Tag Archives: Teri Polen

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The Necromancer’s Daughter Book Tour: Day 4

Welcome to Day 4 of The Necromancer’s Daughter’s Book Tour!

I hope you enjoy:

~ A lovely community of bloggers. My hosts are bloggers who are always willing to lend a hand, share a laugh, and build a friendship.

~ My favorite book from my host’s list, along with my review.

~ Something to make you smile. 

~ Something short and different about The Necromancer’s Daughter (follow the link below).

~ Leave a comment on my hosts’ sites, and your name will be entered in an end-of-tour drawing for a $50 Amazon gift certificate. The more sites, the more entries!

Day 4, here we go!

Teri Polen’s Blog: Books and Such

Teri is an author of sci-fi and horror short stories and novels, and she recently released the second book in The Colony Series (The Insurgent), which I highly recommend. She’s also an avid book reviewer of indie books as well as books acquired through NetGalley. She leans toward sci-fi, fantasy, suspense, horror, thrillers, and mysteries, but her reviews certainly aren’t limited to those genres. She keeps my kindle on the chunky side.

I’ve caught her short stories in anthologies, and I’ve read all of her books. I wish she’d write them faster! Here’s my review of the first book in her The Colony duology:

Subject A36 (The Colony Series) by Teri Polen

Amazon Global Link

My Review: I should never have read this book, because now I have to wait for the next one in the series, and that’s going to be torture! This read is sooo good.

Asher, the first-person protagonist, is a 17-year-old member of a resistance group fighting the Colony. The Colony steals attractive children (and adults) from outlying communities and kills them by stripping their DNA to serve the vanity of its citizens. Asher’s group is part of a larger network focused on freeing Colony captives before their DNA is harvested.

The plot moves along quickly and requires some suspension of belief as these teens have exceptional skills. There are twists and turns and secrets that I didn’t see coming and thoroughly enjoyed. This isn’t a story that gets bogged down with description. The science and technology are developed just enough to be believable.

The characters are beautifully crafted, and there’s none of the annoying teen angst and dumb choices that I find in many YA stories. These characters are in dangerous situations and maturity is a matter of survival. I enjoyed the authenticity. The somewhat heavy backstory in the beginning pays off as the characters develop and the events become more and more emotionally charged. Asher, his friend Noah, and lover Brynn make up the three main characters. I liked all three but was particularly enamored with Asher. I thoroughly believed his inner world, emotions, and choices. He’s a noble character, faced with tough decisions. I was hooked.

Then the book ended with a cliffhanger, and I had a literary heart attack. Highly recommended to YA and adult readers of sci-fi. Get ready for an intense adventure.

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If you have a chance, head on over to join The Necromancer’s Daughter tour at Teri’s blog: Books and Such.

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Bad Moon Rising

I’m back from my break, and what better way to return than to spend the day over at Teri Polen’s blog Books and Such.

Every year, through the month of October, Teri hosts short interviews with a Halloween theme. Swing on by if you want to learn my take on tarot cards and those apparitions that appear in the corner of the eyes.

And while you’re there, check out Teri’s books. She’s a fabulous YA sci-fi writer. I’ve read all her full-length books!

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More Indie Reviews (or Part III)

I have so many reviews to share, and I’m reading faster than I can get my reviews posted. Three more 5-star books, all different!

The Gemini Connection

by Teri Polen

Oh, what a fun read. Sci-fi fans will have a blast with this thriller, but readers who love human stories will thoroughly enjoy this book too. Simon and Evan are twins with a unique connection even though they are strikingly different. Simon is cerebral, a scientist and gentle soul. Evan is a jock with a temper and a painful chip on his shoulder—he’s never been able to live up to his parents’ expectations.

Despite their differences, the brothers are fiercely loyal to each other, and when Simon goes missing, Evan makes it his mission to find out what happened and bring him home. He’s a successful bender, capable of entering the dreams of clients to unblock their memories or fight their nightmares. Their connection and his talent lead the way.

The world-building is excellent, and though “bending” is a bit of a scientific stretch, Polen does a credible job making it feel plausible throughout the story. The pace moves along at a speedy clip, and there are plenty of tight spots and danger.

The story is told in the first-person point of view of both brothers. You might have guessed that I just loved the characters, particularly Evan and Simon. Their relationship wasn’t without its bumps and bruises, but the steadfast loyalty they felt toward each other had me rooting for them from the start. Secondary characters were richly drawn and three-dimensional, as were peripheral players. A great read that I highly recommend.

Global Amazon Link

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The Hat

by Craig Boyack

In this short read, Boyack has teamed up Lizzie, a young woman with two part-time jobs, and a talking hat that she stole/inherited from her grandmother’s estate. Yes, you heard that right—a talking hat. At first, she’s rather suspicious and freaked out by the hat, but when a friend’s newborn is stolen as part of a larger baby-napping ring, Lizzie and the hat set out to rescue the infants.

