The Friend Scheme

by Cale Dietrich

I'm going to give him the power to destroy me. I guess thats what love is.

    The Friend Scheme, the second novel by Cale Dietrich, was a very cute read. Cute is the best word I can use to describe it, in all of its early teens flirting and first dates, mixed in with a sprinkling of and underground crime world, and Romero and Juliet almost, glory. We follow Matthew Miller, whose father is head of one of the biggest crime families in Florida. Matthew never fit in with the crime family, not like his older brother, Luke, who took to it like a match to dry grass. Besides that, Luke and Matt actually have a cute brotherly relationship, Luke knows his brother is more gentle and looks out for him throughout the whole story. 

    Matt has known he likes boys for years, but hadn't acted on it, so never really came out to anyone. That was until, at one of his families meetings, he meets a boy. Someone he's never seen before, but makes it very obvious they both feel the same about the crime world and women. 

Both ain't it. 

Only catch is, Matt is pretty sure this boy is a member of their rival family, the second most powerful crime family in town. Out of respect for their families, the two never talk about their family, or even tell each other their last names. Only it's hard to get to know someone when keeping half of your identity a secret. 

While is nots the deepest story I've ever read, and some moments were really awkward and consisted of the two love interested talking about movies and video games whenever they were hanging out, I still really liked it. I had to choose my favorite quotes from the book, so below is the honorable mention. 

"You're friends with a straight guy? In this economy?" - The Friend 

Scheme

:)

 The Shadow of What Was Lost

by James Islington

    

You can put your trust in something that's obvious, thats measurable, or predictable - that's not faith. Nor is believing in something that gives you no pause for doubt, no reason or desire to question. Faith is something more than that. By definition, is cannot have proof as its foundation. 

    Where to even begin with this story. It's an epic fantasy, with great world building and magic that is similar to the all famous Force in Star Wars. It's packed with characters but everyone of them play unique parts, the first being the main character Davian, who goes from being a not-so-ordinary student into a Kan prodigy.

The two types of 'magic' in this book are the gifted who can channel Essence, which is the life in all living things, such as the water in grass, the warmth from the sun, and soul of a person, used by the Gifted. The second type is called Kan, thats used by Augurs, who can use both, but only Essence when drawn from an external source.

Theres a heavy political presence in this story, but it was done very well and kept things interesting. The base of the politics is that the Augurs and Gifted used to rule with the kings, Augurs could see the future through visions and if multiple Augurs saw the same vision it was guarantied to take place. 

Until, the Augurs stopped getting the future right and pissed off one too many kings. Augurs started going missing, and the gifted were placed under a band, sealed in magic, that they could never use Essence on another person. Then they started making Shadows.

Any Gifted could become a Shadow, after anyone with essence severed their connection with it. The process leaves permeant scarring,  and the person became a shadow, who were even more scrutinized and publicly hated. So much so, that Davian, when he was young and running errands for the school of Gifted, was attacked and given two scars on either side of his face. However, an onlooker came to his rescue, and that was the first known time after the ban that a Gifted used Essence on another person, to break the tenants, thought to be impossible. That guy was known as Taeris. 

A few more characters are Asha, who was a Gifted at Davians school and they were close friends, and maybe more, before the school was attacked, and she was turned into a Shadow. She was thought to be dead, but instead ending up serving at the palace in the capital, as King Elocien's advisor, who doubled as a spy against a group of Rouge Shadow's in the inner city, and then eventually a helper of the three Augurs who were hiding in the palace among the staff. 

Wirr, or Torin, was also at the school and Davians best friend. He kept his true identity a secret while they were in school, but soon he revealed he was the crown prince of a kingdom who hated the Gifted. He left in secret to train, and luckily left with Davian the night before the school was attacked.

They met up with Taeris, and were led to find a boy named Caeden. Unfortunately, that was all the boy seemed to know about himself. But soon the boy showed he was skilled with killing supernatural creatures, showed incredible use of both Kan and Essence, and in the end, learned he was not who he thought he was at all. 

