Thursday, April 21, 2011

Breath of Angel -Review

Breath of Angel by Karyn Henley
Book #1 of the Angeleon Circle

Melaia, a young priestess, was raised thinking she would have the simple life of being a priestess in the town where she was raised, never to travel or do anything more exciting than helping to heal people in need. But after witnessing a murder of an angel, creatures Melaia thought to be little more than myth, she finds herself drawn into a dangerous battle of life or death. It is an ancient struggle between two immortal brothers who destroyed the stairway to heaven, drawing the angels into their feud. Melaia must take refuge with the angels she thought to be myth in order to survive this feud, and soon finds that she has not fallen into the path of the feud by mere chance. Melaia must help end this feud, but at what cost to herself?

Breath of Angel looks to be a splendid start to a new fantasy series by Karyn Henley. It appears to be a Young Adults book, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It was an intricately written story, with characters that were more than one-dimensional place-fillers. Even in such a relatively short book, as far as High Fantasy-length books go anyways, it was easy to develop a feel for most of the main characters. I look forward to seeing how much more they will develop in the series to come.

*I acquired this book from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers*

Heart of Ice -review

Heart of Ice by Lis Wiehl (with April Henry)
Book #3 in Triple Threat Series

“‘But sociopaths don’t see other people as people. Something’s wrong with their wiring, … they don’t have any empathy, and they don’t feel fear. So they don’t feel guilty when they kill. If anything, they feel powerful.’”

Heart of Ice is a spiral down into the twisted mind of an ice-cold sociopath as she settles into the community of where the Triple Threat Club girls reside. Elizabeth Avery seems perfect on the outside, with a job as a fitness instructor, a wonderful boyfriend, and a keen sense of apparent-empathy. But Elizabeth Avery is no ordinary woman. She knows what she wants, and will do almost anything to get it. Elizabeth ruthlessly moves from one person to a next in her quest to achieve the perfect life. Along the way she encounters Cassidy Shaw, and the Triple Threat Club finds themselves investigating a string of crimes without knowing the criminal is within their mindst, and without knowing that they may all be in danger of getting in Elizabeth Avery’s way in her quest for perfection.

I found Heart of Ice to be an intriguing read, if only for the fact that it was interesting the way Wiehl could transform herself into the mindset of a sociopath. The parts of the book that were a close third-person narrative of Elizabeth Avery felt like a glimpse into the mind of a true sociopath. The artistry of that writing was quite superb. The plot line was a rather good one as well. Wiehl once again injected a sense of reality into the story by showing the main character (Allison, Nicole, and Cassidy) have lives outside of the intrigue of trying to solve the mysteries surrounding them in the book.

However, the problem I took with the lives of the character outside of the story is that there seems to be a pattern forming of at least one of the main characters having to deal with horrible trials of some sort in each book. Yes, people have trials in real life occur to them, but it seems a bit of over kill to have both a mystery and a trial in their lives to have to deal with in every Triple Threat book. I certainly hope it does not become standard for one of the main characters to have to deal with something horrible in their life in each book.

*I acquired this book from Booksneeze.com*