#bookreview: Passing Through Perfect by Bette Lee Crosby

Passing Through Perfect by Bette Lee Crosby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Benjamin Church returned to Grinder's Corner, Alabama after the war, he dreamed of becoming a mechanic. But days turned into months, and months turned into years, and Benjamin finds himself stuck working on his father's farm to support his young family. The tragic death of his wife changes his life forever and Benjamin must find a way to get his only son, Isaac, out of the South with its deep-rooted racial prejudices to a place where he can build a future in spite of the colour of his skin.

I picked up this book free for review via ebooksforreview.com mainly because I have been on Bette Lee Crosby's mailing list for a while and I wanted to find out what she really writes about (can't remember when/how I got on the list anymore).

It seems that I have been reading an amount of historical fiction relating to the race relationships in America lately, starting with Touched with Fire and Fire and Dust. While those two are written about events in the middle of the war itself, Passing Through Perfect is an excellent "follow up" story of events that take place almost a hundred years after the abolishment of slavery in America. I think it says something about humans that, even though the law has been changed decades prior, the attitudes and traditions of the communities and the prejudices they hold had hardly changed at all.

Passing Through Perfect presents a little slice of life of that time and age, demonstrating how one man's prejudice can destroy a life and how another's open-mindedness and generosity can help rebuild it.

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New Release: The Legacy Human (Singularity #1) by Susan Kaye Quinn #YA #SF

INTRODUCTORY PRICE 99CENTS - limited time

Amazon

ebook and print

When transcending humanity is the prize, winning the Game is all that matters.

Seventeen-year-old Elijah Brighton wants to become an ascender—a post-Singularity human/machine hybrid—after all, they’re smarter, more enlightened, more compassionate, and above all, achingly beautiful. But Eli is a legacy human, preserved and cherished for his unaltered genetic code, just like the rainforest he paints. When a fugue state possesses him and creates great art, Eli miraculously lands a sponsor for the creative Olympics. If he could just master the fugue, he could take the gold and win the right to ascend, bringing everything he’s yearned for within reach… including his beautiful ascender patron. But once Eli arrives at the Games, he finds the ascenders are playing games of their own. Everything he knows about the ascenders and the legacies they keep starts to unravel… until he’s running for his life and wondering who he truly is.

The Legacy Human is the first in Susan Kaye Quinn’s new young adult science fiction series that explores the intersection of mind, body, and soul in a post-Singularity world… and how technology will challenge us to remember what it means to be human.

WHAT REVIEWERS ARE SAYING:

“If I were a movie producer, I would option this in a heartbeat.”

“This story is so intense I felt I couldn’t get a proper breath.”

“Science fiction with philosophical depth.”

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Join the Launch Party!

Win paperbacks of The Legacy Human and Mindjack Trilogy, as well as other great prizes, and chat with some AMAZING Sci-Fi author-friends (check out the line-up below!). Giveaways run ALL DAY (9a – 9p Chicago Time, GMT-6)

SCHEDULE - Chicago Time (GMT-6) on March 2nd

9a - 10a - Sue (Singularity)

1p - 2p - Jennifer Wells (Fluency)

2p - 2:30p - Endi Webb (Terran Gambit)

3p - 4p - Rysa Walker (Timebound)

5p - 5:30p - Wes Davies (Binary Cycle)

5:30 - 7p - Sue (Singularity)

7p - 8p - E.E. Giorgi (Chimeras)

8p - 9p - Jessica Keller? (Saving Yesterday)

9p  - Sue - PICKING WINNERS

Stop by ANYTIME to enter giveaways;  stop by during the guest-host hour to chat! (Join the party now!)

Too many books to review and an #atozchallenge question

I find that I am suddenly overscheduled for book reviews/tours in March.
Why is everyone launching stuff in March???
Anyway, all that means is that I guess I'll be posting reviews more than twice a week this month then, and will slow down later on.

The other question is really whether I should do A to Z this year or not. I have so many things to do. If I get round to them. So it's really a question of what I want to prioritise, but I really don't want to think about it or make a decision.

So. There's a poll somewhere on the right sidebar that you can vote on.

#bookreview: Time's Beginning by Dan Rix

Time's Beginning by Dan Rix
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Where do we go from here? How do we complete a journey that began innocently with youthful idealism and bright futures, but got so snarled along the way with demons and spacetime rips and the end of the world?

As a quick recap, this series starts with God's Loophole, where Jeremy Rockwell builds the prototype of the Bubble and gets his brother, Gabe, and his girlfriend, Rae, to help him test it. Soon, the three teenagers are in deep trouble - not just because they've gained telekinetic powers, but because they've set in motion the end of the world and the FBI are after them. Eternity’s End has Rae stuck in the Bubble, trying to figure out the maze and fighting against herself to survive, whilst Gabe is struggling to learn enough control his powers enough to save her. But the rip in the universe is rapidly growing larger, and more people are dying from a strange demon that demands Rae's life. In Heaven’s Enigma Gabe, Rae and Jeremy have been coerced to help Sabina Boyd save the world from their mistakes.

