Book Review: Whom The Gods Destroy by DC Belton

Whom The Gods Destroy

Author: DC Belton
Pages: 300 pages
Publisher: Flying Lion Press (May 31st 2012)
Amazon Link


Note: I received a review copy of this book free from the author, DC Belton. The review posted below is based on my personal thoughts while reading the book.

Ratings: ★ ★ ★


My thoughts:

Whom the Gods Destroy is the second book to the Divine Masquerade Series. 

I loved the first book, The Gods Among Us but didn't quite enjoy this sequel. Okay - I still loved Pallas, she's smarter, stronger and a very likable character. I just didn't care about the other supporting characters in the story. Like Pallas, I hated the politics in all the "houses", I can't understand any of it. I was skimming almost the whole time, wasn't interested in any other things unless if it's about Pallas' and her mother's true identity. 

Another thing I didn't really care about is the school-related drama. This was supposed to be a "Greeky" myth but it turned out an ordinary book this time around. To read positive reviews of the book, click HERE, HERE and HERE. 

About the book:

Is she the Dawning of the Age of the Aquarians – or a deceitful pretender? 
A daughter of Atlantis – or a wicked witch?

The teen who doesn’t the difference between eyeliner and blush, is thrust into the arena of jealous nobility. 
Battling a deadly prince and her own unwanted fame, 
she’s sentenced to the scorn of a ruthless, snobbish school. 

Pallas seems destined to break every rule,
as she braves the tempests of the mighty capital. 
Every word is scrutinized – every encounter, fraught with peril, as she learns a wonderful, yet horrible secret…

…the truth about her mother.

The conniving cat, architect of the labyrinth of lies she’s trapped in, suddenly abandons her. 

Just as the Volcano god reaches out to slay her…

Book Two of The Divine Masquerade Series follows Pallas and Othello as they journey to Greenstone.


About the author:

D. C. Belton was born in the Philippines to a submarine officer. He's lived in four different countries and visited more than fifty.

Dave earned a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the University of Oklahoma. He flew as a Naval Aviator and then an Air Force pilot, fighting in the Lebanese Civil War, the Liberian Civil War, the Persian Gulf War, Operation Provide Comfort, and the Bosnian conflict.

When a friend's son died in a texting-while-driving accident, Dave campaigned for a law to prevent further tragedies. Appealing to state legislators for months, Dave came up with the novel idea of enlisting high school students to directly lobby state senators. Due to their efforts, as well as an aggressive television campaign, "Caleb's Law" was passed in Georgia in a just one year.

Dave's been married to his college sweetheart for over 23 years. He lives in Buckhead, Georgia on Lake Oconee with his ravishing wife and three beautiful children. He's currently an International pilot with Delta Air Lines and a Public Affairs officer in the United States Air Force Reserves. He's a banjo player, a thespian, and an elected politician (Morgan County Board of Education).

Book Review: Milo Banks and the Tower of Light (Realm of Astros #1) by Richard Denoncourt

Milo Banks and the Tower of Light (Realm of Astros #1)

Author: Richard Denoncourt
Paperback: 466 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent
Publishing Platform (May 16, 2012)
Amazon Link



Note: I received a review copy of this book free from Richard Denoncourt. The review posted below is based on my personal thoughts while reading the book.


Ratings: ★ ★ 


My thoughts:

I had high hopes when I started reading this book. Milo Bank's story is engaging the first quarter of the book. It was a quick read, loved his family, mom, pop, and his twin sister Emma. I love to read history, very much. But I was too distracted with the casts of the story. It has too many characters which is hard for me to tell who's who. I know I said before as long as they are connected, it doesn't matter. I guess I was wrong. This is the book I had to take note of the characters (Milo's family, friends, gods and goddesses, demi gods) and what they are (Sargonauts, Acolytes, Savants, Ferals, Pertilents, etc.). But even doing this, I still had to flip back the pages to remember them. Honestly, I can't put them all together in my head. 


Having said the above, what bothers me might not bother other readers at all so you may check out this LINK to read a positive review for the book.

About the book:


Sporting an ensemble cast of young teens who discover they are descended from ancient gods, Milo Banks and the Tower of Light is the first in a brand-new series of fantasy novels inspired by Greek mythology, from author Richard Denoncourt.

Meet Milo and Emma Banks...

In our world, a young boy and his twin sister must learn to use superpowers inherited from their demigod parents, one of whom dies to save them. The other is kidnapped by a powerful Necromancer who needs the twins' lifestreams to raise an army of undead.

