Inked Brownies

Inked Brownies

Where books meet brownies

Review
4 Stars
A Game of Thrones: Comic Book, Issue 3
A Game of Thrones: Comic Book, Issue 3 - Daniel Abraham, George R.R. Martin, Tommy Patterson

Whooo, there's Arya and Sansa in the opening scene. I believe this is the best one so far. The graphics are less irritating and the story pace picked up a notch, making me finish this one in less than ten minutes.


The Hound looks exactly like I would've pictured him from reading the books. Khal Drogo looks amazing(ly hot).




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This drawing is actually from the first issue, but who cares: hawtness!

There are quite a bit of boobies in this one, but so are there in the normal books and, well, hello HBO(OB). I'm giving this one 4 brownies.

Review
3 Stars
Game of Thrones #4
Game of Thrones #4 - George R.R. Martin
And back to more annoyance with the graphics in this one. That's Jon Snow there on the cover. All he needs is an Indian headdress and this could be a cover of a Winnetou novel...

The story's moving along nicely, though, which is why I'm giving it 3.5 brownies.

Review
3 Stars
A Game of Thrones: Comic Book, Issue 2
A Game of Thrones: Comic Book, Issue 2 - George R.R. Martin
While this one was better storywise, I really didn't like the graphics when it came to the faces of the characters.

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These two men are King Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark. Luckily, the king is wearing a crown, but otherwise, I'd have to look twice to see who's who due to their very similar facial features/hairdo's.

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And this one pretty much speaks for the rest of the pages.

It's not that the graphics are bad in general. It's just really the facial features I got annoyed with. I don't remember having such a strong aversion to it in the first issue. They've been drawn by the same artist, so that can't explain the subtle difference. Maybe it's just my lady hormones right now...

Luckily, the storyline flows smooth here, staying true to the book and picking out the most important scenes to do so in an understandable way. It's why this one is getting a slightly higher rating from me: 3.5 stars.

I don't believe I have seen Arya or Sansa yet so far, but I definitely hope to see them in the next one!
Review
3 Stars
Game Of Thrones #1
Game Of Thrones #1 - Daniel Abraham, George R.R. Martin
This comic book was slightly disappointing. I think it's partly due to having seen and read this particular part of the series so often, but also because the storytelling felt a bit rigid to me. If I wasn't already acquainted with the story, it would've been impossible for me to grasp what the hell was going on and who was who exactly. This came as a surprise because I've read some of Daniel Abraham's other work and loved it.

Then there's the artwork. I was disappointed in that as well. Maybe it's because the characters' faces don't resemble the actors from the series, but that's something which shouldn't be too much of a bother once you just focus on the story. I think it has more to do with the fact that all characters of  the same sex look so much alike. And then there is the depiction of their ages; some of them look either a lot older or younger than they actually should be. Take Viserys Targaryen. He should be 22 years old, if I'm correct, yet looks like he's in his 40's or even older.


Got3


That being said, I still enjoyed reading it because, hey, it's Game of Thrones and I love the books to bits. 3 stars for this one.

Review
5 Stars
Rat Queens, Vol. 2: The Far Reaching Tentacles of N'rygoth
Rat Queens Vol. 2: The Far Reaching Tentacles of N'Rygoth - Kurtis J. Wiebe
While I thought volume 1 was pretty darn good, volume 2 was a hundred percent up my alley. The action scenes had me (gently) throwing my cat off my lap in excitement.

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The emotional scenes almost had me crying. The humour made me laugh out loud.


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It was really nice to get to know the girls' background stories a little better. I now understand a little more about how Hannah came to be the foul-mouthed grumpypants she is today. There wasn't any background story on Betty, but I'm sure we can read a bit more about her in the next volume (which will be coming out this April and is definitely going on my pre-order list!).


The graphics and the overall atmosphere were a little darker than the first one, but me likey! The attention to detail is amazing. I honestly don't know what else to say about this one apart from it being totally awesome.


A fair warning, though: this series contains a lot of swearing and violence. Sometimes the swearing became even a little bit too much for me, which says a lot, really. There's a thing called passionate swearing and another thing called redundant swearing, which is when you're doing it in practically every sentence. It came very close to the latter one in this book. Also, unlike in the first volume, there were some sex scenes which aren't anywhere close to hentai scenes or anything, yet, there's still quite a bit of T&A going on in this one. My first reaction was "WHOA!" because I wasn't expecting boobs being thrown into my face all of a sudden, but other than that, it didn't bother me at all. I'm giving it 5 brownies and a firm recommendation if you're into this kind of thing!



Links to the book:

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Review
5 Stars
The Serpent King
The Serpent King - Jeff Zentner
5 shiny fucking stars. Review coming on the 29th
Review
3 Stars
Blank Fear: Do you know who you are?
Blank Fear: Do you know who you are? - Matthew Mugridge
It's been awhile since I read a true horror story. I loved the genre when I was a teenager and watched tons of horror movies during that same time period. Reading this book took me back to those days.

