Rocks and Stars by Sam Ledel

Rocks and Stars by Sam Ledel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

*I received this book from Bold Strokes Books and Netgalley for an honest review*

I start off noting what this book is, and, later, something that it isn’t. What this book is: a young adult coming of age story told through one person’s eyes over a period of two years. What it is not is a romance with a capital R. There are several relationships on display in this book, and many different characters, and personalities to tangle with, but capital R Romance? No.

I had no real idea what I was getting into when I decided to request this book. I mean, yes, I read the description. I knew the book was about a young woman who is, or very recently had come to the realization that she had particular feelings that mean that she might or might not be a lesbian. And that the book would ‘deal with that’. In the sense that that means this is a coming of age story, yes, that’s what this book is about. In the sense of ‘dealing with being a lesbian’? Well . . . yes, but I worded that wrong since that isn’t what I said before. What it isn’t is a struggle to determine if the main point of view character might or might not be a lesbian. No, despite how the book description is worded, she knows at the start of the book that she’s a lesbian. She admits it to herself. In the prologue. This occurs two months before the start of the book and consists of her playing with herself. Hehe, I worded that sentence that way on purpose – she was ‘playing with herself’ in that she was playing soccer. While thinking about the various people she’s lusted after. Mainly Beth, a fellow soccer player, but also other women.

Then chapter one rolls around – starts I mean, and it’s a high school graduation party. So – that’s another thing that may or may be different than what I thought the book would be about – since I do not recall if I thought more time would be spent in high school. No, looking at the book description, I ‘knew’ the book would be focused on college.

So, I mentioned some of the things the book is not, and some of the genres the book does fall into. But what exactly is the book? Well, as I said, a coming of age story about a young woman – specifically one who plays soccer at the college level (has a full scholarship to college by way of her soccer talents) who struggles less about the fact that she is a lesbian, and more with acting on the fact she’s a lesbian. And the book unfolds from there – watching her descend into madness for two years before attempting a recovery. Okay, not that, but . . . that.

There are three people of major importance in this book who are not named Kyle Lindsay (Kyle being the main character and only POV). There’s Emily, Kyle’s best friend since forever, and the same person who talked her own college coach to watch Kyle play high school soccer (Emily is a year older), thereby helping Kyle get that scholarship. Emily is also the only person, in the beginning, Kyle has told about her ‘situation’. Then there’s Jax – a soccer teammate who flusters Kyle immediately, and who she wants to hump. Jax is also a year older than Kyle. Then there’s Joey, a fellow freshman, who is one of the goalies on the soccer team. Kyle has . . . weird disjointed thoughts about Joey.

There’s massive amounts of drinking in this book. I do not know what it is about soccer books, but the last one I read, that one involving professional soccer/football players in Scotland, did something this book really dove into with a lot of enthusiasm – weirdly inappropriate hazing of new teammates, and including lots and lots of alcohol drinking. I recall a comment about that other book – that they didn’t know how the main character was able to do what they did – being as old as she was, and drinking so much. Well, that’s one thing here, eh? How’d they be able to drink so much and still walk? They didn’t. But when they did, it was because they were kids. Or something like that – able to overcome their self-created attempts at destroying their own talents.

Sorry, dwelt a little long on that. There really was a ton of drinking in this book. A ton. I don’t want to play with spoilers, but will say – I know some people, who would read this, would point towards Jax for Kyle’s drinking, but the first bits were inspired by Emily – she was the team captain, after all, who lead the hazing/initiation drinking thingie.

Right, sorry. Moving on.

What else to say. The book was interesting in the beginning, and I was really gulping it down as I went along. Until I came to the words ‘Part Two’. And started into that section. And, before I even read a page, I had to stop reading for 4 to 6 hours. I just . . . I couldn’t . . .. Disappointment overwhelmed me. This is where we get to ‘this is a coming of age story, not a Romance’. You know what you get in coming of age stories, in growing up? Massive mistakes. Well, the vast majority of this book shows Kyle make mistake after mistake. Then ends (view spoiler)[with some of the same hints and teasing that were in Part One (so no you can’t just assume things by how the book ended – you really shouldn’t). (hide spoiler)]

Readable book. I look forward to more work by this author. I believe this is the author’s first published work, though the copyright page gave me pause in that thought.

Rating: 3.23

ETA: Of note (maybe): I read, reviewed, and rated this book before I realized that someone had beaten me to first rating/review.

March 14 2018


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Crisanta Knight: Protagonist Bound by Geanna Culbertson

Crisanta Knight: Protagonist Bound
by Geanna Culbertson
Pages: 434
Date: May 10 2016
Publisher: Boutique of Quality Books
Series: Unknown name for series (1st in series of a projected 8)

Review
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0
Read: March 25 to 26 2016

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Boutique of Quality Books in exchange for an honest review.

This is both the first book I've read by this author and the first book in this series. I found the book somewhat randomly when I was searhing through NetGalley to see if there was anything interesting to read. This one caught my eye, and I'm glad it did.