There shapeshifting, time traveling, and great evil creatures being kept at bay by a eroding boundary, that if humans cannot figure out its stance on Essence and Kan, will to caught 'with their pants down' so to speak, with a great evil that the old Augurs foretold. 

So, theres a lot going on in this story, and this was just the beginning. 

:)

 The Song of Achilles

by Madeline Miller

    I bought The Song of Achilles and Circe by Madeline Miller after thinking about them for a few weeks. I had no clue what they were about, and usually I don't like anything that has to do with Greek Mythology. That genre usually just bored me, but I am so glad I picked this novel up! 

It took me a few minutes to get into to it, but about 50 pages in, I was hooked. I thought it was such a charming story about love, fame, and loss. I liked how it was told from Patroclus's point of view.  If it had been told from Achilles point of view, it would have been a very different story, focused on destiny, and never finding an opponent that gave him a good fight, and growing from scared of being fated as the "greatest warrior who ever lived", to being bored of being the best and wanting to prove himself if every reckless way. 

Instead Patroclus gave us a view of Achilles that made him seem more human. 

At first, Patroclus annoyed me because he was whiny and small as a main character, but then considering what he had been through, it made sense for him, and as his character developed, he became my favorite of the two.

I loved the small moments between him and Achilles, and how they existed together. How Patroclus always went after Achilles, and how honest they were with each other. Usually in a love story like this, one character lies to the other about something, creating a fight when the other finds out the truth, but they were honest the entire time, and it was just neat to see a love story like that.

What lead to the test of their relationship was Achilles, the hero, being selfish and cruel, while Patroclus won the war and saved the men. Achilles refused to fight on account of his pride, and allowed Patroclus to take his place, even after Patroclus begged him. 

I loved the last 50 pages of this story. It was the most unique ending, with having Patroclus's stunt be what sets into motion Achilles death, and how we got to see the story continue from Patroclus as a ghost. 

I highly recommend this love story.

:)

Fairy tale

by Stephen King

A brave man helps. A coward just gives presents.

    First and foremost, happy 2023! I hope this first week has treated you well and that any resolutions you may have set are off to strong starts. There have been a few major changes in my life that I am reflecting on as I write this,  but one thing I want to say is that it has officially been a year since I started this blog page and reviewing books and creating this site. It's been a fun challenge and I know I will continue this page for the foreseeable future and beyond.

That said, let's get to this review!

I had seen this book first on Instagram, a few months before I bought it. I was worried it was going to be a horror story, and those are not what I am about. I didn't do my research like I said I would, but one day, in Kroger, it was there, and 25% off. 

Now, I've completed this story and I am so happy I started off the year in this book. So many good things happened, from plot, to writing styles, and small little tokens that really brought magic into this story. I've seen reviews say this is a "raunchy Happy Potter", and I disagree. While I can see what they mean, theres not enough of either elements from those stories in Fairy tale, and I think they were just using those titles as clickbait. 

Its like the first book in the Harry Potter series, where it starts off as a realistic fiction story, nothing seem out of the ordinary until it was, and yes there are some raunchy jokes, but not enough to bring up in a review, after all, the main character is a 17 year-old boy, what can you expect?

Charlie Reade gives us his account of an adventure he took when he was a young man. An adventure to another world. The key was kindness to an old man whole fell off a ladder while cleaning the gutters.

Charlie makes it his mission to care for this old man, Mr. Bowditch, until he's back on his feet, as a way of fulfilling a promise he keeps close to his heart. A promise to God.

Mr. Bowditch turns out to not be such a crochetey old man but a very interesting one. As Charlie learns more and more about him, he soon learns that the shed in the backyard holds nothing but a ditch. A ditch that turns into a staircase that leads to another world. The world where our fairytales hail from.

What he finds there is right out of the Grimm's stories, but as he spends more time there, he feels himself turning into one of those famous characters children will read about for centuries. 

