Book Review: Falling Kingdoms (A Falling Kingdoms Novel: Book 1)

Rating: 2/5 stars.

The book had me at the cover. Is it not just amazing and intriguing? Ever since I saw that cover I was itching to read it. The title seemed to forbode of a great plot too. But…let’s just say that this book was a disappointment for me.

The land of Mytica is split into three separate kingdoms: Limeros, Paelsia, and Auranos. Paelsia is in between Limeros and Auranos. Limeros is a mountainous region in the north; Auranos is a warm land filled with green plains. While Auranos is prospering, Limeros and Paelsia are suffering. Princess Cleo of Auranos is witness to a shocking murder that sets things in motion for her kingdom’s collapse. Prince Magnus of Limeros, harboring a dark secret, must carefully gain his father’s trust without becoming like him. Magnus’s sister, Lucia, finds out something about herself that could mean her death if anyone found out. Jonas rebels against Paelsia’s suffering that has been secured by the other countries selfishness. He soon finds himself playing a major part in the revolution of his country.

Sound interesting, does it not? Well, I read this book in two days. That has got to mean something. It does. The plot was really amazing. It was fast paced and exciting. I loved how intense it was. The way the four points of view were weaved together was done so well. That is what really kept me reading.

The uniqueness of the characters was great too. I did for the most part like all the characters, except for the ones you weren’t supposed to like. But Theon was my absolute favorite. Why, oh why, did that have to happen to him?

Anyways, the thing that made me give this a low rating was all the romance. Everyone of the main characters, except Lucia, had some sort of relationship or love interest, in the past or present. Magnus’s dark secret was romance related (I was quite disgusted by it too.). Then you knew that he was doing stuff with a maid. Also, his father had mistresses. Jonas mentioned hanging out with girls and towards the end of the book he got in a relationship with a girl. Cleo was ashamed about a inappropriate love affair with someone from the past. There was also this one character that was drunk all the time. It was really annoying and unnecessary.

So, I wouldn’t recommend anyone reading this. It is really not worth it at all. You would most likely be very disappointed.

-G. Paige

Book Review: The Negotiator (The O’Malley Series: Book 1)

Rating: 4/5 stars.

This book was fantastic. It was something different from what I’ve recently been reading, but so so good. I need the next one!

Kate O’Malley is a hostage negotiator. Whether defusing human time bombs or stopping stopping a person from jumping off a building, she is good at what she does and will walk into situations no one else will. Dave Richman is a FBI special agent who has spent much of his life protecting people. He is starting to care about Kate. But now someone is targeting her. Someone who is not just out for her blood, but who wants to ruin her first. A person has sent her black roses. Maybe the same one that blew up an airplane and blamed her. Dave is determined to protect her. If he can’t, she may die. When shocking evidence from the investigation threatens to crush her, can she learn to rely and trust in Dave and the God he believes in so faithfully?

I loved this book a lot. I connected with Dave and Kate right from the start. They were so fun to read about. I mean they were hilarious together and the budding romance was so sweet. Though I do think the Dave fell in love with Kate a bit too quickly. Kate was a really strong character. She could hide her emotions very well in almost every situation she was in, but she had a temper that she let out at points. Dave was kind and very protective, though he had a touch of cockiness and a lot of fun which was perfect. Then the whole O’Malley family, don’t get me started. I could laugh at most of the parts with all of them together. The protective brothers, the awesome sisters, is was cool. Marcus is my favorite of the siblings, I think. They were all good. This book was layered with puns and jokes from all of them including Dave.

The plot was intense. The mysteries, the secrets, it all added to such a great thrilling suspense. It will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the book. I did feel like the climatic ending could have been drawn out a little bit more than it was, since there was so much anticipation leading up to it. But it  was still great.

I’ll recommend this to teens and up. This was a great Christian Fiction book with so much suspense, mystery, and romance. If you like any sort of Christian Fiction, try it out! I think you’ll find it very good.

-G. Paige 

The True Reason For Christmas

Christmas. The time close to the end of the year that about half the world celebrates. Many of us go out and buy a Christmas tree maybe by cutting one down or buying one at a store (unless you have a fake one at home to put up). We usually will decorate that tree with lights and ornaments and much of the house in the same way. The adults  go shopping for presents for their kids (if they have any), sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, parents, and all their relatives. They might buy for their friends too. We’ll listen to Christmas music in the time following up to December 25th and sometime after. We’ll make ton of Christmas cookies that probably aren’t the healthiest, but still so good. Hopefully most of us get to spend a lot of time with family and relatives. It is a time of peace and joy…and happiness.

