A Job From Hell

Title: A Job From Hell
Series: Ancient Legends #1
Author: Jayde Scott
Pages: 374 (ebook)
Published: May 11th 2011
Published by: Aurora Press

The moment Amber starts her summer job in Scotland and sets eyes upon Aidan, her fate is sealed. Summoned by an ancient bond, she can never love another. Lost in the woods one night Amber enters Aidan's deadly world when she unknowingly participates in a paranormal race and promptly wins the first prize...a prize worth killing for.

In a world of forbidden love, ancient enemies, legends and rituals, nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted. Life will never be the same again, unless she enters the Otherworld. But to do so, Amber must die...

We join Amber just as she arrives in Scotland to begin a job as a housekeeper. A job she is totally unqualified for and she's pretty sure she only got because her brother, Dallas, lied on the application form. Queue her meeting a series of stunning attractive individuals *ahem* vampires *ahem*, including her employer Aiden. Oh, what are the chances! She soon finds herself to be awful at her job, but instead accidentally wins a prize which puts her in danger from the entire paranormal world. Apparently.

We don't really see this...at all. Most of the danger she ends up in seems to stem more from the fact that she's involved with Aiden.

Gah.

There are so many things that annoy me about this book. So I'm not going to go into it too much, otherwise it'll just turn into a rant.

It has all the cliches of a paranormal romance, and all the characters are quite flat. The lead - Amber - is supposed to be all strong-willed and adjusts to the idea of vampires/demons etc. very quickly, yet gets talked into stealing some jewels in about 30 seconds flat. She can't make up her mind about Aiden (gorgeous vampire cliche - check!) and seems to go from absolutely-hating-him-and-she's-going-to-leave-and-she-never-wants-to-see-him-again-and-she-just-wants-to-have-her-old-life-back to letting him kiss her and melting into it (kissing cliche - check!), also in about 30 seconds flat. And this happens about 12 times. Then she has periodic weird moments when she's all like SASS! which don't really fit with the way she acts the rest of the time.

Then, the editing wasn't great; Amber's brother's name is Dallas; the author, character and book settings are all British yet American words for stuff (diapers, college instead of university, parking lot) kept appearing; Amber's parents are all like "yeah 17-year-old daughter, totally go live in Scotland for two months. We're not even going to make sure you get there ok or anything!"; and there were quite a few plot holes/inconsistencies in regards to the special abilities of the vampires.

There are a couple of saving graces in this book, in that some of the secondary characters are quite interesting (namely Cass, and I think Blake has the potential to be an interesting character, or an interesting device at the very least) and there are a couple of funny moments.

I got this book because it had been recommended to me loads, and was free. I don't really understand all the rave reviews, and wish it hadn't been free so I wouldn't have been persuaded to get, and therefore read, it.

Son of Ereubus

Title: Son of Ereubus
Series: Guardians of Legend #1
Author: J.S. Chancellor
Pages: 310 (ebook)
Published: October 21st 2010
Published by: Rhemalda Publishing

Since time immemorial, Man has lived in fear of losing his soul to the darkness of Saint Ereubus. For generations, the Ereubinians have wielded that power and ruled like gods. Three thousand years ago, Man irresolutely placed his faith in a mythical world. That world, Adoria, now holds Man's final hope. As the last stronghold of Man is threatened, the fates of three strangers become forever intertwined and everything they once believed will be irrevocably changed as they discover... Their time has run out.

This book confused me. In so many ways. For the first, like, third I had no idea what was going on. You're thrown into this world without any explanations for anything, and this annoyed the hell out of me. I think Chancellor was trying to put you in the middle of the action and be all mysterious, but I just ended up confused. I kinda get the feeling she was trying to avoid major info-dumps, but info-dumps are very useful if they're done well. You do get most of the information eventually, but it just would have made the reading a lot easier if it had come a bit sooner.

But then you kinda eventually get to the point where you understand more, and it found its pace and got good. Actually, it got really good for a while in the middle. The end wasn't quite up to the same standard, and I think it finished in quite a weird place, but it was much more readable than the first part of the story. The problem with the ending was that it wasn't really there...the author had just picked some arbitrary point in the story to finish rather than there being an actual sort of ending. It just stopped.

Aside from this, the story is quite good. It's an interesting idea (I think...I'm still a little confused in all honesty) once it gets going, though there's a little too much foreshadowing of things to come without actual events happening. And there are some definite, though I'm not sure whether they were intentional, religious undertones. Winged people (Adorians) fighting forces of darkness who steal the soul; you've got the Adorian (angel) Gabriel, the Archorigon (Archangel) Michael, and Seth makes an appearance too. Maybe it's coincidence, but I don't know.

Even though the idea was good, the writing itself annoyed me at times. I can't quite put my finger on why, but it did. It was just...little inconsistencies in the text and jumps in the narrative made it a bit difficult for me to read at times. Like, when someone was sitting at a table and somehow a guy knelt down in front of her, but then two seconds later was leaning on the wall behind her. I sometimes had to go back and re-read sections to try and work out what was being talked about because it wasn't at all clear.

