Prophecy is Now Available and Blog Moved

I'm excited to announce that Prophecy, Book 1 in the Antigone: The True Story series, is now available.

A hidden prophecy. A chosen princess who speaks with snakes. A family duty.

Sixteen year old Princess Antigone, daughter of the infamous ancient Greek King Oedipus, wants to lead a normal life and fulfill her duty to the gods, her city, and her family, but fate has other plans.

The Olympian gods bless her, the snakes talk to her, her parents want her to marry a foreign prince, her embroidery looks like burial shrouds for dogs, and she has fallen in love with the wrong boy.

When the mysterious and devastating prophecies surrounding her family are revealed, Antigone must choose where her allegiance lies: With the gods who have betrayed her family but who she is obliged to serve? With her plague ridden city? With her family which lay in ruins? Or even with herself?

In Prophecy, Book One of the Antigone: The True Story series, Antigone steps out of the shadows of the past to tell her own story, a story where truth of history is stranger than the fiction of myth.

Buy the Ebook at:

Amazon ~ Smashwords ~ Kobo ~ iTunes ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Chapters

Also, for various reasons, I have moved my blog to a new site. You can continue to follow me and get updates on my writing and reviews at Coreena McBurnie's new website.

Prophecy is Almost Here

I am happy to announce that Prophecy is almost ready to be published!!!! Prophecy is book one in the Antigone: The True Story series, a young adult mythological fiction. I'm almost done editing and am working on all of the millions of details that need to happen in order to actually publish the book -- formatting, back cover text, deciding to go KDP Select or not, getting ISBN's, .... The list gets longer the more I think about it.

Here is a draft of my back cover copy to give you a taste of what the book is about:

Sixteen year old Princess Antigone, daughter of the infamous ancient Greek king, Oedipus, wants to lead a normal life and serve the gods, her city, and her family, but finds that fate has other plans. The Olympian gods bless her, the snakes talk to her, her parents want her to marry a foreign prince, her embroidery looks like burial shrouds for dogs, and she has fallen in love with the wrong boy.

When the mysterious prophecies surrounding her family are revealed, Antigone must choose where her allegiance lies -- with the gods who have betrayed her family but who she is obliged to serve? With her plague ridden city? With her family which lay in ruins? Or even with herself?

In Prophecy, book one of the Antigone: The True Story series, honour and scandal collide and the truth of history is far stranger than the fiction of myth.

Finally, if you want to be the first to hear when Prophecy is out, you can join my email list (I promise not to spam you or share your information):

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Book Review: The Breaker's Code by Conner Kressley

The Breaker's Code (Fixed Points #1) by Conner Kressley


SUMMARY
Where were you when the world ended?

Three weeks shy of her seventeenth birthday, Cresta Karr wakes to find her world is falling apart. The necklace her father left her is mysteriously missing, a black sedan is stalking her and her friends, and her house is minutes away from exploding. To top it off, she finds out that Owen, the enigmatic, if slightly off-kilter guy of her dreams, is both not interested in going out with her and a superspy sent by a clandestine organization to keep tabs on her.

Turns out Cresta is the subject of a 500 year old prophecy, and if Owen and the other “Breakers” can't find a way to circumvent the future before the sun comes up on her birthday, Cresta is destined to bring about the end of the world -- something she'd rather not have on her college applications. That is, of course, if the gun-toting cult members piling onto her front porch don't get to her first.

The countdown is on. Secrets will be revealed, relationships will be tested, prophecies will be fulfilled, and fate will fight free will in a battle so intense that it won't end until the world itself does.

Happy birthday, Cresta.

REVIEW
I bought this book as part of a larger box set collection, but am reviewing each book individually.

Cresta lives in a small town and is frustrated from having to move there from Chicago after her father died. She has two friends, Casper and Owen. As it turns out, Cresta is part of a larger prophesy, as well as an ancient and paranormal sect in society.

I had some issues with this book, the first of which was the editing. There were many typing mistakes, and while I don't want to sound picky, these pull the reader out of the story and really are a big deal. I can forgive a few, but this book was riddled with them.

