Monthly Book Review: Farsighted by Emlyn Chand

Last month, I reviewed Lauren Clark’s “Stay Tuned,” which falls under Women’s Fiction. This month, it’s Young Adult Paranormal—with psychics!

Today’s YA Paranormal market has become oversaturated with vampires, werewolves, trolls, faeries, and just about any other creature you can think of. In “Farsighted” Emlyn Chand decided to return to an original not-so-beastly paranormal—psychics.

“Farsighted” is about seventeen-year-old Alex, whose last name is Greek and incredibly difficult to pronounce, and his journey of learning that he is psychic. Unlike some psychics, Alex can’t read other people’s minds. He sees the future. There’s one problem, though. Alex is blind, so he sees the future how he experiences the rest of the world—through sound, touch, and smell. Oh, and Monster energy drinks help him reach that psychic state.

Chand does a great job of building suspense and mixing flashes of the future with Alex’s everyday life. The first time Alex experiences a vision, he doesn’t know what’s happening, which makes for a very interesting interaction between him and a bully. As his powers grow, Alex comes to work with them. At least, in some cases. While most of us probably think it would be awesome to have psychic powers, Alex doesn’t believe he has them at first, and has a difficult time understanding his powers throughout the novel.

The challenges Alex undertakes helps build him as a character and round him out. I found him to be a believable high school student, struggling to come to terms with his newfound abilities. Another thing Chand does well is make sure that school is continuously in Alex’s life. In some YA Paranormal novels, school gets shoved into the background and somehow students manage to magically pass every class. For Alex, school is a very real place and homework is a very real obligation.

Also differing from the YA Paranormal scene is the lack of romance in this novel. There is a love interest, Simmi, and as a reader, I really wanted her and Alex to get together in the end. Sadly, I felt like the romance wasn’t paid enough attention to. The tension that Chand tried to build between Alex and Simmi was often rerouted into psychic training or family problems, which is understandable, especially since this is not a YA Paranormal Romance—it’s just Paranormal. I do hope that Chand builds off of the foundation she began in “Farsighted” and that Simmi and Alex have a chance to become more romantically involved.

My only other concern is the rising action. The visions are very well done, but when the end of the novel comes around, I feel that the climax doesn’t quite match the rising action. It’s not as climactic as I would have hoped, and the antagonist, Dax, feels like he doesn’t have enough meat on him. I’m excited to see if Chand will add more to Dax in the sequel.

All in all, “Farsighted” gets 4 out of 5 stars. It was a quick, enjoyable read, and Alex was a fun character to “see” the world through.

“Farsighted” is available now as an e-book! Click here to get your copy of “Farsighted” today!

 

Blog Tour Notes

THE BOOK:  Alex Kosmitoras may be blind, but he can still “see” things others can’t.  When his unwanted visions of the future begin to suggest that the girl he likes could be in danger, he has no choice but to take on destiny and demand it reconsider. Get your copy today by visiting Amazon.com’s Kindle store or the eBook retailer of your choice. The paperback edition will be available on November 24 (for the author’s birthday).

THE CASH PRIZES:  Guess what? You could win a $100 Amazon gift card as part of this special blog tour. That’s right! Just leave a comment below saying something about the post you just read, and you’ll be entered into the raffle. I could win $100 too! Please help by voting for my blog in the traffic-breaker poll. To cast your vote, visit the official Farsighted blog tour page and scroll all the way to the bottom. Thank you for your help with that.

THE GIVEAWAYS:  Win 1 of 10 autographed copies of Farsighted before its paperback release by entering the giveaway on GoodReads. Perhaps you’d like an autographed postcard from the author; you can request one on her site.

THE AUTHOR:  Emlyn Chand has always loved to hear and tell stories, having emerged from the womb with a fountain pen grasped firmly in her left hand (true story). When she’s not writing, she runs a large book club in Ann Arbor and is the president of author PR firm, Novel Publicity. Emlyn loves to connect with readers and is available throughout the social media interweb. Visit www.emlynchand.com for more info. Don’t forget to say “hi” to her sun conure Ducky!

MORE FUN: There's more fun below. Watch the live action Farsighted book trailer!

 

 

Monthly Book Review: Stay Tuned by Lauren Clark

This month's review has sparked a new tradition! Every month, I will write a review on a novel, whether it's indie or mainstream! This month, I'm taking you inside Lauren Clark's "Stay Tuned."

