Hope has been talking about her story The Stealthmaster's Shadow for several months. First it was just a nameless retelling, then it became its own story and found a name and now a cover. 

Which I shall reveal shortly. 

I think I like it not only because it is cool but because it reminds me of the covers of Brent Weeks Lightbringer series. (Which is another series I enjoyed greatly, though there was some content which makes me hesitate to recommend them, and the cliffhanger ahhg!) I'm glad to say I have no such hesitations about Hope's books. Though I haven't read this one yet, I have heard a lot about it. Her other books are so delightful I have no doubt that this one will be too. But onward we must go. Here is a snippet.

Now it's time to reveal the gorgeous cover designed by, Kate Flournoy.  Or at least time to read that sentence, and then look at the cover either for the first time or again. Because there are a number of these posts being posted, and because when I see cover reveal posts I scroll down to find the cover before reading the post.

Especially because the posters like to put lots of space between words and the cover.

So you have to scroll.

But we are probably all quite practiced at scrolling. 

Looking at you social media.

Usually all that blank space can be ignored.

Because it is boring,

and blank.

But what if it were words?

Not just white space.

Would people stay to read it?

As I was saying. 

But now it is really time for these words to end.

For them to disappear into the background.

so they shall
eventually
do so.

But I am curious, had you already seen the cover?

Did you see all these words?

I must say it is quite a dramatic cover.

It’s ten confounded years since the war ended.
Ten years since the Prince won the war and pardoned the rebels.
And left.
The Prince left, but lasting peace never had a chance to begin. As a Stealthmaster, Verus is determined to complete the task the Prince left, whatever the cost. Traitors, needlessly vague governors, and threatening rumors are all part of a standard mission. Verus will bring peace to what is left of the world, one city and village at a time. According to the governor’s daughter, the war was never about a physical peace in the first place, but what does she or any of the other Followers know? They weren’t there during the war.
They didn’t see the horrors Tauscher spread over the land or the scars that will never fade. 
Commandeering the task of a former soldier, Verus presents himself to the governor of Nerva. Eventually he’ll need to undermine the man, but even Stealthmasters need money, and a mission to discover the owner of a misshapen slipper shouldn’t be difficult. 
Until the ambassador from Zahavia appears. 
Suddenly face to face with nightmares from the past, Verus struggles to help those plunged into danger, from the governor’s newest prisoner to a serving lad to an infuriating woman he’s taken to calling princess. Fleeing will only make the enemy stronger. But staying…
Staying could doom them all.

Coming the 1st of June 2018.

Click here to preorder now!

You can also find the book here on Goodreads.

Hope Ann uses chocolate to bribe a wide ring of spies, from the realm leapers of Aslaria to the double agents of Elkbend, for their stories. Based in Indiana (a place in America), she is the self-published author of the Legends of Light series, personal writing coach, and the Communications Coordinator for Story Embers. You can find out more about her at authorhopeann.com

So, what do you think? Looking forward to instalment four of Legends of Light?  I am.

Burning Rose by Hope Ann has released. Hopefully, providing I got the time right. It can be a tad confusing when converting American dates and times to Australian, we tend to be a little early, time travellers that we are. As part of her launch team I got an ARC to read and review. Hence this review.

Burning Rose consists of a prequel and three short stories. 

ROSE OF THE NIGHT: a Rose of the Oath prequel

ROSE OF THE OATH: a Beauty and the Beast retelling

SONG OF THE SWORD: a Rapunzel retelling

SHADOWS OF THE HERSWEALD: a Hansel and Gretel retelling

Behind every beast, there is a curse.

Behind every curse, there is a promise.

Behind every promise, there is a sacrifice.

Two hundred years before Beauty was born, blood and tears wove a legend of hope and sorrow. A timeless tale of a forbidden rose and the smooth voice of a masked stranger. A story of rebellion and despair and love. A story of a promise given and of a hope received. 

The story of the Oathkeeper.

With each novella based in an aspect of the fruit of the Spirit, these are fairy tale retellings as you have never heard them before. 

Behind the scenes of Burning Rose: Shadows of the Hersweald

"Writing Burning Rose took around two years, from the publication of the first novella to the final paperback. Of course, that wasn’t non-stop writing. I published each of the three novellas contained in the paperback separately as ebooks, then pulled them together for the first book of Legends of Light. 

