#bookreview: The Migrant Report by @Moha_Doha

The Migrant Report by Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Police Captain Ali has to give up his dreams of joining the Internal Security Force due to a physical defect. Initially stuck with ridiculous assignments such as arresting chefs for making penis-shaped cakes for a private function, he gets sucked into the investigation of mysterious deaths amongst foreign construction workers.

Maryam needs to write a report - something unique to life in the Arabian Gulf - so that Professor Paul will give her a passing grade. Failing would mean that she would get kicked out of university - and her mother would finally be able to marry her off. When her brother, Nasser, suggests that she write about migrant workers and their lives, she jumps at the idea. Finding one to interview for her report is no easy feat, however. As an unmarried female, she doesn't have the freedom to interview any of the male migrant workers - even if she could find one who was willing to talk to her.

Manu is excited to leave Nepal and join his sister Sanjana in the Middle East. But things quickly turn sour when his expected office job turns into menial labour on a construction site, his salary is slashed, and he has no way to contact Sanjana.

The Migrant Report is an honest peek into life in the Gulf - where profits are more important than the lives of cheap labour, and family honour is more important than truth or education. But the world is slowly changing and Ali, Maryam and Manu find themselves treading in dangerous waters. The three of them, with the help of their family and friends, need to figure out how to walk the dangerous balance between meeting society's expectations and cultural values whilst pressing to expose the corruption behind the scenes without ending up dead. Race, religion and skin colour all make up an important part of one's identity - both in the way one views oneself, and in the way one is treated by others in society - and Moha demonstrates this very well in The Migrant Report.

I enjoyed reading Moha's latest novel. It's an ambitious one - one that contrasts the differences between being an expatriate and an immigrant, though both are foreign workers in a foreign country. It highlights the privileges of being white and illustrates the restrictions of being a Muslim girl.

I think it is an important story that needed to be told.

*I received a free copy of this book via Novel Publicity in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews

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About the Book - About the Author - Prizes!!!

About the prizes: Who doesn't love prizes? You could win one of two $50 Amazon gift cards or an autographed copy of The Migrant Report! Here's what you need to do...

1. Enter the Rafflecopter contest
2. Leave a comment on my blog

That's it! One random commenter during this tour will win the first gift card. Visit more blogs for more chances to win--the full list of participating bloggers can be found HERE. The other two prizes will be given out via Rafflecopter. You can find the contest entry form linked below or on the official The Migrant Report tour page via Novel Publicity. Good luck!

About the book: 

The penalty for stealing is losing your hand. No wonder Ali can leave his wallet overnight in his office. Crime hovers on the fringes of society, under the veneer of utopia. Police captain Ali's hopes of joining the elite government forces are dashed when his childhood deformity is discovered. His demotion brings him face to face with the corruption of labor agencies and also Maryam, an aspiring journalism student, who is unlike any local girl he has ever met. Ali and his unlikely sidekick must work together to find the reason so many laborers are dying. Against the glittery backdrop of the oil rich Arabian Gulf, Ali pursues a corrupt agency that will stop at nothing to keep their profits rising. As the body count rises, so does the pressure to settle the source. Can Ali settle the score before the agency strikes again?

Get The Migrant Report through Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

About the author: 

Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar’s award winning books have focused on various aspects of life in the Arabian Gulf nation of Qatar. From Dunes to Dior is a collection of essays related to her experiences as a female South Asian American living in the Arabian Gulf and named as Indie Book of the Day in 2013. Love Comes Later is a literary romance set in Qatar and London and was the winner of the Best Indie Book Award for Romance in 2013, short listed for the New Talent award by the Festival of Romance, and Best Novel Finalist in eFestival of Words, 2013.

She currently lives with her family in Qatar, where she teaches writing and literature courses at American universities.

Connect with Mohanalakshmi on her website, Facebook,or Twitter.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

#review: Here in the Waiting

It has been a difficult week.

If you know me well enough, you know that I don't do well with dealing with people. Especially young people. What led me to volunteer at a youth arts camp for teens aged between 13 - 17 is one thing. I, at least, was somewhat prepared for it. The drama that teens create that do not relate to the Christmas drama (totally not related to camp) was another thing altogether. Add to that hormones. And overall levels of frustration. "Stress" is too mild a word. I had stabby feelings. Very, very stabby feelings.

One thing that has helped me keep my sanity was Josh's Here in the Waiting album. Like seriously.

The songs on this album aren't exactly new to me. I was there at PenHOP during the recording in May, so I've listened to and sung these songs over and over again. But listening to them again in my car was like a breath of fresh air; like a new wind.

HITW is an album of intimacy. Kau Yang Terelok, Surrender and One Glance are love songs to the Father, Hear Him Roar and The Return are declarations of power, Breath of Heaven invites us to invite God to work in us. And Here in the Waiting itself is the heart-cry of a generation desperate to see the Father move.