There's some kind of addictive/hypnotic quality to the writing that caused me to want to keep reading, to continue following along as the story unfolded. This is a good thing, since the lead character had a tendency to do something that I normally find annoying - she was in her head a lot. Not little snippets here and there, but massive amounts of words trapped inside the lead character's head. but, as I noted something was addictive about the whole process so I just shrugged off that specific annoyance.

Characters
Crisanta Knight: is the lead character in this book, and sole point of view. She's a 16 year old girl, and has spent a good bit of her life going to a specific school. One for young pincesses and other protagonists. I'll mention more what that means in the plot section. For now I'll just leave it at (1) 16 year old girl; (2) is a princess - the daughter of Cinderalla and Prince Charming (though the father's given a different name, I didn't really catch why though); (3) Crisanta has spent a good part of her life attendin the school I already referenced; (4) she, and the vast majority of the others in this book live in a place called 'Book', which, in it's way, is a fantasy land; (5) Crisanta is not happy with the concept of being a 'princess, a damsel in distress, who must be rescued by her prince' and fights that fate as much as she can, despite her position in the world.

SJ: is both a good friend to Crisanta and her roommate. She is also a princess. The daughter of Snow White (SJ's actually Snow Junior, hence SJ). Of the three girls who live in the same dorm room at the school, she's the most 'princess-y' of the lot. Crisanta's more half and half - half princess-y; half rebelleous. SJ, as part of her being the perfect princess, does the things expected of a princess - which includes following the rules, speaking correctly, singing perfectly, and having many animal friends who do her bidding.

Blue: the third roommate, is a 'common' protagonist and one of the very rare few allowed the very slight chance of being some form of minor heroic figure (though not a hero, apparently). Even though she's a 'common' protagonist, she's also a 'half-legacy', because her sister was a protagonist - her sister being little red riding hood (Red wore a red cape all the time, Blue wears blue all the time).

Jason: is a prince at the male version of the school Crisanta attends. He's friends with the three, though closest to Blue.

Daniel: is a 'common' protagonist, a roommate of Jason's, and something of an antagonist to Crisanta (though not really, they just get on each other's nerves).

Setting
This book takes place in a land of 26 kingdoms called Book. There are some adjacent realms, mostly unspecified, though one of them is a place called 'Earth.' There are also two other places mentioned in this book, though I'm not certain if they are adjacent realms or in Book.

The people in 'Book' grow up in a society wherein they know that some of the people will end up being 'protagonists' in books (though it is not specificed as to whether or not they know what that means). Royals and select commoners become protagonists. The rest are left to being something like side characters.

Plot
Crisanta is quite annoyed with the idea of being a 'damsel in distress' and fights constantly to try to change her fate, despite knowing that there is no way to change her fate. At least, that's what everyone tells her. So, instead of saying do not, she says don't (as in she uses contractions, 'princess do not use contractions). She'd prefer to take classes in sword-fighting rather than classes in fainting, but that isn't her fate. For she's a princess.

The majority of the book takes place at this 'Lady Agnue's School for Princesses & Other Female Protagonists' place. There are a few 'balls', 'field trips' and other such events during the school year, and a summer vacation of some unknown number of months.

So the book follows Crisanta as she attempts to navigate this school; while being constantly 'attacked' in her dreams by rather vivid nightmares (and some blurry ones as well). The nightmares are where I pull in the part wherein I noted that most of the action takes place in Book. Well, some takes place in Crisanta's dreams of a specific girl who happens to live on earth.

The school year proceeds, events unfold, places are visited on field trips, sporting events occur, and finally a quest is attempted involving a few young women and a few young men.

Overall
I rather enjoyed the book and wish to immediately continue the story. Alas I cannot. For the most part I liked the people I was supposed to like, and the only real negative I can think of, well two negatives: (1) there are a lot of pages in which Crisanta is 'thinking' a lot in her brain. Not exactly whimpering like thoughts, but bordering on them; (2) there are a lot of pages in this book, there is a bunch of stuff that occurred but it didn't really feel like the story actually got going until the endish parts. Then the book was done. The book ended on something of a cliff-hanger (in terms of the story not being wrapped up, not in terms of literally having a scene cut in half; I've had that happen to me before. Being in the middle of the scene, someone is thrusting their fist forward . . . .book ends, have to wait until next book to see what happens (in one specific case involving a story by David Weber, the book ended mid-invasion, and the invasion wasn't picked up again until like three books later). So yeah, this ended without the story being wrapped up, but not mid-scene.

It's a good neat interesting book. I recommend it for one and all. Or something like that.

March 27 2016

Rising From the Ashes: The Chronicles of Caymin by Caren J. Werlinger

Rising From the Ashes: The Chronicles of Caymin
by Caren J. Werlinger
Pages: 306
Date: February 1 2016
Publisher: Corgyn Publishing, LLC
Series: The Dragonmage Saga (1st book)

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 3 2016


My first book by this author.

I’ve been kind of reading a lot of romances of one kind or another this year, and wanted a break. So, a fantasy book. Starring a young girl who was raised by badgers (yes, badgers).

