Book Review: 'The Fairest Poison' by Lauren Skidmore

Title: 'The Fairest Poison' 

Series: 'What is Hidden' Book 3 

Author: Lauren Skidmore 

Genre: Fantasy; Fairy Tale Retelling 

Age: Young Adult / Adult

I've really been enjoying the 'What is Hidden' series by Lauren Skidmore.  In the first book, 'What is Hidden', you have a mystery/fantasy retelling of Cinderella; with book two, 'What is Lost,' we were given a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.  And now, with 'The Fairest Poison' we have a Snow White retelling.  The series is all in the same world and does build off one-another so I will try and not give away too major of spoilers if you haven't read the previous two books.

The story follows Bianca whom you met (or will meet) in 'What is Lost' and picks up when she returns home to Venesia after the events of the previous book. Upon coming home, she finds her parents are dangerously (and suspiciously) ill.  Shortly afterwards, attempts are made on her life and her brother, the prince, starts going into over-protective mode. After arguing with her brother, she sets out to find the Chameleon (villain) from book one (who is also the focus of book two, and, no I will not tell you their name) to help them find out who is trying to kill her, and, of course, stop them before it's too late.

Now this is where I will stop telling you the plot-line and tell you what I thought of it. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, but I didn't like it as much as the first two. Everything about book one grabbed my attention and held it.  It had all the right elements of its fairy-tale mixed with a beautiful blend of (light) romance and mystery. Book two, was surrounded with mystery.  Up until the very end, you had more questions than you had answers and, while you might have started to guess the reveal at the end, you still keenly felt the main characters shock.  Here though, that grab-and-hold you mystery isn't there.  Yes, there is a mystery of who is behind the attempts on Bianca's life, but it's just not as engaging as the previous two books.  There is also a measure of insta-love on the side of one character, and eventual reciprocation from the other that just wasn't as well developed as it should have been. I knew going into the book that those two would end up together, but I just didn't feel their connection as well as Evie's (the Cinderella character from the first book) in book one.  I also felt it came about too fast with very little detail given as to why they liked each other.  It was simply there.

So while I enjoyed it, for me, the story was a bit blasé.  However, I do really hope she continues this serious as I'd still love to read more!  I just don't think this was her best.

Confessions of a Library Clerk: eBooks

I have a bit of a confession to make, I used to dislike ebooks. Yes, I know, it's unimaginable.  How could someone not like ebooks?! Well, at the time, (apart from when traveling) I didn't see why someone would want an ebook when they could have a real, in-the-paper book. (Sorry, all you ebook lovers, but while I have now seen the light and must acknowledge that I've now been bitten by the ebook bug,  they will never be able to replace the glorious feeling of having a real hardcover/paperback book in your hands.) However, you will be relieved to know, I have now repented of my ebook blasphemy (so please put your stones away, they will no longer be required). 

What changed my mind? Well, it started when I was given a free copy of 'The Cinder Crown' by D.R. Stokes to read and review (and if the author is reading this, I am reading it! I just ran into some technological glitches.) I thought I'd be able to read in on my laptops Kindle app. Well, turns out I was wrong. Many months later, I was able to get a tablet and was FINALLY able to start reading that ebook.  

This is when my interest in ebooks began, but it was still pretty weak. Then came my Kindle Unlimited Subscription.  In combination with my Goodreads account this further grew my interest in ebooks.  You see, I had, to my frustration, discovered that a great many of the books in my ever growing Goodreads list (it's now up to 1,026! Woohoo!) were only available as ebooks, or, if they did come as hardcover/paperback, no library in the state of Michigan had them available.  This is truly frustrating! To have so many fascinating books you wanted to read, but couldn't get a hold of them! But once I got that tablet a whole new world was opened up to me. I realized that many of them were offered on Amazon as free to-read with a Kindle Unlimited Subscription, and with a camping trip coming up and me being bereft of library books it was the perfect time! 

Ah, bliss, to at last be able to read some of the books that had been calling to me from Goodreads! It was beautiful, but, alas, with Kindle Unlimited you do not get to keep them, and as a part-time library clerk and student I could not (though tempting as it may be) afford to use my pay-check to purchase ebooks (*sob*). Thus began my quest, were there places that offered free ebooks? I had to know. And it was this quest, and desperation for more books (because who can ever have enough books?!), that led to my fully succumbing to the ebook bug. 

In the span of just a few months, my ebook collection has grown to over 200 (over 300 if you count that some of these are actually collections of multiple books). How did I do it? Where did I go to find all this ebook goodness? Turns out there are many great websites out there designed to help you find free or on sale ebooks! These are the ones I've currently found: 

1. BookBub
2. FreeBooksy
3. ManyBooks
4. BookSends
5. TheFussyLibrarian
6. eReaderIQ
7. EarlyBirdBooks
8. SweetFreeBooks
9. eBookSoda
10. SmashWords
11. DigiLibraries
12. Amazon Kindle eBook Store

This is just a few of the sites out there. There are many, many more! Now Amazon may be a surprise to some of you, but if you go to ebook bestsellers there are lists of the top selling paid and free ebooks (and it's updated hourly so don't just check once and never come back!).  Some books are up for free permanently on Amazon, while others are just free for a limited time.  You can find other free ebooks on Amazon by remembering to sort your search results as 'price: low to high.' 

