Review with Author Interview: Analiese Rising by Brenda Drake

Book info:

Title:  Analiese Rising
Author:  Brenda Drake
Genre:  YA Paranormal Romance/Mythology
Release Date:  January 8th, 2019
Publisher:  Entangled Teen
Source:  E-galley from publisher which did not affect my opinion
My rating:  4 stars

Synopsis:

Half-Blood meets Antigoddess, American Gods meets The Da Vinci Code in ANALIESE RISING (Entangled; 01/08/19), a suspense-filled novel by New York Times bestselling author Brenda Drake. This first book in a new fantasy series offers a new take on the paranormal romance genre—with a mythological spin. Gone are vampires and werewolves; in are descendants of the God of Death.

Brenda Drake is known for creating addictive, entertaining series with strong female characters (Library Jumpers and The Fated) and her fans will not be disappointed.

When a stranger gives Analiese Jordan a list of names before he dies, the last thing she expects to see is her own on it. Not. Cool. Her search for answers leads to the man’s grandson, Marek, who has dangerous secrets of his own. Both are determined to unlock the mystery of the list.

But the truth is deadly. Analiese is a descendant of the God of Death, known as a Riser, with the power to raise the dead and control them. Finding out she has hidden powers? Cool. Finding out she turns corpses into killers? No, thank you.

Now the trail plants her and Marek in the middle of a war between gods who apparently want to raise an army of the Risen, and Analiese must figure out how to save the world—from herself.

My Review:
First off, there was a LOT of stuff going on in this book.  So many different gods and goddesses from different mythologies from all over the world.  Some I recognized, some I did not.  But this was really cool!  I love when I hear about things I don't know, and then the story makes me want to go learn more about them.  And that is what this story did.  There was a lot of adventure, a lot of history, a lot of action, and a little romance thrown in, all together these made for a good teenage story.  As I read, I was totally thinking about how I'd love to visit all these places mentioned, the Coliseum, the Louvre, etc.  I'm guessing that if there are more books after this, which it sounds like there will be, we will get to go to even more exciting places.  For one, I'd love to see some time spent in Egypt, or over in Asia with their mythology as well.  Another thing I really liked about the story was how Analiese had been taken in by her uncle, and that she'd grown up with him as her dad.  I think it is nice to once in awhile see a healthy step-parent situation, when so often there is not.  Although I wasn't sure I liked her step-mother, Jane.  By the end of the book I still was unsure about her.  Although I haven't read Antigoddess, all of the other books this is compared to in the summary are exactly right.  Definitely there is the feel of solving a puzzle like in The Da Vinci Code.  You've got all these different gods just wandering around, getting in trouble, or even just being a part of the world, like what little I remember from reading American Gods.  And you get the teen angst and fighting monsters that is a bit similar to one of my favorite series books, Half-Blood.  Definitely a recommended title for anyone who enjoys paranormal romance, or mythology of all kinds.


Author Interview:

What does your writing process look like? Do you know the whole story when you start?  Or do you just start writing and go with it (seat of the pants writing)?  If you plan it out, how do you do that?  Outline, notecards, post-it-notes, etc.?

I do a plot graph to get a general idea of where I want the story to go. It’s pretty skeletal, just the bones of the story. While writing, I flesh it out, letting the story unfold as I go.

Do you edit as you go, or wait till you're finished before you edit?  How many times would you say you go over it yourself before having another set of eyes look it over?

I’m not one of those fast-drafting writers. I have to edit as I go. I’ll go over it a few times before I let anyone else see it.

Are you part of a writer’s group that gets together and helps each other with their writing?

I have a few author friends that I share work with. I’m not part of a writing group. I do have writer friends where I live that I meet for lunch or coffee. We discuss our writing and about publishing.

How do you come up with your ideas for your stories?

Ideas come from everywhere for me. Sometimes it a thing, a person, a song, or a movie that inspires a story. The inspiration for the Library Jumpers series came from a coffee table book on the most beautiful libraries in the world. As I scanned the photographs, I wanted to jump into the pages and visit each one, which sparked the idea for Library Jumpers. I imagined battles with knights and creatures fighting among the bookcases. I bought the book, hurried home, and started plotting the first book in the series. I got the idea for the Fated series while getting a tarot card reading in New Orleans. During the reading, I imagined someone being able to change anyone’s fate with a touch of a tarot card. Analiese Rising came to me while watching American Gods on Starz. I wanted to tell a similar story about gods and goddesses among us but without their powers.

How important are names in your books?  Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds, or the meaning?  Do you have any name choosing resources you recommend?

Names are extremely important to me. It has to fit the character, and I have to like it. I do look at the meaning before I settle on it. I think the meaning should match the character. I search Google for names.

What is your favorite:

Books/authors/genres

My favorite book is The Secret Garden. My favorite author is J.K. Rowling, and my favorite genre is fantasy.

