Quite a Marvel

 The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton

Ella is the first Conjuror to be accepted at the Arcanum Training Institute, a school for Marvellers.  She is excited and nervous.  Will she be accepted by the other students?  By the teachers?  Will she make friends?  Along with the regular perils of growing up and of being different, Ella finds out there are plots, schemes and evil afoot in the Institute.  With the help of her new friend Ella must find out what is going on.

This is fine if you like magical coming of age stories.  There are some moments that were fun, but I was rather unimpressed by the story as a whole.  I felt lost at times because ideas were not explained very well.  The beginning of the story is rather slow.  But my main complaint is that nothing feels new, or original.  I feel like I have heard this story before. It was a not unpleasant, but I never felt excited or engaged.  I have no desire to read the next books in this series. 

I got a free copy of this book from Bookishfirst.com.  

Where's me pot of gold?

 The Golden One by W.T. Kosmos

The Lumberjack Leprechauns have been felling trees for years, looking for a pot of gold.  But when the first democratic election results in deforestation regulations the Leprechauns hold a costume contest to find the next golden leader and get back to cutting trees.

This is a one act play.  It is goofy nonsense with a message.  It is nice and short which in this case is a good thing.  I think if it had been any longer, I would have lost interest.  It is funny and silly, but it does make you think.  I don't think this is going to change the world, but it might make some people think about who they are following and why.  And maybe plant a couple of trees.  If you are a fan of satire (or just like leprechauns) you should give it a try.

I got a free copy of this book for Librarything.com Early Reviews.

Beware the Beast

 In The Lair of Legends by David Buzan

Jolon Winterhawk is a Native American in the US Cavalry during the Civil War.  Every day is a struggle, as he tries to honor dual allegiances, to the Cavalry and his tribe.  Things get even harder when he is the only survivor when someone tries to steal a gold shipment he was transporting.  As he tries to get himself and the gold out of the wilderness, he comes face to face with a horrifying monster straight out of legend.

    

This book is nonstop action.  Right from the start there are explosions, gun fights, and escapes, some of them improbable but all of it exciting.  I like the idea of seeing Winterhawk's struggle between his two loyalties and with the prejudice against him.  Winterhawk is a very interesting character.  There are a few things here that I was not a fan of, however.  Buzan has a lot of sentences end in the middle, I understand the point, but I don't like it myself.  There is also a lot of technical gun information that seems excessive.  But the thing that I found most disappointing was the monster part of the story.  That was actually what attracted me to the book in the first place, but it felt out of place here. Whenever he shows up it feels it is outside of the rest of the story and has nothing to do with anything else.  I feel it would have been a better story without it.

I got a free copy of this book from Librarything.com, Early Reviewers.

Who Doesn't Like a Good Tort?

 

Send in the Tort Lawyers by T.C. Morrison

Where do you go when you find out your Belgian chocolates were not made in Belgium?  Or, despite what the adds say, the milk your ice cream is made from is not from happy cows?  You go to Pap and Pup, of course.  Twin brothers and the lawyers who will get you what you deserve.  As long as they think they can come up with a winning class action lawsuit that is.

Send in the Tort Lawyers is a farce that does not try to be subtle.  It can feel like you are being beat over the head with the puns sometimes.  But I did enjoy reading it.  It kept me amused and entertained throughout the entire novel.  There were people with names like Faith Heeler and Holly Woods and law firms with names like Fine and Dandy, but if that does not put you off then this is a book for you.  I can't really say there was a plot exactly, just an account of several of the cases that the law firm was handling (and some of the courtroom transcripts went on a little long for me) but I feel the book came to a satisfying ending.  Enough so that I am interested in reading the others in the series.

 I got a free copy of this book from Librarything.com, Early Reviewers.

Gwen, I Am Your Father

 An Otherwise Perfect Plan by Ken Schafer

Gwen Pendergrass has never met her father.  Her mother will not tell her much.  But when events in her life convince her to search for him, Gwen is determined.  With only a photo booth photo strip she sets out on an adventure to find her father.  

A coming-of-age story about a child looking for the father they never knew may not sound like the most original idea.  But there are enough unexpected incidents, so it does not feel like it has all been done before.  Some of those incidents are improbable, but not so outrageous that you can't believe them if you try.  It was not uninteresting to see all of Gwen's well-intentioned plans come to ruin and sometimes she was witty, but I had trouble connecting to this story.  My main problem is that I found Gwen annoying.  With all of her stream of consciousness and constant babbling and going off on long tangents that had nothing to do with the story I had trouble paying attention to her.  By the end, I will admit, I was interested and wanted to know how it would all work out.  But that didn't happen until I was three quarters of the way though the book.  I'm sure some people can relate to Gwen, some people will find her endearing.  Unfortunately, I am not one of those people.  

I got a free copy of this book from Librarything.com, Early Reviewers.

Fixing the roof is not the same as keeping the lid on

Mercury by Amy Jo Burns

In 1990 Seventeen-year-old Marley West pulls into town with her mother.  It has always just been the two of them, but then Marley meets the Joseph brothers, the local roofers, and their lives become intertwined in ways Marley could not foresee.  Soon it seems like the whole Joseph family revolves around Marley.  But the past doesn't die and secrets will out.  Can the family survive the turmoil of old wounds, the chaos of new ones, and the uncertainty of eerie discoveries?

The book starts out with a bang.  There is mystery and murder and the promise of old secrets coming to light.  But then it slows down, a lot.  It took me a while to get interested in the characters here.  But once I did, I was caught.  From the way the book began it was not what I expected.  I thought it was going to be more of a mystery, but it a character driven story about family.  All the parts of being a family, the good, the bad and the ugly.  It is heartbreaking at times and sometimes you want to smack some of the characters, but that's what good writing is all about.  You care enough about the characters to be mad at them, or happy for them, or worry for them.  The story follows the Joseph family through many changes as they try to deal with each other in a whirlwind of love, hate and hurt.  I like the way Burns uses Marley's appearance to show the family from the outside, both to the reader and to the family, so you can see the big picture.  I like how at the end you got to see a little from each person's perspective.  In the end I enjoyed the story a great deal, but after the lighting quick beginning the story took a little while to pick back up for me.  

I got a free copy of this book from Bookish First.