The story kicks off with some heavily creepy action right away. Which felt a bit disappointing at first because I like it when characters are introduced properly. Then again, when a movie or TV series episode starts off with an action scene without any further explanation, I love it.
Luckily, in this book, we get to know Debbie a little better due to the use of flashbacks later on. In the end, I still don't feel like I really know her, though. I think this is mostly because of her nondescriptive Captain Obvious dialogues. Debbie wakes up in an unknown town: "Where am I? It seems like I've woken up in an unknown town". Debbie is outraged at something happening to her: "Why is this happening? I'm so outraged about it!". These aren't actual quotes, by the way, just a general description of what I came across.

Which brings me to a crucial point right away: this book needs some heavy editing. It's not like it's full of typos per se, it's more a choice of words which makes the story flow less naturally. Examples are the consecutive use of 'she' at the start of a sentence, redundant brackets, and sentences like "But she knew it was theoretically impossible, in theory". ..."...and they were also diamond tipped too".
Then there's a case of meandering tense, which sometimes made me have to read things over and over again just to make sense of them.
Now, since I'm not a beta reader and it would be excruciatingly boring for you guys to read about it, I'll just leave it with that when it comes to the editing part.

What kind of horror should you expect, you might wonder? If you've ever seen any of the Silent Hill movies or possibly even played the video game series, that's kind of what you can expect: survival horror in a surreal setting with lots of gruesome shit. There were also scenes which reminded me of American Horror Story, particularly the Asylum season; a creepy mental institution incorporating lots of psychological and physical horror is what you will find in Blank Fear as well.

The main question in this story that kept me going was: which one is the real reality? Is Debbie dreaming the whole time? Did she really die and/or end up in a hellish otherworld? Or is she just batshit crazy?
In spite of all the flaws in this book,  I went from 8 to 100% within just one day because of this. The end result is partially up to yourself, which I thought was a nice bonus, even though I wasn't sure of when I was supposed to make the decision on which course to take. So if you're expecting some sort of 'Create Your Own Adventure' book, it isn't; you can only choose between two alternate endings.

There's a mixed quality when it comes to the characters, some of them were stereotypically bad, others were awesome. As I mentioned before, the protagonist of the story, Debbie, was quite bland. I know she has some perky breasts under that nightshirt of hers and that she's basically half naked during the entire book. I don't know if this was done intentionally, looking at scream queens from the '70's/'80's horror flicks, but I would've really liked it if Debbie had a little more depth to her.

A character that certainly stood out for me was Dolbert, a ventriloquist who basically lives through his creepy wooden puppet, Stan. I'd love to watch something with those 'two' in it. Yes, I said watch. Apart from the long poetic letters Debbie keeps finding on her travels through the town of hellspawn, the rest of the book reads like it should've been a movie script more than a novel. The detailed descriptions, sometimes added in brackets, reminded me more of cues for an actor than cues to a reader.

Even though this book really needs to undergo the aforementioned editing, I ended up giving it 3 brownies. One reason for that is that I went through it like a hot knife through butter. The other reason is that it brought me back to my teen years. There were some pretty bad books/movies I really enjoyed back then just because it doesn't always have to be outstanding to be appreciated. One of my all-time favourite movies is Poltergeist II, which is pretty darn crappy, yet I can watch it over and over again.

Blank Fear does something similar to me right now, but could/should be fixed into something more enjoyable for a larger audience.

Links to the book:

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Review
4 Stars
Ochoco Reach
Ochoco Reach - J.R. Stewart
Normally, I don't care much about drug cartel stories. But after reading this dazzling review of Ochoco Reach from Liis, I was thrilled when I got a review request for it!

See, the GR synopsis does a great job at telling the general storyline, but it utterly fails at describing the craftsmanship of the author when it comes to expressing emotions throughout the text. Like Liis says in her review:

"There is so much emotion in this book, it’s heartwarming and not at all overwhelming. Jim Stewart has a way with words, a unique way of describing the feels. A unique way of showing the reader the dynamics in between two living beings."



I totally felt the same way about this and couldn't have described it any better myself.

There's a lot of spirituality and food for thought in it. So yeah, drug cartels and DEA; those things are just tools to incorporate action into this book if you ask me.

The writing style is amazing, the main characters well developed. I felt really connected with Mike and I'm guessing this is how a lot of women feel when they're reading a steamy romance novel; I know I'm married and all, but ay papi, I want to have Mike's babies!
He's kind, loving, fair, strong, intelligent, has a tremendous respect for women, and is the best of friends with his amazing dog, Bucket. That he occasionally hears voices in his head or does things that could get him killed, meh, I'd take that for granted.

I loved Willy as well (though in an entirely different way). She's the kind of woman I'd like to be! A smart female ranch owner who's very independent when it comes to men. She has lost her husband, and her boyfriend after that, yet never becomes the introvert, depressed lady a lot of women would have.

