Review- Divine Bloodlines by Christina Surretsky

Title: Divine Bloodlines
Author: Christina Surrestsky
Buylinks: Amazon US | Amazon UK

Summary (from Amazon):

Sixteen-year-old Zoey Chase is just your average teenage girl whose social life isn’t exactly what you would call “thriving.” But she has a secret ability that even those closest to her don’t know: Zoey can heal people by touching them. She discovered this power at a young age, but before she could ask her parents about it, her father died, and she was too late to help. How can she possibly tell her mother about her ability to heal when she didn’t save her father?

This is a good book. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys teenage romance with a side of the supernatural.

It could be a cliché from beginning to end, but the characters are so engaging and well written that the tropes are enjoyable and enticing. I am not a fan of Twilight for numerous reasons I will not go into, but, whereas I believe that series has tropes done wrong, I think this book has tropes done right.

Yes there is a love triangle, but it's not all teenage angst thrown everywhere and boys pouting until the girl notices them. Zoey, the lead character, has agency of her own; she makes the decisions. Sometimes she makes the wrong ones, but she makes them for herself and even comes to realise that some of the stuff she does is stupid.

Zoey is an interesting, well rounded character that I really liked. She has her problems and her strengths and sometimes she's just a teenager. Throughout the book she grows and changes as parts of the plot are revealed and she becomes more interesting, not less. I love the fact she's a sugar addict with a health nut for a mom :). There's one part with a dessert buffet that had me grinning from ear to ear.

Then we have the two important male characters. Asher, who is Adonis made flesh and a prime jerk and Levi who is dark and broody and a little bit dangerous. If that's all they were they would be 2D and rather uninteresting, but they have other sides to them as well.

Asher sets out to use Zoey for maths homework, but, then, for the first time in his life he is confronted with someone who doesn't just say yes to him and he is fascinated. He's shallow and vain and self-centred, but there is always the chance he might turn out not to be.

Then there is Levi, apparently angry at the world, but actually he's more scared of it and he has reason. He's a hulking guy who has dimples when he smiles, which perfectly illustrates the dichotomy of this character. It's possible he's a gentle giant, but it's also possible he's a young man with serious anger management issues who is very dangerous to those around him.

I also love the gay best friend. Alex sets himself up as a walking cliché so it's impossible not to like him. Then there is Nona, the grandmother with a dirty mind, the transvestite home help and so many more brilliantly frames background characters.

This book is primarily teenage romance, but it also has a paranormal element. Zoey has the power to heal and she soon suspects she's not the only one with supernatural abilities. We see her awakening to the idea she is not alone and the perils that come with not longer being the only holder of your own secret. The plot asks more questions than it answers, but the puzzles that are revealed in full are enough to be satisfying. There is an arc that is resolved, giving the book good form, but there are enough loose ends to make any reader ask 'so what's next'.

This is a good, easy, entertaining read for fans of the genre. Definitely worth a look.

Nostalgia Reading - My Favourite Childhood Books

I remember several stories fondly from my childhood and unfortunately I cannot remember what books they were from.

For example I remember a big red book that had lots of children's stories in it including one about a pink rabbit that was shivering (it turned out to be made of pink jelly) and a brother and sister where the brother was allowed to cut the cake, but the sister would be the one to pick who had which part. I have no idea which book they are from, but they have stuck will me all these years.

However, there are a couple of books I do remember very clearly. One was Grimm's complete Fairy Tales (I'm not sure what edition) and I absolutely loved those stories. I'm sure my love of fantasy started with them, although it would not grow until a few years later. The other set of books I remember from that young age are the My Naught Little Sister stories by Dorothy Edwards. I was most struck by when she ate all the silver balls off a cake :).

My parents always encouraged us to read and always read us bedtime stories and I have appreciated the written word ever since. I must admit I was almost put off that one year when, for Christmas, Sophie (my twin) was given three lovely different books and I got three copies of Little Women. I can only think that everyone decided we were the right age and I was the oldest so I was given Little Women. I have held a grudge against that book ever since.

