Reprise Review: Thrall by Jennifer Quintenz

 

Genre: YA/Coming of Age/Paranormal

Description:

“Braedyn is a normal girl just trying to survive high school with her two devoted friends, Royal and Cassie. Together they're doing a pretty good job of shrugging off the slings and arrows cast their way by the popular crowd when a new boy, Lucas, moves into the house next door. Suddenly Braedyn finds herself falling in love for the first time.

But as her sixteenth birthday approaches, Braedyn discovers humankind is at war with the Lilitu, an ancient race of enticing demons that prey on human souls. Her father is a member of the Guard fighting against the Lilitu - and so are the new neighbors, including her crush, Lucas.

As her world starts to unravel at the seams, Braedyn learns the right answers aren't always clear or easy. And as for ’good‘ and ’evil‘ - it all depends on how we choose to act.

Inspired by the ancient Mesopotamian myths of Lilith and her offspring, Thrall explores first love, strong friendships, and taking on adult responsibilities against the backdrop of powerful supernatural forces and life-and-death stakes.”

Author:

“Jennifer is a film and television writer, author, and graphic novelist. She has written for Twentieth Television, Intrepid Pictures, and Archaia Studios Press. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son.”

This is the first book in her The Daughters Of Lilith trilogy.

To learn more about Ms. Quintenz, visit her website.

Appraisal:

Braedyn’s life is turned upside down and sideways in this creative coming of age story. The Guard, a Special Forces group of human soldiers, thinks they have found a way to combat a coming war with the Lilitu, who are trying to break down the wall between the two worlds to take over earth. As Braedyn’s birthday approaches, she learns she is not who she thinks she was all these years growing up and neither is her father. This story examines nature verses nurture in an interesting thought provoking way as we experience life through Braedyn’s eyes.

I found the story compelling and my suspension of disbelief was easy to achieve. Ms. Quintenz did an excellent job conveying the high school tension between certain cliques in and out of school. Her characters were well rounded and the situations they found themselves in were realistic for the most part. This story has the potential for being an intriguing series. I hope the sequels will spend more time with Karayan. She had a disturbing upbringing and I hope that Braedyn can help her work through issues caused by that. There is potential for a mutually beneficial relationship between these two I would love to see explored.

There was a lot of high stakes action as the winter solstice moves closer and the Lilitu converge on the town turning young men into Thralls to build an army to battle the Guard on this side of the Wall. When a new unit of Guards and spotters converge, chaos ensues and Braendyn is put to the test to prove whose side she is really on. Will Braedyn’s humanity be enough to over-power her genetics?  Only time will tell in this original, action-packed series.

Buy now from:    Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Thrall is book 1 in Ms. Quintenz’s, Daughters Of Lilith series.

Added for Reprise Review: Thrall by Jennifer Quintenz was the WINNER in the Young Adult category for B&P 2014 Readers' Choice Awards. Original review ran August 19, 2013

Format/Typo Issues:

There are a few proofing issues, not enough to significantly impact my reading enjoyment.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Approximate word count: 95-100,000 words

Incubus (Daughters Of Lilith) / Jennifer Quintenz

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: YA / Coming of Age / Paranormal

Approximate word count: 100-105,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“Jennifer is a film and television writer, author, and graphic novelist. She has written for Twentieth Television, Intrepid Pictures, and Archaia Studios Press. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son.”

This is the second book in her The Daughters Of Lilith trilogy. To learn more about Ms. Quintenz, visit her website.

Description:

“Braedyn Murphy used to think nothing important ever happened in her sleepy town of Puerto Escondido. But that was before she learned she was a descendent of Lilith, the mother of all demons. Now Braedyn fights to protect humanity from the Lilitu - the beautiful, souls-stealing daughters of Lilith.

As she fights the Lilitu, Braedyn must also fight her growing love for her boyfriend Lucas - because even a simple kiss could end his life. Their only ray of hope is an angel’s offer to make Braedyn human, but it’s an offer she can’t accept until the world is safe from the Lilitu.

Braedyn knows she’s a key player in this ancient war... but she’s not ready to believe she just might be humanity’s best hope of surviving the final battle for Earth.”

Appraisal:

Ms. Quintenz does a fairly good job reminding us where the first book left off but the recaps were brief and my memory is not as sharp as it used to be, so I floundered around a bit. However it didn't take too long to regain my footing.

I just have one small complaint so I will get it out of the way now before I get to the good stuff. This is about a style choice the author made when she chose to use digits instead of writing out numbers. These numbers referred to seconds, minutes, hours, months, years, feet, yards, miles, costumes, and soldiers. Mostly smaller numbers, under a hundred, but there were several. This didn't throw me out of the story, but I hated seeing a sentence starting with a digit. I guess I am just olde school like that.

