The synopsis for this novella is low key for a pretty interesting work Some people might pass by Mr. Barrett’s little gem. Thank goodness I’m curious and the book was very reasonable priced.
The Job Offer starts with a scene titled, “The past”. You know it’s gotta be important for it even to be mentioned. Then the book starts right in with the heroine, Jennifer, enduring a dead end job and poor living conditions. Enter the stranger, Douglas (whose real name turns out to be Collin), with a sexy British accent and a mysterious job offer.
Along the way, Jennifer learns there really are monsters living along side the ordinary people and some monsters are hunted but other less troublesome ones are not. Confused? Jennifer sure is and can’t figure out why some International “Organisation” (the author writes with the British spelling and unique verbiage) wants her to work for them policing and controlling paranormals. The sales pitch for the job is a little disturbing…
….” Alright I’ll start with the down side. It is a dangerous job; there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be seriously injured and some chance you’ll be killed before you hit thirty.”
The job has great benefits though, really. Jennifer takes the job for whatever reason. I’m not telling; read the novella. It sounds a bit corny writing this out. Let’s just say the book is much better than trying to describe the premise.
With the exception of getting used to the British writing style, I quite enjoyed the story which I believe is the lead in for a series. I learned a bunch of new British words. The story is not overly complicated and moves along enough to hold your attention. The biggest mystery is trying to figure out when Jennifer is going to show any “talents” that brought her to the attention of the Organisation.
My rating: 3 Stars
About Me
- Dolly
- Just my thoughts on what ever pops up. The kids are more or less on their own pursuing various degrees. My hubby does take a bit more of my time But that's as it should be. We have 3 dogs and they are my daily company. In my spare time I love to cook. I'm retired from the U. S. Air Force and am enjoying playing homemaker. (I take my hat off to the real homemakers) You'll probably get a mixed bag from my blog so be prepared for whatever may pop up in the conversation. Family is my touchstone.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Review: WitchLight Trilogy by Debora Geary
I’ve done the review on the first three books in A Modern Witch by Ms Geary and now am reading the the WitchLight Trilogy which (no pun intended) focuses on the journey of two witches and their mentors. I’ve read the first two of the spin off and am actually finding myself a bit more involved in this series. This spin off was very cleverly done. The author took a pretty good character from A Modern Witch Series and made her an outstanding lead with added depth and parts of her story into the trilogy.
The lead characters are developed in depth. You appreciate them and can’t help getting drawn into their stories. The premise of this series is helping witches who are having issues even if they don’t want to admit it. There are 3 mentors and two students. The main mentor, Jenny, is tasked by her mentor to get involved and help two very different witches find their way.
These two witches are extremely different and have individual problems they don’t willingly recognize. The younger witch, Lizzard, is extremely gifted and smart but very insecure. Her hopes and dreams seem out of reach so she hides behind a smart mouth and getting into trouble. She has had a very tough life and when faced with putting up or shutting up, she runs away. The witches pull some strings to keep her out of juvie and try to help her grow and provide some stability in her life. Elsie is a professional and thinks she is just burned out and needs some time away from her practice to focus on charitable work. In other words she needs a new perspective and thinks she can devote some time to helping witches when she is the one who really needs the help. She’s a bit of a know it all and is completely blinded to her needs. She is rigid in control and just won’t let go.
Jenny as the head mentor knows she cannot handle these two on her own. She enlists some additional mentors, Lauren, (the lead in the first A Modern Witch) a new witch and her best friend, Nat, not a witch at all. Nat has other skills and is eerily able to read people. The whole witching community introduced in the Modern Witch Series ends up involved. The author combines the two series effortlessly.
When you begin this trilogy, have a Kleenex handy. You become so invested in the characters, their feelings, and awakening there is no way you CAN’T not feel for them and their mentors. Jenny is constantly questioning herself and how she can help her students. The following is one of my favorite passages in the novel when Jenny turns to her own mentor for advice and help.
Melvin looked off into the distance. “Why don’t you use a tripod when you take portraits?’
Twenty-five years together and he could still confuse the hell out of her. “too rigid. I need the freedom to move the camera to where it needs to be. If I lock it into place, I always miss the best shots.”
“Indeed.” He smiled softly. “Teach your students not to be tripods, then. Show them the difference between truly supporting someone and merely propping them up.”
There is a lesson in there.
While are plenty of things happening in the series, the thing you need to know is this series deals with people. Their hopes, their dreams, learning to trust themselves and others with their feelings, are beautifully portrayed by Ms Geary. I don’t want you to think you are going to cry from sadness and empathy. There is laughter and joy and even some tears to spend on the laughter and joy. I don’t think my feelings have run the gamut in a long long time. It was extremely refreshing to do so.