My third novella, Shadows of the Hersweald, was probably the hardest. I knew I wanted to retell Hansel and Gretel, but originally the sister was going to be the main character. During my first try, I only got a chapter or two written. The second round I actually wrote the whole novella from Gorawen’s point of view. It didn’t work. Finally, I realized Haydn, Gorawen’s step- brother, had a much more interesting story not to mention a more dynamic history. So I switched main characters, changed the plot a little bit, rewrote it, and was very happy with the result.

Read Haydn’s full story in my new paperback collection, Burning Rose!"

Elissa, a villager from the northern mountains, attempts to save her brother and ends up trapped in a hidden valley with a strange host and a treacherous enemy.

Evrard, the Wingmaster of the Prince’s army, races against his own weakening powers to discover the location of his twin and save her from deadly mistbenders.

Haydn, a pardoned rebel from Tauscher’s army, confronts shadows of myth and former comrades in his struggle to keep his sister safe and find the stolen Stormestone.

My Review 

The prequel/story at the start was just amazing. Of all of them it is my favourite, and as Rose of the Oath followed straight on it was too. The first few pages were a little confusing as I got it into my head that 'I' was female and then relised 'I' was male..... but after that it was very cool. Actually very sad and heart wrenching. I'm a bit of a skeptical person and overall the stories were better than I expected, but saying that I didn't really know what to expect at all.

Rose of the Oath was good, the only thing was I somehow got confused without knowing it and thought that the MCs siblings were her children.... and her brother was her husband... I got a long way through before realising my mistake. The story was mysterious, and heartbreaking. Words wove together in a beautiful way with such a ring of truth. I loved how different it was from the normal fairy tale while still containing many of the elements.

Darkness can be so beautiful when such a great light shines forth from it.

Song of the sword was beautiful. The words were melodious, sparkling with colour and light. The hope and promise the story leaves you with is refreshing. There were some very minor plot twists, which I guessed. The plot, though simple, was interesting. There was no bad content and not even much violence, though there is a war going on and a combat takes place. 

Shadows of the Hersweald was really cool, and I didn't actually guess the full extent of the story twist until it was just about happening! I read this one rather fast too. So obviously it was a good one. The story was beautiful again and full of hope, and forgiveness that just made it so lovely to read. I liked the characters and the retelling factor. It was easy to forget that it was a Hansel and Gretel retelling. There were some major elements from the original, but I loved seeing how things were switched up. This story seemed a bit more violent than the others, but still at a very low level and not descriptive. There was a lot of emotional pain and tortured characters, which is makes them good. They felt very alive and full of history together, and individually. 

The books all follow a story line of the fantasy world they are set in with some characters and time periods overlapping. I would highly recommend this book as a good read with really deep themes that ring with truth and life.

Order Burning Rose now!

I have known Hope Ann for quite some time and so am quite excited to be able to hand this post over to her and her beautiful book cover. I will also have a review of the story to post as soon as I have read the book. I am almost finished The Shadow Rising (Wheel of Time book 4) by Robert Jordan, after that Hope's book is next on the list. I hope it will be good. For now I will hand the post over to hope so we can learn a bit more about her stories.

It’s finally here! The cover for Burning Rose, a paperback collection of the first three Legends of Light novellas!

A war, founded in ancient legends, changes the lives of those it touches forever.

Elissa, a villager from the northern mountains, attempts to save her brother and ends up trapped in a hidden valley with a strange host and a treacherous enemy.

Evrard, the Wingmaster of the Prince’s army, races against his own weakening powers to discover the location of his twin and save her from deadly mistbenders.

Haydn, a pardoned rebel from Tauscher’s army, confronts shadows of myth and former comrades in his struggle to keep his sister safe and find the stolen Stormestone.

Before the war, before the legends, before the Separation, there was a man who started it all. There was a curse, a promise, and a sacrifice. There was the Oathkeeper.

Fairy tales retold as you have never heard them before. 

ROSE OF THE OATH: Beauty and the Beast

SONG OF THE SWORD: Rapunzel

SHADOWS OF THE HERSWEALD: Hansel and Gretel 
and 

ROSE OF THE NIGHT: a Rose of the Oath prequel

You can check out each ebook individually here or the Burning Rose page here. The Kindle version is available for preorder, but the paperback won't be up to buy until the launch on October 3rd. Don't worry, I'll tell you all about it then. In the meantime, you can add Burning Rose to your lists on Goodreads.

