I’ve been reading Anne Brooke’s work for some time, enjoyed most of it to various degrees, never felt disappointed. Our paths crossed in ‘writing circles’ and now we even write for a mutual publisher. I’ve given her only good reviews when I’ve given any, but this is not to say that I’ve disliked the works I haven’t reviewed, or that I’ve shown favouritism.

The moment I began The Gifting, Ms Brooke’s first foray into fantasy, if it had been an unknown author I may have been tempted to put it down. This had nothing to do with the story as I was only a few lines in and one can seldom judge a work that fast, especially when one already knows that the writer is more than capable. My disillusionment arose from seeing present tense. I could, admittedly, mention ways I’ve used it myself, and books written in a similar fashion that I’ve rated highly, which sounds contradictory, but simply put, I prefer present tense used only in shorter works, and I find whole novels written this way seldom hold my attention. However, this was the prologue. I wondered whether the tense would change in the chapters — a possibility I was both wrong and right about. Different tenses are used for different characters, with the characters ‘identified’ by their names at the top of each change of viewpoint. Alas, I found both choices a little annoying. I wasn’t far enough into The Gifting to have any affection for it to compensate, and my immediate reaction was one of wishing I hadn’t bothered…a reaction that swiftly changed. As I progressed into Chapter One, I grew irresistibly interested in Simon.

The story is at once complex and simple. Certainly, Simon’s transition of a self-made coward into a man who surprises others as well as himself is a foregone conclusion at the start of the narrative. Yet it was Simon’s inner journey that I enjoyed the most. Possibly the fact that Simon’s part is written in third person helped with my enjoyment, but I still feel my fascination had more to do with the man himself. Too often I was riling against the injustice of those who saw Simon as nothing more than a coward, including Simon — I wanted to slap him, but for all the right reasons. I felt many of Simon’s reactions were all too human and that being a coward had little to do with it. This rite of passage, this self-confessional expedition is what Anne Brooke deals with most superbly and subtlety. I was not initially so enamoured with the, at times, physically surreal aspects of the classic ‘epic journey’ that is common to the genre…and yet once again had to change my mind. I found much of the book intriguing and grew to like aspects that made the archetypal elements into something a little out of the ordinary. The journey is very much one of the mind, which tied in nicely with the use of the mind executioner’s cane, and Simon’s mental and physical pilgrimage. I will likely read the trilogy as my curiosity is piqued, although I feel book one is a satisfying read in itself, and while I feel I would have entirely enjoyed the book had it been written more traditionally in third person, I accept that the choice of style does and should lie with the author. I doubt it will suit everyone, and have to knock a star or two off purely owing to personal tastes, which only goes to show no author can please everyone and would be foolish to try.

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I should say I’m going to be sharing a publisher with the author and our paths have crossed in writing circles enough to call each other friends. However, if a writing acquaintance pens a book that I dislike, I simply never review it. Neither do I review all the books I do like, but I keep my evaluations generally for books that speak to me on some deeper level of enjoyment that makes the book a keepsake. The Seeker, book one of four in The Garden series, is such a book.

Absorbing and satisfying is the only description that fits the gradual expansion that made every distraction in my life irritating. By the time I reached halfway I’d find myself suddenly thinking of Willem and wonder what was happening to him, as if his life hadn’t ‘paused’ while the book lay shut, but his life was continuing without my attention between the closed pages. That felt unacceptable; I wanted to be reading.

Willem is both a businessman and loving uncle, with much in his life to be thankful for including a long-standing friendship with his best mate, Jake. That’s not to say that Will’s life is without stresses and seeing Jake at long last appears to be getting serious with his latest girlfriend, Will decides to take a chance and follow what began as an internet romance to its logical conclusion, to meet up with the person he’s only known online. From here what happens after Will disappears leads the reader into a clever reworking of mythology extending back to ancient Egypt. As I immersed deeper into this supernatural world that exists in the undercurrents of our own, that initial steady pace began to make sense. One needs to fully know and understand Will to make what happens to him all the more involving.