This is a trilogy and a spin off, so my advice is to read the first books in the Modern Witch Series, Modern Witch and Hidden Witch; then read the first of this trilogy, Witches on Parole: Unlocked, the third in the Modern Witches Series, A Reckless Witch, and THEN read Witches Underway (Book 2 of the WitchLight Series). If that’s not enough, the final WitchLight Series book, Witches in Flight, is planned for release in March 2012 and the fourth in A Modern Witch Series, A Nomadic Witch, in late spring. That’s a coven of Witch books, sorry couldn’t resist!
From visiting Ms Geary’s website and her Facebook page, I gather she doesn’t tweet but does have a lot of interaction with her fans on FB and on her website. You should stop by.
My rating for the first two books in the WitchLight Series:
4 Stars (This is a very solid four, no weaknesses)
The lead characters are developed in depth. You appreciate them and can’t help getting drawn into their stories. The premise of this series is helping witches who are having issues even if they don’t want to admit it. There are 3 mentors and two students. The main mentor, Jenny, is tasked by her mentor to get involved and help two very different witches find their way.
These two witches are extremely different and have individual problems they don’t willingly recognize. The younger witch, Lizzard, is extremely gifted and smart but very insecure. Her hopes and dreams seem out of reach so she hides behind a smart mouth and getting into trouble. She has had a very tough life and when faced with putting up or shutting up, she runs away. The witches pull some strings to keep her out of juvie and try to help her grow and provide some stability in her life. Elsie is a professional and thinks she is just burned out and needs some time away from her practice to focus on charitable work. In other words she needs a new perspective and thinks she can devote some time to helping witches when she is the one who really needs the help. She’s a bit of a know it all and is completely blinded to her needs. She is rigid in control and just won’t let go.
Jenny as the head mentor knows she cannot handle these two on her own. She enlists some additional mentors, Lauren, (the lead in the first A Modern Witch) a new witch and her best friend, Nat, not a witch at all. Nat has other skills and is eerily able to read people. The whole witching community introduced in the Modern Witch Series ends up involved. The author combines the two series effortlessly.
When you begin this trilogy, have a Kleenex handy. You become so invested in the characters, their feelings, and awakening there is no way you CAN’T not feel for them and their mentors. Jenny is constantly questioning herself and how she can help her students. The following is one of my favorite passages in the novel when Jenny turns to her own mentor for advice and help.
Melvin looked off into the distance. “Why don’t you use a tripod when you take portraits?’
Twenty-five years together and he could still confuse the hell out of her. “too rigid. I need the freedom to move the camera to where it needs to be. If I lock it into place, I always miss the best shots.”
“Indeed.” He smiled softly. “Teach your students not to be tripods, then. Show them the difference between truly supporting someone and merely propping them up.”
There is a lesson in there.
While are plenty of things happening in the series, the thing you need to know is this series deals with people. Their hopes, their dreams, learning to trust themselves and others with their feelings, are beautifully portrayed by Ms Geary. I don’t want you to think you are going to cry from sadness and empathy. There is laughter and joy and even some tears to spend on the laughter and joy. I don’t think my feelings have run the gamut in a long long time. It was extremely refreshing to do so.
This is a trilogy and a spin off, so my advice is to read the first books in the Modern Witch Series, Modern Witch and Hidden Witch; then read the first of this trilogy, Witches on Parole: Unlocked, the third in the Modern Witches Series, A Reckless Witch, and THEN read Witches Underway (Book 2 of the WitchLight Series). If that’s not enough, the final WitchLight Series book, Witches in Flight, is planned for release in March 2012 and the fourth in A Modern Witch Series, A Nomadic Witch, in late spring. That’s a coven of Witch books, sorry couldn’t resist!
From visiting Ms Geary’s website and her Facebook page, I gather she doesn’t tweet but does have a lot of interaction with her fans on FB and on her website. You should stop by.
My rating for the first two books in the WitchLight Series:
4 Stars (This is a very solid four, no weaknesses)
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Life is Happening
Well, I had planned to post a blog at least every other day but as you can see, that's not been happening. For some reason the past week just flew by. Then on Thursday, I over did it with appointments and running around town taking care of stuff. I had gotten up at 3:45am. After my appointments and some personal stuff, I was exhausted but couldn't get to sleep until midnight. Needless to say I've spent the last couple of days as a zombie. Oooo, I like zombies but don't like feeling like one. So I am taking today off. No chores!!
