8/18/2017

Silver Linings by Debbie Macomber

Debbie Macomber simply knows how to entertain her readers. This novel is beautiful, emotional, and still not kitschy or in any way too much. I am still in some sort of shock. There is so much heart, drama, and love in this novel and you can find on every page something you haven´t discovered yet. Right from the first page, you see the author´s beautiful and unique writing-style and in combination with her way to describe things, even the worst ones, this book is going right through your heart.

Silver Linings*

by Debbie Macomber
Rose Harbor Series #4
Publisher Ballantine Books on August 11, 2015
Genre Novel
Pages 352
Format Hardcover
Source Library

Goodreads

✶✶✶✶½

Since opening the Rose Harbor Inn, Jo Marie Rose has grown closer to her handyman, Mark Taylor. Jo Marie and Mark are good friends – and are becoming something more – yet he still won´t reveal anything about his past. When Mark tells her that he´s moving out of town, Jo Marie is baffled. Just when she is starting to open herself up again to love, she feels once more that she is losing the man she cares about. And as she discovers the secret behind Mark´s decision to leave, she welcomes two visitors also seeking their own answers. Best friends Kellie Crenshaw and Katie Gilroy have returned to Cedar Cove for their ten-year high school reunion, looking to face down old hurts and find a sense of closure. Kellie, known as Coco, wants to finally confront the boy who callously broke her heart. Katie, however, wishes to reconnect with her old boyfriend, James – the man she still loves and the one who got away. As Katie hopes for a second chance, Coco discovers that people can change – and both look to the exciting possibilities ahead.

Story

Jo Marie has to accept that Mark is going. She can´t understand why and he isn´t giving her any answers. And to know that she will now finally be completely on her own isn´t something she really wants. Through her two guests, Coco and Katie, she learns that not every goodbye in life really means goodbye. And those emotions, as overwhelming as they can sometimes be, are a beautiful thing and worth being treasured.

Style

I love the way how Debbie Macomber lets her figures show their feelings. How she describes the wonderful landscape of the town, how she puts emotions into words. There is such a power in everything, even the bad scenes. And with the pictures in mind, I have from watching the Cedar Cove series, I sometimes wish I could be actually there. The author´s language is soft, sensitive, and yet with power. Bad things and drama happen all the time, that´s nothing new. But in Silver Linings, you can go through all this with the knowledge that love is an even more powerful thing and that if you are able to open up to it, you might be vulnerable but also in a magical way safe.

Characters

Good, sometimes I think Mark is an idiot. Yes, I admit it I´ll never understand how that man ticks. But after reading this book I start to believe that no matter what he does and how he does it, he has a damn good reason why he does everything this way. He has a heart though he´s not showing it very often, has a unique way to handle other people´s dramas, and to find a solution for it, but when it comes to Jo Marie and their relationship he is acting like a real moron. 

Jo Marie is nice, lovely and sweet as ever. Still thinking about her dead husband, still trying to get closer to Mark without having to leave her comfort zone. The talk she has with her mother about exactly that isn´t as good as she hoped it would be and the scene with Rich shows why. She is strong but still, has to find her new way.

Conclusion

I read this novel in one single swoop and was afterward in a state of shock. HOW can an author give such a beautiful novel such an end? Debbie Macomber, YOU ARE KILLING ME! I thought WTF when I turned the page and saw that there was nothing more …. Read!

Happy reading

*I read the German edition by Blanvalet on August 15, 2016  

Debbie Macomber

Debbie Macomber is the owner of the Victorian Tea Room and the yarn shop A Good Yarn, which was named after the store in her successful book Blossom Street. She is the author of Sweet Tomorrows, among many other books, and a leading voice in women´s fiction. Ten of her novels have reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller lists, and five of her beloved Christmas novels have been hit movies on the Hallmark Channel, including Mrs. Miracle and Mr. Miracle. Hallmark Channel also produced the original series Debbie Macomber´s Cedar Cove, based on Macomber´s Cedar Cove books. She has more than 200 million copies of her books in print worldwide. Debbie Macomber, who likes to be a grandmother, lives with her husband Wayne in Port Orchard, Washington, where her novels play and spends the winter in Florida. 

