KindleObsessed

100 Fan Book Give-A-Way #2

July 10th, 2010

Hello Everyone!!! I hope you had a fantastic week. First up, I would like to congratulate Kippoe for being the 1st Bookapaloosa winner. He is now the proud owner of “The Skin Gods” by Richard Montanari.

Ok… on to the good stuff. This weeks Bookapaloosa is a 2fer. Since y’all have been such great fans this week I’m giving away both “Eternal” by Cynthia Leitich Smith and “A Certain Slant of Light” by Laura Whitcomb to 1 very lucky reader. All you have to do is leave a comment telling me the title of YOUR favorite book.

Cheers and good luck! Misty

(Dear Amazon Kindle Subscription Holders, I don’t want you to miss any of the freebie fun, so feel free to stop by www.kindleobsessed.com and leave a comment or drop me an email at misty@kindleobsessed.com for your chance to win.)

Eternal

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Product Description

This dark romance is told in alternating chapters from the perspectives of 17-year-old Miranda and her guardian angel, Zachary, in an alternate America in which vampires and werewolves exist. Early in the novel, Zachary falls from grace as punishment for materializing in his full radiance in a failed attempt to save Miranda from being bitten by a vampire. The tale resumes a year later with the now-vampire Miranda a revered princess living among vampire royalty and feasting regularly on humans. Zachary, meanwhile, has sunk into a life of aimless debauchery and is resigned to never regaining his wings when an archangel suddenly gives him the opportunity to become Miranda’s personal assistant. Determined to save his former ward, with whom he has fallen in love, Zachary takes the job. Miranda finds herself drawn to him, and the murders she has carelessly committed begin to weigh on her conscience. With his help, she is determined to find a way to redeem herself and help him return to grace. The plot is occasionally choppy and frequently grisly, and the dialogue seems forced in places. Neither Miranda nor Zachary is particularly likable, and the ending, while logical, is not one that romance fans will favor. The story lacks the elegance of Stephenie Meyer’s hugely popular novels, but serious vampire buffs will undoubtedly add the novel to their must-read list.–Leah J. Sparks, formerly at Bowie Public Library, MD Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Certain Slant of Light

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Produce Description

Grade 9 Up–Helen died 130 years ago as a young woman. Unable to enter heaven because of a sense of guilt she carried at death, she has been silent and invisible but conscious and sociable across the generations. Her spirit has been sustained by its attachment to one living human host after another, including a poet and, most recently, a high-school English teacher. While she sits through his class one day, she becomes aware of James and he–unlike the mortals all around them–is aware of her as well. James, who also died years earlier, inhabits the body of a contemporary teen, Billy. James and Helen fall in love, he shows her how to inhabit the body of a person whose spirit has died but who still lives and breathes, and the two begin to unfold the mysteries of their own pasts and those of their adolescent hosts. Jenny, whose body Helen now uses, is the only child of strict religious parents who controlled her beyond what her spirit could endure. Billy’s spirit left his body after a string of tragedies resulting from drug abuse and domestic violence. James and Helen court in both modern and old-fashioned ways; here is a novel in which explicit sex is far from gratuitous or formulaic. Whitcomb writes with a grace that befits Helen’s more modulated world while depicting contemporary society with sharp insight. In the subgenre of dead-narrator tales, this book shows the engaging possibilities of immortality–complete with a twist at the end that wholly satisfies.–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Comments ( 12 )

A Certain Slant of Light, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Eternal, Free Books, Laura Whitcomb

Hello? Is Anyone There?

January 20th, 2010

What happens when we die? Do we descend to heaven? Hell? Are we stuck in some sort of everlasting parallel we refer to as purgatory? Where does our soul go? What do we remember? Who is there with us?

These are the questions “Laura Whitcomb” tries to answer in “A Certain Slant of Light.”

Helen is a ghost, she has spent hundreds of years following one host after another, joining in their daily activities and clinging to them as if they were her only source of life, in a somewhat clumsy attempt to find her way to heaven. She does not know who she is, she does not know what she did to be stuck in the loop she’s in, and she is sad.

After years of lonely wandering, blind to those in the “Quick” world around her, she suddenly notices a boy staring at her, his name is James, he is the answer to her prayers, and a way out. (or in… If you’re looking for acuracy.)

Although “Whitcomb’s” writing at some points are breathtaking, spouting beautiful descriptives such as: “They line the walls like a thousand leather doorways to be opened into worlds unknown.” the book was horribly jumpy. One moment I was reading a captivating novel about the implications of being a ghost and the next I felt as though I had inadvertently picked up the wrong book and starting perusing some horribly cheesy Harlequin, complete with instant love and naked marriage proposals.

Needless to say…40% of the way through I lost interest.

Fortunatly in the last 30 pages the plot picked back up… but unfortunately, I was sound asleep by then.

I wanted to like this book, I even tried to convince myself that I was being to harsh on it, but the reality of it is… I just didn’t give a crap. (which is never a good sign.)

It was a book…I read it…now I’m moving on.

There were moments of body hopping, a cult-ish like… secretive father who made my skin crawl, an overly protective big brother with understandable trust issues, an odd skittishly written war scene, a very sad moment of self recognition, and 1 very uncomfortable meeting with a shrink.

Even with all the little moments of literary genius…the complexities of the plot and the well thought out moral lesson, (except the mistakes you’ve made and forgive yourself.) it was still a flop.

Save your money.

Happy reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: everyone has a muse… chances are you just can’t see yours.

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(2/5)