Release Date: November 2011 Published by: Fighting Monkey Press ISBN-13: 9780983876922 Genre: Fantasy/Romance Availability: ebook only, when all volumes are published the full novel will be combined into a paperback edition
Note from the author about the serial format:As each new part is added readers will be able to update their ebook file for free to enjoy the next installment! Right now 2MOS is priced at only $0.99 but with each section that is published the purchase price will increase.
My Review:
This first installment of Two Moons of Sera is very much worth the price of $0.99 (and more) for just this installment, never mind the fact that it buys you the additional installments as they release as well.
It's short, but it does a great job setting up the world that Serafey lives in and setting up her character, giving her and her mom some background and introducing Tor into the picture as well. I found the characterization of Sera to be well done so far and expect it to continue as the story continues. I like that the setting is kind of parallel to earth, but a little different, so I don't have to go too far out of my box to figure out what the world is like. But there still is imagination required to envision the Sualwet (I see as a mer-type people) and the Erdlanders (humans, I'm thinking). Sera falls between the two and this makes her even more interesting and I'm sure will make her more desirable in later installments as well.
Tor is interesting as well, and you start to learn his story as well and I can't wait to learn more about him and see him and Sera get to know each other better. And the ending definitely has me anxious for the next installment. Ms. Tyler has does an amazing job with the first installment with setting the story up and keeping it interesting and moving along. I am already involved with the characters and ready for installment two.
So give it a shot, it's $0.99 and it's great fantasy/romance. The serial format is also fun, read a little, get intrigued, wait a little and then read some more. I wholeheartedly recommend Two Moons of Sera to those who enjoy romance or fantasy - I think if you enjoy either genre you will enjoy this book. I also think if you are an adult who enjoys YA, then you will enjoy this story as well. For now I will anxiously await part two.
My Rating: 5.0/5.0
Order Your Copy Now
About the Book: In a world where water and earth teem with life, Serafay is an anomaly. The result of genetic experiments on her mother's water-borne line Serafay will have to face the very people responsible to discover who she really is. But is she the only one?
About the Author: Pavarti K Tyler is an artist, wife, mother and number-cruncher who has been committed to causing trouble since her first moment on this Earth. Her eclectic career has flirted with Broadway, Teaching, Law Firms and the IRS. Author of many short stories, Pavarti spans genres from Horror and Erotica all the way to Fantasy. Currently Pavarti is hard at work establishing her Indie Publishing Company Fighting Monkey Press .
Hardcover, 240 pages Fiction, Young Adult ISBN:978-0385740487
My Review:
Love. That pretty much sums up how I feel about this book overall. I loved it. I loved the book, loved the plot, loved Sandinista, loved The Pale Circus and loved the writing. It's an amazing and overwhelming book. When it's done I just sat there and thought, "well, that's over" and then thought about it some more and I have to say even a month later I still think about this book and the characters. It was just that good to me.
But first you need to know this is not fluff. This is not your happy-go-lucky feel-good novel. Sandinista has lost her mother. She is alone and now she feels let down by the one thing she had left to count on, the school system. She turns to work, a job she gets at a great store called The Pale Circus and a friendship with Bradley who works there and is pretty screwed up as well. As she and Bradley explore the world inside and outside The Pale Circus the reader is taken along for the ride. We are there for all the bumps and wrong turns along the way. And each wrong turn is important, everything that Bradley and Sandinista do or don't do will eventually shape the main decision that Sandinista makes.
Watching this was mesmerizing. The book is almost impossible to put down. It feels so raw and gritty and true to life that it is amazing. I think Ms. O'Connell has a real grip on the teenager in this novel. Sandinista is an amazing character and watching her through the novel is nothing short of amazing. I also love the musical references and the great clothing mentioned in the book, which was perfect since The Pale Circus is a vintage clothing store.
Everything about The Sharp Time just comes together to make it one of those reads that really stands out. If you can't tell I thought this book was really great and I am sure it will make it to the top of one of my lists for the year. It's so different from anything I have read that I just can't explain it more than to say go out, buy it and read it. That's it. Read it, get to know Sandinista and she'll be stuck in your head too.
My Rating: 5.0/5.0
About the Book: Sandinista Jones is a high school senior with a punk rock name and a broken heart. The death of her single mother has left Sandinista alone in the world, subject to the random vulnerability of everyday life. When the school system lets her down, her grief and instability intensify, and she ponders a violent act of revenge.
Still, in the midst of her crisis, she gets a job at The Pale Circus, a funky vintage clothing shop, and finds friendship and camaraderie with her coworker, a boy struggling with his own secrets.
Even as Sandinista sees the failures of those with power and authority, she's offered the chance to survive through the redemptive power of friendship. Now she must choose between faith and forgiveness or violence and vengeance.