What ensues is pretty entertaining. The banter between Lizzie and the hat is exceptionally witty, particularly as the hat navigates advances in technology (it’s been in a box for a long time). The duo reminded me of wise-cracking detective team with snappy dialog and lots of attitude on both sides.

This book can be polished off in a couple of hours and is well worth the time. Highly recommended.

Global Amazon Link

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Amanda in Holland

by Darlene Foster

This book was quite a bit of fun. Foster combines a middle-grade fiction plot with a colorful tour of Holland, including its famous sites, snippets of history, and its wonderful flowers and food. I had the great fortune of visiting my grandparents in Holland when I was Amanda’s age, and her experiences in the book mirror my memories in great detail. It was a blast to traipse along beside Amanda and enjoy the country once again.

The main plot focuses on the recovery of a lost puppy, but secondary plots weave through the story, and all come together nicely at the end. There’s a bit of mystery and some danger to keep the tension up. There are also some very moving scenes when Amanda visits Anne Frank’s home and a war memorial dedicated to the Canadians who helped liberate Holland during WWII. A lovely book for young readers and absolutely perfect for readers who plan to travel the world.

Global Amazon Link

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Happy Reading!

 

 

 

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Writing Teenage Boys: Guest Post with Teri Polen

I’m not much of a horror reader since Dean Koontz scared the bejeezus out of me as a teenager. I’m also not a huge fan of teenagers. The real ones are tolerable, but the ones in books sometimes drive me crazy. They’re angsty,  dramatic, and they make dumb decisions. They remind me of me at that age.

So… when I picked up Teri Polen’s YA horror novel, Sarah, I was worried.

Well, silly me for fretting. The book was awesome. I’ll give you my review below, but first, I had to quiz Teri. One of the best things about the book was the way she dove into the experience of Cain, a 17-yr-old teenage boy. It felt totally genuine to me, and I happen to know Teri isn’t a 17-yr-old teenage boy. How did she do that with such authenticity? How did she prepare? Here’s her answer:

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You’re not the first person to ask how I channeled the voices of 17-year-old boys, Diana. A good friend is convinced I was a teenage boy in a previous life. I have two sons—I honestly don’t know what I would have done with girls—and we’ve always had a steady stream of their friends hanging out at our house.

I spent countless hours driving them to sports and band practices, sleepovers, movies, dances…you get the picture. They trash talked each other while playing video games, compared puzzling encounters with the female species, and debated superhero movies. I’ve witnessed their heartache after breakups, their bets on when a friend would get dumped by a new girlfriend—and if it would be by text or in person, and their vehement defense of each other when challenged.

All the while, I listened. And it’s mostly been quite entertaining and enlightening. When the characters in my head demanded their story be told, it was natural they’d be teenage boys, because that’s what I know.

Cain’s pigsty of a bedroom is a near perfect picture of my oldest son’s room—or as my younger son calls it, ‘The Black Hole’. Things have literally disappeared in there, and the smells emanating from that room have been horrific at times. If a zombie apocalypse happened today, we could live on the half-empty Gatorade and water bottles, snack bags, and protein bars for quite a while.

My sons and their friends probably never dreamed some of their comments would come back to ‘haunt’ them in a YA horror novel. You never know who’s listening.

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My Review: 

Sarah is categorized as YA horror and the book fits the genre perfectly. Sarah is a teenage ghost seeking revenge for her murder. She returns to the scene of the crime, now the home of Cain Shannon, a 17-year-old horror fan. At first, she appears shy and vulnerable, and Cain agrees to help her, but she’s not as helpless as he believes. With each bloody act of revenge, she grows in power, and her tactics increase in brutality. Before long, Cain is in the battle of his life against a ghost intent on death.

This book has some really creepy, icky, suspenseful, and scary things going on, but the scare-factor and gore feel appropriate for YA readers (as well as adults). The story grabbed my attention from the first page, and the tension and suspense escalate at a steady pace without much of a break right up to the climatic end. Even the last few paragraphs of the epilog are worthy of a few terrifying chills.

Though the horror aspects of the book were engaging, what impressed me the most was Polen’s outstanding characters. All of them felt well-rounded to me with fully developed personalities, but I was totally taken with the main character Cain and his friend Finn. They felt authentic to me in their thoughts, emotions, dialog, banter, friendship, and relationships with others. I’m in awe of the author’s ability to capture the essence of teenage boys with such expertise. I found the pair of them refreshing and likable, and therefore enjoyed the non-horror moments of the book as much as the horror, if not more so.

Another thing that impressed me was the believability of the characters’ choices. I often find that characters in horror (movies) make stupid choices because the plot would keel over and die if they acted sensibly. Polen was meticulous in building a backstory that supported Cain’s decisions, particularly his choice not to involve his mother and to stay in the house despite the presence of a murderous ghost. This careful attention to character and plot kept me enmeshed in the story from chapter one right through to the end.

An excellent book for both YA and adult readers of horror and suspense.

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Eh, what’s one more book in your TBR pile? Here’s a link: Sarah

Connect with Teri on her book review blog: Books and Such