While "Stay Tuned" is not yet available to the public, when it comes out, I highly recommend it! Melissa Moore is a behind-the-scenes producer for the news at WSGA in Macon, Georgia, and she enjoys her job. Things get ugly, and they get ugly fast when one of the snarky co-anchors for the news, Alyssa, throws a punch on the ten o'clock news. Melissa directs to commercial while she pulls Alyssa off of her co-anchor. With only a few minutes left, Melissa can either let the commercials run out the clock, or...she can take over.

She nabs an earpiece, settles behind the desk, runs through the prompts, and completes the ten o'clock news, much to her manager's relief. Calls come flooding in. Melissa is a hit! She's helped save WSGA's reputation and has landed herself a new job--though only temporarily.

Pulling into her garage, Melissa considers how she's going to break the news to her husband, Chris. Yet, as usual, the only thing she finds from him is a sticky note stating that he's working late. Again. Chris seems to be working late an awful lot recently, and Melissa has her suspicions. Everything falls out of place as Melissa tries to do her very best as the new co-anchor for WSGA and save her marriage. Nothing goes right, and she finds herself on the top of the station being wined and dined by her co-anchor, learns her husband's competition for a raise is a sexy, slinky woman, and Alyssa is trying to kill her. Yup. What a handful.

"Stay Tuned" is fast-paced, fun, and a downright treat. Trust me, you'll love Melissa's hectic life and want her best friend (and Dr. Phil devotee), Candace, to give you all the right tips for staying on top.

"Stay Tuned" to find out when this fantastic book is released!

Just for Fun!

Well, I decided I could give it a shot. I enjoyed doing Clei's responses during the Blogfest (over at at Elizabeth Mueller's blog) so much that I decided to do another one for his side-kick, Eti!

A little background: Eti is an ekra, a species of necromancers who are created from the discarded bones of amüli, dragons, and other creatures. When they marry, they leave their clan with their mate and search for bones to build their children with. Then they make fresh kills and use the muscle and flesh from the hunt to build the body and give muscle and flesh to their child. An ekra's horns are most often made from coral, signifying their link with the moon goddess, Ilandere-karais (as she controls the tide).

Ekra are animated through magic, but do not have vital organs, such as a heart, lungs, and guts. Rather, they have a blood-mite. Blood-mites are creatures that live within an ekra and take care of digestion and blood circulation. An ekra cannot survive without its blood-mite, because the mite does everything to keep the host alive. Mites can leave the host's body for short periods of time to fight or hunt if the host is too weak, but must return quickly so the host does not die.

Contrary to their appearance, ekra are very peaceful and deeply devout creatures. They have two classes: The hunter and the priest. The hunters can also double as warriors and fight to protect the clan, whereas priests and priestesses protect and serve the clan through divine channels. All ekra know magic, but priests are better suited to cast. Each clan has a Queen, an ekra descended directly from the goddess Ilandere-karais herself (blood-mites and souls are split and given to new ekra; in this way, the queens of every clan have a fragment of the goddess's soul within them).

Eti, from "Soul Carrier," will be answering the questions today!

Image (c) Kira McFadden a.k.a. Efirnda McDannak. To see the full image, go to The Inrugia Website.

Question 1: What is your greatest fear?

The amüli. It will always be them. The attempted genocide of my people two-thousand years ago still haunts us. Amüli are dangerous creatures, and they are spreading their territory too far. I fear for our people and for others like us.

Question 2: What is your biggest accomplishment?

One accomplishes only through actions. My biggest action was to teach the half-blood, Clei Vojtech, magic, so he may one day overthrow his people and save our world. He is craven, that one, and it makes little sense to me why he insists on living while his people wither, but I cannot begrudge him his choice. After all, I have little sympathy for the amüli.

Question 3: What is your biggest regret?

My biggest regret is feeling so much spite and hatred for the amüli. Few who live now know what their ancestors did to my people, and fewer still could have stopped it. They are a weak and fleshy people, and do not understand the concept of balance. Hubris and hatred have led me down this path. Ilandere-karais will guide me. She has given me a chance to redeem myself by helping this young half-blood find his way. And so, if it is her will, I shall comply.

~~~

Well, that's Eti for you. He's not as stoic as he appears to be--his people are very proper and well-mannered. I might do one for Marik tomorrow, simply because I love this. But I'm also considering an interview instead. Any thoughts?