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8/17/2017

Bad Romeo by Leisa Rayven

This was the first book I read by the author. And it was worth every second I spend with it! Never had so much fun while reading an old story about love. Now, while waiting for the third one to come out (later this year) I am posting my review for the first Bad Romeo book *smile* Allowedly I read this book some time ago. Some looong time ago. But my enthusiasm hasn´t changed. I still can see those hilarious scenes, can hear the fantastic dialogues, and have fun by just remembering them. The plot is old, now set up in a new environment, but the basics remain the same. Leisa Rayven has a very unique way to capture her reader´s hearts and those of her characters. 

Bad Romeo

by Leisa Rayven
The Starcrossed Series #1
Publisher St. Martin´s Griffin on December 23, 2014
Genre Novel
Pages 416
Format Softcover
Source Publisher

Goodreads

✶✶✶✶✶

While performing the greatest love story of all time, they discover one of their own… Cassie Taylor was just another acting student with big dreams at her prestigious performing arts college... then she met Ethan Holt. She was the good girl actress. He was the bad boy on campus. But one fated casting choice for Romeo and Juliet changed it all. Like the characters they were playing on stage, Cassie and Ethan´s epic romance seemed destined. Until it ended in tragedy when he shattered her heart. Now they´ve made it to Broadway where they´re reunited as romantic leads once again – and their passionate scenes force them to confront the heartbreaking lows and pulse-pounding highs of their intense college affair. For Ethan, losing Cassie was his biggest regret – and he´s determined to redeem himself. But for Cassie, even though Ethan was her first and only great love, he hurt her too much to ever be trusted again. The trouble is, working with him again reminds her that people who rub each other the wrong way often make the best sparks. And when it comes to love, sometimes it´s the things that aren´t good for us that are the most irresistible. 

Story

Cassie is finally free from her mother´s over-protectiveness and can do what she always wanted to do: Acting on stage and learning how to be a great actress. If only Ethan wouldn´t be a part of her class. With him she feels like in a free fall – and no net insight to catch her. Working with him, rehearsing with him is fun and pain at the same time. And when everything goes south with him, her pain and broken heart hurt more than anything else she´s ever experienced in her entire life. 

Style

Bad Romeo is a phenomenal great novel. Fabulous scenes, fantastic dialogues, and two main figures who top it all. The author presents her story about Cassie and Ethan with a wide variety of words, has a language that makes you laugh and cry at the same time and has a writing style that you read with fast speed. I never felt so great entertained while reading a novel about Romeo and Juliet as I was while reading this book. There is a director who gives absolutely dry comments to the hot and steamy things that are going on between Cassie and Ethan while rehearsing their scenes – screamingly funny. I had the time of my life reading this absolutely gorgeous and to the point written book.

Characters

Modern times don´t mean that feelings adjust to them – or that lovers have it nowadays easier as in past times. Nope! The emotional roller-coaster is the same, the things lovers have to face are only a bit more technical or more sophisticated but the rest? Stays the same. Heartbreaking, painful, passionate, and everything you feel when it comes to loving someone and get hurt. All the figures are in unison when it comes to their passion for the stage. But despite that, they couldn´t be more different. Cassie is a young woman who wants nothing more but to escape her mother who is a real control freak. She grew up in an overprotective environment and now the art school is her only way to get as far away from home as possible. Ethan is quite the opposite. He never felt like he belongs really to the family he grew up with. There has always been the feeling deep inside him, that he doesn´t deserve them, that he is in the wrong place. As light and easygoing Cassie is, the more complicated, dark, and buttoned up is Ethan.  

Conclusion

This book is pure fun. Hilarious, with sexy scenes, to die for and I can say with all my heart: A must-read! The combination of a great language, incredible steamy scenes, hilarious dialogues, and two main figures who teach you quite a lesson – nothing can compare to that. Fantastic!

Happy reading

The German edition (first cover edition) looks like this: 

Leisa Rayven

Leisa Rayven lives at the other end of the world, in Brisbane, Australia. Actually, she wanted to become an actress. "As a young woman, I often did not know where I belonged, it seemed to me easier to play different identities than develop my own identity. This is particularly true when you are suffering from a wild temperament, but actually shy and introverted.” Leisa Rayven is a freelance actor and producer and became famous beyond Broadway when one of her texts sparked a wave of enthusiasm with more than 2 million internet readers almost overnight. 

