L.E. DeLano's Blog, page 8

As with my letter “R” pick, my letter “S” pick for the A To Z challenge, SUNREACH by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson continues the adventures of Skyward Flight (from the SKYWARD series) as they battle the evil galactic Superiority that’s bent on imprisoning and/or exterminating the humans along with the horrific Delvers from another dimension.

The previous installments of this series were strong stories about the continuing battle of the humans on the planet Detritus and their valiant Defiant Defense Force of pilots as they work to push beyond their borders by reclaiming dormant low orbit defense platforms, battling Superiority drones and learning the secrets of hyperdrive so they can escape their prison planet. It was great to see them interacting with the cute and somewhat bizarre Tanix (colorful slug-like creatures that can transport themselves and others across great distances) and mastering their use for the hyperdrives of their ships, and while I love the characters of Rig the engineer and FM the DDF pilot, this book devolved pretty quickly into a space romance that was all about whether or not FM would get her man. Skyward flight has a hell of a lot more going on to make the romance more than a subplot. I’ll give this three stars because this book could have been so much more.

Yep, that’s a new book.

Pardon me if this one quietly sneaks out and stands at the edge of the playground watching the big kids play.

Here’s the thing. I wrote this book because every time I present a workshop or mentor a writing group, I am asked if I have written a book about writing and where they can get it. This is my way of obliging them.

I am an award-winning author, who has been traditionally and independently published with a combined twenty-two novels and thirteen novellas in three different genres.

I am not a USA Today Bestselling Author (I did land a film option on a book), but I bring in respectable numbers. Am I the greatest writer out there? Not even close. I’m still learning about the craft and will be as long as I’m doing it.

I do know a lot about writing discipline, managing time, organizing inspiration, and busting through obstacles, especially since I survived a massive stroke in 2018 and went on to write and publish the award-winning novel – one I partially drafted while sitting in a hospital bed with my brains all scrambled and my body not cooperating.

So I know how to get your writing act together, and have a system for plotting that keeps even the most free-spirited Pantsers (like me) on track.

I put all of that down on paper (and in eBook). Read it through if you’d like, and take what you can from it. And if I see you in one of my workshops at a conference or book fest, I will now have a book to push into your hands, should you want one. Go me!

Meanwhile, I’m working on my next YA adventure. Stay tuned!

BUY THE BOOK.

My letter “R” pick for the A to Z Book Challenge was REDAWN by Brandon Sanderson. This is book two of the Skyward Flight series, once more following the members of Skyward flight while its hero, Spensa Nightshade (of the original Skyward book and series) is traversing the galaxy and alternate dimensions.

In this installment, we follow Princess Alanik of the planet ReDawn, who had recently crash-landed on the planet Detritus, only to find (much to her shock) a group of humans battling The Superiority, a galactic empire bent on controlling and manipulating all its member planets, as well as eradicating the human scourge once and for all.

Alanik has been working against the manipulations of The Superiority on her own world, whose ruling council is putting pressure on Alanik and the population to join The Superiority as a member planet. Alanik reminds her people (just as she once warned Spensa), “Don’t trust their lies. Don’t trust their false peace.”

When The Superiority finally makes their move, Alanik and her new-found allies, the Skyward Flight, must find a way to repair and harness ancient weapons if Redawn is to remain free.

I have to say, I have loved every single book in this series. Brandon Sanderson’s imagination is bigger than the galaxy and just a breathtaking. This book had all the thrills, twists, and humor I’ve enjoyed in everything he’s written and I am looking forward to the next book in the series very much. I’ll give this four stars out of five mainly because Alanik just didn’t capture my heart the way Spensa Nightshade did. Maybe she’s set the bar too high.

My letter “Q” pick for this year’s A to Z Book Challenge was Querencia: Reflections on the New Mexico Homeland, edited by by Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez, Levi Romero, and Spencer R. Herrera. Querencia is defined as homesickness or nostalgia for a place where you are free to be your true self, and as I was born and mostly raised in New Mexico, this book was like a warm sopapilla (with honey – none of that powdered sugar nonsense) and a cup of cocoa.

