Promising Story Failed by Characters | Review of ‘Given to the Sea’ (Given Duet #1)

By Cynthia Ayala

Given to the Sea by Mindy McGinnis
Putnam’s Children
Image Credit: Goodreads

Khosa is Given to the Sea, born to be sacrificed to the water for the Kingdom of Stille. Sacrificed by her own feet, a twitching within her that will drive her to the depths of the ocean. But before that, she must produce an heir, an act she is unable to endure as she is unable to endure the touch of any human. But when her village is attacked, Khosa flees to the heart of the kingdom, into the arms of Vincent, the third in line to the throne, and Donil, the last of the Indiri whose touch sends desire through hers. But with the land sinking, and enemies at the gate, Stille and Khosa are in bigger danger than they ever thought.

Published April 11, 2017, by Putnam’s Children, Given to the Sea
by Mindy McGinnis is the first in her new YA fantasy Given Duet series.
Continue reading “Promising Story Failed by Characters | Review of ‘Given to the Sea’ (Given Duet #1)”

Cynthia Bujnicki06/04/201702/04/2017Leave a comment

Reading List

Weekly Reading List #81

By Cynthia Ayala

Let’s try this again. Hello there avid readers! I am hailing you from new laptop 2.0. Here’s hoping this one will work long enough for me to edit my novel and do what I like to do most: write. But in the meantime, here’s my weekly reading list, because let’s face it, you can’t be an author if you don’t read, and boy, do I read.
Continue reading “Weekly Reading List #81”

Cynthia Bujnicki02/04/201730/03/2017Leave a comment

Book Reviews

Review of ‘Toxic’

Toxic is shockingly good, building up a dynamic story, leading to a climatic ending that will blow readers away. Continue reading Review of ‘Toxic’

Cynthia Bujnicki30/03/201714/03/2021Leave a comment

Book Reviews

Review of ‘The Dark Between the Stars’

The Dark Between the Stars is a rich universe filled with thought provoking characters and a fluid expansive and layered storyline. Continue reading Review of ‘The Dark Between the Stars’

Cynthia Bujnicki28/03/201714/03/2021Leave a comment

Reading List

Weekly Reading List #80

By Cynthia Ayala

Hey there avid readers. I hope that everyone is doing well. Recently my kitten past away this week so it’s been a hard few days. I miss going to sleep at night without him walking all over me. He was 18, so not really a kitten, and at least I had so much time with him, but it hurts, having to let him go. But I’m doing okay, reading at night seems to help me sleep without him. It’s something at least.

Anyway, check out my reading list and see what I’ve got on my to-read list.
Continue reading “Weekly Reading List #80”

Cynthia Bujnicki26/03/201721/03/2017Leave a comment

Book Reviews

The Horror Here is the Flat Ending | Review of ‘Asylum’ (Asylum #1)

By Cynthia Ayala

Asylum by Madeleine Roux
HarperTeen
Image Credit: Goodreads

Dan Crawford, a sixteen-year-old, has taken off to the New Hampshire College Prep program for the summer. It’s exciting, but for Dan, he has discovered that his dorm used to be a sanatorium that housed the criminally insane, some of which were tortured in barbaric experiments. With his newfound friends, Abby and Jordan, they explore the dark depths of the sanatorium, they discover that some secrets were better left unburied.

Published August 20, 2013, by HarperTeen, Asylum
by Madeleine Roux is the first in her Asylum series, a young adult horror that brings the past and present into a twisted collision course.
Continue reading “The Horror Here is the Flat Ending | Review of ‘Asylum’ (Asylum #1)”

Cynthia Bujnicki16/03/201714/04/2017Leave a comment

Reading List

Weekly Reading List #79

By Cynthia Ayala

Hey there avid readers! I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. Not much time for reading lately. Or writing. It’s so hard to find time. I’ve set aside time in my calendar for writing and editing and all my files FINALLY seemed to have synced up so I can FINALLY continue editing my book and preview the first five chapters up for readers to read. So much to do before my August 30^th pub date. Here’s hoping I won’t have to move it back. Wish me luck!

Anyway, all work and no play is never fun so check out these titles and hand me some reprieve from my workaholic schedule.
Continue reading “Weekly Reading List #79”

Cynthia Bujnicki12/03/201709/03/2017Leave a comment

Book Reviews

An (Incep)tional Read | Review of ‘The Reader’ (Sea of Ink and Gold #1)

By Cynthia Ayala

Sefia lives her life on the run from the people who murdered her parents. Parents who were murdered over a book that Sefia teaches herself to read, a book with secrets and ending and that reveals itself in secrets upon secrets to her, thrusting her into a world even more dangerous than before.

Published on September 13, 2016, by Putnam, The Reader by Traci Chee is the first in her new series Sea of Ink and Gold that takes a very interactive look as it begins to unravel a mystery and a story. Continue reading “An (Incep)tional Read | Review of ‘The Reader’ (Sea of Ink and Gold #1)”

Cynthia Bujnicki01/11/201605/11/2016Leave a comment

Book Reviews

A Convoluted Unbelievable Mystery | Review of ‘Speakers of the Dead: A Walt Whitman Mystery’

By Cynthia Ayala

Speakers of the Dead by J. Aaron Sanders
Plume
Image Credit: Goodreads

Walt Whitman, Aurora reporter is investigating the murder of his closest friends. Both framed for crimes they did not commit, he is dedicated to exonerating them and finding the true culprit. He and his estranged boyfriend Henry Saunders uncover a deadly link between body snatching and Abraham’s murder. But the web is thicker than that and Walt is only beginning to figure out how high up the later this conspiracy goes.

Published on March 1, 2016 by Plume, Speakers of the Dead by J. Aaron Sanders is a re-imagining of a time in Walt Whitman‘s life when he lived in New York at the Aurora.
Continue reading “A Convoluted Unbelievable Mystery | Review of ‘Speakers of the Dead: A Walt Whitman Mystery’”