My heart especially goes out to Bucket, Mike's dog who is just a role model for all other dogs, really. My own dog is very kind as well, but definitely not as smart as Bucket. One of the very few hand signals my dog understands is the one where I wave a cookie in the air. Bucket, on the other hand, knows exactly what the situation is like by just giving him a single look.

"I called him Bucket after the hero in Jack London's Call of the Wild and also after Charles Dickens's Inspector Bucket". 



My note there was "How cool is that?!". 'Bleak House' is one of my favourite books.

Another thing I noticed when it comes to Mike's take on Bucket is that he looks at his dog in the way John Steinbeck did with his dog in 'Travels with Charley'.

"He was a dog and I treated him as such. Dogs are not little people in fur coats"



This is what I always have to remind myself of when I'm talking to my dog as if he's a little baby. Always making that mental note saying that's not very Steinbeckian of me.

The relationship between Mike and his half-brother Daniel (they share the same father) is wonderfully depicted. Daniel's mother was a native Indian and that really rubbed off on both of the boys. But before you start thinking that their relationship involves too much spiritual vagueness, they are also just brothers when it comes to competitive playfulness and such.

A random note I made at one point was about this conversation between Willy and Mike:

"How tall are you?"
"Six-four, two-twenty...""but right now I'm probably ten feet tall and weigh maybe a hundred pounds."



For being a girl from the European mainland who only has ever used the metric system, reading about inches, feet, stone, cups and whatnot is always very confusing. I actually have to google things like that while reading, to get a better sense of what characters are doing or look like. I know in this particular scene, Mike's just being a show-off, but still, why can't all authors do this kind of thing when it comes to describing measurements?!

Some more quotes I highlighted because they really show you the real depth to this book:

"In her eyes I saw my own mother and Daniel's mother and the mother of all of us who have been lonely and who have wandered without deep comfort."



On finding your limits:

"I would say it's best if I never really knew"(...where my limits are..)."That way, I can always think of myself as a tough guy ready for anything."



The only reason why I'm not giving this book 5 brownies is because of the sometimes messy storyline when it comes to the action parts. I thought there would be a whole plot twist, revealing the identity of 'the guy on the inside' when it came to the drug cartel business, yet that part was never solved in a satisfying way for me. Sometimes, I got downright confused on who was who and what was happening when it came to the villains. They could use a little more depth, I suppose.

The action scenes in itself were great, though. Blowing up shit to the fullest degree by using grenades and some sort of übercannon really blew my mind (pun intended). I ended up giving this one 4 brownies and a solid recommendation for, well, anyone who likes to read.

A big thank you to Jim Stewart and Jessica Hardesty Norris from Mindbuck Media for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Review
3 Stars
The Subtle Knife
The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman
Who else has seen The Golden Compass and wondered when on earth they would finally shoot the damn sequel? The movie was produced by New Line Cinema, who also made the LOTR- and Hobbit trilogy happen. The cast was great. The CGI was up-to-date. It had everything going for it, yet still failed in the Box Office numbers. I remember seeing it in the cinema and thinking that it wasn't the greatest movie ever, yet still, I would've loved to see what would happen next to Lyra and Philip Pullman's world of worlds.

There are many theories on the how and why the series failed as a movie adaptation. One of them is the heavily cutting down on religious aspects which are so important in the books. Apart from the Church (or Magisterium) being all powerful in the first book, I didn't remember it to be very present. However, looking back at my review of it, my last paragraph stated:

"Without revealing too much spoilery stuff, I thought the end conclusion (of this part that is) and reference to the bible was a bit odd. I read reviews here mentioning Philip Pullman is an atheist and the ‘His Dark Materials’-series is an attack on Christianity and/or God himself. Even if that were true, I refuse to look for clues while reading the rest of the series. This is a story and should be read as a story. Period. Now, on to the next one!"



Yeah...I didn't need to look for clues at all in 'The Subtle Knife'. I have never experienced so much atheism thrown into my face like a yucky porn scene gone wrong. I mean, sure, you can still look at it as a children's book when you are a child yourself, probably. But anyone past the age of 12 can probably tell you there is a not so hidden message in this one.

The general plot was good. It's a unique kind of fantasy. There are no elves, gnomes, goblins or wizards in this one. The magical elements were also quite different from what I'm used to. There is magic, yet it comes more in the form of physics and shamanism. Being surrounded by physics-lovers for the past five years, plus having started to study it myself as a BSc Environmental Sciences student, I was really intrigued to read about the parallels between dark matter and Pullman's 'Dust'. Then there's a knife which can cut through the fabric of spacetime. Or well, something close to it. So fascinating!

If you've started to snooze off here, you can wake up again. There are plenty of action scenes, which require some imagination due to the aspects mentioned above, but oh my! Imagine you're on the run from some eerily evil people and you can just cut yourself a window to a parallel world. You will have to make sure to close it again by hand before the others can follow you through it, though. Yoikes!