Here's another confession, I have never really liked the traditional literary classics like Dickens and Austin. I have quite a dislike for Dickens actually, except his ghost stories, but I think that may be to do with being forced to study Great Expectations at school. Although I love Shakespeare; but then who doesn't like dirty jokes and lots of violent death? ;)

However, there is one classic I do love and that is The Hobbit by J.R.R.Tolkien. This is the book that bloomed my love for fantasy. To be honest I have never actually read it myself. It was read to us at primary school when I was about seven and it created a love for epic fantasy in me that has never gone away. The ideas and races and the quest settled in my bones and that was the moment I knew I wanted to write as well as read.

Speaking of the Hobbit, does anyone else think there may have been a primary school version of the book, or at least an agreement between primary school teachers about where to stop reading? I didn't know half the dwarves died for years, as far as I was concerned the story ended when they got the mountain back and beat the dragon and, having spoken to some friends, as children they thought the same.

There are many other books I read and loved as a child, but these are the ones that always stand out in my mind.

What are you favourite childhood books? Do you remember the book that first made you love reading?

Book Review: The Labyrinth of Time by T.W.Fendley

In the interests of full disclosure I have to say I received a free copy of this book so I could review it. However, that should not detract from the fact that it is a great book.

I sat up until 1:35 am reading this because I simply could not put it down. When I opened the ePub I thought I would just read a chapter or two, but it had me turning page after page until I finally finished it. My eyes were complaining and I could barely see by the time I put it down, but I just couldn't stop.

I couldn't help thinking of The Pentagram Chronicles by Anthony Horowitz which, when I read them in the 80s, I'm sure were called The Power of Five in this neck of the woods, but that seems to be what the rewritten versions are called now. This book gives me the same vibe and I really loved those books when I was a teen.

There is a depth of story telling in this book that really appeals to me. It has enough pre-Columbian information to make it contemporary and real, but with a background of fantasy that had me totally enrapt. The author's words brought everything to life in a very skilful and engaging way.

Then there are the characters which I loved. I have to admit that in some cases I have had my fill of the plucky female lead, but Jade is written so well I really liked her. However, it wasn't just her, there were so many characters to cheer for and others to shout for their downfall and they were all well thought out and interesting. I have to admit, One Reed, the shaman was my favourite.

The book is detailed and yet fast paced and is complex and yet easy to follow. I would recommend it to all YA fantasy fans.

Title: The Labyrinth of Time
Author: T.W.Fendley (link to Amazon Author Page)
Blurb (From Amazon):
Spending spring break in Peru with her grandmother isn't sixteen-year-old Jade's idea of fun. She'd much rather be with her friends at Lake of the Ozarks. Then she meets Felix, a museum director's son. Jade discovers only she and Felix can telepathically access messages left on engraved stones in the age of dinosaurs.

Following the ancient stones' guidance, they enter the Labyrinth of Time and--with a shapeshifting dog's help--seek a red crystal called the Firestone. But time is running out before the First Men return on the night of the second blue moon.

 Can Jade restore the Firestone's powers before the First Men return to judge humanity?

 Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | B&N | Smashwords

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This has nothing to do with the review, just some self promo - if you would like 2 FREE eBooks, one from me and one from my sister and fellow author Sophie Duncan, just sign up to our Wittegen Press Newsletter. When you confirm you membership we'll give you the following two books.

Curse of a Banshee by Sophie Duncan

Assassin's Blood by Natasha Duncan-Drake

Review: On Being Ghosts (The Anonymous Chronicles Book 1) by Matt Rood

Title: On Being Ghosts (The Anonymous Chronicles Book 1)
Author: Matt Rood
Links: Amazon UK | US
Summary from Amazon: Anon is a ghost who has been voted as the Residential Assistant living in a decaying mansion filled with ghosts. His job is to check up on all the inhabitants of the home, as well as to handle any haunting when the living show up. However when the darkness of what lingers in the basement starts to take shape, Anon must choose between taking himself or the other ghosts to salvation.

