Tag Archive | villains

Secret War (Jack Blank #2), by Matt Myklusch (review) – superhero-in-training with dark secret

Mar27

book cover of The Secret War by Matt Myklusch published by Simon Schuster

Job-shadowing true superheroes!
Saving humanity from brutal invading robots!
Finding the robot virus too close to home…

From a bleak orphanage to the technological marvels of the Imagine Nation, Jack has now found true friends, a productive outlet for his power to communicate with machines, and a growing sense of dread regarding the Rustov virus that has crept into his new home city.

You can get all three books in the Jack Blank series now at your local library or independent bookstore.

Be sure to read book one, The Accidental Hero (my no-spoiler review here) before you meet up with the Secreteers in book two, and yes, I’ll have a recommendation of The End of Infinity (book three) on BooksYALove soon!

How can you tell whether an inner voice is friend or foe?
**kmm

Book info: The Secret War (Jack Blank #2) / Matt Myklusch. Simon & Schuster, 2011 hardcover, 2012 paperback. [author’s website] [publisher site]

My Recommendation:  Jack has found his place in the world at last, a superhero-in-training in the Imagine Nation. But some still think he has connection to the evil Rustov who won’t stop until they’ve conquered all worlds, and something inside Jack whispers that they might be right!

Called into the real world on an emergency with their superhero mentors, Jack and his classmates have their first brush with the Secreteers who keep humanity in the dark about the Imagine Nation. Selective memory wipes erase the superheroes’ involvement in these outside rescues, although Jack is sure he saw the true form of one Secreteer.

Jack’s gift of communicating with any machinery leads him to investigate the rumored Rustov virus that’s targeting the Mecha citizens of his city – another secret to hide from his School of Thought friends, like his growing concern that he really could turn into the most feared enemy of all.

When a rogue Secreteer announces that he’ll sell any and all secrets of the Imagine Nation to the highest bidder, the young superheroes decide to track him down before he can further endanger everyone. But how can you find the best-hidden place in the universe?

Will Jonas Smart buy the secrets and discover that Jack might truly become Revile?
Can Jack disarm the virus before it infects the city with evil?
Can he dismiss the new voice inside him that swears it is Rustov?

This second book in the Jack Blank trilogy follows the astounding developments in Jack’s life told in book one, The Accidental Hero, and sets the stage for the mighty war at The End of Infinity, book three.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Mothership, by Martin Leicht and Isla Neal (book review) – pregnant teens, space yacht, attacked!

Mar20

book cover of Mothership by Martin Leicht and Isla Neal published by Simon Schuster BFYRPregnant at sixteen,
the dad leaves town,
by 2074, some things haven’t changed.

But having such a surplus of unused earth-orbiting luxury cruise ships that one can be repurposed into a school for unwed mothers? That definitely puts this book into sci fi category (aliens as high school teachers and vid-ads targeted to your personal nutritional and health needs are just bonus!)

You can find Elvie’s rather offbeat pregnancy journey at your local library or independent bookstore as it’s a 2012 release (still waiting on publication date for book 2).

Anyone you know been abducted by aliens lately?
**kmm

Book info: Mothership (The Ever-Expanding Universe, Book 1) / Martin Leicht and Isla Neal. Simon & Schuster BFYR, 2012. [Martin’s info]  [Isla’s info]  [video interview]   [publisher site] [book trailer]   (Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher)

My Book Talk: Elvie wanted to go into space, but as part of the Mars colonization project, not as a pregnant teen in the first-ever low-orbit high school for unwed mothers… Getting attacked by paramilitaries wasn’t part of the plan either, but Elvie still has some brains despite the Bump.

She’s been planning her whole life to travel everywhere, like her mom didn’t get to do, dying when Elvie was born, leaving behind a huge book of maps with notes about future family trips. Her dad has an emergency plan for absolutely any possible (or improbable) event and decides that Hanover School for Expecting Teen Mothers is just the place for her; he obviously didn’t know that Elvie’s nemesis in the Class of 2076 would be part of the school’s first group, too.

