Edward Aubry: "Balance of Mayhem" (ARC Review)

Title: Balance of Mayhem [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Mayhem Wave (4th of 5 books)
Author: Edward Aubry [Facebook | Goodreads]
Genres: Urban Fantasy (the usual sci-fi angle is virtually nonexistent in this one)
Year: 2018
Age: 14+ (note: Book 1 was marketed as a YA/NA crossover. The series has progressively become more mature, and all the main characters have crossed from NA to adult by now - but the whole thing is absolutely teen-friendly)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Action, cool magic, surprises, moral dilemmas, and kick-ass heroines with a sense of humour.
Cons: Amidst the action, there are patches of telling-not-showing.
WARNING! Some gore and mature themes (but nothing overwhelming).
Will appeal to: Those who like imaginative worlds, lots of twists and turns, strong female characters and F/F romances. Those who are looking for a fresh approach to post-apocalypse.

Blurb: For five years, Dorothy O’Neill has had someone else living in her brain. Strontium, the witch who sacrificed herself to save Dorothy and the two children in her care, saved her own consciousness by fleeing into Dorothy’s mind, a tactic she thought would be temporary. Despite the best efforts of the Council of Mages to regenerate Strontium’s body and restore her to it, that state of affairs is starting to look permanent. So, when an opportunity presents itself to Dorothy to free Strontium and have her own mind to herself again, it sorely tempts her. All she has to do is embark on a quest with Felicia Kestrel, an assassin who has been until this point Dorothy’s mortal enemy. Felicia seeks a scale from the armor of the legendary dragon Hypatia. She needs a witch to help her employ its magic, and claims it has the power to restore Strontium to her own body. Enlisting the aid of a pixie to protect her, and armed with a magical sword, Dorothy leaves her home, trusting that the woman who tried to kill her once won’t do so again. The quest for the Scale proves trickier than expected, with dangers beyond Dorothy’s experience, and the threat of an unknown enemy who apparently desires very badly for her to fail. Each step along the journey brings her closer to getting her life back and freeing her friend, but also brings new and contradictory information about the object they seek, and Felicia’s reasons for seeking it may be far more sinister than she has revealed. (Goodreads excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I have been talking to the author on a few occasions since reviewing his previous titles (that is, all the books he's released so far). Moreover, I am a semi-regular reviewer of Curiosity Quills titles (like this one), but if you look back at my ratings, this never prevented me from being unbiased.
 

IT'S A WOMEN'S WORLD

There's no blaming Edward Aubry for not trying new things, or not spicing up a series even when it's got to its 4th (and penultimate) installment. Dorothy O'Neill - who we met as a child in Book 1, and through the series has grown up to become a 28 y.o. woman - leads an all-female cast here, except for some brief male cameo. Nothing as impressive as the female character amount in Mayhem's Children (the previous installment), but in that case, there was at least a male protagonist, and most of the girls weren't given more than a handful of lines (for plot reasons). This time, we follow a cast of women (and, huh, other female specimens, for lack of another non-spoilery term) in an adventure that starts off a tad slowly, but soon pics pace and thrusts us into a whirlwind of danger and secrets (and no, not your usual you-could-have-told-me-in-chapter-one secrets. Felicia has got her agenda, of course. And Dorothy is afraid that the matter will be taken out of her hands, so of course she doesn't tell anybody. Questionable, but understandable). I love how these women can kick ass and have soft spots/vulnerable angles at the same time, because it's real. It's not like they kick less ass because of that 😉.
(Mind you, this is not a "girl" book/series. We all know by now that "girl books" and "boy books" are a malicious fabrication of dust-covered, mold-smelling evil wizards, right?). [...]

Patrick Ness: "More Than This"

Title: More Than This [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Patrick Ness [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Dystopian? Sci-Fi? Afterlife? None of that? It depends on how you understand it...
Year: 2014
Age: 14+
Stars: 3.5
Pros: Fascinating, heartfelt story that makes you care for the characters. Unapologetic, yet sweet representation of a gay relationship. Prose that manages to feel deep and rich despite its simplicity.
Cons: You peel layer after layer and you're left with virtually nothing under them, except the very message the title already conveyed.
Will appeal to: Those who like mindfucking books where getting the message is more important than actually believing in the story.

