Goldenhead: or Bodies and Avatars by Annalinde Matichei

Title: Goldenhead: or Bodies and Avatars

Author: Annalinde Matichei

Published: Sun Daughter Press, October 2011

Summary: They say your imaginary friends aren't your real friends.But who stands by you when you lose your physical body?

Did you have imaginary friends? Live in imaginary worlds? Were you sure they were really imaginary? Of course you weren't. Goldenhead crosses the barrier between the "real world" and the world they told her was just her "imagination". She meets the friends she dreamed, and finds that some of them thought they were dreaming her.

In an anime-style body in an all-girl world, she finds herself among a group of three loyal friends, each separated from her "real" body and each looking now like an anime schoolgirl.

They also discover that their new reality is threatened by a terrible evil, and that each of them has unique powers to help them fight that evil. They are launched on an adventure spanning multiple realities. An adventure that is sometimes terrifying, that brings them into contact with many kinds of being, from warrior-maids to sorcerous musicians to tree-spirits; and places from ancient villages to modern cities to ships of the sky.

But among all the things they discover, the most beautiful is a depth of love and friendship, of loyalty and kindness, that formerly they could only dream of. (Taken from Goodreads)

Thoughts: After reading Flight of the Silver Vixen by Annalinde Matichei I was excited to have the opportunity to read Goldenhead. Goldenhead was a really good read. I went into it not really sure what the book was about but as I read it I came to understand a bit more about what was going on.

Goldenhead is about a girl who lives in a normal world much like ours and then she steps into a world where everyone is manga type characters. I felt this was a really unique approach to a novel and I haven’t read anything like it before. It was really good though.

I liked Goldenhead, she was an awesome character. In fact, all of the characters were pretty neat and super refreshing. I would say my favourite would be Sarai. There’s more to her than meets the eye and she’s just awesome.

The story itself was great! I absolutely love science fiction and this book is a science fiction/fantasy crossover and I thought it was amazing. The idea of the anime/manga type world and the mothership was just really cool.

Fans of science fiction will not be disappointed with Goldenhead it is brilliant and Annalinde Matichei writes really well. I encourage you to check out Goldenhead.

Source: Sun Daughter Press for review

February Wrap-Up

It's hard to believe that the first month of a new year is over already!  This past month has been a really good one to me as I was really hoping to get ahead on my reading for the year as I start university towards the end of February so I won't get to read as much after that.  For 2012 I have made a couple of changes to the wrap-up posts.  I felt that they were a little boring before now and so I'm hoping that these ones are more interesting and just gives me some incentive to actually post something at the beginning of each month.  Also, we have been posting on the blog every second day.  During the month of February we will be posting every day as a trial run.

1. Scar Night by Alan Campbell

2. Flidderbugs by Jonathan Gould

3. Slide by Jill Hathaway

4. Haunted Love by Cynthia Leitich Smith

5. Cardsharp by Paul Westmoreland

6. Everblossom by Larissa Hinton

7. Angelina's Friend by Lisa Rogers

8. Immortal by Gillian Shields

9. Storm Hunters by Roland Smith

10. Rescue by Dorcas S. Miller

11. Survival by Louis L'Amour

12. Prophecy of the Flame by Lynn Hardy

13. White Cat by Holly Black

14. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

15. Hard Magic by Laura Anne Gilman

16. A Lonely Ghost Girl by Serena Myles

17. Word Games by Viney Hinton

18. The Price of Longing by Amber Marshall

19. The Caveman Conspiracy by Jeff Thomason

20. Crosscut by Christopher Kneipp

21. Nikki and the Vampire by Yaritza Garcia

22.Call Me Strega by Amber Marshall

23. Gift by Dianna Hardy

24. A Chance Meeting by Emerald Barnes

25. Intuition by J Meyers

26. Peppermints and Murder by Emerald Barnes

27. The Girl in the Converse Shoes by Yaritza Garcia

28. Lye Street by Alan Campbell

29. Angelina's Secret by Lisa Rogers

30. Deadly Cool by Gemma Halliday

31. Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

32. Through her Eyes by Jennifer Archer

33. Twisted by Sara Shepard

34. EveryMother Knows Best by Daniel A.Cohen

Debut Author Challenge: 2/12

Goodreads Challenge: 34/200

It's been a long time coming but we finally have the winners for our Almost 450 Followers Giveaway and the winners are:

Teresa W

Vivien

Sierra

Congratulations to you all, I have emailed you :)

This month's giveaway is a book of your choice of book from The Book Depository of up to $15 NZD.  The rules:

Open to anywhere the Book Depository ships

Entries close 28 February midnight GMT +12

Must be 13 or older to enter

Fill in the form below to enter

Click here to fill in the form.

Cardsharp by Paul Westmoreland

Title: Cardsharp


Author: Paul Westmoreland


Published: December 2010


Links:
Amazon
Lulu
Goodreads
POW Books


Summary:  Cardsharp is an exciting adventure book for children set in the art world. Escaping house fires and fighting daring robbers is just the beginning for art researcher, Vincent Ward, and these battles do little to prepare him for the exciting adventure that unfolds. An old journal discovered at an auction in Rome puts Vincent on the trail of an undiscovered painting by one of art history’s most notorious masters, Caravaggio. But paintings this rare and valuable are sought after by more than just collectors and galleries. Vincent soon finds himself on the run from a brutal and lawless policeman, a gang of international criminals, and fighting vicious pirates. There are stings, tricks and conspiracies around every corner, and bullets flying from the shadows. Only The National Gallery, London is safe for Vincent and the painting. But is there a way back? Get ready to be thrown into the world of Vincent Ward, where getting through each day alive just isn’t enough.  (Taken from Goodreads)


Thoughts: I wasn’t really sure what to expect with Cardsharp but when I started it I got pulled into an exciting story that got more exciting and more interesting as it went along.

Cardsharp reminded me a lot of The Adventures of TinTin.  Vincent Ward sets off on an adventure and he ends up getting caught up in this world of intrigue and the bad guys have guns and there’s a little bit of violence from them as Vincent tries to get back his precious painting.

I thought that Cardsharp was a fun read but I have to say that it has really bad spelling and grammar errors.  I’m not sure if it’s just from the epub version I read or not but a lot of the words had the letters, i, f or t missing and so that really bothered me.

Not knowing much about Caravaggio or art for that matter I found that the explanations were really good and I was still able to enjoy the book with a very limited knowledge of art history and it made Cardsharp a learning experience as well which I always like.

Overall, I would say that Cardsharp was a really fun read and is good for anyone who likes adventure novels.  I’d say it’s more in the middle grade genre as it has quite a simplistic writing style to it which makes it an easy book to breeze through.

Source: