My Favorite Indie Authors 9 – Lee French

August 31, 2015 by rachelauthorbarnard in Author Tuesdays, Local Authors, Miscellaneous Mondays and tagged Damsel in Distress, Dragons in Chains, Dragons in Flight, Dragons in Pieces, Faves, Girls Can't Be Knights, Harbinger, Indie Author, Indie Stars, Lee French, Maze Beset, moon shades, The Fallen (The Greatest Sin, The Greatest Sin

Lee French

I met Lee French at the AFK I Heart Books event at the beginning of the year. Read about all the books I discovered here. In a world where most print books are $15 – $30, the first book in her “The Greatest Sin” Series was only $8. My favorite color used to be purple and is now blue. Most of her books feature blue in their covers and her Greatest Sin Series features quite a bit of purple. I was intrigued by the colors and the price tag and bought the book. I wasn’t sure if I’d like this book as it was a world-building type fantasy and I typically go for the low-fantasy could almost happen in our world type fantasy. But I fell in love with Chavali, the main character, and have since read every single book Lee French has currently published and am eagerly awaiting more books.

I like the way French weaves fantasy into her story and makes the reader wonder, what is the greatest sin? French has a way with words and phrases that is mesmerizing. Her writing style is elegant and captivating. You can tell she is a professional and knows what she’s doing. She gives Chavali a bite to her words. I love the quick wit Chavali exhibits and the way she talks back without trying to usurp anyone or prove she’s better.

Lee French continues to deliver good writing and great story with the second and third books in The Greatest Sin series. Just like The Fallen, Harbinger was full of great quotes, quippy dialogue, fun and larger than life characters, and a female kick-butt main character who took no nonsense from anyone.

Soon to be published by Lee French is “Al-Khabar”, of which I was honored to receive as a beta read book and will give it another read before posting a five-star review.

If you purchase any of Lee French’s books, be sure to enter to win a $5 Amazon gift card from my blog’s contest, see Contest page for more details. If you post your review of 3 stars or higher you can enter to win a $50 Amazon gift card from my blog’s contest, see Contest page for more details.

links for more information:

Miscellaneous Mondays: My Favorite Indie Authors 6 – David Estes

May 11, 2015 by rachelauthorbarnard in author platform, Miscellaneous Mondays and tagged David Estes, Dystopian, Indie authors, Indie Stars, The Dwellers Saga, The Earth Dwellers, The Moon Dwellers, The Star Dwellers, YA

I’ve had David Estes’ The Moon Dwellers on my TBR list for a while. I think I found his book on a promo day and was intrigued by the back page summary. I love dystopian and YA, so the Dwellers Saga was a good looking fit for me.

Check him out on my Indie Stars Page here.

From the first few pages I was hooked. David Estes is one of my new favorite authors and I had a hard time putting down his books. I have read the first three books in his Dwellers Saga and have been waiting to read the Country Saga and finally the Earth Dwellers after giving some attention to some other authors, but I know that I will love each and every new book I read of Estes. He is phenomenal. He is my author hero. He has done something that is difficult to find in YA books. He has balanced the narrative between two main characters, one is a female and the other is a male. Both characters are equally important. Both characters have something to say. Both characters are strong yet vulnerable. Both characters are uniquely different. For this reason and more David Estes is a great writer. His story is compelling and fits nicely into the YA Dystopian genre. There is action and fighting and romance in his books. There is struggle and perseverance. There is death. There is survival. I look forward to all the other books David Estes has written.

Indie Author Page Release

January 12, 2015 by rachelauthorbarnard in author platform, Book Review and tagged Indie authors, Indie Stars

You can now view the Indie Stars page on my blog. It has the best of the best Indie authors. There are so many books and authors out there that it’s hard to find the hidden gems, but I’ve done -some- of the work for you! I’m reading and reviewing as many Indie authors as I can and I’ve pulled out my favorites just for you.

Miscellaneous Mondays: My Favorite Indie Authors 4/5 – T.B. Markinson

December 29, 2014 by rachelauthorbarnard in author platform, Miscellaneous Mondays and tagged A Woman Lost, Claudia Must Die, Confessions from a Coffee Shop, Indie authors, Indie Stars, Marionette, T.B. Markinson | 1 Comment

I found T.B. Markinson from a Goodreads Review group. The book was Marionette and I fell in love. I was so excited to see that Markinson had other books I could read and was going to release Claudia Must Die in December. I was hooked, but I didn’t read all her books immediately. I wanted to save them, savor them, cherish the reading time I spent with them. I have since read all but A Woman Lost and I’m super psyched that Markinson is working on the sequel!

T.B. Markinson is on my list of Indie stars to watch out for because she writes such good books. I’ve read all her books and in each of her four books (thus far, but I’m hoping for more) she has hooked me from the very first sentence to the first paragraph to the first page and on throughout the entire novel to the very end. I’ve never read such a great opener as the one in Marionette. Markinson had me hooked and I couldn’t put it, or any of her other books, down. And now I want more. Markinson delivers a smooth writing style that is descriptive without giving away too much. Her characters are alive and have a depth and personality that rivals anyone you might meet in real life. But the characters were so much more than alive, they were larger than life and I wanted to stay in their lives indefinitely, but they were still very relatable. The situations Markinson writes about are intriguing and the dialogue is realistic and, at many times, quite witty. One of the reasons I really like Markinson as an author is that she always (so far) uses female characters as her protagonists and many of her other characters as well.

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Check back next Monday for the week’s Indie Author Rising Star 5/5

Miscellaneous Mondays: My Favorite Indie Authors 3/5 – Tyan Wyss

December 22, 2014 by rachelauthorbarnard in author platform and tagged African Dream, Bouncer, Ghostwriter, Indie authors, Indie Stars, Loren Lockner, Lost in the Bush, Night Flyer, Return to Mt. Snagra, The Solitaire Prince, Tyan Wyss

I found out about Tyan Wyss on Facebook and have not met her in person. She writes under two names, Tyan Wyss and Loren Lockner. She has written a number of books under each name, but I will focus on the Tyan Wyss books as those are the ones I have read and love and I can vouch for them.

Tyan Wyss is on my list of Indie stars to watch out for because her writing style is concise and fully formed. She doesn’t fall into common mistakes like rookie authors. She knows what she’s doing and her books are immensely fun to read. The stories are fully fledged and immerse you in their intrigue. The author layers her plot and her motives like an expert, giving her books a higher degree of elegance than other authors. Wyss has a smooth and charming personable writing style.

Check back next Monday for the week’s Indie Author Rising Star 4/5

Rachel Author Barnard

Author, Reviewer, Donut Enthusiast

Tag Archives: Indie Stars