This book is golden. I could not put it down, in fact I just spent two hours reading it when I should have been doing other things. I started it this morning when I was exercising and managed to put it down then, but when I sat down to have my lunch I made the mistake of picking it up again. After that I had no chance.

Firstly the book could do with some editing. There are occasional typos, missed words or duplicated words - all the signs that it needed one more going over, but, frankly, I didn't care. The protagonist is so engaging and the plot so enthralling that I just kept reading and reading and reading.

So few books can grab me and refuse to let go. I am a very picky reader and this one entertained me completely. It's sometimes light-hearted, sometimes heart-warming and other times almost perfunctory and it's all captivating.

Most of the characters are ghosts and they're not really good guys or bad guys they just are and they mostly like it that way. The book is a journey for Anon, or RA as he is known in the mansion and we see him develop over the story. We take the journey with him and it is a wonderful ride.

Nothing is over explained. Some questions are asked that aren't quite answered even, but, that's the whole point. Anon doesn't have the whole picture so neither do we. It's a story about people who happen to be ghosts and everything that means. Their boundaries and limitations, their sorrows and their joys and, in places, it is amazingly exciting too.

This is a great book; a little rough around the edges in places, but still, a great book. I so, so, so want to read the sequel (since it's book 1, I assume there is going to be another one). Since it only just came out I assume I'm going to have to be patient for the next one.

EYM - The last book I read is ...

The Express Yourself Meme (EYM) is a weekly blog hop run by Jackie at Bouquet of Books and Dani at Entertaining Interests. Each month they post a Gadget with a question/task for each week in the month. Participants then answer the question in a post during the correct week.

There is a list of the participants at the bottom of this post.

This week's question/task:

What's the last book you read?

The last book I read, well am still reading actually is The Fog by Dennis Etchison. It is the novelisation of the film The Fog by John Carpenter and Debra Hill and I love it.

The Fog is one of those movies that always manages to give me the willies when I watch it and the book is just as good. What I like about reading the book is that because of the media there is much more of an insight into what the characters are thinking. It brings even more depth to the story.

The prose is sharp and well executed, the plot is great and the characters are nicely developed without being stodgy.

I had been looking for the book for years without really knowing how to get my hands on it. Every time I searched for it I just got hits for James Herbert's The Fog, which is an entirely different book :). I finally managed to find it because some kind soul had mentioned the novelisation on the wiki page for the film so I found out who actually wrote it.

Since the new price is £60 and up I can only assume it's out of print. I managed to get a second hand copy for just over a pound with P&P on top, but looks like I was lucky.

Day 22: My favourite books (requested by starr_falling)

starr_falling what is your favorite book (or books as I know it's hard to pick just one)?

This is an easy one. By far and away my favourite books are The Belgariad by David Eddings. This probably isn't the first time I've mentioned them or told the story of how I read the series, but here we go again :).

I was a teenager when I read these and I have loved them ever since. I can take these down off the shelf and read them in a weekend when I am feeling nostalgic and they never fail to make be smile.

When I read these I actually started with Enchanter's End Game which is book #5. I bought it in a second hand shop and didn't realise it was book five in a series. That, however, did not stop me enjoying it immensely. Things made a lot more sense once I'd read the others, but it is so well constructed that I could still enjoy it a lot without having read each book in the series.

After that I read Pawn of Prophesy (#1), Magician's Gambit (#3), Castle of Wizardry (#4) and finally Queen of Sorcery (#2). There was no deep reason for skipping #2, it was just I couldn't find it for a long time and I really wanted to read the whole series.

