Blog Tour (Review & Giveaway): Vienna's Last Jihad by C. Wayne Dawson

Title: Vienna's Last Jihad
Author: C. Wayne Dawson
Publisher: Katy Crossing Press
Acquired Via: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours
Release Date: October 20, 2013
Brash and brilliant, twenty year old Mathis Zieglar, Professor of Languages, faces an agonizing choice: should he fight the Turks who take his family hostage and move to destroy Vienna? Or should he betray his army to save his kin? Vienna’s Last Jihad is an historical novel set against the 1683 siege of Vienna.

Europe is balanced on a knife’s edge while Mathis, the man who holds its fate in his hands, struggles against powerful enemies: Father Sistini, a Jesuit who brands him a heretic and drags Mathis’ fiancée off to the Inquisition; a xenophobic city mob, who wants him dead for protecting a Hungarian soldier; but most dangerous of all, Captain Tyrek, a Muslim chieftain who will kill Mathis’ family unless he spies against his own army. One by one, Tyrek’s agents murder Mathis’ closest associates in an attempt to isolate him. As 138,000 Turks grind down Vienna’s 11,000 defenders with no relief in sight, Mathis’ only chance to save family and country is to use his wits, the ability to speak Tartar and the knack he learned as a child to leap, whirl, and strike.

READ AN EXCERPT

My Review

When I was given the opportunity to review Vienna's Last Jihad, I jumped on it because it is the kind of book that I miss reading. You see, I spent many years studying history, focusing on the conflict between Christianity and Islam, so finding a piece of historical fiction along the lines of my studies was very exciting. Since the majority of what I know about the conflicts between Europe and the Middle East comes from the Crusades, so the history surrounding the events of the story was mostly new to me.

Cover Reveal (Excerpt): The Innocent Assassins by Pema Donyo

Title: The Innocent Assassins
Author: Pema Donyo
Cover Designer: AM Design Studios
Release Date: June 24, 2014
There are three rules to staying an assassin at the corporation of Covert Operatives: (1) your parents must be deceased, (2) your contracts must remain confidential, and (3) you must be under the age of eighteen.

After a murder mission goes awry a month before her eighteenth birthday, Covert Operatives assassin Jane Lu finds herself caught by the federal government and forced to spy for the CIA while remaining in Covert Operatives. Once her spying mission is over, she will be allowed to live a civilian life without facing criminal consequences—a life she’s only dreamed of having.

As Jane leaks information to the CIA, she uncovers secrets with enough power to both destroy Covert Operatives and her own boyfriend, Adrian King, who’s next in line to be CEO of the company. When her identity as a double agent for the CIA is discovered within Covert Operatives, she must decide where her allegiance, and her heart, truly lies.

Excerpt

Rough cloth slid across my face and pulled down against my shoulders. I screamed. Someone yanked my wrists behind my back and tied them together with coarse rope. Another set of hands bound my legs. How many were there?

I struggled to make contact with a body, swerving from side to side with wild abandon in spite of my inability to see anything. What worried me most weren’t the people trapping my body or the sudden needle injected into my neck which slowed my thoughts and faded away my consciousness.

Armchair BEA 2014: Giveaway

Design by Amber of Shelf Notes

To learn more about Armchair BEA, visit HERE.
I'm a little last minute with getting everything together for my giveaway (I warned you), so I'm just doing a giveaway of my ARC of The Quick by Lauren Owen that has been sitting in my car for a month* (US only) and a book of choice for $15 or less from the Book Depository that everybody can enter, as long as the site will ship to you. You can find the Rafflecopter at the end of the post, but I'm going to tell you a little about The Quick first.



Title: The Quick
Author: Lauren Owen
Publisher: Random House
Release Date: June 17, 2014
An astonishing debut, a novel of epic scope and suspense that conjures up all the magic and menace of Victorian London.