This collection of stories based around the Querencia theme come from Chicano, Indigenous, and Genizaro authors and is an exploration of the culture, history, literature, and media of New Mexico. I really enjoyed the individual viewpoints and learned a few things about varying cultures I hadn’t explored in depth before. All the contributors stressed the unity and community of under-represented people and cultures and gave their own unique view of what New Mexico living is and has been within those communities.

This was an engaging read, but a couple of the essays strayed into a list of aired grievances rather than discussion, which led me to a rating of four stars.

My letter “P” book for the A to Z book challenge was THE POLYGAMIST’S DAUGHTER by Anna LeBaron.

Recounting her childhood as the daughter of the notorious polygamist and murderer Ervil LeBaron, and the polygamist cult he lead, Anna LeBaron had a horrific childhood. With her father wanted for murder and the FBI chasing them down, Anna’s early childhood was one of being constantly on the run with the other sister wives and her brothers and sisters (there were fifty). She often dealt with gnawing hunger, uncertainty, and feeling like she was alone despite being surrounded by others. She escaped the cult at thirteen, and after some twists and turns ended up in a far better place.

I have to confess, this one was very nearly a DNF for me. Despite the inspirational story and the heart-wrenching subject matter, this book was dry as dust – mainly because Anna skimmed over so much of the real story of the LeBaron cult, her fathers murders, their practices, etc. It was more a detail of her life of poverty. This book is touted as a gripping memoir, but the final third of the book was a straight-up sermon after Anna converts to conservative Christianity.

If you’re a very religious person, this book is meant for you. If you’re looking for a riveting memoir and true crime recounting, there are many better books and documentaries about the LeBaron cult that will give you the full story in a much more interesting way. Also, if you’re considering buying this on audiobook – don’t. The narrator is monotonous and volume levels are all over the place.

I’m giving this two and a half stars, and one of those is for my respect for all she’s overcome.

My letter O pick for the A to Z Challenge was OBJECTS OF MY AFFECTION by Jill Smolinski, a lighthearted book about what it really means to let go.

Lucy Bloom, our protagonist, finds herself in a serious bind when she’s dumped, then homeless because she had to sell her house in order to put her nineteen year old son in rehab. Having had some success with a book about decluttering, she takes on the enormous (but well-paying) task of cleaning and organizing the home of Marva Meier Rios, an eccentric old artist and hoarder.

Lucy soon begins to understand “there are those things you keep, things you let go of – and it’s often not easy to know the difference.”

This was a light, funny, heartfelt read. It got off to a bit of a slow start, and in the beginning, Lucy was irking me by talking down to the crochety but lovable Marna. I got pulled in more as the book unfolded, but the shining star of this story wasn’t Lucy and Marva’s relationship, Lucy and her ex and new boyfriend’s relationships, but the emotionally eviscerating, helpless-but-still-hopeful relationship between Lucy and her son Ash. If you’ve ever dealt with a loved one dealing with addiction, this will hit you right on the feels and rub them raw with sandpaper.

The story does resolve everything in a satisfactory manner, and once it started rolling, I felt like I flew right through it. If you plan on listening to the audiobook, I must say in all honesty the narrator was not very good and the performance did the story a disservice.

Three and a half stars.

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Pre-order your books here and I’ll have them waiting for you at the table. Every pre-order puts you in the running to win a free book plus my show giveaway swag pack.

My letter “N” pick for the A to Z Book Challenge was NINTH HOUSE by Leigh Bardugo. Let me start by saying that I’ve read every book Bardugo has written and loved the hell out of them all – until now.