The Belgrariad is a classic tale of peasant boy turns out to have a huge destiny and has to run off and have adventures. In this case our hero is Garion, or Belgarion as he becomes known once it is obvious he is not a normal young man. Along with his Aunt Pol and the old storyteller who sometimes comes to the farm where Garion lives, who turn out to be the great sorcerer Belgarath and his daughter, the sorceress Polgara, Garion has to fight sorcery, narcotics, kings, queen, emperors and even Princess Ce'Nedra who is supposed to be on the same side.

This is a series that is chock full of plot and world building, but also has the most wonderful characters. We journey with Garion from innocence to understanding of the complex universe in which he lives. As he loses his innocence so do we and it is the most magnificent journey. The books also have strong male and female characters with give them a great balance. Nobody in these books is perfect, even Aunt Pol, who seems all but unshakable most of the time, isn't without her weaknesses.

These books are why I love sword and sorcery so much and I will never, ever throw away my copies.

There is a sequel to the Belgariad called the Malloreon which I also enjoy, but it's not as good as the Belgariad.

What are your favourite books?

Day 19: Books - 'yay, give me more' and 'oh, why did I read that?' (requested by the4ts)

the4ts Name at least one book you wish you'd never, ever read and one book you would happily read over and over again.

Very Happy I Read

Let's start with the good stuff.

I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to twist this one a little because someone already asked me what my favourite books that I can read over and over again are, so what I'm going to do is talk about a book I have just finished that I am really glad I read. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it and I will undoubtedly pick it up again at some point in the future.

The only way to describe this book is Viking werewolves(ish) in space. It's a Warhammer 40,000 book and it's called The Space Wolf Omnibus by William King. I bought it in a Cancer Research charity shop for £1.80 and it's the kind of book I tend to buy just to have a look at it. I wasn't sure I was going to like it. The fact is I enjoyed it so much I searched out the second omnibus and bought that too (it's in the post as we speak).

The book is a set of three novels about Ragnar, a young Viking from the world of Fenris. When the first book opens as far as he knows his whole world is the islands on which the Viking tribes live, but when he dies he starts a completely new life, or rather, when he almost dies.

Ragnar is taken by the Choosers of the Slain and in the first book he trains to become a Space Wolf. Space Wolves aren't actually werewolves, but they have been implanted with the gene-seed that gives them wolf like characteristics, but I still think of them as werewolves in space :). We see through Ragnar's eyes and all his confusion at the new worlds and new possibilities opening up before him.

In the second book Ragnar is a Blood Claw, the lowest rank among the Space Wolves and we are allowed to live his first off world mission with him.

Then in the third book Ragnar is just seasoned enough to almost be a Grey Hunter and we see him go to war with the whole chapter of Space Wolves to retrieve one of their sacred relics from the forces of Chaos.

As far as I am concerned each book was better than the next. I enjoyed the first book, but I found Ragnar's ignorance of everything around him a little jarring. Then the second book is exciting and had me continually coming back for more, and finally the third book I didn't want to put down.

The only thing I could have lived without were some of the battles. They became a little repetitive in places (but that's probably just me - I'm not much of a battle person :)) and I have to admit to skimming through some of them for the important plot points and not really taking much notice of the rest. However, there is plenty of other, much more interesting stuff around the battles, so this isn't a big issue for me. After all it is called Warhammer, so I had to expect some epic battles :).

Ragnar is a great character. He has doubts and flaws, but he's still a fantastic warrior and he's especially good when teamed up with his friend Sven, because they play off each other really well. In the first book he's more alone and isolated, which is part of why I think I prefer the later books, because Sven is there as well.

These books exist in a very interesting universe that I find fascinating as well, which really helps keep me interested. They have good characters, good plot and good world building. The way Ragnar learns everything gives the reader a way to learn everything as well, which is a very useful device. I am looking forward to when the new omnibus arrives.

The one thing I had to wonder though ... with all these hot blooded males, what about sex? Ragnar is attracted to a female character at one point, but it never comes to anything. I had to wonder what happened to their sex drives. Also, a very male orientated book, simply because of the setup there are virtually no female characters.

