Apr 13, 2019

#AscendantRevolution #NetGalley

#AscendantRevolution #NetGalley

 
Title: Ascendant Unrest
Author: Matthew S. Cox
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Publish Day: July 24, 2018
Two weeks after Maya tried to change the world, little has changed. Little, except for a nine-year-old’s building fear that her ex-mother’s revenge waits around every corner.

When her face appeared on every still-working video monitor along the Eastern Seaboard, streaming her plea and her evidence all over the planet, she thought they’d won, but her fairy tale dream died. The Authority did not become noble overnight, no longer simple thugs for Ascendant. Her ex-mother did not face punishment for her crimes. The lack of any retribution, or even any effort on the part of the Brigade to hide her, only fans the flames of her worry.

To make matters worse, her best friend Sarah is hiding a painful secret.

Maya’s fears come to fruition in the middle of the night. In a hail of gunfire, she flees into the dangerous streets of the Habitation District, rife with dosers, street gangs, corrupt Authority officers, chased by an unknown enemy worse than Ascendant.

They don’t want to kidnap her―they want her dead.

Review: This is a sequel — the first is called Heir Ascendant . The cover that is for the official book is prettier .. I know we don’t read for pretty covers but it is different than the one on Netgalley.

Ch.1

“Unease had moved into Baltimore Habitation District. It became the awkward neighbor lurking in every shadow, acknowledged by cautious vigilance and knowing glances among the locals, but never challenged aloud.”

Good read, interesting post-world focused on Maya. The only thing I have negative to say is…kidnapping? Again? Whhyy? Lol. Otherwise, good story.

This is available as an eBook on Amazon — can buy or read through Kindle Unlimited. I was able to download through Netgalley freely in exchange for free review. Thanks

May 13, 2018

#SundayQuestions: What are your top 5 reads for 2018 so far?





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  1. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor - Absolutely enjoyed this book. Finally braved up and reviewed it. Enjoyed it a lot didn't want to make a mess of the review for it. 
  2. Daddy Darkest by Ellery A. Kane. This book was a trip from the first page to the last. It's entertaining, fast pace, and frustrating read. 
  3. Heir Ascendant by Matthew S. Cox. Genetically perfected nine year old vs. her power hungry/controlling mother. She finds a new mother ...through a bizarre circumstance.
  4. The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie. Lesbian/bi (idk no labels given) teenager who trains sea monsters to fight pirates. 
  5. Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout. A YA romance where the male love interest is aggressive but not in a "run girl he's an abuser" way. 


What are your top 5 books for 2018 so far?






















Questions from paperfury.com



If you want to read more of my #Questions Posts:

You can click the nonfiction tag on the right hand of the spoonsnbooks.com or simply search 


Mar 11, 2018

Heir Ascendant - Matthew S. Cox - Review

“I’m thin because I was made that way. 
Vanessa thinks it looks better in the ads.”
This was originally downloaded through Netgalley for an honest review. But then, I saw it was on Kindle Unlimited and did it that way so I could have it on all my devices to read.

 So, I have a forever copy from Netgalley and copy that I returned last night when I finished the book. It's no longer downloadable through Netgalley as it has been archived.

It's $4.99 to buy the ebook outright on Amazon --

This post will contain spoilers because I honestly don't know how to shut up.


 I enjoyed this enough to "livetweet" the book as I read it. I'm Glitchyspoons on Twitter

Score:  4 out of 5

First sentence: Discarded wrappers littered the slate-grey countertop, rustling as small hands added one more to the pile.

Summary: Maya is a nine year old Rapunzel who is trapped inside her tower by her evil biological mother. Which is very original Grimm Fairy tale of this story before parents complained and everyone acquired evil stepparents. Instead of hair and a prince she's abducted by a rough group who intend on using her to acquire a ransom or medication for the killer illness called Fade. Through her wits and determination she rescues herself while obtaining a replacement mother and causes a revolt.


Five little numbers stood between her and freedom.

She's a genetically engineered child created by a woman who has no motherly instincts. She's a prop for her mother's pharmaceutical company.

Topics in this book: Sexualizing a child to advertise medication, pedophilia, the threat of assault or sexual assault, PTSD and poverty. I'm sure there is more but this is what I can remember.

Advertisements: She wears clothes that are more for adult than child

Pedophilia is discussed after the fact due to Sarah who something happened with her and the landlord. Maya & Sarah take him down under the assumption he's the one who called the blueberries on her and got Genna taken away.

“You tell me everything that happened, okay? It’s not your fault." in regards to her encounter with the guy. Every book and people need this in their stuff until we're no longer having to deal with people blaming victims. 

Recommend? If you don't mind a patchwork of a story with the protagonist being a genetically modified nine-year old then yes. In the acknowledgement talks about how this was originally a short story and when you're reading you can tell it's been stretched. But the acknowledgement seems to help confirm this. It feels like maybe three main things were wanting to be addressed with this and used journeying across places to fill in the gaps between them. Which isn't bad in itself but the story works and flows well when Maya & Genna are together.

I enjoyed it enough that I "livetweeted" my journey through the book. I'm Glitchyspoons on Twitter.  Something I read about by this author. It felt weird and I was kind of worried of getting notified to stop because I was quoting the book a lot.

Some favorite Quotes:


“I’m thin because I was made that way. Vanessa thinks it looks better in the ads.”



“The Authority let you take me because one of your friends is either an undercover or an informant.”


"He hauled her out the door, carrying her like a briefcase made of person."



Maya lifted the sandwich to her mouth, and hesitated. “This is cheese?”


