Book Review: Book Of Immortals: Canidate by Kassandra Lynn

Candidate, is the second in a series. To read my review of the first book see: My review of Book of Immortals Disciple for Online Book Club

I really enjoy a book where the bad girl is seeking redemption. Preserving her soul in a crystal pendant, Shann lies dead for almost one hundred years in an apparatus that has preserved her mortal remains.
She is not the only thing that has been preserved however, her child, still in the womb is still alive. Her former master, not knowing he is the father of the baby girl removes the child and takes it as his own. He hangs Shann's pendant on the baby's neck.
This allows Shann to go out among others, to find a suitable body that she can take over.
Her spirit watches over her daughter, Eadon, for a time and she has a connection with her. Her daughter would be a candidate for her soul to intrude but she would never do that. However, through the connection that her daughter has with her the master becomes aware that she is trapped in the pendant.
He sends the pendant out to find its way to others. Eventually it comes in contact with someone that is suitable, who is also evil enough that she has no qualms about taking over his body, changing it to suit her own needs and then, because the body belongs to a devil cult leader, she has to escape and find her way back to the immortals she cares for.
She later joins a quest to find the Book of Immortals. The devils also want the book, and war ensues when it is found. Shann, who has not been able to completely annihilate the devil she shares a body with is sometimes taken over by him. In the end, well, no spoilers from me. Read the book if you want to know how it ends.
I give the book four out of five stars, you know I'm stingy with stars so that's a good score. It's reasonably clean though not squeaky, the magics are sound and well thought out. I recommend this book to fantasy readers from older young adults and up.


A bit about the Author: (this is always my favorite part)


1. Tell me a little about yourself. Anything fun or goofy that we should know?

I grew up reading stories in both English and Chinese.  The structure behind fiction and the roles each characters play had intrigued me since I was a child.  Somehow, I like many of the antagonists and minor characters more than some of the protagonists—perhaps because the antagonists are the ones with the more interesting traits and strong personality?  In my writing, I want to incorporate some of the things I like about minor characters into my protagonists.  My protagonists are not always good in the traditional perspectives—some of them might be downright evil and selfish—but they're the ones I like to read about.  I hope you find them interesting too.

2. Where do you live and what is it like to live there?

I live in Vallejo, CA where the weather is always nice.  The town is not huge, but it's close to major cities and recreational areas.

3. Tell me a bit about your family/home life (if you don't mind).

I live with my husband and a sister who is my first beta reader.


4. Why do you write? What do you write? Do you have any weird writing habits? (I know that's 3 questions; just tell me about your writing.)

I like to make up stories in my head when I lie on my bed at night—it's like telling myself a bedtime story.  But thinking about something in my mind can be very disorganized and illusive.  I want to put them down in writing to make them more concrete and to share my fantasy with others.

I like to read and write fantasy and romance.  My finished books include "Book of Immortals: Disciple" and "Book of Immortals: Candidate."  I'm currently working on the third book in the series.

I have so many new concepts I want to write about after finishing the Book of Immortals series.  It's hard to choose which one to do first!

I don't think I have any weird writing habits unless if you consider the fact that I never know where the plot is going to turn until it does.

Kassandra Lynn's Web Page

Book of Immortals: Disciple

Book of Immortals: Candidate

Movie Review: Cinderella

Saw Cinderella this week and loved it.
It's clean, romantic, follows the old cartoon version but is not cheesy about it and yet it varies enough to be fresh. I love re-tellings of old classic fairy-tales and this one was well done..
The actors did a fabulous job and were well cast. I saw some familiar faces but they played their parts so well you had to really think about it to recognize them. I'm not naming names here as I'm terrible at names anyway, but you know who they are. Well done.
It's the best Disney movie I've seen in a long time, my husband even said it was good and he usually falls asleep during a movie unless people are dying.
I recommend it to romantics of all ages. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.


(thank you to http://helloawesomelife.com/2015/01/05/cinderella-2015-trailer-review/ for the photo I 'borrowed'.)

the Whisper of Albion by J S Watts

It's poem or short story week:
I'm pleased that J S Watts has agreed to shared a poem with you. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

She says, "The poem I’ve chosen to share with you is “A Whisper of Albion” which comes from “Cats and Other Myths”. Where I live now, and in my previous home in St. Albans in the UK, there are lots of old things buried in the soil which get dug up every time you do any gardening or a farmer ploughs a field. This prompted me to write the following poem."

A Whisper of Albion

The earth was whispering

As I dug you up.

It has secrets it frets to share.

Where others see rubbish

It shows treasures:

Flints and porcelain,

Broken pots and bottles

And today a pebble;

Small round stone with no centre,

Just a hole running

All the way through it,

A tiny passageway to eternity

Through which the winds

Of lost centuries blow.

Maybe a bead, a children’s toy,

The lost link to a necklet

Worn by a princess.

Maybe just a small round stone

With a hole through its middle

Amusing my fingers

As I peer through

In search of lost lands

And the hidden whisper

Of Albion’s soil.

A little about the author:

1. Tell me a little about yourself. Anything fun or goofy that we should know?

I’m a British writer and I write poetry, novels and short stories. Much, but not all, of my work, has elements of speculative fiction within it, but I’ll tell you a bit more about that later. I’m a keen amateur photographer, which I find fun and I’m also a French Horn player, which I thoroughly enjoy, but others seem to find a little goofy. I think it’s all the brass tubing that goes to make up a French Horn.