And the baby’s daddy? Vanished into thin air as soon as Elvie told him the news. Thankfully, she has best-friend-for-life Ducky as backup; that guy is so dorky about researching pregnancy stuff. Too bad he’s on Earth, and Elvie’s in orbit with snooty cheerleader Britta, who got pregnant a couple of weeks before her. No, Elvie won’t tell her that Cole fathered both babies; she doesn’t have a death wish.

When an unexpected ship docks onto the space cruise liner, Hanover is boarded by paramilitary forces…including Cole, who tells Elvie that her teachers are aliens and that their babies aren’t exactly their own anymore. She decides her baby belongs on Earth when it’s born in a few weeks, so she and the other very-pregnant teens waddle through escape routes and try to sabotage the aliens’ plans along the way.

If the teachers are aliens, what are the paramilitary guys?
Should Elvie believe the handsome hunk who knocked her up and left town?
Will there be any chocolate-pretzel-caramel-prenatal ice cream left in the snack center?

In this first book of the Ever-Expanding Universe series, Elvie’s life changes drastically in a short time; the rest of Earth’s population is in for a big surprise as well!

Bruised, by Sarah Skilton (fiction) – trained to defend, frozen when it counts most

Mar8

book cover of Bruised by Sarah Skilton published by AmuletShe’s a black belt.
She’s practiced and sparred and competed.
She freezes when true danger strikes.

The journey to black belt in Tae Kwon Do or any martial art is long and rigorous, but under controlled conditions with traditions and rules to follow.

Imogen mentally punishes herself for not springing into action when the gunman attacks – can she fight through survivor’s guilt to become a young woman of action and purpose again?

Just published this week, Bruised  follows Imo as she tries to rebuild her life to include Ricky’s love and fill the void left by Shelley’s departure for dance school and her own absence from Grandmaster Huan’s dojang.

How would you react when a situation bursts into violence?
**kmm

Book info: Bruised / Sarah Skilton. Amulet Books, 2013. [author’s website] [publisher site]

My Recommendation: As the youngest female to earn a black belt at the dojang, Imogen was sure she could handle any attack. But the gunman at the diner proved her wrong, undid her whole life’s work as a defender of the helpless. How can she get past the blood-drenched scene when her mind has built a wall around the robbery gone wrong?

Tae Kwon Do is what she does, what she is, but she just froze at the diner, didn’t stop the robber before he pistol-whipped the cashier. She can remember hiding under a table, can remember the teen guy crouching under the next table, his new white shoes that became gory red and were taken as evidence, just like her bloodstained jeans. Gretchen called 911 from the bathroom, was smart enough to stay put – but Imogen should have been able to stop the situation before the guy was shot when he wouldn’t surrender.

She just can’t process what went wrong there. Can’t talk to former best friend Shelley who decided to hook up with her big brother at Imogen’s own birthday party, can’t pay attention in school, except during counseling sessions with Ricky, the guy from the diner whose shoes became bloody evidence. Her heart seems to be a lump in her chest now.

Being teased leads to a fight at school, to being asked by Grandmaster Huan not to return to the dojang until she can regain her emotional balance by truly living the ‘child rules’ at the foundation of Tae Kwon Do – respecting her parents (including her dad who let his diabetes put him in a wheelchair) and doing all her homework without being asked.

Who is Imogen without her time revolving around learning and teaching at the dojang?
How can Ricky like her or respect her when she failed to stop a death?
Why can’t she remember what happened between crouching under the table and being blood-soaked in the police car?

A compelling story of expectations versus reality, Imogen’s heart and psyche are so Bruised that moving on with life will take more courage than any Tae Kwon Do belt test she ever tried. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Down the Mysterly River, by Bill Willingham (fiction) – talking animals, deadly swords – quest, villains, friendship, memory

Feb22

book cover of Down the Mysterly River by Bill Willingham published by StarscapeAn unfamiliar forest.
Talking animals.
A swordsman attacking to kill.
Not your average Boy Scout camping trip…

Max “the Wolf” has constantly improved his woodcraft skills as a Boy Scout and is a detective at heart, so he and his new companions watch for clues as they travel together in search of answers – and try to stay ahead of the vicious Blue Cutters.

