot down some notes in the notebook I always carry with me. Even though I’m not writing, I’m still immersing myself in my story. Doing this allowed my subconscious to continue developing ideas that have led to several “ah-ha” moments throughout the project. I also find it much easier to pick up where I left off when I do this because the ideas have been percolating for days.

So now I have a rhythm down that works for me and my writing processes in all areas but one – when it comes to choosing between blogging and writing, the blog wins every time. They use the same sort of creative mental energy but one gives me instant gratification while the other seems a thankless task. I’ve recently tried to counter this by limiting the amount of posts I do per week to four, rather than the seven I was doing before. It it irritates me to do this because I have enough ideas and content to fill the blog 365 days a year so I’ve had to make some sacrifices. I’ve cut out a book club feature (which took the most effort for the least payoff), limited my other features (such as this one) to be written only after I’ve committed time to my novel for the day, and continued with two book reviews per week. I always see posts from other bloggers explaining why they have slowed down in their content and laugh a bit because I seldom noticed until they pointed it out. I figured the same would be true for my readers. As long as I am consistent with book reviews – the stars of the blog – I’d still be in good shape.

Since I made the change, I’ve noticed a remarkable increase in my amount of creative energy, and am much more able to recognize and take advantage of opportunities to write than I ever have before. Incidentally, my average books read per week has nearly doubled, effectively relieving any stress I felt at having things to review. Overall, it is allowed me to start off NaNoWriMo of with a bang and puts me in a great position to have the first draft of my novel completed by the end of the month… Wish me luck!

 What about you? How do you find the balance between life and writing? What kinds of schedules work for you?

by Niki Hawkes

Nov 7 2013
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Book Review: The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The naturalsTitle: The Naturals

Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Series: Naturals #1 (of more, I hope!)

Genre: Teen Mystery

Rating: 5/5 stars!

The Overview: Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But it’s not a skill that she’s ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they’ve begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie.

What Cassie doesn’t realize is that there’s more at risk than a few unsolved homicides— especially when she’s sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own.

The naturals

 The Review:

I want to start out by saying that I loved this book. It was intense, fast-paced, fascinating, and totally absorbing. In short, it had everything I’d hoped to find in a novel but with that extra-special something that turned it from great to phenomenal! It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read, and was definitely a “drop everything until you finish it” type of read. I plan on recommending it as often as I can, and here are a few reasons why:

Concept: this was such a cool book! In a market flooded with protagonists sporting supernatural abilities, we forget sometimes how strong people can be without them. These teens can solve crimes by using different elements of observation and analysis, and I found the process by which they did this entirely fascinating. What’s more, there were different types of analyzers – the main character could predict with great accuracy by observing people’s personalities and tendencies, while other characters did things like analyzing emotion, detect lies, and (my favorite) utilize statistics and probability. They fine-tune all their abilities at a miniature FBI boarding school through case studies and simulations. I’ll say it again, it was fascinating!

Story: The book was composed brilliantly. It was essentially a murder mystery that took place over the course of a particular serial killer’s series of crimes. Every so often, we’d get a glimpse into the killer’s mind which majorly creeped me out and made the whole story more intense. I often see writers struggle to convey a well-rounded villain, especially when they’re presented in short snippets before each chapter. Barnes is one of the few I’ve read to not only nailed the creepy, believable villain part but did it without losing any momentum for the story.

Writing: there’s so many elements about the novel that I found clever, even aside from the things and I talked about above. Even the way the story was composed was brilliant – there were so many elements you could tell it took a lot of time and thought, and it came together seamlessly. Every scene had a purpose and added to the snowballing journey to one heck of an ending. I got so involved that I held my breath in places. What’s more, although I had dozens of theories, I never really knew for sure “who did it” until the end.

Overall, this has become one of my favorite books ever and I can see myself reading it over and over again in the future (even though I already know who the murderer is). I’m also planning on reading everything this author has published, as she’s quickly become one of my new favorites!

Recommended Reading: I’m going to suggest this one to any customer looking for their next great read in the teen department (heck, I’ll probably bring it up to people browsing in mystery and fiction too because it’s one of those books that has potential for wide audience appeal). I’ll especially be on the lookout for anybody who loves mysteries and shows like NCIS and Criminal Minds (or to people like me who have always been fascinated by those shows but are too squeamish to watch them). I can’t wait to talk to other readers who loved it to!

Other books you might like:

 Giveaway!

IMG_4201Days after finishing this awesome book, I was lucky enough to meet the author at the Vegas Valley Book Festival. She was awesome – taking the time to talk to me without being freaked out by what I can only call my “fangirl” moment. It was truly a privilege to meet her and she even signed the pile of books I brought her –including a beautiful new hardcover of The Naturals. And guess what?

I got one for you!

 Just click the link below and enter the rafflecopter giveaway for a chance to win! Some rules apply:

  • The contest will run for two weeks (until November 21st) and I will be emailing the randomly picked winner shortly thereafter. If the winner doesn’t respond to my email within 48 hours, I’ll pick a new one.
  • Please be honest – I will disqualify all your entries if you mark something you haven’t done.
  • I will be shipping via UPS, and won’t be responsible for anything lost in the mail (although I will have tracking, so I don’t think we’ll have to worry about that).

I’m sorry to say that this is a US only giveaway. I recognize that a good portion of my readers are from other countries and want you to know I appreciate you just as much as my US readers… I simply cannot afford the shipping.

Click Here to Enter!

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Nov 5 2013
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Coming Soon: Thief’s Magic by Trudi Canavan

thief's magicTitle: Thief’s Magic

Author: Trudi Canavan

Series: Millennium’s Rule #1

Genre: Fantasy

Release Date: May 27, 2014

The Overview: In a world where an industrial revolution is powered by magic, Tyen, a student of archaeology, unearths a sentient book called Vella. Once a young sorcerer-bookbinder, Vella was transformed into a useful tool by one of the greatest sorcerers of history. Since then she has been collecting information, including a vital clue to the disaster Tyen’s world faces.

Elsewhere, in an land ruled by the priests, Rielle the dyer’s daughter has been taught that to use magic is to steal from the Angels. Yet she knows she has a talent for it, and that there is a corrupter in the city willing to teach her how to use it — should she dare to risk the Angels’ wrath. But not everything is as Tyen and Rielle have been raised to believe. Not the nature of magic, nor the laws of their lands… and not even the people they trust.

thief's magic

Hosted by Breaking the Spine

This is one of those authors that I absolutely love… but am uber behind in reading. To get myself back on track, I’ve decided to read at least one of her trilogies before this new series comes out in May. Based on the quality of work of what I have read, I can’t imagine this new trilogy being anything less than amazing! If you haven’t tried her yet, consider starting with The Magician’s Guild and get ready for loads of entertainment!

What book are you waiting on?

by Niki Hawkes

Nov 4 2013
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Top Ten Tuesday – Top Ten Sequels I Can’t Wait to get My Hands On (11/5/2013)

Top ten Tuesday pink

 Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Top Ten Sequels I Can’t Wait to get My Hands On!

The first five are sequels that have covers and release dates (and, incidentally, are the books I am most excited to pick up within the next six months):

 For the next five, I decided to feature the first books in the series, as covers, titles, and release dates aren’t yet available for their sequels. Some of these rank among my favorite books read this year, and I am impatiently awaiting the next installments:

You may notice that most of them are YA which should illustrate the direction my reading tastes have been lately. I can’t seem to help it, though, because there are so many great new authors hitting the market that I’m having trouble keeping up with them all!

Is anybody else as excited for these sequels as I am?

 by Niki Hawkes