Rebel – Amy Tintera

I may not of been a huge fan of the author and her requirement that all of her stories feature a prominent  love story. But  i did like the plot and the originality of the story so naturally  i wanted to follow it to its conclusion.

My opinion of this author hasn’t changed for better or for worse. This book like its predecessor is packed  full of a love story between two characters which towards the end kinda overshadows the events around it and i think that some what diminishes  it to the point that it is actually  a sub plot

This opinion was further cemented by the fact the actual  conclusion of the now relegated sub plot of them fighting for their freedom gets wrapt up in just 3 pages.While this high school like love story gets concluded over 8 pages.

Truth be told i actually liked the main character  when reading the first book but over the course of this one i began to dislike her and started to route for the antagonists Regardless of the fact the author did a great job of creating this world, I’m glad the story is now over so i can continue on my quest for a female author who doesn’t require  a love story be a plot.

Reboot – Amy Tintera

For the life of me i can’t  remember  where, but on someones blog i read that 2014 was the year of the female author. Whether  or not that is an official thing or not is irrelevant. As it made me reflect on my reading preferences.
I took one look at my bookcases and of the 300 or so books there (at that time ) only 5 were by female authors.

Probably the main reason is at that time and to some extent still now, I had the perception  that all female authors always have to ruin their stories by adding a love story to it and are too much about emotion and not about drama or action. Also the covers for the books are a big impact. Many female authors have what i term “lovey dovey” covers or covers with femonistic themes (pretty much Flowers)while i’m not 100% sure on how much say an author has on their cover. Doesn’t matter how good a story is if that cover looks too lovey or romancy i wont touch it as i’m scared it will just be filled with love stories. I am not interested  in reading a love story,  i like action,adventure, mystery i don’t want to hear or read about emotions and feelings

And i’m not saying those types of books aren’t good, i’m sure they are but they are just not my cup of tea.That being said i decided  to break with my preconceptions  and go looking for a female author who can write a great story and maybe just maybe she didn’t just fill her story with love.

so when browsing online or in a store, if is see or read a blurb of a book and find it interesting but then see its written by a female author i normally put it down, but no more so i headed out and decided to to break that preconception. which has led me to this book

The premise of this story fascinated  me. People come back alive after dying.  Now i know what your thinking here, oh wait that sounds like every zombie based story ever done but this one isn’t zombies. The longer they stay dead the less emotion and human characteristics  they have. so when they come back they are given a number such as Wren 178 (her name is Wren and she was dead for 178 minutes) and a socially categorized by it. These Reboots as they call become sort of a security force protecting normal citizens from other reboots. Now granted this is a young adult novel but that to some extent doesn’t really matter.

The story was good  i liked the characters  but then the author had to go and throw in a love story in the mix. After awhile the love story became the main theme. After reading  the book i searched out the authors site and she states quite  plainly all her books will have love stories in them gah why didn’t i do my research first.

But either way on my quest for the non romance female author starts off well (but still technically a fail) Amy has  created an amazing story here and due to the completionist side of me i will naturally buy the next books in this series as well  but i wont be buying any of her other books

So while  this book and to some extent the original blog i read has made me open my parameters for book selection i am now more keen to look out for more female authors surely there are some who don’t fill all their stories with love. My goal will be to find a female Science fiction, action or thriller writer who doesn’t weave a love story into it (not to say male authors don’t do this either) and not just an average writer. i want and i shall call her my elusive female writer.I want this writer to be in my top 5 favorites Authors and have a book in my top 10 books of all time

Opening Heaven’s Door – Patricia Pearson

Can’t for the life of me recall how i stumbled upon this book. While i don’t subscribe to the belief of an afterlife, or a heaven or God for that matter. Just because you don’t believe in something doesn’t mean you can’t learn about it and see what leads people to believe in it. After-all Ignorance leads to fear. So i thought why not grab this book and see what all this mumbo jumbo is about.

To start with the Author hits us straight away with the story of the Death of her Father and eventually her sister. As soon as i read these parts i regretted my earlier views saying this was all just mumbo jumbo. The Author shares an intimate time from her family as it deals death and to mock the author just seamed shallow. The book talks about the experience she had with the death of her father and sister and the journey it led her on to discover what she saw.

We are then led on a journey which is essentially just numerous stories of people who have had (in their opinion) glimpses of dead people or messages from beyond. While some people who are small willed and easily jump on the band wagon will say that the fact it has numerous people saying they have seen these images should be enough to convince others. i just simply think of

Bigfoot

Lock ness monster

Chupbacabra

Alien abductions

UFO’s

Plenty of people all say they have seen these as well, do we simply just believe something if multiple people sight it but have no proof?

i think that there is the key point. Just because multiple people believe in something doesn’t make it true. So as i read through these accounts i was left wondering when would we get some scientific insight into these. Fortunately the book started to try to provide these. We begin hearing from Hospice workers who see patients talking to empty air as if someone was standing next to them. But in my mind this isn’t proof.

We then hear from Psychiatrists and Neurologists  who explain what the brain goes through close to death and also explaining how little we really know about the brain. But this still doesn’t meet my requirements of proof.  I think this opinion of mine that everything needs to be quantified and classified probably for the most part made me miss the purpose of this book

Ultimately it was probably naive of me to think there would be any kind of answers in this book. What this book does is share with the reader key moments from peoples lives in which they believe they witness something that changes them forever. All these people after experiencing these moments are left in a state of well being and overall positive outlook on life and isn’t that all that really matters in the end? if it is positive and has a good out come what does it matter if its true or not?