There is a new evil threat in this book, it seems as though an Incubus, a rare male version of the Lilitu, has found his way to Puerto Escondido. There is very little known about the Incubus, or his powers, and details from the archivists of the Guard are sketchy since their secret library has been destroyed.

Not only is Braedyn trying to deal with typical, and some not so typical, high school drama. She is also trying to deal with not being allowed to know certain Lilitu history and knowledge the Guard has that affect her future. So Braedyn sets out to discover these things on her own. She is a smart girl but being the Guard’s secret weapon she has the weight of the world on her shoulders.

There is a lot of action in this book and the well executed battle scenes are epic. I enjoyed Braedyn's dream-scape the most, with Ms. Quintenz descriptive prose it was easy to be pulled into the scene. I like the way Braedyn's and Karayan's relationship is developing, I feel like these two can help each other. Meanwhile several other friendships are tested on many levels as the mystery twists and turns. If you love reading fantasy where characters are trying to find out how they fit in the world they live in, I am sure you will enjoy this story.

FYI:

This is the second book in The Daughters of Lilith series. I think it is important to have read the first book Thrall, before reading this one.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant editing or formatting issues.

Rating: **** Four stars

Thrall (The Daughters Of Lilith) / Jennifer Quintenz

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: YA / Coming of Age / Paranormal

Approximate word count: 95-100,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“Jennifer is a film and television writer, author, and graphic novelist. She has written for Twentieth Television, Intrepid Pictures, and Archaia Studios Press. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son.”

This is the first book in her The Daughters Of Lilith trilogy.

To learn more about Ms. Quintenz, visit her website.

Description:

“Braedyn is a normal girl just trying to survive high school with her two devoted friends, Royal and Cassie. Together they're doing a pretty good job of shrugging off the slings and arrows cast their way by the popular crowd when a new boy, Lucas, moves into the house next door. Suddenly Braedyn finds herself falling in love for the first time.

But as her sixteenth birthday approaches, Braedyn discovers humankind is at war with the Lilitu, an ancient race of enticing demons that prey on human souls. Her father is a member of the Guard fighting against the Lilitu - and so are the new neighbors, including her crush, Lucas. 

As her world starts to unravel at the seams, Braedyn learns the right answers aren't always clear or easy. And as for ’good‘ and ’evil‘ - it all depends on how we choose to act.

Inspired by the ancient Mesopotamian myths of Lilith and her offspring, Thrall explores first love, strong friendships, and taking on adult responsibilities against the backdrop of powerful supernatural forces and life-and-death stakes.”

Appraisal:

Braedyn’s life is turned upside down and sideways in this creative coming of age story. The Guard, a Special Forces group of human soldiers, thinks they have found a way to combat a coming war with the Lilitu, who are trying to break down the wall between the two worlds to take over earth. As Braedyn’s birthday approaches, she learns she is not who she thinks she was all these years growing up and neither is her father. This story examines nature verses nurture in an interesting thought provoking way as we experience life through Braedyn’s eyes.

I found the story compelling and my suspension of disbelief was easy to achieve. Ms. Quintenz did an excellent job conveying the high school tension between certain cliques in and out of school. Her characters were well rounded and the situations they found themselves in were realistic for the most part. This story has the potential for being an intriguing series. I hope the sequels will spend more time with Karayan. She had a disturbing upbringing and I hope that Braedyn can help her work through issues caused by that. There is potential for a mutually beneficial relationship between these two I would love to see explored.

There was a lot of high stakes action as the winter solstice moves closer and the Lilitu converge on the town turning young men into Thralls to build an army to battle the Guard on this side of the Wall. When a new unit of Guards and spotters converge, chaos ensues and Braendyn is put to the test to prove whose side she is really on. Will Braedyn’s humanity be enough to over-power her genetics?  Only time will tell in this original, action-packed series.

Format/Typo Issues:

There are a few proofing issues, not enough to significantly impact my reading enjoyment.

Rating: ***** Five stars

Reprise Review: Thrall by Jennifer Quintenz @jennq

Genre: YA / Coming of Age / Paranormal

Description:

“Braedyn is a normal girl just trying to survive high school with her two devoted friends, Royal and Cassie. Together they're doing a pretty good job of shrugging off the slings and arrows cast their way by the popular crowd when a new boy, Lucas, moves into the house next door. Suddenly Braedyn finds herself falling in love for the first time.

But as her sixteenth birthday approaches, Braedyn discovers humankind is at war with the Lilitu, an ancient race of enticing demons that prey on human souls. Her father is a member of the Guard fighting against the Lilitu - and so are the new neighbors, including her crush, Lucas.

As her world starts to unravel at the seams, Braedyn learns the right answers aren't always clear or easy. And as for ’good‘ and ’evil‘ - it all depends on how we choose to act.