Blurb: Seth drowns, desperate and alone. But then he wakes. Naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. And where is he? The street seems familiar, but everything is abandoned, overgrown, covered in dust. He remembers dying, his skull bashed against the rocks. Has he woken up in his own personal hell? Is there more to this life, or perhaps this afterlife? (Amazon)

Review: This is one of the rare books I managed to get not long after it came out - just a few months. And all this time I have struggled with writing a proper review for it...I did a mini that I probably should leave alone, because I'm not sure I can articulate my thoughts better in a long review, even now - but writing detailed reviews is a compulsion for me 😂. So here goes...

THE BOY WHO DROWNED ON EARTH

The first section is GREAT, and while reading this book for the first time, I was sure it would be a 5-star one by the end. I understand that the aforementioned first section is not for everyone, because it's all about Seth waking up from...whatever his alleged death was, trying (unsuccessfully) to make sense of his situation, tending to his basic needs, exploring the place, asking himself questions, meeting (or not meeting) a few animals, feeling alone, dreaming painfully vivid and detailed snippets of his past. But I would have happily read a whole book about that - the whole darned 472 pages of it. The mystery was compelling and fascinating - while I loved the feeling of slowly peeling its layers along with Seth, I was also excited to live in that world for as long as it took to get real answers. Personal hell (as Seth himself believes)? Post-apocalyptic world? Coma dream? Or something else entirely? Plus, I loved his dreams/recollections/whatever they were, and not just as means to unlock the mystery. There's a solid, engrossing yet quiet YA contemporary wrapped into the mystery of Seth's awakening - and when I say "quiet" I mean "unglamorous", not "uneventful". There's a love story, and a friendship story, and a betrayal story, and a family story - and raw, real pain. There's a unapologetic, yet not graphic at all, sex scene between two boys, which is first and foremost a LOVE scene. And finally, the writing is solid, engrossing yet quiet as well. But...this was when the book shifted. [...]

Joshua Winning: "Sentinel" (Series Review)

Title: Book 1: Sentinel
                        [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
         Book 2: Ruins             
                        [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
         Book 2.5: Witchpin (novella)
                        [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
         Book 3: Splinter
                        [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Sentinel Trilogy
Author: Joshua Winning [Site | Goodreads |  Sentinel Trilogy site]
Genres: Supernatural, Urban Fantasy
Year: 2014-2015-2018
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: On the whole, a fast-paced, high-stakes adventure, with a strong ensemble cast and plenty of heart.
Cons: Slow start, tapping into your typical orphan-to-chosen-one trope. Book 1 also has a strangely quaint atmosphere.
WARNING! Contains many elements of horror and gore, plus nightmarish monsters.
Will appeal to: Those who like apocalyptic scenarios (in the truest sense), everyday heroes, surprises...and cats. Those who like seeing characters come of age under exceptional circumstances.

Blurb: Book 1: Sentinel. They are the world's best-kept secret – an underground society whose eternal cause is to protect the world against the dark creatures and evil forces that inhabit the night. Now Sentinels are being targeted, murdered and turned as the fury of an ancient evil is unleashed once more. And when 15-year-old Nicholas Hallow's parents are killed in a suspicious train crash, the teenager is drawn into a desperate struggle against malevolent powers. Book 2: Ruins. In his desperate search for answers about the Sentinels, fifteen-year-old Nicholas Hallow is tipped into a fresh nightmare of terrifying monsters - and even more sinister humans. As Nicholas is challenged to become a Sentinel, he must track down a mysterious girl with the help of a grumpy cat. Meanwhile, an uprising of evil threatens to destroy the Sentinels and send the world spiralling into chaos. Book 2.5: Witchpin. 1589. A sickness steals through the village of Orville. Young women are dying. After losing her mother to the blight, Jessica Bell is recruited by the cantankerous Miss Isabel Hallow, who believes a cure can be found. But when witch hunter Matthew Bone arrives in the village, Jessica's investigation is disrupted with chilling consequences. Book 3: Splinter. The world is falling apart around Nicholas Hallow. Amid rumours that the Dark Prophets have returned, a deathly gloom pollutes England, unleashing a savage hoard of nightmare creatures. Fighting the tide of evil, Nicholas returns home to Cambridge, where an old ally helps him seek out the mysterious Skurkwife, who could help Nicholas stop Malika and the Prophets for good. But with Jessica's sanity slipping, and Isabel suspicious of her shadowy past, it's a battle that could cost the Sentinels everything. (Goodreads & Amazon excerpts)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I was offered a review copy by the author, having previously reviewed another one of his books (Vicious Rumer). We also follow each other on Twitter. This didn't influence my opinion on the series.