In Astros, a parallel realm created by ancient gods...

Humanity has been recreated in the image of gods that mysteriously disappeared thousands of years earlier. Five races exist on Astros, shaped from the clay of Man by these mythical beings:

SARGONAUTS are super strong, bulletproof, able to lift a school bus with their bare hands.

ACOLYTES have wings and can fly and heal any living thing.

SAVANTS are masters of elemental forces, what some might call magicians.

FERALS can transform into any warm-blooded animal after drinking that animal's blood.

Evil has a new name...

Kovax Leonaryx and his cousin Corgos, ruler of two of the largest nations on Astros, have enslaved an entire race.

Using magical towers that drain Feral men, women, and children of their lifestreams, these two men will someday have the power of gods. Their evil will extend into our world...

Unless Milo, Emma, and their friends can stop them before it's too late.


About the author:

Richard Denoncourt studied English literature and philosophy at Colgate University and received an MFA in creative writing from The New School. He has lived in New York City, Spain and Colombia and has published short stories in a half dozen literary journals and magazines. He is also the author of TRAINLAND, a dark, horror-thriller about a father who goes to Hell to save his family, and the short story collection PELTHAM PARK.

Book Review: The Gods Among Us by D.C. Belton

The Gods Among Us
The Divine Masquerade Series 


Author: D.C. Belton
Paperback: 282 pages
Publisher: Flying Lion Press (August 8, 2011)
Amazon Link


Note: I received a review copy of this book free from the author, D.C. Belton. The review posted below is based on my personal thoughts while reading the book.

Ratings: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 


My Thoughts:


The Gods Among Us is the first book to the Divine Masquerade Series. The book tells the story of Pallas, a young slave girl. She hates the gods, especially Aegeia (Water Goddess) because she believes her mother died in the sea. One day, while strolling along the seashore where her mother died, she found a weird boat full of amazing gadgets, a talking cat and some dolphins that can understand her! The boat soon lands on the other side of the shore she's from and the people from Capro Bay thinks she's a child from Atlantis, a goddess that they should praise and protect. Pallas soon catches the attention of one of the gods - Mulciber, the Volcano god and now he wants to slay her. 


The first quarter of the book was a slow read. I also couldn't keep track of the names of all the gods and goddesses plus the human characters mentioned in the story. The pace picked up after Pallas was introduced. I liked Pallas - she's not a typical slave girl who whines at everything. She lost her mother at an early age and because of this, she became a brave and smart girl. I loved her relationship with her dear father. I loved Othello, the talking cat, my favorite character in the story. Othello's lines were funny, I tremendously enjoyed the story because of this character. I was also intrigued by why Aegeia and the other gods took notice of Pallas when she is just a slave girl. I was thinking maybe Pallas' parents did something bad to the gods or maybe her mother is a goddess too. I loved the book and can't wait to read the second book "Whom the Gods destroyed". A must read book for lovers of Greek mythology.  

About the book:

Could you forgive the goddess who drowned your mother, if forgiving her made you immortal? Pallas is a friendless teen from a backwater village on a forgotten shore. Born a slave like everyone around her, people hate her clothes, her parents…especially her strange name. Pallas doesn’t believe in the gods except to blame them for drowning her mother. But she’s forced to shelve her moody cynicism when she accidentally rescues an obnoxious cat. Suddenly a pawn in a celestial war, Pallas must do the unthinkable – champion the very goddess she hates. Masquerading as a mythic princess, she convinces everyone she’s a child of Atlantis. Jealousy hounds her at every turn as she battles vengeful fanatics, a boorish prince, and a stunningly beautiful princess. Yet nothing can save her from certain doom, when the Volcano god reaches out to slay her. For how can a mortal fight a god? D. C. Belton creates an emotional world as elegant as it is deadly: where mortals fall prey to passionate gods and a slave proves stronger than craven nobility. Visit Pallas at dcbelton.com!

About the author:

D. C. Belton was born in the Philippines to a submarine officer. He's lived in four different countries and visited more than fifty.


Dave earned a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the University of Oklahoma. He flew as a Naval Aviator and then an Air Force pilot, fighting in the Lebanese Civil War, the Liberian Civil War, the Persian Gulf War, Operation Provide Comfort, and the Bosnian conflict.