The concept of the book was fun and I like the themes about fate versus free will, and it was this that kept me reading. However, I wanted Cresta to be a bit stronger in the end. Maybe she will get there in the next books. I felt like she was floundering around and being fed a lot of solutions at times. The romance between her and Owen was fine, if forced at times.

Simon, her non paranormal friend, was probably my favourite character. I liked how goofy and loyal he was, kind of like a big puppy.

I am always sensitive when there are adoption issues in a book, and the one's in Breaker's Code were actually handled fairly well. It showed people being insensitive, which they can be, but ultimately, Cresta's parents are her parents, the one's who raised her. I hope that doesn't change in the next book.

This could be the beginning of an interesting series, but I hope the author gets some help with the editing. The book is pretty fast paced and I like how it began, talking about it being two days before Cresta's house blew up, then the day before, then the day of.

Book Review: Doodling by Jonathan Gould

Book:  Doodling by Jonathan Gould, self published ebook, 2011, 36 pages.

Source:  purchased with coupon from the author from Smashwords.

Synopsis (from Smashwords):
After Neville Lansdowne falls off the world (because it's moving too fast), he finds himself adrift in an asteroid field full of eccentric characters and experiences some most unexpected adventures. Douglas Adams meets Lewis Carroll (with just a touch of Gulliver’s Travels) in this engaging comic fantasy.

My Thoughts:
I loved this story!  It was fun, well written and imaginative.  Doodling is a short book of 36 pages about a man named Neville who finds the world is moving too fast and he cannot keep up any more, so he jumps off into an asteroid belt where he meets a variety of different characters.

This is a type of cautionary tale, with the silly, funny story of Neville roaming through the asteroid belt trying to figure out a way to stop the world from crashing into them.  Then there is the allegorical story, with its deeper meaning and engaging questions about human beings and their priorities.  Gould questions in a simple way why and how we do things, but is not preachy or judgemental.  I found his writing to be observant, witty and engaging.

Doodling is well worth the read, especially if you want something different and thoughtful, as well as a good laugh.  It will entertain and get you to think at the same time.  You can go to Smashwords to download it and it is even free with the coupon code FT52H unitl the end of August.

Book Review: True of Blood by Bonnie Lamer

Book:  True of Blood (Witch Fairy Series) by Bonnie Lamer, ebook, 249 pages.  You can read the first chapter on the book's website.
Source:  I received a copy from the author for a fair review.
Available:  Amazon

True of Blood is about Xandra,  who lives with her aunt, brother, and her parents who are ghosts.  Strange enough, right? But on her 17th birthday she finds out that she is actually the daughter of the Fairy King and her mother is the Witch princess.  This makes her half Witch and half Fairy, a being so powerful that she was never supposed to exist.  The Witches want her dead because she is too powerful and the Fairies now want her back so they can use her to open the gateway between the Fae and human realms and wreck havoc on earth.  In order to protect their daughter, Xandra's parents have reluctantly had to entrust her safety and training to a fairy by the name of Kallen. 

I found this book to be quite interesting and loved all of the paranormal and fantastical elements.  I enjoyed the Fae and Witch elements and even that Xandra's parents were ghosts.  There was also a great tension created between the Fae and Witch worlds that I found to be quite creative and fun.

Bonnie Lamer sets up some great conflict between Xandra and Kallen as well as the overall conflict of the fairies who want to catpture Xandra and those who wish to keep her safe.  These larger elements are interspersed with some fun humour, which is great at breaking the tension of all of the arguing and life and death situations.

The book revolves heavily around Xandra and Kallen, without many other characters actually appearing.  Even so, both characters developed and grew and the author was able to keep things interesting.

True of Blood is told in first person present narrative by Xandra, who is quite sarcastic at times.  She uses phrases such as "like that is going to happen", "not going there", and "have I mentioned" quite frequently.  Personally, I find this a bit repetitive and off putting, but it also reminds me of books I have reviewed recently such as Wither and Possession, though True of Blood is certainly not dystopian.  It is that teenaged, chatty, often cynical point of view, though that people seem to either love or hate.

There are also some grammatical issues in the book, which are unfortunate because they interfere with the flow of reading.

I imagine that young adults or adult who like fantasy and paranormal novels with a romantic element would enjoy this book.  It is entertaining and light and would make a great summer read.