Inspired by the ancient Mesopotamian myths of Lilith and her offspring, Thrall explores first love, strong friendships, and taking on adult responsibilities against the backdrop of powerful supernatural forces and life-and-death stakes.”

Author:

“Jennifer is a film and television writer, author, and graphic novelist. She has written for Twentieth Television, Intrepid Pictures, and Archaia Studios Press. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son.”

This is the first book in her The Daughters Of Lilith trilogy.

To learn more about Ms. Quintenz, visit her website.

Appraisal:

Braedyn’s life is turned upside down and sideways in this creative coming of age story. The Guard, a Special Forces group of human soldiers, thinks they have found a way to combat a coming war with the Lilitu, who are trying to break down the wall between the two worlds to take over earth. As Braedyn’s birthday approaches, she learns she is not who she thinks she was all these years growing up and neither is her father. This story examines nature verses nurture in an interesting thought provoking way as we experience life through Braedyn’s eyes.

I found the story compelling and my suspension of disbelief was easy to achieve. Ms. Quintenz did an excellent job conveying the high school tension between certain cliques in and out of school. Her characters were well rounded and the situations they found themselves in were realistic for the most part. This story has the potential for being an intriguing series. I hope the sequels will spend more time with Karayan. She had a disturbing upbringing and I hope that Braedyn can help her work through issues caused by that. There is potential for a mutually beneficial relationship between these two I would love to see explored.

There was a lot of high stakes action as the winter solstice moves closer and the Lilitu converge on the town turning young men into Thralls to build an army to battle the Guard on this side of the Wall. When a new unit of Guards and spotters converge, chaos ensues and Braendyn is put to the test to prove whose side she is really on. Will Braedyn’s humanity be enough to over-power her genetics? Only time will tell in this original, action-packed series.

Buy now from:        Kindle US      Kindle UK     Paperback

FYI:

Added for Reprise review: Winner in the Young Adult category for 2014 Readers' Choice Awards at BigAl’s Books and Pals. Original review ran August 19, 2013.

Format/Typo Issues:

There are a few proofing issues, not enough to significantly impact my reading enjoyment.

Approximate word count: 95-100,000 words

Rating: ***** Five stars

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Readers' Choice Spotlight - YA

Remember to vote for your pick in each category and to enter the giveaway on this page.

Canvas Bound by Laura M. Kolar

Review

Sixteen-year-old Libby Tanner’s art comes to life. Her painted skies turn from day to night, leaves rustle on trees, and sometimes, a mystery boy appears.

While attending England’s Aldridge Art Academy, Libby meets charming Brent Henderson, a performing arts student who showers her with attention. But his rival, gorgeous Dean James, is the one who occupies her mind, even though he’s very much attached to his current girlfriend.

Libby soon learns there’s more to both Brent and Dean than she ever imagined. In order to save her future and the boy who’s captured her heart, she must unlock the secrets behind her art by entering the most dangerous place of all… the world within her paintings.

But once she steps into the canvas, she risks being trapped forever.

Fusion by Imogen Rose

Review #1

Review #2

Review #3

There was just one little difference--my reflection was not separated from me by silver-coated glass. She could have been my twin, except I didn't have one. 


No, she was me.

Hush by S.L. Baum

Review #1

Review #2

Bluebell's Citizen Brand is like no other. Because she is LUSH, she's turned into a public figure - a perfect example of a Concord Citizen, a goal for the next generation. She tries to embrace her fate, but the more she learns about Concord and The Council, the less she trusts in everything she's been told her whole life.

After discovering that Aspen is not her real mother, Bluebell realizes she has little chance of finding the woman who gave birth to her. She also suspects someone is tampering with her memories, and knows that she must discover the truth about Concord before the people she loves are completely erased from her mind.

Maisy May 2  by Naomi Kramer

Review

Maisy is pregnant, and moving to Sydney. How will the country kid cope with the big city - and how will the big city cope with Maisy?

Stone and Silt by Harvey Chute

Review

A ruthless murder and a stolen shipment of gold.

At school, sixteen-year-old Nikaia Wales endures the taunts of bullies who call her a “half-breed.” At home, she worries about how her family will react if she reveals her growing feelings for the quiet boy next door.

Those are soon the least of her troubles. Nikaia discovers a hidden cache of gold, and when police find a corpse nearby, her father becomes a suspect. Worse, Elias Doyle is circling, hungry to avenge his brother’s death.

Nikaia desperately searches for clues to save her father. In her quest to find the killer, she learns about the power of family, friendship, and young love.

Thrall by Jennifer Quintenz

Review

Braedyn is a normal girl just trying to survive high school with her two devoted friends, Royal and Cassie. Together they're doing a pretty good job of shrugging off the slings and arrows cast their way by the popular crowd when a new boy, Lucas, moves into the house next door. Suddenly Braedyn finds herself falling in love for the first time.

