Dark Shores Book Review

 

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the world needs more pirate books. 

I’ve heard about Dark Shores a lot on bookstagram, and ended up buying a copy from a library sale, but ended up listening to the audiobook instead. (I really liked the narrators) 

The Blurb

In a world divided by meddlesome gods and treacherous oceans, only the Maarin possess the knowledge to cross the Endless Seas. But they have one mandate: East must never meet West.

A SAILOR WITH A WILL OF IRON

Teriana is the second mate of the Quincense and heir to the Maarin Triumvirate. Her people are born of the seas and the keepers of its secrets, but when her closest friend is forced into an unwanted betrothal, Teriana breaks her people’s mandate so her friend might escape—a choice with devastating consequences. 

A SOLDIER WITH A SECRET

Marcus is the commander of the Thirty-Seventh, the notorious legion that has led the Celendor Empire to conquer the entire East. The legion is his family, but even they don’t know the truth he’s been hiding since childhood. It’s a secret he’ll do anything to protect, no matter how much it costs him – and the world. 

A DANGEROUS QUEST

When an Empire senator discovers the existence of the Dark Shores, he captures Teriana’s crew and threatens to reveal Marcus’s secret unless they sail in pursuit of conquest, forcing the two into an unlikely—and unwilling—alliance. They unite for the sake of their families, but both must decide how far they are willing to go, and how much they are willing to sacrifice.

My Thoughts 

The worldbuilding was really fun with this one. Roman Empire meets fantasy, with a magic system that worked well but wasn’t overbearing. 

The characters were great. Marcus now has a seat on my book boyfriend list. You know I can’t resist an antihero. He spends the book doing good things for bad reasons and bad things for good reasons, and I LOVE the inner turmoil. 

Teriana is actually pretty likeable for a YA heroine. I appreciated that she’s actually the weak link in her crew, and not unbelievably strong and capable, but not annoyingly so. She’s determined, sassy, and cares deeply about her crew and friends. 

The legion soldiers were great too. You gotta love the dry sense of humor and banter that comes from nineteen year old warriors who have never lost a fight. The ego is strong. 

Content wise I’d give it a PG-13 rating. There’s one fade to black scene and some mild innuendo, but quite a bit of strong language throughout. 

The Wicked Deep book review

 If you haven’t noticed, witchy stories have taken over a good portion of bookstagram lately, and for awhile I blew it off because witches aren’t really my thing. I’ll stay in my other worldly fantasies, thank you. But, then October came along, with all the spooky vibes, and I got a wild hair and decided it was time for a witchy book. It just so happened that The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw is the one my library had, so that’s the one I read. 

The Blurb:

Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow…

Where, two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town.

Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return, stealing the bodies of three weak-hearted girls so that they may seek their revenge, luring boys into the harbor and pulling them under.

Like many locals, seventeen-year-old Penny Talbot has accepted the fate of the town. But this year, on the eve of the sisters’ return, a boy named Bo Carter arrives; unaware of the danger he has just stumbled into.

Mistrust and lies spread quickly through the salty, rain-soaked streets. The townspeople turn against one another. Penny and Bo suspect each other of hiding secrets. And death comes swiftly to those who cannot resist the call of the sisters.

But only Penny sees what others cannot. And she will be forced to choose: save Bo, or save herself. 

My thoughts: 

This book was good. Very atmospheric. The prose and descriptions were so delightfully spooky and vivid, coupled with an oddly easy going pace that gave you that feeling that things were going too good and something horrible was going to jump out at any moment. 

Which was basically what kept happening. 

I really liked the characters, particularly Bo, and the alternating timelines was really cool too. 

Honestly, the first three quarters of the book had me wondering why I’d been avoiding spooky witchy books for so long. 

And then all of the sudden I got hit with this foreboding of the impending plot twist. And it wasn’t the pleasant kind of anticipation that comes when you think you’ve got the story figured out, but a rapid backpedaling of No Please Don’t Do This To Me. 

But. No one listened to me. And I was right. 

I won’t say the ending is bad. Because it’s not. But I feel like it didn’t match the rest of the book. People who like bittersweet endings would probably love the entire thing from beginning to end, but for me the last portion felt crushing and sort of slapped together. 

All in all though, it was a fun Halloween time read that was the right mix of spooky, suspenseful, romantic, etc, and unlike the movies I watched for Halloween, I could still sleep after reading this. 