I suppose you'd like to actually see the cover now? Very well. It is glorious. 


Designed by Kate Flournoy

Worth the wait? Because I love it. And it's less than a month before you can hold a copy of Burning Rose in your own hands! Also, if you want blow by blow updates as well as cool tidbits and a behind-the-scenes look of the launch, you can hop over here to Facebook and join the Readers of Aslaria launch group!

Hope Ann is a Christian wordsmith, avid reader, and dedicated author. Her time is taken up with writing, reading, playing with inspirational photos, blogging, helping care for the house and eight younger siblings, and generally enjoying the adventures of life on a small farm at the crossroads of America. She is the author of Legends of Light is currently working on several projects including a fantasy novel and futuristic trilogy. You can find out more about her at https://authorhopeann.com/

I was put off by the concept of this book at first, but some other people were recommending it so when I spotted it at the library I picked it up and read the back cover and went wow, sounds cool. (And also better than the other two books I was looking at borrowing) But after reading the back cover I just could not put it down, I was intrigued. 

The book is clean (though there are hints at the fact that affairs had happened in the past and hints of romance), there was the expected level of violence for such a book (they are killing a lot of the time) but nothing overly descriptive (except once when there was a lot of blood). Scythe is not written from a chrisatain perspective at all, but it still holds to truths about human nature and that we just cannot be perfect. I enjoyed being able to delve into the themes and perspectives of this book, not of course that I agree with them, but they are what many people believe so it is good to be able to see that this is how other people may see life. To be able to see that humanity cannot ever have a utopia on this earth. And that where there is power there is always corruption. Sure there are some fatal flaws in the worldview, but it still holds truths. Scythe talks about the subjects of death and killing (Obviously) but it is interesting because society usually won't talk about it at all.

The concept was really amazing, and though the technology is not explained (it just works.) I enjoyed it for how far flung and cool it all was. I read it in three days, and that was only because I started it really late one evening. I also really liked the journal entries at the end of chapters, so much foreboding in them, and terrifying thoughts about humanity! I like books that make me think and are also clear on what they think, so even if I don't agree with their thoughts I can still learn from them.

The characters were also petty good. I ended up not liking one who I liked a lot at the beginning, still I could understand why he did what he did, but I was still happy with how his character arc turned out, it was as it had to be, yet not what I expected. The whole thing also tied off nicely and could be a stand alone, though apparently a second book is coming. 

Further notes on the romance: it was kind of unnecessary, it would have worked fine had they been friends. So I kind of imagined it more that way. It also felt like it was put there just to be there. 

It was humourous at times too, in a morbid way. And it makes you realize that living in a 'perfect' stagnant world like the story paints is not something I would want. I am glad for the age of mortality, and that lives can have purpose. But most of all that I have a better answer as to what happens after death than "I don't know."

As soon as I finished reading this book I sat down and pre-ordered the second, which was finally released today. Unblemished is the first book in a trilogy by Sara Ella. When I first saw the cover I thought it was beautiful, the story fits the cover.

The story begins in a modern world but there are parallel universes and ways to move between them so of course things get complicated. The story is lyrical and magical. I was a bit unsure with the start of it, it felt all horribly contemporary to me but then the strange things started happening and stuff got cool! 

I enjoyed the themes of love and light and dark, Verity and the Void, and the 'reflection' that it has to Christianity. Although love triangles are sometimes nasty this was the best one I have ever read, so pretty good for a love triangle. I really liked how it all worked at the end with the 'magic'. It is central to the plot without the plot being about which one should the girl choose. (thought that is certainly an element) I am still a bit annoyed about some of the things that happened there. But I must say no more.

The magic/gifts/powers some people had were really cool and made sense. It was a page turning story. With some twisty bits at the end but I still had to spend most of the book wondering who was double crossing, and not trusting anyone. The world building was average and fairly simple/normal as far as fantasy books goes, though the magic was interesting, and not exactly the same as anything else I have read. Some people not familiar to the genre may find there is a lot of world building, but in my pov there was not that much. (but I did just finish a Robert Jordan Wheel of Time Book just before reading this one)

There were some cliches that bothered me a bit like the bad guy info dumping as he has the good guy backed into a corner, and just explaining everything. (which happened big time twice) Things also happens so fast at the end that it was a tad confusing but I forced myself to read it all slowly and it does make sense. Though I still have quite a few questions I want answered. At first I thought there would be more allegory, but it did not turn out like that so I suppose it is all in the theme and is not meant to be allegorical.

As far as content goes it was pretty good. There was not really any bad content, obviously there was fantasy kind of violence, and romance/attraction/girl looking at guy way too much. There are also some references to affairs and children born outside of wedlock. Only one this made me a bit uncomfortable and that was the fact that one of the callings/magical abilities is shape-shifting, and when those characters turn back into humans they are described as naked (nothing more).

I had a few other peeves and a lot of questions (but it is the first book in a trilogy so there should be questions.) I was bothered that some elements I thought were significant never turned out to be. Maybe they still could, but maybe I look way to deep into things.

Still I did want to hit the MC over her head every time she went out at night alone or only with one other person....just aaggh, don't put yourself in that position. El narrated the story and she gave the story its own unique/distinctive voice. I liked the musical references and it was nice overall, but I personally would prefer a less modern feel. As I said though, I am waiting excitedly for the next book and I have heard good thing about it from some influence readers!

Have you read Sarah Ella's book?

What is the best book you have read in the last month?

I was so happy when I found this book in our library but now my heart is destroyed. It is written as a prequel to Alice in Wonderland. But it is not quite so mad, which I personally liked as Alice got too weird for me. 

It took me a while to really like the characters, other than Jest, and I did at times wonder why Cath couldn't just get over it and marry the king and be happy. But from the lovely ending (haha) on page 321 the book just tore me to pieces. So if you want a happy ending and all that, do. not. read. a. single. page. past 321.

I eventually realized that I like all the characters and yes I had guessed the plot twist, but it was still good, and well done, and I suspect quite a few people would be surprised by it. The ending was what I expected, except I never expected it to hurt so much. 

Even though I never really liked Alice in Wonderland that much I really enjoyed all the references to it. Now I know why they paint all the white roses red.. oh my heart. And why the Hatter is mad and the raven, and why the queen of hearts is heartless. It is all explained!

This was nothing like Marissa Meyers other books, at all, but it was a good book, still you will probably enjoy it more if you don't expect it to be like her other books. It is something else entirely. The first half of the book was a bit slow, but not the ending. I could not put it down as I read the last third. Also the dreaming stuff was really cool as was the baking. I was also pleased to have the jabberwocky and vorpal sword in there, because that is my favourite piece of Lewis Carroll's writing. 

Content wise, it centers on the romance, or lack thereof between two characters while another two romances go on through the story. (Can't say anymore because spoilers) There is no particularly descriptive violent bits and not that much violence. It is quite odd at times but no where near the level of Wonderland oddness. (a plus for me because that was too weird) There are also three sisters who tell prophecies that in some regards come true

Have you read Heartless or any other Marissa Meyer Books?

What did you think? Do you want to read this one?

I heard of the Snowflake method of plotting from some writer friends and wanted to try it, because before that my poor stories were very, extremely, highly un-plotted. The main one I have been working on for years is a mess. But then I read this book and it inspired me. 

So in case you have not heard of it let me introduce How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method.


This book is amazing. I have never read such a fun writing book before. Sure I have read other good ones but this one was so engaging. The first more than a half is written as a novel in which the main character is being taught how to outline using the Snowflake Method. It is kind of like you as the reader are also sitting in the class and you can go off to do your homework on your story as the main character does.  

To give you a bit of an idea the teacher is called Baby Bear and the main characters name is Goldilocks. There is a main plot line running through the book of Goldilocks wanting to write a story and a secondary plot line as well. I just wanted to keep on reading like it was a novel.

And yes the Snowflake Method, has made me write some kind of outline and I managed to get up to starting step 8.... after that I'm not so sure if all I have is a mess, but it is so much better than what I had before that. And so much less of a random mess, and I know what I am doing now. It was so fun to read through and helpful too, I highly recommend you give this a go and you may even find that is it just right.

See look how ordered does that look! I am so happy right now looking at that. It took me ages to make Scrivener do what I wanted but I knew it had to do it somehow I just had to find out how and an hour or so later I did. Yes I whited out the main parts because spoilers. 

