Book Review: The Sapphire Flute by Karen E. Hoover

By Nichole Giles

The blurb:

It has been 3,000 years since a white mage has been seen upon Rasann. In the midst of a volcanic eruption miles outside of her village, Ember discovers she can see magic and change the appearance of things at will. Against her mother’s wishes, she leaves for the mage trials, only to be kidnapped before arriving. In trying to escape, she discovers she has inherited her father’s secret—a secret that places her in direct conflict with her father’s greatest enemy.


At the same time, Kayla is given guardianship of the Sapphire Flute and told not to play it. The evil mage C’Tan has been searching for it for decades and the sound alone is enough to call her. For the flute to be truly safe, Kayla must find its birthplace in the mountains high above Javak.


The girls’ paths are set on a collision course…and C’Tan will do whatever it takes to keep them from fulfilling their destiny.

My take:

When I first read this book, Karen Hoover hadn’t yet signed on the dotted line of her publishing contract. We’d swapped manuscripts, not for commenting, but because we were each curious about each other’s work. Because of this, and because I’ve known Karen for several years as we’re both members of some of the same writing groups, I’m going to here-by put forth my disclaimer: My relationship with this author or previous reading of this book have not colored my opinion of the quality of writing or story. There. Moving on.

Right away after receiving this manuscript, I felt myself pulled into the story to the point where I didn’t want to put it down—and it was on my computer. I ended up downloading a text to voice converter and loading it onto my iPhone so I could listen to it while I ran my kids around town and did yard work.

Here’s the problem. This story has everything. Magic, action, suspense, mystery, plot twists that have you dying to know what happens next and…one of my favorite elements, romance. Oh, and shape-shifters. Hence the reason I had to read and/or listen straight through.

I bought my copy of this book the day it launched, so excited to finally hold a bound copy in my hands. This is a must read!

There are a few areas where the plot slowed down for me, but I think those parts are sometimes necessary to give the reader a chance to breathe, and for the most part I found those scenes important to character, plot, or world development. The story is written very much in the style of the Harry Potter series, meaning Karen has started at the beginning and given us the back story first—which is totally okay in this book, because it moves fairly quickly—then continued to build the world in a way that young (and old) readers can understand what’s happening.

The point of view changes in about every chapter, moving back and forth between the two main characters and the antagonist, but while several other reviewers found that both distracting and confusing, it didn’t really bother me. Probably because I’m a fantasy reader, and that’s not an uncommon occurrence in this genre. I will warn you that there are lots of oddly named supporting characters, which are somewhat difficult to remember from scene to scene, but I suspect that as the series progresses, we’ll come to know much more about these characters and that will no longer be an issue. As I recall, it wasn’t until the third Harry Potter book that I actually remembered the name of that stupid cat that roams the halls in Hogwarts.

My nitpicks:

While the cover is beautiful and well done, it appears to be created for a younger audience rather than the young adult one for which the story is written. It’s bright and eye-catching, but nothing like books in the same genre. I hope this turns out to be a good thing for sales, and not a turn-off for readers of the correct age group, because it really is a story worth reading.

To purchase your copy of The Sapphire Flute click here.

To learn more about the author, visit her blog, or the Valor Publishing Group website.

**Dear FTC: Unlike many other reviewers for this book, I did NOT receive a free advance copy, or any other copy of this book for reviewing. Actually, I went to Barnes and Noble the day it was released and stood in line along with lots of other people in order to buy my copy and have it signed by the author.

Don’t forget to click here and enter my fabulous contest.

Book Review: "Am I Not A Man? The Dred Scott Story" by Mark L. Shurtleff

By Nichole Giles

When I was first asked to review this book, I thought it sounded interesting. After all, it covers a very volatile period of time in our nation’s history, and I like history for the most part. What I didn’t expect was a heart-wrenching, tear-jerking story of a family of slaves—one man in particular—who loved the people they served, but who were kept as owned property.

The family—which grew to include a large group of white benefactors, brought together by the children of Peter Blow, who originally owned Dred—fought for freedom with a patience and passion strong enough to cause people to riot, and who would eventually become one of the catalysts that changed our fledgling nation forever. Indeed, Dred Scott’s fight was the platform on which Abraham Lincoln stood, and that catapulted him to be elected president.

About the book:

An Illiterate slave, Dred Scott trusted in an all-white, slave-owning jury to declare him free. But after briefly experiencing the glory of freedom and manhood, a new state Supreme Court ordered the cold steel of the shackles to be closed again around his wrists and ankles. Falling to his knees, Dred cried, “Ain’t I a man?” Dred answered his own question by rising and taking his fight to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Dred ultimately lost his epic battle when the Chief Justice declared that a black man was so inferior that he had “no rights a white man was bound to respect.”

Dred died not knowing that his undying courage led directly to the election of President Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation.

Dred Scott’s inspiring and compelling true story of adventure, courage, love, hatred, and friendship parallels the history of this nation from the long night of slavery to the narrow crack in the door that would ultimately lead to freedom and equality for all men.