One of Us is Lying Book Review

 

So I am WAY behind on this book. It’s been out for years, and I just now read it, but man, was it worth the wait. 

The Blurb:

Pay close attention and you might solve this.

On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.

Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.

Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.

Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.

Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.

And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose?

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them. 

My Thoughts: 

It has been a long time since I left the realm of fantasy and ventured into contemporary, and let me just say, I loved it. 

This book was full of a lot of twists and turns, and it was really fun to guess what was going on. I was right about several things, but they came about in such unexpected ways, so I wouldn’t call the plot predictable. Even when I had suspicions I couldn’t figure out how it could have possibly been pulled off. 

I loved the cast of characters. Especially how one minute I was convinced each and every one of them was innocent, and then the next I was sure they were all the killer. The secrets and motives and personalities were all so rich. 

Nate is, of course, my favorite. I will love him forever. 

I just started book two in the series and can’t wait to see where the mystery goes now. 

Just a heads up that there is some strong language, and innuendos between gay and straight couples, but nothing too graphic, in my opinion. 

Redeeming Love Book Review

With the movie version of Redeeming Love coming out this week, I thought it would be a good time to review the book. 

I got this story for Christmas a couple years back from a dear friend, and it took me an insane amount of time to get around to reading it, but once I started, I couldn’t put it down. 

Here’s the blurb: 

California’s gold country, 1850. A time when men sold their souls for a bag of gold and women sold their bodies for a place to sleep. 

Angel expects nothing from men but betrayal. Sold into prostitution as a child, she survives by keeping her hatred alive. And what she hates most are the men who use her, leaving her empty and dead inside. 

Then she meets Michael Hosea. A man who seeks his Father’s heart in everything, Michael Hosea obeys God’s call to marry Angel and to love her unconditionally. Slowly, day by day, he defies Angel’s every bitter expectation until, despite her resistance her frozen heart begins to thaw. 

But with her unexpected softening come overwhelming feelings of unworthiness and fear. And so Angel runs. Back to the darkness, away from her husband’s pursuing love, terrified of the truth she can no longer deny: Her final healing must come from the One who loves her even more than Michael Hosea does…the One who will never let her go. 

A life-changing story of God’s unconditional, redemptive, all-consuming love.

My thoughts: 

I guess I’ll start the review off with a big old trigger warning—this book is dark. Don’t get me wrong, it’s done in a wonderful way, and even with the very explicit subject matter the author did a fantastic job of not making anything graphic for graphics sake. The book is not trashy at all. But it is dark. I had to back off a few times just because Angel’s bitterness and turmoil were so realistic it was hard to read. 

I don’t read a lot of adult fiction, or Christian fiction for that matter, so when I got hooked on the story it was a nice surprise. Angel is one of the most realistic characters I’ve ever seen in Christian fiction (small as my experience is). I loved that she was written angry and vengeful and petty and all the things, because it felt so real. So often books make the mistake of bringing the redemption arc full circle too soon, and that was not the case with Redeeming Love. I felt like the roller coaster of softening and then building her walls back up fit perfectly. 

I did struggle with Michael a bit. Ok, a lot. I wanted to throw something at his head through most of the book, because for all of his good intentions I felt like he was expecting way too much of Angel and not understanding why this would be so hard for her. But even that was good writing, because again, unlike most men in Christian fiction, he was not perfect. 

So the whole story is both of them working together and against each other to deal with the struggles in their lives, and it just worked really well. 

I did have a hard time with God talking directly to Michael, and maybe that’s just a personal pet peeve of mine, and I probably shouldn’t have expected anything different since this story is a literal retelling of the prophet Hosea’s story, but I just would have preferred there wasn’t direct back and forth communication going on, because it didn’t really fit the 1800s gold mining setting, in my opinion. 

But that’s a very small complaint, and like I said, just personal preference. 

So if all the movie hype has you curious about the book, I’d say it’s well worth the read, and I’m hoping to be able to see the movie soon too. Do you plan to? 

 

On These Black Sands- Book Review

The world needs more pirate books guys. I’m telling ya. I could read a good pirate book all day long…emphasis on good. That’s where this book comes in. 

The Blurb:

An awkward stowaway. A troubled pirate captain. 

Is she the key to his quest or will she be his ruin?