HITTING THE STRIDE

Straight-up fantasy books are not my thing, but I'm drawn to urban fantasy from time to time, and I do enjoy my Supernatural 😊. That's why I decided to take a chance on this series. I won't lie - Book 1 left me a bit lukewarm. I understand that world-building is necessary and takes time, plus we see most events through Nicholas' eyes, while on the one hand he discovers a new, terrifying world, and on the other is smothered in secrets for his own protection (ha! the old excuse). But my main problem with Sentinel was that its atmosphere is oddly dated, and I couldn't help but feeling like I was reading a historical novel. Of course, old England plays a huge part in the series, with settings like Cambridge or Bury St. Edmunds, and it was indeed nice to be able to visit a world that doesn't come up often in YA - but I'm talking about something deeper here, that to me prevented the series to fully spread its wings. Not to mention, there were a few tropes in Book 1 that sounded too typical - recently orphaned and clueless kid destined to save the world, old mentor, secret room, you name it. Luckily, once I started Book 2, I got sucked up into the story: the author seems to find his feet in Ruins, (not only because most of the world-building and the secrets are out of the way), and Splinter is a poignant, strong finale - while the Witchpin novella, set in a distant past but tied to the events recounted in the trilogy, is a welcomed glimpse into a different era and the origins of a certain pivotal character. [...]

Edward Aubry: "Mayhem's Children" (ARC Review)

Title: Mayhem's Children [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Mayhem Wave (3rd of 5 books)
Author: Edward Aubry [Facebook | Goodreads]
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Year: 2017
Age: 14+ (note: Book 1 was marketed as a YA/NA crossover. The series is progressively becoming more mature, but I would say that Book 3 covers all the spectrum from teen to adult. NA will do - especially since one of the leads is 23)
Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: As in Book 1 and 2, quirky and audacious blend of post-apocalypse, technology and magic. Characters who are easy to empathise with. Never a dull moment.
Cons: The blend I mentioned might not work for everyone - and it's even more audacious here than before.
WARNING! Some gore and mature themes. There's talk of sex, but only some kissing on screen.
Will appeal to: Those who like imaginative worlds, lots of twists and turns, strong female characters and enemies-to-lovers F/F romances. Those who are looking for a fresh approach to post-apocalypse.

Blurb: Eight years have passed since the Mayhem Wave forever altered the world to a blend of science and magic, and since Harrison Cody rescued twenty-eight teenage girls from human traffickers. Now they are disappearing - but Harrison did not just rescue them from villains those many years ago, he also adopted them, and that relationship holds the key to the true nature of their present danger. Dorothy O’Neill, another of Harrison’s adopted daughters, though from very different circumstances, has taken five-year-old Melody, Harrison’s only child by blood, under her wing. As the missing persons crisis intensifies, Dorothy discovers she and Melody are targets as well. Separated by hundreds of miles, and with no means of communication, Harrison and Dorothy become entangled in the schemes of a monster who hopes to alter the world once again at the cost of all they hold dear. And as Dorothy finds an inner strength and new abilities she never dreamed of possessing, she comes to suspect Melody may be something more than she appears. (Goodreads excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I have been talking to the author on a few occasions since reviewing his previous titles, Unhappenings, Prelude to Mayhem and Static Mayhem - which I rated 4 stars. Moreover, I am a semi-regular reviewer of Curiosity Quills titles (like this one), but if you look back at my ratings, this never prevented me from being unbiased.
 

DOUBLE THE TROUBLE (AND THEN SOME)

Mayhem Wave is a complex series, what with interweaving futuristic technology and old-but-not-plain magic, plus constantly pulling the rug from under our feet with its unexpected twists and turns. All the same, the author rides the monster without a flinch. With this installment in particular, sometimes I felt like I was watching a Doctor Who episode, only with a side of magic (maybe a Twelfth Doctor one, in which you never know where things are going) - and if you know me, this is meant as a huge compliment 😀 (BTW, the Doctor is even mentioned in one of the very first chapters!). The stakes are very high here: on one hand we have the disappearance of Harrison's adopted daughters, on the other an impending danger that might annihilate the post-Mayhem Wave world. All the characters are tested, pushed to their limits, and sometimes even fooled. Humans and not (a pixie and a ghost among them) are always challenged, and must put to use every single gift they possess, in what is, for all purposes, a teamwork (though there are a few tense and/or funny moments among the team members along the way). I must admit that a bit of the science behind the Mayhemsphere went to my head, but nevertheless, the danger(s) and the twists felt very real and were a blast to read about. Not to mention, I was caught completely off-guard by the final twist on the villain's motive. [...]

