Tag: the write reads

Blog Tour and Book Review: The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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Title: The Inheritance Games
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 384
Rating: ★★★★☆

Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why–or even who Tobias Hawthorne is. To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man’s touch–and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes. 

Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions. Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a con-woman, and he’s determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather’s last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive.

A Thrill Ride from the Start

The Inheritance Games puts you in the action right from the start. You don’t have a chance to catch your breath because after a few pages something puts you right in the middle of the drama.

And the ride doesn’t slow down. There is intrigue and deception, red herrings and puzzles thrown at us left and right, there is hardly a chance to slow down.

Barnes jams a fun puzzle solving story into 384 pages, and it fits perfectly. Any less or any more, and the story would seem forced in either direction.

The characters push the plot forward and we never know who we can truly trust, and who is against the protagonist.

Well-Written Characters

The characters development in this book are some of the best I have seen in such a short piece. Too often, characters are either too developed where they become unbelievable, or they are underdeveloped where they are as interesting as a soda cracker.

We get introduced to just over a dozen different characters that are prominent in this story, and the only one we can trust completely is the protagonist.

The characters are often simply written, but that simplicity is explored to its fullest extent.

I wouldn’t say any of the characters are deeply explored, but each of them has an idea or personality that they embody, and Barnes develops them perfectly.

There are a handful of characters we should be able to trust in the story, but Barnes’ writing makes it so that we can’t trust anyone else in the story. This only adds to the tension that the story already had.

A Simple but Effective Mystery

I don’t often read mystery books, but when they are written well, they can be a lot of fun and thrilling.

Barnes’ gives us an escape room type mystery that takes place on the land of an impossibly large mansion.

With almost anything as a possibility in the mansion, The Inheritance Games follows the protagonist and a group of four brothers as they try to get in the mind of their now deceased grandfather.

A mystery doesn’t have to be world ending, or life saving. A mystery can be as simple as finding the answer to the final puzzle your grandfather gave to you.

Barnes takes that simple idea, and expands it into a simple but fun mystery. Her character’s story doesn’t save any lives, but to her, it’s everything. Her world is torn apart, and that means we are invested in what happens to her.

Final Thoughts

The Inheritance Games is fun and fast-paced read. You’ll be hooked by it from the start, and it will take you for a thrill ride right up until the end.

The ending of the book sets up a good sequel, and the reactions from people online point to a lot of excitement around the sequel when it comes out.

10 Reasons We Love The Write Reads

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Hello dear readers, welcome back to another Top 10 Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week’s topic was a freebie, so I thought I should give some love and appreciation to a fantastic bookish community that many of us enjoy.

If you are reading this and don’t know what The Write Reads is, please check out the twitter page. It has definitely been one of the best decisions I’ve made as a book blogger.

Don’t forget to follow me on social media for more bookish content coming out every day of the week!
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So…what are ten things we love about The Write Reads?

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The Community

One of the best parts of The Write Reads how big it is. As this post is written, there is just over 30 thousand followers on Twitter.

Of those 30 thousand, there are some fantastic people. People from all over the world follow The Write Reads, and everyone I know has made friends with someone in the community.

What’s great is that when people see someone is a part of the community, they will almost always greet you with a warm hello and likely follow your blog.

The Book Tours

One of the best parts of The Write Reads community is the book tours. I have read some amazing books thanks to these tours, and have already bought a few books in the series that I have read from a tour.

The tours are also a great chance to read other people’s thoughts on the books you enjoy, and find some really fun reads along the way.

The Variety of Books

I have seen a few book tour groups that focus mainly on one genre of books. This isn’t bad per se, because it gives people exactly what they are expecting. What’s great about The Write reads is that you’re never bored.

I would say there is more of a focus on the fantasy genre for The Write Reads, but there are so many different book tours happening year round, you have more than enough time to explore something new.

The Featured Posts

The Write Reads features a book review and bookish discussion post every day. Thats 30 thousand possible eyes on the posts that are featured.

Even to some of the largest book blogs out there, these numbers are a huge impact.

The sheer organizational skills and effort that managing these posts almost every day of the year is tremendous. It probably takes hours every day to plan everything out.

One of the Nicest People

Imagine managing hundreds or thousands of people for featured posts, book tours, and prize winners. It can be extremely daunting and stressful. It could drive people crazy.

Even through all of that, you will never see a mean word associated with The Write Reads. You will read nothing but supportive, hilarious messages that will brighten your day.

