Author Archives: rachelauthorbarnard

Book Review: Architects of Destiny (Cadicle #1): An Epic Space Opera Series by Amy Duboff

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Architects of Destiny (Cadicle #1): An Epic Space Opera Series by Amy Duboff

A Space Opera/Science Fiction Novel published by BDL Press (04/17/15)

Summary:

Cris Sietinen was born into privilege as the only heir to a High Dynasty, but all he wants is to be his own person. He sneaks off in the night and joins cargo ship Exler’s crew as navigator. What he sees opens his eyes and when the Tararian Selective Service invite him to train with them, he accepts. With newly discovered abilities in telekinesis, Cris, is the student with the most potential.

Keywords:

Space, Travel, Ship, Navigation, Technology, Telekinesis, Worlds, Dynasties, Privilege, Power, Learning, Priesthood, Heir, Romance, Love, Friendship, Training

My Review:

The first half of the book reveals very little about the main character or the plot. The book very well could have started when Cris begins his new training with the TSS, but I guess then there’d be no book because this novel is only 168 page to begin with.

There’s hardly any tension and barely any buildup to a climax or an ending. The romance has no tension and the entire relationship between Cris and Kate was fed to the reader in very few words until they were already in love and ready to get married. Where was the romance?

Sometimes the personal thoughts sprinkled throughout are too much and get in the way of the narrative – they pull the reader out of the story. At times, they feel like they are a crutch because the personal thoughts constantly tell us how Cris is feeling without letting the reader come to any of the conclusions for themselves.

When Cris joins the TSS there’s one paragraph that speeds through a description of his training and testing and that’s it. There are more examples of telling where the showing would be powerful and reveal much about the character.

This story should have been labeled a prologue to the series and cut down to a chapter to precede the real story. There is a lot of potential with the world the author pieced together and the political structure she set up, but overall her characters were shallow, the action nonexistent or random, and the romance breezed over.

This novel was published by BDL Press on April 17th, 2015 and is available on Amazon here.

TL;DR Star Rating: 3.25

Links for more information:

Amy Duboff’s Website

Goodreads

Twitter

Two Bookish Events Today at St. James Espresso, Kirkland WA

by in Local Authors, Local Eats, Local Events, Rachel Barnard, Seattle Specific Saturdays and tagged

Tiffany Belcher Author Signing in Kirkland at St. James Espresso

  • Saturday, April 23, 2016    2:00 PM to 5:00 PM

    St. James Espresso

    355 Kirkland Ave, Kirkland, WA (edit map)

    Come and join Tiffany Belcher for book singings at St. James Espresso in Kirkland. This is such a great coffee shop and Tiffany Belcher is a cool author.

    From Tiffany’s website: http://sarasupernatural.tateauthor.com/

    Tiffany A. Belcher currently works as a medical assistant for an outpatient orthopedic clinic in Bellevue, Washington. She is a loving mother to three beautiful daughters. She works hard and is extremely busy, but always finds time to spend with her family. Tiffany enjoys coffee, good food (sometimes bad food that tastes good,) going to the beach, writing, snowboarding, and working out.

 

Enjoy Coffee, Friends, and Donate a Book to Fight Illiteracy!Saturday, April 23, 2016 2:00 PM

 Meetup logo

St James Espresso

355 Kirkland Ave, Kirkland , WA 98033
(425) 896-8272
LOOK FOR THE MEETUP SIGN, TONY, ROSEMARIE, AND MEMBERS RSVP’D FOR THIS EVENT

St. James Espresso has an assortment of coffee drinks, spirits, and great food. I highly recommend the pesto sandwich! Check them out here:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/st-james-espresso-kirkland

 Come and hang out with us at St. James Espresso in Kirkland while we visit, enjoy amazing coffee and dine on some great food! Coffee shops are a fun way to meet new friends in a relaxed environment – and an awesome way to catch up with old friends too!

And while you’re at it, bring a book to donate to a special cause – the fight to end illiteracy around the world. Tony’s son, Jordan, has organized and is leading an effort to collect books and help make them accessible to people who can’t afford or don’t normally have access to them. All kinds of books are accepted!

We will have awesome prizes to raffle! The more books you donate, the greater your odds to win a cool prize!

