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Giveaway and Review: Eternal Redemption by Paul Andreas Wunderlich

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eternal redemptionI will be the first to admit, I’m not a huge fan of novellas or short stories….however, this is one I really enjoyed! I admit I was a bit worried after the author contacted me and I accepted his offer of a free copy to read. He was very polite in his offer and very informative as well. I was just a bit worried that I would hate the book and have to give it a low rating….or worse…that I would hate it so much that I would be forced to give a less than favourable review! As I seem to be learning more and more in my later life…the thoughts and worries I constantly have rumbling around in my head are usually unfounded….life usually turns out so much better than I had hoped….This novella was no exception. I really did enjoy it.

When I contacted Paul (Paul Andreas Wunderlich’s webpage ) to thank him for the gift and to tell him just how much I enjoyed the book and wished to feature it in this blog, he once again showed his generosity and offered not one but THREE free copies to our readers. Just comment on this blog post for a chance to win!

Now back to the review…

This novella reminded me of the fables or mythology that I loved as a teenager…no, let me rephrase that….as I first loved as a teenager and continue to love now. Here you have a main character that gets exactly what he wishes for the most in the world….alas, only then does he realise that what he wanted was actually exactly what he already had….he tries to rectify his past mistakes and true to life…finds out that you can’t always go back to how things were…and many of us are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over in this life…and perhaps the next life as well….

It says a lot that my favourite character of this novella was the Devil himself. It also reminds all of us that the most evil person in the room might be the one who can appreciate, understand, and see the most pure and beautiful in that very same rule. After all, how can one know beauty without knowing it’s total opposite as well? What is happiness and love if we have never known pain and suffering to compare it with? The trick is in the knowing of how to keep the one in your life instead…or perhaps, in spite, of the other….

The title is also something to give you much to ponder….if we seek to find eternal redemption, whom should we be seeking it for? Ourselves or those that we have wronged? Can we be redeemed whilst we have no chance of ending our own suffering? Is it enough for those that we have wronged to be happy, even at our own expense? Should we feel shorted if the happiness of our loved ones comes on the back of our own suffering? Sure, it’s easy to say yes….but we’re talking about human nature here….Can one really be happy for our loved ones if we are never in a position to personally share their happiness? To see their laughter every day through the sheen of our own tears?

If I have one complaint in this novella it is that perhaps Wunderlich has too much of a fondness of adjectives. By the end of the book, I wasn’t bothered at all and I really did enjoy this short read. I also admit that since I went into this not at all sure I would like this novella, I might have had a part of my mind (the annoying part that is ALWAYS speaking and never shuts up!!!) that was looking for parts of the story to justify my original worries of the novella….

If you’re in-between a couple of chunky novels and need something to break them up, this might be the perfect read for you. You should have no problem finishing it in one sitting…and there is much moral contemplations to ponder whilst you do….

Until next time….

Urania

***Please don’t forget to comment to this post for a chance to win a free copy of this novella***

Buy it now Eternal Redemption by Paul Andreas Wunderlich

Review: Archer’s Voice, by Mia Sheridan

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5

“Sometimes an understanding silence was better than a bunch of meaningless words.”

When Bree Prescott arrives in the sleepy, lakeside town of Pelion, Maine, she hopes against hope that this is the place where she will finally find the peace she so desperately seeks. On her first day there, her life collides with Archer Hale, an isolated man who holds a secret agony of his own. A man no one else sees.

Archer’s Voice is the story of a woman chained to the memory of one horrifying night and the man whose love is the key to her freedom. It is the story of a silent man who lives with an excruciating wound and the woman who helps him find his voice. It is the story of suffering, fate, and the transformative power of love.

OK. Let me start out by saying that the tbr shelf is overflowing with good intentions. Seriously, everyone keeps saying, “You gotta read..” and then I buy it and it gets lost in the shuffle. Well, when Archer’s Voice came out, I was just about to start Leo and then Leo’s Chance. It’s the forth book in the Sign of Love series, but it can be a standalone. I knew I needed to grab Stinger before I even thought of Archer. But everyone kept telling me to skip it and read Archer first, then go back to it. But my OCD didn’t wanna let me do it. After much grumbling, I decided to not listen to myself and listen to my friends, and let me tell you, I made a wise choice. WOW. This book is just…wow.