About the Author: Mary O'Connell is a graduate of the University of Kansas and the Iowa's Writer's Workshop. Her stories have been published in literary magazines including The Sun and Mid-American Review. She teaches at the Lawrence Arts Center and lives in Lawrence, Kansas, with her husband and two children.
My Review:
I found The Man Who Couldn't Eat to be a raw and heartfelt look at what it feels like to deal with chronic illness and more specifically to deal with an incident that changes your life such as the one that Jon Reiner had in 2009. Though the book is not all about that one time, it's really built more into a stream of consciousness of his life to this point and then after that point as well. That was probably my one complaint. The jumping back and forth in time confused me in the beginning, but the more I got use to the rhythm of his writing the more I came to expect how he wrote and dealt with the back and forth and found it an interesting way to keep the readers attention. So what I thought was a a complaint in the beginning, turned into something that held my interest through the book.
Mr. Reiner has a great sense of humor to have been through all that he has been through, but then again sometimes your sense of humor is the only thing that can keep you going. His sense of humor comes through in the book, not in a laugh-out-loud way, but in a dry, understated way that I like that doesn't take away from the seriousness of the subject matter. He did face a life-or-death situation, though I think I would have preferred death if I would have had some of his roommates after surgery (I'm joking, though read about the roommates and you'll understand). As he explores the life after the surgery and life without food, life adding food back in and then also life with chronic illness and balancing a family, you get a sense for what life is truly like for him. And in seeing this I think you can get a glimpse into what life is like for a lot of people with chronic illness and this is where I think his book does the most good. Maybe I say that because I have a chronic illness. But I really felt it reading the book. Jon's chronic illness did not just affect him, thought it did affect him the most. It also affected his wife, his children, his parents and his extended family. It made it hard for him to keep a job. It really affected all areas of his life, but he never gave up. And that is the amazing and wonderful thing.
I think this book is educational, entertaining and inspirational whether you have a chronic illness or not. I'm sure you know someone who does. I should probably spout off a statistic here, but I'm lazy and in the middle of my own flare up so I won't. But as you know from drug ads on TV that there are plenty of chronic illnesses to go around. Not all will land someone in the hospital for surgery, but all will make someone suffer in silence (or as my husband will tell you I don't suffer in silence). Jon Reiner speaks out about his suffering and in doing so I think he empowers millions of sufferers to say I suffer too, but I will get up today and move forward and make the most of my life. That is all we can do. That is all anyone, sick or healthy can do.
Read the book, it has great entertaining anecdotes throughout. I loved the little stories throughout - the glimpses of childhood, the glimpses of other hospitalizations, the glimpses of his own children and his fears for them. It all adds up to a book that's about an ordinary man with a horrible disease who chose to write his story and put it out there for us to read about.
My Rating: 4.0/5.0
Make sure to stop back by on Tuesday, November 22nd for an interview with author Jon Reiner.
About the Book:
Imagine a life without food. Not being able to eat or drink a single thing. No hot dog at the ballpark; no ice cold drink on a hot summer day; no birthday cake; nothing.
For three months, James Beard Foundation Award-winning writer, Jon Reiner went without food and drink and chronicled his struggle in, The Man Who Couldn't Eat (September 2011). We're helping Jon prepare a blog tour for October and November and would like to invite you to be part of it.
Based on Reiner's acclaimed Esquire magazine article by the same name, Reiner writes in his book about his obsession with food and what happened when he was denied the taste of it. He'd just returned home with the week's groceries- one of the tasks he enjoyed as a stay-at-home dad- when a near-fatal complication from his chronic battle with Chron's disease left him writhing in pain on the floor. After emergency surgery, Reiner was "sentenced" to receive his nourishment intravenously.
Already struggling with his relationship with his wife and children as a result of coping with his chronic illness, he was also unemployed and facing financial ruin. It was this food deprivation that forced Reiner to reevaluate everything. A beautifully written chronicle of one man's journey from plenty to deprivation and back again, The Man Who Couldn't Eat will change the way you think about more than just your next meal.
Welcome to the Gratitude Giveaway Hop sponsored by I Am A Reader, Not a Writer and All Consuming Books. This hop is to thank our readers and to do that, we're supposed to keep it simple and simple it will be. Up for grabs is a book of the winners choice at The Book Depository up to a $15 value. It's open international (if The Book Depository ships to your country). Just fill out your name and email so I can contact the winner in the Rafflecopter below and you are entered.
If you feel like it, let me know in the comments what you are thankful for this year (this is not required or an additional entry).