NINTH House follows Miss Alex Stern, a young woman with a troubled past who is recruited into a secret supernatural society housed on the campus of Yale University. All the most renowned houses on campus are fronts for their supernatural specialties like spellwork, shape-shifting and divination, among others.Alex gets their attention (and a free ride to at Yale) due to her unique ability to see and physically interact with the dead (something that has caused her great harm in the past).

Along with her mentor, a charismatic young man named Darlington, Alex begins the journey of not only honing her own powers, but learning all there is to know about the supernatural houses that her particular house, Lethe, is charged to oversee.

Things go very wrong when Darlington goes missing, spirits begin to target Alex, and more nefarious things are afoot within the houses.

This book is rich with world-building and plot twists, and Alex and Darlington are strong and compelling characters, but the story shifts back and forth between present and past at whiplash levels, making it hard to keep up with and frustrating to have to flip back occasionally to various sections and refresh your memory when the past echoes into the present.

This book is also 75% info dump about the societies, their individual histories, players, and current activities to the point that it sometimes felt more like a slog than a read due to the slow pace. I realize this is poised to be the start of a series (two books projected for now but Bardugo has said she plans to follow Alex through several more) but I struggled with finishing this rather than feeling like I couldn’t put it down (like Bardugo’s other books). Four stars for a brilliant premise but too much information clogs up the gears.

Trigger warning: this book explicitly describes rape, drug use, physical abuse, and death.

My letter “M” pick for the A to Z Book Challenge was MEDITATIONS by Marcus Aurelius, translated by George Long. This was a free audiobook with my Audible membership, and since I vowed to put a variety of genres into my list this year, it was an easy pick.

Marcus Aurelius was a Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD (actually a co-emperor, along with his adopted brother), and a lifelong philosopher. He credits many of his teachers in his works and expounds upon their virtues in great detail, describing every bit of himself that he owes in some part to them.

It’s easy to just delve into this as a self-help book, full of wise musings and existential introspection, but when you realize his works were more of a diary, or “note to self” sort of account and not meant to be published and inspiring the masses, the words become a much more personal study of what this man learned from life, what made it worth living to him, and what he still struggles to find in his experience.

George Long got some flack on this translation, as it was greatly pared down and more of a sampling of Aurelius’s work rather than a full study or compendium. I felt it was a good introduction to someone vaguely familiar with Aurelius, and definitely left me with an interest in delving deeper into his work. All in all, a solid, if occasionally dry read. I give this three stars, and I’ll leave you with a few favorite quotes.

“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”

My letter “L” pick for the A to Z Challenge was LEGENDS & LATTES by Travis Baldree.

This book was such an unexpected mix of lighthearted fun and heart – I just absolutely loved it. This story is a comforting mug of cocoa by a fire with your best friend on a cold day.

We start out with Viv, a determined badass Orc who has hung up her battle axe (literally – it’s behind the counter) and quit her mercenary work after defeating a terrifying monster, making a bunch of money, and scoring herself a Scalvert’s Stone – a magical stone that gives the owner good luck.

She moves to the town of Thune, buys a dilapidated building, and with the help of a local handyman named Cal she turns it into a coffee house – a product no one in Thune had ever heard of. She recruits Tandri, an introverted succubus with a talent for management and presentation, and Thimble, a Ratkin who happens to be an excellent baker, and soon the coffee shop is a hopping spot for good coffee, great eats, and lively conversation (featuring live music!).

This gets the attention of a local crime boss who stupidly tries to extort an orc with an enormous battle-axe, and another merc who wants to steal the Scalvert’s stone – all of which puts Viv’s livelihood and the new found family she’s built in danger.

This book is stuffed with humor, masterful with it’s worldbuilding and characters, and is loaded with heartfelt moments that will sock you in the feels before handing you a steaming cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun. I cannot recommend this enough. If you buy it on audiobook, the author narrates – which is often a disaster – but in this case, Travis Baldree is a seasoned audiobook narrator with hundreds of titles under his belt – and it shows. His performance is highly entertaining.

Five stars and a homemade biscotti for this one.