We look forward to seeing you there! It’s going to be a fun event with all the cool folks from Cuisine Travel!

All About the Donuts: Donuts in an Empty Field (For the Love of Donuts Book 1) Publication Day June 3rd!

by in author platform, Author Thursdays, For the Love of Donuts, Local Events, Rachel Barnard and tagged ,

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Where will you be June 3rd?

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National Donut Day is the first Friday in June

Local Seattle area events for National Donut Day and Beyond – Have you heard of a cool local donut shop celebrating National Donut Day or another awesome local Seattle area event? Let me know and I’ll add it to my list!

Frost – Mill Creek

Edmonds Waterfront Festival

Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show

Bellingham Scottish Highland Games

Blacklight Slide at the Washington State Fair

Book Release Party for Donuts in an Empty Field!

Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter to receive important updates and promotions, if you haven’t already. Signup HERE

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Letting go of anger is life’s greatest challenge.

Vanessa Smith hasn’t been the same since her father’s death. A hero until the end, he died saving a restaurant owner’s wife and son from a burning building. Nessa has always blamed the boy, Ben, for her loss, and her thoughts are consumed with ways to make him as miserable as she is.

Nichole Adams knows Nessa can never heal until she learns to let go of her hatred, but bringing back her best friend is proving more difficult than she could’ve imagined. In a last ditch effort to break Nessa’s obsession, Nichole hopes signing up for the local food challenge is just the thing to bust her out of her shell.

A single choice defines the road ahead for Nessa. Doing the right thing isn’t easy, but living with the consequences of doing nothing might be worse.

Book Review: Sara Supernatural-Half a World Away by Tiffany Belcher

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Sara Supernatural-Half a World Away by Tiffany Belcher

A Middle Grade/YA Fantasy Novel published by Tate Publishing (01/19/16)

 

Summary:

Sara is back! She has lots of plans for a summer full of fun with Chris, her magical partner from book one, but alas his family is moving him across the world. An intriguing set of twins Sara’s age moves into Chris’s house and they want to be friends with Sara, but there’s something altogether not right about these two girls. Chris told Sara not to use her magic while he’s away, but she can’t just sit on her butt and do nothing when the twins and Jessica gossip behind her back about her. She must get to the bottom of what is really going on.

 

Keywords:

Magic, wishing, powers, female main character, lessons learned, school, immaturity, selfishness, greed, fitting in, twins, mysterious neighbors, evil plot, friendship, invisibility

 

My Review:

The best part of this story was the mystery with the twins that was continued throughout the book. I wanted to understand what was going on and I was super ready for the big reveal at the end! The twins were dynamic and kept changing their tactics. They were odd, yet almost fit in most of the time. They were socially awkward until they did something exactly like a teenager would, like gossiping and spreading rumors about Sara’s friends.

I loved how Sara was uncertain about the twins. She didn’t just believe their intentions and words, but she didn’t completely disregard them as friends. She kept them at arms’ length the entire time, taking what they said with a grain of salt, just like the clever teen she showed us she was in book one. But Sara isn’t perfect and her fault lies in trying to solve all her problems herself, getting deeper and deeper into trouble.

Sara’s two friends were also well written. The story had less of Chris than book one, but I didn’t mind because I was caught up in the mysterious twins and Sara’s rapidly growing problems.

I was surprised at the amount of dropped and missing words in this book. More than a handful of articles were missing from sentences, but the writing was still very readable, despite these typos.

This novel was published by Tate Publishing on January 19th, 2016 and is available on Amazon here.

 

TL;DR Star Rating: 4.25

 

Links for more information:

Tiffany Belcher’s Website

All About the Donuts: Donuts in an Empty Field (For the Love of Donuts Book 1) Publication Day June 3rd! – Contest

by in Author Thursdays, For the Love of Donuts, Local Events, Rachel Barnard and tagged

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Want to be featured in the second edition of Vanessa’s Book of Awesome Things? Submit your vignette, opinion piece, essay, or short story with the theme of “donuts” to rachel.author.barnard(at)gmail(dot)com

Submissions should be between 250 – 2500 words.