For his first novel for younger readers, Willingham taps the illustrating skills of his Fables  graphic novel series collaborator Mark Buckingham for the masterful sketches of each character, from Banderbrock the badger, Walden the black bear, and McTavish the Monster (or perhaps a cat) to their evil pursuers with swords.

Find this mystery/quest/friendship tale today in hardcover or paperback at your local library or independent bookstore. For a jump into the Fables universe, try  Willingham’s Peter & Max  novel which I reviewed here.

I do wonder what the animals in our lives would say to us if we could understand them talking…
**kmm

Book info: Down the Mysterly River / Bill Willingham; art by Mark Buckingham. Starscape, hardcover 2011, paperback 2012. [author’s website] [publisher site] [audio interview]

My Recommendation: Max is lost in an unfamiliar forest, being chased by swordsmen who’d rather kill than talk, meeting up with talking animals – this has never happened to the top-notch Boy Scout before!

Using his woodcraft skills and powers of deduction (the young teen is a detective at heart), Max “the Wolf” decides to head downstream to find a town (and perhaps his memory). Along the way, he encounters Banderbrock the badger, who likewise is perplexed about being in this unknown forest, but remembers many tales of his daring and brave ancestors.

Dodging the Blue Cutter swordsmen who pursue all trespassers in this forest, Max and Banderbrock join forces with the black bear Walden, formerly sheriff in a quiet settlement in another forest, and McTavish the Monster, who looks very much like a battle-scarred tomcat to Max. All can understand one another perfectly, but their memories of time before this forest have unexplainable gaps.

Chased down the Mysterly River (as Walden named it) by the Blue Cutters and their hunting hounds, the friends try to find Prince Aspen (who is said to know many secrets) or anyone else who could help them escape to safety.

For the Blue Cutters remove everything unique about new arrivals in this forest – and what could be more unique than speech in animals or a Boy Scout with no troop nearby…

Why did the boy, badger, bear, and cat all arrive here at the same time?
Can the quartet avoid the Blue Cutters’ vicious blades?
What will they discover at the end of the Mysterly River?

An epic tale with an unexpected twist from Fables graphic novel writer, Bill Willingham, who undoubtedly enjoyed adventurous stories around the campfire as a Scout. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Etiquette & Espionage, by Gail Carriger (fiction) – curtsies, hankies, and poisoning lessons

Feb13

book cover of Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger published by Little BrownCuriosity? Improper in a young lady of good family.
Interested in things mechanical? How uncouth.
A potential assassin? Just right for Mademoiselle Geraldine’s school!!

Steampunk plus young lady spies-in-training – smashing!
I do so want a steam-powered mechanimal dachshund like Bumbersnoot, even if I would have to break his coal into tiny nibbles.

Read excerpts at io9 and at Tor to be properly introduced to Sophronia and her interesting world, browse politely inside the first pages of  the Finishing School series: Book the First at the publisher’s site, then proceed in a stately manner to acquire Etiquette & Espionage  at your local library or independent bookstore – posthaste, as it was just published last week!

And do watch for flywaymen and other air pirates along the carriage roads…
**kmm

Book info: Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School, Book the First) / Gail Carriger. Little Brown, 2013. [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

My Recommendation: She’d much rather disassemble the robot butler than learn etiquette, but well-brought-up young ladies in 1851 British society must have impeccable manners. How else to distinguish persons of quality from vampires, werewolves, and other beings of lower social class?

Tumbling out of the dumbwaiter covered with pudding was perhaps not the best way to meet the finishing school headmistress. However, Miss Geraldine accepted Sophronia to the Academy because of the 14-year-old’s curiosity and resourcefulness, despite her dreadfully subpar curtsy.

Surviving an attack by flywaymen on their carriage journey, Sophronia is somewhat startled to find that the Academy floats above the moors, that the Miss Geraldine who visited her mother is not the Miss Geraldine who heads up the exclusive school, and that dashing Captain Niall is a werewolf (with impeccable manners, it must be noted).

Aboard the triple dirigibles of the Academy, she meets the real Miss Geraldine (who seems quite unaware of the deadly classes being taught on board), teachers of non-quite-human persuasion (but excellent taste in fashion), and the sooties below decks who stoke the mighty furnaces powering this most unusual finishing school.