Happy searching! 

New Book by Lisa Anne Nichols!

Ok, so I''m going to engage in a little bit of shameless promotion! My cousin, Lisa Anne Nichols, is an author and she recently came out with her second novel 'Unchosen.'  'Unchosen' is part of the same world/series as her first book 'Once Upon a Wish' but deals with different characters.  Both novels are what would be classified as Christian/Inspirational Fantasy.

The main character is a girl named Alonya who is cast out from her home after the death of her father and finds herself in an adventure.  Unwanted and unprotected, this is a story of hope, love, and learning.

Sadly, I have to admit to not having read it yet, but I plan to and I'd like to recommend you read it also!

If you'd like to learn more about her books, you can do so by visiting her website!

Adaptation Alert! Anne of Green Gables

Ok, so, yes, 'Anne of Green Gables' by Lucy Maud Montgomery has already been adapted to the screen both in film and TV forms.  In fact, it's happened multiple times.  However, no matter how many times it has already been done there is one thing you need to remember: it is a classic, so it really doesn't matter how many times it's already been done.  Besides, new readers may never have seen the older films/TV series and while some will have no problem going back and watching older productions, others may prefer to watch a newer version.  After all, film/TV quality has come a long ways.  And so, here we are again awaiting a new adaptation of 'Anne of Green Gables.'  The new production is a joint effort between CBC and Netflix and was announced in January of this year.  As 'Anne of Green Gables' is actually a 9 book series (though the 9th was only published in its entirety for the first time only recently it was given to her publisher the day of her death), I don't know how much of the series they will be dealing with.  Often, they only do the first two books, so that may be the case here.  What I do know, is that it will be released on Netflix sometime in 2017 and will be an 8 episode drama (the pilot episode will be 2 hours long).  For more information, such as who will be directing, you can read this Yahoo! News article from August 22.

As a side note, they have some pretty big shoes to fill, as the older versions of 'Anne of Green Gables' (particularly the 1985 movie and is 1987 sequel) did a spectacular job. (Personally, I didn't much care for the book, yes I hear your gasps of horror; don't get me wrong, it's a lovely story, but it was assigned reading in school and, at the time, I found it a bit boring.  However, I did very much enjoy watching the '85/'87 adaptations of it.)  It will be interesting to see how this new one compares.  Hopefully, they do it justice. 

Feeling Extra Geeky

As the title clearly stats: I am feeling extra geeky right now.  Why? Because I have recently rediscovered one of my earliest hobbies (though at the time I didn’t know it had a name besides ‘craziness’)....... conlang.  For those that don’t know what ‘conlang’ is it is the art of constructed language ( i.e. all those crazy geeks that thought it would be fun to create their own language).  Yup, I was, and still am, one of them.  I have always had an interest in other languages.  To the point that I actually collect other (natural and fictional) alphabets.  My collection includes normal languages such as Cyrillic, Old Gaelic, various forms of Runic and Futhark, and even Cuneiform; but also Klingon, Romulan, Borg, Tengwar (for Quenya, Sindarin, and Mode of Beleriand), D’Ni, and several of my own invention.  Yup, I liked alphabets so much that I made several of my own. I then got the crazy idea (blame it on reading to much Tolkien) that, instead of just creating a new alphabet, it would be ‘so much fun’ to go the rest of the way and create a whole new language.  I worked on it for a while, but then regular life interfered and new hobbies emerged shoving this one into the background............  Until the other day when I was looking for books on font creation and came across this: ‘The Art of Language Creation’ by David J. Peterson.  I had already started back to work on the language (having some writing ideas that could actually use it) earlier this year, but it’s been off-and-on, however, after finding this book my interest in this is back with a vengeance!!  I’d already decided to use my language project as part of an alternative history/fantasy book project I’m working on, but now I have way more information than I’d had before about how to do it well! I know, as if wanting to learn Elvish (both Quenya and Sindarin) weren’t geeky enough, I had to go and jump the rest of the way off the geek cliff and decide to create my own.  Oh well! :D

