Thursday, October 24, 2013

Surrender and Lantern & Poison Reviews...


Title: Surrender
Series: The Ferryman + The Flame #1
By: Rhiannon Paille
Published: October 2nd, 2012 by Createspace

How far would you go to save everything you ever loved?

Kaliel was warned about her love for the Ferryman. One day he will marry the land and leave Avristar forever. She doesn't listen, and because of what she is-- a Flame-- one of nine apocalyptic weapons, she sparks a war. In a desperate attempt to save her home and her love, Kaliel tries to awaken Avred, not knowing she may have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Smashwords-  



“Lord Istar of Avristar has called a match between our finest warrior and his. I present to you Wraynas, winner of the Beltane Tournament!” The crowd went wild for Wraynas. Istar nodded to himself as he mentally sized up Krishani’s opponent. This would be a good match.
    Falnir didn’t waste time. He called the match seconds later and limped away from hearth, keeping his eyes on the boys as they circled each other.
    Wraynas was the first to land a blow to Krishani with the wooden sword. It tapped his shoulder and Krishani briefly fell to one knee. He scraped the ground and rubbed his fingers together, then was back on his feet, twisting around and avoiding the very forward advances that Wraynas made towards him. Eventually, Krishani’s wooden sword met with Wraynas’s and they moved across the dirt in a pattern of blows, each of them defending themselves with skill. Their sparring didn’t get interesting until Wraynas shoved Krishani with his free hand and Krishani fell onto his back. Wraynas was on him in an instant, ready to end the match, but Krishani sprang to his feet, his expression colder, harder.
    Istar was curious as to what he was doing. He wasn’t striking Wraynas back; he was only defending himself and not letting go. He seemed focused, but he wasn’t doing what Istar wanted him to do. He turned his eyes away from the sparring match for only a second and that was all it took.
    Krishani didn’t even touch Wraynas, but there was a loud crack followed by a rumbling under their feet. The sky darkened with clouds and Wraynas flew onto his back and coughed, blood pouring from his mouth and staining his vest and breeches. Krishani knelt in a ceremonial position, the tip of his wooden sword pointed to the ground. It smoked at the hilt. Krishani panted as the crowd screamed in horror. Istar rushed to his apprentice. He needed to reach Krishani before the villagers realized what happened and attacked his pupil.     He briefly glanced at Wraynas, who was passed out unconscious at the edge of the crowd. There was a group of younger maidens fawning all over him, not knowing what to do. Istar placed a hand on Krishani’s shoulder and the boy looked at him, his cheeks stained with tears.
    “What was that?” Istar spat.
    Krishani’s expression turned from sad to cold again. He shrugged off Istar’s hand and stood, throwing the sword on the ground like it was a deadly weapon. “I hurt him, didn’t I?”
    “You . . .” Istar’s gaze moved towards the crowd around Wraynas. Falnir had managed to reach him now and was parting the girls and kneeling at his side. “But why would you?”
    Krishani looked down at his hands. They were red, but he wasn’t harmed in any way. “I didn’t mean to. I just let go.”
    Istar had never actually witnessed what happened when Krishani let go, and he felt punched in the stomach at having to see it there, in a group of villagers. He took Krishani by the elbow and began leading him towards the thin path back to the Elmare Castle. The clouds were darkening overhead and large droplets of water were beginning to splash onto the dirt.
    Before Istar could pull Krishani through the crowd, Falnir glanced up and caught them fleeing. “Your boy is dangerous!” he shouted, clearly upset.
    Istar glared at Krishani. “I’ll send Hernadette to help Wraynas.” He tried to be diplomatic, but he knew it was no use. Krishani had harmed their champion, and what was supposed to be a fun sparring match had almost turned into bloodshed.
    Falnir nodded. “It is no fault of yours, my lord.”
    Istar only nodded, then pushed Krishani through the crowd and into the forests. He didn’t say a word as he led the boy back to the Elmare castle, but he was afraid—afraid of what Krishani was and what he could do.



Once again we’re really digging deep because Surrender was finished in 2009, then rewritten once in 2010, and again in 2011 and was then edited a lot and in 2012 I added some deleted scenes, illustrations, a map, and an alternate ending (for fun)


1. Caught Myself - Paramore


I listened to this song on repeat while finishing the first draft of the last part of Surrender. I’m always about the lyrics and the cadence of a song, this one had what I needed to finish the book.


2. Setting Sun - Eskimo Joe


Again, I was looking for songs at the time that could help me plow into the emotions of my characters. So this song was great for that.


3. My Number - Tegan and Sara


All time favorite Indie Rock Duo. I love their older stuff because of how raw and original it was.


4. Satellite Heart - Anya Marina


I suppose the whole Twilight Soundtrack was being played around this time but the songs on this soundtrack were amazing because of the Indie Rock quality to them and the fact that the movie was considered an Indie Film so really just a great time for this to come out for me.


5. Holy Toledo - Crystal Bowersox


I loved this girl when she was on American Idol because damn could she sing. So of course I downloaded her songs and made constant patronage to them while writing.


This was an interesting book but it wasn't absolutely amazing to me.  I struggled through this book and while it got better at the end the first half was really slow going.  I loved reading about the love between Krishani and Kaliel.  I wasn't thrilled with how it jumped between them however because that kind of thing always throws me off.

All in all it was a good book but the flow was off for me.  I think that young adult readers would really enjoy it.  I have a feeling that the series can only get better and I can't wait to find out.

Rating:  3.5 out of 5

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Title: Lantern & Poison
Series: The Ferryman + The Flame #1.5
By: Rhiannon Paille
Published: December 11th, 2012

This is SURRENDER from the villain's POV.

Hadwen is no more. The Daed have no choice but to travel to Avrigost to awaken Crestaos. They're thrown into a whirlwind quest for the Flames, not knowing how ruthless and sadistic Crestaos can be.

Smashwords-  



Lantern & Poison was written around the same time as Surrender, then was extracted from the original novel and so trying to come up with a playlist for this novella alone is really hard! I’m flipping through songs I used to listen to around 2006 - 2009 when it was written and here’s what I got!


1. Spesso Sprofondo by Emma Shapplin


Emma Shapplin’s entire Greatest Hits Album was something I was listening to a lot during this time. The haunting vocals, the dark tones to the music really pulled me in.


2. Gamen by Garmarna


One of the classic Celtic bands out there and if you haven’t heard this song you need to. I found this song in high school when our modern dance teacher played it in class. Years later I managed to find the song again, so it was definitely inspiration for me.


3. Heavy in your arms - Florence and the Machine


The first Florence Welch song I fell in love with. I have since listened to alot of Florence for inspiration. 


While I found this book interesting and was an extremely easy read, there were too many characters doing different things.  I know this book is meant to be from the villain's point of view but I am not exactly sure who the villain is.  This book did help me to understand parts of the first book better.  There may be a lot going on with all the characters and the plot but it is much bound to be that way in a novella.  It took me only a few short hours to read this book and I thoroughly enjoyed it and soaked it up.

Rating:  4.5 out of 5 stars
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rhiannon is an up and coming Indie Author that writes Young Adult Fantasy books and some non fiction. She has a PhD in Metaphysical Science and Parapsychology. When she’s not writing books she’s reading minds, singing karaoke, burning dinner and sipping iced cappuccino despite her allergy to coffee. Some day she’d like to own a unicorn—as long as it doesn’t eat her. She's sold over 25,000 copies of her books worldwide.

Smashwords-  
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/rhiannonpaille


No comments:

Post a Comment