Features

05 May 2012 No Comments

Inevitable Reads: Outpost (Razorland # 2)

Inevitable Reads

After devouring Ann Aguirre’s Enclave, and getting to know Deuce, I’m eager for the next installment to hit stores in September. With Deuce now living topside and her world turned upside down, it seems that this installment will have a lot more to offer. Don’t get me wrong; the Enclave was great but I’m really curious how Deuce will handle all the changes she faces in the Salvation community. And we all know that the Freaks started changing in Enclave so I’m excited to see just how smart they get and what that will mean for those living topside.

What do you guys think?

Here’s a look at the cover for Outpost. I really like that the theme from the Enclave cover has found its way into the cover for Outpost. Having a matching set is always a good thing. This cover is leaps and bounds better–the creepy eye and hand only make me want to read it even more. Is it September yet? No? Dang!

Deuce’s whole world has changed. Now living topside in a community called Salvation, she has a whole new set of problems. Down below, she was considered an adult, and she contributed to the whole. Now, topside, the people of Salvation think she’s a brat in need of training. She hates school, and she doesn’t fit in with the other girls. They’ve spent their lives learning to cook and sew–suitable woman’s work. Deuce only knows how to fight. To make matters worse, Fade keeps her at a distance, and the band of four has broken into fragments.

Stalker presses for a closer relationship, but Deuce sees him as a training partner, and she’s busy trying to find her place in Salvation. She refuses to accept that she’s wrong for being who she is, but tensions rise as she struggles against the status quo. Her feelings for Fade haven’t changed, but he seems not to want her around anymore. Confused and lonely, she starts looking for a way out.

Once she’s free from school for the year, Deuce pursues a chance to serve in the summer patrols–those responsible for making sure the growers and planters can work the fields without danger of Freak attack. It should have been routine, little fighting, but things have been changing on surface, just as they did below ground. The Freaks are smarter. They’re watching. Waiting. Planning. The monsters don’t intend to let Salvation survive, and it will take a girl like Deuce to turn the tide.

by Jennifer in Features, Inevitable Reads Tags: , , , , ,

30 Apr 2012 11 Comments

Teaser Tuesday: Devastation

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser.

The week our teaser is from Devastation by Gloria Skurzynski

As the vapor cleansing continued, lifting off his sweat, pulling it up into the remover pipe, Corgan pictured Sharla in his mind. The golden light had created shadows that sculpted her legs–they’d looked so lean and clean and smooth, from her calves to the thighs…Was that part of her image real?

What tease are you dishing out?

by Jennifer in Features, Teaser Tuesday Tags: , , , , , ,

30 Apr 2012 2 Comments

Twisting Time: The Dragon DelaSangre

Twisting Time

It’s time to twist time once again, and just like on our last Twisting Time feature, we’re tackling dragons one more time.

Back in 2002, debut author Alan F. Troop wrote The Dragon DelaSangre and forever changed my view on dragons. The title itself didn’t do much for me but I was fascinated by the cover. Yes, I know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover but we all know that old axiom is usually ignored.

The Dragon DelaSangre

The Dragon DelaSangre introduces us to Peter DelaSangre, a wealthy man that lives with his father on a remote island off the coast of Miami, Florida. It doesn’t take long to find out why Peter prizes solitude because while in the throes of passion with a woman he recently met, he looses control and transforms into his true dragon self and kills the woman. Following in the footsteps of various vampires that are on the shelves these days, Peter feels remorse and guilt about his lack of control, but sometimes he can’t help giving in to his true nature.

Peter gets very little sympathy from his father, who views humans as nothing more than servants and a source of food because he considers their noble race above the laws and morals of Man. As the story progresses, Peter meets a female dragon and plans to make the woman his bride but her family isn’t thrilled with the idea because they see Peter as weak because of his views.

These days, there are a few books out there that have dragons (or similarly named creatures) posing as humans, but this was an eye-opening find for me back in ’02, and I discovered that action, adventure, and even romance could be blended with the paranormal to make a truly awesome read. I think it’s safe to say that The Dragon DelaSangre might have been one of the first Urban Fantasy books I ever read, and I’ve been dedicated to the genre ever since.

Other books in the series include Dragon Moon, The Seadragon’s Daughter, and A Host of Dragons, with that last title published in 2006.

The Dragon DelaSangre series

I think this is an example of a series written before its time. The books aren’t exactly lacking in action but the emotions and motivations of the characters are the driving force of the stories, giving us a look at the thoughts and feelings of beings that have existed among us for thousands of years. Again, I don’t think this was a real big thing back in 2002.

Sadly, it looks like Troop hung his pen or put away his keyboard after A Host of Dragons because he hasn’t published anything since then, and that’s kind of sad.

The premise can be found in various forms these days but if dragons are a favorite of yours then you might want to give The Dragon DelaSangre a try.

by Marty in Features, Twisting Time Tags: , , , ,

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