Classes for dance and the deadly uses of hatpins, the sudden appearance a darling mechanimal dachshund (which needs wee bits of coal to keep going) bearing threats from villains about handing over a prototype, and odd preparations for an outing at their allied school for boys keep Sophronia and the other young ladies quite busy – but not so busy that they can’t do a little sleuthing of their own.

Why does Miss Geraldine not know that her school is training spies and assassins?
What is the device whose prototype is coveted by so many?
Will Sophronia learn to curtsy properly in the few months before her sister’s debutante ball?

Book the First of the Finishing School series brings together steampunk and high manners with great success, inviting readers along on the astounding journey of clever Sophronia, her new friends, and her new enemies. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Altered, by Jennifer Rush (fiction) – build-a-soldier: strength tweak here, loyalty serum there

Feb11

book cover of Altered by Jennifer Rush published by Little BrownSecret laboratory.
Experimental subjects.
Super-soldiers with no memories…

Anna reads the journal that her mom left, makes the recipes just as she noted, wishes that she could be with Sam more often – but what future could she have with a memory-wiped young man who’s confined like a lab rat?

What future is there for Anna anyway? She could never talk to outsiders, in case she accidentally said something about the Lab beneath their farmhouse, the Lab housing four young men that the Branch is secretly training for some sort of mission… the four young men who escape, taking Anna with them!

This 2012 title is a “don’t blink” thriller; imagine what will happen to the crew next!
**kmm

Book info: Altered / Jennifer Rush. Little Brown, 2012.  [author’s website] [publisher site] [audiobook excerpt]

My Recommendation:  Anna is content in her secluded home-schooled world of the remote farmhouse with her dad and the underground lab where “the boys” live. Why the Branch wanted four young men with no memories to be part of this research was never discussed, nor were the many scars on those very physically fit bodies.

When she turned 16, Dad asked Anna to assist him with testing Sam, Nick, Trev, and Cas, little knowing that she’s been sneaking downstairs to play chess with Sam every night for months. When a routine lab inspection by the Branch brings along highly armed soldiers to remove the boys, Anna’s calm life shatters as the boys manage to escape – and Dad sends her along with them, insisting that she must stay as far away from the Branch as possible!

Suddenly, they’re on the run, trying to outguess agents of the maybe-government-related Branch and stay ahead of police when desperation forces them to steal a car and food. Every hour away from the lab unlocks more of the boys’ impressive physical skills as they seem to react before danger occurs and fight as a team without speaking.

Somehow, tendrils of memory guide Sam to a remote farmhouse where he might have lived before his memories were wiped out by the Branch. Everything is now a clue that could help them unlock the boys’ secrets and regain their pasts.

When Anna’s long-absent mother arrives at the farmhouse with surprising news, there’s little time for a tender reunion as gunfire from Branch agents zings through the walls and windows. Was this a set-up or an accident?

Fleeing again, Anna, Sam and company keep trying to figure out the meaning of the numbers within their scars and messages hidden in their tattoos. Code? Map coordinates?

Harder and harder to stay ahead of the Branch as the crew darts from hiding place to newly remembered landmark to safe house. Graveyards and memories, dead men and long-dead children… whatever happens, Anna cannot leave Sam!

Why were the four young men in the Branch lab in the first place?
Why were their memories wiped out?
How far will they all go to stay out of the Branch’s grasp forever?

Jennifer Rush’s debut novel races along faster than Anna’s feelings for Sam, diving into a dark past that could lead to an even darker future. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

A Girl Named Digit, by Annabel Monaghan (fiction) – FBI takes teen math genius undercover

Feb8
book cover of A Girl Named Digit by Annabel Monaghan published by Houghton Mifflin

A brain for numbers that never, ever stops.
A hunger to have a normal senior year.
A set of digits on television that shouldn’t be there…

And now Farrah goes from understated jeans to completely undercover as the FBI realizes that her OCD about numbers and patterns is their best bet for catching an ecoterrorist whose been sending others out to do his dirty work for years.

Grab Digit’s first adventure now in hardcover or eBook at your local library or independent bookstore (it won’t be out in paperback with the much-better cover until late May 2013) then hang on for Digit’s first year at college when Double Digit  is published in January 2014!