And binary, because I have been looking at it for half the day. No I can't read it, but my sister needed a book cover and I don't use other people's graphics if I can help it (unless they happen to be in public domain or are book covers.) So I spent ages making some binary graphics up. And they look cool, but as far as I know the book covers are secret for now. So you only get to see the binary on the first picture of this post, which is comparison to the cover is quite un-epic. And has nothing to do with snowflakes or my own writing.

Anyone else plotting for camp NaNo?

If you have followed my blog for a while you may remember when I did some fan art for Gillian Bronte Adams fantasy story, and I'm glad to say that today she is guest posting here! In case you have never heard of her here is a little bio, then ill hand it over to Gillian.


Bio: GILLIAN BRONTE ADAMS is a sword-wielding, horse-riding, coffee-loving speculative fiction author from the great state of Texas (America). During the day, she manages the equestrian program at a youth camp. But at night, she kicks off her boots and spurs, pulls out her trusty laptop, and transforms into a novelist. She is the author of Orphan’s Song, book one of the Songkeeper Chronicles, and Out of Darkness Rising. Visit Gillian online at her blog, Twitter, or Facebook page.

Today, we’re looking at the letter G.

G is for Gundhrold

They were coming.

Gundhrold peered into the moonless dark, feathered wings ruffling in the breeze. Distant howls sounded to the beat of thundering hooves and clinking armor. Distant, but rapidly approaching. Foul murderers. His claws dug into the bark of the limb, and dark sap bubbled out of the scratches. A fresh scent hovered around him, strange amidst the eerie screams borne upon the wind, and he studied the russet sap staining his claws like blood.

– Orphan’s Song

Writing the prologue of Orphan’s Song (book one) from a non-human perspective was both challenging and fun. Gundhrold is a griffin, which in our world is considered a mythical creature with the body and tawny colored fur of a lion, crowned with the head of an eagle and russet feathered wings. At the opening of

Orphan’s Song, he is already long past his prime, though he would never admit it. Particularly not to the peddler, Amos McElhenny.

In the world of Leira, griffins served the Songkeepers and Songlings as Protectors, and as such, they were ever hunted by the Takhran. It fell to the council of griffins to determine which individuals had received a partial gifting (Songlings) and which had received the full gifting (Songkeepers). In Songkeeper, we learn that one such decision led an angry young man named Rav—brother of the Songling Zahar—to betray the griffins to the Takhran, a deed which led to a horrible tragedy. Now as the last of his kind, the task of protecting the Songkeeper falls to Gundhrold alone.

“For centuries, my kind have served as Protectors for the Songkeepers and for anyone who showed promise of possessing their abilities—Songlings, we called them.” – Songkeeper

By the time the story begins, Gundhrold has lived long enough, traveled wide enough, and endured hardship enough to not suffer fools kindly. He is the king of acerbic wit. Although he is far from human in matters of social niceties, sarcasm is one human habit that he has completely mastered.

One of my favorite parts of writing is when you get to pit vastly different characters together in tough circumstances and see what hilarities ensue. As an author, it’s like having front row seats to a cage match—albeit, generally a comedic one. It’s time to kick back, settle in with a bowl of popcorn, and wait for the fists to fly.

Gundhrold was such a strong personality in and of himself that he needed an equally strong personality to butt heads with, and Amos … well, Amos was the perfect candidate. If you haven’t met Amos McElhenny yet, he’s a traveling peddler with a fierce temper and tongue to match. So—SPOILER ALERT—at the end of Orphan’s Song, throwing Amos and Gundhrold into a do or die mission together was just too good an opportunity to pass up. *evil chuckle*

Gundhrold’s head lowered until his massive beak was only inches away from Amos’s nose. “I am a son of the desert. This was once my home—the home of all my kind. I know every crag, every slope, every crick and hollow—”

Amos rolled his eyes. “Every blatherin’ speck o’ sand?”

“I know where I’m going. Don’t interfere.” The griffin padded off, broken wing still trailing the ground, leaving Amos racking his brain for a suitable insult for the … the … insufferable beast.

- Songkeeper

Needless to say, much hilarity (and fist throwing) ensued …

Gundhrold is fierce in battle. Not at all the sort to trifle with. But beneath his ferocity and rigid exterior, he hides a heart that beats with the truest affection for those under his care. He will fight to the death for those that he seeks to protect.

