July 2015 Book of the Month

July 2015 Book of the Month

Sorry for the lateness, but this month's title was worth the wait! Review from my Goodreads account.

First, I'd give this a 4.5 out of 5 stars if I could. The main difference between the 4 and 5 stars is basically the minor typos, grammar, capitalization and puncuation problems I spotted. I have to admit, I'm an anal reviewer when it comes to problems such as these (having an English Lit background). But these in no way deterred from the story; they were extremely minor. The only thing that really drew me out of the story was the author's use of parentheses to clarify something. I have never seen this used before and wonder if that is a cultural thing (Ms. Rae is from New Zealand). For me, it tossed me right out of the flow of the writing. UPDATE: Author has corrected a majority of these errors.

Ms. Rae's sentence structure needs a bit of improvement to help the flow as well. It's not wrong, just in my opinion she needs to utilize more compound and complex sentences. There were quite a few 'choppy' simple sentences (basic subject/predicate sentences) that would have been improved with the use of connecting prepositions or the use of adverbs.

As for the plot, I was hooked almost immediately. I'll admit I was a little frustrated at the bits and pieces she gave out about this world, but realized I was following the footsteps of the main character, Jodie. She's only given glimpses of the world of shifters when she falls for mysterious Danny.

The reveals are slow, but not painfully so. It's a book of discovery, of love and passion, of change. Of overcoming obstacles and following one's heart. The characters are well-thought out, each one with their different quirks and personalities that really shine when given their specific scenes. Not everything is revealed in this book, however. I know the author is working on the second book as she did leave this one in a cliffhanger.

All-in-all I want the second book now! It's going to be a long wait for the next one. UPDATE: Book 2 "The Fury" and Book 3 "The Butcher" have been released. The series name is "Therian Secrets."

June 2015 Book of the Month: And the Band Played On

Book of the Month
Starting June 2015, I'm going to list one book that either had a great impact on me, or I just thoroughly enjoyed.

This month's book, And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts was the first book that took me out of my safe, self-involved, the government is my friend, zone. Each chapter I grew more and more angry and more and more sad as countless lives were ruined due to fear, bigotry and downright hate. It was this book that made me realize that love is love, in all its forms and shouldn't be confiled by what may or may not dangle between the legs. Read this during my college years and knew then I could never trust the government to look out for the well-being of people ... that is, unless you were male, straight, white, and rich. They just didn't care about HIV/AIDS until it effected one of their own, and even then, research and money moved at a snail's pace. And it wasn't just the government; scientists themselves bickered and bitched their way through the virus-hunting process, where, even to this day, French and US scientists cannot come to an agreement about who discovered what and when.

If you've seen the movie, it covers a lot of the book, but you don't get the whole story, and how can you in a two and half hour movie when compared to a 656-page novel. If it's been a while, I suggest reading the book again.