 He winced. “Sorry kid, just tryin’ to be funny.” “Keep trying,” mumbled Maya.

“I’m sorry for interrupting your shooting Dave in the head,” said Maya, “but I left something in the kitchen. Can I please get it?”


Jan 27, 2018

3 Books I'm In -

Spoilers

3 Books I'm Currently Reading...

Daddy Darkest

Purchase
Daddy Darkest started off with this, "I wish my first plane ride had ended in a crash. first line of story". I downloaded this through Netgalley to read. It's already out and ready to be read. It came out in June of last year.

Currently, Amazon has the ebook listed as 99 cents.  It moves from the past and present. The past is things about the girls mom and the future are the incidents that are happening to her daughter.

The way it is set up you are aware of when you're time jumping which is nice.

I'm 30% in this book and so far enjoying every moment of the story. It's bizarre and interesting enough.

I will say that for sexual assault it is possibly triggering. The mother in the story thinks about the time she was molested by her best friends father. She works in a prison and there are suggestive stuff that occurs by an inmate that doesn't like her.

The beginning of this book annoyed me with the whole must wait 48 hours to do a report. The daughter, at first doesn't want to tell her mother that her friend has gone missing,etc. I was frustrated because it's a myth (apparently not in Michigan but most places) that you have to wait x-amount of time before filing a missing persons. I wanted to throw the book when she was talking about not wanting to tell her mom.

"Here. Take my card. If you haven't heard from her in forty-eight hours, we can file a missing person's report. In the meantime, I'll take a walk up to the bathroom and see what I see okay?"
"Forty-eight hours?" Our flight home left in less.

"I nodded, hoping my face didn’t give it away. No chance in hell I planned on telling my mom about any of this. Not yet anyway. She’d already responded to my I’m-fine-and-will-call-when-I-get-to-the-hotel text with three unanswered calls. I pocketed Officer Guthrey’s card and left the security desk. Still Ginny-less."

But these things are handled later on. She tells how the police didn't believe that her friend was missing. She calls and tells her mom that her friend is missing.

“Mom?” Now seemed as bad a time as any to tell her. “I can’t find Ginny.”“You what?”“We got off the plane, and she went to the restroom. It sounds insane, but she never came out. I told the police, and they didn’t—”

My prediction for this: The daughter is Cutthroats daughter & Levi is Dumas son. Don't tell me if I'm right or wrong though. Since this is book one we get only some of the answers to the questions before spinning onward to something else.

The sequel comes out April 1st of this year. Resisted reading the summary. Oh lord.



Heir Ascendant

 This story begins with, "Discarded wrappers littered the slate-grey counter top, rustling as small hands added one more to the pile."
Purchase

Heir Ascendant is another book I picked up from Netgalley that is already published. It came out on October 5, 2017. It's free through Kindle Unlimited and $4.99 to buy out right.

I'm 30% in this as well. It starts off kind of iffy but then things escalate fast and change of scenery and pace.

Maya, a CEOs daughter was abducted by people outside the sanctuary zone or whatever it's called. They aren't friendly, they want to use her for money and to get medication. Medication is for people to be cured or help from what they call Fade. There isn't so far a lengthy discussion on this but if you get it you die. 


"Headcrash screamed and put a hand on his sidearm. He stared at Maya and babbled, spittle flying. She gave him an innocent face while gnawing on the candy, figuring he’d finally realized she’d been close enough to grab his gun but hadn’t."

When things change I feared that we were going to go round and round with the same thing. Characters are paranoid, argue, throw each other. Except things... end up deadly for some of these paranoid folk.

They are all paranoid and getting bested by a 9 year old. Calm down y'all.

Maya's abductor, Genna, becomes her replacement mother. Her actual mother is not motherly she has more concern for making money and controlling things as boss. A very terrible person who shouldn't be allowed to have kids but I'm not in charge for that -- especially -- in a book I didn't write. 


She wiped tears from her cheeks. “Does Genna live here?” He nodded. “Then I am home. ..."

How to Save an Undead Life

 First sentence: "I jolted awake sitting on the hardwood floor in my bedroom with my back wedged into a corner."
Purchase
This is not a Netgalley read. I saw the ads on Facebook and was won over to start reading it. Yes, sometimes ads work on me and I'm totally fine with that.

This is SUPER descriptive with things but it's fun to read so far. I'm not that far into it but I am loving it.

Can a haunted house pitch a hissy fit? Yes. Yes, it can. 

A haunted house in this story and she's kind of friends with the house? Why yes I am signing up for this.

Spring had arrived a week ago, tossing clouds of yellow pollen like confetti at its own welcome back party, but the night air still held a bite even if the daytime temps caused me to break a sweat. 

Example of the super descriptive the story has and it works. It's free through Kindle Unlimited which is how I am reading it. It's $3.99 to buy and keep it.

Summary on Amazon: 

The Beginner's Guide to Necromancy, Book 1

Grier Woolworth spends her nights weaving spooky tales of lost souls and tragedies for tourists on the streets of downtown Savannah. Hoop skirt and parasol aside, it's not a bad gig. The pay is crap, but the tips keep the lights on in her personal haunted mansion and her pantry stocked with ramen.

Life is about as normal as it gets for an ex-necromancer hiding among humans. Until the society that excommunicated Grier offers her a second chance at being more than ordinary. Too bad no one warned her the trouble with being extraordinary is it can get you killed.

Warning: This book contains one ex-con heiress with a pet zombie parakeet who lives next door to her ex-army crush. Brace yourselves, we're talking more exes than a pirate treasure map here.