London, 1892: James Norbury, a shy would-be poet newly down from Oxford, finds lodging with a charming young aristocrat. Through this new friendship, he is introduced to the drawing-rooms of high society, and finds love in an unexpected quarter. Then, suddenly, he vanishes without a trace. Unnerved, his sister, Charlotte, sets out from their crumbling country estate determined to find him. In the sinister, labyrinthine city that greets her, she uncovers a secret world at the margins populated by unforgettable characters: a female rope walker turned vigilante, a street urchin with a deadly secret, and the chilling “Doctor Knife.” But the answer to her brother’s disappearance ultimately lies within the doors of one of the country’s preeminent and mysterious institutions: The Aegolius Club, whose members include the most ambitious, and most dangerous, men in England.

In her first novel, Lauren Owen has created a fantastical world that is both beguiling and terrifying. The Quick will establish her as one of fiction’s most dazzling talents.

You can read my review of The Quick HERE, but don't let the DNF lead you astray. It really was a good book, but I didn't have time to read it. (It's huge.)

Giveaway

Review: The Lost by Sarah Beth Durst

Title: The Lost (The Lost #1)
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Acquired Via: NetGalley
Release Date: May 27, 2014
Award-winning author Sarah Beth Durst has been praised for her captivating novels that merge the darkly imagined with very real themes of self-discovery and destiny. In The Lost, we'll discover just what it means to lose one's way…

It was only meant to be a brief detour. But then Lauren finds herself trapped in a town called Lost on the edge of a desert, filled with things abandoned, broken and thrown away. And when she tries to escape, impassible dust storms and something unexplainable lead her back to Lost again and again. The residents she meets there tell her she's going to have to figure out just what she's missing—and what she's running from—before she can leave. So now Lauren's on a new search for a purpose and a destiny. And maybe, just maybe, she'll be found…

Against the backdrop of this desolate and mystical town, Sarah Beth Durst writes an arresting, fantastical novel of one woman's impossible journey…and her quest to find her fate.

My Review

The Lost has been my most surprising read of 2014 so far. The story was not at all what I was expecting from the synopsis. In fact, I almost put the book down after a few pages. I don’t read anything sad that has someone suffering from cancer. But, by the time I had read that, I had already fallen in the love with Durst’s writing style. There were multiple times that the main character’s inner thoughts made me laugh out loud. And I connected completely Lauren from the beginning. It was one of the few books that I’ve read that the writing itself could have made me read the entire book, not the plot, not the characters, not the mystery. Just the writing. Good thing that the plot, mystery and characters were also spectacular.

Armchair BEA 2014: Novellas/Short Stories

Design by Amber of Shelf Notes

To learn more about Armchair BEA, visit HERE.
You guys, I think this may be my favorite topic of the week. I LOVE novellas, novelettes, and short stories. When they were required reading in school, I was a happy, happy girl. Even if I didn't like them, I loved them. (Don't ask how that works.) There's just something about reading something short and sweet, with so much squeezed into one little morsel. Oh, and you know how some of them have open endings? I love those, too. That's a lot of love, huh? We should hug it out.

When I'm looking to read short stories when I'm just farting around on the computer, I go to Tor.com's story section. I have found many quality stories (and fabulous artwork for them!) on the site, and I usually end up buying them for my Kindle, too, so I can read them wherever. The very best one that I've ever come across is Burning Girls by Veronica Schanoes. My review from Goodreads is as follows:

I'm typing sentences, deleting them, and attempting to write more. I don't know what to really say except that Burning Girls left me speechless. I started reading the story without reading any reviews or the words italicized at the start. It was on Tor.Com - what else did I need to know?

What I found in Burning Girls was a striking mixture of witchcraft, Judaic mythology, fairy tale, history, and feminism. The more I read, the more I was sucked in by the writing of Veronica Schanoes. She weaved the above-mentioned elements into her world flawlessly and held me helplessly ensnared in it. By the time I reached the end, my skin crawled and was covered with chill bumps.