But as her sixteenth birthday approaches, Braedyn discovers humankind is at war with the Lilitu, an ancient race of enticing demons that prey on human souls. Her father is a member of the Guard fighting against the Lilitu - and so are the new neighbors, including her crush, Lucas. 

As her world starts to unravel at the seams, Braedyn learns the right answers aren't always clear or easy. And as for "good" and "evil" - it all depends on how we choose to act.

Inspired by the ancient Mesopotamian myths of Lilith and her offspring, Thrall explores first love, strong friendships, and taking on adult responsibilities against the backdrop of powerful supernatural forces and life-and-death stakes.

Empower: Fight Like A Girl - A Short Story Anthology to benefit the Lupus Foundation of America

Women of TV have united against lupus! Presenting Empower: Fight Like A Girl, a special collection of short stories by top women writers from some of your favorite shows, including: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Family Guy, Person of Interest, Grimm, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Law & Order: SVU, Star Trek: Voyager, Eureka, Twisted, The 100, Malcolm in the Middle, Millennium, Being Human, The Shield, Castle, Chuck, Gilmore Girls, and Game of Thrones. In this anthology, you'll discover supernatural thrillers, crime mysteries, horror, comedies, and more.

Praise for Empower: Fight Like A Girl

"Even non-girls will feel empowered by these stories about ordinary, flawed characters finding their own strengths. Highly entertaining and original."
- Lee Goldberg, New York Times bestselling author of The Chase and King City, whose mother lost her hearing to lupus.


Authors contributing stories to this volume include:

Amy Berg

Cherry Chevapravatdumrong

Akela Cooper

Liz Edwards

Jane Espenson

Shalisha Francis & Nadine Knight

Lisa Klink

Pang-Ni Landrum

Lauren LeFranc

Kam Miller

Jess Pineda

Jennifer Quintenz

Lisa Randolph

Kay Reindl

Kira Snyder

Jeane Wong

All proceeds will be donated to the non-profit Lupus Foundation of America to help solve the cruel mystery of lupus.

Get your copy of Empower: Fight Like A Girl from Amazon US or Amazon UK.

And the winners are ...

In the twelve months ending February 28th, 2014, BigAl and the Pals will have received over 1,400 books to consider for review and published 368 book reviews. From those, we chose the books we felt stood out from the pack as exceptional examples of Indie (self-published and small press) writing and divided them into thirteen categories.

For 10 days we collected votes from readers with more than 1,100 people voting and we gave away some great prizes. (Giveaway winners are displayed on the Rafflecoptor for on the voting page if you're interested.)

Congratulations to all the authors, both nominees and the winners. We think they're all worth a read.

And now, for the winners:

Chick Lit/Women's Fiction

It Isn't Cheating if He's Dead

 Julie Frayn

Amazon US (ebook or paper)

Amazon UK (ebook or paper)

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

Contemporary/General Fiction

Sliding Past Vertical

Laurie Boris

Amazon US (ebook or paper)

Amazon UK (ebook or paper)

Crime Fiction

Kiss Her Goodbye

Allan Guthrie

Amazon US (ebook or paper)

Amazon UK (ebook or paper)

Fantasy

Blind Sight

Nicole Storey

Amazon US (ebook or paper)

Amazon UK (ebook or paper)

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

Humor

Will You Love Me Tomorrow

Danny Gillan

Amazon US (ebook or paper)

Amazon UK (ebook or paper)

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

Mystery

Bitter Nothings

Vicki Tyley

Amazon US (ebook)

Amazon UK (ebook)

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

Non-Fiction

No One's Child

Judith L. McNeil

Amazon US (ebook or paper)

Amazon UK (ebook or paper)

Paranormal Romance

Suddenly Sorceress

Erica Lucke Dean

Amazon US (ebook or paper)

Amazon UK (ebook or paper)

Barnes & Noble

Romance

Reclaim My Heart

Donna Fasano

Amazon US (ebook or paper)

Amazon UK (ebook or paper)

Short Story Collections and Anthologies

Coyote Still Going: Native American Legends and Contemporary Stories

Ty Nolan

Amazon US (ebook)

Amazon UK (ebook)

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

Speculative Fiction (excluding fantasy)

New Zapata

Teri Hall

Amazon US (ebook or paper)

Amazon UK (ebook or paper)

Barnes & Noble

Thriller

Eyewitness

Rebecca Forster

Amazon US (ebook or paper)

Amazon UK (ebook or paper)

Barnes & Noble

Young Adult

Thrall

Jennifer Quintenz

Amazon US (ebook or paper)

Amazon UK (ebook or paper)