On Josh's website, he says (emphasis mine):

Maturity is the ability to live in the tension of unresolved questions. It is the ability to navigate the space between the already’s and not-yet’s of life while being fully present in the now. As believers, we are caught in the pull of the kingdom now and yet-to-come, the “fulfillment without consummation”. We see God’s power manifested through healing and miracles, yet see bodies ravaged by disease and lives truncated by death. We see justice movements being raised and released on the earth, yet are confronted daily with the injustices of living in a fallen world. As beings created with eternity in our hearts, it is difficult, even discouraging, to confront the stark disparity between what is and what should be. 

And this is the space I've been inhabiting lately. A place where I see the things that should be and yet stand in the place where it is not. I see the so much more that we could be, but I do not know how to get there. And I do not know if we will. And yet we hope. We wait. We long. 

In his interview on Selah, Josh says this:

After the final note of the last track has faded and what’s left in the heart of the listener is an aching and longing for Jesus and a desire to love Him more, then it would have all been worth it.

It has then been worth it.

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So in lieu of a #musicmonday post and a book review post that's being rescheduled to Friday, here's a song and an invitation. :)

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// 26 November - Penang (FGA Centre)
RSVP here today: https://www.facebook.com/events/1515275322123769/

// 27 November - Kuala Lumpur (DUMC)
RSVP here today: https://www.facebook.com/events/1633394986913530/

// 29 November - Singapore (Faith Methodist Church)
RSVP here today: https://www.facebook.com/events/548000732034825/

#bookreview: Juma's Rain by Katharina Gerlach

Jumatoa Botango is the only female left in her family and she is intent on claiming the role her late mother gave up when she followed her husband out to the Endless Wells: Chieftess of the tribe. But claiming the role as the chieftess' apprentice is a near impossible task. Her cousin Kandra, daughter of the current Chieftess, is her direct competitor. The tribe is facing the worst drought in history, and no matter what they do, the witch has been unable to wake Vanamate, Mother of the Tribes and Keeper of the Water, from her slumber. Netinu, Kandra's brother, is insistent on trying to court her - mostly to annoy his mother and sister - adding an additional layer of distraction to her complicated life. Worst of all, Juma keeps seeing a red-haired man no one else sees - one she gradually realises is the heat daemon, Mubuntu.

In Juma's Rain, German author Katharina Gerlach weaves an enchanting tale set in Africa. It isn't an African folk tale though - it's a retelling of The Rain Maiden by Theodor Storm, a German writer from the 1800's. In her retelling, Gerlach constructs a very believable matriarchal society and belief system, giving you enough details to make it seem authentic, and yet not enough to fix it to any one tribe or location. The gods referenced (The Nameless, Vanamate, Monnatoba, Mubuntu) do not seem to come from any popular African mythology that I can find online; either Gerlach created them, or they are quite obscure (not that I looked very hard, other than random Wikipedia searches). While I was reading though, it felt authentic, charming and romantic and I was excited to learn something about African myths and beliefs, which says something about Gerlach's growing prowess as a story teller.

It feels odd to say this, but I am proud - and glad - to witness Gerlach's growth over the years. The first time I met her online was through the Writers Platform Building Campaign back in 2011, where she spurred quite a few participants and compiled our flash fiction into an anthology, Campaigner Challenges 2011, for charity.

Since then, I have been on her mailing list and have been invited to review a few of her books. One of the earliest was Urchin King, a retelling of The Prince and the Pauper, which hinted at her prowess, but was not quite there yet. The next was The Adventure of Creation, an anthology in which Katharina's short story appears. This was followed by another short story, The Day Music Died, in 2014 and The King's Mechanic early this year.

What makes this doubly impressive is the fact that not only does she write increasingly well in English, she also writes in German. Or rather, she writes in German (which I am not qualified to comment on) and then translates them into English.

Katharina Gerlach is definitely a writer to watch.

*Note: I received a copy of Juma's Rain from the author in exchange for an honest review.

#guestpost: @michelle4laughs talks about diversity in Grudging

Diversity is a hot button issue. People feel very emotional about it. And rightly so. But that makes it a difficult subject to talk about. And also difficult for writers with their books. Leave out diverse characters in your book and you can be called out on it. Include diverse characters and you can be called out in the opposite way for not being sensitive or genuine enough--for getting it wrong.

As a white writer do we avoid diversity or do we go for it? Either way seems full of the possibility of upsetting someone, no matter our good intentions. Unlike in stories, I don't like conflict in my real life. I just want to write and craft an entertaining story. But I also want to show that our world is full of wonderfully different people. That's why when I decided on a desert setting for my newest book, I knew the characters living there would need to have darker skin than the traditional western European hero in order to be accurate. That's basic evolution. I based my protagonists on Spanish and Moorish cultures. The aggressive antagonists in Grudging have lighter hair and eyes being from the North or colder climate.

