Learning To Stand (Alex the Fey Thriller Series #2)

I finished reading the second of the Alex the Fey Thriller series books, and already bought the third! Actually I started the third last night but couldn’t keep my eyes open for very long.

Needless to say I’m enjoying this story. There are parts where characters get confusing and it does seem to jump around a bit, but overall I really like the plot…there’s always some kind of action going on. I think there was more action in the first book, but this one was pretty good too.

I will have to say that my biggest pet peeve (more-so than being confused about a character or two) is the exclusion of words. You’ll be reading along and all of a sudden there will be a missing word from a sentence. While it’s been easy enough to figure out the missing word, and make sense of what is trying to be said, some simple editing by someone other than the writer could have easily caught these little mistakes. I counted 19 spots where words were missing 😦 In fact, writers, if you’re reading this I’d be more than happy to proof-read for you! I’m not a perfect writer either, but I can spot a damn missing word! lol

Obviously the missing words aren’t enough to deter me from enjoying the rest of the series. I can’t wait to find out what’s going to happen and to read about Alex kicking some more ass! On that note though, some of this stuff is awfully far fetched. One minute Alex can barely stand and before you know it she’s flying across the room in a round-house kick knocking someone unconscious….but she is a fey (fairy) so maybe that’s part of it.

Again, if you’re looking for a thriller with some romance and centered around military happenings I do recommend this series, just be wary of some of the downfalls I’ve mentioned. It’s not perfect, but it’s good! Plus I think the first book (The Fey) is still free on Amazon for download on Kindle!

The Fey (Alex the Fey Thriller Series)

I just finished reading The Fey, which is the first book in a series of four by Claudia Hall Christian. This is another book I downloaded for free for my Kindle through Amazon. I’m finding all these freebies from a web site I “liked” on Facebook called ereaderlove. Like them and check them out at http://www.ereaderlove.com. They post at least 40 books a day, and I’ve seen more than 80 posted many days.

Anyway, on to my actual review. This was a pretty good book. There were some annoying typos, but nothing that I couldn’t see past. I noticed them, corrected it in my head, and moved on. You can still get the story, and there weren’t that many of them. I’d say it was a half-done editing job. There were areas where the sentence would have an extra word, such as “she Alex said” etc. Where one or the other should have been deleted but wasn’t.

The actual story is a good one. Alex “The Fey” (fey means fairy if you didn’t know), is one bad-ass girl! She’s the only female Green Beret on an elite team that goes into other countries and frees people who have been held hostage. The book starts out where her and her team are ambushed and she’s the only survivor. She has a bullet wound to her hip and several other life-threatening injuries, but somehow she manages to make it through. She goes into a deep depression, losing her whole team, her identity, and the job she loves. Somehow she manages to still kick a lot of butt when this crazy guy Elizar is after her. She finds out some crazy things along the way that make her doubt everything she has known, her husband isn’t who he said he was, he father isn’t her real father, the only person that she really knows is her twin brother Max. She also has her best friend Jesse, who was killed in the ambush, who she continues to see as a ghost who helps her out of a bind or two.

The Fey is a good mix of action, romance, paranormal, and thriller. I’m contemplating reading the other three books, which are currently priced at $4.99 on Amazon. But for now I have plenty of other freebies to pick from. Now if only I could decide what I want to read!

UnEnchanted: An Unfortunate Fairy Tale

UnEnchanted: An Unfortunate Fairy Tale by Chanda Hahn was a pretty cute, easy read. Obviously intended for a younger audience, I still enjoyed it. Sometimes I just don’t want to think too hard about what I’m reading, especially while I’m in school. And, at a Kindle price of free I won’t complain at all. In fact, I’m really wanting to pick up the second book right now. I just checked and it’s only $2.99, very tempting.

This book is all about a teenager named Mina Grime….who finds out that she’s really Mina Grimm, as in related to the Grimm brothers (from the fairy tales). She finds out that in order to stop a century old family curse she has to defeat (outlive) every single fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm. She soon finds out that each tale adapts itself to her life, so it may not be just like the original fairy tale was written.

There was a little romance, some humor, and I found myself rooting for MIna. I really dislike what happens after the one of the stories has been defeated….the world reverts back and any relationships that she may have had with friends, boyfriends, events that happened, they all go away. How sad would that be to be the only one to remember what actually happened and to lose so much time and time again?

If you’re looking for an easy, mindless read, and you can download this for free, I say give it a chance…you just may find yourself caught up in the fairy tale!

Book Club

As if I don’t have enough to do with full-time work and school I’ve now decided to join a book club.  If you’re interested you can find the link to the book club on facebook here. The cool thing about this book club is that all the ones they pick to read are offered for free download on Kindle through amazon.com.  So, at least if I get too busy or don’t like the book they chose that month, I’m truly out nothing.  This is my first month so I don’t know what this club normally does, but this month they chose three books, a classic, a modern, and a book of Irish poems (for St. Patty’s day I assume).  You can choose to read as many of them as you want and you only post what you want to.  There don’t seem to be any prompt questions.  So far I like it!

