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Showing posts with label Reincarnation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reincarnation. Show all posts
Friday, August 25, 2017

Reincarnation Romance Sequel Better Than Its Predecessor

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

(Note:  While this review will not contain spoilers for Love's Shadow, it may inadvertently spoil plot surprises from Gladly Beyond, its predecessor. As always, I recommend reading books in a series in order.) 

http://www.blogginboutbooks.com/p/lds-authors.htmlThe D'Angelo Family has long been blessed (or cursed, depending on who you ask) with the ability to discern people's past lives.  When triplets Dante, Branwell, and Tennyson were born 31 years ago, their inherited "gift" fractured three ways.  Now, each of the brothers has a different supernatural talent that he uses to support the family art appraisal/authentication business.  Their special skills aren't always helpful, though.  Sometimes they're confusing, sometimes they're overwhelming, and sometimes, they're just plain dangerous ...
Branwell D'Angelo has clairaudience, the ability to hear the sounds that surrounded an object at its last manipulation.  While the skill has helped tremendously with the family business, it hasn't been useful in getting Branwell the one thing he really wants in life—Lucy Snow.  Falling in love with his brother's girlfriend was a mistake he made six years ago.  Branwell refused to betray Tennyson then and he won't do it now, even though Tennyson and Lucy are no longer together.  Keeping his heart safe is easier when Lucy is a continent away, but now that she's in Florence, Branwell knows he's in trouble. 

http://whitneyawards.com/The last person Lucy wants to bother while in Italy is her former boyfriend.  When her niece mysteriously disappears in a case that has the local police scratching their heads, however, Lucy knows she needs Tennyson's special skills if there's any chance of finding the missing child.  Going through Branwell to appeal to his reclusive sibling, she finds herself spending time with the brother who got away.  Is now finally their time?  Lucy won't betray Tennyson again, but boy, how she wants to ... 

With an age-old curse, a missing child, and the possibility of a second chance romance, things in Florence are heating up fast.

As you may remember, I wasn't wild about Gladly Beyond, the first book in the Brothers Maledetti trilogy by Nichole Van.  The only reason I picked up Love's Shadow, the second installment, is because it was nominated for a Whitney Award.  After the long, dull slog that was Gladly Beyond, I wasn't looking forward to reading its sequel.  At all.  Imagine my surprise, then, when I found myself almost enjoying Love's Shadow!  Although it's only slightly shorter than its long-winded predecessor, Love's Shadow is a much tighter, more focused novel.  It's still wordy, but not as excessively so as Gladly Beyond.  While Dante (the hero of the first book) and Branwell are fairly interchangeable, Lucy is a much, much more likable heroine than Claire (the heroine of Gladly Beyond).  That made the whole story more enjoyable for me.  I didn't love the novel's anti-climactic ending or the Branwell/Lucy match-up (which gets cheesy), but all in all, Love's Shadow turned out to be an okay read for me.  Still, I won't be snatching up the last book in the series.  Although it will focus on Tennyson, the most interesting D'Angelo by far, I'm not going to bother.  While reviewers on Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes & Noble give this series excellent ratings, I just don't see the appeal.

(Readalikes:  Gladly Beyond by Nichole Van; the reincarnation thing also reminds me of Transcendence by C.J. Omololu and The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger)

Grade:



If this were a movie, it would be rated:


for mild language (no F-bombs), violence, blood/gore, and sexual innuendo

To the FTC, with love:  I received an e-copy of Love's Shadow from the Whitney Awards Committee for contest judging purposes.  Thank you!
Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Time Traveler's Wife-ish Romance a Long, Dull Slog

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Claire Raythorn is a YouTube sensation.  And not in a good way.  Having witnessed her filmed reaction to the most humiliating moment in her life, the whole world seems to be laughing at Claire.  Humiliated by the video and grieving her beloved Grammy, the 28-year-old is determined to rebuild not just her life but also her reputation.  With that goal firmly in mind, she arrives in Italy ready to take on a challenging new work project.  

http://www.blogginboutbooks.com/p/lds-authors.htmlAs emotionally draining as the past little while has been for Claire, she hasn't suffered any kind of mental breakdown.  Not that she knows of, anyway.  So why is she seeing a Mr. Darcy-like man in the background of every photo she takes in Florence?  She knows he's not really there.  What is he, then?  A ghost?  A figment of her imagination?  An obvious sign that she should check herself into the nearest mental hospital?

The last person she expects to help explain the inexplicable is Dante D'Angelo, an Italian colleague and competitor.  He might be undeniably gorgeous, but he's also a hack.  Claire wants nothing to do with him, so why is she so drawn to the enigmatic Italian?  And why does he believe her Mr. Darcy visions are not just legitimate, but also important?  Who is Dante, really?  What does he know about the strange things that are happening to Claire?  Most importantly, how does he explain the fierce—almost unearthly—attraction they feel toward one another?  Unbeknownst to Claire, theirs is a love story two hundred years in the making ...

