Novel Tuesday!

Hello everyone! It's my first Novel day Tuesday post, as well as the first non gaming post!

Recently, (almost a month ago) I was shopping around my local Dymocks when I saw the cover of a book that caught my eye. Of course, I had to pick it up and read the blurb on the back cover. Interested, I returned home and Googled the book, fascinated. I read the prologue and decided to buy it the very next day.

If you must know, this is my normal ritual when I discover a new book that takes my interest. I don't really want to go out and buy a book I don't like!

Anyway, this book I picked up was The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks. I started reading immediately to find a well written novel by an emerging author. The novel follows Kyler Stern's rise to power from the Warrens (aka slums) to becoming a wetboy or skilled assassin. Throw is a slight hint of magic and the recipe is complete. With the first plot twist about 200 pages in, it is a slow moving book, but after the second on about page 400, the novel keeps twisting and turning unimaginably.

After the initial confusion of a new book and new characters, locations, etc. this book provides a pleasant reading experience, however, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone younger than myself due to the violent and adult themes in this book. However, my younger sister picked this book up as I finished and enjoyed it as much as myself.

I give this book a rating of 4/5, being from an emerging author there are a few flaws in the language used, but it is an enjoyable novel and a good use of 650 pages. This novel will take a proud place on my bookshelf.

As a final little add-on, next month is November, and the month for NaNoWriMo, a competition in which you aim to write 50,000 words during the month of November. However, there is no prize apart from the novel you have just written to edit and send off to a publisher etc.

There is a lot of support throughout the month, along with a giant community who participate with you. If there are any emerging/aspiring writers, I highly recommend you take up the challenge, so if you wish to, click the link below!

NaNoWriMo

Book Review Tuesday

As we have moved back to Blogger and have developed a bit more method to our madness (our mother would be so proud), welcome to Book Review Tuesday.

As a distinct number seven personality, please don't think this will happen EVERY Tuesday or even again on a Tuesday, it just happens to be a Tuesday and I have a book I've just finished reading that I want to write about.

So I had a fairly strong dislike to crime fiction and mystery books because either I read the ones that were crap or just the ones that included a very stereotypical main character ... I hate stereotypes and will/have closed books if I even get a whiff. Yep - all it takes for me is a whiff.

I was recommended Gillian Flynn's latest book, Gone Girl by my delightful boss (thank you for my study leave today! I totally nailed my assignment ;-) ) and completed devoured it in a record two days. It was one of those awesome books that I couldn't put down, and then when I did, it spoke to me in my head and I swear my Kindle was making me read more.

So I was keen to read her other work but I didn't want to fall into the trap of being in love with an authors first book and then having those feelings crushed by reading other books and feeling disappointed. It has happened before.

I started reading Dark Place late last week - it was finished on Sunday afternoon - I yelled at the Kindle. Yes. I yelled. Usually I save my yelling for TV and have only done it a couple of times when I've been reading.

If you could describe a book like this without giving too much away, I can do it for this book in five words:

This shit is messed up!!

Holey crapola!! Gillian has this amazing ability to tap into a dark part of society and portray a story that you can completely see it playing out in your head. It's not sugar-coated, the characters have HUGE problems and as a reader - I LOVE IT!

I want to horrified, mesmerised and get insight into people and although this is fiction, you can see it happening and like a crazy stunned bystander, you simply cannot look away.

Find the book on Amazon.