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Lazy Sundays
Well maybe not so lazy. The hubby and I are making our biannual batch of chili. We usually end up using two or three stock pots but a friend of mine made a wonderful suggestion. I have an 18 quart oven I bake turkeys or very large roasts in and that's what we made the chili in. Can you believe it?, 18 quarts of chili. Maybe we won't need to make it again for 3 years. It sure smells good though. The best part, we made it together. I sliced and diced and he did the browning and put it all together.
Hope everyone is doing well.
Hope everyone is doing well.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
The Kindlegraphs have arrived!!
Since I found out about this cool feature, I've been dying to try it out. I sent kindlegraph requests to two authors whose books I have. The kindlegraphs came back within a couple of days and I'm in awe.
It comes into your kindle as a document so you have to add the kindlegraph address so your Fire will accept the document.
It took me a few minutes to figure out how to actually get them on my Kindle (have I mentioned I'm inept in electronic gadgets).
Once I got them, I was so surprised at the quality of the book cover flat and then each author wrote a personal little note and signed the paper book flat.
So, I guess now we just need to get more and more authors to sign on for this project.
It comes into your kindle as a document so you have to add the kindlegraph address so your Fire will accept the document.
It took me a few minutes to figure out how to actually get them on my Kindle (have I mentioned I'm inept in electronic gadgets).
Once I got them, I was so surprised at the quality of the book cover flat and then each author wrote a personal little note and signed the paper book flat.
So, I guess now we just need to get more and more authors to sign on for this project.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Afterthought
I know I am technologically challenged and I accept this but am frustrated by it. Most of the time I stumble upon new things accidentally. I was way behind on the pinterest craze and had to have lessons from my sister-in-law. By no means am I addicted but I enjoy it well enough. I love most of my little gadgets but they are probably not being used to their full capacity. I have my iPhone, my 2 Kindles and a desktop computer. I know, everyone has a laptop but I'd never move off the couch if I had a laptop; besides between the Kindle Fire and my iPhone, I don't have to actually get on the computer unless I want some true speed and need the exercise.
Yes, there's a point to all this. When I do accidentally come across new things, I like to share (and if you already know about the neat things I find, just humor me please ; ' )
I'm on twitter and I learn a bunch of stuff from other people's posts. Just recently, Shiloh Walker made a comment in a tweet about a website called Kindlegraph. Not knowing what that was, (I'm extremely nosey, er, curious), I googled it and found a very cool website. I've always thought it was a shame with the advent of the e-readers that I was missing out on some of my favorite authors' autographs. Well, now I or you don't have to. Kindlegraph is a website where you can contact a favorite author and if they so desire, they can send you an autograph back as a document. The autograph is on a cover flat and can even be personalized. I thought this was fantastic. I was ready to send off a slew of requests especially to my favorite indie authors.
Um, well, even though the website boasts partnering with over 1200 authors, only a few of "my" authors had signed up for the service. From what I can gather from the website, the authors can sign up for free but in some instances the recipient of the autograph might have to pay a small fee for the document download. Not sure how that will work. I think I'm going to try it out and get back to you on it.
The whole point of this ramble, er, post was to see if we as readers could get more authors on board so we can benefit in the autograph department. So that's my discovery for the day. Interested, let your favorite authors know. Here's the link: http://www.kindlegraph.com/
Yes, there's a point to all this. When I do accidentally come across new things, I like to share (and if you already know about the neat things I find, just humor me please ; ' )
I'm on twitter and I learn a bunch of stuff from other people's posts. Just recently, Shiloh Walker made a comment in a tweet about a website called Kindlegraph. Not knowing what that was, (I'm extremely nosey, er, curious), I googled it and found a very cool website. I've always thought it was a shame with the advent of the e-readers that I was missing out on some of my favorite authors' autographs. Well, now I or you don't have to. Kindlegraph is a website where you can contact a favorite author and if they so desire, they can send you an autograph back as a document. The autograph is on a cover flat and can even be personalized. I thought this was fantastic. I was ready to send off a slew of requests especially to my favorite indie authors.
Um, well, even though the website boasts partnering with over 1200 authors, only a few of "my" authors had signed up for the service. From what I can gather from the website, the authors can sign up for free but in some instances the recipient of the autograph might have to pay a small fee for the document download. Not sure how that will work. I think I'm going to try it out and get back to you on it.
The whole point of this ramble, er, post was to see if we as readers could get more authors on board so we can benefit in the autograph department. So that's my discovery for the day. Interested, let your favorite authors know. Here's the link: http://www.kindlegraph.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)