Dragon Twins - The Awakening by Chriss Bury

 Dragon Twins is the first in a fantasy series about Ambrose: a young man who lost his parents in a car accident and has been plagued by fantastical dreams ever since. 

Ambrose is once again sitting in Ms Davis’ office discussing his dream. The dream where he sees huge yellow eyes staring at him after the car crashes. She is trying to convince Ambrose that the eyes that he saw did not belong to a dragon. But deep down, Ambrose knows better. Stuck in an orphanage until he is sixteen, Ambrose must negotiate the tough world of school and bullies, with his only friends being Simon, a gecko, and Dre, an online friend that believes that Ambrose did see a dragon.

On his thirteenth birthday, Ambrose’s world is changed forever as he learns about his guardians, a twin sister, an evil dragon called Morfran, and the fact that he has cool new superpowers. When Ambrose discovers who he really is, the clock is set in motion for him to prevent the crossover of dragons and man between realms. But, as always, there are villains out to get him, and Ambrose has very few people he can trust . . . 

Ambrose’s character is written very well and his fears and joys are expressed realistically for his age. His relationship with Simon is endearing and when the reason becomes apparent, it’s a heart-warming moment. I did feel sorry for Ambrose in all he had to go through while his sister had a much easier time of it, but his genuine morals ensured he did what he knew was right. You could almost say he possessed the heart of a dragon! 

The story is relatively short and held my attention throughout. The ending of the book, however, felt a bit rushed as there was a big build up and then all of a sudden it was over. There is a lot of action to process at the end so it would have been more fulfilling to draw it out. Overall, the punctuation and grammar were good, except for a few mistakes. 

I really enjoyed this book but even though it is categorised as young adult, I would recommend it more for ages 8–14 and those who love dragons, action, and a heart-warming tale of good versus evil.

 

Thanks to Reedsy Discovery for the opportunity to review the book. 

https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/dragon-twins-the-awakening-chriss-bury#review

   

The Mirrors - A Tori Hartley Mystery (Book One) by E.F. Townsend

Tori is determined to own her own antique shop, but spaces don’t come cheaply. As an avid antique buyer and seller, Tori must do what she can to generate income. She has a sprawling three-storey house in Old Louisville to rent out, but currently, only one storey is taken. And there is a problem. Her renter has gone missing. Craig Mallory has just up and vanished. With no solid clues as to what happened, and a strange abundance of mirrors placed strategically around the house, the police turn to Craig’s blog for ideas. However, in his blog, Craig claims that he has been trying to contact a ghost whose footsteps can be heard in the night. Craig’s mother then hires a paranormal detective, Hal Breakspear, to follow up on what Craig has claimed. Eager to get the mystery solved, Tori joins Hal in his investigations. But what they find has them more mystified than ever. Is it a ghost, or is someone trying to cover something up using a paranormal angle? Tori must help to unlock the secrets of the mirrors.

 

Unfortunately, the premise of the mirrors is never fully explored. The author has a great idea for a novel and is able to weave a few heart-in-throat moments in, but so much gets left “not quite finished.” The mirrors were a central part of the story but they are only really included a few times. The same with the introduction of things that had happened in the house or other paranormal aspects that could have been expanded on. I was left wanting more in places. The twist is fairly easy to spot early on, but the author manages to feed you enough to keep you going until the end to find out all the details. What I did enjoy was the description of the houses and the secret rooms they had. Definitely creepy. The paranormal aspects were not creepy enough, though!

 

I was on the fence about Tori’s character in that she was brave but foolhardy, and it seemed like she jumped into things without thinking first. I was also surprised at her rent issue with Scott considering her bravery with other issues. I found Hal somewhat condescending as he was not prepared to listen to other ideas in places. Tori’s friend Emma was a gem, and the perfect person for Tori to rely on.

 

The pacing was good and there were very few punctuation errors. The author has managed to blend a bit of mystery, paranormal, romance, history, and friendship into a good debut novel. I know as she moves further into the series, she will be able to flesh out some ideas more and in others tie them a bit tighter.

In Picardy's Field by Hannah Byron

 

In Picardy’s Fields is a historical fiction novel in the Resistance Girl series and is set in WW1.

 

Agnès de Saint-Aubin is a successful surgeon doing her part to help to save lives during the war. She is secretly in love with her co-worker Alan Bell, but will never let on as he is married. Agnès is a baroness but has a dark secret regarding her heritage that, during the alliances in the war, she doesn’t want exposed. She and Alan go to Dragoncourt, a château belonging to dear friends of hers, that has been turned into a war hospital. While there, tragedy strikes, and Agnès must fight to protect her patients, her friends, and herself.