So, this book stars one ‘Ash’ (I suppose it isn’t a spoiler to note that she is also known as Caymin, since the book itself has ‘The Chronicles of Caymin’ on the cover). When Ash was around 2 or so, her village was attacked, and she was tossed into a fire. She squealed and cried for help. Help came in the form of badgers. Oddly enough, Ash had been calling out to in the badgers their own, mental, language.

Ash, as the badgers call her, spends the next bit of time growing older with these badgers. Being, more or less, a badger. Sure, she didn’t seem to want to eat the worms her badger mother attempted to offer her, but she ate other things, and a bond of love developed between Broc, Cuan, and Ash.

One day, while out doing whatever it was she was doing (gathering food? Hunting?), Ash hears a fight break out. The squeals of badgers. The growls of wolves. She hurries over and drives away the wolves, but not before they grievously injured one of her badger parents. And in a move of instinct, Ash moved in to help her parent. Laid hands on the furry critter, and more or less glowed (well, at least her hands, if I recall correctly). She then slumped over very very tired. Next to the now healed badger.

The point of mentioning all that, the attack and healing, was to get to the next part wherein I mention that her use of magic sent out a very powerful vibration, which was felt very far away. A magical vibration. Felt by an older woman named Enat. Who lived in a magical forest. Enat travels around looking for who sent out this vibration, and eventually finds Ash. An offer is made to train Ash, - said offer being one made to Ash, and to be answered by Ash. With sadness at leaving her clan, the badgers, Ash reluctantly agrees. And is taken to the magical forest area.

This is a deep, detailed, rather riveting book that pulled me from beginning to end. There were certain plot points whereupon the author could have gone a different direction, and the vast majority of the time I was quite happy with the direction the author choose.

The ending both somewhat dragged, and ended abruptly. I cannot really say exactly what I mean, since I’m referring directly to the end of the book, and there is no real way of expressing with more detail what I’m referring to. Let’s just leave it as what I’ve said, plus the part wherein the book ended setting up a sequel. A sequel that I wish to read, oh, now.

As I had mentioned at the start of this review, this is the first book I’ve read by this author. I had been examining the shelves of friends, looking for authors that I had not yet read, though they had read and rated at least one book 5 stars. Looking for those lesbian fiction authors that I had, as of yet, not tried. I mention all of this to note that I had not gone into this attempting to find a good solid coming of age fantasy book. I went into it to find authors to add at least one of their books to my maybe pile. Came away from that examination with a book to read. And eventually read.

It should be noted, as at least one other reviewer has noted, this is not a lesbian fiction book. At least it isn’t currently. Maybe the series will get there as Ash/Caymin ages. At the moment, all I can say is that the concept of people ‘mating’ with those of the same gender is mentioned in this book (Enat being one who had had, at some point, a female partner – this is mentioned in passing). Ash, though, is of an age where in the concept of finding a ‘mate’ isn’t exactly something she is interested in; though she thought enough about it to believe that she wouldn’t be one who ended up with a mate. What with her being a ‘two-leg’ in a clan of badgers.

On one level I’m vaguely sad that I read this book now. Because it was released February 1 2016. I like gobbling series as soon as I find them. Yet now I’ll have to wait. I’m not very patient.

I recommend this book to one and all – though with the understanding that this is a book that has, as a main character, a young girl, involves magic, and is open to the idea of same sex relationships (at least it’s mentioned in passing). Oh, and open to the idea that those who follow the Christian God might not always and in every situation be on the side of good. I mean, the book is set in ancient Ireland at the time when ‘the monks’ were ‘invading’ and strenuously attempting to convert everyone around them, and suppress everything that would stand as an obstacle to their power.

March 4 2016

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Dairy Queen
by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Pages: 291
Date: June 4 2007
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books
Series: Dairy Queen (first in series)

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: June 30 to July 1 2015

I know the book started off with me thinking "wow, this is really boring", but I kept reading. Because I'd seen others say they had felt the same way in the beginning then loved the book. So I kept reading. I'm not sure when it moved from "boring" to "this is really fun and interesting". But somewhere along the line, that occurred.

Most of the time I write something while reading, and then just post that as a review. Well, the only thing I wrote while reading was:
"Does it count as a chick lit book if the chick goes out for the football team? Does it count as lesbian fiction if the chick doesn't realize she's dating someone? Because D.J. just found out that Amber thought they were a couple. So. There's that."

This was a really funny, really interesting book. One of those that, if I'd stopped at about the 49% mark, I'd have thought was kind of boring. And . . . . something. Well, maybe not the 49% mark probably.

(everyone's a cow, eh? hmms.)

Olivia by Dorothy Strachey

Olivia
by Dorothy Strachey
Pages: 176
Date: June 1 2006 (originally published 1949)
Publisher: Cleis Press

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: February 4 2015

A coming of age story written around 1935 and finally published in 1949. Started off with an interesting introduction. Which was the only in the sample I tried. I'm somewhat glad of that. Otherwise I probably would not have bought it.

Beginning was a little off putting. In a tell not show way the author proceeded to give some details of Olivia up to a religious school she hated in England, and then over to a finishing school near Paris. But then . . . then the story picked up, grasped me and wouldn't let me go. Never really lost the tell not show vibe, but a lovely told story.