Book Review: Undead Chaos

A book review! I haven't done one of these in a while. :)

Undead Chaos

By: Joshua Roots

5 STARS!

The job was simple: decapitate the zombie, get paid, get out. Warlock Marcus Shifter followed the plan perfectly.

The corpse, however, did not.

Now there's a body on the loose, accusations of illegal necromancy are flying, and the answers are waiting in the perilous alleys between the mortal and paranormal worlds. They're no place for someone who mostly gave up magic after a childhood accident. And given his tendency to shoot off his mouth and his Glock, Marcus is having a hell of a time digging up more than just bodies.

When an apocalypse-minded megalomaniac threatens Marcus's family, things get personal. Marcus will have to embrace the magic he's been avoiding for years—and even that might not be enough to save the world from a hellish demise.

~~~

In the interest of full disclosure, Mr. Roots is a friend of mine from Absolute Write

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure I was going to read this at first. I'm not really a fan of zombies (they're overused, much like vampires), but Root's clever writing style pulled me in 100%. Marcus is a great character, fully realized and believable. I love that he relies more on his gun than his magic. I also loved how not jaded he was. Many characters like this are bitter against the world for one reason or another. Yeah they kick ass and take names, but they're also emo and it can be annoying after a while. But not Marcus.

Yeah, he's been through some crap in his life, some of it his own making, but he still has a lot to live for and be happy about. Like his loving family and his bees. I will never look at bees the same way again.

And Marcus isn't the only awesome character in this book, there's also Steve. Every line of Steve's dialogue is pure gold. Quinn is also wonderful and unique.

In short, I really enjoyed every moment I spent with this book and I'm dying to spend more time with these characters in their world.

Well thanks for reading! I hope I've given you an idea for something fun to read this week.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

And here follows the obligatory gratitude post. ;)

But seriously, I have a lot to be thankful for. If you're friends with me on Facebook, you'll notice that I don't do the daily gratitude thing in November because, well, why try to do something I know I'll forget to do two days in?

So here follows some things that I am grateful for this year.

1. My family. Daniel is the most amazing husband and father ever. My boys are gems (most of the time). I'm so lucky that I live near my sisters and that my parents are able to come visit us, as well as being not too terribly far from Daniel's family. Oh, and Happy, I love my dog. :)
2. My job. I'm so grateful that I get to be a stay at home mom. As hard as it can be sometimes, I love being home with William and Jacob. Also, I love being able to spend a whole day in my PJ's. ;)
3. Writing. I love to write and create new worlds and characters to populate those worlds. I love coming up with stories. Again, it's not always easy, but it's worth it.
4. All the material things I take for granted. I live in a nice place. We have a good car. I'm able to buy food, clothes and other, less essential things. I love the internet and the TV. And books, so many books!
5. My religion. I'm grateful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints. It gives me peace and direction in my life, as well as connecting me to good people and new friends.

Well, I think that about covers it. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it) and try not to over eat.

Oh, a programming note: Starting next week I'm going to start a series of writing tips over at Kricket Writes. I've been thinking about doing this for a while and I finally figured out a plan. So look forward to that. :)

And Happy Thursday! Thanks for reading!

*Poke, Poke*

Are we all still alive? I am, mostly.

I did that thing where I kept forgetting to update this thing or I felt like I just had nothing to talk about. Now, I'm not going to sit here and promise to keep to any kind of schedule right now, because we know that's not going to stick. Because, really, I'm not a politician. ;)

So let's do a quick run down of what's been going on and then we'll see where we're at from there. We'll start with the bad, just to get it out of the way.

Bad: I've been dealing with a lot of headaches and back pain as of late. I could use a chiropractor but that is expensive. I'm making due with drinking more water and watching how much sugar I take in. Plus I'm trying to not sit slouched over so much. Also, I haven't been writing like I should. Despite it being NaNoWriMo. I have no excuse except that I'm lazy. And I'm currently trying to come up with ways to teach William not to wet the bed at night.

And now some Good: I got a sweet new hair cut and color the other day. I've never had it this short and I'm totally loving it. Also, I got a new techie toy, a Microsoft Surface. I've only had a couple days but so far I'm liking it. It doesn't support Google Chrome, which sucks, but I'm managing.

And in other news, William turns four on Sunday. Is there a way to get kids to stop growing?

Well I guess that's it for now. Hopefully I'll be back in a week, but no promises. I do have some book review I can do though.