Wants Others to Succeed

Managing The Write Reads is no easy task, but you’ll see nothing but support. Whether you have thousands of followers or dozens, The Write Reads will stand in your corner supporting you, wanting you to succeed and helping you in any way possible.

Helps out the Little “Guy”

The support is appreciated by all, but especially so from the smaller blogs. The Write Reads doesn’t discriminate on the size of the blog and sharing their posts with the 30 thousand followers was one of the best moments of my life when may blog was first growing, and I am sure it has helped many others as well.

A Long-time Friend

It doesn’t happen to me often, but whenever I have a chance to have a quick chat, it is like I am talking to an old friend.

There is always a sense of friendship and kindness on the other end of the conversation, and you’ll never feel like you can’t have a conversation.

Timely Replies

I don’t actually know where The Write Reads is based, but if I am going off the Twitter page they are in Ireland.

I’ve sent emails at all times of the day, and gotten timely replies no matter the time. I expect some delays, especially when a new book tour is announced, but you’ll likely never have to wait for long to get the reply you are looking for.

Personal Reason

We all have a personal reason we love The Write Reads. It might be because of a certain tour, or maybe you needed to re-schedule a post, or maybe just because one of your best blog posts was shared on Twitter.

Whatever it might be, The Write Reads is an amazing friend to all book bloggers, and if you haven’t yet followed them and joined the community, I would highly recommend doing so.

Why do you love The Write Reads? Let’s show our love in the comments, or on social media!
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Book Tour and Review: Knightmare Arcanist by Shami Stovall

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My dear readers, this is probably the most excited I’ve been about a book in a long time.

I feel like a lot of books I read leave me feeling okay. I’m usually not too upset by them but I’m usually not jumping off the walls in excitement.

Knightmare Arcanist is the exception to that.

It took me no time at all to get through it, and I almost immediately bought the rest of the series, but managed to control myself…for now!.

If you enjoy this review, make sure to follow me for more!
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Title: Knightmare Archanist
Author: Shami Stovall
Rating: ★★★★.5☆
Buy it here

Magic. Sailing. A murderer among heroes.

Gravedigger Volke Savan wants nothing more than to be like his hero, the legendary magical swashbuckler, Gregory Ruma. First he needs to become an arcanist, someone capable of wielding magic, which requires bonding with a mythical creature. And he’ll take anything—a pegasus, a griffin, a ravenous hydra—maybe even a leviathan, like Ruma. 

So when Volke stumbles across a knightmare, a creature made of shadow and terror, he has no reservations. But the knightmare knows a terrible secret: Ruma is a murderer out to spread corrupted magic throughout their island nation. He’s already killed a population of phoenixes and he intends to kill even more. 

In order to protect his home, his adopted sister, and the girl he admires from afar, Volke will need to confront his hero, the Master Arcanist Gregory Ruma. 

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A Nice Take on Magic

Magic systems are an important part to telling a story. There are ways to explore a magic system while exploring the world at the same time, but too often an author does it wrong.

They rush in their storytelling and they get caught in one aspect or the other, forgetting to properly develop them at the same time.

Stovall finds a great balance for Knightmare Arcanist. We follow a young character just as they are exploring magic for the first times. As the story develops, so too does our character’s understanding of how magic works.

Stovall’s magic system is a nice change to the normal magic systems I read about. Usually the magic system is along the lines of controlling an element or using their willpower to do something amazing.

We see that in Knightmare Arcanist, but we get a new way of exploring that world.

Instead of just being automatically able to control your genre of magic, it is completely reliant on the type of magical creature you bond with.

It puts a limiter on each character, but allows them to explore themselves on a deeper level.

It adds some well-written character development as the story goes on, which was a lot more than I was expecting for a fast-paced YA novel.

Fun and Fast

I often find myself disappointed with YA novels. They’re too carefree and things happen too quickly.

Characters are too quick to trust, too quick to act, too quick to do. There is never any pause to the story. There’s never any time for the characters to have a moment of doubt.

This is why I can’t give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Though I loved so many aspects of it, it was too fast paced in a few aspects. Some characters were too quick to trust someone, and immediately my mind wandered to imagining what would happen to them if they trusted blindly.

This wasn’t the case for every character, but some key moments were built on an absolute trust that could very easily have caused them to be betrayed.

A Movie Series in the Making?

This might be me being too much of a fan of this book, but I could honestly see this series as a book series or TV show.

I think Stovall does a great job of not only keeping the story focused on one central plot, but also keeping the world open and vague enough that we know we are only scratching the surface.