I am thankful for another year with my family since 2 1/2 years ago I wasn't sure I would have another month with them, so each Thanksgiving I am thankful for that additional year :) I would also be thankful if my boys could spend just one day without arguing with each other, but that probably won't happen, they are 10 and 6 and very rarely agree on anything at least when I am in the same room with them ;-)
Note: If you see the wrong Rafflecopter Entry (it should say Gratitude Giveaway Hop), click on this post, sometimes if you scroll through the blog to get to this post it screws up the Rafflecopter, but if you come directly to the post it works fine. Email me (crystalfulcher(at)ec.rr.com) if you have any problems.
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
***Special thanks to Laura Tucker of WaterBrook Press for sending me a review copy.***
***My review will come later this week, but make sure you check out this awesome book and enter to win a copy below***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Donita K. Paul is the author of The Dragons of Chiril, Dragons of the Valley, and the bestselling DragonKeeper Chronicles with more than a quarter of a million books in print. She enjoys cooking, beading, stamping, knitting, and her grandsons. Not necessarily in that order.
Trapped in a forgotten city, bound by secrets, Ellie and Bealomondore must enlist the dragons of the watch to find freedom.
Ellie knows exactly where she is going. She just wants to experience the pomp and circumstance of a royal wedding, then settle into a simple life with a country husband.
With too many choices, Bealomondore’s future is a tangle of possibilities. He is respected, well-known, and admired among the elite of Chiril, but Wulder demands he narrow his focus and follow his Creator, one step at a time.
Both Ellie and Bealomondore’s plans are thwarted when they find themselves lost in an isolated city. As they discern the needs of a group of wild children and a very old man, clues began to surface and a bigger picture is revealed. With the help of the dragons of the watch, can the two tumanhofers find the way out—and perhaps discover their connection to something greater than themselves?
Product Details:
List Price: $13.99
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: WaterBrook Press (October 4, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1400073413
ISBN-13: 978-1400073412
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
Invitation
Ellie sat on her favorite boulder and looked Tak right in the eyes, telling him what was on her mind. “Gramps shouldn’t have taught me to read.”
Tak responded as he usually did when he received Ellie’s confidences. He lowered his head, placing it on her knee for a rub.
Ellie obliged her pet, stroking the white hair between his nubby horns with one hand while digging in the pocket of her homespun pinafore with the other. The mountain breeze toyed with the paper she withdrew. With difficulty, she smoothed the small poster out on her other knee. Dirty and wrinkled, it still made her heart beat a little faster.
Royal Wedding and Coronation
Princess Tipper
and
Prince Jayrus, Dragonkeeper and Paladin
All invited to the celebration
“All invited. But Ellicinderpart Clarenbessipawl and her goat Tak can’t come. No chaperone, no travel. Ma and Da aren’t interested. And Gramps just laughs. ‘You’ll see. You’ll see,’ is all he says. He should take me himself.”
Her younger brother’s shrill yell came from the knoll rising out of the river to the east. “Ellie! Ellie!”
He stood on the hill, grinning like a bear with a paw in the honey hive and his face red from running. His stubby tumanhofer body bounced with excitement. He held his fists above his head and whirled them around in circles. Something had set him off.
She stood and hollered back. “You be calling me by my proper name out in the open ’n’ at the top of your lungs, Gustustharinback. Ma will tan yer hide if she’s finding out you disgrace the family with such shabby care of our dignity.”
When he saw her, he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, “Yer wanted at home. Itta be good news.”
That information didn’t impress her. Probably a delivery of the bolt of muslin ordered, which meant she’d be cutting and dyeing lengths for making new clothes. Not exciting news at all.
“Can it wait?” She gestured behind her to the scattered goat herd. “I’ll have to gather Tak’s clan if I’m to come home now.”
“I’ll come help you.” Gustus charged down the hill toward the footbridge across the river.
Ellie stared at him for a moment with her mouth hanging open. The good news had nothing to do with cloth. Her brother would never voluntarily help bring in the goats for something as mundane as new clothes. He scurried down the path, slipping some on the loose rocks. But the precarious descent did not slow him a bit. Even in the narrower patches, where exposed roots of arranndon bushes tripped careless hikers, her sturdy brother skidded downward.
Folding the royal celebration notice into a small square, Ellie stuffed it back in her pocket. She turned away from watching her brother’s progress and nudged the goat. “Come on, Tak. You find the nannies, and I’ll find the billies.”
Ellie went one direction and Tak another. In a few minutes, she located the fifteen goats that formed the herd. Mostly young males, these animals preferred the rockier terrain. She suspected it had to do with their perpetual game of I’m-up-highest.
She clicked her tongue and tapped her staff on a rock. Their heads rose as if all attached to the same string, though they didn’t come right away. Each one chewed what was in his mouth and casually left his place one by one. Taking a serene amble down the hillside, they passed her, heading toward the bridge and home.