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8/16/2017

Waiting On Wednesday #42 – One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake

is a weekly event originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. This meme is a place that spotlights upcoming releases that we´re eagerly anticipating with pure joy. For whatever reason Jill is not blogging since August 2016 but her meme is still going on. Hope everything is ok and she will be back soon! Until then, I am joining Tressa at Wishful Endings and her meme Can´t-Wait Wednesday!

For some reason, I joined in the hype (as many of my fellow bloggers were calling it) to read the first book when it came out in Germany and while I was reading it, I knew that no matter what I need to read the second one as well. The author´s style is dark, bloody, and cruel, and yet there is a tone in it that makes you turn the pages like they are feathers. You can´t get enough of the story about the three queens, it is a simple as that.

One Dark Throne

Author Kendare Blake
Three Dark Crowns #2
Publishing Date September 25, 2017
Publisher Penhaligon
Format Softcover
Goodreads

The battle for the crown has begun, but which of the three sisters will prevail?

With the unforgettable events of the Quickening behind them and the Ascension Year underway, all bets are off. Katherine, once the weak and feeble sister, is stronger than ever before. Arsinoe, after discovering the truth about her powers, must figure out how to make her secret talent work in her favor without anyone finding out. And Mirabella, once thought to be the strongest sister of all and the certain Queen Crowned, faces attacks like never before – ones that put those around her in danger she can´t seem to prevent. Fennbirn´s deadliest queens must face the one thing standing in their way of the crown: each other.

And what are you waiting for? Let me know your thoughts about this one or leave me the link to your WoW and I check it out.

Happy reading & waiting on

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8/16/2017

Sting by Sandra Brown

Sandra Brown is a guarantor of great thrillers. At least that´s the genre where I love her writing the most. Sting is no exception. From the start, you are in a game where you can only guess who´s the good guy and who´s bad. This thriller I enjoyed as an audiobook. And the narrator did a (mostly) great job. But I guess I´ll never like how it sounds when a female figure is read by a male narrator. Just not my case.

Sting

by Sandra Brown
Publisher Hachette Audio on August 16, 2016
Genre Thriller
Length 11 hours and 40 minutes
Narrator Stephen Lang
Format Audiobook
Source Audible

Goodreads

✶✶✶✶

When Jordie Bennet and Shaw Kinnard lock eyes across a disreputable backwater bar, something definitely sparks. Shaw gives off a dangerous vibe that makes men wary and inspires women to sit up and take notice. None feel that undercurrent more strongly than savvy businesswoman Jordie, who doesn´t belong in a seedy dive on the banks of a bayou. But here she is … and Shaw Kinnard is here to kill her. As Shaw and his partner take aim, Jordie is certain her time has come. But Shaw has other plans and abducts Jordie, hoping to get his hands on the $ 30 million her brother has stolen and, presumably, hidden. However, Shaw is not the only one looking for the fortune. Her brother´s ruthless boss and the FBI are after it as well. Now on the run from the feds and a notorious criminal, Jordie and Shaw must rely on their wits – and each other – to stay alive. Miles away from civilization and surrounded by swampland, the two play each other against their common enemies. Jordie´s only chance of survival is to outwit Shaw, but it soon becomes clear to Shaw that Jordie isn´t entirely trustworthy, either. Was she in on her brother´s scam, or is she an innocent pawn in a deadly vendetta? And just how valuable is her life to Shaw, her remorseless and manipulative captor? Burning for answers – and for each other – this unlikely pair ultimately makes a desperate move that could be their last.

Story

Jordie is in the hands of Shaw Kinnard, a criminal who wants to kill her. His real role in the case of her missing brother and his criminal boss is something she gets furious about, the second she gets to know the truth. And you better don´t piss off Jordie. Shaw learns his lesson the hard way and from that moment on he and Jordie are right in the middle of an evil plan. A plan where nothing is as it seems and one person turns out to be as unpredictable as hell.

Style

Sandra Brown uses again her blunt language that goes very close to being obscene and vulgar and still stays on a high level. She raises tension by changing scenes, showing things that turn out to be most important to the case, and by using characters where you can´t tell who is good and who is bad. During one scene, I was even convinced that Jordie might be not the woman I thought she´d be. There are quite some twists in this thriller and with every minute I was listening I was sure that it couldn´t get any better. 

It could.

