Ship of Dreams - Book Review

The second instalment in The Dreams Come True Series, Ship of Dreams by Rebecca Heflin is a romance novel full of passion, fine dining, conflict, travelling, more conflict and eventually love and happiness. It can be read as a standalone.

The story is about Laura Armstrong and Nathan Maxwell. Those who have read, Dreams of Perfection, will recognise Laura and already have an idea about her character. Those who haven't will get to know her from the first chapter. She's always chic, loves to wear high-heels and short skirts and has a different boyfriend every month.

In the novel, Laura and Nathan work for competing advertising companies and both are after the same account: Imperial Cruises. The two characters have a chance meeting on the street and end up meeting on the same ship, owned by Imperial, named "Nave dei Sogni" (Ship of Dreams).

They start what they lay down as a temporary love-affair on the boat but a chance text results in the discovery that they are one another's competition. This, however, comes almost mid-way in the book.

Narrated in the third person, Ship of Dreams jumps between the different lives, problems and viewpoints of Laura and Nathan, while portraying the emotions and showing their contrasting but-not-so-contrasting lifestyles as well as their different reasons to want to win the Imperial account.

While Laura seeks to win the account to show her father her worth and get a promotion, Nathan wants the account in order to save his grandmother's farm from the banks, after his grandmother has mortgaged the farm to give her grandchildren a proper education.

I enjoyed Heflin's narration. It was simple and with meticulous details to Laura, Nathan, the ship, their emotions, the food; everything. The novel/cruise also takes you briefly to France and Italy.

However, regarding this same detailed description, I felt that some parts, especially those on the ship and those related to fine dining were too long. I didn't want to keep on reading about every restaurant they went to and what they ordered. The novel might be more interesting to someone who is a fan of fine dining and would consider trying out the places mentioned in the novel, but I felt it was too much; especially, since this resulted in moving the confrontation between Laura and Nathan to nearly the middle of the book.

From the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to Laura's family issues. Her father does not think much of her. When word comes out that Imperial wants a new advertising agency, Laura's father gives the info to his daughter's competitors. He is later shocked to learn that his daughter is going after the same account.

"Thanks to Milt telling Hawk Media about the account."

"What do you mean? Are you going after Imperial?" Her father's mulish face took on a purple hue.

"Yes, and I'm going to get it too." She winced at the petulant sound of her own voice. So much like a little girl's voice. A little girl who had craved her father's attention but had never gotten it.

We also get several comparisons between Laura and her younger brother, Neil, who is described as failing every job he tries, until his father creates a title for him in the Armstrong empire.

I liked the humour between Laura and Josh, Darcy's husband from the first book in the series. They are constantly teasing each other.

"Laura turned and greeted Josh in her usual manner, "Voldemort."

"Bellatrix."

Laura is hard-headed, stubborn, competitive and with a strong personality. And despite there being character development for her, there were some instances in the novel that I felt were contradictory to her character. When she discovers that she is on the same cruise as Nathan and that they are attracted to each other, she offers herself up for a temporary physical relationship with him, twice, which in my opinion makes her look cheap. I felt this part did not fit her character.

At one point, she tells Nathan:
"Let me make it easy for you. I don't need seducing. I'm a sure thing."

He answers: "May be I'm not."

That for me was embarrassing and spoiled the whole moment for me. It also made me dislike Laura and think less of her.

I'm a fan of strong, independent women. But this was low and degrading in my opinion. It also doesn't seem to fit her character.

"She took a deep breath and stepped onto the polished marble floor with all the determination of a gladiator stepping into the Roman Colosseum."

In the first chapter we are introduced to Nathan as wearing a Cartier watch. Later, we see him spending a lot of money, while dining out with Laura. At the same time, he feels bad for the money he's spending because he wants to save up and rescue the farm. These contradictions stuck out with me throughout the novel. I thought it was strange that someone looking to save money and win an account to save his home would spend all this money on appearances. He doesn't have to look like a beggar or a miser, but there is a middle ground.

On another note, Nathan is able to see certain aspects of Laura's character, aspects she tries to hide. There is also a strong comparison between the relationship Nathan and his sister had with their grandmother, and Laura's with both her parents. It is sad for Laura and my heart ached for her. I also got the urge to smack her father.

Towards the end of the novel, Nathan encounters Laura's father. He is both surprised and shocked by their relationship and how much Milton Armstrong thinks little of his daughter, who is known to be a shark in the advertising business.