Gladly Beyond, the first book in a new trilogy by Nichole Van, is not the sort of book I would have picked up all on my own.  Soulmates-searching-for-each-other-repeatedly-throughout-time stories are a dime a dozen and not really my bag.  However, since I needed to read the book's sequel for the Whitney Awards, I decided to give Gladly Beyond a go first.  Spoiler alert: I shouldn't have bothered.  For one thing, I didn't care at all for Claire.  I can't quite put my finger on why, but I really didn't give a fig about her.  That made it difficult to care about the story, which is looonnnggggg.  Way too long.  Melodramatic and clunky, it makes for a dull, endless slog.  If I hadn't been planning to read its sequel, I wouldn't have made it past the first couple chapters of Gladly Beyond.  It just did not capture my fancy at all.  That being said, I liked Van's voice and overall writing style.  This particular story, though, was way too loquacious, way too generic, way too forgettable.  Although I liked its sequel much better, I never would have picked it up based on Gladly Beyond.  Sad but true.

(Readalikes:  Love's Shadow by Nichole Van; also reminds me of Transcendence by C.J. Omololu; The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger; and the t.v. show DC Legends of Tomorrow)

Grade:



If this were a movie, it would be rated:




 for mild language (no F-bombs), violence, and sexual innuendo

To the FTC, with love:  I bought an e-copy of Gladly Beyond from Amazon with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha. 

Monday, October 22, 2012

YA Reincarnation Novel Nothing You Haven't Seen Before ... Dang It.

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

When Cole Ryan tours the Tower of London, startling images swamp her mind.  The vision is so vivid, so real that it feels almost like a memory.  Which isn't possible, of course.  The 16-year-old has never been to England before and she's certainly never time-traveled back to the days when beheadings were a common form of punishment.  An overactive imagination—that's the only explanation.  Except that lately, Cole's been haunted by other images.  Everything she sees and touches seems to trigger fuzzy memories of places she's never been and things she's never experienced.  If it's not just her imagination, then the only other possibility is that she's going stark, raving mad.  

Enter Griffon Hall.  Cole's mesmerized by the gorgeous 17-year-old, but she's absolutely dumbfounded when he explains what's happening to her—Cole, he says, is Akhet.  Like him.  These special people not only remember the lives they've lived in the past, but they're tasked with using the wisdom they've gathered over many lifetimes to do good in the present.  Cole wants to dismiss the explanation outright—it's crazy—but everything Griffon says feels true.  She doesn't want this strange ability, but she can't figure out how to make it go away either.  The only way she can really understand it is to embrace it.  

The more Cole remembers, the more apprehensive she grows, especially when her memories seem to warn of danger from her past encroaching on the present.  Cole doesn't know who to trust, especially when she makes a shocking discovery about Griffon.  But how much faith can she put in her murky visions of the past?  Are they reliable?  Is Griffon?  With her life on the line, Cole has to decide what to believe, whom to trust, and how to proceed in a world that is growing increasingly dangerous.

After reading—and loving—C.J. Omololu's first book, Dirty Little Secrets, I couldn't wait to see what the author would do for an encore.  When I read a description of Transcendence, her sophomore effort, I was a little ... surprised.  The plot sounded so generic, so overdone, that I couldn't help but wonder if I really wanted to waste my time on yet another ordinary-teenage-girl-discovers-she-has-supernatural-abilities-and-is-really-a-vampire/angel/werewolf/mermaid/demon hunter/etc.  Since I like Omololu's writing, I figured if anyone could make a stale premise original, it would be her.  And I was right.  Sorta.  The story still felt very familiar, but the writing, at least, seemed above average.  Still, the plot didn't blow me away and I didn't feel any big, cosmic connection to the characters.  The twist at the end did catch me by surprise, so that was nice.  Other than that, though, Transcendence lacked the originality and the heart to really grab me.  I wanted a story as powerful as Dirty Little Secrets and, unfortunately, didn't get it.  Is Transcendence worth the read?  Sure, just don't expect anything you haven't seen before.

(Readalikes:  Every other book in the contemporary-YA-with-a-little-paranormal-thrown-in genre)

Grade:  B-

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG-13 for language (no F-bombs), violence, scenes of underage drinking/partying, and sexual innuendo

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

Sunday, November 23, 2008

That Rose-y Giveaway Glow

Of the many generous authors out there, I have to give a shout-out to M.J. Rose, who gave me 2 copies of each of her books to give away (plus 1 copy of each for myself). I haven't read her first novel, The Reincarnationist, yet, so I'll give you the synopsis from the back of the book:


A riveting epic thriller of secrets, history and murder that will challenge the way we think about who we are and who we were.

A bomb in Rome, a flash of bluish-white and photojournalist Josh Ryder's world exploded. Nothing will ever be the same.