The thing to remember is that I write fantasy, and not modern urban fantasy, but fantasy set in an imaginary place--like Lord of the Rings but without orcs and elves and such. These human cultures are fiction, invented by me. They don't have the same racial history of the real world. They didn't struggle with slavery or the same prejudices. Their reactions are going to be different from real world people. What I hope is that they will have human reactions.

I work in an elementary school, helping special needs children. This year I'm in my favorite place--a kindergarten class. I love it because they accept each other unconditionally. There are twenty children from all sorts of backgrounds. We have kids whose parents came from the Middle East. Kids whose parents were born in Africa. There is every color of the wonderful world in this class and every religion, and I adore them all. My days are full of funny and touching moments. Five-year-olds love to hug and share about their lives. And do you know what I noticed? They may be only five, but they all have strikingly different and unique personalities. Not one of them acts exactly the same as another. Not one of them can be classified by how they look.

When I craft a character I hope that's what comes through. That each character is a different and unique individual with their own way of reacting. But whether protagonist or antagonist they all feel human. Perhaps that's the way I feel diversity should work: that it shows how people are the same and how we are different, but that we are all human. And that's how we should be judged--on our humanity.

_____________________________________________________________________

A world of chivalry and witchcraft…and the invaders who would destroy everything.

The North has invaded, bringing a cruel religion and no mercy. The ciudades-estados who have stood in their way have been razed to nothing, and now the horde is before the gates of Colina Hermosa…demanding blood.

On a mission of desperation, a small group escapes the besieged city in search of the one thing that might stem the tide of Northerners: the witches of the southern swamps.

The Women of the Song.

But when tragedy strikes their negotiations, all that is left is a single untried knight and a witch who has never given voice to her power. And time is running out.

A lyrical tale of honor and magic, Grudging is the opening salvo in the Book of Saints trilogy.

Find Grudging: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | HarperCollins | Goodreads

_________________________________________________________________________________

Michelle Hauck lives in the bustling metropolis of northern Indiana with her hubby and two teenagers. Besides working with special needs children by day, she writes all sorts of fantasy, giving her imagination free range. She is a co-host of the yearly query contests Query Kombat, Nightmare on Query Street, New Agent, PitchSlam, and Sun versus Snow. Her Birth of Saints trilogy from Harper Voyager starts with GRUDGING on November 17, 2015. Her epic fantasy, KINDAR’S CURE, was published by Divertir Publishing.

Twitter: @Michelle4Laughs

Blog: Michelle4Laughs: It’s in the Details

Facebook: Michelle Hauck, Author

Goodreads: Grudging

Goodreads: Kindar’s Cure

Tumblr: Michelle4Laughs

#musicmonday: Steady Heart | Steffany Gretzinger

Steady heart that keeps on going
Steady love that keeps on holding
Lead me on
Steady grace that keeps forgiving
Steady faith that keeps believing
Lead me on

A #nanowrimo excerpt: Of Elephants and Potatoes

And here it is, an excerpt from the story I started for Nanowrimo, which is probably going to die an ignominious death very soon. Enjoy, or rather, just stab me to death right now.

