Arcane (The Arinthian Line, #1) by Sever Bronny

January 13, 2015July 14, 2019 / Absidity Art / 2 Comments

Warlocks before their time …

Fourteen-year-old Augum and friends Bridget and Leera dream of becoming warlocks. But with a kingdom in total chaos, it will take courage, sacrifice, and an iron will to make that dream come true.

The Lord of the Legion, a vicious tyrant, has overthrown the king in a relentless and murderous quest for seven mythic artifacts–and Augum’s mentor, the legendary Anna Atticus Stone, possesses one. While Augum struggles with demons from a painful childhood, a betrayal puts him, his friends, and his mentor through a harrowing ordeal that threatens to destroy them all … and change the course of history.

Arcane, the debut novel in the fantasy adventure series The Arinthian Line, follows three friends as they navigate an ancient abandoned castle, endure grueling training, challenge old mysteries, and learn that a bond forged in tragedy might just be the only thing to save them from a ruthless enemy.

I received a copy of this book from the author, through the Goodreads Group “YA Lovers” in exchange for and honest review. So first, I am going to say Thank you!

Augum; I really liked him. He had it tough as an abused orphan slave boy, until he ended up in the care of Sir Tobias Westwood. Westwood taught Augum to read, hunt, etc. and it is thanks in large part to Westwood that Augum survives to end up with Mrs Stone. Augum has spent all of his life ridiculed and beat up on for being a gutter born orphan and it is beautiful to see that turn around for him as he finds true friendship.

Mrs. Stone; the awesome elderly super powerful bad arse Mrs. Stone. I loved her. Go Grandma, Go, Go. I think it is probably the mother in me that loved her as the hero / saviour in this novel so much (I would be interested to see a teenage boy’s response to her character)

Bridget & Leera; Augum’s back up besties. I quite liked the girls and think that they balanced Augum out nicely. Leera got to kick some butt in the book alongside Augum and I hope that in the future books they get their chance to shine independently.

Prince Sydo; I have to mention him as, Sydo is nasty spoiled foul mouthed brat and I hated him. I think you are meant to hate him, but I found him really disrupting my enjoyment of the story at times. I hope he wakes up to himself in the next book.

The story follows 14-year-old Augum. I found the story a bit hard to get into at first and some of the chapters lagging early on and towards the middle as we are getting crammed with background information. There are some cool plot twist along the way and we get a new style of magic with the Arcane discipline. Once I got into the vibe of the book and stomached all the world building, I really started to enjoy the story, but I cannot really say too much about the story without giving all the twists away.

So I will just say the Last 20% of the book was a fantastical rush. The end of the book is an exciting frantic flurry of action, with a brilliant ending, bring on the next instalment Mr Bronny.

I am going to knock this up as number one for my Debut author challenge; it is Mr Bronny’s first book and was published last year. I was intending to purchase any of the books I read for the debut author challenge and I was given this one, but I think as I am going to buy the next book Riven (The Arinthian Line, #2) due out in February that it counts.

Phillip: Friday Fictioneers 100 word story challenge

January 9, 2015July 14, 2019 / Absidity Art / 5 Comments

Phillip was staring at a Route 66 sign and he was feeling rather sorry for himself.

He had just convinced the lady behind the counter to give him a cup of tea, when he felt the room shake; his vision twisted and blacked out.

His ears popped and his vision returned. He was standing in what appeared to be a dirt hut.

“Not again” he moaned to himself “I’d only just figured out where I was, again”.

Furious with the fate he had been given, he stomped out the door to try and discover where he’d ended up this time.

PHOTO PROMPT – © Copyright Jean L. Hays

Friday Fictioneers is a challenge set by Rochelle Fields where writers around the world create 100 word stories inspired by the one image. For more information see:

http://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2015/01/07/2-january-2015/

The Griever’s Mark by Katherine Hurley

January 2, 2015July 14, 2019 / Absidity Art / Leave a comment

Astarti would bet her life on one thing: she will never escape her master Belos.

After Belos found her as an abandoned infant, he planted within her a Leash, which he uses to control her power. Astarti is a Drifter, able to manipulate the energy world of the Drift–to shape weapons, to bind others, to travel great distances in mere seconds. Astarti’s job is to strike deals with desperate souls who would Leash themselves to Belos for political or personal gain. Her other objective is to kill any Earthmaker–those who wield the power of the elements–whenever possible.