Veronica Schanoes' Burning Girls is a story you should put aside an hour for, and she is definitely a writer whose future works I will be impatiently waiting to read.

Trust me when I say it's good stuff.

What is your favorite short story?

Waiting on Wednesday (56): Magic Breaks by Ilona Andrews

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



Title: Magic Breaks (Kate Daniels #7)
Author: Ilona Andrews
Publisher: Ace Hardcover
Release Date: July 29, 2014
No matter how much the paranormal politics of Atlanta change, one thing always remains the same: if there’s trouble, Kate Daniels will be in the middle of it…

As the mate of the Beast Lord, Curran, former mercenary Kate Daniels has more responsibilities than it seems possible to juggle. Not only is she still struggling to keep her investigative business afloat, she must now deal with the affairs of the pack, including preparing her people for attack from Roland, a cruel ancient being with god-like powers. Since Kate’s connection to Roland has come out into the open, no one is safe—especially those closest to Kate.

As Roland’s long shadow looms ever nearer, Kate is called to attend the Conclave, a gathering of the leaders from the various supernatural factions in Atlanta. When one of the Masters of the Dead is found murdered there, apparently at the hands of a shapeshifter, Kate is given only twenty-four hours to hunt down the killer. And this time, if she fails, she’ll find herself embroiled in a war which could destroy everything she holds dear…


In almost two months, I get to hold this in my hands! Plus this one is going to be in hardcover! (I'm excited but didn't like the almost $20 price tag, which I paid, of course). The Kate Daniels series is my favorite urban fantasy series, and I'm dying to read the next installment. What shenanigans will Kate get up to? How are Andrea and Raphael after book 6? Will we finally get the showdown with Roland? Plus, I want to see more Julie; I liked her solo story in the anthology, An Apple for the Creature.

What are you waiting on this week?

Armchair BEA 2014: Author Interaction

Design by Amber of Shelf Notes

To learn more about Armchair BEA, visit HERE.
As promised, I'm not only last minute but late on today's post. I spent the morning at the dentist and the rest of the day recuperating, so this is the first time I've felt like getting anything done. I'd tell you more, but I'm sure you're not interested in the details. (And I'd ramble too long.)

ANYWHO.

Review: The Girl with the Windup Heart by Kady Cross

Title: The Girl with the Windup Heart (Steampunk Chronicles #4)
Author: Kady Cross
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Acquired Via: NetGalley
Release Date: May 27, 2014
In 1897 London, a final showdown is about to begin.

London's underworld is no place for a young woman, even one who is strong, smart and part-automaton like Mila. But when master criminal Jack Dandy inadvertently breaks her heart, she takes off, determined to find an independent life, one entirely her own. Her search takes her to the spangled shadows of the West End's most dazzling circus.

Meanwhile, taken captive in the Aether, Griffin King is trapped in an inescapable prison, and at the mercy of his archenemy, The Machinist. If he breaks under the hellish torment, The Machinist will claim his powers and control of the Aether itself, and no one in either world will be safe-especially not Finley Jayne and her misfit band of friends.

Finley plunges headlong into the Aether the only way she knows how, by temporarily dying. But she cannot parry The Machinist's maneuvers for long. To defeat him for good, Griffin will have to confront his greatest fear and finally come face-to-face with the destructive power he wields.

My Review

I really loved the first book in the series, The Girl in the Steel Corset, and its The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen feel. But each book has gotten progressively less enjoyable to me. It took me a long time to read The Girl with the Windup Heart, a lot longer than any other book has taken in the past few years other than the Song of Ice and Fire series (and those books are at least twice as long as this one). Partly because life has gone crazy and I barely have time to do anything just for me, but partly because I wasn’t compelled to read it. I didn’t have that urge to pick up the book, needing to know what happened. Which is strange because a lot of situations in this book should have been suspenseful.