Author Archives: rachelauthorbarnard

Book Review: Rosehead by Ksenia Anske

by in Author Tuesdays, Book Review, Local Authors and tagged , , | 3 Comments

Rosehead by Ksenia Anske

A Young Adult Fantasy Novel published on amazon.com (3/31/2014)

Summary:

Lilith, along with her mother and father, arrive in Germany for the funeral of Lilith’s grandmother. During her stay, Lilith discovers some very peculiar happenings at the Bloom & Co mansion, where Roses of immaculate red color and scent are grown. She investigates the peculiarities with her trusty Whippet, Panther, and all trails lead to the roses. How do they maintain their color and beauty longer than any of their counterparts? Lilith is determined to find out.

Keywords:

Roses, Germany, twelve-year old, peculiarity, investigation, magical roses, tradition

My Review:

There is almost always something I find fault with as a reader nowadays, but reading Rosehead by Ksenia Anske broke all of my expectations. I could not put the book down and though there are close to 400 pages, I devoured the novel in one day. The only comment I would give is to the format of the book, the font is too large for my liking, which is entirely my own personal preference. There were also a larger-than-average number of minor spelling and grammar issues, but I read over them, noted, and kept going because the style of writing was so easy to follow and read through, even with the errors.

The author’s writing style was quite sophisticated. She crafted her sentences with care and her dialogue with entertaining closeness to reality. The dog’s voice is adorable and true to form of both dog and sidekick, “Pink is my favorite color. Besides, it’s more blush. Very delicate. Matches my tongue.” (Page 47). The Whippet is described as a, “…talking cat in a dog’s body with an unrivaled passion for steak, rosy jackets, and squirrels.” (Page 366).

Lilith is also a very well-drawn character. Immediately Anske lets us know that she is no ordinary twelve-year old girl because she, “… only felt sill when she was moving and [she] could smell things other people couldn’t.” (Page 366).

Lilith has her faults and eccentricities, such as her unique vocabulary and the way she is always trying to utilize as many sophisticated words as possible in her speech and the author will even italicize them to give them more emphasis. Lilith also, instead of getting emotional and angry at any bad thing done to her, finitely controls her language to be poisonously polite.

Lilith is such a loveable character because of her stubborn single mindedness. She gets fixated to a fault and she sometimes cannot seem to control her outbursts of accusations. It may be maddening for her to momentary lose control like this, but for the reader it adds tension and excitement. Panther, her Whippet companion puts it well, “I simply love your attention to detail and your inability to hear what others are saying once you set your mind to something.” (Page 186).

 

I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys the hijinks and imagination of Calvin and Hobbes, the sidekick element of Pantalaimon in Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials series, or the whimsical darkness of Pan’s Labyrinth.

This novel was published through Lulu.com 8/19/11 and is available on her website here and Amazon here.

 

TLDR Star Rating: 5.0

 

Links for more information:

Ksenia Anske’s Website

Goodreads Profile

Foodie Fridays: Loaded Angry Orchard (Hard Cider)

by in Foodie Fridays and tagged , , , | 1 Comment

angry orchard (1) angry orchard (2)

 

I’m not an avid drinker of beer and slide towards the hard cider end of things. I love some good hard apple cider and Washington is full o f Angry Orchard. I saw this bad boy at Costco and decided to give it a try. It came in around $9 and around 10% alcohol by volume and boy could I taste it. This was so far from the lovely sweet hint of alcohol taste of the regular Angry Orchards that I was deeply disappointed. The flavor was more like cough syrup than any hard cider I have ever tasted. My opinion? Stay away from high percent ABV beers/ciders if you’re in it for the taste.

Book Review: The Kansas Connection by Kathleen Gabriel

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The Kansas Connection by Kathleen Gabriel

A Romance Novel published on lulu.com (August 19, 2011); formerly published by Aardvaark Creative Publishing in UK

Summary:

 Traveling through Kansas, Cori is pulled over by a cop. Instead of a warning or a ticket, he treats her to dinner and a friendship between like-minded people who live in different states begins. She is a vulnerable sweet lady who lives in Oregon as a substitute teacher. He is the steadfast cop and uncle to his sister’s kids. As they get to know each other, they begin to fall for each other more and more.

