Netgalley: It'll make you go broke!

Love reading? Love reviewing? Then you need to get in on NetGalley.

NetGalley is a site that allows professional reviewers, booksellers, & librarians access to electronic ARCs (advance reader copies) of some of the hottest new books that are out or going to be coming out. The best part? It's green. No paper is used to make these ARCs & there's no worry about having a huge amount of books left sitting around. If you have an e-reader you can easily put these books onto your reader, although I've read that Kindle users might have to pay a fee depending on how they send their book to their reader. (I've heard that by resetting the maximum payment amount you can get around that. It just takes a little longer.) Otherwise you can view these books on your computer through adobe or NetGalley's internet viewer.

I know that I review a lot of romance & fantasy here, but you can get all sorts of books from there. Nonfiction as well as fiction. Plus I have to say that so far I've loved all of the books I've requested from there. I've yet to read anything that I've disliked.

The only problem? You'll go broke because you'll want to collect all of the other books that these authors put out.

Book Review: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Brian Lee O'Malley

Title: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour
Author: Brian Lee O'Malley
Publisher: Oni Press
Release Date: 07/20/2010
ISBN: 1934964387








While I greatly enjoyed the final volume of SP, I'll admit that I was slightly disappointed by it. I was rooting for a specific pairing to occur by the end of the book & it didn't happen. I do like how the book resolved, though.

Without Ramona in his life, Scott Pilgrim has spent most of his time on his sofa playing video games. His friends attempt to get him to take action but to no avail- he is completely unwilling to move. When he finally does decide to take action, it is so he can spend his time chasing after other girls in an attempt to forget Ramona. Inevitably Scott is drawn to Ramona's final & worst ex, despite Scott no longer dating Ramona. In the end, only one person will be standing at the end of this fight.

This volume contains lots of reminders as to why the series has been so popular. With tons of references to old video games & lots of closure to previous plot elements, many readers will find tons of joy in this volume. Of course the artwork is O'Malley at his best & you'll find yourself flipping through the volume to take another look at your favorite panels or scenes. (I love any & all of the artwork concerning Envy Adams. She's gone from being one of my least favorite characters to one of my favs.)

The one thing readers will be torn on is the resolution of the book. I'll warn you- it's a little open ended & many are left to decide for themselves what will ultimately happen afterwards. Some readers will like how it ends, some (like me) will be disappointed, & others just won't like it.

One thing is for certain- this is quite possibly O'Malley's best work so far. I can't help but hope that he follows up on this series in the future & follows along with some of the secondary characters. I'd love to see a series based around Knives, the wonderfully psycho teen.

Book Review: Afterlife by Naomi Clark

Title: Afterlife
Author: Naomi Clark
Publisher: Damnation Books
Release Date: 12/01/2009
ISBN: 1615720529







I was a little nervous about reviewing this at first. After all, I know the author & I was worried: what if I didn't like it? What type of review would I write then? Luckily for me, this is a solidly awesome read.

Yasmin isn't your average girl. She might look like one, but in reality she's a wraith. That means that in order to survive, she has to eat souls. Yasmin is a wraith with a concience, so she tries to stick to revenants- dark souls that have returned from the afterlife, causing them to become bloodsucking fiends. During one of her hunts Yasmin sees a man get dragged into the Netherworld by a shining ghost. Unable to forget the sight, Yasmin involves herself in the investigation & unknowingly involves herself in something even more dangerous than she'd ever expected.

Taking a page from such UF (urban fantasy) favorites as Kim Harrison & Kelley Armstrong, Clark manages to take a plot that's been done before & not only make it her own, but bring a creative new twist to it. Wraiths aren't your usual UF fodder & Clark does a fine job of bringing in several as of yet non-mainstream spookies or giving already known spookies (vampires, necromancers) a makeover.

There's a lot to like in this book & fans who are jonesing for their next UF fix will find a solidly written tale here with a likable & sympathetic heroine. Readers should be warned- this book has been left open-ended & Clark's site says that there's going to be a follow up novel that will focus on one of the secondary (but still important) characters in the book.

The bottom line is that Clark did an incredibly good job with this book & I'm honestly puzzled as to why she's not on the bookshelves of some of the major chains out here. She's better than some of the others out there & this is just with the first book.

(Reader copy provided by author)