Then there are the creepy Specters as mentioned in the synopsis above. I'm guessing it's a metaphor for the death of innocence after reaching adolescence, but when you're just looking at it with a blank mind, it's downright scary. As soon as you reach a certain point in growing up, your soul is going to be sucked right out of you. And then you die...

If that thought wasn't depressing enough, here comes the atheism! Nothing wrong with atheism in itself, but to write a children's book in which some of the main characters are going to attempt to kill God with the help of some fallen angels...it was a little too much for me. There's a long scene in which the Latvian witch queen flies high up into the sky and travels with the angels there, who are on their way to create an army to destroy the Authority/God. This is where I was like, mkay, this is some pretty deep shit. Wikipedia mentions that "Pullman's publishers have primarily marketed the series to young adults, but Pullman also intended to speak to both older children and adults." I think they should've probably aimed it towards adults primarily or cut out the heavy religious scenes for the children.

To sum things up, I liked the first book more and can tell anyone else who hasn't read part two yet that you shouldn't expect any armoured fuzzy polar bear action in this one. It's way more intense, not just religion-wise but also when it comes to the number of deaths. It's like George R.R. Martin took over in that aspect. Holy shit! (pun intended)

It's hard to rate this one because of the mixed feelings I encountered, but because I gave the first book 4 brownies, I'll give this one 3. I can still recommend as well. Just don't use it as a bedtime story to read to your children.
I'm very curious about what the third book will be like and how it all comes together in the end.
Review
4 Stars
Andre the Giant: Closer to Heaven
Andre the Giant: Closer to Heaven - Brandon Easton, Denis Medri

~Netgalley Synopsis (because it's better than the Goodreads one)~


"He was one of the greatest performers in sports entertainment history, but his legions of fans around the globe barely know the man behind the legend of Andre the Giant -- until now!


Jean Ferre. Monster Eiffel Tower. Fezzik. These were alter egos for the internationally acclaimed pro wrestling superstar known as Andre the Giant, who thrilled audiences worldwide with his unmatched charisma and remarkable athleticism. Despite his astonishing popularity, few really knew the man behind the curtain -- the man born in the French countryside named Andre Roussimoff. Showing signs of gigantism at an early age, Andre decided to use his size to his advantage and entered the wild world of professional wrestling. From his first day in the squared circle, those close to him knew that a legend was born.
This lavishly illustrated authorized biography of Andre the Giant charts his entire life from the earliest days on his family's farm to his blockbuster feuds with the biggest wrestling stars of all time, exploring the dark side of fame and fortune along the way."


~My thoughts~


This is one of the rare interesting non-fiction graphic novels I happened to stumble upon. Somewhere around Christmas, I finally watched The Princess Bride, after having it on DVD for about 8 years now. An episode of The Goldbergs gave me the signal that it was time.
After seeing the movie (which is great by the way) I was interested in getting to know more about André the Giant, so I read a couple of articles on the internet and watched a few Youtube videos. The general opinion that I seemed to come across was that André was a giant asshole with a poor sense for personal hygiene. So when I saw this book, I felt like this would be a great opportunity to learn more of the true story. It did not disappoint.


The novel starts off with a foreword from André's daughter, Robin Christensen Roussimoff. It drew me right in. The foreword ends with:



"I hope when people read this graphic novel, they will get answers not only to who Andre the Giant was as an entertainer, but who Andre Roussimoff was as a person."


I think it very well did.


A lot of the novel involves André's wrestling career and lots of names and facts were dropped on the reader. This could be a bad thing if you're really not into the wrestling scene. However, I'm not into wrestling at all and I found it truly fascinating to learn about it. Who knew there was so much theatrics involved! I didn't. I learned that the Japanese wrestling scene added a lot to the Western one. I learned how Wrestlemania and Hulk Hogan grew to be as famous as they are now. Very interesting! I'm pretty sure the combination of all these info dumps in a graphic novel is what does the trick. I highly doubt I would've enjoyed it this much while simply reading about it in a regular novel.


Another thing which makes it all so vivid (as opposed to boring) is that the author chose to tell the story from André's point of view, which makes it a very personal experience. His thoughts are a red line throughout the book.



"Even at that young age, there was a part of me that was monstrous. Not in temperament, but in how others saw me."


It's really touching to see him reminisce about his past.


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Incorporated pieces of a letter his daughter wrote to him gave it an extra layer of emotions. Even though I already knew he passed away at the young age of 46, alone in a hotel room in Paris after having attended his father's funeral, I still almost had to shed a tear when the novel ended with André stepping in his bed.


The graphics style in itself isn't something I'd usually go nuts about, but for the purpose of telling this story, it was perfect. Colourful, but not too colourful to draw away the attention of what's going on.


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After having read this book, I look at André now as a friendly giant, but definitely not a stupid one. His gigantism, acromegaly, strive for happiness and lack of moderation are what make his life a sad story, but never a truly depressing one due to the enthusiasm for his work, both as an actor and professional wrestler.