When a friend's son died in a texting-while-driving accident, Dave campaigned for a law to prevent further tragedies. Appealing to state legislators for months, Dave came up with the novel idea of enlisting high school students to directly lobby state senators. Due to their efforts, as well as an aggressive television campaign, "Caleb's Law" was passed in Georgia in a just one year.


Dave's been married to his college sweetheart for over 23 years. He lives in Buckhead, Georgia on Lake Oconee with his ravishing wife and three beautiful children. He's currently an International pilot with Delta Air Lines and a Public Affairs officer in the United States Air Force Reserves. He's a banjo player, a thespian, and an elected politician (Morgan County Board of Education).

Book Review: Merciful by Casey Adolfsson

Title: Merciful
Author: Casey Adolfsson
Paperback: 504 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace (April 6, 2011)

Ratings:

★ ★ ★ ★ 

My thoughts:

Acacia Moirgetes lives a boring life. When she turned seventeen, she began to experience weird things.. like disappearing from her apartment or from her work and finding herself in a middle of nowhere. Mostly,  it's just a short trip, minutes, hours, nothing else to see except she kept on appearing in front of an Acacia tree. One day, she could not go back home. She met a man named Blaise and told her that she is a goddess, a Goddess of Fate and her father Zeus, is constantly searching for her. Her memory quickly returns, that she left Olympus but she could not remember the reason why she left her world. Now, she must remember everything as someone is plotting to destroy the people of Olympus. 

I loved the story. Merciful started out pretty slow but eventually picked up after the first two chapters. The story is well-written. Loved the way the author wove the story with the Greek myth characters. It was really entertaining, if you are into Greek mythology, you'll love this too, I guarantee you.

Though there's one thing here that made the story a bit annoying for me. There are two heroes in this story, Blaise and Ash. They are both in love with Acacia and yes, Acacia loves both guys. I'm nearly hating stories with conflict in love triangle, especially when the heroine is indecisive. Twilight Saga's Bella and Calla Torr of Nighshade series to name a few. As for the book/book series that I enjoyed such conflict, these are Vampire Academy's Dimitri-Rose-Adrian, Sookie Stackhouse's Bill-Sookie-Eric and JeanClaude-Anita-Richard for the Anita Blake series. I can't tell exactly how I feel about this emo conflict but I would rather the story has a different conflict than a love triangle.

Overall, aside from the love triangle I mentioned above, it's still a great read. This book will be included in my "re-read" list. If there's book number two, I would definitely read it!   

About the book:

At 17 years old, Acacia Moirgetes is starting to feel like her boring, lonely existence is something of a tragedy. A Greek tragedy, that is. Acacia quickly learns that the life she thought she knew is a lie. More disturbingly, it’s a lie she’s been telling herself to avoid the terrible truth. Now she’s on a mission to corral the Greek gods of myth back to Mount Olympus before all Hades breaks loose. With the help of her guide, a curmudgeonly former goat named Amal, and her two Pyroskia— devastatingly handsome bodyguards, Blaise and Ash, whose devotion to Acacia runs deeper than either ever imagined—Acacia must follow the truth to its darkest ends. Along the way, she’ll have to recover her forgotten powers, come to terms with the woman she once was, and perhaps most importantly, discover why she left Olympus in the first place. Love, betrayal and mercy come to the fore in Merciful, an epic fantasy novel for young adults.

About the author:

Not long after I began my endeavor, I had the pleasure of conversing with an actual real author, Lauren Groff. When a New York Times Best Selling Author tells you something… listen. The single most valuable piece of advice I received I got from her.

“Write every day. Do something, anything with your work every day.” I did and it kept me close and tuned into my characters, no matter where I went they stayed with me. I wrote something new, edited something old, thesaurused things I’m not smart enough to know synonyms for, but I stuck with my story and I never let my characters or myself down.

As a mother of two, and an over volunteerer (is that a word?), I should put achiever… or “can’t say no’er” , there were a lot of nights I wanted to slide under the sheets, pull them up over my head and tuck them in enough that no one would notice I was there. I didn’t fool anybody with that trick and so… instead of hiding under the covers I hid behind my notebook and… I wrote.

My husband has been extremely supportive of my writing, but I don’t think he took me seriously until after I told him I had over a 100,000 words in my document. He peeked over my shoulder several times after that, I think mostly to be sure I wasn’t writing, “I love donuts. I love wine. I love cheese. I love chocolate” over and over. Ask him to name my four main characters… I dare you.