Gundhrold bared his teeth. This was death. This was the end. And he would meet it with all the fury in his soul and wake in Emhran’s land to greet the dawn.

– Orphan’s Song

Songkeeper Blurb: War ravages Leira and the Song has fallen silent.

Freed from the hold of a slave ship, Birdie, the young Songkeeper, and Ky, a street-wise thief, emerge to a world at war. Hordes of dark soldiers march across Leira, shadowed by whispers of plague and massacres, prompting Ky to return to his besieged home city in hopes of leading his fellow runners to safety.

Desperate to end the fighting, Birdie embarks on a dangerous mission into the heart of the Takhran’s fortress. Legend speaks of a mythical spring buried within and the Songkeeper who will one day unleash it to achieve victory. Everyone believes Birdie is the one, but the elusive nature of the Song and rumors of other gifted individuals lead her to doubt her role. Unleashing the spring could defeat the Takhran once and for all, but can she truly be the Songkeeper when the Song no longer answers her call?

Check out the links below for a place to purchase the books.

Amazon: Orphan’s Song, Songkeeper

Barnes and Nobles: Orphan’s Song, Songkeeper

And before you leave, don’t forget to enter the giveaway! One lucky winner will take home a copy of Orphan’s Song,  Songkeeper, and a gorgeous handmade mug. Two lucky winners will take home copies of Songkeeper! Enter through the Rafflecopter below and be sure to visit www.gillianbronteadams.com to continue following the blog tour. You can earn new entries for each post that you visit along the way. Winners will be announced after April 15th.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Have you encountered a griffin in a fantasy book/movie before? What is your favorite type of mythological creature?

It is about time for another book review. Well that is what I am writing about today anyway. This e-book, Dreamlander by K.M. Weiland can be bought from K.M. Weliand's store and some other places for free. Probably because once you have had one taste of her writing you will want more. And I am saying this simply because her writing is excellent and I want everyone else to have the opportunity to read her amazing books. Dreamlander is the third book by K.M. Weiland that I have read, the others were just as good. But onto Dreamlander. 

What if it were possible to live two very different lives in two separate worlds? What if the dreams we awaken from are the fading memories of that second life? What if one day we woke up in the wrong world?

The characters are what makes this book so amazing. But even without all the cast of complicated interesting, endearing, funny, exasperating characters the book is still very well written. The concept is so cool too, I really liked how the dreams were not just dreams but an alternate reality. Even with the two worlds it did not get confusing but flowed well, and some questions I had at the beginning about how that world/dream traveling worked were answered later in the book without any info dumping but it showed the things I had questions about happening.

There is always so much going on in the book and I feel for the characters so much, they are such real characters and their struggles feel true and the choices they must make are so so very hard, I wanted the same things as them and believed with them what they believed and learnt with them that they were wrong. There is so much more to this story than meets the eye. There are good lessons to be learned though they are not all very obvious. 

Did I mention the characters are amazing? oh I did, right...

The book is epic and fast paced and the poor characters are never given a breather. All over it is amazingly written, and some sentences are just beautiful. I also liked how there were words in the book I did not recognize and know the exact meaning of, I enjoyed looking them up and seeing how well they fit. There is so much action but also a good amount of description to balance it off. 

AND THERE IS A MAP, sadly it is hard to look at when you have an e-book, but there is one!

There was quite a lot of violence and some of it, especially the battles are, lets say, well described, so I'd recommend it for older readers. Particularly when a child of another non-human race and a human are executed, and also when some people or again a person from another non-human race are seriously wounded in battle. There is also a tad of romance. But I just loved this book even though the last few chapters did have me in tears.

Have you read any books by K.M. Weiland?

If you are a writer, have you checked out her blog on which she posts writing related tips, regularly?

The wait is finally over, for those who like me got ARCs of this book anyway. For everyone else it is almost here! And I am so excited because this book belongs to such a good series/trilogy. Obviously this is my honest review of this amazing book. 

What book am I talking about? A Time To Rise of course by the lovely Nadine Brandes. I am honored to take part in her book tour.

I don't want this post to be spoilery for those who have not read the first books so here is the synopsis of book one. You can find the synopsis for A Time To Rise on Goodreads.