King added a lot of interesting layers to this story, there are a lot of parallel characters between Charles home world and the one he entered, which gives the idea that those worlds are parallel universes, and some have had the fortune to travel between them. That Charlie might be a high school student in one world, but a prince in another.  Georgiana Womack, with the strawberry birthmark on her check could have been a mute princess that had to eat through a red sore in her check because her mouth was gone. It gave it the idea that maybe a that a neighbor or distant cousin has been a one of those famous adventures and returned. As if that magic portal could be anywhere, just covered by a cement slab or has a house built right on top of it. 

One small joke, or I took it as a joke, was a page where Charlie is expecting this dog to talk back and answer a question, but then says "Well, duh. It wasn't that kind of fairy tale," I found this funny because fairy tales usually have a talking animal, so I thought that was a fun poke at genre expectations. 

The tone starts off in Kings 'good-ole-sourthen-boy" kinda way, and transforms into a more magical tone, where characters spoke all different languages, but magic made them all understand each other, using old words and old nursery rhymes. It went from old-southern-boy, to whatever the Grimm's British tone is. 

The pace was great, it was slow where it needed to be, but since its being told from the main character as a flashback, King could use small pacers like "But then it was", or "Little did I know," things like that to keep the reader interested and excited to see what was coming, or what 'it was" or what Charlie "didn't know" at that time. It is a great tool to keep the plot moving forwards while keeping the reader guessing. 

It was a great tale and a fun read, as any good fairy tale should be. The King does fairytales very well indeed. I highly recommend this book to anyone, it was a great adventure

:)

Dead Man in a Ditch

By Luke Arnold

You ever suddenly, shockingly, find yourself in the present moment? Drop right into right now? And all it does is highlight the fact that you spend every other moment somewhere else?

    The second installment of The Man for Hires story proved just as wonderful and non-magical as the first. With more hints that magic might come back, and enough evidence to almost convince the man who destroyed it himself, more and more parlor tricks come into the light.  

Fletch thought he'd really seen it all, but as magical threats and allegations come to light, it becomes clear to him how, despite the facade of a few people trying to crawl forwards, most people were trying to sprint back to how things had been. Doctors stole magic from the remains of those who didn't survive the coda, and surgeons reconstructed the youth that was stolen from hundreds of year old creatures who expected to live for centuries only 6 years before. 

Fletch knew to be spectacle, after all, he had seen the magic with his own eyes. 

Despite being a realist most of his story, in this part of his life, we see how hopeful Fletch really is. Fletch was alone most of the first book, working alone and resting alone. He seems much older than about 34 until his mentor comes back from the dead.

I felt such a crazy change in Fletch's character. He felt like a puppy who finally found his master, like a kid who was lost but then found his mom at the store again. The sense of relief that came through Fletch that Arnold managed to bring into existence for the readers was amazing. His mentor was back to save the day, here with the solution, here to make it all better. Here to give orders and have Fletch carry them out.

Until Fletch discovered his mentors plan was to destroy Sunder City and leave no survivors.

Seeing a character so relieved by his mentors presence, only to have to turn against them, is usually a huge turning point in most stories, and it was here as well. Fletch finally decided that if anyone could save Sunder, it was him. After discovering the fires that ran the city  from below were still lit, Fletch knew what he had to do. 

I am really excited for the next installment by Arnold. This has been one of the most unique stories I've read. I love seeing more and more of Sunder City and getting to know more of the characters.

If there was a music genre for Fletch, it would be the band Poor Man's Poison, any of their songs really captures Fletch's attitude. He sad, stoic, but still flys by the seat of his pants. 

I have no clue what will happen in the next installment, but I am so excited for it!

:)

The Obsession

By Jesse Q. Sutanto

    I picked up this book recently and I am so glad I did! It was a roller coaster and I could never really guess what was going to happen next.

Sutanto created this story around two main characters Delilah and Logan who meet at a private high school, each with a dark past. 

Logan lost the love of his life the year before, sending him spiraling while Deliah dealt with an abusive step-father at home. 

But nothing is what it seems from the outside.

I loved reading from Logan's point of view, Sutanto captured the thoughts of someone in a manic state. His thoughts were fast, and never quite finished before another started. And they were all about Delilah. We saw him try to slow himself down in the beginning of the story, to control himself and to stalk her, but soon he is sneaking into her house and planting himself in her life. 