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The thing with being In a State was that it often tired Cherise out so that she didn’t have any bad dreams. This time though, because she had fallen asleep after less than half an hour of crying, her subconscious was still overly active, resulting in the strangest dream about elephants that she had ever had. Not that she had ever dreamt of elephants before.
She had opened her eyes to see a large, matronly elephant bending over her, nuzzling her neck with its trunk. She had blinked and rubbed her eyes, but the elephant still loomed over her. She could feel the gentle touch of the elephant’s trunk on her neck, unexpectedly feather light, like a warm caress.
“Why do you cry, little one?” the elephant asked.
Cherise’s eyes widened.
“You… you speak. I’m… I’m dreaming, aren’t I?” Cherise pinched herself.
The elephant’s eyes narrowed. “Hmm. Yes, yes you are.”
Cherise nodded. “That’s right.”
“So why don’t you tell me why you’re crying, little one? After all, this is only a dream, so you can say whatever you want.”
“I - I…” Cherise couldn’t figure out what to say. Frankly, she felt a little silly for talking to an elephant, even if it were only an imaginary one.
“You remind me of that cartoon,” she said instead. “The one with the flying elephant.”
“Maybe I am.”
“I haven’t seen that cartoon for ages. I don’t really remember what it was about except that little Dumbo was crying because he had been separated from his mother.”
“So why are you crying? Have you been separated from your mother?”
“I - well, it seems so silly.”
“Nothing can be sillier than you dreaming of talking to a cartoon elephant, so why don’t you try me?” the elephant said. Cherise found herself agreeing.
“Well, you see, Nate got married.”
The elephant waited for her to continue. After a while, it prodded, “and you’re heart-broken because you like him?”
“No, not exactly. I never liked Nate in that way. I mean, he was nice. We’ve been friends for a long time, but I never had romantic feelings for him.” She paused, sitting up. The elephant settled into what passed for a sitting position beside her and they sat companionably in silence. Cherise found herself leaning on it.
“Do you have a name?” she finally asked.
“Hmm. You can call me Iris,” the elephant replied.
“Iris. Like the flower?”
“No. Iris, like your eye.”
Cherise thought about that. “Because you are all-seeing? Or something?”
“Or something.” Iris’ trunk settled about Cherise’s shoulders like a warm hug. “Why don’t you continue telling me your story?”
“Oh. I thought I’d finished. Well, Nate got married. And everyone was so happy and so pretty. And then I felt like a useless fifth wheel which no one noticed or wanted.”
“Fifth wheel?” Iris queried.
“You know, like that spare tire thing that’s in the car that you never remember you have until your get a flat tire?”
“I’m not very familiar with the concept of cars, but I think I get what you mean.”
“Yea, I mean everything is always done in pairs - or in this case, with four wheels on a car - and you never ever need that last person, unless something goes wrong. And I’m always this person - this - useless person until something goes wrong and they say, oh but maybe Cherise knows what to do. And then most times I don’t, but I try. And sometimes I do but it’s all so - ugh.”
“Doesn’t that make you a useful person, though? Because they need you?”
Cherise shook her head. “You don’t understand, Iris. I don’t want to be needed anymore. I want to be wanted.”
Iris flapped her ears thoughtfully.
“And maybe what I really want is a family of my own. Despite the fact that kids are such bothersome things. But… but maybe they won’t be that bad,” Cherise continued in a rush.
“But that sounds like you want to be needed. Children are needy little people after all.”
“I - I…” a small tear leaked out of Cherise’s eye. “I don’t know what I want. I just know that I don’t want to be where I am anymore. The white elephant. The elephant in the room.” She paused. “No offense.”
Iris engulfed her in a warm elephant hug. “Don’t worry little one. Things will get better soon.” Cherise wriggled a little, but Iris’ hug was strong and comforting, and once she was settled in a comfortable position, she closed her eyes and listened to Iris sing a little Elephant Lullaby.

Hush, little one, close your eyes
Iris is here to still your cries
The world so harsh will fade away
As Iris sings her little lay.  

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And my terrible word count so you can laugh at me.

#Tea review series: Traditional teas from @roleaftea

And I'm back with my final instalment of the tea review!

The first one I started with was Rooibos the Robust, which hails from South Africa. 

Anna's review: I've had Rooibos before and find that there are varying strengths to this. I once had a whole pack of rather light sachets that I finished off quickly in college, and I've also had some really thick rooibos from when a friend visited South Africa, so I was thinking "Robust" must be really thick. Surprisingly not.

As the product description says: "Strength: Light." Not sure why it's called Robust then. 

How I would describe it to my mum: Hey, it says it's caffeine-free so you can drink it any time. Though I think you probably won't want to try because it still has a very 'tea' taste. 

~

The next on the list is a rather common tea: Jasmine. The name on the pack they sent me says "Just Jasmine", but I can't find that specific name on the website. they've probably rebranded to either Dragon Pearl Jasmine or maybe Jasmine Luxury. Which ever it is, it's a very nice Jasmine tea. 

Anna's review: Very often you don't get Jasmine tea any more. You get Jasmine green tea which is very much green tea and not enough Jasmine. This... is very flowery Jasmine. Be careful of over-steeping though.

How I would describe it to my mum: Uh, it's Jasmine. Like what you get in pots in restaurants.

~

The last tea is Imperial Long Jing. I was trying to figure out what tea this was from the name because neither my mum nor I had ever heard of it before. The production description, "variety of pan-roasted green tea from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China," didn't help very much, so I just drank it.

Anna's review & how I would describe it to my mum: We drank this together because we couldn't figure out what tea it was. Our conclusion was that this tasted like fancy Chinese tea from fancy expensive Chinese restaurants. It's pretty light, with a bit of a dry after taste and we still don't know what we would call it here.

~

Again, super-duper thanks and much love to RoLeaf for these tea samples! Check them out at their website, facebook, twitter and instagram.

#bookreview: Meritorium by Joel Ohman

Welcome to the Meritorium Tour

Author Joel Ohman

Meritorium by Joel Ohman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Meritropolis is no more, but the System still exists.

Still intent on taking down the System, Charley, Sandy, Sven and the survivors of the fall of Meritropolis head towards Meritorium, where Charley hopes he can come face to face with his true nemesis, Commander Orson's father.

But the dangers of this journey are more than the new animal hybrids they face on the way. They have to face the depravity of humanity in the Coliseum, as well as the truth that as much as Charley hates and fights the system, it is ingrained in him more than he would care to admit.

Meritorium is an enjoyable read - Ohman has flourished in his writing. His underlying message is still there, but shown in a myriad of ways, through many different faces and epiphanies.