Movies/TV Shows

My favorite movie is Love Actually. We watch it every Christmas. My favorite TV show right now, since I’m binge watching it on Netflix, is Scandal.

Music

My favorite music is anything by Imagine Dragons, Cold Play, and I lean toward Indy, but I love a variety of music.

Food/Writing snack

 I drink too much coffee, and I’m addicted to Goldfish crackers.

-->   About the Author:

Brenda Drake grew up the youngest of three children, an Air Force brat, and the continual new kid at school. Her fondest memories growing up is of her eccentric, Irish grandmother's animated tales, which gave her a strong love for storytelling. So it was only fitting that she would choose to write stories with a bend toward the fantastical. When she's not writing or hanging out with her family, she haunts libraries, bookstores, and coffee shops, or reads someplace quiet and not at all exotic (much to her disappointment).  

Author Links:
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Website
 

Review: The Blood Gospel by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell

I have been a huge James Rollins fan for a long time.  But in the past few years I've kind of slacked off on reading his books.  His Sigma Series I really enjoyed at first, but just haven't been in the mood to pick up and read, so now I'm a few books behind in that.  One of my co-workers at the bookstore is also a James Rollins fan, and kept telling me I needed to give this new series a try.  When a paperback copy showed up in our strip cover box of books, I grabbed it.  And when I picked it up and started reading, I was hooked!  Unfortunately, as I've mentioned before, there was a reason that book was in the strip covers, it was missing a few chapters.  So, when I finally found the book on bargain hardcover price, I bought it, and went ahead and finished it this week.  While it still has all the normal Rollins bits to a story, you can tell there was a co-writer, and I'm guessing part of Rebecca Cantrell's job was adding in some of the romance parts.  Not too much to make it over the top or too extra, but enough to make it good.

The book basically begins with an earthquake in Masada, Israel.  And this is where our main characters come together.  There is a teen boy who gets sick when some kind of gas escapes from the fissure made by the earthquake, but everyone else around him seems to die from the gas.  There is the military guy, Jordan, who is in charge of cleaning up the area and trying to figure out what caused all these deaths.  We also have an archaeologist named Dr. Erin Granger, who is on a dig site near the earthquake.  And finally we have a mysterious Vatican priest named Rhun Korza who is supposedly brought in to give the last rites to the dead.  And the final main character is a woman called Bathory, who has supernatural ties to where this gas comes from.  Sergeant Jordan Stone calls Dr. Granger over to the earthquake site because it seems to be an ancient tomb of some sort.  And now all the excitement begins.  Bathory is trying to find what was buried in this tomb, the actual gospel of Christ supposedly.  And she has evil, unearthly creatures in her service.  Huge wolves, and vampires, or as they are called here, Strigoi.  Turns out Rhun also has connections to these creatures.  And Dr. Granger and Sergeant Stone will be needed to help form a specific trio that will find and unlock this gospel.  They will find other types of vampire creatures, ones that are faithful to the church and no longer drink human blood.  Stories of the bible that relate in new ways once thought about from a different point of view.  Other historical tales, Rasputin, the Countess of Bathory, Lazarus, etc.  We don't get a lot in the story about the teen boy at the beginning.  But I have a feeling he will really come into play in the next book in the series.

A fun, but makes you think story.  Fans of the Da Vinci Code types of books will enjoy this series I think.

The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I got this book from Netgalley, and am so glad I did! I'm a huge fan of Robin Wasserman's books because of the Skinned series, which I think is now called the Cold Awakening series. But anyway, this is a really good book. It is one that makes me realize why I can never finish any of the books I start. The depth of the detail and the back story in this is incredible! I love books that use letters or flashbacks to historical diaries or events like this one does. In a way this is a Da Vinci Code type of book in that it brings in an ancient religious sect. I also like the sciencey part to it, as I am a science teacher. This was a big book, lots and lots of story to read. It starts out and says where it starts is the middle of the story. But really, while it is kind of the start of the whole 2nd part, the 2nd part is HUGE! Not in a bad way, just you get to that part and it's not really the middle of the book, just the middle of the story. I do like that it starts like that, so that you know kind of what is to happen, but you don't know just what will happen after that until you get to that part. I loved that I was kept guessing on whether the boyfriend, Max, was a bad guy or a good guy the whole time. So many clues led you back and forth. And the cousin, the unknown guy who shows up after Chris's murder, again, you don't know if he's good or bad. I kind of wanted to like Eli, hated him at first for how he talked to Nora, the main character, but as the story went on, really liked the love-hate relationship they had, I often enjoy those types of stories.

The story talks about an elusive machine that is supposed to get the maker/user in touch with God, it is called the Lumen Dei. The way it works at the end when they finally get it together is really good and totally adds to the whole story, and makes up for waiting all through the story to know what it will really do, although you're not left knowing what actually happens.

Great book, I'll be putting it as a staff recommendation at the bookstore where I work when it comes out in January.



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