Book Review: Viral Execution (The Cantral Chronicles: Book 3)

Rating: 3/5 stars.

This book was even greater than the last one! But I still think that it went a bit too fast and though the characters went through so much hardship, it still felt too easy in the end. You know what I mean.

The Cantral computers have been taken down. But after living to long in slavery, the slaves want revenge on the Nobles and anyone who wants to protect them. Now they are taking the law into their own hands. Monica, Simon, and Aric must escape the mobs and sail to Eurasia. If they destroy the computers of the biggest city there, the rest of the world’s computers will fall one by one until the world is free. More important to Monica is searching for someone she thought gone from her life forever. Someone who is supposedly alive, unknown to her. Can she cross the sea and shut down the computer before she is found out and killed?

So…the plot was pretty well done. It was exciting, so say the least. Very, very fast paced. Just a bit too fast paced. I think that I found one or two plot holes, but maybe I just missed it in reading too fast or too much or something. I don’t normally miss stuff like that though. I loved the parts when they were on the ship. I love ships and anything to do with it. It brought a fresh taste to the book.

They introduced some new characters into this story that I really liked, especially Fahltrid. He didn’t play a really big part, but I loved his personality and everything about him. I wish that I could know more about all these characters, I feel like you don’t learn that much about them, besides Monica.

This series ended swell. It left it like there could be more, but there isn’t going to be. It was just a touch sad, but mostly good. I just still have this same feeling as I did with the other books. I’m not very interested in it, but it was enjoyable and very good. So I’m sure other people will love these books.

For a teenager’s first series, this is so good. The author should be very proud of herself. She has done a amazing job. I’ll be looking forward to seeing what she creates next! This for those who have read the others books before it and like dystopian. I’d suggest this for teenagers and up.

-G. Paige

The Tag of Happiness

I was tagged in The Tag of Happiness by Shantelle Mary Hannu. Thank you, Shantelle! I’ve never participated in a post like this before. So hear we go!

Some Songs That Make You Happy

 ~I See Fire by Ed Sheeran

This gives me all the feels from the epic (and sad) Hobbit movies!!!

~Back Home by Owl City

Such a great song. Electronic music and country together? It is perfect!

~The Parting Glass by The High Kings

So pretty. I really have started to like Celtic!

~BZRK – feat. KB by Family Force 5

So awesome! Hilarious YouTube video too!

~Hold Me Together by Royal Tailor

A great Christian song. So true.

~Edge of My Life by Manafest

This is a really great Christian rock band. I love it.

~Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry

This is such a fun ’50s song! I love it! It makes me want to dance.

~Stayin’ Alive by Bee Gees

This is one that makes me want to dance too. It’s a really groovy ’70s song.

As you can see from above, I listen to a wide variety of music. I absolutely love music! It is so hard to choose which ones to mention. There are so many good ones. I love a lot of instrumental music and soundtracks too.

Some Books That Make You Happy

~Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

I LOVED this whole series. It is so good and funny.

~Ilyon Chronicles by Jaye L. Knight

Oh my goodness! This is amazing! Jace!!! I love him! He is such a torn and struggling character. More of these books need to come out!

~The Blades of Acktar by Tricia Mingerink

Agh!!! These books are incredible. I can’t get enough of them!

~Blood of Kings by Jill Williamson

Wonderful! Such a great story.

~The Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld

Really awesome books. I’d never read steampunk before this. Go check out my reviews on it.

~The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Just some in depth fantasy books that will stay with you forever. Words cannot describe how great these are.

~The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins

I don’t think many people know about these books, but they are so good! Maybe not as great as The Hunger Games…but still great!

There are so many more books that I could tell you about, but I don’t want to make this too long.

Some Movies (and/or TV Shows) That Make You Happy

~Big Hero 6

This was really a awesome, fun movie.

~The Pirates of the Caribbean 

So hilarious!

~The Hobbit (all three)

Epic!

~The Lord of the Rings 

More epicness!!!

~Indiana Jones

I haven’t seen the fourth one yet, but I think they’re pretty fun.

~STAR WARS (I-VI)

I’m excited for the new one, but worried at the same time! Yikes!

~The Last Samurai 

This is an amazing movie. It’s epic, but sad and heartbreaking.

~The Dark Knight Trilogy 

An amazing protrayal of all the characters!

~Jurassic World

So good!

~Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The best MARVEL movie so far!

~SHERLOCK 

~Doctor Who

I’m a Whovian! David Tennant is my favorite actor for the Doctor.

~Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

There are many other great movies too. I love every MARVEL movie I’ve seen (for the most part)!!! But these are just a few of my top favorites.

Some Foods That Make You Happy

~macaroni & cheese

~stromboli

~pizza

~pretzel rolls

So. Good. Really. Good. Homemade. To. Die. For.

~cinnamon rolls 

I make homemade cinnamon rolls and they are to die for!

~monkey bread

~blueberry citrus cake

~crawfish boils

I love Louisiana style food!

~ice cream

I went to this place that had cookie dough ice cream. It wasn’t cookie dough pieces in vanilla ice cream. It was actual cookie dough ice cream!!!

I love food! It will probably be the death of me, but food is so good. Sweets and almost anything with bread and butter in it is probably something I like.

Some Words That Make You Happy

~tree

~instrument 

~song

~wind

~music

~library 

~water

~ocean

~waves

Some Scents That Make You Happy

~mint (any kind)

~bread baking 

~cookies

~icing

~trees

~books (each book has a different smell)

~coffee

Some Random Things That Make You Happy

~turtles

~kittens

~horses

~swimming

~snow

~beach

~Christmas music

~That Jesus died to save me.

Guidelines:

• Take the banner and put it in your post.
• List as many things as you want in each category.
• Come up with more categories if you wish.
• Tag as many people as you want.

Tagged:

• Hope
• Katie
• Tricia
• Morgan
• C.B. Cook
• Mary Kate

To everyone reading this: consider yourself tagged and tell me about it! I’d love to see your post!

Is there anything we have in common? Comment please! I’d love to hear from you!!!

-G. Paige

Book Review: Noble Imposter (The Cantral Chronicles: Book 2)

Rating: 3/5 stars.

This was a good book. The plot was interesting. There is just something that I don’t like about it.

The inhabitants of Cillineese have now been freed from the nobles and their computers, but the rest of the world is still enslaved. Now Monica must go to Cantral and assume to identity of her dying cousin, Amelia who is a Noble and a master computer programmer. But she knows little about computers or anything of the like, so it is only a matter of time before the Nobles realize that she is an imposter. Still, she needs to keep up the disguise until she can take down the computers in Cantral. But will this lie last?

This book was definitely better than the last one. There was much more character development. Monica keeps fighting until there is no hope at all. She makes knew friends and learns more about the Nobles way of life. I really liked Aric. He was a kind of arrogant and uncaring at first, but that was the way he was raised. Overall of that he was still very kind, which was unusual for one of his class. There were characters that actually stayed throughout the book besides just the main character (that didn’t happen in the last book). It was much more well done, I think.

The plot was very interesting and entertaining. It kept pretty fast paced throughout the whole book. There is just something about this book that makes me not very interested in it. It happened with the first book in this series too. I don’t know what it is? I can tell that it is exciting and pretty well written, but I’m not into it. Maybe it is the main character. I like male protagonist better than female protagonist. Or maybe it is the style of writing. Or maybe it moves too fast. I don’t know, but I feel like I’m just not liking it as much as I should be.

I still this that this is a good book. So I’d recommend this to teenagers of all ages and adults. It was very good. I enjoyed it.

-G. Paige

Thanksgiving…and Joy

I know, Thanksgiving has come and passed, but I’m not talking about the holiday. I’m talking about the act of giving thanks, of being thankful. That is something that we can discuss all the time.

I have recently started reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. She talks about living a fuller life in Christ. I have really liked what she has had to say about it. An important role in that is thanksgiving.

The Greek word for “giving thanks” is eucharisteo. In that word, there are the parts of two other Greek words: charis and chara. Charis means grace, while chara means joy. Isn’t that neat?

But aren’t you here to talk about thanksgiving? Yes, I am and I believe that grace and joy play a part in that. Being thankful is hard. I fail at it, a lot. We all get so lost in our own troubles and worries and temptations that sometimes we lose sight of the bigger picture.

I’m not saying that any of our struggles are unimportant, because they are important. God lets us haves struggles so that we grow stronger in our faith and closer to Him. Whatever you’re going through, He will be with you. And we know from the Bible that He will not let us be tempted more than we can bear.

1 Corinthians 10:13

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

But in all of this, we can become quite ungrateful and not thankful. I know I do it‭ all the time.

So how do we become thankful? I think it would help if we took time to focus on Christ throughout each day, everyday. For Ann Voskamp, she started to write a list of one thousand things she was thankful for.