Which of life’s codes would you be most anxious to crack?
**kmm

Book info: A Girl Named Digit / Annabel Monaghan. Houghton Mifflin, 2012. [author’s website] [publisher site] [fan-created book trailer]  

My Recommendation: To get away from the kids who nicknamed her “Digit” for her math abilities, Farrah transfers to another high school for her senior year. But it’ll take the FBI to keep her safe from the terrorist group that she accidentally exposes. Faking her own kidnapping wasn’t quite the way she’d planned to stay unnoticed at her new school…
Farrah wishes that she didn’t see patterns in everything and has had to learn extreme coping strategies to blunt her obsessive-compulsive tendencies when real life is uneven and disorganized. Her math professor dad says she can put her “gift” to work later in life and urges her to enjoy being a teen for now. Wish it were that easy…
Numbers pop up on television when they shouldn’t be there, but the station says she’s imagining them. Her genius skills crack the code, pointing to a terror attack at JFK Airport, but her report to the FBI is ignored…until it happens.
Now a ruthless band of ecoterrorists is gunning for Digit, so she has to fake being kidnapped and go undercover to help the FBI break the rest of the code to prevent more attacks and catch the terrorists. Nice to really be appreciated for her skills, even nicer to be undercover with cute young FBI agent John as they race to interpret more clues.
But somehow, the bad guys find one of the safe houses, John and Digit have to go into deep cover without contacting anyone, and the stakes in this math puzzle get deadly in a hurry.
How fast can they unravel the last parts of this puzzle?
What will the ecoterrorists’ next move be?
Will Digit’s “kidnapping” have an unhappy ending?

(One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

What Happens Next, by Colleen Clayton (fiction) – getting past rape, finding redemption

Jan10
book cover of What Happens Next by Colleen Clayton published by Poppy Books

Ski trip!
Fresh snow, new guys, curfew broken.
Now Sid is broken, too.

But she won’t let anyone help her past the attack, won’t even tell anyone what happened. The coping mechanisms that she’s chosen aren’t helping her cope too well either.

What can a slacker like Corey teach this former honor student about trust or friendship or caring what happens…

Post this info where people can find it: National Sexual Assault Hotline | 1.800.656.HOPE | Free. Confidential. 24/7. or search for a local crisis center at http://centers.rainn.org/

Grab this debut novel today at your local library or independent bookstore and cheer for Sid as she works past her outrage to a better future. The author gives us Sid’s playlist, too – you can tell a lot about someone by the music they choose.
**kmm

Book info: What Happens Next / Colleen Clayton. Poppy/Little Brown, 2012. [author’s website] [publisher site]

My Recommendation: Meeting cool college guy Dax was the best thing about the high school ski trip for Cassidy, until he convinced her to sneak out after curfew to a night she cannot remember.

Back home, Sid’s grades slide, her single-parent mom can’t figure out what’s wrong, her friends eventually give up trying to jolly her back to normal. Sid drops her advanced classes and drifts into “A/V Club” instead. Everyone knows that A/V Club is just Corey-the-Stoner hanging out in the DVD storage room until someone needs a video, so he won’t try to break through Sid’s new protective shell to help her get over things.
Except that he manages to say things that make her think, nudge her to try feeling good about herself again by exercising, make her wonder why she can’t remember anything about being with Dax – and he has no clue that he’s doing it. Nice that he always smells like the bakery where he works before school, that he brings new pastries for her to taste-test, that he’ll just listen if she ever wants to talk.
Why do they call him Stoner when she’s never seen him act druggie?
Could Sid ever be more than friends with Corey?
Will she ever find the key to the locked door of that blank ski trip night?
The author’s time spent working with teens in bad situations really shines through in this debut novel, as readers root for Sid to break through the barricades that her mind put up and uncover what happened with Dax so she can heal herself.

 (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Watersmeet, by Ellen Jensen Abbott (fiction) – outcast, healer, in danger

Jan7

book cover of Watersmeet by Ellen Jensen Abbott published by Marshall Cavendish and AmazonCentaurs who collect human toes as souvenirs.
Obrium metal that only the dwarves can mine.
Settlers always moving into enemy lands, always at war.

