4 star #bookreview - Enslavement by @MelindaFriesen #ya #dystopian @chapterxchapter @RebelightBooks

Welcome to the blog tour for Enslavement by Melinda Friesen. Here's some book info and below is my review!


Blurb from Goodreads:

"One world. One currency. One bright future."

That's the promise made by OneEarth Bank after a global economic collapse--but only for those who accept the insertion of a commerce chip.

When Rielle's parents refuse to comply, government officials tear her family apart. As punishment for her parent's crimes, Rielle is forced into a Community Service Contract--a legalized form of slavery--and sold to a wealthy, abusive banker.

The Banker's secrets hold the key to Rielle's freedom, but will she risk prison or even death to escape and search for her family? 

Buy at Amazon

My Review:

I enjoyed Enslavement and look forward to the next book. The editing and formatting were topnotch. The book started with a bang and the author did an excellent job building an unfortunately possible-sounding world. It was easy to make an emotional connection to the main character, Rielle, as she is torn from her family and essentially sold as a slave, although the authorities claim she’s just being rehabilitated for any criminal learnings she may have received from her parents who refused to have tracking/financial chips inserted.

Rielle reacts to her out-of-control situation by controlling the only thing the can – her voice. She refuses to speak to her owner or any of the other “Contracts.” I appreciated this as a device to have Rielle fight back, but I thought she could have worked harder to find other ways to communicate and do more than just react to one of her fellow Contracts who might have a way out, or to really understand her owner’s nephew who clearly has some kind of secret.

Rielle did her best to stand up to her owner and take punishment to protect the others. She is clearly strong and smart. The only real complaint I had was that Rielle did nothing to cause her own salvation. Other people put the opportunities in place and she had to be pushed into them. Then she waited to be rescued. It wasn’t until the last line of the book that we see that she intends to fight the system going forward. And while this nicely sets up the sequel, I would have preferred to see her be more proactive at least through the last quarter of the book. But again, the writer’s skills and world-building do ensure that I look forward to the next book and seeing a more active fight.

I rate this 3.8 stars, rounding up to 4 in most systems. I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

About the author:
Melinda Friesen was born in Portland, Oregon. She attended school in Texas and met a vastly interesting Canadian man, who she allowed to drag her to his home in the wilds of Manitoba, Canada. Living in an igloo wasn't easy. Wait. She didn't actually live in an igloo, but that would make this story much more interesting. 

Among her accomplishments are surviving -40 degree weather, gestating four human being inside her body, and staying happily married to that Canadian man for over 20 years despite the weather conditions he's exposed her to. And she writes too! 

4 Star #bookreview for Larry Brook's The Seventh Thunder

Today I'm reviewing The Seventh Thunder by Larry Brooks.

Book blurb from Amazon:

When committed agnostic Gabriel Stone’s wife dies in an unlikely airline disaster, he pours himself into the writing of a story that has haunted him since his youth—a novel his devout wife had warned him never to finish. Inspired by a visit to the island of Patmos, he is fascinated with the visions beheld there by St. John The Divine while in political exile for his beliefs. Those visions included terrifying events delivered by what John described as “seven thunders,” which he was instructed to withhold, to seal up and “write them not” (Revelation 10:4). As Stone becomes entrenched in his speculative interpretation of what those visions might have been, an embedded code within the Book of Revelation itself reveals startling connections to covert operations that are about to tear the world’s political landscape to shreds, perhaps signaling the beginning of the prophesied end of times.

As Stone’s novel nears publication, he finds himself the pawn in a war between superpowers and supernatural forces, each hoping to control the book, each driven by hidden agendas beyond Stone’s comprehension. Facing choices that are at once spiritual and life-dependent, with global stakes pivoting on his ability to accept the unbelievable and stop the unthinkable, The Seventh Thunder is a secular thriller that stops at nothing short of our very souls hanging in the balance, while ringing frighteningly relevant to today’s headlines. Winner of the 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Award for best novel in the SUSPENSE/THRILLER category.

My Review:

I jumped at the chance to read The Seventh Thunder for several reasons. Larry Brook’s is my hero for his Story Engineering and other books on writing. Plus, this topic is one I enjoy – like Dan Brown’s books - a modern look at religion and the bible.

The Seventh Thunder is certainly akin to Dan Brown’s books. The energy, twists, and insightful looks at biblical history, they’re all there. And quite obviously, Mr. Brooks knows how to craft a story to keep the reader from putting the book down.

So for all of that, the book gets top marks from me. I’m not going to rehash the blurb on the possibility I might accidentally give away spoilers. But I enjoyed getting to know the main character Gabriel Stone, felt the loss of his wife and his excitement that his book would be published for big numbers. Using a computer to pull future information from Revelations and other ancient scrolls might have been a bit farfetched as far as technique, but I loved the concept.

There are some things that pulled me from the story occasionally. There were several statements that felt like author intrusion with regard to a political bias, and even one character who would clearly not be liberal had a thought that felt totally wrong. There are a LOT of characters in this book and I can’t say their voices were unique, nor their motivations clear (some of that was purposeful, I realize), but the result is that it was hard to follow in places and know who to root for. I felt a bit like coming into a Bond flick 20 minutes late sometimes – the action and tension were great, but I felt lost. This was added to by so many of the characters motivated by belief rather than knowledge even as information was accumulated. It all worked out, these were short term confusions - and maybe just me being a dope!

There were several conversations without sufficient dialogue tags or action and given some of the above, it took work to figure out who was speaking from context. There were a couple cases where continuing conversation was not handled correctly with quotation marks, which forced me to reread, and in my kindle version, paragraph tabbing was inconsistent.

But overall it was a wild ride that I enjoyed and would certainly recommend to people who like this genre. Well done, I rate this at 4 stars.

Buy from Amazon here.

4 Star Review - L.R. Trovillion's False Gods #ya

False Gods by L.R. Trovillion is available on Amazon in print and ebook.  All proceeds from sales during the months of December and January are being donated to the Glenelg United Methodist Youth Program (www.glenelgumc.org)  

My review:

False Gods by L.R.  Trovillion tells the story of Cory Iverson, a teenage girl afraid to fail. Her solution to avoiding failure is to avoid trying, running away at the first sign things are going wrong. She doesn’t have the most supportive home, her divorced mother sleeps with creeps and is addicted to prescription meds. Her sister is extremely focused on becoming a dancer, to the point of starving herself to have the right body.

In spite of Cory’s fear, she does try things and even takes things into her own hands like her clarinet lessons. But the scary band instructor sends her running from the room. Luckily, Cory’s dog leads her to the one thing with the ability to help her overcome her fears – a horse farm. At the barn she finds supportive people and, best of all, horses.

As I've found in my own life, horses are so forgiving and never have an ulterior motive or judge even when we make mistakes. Not only does Cory keep up with her  job at the barn and riding lessons, she makes a goal of qualifying for a high-level jumping competition.

But her boss remains a mystery – someone who used to be at the top and now refuses to show. Did she lose her nerve and run away too?

Cory digs around her bosses past, opening painful wounds and nearly ending her chance at finally sticking with something.

I won’t give an spoilers, but Cory’s fight to come to terms with herself and her family feels real and raw. Ms. Trovillion makes the reader care about Cory and want to solve the mystery of her boss along with her. The book is well written and cleanly edited (for those of you that know my nitpickiness!) Definitely worth reading for people who love horses, music, or remember those teen years when life controlled us rather than the other way around. And if you purchase in January, all proceeds are going toward a good cause, a youth group.

This book gets a solid 4 stars from me (high praise, I expect perfection for 5 stars). Recommended purchase!