The Belles by Dhonielle ClaytonMy rating: 1 of 5 stars Initially I wanted to give myself at least a day before writing this review, but I have this uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach and decided it’s best to get this over with and move on. The story started out relative well, sadly it didn’t end that way, at least for me.The characters came across as uneven and inconsistent. I understand what the author tried to accomplish with them, mostly create a sense of mystery and intrigue, but they were nothing more than stiff, 2-dimensional entities that meant to move the plot along.The plot or rather the main…

Manga Classics: The Scarlet Letter by Crystal S. ChanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars I was auto-approved by the publisher Udon Entertainment through NetGalley to review this title.Truth be told, I was never able to get into the story The Scarlet Letter; I started the book about 10 years ago, but quickly lost interest. I even tried watching a movie version, but again lost interest. Having said that, I did make it through this version of the story and I even enjoyed it. The art work was great. The story itself will never be one that I favour, but at least this time I was able to get a good…

Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe by Stacy KingMy rating: 4 of 5 stars I was given this title by NetGalley in return for an honest review.The only Poe story I ever read was The Cask of Amontillado about 20 years ago, so I’m not that familiar with his original works. However, I enjoyed the collection of stories in this manga comic. The artwork was magnificent and I appreciated the use of only black and white, which made the stories just that much more eerie.As my first experience reading manga, I got the hang of it fairly quickly and finished the comic in one sitting. Overall, I’m glad…

The Viking’s Chosen by Quinn LoftisMy rating: 3 of 5 stars I received this ARC from Red Coat Publishing and the author in exchange for an honest review.I have to admit it has been very difficult for me to write a review for this book. It wasn’t bad, I just felt like something was missing and I can’t exactly put my finger on it.I didn’t particularly like the characters, but one doesn’t have to like the characters, if the story is good enough to keep one’s interest. Both main characters had strong personalities and weren’t flat or boring.The story was also interesting, containing elements of mysticism, strategy and intrigue.I believe…

Up From The Deep by Ray FawkesMy rating: 2 of 5 stars I was given this ARC by NetGalley in return for an honest review.The main issue I had with this comic was the format in which it was provided and the difficulties I had reading it; the pages would jump back and forth by up to 50 pages and it looked like various frames were cut off. Just prior to reading this comic I read another one and a collection of poetry in the same file type and with the same program and encountered no problems at all.This plus the fact that the story is meant to begin by…

The Witch Doesn’t Burn in this One by Amanda LovelaceMy rating: 5 of 5 stars I was given this ARC by NetGalley in return for an honest review.As the introduction to this collection of poems states, it deals with abuse, assault, body issues, eating disorders and childhood trauma. Having had personal experience with a few of these topics myself, reading these poems was truly a journey through a range of intense emotions.I appreciated the poet taking her time and exploring the emotions before moving on and almost guiding the reader to begin the healing process. The anger and hurt and suppression felt leads the way to stand up, speak up…