Narrator

Stephen Lang did a wonderful job. Okay, I wasn´t very fond of his voice when he spoke Jordie´s part. But despite that, it was beautiful to listen to him being all those various characters. I could really hear by the tone of his voice who was talking in a dialogue or acting at that minute. 

Characters

Don´t let yourself get fooled by the figures Sandra Brown created in Sting. Nothing is as it seems. None of them is what you want them to be. And Kinnard is a man you don´t want to have as your enemy. Edgy, rough, and yet with a style, you wouldn´t expect in a man like him. He is smart as hell, thinks about anything, and everything that could happen and he reads Jordie like an open book. I was very impressed by how he handled every situation, how he argued why he did this or that and how he and Jordie had to get along with each other. 

In the end, Sandra Brown got me, again. I never thought that one figure was the real evil, though the author gave during the plot a lot of hints.

Conclusion

Sting is a great thriller with an unpredictable ending. I never thought that that could happen and was totally surprised when I found out who the real bad guy was. The setting was perfect and wonderfully described by the author. For all Sandra Brown fans, a must-read. For those who shouldn´t know her yet, a great book to begin with.

Happy reading

Sandra Brown

Sandra Brown is the author of 63 New York Times bestsellers. Brown began her writing career in 1981 and since then has published over seventy novels, bringing the number of copies of her books in print worldwide to upwards of eighty million. Her work has been translated into thirty-four languages. A lifelong Texan, Sandra Brown was born in Waco, grew up in Fort Worth and attended Texas Christian University, majoring in English. She is much in demand as a speaker and guest television hostess. Her episode on truTV´s Murder by the Book premiered the series in 2008. She appeared in 2010 on Investigation Discovery´s new series, Hardcover Mysteries. In 2009 Brown detoured from her thrillers to write Rainwater, a much acclaimed powerfully moving story about honor and sacrifice during the Great Depression. Brown holds an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Texas Christian University where she and her husband Michael Brown, have instituted the ELF, a scholarship annually awarded to a student pursuing a fiction-writing career. In 2008, she was named Thriller Master, the top award given by the International Thriller Writer´s Association. Other awards and commendations include the 2007 Texas Medal of Arts Award for Literature and the Romance Writers of America´s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2011, she and four colleagues went on a week-long USO tour to Afghanistan, meeting with service members on numerous bases. Sandra is the past president of the Mystery Writers of America in 2012. She lives in Arlington, Texas, with her husband, Michael Brown.

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8/15/2017

Ein Sommergarten In Manhattan by Sarah Morgan

Another wonderful book by the author. This time the tone is a bit different, the theme another, and yet you will find a lot of love, passion, desire, and that it is worth to risk it all if true love is what you will get out of it on the other end. A disastrous divorce, a mother who is embarrassing her daughter every time they meet, and a man who is patient as hell, what more do you want as the basis for a beautiful novel? All this and much more you find in this beautiful novel - and believe me, you will have a hard time putting it away.

Ein Sommergarten In Manhattan*

by Sarah Morgan
From Manhattan With Love Series #2
Original Title Sunset In Central Park
Publisher Mira TB on June 12, 2017
Genre Novel
Pages 411
Format Paperback
Source Publisher
Goodreads
✶✶✶✶

Love has never been a priority for garden designer Frankie Cole. After witnessing the fallout of her parents´ divorce, she´s seen the devastation an overload of emotion can cause. The only man she feels comfortable with is her friend Matt – but that´s strictly platonic. If only she found it easier to ignore the way he makes her heart race … Matt Walker has loved Frankie for years but, sensing how fragile she is beneath her feisty exterior, has always played it cool. But then he uncovers new depths to the girl he´s known forever and doesn´t want to wait a moment longer. He knows Frankie has secrets and has buried them deep, but can Matt persuade her to trust him with her heart and kiss him under the Manhattan sunset?

Story

Frankie doesn´t believe in love. Sex yes, but since she knows that she is a disaster even in that field she frankly lives the life of a nun. She doesn´t like the fact that there are many weddings during the summer and that her company is organizing some of them. Why planning a huge wedding when the divorce is already in sight? What a waste of money and other things. And when Matts steps into the picture and she has to learn that her own feelings aren´t as platonic as she thought they´d be, the chaos inside her is completely throwing her off balance.

