Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton … A Review

A Seeker seeks the truth. It's an ancient following that takes years of training and one in which you must be born into. For Quin, Shinobu and John their training was almost over and the final test of their skills was upon them. Would they pass and become Seekers?

I really enjoyed Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton. Young love, jealousy, revenge, regret and redemption all play a part in this epic fantasy adventure that has elements of sci-fi and steampunk sprinkled on top.  Quin is 15, the star of this tale, and has endured years of harsh training to become the next Seeker in her family. The Seeker seeks the truth, but the methods can be brutal. A Seeker is basically a highly trained assassin that possesses ancient magic in the form of weapons and mental abilities that give them the choice of life or death. Quin has no idea what is in store for her as a Seeker. There are unimaginable secrets (and horrors) that will change her forever. Her companions are Shinobu, a distant cousin who she's grown up with (and who's had a thing for her), and John, a little older than Quin and Shinobu, who is from another family and is being trained by Quin's father and uncle (who Quin has been in love with).

It's an adventure that starts out in Scotland and travels to Hong Kong thru ancient time portals only accessible by Seekers. The story starts out slow introducing us to the players and turns into a roller coaster ride of an adventure with a soft landing at the very end, leading us into book 2.

What did I think?… It's a great story, the writing is good with a good foundation for developing the story further and the characters are well developed. One of the things that I love about the story is that it's told thru the eyes of more than one character, giving us such a great perspective. I liked Quin, Shinobu and John, although I did think Quin got a bit whiney at times about some things. And I thought the very ending was a bit too quiet, but I definitely want to read the next book to see the choices these characters make and their futures. And this book? I couldn't put it down and read it in 2 days!

This series is being sold as the next "Hunger Games". I don't see Seeker as dystopian, but if you enjoy YA epic fantasy adventures this should be your cup of tea! Definitely write this one down in if you love adventure stories period!

Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton is coming out February 10th 2015 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers. I want to thank the publishers for sending along the eGalley to me for review!

The Nine Fold Heaven by Mingmei Yip... A Review

The Nine Fold Heaven by Mingmei Yip is the allure of Shanghai, with a twist of funny. Sexy and passionate painted upon a canvas of Chinese folklore, ghosts and dreams. This is all you can expect and more from Mingmei Yip's most recent book, The Nine Fold Heaven. The story centers around Camilla, and her quest to find her lost lover and baby. A baby that she thinks may be alive, even though she was told he died in childbirth. But her baby visits her in her dreams and gives her cryptic messages, and so her quest begins. But Camilla is no ordinary Chinese girl, she's been trained many years to be a sly covert spy by one of the most powerful gang leaders in Shanghai. She is beautiful, a woman who knows how to seduce any man, a talented singer,  pretty good with a knife and funny. Camilla will lead you on a journey through the exotic underworld of Shanghai, to an adventure that will surely grab you and have you turning those pages faster than a cherry blossom fades.

I am never disappointed with Mingmei Yip's writing. It is simply wonderful. Her stories are always an adventure, with exotic settings, and with a heroine that is so real, with flaws & feelings that the reader can always relate to. AND her stories are fun! Her female protagonists always have a fiery independent attitude graced with the humility to manipulate her situations.

Camilla, is from her previous book, Skeleton Women, where we first meet her as an orphaned girl living in Shanghai. She is adopted and brought up in luxurious surroundings, but as she finds out later, there is a cost to everything. And as she develops into the beautiful and talented woman she was meant to be, she finds out what that cost will be. And I just love that Mingmei brought Camilla back in another story! Don't you wish more authors would do that with great characters?! But even though Camilla's origins are in a previous story, you do not have to read the previous book to thoroughly enjoy this book. The Nine Fold Heaven is a stand alone read. (But if you like Camilla as much as I do, you'll want to read more of her anyway!)

What more can I say except that I loved The Nine Fold Heaven!  I want to thank Mingmei Yip for sending along a copy of The Nine Fold Heaven for review! It is always a pleasure to crack the spine on any of her books.

The Nine Fold Heaven is available on Kindle, Nook and in Paperback , all published by Kensington Books. (BTW, Skeleton Women is at a Kindle Bargain price of $2.99 right now if you wanted to read Camilla from her start.)

Here are a couple of links to my first interview with Mingmei Yip in April 2011, and my review of her book, Song of the Silk Road.

Memoir Monday presents... Moby-Duck

Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them by Donovan Hohn... What Publisher's Weekly said of Moby-Duck: Whimsical curiosity begets a quixotic odyssey and troubling revelations about plastics polluting the seas in former high school teacher and journalist Hohn's charming account of what he learned searching for 28,800 rubber bath toys lost at sea in 1992. His curiosity, prompted by a student's quirky essay, begins in 2005 around Sitka, Alaska, where yellow "duckies," frogs, turtles, and beavers washed up after three-story waves buffeted a container ship traveling from China to America. Hohn, a senior editor at Harper's magazine, eventually tracks more rogue ducks bobbing up from isolated Gore Point, Alaska, to Maine beaches. The author's quest leads him to a research vessel trawling for degraded plastic in Hawaiian seas, to the Chinese factory where the toys were manufactured, aboard a container vessel traversing the same route as the original ship (a particularly hair-raising section), and finally to the high Arctic to study the science of oceanic drift. Packed with seafaring lore and astute reporting, this enthralling narrative is the Moby Dick of drifting ducks.

Who can resist knowing the fate of 28, 800 cute Rubber Ducks? Well actually 28,800 rubber bath toys. The cover alone made it worth a look through, but Donovan Hohn has intrigued me with this story, which on the outside may look like a cute little tale of a cute little duck, but promises to be so much more. And Moby-Duck has garnered quite a few great reviews too! This is definitely on my wish-list, and today's Monday Memoir, even though it's not quite a memoir, but a high sea adventure!

Memoir Monday... Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff

I really had to look twice to make sure that this was indeed a true story even though its description reads like an fictional adventure. But that is what caught my attention with this one... Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff is a story that sounds so amazing that it's hard to believe it's true... but it is...

In 1945, twenty-four American servicemen and women boarded a plane to see “Shangri-La,” a beautiful valley deep within Dutch New Guinea. But when the plane crashed, only three pulled through to battle for survival.

Emotionally devastated and badly injured, the trio faced certain death. Caught between spear-carrying tribesmen and enemy Japanese, they trekked down the jungle-covered mountainside and straight into superstitious natives rumored to be cannibals.

Drawn from interviews, Army documents, photos, diaries, and original film footage, Lost in Shangri-La recounts this true-life adventure for the first time. Mitchell Zuckoff reveals how the trio traversed the jungle; how brave Filipino-American paratroopers risked their lives to save the survivors; how a native leader protected the Americans; and how a cowboy colonel attempted an untried rescue mission to get them out.

From the excerpt of Lost in Shangri-La that I read, Mitchell Zuckoff does a great job holding your attention. His style of writing wasn't sensationalizing, but factual with the added creative style a good writer has. And what a story! Lost in a jungle with cannibals?! A rescue mission equally as dangerous?! This is definitely one on my TBR list! It has gotten quite a lot of praise since its release late in April and for people who think WW II stories are all dried up... think again!