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Tag Archives: Book Club Recommendations

THIS BOOK Y’ALL GOOSEBUMPS, REVOLUTIONARY, STUNNING- A #BookReview by Amy Johnson

22 Sunday Nov 2020

Posted by Morgan in The Mercy Series

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5 Star Books, Amazon Best Sellers, Award Winning Fantasy, Best Fantasy Books, Book Club Recommendations, Book reviews, Bookstagram, Dark Fantasy, Dystopian Fantasy, Kindle Fantasy

.
I simply had to share this delightful, not to mention (dare I use the word) stellar review of Misericorde …I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did!

Posted on November 21, 2020 by amyjohnson895

In the year 2446, the world exists as a mere shell of what it used to be. The Great Catalyst tore the human race apart as the Horsemen rode. War, Pestilence, Famine… All that remains to ride is Death.

Archangel Tzadkiel, Angel of Mercy, had taken the task upon himself to find one human on the planet who understands what mercy is. Humans are a vile species, though, and as his journey nears its end, he fears he may never find that person. When he is captured by the soldiers of The Bastion, hope wanes even further.

A mere scullery maid, Lourdes hears screams from her room every night. They break her heart and haunt her nightmares, and even though she doesn’t even know who they come from, she swear to find him and help him.

When she does exactly that, though, Lourdes discovers she’s opened a door that she might regret and entered a world darker than she ever imagined.

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Style/Length:
Let me just get this off my chest before we start.

OMG THIS BOOK Y’ALL GOOSEBUMPS REVOLUTIONARY STUNNING!

*clears throat* I, um, really enjoyed this book, guys. Morgan’s style is absolutely breathtaking. It’s thick with descriptions of the world she has created (which is incredible) and the people who live in it. It reads like a fantasy in that way, because it seems like a brand new created world. In reality, it’s what’s left of ours.

It was a rather long read, and at first, I struggled to get into it. My kindle is set up to track my percentage through the book because that’s how I set my pace. So, I was about 30% of the way through and had been reading for DAYS. Thats a bit unusual for me, considering how fast I read. But the beginning was just so description heavy that I didn’t want to miss anything by hurrying.

But DUDE did it get good after 50%. I scarfed this book down like Tzadkiel eating oatmeal (you’d understand that if you read Misericorde 😂). One night y’all. ONE. NIGHT. When I say I stayed up till one am, I 100% mean it. Please tell me you’ve done that before. I was lying in bed, telling myself that I needed to stop. One more chapter. Just till the end of this one. Oh wait, I can’t possibly stop THERE. Okay, till the end of this part them. But apparently my eyes don’t listen to my brain. Because I kept on going.

And boy, did this leave me with a book hangover. That awful feeling of MAN, NO BOOK WILL EVER COMPARE.  ugh. This is a lot to say: It had a slow start, but once I got in, it was just perfect. Chef’s kiss.

Characters:
The two “main” characters are Lourdes and Tzadkiel. That’s obvious. I’ll talk about those for a bit and then touch on some secondary characters.

Lourdes is a scullery maid. She is the perfect submissive slave, doing what she has to without complaint or attracting attention. The author makes sure to describe her as beautiful, of course. But she is so much more than that. Lourdes is incredibly strong, kind, brave and just… a wonderful female lead. She’s my favorite female MC that I’ve read in a while. Now, Lourdes does go through a lot, and there were tears shed for her. I’ll have to go into detail about that later.

Next up is Tzadkiel. I don’t read a lot of books about Angels and such. My background knowledge about angels comes from out Trenchcoat King Castiel. 😂 So, the standards were REALLY high for Tzadkiel. And lord a’mercy, he did not disappoint. While being the typical strong, macho male character that you expect from him, you also get to see a really vulnerable side of him as demons attempt to bring him down. He’s far from perfect, and endures so much along his search that I just… ugh. I love him. Happily simping over here.

Now we’ve got some other characters. There’s Levesque, head of the Tower Obligar and man in charge of “controlling” Tzadkiel. I didn’t like Levesque to start off with but there was a quick change in his personality that somewhat redeemed him in my eyes. He got what was coming to him, though. Then, there’s Philippe who deserved every ounce of HATE I felt for him. Sauvage: the man who deserved TO BURN IN THE FIRES OF HADES *clears throat* sorry. He’s a, um, bad guy.

I had no issue with the characters! Nothing negative! There were a lot to juggle, but each one stuck out enough for me to be able to pluck them out of the story easily. I was never confused. So Kudos to the author for balancing them out so well.