When Delilah isn’t sure about him, he threatens to expose a certain video that could end her life as she knew it.

Delilah isn’t the innocent victim in this story, her crime just isn’t stalking and manipulating. Hers was murder and drug dealing.

I liked the direction Sutanto took this story in, the characters were real enough and changed as the plot developed I was shocked at the ending. I really enjoyed the suspense and fast pace of everything. 

SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT.

    I do think that Sutanto missed an opportunity. Once Delilah is revealed to be the school drug dealer, I was excited to see what Logan would do once he found out, because Logans Ex died to her drug addition and caused him a mental breakdown after her death, just the year before. I think it would have been fun to have Logan discover that Delilah was the one responsible for supplying the drugs. I think that would have added another layer to the plot, instead of Delilah just murdering Logan while he was drugged and still saw her as a perfect being. I don't think he would have found her so charming after knowing she is responsible for the death of someone he loved. 

I think he would start to view her as dangerous to her own health, thus he could have planned someway to kill her and reasoned himself into thinking it was the best thing to do for her.

I just think it would have been an interesting way to take the plot and make the story a little bit longer.

It felt like the perfect October read, would highly recommend. 

:)

The Last Smile in Sunder City 

by Luke Arnold

“You want proof, Fetch? Look in the mirror. You hold on to guilt like it’s a life preserver. So angry at yourself, and your mob, that you can’t smell the blood on the hands of the rest of us. But it isn't about you and your kind tonight. It’s just me. Sometimes, the one who looks like the monster turns out to be a monster.” (Arnold 169). 

There are three things you need to know about the main character Fetch Phillips. 

1. Sobriety costs extra.

2. His services are confidential. 

3. He doesn’t work for humans. 

As a man for hire in a world where magic has recently run out, Fetch has seen it all. Vampires no longer drink blood, werewolves are stuck somewhere between human and beasts, necromancers stopped raising the dead, and Satyrs disappear and humans are the only ones who make it out unscathed.

All except Fetch. 

He knows what killed the magic, what caused the death of thousands of people and the love of his life, and all the suffering thereafter. Fetch lives and operates in Sunder City which is still raw from the loss of the magic, and the few souls who are trying to move forwards, end up going missing.

Fetch is brought in to find a vampire who’s gone missing. As he looks around the city for clues and runs into old friends and enemies, we get to see that Fetch is more than the tough, drunken ex-soldier he pretends to be. After some well-paced flashbacks into Fetch’s past, it makes sense why he doesn’t work with humans, or really trust anyone around him. 

Arnold managed to deliver a story with multiple layers. Fetch is a deep character and unique from so many modern day protagonists. The first way he is unique is that he’s old. Well, old compared to most protagonists. At 30 years old, he has a wisdom about him and a more believable case of alcoholism because he’s had the time for that to develop. 

I wanted to add in a few quotes below, just because I liked them, and I want to say/write/type a few things about the first quote at the top of this review. 

“I like books. They’re quiet and dignified and absolute. A man might falter but his words, once written, will hold.” (Arnold 18). 

“Friends serve a purpose, but every man needs a few good enemies to remind him who he is.” (Arnold 226). 

“A good man is made through a lifetime of work. Great men are made by their monsters.” (Arnold 252).

Those are just a few nuggets of Arnolds writing that showcase his skills.

The line “Sometimes, the one who looks like the monster turns out to be a monster.”, formed a full circle for me. I mean, I feel like books nowadays make the “monsters” or villains, or antagonists beautiful. Their beauty adds to their charm and makes it harder to see them for what they are.

Arnold noticed this trend and framed it in the opposite way. Now, we all know to be suspicious of that beauty, but we aren’t looking at the actual beast in the corner of the room with claws and venom, but we’re still surprised when it uses them. 

So, long story-short, I’ve really enjoyed this story. There is a sequel called Dead man in a Ditch, and I’m excited to see where the story goes. 

:)