Series Review: 'Timeless Fairy Tales' by K.M.Shea

If you haven't noticed by now, I have a weakness for fairy tales and retellings. These stories are classics for a reason and I enjoy seeing how other reinterpret them.  The most recent series of retellings that I've read is K.M. Shea's series: 'Timeless Fairy Tales.'  So far, there are seven books available in this series with an eighth coming out in December of this year (I can't wait!). The series starts with the tale of 'Beauty and the Beast' and then starts moving its way through the other fairy tales, and while each story is a stand-alone book, the author has, ingeniously, woven them all together in the same world with a 'bigger picture' going on and each story giving you a little more information about a bigger plotline.  However, these fairy tales are not the ones you remember, yes, they are based upon them and the essence of the stories remain the same, but the details are very much different.  Being, technically, stand-alone books, you can read them out of order, however, I would not recommend doing so in as there is a deeper storyline going on than simply each fairy tale. As such, you will want to read them in order.  Series order is as follows:

1. Beauty and the Beast
2. The Wild Swans
3. Cinderella and the Colonel
4. Rumpelstiltskin
5. The Little Selkie
6. Puss and Boots
7. Swan Lake
8. Sleeping Beauty (expected publication: Dec. 2016)

There are also several mini-stories available on the author's website that tie-in to each of these books (and some of them into more than one.)  The books are available on Amazon as ebooks or as paperback copies.  However, although not all the books have been released as paperbacks, the author has told me that they will all be available that way eventually.  There's just a little back-log at the moment as she is re-editing some of the earlier books for re-release. 

I absolutely loved this series, and would definitely recommend it to anyone that enjoys fairy tales/retellings!

Confessions of a Library Clerk: Summer Reading Program - an Insider's View

Ah, Summer Reading Program, I'm sure many of you reading this have at some point or other participated in this annual activity at your local library.  It works the same most everywhere: get a reading log, read lots of books, record your time, turn log back in when a certain number of hours has been accomplished, hope you get drawn for whatever the prize is, and get more logs for more reading.  There are, of course, some variations on this based on whether you're in the adult program, teen program, or children's program, but the format is still pretty much the same.  It's always a lot of fun, and it encourages those that may otherwise be timid readers to get involved and read more.

However, now that I work at a library, I get to see another side of this program: the chaos.  You may not realize this, but there are months of prep before the summer reading program even begins!  Besides getting the prizes sorted out there's a whole lot more that goes on to prepare for this yearly madness.  There's getting the summer reading book bags (which are different every year and for every library system), getting the logs (first and second logs) ready (nearly all of them have to be numbered so as to keep track of how many sign up; there are also a few unnumbered logs in case someone loses there first log), there's getting all the other sign-up goodies ready (bookmarks, small fun items for the kids, etc.), getting all the book displays to match with the reading program theme, decorating the whole library in accordance with the theme, and, of course, any special programs going on just because of summer reading. And this is just the list of prep that I know of!  In all likelihood, there's probably a bunch of stuff that I'm not even aware of that should be added to that list.  This, however, is just the chaos before the actual program begins!  After it starts there's a whole new level of madness!

I'm not sure how it is with other libraries, but this is what I've observed at mine.  For the first two weeks or so there is a steady, non-stop stream of people signing either themselves, their kids, or their grandkids up! If they work at a school, they might even sign up the kids from any summer classes they may be teaching!  And of course, following the flurry of signing up at whatever station has been set up for summer reading (usually at the public service desks), there is the ensuing chaos at circulation with myriads of books being checked out or requested.  This is the first two or so weeks,  however, come the third week that is when the chaos is in full swing. Remember all those books checked out during the first two weeks (not the mention the weeks prior)? Well, this is when you start to see them all coming back.... at once, because of course they can't just trickle in gently, that would be to easy. But really, this is no big deal right?  This is normal: what gets checked out, must be returned within a set period of time.  However, it's not quite this simple.  The number of books being checked out dramatically increases during summer reading.  People that usually only check our 2 or 3 books, are now checking out 6-8; and those that usually check out large numbers of books?  Yup, their check outs are easily double their norm.  Oh, and did I mention that the number of books being shipped out to/requested from other libraries has also just about doubled? And this level of chaos will continue for pretty much the rest of the program!

Now don't get me wrong, this is all great for the library!  However, it can be killer to keep up with.  For everyone: PSD is swamped, circ is swamped, and let's not forget the poor pages.  Again, remember all those books being returned? Well, someone has to put them all back again! (And hope the shelves where they go back to are in a somewhat decent order still, but, that's really just wishful thinking during the summer: the #1 untold rule of paging during summer reading is - always assume the shelf is out of order, especially if it's in the children's area.)  Ah yes, those poor, poor pages. With seemingly endless streams of books being pulled from the drop boxes (inside and out) and sent back to them to reshelve.  Right when they may have been getting sooooo close to emptying the paging shelves from the last bunch of books, here come a whole pile more!!  *Sigh* Oh, well.  

As a former page myself, I know that I really should feel terrible (or at least somewhat sorry) for the constant barrage of incoming books that can make a page feel as if they really haven't accomplished anything by the end of the day because the paging shelves are still full, but............ I really don't.  I just can't help laughing, and saying 'I'm so glad that's not me anymore!'  

If you are reading this and you are a library page, I will tell you what my page supervisor used to tell me: ........... job security!