Plot:
There’s actually a few things I want to talk about in terms of plot. The structure of this book is fascinating to me. There are only nine chapters (and you thought CAGED had long chapters 😬) but each one is cut up into different sections. The story jumps around in time quite a bit to build this world that the author is developing.

You have an omniscient and omnipresent narrator who seems to just oversee and explain the history, then you have Gabriel and Anna’s storyline (2060), Tzadkiel’s arrest storyline (2445), and then Lourdes and Tzadkiel’s combined storyline (2446). Each storyline is very clearly marked at the start by telling you what year and era the part is taking place, like below.

I only mention this to show to complex the story really is. It was a bit off putting at first because I wasn’t used to it, but as I grew familiar with the style of jumping, it didn’t cause any problems at all. Just make sure you pay attention to the headings!

Other than what I’ve said before, I think this plot was exceptionally well done. It’s complex, beautifully wound together, logical throughout, and intense.

**Please note: This next paragraph has some sensitive topics. Read carefully.**
Last note about the plot: Morgan has added a trigger warning in the book’s description on Amazon. The book does contain a few short instances of rape as Lourdes faces some particularly despicable guards. It wasn’t an issue for me personally, but some readers might be thrown off guard. *****

All in all, I would give this book a heaping 10/10. If I could, I’d give it 11/10. Buy it here!

My book hangover says I need to give it a 3/10 because OOF. 😂 That’s how you know it’s good.

You can follow Cynthia Morgan at the following links:
Website: https://www.cynthiaamorganauthor.com/
WordPress: https://booknvolume.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/morganbc728?s=21
Amazon: Author.to/CAMorganAuthor

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I’d like to Thank Amy for such a remarkable review.  I’m not sure if reviewers truly realize the amount of Joy (or pain!) their words produce, but Amy’s will have me smiling for days!

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~Morgan~

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Crowman by David Rae – A Masterpiece of #EpicFantasy, #Myths&Legends & #ConceptualFiction

27 Tuesday Oct 2020

Posted by Morgan in Authors Books Reviews & Interviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

5 Star Books, Best Fantasy Books, BnV, Book Club Recommendations, Book Lovers, BooknVolume, Bookstagram, Reading, Recommended Reading, ~Morgan~

.

Touch the light. Hold the light. The light burns. The light runs away. Hold the light. Lock the light away.

The great spirit Vatu keeps the Sun in a box, where no thief can steal it. Once a year, the box is opened and life springs across the dark lands. The whole world belongs to Vatu. He is darkness, he is master of all. There is no hiding from him.

But Utas must try, for his daughter’s sake. She is sick from darkness, and yet she glows with a mysterious light. If Vatu can find them, he will destroy them, or worse, drag them back into his mad, dark world. Torn between duty and mercy, between justice and freedom, Utas tries to escape, but it seems inevitable that the darkness will reclaim him.

For the greatest mercy and the greatest punishment Utas can suffer is to return to his true self.

My 5-Star Review!

I was intrigued by this metaphysical dark fantasy from the moment I read the description. Uniquely named characters and concepts drew me in immediately and filled my mind with questions and lush imagery…a masterful book blurb to say the least!

Vatu, the great spirit of darkness. I could see him, an ethereal and all-consuming shadow intent upon absolute control. Utas, the hopeful apparition fleeing from himself, and his beautiful daughter who is delicate and mysterious. Their plight pulled me along. I was invested in their harrowing journey, their disappointments, their hopes. Symbolism and spirituality are illustrated like characters, filling the narrative with thought-provoking themes that made me pause and consider.

As father and daughter make their way, they are joined by a melange of artfully created characters: Erroi, the warrior, whose body and spirit are independent of each other and who travels in dreams. He is beautifully silent and deliciously mysterious. Mukito, a boy whose cruel stepfather has left him few alternatives other than thievery. The innocent Zintoa, and noble Eskanza. The characters are elaborate, simple, fully-developed, flawed and entirely captivating.

The narrative is rich with unfamiliar people and places, intriguing me page after page. Dialog forms much of the story, yet there are descriptions that whisk the reader away. Poetic tangles of dream-like reveries adorn the journey, some so intricate and imaginative I simply had to read them again….and again! There were times I wasn’t sure what was reality and what wasn’t and I was reminded of an episode of STNG, ‘Masks’, where the hunt of Masaka and Korgano parallels the birth of Athena at the Parthenon.

Mythological and magical, Rae’s Crowman is a masterpiece of epic fantasy, conceptual and allegorical fiction in which I would willingly immerse myself book after book after book.