The first book we’re reading, the one I chose anyway, is the modern one called Protector by Laurel Dewey.  I’ve made it through the first nine chapters just today and it’s actually really good!  I’ve found that there are actually a lot of really good books that are offered for free when they first come out so that it sparks an interest.  Once they get moved up onto the best sellers list they start charging for them because people will see that it’s on the list and that it has good reviews.  But, they aren’t free forever so you have to jump at the opportunity if you’re interested at all.  I currently have over 200 free books on my kindle waiting to be read.  Some of them will probably never get read and I’m ok with that.  If I pay for a book though I always make it a point to read it because I feel like I should.  The worst one I’ve ever paid for (on my kindle) was Confessions of a Shopaholic.  I feel like I got ripped off and it was only .99 cents!  Yeah, it was that bad, but I read the entire thing.

So, if you’re looking for one more thing to do in your life and you like to read I would recommend checking out this book club!

Kindle

For those of you who might be on the fence about buying a Kindle, I thought I’d do a little review.  I have had my wifi only 3rd generation Kindle since September and I absolutely love it.  It is by far the best gift I have ever received and I use it on an almost daily basis.  I find that I do read more with my kindle because I always have it with me in my purse so if I find myself unexpectedly waiting I can just pull it out and start reading.  I also think I read faster on my Kindle.  It’s nice that you don’t have to worry about repositioning the book when you switch to the other page (especially when reading in bed).  The fact that it can hold up to 3,500 books at a time is a huge plus because you have so many options there’s always bound to be something on there you’re interested in reading.  Another great feature is that there are literally hundred of free books (through Amazon), and thousands that are free through other sources (which I’ve never tried, but I’ve heard good things).  Also cool is the fact that most of the “classics” are free because the copyright has expired!

I have the gray colored one.  At the time it was the only option for wifi only but the while may be available now, I’m not sure.

The cover I have!  Love it!

My number one favorite feature (believe it or not) is that it has a build in dictionary.  So easy to use too!  I’m far too lazy to pull out a dictionary for a word that I don’t know so I’ll just keep reading and get a feel for what the word means.  With the Kindle you can scroll to the word and it automatically pulls up a short definition for you, and if you want a longer version it’s only one click away!  I seriously find myself reading my textbooks for school, finding a word I don’t know, and looking to try to scroll to the word to find the definition.  Then I realize, "Oh yeah, this is a REAL book, no such option.”  I never would have thought that I would use the dictionary as much as I do.  It’s just so easy and convenient, especially when you’re reading older books.  They tend to use a lot of words we don’t use today, or words that had different meanings back then.

The screen is super easy to read.  When I first opened my brand new Kindle I was trying to peel the protective sticker off the front of the face, then I realized that it wasn’t a sticker, it was the real screen.  It really does look that much like paper.  A lot of people prefer the Nook because it has color.  While color could be beneficial if you’re reading a book about art, or a children’s picture book, for the most part it’s not an issue that Kindle is only grey-scale.  I used to use the Kindle app on my ipod touch, which has a backlight.  The Kindle does not have a backlight.  That can seem like a pain if you want to read at night but I just use my bed-side lamp (like if I was reading a real book) and it’s not an issue.  I do find that there is much less strain on my eyes (they never get tired reading at all) when there is no backlight on the screen.  As far as the anti-glare, it’s pretty good.  I’ve never tried to read outside in the sun, but under lights there is sometimes a slight reflection of the light, but not so much that you can’t read the screen.

I did have issues with the first Kindle that Amazon sent me.  For some reason it kept restarting on it’s own, randomly.  Amazon was great!  They overnighted me a new one even before I sent the old one back so that I was never without my Kindle.  I could still use the old one it was just a pain when it would restart in the middle of me reading a page.  The new one has done this to me maybe twice, nothing like the old one.  Another issue I’ve had, even with this new one, is that once or twice now it has lost track of the page that I was on.  That can be a pain because for the most part they use a numbering system that is not page numbers (larger numbers and harder to remember).  There is the percentage completed listed on the screen though and that can help you find your spot pretty easily.  Also, if you hold down ALT + B, it will automatically bookmark your page.  I do this when I’m ready to stop reading and so far that has always worked.  There is a new update out that is slowly going to make page numbers available on all books.  Right now they say there are around 1,000 with page numbers available.  So far it is none of the books that I have downloaded, but it’s not a huge deal.

Overall, I think that just about anyone could benefit from owning a Kindle!  I really do love mine.  I also love owning real paper books (there is something super special about holding a real paper book, the look, feel, and smell) but I ran out of bookshelf space a long time ago.  Plus, the only free real books out there are from the library and you don’t get to keep those.  So, if you’re on the fence about trying to decide to Kindle or not to Kindle, my advice is to go for it!  Especially since I’m sure Amazon would take it back (within a reasonable time frame) if you ended up hating it.

One last thing!  Here’s a link to a wonderful web site for free Kindle books (only those free through Amazon)!  Lots of search options if you’re looking for something specific.  It’s also nice because there are pricing categories to search other than free too! 

http://www.ereaderiq.com/

Happy reading!