My thoughts:

This was a hard thing to read. Not because it isn’t well written or because the story isn’t compelling—actually, it was one of those books you don’t put down much—but because even though I’ve heard it all before, reading the story through one man’s eyes shed a whole new light on the horrors of slavery. And many of our countrymen, those who fought so hard to gain freedom from England’s stronghold, kept and mistreated people of color as slaves. They wrongfully believed that the statement in our Declaration of Independence about all men being created equal, only really applied to white men. It was hard to read because this is a shameful truth in our nation's history, and the truth is hard to ignore, even if it occurred nearly two hundred years in the past.

Yet, difficult as it was (and I admit to shedding more than one or two tears) I felt Dred and his wife Harriett’s hope, their belief in a fair and just judicial system, and their love for the Blow family who gave up everything to fight for the Scott family’s freedom.

So while it was hard to read, I’m so glad I did. This story, the fight of this family, was a turning point in the history of our nation. These people—specifically the slave Dred Scott, who was considered the property of other men for more than fifty years—found a way to change the world. When anyone else would have either run away or lay down to die, Dred and Harriett Scott, slaves from birth, bravely stood up to the highest court in the nation, fighting for the one thing they wanted most, the one thing we all want more than anything else. Freedom.

And in the end, Dred Scott won. He did not win freedom for himself, or his wife and daughters. Instead he won freedom for all the slaves in the United States.

Now I dare you to tell me you or I can’t do something to change the world.

Yep. This is definitely worth reading. In fact, I’ve already recommended it to several people, and plan to buy a few copies to give away as soon as it’s released on November 3^rd.

To pre-order your copy, CLICK HERE.

To learn more about the author, Mark L. Shurtleff, CLICK HERE.

For information about Valor Publishing Group, CLICK HERE.

**Disclaimer: The author of this review did receive an uncorrected advance reader's edition of this book. This is not a hardbound, signed collectible that one might sell in a used bookstore, but rather a copy printed pre-edit for review purposes. No other compensation was, or will ever be, made in payment of this review or endorsement.

Random Stuff for Random-ish

First thing’s first. If you didn’t notice, I’ve changed the name of my blog. Nichole’s Musings just felt so…boring. And, being a writer, I knew I could come up with a more creative name than that. Still, it’s hard to know what to name the place where I post so many random tidbits of life for all the world to see.

Random. That was a keyword in all my thoughts. My fifteen-year-old son uses it often, and because of that it’s a word not easily forgotten. But my thirteen-year-old daughter (who, by the way, is now about to surpass me in height) finds it necessary to attach an “ish” to every word or phrase she uses. Living with these two brilliant minds, and hearing their teen-lingo on a daily basis tends to combine and imprint such words into my writerly head. Therefore, as I considered the idea of renaming my blog, Random-ish seemed a natural transition. After all, everything I post is rather randomish.

Now that I have explained that, a few other minor things. This past month, I have accumulated a stack of books and music that I intend to review over the next several weeks. Along with these reviews, I intend to give away some great prizes, so keep your eyes open for more free stuff. (Because, lets face it, we all want free stuff!)

All right, what else? Oh, I don’t know if I mentioned it or not, but this is not the only blog on which I regularly post. Along with other authors, I also post every Thursday on LDSWritersBlogck, and every second and fourth Monday on Writing Fortress. This week, I’ve posted in both places. Click here to see my recent blog about emotional writing, and here to see one about the transition between being called a writer and an author.

Moving on. Valor Publishing has recently announced the release of Am I Not A Man: The Dred Scott Story by Utah State Attorney General Mark L. Shurtleff. They are offering a discount to everyone who pre-orders their copy before Labor Day. Also, on top of the discount, the pre-ordered copies will be signed and numbered, limited editions. There are only 5000 available special-edition copies of this awesome book, so click here to order yours and get the lowest number possible. Very cool stuff!

Here’s the blurb:

An illiterate slave, Dred Scott trusted in an all-white, slave-owning jury to declare him free. But after briefly experiencing the glory of freedom and manhood, a new state Supreme Court ordered the cold steel of the shackles to be closed again around his wrists and ankles. Falling to his knees, Dred cried, "Ain't I a man?" Dred answered his own question by rising and taking his fight to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Dred ultimately lost his epic battle when the Chief Justice declared that a black man was so inferior that he had "no rights a white man was bound to respect."

Dred died not knowing that his undying courage led directly to the election of President Abraham Lincoln and the emancipation proclamation.

Dred Scott's inspiring and compelling true story of adventure, courage, love, hatred, and friendship parallels the history of this nation from the long night of slavery to the narrow crack in the door that would ultimately lead to freedom and equality for all men.

Go ahead, order it. You know you want to!

Finally, The Leteiner Gang Book Review Spot is holding a contest to give away an Advance Reader’s Copy of James Dashner’s new book, The Maze Runner. The much anticipated release on this book is October 6, and by entering, you might be the lucky winner who gets his or her copy before it even hits store shelves. Even I am entering this contest, because James has been talking about this book for three years and I want an ARC, too! Click here for more details. (Don't forget to tell them I sent you!)

Okay, so I’m thinking there were more things I intended to mention, but since I’ve been forced to stop four times in the process of writing this post (once to pick up kids from the pool, once to answer the door, once to break up a fight, and the last to cook dinner) everything else I wanted to say has fled my mind. I guess that’s another post for another day.

Have a great weekend my friends!

Nichole