It’s been a while since I read a book where I loved almost all the characters, both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ and ached equally for them. There’s much manipulation and secretive agendas that make the line between antagonist and victim blur, as do the lines of sexuality. Although Will is gay, this is not a homosexual novel, and it would be a tremendous pity if anyone dismissed the reading of it as anything less than it is — an engrossing narrative that finally brings new life to the vampire mythos that could equally interest vampire aficionados as well as those with no particular liking for the subject.

This is and isn’t a vampire book, just as it is and isn’t so many other things, but rather a satisfying blend, a commingling of old and new, the future and the past, complexities of relationships, love and hate. One is left feeling that these characters are all being moved like pawns in some great game where some fundamental rule or ‘truth’ is missing. Those who believe they are following a line of destiny are as helpless as a newly rebirthed upyr of the story. I hurt for Frederick in an almost equal way as I did Willem. In this expert way, the author humanises the villains of the piece, making the reader care even when a twinge of betrayal or guilt accompanies the feelings, for Willem remains the central pivot that wreaks havoc with the emotions, both with the other characters in the story and in turn with the person turning the pages.

Unusually for a book in a series, I have to agree with another reviewer who commented on the truly great ending, calling it both subtle and powerful. I’d like to add another word to that: perfect. It’s the perfect end at the perfect moment. While I’m eagerly awaiting the next volume, I feel content enough to leave the story for now, and let the events I’ve learned so far percolate…with anticipation.

As I write this, I see that Seeker is Book of the Week over at Hirst Publishing. Hmm…it deserves to be Book of the Month at least…

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Enter a boy named Weed, dumped on them by an obnoxious curator of an insane asylum. Weed seems to have a natural affinity with plants — more natural than anyone can possibly guess — and Jessamine’s father is convinced Weed has some knowledge that he is selfishly keeping.

This is one of those books classified for children, but that can bridge the gap to young adult and adult alike. It’s sadly subjected to the ‘golden rule’ that a book featuring a young person is automatically listed as ‘for children’ on the basis that adults wouldn’t be interested in reading about a child or teenager. It’s a pity because I think many books classified as such will miss out on an adult readership that may well enjoy them.

I’d definitely say The Poison Diaries is such a book. It has a gothic feel, a sense that Jessamine’s world is part of ours and yet, somehow, not — that she and her cottage might be glimpsed while walking through a misty wood one day and then when you look directly, it is gone. That description is probably as fanciful as the book, but that’s the atmosphere it created for me. The book seemed to lose its way at one point, at perhaps the most crucial point, and then it twists in a vicious way I should have seen coming — however, maybe that’s why the book ‘loses’ focus and becomes almost dreamlike, distracting the reader from reality, so that you’re not asking the right questions to reach the right conclusions. In short, this was a strange and unusual story, well conceived and written for the intended market.

My one point of contention is it felt as if I reached the end too quickly. It was as if it rushed up to meet me before I was ready, and I found the end a little dissatisfying, but I am sure that is as much to do with my personality as the story, which to explain I would have to give the story away. Yet, maybe the book did all it could, told the story it was supposed to tell…and was simply finished at the only moment it could finish. An easy read but memorable. The type of idea I would love to come up with.

(A thank you to Anne Brooke for previously reviewing this and capturing my interest.)

This is an ‘alternative’ Earth twist where slavery is very much part of ‘accepted’ society, and Daniel’s owners intend he should learn that he’s no better than a toaster or a DVD machine even it has to be the hard way, even if that isn’t what the man who has leased him wishes. The story is painful, and yet has hope and love. My only ‘complaint’ is that I felt once the worst was over it reached the end too quickly. I wanted to know more about these two, and ultimately, I can’t help but hope Daniel will get his revenge — perhaps a change in the law where slavery is abolished and those who have committed crimes against slaves are held responsible for them. But that’s just the way I am and I accept I’m not the author, and it’s for her to decide what journey her characters take. I see this is ‘Book 1’ so I do hope she revisits this world. I found these men intriguing, even more so since I’ve read their character interviews via her website. This book left me feeling rather unsteady, rather than ‘Anchored’ in any way.