Have a Wonderful Wednesday! And thanks for reading!

Fall, Already?

Okay, so this month got away from me in like every way possible. The first week of September I was in Utah visiting family. Then the next week we brought home a guest and she stayed with us for a week and a half. Then last week I went to a Fall Out Boy concert, which was my first ever concert. And somewhere in there, I turned 27. God I'm old.

Anyway, I've been busy and have totally forgotten to blog, or write, or do much of anything productive. I can blame some of it on a wicked cold, and then thus weekend I had a migraine from hell. I call those my "Post Stress Migraines". They only seem to happen after all the crazy has gone away. It's how I decompress I guess. It was either that or I killed my neck trying to see over people at the concert. Which was awesome by the way. And no, I don't have pictures because I was too busy enjoying the moment to film it.

And so, life is now back to normal. I'm in the process of revamping my daily routine, again. I do this a lot, but I'm still struggling to find something that works. Of course, one day I'll figure it out and then something outside of my control will change and I'll be right back to square one again.

But one thing that will not change is what I do here on this blog. We will be back to normal and hopefully I have something more to say at Kricket Writes, on Wednesday, than, "Not much." But I'll wait and get into all of that then.

So, I hope you have a Marvelous Monday and I'll see you on Wednesday!

BTW, do you follow me on Kricket Writes? Well you should. Go click that link and follow me, because, I mean, really, who doesn't want more Kricket in their life? ;)

Happy Birthday To Me!

I have a cold. Picked it up at the in-laws, go figure. :)

Anyway! Vacation was great, the boys had a blast. I know they've had a good day when Will comes up to me and asks to go to bed. But, it's good to be home.

Anyway, I'm not sure what I'm going to do for my birthday. I want to go out and stuff, but it all depends on how I feel by the time Daniel comes home from work. So off I go to make my self feel better.

Have a good week, dear reader! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all my birthday buddies out there. 9/9 is the best!

Going On Vacation

I feel like I don't have much to say today. We're going out of town for Labor Day so I won't be back on this blog until next Friday.

I got a couple kid related post in the works. One talking about the shows my boys like to watch on Netflix and one about the games William likes to play on my Kindle. Beyond that, not much else is going on.

I will be on time with my What's Up Wednesday post on Kricket Writes for this week and next, and hopefully I'll have more to talk about there.

Have a good Monday and and good week!

Book Recommendation

I don't feel like doing my usual Krank today since Monday's post was pretty cranky.

So I'm going to throw out some book recommendations.

Do you like YA with awesome female protagonist? Do you like a rich fantasy world full of magic? Do you like knights, mages, gods/goddesses, spies, international politics, mysteries, or crime solving? Then you will like pretty much anything by Tamora Pierce.

I'm a special fan of her Tortall series. I do own every book there is. I'm amazed by her writing skill. She's managed to write 5 different series that all exist in the same world. And each female protagonist is amazing and original.

So lets run down the list of awesome. Let me start by saying that you can pick up any of these series in an order. They do well standing alone, but you get the full effect of awesome if you read it in order.

First there is Alanna and The Lioness Quartet. Alanna is a girl with the Healer's gift, who also wants to be a knight during a time when such things are not allowed. So she must disguise herself as a boy to achieve her dream.

Next is Daine and The Immortals Quartet. Daine is a young woman who has a special gift with animals, looking for a new home while hiding dark secrets about her past.

Third is Kel and The Protector of the Small Quartet. Now that Alanna has paved the way for girls to become knights, Kel is the first girl to openly try for her knighthood.

Fourth is Aly and The Trickster Series. Aly is the only daughter of the famous Alanna. While trying to find her place in the world, Aly gets pulled into the dark underbelly of spy work and international politics.

And finally there is Beka and her series. This series goes back in time a bit to a, many times over, great grandmother of Aly. Beka wants to be a Provost Dog (aka a police officer). She has a special magical Gift that gives her a unique advantage when pursuing murders and other criminals.

Each of these characters and their series are so unique and original. That's what truly amazes me about Pierce. They are all young adult, coming of age stories, showcasing a different part of the rich world of Tortall. I've been a fan since I was a teenager and even now, as I reread these books, they still hold up and capture the same magic for me as an adult.

As a writer, I can only hope that my female characters will come off as amazing as Pierce's. Where each has a unique voice and story to tell.

So hopefully I've given you a good idea of something to read this weekend. Tell if you do or have read these and what you think.

Happy Friday and thanks for reading!