BOOK REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY - Storm Siren, by Mary Weber (EEK)

EEEEEEEEEK.

This book makes me want to girly squeal. Mostly because it is written by my high school bestie (see photo below) and I am so super proud of her. Homeschooling, chicken-raising, Cali surfing, high-school mentor mama who just rocks.

But really. This book.

You know my requirements for books, right? ESCAPISM. It can't have 1)kids/mommying reality 2)relationship drama 3)sad stuff. I can do scary, intense, mystery, thriller, fantasy. And along the way I need 1) beautiful writing 2) happy something or other 3) no plot holes. Plot holes make me insane.

I can do plain sparse writing actually, if necessary to move the story along. And I guess happy isn't so SO necessary. Mostly its resolution I need. Witness: Jack Reacher books. Plain ass writing. Fascinating plot lines. A guy who travels with only a toothbrush (sounds so liberating and free! Unlike the absolutely stuffed car we need to go camping for 24 HOURS!) And everything gets neatly wrapped up at the end of each book. GUARANTEED. Love it.

This book is not plain writing, it is BEAUTIFUL, nor does the story get wrapped up neatly (as a trilogy) but OH so fun and lovely. This book is seriously the soul of its author. I can see her in it. And that is special.

So...an official blurb of the book...

"I raise my chin as the buyers stare. Yes. Look. You don’t want me. Because, eventually, accidentally, I will destroy you.”In a world at war, a slave girl’s lethal curse could become one kingdom’s weapon of salvation. If the curse—and the girl—can be controlled.

As a slave in the war-weary kingdom of Faelen, seventeen-year-old Nym isn’t merely devoid of rights, her Elemental kind are only born male and always killed at birth — meaning, she shouldn’t even exist.

Standing on the auction block beneath smoke-drenched mountains, Nym faces her fifteenth sell. But when her hood is removed and her storm-summoning killing curse revealed, Nym is snatched up by a court advisor and given a choice: be trained as the weapon Faelen needs to win the war, or be killed.

Choosing the former, Nym is unleashed into a world of politics, bizarre parties, and rumors of an evil more sinister than she’s being prepared to fight . . . not to mention the handsome trainer whose dark secrets lie behind a mysterious ability to calm every lightning strike she summons.

But what if she doesn’t want to be the weapon they’ve all been waiting for?

Set in a beautifully eclectic world of suspicion, super abilities, and monsters, Storm Siren is a story of power. And whoever controls that power will win."

Now, to say, this book is probably a tad more romantical than my norm (er, Jack Reacher being my above example) and inhabited by teenage lover types that made me want to throw up my hands at times (I think I actually did throw up my hands once and as noted above, I try to stay away from complex relationship drama, ha!) and also, I desperately wanted it to be MORE. More pages. More explaining. More of this world. I got to the end and was like NOOOOOOO...not fair. But forgiveable - because I know for a fact its the first of three books. So I am trusting that my girl Mary will get us MORE in the next few.

Other than that.

Beautifully inventive language.

Exciting plot line.

Interesting cast of characters.

And a message about loving yourself and believing in yourself, buried in there, that I found myself savoring in the midst of the battle at the end.

So. You need a non-mommying fun read?? Or a great book for your fav teen? GET IT! (Find it here on Amazon)

Or hey, WIN IT!! Leave me a comment here, on my blog (NOT FB, please), with your favorite kind of escapism book and enter to win. No anonymous entries, pretty please. I will buy the winner a copy on Amazon and ship it your way. Entries are open until, um, MY BIRTHDAY, October 1. SMILE.

And Mary. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! So proud girl!