I haven’t read the rest of the series yet, but trust me I will soon. Thinking back on all the other YA series I have read, this one has been the most enjoyable. It has great character development, which is too often a rare feature in YA, a great magic system, and a cast of characters that remind me of being a kid again.

Final Thoughts

Knightmare Arcanist is an absolute blast to read. It’s short, fast-paced, and is a fantastic pre-cursor to a world I can’t wait to explore more.

I’m not a big YA reader, but I enjoy it now and then. Sometimes it is just a nice break from reading heavy fantasy books all the time.

Knightmare Arcanist is just scratching the surface of Stovall’s world, and I think that the more you continue with this series, the more engrossed in the world you will become.

It is definitely worth the read, and honestly I would be disappointed if you didn’t want to read it.

Book Tour + Review: Crossing in Time by D.L Orton

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Hello dear readers, I hope you are doing well on this fine day. Have you ever been so in love, that the love transcends time itself?

Maybe you have, but likely you haven’t time travelled yet which is too bad.

Today’s book was given to me by The Write Reads and D.L Orton in exchange for an honest review.

I’m sure you’ve seen this book floating around a bit lately, and its deserved because this book is a quick and fun read.

If you enjoy this review, make sure to follow my blog and social media so you can get more!
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Title: Crossing in Time
Author: D.L Orton
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Buy it here

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Is This What Romance is Like?

Romance is not my forte. I don’t often read books with romance in them, and when I do they are often the side stories. I find that romance in any storytelling is often forced or the effects of traumatic experiences together, and that’s not real romance in my opinion.

I found that Crossing in Time‘s romance was definitely rushed. The two love interests had some chemistry it seemed, but we only got pieces of it. Days, weeks, or even months would pass by and we just had to assume that a the relationship has no issues.

I don’t like that concept, but it is the way it is written. It seems sloppy to me, but my bigger issue is with the romance when we do get to see it.

It’s forced and seems more lustful than romantic. It just does not come off as a relationship that would actually work in the long run.

The Time Travel Paradox

I hate time travel as a story telling device, but I figured I would give this book a shot anyways. I find it is lazy, there are too many “rules” that people follow, and they almost always break those rules whenever they claim what they are.

Crossing in Time is mostly about building up to time travel and the scientific discovery of how to do that.

I am mostly fine with that, but unfortunately we do get a bit of time travel itself and I didn’t like it. It opens up doors for terrible storytelling that makes little sense and yet things always work out well.

The parts that were before the time travel were good. They were pretty fast paced, and at times graphic, but overall they were good.

Audiobook or eBook?

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I was about a third of the way through Crossing in Time when I got an audiobook version of it, and it was a life saver.

Listening to it was a lot more fun and interesting than I was expecting, and I think that is why I enjoyed this book more than a 1 or 2 star review.

I will give credit to the narrators, they did a good job of really showing the emotions that the characters were feeling. Their voices seemed to perfectly match the idea I had for each of their characters, which I find is hard for audiobooks to do for me. Too often their voices don’t match my idea of them and it takes me some getting used to in the story.

Final Thoughts

Crossing in Time is a fun listen, and an okay read. It is relatively short read, so even if you don’t like parts of it, you can get through it pretty quickly.

I would recommend it if you are a Romance reader. It seems like it might be a good romantic book, with two lovers unable to see each other and tell each other how in love they are, but that isn’t the aspect for me.

If you enjoyed this review, make sure to follow my blog, and follow me on social media.
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Blog Tour + Review: Catalyst by Tracy Richardson

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Hello dear readers, today we have another blog tour with The Write Reads today, so let’s get going.

If you like this book review, make sure to follow my blog and social media for more!
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Title: Catalyst
Author: Tracy Richardson
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Marcie Horton has a sixth sense. Not in the “I see dead people” way, but . . . well, maybe a little. She feels a sort of knowing about certain things that can’t be explained-an intuition that goes beyond the normal. Then there was that one summer four years ago, when she connected with a long-departed spirit. But nothing that incredible has happened to Marcie since.

This summer, Marcie is spending time working at Angel Mounds, the archaeological dig her mother heads, along with her brother, Eric, and his girlfriend, Renee. The dig is the site of an ancient indigenous civilisation, and things immediately shift into the paranormal when Marcie and her teammates meet Lorraine and Zeke.

The two mysterious dig assistants reveal their abilities to access the Universal Energy Field with their minds – something Marcie knows only vaguely that her brother has also had experience with. Marcie learns how our planet will disintegrate if action is not taken, and she and her team must decide if they are brave enough to help Lorraine and Zeke in their plan to save Mother Earth, her resources, and her history. It looks like the summer just got a lot more interesting.