Aoife wants nothing more than to fulfill her duty and serve on the Council. But a spilled secret reveals a deadly truth she never suspected. Plagued by guilt and wanting no part in the Council’s methods, she panics and runs, stowing away on a pirate ship.

Declan doesn’t have time to deal with an irritating stowaway, and this job is already dangerous enough without having her underfoot. With less than a month to bring the enchanted dagger to the rebels, he needs to find a way past the bloodthirsty creatures guarding it.

In a world of secrets and legends, a lost dagger may be the key to saving a nation. But it will take far more than wit and a cutlass to retrieve it. Can an heir and a pirate work together--or will their secrets drown all hope?

My Thoughts: 

Pirates are a fiction topic that can either go really good or really bad, fast. Too much gore and smut is super annoying. None at all is unrealistic. On These Black Sands strikes a really good balance of making the characters rough and lawless, but gives them enough redeemable qualities that we can root for them to win. 

Everyone needs a Declan in their life. And Tommy? Perfection.

I really enjoyed the slow burn, enemies to lovers romance in this. The snark was amazing, as were the secondary characters. And the one bed trope. THE ONE BED TROPE. The world building was fantastic, with some really cool twists I’ve never seen done before, and that cliff hanger ending has me dying for book two. 

Back in Black

*cue Mushu, rising up from the smoke*

I am, in fact, alive.

For the record, I did not mean to go on that hiatus. But. It was 2021. We all know a lot of crazy crap happened. Lots of surprises and curveballs, and things generally not going as planned. That’s my excuse anyway. 

But. I’m hoping you’ll all forgive me and let bygones be bygones. 

This year *knock on wood* I have a strategy, I have content, I have ideas, that will hopefully keep me afloat through the blogging sphere. 

But just in case this is one of those moments where the hero tells the villain “you can’t be good no matter how hard you try. Eventually you’ll go back to your old sinister ways” I’ll let you know right now that Instagram is where I’m active, at @maddiemorrowwrites

You can find all the book gushing, incessant ramblings, and morally gray memes and gif usage there. 

Now, for a brief recap to get everyone up to speed on where I have been for the last year. 

We had a baby! Again. 

Henry, Loraina, and Ellie, looking spiffy for Christmas. 

 Since last I blogged I have scrapped and started a few different stories. A sequel to Red as Blood now has twenty thousand words and a killer aesthetic, if nothing else. 

The Queens Three (formerly known as Mad Hatter) has been roaming the countryside, in and out of agents and publishing houses inboxes. Due to a career change, my agent and I had to part company, but the experience was amazing and very much worth it. I got a lot of encouragement and compliments from the publishers we submitted to, and that was a huge boost to my confidence while preparing to go back into the query trenches. It’s been rather quiet on that front, but that’s actually alright. 

Because I wrote a pirate book. 

A pirate book, might I add, that is first in a duology. Whispers of Smoke and Sea is currently drafted and I’m working like heck to get the revisions done so I can pitch it in this year’s Twitter parties. 

I’ve got book two outlined and ready to start on the first draft as soon as I feel my ducks are in a row with book one. Obviously I’m excited about every book I write and finish, but truly, I’m super excited about this one and feel like it’s my best work thus far. You’ll be hearing a lot more about it in the future, I assure you. 

And last, but not least, the blog and my other social media graphics got a face lift and ventured over to the dark side. I loved my old graphic, and honestly, still do. But my style has just shifted so that the old one would look really lovely with all the mint blue and flowers in my kitchen decor, but really doesn’t mesh at all with the grittier snark filled stories I tend to write. So, a change was due. Do you like it? Does it fit? 

I’d love to hear your thoughts, and what you’ve been up to since I disappeared last! 

 

Viking WIP Snippets

 

Hi guys! 

I come bearing gifts! A blogpost containing something other than book reviews. Scream and shout for joy! 

I just passed the 25k mark on the Viking story yesterday. It’s both exhilarating, and depressing. Eight months of working on this thing and that’s all the farther I’ve gotten? Then again, fifteen thousand of those words were written in the last month and a half. So I’m gonna focus on that. 

With that lovely milestone fresh off my keyboard, I thought it would be fun to share some snippets from the story. 

If you haven’t already heard the gist of the story, here is the unofficial blurb. 

When a band of raiders descend on the island, kidnapping all of the healers, Ailith is willing to do anything to get her mother back—even sail with the invaders to their country to try and stop the sickness that is sweeping through their people. But the kingdom’s own witch doctor has other plans. The healers’ success means her downfall, and she doesn’t intend to lose.