* I received a free copy of this book via Novel Publicity in return for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Meritorium is the second book in Joel Ohman's series. CLICK HERE for my review of book 1, Meritropolis,

About the Book

Under the System everyone is assigned a numerical Score that decides their worth to society and whether they live or die.

Charley has escaped from Meritropolis...

but in his quest to take down the System that has taken his brother from him, he must go through Meritorium, a city where gladiatorial games of life or death combat are waged between High Scores and Low Scores, man and beast.

Charley and Sandy must face man-eating plants, religious zealots, slave traders, and the ever present mutant animal combinations that roam a dystopian Coliseum presided over by Emperor Titus, the one man standing between Charley and the answers he seeks. Man is not an animal, but if they are to make it through Meritorium, will they even be able to tell the difference?

The lines between man and beast, friend and foe, will blur in Meritorium, the riveting sequel to the best selling Meritropolis.

About the Author

Joel Ohman is the author of Meritropolis--"The Hunger Games meets The Village with a young Jack Reacher as a protagonist". He lives in Tampa, FL with his wife Angela and their three kids. His writing companion is Caesar, a slightly overweight Bull Mastiff who loves to eat the tops off of strawberries.

Learn more about Joel here: JoelOhman.com

Get notified of new books here: Meritropolis.com
Follow Joel on Twitter here: Twitter.com/JoelOhman
Connect with Joel on Facebook here: Facebook.com/joeljonathan

About the Prizes

Don’t forget to check out the rafflecopter for this tour here! The tour prize is a $75.00 gift card to Amazon! Think of all the books you can buy with that!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

#musicmonday: True Love | Phil Wickham

Remember about 3 weeks back when I said I wasn't very impressed by the "new" Phil Wickham CD I got from Logos Hope?

Listening to an album on loop and letting the words sink into your heart changes that.

This is probably going to be *the* Easter song for next year. Haha.

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Come close, listen to the story
About a love more faithful than the morning
The Father gave His only Son just to save us

The earth was shaking in the dark
All creation felt the Father's broken heart
Tears were filling heaven's eyes
The day that true love died, the day that true love died
When blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn't move came crashing down
We were free and made alive
The day that true love died, the day that true love died

Search your hearts, you know you can't deny it
Lose your life just so you can find it
The Father gave His only Son just to save us

Jesus is alive
He rose again

Come close, listen to the story

Kindle for PC: Finding your notes file

I'm blogging this mainly because I spent hours trying to export my highlights/notes from an ARC (Advanced Reader's Copy) of Juma's Rain. The only thing you can find online is how to export notes from a Kindle reader (and usually a store-bought book) to a PC but not from a PC to... well, PC.

So basically I had two problems:
1. I was reading an ARC, therefore it was not an Amazon book (at least not yet - it releases next week), and therefore did not appear in my online highlights file.
2. I made my notes on the Kindle for PC, therefore in no universe could I "connect my Kindle to the PC via USB and export the myclippings.txt file." Heck I couldn't even find a myclippings file.

Okay, so the trick is this: look for the .mbp file.
I saw this file earlier and ignored it, and when I looked for it again, it wasn't viewable anywhere. Until I had the bright idea to import files into Calibre (I was trying to see if I copied the .mobi file into Calibre, would I see the notes? The answer is: no). It was then that the .mbp file appeared in the import folder, I imported it, and then opened it with notepad.

Note: I played around with the settings in my folders again and now the .mbp files are viewable. I'm not sure what I did; but I must have accidentally hidden the file type. But well, if you can't find them, rest assured, they are there - you just need Calibre to make them visible.

But anyway, if you want to export your notes/highlights from Kindle for PC and all you get are myclippings files, remember this: MBP files.

(Oh the things you can find once you know what to look for)

#bookreview: Raining Embers by Jessica Dall

Raining Embers by Jessica Dall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To be honest, I started reading Raining Embers without expecting anything much from it. Jessica Dall had emailed me and offered me a copy of the book for review, so I browsed the site, skimmed the sample pages casually and figured that it would probably be a generic 3-star read. Sure, I'd review it, I said.

Raining Embers starts off painfully slow. Dall shifts between Palmer Tash's life as a poor Ward of the Church and Brier Chastain-Bochard's privileged decadence with something of a disconnect. They meet once. Strange things happen. Palmer sees visions, Brier faints. Then these two very disparate people are kidnapped - and find out from their kidnappers that they are the incarnations of Chaos and Order.

The story only really takes off then as the things that have been shrouded in mystery are progressively revealed. You find yourself becoming engaged with this myth, navigating the push and pull of Palmer and Brier's relationship both as humans and as gods, gripped by their fears and worries.