When the last one clomped by, Ellie rested her staff on her shoulder and followed. Tak already had the nannies plodding along the bank toward the footbridge. Gustustharinback trailed the nannies and carried the smallest of the baby goats in his arms.
He shouted when he caught sight of his sister. “Hurry! Aunt and Uncle Blamenyellomont are at the house. I can’t tell you the surprise, and I’m gonna burst with keeping my tongue from waggin’ and you from knowin’.”
She tapped her staff on the rock beneath her feet. The billies scampered before her, picking up her impatience and gratefully heading for home. Even after eating all day, they appreciated the handfuls of button grain they got from the farmer’s younger children.
With the goat hoofs pounding on the wooden bridge, Ellie couldn’t hear or be heard. So she waited until she’d caught up with her brother on the other side.
“What’s with all the falderal, Gustus?”
She watched as he forced a glare onto his face, erasing the impudent grin he’d been wearing. “You are to call me by my proper name if I have to call you by yours.”
“There’s a difference between shouting ‘Ellie’ and speaking ‘Gustus’ quietly.” She grabbed his arm. “Now tell me, or I’ll toss you into the river.”
He pressed his lips together and gave her his most obstinate glower. The corners of his lips twitched, and she knew he wanted to laugh. She let go. She couldn’t really dunk him while he carried the small kid.
“Why are our aunt and uncle here?”
“Can’t tell you that either. But they’s only stopping, not staying. We’d better hurry.”
Ellie lost Gustustharinback’s help as soon as they came in sight of the pens. He scuttled down the last hill and opened the gate but then ran through the goat barn, across the yard, and into the house.
The herd followed the leader through the opening and took up different places to observe their world. Ellie and Gustus had put many odd things within the goat pen for the animals to climb on. Old wooden benches, barrels, a huge thick branch they had pulled with the donkey’s help, and crates littered the ground. The goats enjoyed scrambling up, over, and around the obstacles.
Tak stayed at Ellie’s side as she put water in the trough and fastened the barn door securely open so the animals could come in if they wanted. He followed her out the door on the other side of the barn and waited patiently while she latched it shut.
Entering the back door so she could wash before meeting their visitors, Ellie noticed that the kitchen showed signs of serving tea. Her mother must have prepared refreshments to carry into the common room. Through the pantry door, she could see empty spots on the shelves, which meant the good china pot and the blue glass dishes were being used.
Warm water sat in a tub in the sink, and she used that to wash her face and hands. She pulled the scarf off her head, gathered her long, curly black locks into a ponytail and used the scarf to tie it in place. Wisps of hair immediately escaped and framed her tanned face. She washed her face again as if she could rid herself of the look of a farm girl. Hopefully Aunt Tiffenbeth wouldn’t make that tired old comment: “Your blue eyes would be more attractive if you scrubbed away some of that mud you use for face cream.”
Voices from the family’s conversation drifted through the partially open door. Aunt Tiffenbeth quarreled with Ellie’s father.
“Brother, you are wrong in this. Ellicinderpart is your eldest child and way past the age to be in the village looking for a husband.”
“If there’s a man good enough for her, he can just come courting here.” Her father’s voice rumbled in the wood-paneled room, and Ellie did not even have to strain to hear him. She stepped closer to the door in order not to miss a single word her aunt spoke.
“You are the most vexing man. That is not going to happen. It isn’t the way of things, and you know it. You’re selfish and your mind is rootbound.”
Only his older sister could get away with talking like that to Ellie’s father. She probably ought to go in before the discussion escalated to verbal warfare. She finished wiping her hands and draped the towel over one of the kitchen chairs around the square table.
"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.
Home Front by Kristin Hannah Publish Date: 1/31/2012
All marriages have a breaking point. All families have wounds. All wars have a cost…
Like many couples, Michael and Jolene have to face the pressures of everyday life—children, careers, bills, chores—even as their twelve year marriage is falling apart. Then an unexpected deployment sends Jolene deep into harm’s way and leaves defense attorney Michael at home, unaccustomed to being a single parent to their two girls. As a mother, it agonizes Jolene to leave her family, but as a soldier she has always understood the true meaning of duty. In her letters home, she paints a rose-colored version of her life on the front lines, shielding her family from the truth. But war will change Jolene in ways that none of them could have foreseen. When tragedy strikes, Michael must face his darkest fear and fight a battle of his own--for everything that matters to his family.
At once a profoundly honest look at modern marriage and a dramatic exploration of the price of war on an ordinary American family, HOME FRONT is a story of love, loss, heroism, honor and ultimately, hope.
In the meantime Kristin Hannah has a free short story available in honor of Veteran's Day, The Glass Case, you can get this free story at the retailers below.
Two Moons of Sera by Pavarti K. Tyler
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