Wish I had Never Read

It's difficult to come up with any books I wish I had never read because I'm the type of person that if I start reading it and don't like it I stop reading.

However, one does come to mind. When I was a teenager I had a much higher tolerance for nasty horror than I do now. I remember going through the whole horror section of the school library as well as picking up books from second hand shops.

The book I wish I had never read is Slugs by Shaun Hutson and this isn't because I think it's terribly written or anything like that. It's because there are parts in it that have haunted me since the day I read them. This book has fantastic horror, but I could totally have lived without those mental images for the rest of my life :). I'm not going to share because I don't think you really want to know.

As for bad books. Mostly the only one's I've finished that I wish I had never read are short story eBooks. I'm not going to name any, but I have found that some are simply boring. I tend to download a lot of short story free eBooks to check out new authors and there had been a few that I would never look at again. My favourite genre for these is horror and I like ghost stories and demons and stuff like that (rather than the animal horror like Slugs :)) and some of them just aren't scary and others don't seem to understand that even in a short you need a story. It isn't enough just to throw words onto paper.

I think that's a very good reason for having free short stories, that way you can test a writer and see if you are going to enjoy their books before leaping into a full novel. I find it very useful. Along with the bad I have also read some really good books.

So, do you have any books that you have been really glad you read, or that you wish you had never seen? I'd love to hear about them.

Review: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ`s Childhood Pal

Title: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ`s Childhood Pal
Author: Christopher Moore
Format: just about all of them as far as I can tell

Summary: Levi, or Biff as he is known was Joshua's (Jesus is the Greek version of his name) best friend from when they were six years old. He is there for all the skinned knees, mistakes and learning how to be the Messiah by travelling to find the three wise men, and in the year 2000 he is brought back to write a new gospel for the modern world.

So I supposed I should tell you what I think of this book. Well that's easy: it is brilliant.

It's even better when you know your gospels. I have evidence of this because both my husband, Rob and I have read it. Now my father is a retired Vicar, so I know a significant amount about the content of the gospels, my husband on the other hand is a bit of a heathen and knows some because I've been dragging him to church for the last sixteen years, but he was not brought up with it so it's not ingrained, as it were.

Now Rob thinks this is a brilliant book too, but there are some bits he just didn't get. For example he doesn't really know his parables, but anyone who has gone to Sunday school knows the one about the wise man building his house upon the rock. There is a point in the book where this is used and it had me falling off my bike (I read while on the exercise bike in the mornings) laughing, but Rob only found it amusing for the actual situation rather than the context.

This is what is so great about this book. It's hilarious if you know nothing about the Bible and it is even more hilarious if you do.

Christopher Moore weaves a story of two young boys, one of whom happens to be the son of God, who grow into two young men and it is engaging, funny and heart wrenching all at the same time. Everyone knows how the story is going to end, but boy does it rip your heart out.

Biff is so brilliantly human and he firmly believes Josh is the son of God, but he still tries to keep him out of trouble. Josh is naive and enlightened and loves everyone. Biff loves Josh and Maggie (the Magdalene) and never figures out enlightenment or healing or walking on water, but he's there to break Josh out of a wine jar and shave a yak. He's the foolish mortal stuck in a hotel room with an angel obsessed with soap operas trying to tell the world about his friend Josh and he is wonderful.

Yes this book pokes fun at Jewish and Christian religion, but it is done with such skill that it is brilliant. I love this book and can't recommend it more. Just in case you're wondering, it's going to my father next (yep, the retired Vicar) so he can have a read and a laugh.

100Things #9 Top 5 Silliest Vampire Things That Make Me Laugh

As the title suggest this is a set of things that from the vampire genre that make me laugh.  Some make me laugh for the right reasons, some for the wrong, but I love to laugh, so I'm still happy. They aren't in any order and are by no means the only vampire things that make me laugh, but these are what came to me off the top of my head.