Style

What I liked about this book was that the other figures, Paige, Eva, and Jake were also to see in the story again. Not as often as I would have loved it, but they were there and brought some other perspective into the novel. Sarah Morgan has a beautiful sensitive way to bring up topics about the damage a bitter divorce can have on a young teenager. She writes about all the pain, the despair, the loss, and how it feels for a young girl to be neglected by her own father. But don´t think that all this happens with one kitschy word in it. Oh no. Sarah Morgan knows how to avoid that and the pictures she is creating in the reader´s mind are so beautiful and sometimes breathtaking, that you can´t anything else but feel for Frankie and smile about her sometimes very cynical words, thoughts or what she does to avoid any relationship besides the one she has with her plants.

Characters

Frankie is a totally different type of woman, compared to her two friends Paige and Eva. She is as realistic as you can imagine, pragmatic and love is something she denies exists. Holding every man at bay she is as passionate about flowers and gardening as she is when it comes to her refusing every man that could possibly think about her becoming his girlfriend. Why invest in love if that feeling never lasts and in the end, it is nothing but pain, hate, and despair? But with Matt, she feels safe. Until she learns that there is more between him and her. Way more. All of a sudden she has butterflies in her stomach, can´t speak when he is near, and feels her face blush. For her, totally embarrassing. For him, pure pleasure.

Conclusion

This novel was in another way very touching, emotional, and moving. The author knows perfectly well how to write about a deeply hurt teenager who becomes a woman with a serious problem. The sensitive writing style is beautiful to read and though it didn´t move me as the first book did, I really enjoyed reading it. For all Sarah Morgan fan a great novel.

Happy reading

*This book was kindly provided to me by Mira TB in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Thank you. Therefore, the cover of the German edition is shown first in this review.

*This book was published Sunset in Central Park in the UK by Mira on July 14, 2016

*This book was published Sunset in Manhattan in the US by Harlequin on August 30, 2016

Sarah Morgan

Sarah Morgan dreamed as a child of being a writer and although she took a few interesting detours along the way, she is now living her dream. She loves being outdoors, preferably on vacation so she can forget the house needs tidying. Sarah Morgan writes hot, happy contemporary romance with humor and sensuality. She has sold over 14 million copies of her books and was nominated four years in succession for the prestigious RITA© Award from the Romance Writers of America which she won twice; in 2012 and 2013. She also won the RT Reviewers´ Choice Award in 2012 and has made numerous appearances in their `Top Pick´ slot. Together with her husband and children she lives near London, England.

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8/11/2017

Follow Friday #25 – Blog Posts Per Week

Launched by Sonja of A Bookshelf Full Of Sunshine, continued by FiktiveWelten with a new logo. The blog action is for lively communication between bloggers, a good network, and should be fun. Duration of the question: Friday to Thursday. Rules. No registration required. This week the FF is all about how often per week a blogger should post something and the always remaining question how many posts I read while visiting other blogs and how often I post on my own blog.

Well, to be blunt: I don´t care how often you post. Once a week, twice or more, or only once a month. As long as you do it consistently on a regular basis and with some quality you can blog as often or less often as you feel comfortable with. All I want, is, to be able to see your style, your language and that you do what you do with passion, heart and on a level, that talks to me in some way and shows me that you don´t do what you do because everybody is doing it.

I also don´t care if you write about the things that move you and excite you in a short blog post that has only ten sentences or goes over a full page with more than a hundred lines. Or where I must scroll down for what feels like an eternity before I reach the actual end of your post. As long, as you write in a unique style and as long, as that what you are writing about is very interesting, has some humor, wit, irony, sarcasm in it or is telling me true facts in an unusual way, I am more than willing to read whatever you have to say about it from the first word all the way down to the end.

I simply wanna be able to see your personal style in what you´re posting. Whether it be your very own opinion about your blog topic (in most cases books, because I rarely visit other blogs) or something that makes you furious – let me see your very own style, your very own language and that you are eager to bring some quality into your text. I need to find something that talks to me in what way ever. So, if you are posting high quality three times a week or only once a month – it doesn´t matter to me. And I repeat, as long as you do it on a regular basis that I can see, and I like your blogging style – I am more than happy to read it and to follow you.