But when Astarti lets one handsome Earthmaker escape, she sets into motion a chain of events that will lead her to question everything she knows about herself and her power. Even her Griever’s Mark tattoo, the symbol of her mother’s abandonment, may not mean what Astarti has always been told.

I received a copy of this book from the author, through the Goodreads Group “YA Lovers” in exchange for and honest review. So first up I’m going to say Thank you!

The more I like a book a book the harder I find it to say anything about it without gushing like a school girl high on sugar holding hands with her crush for the first time. So I will try to contain myself.

I dived into the world that Ms Hurley created and was in love. She gives as an immensely rich world with forbidden love (My favourite kind of love) earth magic (my favourite kind of magic) evil twisted bad guys, treason, turf wars and a heroine with a dark and mysterious past. Yes please, give me more! I can’t say too much about Astarti, her mother, The Drift, Logan or Earth Magic without giving away the big plot points of the story.

As this is the first book in a series there is a lot of world building and background information given to us, but Ms Hurley makes it all flow beautiful into a enthralling story. In this book we met Astarti and through her adventures we learn all about her life and discover her secret family history with her. We also get to meet Logan the delicious earth maker as she does. We learn a little about Logan and his world in this book, but at the end of the book we are left with questions of his heritage and what his fate will be. So yes we are left with a cliff hanger; the ending brings a whole load more to be answered in the next book and plenty more adventures for Astarti to tackle.

I am looking forward to reading the next instalment. Five Stars.

The Hunter’s Companion (Familiars #1) by Lori Powell

December 27, 2014July 14, 2019 / Absidity Art / Leave a comment

Witches and hunters. Blood and magic. Heartache and lust. Will history repeat itself?

Lora Smith’s life changes forever one day deep in the English fens. Caught up in the Witch trials of 1645, her life ends tragically early, yet her legacy lives on.

Regan White is a 21st century Brighton girl who loves to shop, party, and shop some more. Forced to relocate to her aunt’s crumbling old house in the fenland of West Norfolk, away from everything she’s ever known, Regan’s life takes a mysterious twist.

A box of old diaries tell of strange happenings, striking a chord with Regan’s own recent unnerving experience in the lingering fog of the fens and drawing her deeper into the mystery. Destiny is a big word but it seems that Regan’s is irrevocably entwined in this bewitching landscape.

How do the diaries, her band of new friends, and the captivating American Nate Hunter, all tie together? Will Regan find the link before it is too late, or will she share Lora’s fate?

I received a copy of this book from the author, through the Goodreads Group “YA Lovers” in exchange for and honest review. So first up I’m going to say Thank you!

Straight up the book was filled with full on imagery. I really really wanted to like this book as the first half of it was brilliant. I loved Ms Powell’s take on Witches Familiars. I was fascinated learning about them as the main characters did.

The chapters alternate between Lora in 1645 and Regan in 2013, I came to care for both of female protagonists. The switch between times is done quite well and Ms Powell manages to capture both time periods beautifully.

The Regan character really grows throughout the first half of the book. We see Regan going from silly seventeen party girl to eighteen, adult with responsibilities and evil creatures to fight, which creates all sorts of drama. With Regan discovering some old family heirloom diary’s in the attic, we finally find out the connection between Lora and Regan (with help from the mysterious and delicious Nate).

We get a lot of information given to us in the book as it is the start of a series. The first half of the book is faced paced and fascinating, but after about the 60% mark it starts to get bogged down. The ending however picks back up and leads to a perfect opening for the next book.

I think that the next book will out do this one, as thanks to the first book we won’t need all the background info and it can all be action.

I did come across a few grammar and formatting issues in my copy while trying to read it, I know some people like to nit-pick at this, but I found it in no way detracted from the story, I’m just warning the picky people out there.

There were a few things later in the book that irked me; language I didn’t feel fit the characters (it just felt wrong) and the unnecessarily dragged out Regan / Nate love or not business. I breathed a sigh of relief when I’d finished reading it, as at around the 70-90% mark I was getting rather stressed out at how drawn out everything was becoming and I just wanted to know how it was going to end.

So to sum it up first half of the book was awesome, but up until the last few chapters is was rather Meh, but it definitely redeemed it’s self in those last chapters.

Hello 2015

December 22, 2014May 5, 2015 / Absidity Art / 1 Comment

So 2014 is about to come to an end and I have no idea where it went. Crazy fast. I had a baby in 2013 and then BOOM it’s 2015.