The world-building doesn't always feel fully fleshed out. Latysia seems to be based on an Italian culture, which I am personally unfamiliar with. The society has a very medieval, religious-based European feel, with the centrality of the Church, though it isn't quite the Christian church we are currently familiar with; there is a reliance on Seers, star-charting and visions. It isn't exactly Knights Templar because it's very not-British; Signoras and Signorinas are bandied about in greetings. Chaos & Order seems to be more Greek mythology, but this isn't exactly earth as we know it, so it doesn't matter. Whatever it is, it isn't enough to pull you out of the story. Rather, it makes you want to delve more into it to find out how this myth works in this world that Dall has created.

I ended up really liking the book - it really would have been a 5-star one if it weren't for the beginning. Well, it is what it is - a promising start of a new series.

*As stated earlier, I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for review purposes.

View all my reviews

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Guess what?
Raining Embers releases on Amazon and Barnes & Noble today, so you can get your book now!

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Jessica Dall is the author of such novels as Off Book and The Copper Witch along with a number of short stories that have appeared in both literary magazines and anthologies. When not writing, she is an editor and creative writing teacher in Washington, DC.

Find her online:
Website | Twitter | Facebook

#musicmonday: Greater | MercyMe

Because some days you need this so much.

#bookreview: The Princelings trilogy by Jemima Pett

I "met" Jemima Pett over the A to Z blogging challenge in 2013, when we were Damyanti's minions. I picked up her books then - and sat on them, as usual - until I was looking through the books in my kindle and decided that I should make a serious attempt at reducing the backlog. So here they are - all three - which makes for a very long post! =)


The Princelings of the East by Jemima Pett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Castle Marsh, an extremely isolated guinea pig castle, is experiencing a strange energy drain. When it ruins the King's birthday feast, the Princeling twins, Fred the Philosopher and George the Engineer, decide that they must do something about it.

The mysterious tunnel that appears in response to Fred's spoken request for a secret passage is only the first surprise in their adventure. As they continue on their quest for answers, they meet the Hugo, a travelling salesman; Victor, a harried barkeeper; as well as Prince Lupin and Lady Nimrod, who provide much wisdom and help. They also discover new drinks (other than strawberry juice), find a time tunnel and visit new castles.

As stated in the blurb, The Princelings of the East is intended for children ages 8 and up, so I wasn't too sure if I would like it. I generally enjoy childrens' books, but have been finding some of them a little too bland lately. This book isn't, though. Pett has a nice blend of wit and wisdom, as well as a very engaging writing style - not overly simplified, as if talking down to children, but simple, clean and crisp, so that you're attracted to it, no matter how young or old you are.

Actually, after reading the trilogy and now flipping through this book again as I write this review, I notice there are subtle hints and clues to things that will happen in the rest of the trilogy - things that I didn't pick up until now.


The Princelings and the Pirates by Jemima Pett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Our Princeling twins, Fred & George, face unexpected swashbuckling adventures in The Princelings and the Pirates. The adventure starts off innocuously enough - the wine from Dimerie has run out and the person that Castle Buckmore originally sent to find out why hasn't returned, so Fred, George, and Victor set out for Castle Dimerie to discover what's wrong. Along the way, they get kidnapped by pirates, meet beautiful princesses, as well as dig out long hidden secrets.

I'm not entirely sure why I didn't feel as engaged with this second book of the trilogy. I love swashbuckling adventures and I did like The Princelings of the East quite a bit, so I was actually looking forward to this one a lot. Maybe it suffers from the general middle syndrome of almost all trilogies. Then again, I think that the Princeling books can be read as standalones so that shouldn't really be a factor.

It could possibly have felt a little disjointed - The Princelings of the East centres pretty much around Fred and George, and is located primarily Castle Buckmore with the occasional time travel, but The Princelings and the Pirates has a much wider scope. In this one, we jump from Castle Buckmore, to Castle Dimerie, pirate ships, Castle Marsh and the deserted Castle Fortune, with a few other castles being mentioned and thrown into the mix.

Whatever it was, Pirates was still a pretty good read.


The Princelings and the Lost City by Jemima Pett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

We pick up our story with George recovering from his injuries, Fred trying to win Kira's hand in marriage, and Prince Lupin getting married to Princess Nerys, Kira's sister. The power plant project is progressing smoothly and Fred is hard at work thinking of ways to improve Castle Marsh, ways that would make full use of the flying machine Miles and George were working on.

When Fred, George and Kira stumble upon an apparently deserted castle called Arbor on their way to Castle Marsh, they decide to explore it, resulting in Kira being kidnapped and an imposter put in her place.

I found this book more interesting than The Princelings and the Pirates, not least because it starts to explore sexism and male privilege in a very natural and practical way, which I think is excellent. Pett doesn't just look at it in a one-sided manner, but looks at the excesses of both feminism as well as male chauvinism. Granted, things in Arbor are over exaggerated - I'm not sure if this should be for kids aged 10; whilst Pett is delicate and doesn't state things very explicitly, I don't recall if these are things that a 10-year old would understand? Then again, kids mature so fast now that they might probably think Pett is being prudish. Hm.