The emotions that were pulled out of this book, were all over the map. It was another perfect book. There is just something about the silence of Archer that draws you in. He was totally misunderstood. When Bree decides to be friends with Archer, she goes full-bore. They both suffered great pain, in the past, and that pain is what makes them so similar. As I read what he went through, as a boy, I was crushed, devastated, angry and so very sad. All of his suffering was unnecessary.

“I’m afraid to love you. I’m afraid that you’ll leave and that I’ll go back to being alone again. Only it will be a hundred times worse because I’ll know what I’m missing. I can’t…” He sucked in a shaky breath. “I want to be able to love you more than I fear losing you, and I don’t know how. Teach me, Bree. Please teach me. Don’t let me destroy this.”

Sweet silent Archer. Being alone for so long, he was so very childlike in many aspects of his life. It was so sweet to watch Bree teach him things. Some of the things were quite saucy, but it was still very sweet. It was nice to see someone so protective over him. He hasn’t had that in such a long time. He needed Bree, more than he ever thought.

“I stand by my logic though. I think love is a concept, and each person has an individual word for what sums it up for them. My word for love is Bree.”

This book made me cry, made me mad, made me gasp in shock, and made me sit back and remember that everyone is worthy of love.

~Melpomene

Buy Archer’s Voice (Sign of Love, Sagittarius)

Review: 600 Hours of Edward by Craig Lancaster

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600 Hours of EdwardHave you ever heard of author named Craig Lancaster? What? Did you just say no? Well, here’s your tip for the year…write the name down. Remember it. Go get this book to start with….you won’t be disappointed….And if you haven’t heard of him before, remember, you heard it from a muse first, he’s going to be really famous one day….

What can I say about this book? It was just simply charming. Edward is someone I would love to have in my life. He is a 39-year-old man who some would say suffers with OCD and a mild case of Asperger’s Syndrome. I would vehemently disagree. He does not suffer at all. We could all learn a lot from Edward. Oh man, how much I loved this guy…. What could we possible learn from a 39-year-old man who suffers from these “mental illnesses”? Let me just name a few….we could all learn that not everything can be judged by face value. We could all learn that it isn’t just about you! Other people matter and they have their very own version of what is happening…one that might not coexist with how you are viewing the situation. We might also learn that sometimes, even if we can’t say it out loud, we are often frustrated, hurt and angered by others…that even if we don’t say these things out loud, that we should at least acknowledge these feelings in some way….Sometimes when we are frustrated or angry with someone, confronting them is not always the wisest thing to do. Sometimes, just acknowledging the feelings to ourselves really is enough! There are many many other life lessons in this story….but I leave you with this final thought and then some quotes….

Sometimes being a friend means that you have to make the effort to step outside of your comfort zone…you have to be there for someone else, even if it means you must be brave enough to cross a dangerous street all by yourself….damn, did I mention how much I love Edward?

“That’s the problem with belief: If you rely on it too heavily, you have a lot of picking up to do after you find out you were wrong.”

“I hope you do exist. Even though hope is as intangible as belief, I am not hostile to it.”

“The complaint lies with me, not with you. I never could find a way to make you proud of me, and at some point, I think I stopped trying. When you were here, I blamed you for that. I think now, the failure is mine… It occurs to me that death is a funny thing – not funny in a laughter sort of way, but in a twisty sort of way. It’s the people who are left behind who have to grapple with the regret. The one who is gone is just gone.”

Please read this book….please….c’mon, when have I ever asked you guys to read a book? Go on then! What are you waiting for??????

Until next time….