The first eight months of 2014 were wonderful, watching my bubba boy grow and develop into a really cheeky little smarty pants who amazes me every day.
But alas September was a bittersweet month; we bought our own home only two houses up from my parents :-), but we lost our beloved fifteen year old wolfhound cross Buster :-(.

2014 was full on; I went back at work four days a week and was going to TAFE at night two times a week. I managed to publish two poetry eBooks and one tree book, but we won’t talk about how behind I am in my TAFE work. Riley has been attending day care when I’m at work and other then a little tantrum at drop off time, seems to be enjoying it.

We are down to four; Shane and I, Riley now seventeen months old and Ellie our four year old rather small wolfhound cross. We’ve all settled into our new forever home and are looking forward to celebrating Riley’s second Christmas and all that 2015 has to offer. I really hate the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, but love catching up with my family.

I am determined in 2015 to (A) not miss a Friday Fictioneers (B) Finish my Cert 4 in Work Health & Safety (C) make some serious progress on my fiction works (D) as always, lose weight and get fit – this one I’m not as determined about as the others, obviously because I find it the hardest, damn Crispy M&M you will be the death of me (E) I’m going to up my Goodreads Reading Challenge for 2015 to 80 books! that will be a record for me if I achieve it and (F) I’m going to sign up for the >>I’ve read some debut authors this year and really enjoyed them. I see this challenge as a great way to find out about the other Debuts that other challenges may come across. It is easy to pick up the same author or one of the well publicized top ten best seller at your local supermarket to read, but in 2015 I’d like to focus on helping the new guys starting out. **AND** (G) I’m also signing up for the >>

For my first Diverse Books I’m going to start off with the three that “Reading Wishes” recommends – The Last Leaves Falling by Sarah Benwell – Jasper Jones by Criag Silvey – To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han.

**AND** (F) I’m also also signing up for the >>

Where I’m going to try and read as many books by Aussie Authors as possible.

Anyway I’m going to go get some reading in 🙂 Until Next Time – Happy Reading.

Lavender and Frankincense Part Two

December 10, 2014May 17, 2015 / Absidity Art / 2 Comments

This is a progress post following me trying Oils in my Face moisturiser.

After the amazing results I’ve had with putting YLEO’s Lavender into my body moisturiser (blog post link below) I decided to give it a go in my facial moisturiser, so I did some reading on the many uses of the Oils I had at home and I added the YLEO’s Lavender and Frankincense to my face moisturiser and I’ve been using it for the last two weeks. After adding the oils the cream definitely feels heavier on my face. I can feel the cream mix sitting on my face for a while after application, but It smells divine and my skin feels wonderful. I’m going to finish off the double oil moisturiser I have made up, but next time around I’ll add the lavender to my face wash and just the frankincense to the moisturiser and see how that goes. Also it’s summer here and has been rather hot, just step out of the shower and your sweating again kind of hot, I actually don’t think I’d notice the weight of the cream on my face the other nine months of the year.

My Previous Post – Part One – http://sarahfairbairn.com/2014/11/24/lavender-frankincense/

For Better or for Worse by @IngridNickelsen

December 6, 2014July 14, 2019 / Absidity Art / 4 Comments

When one story ends, another begins.

Evangeline lived a long fulfilling life. Loving mother and wife, she had everything she could wish for…until a tragic car accident took it all away from her.

Awakening in a new world with the body of a young woman, Evangeline doesn’t remember anything about her life, not even her own name. Luckily she has godparents to help guide her in this new society of the dead. As she struggles to fit in, deep inside, she can sense something is missing, a part of her that she can’t recall. When a mysterious man claims he can help get her memory back if she agrees to keep their nocturnal meetings a secret, she can’t refuse. Everything about him screams trouble, but she can’t seem to stay away. Every moment spent with him makes her feel alive again.

Is she really prepared to unveil her past completely, from beginning to end? Everything is not as it seems in her new found home, and her new life may also end in tragedy.

Rest in fear, Evangeline.

The story follows Eve (Evangeline) through her death and subsequent kind of life.

It starts off with an emotional scene between a teenage Eve and her boyfriend. We see Eve in her “safe Place” with the Boy she loves. It then changes and we realise that it was a flash back dream and 73 year old current Eve had fallen asleep on the couch reading an old diary. The first chapter went on to add the characters of her husband and daughter. Within the first chapter I already liked Eve and cared about her. And then she dies in a car accident – but I knew that was coming sooner or later anyway.

