I am not sure if I mentioned this but, as you all know I do go on Kirkus reviews a lot. Well they have some mega awesome contests like a Kindle fire, etc. and I have posted that when it was going on. But everyday they give away 2-3 books. All you have to do is put in your email address and if you want, sign up for their newsletter which is not annoying. But I am partial to Kirkus.
I was thrilled about a week ago when I won a book from Kirkus. They did not mention the name of which book it was and I do not always keep track of every giveaway I enter but either way if it is from Kirkus it will be a good book.
Just for your knowledge, here are today's books for giveaway:
THEY DIE ALONE
A Ross Duncan Novel
by Christopher Bartley
KIRKUS REVIEW
A trigger-happy, Chandler-esque gangster story set in 1930s Chicago.
Bank robber Ross Duncan is wanted by the FBI. Looking for his late partner’s little sister in Chicago, Duncan suddenly finds himself being courted as a hired gun by both the Italian and the Irish mobs. He has ample opportunity to demonstrate his skill with a .45, and his dialogue has Philip Marlowe’s steely wit. But unlike Marlowe’s outings, this debut novel, the first of a projected series, is less sure of its protagonist’s moral compass and intentions. The Irish want Duncan to bump off an Italian mob captain, while the Italians want him as extra muscle on a poorly planned bank job. Eventually, both syndicates want him to rub out Chicago’s new, incorruptible federal prosecutor. Meanwhile, Duncan tracks down Elinore, the long-lost little sister, but she turns out to be a laudanum addict and the girlfriend of the head of the Irish mob. Bartley mixes up a stiff noir cocktail: sharp dialogue, shadowy settings, and severe, coldblooded violence. Unfortunately, up until a multichapter flashback two-thirds of the way through the story, Duncan is such a man of mystery that the heart of the book feels empty. He also seems starved for female companionship; Elinore initially slinks into the story like a femme fatale, but she elicits so many conflicting impulses from Duncan that their relationship ends up feeling tame and lifeless. A faint human connection with his widowed landlady and her young son similarly goes nowhere. Yet the outstanding final set piece, a tensely rendered raid on a federal office, nearly makes up for the holey story. The prose can sparkle, the atmosphere is there, period details are pitch-perfect, and the action scenes are executed with verve; hopefully, as the series progresses, Duncan will be inspired by his excellently rendered environment.
A striking start to a series with solid action and arresting details but saddled with a bland hero.
Pub Date:Nov. 12th, 2012
Page count:225pp
Publisher:Acorn Independent Press
Program:Kirkus Indie
Review Posted Online:Jan. 21st, 2013
and
DIVINITIES, ENTANGLED
Eve of Light Book II
by Harambee K. Grey-Sun
KIRKUS REVIEW
With civilization—and reality itself—on the verge of chaotic collapse, Robert Goldner, a secret agent and tormented carrier of a virus granting superhuman powers, confronts interdimensional conspiracies.
Author Grey-Sun launched his visionary Eve of Light sci-fi series with Broken Angels (2012), to which this is a sequel. Hallucinatory, nightmarish yet weirdly beautiful, this volume is a mind-spinner even for readers who grokked the complex back story established in the first volume. Under an unpopular female president, near-future America is a decaying surveillance state, with ghastly acts of mayhem and anarchy broadcast online, typically by damaged packs of unwanted or exploited juveniles. A game-changer in this dystopia is the sexually transmitted White-Fire Virus, a closely guarded government secret that grants its victims altered consciousnesses—including criminal insanity—and superhuman abilities, like casting illusions and invisibility. Many White-Fire Virus carriers consider themselves to be angels, either trying to save the world or hasten its end. Trying to save it is Robert, an undercover agent and virus carrier who survived the traumatic events in Broken Angels with Ava, a beautiful religious zealot (and “born-again virgin”) suffering partial amnesia. Robert knows she’s a sleeper agent or hypnotized cult terrorist, primed for a trigger signal that will fulfill some ominous mission. Various confrontations tend to make the exposition a bit tangled, as Robert’s secret-ops organization waits for Ava to reveal her true nature, and Robert and Ava must make a pilgrimage to XynKroma, a dimension of “polluted light,” described as the last mad thoughts of a dying God, where sinister entities are preparing to take over once earthly reality checks out. Grey-Sun’s rococo mythology embraces gnosticism, Armageddon, philosophy, magic, poetic wordplay (which, readers are told, is also magic) and anger over the plight of at-risk children. It’s no easy task to comprehend all the swirling events, including the abrupt reintroduction of a few key characters from Broken Angels. Readers will need to do their homework.
Intrepid readers will enjoy this ride, however puzzling, through the fever-dream sequel to a metaphysical action-adventure.
Publisher:Manuscript
Program:Kirkus Indie
Review Posted Online:Sept. 13th, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue:Nov. 15th, 2013
So for those of you who love contests and love to read, I hope you will enjoy going to Kirkus to enter to win some great books everyday!
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