If we start to pay attention to the things around us that we can be thankful for, naming specific things, it would bring us to not take things for granted. I believe that we would get a small glimpse of how much we can be thankful for. There are big things like God, living another day, family, etc. Then there are the minuscule things like melted butter on hot bread, rain pattering against the roof.

When we become thankful, we become joyful.

Joy is dependent on thanksgiving. The more thankful you are, the more joyful you will be.

This is something very important that I learned from One Thousand Gifts. It is so true. How can we be joyful when we are ungrateful? We may be happy, but that isn’t joy. And it definitely doesn’t last like joy does. Happiness comes and goes and can’t be trusted. It comes from material things. But joy, on the other hand, is something that can last forever. It comes from God. Once we have it, it can’t be taken away.

As Christians, we already have that joy that comes from God. But it sometimes gets diminished in going of life. Sometimes we need more of it.

Jesus lived a life of thanksgiving. Even near death, he gave thanks. He even gave thanks for his death.

2 Corinthians 4:15

All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.

Because of God’s grace, we can live a life of thanksgiving too. We can learn to see things to be thankful for in any situation. It just takes a lot of practice.

But in the end, I’m sure that it will bring us so much joy.

-G. Paige

Book Review: The Sword of Shannara (The Shannara Trilogy: Book 1)

Rating: 5/5 stars.

I fell in love with this book from the start. It. was. epic. I mean, epic. I can’t wait to read more by this author!

In a land of Men, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Trolls, mankind, led by the Warlock Lord, revolted against the other races. This led to the First War of the Races and the rebellion was crushed. The Second War of the Races happened less than five hundred years ago. The Elves and Dwarves fought the Gnomes and Rock Trolls who were led by the Warlock Lord. King Jerle Shannara of the Elven people was given a special sword by a Druid to defeat the Warlock Lord. But in the final battle where the Elves and Dwarves fought the Trolls, the Druid and the Warlock Lord disappeared in battle. Now, a giant named Allanon, with strange powers, has come to the Shady Vale to reveal to the half elf Shea that the Warlock Lord is alive and planning to destroy the world. The one weapon that can defeat him is the Sword of Shannara, but only a true heir of Shannara can use it. The fate of the races rests on Shea, the last heir of Shannara.

This book was wonderful. The author really captures fantasy at its best. Terry Brooks really is a student of J.R.R. Tolkien’s. You can tell from how much he pulls from Tolkien’s works. It has quite the same epic fantasy feel to it as The Lord of the Rings. But, it was much easier to read and understand. Also, it was went along at a faster pace.

I loved all the characters of the company. The mysterious Allanon, the natural born leader Balinor, the Dwarf strategist Hendel, the Elven brothers’ Durin and Dayel, the reckless Menion, and, the always faithful brother to Shea, Flick. Every one of them was so special for different reasons. There were many other characters that I knew for only a short amount of time, but I felt like I knew everything about them. They were all so well developed.

The plot was amazing and fantastically thrilling. My nerves were on edge so many times throughout the book. A few times I stopped reading and yelled, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” while laughing. Even more so, I stopped to squeal and think, “I’m going to die if these characters don’t figure a way out of this situation.”. Then there were other times that I felt ready to cry.

Other than that, I will say that there was a good bit of magic and sorcery involved, though for the most part it was portrayed as an evil thing. This is not a Christian author. This book was great, I just don’t know how the rest of his books are going to be.

I recommend this to older teens and adults, especially all those Tolkien fans out there. It was a bit bloody, so I wouldn’t give this to younger kids. So come on and read it!

-G. Paige

Book Review: The Demon King (The Seven Realms Series: Book 1)

Rating: 4/5 stars.

So, I should probably rate this like one star lower than I did, but I really liked it. There was just a few issues.

Former streetlord of the Raggers, Han Alister has lived all his life with strange silver cuffs around his wrists. Why won’t anyone tell him why they are there? Why can’t they come off? Then one day, he finds three young wizards burning the sacred mountain of Hanalea. He takes away their amulet. From then on, bad luck seems to follow. Soldiers are after him for past crimes and now murders that he didn’t commit. The wizards are after him for taking the amulet. Will he ever be safe again? Princess Raisa ana’Marianna has just come home from three years of freedom with her father’s family. Now she must get back into dresses and everything else involved with being a princess. Her name day is soon. Then she’ll be eligible for suitors. But will her mother let her make her own decisions or will she be forced into an early marriage with someone she doesn’t love?