"She relished a challenge. Like facing a well-skilled opponent in a chess match, it only made the victory that much sweeter."

I also liked the use of "Ship of Dreams" as both the title of the novel and the place the two characters meet and eventually have a happy ending. I felt it was an interesting pun.

The description in the adult scenes was beautifully done with excellent word choice. This is after all a romance novel and I liked the imagery used in these scenes, which were sensual and sultry. I also liked that there was no profanity in the novel.

Overall: I have been delaying this review for a while because I felt the book was not as "amazing" as the first. Sadly, I did do a lot of comparisons between the two, even if the protagonists were best friends but very different from one another.

There were a lot of beautiful images in the novel, some of which I've quoted, some I'll leave for the reader. My overall rating is 2.5 stars. There were parts that I liked, parts that were long and boring – for me. There were parts that were necessary in the character building, especially Laura's. But in the end, I felt I could have enjoyed the novel more if the time spent on the ship was cut shorter.

Note: I received a free copy of Ship of Dreams in exchange for an honest review.

Note: This book is meant for adult audiences. 18+ at least

The Colour of Dishonour - Review

The Colour of Dishonour by Rayne Hall is a collection of six short stories inspired the setting of Hall's epic dark fantasy Storm Dancer. What I love about this collection is that not only are all the stories well crafted, but they also all have a moral in them.

The collection opens with 'Kin', a highly ironic and moral story. Leha has three daughters, Mahlega, Gonil and Komal. She is proud of the first two but has disowned the third after having a child born out of wedlock. Their land is struck by their gods and by starvation. So, Leha seeks her daughters for food and shelter.

"The Seventh Scroll of Wisdom says that kin need to stick to kin like skin to flesh." This can neither be said for Leha nor her two eldest daughters. It is a very striking line at the beginning of the story. Leha believes she is following the rules to the letter and justifies disowning Komal. She believes she will be repaid for all she has done to her eldest daughters.

The reader meets Leha's first daughter Mahlega and her family, who are very selfish and insensitive. All they care about are their needs, like the child who wants new clothes while people are starving and dying. Moreover, All Mahlega cares about is the roofing and how she doesn't like dates and says they are for animals and beggars. Certainly not 'kin' a mother can be proud of.

When Leha proposes to live with Mahlega because of the famine, "They looked at her aghast.

"Out of the question," her son-in-law said. "I can't have you live here, with six people in two rooms already."

The husband is rude and utterly disgusting but nonetheless very realistic as we see this type of person in real life.

Mahlega gives her mother exactly what Leha had given her third daughter when she cast her out. It's highly ironic but sort of like divine repayment for casting out Komal.

"Mighty Ones, let these people taste the fruit of bitterness. Turn their own children against them, let them feel what it means to be cast aside." These are Leha's thoughts after being kicked out by Mahlega and her family. They are highly ironic and Leha cannot realise that she has done the same to her daughter before.

After being turned out by one, Leha goes to seek warmth and a place to stay from her second and so-called loving daughter, Gonila, who is far from being such a daughter. Later we see Gonila eyeing her mother's gold earrings. Not only is she heartless, but also greedy. Her mother shows up at her doorstep, cold and without a place to stay, and all she cares about is getting 'financial' support from a homeless woman, her homeless mother, who sold her house to pay for her daughter's, Gonila's, education!

After being turned out twice by the two daughters she did everything for, Leha still would not go to her third daughter, whom the reader knows will not be like her sisters.

'Kin' resembles William Shakespeare's King Lear. Even the name Gonila resembles Gonoril. It is a very powerful story about family, love, kindness, selfishness, cruelty and forgiveness. 'Kin' is a short story with the weight of a novel.

'Greywalker' is the second story in the collection. The Grey Walker is a zombie-like creature, and the story parallels that the exchange made by Dr. Faustus. It also has many stunning images. It is a carefully-crafted story that I have enjoyed reading over and over. I’m not a fan of zombies, but this story was different for me and I loved every bit of it. Few would find a beautiful image such as this in a zombie-like tale: “But his actions had not been waterdrops that evaporated in the sun without leaving a trace. They had been cruel flames, scorching deep holes into Laina's defenceless heart.”

The 'Greywalker' ends at a climactic point. We finally know why the witch never mentioned a payment at the beginning. Turgan is not mindless, nor is he innately evil but he ends up being a Greywalker and understands his purpose.