If you’re reading this it’s because I want you as a fan or you already are one. So it’s probably just you and my four closest friends.

I hope you enjoy Acacia and crew as much as I do.
-C
P.s Amal wants to know if you have anything to eat. Specifically a taco.






Note:
I received a review copy of this book free from the author, Casey Adolfsson. The review posted above is based on my personal thoughts while reading the book.

Movie Review: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Director: Chris Columbus
Stars: Logan Lerman
             Kevin McKidd
             Pierce Brosnan
             Sean Bean
             Uma Thurman

Ratings:

★ ★ ★ ★





My thoughts:

The movie was based on a book by Rick Riordan. I have seen a lot of bad reviews on this movie but as someone who has not read the books, I'd say it's a good one. Casting looks fine to me and even the acting. Special effects were pretty good. The movie even had big stars on it, Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean and Uma Thurman? See?

For me, I definitely enjoyed watching it and may read the books one of these days.

About the movie:

"Trouble-prone Percy Jackson is having problems in high school - but that's the least of his challenges. It's the 21st century, but the gods of Mount Olympus seem to have walked out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology texts and into his life. Percy has learned that his real father is Poseidon, god of the sea, which means Percy is a demigod - half human, half god. At the same time, the powerful gods on Olympus are feuding, which could launch a war enveloping our entire planet.

Now, Percy must prepare for the adventure of a lifetime, and the stakes couldn't be higher.

With ominous storm clouds brewing over Earth and his own life now in peril, Percy travels to a special enclave called Camp Half Blood, where he trains to harness his newly discovered powers and prevent a devastating war among the gods. There, Percy meets two fellow demigods - the warrior Annabeth, who is searching for her mother, the goddess Athena; and his friend and protector, Grover, who is actually a brave but untested satyr.

Grover and Annabeth then join Percy on an incredible transcontinental odyssey that takes them six hundred stories above New York City (the portal to Mount Olympus) and to the iconic Hollywood sign, under which burn the fires of the Underworld. At journey's end rests the fate of the world - and the life of Percy's mother Sally, whom Percy must rescue from the depths of Hell itself.

Percy Jackson: Half human. Half god. All hero!" http://www.percyjacksonthemovie.com/

Movie Review: Clash of the Titans [2010]

Clash of the Titans

Director:
Stars: Sam Worthington
             Gemma Arterton
             Mads Mikkelsen
             Alexa Davalos
            Ralph Fiennes

Ratings:

★ ★ ★

My thoughts:

I heard the original was better than the remake but since I have yet to watch the original one, this review is book vs 2010 movie.

Okay first up - the special effects are really good, same with the actors, acting was pretty good. If you have not read the book. you'd say it was an awesome movie. yes I have to agree with that. But since I have read Perseus' story, here's what I have to say.

What I was not happy about was the story line of this movie. They changed the whole story. Now if you are a big fan of Greek mythology like me, you'd be confused on this movie. I don't wanna give away the whole thing, I'll make a separate one - the difference of the book and the 2010 movie. Let's just say that in the book, it was all about Perseus life with his mother Danae (which by the way never died but in the movie, when they opened the chest, she's already dead) and his love for Andromeda. In this one Perseus was not in love with Andromeda and it was all about revenge to the gods and to his father Zeus. In my book - Io was not even mentioned in the story. Did Hermes and Athena appear in the movie? I saw a sandal or was that a shoe? In the book Hermes gave Perseus a winged sandals.

Like what others are saying who have read the book, it was such a disappointment. Any highschool student would be confused on this one. And my 3rd year HS teacher would not be so happy with this! I remember, she got me hooked on Greek Mythology. I can't believe she remembers all the names and she's never confused with them. Well my favorite story in Edith Hamilton's book was the Trojan war (in the movie Troy). I'd like to do a review on that one too one of these days.

Okay, going back to Clash of the Titans, overall - it's just a 3-star for me.

One last thing before I forgot - i don't understand why the title of the movie is Clash of the Titans? Uhm if I remember it right, Zeus and Hades are Olympians. They were called Olympians because their home is Olympus and Titans were the fathers of the Olympians. So I guess I have to research the reason for that . . .

About the movie:


The ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus is helpless to save his family from Hades, vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus and unleash hell on earth. Leading a daring band of warriors, Perseus sets off on a perilous journey deep into forbidden worlds. Battling unholy demons and fearsome beasts, he will only survive if he can accept his power as a god, defy his fate and create his own destiny.