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BookInspector (124 KP) rated Aaru in Books

Sep 24, 2020  
Aaru
Aaru
David Meredith | 2017 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
For more reviews please visit https://bbookinspector.wordpress.com

I do like to read YA books, so when I was offered this book by the author, I didn’t need time to think about it. This book is FREE, for Kindle Unlimited members, so grab it while you can !!!

The blurb above is quite accurate, Rose is dying, and after scan of her brain, followed by her death, she wakes up in this wonderful place, called Aaru. It is a system, which allows the essence of people to carry on living. After seeing Aaru for herself, Rose’s sister Koren, agrees to represent Elysian Industries as their spokes person. All this ground breaking discovery makes Koren an overnight celebrity and attracts a crazy stalker, who starts messing up Koren’s life and Aaru.

I really liked the characters chosen for this book. I think they were very interesting, complex, believable and really entertaining. The whole book was told from Rose’s, Koren’s and Magic Man’s perspectives, and it helped to understand the characters really well. It was very interesting for me, to read the parts, where Rose was describing Aaru, it was so magical. However, Koren was my favourite in this book. I loved her intelligence, strength, and strong sisterly love and bonding.

I liked the plot of this book, I think that different perspectives keeps the reader interested and turns in the narrative created more intrigue. However I was missing the power in this book. There was plenty of things happening in real and Aaru’s worlds, but I needed more heroism, challenge and suspense. I really enjoyed the topics, which David Meredith was discussing in this book: death and afterlife; how death influence different people; fame and it’s dangers; strange and disturbed people on the Internet.

The writing style of this book was creative and pleasant to read. However, I received a file of the book, where one paragraph was stretched out into one page by large gaps between the sentences, that made my reading experience really difficult. For this reason I can not comment on the length of the chapters as for me it dragged sometimes, and I truly hope it won't happen in the next books. The ending of the book rounded up the first part really nicely and left me intrigued and curious, of what author will bring in part 2. So to conclude, this book is a really interesting and amusing read if you are interested in YA books and computers. It has great variety of diverse, riveting characters and great plot, and I hope you will give this book a go and will enjoy this wonderful system called Aaru.

Was given this book by author for honest review.
  
Deviant Warrior (Dark Warrior Alliance #5)
Deviant Warrior (Dark Warrior Alliance #5)
Brenda Trim, Tami Julka | 2017 | Paranormal, Romance
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
133 of 250
Kindle
Deviant Warrior ( Dark warrior Alliance book 5)
By Brenda Trim and Tami Julka

Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments

Of all the Dark Warriors, Kyran Tarakesh is the most aberrant. Having witnessed the brutal murder and rape of his mother seven centuries ago, his sexual preferences are twisted and perverse. He walks the razors edge of control and he likes it that way, until he loses that balance and accidentally kills one of his lovers. As second in line to the Vampire throne, he is precariously close to losing his position, not to mention the respect of his brother and fellow warriors. Just when he thinks it can't get any worse, the Goddess proves him wrong. With her wicked sense of humor, the Goddess catapults him to the dragon realm of Khoth with Mackendra Callaghan, the very human he has been lusting about for months since meeting her. Mackendra not only plunges a knife deep into his heart, she flees and fights him at every turn, inflaming his desires. The surprises keep coming when he discovers she is his Fated Mate. Every belief he has ever had about intimacy is called into question when his mate gives him a taste of true pleasure for the first time. The passion that burns between them is hot enough to burn them to cinders, but he still must dispel her prejudices about vampires and break through her barriers or lose the other half of his soul forever. Mackendra is the leader of a vigilante group that hunts and kills vampires. Sarcasm, snark and weapons of titanium are the tools of her trade, and have shielded her hardened heart. When she is rescued from her burning house by a sexy stranger, she is propelled into an unfamiliar world. Her savior turns out to be a vampire of all things, and she doesn't take kindly to being stranded with the blood-sucker, much less teaming up with him in order to return to earth. She can handle her intense sexual attraction to him, but is terrified when it turns into emotional bonding. Her greatest problem is that she doesn't know how to let go of her past to accept her future. Will she rescue the blood-sucker that is slowly winning her heart or hold fast to her mission to eliminate all vampires?


Pretty much what I have come to expect from this series now although this one had more creature and Dragons I love Dragons!! It was a nice read and would recommend it. I t always amuses me how they get flung into an unknown dimension and still find to get hot and heavy while trying to get home and escape Ogres 😂😂😂
Was a 3.5 out 5!
  