The 'Greywalker' is a 10-star story.

'The Water of Truth' is an excellent story about business and greed. However, it seems the so-called educated Yarkoud remains unaware of his greed and will continue repeating his mistakes. His sister, the one he calls 'uneducated' and is ashamed of her, is not bedazzled by money and wealth, and stands in strong contrast to her 'educated' brother.

'Each Stone, a Life' is a story of puns and nerve-wrecking. It was not my favourite but that is my personal opinion, although I felt as nerves as the protagonist of the story. It is very well written and plays on emotions well.

'The Colour of Dishonour' is a story with layers and layers of puns and irony.

“I have blood on my hands”, a recurring line of irony. Also, the use of the colours white and red and the contrast between them is used wittingly in this story.. It is a brilliant 10-star piece. I wish I can quote it whole – but will refrain from that.

'A Horse for a Hero' is the last piece in this collection and focuses on a winged horse named Pagos and his journey towards maturity. At the beginning Pagos dreams  of a sort of knight or warrior in shining armour. It seems it is not only princesses who picture such dreams.

"How dreadful he had been to the nomads, who admired him because they were poor! How nasty he had been to that boy, who was merely immature and spoilt!"

I love how Hall ties the beginning and ending of this story together.

Overall The Colour of Dishonour collection is a weighty but highly enjoyable set of short stories. I enjoyed them all and I loved how they all had a moral to them. It is not often you find the 'literature with a moral or purpose' these days, so this collection was by all means spectacular for me.

A must read to all and definitely stories I would go back to over and over.

The Saskian Trilogy Begins with Eden Forest

Eden Forest is a novella and the first instalment in The Saskia Trilogy by Aoife Marie Sheridan.

Narrated in the first person present tense, Eden Forest opens in Saskia with Marta giving a description of the land and alerting the reader to her pregnancy, which we later know is from a love affair with the King of Saskia. We also learn about Saskian laws and traditions and how Saskians are immortal and born with an affinity of air, water, earth, fire or spirit. At first glance, Marta appears to be a caring person.

The reader learns that Saskia is a world parallel to earth and that a fire barrier separating the two worlds can be crossed but with great difficulty.

Eden Forest is written from several perspectives, all in the first person; however we are told whose point of view we are reading at the beginning of each chapter, avoiding any possible confusion. It is a very interesting way of writing – the first I've read seen – and it gives character depth. Through this technique, Sheridan merges with each character making them come to life on the pages of her novella.

The author has an abundance of intriguing characters, but what I liked most was how each character has a specific role to play in the story – even eight-year-old Mei. Some have minor roles but are expected to have much bigger ones in the coming parts of the trilogy.

As the novella progresses, two characters stand out in contradiction; Marta and her daughter Sarajane. Whereas Sarajane is caring, believable, down to earth, intelligent and understanding, her mother, Marta, is unmotherly-like, as opposed to what we have seen in the first chapter. A face-off between Sarajane and King Morrick makes this point clear. Moreover, most of the time we see Marta, she is crying; yet the reader feels that her emotions are not deep. And when she finally sees her daughter after a long absence, all she is concerned with is food! (Of all things!)

Another interesting character is the conflicting, contradictory Tristan, King Morrick's head Guardian and who is later given the task to retrieve, or rather kidnap, Sarajane. Until the end of Eden Forest, the reader cannot read this particular character.

The massive contrast between Saskia's King and Queen makes the reader wonder how they ended up together. That bit comes at the end of the story.

Eden Forest is a quick and easy read. Its pace is fair at the beginning but starting chapter three, the pace and events become intense. You cannot put the book down and you feel the need finish the novella and skip work and sleep in the process.

I truly enjoyed Aoife Sheridan's Eden Forest and can hardly wait for the next two parts, which I expect will have more details about the elemental affinities and focus more on characters briefly mentioned or introduced like Carew.

(Note: There are a couple of brief, adult scenes).

Connect with Aoife Marie Sheridan by visiting her at: Amazon Page, Facebook, Twitter, Website, Goodreads, Blog, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Mailing List, TSU.

2 Officers - Arabic Review

تتناول رواية 2 ضباط للكاتب عصام يوسف حياة كل من وليد سامي الضابط بالأمن المركزي وشريف بيومي الضابط بشرطة المباحث. تبدأ فصول الرواية الأولى بتقديم الشخصيتين الرئيستين قبل التحاق كل منهما بالشرطة وأسباب التحاقهم بها وتفوقهم وعلاقتهم بالآخرين وحياتهم بعد الالتحاق بكلية الشرطة والعمل في هذا المجال.