Pett is in top form with several heart-tugging scenes scattered throughout the story and an exciting race against time.

Also, there are 3 more books in this series!

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Psst... you can get book 1 for free here.

#musicmonday: O Come Emmanuel

I'm currently jumping between prepping for Christmas and brainstorming for Easter. My head is about to break.

This is one of the songs that which is usually used for Christmas, but I also use for Easter. Which is why it's in my current compilation of muse songs for Easter 2016.

I'm releasing a short story today!

So if you're on my mailing list or following my facebook page, you'd likely already know this and have (hopefully) gotten a copy of the book, but... here's the news for the rest of the world!

Go north, little human.
Go north until the winds blow cold and you walk on water.
Go north, and there you will find her.

With the Dragon's prophecy ringing in his ears, Danis travels from town to town, seeking a wife. But at every stop, he is turned away, until he enters the City of Winter itself...

When Winds Blow Cold is a short fairy tale of approximately 6,000 words, available on Smashwords and Amazon, starting from 10/25/15.


Why should you take a chance on me, you say?
Who says it's a chance? You're already reading my blog so I'm guessing you've had multiple samples of my writing. Actually, I have posted a sample of it here before. Here's the much earlier, unedited snippet.

Then again, you don't really need to take a (monetary) chance. It's currently available for free on NoiseTrade and will be there until the end of the year (also see widget on the side bar). Side note: free downloads on NoiseTrade comes with the caveat that I can add you to my mailing list. And you can always go back later and leave me a tip. Hehe.

But enough about that. This is the VERY EXCITING thingamabob I found recently.

YOU CAN ALSO GET IT SIGNED! ;)

#bookreview: In Memory: A Tribute to Sir Terry Pratchett

In Memory: A Tribute to Sir Terry Pratchett by Laura May
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In Memory: A Tribute to Sir Terry Pratchett contains 17 very diverse stories with one central theme: Memory, or the loss of it. If you were expecting that all of them would sound like Terry Pratchett, you'd be sorely disappointed - after all, these are very diverse authors from 9 countries and 4 continents. However, there are echoes of Terry in every single story that you read.
I started reading this book with the presumption that I would love it. After all, it was written as a tribute to Terry Pratchett, one of my favourite authors of all time.

Personal favourites of mine (in order of appearance) are The Heart of the Labyrinth (DK Mok), Ackerley's Genuine Earth Antiques (Michael K. Schaefer), The Tale of the Storyteller (Caroline Friedel), and The Olivie Crowne Affair (Choong JayVee). They're a very diverse group of stories - Storyteller is an enchanting fairy tale-like read; Olivie Crowne is witty and and a little crazy; Labyrinth harks back to a more medieval time; whilst Antiques is set so far in the future that earth is nothing but a dream.

Honourable mentions go to Memoryarian (Scott A. Butler), There's a Tattoo, But the Robes Hide It (Mike Reeves-McMillan), Strangers (Robert McKelvey), and The Archive of Lost Memories (Anna Mattaar). Tattoo actually reminds me a little of Diana Wynne Jones.

Overall, the anthology is a great one - one that I'd likely want to browse through over and over again. It's funny, it's engaging, it's also a little contemplative and bitter sweet.

----

I was going to delete my running commentary on the stories, but I guess I'll leave them as part of the review. (Minor cleaning up done)

Thanks for the Memory Cards: First story off to a shaky start, but I really liked how it went.
The Heart of the Labyrinth: Omigosh. Second story is awesome. *squeal*
How Fell The Towers Three: A bit shouty.
Memoryarian; There's a Tattoo, But the Robes Hide It: Nicely done
The Shells of Lethe: Reminds me of something. Not too sure I entirely like the tone it's written in. Was a bit disruptive at points.
Ackerley's Genuine Earth Antiques:I also really liked this one. This is a pretty good anthology. ahaha
The Chicken Gospel: Interesting in a very distracted kind of way. (Note: I liked this better on the second read than the first.)
Doris: Looked back at it to put a comment and did not strike me in any way positive or negative. Hum...
The Wondrous Land of Nib: I didn't like the switch at the end. I mean... if this is a Pratchett tribute, it really could have been done more stylistically over the whole short story.
Strangers: Strangers earns a heart!
The Tale of the Storyteller: Storyteller earns many, many hearts!
Bubble Trouble: A little ambivalent about Bubble. It started off great but I think it got lost halfway.
The Vivadarium: Meh.
The Archive of Lost Memories Liked it.
If Only I'd Known Not sure I got the reasoning behind this one.
The Olivie Crowne Affair OMIGOSH JAY VEE I LOVE YOU (I should probably delete this part of the review. lol)

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In Memory: A Tribute to Sir Terry Pratchett will be released on Oct 31, 2015.