Urania xx

Buy it now 600 Hours of Edward

Review: The Iron Traitor, by Julie Kagawa

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15811405I was so excited when I received this ARC. I even did a happy dance. But no, you don’t wanna see it. This book is the second in the Call of the Forgotten series, which is a spin off of the Iron Fey series. I loved The Iron Fey so much, I just knew I’d love this one as well. I was not wrong.

This book takes place a few days after The Iron Prince ended. We find Ethan Chase trying to get back to normal life. Well, as normal as you can get, when you see the fey no one else can see. He’s determined to be a good boyfriend to Kenzie and to NEVER go back to Nevernever. But you know what they say….

When his nephew, Keirran, goes missing, Ethan decides to go and find him as quickly as possible. But finding him and stopping him from doing something so drastic, are two different things. Keirran is determined to save his love, even if it causes great damage and forever change this world. But Ethan tries to help him anyways, cuz he’s family. But that help, just may be the thing that destroys him.

I love that we get a glimpse of Meghan, Ash, Grim and Puck. It was wild seeing Ash as a formidable man and father. He was frightening. But I just love Puck!! I loved the way he never changed and was still the jokester at times, but at the same time, he could also step up and help.

All Puck’s scenes made me wanna go back and read the Iron Fey from the beginning. Many of Ethan and Keirran’s scenes reminded me of Ash’s and Puck’s adventures, from the Iron Fey. They may be different, but they fight together against anything that was thrown their way.

Grim still helped them, too, and yet disappeared when trouble comes. I wonder about that cat….

This book took me four days to read, and I made sure to highlight everything I deemed important. I don’t wanna forget a thing. But that ending…..A CLIFFY!!!!! I am speechless….What…..where……how…..And now I have to wait til next year!! I was seriously shocked. I NEVER saw that coming.

Well done Ms. Kagawa. You have written another fabulous YA book. And, like you tweeted me, your muse was well feed by my tears. So glad I could help you out. 😉

I received this ARC for an honest review.

~Melpomene

Release day: October 29th
Buy it now: The Iron Traitor (The Iron Fey)

Review: A Different Blue, by Amy Harmon

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“Once upon a time there was a little blackbird, pushed out of the nest, unwanted.”

WOW!!! This was an amazing book! I kept hearing about this book and that people were crying and emotionally drained afterwards. So I knew this was right up my alley.

Blue Echohawk has no idea who she is or where she came from. She doesn’t even know her real name or how old she is.

What she knows is that the man, Jimmy Echohawk, who raised her, from age 2 til 10 wasn’t her father. She was left in his truck, by her mother, and he was afraid to turn her in, after finding out her mother was killed in the motel he was parked outside of. So he took her and cared for her, until one day he went out and never came back. She was then raised with her step aunt and put into school for the first time.

The story takes place during her senior year of high school, where she is forced to revisit her past, what she knows of it, by her 22yr old good looking, British, cello playing, History teacher, Mr Darcy Wilson. Poor guy had a P&P lovin’ mom. 🙂 He forces her to think about who she thinks she is.

“You may not be a work of art, but you are definitely a piece of work.”

What she discovers is more than she bargained for.

This entire book is about her quest to find out who she really is. Mr. Wilson helps her in ways no one else ever could. As they grow closer, Blue is faced with a difficult decision and He is there to get her through it. It was one of the hardest scenes I’ve ever had to read. Ugly tears were falling. Love in the most beautiful and purest form, was shown here. I had such a hard time getting through it.

“I keep wishing you had had a better life…a different life. But a different life would have made you a different Blue.” He looked at me then. “And that would be the biggest tragedy of all.”

This is a sweet romance with a happy ending, if you can get past the crying and the emotions. 🙂

~Melpomene

Buy A Different Blue

Review: Left Drowning, by Jessica Park

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17325147 “Your parents died. Your world fell apart.”
I nod.
He puts his hand on my cheek. “You were left drowning”
I nod again.
“And you’re struggling to breathe”
I am. It’s a constant struggle to stay near the surface I have just enough air to stop me from going totally under, but not enough to thrive.
“So do it. Breathe. Just Breathe.”