Things get a little bazar after that, Eve can’t remember who she is, she’s in this strange new world, thinking it’s some sort of heaven. She guesses by her appearance she is about 18-19 years. She goes on to find out she’s been given a Godmother named Brielle.

Enter Will with his “dark and sinful beauty” – right away he sounds like my kind of fella. But I must have trust issues as I was immediately looking out for a bad guy in this book. I could say that the bad guys were the Midnight Hunters, but it’s really much more complicated than that.

I was really struggling, with this very bazar and trippy world for a while, Eve’s confused, so I’m confused – I feel her frustration etc. The frustration did push me to keep reading, as I wanted Eve to figure out what the heck was going on.

Eve then goes on a candle induced drug trip. She gets a glimpse of her husband at the age that he died and her daughter as a baby. Some might find it rather ludicrous, but it was needed to get the story going as the trip gave Eve the desire to find out if she in fact wasn’t alone when she died.

Now the story really starts to pick up pace as we find out danger is all around and nothing is as it seems. We learn that this strange world isn’t the afterlife but really a journey in-between. We find out Will is a wanderer being hunted by the midnight hunters. We find out about Brielle having a tainted past and get a closer look at some of the other background characters.

Eve learns Will looked for her, the first clue we get into deeper Will. Eve gets the chance to see a bigger part of the in-between world she’s ended up in and it’s not nice! And after looking like all her attempts at finding the man she died with, the man who we as the reader know is her 73 year old husband Josh, She meets him, be it a teenage version.

Than Bam we get heavy scene with Eve finally remembering something (A big chunk of something) and we are sent back to the first scene in the book. I can’t say much more about this or I’ll give the big dramatic ending away. All I will say is the the last three chapters in the book are intense. So full of emotions it makes up for any lows in the book. It made up for any moments when I went, what the!

So don’t be put off by afterlife’s and godmothers (which are more like guides), the Characters, the suspense & mystery and most of all, the love are worth it. Love shines out of this book.

(This bit won’t make sense unless you’ve read the book) I finished reading it and immediately had an argument with myself. My Mummy Brain was angry saying, if Eve had regained all her memory surely she would have stayed at the ceremony. But then the romantic soul trapped inside of me said, don’t be stupid you can’t give up a second change and then I decided that yes, I would have made the same choice as Eve, restored memory or not!

Also the Epilogue seems to be setting up for a sequel that I’d very much like to read 🙂

An absolutely fabulous debut novel from Ms Nickelsen.

Lavender & Frankincense

November 24, 2014May 17, 2015 / Absidity Art / 2 Comments

I’ve been using YLEO Lavender mixed in with my Jojoba moisturiser for a while now; I use it on my feet in the mornings. In the last couple of years I’ve had terrible problems with the skin on my feet. I tried countless chemist products to no avail, but after using the Jojoba moisturiser with added YLEO Lavender for a few months, my skin so no longer painful and scaly (it was like a chemical burn, but I couldn’t figure out what was causing it). I stopped using it for a while and found that my skin got rather dry again, but rubbing a little bit of cream in each morning is a small price to pay for pretty, painless feet.

I got badly burnt at a 4WD & Camping show last month and decided to give my jojoba lavender cream a try on my sunburn, as I’d read it was one of the MANY things lavender is good for. I was really impressed; it worked better than anything else I’ve ever used on sunburn. It was really soothing: the heat, pain and redness were taken away unbelievably fast.

Since the Lavender has worked so well on my feet I decided to add a drop to my face moisturiser and it’s been lovely and refreshing. I sat down on the weekend and wrote down the names of the oils I currently have, so I could look up what all their benefits are to make sure I was getting the most out of them. I came across some notes I’d scribed in my YLEO guide book about the benefits of Frankincense in skincare, so I’ve added a drop of that to my face moisturiser too. I’ll let you know how that goes once I’ve been using it for a bit longer.

I’m still keeping up my oils resume and supplements as I’ve mentioned in pervious posts and I can honestly say, bar the extra 23kilos I’m carrying, I’m feeling better than I have in years. If I could just kick these sugar cravings it’d make those 23kilos come off a hell of a lot faster. I want to get down to 70 kilos and stay there, any lower than that and I just can’t maintain it. It’s been five years since I was at 70 and I fell I’ve dealt with the issues that caused me to attempt to eat away my pain. For my height my “healthy” weight range according to my doctor is 58-72kilos (dang! I think I’d look terrible at 58). So onwards and upwards I go.