#1 Once Bitten is a vampire movie with Jim Carey, now I won't go into detail, but the bit I find hilarious every time is the fact the female vampire has to take blood 3 times from a virgin from as close to the source of that virginity as possible (they went for inside thigh - its not 18 rated ;)). It made me laugh the first time I saw it and every time since :), because Jim Carey reacts so beautifully each time.

#2 Vampire cats. My husband Rob loves Christopher Moore books and in CM's new book Bite Me there are vampire cats. Vampire cats that turn into mist and hunt together and create more vampire cats. They're just so absurd they're brilliant and when Rob decided to tell me all about them as he read the book, they made me laugh, lots.

P.S. Christopher Moore writes hilarious books.

#3 Sparkly vampires. I watched the Twilight movie and I actually kind of enjoyed it, but I fell out of my chair laughing at sparkly vampires. I can't help it, I find the idea utterly hilarious.

#4 The curse in Rockula. Now if a movie about a vampire who creates his own band so that he can get to his long lost girlfriend isn't silly enough, the curse in this film is brilliant. It's very funny and superbly done. Every century Ralph (our vampire lead) re-finds his long lost love, but she is curse to be killed by a pirate, wearing a rhinestone peg leg, wielding a ham bone. It is as ridiculous as it sounds.

This movie is brilliant, BTW, and I am sure I will revisit it in a later post. I feel one about comedy vampire movies coming on :).

#5 The double topped straws from Sundown The Vampire In Retreat. They make me giggle every time I watch the movie because they're just so silly, but so right for the movie.


So this is my list, tell me yours :)

100Things #2 Queen of the Damned, Book vs Movie

Okay, so a few weeks ago I finished re-reading "Queen of the Damned" by Anne Rice and, while I am not so fond of her later work and cannot condone some of her online behaviour, I think this book is a triumph. In my infinite wisdom I decided that having just reread the book, watching the film would be fun. This was a BAD PLAN!

"Queen of the Damned" the movie is not a bad vampire film, except for the unused, totally irrelevant characters that litter it, but it is a very, very bad adaption of the book. The mistake the film makes is trying to be too like the book while not actually being enough like the book at all. "Interview with the Vampire" is a superb example of an adaption from a book, "Queen of the Damned" is the opposite end of the spectrum.

The first fatal mistake they made when making "Queen of the Damned" was casting. Aaliyah, while being stunningly beautiful and sensual could not act her way out of a paper bag IMHO. I just didn't feel anything from her at all. Stuart Townsend wasn't so bad as Lestat, although he was just a little bit too tortured for my liking. Let's not talk about Armand or any of the other vampires they tried to use as background without actually introducing them at all.
Where they did get it spot on was Marguerite Moreau as Jesse and Paul McGann as David. They were both superb.

Their second moronic decision was to try and do "The Vampire Lestat" and "Queen of the Damned" in one film. "Queen of the Damned" has more than enough plot for two movies all by itself and Lestat came off as a whiny little brat with little to no depth. Lestat may be a brat prince, but he definitely has depth.

This meant they left out the story of the twins, which is pretty fundamental to the whole book. Removing the story of the twins removes the whole underlying plot and leaves you with exactly what we were given: a scary arse vampire on the rampage, a vampire who likes to sing and a bunch of vamps we know nothing about trying to stop her for no reason we have been clued in on.
Let's also not forget that the Great Family has been reduced to one badly done wall.
They diminished everything so the story went from a great book to an average vampire film with some huge plot holes, because they relied on the fact the audience would know the book.

Shall we consider what they left out?

Firstly, important characters: let's start with Louis, you know, the vampire that started it all by telling his story in "Interview with the Vampire". He's not even worth a virtually nameless cameo. Gabrielle: Lestat's mother, one of the most important people in Lestat's life. Daniel: the reporter from "Interview with the Vampire" who has become Armand's human and is turned by him after nearly managing to kill himself with neglect. He is incredibly important as the human element in the book. Mekare: Maharet's twin and the reason for half the plot actually happening. You might not even remember Maharet's name either from the movie, even though in the book she's probably the fourth most important character for plot development.