 

Maddy is one of the family friends and is at a finishing school in Switzerland. She decides that the war effort is far more important and sneaks out of the school to join her family. When she realises Dragoncourt has been commandeered by invading German soldiers, she vows to rescue those imprisoned.

 

While this is not normally a genre I would read, the author asked me to review the book and I was pleasantly surprised. First, the story itself was full of depth and angst, and while a story about the war would seem to be predictable, this one was told with such warmth it drew you in quickly. Very often, when reading war materials, the emotion behind those who have to “mop up” after the battles is never addressed and you only hear about the incidents in the fights. This gives a beautiful insight into the bravery the medical staff showed and the tough decisions they had to make while observing their medical oath.

 

Agnès and Maddy are amazingly strong characters. In the beginning I felt Maddy was rather flighty but she stepped up and became a hero very quickly. I loved her monkey and their loving relationship contributed to her helping Maddy in a most unlikely way. Agnès really showed her mettle when put under the immense pressure she faced and the two ladies deserved the accolades they received.

 

The writing is very comfortable to read and flows easily. The action was balanced well with the emotional aspects and although I did find certain sections a little too convenient and the ending a bit sweet, the characters deserved it! The editing was very good and the one or two mistakes did not interrupt the reading.

 

This book has definitely opened my eyes to the genre and while not a beach read (there are parts that will definitely get your heart going), it’s a beautiful book able to be enjoyed while curled up on a couch with a cup of tea nearby.

The Future is Yours by Dan Frey

 Anyone for a peek into the future?

Ben and Ahdi were varsity buddies where strange circumstances brought them closer together. Adhi had a quantum computing idea for his dissertation about having a computer talk to itself one year into the future, thus being able to allow the user to see into the future, and now that Ben has studied it, he is convinced he can market the idea. Things start to go a little wobbly when personal feelings interfere with their project and suddenly what was supposed to be a certainty in the future seems to be going off into tangents. What started off as a great idea has now become a contentious legal and potentially dangerous military issue. Is the idea worth protecting and if so, how far will they go to do it?

A computer that allows you to see exactly one year into the future. No thanks! I would hate to see the decisions that I had made, as the reasons for the decisions would not be clear in the present. You would never know what influenced the decision or what anomaly cropped up in that year.

What was interesting was the marketing and how people were buying into the product before it was even completed or was working correctly. Are people so desperate to know where they will be or are they too lazy or scared to make decisions now if they know the future is laid out for them?

I found the style of the book, having been written in the form of emails, transcripts, and social media postings, rather interesting to read but also difficult to get into deeply. You only get to see “published” words and not necessarily a person’s internal thoughts and feelings so connecting with the characters deeper than what was laid out in correspondence was not easy.

The ending was not that big a surprise as you could take a guess where it was headed and I felt the discrepancies and the changing/not changing the future was a little thin. I must admit that a lot of the sciency stuff I did gloss over (both times I read the book even though I tried harder the second time!)

Overall a very interesting concept, but there was something lacking for me to be able to fully invest in it. Perhaps it was the 2-D characters (due to the way we got to know them) or maybe it was the fact that the story was fed to you in chunks and it felt like the bits in between were missing.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for an ARC of the book.

The Sun Sister by Lucinda Riley

 

This is the 6th book in the Seven Sisters series and is the last one currently available.

 

Electra needs help but refuses to admit it. She thinks she has her drug and alcohol problem in hand and that it won’t impact on her modelling career. Her new PA disagrees. Then, enter Stella, a complete surprise from the blue, who turns out to be Electra’s maternal grandmother. And Stella has the answer to Electra’s past.
Going back a number of years we find Cecily, a kind and innocent young lady who has been wronged by a scoundrel of a man. Celia sets off to Kenya to live with her godmother and experience some of the world. What she finds is a colonial outpost steeped in debauchery and a climate and wildlife she was not prepared for. As Cecily finds her way in the new territory, she lands up looking after an abandoned baby – one of a royal line. This baby will change her life forever and her love for the child will ensure a strong ideology to carry on.
Paths will cross over time and the impact will be wide-spread on many levels.

 

I must admit I went into this book already feeling as though I was against the main character. Electra was a case of me, me, me and the teaser at the end of the previous book did nothing to endear her to me. The formula came through in this story again. Sister doesn’t know where they come from so sets out to find their past, enter a love interest, they find out they are related to someone famous and their life moves in a different path. So at the end of this one you find out there is still another book to come as the missing sister still needs to come into play.