Edward Aubry: "Static Mayhem" (ARC Review)

Title: Static Mayhem [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Mayhem Wave (2nd of 5 books)
Author: Edward Aubry [Facebook | Goodreads]
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Year: 2017
Age: 14+ (note: Book 1 was marketed as a YA/NA crossover. This one sounds more adult to me - especially because it lacks Dorothy's POV - but like the first installment, I would say that it covers all the spectrum from teen to adult. NA will do)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: As in Book 1, quirky and audacious blend of post-apocalypse, technology and magic. Characters who are easy to empathise with.
Cons: The blend I mentioned might not work for everyone - and it's even more audacious here than in the first installment. Some of the many twists may sound confusing. A relationship from Book 1 threatens to take a strange and unsettling turn.
WARNING! There's talk of sex and a few F-bombs.
Will appeal to: Those who are looking for a fresh approach to post-apocalypse.

Blurb: A year after the world was thrown into magical chaos, Harrison Cody takes part in an expedition to learn the cause. What his team finds is an unfathomable enemy, who intends to finish what was started and wipe out every remaining survivor. Harrison is the key to stopping it, but doing so will come with an unbelievable sacrifice, one he might not be willing to make. (Goodreads)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I have been talking to the author on a few occasions since reviewing his previous titles, Unhappenings and Prelude to Mayhem - which I also rated 4 stars. Moreover, I am a semi-regular reviewer of Curiosity Quills titles (like this one), but if you look back at my ratings, this never prevented me from being unbiased.
Note: an earlier version of Static Mayhem was released back in 2010. If you are curious about the whole story (which is also inspiring for every struggling writer out there who despairs of ever being published), you can read my interview with the author.

RAISING THE STAKES

The first installment in this series, Prelude to Mayhem, was a quirky post-apocalyptic novel full of unknown, often ghastly dangers lurking around, but I can see now that the title was indeed appropriate - that was only the start of a nightmare. In your typical post-catastrophe scenario, the main focus (often the only one) is survival and the rebuilding of a new world, while trying to make sense of the shift and adjusting (or not) to its rules (or lack thereof). In Static Mayhem, our characters not only explore a broken and upside-down world, but try to find a way to save what's left of it AND even to bring back what they can (if the can) of the old reality. All in an environment where magic and technology are mutually exclusive, except for a single instance. It's imaginative, though it probably requires more suspension of disbelief than your average fantasy or sci-fi novel, precisely because the two worlds are coexistent - if opposite - here. I'm usually not a great fan of fantasy creatures, but for some reason, Glimmer - the last pixie - and even a couple of famous mythical creatures whose names I won't spoil seem at home in this series. I think it's seeing them through Harrison's eyes that makes all the difference - he's sympathetic, warm-hearted and open-minded...among other good things 😉. [...]

Edward Aubry: "Prelude to Mayhem" (Blog Tour Review)

For the blog tour calendar click here. (Note: the one above is an alternate cover featuring Glimmer the pixie :))

Title: Prelude to Mayhem [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Mayhem Wave (1st of 4 books...with plans for a fifth)
Author: Edward Aubry [Facebook | Goodreads]
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Year: 2016
Age: 14+ (note: it's marketed as a YA/NA crossover. But to me it covers all the spectrum from teen to adult)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Quirky and audacious blend of post-apocalypse, technology and magic. Characters who are easy to empathise with.
Cons: The blend I mentioned might not work for everyone.
WARNING! A couple of strong scenes, where blood flows freely and monsters creep over dead people. A character making an inappropriate joke about male physiology to a teen girl, who properly scolds him and leaves him ashamed. Some F bombs.
Will appeal to: Those who are looking for a fresh approach to post-apocalypse.

Blurb: In the ruins of his world, Harrison Cody follows a mysterious voice on the radio as he and his pixie sidekick travel on foot across a terrifyingly random landscape. They discover Dorothy O’Neill, who has had to survive among monsters when her greatest worry used to be how to navigate high school. Together they search for what remains of Chicago, and the hope that civilization can be rebuilt. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I have been talking to the author on a few occasions since reviewing his previous title, Unhappenings - which I also rated 4 stars. Moreover, I am a semi-regular reviewer of Curiosity Quills titles (like this one), but if you look back at my ratings, this never prevented me from being unbiased.
As I stated in my disclaimer, Edward Aubry already published a book called Unhappenings. But that wasn't his first book - an earlier version of this one, called Static Mayhem, was. If you are curious about the whole story (which is also inspiring for every struggling writer out there who despairs of ever being published), you can read my interview with the author.