———————

The bone hooks are smooth from heavy use and click together as I work. The gurgling is the river and rustling leaves creates a steady music the musicians are always trying to imitate but can’t come close to. 

It should bring calm to my soul, but instead it feels like the river is flowing through my stomach, and my thoughts are as stable as the water. 

There’s another sound on the wind. Faint and distant. It’s rhythmic and haunting, like a chant, but I can’t identify any words. I tip my head, trying to hear more, but it’s gone in the next gust, just a trick of the wind and my tangled emotions. 

———————

Keavy jerks toward the trees suddenly, her wings poised ready for flight. A horse nickers above the noise of the falls.

I freeze and scan the shadowed tree trunks along the river. There is nowhere to hide and I slide my sword from its scabbard slowly, careful not to let the metal ring. 

“Put that away.” Kade rides out of the trees, leading another horse.

“You’re supposed to be with the boys.” I yank my collar back into place so he doesn’t see the bite. We don’t have time to take care of it.

“I’m not their shield partner.”

——————

He lets out a long low whistle and four Stri materialize from the brush like spirits taking on flesh. They appraise me with wary eyes and I told perfectly still. This is no time to make any sudden moves. 

“She says she’s alone,” my captor says. “Make sure.”

“Do you think she’s the traitor?” A ruddy faced boy with flaxen hair asks. He doesn’t look old enough for the earring marking him as an adult, but the bloodlust in his voice is no child’s. 

———

As a little girl I’d always thought he was unbreakable, but he’d cried. He’d cried for days and I remember how badly it scared me. My best friend was undone and wounded in a way all of Mim’s healing couldn’t fix. And I vowed to protect him from ever being hurt like that ever again. 

——————

I turn to the young man. “He’s my shield partner. We’ll be back by tomorrow morning.”

“I don’t think you realize who is in charge here.” He smiles patronizingly, like I’m a stupid child who won’t learn her lessons. “You be back by morning. He’s staying here. If you get any bad ideas about trying to bring poison instead of medicine, or trying to get help, he’ll be right here with me to suffer the consequences.”

—————

There is a place for a bonfire, and someone arrives moments later with a forth and lights the wood that’s already waiting. I squint against the dancing flames but there’s nothing about the cracklings sparks that is reassuring. The heat reaches for my skin, and sweat slicks my brow. The tongues lick hungrily at the air, waiting for an offering of human flesh. And the light illuminated the rough wooden benches surrounding us, offering a perfect view of the entire spectacle. 

————

Coilin pushes the door open and motions me forward. “Let’s go before someone changes their mind and decides to kill you now.”

I tuck the bag of herbs under my arm. “Right behind you.”

———-

My hand slides around the knife in his belt and the blade hisses as I whip it out of its sheath. “You’re not going to stop me.” I swing into the saddle and point the knife at him. “I’m going.”

He stares at me and I meet his gaze, waiting for a challenge, or an attempt to take the knife back. But he just shakes his head and mounts his own horse. “I’m coming too.”

“They told me I have to come alone,” I protest. I can’t afford to anger them in any way.

“Then I’ll wait out of sight. I’m not letting you charge into a band of murderers with my knife and a pack full of herbs as your only defense.”

————-

Their leader walks toward me, but the witch intercepts me first. Her painted black lips part, revealing teeth filed to wicked points. “So much work, just to pay for your own death.”

“Ani.” The leader sets a hand on her shoulder and juts his chin back toward the group. “Let us see what she has to offer before you go tearing her throat out, hmm?”

She casts him a heated look beneath her kohl caked lashes, but the corner of her mouth curls up in the faintest of smiles. “I can wait.”

Bile rises in my throat and I pull back on the reins. “We have an agreement.”

He turns to me and smiles. “So we do. But I also have an agreement with her, and I happen to love her.”

———

“You came alone?” Kade asks, and I glance over at Arran.

He nods. “The elders couldn’t get anything out of the warrior they captured. He didn’t speak our language. They wanted to go after them, but with so many in our village gone there weren’t enough. A rider was heading for Cladach for help when I left.” His eyes slide over to mine. “I was worried about you.”

“I’m touched,” Kade says flatly. 

———

I’m so happy this story is finally starting to take shape and come together. My goal was to have it done this month but...that might be a bit lofty. We shall see what happens.