Keywords:

Romance, Kansas, Oregon, Travel, History Teacher, Cop, Love, middle-aged characters

My Review:

The author handled intimacy like a professional in her book “The Kansas Connection,” showing the passion and emotion of the characters without throwing any grody unnecessary details in my face.

The book felt real, the characters felt real, the situations felt real. I almost forgot I was reading a book, I felt like I was really viewing the world Gabriel had created and the situations her characters were part of. I was pleased that the book’s main character was not some yuppie young’un with no sense of romance or responsibility. Both the male and female main characters had worth and wisdom and grew and developed as the book progressed. The interactions between Cori and Ken was very realistic as well, the author even adds that human touch of uncertainty and assumption. For example, when Cori and Ken are exchanging emails, Cori assumes that this is a friendly gesture, but that they would probably never get around to talking again. You can guess what happens next…

As Cori and Ken get to know each other, so does the reader get to know these characters. They aren’t instantly perfect examples of the human race. The character flaws gave the main characters’ struggles more meaning and the book more depth.They are real and alive in their faults, which lets the reader know this won’t just be another silly romance but a real story. Cori even tells Ken, “You’re more than the sum of your little quirks.” (page 124).

I especially enjoyed the snappy banter, though I would have liked some indication every now and then to show who was speaking. The humor present in the dialogue would make for a wonderful audio book. I wish I could hear Ken recite the Miranda Rights fast in Spanish, much to the chagrin of the Spanish-speaking kids in one of Cori’s substitute classes.

My favorite quote from the author was one of Cori’s thoughts, spoken to one of her classes. “Your heritage is only the beginning of who you are. You make up the rest, you write a part of your life every day.” (page 110). She is such a wise character, who every reader falls for as much as Ken does.

The only parts that made me squirm in my chair were the author’s thinly veiled thoughts on love and sex. Her two main characters want to wait until they are really together before they make love, which is adorable until the author repeats and repeats this concept until I am as annoyed with the author for bringing it up so often as I am with the characters for being so stubborn about waiting.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a soft romance.

This novel was published through Lulu.com 8/19/11 and is available on Lulu here and Amazon here.

TLDR Star Rating: 4.50

Links for more information:

 Kathleen Gabriel’s website

Kathleen Gabriel’s Facebook Page

Maple Valley Days a Success

by in Author Thursdays, Free Valley Publishing, Geocaching, Local Authors, Local Events, Maple Valley, Rachel Barnard and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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(Photo courtesy of Sheri J. Kennedy)

What a beautiful booth! The new canopy tent worked out really well, easy set up and tear down. We sold a good number of books even though the weather was quite poor over the weekend and the entire festival had record low numbers of attendance. Jeff was wonderful and manned the booth the entire time! Go Jeff! We met a number of aspiring authors. Overall the event was a success and thanks to all for helping out.

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(Photos courtesy of Sheri J. Kennedy)

Maple Valley Days and FreeValley Publishing

by in Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams, Free Valley Publishing, Local Authors, Local Events, Maple Valley, Rachel Barnard and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It quite difficult to publish a novel but that’s not where the self-published author can throw in the towel and head to the beach on vacation. Not at all, my word-inspired friends. A self-published author is not just the writer of the novel, but also the producer and manager. The author markets and researches. The author creates websites and promotional materials and goes to events to promote their book. And that takes hard work and quite a bit of determination.

Not all authors walk down the same path when they send a book out to be published, many more authors today are self-publishing and acting as their own agent. Some call them author-publishers. Some call them crazy. Come see for yourself what it is like to self-publish and promote your own book at Maple Valley Days. Two of your very own Maple Valley writers, as well as authors from North Bend and Snoqualmie will be at the FreeValley Publishing booth. Many of these writers are experts at self-publishing and are highly aware of the book-publishing industry. Everyone has a book inside, come read ours and see if you are ready to write yours.

 

Maple Valley Days 2014, June 13-15. FreeValley Publishing booth located near the Info booth.

 

MVD poster