BOLD NEW WORLD

At present, post-apocalyptic stories are all the rage - and of course, the more they saturate the market, the harder it gets to spin an original tale. But though the core of this particular story dates back a couple of decades, it managed to stay fresh. The bold mashup of subgenres/elements (from time shuffles to supernatural occurrences, from magic to technology) is, I think, quite unique - I only encountered something similar (minus the time issue) in The Bad Rescue of Devon Streeter (now renamed Riven) by B.C. Johnson. I have to admit a few moves are bolder than others (like talking dinosaurs with a German accent and a polite attitude 😆) and some readers might find them a bit over-the-top. But Harrison - the character who manages to experiment the vaster array of strange encounters - either relates to them in a sympathetic manner, or comes to accept this new reality in a way that pretty much normalizes it for us too...well, to a point at least 😉. I'll go as far as to say that Harrison might be a symbol of the best America, the one that I hope will rear its head again - the one that learns to trust and welcome the stranger, no matter how alien they look at a first glance. If you look past the face value, Harrison's bond with Glimmer - an opinionated, wise-cracking pixie with a heart of gold - can be read that way. [...]

B.C. Johnson: "The Bad Rescue of Devon Streeter" (ARC Review) [new title 2016: "Riven"]

Title: The Bad Rescue of Devon Streeter [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Riven (1st of 3? books)
Author: B.C. Johnson [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic, Supernatural
Year: 2015
Age: 12+ (though the author states it's for age 11+, but I see it as more mature YA. On the other hand, as always, it depends on the reader...)
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Engulfing, epic story, full of action and feelings. Main characters you get to really care about. Great mythology.
Cons: Might get confusing because the event at the core of the story is not clearly addressed (see review). Also, the mix of genres (see labels) might not appeal to some readers.
WARNING! Gore. Underage sex (without protection...but heck, it's the end of the world) is alluded to, though not described.
Will appeal to: Those who love quirky stories with a strong vocabulary. Those who pine after friendship more than romance. Those who want to meet new kinds of monsters.

Blurb: Devon's a teenage medic. Bloom's a wannabe gunslinger. Just two best friends hanging at the end of the world. When Earth and another world smashed together, everything went sideways. Some people survived, some inhumans too, and they all made for bad neighbors. Fighting for scraps on the face of a changed world, Devon and Bloom have to face alien magic, inhuman monsters, and the inescapable fact that the Merge is going to change them. Deviate them into...something else. But when circumstance flings Devon and Bloom apart, can they find each other across the wild wastelands? Will they recognize each other when they do? (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I received this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review. And the author being B.C. Johnson, you all know I've been campaigning for his book Deadgirl with all my might since 2012, when the first version came out, till a few weeks ago, when it hit the market for the second time. Why, actually, I still am. Also, B.C. Johnson and me have stayed in touch, if sporadically, for the whole time. I'm not what you would call a friend of his though, only a fan of his work. And an unbiased one :). This review is the love child of my penchant for quirky, uniquely worded books and B.C. Johnson's ability to deliver them. Here goes...
I'm going to get straight to the point: this is an indie book. Indie books are not evil. This book is not evil. 
Many prejudices surround those novels that don't take the traditional publishing route. Bad editing, amateurish writing, uninteresting stories. Of course, they don't need to be true every time. (Not to mention, the reverse may be true sometimes). To date, this is the first review Devon gets, but I suppose in a few days someone else will wrote theirs, and maybe point their fingers at editing issues. And issues there are indeed, but I've been assured they'll get fixed in time for publication (the book will be out on Mar. 31). As for content, the fact that Devon is being self-published only tells the sad tale of industry being often short-sighted and unwilling to give a chance to things that don't fit in a box. Anyway, if this is of any reassurance for you, B.C. Johnson is a traditionally published author (see Deadgirl) taking a different route with a book that apparently didn't fit the publishers' agenda...
Devon is many things. It has a sci-fi premise (though the original first chapter has been moved to the appendix, so I have to admit the reader may get confused about what really happened and how till much later in the book) and a strong magic twist. It's a post-apocalyptic fable that asperses the gore with a poetic flavour and peppers it with humour. It's a love story in the widest, purest sense between two friends of different sexes, neither of which is gay. It's a tale of powerful individuals and ordinary heroes. [...]