The contest winner will win the following:

  • Their piece will be featured in the next version of Vanessa’s Book of Awesome Things
  • Donuts swag bag, including the original edition of Vanessa’s Book of Awesome Things

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Vanessa’s Book of Awesome Things already features:

The Food Challenge,
Tips to Help You Win a Food Challenge,
10 Challenges at 10,
Facts About Corgis,
20 Challenges at 20,
The Secret of Tree Beach,
Fat Boy Run,
30 Challenges at 30,
Your Local Hangout,
40 Challenges at 40,
Reasons to Bask in a Sea of Puppies,
50 Challenges at 50,
Kale is Not a Curse Word,
Doughnuts Recipe,
Object Scavenger Hunt,
Photo Scavenger Hunt,
To Do with Donuts, Yes or No?,
Top Ten Worst Donut Flavors,
Top Ten Donuts You Have to Try,
For the Love of Donuts Books,
Donuts in an Empty Field Chapter One,
About the Author

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Donuts in an Empty Field (For the Love of Donuts Book 1)

Letting go of anger is life’s greatest challenge.

Vanessa Smith hasn’t been the same since her father’s death. A hero until the end, he died saving a restaurant owner’s wife and son from a burning building. Nessa has always blamed the boy, Ben, for her loss, and her thoughts are consumed with ways to make him as miserable as she is.

Nichole Adams knows Nessa can never heal until she learns to let go of her hatred, but bringing back her best friend is proving more difficult than she could’ve imagined. In a last ditch effort to break Nessa’s obsession, Nichole hopes signing up for the local food challenge is just the thing to bust her out of her shell.

A single choice defines the road ahead for Nessa. Doing the right thing isn’t easy, but living with the consequences of doing nothing might be worse.

Book Review: Ghost Heart (The PSS Chronicles #3) by Ripley Patton

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Ghost Heart (The PSS Chronicles #3) by Ripley Patton

A Speculative Fiction/Paranormal Novel published by Ripley Patton (10/14/14)

Summary:

“I had been moving on blind faith and pure desperation.” (Kindle Location 338).

“Why would someone sit around waiting for bad things to happen? Action was better.” (Kindle Location 2347).

Olivia was left behind at the Eidolon, only to be captured by the CAMFers and the evil Dr. Fineman. He will torture and manipulate Olivia to get what he wants. Olivia tries to stay ahead of him, but at every turn he bests her. She will just have to wait for her rescue to arrive. But back at the Hold everything is chaos and things are falling apart.

Keywords:

Rare, Ghost Hand, Power, Hunted, Not Normal Teenagers, Hiding, Escape, PSS, Research, Friendship, Leader, Strategy, Romance, Love, Relatives, Plan, Reuniting, Lost

My Review:

Book three picks up where book two left off and the story has diverged because the original PSSers have become scattered. Jason and Passion are alone in the woods. Samantha and the Hold are off somewhere else. Olivia has been separated from everyone and is now at the CAMFer camp. Marcus is at the bottom of the lake. There is a lot going on to begin with and a lot of tension right from the start. A continuation of the climax and resolution from book two feeds right into the conflict buildup in book three.

I still love Olivia. In fact, I love her even more. I’m still on the fence with Marcus. Passion has become a strong character with her own personality and I love her too. Jason gets more time in this book as well and we learn much more about him than we ever knew before.

We learn more about PSS, especially Olivia’s ghost hand. The overall story arc is becoming clear as well. All the hints and setups in books one and two are most or partially revealed in this third book. But all is not over! I can’t wait to get my hands on book four and find out what will happen next!

This novel was published by Ripley Patton on October 14th, 2014 and is available on Amazon here.

TL;DR Star Rating: 5.00

Links for more information:

Ripley Patton’s Website

Goodreads

St. James Espresso Multiple FVP Authors Event Wrapup

by in Author Thursdays, Author Tuesdays, Free Valley Publishing, Local Authors, Local Eats, Local Events, Rachel Barnard, Seattle Specific Saturdays and tagged ,

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We had fun last Saturday at St. James. I got to try their green power smoothie for the first time. It was delicious! Hope to see you at our next event!

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Sheri implemented our new idea for showing prices – with number beads on our lovely new bookmarks!