I'm giving this 4.5 brownies because it left such an impression on me that I won't likely forget about anymore.


I'm ending this post with  a clip of a famous match between André and Hulk Hogan. Eventually, André gave up his spot to Hogan by intentionally losing matches. When I occasionally saw wrestling matches on TV, I'd flip the channel, going "Ugh, gross."  But after reading this book, I can see the entertainment of it. It's all a big show instead of just some brutal fighting.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7Zh07XQfpE

An ARC of this book was provided by Lion Forge via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Review
2 Stars
Rarity from the Hollow
Rarity from the Hollow - Robert Eggleton
This was a strange book! Maybe not the strangest book I've ever read, but still, pretty fucking strange.

The first part is where we meet Lacy Dawn and her dysfunctional family and neighbours. They live in the Hollow, a semi-fictional rural community in the region of Appalachia in the US (I'm calling it semi-fictional because there are plenty of 'hollows' out there just like this one). The first chapter opens up with child abuse seeming like the most normal thing in the world to these people. Add some more domestic violence, sexual abuse, smoking pot and welfare kings and queens to the mix and you think you figured it out. That's when DotCom, an ancient alien android designed to look like a human except for his genital parts, enters the story and everything changes. With the help of DotCom, Lucy Dawn is determined to fix her parents and thereby, creating a better life for herself as well. DotCom also happens to be her boyfriend. Which is okay for a 12-year-old girl because he doesn't have any genitals anyways.

Even though this might sound batshit crazy to you (and it is, really), I liked this first part of the book the most. Being a European girl who grew up in a relatively wealthy environment, it's always fascinating to see hillbillies on TV, wondering how on earth people can still live like this in 2016. Then again, we've got our own versions of hillbillies here as well and I think if you're born in such an environment, it's extremely hard to get out of it. Unless you have a secret alien android boyfriend parked in a spaceship Roundabend of course.

The second part of the book was my least favourite part. It became pretty confusing when Lacy Dawn had to save the universe by going on a shopping spree on another planet, Shptiludrp (which also happens to be the central planet of our universe in Lacy Dawn's world). It was a test to see if she would be capable enough of solving the actual problems on Shptiludrp and thereby, saving planet Earth in the meantime. You're still following me? Good, because I'm like this again...
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The third part covers the actual saving of the universe. And it involves seducing cockroaches. I really felt like I was on crack throughout the last 40% of the book or so; boy, does the author have a heck of an imagination! Last time I felt this way was when I was reading books from the L.Frank Baum's Oz series.

Apart from a couple of info dumps that could've been skipped if it were up to me, the writing style was good. It was kept simple, yet not simple at all which can be quite an achievement. The psychology that was weaved throughout the book really showed Eggleton's tremendous experience in the field. Since studying psychological behaviour has always been a hobby of mine, I found the references pretty interesting.

“I guess sometimes a person becomes what he pretends to be. I pretended that I had a good reason to be mad and I was. Then, I pretended that I wasn't mad and somehow it went away.”


My favourite character was probably Brownie because A. he's a super smart dog, B. he's called brownie, duh, and C. he gets embarrassed about his own farts, something I keep hoping my dog will do as well some day. My least favourite character was Jenny, Lacy Dawn's mother, because all she could think of was dressing up and seducing her husband. While leaving her daughter neglected most of the time.

Even though it sometimes added up to the general confusion, I liked reading the thoughts of every single individual involved in a scene. Even Brownie's thoughts were captured, which is why I know he's so embarrassed about his farting.

This is a book which is definitely not meant for everyone. I'm still having a hard time figuring out what I thought of it exactly! There's a lot of swearing, sexual puns and references, marijuana and crazy town involved. Seeing as I'm Dutch and really can't be shocked all too much when it comes to drugs, the abundance of smoking pot wasn't an issue to read about for me at all. I can imagine this doesn't apply to everyone, though.
Also, if you don't feel any connection to sci-fi whatsoever, I strongly suggest passing on this one as well because the odd sci-fi twists and turns make it a requirement to having at least a bit of sci-fi imagination hardwired into your brain.

Even though this book is batshit crazy weird, it still delivers the message of why it's so important to try and prevent child abuse. The naive voice of Faith, Lacy Dawn's friend who has been killed by her own father, is heartbreakingly shocking and I don't doubt for a second that there are lots of children who think it's normal to be treated that way by their parents or feel that they are to be blamed themselves for the abuse.

I ended up giving it 2.5 brownies because it's not a bad book by any means, but I can't say it was really my cup of tea either. I'm positively sure it can be a 5-star rated book for someone else, though!

A big thank you to Robert Eggleton for providing me a copy of his book in exchange for an honest review! 
Review
3 Stars
Princeless
Princeless - Jeremy Whitley, M. Goodwin
This was so much fun! It's funny, exciting and involves a whole lotta girl power. I can't believe I'm saying this, but sometimes even a little too much. The message is clear: girls, don't be dependent on a guy, save yourself! Feminism all the way. Which is great, yet it was a bit overdone and redundant at certain points. That said, a female blacksmith, a female dragon and a female warrior who are all outsmarting the men in the story (who are all really made to look like fools, another point when it comes to overdoing things); that's just awesome.