You could get it on Kindle, where all proceeds go to Alzheimer's Research UK, or you could try the GIVEAWAY. Or, you know, you could be a terrible person like me and request for a review copy. But only if you're going to really review it, okay. Because if not, you'll be stealing from a worthy cause.

#musicmonday: Divine Romance | Phil Wickham

I bought a Phil Wickham album from Logos Hope because I remembered liking his songs. Unfortunately, I don't like this album as much as I thought I would.

This is the song I loved, from a previous album.

#fridayflash: On the ledge

There was something about ledges that attracted Janice. The rush of looking down, the giddiness of being up above. But mostly, wondering how it would feel like to fly.
She sat now, hugging her legs, on the top of a twenty-story building, watching the tiny toy cars move far below.

"Hey."

Janice turned.

"Come back in. It's not safe out there." The bespectacled girl beckoned her.

"But I like it here."

"Aren't you - aren't you afraid of falling?"

Janice shrugged. "Maybe I want to." She frowned. "Now you'll think I'm crazy."

"No... no I don't. I..."

"It's okay. I think I'm crazy. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a dragon?"

"I can't say I have."

"Well, I have. I imagine swooping down over those unsuspecting people, just because I can. I wouldn't eat them of course. What's your name, by the way?"

"Chris."

"Chris? For Christine?"

"No. Chris for Chrysanthemum. Don't laugh."

"I like Chrysanthemum," Janice declared, holding a hand out to Chris. "Come on. Have a look."

Chris shook her head. "I don't like heights."

"Oh. Then why are you up here?" Janice unfolded herself and got off the ledge.

Chris fidgeted. "They - they said there was a girl who looked like she was going to jump off a building. And I realised it was here, in my apartment. Thought I wanted to help. I live on the third floor."

"Oh, that was what those pesky flying things were on about, were they? I thought they were yelling at something. I just ignored them."

"Well, you weren't going to jump, were you?" Chris asked cautiously.

"One day, Chris. When I get my wings. Not today. I don't imagine I want to be a flattened pancake all the way down there." Janice smiled and took Chrysanthemum's hand as they walked to the door. "I live on the fifteenth floor. Do you want to visit? I can close all the curtains so you don't have to look."

"Sure, I'd like that."

---

The title of the song "Come as you are" as featured on my Music Monday post got interpreted in my head as "acceptance".

It was going to be a much darker story (I deleted the line: The unspoken, unacknowledged desire to end it all) but I've been working on a lot of fairy tale stuff so... *shrugs*

#bookreview: Fly Trap by Frances Hardinge

Fly Trap by Frances Hardinge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mosca Mye, a sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued orphan born under inauspicious stars, is trying her best to survive. Saracen, her pet goose, doesn't really help because he spends most of the time destroying things and therefore incurring more debt. Their companion, the con man Eponymous Clent, does his best to help, but isn't in a good position himself.

In the odd town of Toll, Mosca and Eponymous somehow find themselves embroiled in a plot to kidnap the Mayor's daughter and must find a way to save her before the very tight deadline of the night of Yacobray. But Toll by Day and Toll by Night are very different entities, and when they find themselves in the in-between they are exposed to danger of the greatest kind.

Fly Trap is a mix of funny moments, witty lines, and dark fears. It's a jumble of the intelligence and stupidity of youth, and the careful wariness of experience. It is the kind of book you stumble upon and wonder why you hadn't heard about earlier.

I haven't read book 1, but I can tell you that you won't get lost in the story by not knowing what happened then. Sure, there are allusions to it, and you do start to wonder what really happened, but it's not like there are any gaps in this story that needs to be filled in by the previous one. Though I will start to look out for it so that I can find out what happened in Mandelion. (It sounds exciting).

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#musicmonday: Come as you are | David Crowder

Come out of sadness
From wherever you've been
Come broken hearted
Let rescue begin
Come find your mercy
Oh sinner come kneel
Earth has no sorrow
That heaven can't heal
Earth has no sorrow
That heaven can't heal

So lay down your burdens
Lay down your shame
All who are broken
Lift up your face
Oh wanderer come home
You're not too far
So lay down your hurt
Lay down your heart
Come as you are

There's hope for the hopeless
And all those who've strayed
Come sit at the table
Come taste the grace
There's rest for the weary
Rest that endures
Earth has no sorrow
That heaven can't cure

So lay down your burdens
Lay down your shame
All who are broken
Lift up your face
Oh wanderer come home
You're not too far
Lay down your hurt
Lay down your heart
Come as you are
Come as you are
Fall in his arms
Come as you are
There's joy for the morning
Oh sinner be still
Earth has no sorrow
That heaven can't heal
Earth has no sorrow
That heaven can't heal

So lay down your burdens
Lay down your shame
All who are broken
Lift up your face
Oh wanderer come home
You're not too far
So lay down your hurt
Lay down your heart
Come as you are
Come as you are
Come as you are

---

Isaiah 35