Previous oil posts >>

http://sarahfairbairn.com/2014/10/11/potions-pills-and-nightmare-chills-oh-my/

http://sarahfairbairn.com/2014/09/02/major-life-overhaul-pt-2/

http://sarahfairbairn.com/2014/07/31/yes-a-major-life-overhaul-is-due/

NaNoWriMo Oh No!

November 24, 2014 / Absidity Art / Leave a comment

So it’s just occurred to me that I’ve missed NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I first heard about it last year when I stepped into the Twitter & Blog world. It was founded back in 1999 by 21 authors from San Francisco area who wanted to motivate themselves to produce more written work. I wasn’t ready to have a go last year as the challenge requires authors to produce a complete 50,000 word novel during November. The novel doesn’t have to be spectacular and there are no rules that say you have to publish it. The main goal of NaNoWriMo is to get writers into the habit of regular and disciplined writing with a clear end-goal in place.

It’s only just dawned on me that the date is the 24^th November and that NaNoWriMo is November 1^st – 30^th NOOOOOO!, I’d been so busy with TAFE and setting up our new home that I’d completely forgot about it.

I’ve just gone and put a reminder in my phone for the middle of October next year and in my diary so I can get myself organised and signed up in 2015.

#JumpGirl by @LeighHutton RELEASED TODAY

November 22, 2014July 14, 2019 / Absidity Art / Leave a comment

Show jumping is an extreme sport with a dress code, one this girl doesn’t follow… Imagine being dumped by your mother as a newborn and shifted between foster homes your entire childhood. Imagine being taken in and offered hope for your future by a kind, loving show jumping socialite. Imagine falling in love with some of the most gorgeous horses in the world, and making a life in the thrilling and glamorous sport of international show jumping.

Now imagine it all being taken away. Ebony Scott Harris is painfully close to making her dreams a reality when the only mother she has ever known mysteriously dies. She’s forced from their home to live with the gold-digging aunt, who takes her in only to ride the prized show jumpers she claims are now hers.

Teetering on the edge of a hopeless depression, Ebony is saved by the discovery of a forgotten horse nearly starved to death, and an unlikely partnership with a handsome stranger, whom she must learn to trust if she is to uncover the truth about her mother’s death and reclaim her home.

But with the evil aunt selling her best and beloved horse, a maniacal ex-coach out for revenge and more savage competitors than she can count, Ebony has a lot more at stake than proving the truth, saving her horses and jumping for gold at the World Equestrian Games…

The highly anticipated second book in The Go Girls Chronicles – stories of gutsy girls in action sports, by Leigh Hutton.

“I am excited for the Jump Girl book because it will be something that riders can actually relate too. It’s nice that there is a book that reveals the excitement of the sport while showing there can still be problems and a lot of times things won’t go as planned!”

Shelby Edwards

Real Life Jump Girl

“Leigh has a talent for making the reader be captured in their imagination. I was able to imagine scenes, accents, and how people looked. It was different and refreshing.”
[review of Rev Girl]

Angel Reads

Book Blogger

“[Jump Girl] gives us a look into the fierce yet glamorous world that is Show Jumping, as well as; Love & Romance, Action & Adventure, Murder & Mystery, Redemption & Self Discovery, all woven together beautifully in this fast paced coming of age novel. I have been lucky enough to read Jump Girl before its release and let me say it is brilliant. Awesome job Leigh. It made me yearn to have a Monster or Gallant of my own. I immediately fell for Ebony. Her life felt so real and I was drawn into it heart first. I could not put the book down. I practically read it in one sitting… Five of five stars for Jump Girl.”

Sarah Fairbairn

Author and Goodreads Reviewer

Amazon Australia

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Amazon CA

Also available on iBooks and Nook from Barnes and NoblePaperback available from The Book Depository The paperback edition will be available via Amazon, and check out Leigh’s Blog for more
information where to purchase Jump Girl.

A portion of every JUMP GIRL book sold goes to the Make-A-Wish Foundation to help grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions.

Leigh Hutton is a former News Ltd journalist and champion dirt bike racer and horse show jumper. She was born and raised in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains near Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and now lives with her husband and three young children in southeast Queensland, Australia. When she isn’t wrangling the kids, swilling coffee, or writing, she loves to read, watch good TV and movies, shop, hit the beach, ride her motorbike and daydream about gorgeous horses.