I liked all the characters. Ariana was strong-willed and I quite liked her sense of humour, although I wasn't such a fan of the relationship between her and her brother, Michael. He in himself was fine, but they fall into the brother/sister relationship awfully easily considering that he's like 30 and she's 21 or something and they didn't know the other existed until a few days/weeks previously. Plus, if you didn't know, a couple of their interactions could quite easily be read as them being lovers rather siblings. He touches her lips to shush her, cradles her to his chest; stuff like that. And towards the end he started calling her 'dear heart'. This is a term of endearment which I abhor, though I have no idea why. So you know, not really a fan of that appearance. I liked Garren's journey, and think the torment of confliction he was going through was well written. The change you see in him between before (though there really isn't a lot of this) and after he meets Ariana is quite significant and very sudden, but you don't really get to see that much of them together which I would have liked more of. I think the change would have made more sense if there was a bit more grounding to it. And I so think some secret's going to come out about Koen...I'm just not entirely sure what.

So now I'm confused as to whether I want to carry on reading the rest of the series. There were good points and bad. I'm just not sure which wins out at this point...

So much confusion!

From Man to Man

Title: From Man to Man

Series: Wroge Elements

Author: D. E. M. Emrys

Pages: 25 (ebook)

Published: October 15th 2012

Published by: Four Branches Publishing

‘I’ve traded my old enemies for just this one…’ The axe thundered home. ‘I miss the old ones.’

Every man has a past, none more so than Draven Reinhardt. Abandoning his old life to settle down as a villager, he struggles to fit in, let alone hold down a job. When opportunity offers the much needed coin, Draven is torn between a promise and a purpose. 

But, what’s one last job if you’ve already got blood on your hands?

‘From Man to Man’ is the story of how one man can change – or not – for the best. Prequel to the upcoming novel ‘It Began With Ashes’, the short (6400 words) story introduces the reader to a world of suspense, intrigue, and action.

I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

This introduction to 'Wroge Elements' and the writing of D.E.M. Emrys was short, but sweet. While we don't learn much about the world, there are bits and pieces of hints. A mercenary guild. Widespread fighting. Racial tension.

Draven is trying to live an ordinary life, but he can't find a job that fits with his temperament, or rather he can't find a new job having left his old one behind. His thoughts intersperse the text a lot more frequently than most things I've read, but it worked. He isn't a talker and the short, sharp thoughts fit well with the tone of the book as a whole. And he's funny! The book's not at all long, but I found myself rather amused on a number of occasions by the things he thought, and I especially liked the way he compared people to animals.

The writing itself is rather wonderful. The descriptions are imaginative and the some of the ways we are given information is nicely different. There was a couple of times when words or phrases were repeated in close proximity which bothered me a little, and a lot of the characters aren't named, so there are a lot of 'the stranger', 'the blacksmith', 'the herdsman' which I also wasn't really a fan of. It's ok to some extent, but I wasn't a fan of it in general. Of course these are likely to be a matter of personal taste and not exactly the end of the world!

After the short story From Man to Man we are given a preview of the first chapter of It Began With Ashes, the up-coming novella set in the same world. The writing's still great, and we're given a bit more back-story to the history of the world and quite a tantalising ending to the prologue. I'll definitely be on the look out for the release of this book!

Different Seasons

Title: Different Seasons
Author: Stephen King
Pages: 688 (paperback)
Published: November 1st 2007 (first published August 29th 1981)
Published by: Hodder

Each of the four stories, markedly different in tone and subject, present a journey: Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption is a tale of an innocent man who devises an exciting escape from prison; The Apt Pupil is the story of a golden schoolboy and an old man with a hideous past who join in a dreadful union; in The Body, four young boys venture into the woods and find life, death and the end of innocence and The Breathing Method is a macabre story told in a strange club of a woman determined to give birth…no matter what.

This book contains four novellas written by Stephen King: Rita Heyworth and Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, The Body, and The Breathing Method. They are four very different stories (though there are some nice little links between them, as often pop up in King's work) but all well written, and very enjoyable.

Rita Heyworth and Shawshank Redemption is amazing - it's Shawshank! Andy Dufresne is sent to Shawshank Prison for the murder of his wife and her lover. He says he's innocent, but then so do a lot of people in there. We follow his life through his fellow prisoner - and later his friend - Red. The way it was written jumped around a little which I'm not a huge fan of, but makes sense in the medium. It's interesting to see the original and the stories are pretty much the same, though I've got to say I think I prefer the way the ending was reached in the film. This is probably because I saw the film first (and several times) and so in my head that's the way it's 'supposed' to be. And I think I read the whole thing in Morgan Freeman's voice!

Apt Pupil was completely engrossing and quite chilling. A teenage boy unearths a terrible secret about an old man, and his actions drastically change both their lives in the following years. They get enmeshed in this tangled relationship of mistrust that neither can escape because of its very nature. You see the way their relationship impacts them and changes them, and the ultimately disastrous outcome. Wonderful read.

The Body was a bit different. It follows four young boys as they go to look at a body in the woods: Gordy and his friends Toddy, Vern and Chris tell their parents they're going camping in a nearby field, but instead follow the train tracks up to where they've heard the body of a missing kid is. Not  a lot really happens, and I struggled a bit to get into it, but still liked it overall. The interactions of the 12-year-old boys were done well, though maybe it's a generational thing but their language seemed particularly foul for their age.

The Breathing Method was probably the creepiest of the stories in this collection. And the one which leaves the most unanswered. An old man goes to the meeting of his club a couple of days before Christmas and hears - as traditional - a story of the unnatural. We go back and see how he came to be a member of the club and some of the mysteries surrounding it. I found it a little annoying, namely in that tories are begun and never finished, and the mystery surrounding the club is hinted at but never really touched on. I would love for there to be more about this one! Unfortunately, there isn't anything that I can find...

All these books are enjoyable, and most of them wonderful in their own way. A great collection of short stories, and a nudge to me to read more short story collections.