The Darkslayer: Wrath of the Royals
The Darkslayer: Wrath of the Royals
Craig Halloran | 2013 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Layered story but still true to itself (0 more)
Some bad phrasing (0 more)
Strong debut novel, deeper than expected
Wrath of the Royals, the first in the 16 book Darkslayer series following Venir, the Darkslayer (an axe-wielding barbarian) and his companion Melagal (the cowardly "rogue") as they run from the titular wrath of one of the royal families. Venir tends to get himself into bets, as alpha male types just seem attracted to him, and one such bet ends him in the bad books with one of the most powerful, and twisted, royal families.
This leads to the pair going on the run to escape the inevitable wrath. However, little do they know that the Underlings (those twisted, evil humanoids Venir is driven to hunt) are after Venir from different angles - one due to his relentless genocide of their race, and another due to being hired to hunt him down by the royals.
On the surface, I expected this to be a basic sword and sorcery tale; the barbarian wandering the wilds hacking down the Underlings. I was pleasantly surprised to find a fairly well told tale with different layers and a more intricate plot than I had expected.
Halloran's prose is decent, with a good knack for getting the balance between over-narration and concise descriptions. There is enough description of the world without it being laboured. There are some odd choices for phrases or wording here or there (eg "Impending pain was on its way"), and the book could do with a decent thorough edit, but for a first book it is a good effort.
The world of Bish turns out to be something of an experiment on the part of a God, seeing if she can design a world that will remain in permanent conflict for eternity, good and evil constantly vying but neither side ever truly winning. While this could be seen as literally setting up for "deus ex machina" whenever the author chooses, this didn't really come to the fore in this book.
Venir is a reasonably well-crafted character, albeit a stupid brute and something like Logen Ninefingers from Joe Abercrombie's First Law (when he puts on his magical helmet (yes I know!) he becomes more driven to destruction, somewhat akin to the emergence of The Bloody Nine). Numerous times he just gets up in the night and wanders off searching for the conflict he has sensed, the helmet guiding him onwards. But his actions play well off those of his travelling companions, which has now become something like the fellowship of the ring, but without a ring.
The book ends with an extended epilogue giving an idea of Venir's life before he found his magical axe, shield and mind-controlling helmet.
A good self-contained book, which concludes well and could be read on its own, without continuing the series, though I plan to (ideally before my Kindle Unlimited period runs out!).
  
You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)
You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)
Felicia Day | 2016 | Biography
10
9.0 (12 Ratings)
Book Rating
Maybe you picked this up because you watched Buffy that one time and wanted to know what that red-headed chick who wasn't Willow was all about… or more likely, you are a fan of one of her many endeavors (and why shouldn’t you be?). She is a super-hardworking person who seems to be doing what she loves, and in my humble opinion, completely killing it. She shares her awkwardness and how even she fangirls when meeting famous people she loves.

How can I describe this book? Imagine talking to your best friend about everything in your life: your childhood, your hopes and fears, and most importantly all things geeky (comics, video games, and the internet). That is how I felt when I was reading this book. Yes, I was a fan of Felicia’s already but reading this book felt more like talking to your best friend than some impersonal narrative that you just picked up off the shelf at random. Felicia is witty, funny, and down to earth. (A bit neurotic, her words, but we still love her for it.) Her candor is endearing and makes the book incredibly relatable. Her love of video games, comics, crafting and just the simple art of creating definitely speaks to her readers (I know I definitely relate). Plus, the pictures peppered throughout are just adorable.

She took her life into her own hands and with an incredible amount of hard work, created Geek & Sundry. She filled the book with her life and quite a few really good pieces of advice (as well as motivational phrases). As I sit here in my exploding TARDIS skirt (thank you mom for helping me make it), embracing my quirkiness and inner geek, I hope Felicia would be proud. I hope that people are inspired by her book, like I am inspired and take a chance. Do what they love.

Check out all of her projects with Geek & Sundry, as well as past projects like my love Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the show that started it all the Guild and her appearances on Supernatural! And if anyone could get me a signed copy of her book, I would love you forever. I take my book collection very seriously and would love to have this sitting on my shelf (rather than residing digitally in the nethersphere of my kindle.) Random fun fact, one of my exes and I used to sing My Eyes. I, of course, sang Penny’s part (and when I was alone I would also be Dr. Horrible, duh). It was my favourite song from the show and I’m still obsessed with it. I also found it on Sing (karaoke app, I spend too much time on there) just so that I could record it as a duet (and then sing both parts because why not?). Enough about me, go buy her wonderful book immediately and read it.
  