WOW!! I am speechless…I can’t even think enough to type this out. I haven’t read such a perfect book in a very long time. Well…perfect for me. This had love, loss, tears and great deal of angst. See?? Perfect. Most definitely belongs in my Top 10 books of all time.

Blythe’s parents died in a fire, four years ago. She has been drowning ever since. She pushes people away, without even trying. She knows she’s depressed, but she doesn’t know the first thing about how to get out of it. She’s just trying get through her last year of college and move one.

What she doesn’t anticipate, is meeting Chris Shepherd.

He is the past, the present, and the future.

Chris is a very sweet guy, with a past that is so hard to read, I had to take breaks. I don’t know how he managed to get through it all without losing his mind. But he had to do it for his siblings.

The Shepherd siblings bring the necessary comedic breaks this really needed. Sabin was the best!! I wish I had a Sabin in my life. He was the “Cakest of all my baby cakes.” You’ll understand that when you read it.

Watching the love bloom between Blythe and Chris was very sweet. There were a few saucy scenes that made me quite happy. 🙂

“Chris may be imperfect, and he makes mistakes, but I can feel his heart and I know that he is mine.”

*swoon* Seriously, major swooning.

“I was born to love you.”

It was all going well, til about 68%, then it all bottomed out and I though I was gonna die of heartache. I seriously wanted to through my Kindle across the room. Devastation that we never saw coming. I wanted to reach in and slap someone.

When Chris reveals his past and what he’s gone through, I thought I was gonna get sick. Unimaginable what someone is capable of.

We find out why they bonded so quickly. When their stories come together, it was amazing. It was fate. Plain and simple, it was fate. They don’t wanna believe in fate, but that’s what it was. They were each other’s savior.

“We’re like…puzzle pieces that fit together.”

There was a happy ending, after much crying and seething. I almost didn’t make it though. Ms. Park sure knows how to cut our hearts up and then glue the pieces back together.

“What are we doing? What are you doing?”

“Loving you,” he says simply. “If you’ll let me.”

“Always. God, Always.”

I may never get over this book.

~Melpomene

Buy it now Left Drowning

Review: Out of Breath, by Rebecca Donovan

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What an amazing end to a powerful and emotional series!!

I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to finish it, but I knew I had too. The first two books were quite draining and pushed me way over. I’m glad I didn’t read them back to back. I don’t think I could’ve handled that. My nerves would’ve been shot. That being said, I’m glad this is over. 🙂

The book starts off about two years after Emma walks out on Evan and leaves him barely conscience. She is trying to move on, but still, she will never be the same. Her friends have tried to help her. They even encouraged her to date. But her heart’s not really in it. Her heart’s back in Weslyn, but she won’t admit that.

Unfortunately, life has a way of pushing us to do things and face things we really don’t want to. When Emma finds herself back in Weslyn, she can’t face it.

Evan and Sara find her passed out, from alcohol, and they realize that she is not the girl they knew and loved. They decide to spend all summer trying to put her back together. Emma doesn’t think she is worth the trouble. She still thinks that she has done unforgivable things and that no one should love her, especially not Evan. She wishes everyone would just leave her. But they know they can’t.

I wasn’t happy to see how she was behaving, in college. Part of me wanted her to be waiting for Evan, but I know that was unrealistic. So seeing her with someone else was hard. I don’t think she was very smart about her choices. She needed a good whack across her noggin.

Evan has had a horrible two years, since she left. He never understood why. But he wants closure and the truth, from her. He is determined to get it, even if he has to go through the hurt again. He wants her to be honest, for once. He spends all summer trying to crack her shell and see what she’s hiding and how she’s feeling.

Their friends are super supportive and don’t wanna see either of them hurt again. But they do try and help push things along. And not very subtle either. 🙂

I don’t wanna say anymore, at the risk of spoiling it. However, this ended just like I’d hoped. I was so very happy. It was a long time coming, but I’m glad I stuck around. Now I can put my Xanax away. 😉

-Melpomene

Buy it now Out Of Breath (The Breathing Series, #3)