The characters: Princess Adrienne is the main character. She's cool and all, but I have to admit I didn't really 'feel' her as much as I would've liked to. I think she kind of blew it with me when she was being a total jerk towards her twin brother... Bedelia, the female blacksmith, was a lot more likable for me. She's a typical tomboy with a very fierce kind of enthusiasm, you just can't help but liking her (that is, I couldn't). The most lovable character for me would be Sparky, the dragon, though. A giant pink dragon with a nose ring who is as cuddly as a puppy, yet deadly when you want her to be: fantastic!


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The artwork: Great! I love the use of colours and the particular drawing style. And the pages are so soft and shiny, I couldn't stop stroking them while reading. During some scenes, I had to look a few times to see what was actually going on, but that didn't take away the general pleasantness of the artwork.


Would I want to read more of this series?: Definitely, it's just a lovely colourful and funny way to spend your time. Especially if you're in the middle and/or just finished some heavy literature. Then Princeless will perk you right back up! It's a little clunky at times but I'm sure those little mistakes are fixed in volume 2.

I don't think there's any swearing in this book. Nor was there any explicit content when it comes to sex or violence. In fact, this is a comic which I would give to any 9+-year-old kid without a doubt since it's very child-friendly. With an appropriate amount of humour to keep it interesting for adults as well.


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I'm giving it 3.5 stars!

Review
2 Stars
Nirvana
Nirvana - J.R. Stewart
This is a great example of how you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. I think the cover looks fantastic. I have to admit to being a tiny bit biased because I'm really into blueish toned covers. Yet even if it wouldn't have been blue, I still would have thought: "Hey, this seems like something I'd like to read!". Furthermore, this book has all the keywords to grab my attention: female punk rock star, virtual reality, moshpits, environmental sciences, dystopian setting; bring it on!
Sadly, it just didn't live up to my expectations at all. The cover of the book is way better than its contents.

The prologue seemed like a great introduction to an awesome plot. After finishing the book, I have no idea why it was in there. It seems very disconnected from the rest of the story. As if it was part of the original plot line, except that's gone now and all that is left is a random prologue.

The first 10-15% or so were promising. It reminded me a bit of James Morris' Melophobia, which I loved. Melophobia was way better, though. I soon started to get annoyed with sentences that involved the words 'years ago'. Kenders used to be an environmental activist years ago. She was a successful punk rock star years ago. She got engaged to Andrew years ago. They both went to university years ago. Andrew always made each birthday so special for her. Not specifically years ago, but 'always' and 'each birthday' imply that this is a thing that's been going on for years. Now here comes the reason why this was totally implausible: Kenders is 17 years old.

When I started reading this, I didn't know it was a revised edition. I just had the feeling that this had been a different book at first. One with Kenders and Andrew being in their late 20's originally yet got turned into teens in some new version to be able to get the popular YA-tag out of it while keeping the rest of the events pretty much the same.
So now, Kenders already had several careers plus got engaged to Andrew 'years ago' when she was like, what, 12?

"I wish that Andrew and I had just been regular teens, and had had this kind of fun."... "So often our schedules conflicted, and we didn't ever have that period of carefree youth." 



Dude, you ARE teens.

When I looked at some reviews after finishing the book, I found out my suspicions weren't far away from the truth. The book HAD been completely revised, yet not particularly in order to fit the YA-profile, but due to the bad reviews it received for the first edition.

As if these weird illogicalities weren't enough, I came across one inconsistency after the other. Things just didn't make sense to me.

Then there's Serge, a guy who's been mentioned in the odd mismatching prologue, yet who doesn't make his full appearance until later in the book. I couldn't connect with his character at all, making an emotional scene at the end of the book very bland and drawn-out for me. Come to think about it, I really didn't care for any of the characters. There were some stereotypical Bond-villains like Paloma and Tremaine. Andrew...well *shrugs*. Kenders, the protagonist, was a bit better developed than the other characters, but I still couldn't find myself connected to her in any way, probably also because of the weird 17-year-old thing.

The environmental message in the book was alright in the sense that a lot of people aren't aware how important bees are to us. Maybe some of them who read this book will think twice before using pesticides or squatting a bee just because it's a 'nuisance' now. However, the underlying message of how all big corporations are basically evil and everything is just one giant conspiracy theory was a bit too much paranoia for my taste.

The world building is interesting. The concept of Nirvana's virtual reality was alright but left me wondering about some of the technicalities of it. Doesn't running around in a virtual world make you run around in real life as well? Maybe I should look up some more information on how the Oculus Rift works movement-wise. And then imagine a futuristic version of it.

