Cynthia D. Griffin

Category: book addict

Book Series Review: Cradle By Will Wight

November 12th, 2021

This next series I am reviewing is by far one of my absolute favorites. And I mean top five of all time favorites, favorites. Yeah, it’s that freaking good. This was another series that was recommended to me. It is similar to LitRPG, but without all the status updates and player progression information. From what I understand, this series called Cradle is a cultivation (I think that’s the word?) or progression book.

Anyways, the series follows the adventures of Lindon who grows up thinking he is unworthy to be a sacred artist, but that’s all he wants to become. His clan, and even his family doesn’t think he has the power to do it (and won’t help him either). He was born unsouled, and can never truly harness the powers of even a low level sacred artist. Lindon doesn’t accept this fate.

After a truly bizarre experience where he nearly dies, Lindon is given the opportunity to change his fate and become a powerful sacred artist. So he makes the decision to leave everything he has ever known behind to do just that. He also knows there’s a looming threat to his clan and family sometime in the far future, and he’s determined to become the best sacred artist he can, so he can stop it.

On his journey, he meets Yerin and Eithan, who are also dedicated to advancing through the stages of sacred artist as fast as possible. And so the three of them race against an unknown clock as they advance, and face surmounting enemies and devastating monsters.

This series has a very martial arts feel to it that reminds me of a kung fu movie, but it certainly has it’s own and unique world. Will Wight really makes the characters and story come to life with his lovely descriptions and well thought out storyline. He had me hooked from the very beginning of book one.

Right now, there are ten books in the series. The titles are…
(more…)
Series Review: The Land By Aleron Kong

September 15th, 2021

I honestly never heard of LitRPG books until a friend of my started talking about writing one. I was full of questions. He ended up suggesting a few series to read in LitRPG. I was hesitant at first, because I do love playing RPG video games, but never considered reading a story that was like a video game. So decided to take the plunge. Wow, what a ride!

I started my adventure with Aleron Kong and his LitRPG series called The Land.

I won’t lie, the first book took me several weeks to finish. It took me awhile to adjust to how LitRPG books work.

One of the major differences of a LitRPG compared to a regular novel is there are regular status updates on the character and “game play”. In this particular series, it happened with tabled charts showing the progression of the characters points, level attributes, upgrades, ect.

At first this was very jarring to me, because I felt liked it halted the story big time. On the other hand, I did like knowing all the progression and upgrades as the story progressed. I think for me, it was just getting used to this kind of new reading style. Once I did, I literally could not put these freaking books down. I felt like I was right there with Richter as he stepped into The Land and began a wild journey of adventure and exploration.

aThe story starts out with a group of real life gamers playing a video game. One of the players ends up finding a hard to reach place in the game that he’s been searching for a long time. He’s expecting epic loot, but ends up finding himself catapulted into a new reality.

Once inside The Land, Richter quickly makes new friends and enemies as well as discovers an old place of power, which he claims and plans to erect a village. He quickly becomes a powerhouse as he racks up points and power, determined to find as much loot as possible and rise to the top.

Right now this book has eight books with a ninth on the way soon. The titles are…

Founding, Forging, Alliances, Catacombs, Swarm, Raiders, Predators, Monsters.

This book is set in a fantasy type setting with swords, dwarfs, elves, magic, monsters, and many more fun and imaginative things. There’s a lot of exploration and learning about this new world. There’s also lots of fighting action with sprites, goblins, demons, banished gods, and hordes of monstrous creatures.
(more…)
Book Series Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children By Ranson Riggs

March 12th, 2021

I started reading this series after I watched the movie in theaters back in 2016. The movie peaked my interest enough to start reading the books, and I’m so glad, because I really enjoyed the first three books (Home For Peculiar Children, Hollow City, and Library of Souls). Though, I thought that was the end of the series, because the way book three ended, it seemed like a good place to stop things.

A few years later, I was browsing in a library, and was tickled pink when I stumbled across book 4: A Map Of Days. I grabbed it off the shelf and eagerly went home to to read it. And the way book 4 ended, I knew 5 was in the works, because it left the story on a pretty huge cliffhanger. So I waited patiently for Conference of the Birds, which of course was as fantastic as the other books. And then yesterday, I finally finished the series reading book 6: The Desolations of Devil’s Acre.