2. Where do you live and what is it like to live there?

I live in the UK. I was originally born and grew up in London, but now I live in the large-skied, flat-lands of East Anglia, in the countryside near the city of Cambridge. It is a very beautiful and open part of the countryside to live in and, as a former Londoner, I love the fact that I can walk out of my house and straight into fields and woodland. There are deer, foxes, squirrels and badgers just meandering about on their business and the bird life is extensively wonderful. In summer the fields are filled with a colourful array of butterflies, bees and dragonflies.

3. Tell me a bit about your family/home life (if you don't mind).

These days it's just me and the cat and that’s great for writing, because when the words are flowing I don’t like being disturbed. The cat, however, doesn’t fully appreciate this and still yowls for food, attention and general human-slave functions at regular intervals.


4. Why do you write? What do you write? Do you have any weird writing habits?

As noted above, I write poetry, novels and short stories primarily for adults, but some of my short stories have appeared in magazines for young adults. I have published two books of poetry, “Cats and Other Myths” and “Songs of Steelyard Sue”, and a dark fiction novel, “A Darker Moon”. A second novel, “Witchlight”, is due out this Spring. I am hoping that a third poetry book will follow later this year or beginning of next. My short stories and individual poems are published in varied magazines, in print and online, and I also write book reviews for magazines and e-zines. Much of my work has speculative elements to it: “Songs of Steelyard Sue” combines Science Fiction with a more literary poetic style and tone (the hero of the poetry sequence is a female robot living on an Earth turned into a rubbish heap by mankind), and I like writing which crosses and mixes genre boundaries. The books I enjoy reading most are equally diverse and genre fluid. You can find out more about me and my writing at www.jswatts.co.uk



Out in 2015 from Vagabondage Press, Witchlight, a novel by J.S.Watts. Other books by J.S.Watts: A Darker Moon (novel), Vagabondage Press 2012 - ISBN 978-0615706528; Cats and Other Myths (poetry collection), Lapwing Publications 2011 - ISBN 9781907276644; Songs of Steelyard Sue (poetry pamphlet), Lapwing Publications 2012 - ISBN 9781909252028: NOMINATED for BOTH SFPA and Saboteur Awards Best Poetry Pamphlet 2013.
Website: http://www.jswatts.co.uk/
Find the writer J.S.Watts on Facebook: www.facebook.com/J.S.Watts.page


Book links (US):

Cats and Other Myths http://www.amazon.com/Cats-Other-Myths-J-S-Watts/dp/1907276645/ref=la_B005FFWEZE_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422561666&sr=1-2


Songs of Steelyard Sue http://www.amazon.com/Song-Steelyard-Sue-J-S-Watts/dp/1909252026/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422561630&sr=1-1&keywords=Songs+of+Steelyard+Sue


A Darker Moon http://www.amazon.com/Darker-Moon-J-S-Watts/dp/0615706525/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422561575&sr=1-5&keywords=A+Darker+Moon




Book links (UK): (the prices for my poetry books are more sensible in the UK)


Cats and Other Myths http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cats-Other-Myths-J-S-Watts/dp/1907276645/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422567324&sr=1-4&keywords=Cats+and+Other+Myths


Songs of Steelyard Sue http://www.amazon.co.uk/Song-Steelyard-Sue-J-S-Watts/dp/1909252026/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422567268&sr=1-1&keywords=Songs+of+Steelyard+Sue


A Darker Moon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Darker-Moon-J-S-Watts/dp/0615706525/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422567163&sr=1-1&keywords=A+Darker+Moon

A Perfect Victim by Patricia Dusenbury

I'm so glad I agreed to review this book. It was well worth the time. It was so good, I feel guilty having received a free copy.
I give A Perfect Victim 5 out of 5 stars, and I'm normally very stingy with stars.
I haven't read a lot of mysteries lately, I got bored with them years ago because so many of them seemed to follow a formula and were too predictable to be fun. This book however, kept me glued to my seat from cover to cover.
I won't recap the book, because it's a mystery and nobody wants spoilers with those. I will however say that the characters seemed very real and the situations they were in were very believable. The main character is a widow woman who suffers panic attacks. An underlying theme of the book is how she works her way out of being the helpless emotional cripple and becomes the strong woman she really is. She becomes one of the main suspects in a murder, and when she tries to find the culprit herself she gets herself in even deeper. Through her trials, she comes to grips with her personal demons.
I would recommend this book to readers from young adult up. It does elude to some bad life situations but there is nothing graphic. It does have a couple of foul words coming out of the mouth of one character, but I'm sure kids hear worse in school.
It looks like this book is the first of a series. I'm going to have to make time to read the next one and will be waiting to see the third come out.

About the author:

Patricia Dusenbury was one of those children who snuck a flashlight into bed and read mystery stories under the covers ‘til the wee small hours.  Despite this, she managed to acquire a degree in economics and a job that required writing as well as reading.  Now she’s become a writer, hoping to atone for those economic reports and analyses by writing stories that people read for pleasure. Uncial Press e-published A Perfect Victim in 2013 and Secrets, Lies & Homicide in 2014. A House of Her Own is scheduled for release in September,

In answer to some questions I asked her she replied:

After a lifetime on the east coast, I now live on one of the steepest hills in San Francisco - and only a block from the school where one of my grandchildren is in kindergarten.    I've always been an avid reader, especially mysteries, and writing them seemed the natural next thing.


To read more about her books and maybe get one, check out her Amazon Author page