Speaking of running around, there were a few action scenes that were written really well, so maybe after another revision, this book will finally be what it's supposed to be. Until then, I'm giving it two stars of which half a star is for pointing out the endangerment of bees and what would happen if they became extinct. Even though there are still other ways of pollination, it's going to be bad, but...probably a tat less bad than what happens to the future in this book.

An ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Review
2 Stars
Snowflakes and Coffee Cakes
Snowflakes and Coffee Cakes - Joanne DeMaio
I've been looking forward to reading this book for two years now. However, since I didn't get an e-reader until last year, and couldn't order a physical copy of the book that could be shipped to my country, I waited. So when I finally got to reading it a few weeks ago, I did all the things I planned on doing while reading it: I put on my hideous, yet oh so comfortable snug rug deluxe, grabbed my favourite tea mug which has a picture of Winnie-the-Pooh's Eeyore on it, filled it with a special soothing chamomile tea blend which I got from Geneva, popped the fancy chocolate with pecan nuts I'd been saving up for a special occasion, and finally lay my ass down on the couch. Thirty pages in, I thought, "Hmm, this reminds me of chick lit, I hope it'll get better than this". A hundred pages in, I was still hoping...

Let me just start by saying that the best part of the book for me was reliving some Gilmore Girls (of which there's going to be a sequel on Netflix with most of the old cast members!!) moments. You see, this is how I envision Derek:

enhanced-14901-1412522113-12
He wears the same clothes as Luke. He has the backwards baseball cap going on. He works in a hardware store, which is technically what Luke did until he turned it into a diner. Even though it's still called Williams Hardware store.

ef75acb3ee1da8be5744196f1bc354f7

Derek loves working on his boat. So does Luke. Then there's this scene in which Vera wakes up from Derek fixing her porch on an ungodly hour...which goes a little something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t8BrIUd6yk

Derek's a grumpy and bitter guy ever since his 7-year-old daughter died. Luke is ever since his father died. I'm not saying the author was inspired by the Gilmore Girls, it could quite possibly be she's never heard of the series at all. To me, however, the settings, scenes and characters just reminded me of it in an almost non-stop kind of way.

The difference between the Gilmore Girls and Snowflakes and Coffee Cakes, though, is that I absolutely loved the GG for its hilarious and smart dialogues, which Snowflakes and Coffee Cakes lacks. It makes a huge difference. If Luke's grumpiness wasn't expressed through bittersweet sarcasm, I probably wouldn't like him that much either. Derek doesn't have a shred of sarcasm in him. It's all very serious and emo-like.
Now that still wouldn't be a total turnoff if he wasn't so selfish and being a total douche to Vera. I get the concept of pushing people away to protect yourself from getting hurt again, but holy cow...

The story is all centered around starting over new and finally finding love and happiness again. Sadly, though, I really didn't feel the sparks between Vera and Derek at all. In fact, I was secretly hoping she'd run off with another guy to perk up the story a little. The Vera-Derek romance is told in a stilted and cheesy cliché kind of way.

"She quickly steps back and goes to pick up the light the instant he does, their hands touching as they reach for it together"


"It's just beautiful," Vera calls out while setting their coffee cups on the hood of his pickup truck. Derek looks over his shoulder. "I was thinking the same about you."


Barf.

Now it's not just Derek who's being a twat in this so-called relationship. After Derek takes off on one of their dates, being very upset, Vera can't be bothered going after him. Which is still okay, I suppose, but when she, later on, drives by his house and sees the light on in his apartment (he lives above the hardware store and guess what, so does Luke!), she STILL doesn't get out to check on him. I don't know about you, but that wouldn't be my style if I cared about someone.

I love snow and I initially liked the snow obsession which Vera shares with her father. She and her sister also carry around a mini magnifier during winter, so they can see the snowflakes from up close. I've never heard of that before and thought it was a lovely idea. However, after awhile, it gets very redundant.
Vera has the ability to smell and even hear if snow is on its way. See who else has the same ability?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuS5IrQPqFg

Snowflakes and Coffee Cakes has a lot of coziness incorporated, but it really misses some spice, some flavour. I didn't care much for the characters and was happy that it wasn't such a long book to read. After the two year wait, I can only say I was very disappointed. Then again, if you don't mind a feel good story without any humour and with cliché after cliché added to it, I'd certainly recommend it. I would also recommend it as a book to read around Christmas time because there are a lot of Christmas vibes in it, including a barn full of Christmas decorations. Sadly, this just wasn't my cup of tea. I'm giving it 2.5 stars.
Review
1 Stars
Spiral of Need
Spiral of Need - Suzanne  Wright
Up until about 30% of the book, it was actually surprisingly enjoyable. It read like a paranormal thriller and Ally, the main character, seemed to be a pretty bad-ass chick, which is always a plus. I could overlook the fact that way too many characters were introduced within a very short timespan. Apparently, it all makes sense if you have read The Phoenix Pack-series prior to this book because that's where most of the characters originate from.