I and my blogging habits are another story. In fact, I haven´t found the perfect way for me yet. I try to post here on Inkvotary between two and four times a week. But I am not feeling guilty if I can´t reach those numbers. Because blogging for me means mostly having fun and finding some sort of pleasure in it. Don´t get me wrong. I don´t mind posting more often during the seven days a week has, but I can either read a book or write one or two reviews. Doing both at the same time isn´t working. And my private life wants some of my attention as well. Ergo I can´t spend all weekend writing and be scheduling new posts for the upcoming week. Despite that, I like to bring some variety in, too. And besides, I am not much of a planner in the long run. Maybe not the best way to blog, but so far it seems to be my way, and the only way for me to get everything under one hat – blogging, reading, and my private life.

How is it about you?

Happy blogging & happy reading

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8/09/2017

Waiting On Wednesday #41 – Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

is a weekly event originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. This meme is a place that spotlights upcoming releases that we´re eagerly anticipating with pure joy. For whatever reason Jill is not blogging since August 2016 but her meme is still going on. Hope everything is ok and she will be back soon! Until then, I am joining Tressa at Wishful Endings and her meme Can´t-Wait Wednesday!

I haven´t done this in a while, since late March 2017, to be honest, and a lot of books I am waiting for are on my list now. Some of them are already out when this post will be published, so I am starting with an author who is completely new to me and his book that will come out in a bit.

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff caught my attention with its cover. The German edition (below the blurb) will have the same one, which I really appreciate. I am looking forward to it already. I never read that author before and high-fantasy isn´t my usual genre, but over the past ten months I found myself reading more and more books from that corner of the book world. And here the cover made me curious. It is dark, mysterious and I heard so many great things and bad things about it, that my first impression already is: It will polarize its readers. Seems like this could become another book that you´ll either hate or love.

Nevernight

Author Jay Kristoff
The Nevernight Chronicle #1
Publishing Date August 24, 2017
Publisher Fischer Tor
Format Paperback

Goodreads

In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family. Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father´s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father´s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined. Now, a sixteen-year-old Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic – the Read Church. Treachery and trials await her with the Church´s halls, and to fail is to die. But if she survives to initiation, Mia will be inducted among the chosen of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the only thing she desires. Revenge.

And what are you waiting for? Let me know your thoughts about this one or leave me the link to your WoW and I check it out.

Happy reading

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8/09/2017

Water & Air by Laura Kneidl

I got fascinated by the cover. All the blue, the gold, and the decent trimming – looks gorgeous. On the photo and live. This is a novel about hope, change, love, and the fight for the better. My first book by Laure Kneidl turned out to be something I didn´t expect at all. I expected a futuristic novel playing in a faraway future and where technology is part of the daily life – for everyone. Instead, it turned out to be a novel where a very old-fashioned lifestyle is combined with the technical achievement we have today and where the earth has changed her face once and for all.

Water & Air*

by Laura Kneidl
Publisher Carlsen on March 3, 2017
Genre Children 14+
Pages 474
Format Softcover
Source Publisher

Goodreads

✶✶✶✶

Since the rise of sea levels, people live in domes under the water or in the air. With her eighteen years, Kenzie has never seen the sun and her life in the water colony is subject to strict standards. After all, she cannot stand it anymore and flees into an air colony to make a new start. But then she becomes the main suspect in a mysterious murder series and only Callum with the mysterious smile holds to her. But not only the two-threatened danger, even the fate of the entire colony is at stake. (personal translation by ©Vi at Inkvotary) 

Story

Kenzie is, because of a medical problem she hides carefully, not able to fulfill her duties in the water colony the way she is supposed to do it. And with that fact in mind, she knows that she has to do something to have the chance of a long life. She flees to one of the air domes and wants to start all over again. But one person there wants her gone and within no time Kenzie finds herself right in the middle of a fight about life and death. 

Style

Laura Kneidl writes in a simple way and her tone is soft. There is a lot of action in this book and a lot of blood. The author describes the world of the air colony as a cold place where people only think about themselves. The contrast to life in the water colony couldn´t be bigger. While people under the water surface live a simple and kind of medieval life where only some technical equipment is available to a few; the air colony is a world of luxury, colorful and quite the opposite of everything Kenzie knows. 

I enjoyed reading this book somehow, yes, but on the other hand, despite all the action and bloody scenes, I wasn´t really haunted by it. 

Characters

With Kenzie and Callum, the author has created two main figures who are very impressive and convincing. They are just eighteen years old and yet they have responsibilities and things to deal with, others their age won´t even think of or dream of. 