This was very good. There was so many unknowns I couldn’t always guess what was going to happen. Quite a few plot twists surprised me. I loved it. The world was filled with magic, so if you don’t like that kind of thing, you probably wouldn’t like this. It was a cool place. It mentioned so many things that were going on outside of Han and Raisa’s world. That was really cool, because it gave you a great perspective of the world around them.

I loved Han. He had guts to do some crazy stuff. He was great. He had a interesting past too. I knew there was something special about him from the start. Raisa, I like and don’t like. I love her spunk and how she seems to win all the arguments she has with her friends. But I didn’t like how she kissed about every boy she knew. It almost got inappropriate at points. Han has a relationship with a girl too towards the end of the book. But the kissing between them only happened once or twice.

One other thing that made me feel a bit uncomfortable, was when there was this ceremony this man had to go to. Some people mixed blood and water and then had him drank it.  But when he drunk it, it tasted like wine. It wasn’t drawn out and was over quickly. Still though, drinking blood? That is just plain yuck.

Overall, I’d recommend this to older teens and adults who want a fast paced and exciting fantasy book. But you have to be very comfortable with magic to enjoy it.

-G. Paige

Monthly High Points: November

Hey everyone! I’m sorry for not posting much this last month. I decided I would start a new series of posts on the high points of each month for me. Today’s post will be on what has been going on in November.

Writing!!!

Surprise! So I actually started writing a book this month for the first time! I would love to publish it in a year or so once I’ve finished it and fixed it all up. It needs a lot of work.

I don’t know how many of you know about this, but there is this program called National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short). I had heard so much about it in recent months and found out it was a contest to try to write 50,000 words for a novel in November! Crazy, right?!

Well, I decided I would try it next year once I had a novel planned out (I do like to plan ahead of time). Then on the evening of November 4th I saw everyone everyone talking about it. That got me excited. Right there I made the rash and late decision to sign up. I can’t believe what I did. I don’t like making late decisions. They’re stressful. But I’m so happy that I did.

I had an idea (if you can even call it that) for a start of a series. I had even wrote a little prologue for it a month or so earlier. But I started all over on November 5th. From there I wrote about 2,000 words a day. I didn’t have a plan or anything. I was just going with the flow. Just so you know, I do not do that usually.

On November 29th I finished 50,000 words! I can’t believe it (and the novel isn’t even finished)! So this is why I didn’t do much blogging. Anyways, I just want to congratulate some of my writing friends that completed 50,000 words too. Great job! Even those who didn’t complete the word count. At least you still tried.

So…Alyssa, Hope, and Katie Grace: congrats! You guys did an amazing job!

Reading…

I didn’t get to much reading this month, because of writing. But I did read:

1. A Superhero Story (Wearing the Cape: Book 1), by Marion G. Harmon
2. A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, by David Crockett
3. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass
4. Deny (The Blades of Acktar: Book 2), by Tricia Mingerink
5. The Demon King (The Seven Realms Series: Book 1), by Cinda Williams Chima
6. CinderEddy, by Kendra E. Ardnek

A Superhero Story: It was recommended to me and I quite enjoyed it, though there was just a bit too much romance. You can check out my review of it for more info.

A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett: I started in October, but didn’t finish it until November. It was a school reading, but still good. A bit weird.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: Was sad and a bit depressing (this was a school reading too). It was very informative and interesting into the life of a slave.

Deny: I loved it (you can definitely tell by my review)! I can not talk enough about how good it was.

The Demon King: It was really good, but the romance started to go a bit too far. I’ll be posting a review soon.

CinderEddy: It was a cute and short Cinderella retelling. I liked it.

Right now I’m currently reading:

• The Sword of Shannara (The Shannara Trilogy: Book 1), by Terry Brooks
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Water Princess, Fire Prince (The Rizkaland Legends: Book 1), by Kendra E. Ardnek

The Sword of Shannara has the same kind of feel as The Lord of the Rings. It is really epic right now (and I’m only 238 pages in out of 726 pages).

Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a reread for school again. But I’m still enjoying it.

Water Princess, Fire Prince is a reread. This is the first book I beta read like months ago. I’m finally getting to reading the official version of it.

I hope to get to a lot more reading this month, since I won’t have to write as much.

Other Things…

I watched the whole season of the Netflix tv show Daredevil in about one week! It was really dark, which I kind of like (just a bit), but I think it got a bit too dark. Also, there was a lot of language. There was plenty of violence too, but that doesn’t bother me as much. Besides all of that, I really enjoyed it! It was really well done and the characters were well portrayed.

Well, that is it. What have you guys been up to this November? I’d love to hear from you!!!

-G. Paige