Within this same first 30%, sexual tension was definitely building up in a carnal and obvious kind of way; it was a ticking time bomb for things to become yuck. When that bomb did go off at roughly 35% of the book, it went off brutally, with body-parts-flying-in-your-face-intensity. Now before I go off on a rant here (which I will), I KNEW this was coming. I'm not judging the vulgar language for being vulgar. If you don't like that kind of stuff, but the story is still sufficiently good, you can always just skim through the sex scenes and go back to where the story left off. However...

Let's break it down into separate points of criticism:
  • The sex scenes: I can imagine that if you ARE into this kind of explicit stuff, you don't want to read the same things over and over again. Well, guess what, you will in this book. Practically every sex scene is identical to the others. After having read about three of them, I could predict exactly what was going to happen in the next one. It all starts with the word 'cock', which also happens to be the main favourite here apparently, as you can find it 63 times throughout the book. No other synonym for penis is being used. Even when not involved in a heavy sex scene, someone's cock is always on fire or someone is cocking their head. After awhile, it really started to get on my nerves.

no cocks

Now instead of making my point about the repetitiveness of the sex scenes by writing a
painfully embarrassing paragraph about it, here's a diagram I made which sums it all up
pretty accurately:

spiralofshit

The 'ouch!!' is referring to Ally being in pain. Derren seemingly thinks it's a turn on to
hurt her a lot during sex. Which makes me arrive at point 2;

no_cocks
  • Derren: How is he supposed to fill in the role of super hot sexy love interest when he's a tremendous asshole? He's selfish, overly possessive ('it's because of his wolf' my arse) and clearly has some mommy issues."He was a selfish aggressive bastard with a serious amount of baggage".Now there are a lot of guys out there who are like this and you can simply dislike a character because of it and move on. However, it's not just dislike I feel for him. There's an intense amount of loathing present. Every time Ally tells him "no, please don't do this". He goes "You're mine" and does as he pleases anyway, not sparing her a single inch. I've seen some other people mentioning it as well in their reviews: this is rape. Period. Derren is basically raping Ally in every sex scene...

    "It's not going to be soft and slow tonight baby". My note here was "Did I miss something?"

    At one point he says he never wanted to hurt Ally. A couple of pages later:
    "He pounded into her so hard he knew it had to hurt, but he couldn't stop." My note here: ""I never want to hurt you Ally." Bitch please".

    So yes, it's disgusting, it's WRONG and I don't see how this would be a turn on for any woman to read about. Maybe I'm not submissive enough for this kind of shit. Which is point 3;

  • Ally's supposed to be a dominant female. "She was a dominant female wolf, so of course she didn't like being manhandled". Whatever happened to THAT? I wonder who Derren's previous Alpha male was...62f973bda18334a7cc0c1eab1cb97163
  • The side characters: I already mentioned there are way more characters than there should be. Sadly, most of them are bland as fuck as well. For example, Nick, the Alpha male of the Mercury Pack literally does nothing else but growl, mumble and look tough. As for the other characters, apart from Cain and Shaya, I couldn't keep them apart, really. They were just filler material with stereotypical personalities.
  • The story plot: Ally and Derren are both 'damaged' and haven't found their true mate yet. Predictable instalove. I already saw the perp behind the attacks coming from a mile away as well.

Even though I enjoyed the first part, I'm still giving this book a low rating. I never like to read about rape, but when you pass off rape as romance, I'm out. It's a wonder I was able to finish it actually. I did add half a star for the first 30% because the story had some potential there and I was intrigued by the shifting mechanism. After that, it all went to shits sadly. Which is too bad, because I honestly think the author can do better than this. 1.5 stars.
Review
4 Stars
Rat Queens, Vol. 1: Sass & Sorcery
Rat Queens, Vol. 1: Sass & Sorcery - Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch

This is one crazy, sexy and cool graphic novel! Four bad-ass women who are fighting monsters, crime and idiots within the boundaries of the city of Palisade by using a mixture of magic and amazing physical combat skills. Each of the girls has her own distinct personality and skill but they all have one thing in common: they can kick some motherfucking butt!


ratqueens_ladies

There's a lot of swearing going on so if you are a person with a profanity filter-preference, by all means, don't buy this book! Even though there aren't any explicit sex scenes in it (a couple of kisses here and there is all), you can tell these girls are very open when it comes to their sexuality. It felt a bit like Sex and the City, but with less shoes and more swords.


The world building is the kind you find in a typical role-playing fantasy world. I love the little D&D references at the end of most chapters.


"Shut the fuck up Gary! +5 on attack rolls against dudes named Gary"


(Ehm, hello Cardhunter!)


The illustrations are gorgeously colourful, just the way I like it. One thing I noticed, however, is that the cover is cool and all but has nothing to do with this particular story, so that's a bit odd. But yes, all in all, I can highly recommend this novel. It's funny, it's different and it contains scantily clad feminists. It's getting 4 stars based on my level of enjoyment. Can't wait until volume 2 arrives in my mailbox! Especially with the little cliffhanger going on in the end...