Then there are the characters they did decide to put in, but never actually named or gave any background in the film: Armand, Pandora, Khayman, Mael. With no explanation as to why they came together or why they were fighting Akasha they were pointless and may as well have been written out. They were only there to die, which was incredibly over dramatic and unnecessary.

I've already mentioned they left out the tale of the twins, they also left out the fact that Jesse is psychic, which is why she was with the Talamasca in the first place. They missed out Akasha's crusade against her own kind, nearly wiping them off the face of the planet. It's why all these really powerful vampires ended up in the same place: survival. Of course if they'd mentioned that they would have had to put in her deeper reasons for doing it, rather than deciding she was just a mindless psychopath who liked killing. Akasha had reasons for everything she did, high ideals that were clearly insane, but very real to her; that was what made her so dangerous and why Lestat's rejection of her was so important. She was trying to make the world a better place even if she was totally psychotic about the way she did it.

Oh and I of course have to mention the pinnacle of the whole idiocy: the turning into a statue part. What?! Why would Akasha's blood make Maharet turn into a statue? That was not the point. The point was if Akasha died they all died, because she held the force that made them all vampires. That was the danger, not turning into alabaster. Also, why did their clothes change when they were statues? Do we have vampire clothes now? Did the vampire power possess cloth too? I cannot begin to express how stupid I thought the end of the film was, even by vampire movie standards. If cannibalism was too icky to put in a movie about blood-drinking monsters, come up with something else, something sensible along the same lines, it's not hard! Let's face it, the easiest out would have been everyone to think they were dying, but because Lestat had taken so much of Akasha into himself he became the source.

How such a beautifully crafted story could have been reduced so badly I will never know. I wish Hollywood would realise that if you want to do a book adaption you should do it properly a la Lord of the Rings (they took out all the what-the-hell parts, e.g. Tom Bombadil, updated it a bit so the girls had something to do and left all the important bits in). If you want to do a film like "Queen of the Damned" turned out, call it 'inspired by' and then write out all the bits that are entirely unnecessary.

Marius, Lestat, Jesse and Akasha could have carried the whole film, the others didn't need to be in it as it was written. Their presence was plain annoying.

So to sum up: "Queen of the Damned" is a great book, I thoroughly recommend it. "Queen of the Damned" the movie is an average vampire film, but only if you haven't read the book in the last, probably three years to be safe, and you don't care that the end is very silly. My husband rolled his eyes at me as we watched the movie and commented, "You know, every time we watch this you spend the whole time yelling at the screen about what's wrong with it."

Please feel free to counter my opinions, because they are just that, opinions :). I may possibly be a little too invested in the book - LOL.

Review: The Ghost Inside Me by Katie Cramer

The Ghost Inside Me
by Katie Cramer

Title: The Ghost Inside Me
Author: Katie Cramer
Publisher: Addictive Press
Genre: paranormal romance
Conclusion: Good 4/5

Okay, so I read this yesterday morning while pedalling on my exercise bike and gave myself a day to digest it before I reviewed it. Over on Amazon I gave it four stars, because I like it.

This is a good read, it's just not long enough. Everything there is in the book is great. The prose is well written, the plot holds together, but there's not really enough of it to get the whole story in.

Let me say that the sex is beautifully done and it's sexy, and I love the overall story. It's well thought out and nicely set up. The characters are good and it's very easy to relate to them. So well worth a read.

My only problem is that it feels like there are bits missing. I know it's only a short story, but it was begging for more in depth emotional reactions and there is a point near the end where it jumps from one scene right to the last one and I would have liked to have seen a bit of what happened in between.

So, definitely a great quick read to pick up, just no five stars because, for me, it needed a couple more thousand words.

TGIM on Amazon UK | TGIM on Amazon US