Despite making the required sacrifices to Vran, there are still imperfect children born to Vranille village, doomed to be outcasts.
Amid grinding poverty, the outcasts are poorer still.
Among the outcasts, Abisina is most despised, her father unknown.

Look for Watersmeet (remember, the main action occurs where the waters meet) at your local library. Alas, your independent bookstore will probably not have this great fantasy, as Amazon Publishing acquired Marshall Cavendish Publishing’s fiction books and many others in late 2011, reprinting this one in paperback in 2012.
**kmm

Book info: Watersmeet / Ellen Jensen Abbott. Marshall Cavendish, 2009, hardback; Amazon Publishing, 2012, paperback. [author’s blog] [publisher site] [author interview]

My Book Talk:  Outcast, always an outcast, fatherless Abisina with her different hair color, different skin color, barely tolerated in the tradition-bound outpost because of her mother’s healing skills, until a new leader comes to Vranille. Now, anyone with the slightest difference at the Ritual of Penance is outcast, and Charach decrees all the outcasts hunted to the death.

“Watersmeet,” says her mother, finally telling Abisina where she will find her father. Far away in the mountains, through the dread country where centaurs and dwarves capture humans for sport or for food.

As Charach leads the slaughter of outcasts, Abisina watches helplessly from the woods, retrieves her mother’s necklace from the ashes, then runs until she can go no further. Rescued by a mother and son, Abisina regains her strength and plans to head north, to Watersmeet.

Will Charach allow her to escape from the lands of Vran unharmed?
Can the young teen make it all the way to the fabled city of peace?
After so many years, will her father truly be at Watersmeet?

Dark the nights, bitter the heart of Charach, growing the hope of Abisina to live free from fear in this stunning debut novel of a world where truths can be stranger than fables. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Iron Hearted Violet, by Kelly Barnhill (fiction) – a plain princess, evil whispers, lying mirrors

Oct22
book cover of Iron Hearted Violet by Kelly Barnhill published by Little Brown

Must every princess be beautiful?
Must every king be brave?
If they aren’t, can the realm survive?

Secret rooms in the castle, glinting hints in mirrors, lost dragons under the two-sunned sky – Princess Violet lives in a world where stories have more power than anyone living can imagine, and no one living can imagine the threat that lies just ahead for the kingdom.

Find this September-published adventure of a most-unusual princess,  a clever stableboy, a forbidden book, and a long-suppressed god of the metaverse at your local library or independent bookstore today.
**kmm

Book info: Iron Hearted Violet / Kelly Barnhill; illustrator: Iacopo Bruno. Little Brown, 2012. [author’s blog] [publisher site] [illustrator interview]

My Recommendation: Princess Violet isn’t beautiful, but she is brave and clever and loved by all. If royal storyteller Cassian hadn’t always made the princesses in his stories beautiful, perhaps plain-looking Violet might not have listened to the sinister whispers from mirror corners, might not have searched deep below the castle with her friend Demetrius, might not have found the evil something that wants to destroy their world.
In the Old World, there were twelve gods (no one dares speak of the thirteenth) and dragons and such. Now, the King has gone searching for the possible last dragon, taking Demetrius along for his amazing skill with animals, little realizing that the Mountain King is preparing to invade the Andulan Realms or that the something beneath the castle is spreading evil thoughts like a fog.

Perhaps Violet can change her mismatched eyes to the blue of the sky, if she discovers enough secrets in the hidden library. Perhaps she can be a “real princess” if she becomes beautiful, the unwanted thought sneaks in. Perhaps the evil Nybbas will be able to control everything if it leads Violet along the selfish path that makes her neglect the kingdom…

A mournful dragon who can’t remember where it has hidden its heart, the ill-health of Queen Rose, three very worried ancient guardians, and the twisty stories used by Nybbas to turn people on one another – is Violet strong enough to discover her true path and save her kingdom? Can the wrong stories be turned right before both suns set forever?

This epic tale of adventure and forgiveness introduces an unforgettable princess, as she and Demetrius discover the true power of stories in creating the world.  (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.