As Josh recovers, his mind is invaded with thoughts that have the emotion, the intensity, the intimacy of memories. But these are not his memories. They are ancient ... and violent. There's an urgency to them he can't ignore - pulling him to save a woman named Sabina ... and the treasures she protects.

But who is Sabina?

Desperate for answers, Josh turns to the world-renowned Phoenix Foundation - a research facility that scientifically documents cases of past life experiences. He is led to an archaeological dig and to Professor Gabriella Chase, who has discovered an ancient, powerful secret that threatens to merge the past with the present. Here, the dead call out to the living, and murders of the past become murders of the present.

Also up for grabs is the next book in the series, The Memorist. Although I had some trouble connecting with the characters, I still enjoyed the read. You can see my review in the post below this one.

So, like I said, I have 2 copies of each book up for grabs. You can enter to win both books. All you have to do is this:

For 1 entry: Leave a comment on this post. Since Rose's books are all about reincarnation, we're going to have some fun - in your comment, please tell me who (or what) you would have like to have been in a past life or who you would like to be on your next go round. If you know about your past lives, by all means, tell me about it! Remember, this is just for fun, so go crazy.

For 2 entries: Post about this giveaway on your blog.

That's it - easy cheesy, as my kids would say. I will pick 4 winners on December 7. Thanks for entering, and thanks to M.J. for offering her books for this giveaway!

The Memorist Probes the Greatest Mystery of All - The Human Mind

Although many of the world's religions hold reincarnation as a sacred tenet, skeptics abound. Chief among them is 31-year-old Meer Logan, heroine of M.J. Rose's new novel, The Memorist. Despite the fact that Meer, a memory specialist working at the Natural History Museum in New York, has experienced "the dreads" - disturbing images from a bygone era invading her mind - since she was a child, she refuses to believe her father's supposition that what she's seeing are actually suppressed memories from a past life. Meer adores her dad, a treasure hunter who has been dubbed the "Jewish Indiana Jones," but unlike him, she's a pragmatist. She's also tired of being the guinea pig for him and his fellow reincarnationists. As haunting as her "visions" are, Meer knows they are simply false memories. Period. End of story.

When an object of historical importance surfaces in Vienna, all of Meer's beliefs fly out the window. The gaming box, once owned by Beethoven, is as familiar to her as her own hand. It's the item she's been drawing since she was a child. Only, she has no memories of actually seeing the box. Yet, it strikes a chord in the furthest reaches of her mind. Her father sees the incident as proof positive that reincarnation exists. Meer's not so sure, but she's also not sure how to explain away the familiarity of the box. Knowing she will not rest until she sees the box in person, Meer boards a plane for Vienna.

In Austria, her father, Jeremy, makes a startling discovery - Beethoven's box has a false bottom. Hidden in the secret space is a letter from the composer to Antonie Brentano, the woman rumored to be his "Immortal Beloved." The letter refers to an ancient bone flute, covered in intricate markings, the music of which can open the listener's mind to his past lives. When the discovery gets leaked to the media, a number of dubious characters descend on Vienna. A violent death in the city proves that some of them will kill to get their hands on Beethoven's magic flute.

Meer's episodes take on new significance in Vienna, where her every step seems to trigger another vision. Why is she running, terrified, through the woods in her waking nightmares? How does she know exactly what Beethoven's homes looked like, when she has never been through them before? Could her father's theories possibly be correct? And will she ever learn what to do with the music that has played through her mind for nearly 30 years? What does it all mean? As Meer searches for her own answers, she must discern her friends from her foes. Can she trust Sebastian, who sees the flute as a way to mend his son's psychotic break? What about her father's confidante who has been accused of stealing artifacts in the past? And what of the FBI Agent, who so tirelessly watches her every move? What's his interest? Most importantly, who is hiding under the music hall with a duffel bag full of explosives? Can he be stopped? All of the questions will be answered as the book screams toward its dramatic conclusion.

I had a bit of trouble getting into this book at first. Maybe it's because I didn't read the first novel in the series, The Reincarnationist, or maybe it's because I don't believe in the whole reincarnation concept - whatever the reason, I felt a little lost at first. Once the plot started moving, however, the story grabbed me. It's difficult to describe the book, but it's kind of a combination of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, althoug I felt it lacked the urgency of the former and the depth of the latter. My biggest beef was that I didn't feel very connected to the main character, Meer. She's dreary and downright dull in her present life. Her past lives up her interesting quotient, but they also make her less relatable to me. The story dragged in places, but the last third of the book had me turning pages as fast as I could. All considered, I enjoyed The Memorist. It didn't make a believer out of me, but it did keep me entertained for most of its 452 pages. Check it out if you enjoy thrillers with a historical bent - or if "The Dreads" are keeping you awake at night.

Grade: B

(Book Image from Barnes & Noble)
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