 

As for the story itself, I loved Cecily’s story and the crazy ride that was Kenya. What she endured was remarkable and the bond between her and Stella beautiful. The tie ins with the later years across continents and the linking of racism really brought Cecily and Stella’s decisions home.
While Electra’s rehab journey was commendable, I didn’t feel vested in it. Even though her deeds in helping Vanessa and ultimately her further project for Harlem was of pure motive, I felt her emotions were somewhat wishy washy. Maybe it was the sheer length of the book or the formula that was always at the back of my mind saying “You know what will happen next.” Too many tenuous links and the characters were not rounded out. I even found myself just rushing to the end so that I could find out what happened to Pa Salt as what was happening before that did not speak to me. And when I got to the end, I was very frustrated.

 

Not my worst read, but certainly not my best.

 

 

The Moon Sister by Lucinda Riley

 

The Moon Sister is the fifth instalment in the Seven Sisters series and is all about Tiggy (Taygete) and her quest to find out where she comes from.

 

Tiggy has always felt much closer to animals than humans and has a calming and healing knack with them. When circumstances force her to start work at Kinnaird in Scotland, she jumps at the opportunity but finds her initial work and dwelling not quite what she expected. Granted, her boss is great and she certainly feels uplifted in his company. His wife, however, is frosty and threatening and seems to think Tiggy is after her man! Kinnaird is in financial trouble, and after an incident with a rare white stag, Tiggy decides the time has come to find out where her olive skin and silky black hair fit in. Spurred on by a gypsy on the land called Chilly who tells her she has special powers, she sets off to Granada in Spain.
The back story here is one of Lucia – a child born to dance with the passion to take the world by storm. We move in her story through her father’s ambition and lecherous ways, and how her stalwart mother did everything she could to protect the rest of the family through times of war and poverty.

 

This felt like an extremely long section of the series. And very oddly like a tale of two halves. I completely understand how there is meant to be two sections to join the past and present, but since this is Tiggy’s story it felt like most of it was dedicated to Lucia and her family and only then do we find out where Tiggy fits in. The backstory with Tiggy and her boss at Kinnaird was slightly odd and her “accomplishment” (can’t say more because of a spoiler alert) right at the end was way off base. The romantic interest formula played its hand and I have a bad feeling that the one she spurns will crop up again.
Even though Lucia had amazing talent, she was one of the most annoying and childish characters and I almost wished I could just jump past her sections.
The Pa Salt mystery is still playing in the background and as we came close to finding out a major clue it just got brushed aside.

 

The series is really running out of steam and I’m almost dreading reading Electra’s story next.

Void Fate by Suren Hakobyan

 

Void Fate is a dark fantasy novel with a dystopian thriller twist.

 

What would you do if you’d gone to sleep and woken up to find everyone bar you and four of your friends were gone? Just vanished. And not just that, but sound seems to have gone too. Not to mention no sign of animals anywhere. There has been a rush of people disappearing recently and a suspected serial killer on the loose—is this part of it? As Aram, Michael, Daniel, Arthur, and Harris try to find out what has happened to them and the rest of the planet, they will find themselves trapped in a world that makes no sense. Why is the town surrounded by a dome? Why does the landscape change every now and again? Who are the cloud-like demons that chase you down and kill you? And most importantly, will they remain sane enough to find their way out?

 

The story grabbed me quickly as I envisaged a stale and leftover world like The Langoliers but trapped like they were in Under the Dome. The author has spun a tale on a number of levels, where not only is the basic issue of where they are and what they will do about it addressed, but he covers what happens when humans are put in extreme situations and what they will do to survive. So here you have a group of friends who by all means, having known each other as long as they had, should be very close and trusting of each other and having each other’s backs. However, as we progress through the story, we find out how fear and mistrust cause them to commit deeds they would never normally do.  Or is that to do with the madness the new world is forcing on them? The author has very cleverly weaved in what they suspect to be happening with the disappearance of the bodies and it’s a novel take on an alternative world.

 

However, I did find the pacing very slow in this. Considering that they knew they were trapped somewhere and had to do something early on to get out there was quite a bit of space left in the book for events to happen. A lot of the time it was just them moving from one location to the next, and while I understand it was to avoid being detected, the moving just seemed to be the same thing happening over and over told a little differently. So you’d have something interesting happen and then a move, then something interesting happen and then a move. It felt like it took too long to get to the point. I never really connected with the characters, even though the short chapters and POV jumps helped the reader to understand the situation from all angles. Or maybe it was because of the quick jumps that you never really got to stay in a character’s head long enough to properly feel their emotions. The dome angle was never explored, which I felt strange and the introduction of secondary characters certainly made your trust waiver from one camp to the next.
There were some punctuation and grammar mistakes throughout but nothing major that would stop your flow of reading.

 

I would definitely recommend this book but note that there is profanity and a scene of abuse.