Peacock Flock Review #17 - Infinity

Infinity - Chronicles of Nick # 1 

Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

Length: ~ 464 pages

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Heat level: Clean  

Stars: 3.5 Somewhere Between Stars 

Book Summary:

At fourteen, Nick Gautier thinks he knows everything about the world around him. Streetwise, tough and savvy, his quick sarcasm is the stuff of legends. . .until the night when his best friends try to kill him. Saved by a mysterious warrior who has more fighting skills than Chuck Norris, Nick is sucked into the realm of the Dark-Hunters: immortal vampire slayers who risk everything to save humanity. Nick quickly learns that the human world is only a veil for a much larger and more dangerous one: a world where the captain of the football team is a werewolf and the girl he has a crush on goes out at night to stake the undead. But before he can even learn the rules of this new world, his fellow students are turning into flesh eating zombies. And he's next on the menu. As if starting high school isn't hard enough. . . now Nick has to hide his new friends from his mom, his chainsaw from the principal, and keep the zombies and the demon Simi from eating his brains, all without getting grounded or suspended. How in the world is he supposed to do that?

Review:

We liked the premise and really liked Nick's voice from the beginning. But there were quite a few info dumps, most specifically for characters and what they looked like, which is a deterrent. Have to admit by about 3/4 of the way through the book we were so tired of the fact that almost every single female described in the book was drop dead gorgeous or the like. Rubbed us the wrong way so much that it felt like the text was objectifying women, even if that wasn't the intent. We did like the world building and enjoyed the references to the setting. Although with this being New Orleans we would've liked a more consistent feel of this through the dialogue, plus we were surprised when beignets were mentioned quite a ways into the book. If it's such a prominent setting we gotta know it early on. The other thing that really bothered us was the some of the internal monologue and dialogue of Nick. When you're a teenager you don't ever refer to yourself as such, or reference the angst or whininess. It just is. Can't think of a single teenager that we know right now who has resisted the urge to be "angsty" or "whiny". They may decide to not be grumpy, or to keep their mouth shut and not be snarky, but yeah using those terms gave the novel an artificial feel and brought us out of the narrative. Essentially, there was some good stuff we liked, and we're going to finish this series and probably the Dark-Hunter one after this, but there were some things that prevented this from being an "Oh My Gosh WOW! You have to read this book".

That's it from the flock! 

 

Peacock Flock Book Review #16

Peacock Flock Book Review #16

The Mine 
Author: John A. Heldt

Length: ~ 281 pages

Genre: Science Fiction

Heat level: Clean (scene or two "off screen") 

Stars: 4 Stupendous Purple Stars 

Book Summary:
In 2000, Joel Smith is a cocky, adventurous young man who sees the world as his playground. But when the college senior, days from graduation, enters an abandoned Montana mine, he discovers the price of reckless curiosity. He emerges in May 1941 with a cell phone he can't use, money he can't spend, and little but his wits to guide his way. Stuck in the age of Whirlaway, swing dancing, and a peacetime draft, Joel begins a new life as the nation drifts toward war. With the help of his 21-year-old trailblazing grandmother and her friends, he finds his place in a world he knew only from movies and books. But when an opportunity comes to return to the present, Joel must decide whether to leave his new love in the past or choose a course that will alter their lives forever. THE MINE follows a humbled man through a critical time in history as he adjusts to new surroundings and wrestles with the knowledge of things to come.

Review:

We were quite surprised but happy at the level of skill this book was written with. There were a numbers of times where the prose delighted us so much we laughed out loud and read and reread certain passages just because they were written so well. There's a comparison involving hell that was so good and unexpected that we read it out loud to a number of our friends and family. We won't spoil it for you, you'll have to read the book to get the reference but it was a such an excellent phrase we wished we'd written it. All of the characters were well developed and we quite liked following along in Joel's wake. It's a great premise with, what do you do if you're transported into a time on the threshold of the Pearl Harbor disaster? We would have preferred it to be a little bit harder for Joel to find a way to get home. Considering the fact that there aren't a whole lot of plot twists available when the main character is stuck in another time -- the climax and biggest problem is obviously getting back, and if he can go back whether or not he does go--. All in all though a great book, one we will be reading again! :D

That's it from the flock! 

 

I'm Not Dead, I Just Haven't Been Blogging. Here's Why:

So this blog pettered on the edge of a precipice at the beginning of July and fell to what could've been it's death. Thankfully it survived the fall, and is now being revived back to life.

The reason why there has been absolute blog silence for over a month? I am currently 13 weeks pregnant. Enough said.

I am ecstatic to be pregnant again, this new little one is due Feb 2013. Making the difference between my two children almost exactly 3 years as my son was born in March of 2010. I was hardly sick at all with my first pregnancy and so when this time around I was unexpectedly laid up most days for a month, many things fell by the way side. Blogging being one of them.

Now that I am finally starting to feel like myself again I'll be back. :D It will take me a few weeks to get back in the swing of things and to once more write some blog posts in advance but I will get there eventually.

To all my wonderful and faithful readers, thank you for sticking with me. You'll be hearing my thoughts, ideas, opinions, and day to day doings of life again soon. :P

To all those amazing authors who have requested book reviews. I know you haven't even received emails explaining why it has taken me so long to reply. I apologize. I am slowly going to go through the list and will respond to the requests as I received them. I'm sorry also to those authors that were supposed to have reviews posted in July and they weren't, they will be up soon.

On a different note, my husband and I won't be finding out what we're having, we enjoy the surprise. We also choose three names for each sex and then decide which name once we've seen the baby. For those who are also pregnant: One of my favourite internet sites is BabyCenter. They have a great "my baby this week" feature sending out weekly emails, and so many articles the amount of information is staggering. I also use the iPregnancy app on my iPhone. It's got a countdown centre, more info and a place to keep track of all my doctor's appointments.

For any pregnant woman who is high risk or simply wants to learn more, feel free to contact me. I am considered a high risk pregnancy because I had a pulmonary embolism in 2007. Essentially it was a blood clot in my lung. As a regular pregnant woman is 3-4 times more likely to develop blood clots than a woman who is not pregnant, it is something your doctor will watch for. Because I have had a serious blood clot in the past, my risk is significantly higher. I will be going on blood thinners as a preventative while pregnant and most especially for 6 weeks following birth as that is when the risk is highest for blood clots to develop. The blood thinners involve me giving myself a shot once or twice a day. I have only met one other woman who also has to do this. But I definitely wanted to put this on here because if anyone needs some support I am here, and also to make women aware that pregnancy is different for so many woman. I just happen to be more in the minority, but that is ok. :D

Here's to being pregnant (cause even though I've been sick I'm still so excited!)
And to blogging again! I'm very happy to be back. Yay!

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Cheers! :D