يبدأ عصام يوسف برسم شخصياته بدقة بالغة من خلال تعاملاتهم وحوارهم الذي يعطي بعداً لكل شخصية ويغرزها في عقل القارىء الذي يستطيع بعد قليل توقع ردود أفعال الشخصيات في المواقف المختلفة. على الرغم من أن هذا الوصف الدقيق يجعل الجزء الأول من الرواية بطيئاً بعض الشيء فإنه يعطي كافة المعلومات التي يحتاجها القارىء لتكوين فكرة عن شخصيات الرواية كما أن القارىء على يقين أن حياة كل منهم الرغدة لن تبقى على هذا الحال كثيراً وأن العالمين سيصطدمان في وقتٍ ما. تتبادل فصول الجزء الأول من الرواية بين حياة وليد وشريف حتى بعد زواج كلٍ منهم

.

شريف بيومي هو أخر العنقود المدلل وأناني، يمتلك والده معرض سيارات مما يعطي شريف خلفية ممتازة عن كل ما يتعلق بالسيارات والتجار الأخرين. يبدأ شريف تكوين العلاقات حالما يبدأ عمله بالشرطة وسريعاُ ما يسعى إلى تحقيق طموحاته التي لا نهاية لها وجمع الأموال والتفاخر أمام غيره وعند تدرجه في الوظائف سريعاً ما يرتبط اسمه بالفساد خاصة بعد زواجه عندما يكون له ظهر قوي يستند عليه.

أما وليد فيأتي من عائلة بسيطة، يتسم بالولاء والوفاء حب الخير للجميع مما يجعله نقيض شريف ولا يدري القارىء متى أو كيف سيلتقي مثل هذان النقيضان.

تعد فكرة السلطة وقدرتها على التأثير على الأحداث أحد أهم أفكار الرواية – إن لم تكن الفكرة الأساسية فيها، إذ تأخذ الرواية منعطفاً جديداً وشيقاً عندما يصطدم عالم وليد بعالم شريف المليء بالكذب والفساد والعلاقات مع الكبار. ويحاول وليد سلك الطريق القانوني لأخذ حق زوجته وأخيه ولكنه يفشل بسبب علاقات شريف. ويعيش وليد صدمة أن اتباع الطريق الصحيح لا يجدي نفعاً ويدرك أنه إذا أراد الحق فعليه أخذ حقه بيده.

بعد اصطدام العالمين المختلفين تتوالى فصول الرواية بسرعة فائقة مما يجعل الجزء الثاني من رواية 2 ضباط شيّق وممتع جداً وتحتوي الجزء الثاني على الكثير من الحوار مما يزيد من سرعة أحداث الرواية.

يروي عصام يوسف روايته باللغة العربية الفصحة السهلة في حين أن الحوار باللغة العامية ويحتوي على بعد الأفاشات والتهكم في بعض المواقف. ويساعد الحوار على زيادة سرعة الرواية.

وعلى الرغم من الرواية تركز بشكل أساسي على شريف ووليد ولكن هناك عدة شخصيات ظريفة ولها دور فعّال في الرواية مثل عمرو صديق وليد وصاحب النكات والأفشات ومغازي الضابط الصعيدي بالأمن المركزي الذي يلعب دوراً رئيسياً في مساعدة وليد على أخذ حقه.

تعد رواية 2 ضباط هي الرواية الواقعية الثانية للكاتب عصام يوسف، إذ سبقتها رواية ¼ جرام، ويقول عصام إنه بصدد بدء كتابة روايته الثالثة قصر البارون والتي ستكون رواية رومانسية.

Darkness & Light

A faint glimmer

In the distance,

Metallic it appears,

Capable of resistance.

Dark shadows loom,

A suppressed sun struggles

Against the gloom;

The metal begins to bloom.

The forces of darkness gather,

But light resists,

Several faint glimmers coming together;

The light persists.

In this sea of black and in contempt,

The sun gathers all its might in one final attempt,

Exploding in a dance of light,

The metal reflects it and shines bright.

A connection has been made,

Between the earth and sky;

Now the light will never fade,

Nor will it ever die.

This poem is inspired by this week's prompt SILVER. It is five sentences long ;)