I think I need an intervention.

I love books & reading- always have.  Reviewing is a bonus and the advent of ebooks was a mixed blessing.  As of this moment I have about 30gb of ebooks sitting on an external drive...

Not a typo: 30 Gigabytes. And I'm always acquiring more.  

Between purchases, giveaways, ARCs, freebies, NetGalley, Kindle listings & promos I've got a TBR pile that would make Sisyphus shake his head and wonder what the fuck was wrong with me.  It's only Wednesday and check out what this week's haul already looks like:

AlS

Oh, and did I mention I'm getting ready for NaNoWriMo?

...send help... or at least a shitload of coffee.

I found the three Anne Perry books and The Bourne Ascendancy in the discount section of Barnes & Noble. H is for Hawk was won in a giveaway.

The American was in a box of items my dad found when he was cleaning out my Grandmother's house. I never saw my Grandmother read and until now, I didn't think she had a single book in her house. So it was either my Grandmother's favorite book and she kept a copy or it belonged to my Grandfather.

Last year I read, liked and reviewed Mirror X, the first book in the Van Winkle Project series. Van Winkle refers to a short story by Washington Irving about a man who wakes after twenty years and finds the world has completely changed.

In the last book, Cassie was awakened ten centuries after she died and found herself (and the daughter's she gave birth to while in some kind of a coma) the only fertile female in the world. Obviously everyone is after her in this Brave New World where everyone's every move is followed and documented.

I was expecting a lot of this book, since I quite liked the first book, but I was a bit disappointed. Not in the least because at the beginning I had a lot of trouble remembering who everyone was and what their role in the series was. The secret society really doesn't seem that secret and their plan is not that original (I have a feeling I know where this is going). I'm very much surprised that Cassie is still surprised when she finds out she has been deceived, again.

Some small things bothered me while reading, in general the 31st century is looking way too much like the 21st. But then Cassie makes a lot of references to things that are apparently completely unknown, like for example Latin (I will not believe that the knowledge of the fact there once was a language called Latin is completely lost to a 'genius geneticist'). Also James Bond and quite some other references are unknown, although this doesn't stop Cassie from using them all the time. 

Also, 'son of a clone' *sigh*

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This is a typical fantasy novel that doesn't stand out in any way. It's solid enough, but relies too much on standard fantasy tropes (like elves and dragons) to be anything but mediocre.

In fact, the main feeling I had when reading this book was a continuing idea that the author had it in her to do better. There are some points where it seems to reach more lofty heights, only to come crashing down again a few pages later.

Final verdict:

Mediocre. I don't expect anyone reading this to have lasting impression, which is a shame really. I might give another of the author's books a try to see if it's a series only thing.

A thousand years ago, a dying race of Immortals left behind an enduring legacy: the Ascendants, mortal men and women capable of binding hundreds or even thousands of others to their will. Together these “Bound” and their magic form the foundation of nearly every society in the world. But everything is about to change. A few rare mortals possess the ability to channel magic without an Ascendant bond, and these “Unbound” renegades finally have a leader: a gifted young sorceress bent on freeing those who share her power…no matter the cost.

This story starts out alright, you land in the middle of a war and once that is over you fast forward to about a decade later. Although it would have been nice to get a bit more background information immediately as to why the main characters chose the path they chose it's easy enough to follow.

It's halfway through the story that I get a bit lost. Different tribes are on the verge of war with each other and some tribes have people with agendas of their own. At first I thought I knew how many tribes there were, but with all the different agendas and secret collaborations going on I got confused as to how many there were and also who was betraying who. It can get a little confusing when people try to backstab 3 different people or tribes at the same time.

Towards the end the storyline starts to make sense again and becomes a little clearer to me. But I didn't really like having to read through it trying to connect the dots all time and having to go back to see what happened a little earlier. 

Overall I get where the author was going with this, and maybe I just didn't get all the backstabbing and betrayal. The ending could have been a bit more detailed. To me it ended a little abruptly and didn't really feel  "finished". But maybe book 2 fixes that..

I give it three starts because I like the general storyline. I first was thinking 2.5 because of all the confusion but I'm in a generous mood so 3 stars it is.