Tag Archives: Rosehead

Miscellaneous Mondays: My Favorite Indie Authors 2/5 – Ksenia Anske

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rosehead

 

Here’s the story of how I met Ksenia Anske….

Remember last week when I told you how I met Hugh Howey? The story of how I met Ksenia starts out the same way because… I met her at the Hugh Howey meetup! Part of the reason I love Ksenia so much as an author is because I love her as a person. If you met her in real life you would instantly fall in love with her too. She is dynamic and charming and loud. She gives out hugs and tells you that you can kiss her hand. She is playful and doesn’t take herself too seriously. She has the easy manner you might associate with a movie star and not a writer. She is the writer that writers wish to be and boy can she promote herself! I was charmed when I met her and I’m still charmed today because I follow her on Facebook and her blog. She has a way with talking to her readers and her fans and she’s so entertaining.

Not only is she a great personality and writer in person, but also in her books. Not all of her novels are glitter and roses (one of them has roses) because she has lived a life. She brings so much to the table as a writer through her books and the sometimes hard lessons learned through them. Irkadura and Siren Suicides deal with real issues and when I read them I took away something ddifferent a perspective on suicide and hard times I don’t always get from the normal YA and fantasy that I usually read. Life is not always fun and games, but it can be described beautifully by authors like Ksenia Anske.

Ksenia Anske is on my list of Indie stars to watch out for because she is a wonderful writer with an easy to read and compelling writing style, is so charming, brings up the real issues in her books, and has a great relationship with her readers through both her social media and in person presence.

I’ve read every novel of Ksenia’s and am ready and waiting for her new works, especially the manuscript she’s currently editing/working on: Corners.

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Here’s what Ksenia says and another reason I love her as an author: “I believe that art is not about protecting it from being stolen, it’s about giving it away and inspiring others to create more art. All of my books (and drafts) you can download for FREE on my site indefinitely. You can also buy signed paperbacks or digital/paper copies on sites like Amazon. If you think my writing is worth your money and you want to support me, please buy my books or donate. It’s a pay-what-you-want idea. Any amount spells to me your love. It will enable me to give you more love in return, to write more books for you to read and share. XOXO.”

I’m so glad Ksenia is local and I’m able to see her now and then at events like her book reading and the Gifts for Geeks at the AFK Tavern.

Check back next Monday for the week’s Indie Author Rising Star 3/5

Book Review: Rosehead by Ksenia Anske

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

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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