Kenzie is a strong-willed, stubborn young woman who has a medical problem to deal with. Her way of doing so is leaving the colony she was born into and to fight for a better and longer life in one of the air colonies. She fights her enemies with intelligence, is a badass if necessary, and though she has no clue who the rules and the life in the air colony really are. All she knows she knows out of books that are very old.

Conclusion

I enjoyed reading this book somehow, yes, but on the other hand, despite all the action and bloody scenes, I wasn´t really haunted by it. But consider, that the plot is based on a problem we´re facing today, with the rising of the sea level, this novel shows what could be if we don´t start to do something against it.  

Happy reading

*This book was, at the time this review was published, only available in the German language.

Deutsche Rezension

Stil

Laura Kneidls Sprachstil ist einfach und klingt oft etwas altmodisch. Die Geschichte selbst geht nicht in eine futuristische Zukunft, wo alles nur aus Stahl, Laserpistolen und Tablets besteht. Da werden Frauen zu Gebärmaschinen gemacht und besitzen im Grunde keinerlei Rechte. Da fühlt man sich beim Lesen regelrecht in die Steinzeit versetzt.

Der Tonfall ist, trotz aller Action und erschreckender Dinge die im Handlungsverlauf passieren, eher dumpf, ruhig und still. Die Geschichte ist einerseits spannend, was die Geschehnisse angeht, andererseits konnte sie mich aber auch nicht so ganz packen. Der ganze Roman liest sich, als ob das Mittelalter mit Tablets ausgestattet und weit in die Zukunft geschleudert worden ist, wo die Männer das absolute Sagen haben. Wer nicht spurt, wird verbannt. Die Erde, so wie sie heute existiert, mit all ihren Kontinenten, gibt es nicht mehr. Die Tatsache, dass die Meeresspiegel steigen, ist in diesem Roman bereits kalte Realität. Allerdings wird das im Verlauf des Buches mehr oder weniger zur Nebensache. 

Charaktere

Die Autorin hat starke Figuren kreiert, die durch ihre Probleme gut zu überzeugen wissen, aber auch Dinge erleben, die junge Menschen im gleichen Alter in der Gegenwart wohl nur vom Hörensagen kennen.

Kenzie hat ein medizinisches Problem, das im Grunde nicht tragisch ist, in ihrer Welt aber zum großen Problem wird. Aufgrund dessen kann sie ihren Pflichten als Frau in der Wasserkolonie nicht nachkommen. Sie hat diese Unzulänglichkeit zwar schon lange für sich akzeptiert, jedoch nicht die Tatsache, dass ihr andere vorschreiben wollen, was sie für den Rest ihres Lebens zu tun hat. Sie ist eine willensstarke junge Achtzehnjährige, die oftmals als störrisch und dickköpfig wahrgenommen wird und sich nur schwer anpassen kann – glaubt man den Ansichten ihres Großvaters.

Callum trägt mit seinen achtzehn Jahren schon eine riesige Verantwortung auf den Schultern. Die Sicherheit der Kolonie ist sein Revier und seine Familiengeschichte zeigt, wie wichtig die Sicherheit einer liebevollen und intakten Familie ist. Er hat das nie kennengelernt und stellt die Bedürfnisse der Luftkolonie stets vor seine eigenen. Doch mit Kenzies Auftauchen in seinem Leben ändern sich die Dinge. Gravierend.

Resultat

Irgendwie hat der letzte Pfiff gefehlt. Ja, es war im Großen und Ganzen Lesevergnügen. Aber keins, das mir auf lange Sicht im Gedächtnis haften wird. Hier kommt eine Welt zum Vorschein, die ich so nicht erleben möchte und in der trotz aller Probleme doch ein Fünkchen Hoffnung steckt.

Laura Kneidl

Laura Kneidl writes novels about audacious demons, rebellious hunters, stylish vampires and uniformed air born. She was born in Erlangen, Germany, in 1990 and developed early in her life a taste for everything supernatural. Inspired by numerous fantasy novels, she began working on her own book project in 2009, since then her daily life has been accompanied by books, cats, Pinterest and magic.