Following one thread

This book is relatively short, just shy of 300 pages, but I felt like it was difficult to keep myself focused on the main story.

The ideas themselves weren’t particularly bad. I actually found them to be rather interesting, but the execution just wan’t there. I don’t think Richardson did a great job of executing them properly.

I’ll give the book some credit, it throws you right into the story, but once the story got going, there wasn’t much keeping me interested.

Supernatural Environmentalism

I was expecting to read a book about superpowers and maybe some spooky things. I was not expecting a lecture on environmentalism and its harms to the earth.

I support slowing down and eventually stopping climate change, but to me, this book felt a touch preachy about it all.

With the fracking that becomes the main storyline, the science fiction element becomes a lot more prominent, and that’s where the story takes a downward slope.

There was nothing compelling about it, and I found that the longer I read, the more uninterested I was.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that is was a YA book, and I just didn’t connect with it, or maybe it just wasn’t the story for me, but I did not enjoy it much at all.

Final Thoughts

I’m not sure why, but I’ve had a lot of bad luck lately with books I’ve received through tours/NetGalley. I just haven’t really enjoyed any of them. Catalyst was no exception. Though I think it had it’s moments, they were too few, and weren’t very impactful.

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Ultimate Blog Tour: The Die of Death

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Title: The Die of Death (The Great Devil War II)
Author: Kenneth B. Andersen
Rating: ★★★★☆

Philip’s adventures as the Devil’s apprentice have changed him—in a good way. Although he misses his friends in Hell, he has made new friends in life.
But when the future of the underworld is threatened once again, Philip’s help is needed. Death’s Die has been stolen and immortality is spreading across the globe.
Philip throws himself into the search—and discovers a horrible truth about his own life along the way.

The Die of Death is volume 2 in The Great Devil War-series and winner of the ORLA-Award.

The Great Devil War-series is a humorous and gripping tale about good and evil, filled with biblical and historical characters, such as Judas, Goliath, and Pontius Pilate, as well as modern figures such as Elvis Presley, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, and many more.

Hello my dear readers, it is finally my stop on The Ultimate Blog Tour! For this tour, a bunch of us bloggers took a look at Book 2 in The Great Devil War series by Kenneth B. Andersen.

I was pleasantly surprised by the first book, and immediately jumped at the opportunity to read the second book.

Before I begin, I just want to let you know that I received this book for free in return for an honest review.

Shall we get going?

The Character of Phillip

Phillip comes off a bit juvenile in this book, maybe even a little more so than he did in the first one. I’m hit and miss on this aspect.

On one hand, it’s nice seeing a kid be a kid and have an innocent point of view. On the other hand, it almost seems fake, because that’s now what kids are like any more.

Though he seemed a bit predictable at times, I didn’t think any of his actions were too obvious that it ruined the book for me

I think Phillip knocked Satina out of the spotlight a bit, which isn’t necessarily bad, but she was one of the things I enjoyed about the series so far, and I wanted to see her a bit more this book.

The Worldbuilding

Worldbuilding is something that I look for in books. It is one of the things that can easily turn me on or off to a book.

Andersen does a good job at worldbuilding, in my opinion. I think he did a great job in the first book, and kept that going in this book.

Though we are already somewhat familiar with Phillip’s world, we got a bit of a peak behind the curtains to Purgatory and Heaven in this book.

YA Category

Though I would consider this book Young Adult, it definitely is nearer middle years. Yes, it is a bit dark, but it comes off very child-like to me. If the dark aspect of the book wasn’t present, I think this book would definitely be middle years.

I don’t read a lot of YA these days, but I pick one up now and then, and it’s refreshing. They’re usually simple reads with interesting premises, so I enjoy exploring their pages.

This was definitely true for The Die of Death. It was a lot of fun diving deeper into the world that I enjoyed so much in the first book.

Slow and Steady Doesn’t Win the Race

Anderson’s pacing is one of his strengths when it comes to his writing. He seems to have mastered the pacing of the books in the series, knowing exactly when to press on the gas, and when to ease up just a little bit.

He makes it feel a bit stressful. Like there’s always something happening, and that the stakes are high.

This helps add to the connections you feel with the characters. You feel like they’ve achieved something, like they’ve failed or succeeded in their goals.

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If you do a little digging, it won’t be hard to find a bunch of other bloggers with reviews out there of this book. It was a lot of fun to read, and I can’t wait till I can get to book 3!

Let’s talk about The Die of Death in the comments, or on the social media!
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