I have to say there isn’t any feeling quite like the one being hooked on a good series. The anticipation of what will happen next, and the excitement of knowing some of your favorite characters are coming back to dish up a great read. So when I finished Devil’s Acre, I was a little sad that the series was done. But also completely satisfied, because Riggs delivered a very good wrap up for his six book series (man, I love it when that happens!).

Ransom Riggs dished up a fun, exciting, and darkly twisted story that delighted and left me in shocked horror more than once. The best part was the absolute weirdness of his world. Some of the stuff he came up with was absolutely impossible, but he made it believable for his story, and that, I think, was his crowning achievement. He took weird (peculiar) and made it cool, fun, and causing me wish I was a little peculiar too.
(more…)
Book Series Review: The Iron Druid Chronicles By Kevin Hearne

January 24th, 2021

It’s been a long time since I’ve done a series review, but I recently finished this series and really wanted to share my thoughts on it.

I have to tell you the Iron Druid books left an impact on me. I can honestly say that this is definitely one of my favorite series, but it’s also one that I dislike as well. But before I get into all of that, let me tell you a little bit about what this series is about.

The Iron Druid Chronicles starts with the book Hounded. A 2,100 year old druid is masquerading as a 21 year-old who owns an occult book store in modern day Arizona. To every one he looks like some stoner college student, but in reality he’s packing a lot of ancient knowledge and power. But don’t tell anyone, because he’s supposed to be hiding out from an Irish god who wants to kill him.

And it just gets better (and more complicated from there). lol…

The story follows Atticus on many and crazy escapades as he tries to hold his own against a bunch of religious pantheons that don’t like him very much. It might be because he’s a little bit snarky and doesn’t really care what anyone might think about him or what he does, he also has a big issue with people (or gods) who harm the earth, because he’s druid, duh. So that can really get him riled up sometimes.

My absolute favorite part of this story is that Atticus has a faithful companion named Oberon who is an Irish wolfhound, and Atticus has taught him how to speak (mentally). So it’s just a lot of fun to watch their awesome conversations play out, and see this deep friendship between hound and human grow over the course of the series.

This series includes 9 books and a bunch of novellas and short stories. The short stories and novellas help to bring more depth to the main story, and in many cases, I found the novellas and short stories to be superior in story quality to some of the novels. So I highly recommend them.

I’m not going to list out the whole chronological order of stories, novellas, and novels. You can find that information on Hearne’s website. But here are the 9 books in the series.
(more…)
Series Review: The Artifact Hunters

January 14th, 2020

I picked up a book in November that sent me on an exciting reading spree. I did a Book Review: Nefertiti’s Heart By A.W. Exley in November, but after finishing the series decided to contact the author directly. I loved her books so much, I wanted to find out more about them, and her. But before I post her author interview, I wanted to do a post summarizing the five books of her series.

The Artifact Hunters is a series set in the Victorian age with steampunk as the background. The two main characters are Cara Devon and Nathan Lyons. They are two members of the London peerage, but with much different backgrounds. But it’s their fighting spirit and love of adventure that draw these two together.

A series of five books showcase each of their stories, and the their combined story that throw them into some intense situations that will have you on the edge of your seat. Each book also showcases a particular artifact that either needs to be found, or stopped from creating chaos. Here’s a brief summary of each of the books.

Book 1: Nefertiti’s Heart is where the characters Cara and Nathan meet under precarious circumstances. Cara has to decide if she should trust the nefarious Lyons so she can get the money she needs to set herself up for a comfortable life. She also has to deal with her recently departed father and all the ancient artifacts he left behind. You can read more about this book through Book Review: Nefertiti’s Heart By A.W. Exley

Book 2: Hatshepsut’s Collar finds Nathan on Queen Victoria’s bad side. She’s detained Nathan in the Tower of London. Cara must decide how far she will go to help him. And when she discovers that the Queen is wearing a dangerous artifact, Cara must find away to convince the Queen to give it up. In the meantime, Nathan and Cara have a lot of trouble on their heels as they travel by airship to Russia and Siberia.
(more…)