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David Rae lives in the West of Scotland. He lives in a world of his own; a world of wonder, a world where hoards of workers spill out of factories, a world were fog and smoke shroud all kinds of creatures, a world where ruined castles, factories and houses were haunted by ghosts, gangs and memories. He lives in world where witches have been burned at the cross and martyrs have been hung on the Gallowgreen. He writes poetry and short stories and reads every trashy novel, every children’s book and every comic that comes his way.

He studied Botany, Architecture, Mathematics, Computers, Geography, and Ecology. He worked in a sweetie factory, as a scaffolder and ditch digger. He worked as draftsman and as an ecologist, as a statistician and as a policy maker. H is married and has four children, lovely children and now lovely grandchildren. And He continues to read and to write and marvel at the world He live in.

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Find David on Amazon

Find David on GoodReads

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~Morgan~

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An Unusual Boy- #Interview with #BestSelling #Author #FionaHiggins

22 Thursday Oct 2020

Posted by Morgan in Authors Books Reviews & Interviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Author Interviews, Best Selling Author, BnV, Book Club Recommendations, Book reviews, BooknVolume, Books on Motherhood, Inspiration, Parenting, Reading, Reading community, ~Morgan~

.

Meet Jackson. A very unusual boy in world that prefers ‘normal’.

Julia Curtis is a busy mother of three, with a husband often away for work, an ever-present mother-in-law, a career, and a house that needs doing up. Her only son, Jackson, is different. Different to his sisters. Different to his classmates. In fact, Jackson is different from everyone around him – and bringing up a child who is different isn’t always easy. Then, one Monday morning, an incident at school changes everything; not only for Jackson, but for every member of his family. Julia faces the fight of her life to save her unusual boy from a world set up for ‘normal’.

Bestselling novelist Fiona Higgins returns with a heart-stopping, devastating, but ultimately uplifting story about loyalty, love and forgiveness.

An extraordinary boy. The mother who loves him. The fight of their lives.

Fiona Higgins is the author of four fiction titles and a memoir. She works in the not-for-profit sector and lives in Sydney, Australia, with her stoic husband, three rambunctious children and two aloof goldfish.

Hello Fiona, Thanks ever so much for stopping by to chat with BnV about your new book.  Lets dive right in!  What do you love most about Writing?

I love that writing is an almost magical form of ‘primary production’; writers produce something out of nothing, using only their internal resources.

How did you get your start writing?

Young! As a child, I always loved words – and I still remember, aged nine, the heady rush of winning a poetry competition.  My slightly quirky entry, entitled ‘Ya Local Truckie’, explored the stigma endured by overnight truck drivers. My poem evidently caught the judges’ eye – even though I wasn’t from a trucking family!

What Inspired you to write your book?

I’ve known many children – and adults, for that matter – who are ‘different’ in some way (some with a diagnosis, many without), and witnessed their joys and struggles. An Unusual Boy explores the great strength and beauty that lies in difference, and the healing power of empathy.

I love that.  I believe Empathy, Forgiveness and Kindness are great healers.  Because you have a spiritual perspective, do you have a preferred POV that you write from and why?

In An Unusual Boy, I write from two POVs – that of Julia (Jackson’s mother), as well as Jackson himself. It was quite a thrilling experience, tapping into the stream of consciousness of an eleven-year-old boy! (Two of my three children are boys, which helped me channel the pre-teen male.) Despite understanding Julia’s perspective better, I preferred the colourful, imaginative world of Jackson.

Do your characters dictate what or how your write in any way?

Yes, that’s quite normal for me. They often surprise me. In An Unusual Boy, one of the characters delivered a twist that even I didn’t see coming.

That’s happened to me too.  Although it’s often hard to select just one, do you have a favourite or least favourite character?

Definitely Jackson. He’s a composite of all the wonderful, vulnerable, interesting and quirky children I’ve ever known. Jackson reminds me of a friend of mine from school, Michael, to whom An Unusual Boy is dedicated.

What sets them apart from the others?

Jackson has a strong moral compass – of which the rest of the world is mostly unaware – that governs his choices, as well as some incredible hidden strengths unlockable with a little patience and empathy.

As a successful author, do you have any tips for an aspiring Author?

Write what consumes you.

I so agree.  Outside of writing, what type of book do you like to read and does this differ from the genre that you prefer to write?

 I am a huge fan of fantasy and sci-fi genres, which are wildly different to my genre of contemporary fiction.

Is there a book you consider a must-read- why?

As a writer, one book I always return to is Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott. She has some very solid, practical (and humorous) advice for writers.

I’ll have to look for that one!  I’m always looking for my next new thing to learn 🙂 

Thank you so much for sharing your time and talent with BnV.

You can find Fiona across these social media networks

Author links

Website

Facebook

Instagram:  @fionahigginsauthor

Book link

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~Morgan~

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