Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore – Author Update – Stevie Turner, M.J. Mallon, Terry Tyler and Phillip T. Stephens

Thank you to Sally for including me and one of my latest reviews in her cafe and bookstore line up with Stevie Turner, Terry Tyler and Phillip Stevens.

#YA #Fantasy #Book #Review – Keepers by Sacha De Black

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Goodreads Synopsis:

Saving the world is easy: all Eden has to do is die.

Seventeen-year-old Eden East’s life is perfect… until her soul is bound to her worst nightmare. Then her parents are brutally murdered, and everyone’s a suspect, including her best friend.

As her world spirals out of control, a charismatic Siren, from a past she can’t remember, returns offering help, hope, and a heap of distractions.

Eden must put aside her grief to solve the mystery of her parents’ murder. In a race against time, can she break the binding to her enemy before he destroys her and her world?

Three lives.
Two murdered parents.
One deadly choice.

My Review:

Keepers is the debut YA fantasy novel of Sacha de Black. I enjoyed the premise of the novel – a society that does its utmost to achieve a sense of balance – and found it to be an unusual and highly imaginative idea.

It’s a YA novel with stacks of opportunity to deliver emotional feelings, (the main protagonist Eden East is young and has to cope with a lot.) I won’t divulge too much here for fear of spoiling the novel.

One of Black’s great strengths is her ability to write physical attraction between two individuals so well! Wow, loved those parts!  I’d say that Trey was one of my favourite characters in the book. I can imagine him as a very worthy candidate for the title ‘book boyfriend!’ And I really enjoyed Victor too! There is a love triangle of sorts as Eden is bound to Shifter Victor Dark and can’t bare to be, but Victor wants Eden like mad.

There were parts of the story where the author’s ability to write engaging prose, and dialogue took flight and her writing made me go wow, this is  amazing.  I see great potential in Black’s writing.

What I didn’t like:

A minor point (it may just be me!) There’s a glossary of terms in the front matter which took me out of the story a bit to begin with. I would have liked these terms added individually as short postscripts at the bottom of each relevant page.

My recommendation:

This is a confident debut, with interesting world building and potential for further conflict and interest in book two. Definitely a recommendation.

My rating: 4.5 stars.

To see all my reviews to date follow this link: https://mjmallon.com/category/a-z-book-reviews/

My Hitting The Books Pal wants to know – have you read Keepers? Do leave a comment below with your thoughts.

Happy reading!

Bye for now,

 

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Read all my reviews here: https://mjmallon.com/category/a-z-book-reviews/

Link to Buy My Book on Amazon: myBook.to/TheCurseofTime

Authors Website: https://mjmallon.com

Collaborative blog: https://sistersofthefey.wordpress.com

Twitter: @Marjorie_Mallon and

Facebook Authors/Bloggers Support Group:

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https://www.facebook.com/groups/1829166787333493/

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Do you know the difference in a prologue and epilogue?

Interesting post about prologues and epilogues via Jeans Writing

Jean M. Cogdell's avatarJean's Writing

And

How do you know when a story needs one or both?

My current work in progress (WIP) has a short introduction (prologue.) So, I thought doing a little research on the subject might be in order. After all, I do want the reader to read past the first couple of pages. Right?

Here’s what I learned about the two.

  • A writer can use both to bookend a novel or use just one.
  • A prologue is where you can introduce something important to the story.
  • An epilogue is the cherry on top. The ending after the ending.

What I learned about a prologue.

A prologue should include one or all the three elements.

  1. Setting/fictional world and how the character came to be there.
    • Set the stage with a frame of reference for the reader.
  2.  An event key to the story and a character’s response.
    • Describe with action and suspense, not just adjectives.

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The Curse of Time Book Blitz: Q&A+Review

A lovely blog tour feature and four star review from The Hufflepuff Nerdette for The Curse of Time. Yeah! @@! Yeah

allie's avatar

Hello my little munchkins. Sorry I haven’t been that active. I have been super busy this week and this is literally the only free time I have had all week to do this so I hope you enjoy it and don’t forget to read the interview and enter the giveaway.

I hope you are all doing well.


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About Marjorie Mallon:

I am a debut author who has been blogging for three years at my lovely blog home Kyrosmagica: https://mjmallon.com. My interests include writing, photography, poetry, and alternative therapies. I write Fantasy YA, middle grade fiction and micro poetry – haiku and Tanka. I love to read and have written over 100 reviews: https://mjmallon.com/2015/09/28/a-z-of-my-book-reviews/
My alter ego is MJ – Mary Jane from Spiderman. I love superheroes! I was born on the 17th of November in Lion City: Singapore, (a passionate Scorpio, with the Chinese Zodiac sign a lucky rabbit,) second…

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Author Spotlight; Marjorie Mallon

Thank you so much to Gary for the wonderful spotlight as part of my #ABRSC blog tour to celebrate the release of my paperback. Yay!

Gary's avatarFiction is Food

Amelina, age 15 and wanting a functional home life. A best friend locked inside a mirror, a Crystal Cottage holding answer by invite only and something changing people into shadows of their former selves…

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To prologue or not to prologue that is the question… with @Marjorie_Mallon #Sundayblogshare

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Thank you so much to Sacha Black for hosting me on Sunday as part of my on-going Blog Tour for the paperback release of my debut novel – The Curse of Time, Book 1 Bloodstone.

Today I have a wonderful guest on the blog, Marjorie Mallon. I met Marje at the very first ever Bloggers Bash – have you got your ticket yet? Marje has attended every single bash and I am abs…

Source: To prologue or not to prologue that is the question… with @Marjorie_Mallon #Sundayblogshare

For All Cat Lovers

Such an amusing story from Jack Eason about cats. A must read for cat lovers!

Jack Eason's avatarHave We Had Help?

295310-cats-angry-cat

In the world of the domestic cat, the one thing that is guaranteed to get you in trouble in the neighbourhood is the name your human owner gives you.

Hobson opened his eyes, yawned, stretched and sat up before meticulously grooming his fur and licking his battle wounds.

Since he and his human Geoff had moved into the neighbourhood six weeks back, Hobson literally had to fight for his life almost continuously. His battle scarred ears and the missing fur on his back, along with the severely bitten end of his tail bore testament to the daily scrapping Hobson had to endure.

“Breakfast, come and get it,” Geoff yelled above the noise of the food-blender, which was mashing up his daily liquid energy diet before his morning run.

Hobson scampered down the hallway to the kitchen from where he slept on the end of Geoff’s bed. As usual his human…

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The Curse of Time, on #LisaBurtonRadio

Thank you to Craig Boyack at Lisa Burton Radio for interviewing my character Amelina on his blog today (as part of my paperback release blog tour. ) Find out more about Amelina’s plight here…

coldhandboyack's avatarEntertaining Stories

Lisa Burton

Welcome everyone. Turn down the lights, find your silver bells, and possibly a crystal that speaks to you. You might want to light a candle or two. This is Lisa Burton Radio, and I’m your host Lisa the robot girl.

My special guest today is living under some unusual circumstances, but we’ll let her tell us about them. “Welcome to the show, Amelina Scott.”

“Hi Lisa. I’m so excited about this, a chance to tell my story to a robot girl, that’s beyond amazing!”

“I already mentioned that your living arrangement is a bit odd. Can you fill our listeners in a bit?”

“Yeah, my dad disappeared on my thirteenth birthday. Sorry, I find this difficult to talk about. It really hurts. I, I cope by writing my feelings down in poetry. I don’t like to talk about it… But for you I will …

“Dad’s vanishing was the weirdest…

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