Burying the Honeysuckle Girls
Burying the Honeysuckle Girls
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Althea Bell returns home after (another) stint in rehab to find her father further stricken by Alzheimer's and her older brother--who is running for political office--fully entrenched in the seat of power in the family. Wynn doesn't want Althea and her sketchy past to ruin his chances at political fame and fortune. Even worse, Althea is shocked when she learns that the women in her family have a history of mental illness, which seems to come on around age 30--and Althea is just a few weeks away from her own birthday. Althea's mother passed away at that age, and Althea is determined to discover what happened to her. But doing so will dredge up family secrets that it seems Wynn wants hidden--and he'll do anything to keep Althea from shaming the family name

This won't be a very long review, because I listened to this book on audiobook (technically the audio that comes with my Kindle Unlimited subscription), and I couldn't take any notes or do any highlighting as I listened, as I was in the car. But I do want to point out that this is the *first ever* audiobook that I've ever listened to from start to finish! I'm not very good with verbal listening--even in college lectures, I had to take copious notes to retain the information, and I could just never keep up with audiobooks: my brain always wandered off. But I was commuting a lot for work and gave this one a try. It stuck!

This book felt a little slow in places, but now I'll never know if it was because it was an audiobook or what. I felt bad for Althea, who really seems to have received a bum rap: mother dies when she's a kid, a pretty awful brother, drug addiction, and more. She's a rather compelling narrator, and her family's backstory is interesting. The whole "I'm going to go crazy when I'm 30" thing seemed a little overblown and histrionic at times--seriously, you can't truly think the moment you turn 30, everything changes. But, I still found myself caught up in Althea's story, and I really loved hearing about her grandmother and her own struggles in the '30s. There were pieces of this book that were really touching and heartbreaking and the last half, especially, really got to me.

Overall, it was fun to explore an audiobook. It sure made my two-hour (each way) commute more palatable, and I found myself fascinated that one-person could do the voices of so many people. I found this story pretty compelling and liked the fact that it spanned several generations. The points it made about mental illness--especially the way women were treated in the past (and even now, really)--were very illuminating and well-done. 3.5 stars.
  
DG
Destiny Gift (Everlast, #1)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I'll admit first and foremost that just because I had to swap review dates with The Iron Traitor a few weeks ago, does not mean that I wanted to toss Destiny Gift right out the window and into the ocean. I almost lost part of my notes with the assumption that my Kindle was broken while in perfect condition when it really just needed charging.

      Marking in ebooks is the only way not to get in severe trouble. x) I pity my poor planner with the chickenly scribbles of doom.

      Destiny Gift is actually a really interesting book, being set in a futuristic (though not so far from today I'm assuming) New York with a hint (okay, more like a lot) of mythology – hooray! – and fantasy – double hooray! – mixed in. So much is made clearer about halfway through the book, but Haygert manages to keep us in suspense and not confuse readers in the process, which basically shows that the author has great writing potential – and hopefully a very successful writing career too!

      The idea behind the Destiny Gift is also pretty intriguing, so let me toss some basic word math in: Visions + Made Up Mythology (Because then one has full control of making of legends. So much fun.) + Other Goody Elements = Cooking Up A Pretty/Really Good Story.

      I hope that sums up my entire thoughts in a nutshell of good old math. No Algebra needed (YES). But I'm not exactly finished, because I still need to talk about the characters, and having no clue about the characters is pretty much a book losing an arm or leg (ouch).

      Victor and Micah, the lovely guys one can go swoon over if they so choose – but no thanks. I'm focusing on good old days of Finals – seemed to be too perfect. Well, I take that back. They're not perfect. They just seem too perfect in looks. Not that I mind.

      I also like Micah's humor. Victor seems more of a "I'm a poisonous snake. You know, red on yellow. Stay away if you want to live." type of person. Not exactly the most pleasant image, since this is the snake I'm talking about:
<img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YI9vO_3_YLQ/UqYxHxURzOI/AAAAAAAACIo/L09fY3iu8Ic/s1600/thCAIAE0RF.jpg"; />
     Freaking out? It's not the actual poisonous one. I didn't really want to... "poison" my blog with snakes you know. :p

      I was sort of thinking about Biology at the time the review was written.

      I suppose it isn't a terrible comparison. Why? I'm not giving spoilers....
<blockquote>"All right, let's change the question. What* are you three?"
 "Power Rangers, ever heard of them?"</blockquote>
--------------------
Review copy provided by author for review
Original Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Owls
This review and more can be found at <a href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/2013/12/review-destiny-gift-by-juliana-haygert.html">Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Gi5Rk5yLloA/UtliaUbdL3I/AAAAAAAACbE/J27z92_qrYU/s1600/Official+Banner.png"; />