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8/02/2017

True North – Schon Immer Nur Wir by Sarina Bowen

I discovered the True North series a couple of months ago when I won the first book for a reading challenge. Now with Steadfast, its English title, the great ride went on and I am again thrilled. Though this book was different from the first, the style darker and nothing sugar-coated, it was a fantastic read I absolutely enjoyed. Sarina Bowen has a hand for emotions. There is nothing kitschy in here and if you are looking for a book that is swooning all over the place you are in the wrong place. The author writes about real drama, you can´t get more realistic than she does when it comes to the cruel and bitter reality of drug abuse and its consequences.

True North-Schon Immer Nur Wir*

by Sarina Bowen
True North Series #2
Original Title Steadfast
Publisher LYX July 21, 2017
Genre Love-Women-Erotica
Pages 397
Format Softcover
Source Publisher
Goodreads
✶✶✶✶½

She´s the only one who ever loved him – and the only one he can never have. Just lost everything one spring day when he crashed his car into an apple tree on the side of the road. A man is dead, and there´s no way he can ever right that wrong. He´d steer clear of Colebury, Vermont forever if he could. But an ex-con in recovery for his drug addiction can´t find a job just anywhere. For Sophie Haines, coming face to face with the man who broke her heart is gut-wrenching. Suddenly, he´s everywhere she turns. It´s hard not to stare at how much he´s changed. The bad boy who used to love her didn´t have big biceps and sun-kissed hair. And he´d never turn up volunteer in the church kitchen. She knows it´s foolish to yearn for the man who returned all the heartsick letters she wrote him in prison. But the looks he sends her now speak volumes. No one wants to Sophie and Jude back together, least of all Sophie´s police chief father. But it´s a small town. And forbidden love is a law unto itself.

Story

Jude is back home, after years in prison and with a lifelong fight ahead of him because he is in recovery from his drug addiction. Where others were drinking beer and smoking cigarettes while they were eighteen, he sniffed narcotics. Stupid, yes, and he had to learn his lesson the hard way, but he learned it. Now, back in the small town where his life changed from one second to the other, he not only faces the bitterness one family still has against him but also that life hasn´t stopped while he was gone. And that he wasn´t the only one, whose life changed for the worse.

Style

Sarina Bowen´s writing style is sensitive but also blunt. She doesn´t hide or sugarcoat the fact that you have to deal with your addiction for the rest of your life once you are clean. And she shows the bitter and painful consequences it can have for an addict if he is put against his will again under the drug he fights to stay away from every day. Or how a tyrant father tortures his daughter only because he believes that she isn´t worth to be alive.

Steadfast is full of emotions, passion, dark moments and yet you´ll find a warmth and fantastic atmosphere in this book that you probably wouldn´t imagine. The author writes in a perfect touching and emotional way about two families who try to deal with the cards life gave them and to fight for their future. The healing process on both sides was set up beautifully in a novel where the main thing is the one true love. And I was totally thrilled that the Shipley family was again involved in the story.

Characters

A tyrant as a father, a mother who doesn´t live in the real world anymore, a young woman who takes care of parents who don´t see her and young man who will have to fight for the rest of his life his addiction. In Steadfast the figures are profound, convincing and there was more than one moment where I could have slapped that tyrant father or the mother to stop what they were doing.

Sophie never got to live her dream. Instead, she is at the whim and will of her brutal father, who punishes her for his son´s death by ignoring her, calling her bitch, and expects her to live her life the way he wants it. The moment when she starts to break out of her misery, when she starts asking inconvenient questions and to do want she wants, she is in the spotlight of her father. And when she discovers the truth about him and the night her brother died, her life is at stake.

Jude is an extraordinary man who stuns not only the padre whom he helps every Wednesday in the kitchen but also the doctors and nurses when he tells them what he does to stay clean. The one scene in the hospital was heartbreaking and made me furious at the same time.

Conclusion

This second book was not at all the way how the first one of this series was. The style of the author was the same, but the rest holy smokes! This book contains the in my eye perfect mix of romance, dark tone, drama and passion, and some very hot stuff. If you enjoyed the first book then you will love this one.

Happy reading

*This book was kindly provided to me by LYX in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Thank you. Therefore, the cover of the German edition is shown first in this review.

*The book was originally published Steadfast by Rennie Roads Books on July 10, 2016

Sarina Bowen

Sarina Bowen is the USA Today bestselling author of steamy Contemporary Romance and New Adult fiction. She lives with her family in Vermont´s Green Mountains. In 2016, she became a Rita Award winner. 

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