How would you live if you knew the day you'd die?

Parvin Blackwater has wasted her life. At only seventeen, she has one year left according to the Clock by her bedside. 

In a last-ditch effort to make a difference, she tries to rescue Radicals from the crooked justice system. But when the authorities find out about her illegal activity, they cast her through the Wall -- her people's death sentence. 

What she finds on the other side about the world, about eternity, and about herself changes Parvin forever and might just save her people. 

But her Clock is running out.

A Time To Rise was worth the wait, I was expecting this to be as amazing as the other two and it certainly lived up to my expectations. There were many elements of faith in the other books but even more in this one, and by this book in the series I had grown to expect that so it was lovely. It is really refreshing to read a book that is saturated in biblical faith. But it also all applied and was necessary to the story; it has a reason and purpose. It makes this novel so much better and unique. It is an inspiring read.

This story pulled my emotions every way. The characters are all so real Parvin, Tawny, Solomon, Willow and their struggles so relatable and I really liked how some of them changed so much through this series and yet are still the same … Skelley Chase… The theme of forgiveness was powerful too. And many of the side characters were quite intriguing people as well, with their own stories, that we never really heard in this book. (because that would be unnecessary) But it made for good characters. 

There were quite a few surprising twists that I did not see coming, at all. I never even suspected there would be twists in those places. The story had me flicking through pages… e-book pages anyway as fast as I could read. A few bits had me laughing aloud.. and laughing/crying at other times.

Some horrible things happen, in the story. (Realism peoples) Some people do many horrible things; some good people make bad choices. But there are no gruesome detailed descriptions of the violence. So I really can’t say there was anything I did not like about this book, except for everything I loved of course!

I find most romance in books is painful to read, but in A Time To Rise (and the other two books, but particularly in this one where it is there a lot more) the romance is lovely and beautiful and a wonderful example of how a relationship like that should really be. It made for some heart wrenching moments. 

The story is just beautiful and so full of faith and the ending satisfied me. I am just trying not to think about how it is now ended. But Nadine did a wonderful job in making the ending sound like a new beginning for the characters while still being a great series ending.

Look at that photo, I even have a signed copy of the first book! Well, a sticker that is signed and in the front cover, but that is just as good!

Now after reading that review you want to buy the book right? So here are some links to the previous books in the Out of Time Trilogy as well as A Time To Rise!

You can find A Time to Die the one it started with all these places:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Christian Book Distributors

Goodreads 

As for A Time to Speak, possibly my favourite of the three:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Goodreads 

And A Time To Rise the third and final book:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Goodreads 

If you Pre-Order A Time To Rise you can sign up to get some cool swag -like mini character magnetic bookmarks and other out of time series bookmarks- on this post on Nadine's blog.

And there is going to be a Facebook Party to celebrate the release too, which you should totally join in on because Facebook parties are, in my experience anyway, always so fun. What could not be fun when there are book giveaways and author chats?

That American time then translates to 9am on Wednesday the 19th, if you are in the same time zone as me (Australian Eastern Time Zone UTC+10:00) And then again I just realised there is that horrible thing called daylight saving so that could make it 8am, or 10am, my poor little brain is so confused now, but we will work it out some time before then.

And in case you do not know Nadine here is a little introduction.

I am an adventurer, fusing authentic faith with bold imagination. I never received my Hogwarts letter, but rest assured I’m no Muggle (and would have been in Ravenclaw House, thank you very much.) This Harry Potter super-nerd has been known to eat an entire package of Oreos (family-size) by herself, and watches Fiddler on the Roof at least once a year. I write about brave living, finding purpose, and other worlds soaked in imagination. My dystopian trilogy (The Out of Time Series) challenged me to pursue shalom, which is now my favorite word (followed closely by bumbershoot.) When I’m not taste-testing a new chai or editing fantasy novels, me and my 

knight-in-shining armor (nickname: “hubby”)

 are out pursuing adventures.              

Nadine Stuff: (which you should check out because she is a most lovely person)

Website: http://nadinebrandes.com

Newsletter: http://nadinebrandes.com/my-newsletter

Facebook: http://facebook.com/NadineBrandesAuthor

Instagram: http://instagram.com/NadineBrandes

Twitter: http://twitter.com/NadineBrandes