The one trouble with Rachel’s writing is I always seem to want to know more, which I’m sure she’ll be pleased to hear.

‘Anchored’ by Rachel Haimowitz  is available on the Kindle and from Noble Romance Publishing.

So it is with great pleasure, I’m happy to say I didn’t just like ‘Counterpoint’ (Song of the Fallen, Book 1) by Rachel Haimowitz; I loved it. If time had allowed, I would have finished it days sooner, but maybe it’s for the best that I couldn’t rush through it…as I so wanted to do. I didn’t want to put it down, yet I wanted to take my time over it. I wanted to take my time, because I didn’t want it to finish. I didn’t want to finish because even a third into the book, I sensed I would want the next one…IMMEDIATELY, and when I did close the last page, it was with protesting cry that in the absence of the next book, I wanted to flip back to the first page and start again. Why?

Tension.

Tension tension tension. Tension and characters that you ache for, and desire to see happy. Contrary to one or two reviews where readers (for various reasons) said they struggled to get into this book — although they said they loved it once they did — I had no such problems falling straight into the story. Maybe my love of the fantasy genre helped, or maybe it’s because this book is a higher calibre than many modern romances, which are written in a rush to satisfy the reader by getting to the sex so fast there’s the risk of forsaking the story. This book is far from riddled with sex, but those scenes are worth waiting for, and all the more significant because of the journey to get there.

These scenes occur at the perfect moments and are written in a wonderfully sweet, blindingly powerful way, without the need of coarse words, or making these men speak soppy to each other. Even moments of violence are written in an effecting way without being deliberately graphic. I also couldn’t be more delighted to say there’s no unrealistic dialogue or action (one of my personal aversions) as well as a good use and variety of language, all blended into a proper story. How refreshing!

Come on, Rachel! When is the next book forthcoming?

Counterpoint is available as an ebook and in print from Guiltless Pleasures Publishing.

Read more about it at her website.

In so doing he initially confused me, not because I failed to understand his intention but because as a writer I couldn’t see the market from a publisher’s point of view. Clearly I enjoyed it and I could envision many adults doing likewise, yet initially I could see this being a book publishers often reject as seeing ‘no market for this sort of thing’. This isn’t a book for children, although it is a book that children of a certain age could read and probably gain from reading; however, I agree with the author that an adult will likely read this in a very different light to that of a child and this makes ‘The Book of Lost Things’ perhaps one of those novels that requires re-reading at a different stage in your life, possibly for the young adult and then as a mature one. I was pleasantly surprised to come across such a book because of the writing ‘rule’ that dictates if the lead in a book is a child then it is a children’s book.

This is most definitely a book for adults to enjoy, not solely because of the surprisingly bloodthirsty content. It’s amazing how many of us forget how dark, foreboding, and just plain bloodthirsty those old fairy tales that we grew up with and loved so well actually were. I didn’t need the book’s additional sojourn through the world of fairy tales to know that in some versions of Sleeping Beauty she awakens while giving birth, or the wicked queen in Snow White is made to wear red-hot iron ‘slippers’ to dance in until she dies, just as I know that in Cinderella birds fly down to pluck out her stepsisters’ eyes. Fairy tales have always held great interest for me and have influenced my work. indeed, my erotic romance ‘Rose Light’ is a retelling of ‘Cinderella’, abate one where I had to heighten sexual content to satisfy the publisher but one which I intend to one day restore to its original form for another market. So nothing about the content of Connolly’s book surprised me. I was amazed to find a book published that kept to the traditions of these stories and celebrating their content, of change, of choice, of triumphant, abate in an often gruesome way.

Ultimately the strongest depth and substance to the book is grief and loss and how it changes us, becomes a part of who we are and, like stories, influences our lives; yet overall because this is a ‘fairy tale’, it resonates in the way all good stories should.