Time's Beginning, the final book in the series, begins in a hopeless place. The three teens find themselves stuck in a bubble again - but this time, they've been totally cut off from the Earth. They've been cycled down and cut adrift in the realm of possibilities with no way of getting back to Earth - worse still, the Bubble has been severely damaged. It's not just the end of the world that's plaguing them. It's the end of their very existence. To add to that, the demon that's been haunting the rip in Palo Alto has found its way to them and is now picking the six people left in the Cheyenne Mountain bubble off one by one.

It's human nature to fight to survive and to hold on to hope even in the bleakest of situations. So that's exactly what they do. Gabe is still hard at work trying to figure out how they can escape back into the real world while Rae decides to face the Minotaur head on, refusing to be intimidated into inaction. And just when they start to believe that all hope is gone, Kimberly Sims and Lanto turn up, sparking new ideas, revealing new information, and finally giving them a solution that just might save the world.

Rix does a great job weaving the scattered threads together, serving up an ending that is not only satisfying, but beautiful, sweet and tragic. There are times when you want to smack both Rae and Gabe silly (especially Rae), and there are times when you find Jeremy an annoying old stick, but through it all, you feel with them and for them.

*I received a pre-release copy of this e-book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews

I've reviewed the God's Loophole series here:
God's Loophole
Eternity's End
Heaven's Enigma

Other books by Dan Rix:
Triton & Entanglement


To try out Dan's books, head over to his website and subscribe to his newsletter!

#bookreview: Heaven's Enigma by Dan Rix

Heaven's Enigma by Dan Rix
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dan Rix ups the ante in Heaven's Enigma, with a terrifying time crunch and mysterious deaths.

Both Gabe and Rae's telekinetic powers are stronger than ever - and Sabina must convince them that they're on the same side, at least until they save the world. Gabe and Rae find themselves facing the brother and boyfriend they thought was dead and buried. The FBI, under Sabina Boyd's instructions, are pulling in everything they've got to finish the countermeasure in time to plug the hole in the universe. But key people on the project are dying mysteriously - and the only clues to their murders are the smell of sulfur, three claw marks, and the words "bring her to me".

Heaven's Enigma is a gripping read, not just because the world is in serious danger now, but also because Raedyn herself not sure if she's the Rae. In the midst of the fear and the tension, Rix takes time to develop the relationship between the three teens, playing them against each other in a mix of competitiveness, childishness, and hormones.
Sabina also gets fleshed out more here, her grit and determination shining through even as she works through the problems and tries to figure out what everything means - or if there is a meaning to it. From simply being the mysterious FBI woman who's just out to get them, she transforms into a strong problem solver with one single-minded focus - to fix this mess they're in.
The addition of Kimberly Sims and her K-9 dog Lanto into this strong cast of female characters can only be a good thing. Her groundedness and simplicity forms a good contrast to the fluctuating mass of nerves that Rae is becoming the longer she is stuck in the bubble.

When you think about it, from the beginning of God's Loophole when it was Jeremy the genius and Gabriel the jock, assisted by Professor Ron Hsu with side-kick Raedyn Summers who's just along for the ride, this series is churning out some really great strong female characters.
Good going, Mr Rix.

View all my reviews

I've reviewed the God's Loophole series here:
God's Loophole
Eternity's End

Other books by Dan Rix:
Triton & Entanglement

Cover reveal: Michael - Path of Angels Book One.

So every once in a while a lovely online friend asks for a favour... and if it involves new books, I'm like sure, why not?

So Patricia is this really lovely bloggy friend I met during the A to Z Challenge, and she's launching a book in March! I have no idea what it's about... (okay, I read the blurb, so I have a brief idea what it's about) but here's the cover!

Add to your Goodreads shelf

Blurb

There is only one path.

Born mortal along with his three brothers, Michael is an Archangel with a specific role: hunt fallen angels and send them back to Hell. He is determined in his mission, never straying from his appointed path, until he meets Lake Divine, and discovers there may be more to his beliefs than blind duty.

But Lake is not who he seems. Offspring of a human and a fallen angel, a Nephilim, Lake must choose his own destiny: give in to the coldness and embrace the dark, or seek the light and rise above the sins of his father.

Two paths lay before them, but only one has the potential to destroy them both.

About the Author

Patricia Josephine never set out to become a writer. In fact, she never considered it an option during high school and college. But some stories are meant to be told and this one chose her. Patricia lives with her husband in Michigan, hopes one day to have what will resemble a small petting zoo and has a fondness for dying her hair the colors of the rainbow.

Patricia Josephine writes young adult under the name Patricia Lynne.

Follow Patricia on Twitter | Goodreads | Google+ | Website | Wattpad

Happy Valentines' Day!

Today's playlist.

It has nothing to do with Valentines'. Sorry.
I just didn't have a title for this random post.
Neither do I have a reason for this post.

Um.
okthxbai