First Impression: Of Blood And Honey by Stina Leicht

Yesterday evening, when I heard about Night Shades Books' wonderful Thanksgiving Ebook Giveaway, I downloaded the books that were on offer: Agatha H and the Airship City by Phil and Kaja Fglio, The Emperors Knife by Mazarkis Williams and Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht.

I don't know you but when I receive new books I cannot simply put them down for later and go on with life. I have to look at them, turn their pages, read their first few chapters. I basically need to strike up an acquaintance with them. So I turned the first page of Of Blood and Honey.

It captured my attention immediately because the setting was Northern Ireland during the 70s, more specifically the protagonist seemed to be involved in the Irish-English conflict. I am not Irish but I have lived in Ireland for more than 13 years and I found the setting quite attractive.

The first few chapters that I read were short, dividing the story nicely. The author had a very pleasant-to-read, fluent style. And I found the plot (or I should say the beginning of it) interesting enough to make me want to continue to read.

When I put down Stina Leicht's Of Blood and Honey I was decided to get back to it very soon. It had just climbed at the top of my pile of books to be read.


Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Night Shade Books (@nightshadebooks)
Series: Book One of The Fey and The Fallen
ISBN-10: 1597802131
ISBN-13: 978-1597802130

"Fallen angels and The Fey clash against the backdrop of Irish/English conflicts of the 1970s in this stunning debut novel by Stina Leicht.

Liam never knew who his father was. The town of Derry had always assumed that Liam was the bastard of a Protestant. Liam’s mother never spoke of the man, so Liam had assumed him dead.

When the war between The Fey and The Fallen begins to heat up, Liam and the woman he loves are pulled into a conflict invisible to most humans— a conflict in which Liam’s father fights on the front lines. This centuries-old battle between supernatural forces seems to mirror the political divisions in 1970s-era Ireland, and Liam is thrown headlong into both conflicts.

Only the direct intervention of Liam’s father and a secret Catholic order dedicated to fighting The Fallen can save Liam from the mundane and supernatural forces around him, and from the darkness that lurks within."

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Earth Girl by Janet Edwards

Author: Janet Edwards 

Title: Earth Girl
Format: Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Harper Voyager (16 Aug 2012)
ISBN-10: 0007443498
ISBN-13: 978-0007443499

"Jarra is stuck on Earth while the rest of humanity portals around the universe. But can she prove to the norms that she’s more than just an Earth Girl?

2788. Only the handicapped live on Earth. While everyone else portals between worlds, 18-year-old Jarra is among the one in a thousand people born with an immune system that cannot survive on other planets. Sent to Earth at birth to save her life, she has been abandoned by her parents. She can’t travel to other worlds, but she can watch their vids, and she knows all the jokes they make. She’s an ‘ape’, a ‘throwback’, but this is one ape girl who won’t give in.

Jarra invents a fake background for herself – as a normal child of Military parents – and joins a class of norms that is on Earth to excavate the ruins of the old cities. When an ancient skyscraper collapses, burying another research team, Jarra’s role in their rescue puts her in the spotlight. No hiding at back of class now. To make life more complicated, she finds herself falling in love with one of her classmates – a norm from another planet. Somehow, she has to keep the deception going.

A freak solar storm strikes the atmosphere, and the class is ordered to portal off-world for safety – no problem for a real child of military parents, but fatal for Jarra. The storm is so bad that the crews of the orbiting solar arrays have to escape to planet below: the first landing from space in 600 years. And one is on collision course with their shelter."

I usually don't read YA novels. It's not because I am opinionated about them (I hope I'm not), it's simply because there are too many books to read and I end up being picky about what book I choose from the tall pile standing in my study (or from the virtual pile of e-books). However, if I have, in my hands, a book by an author whom I'm not familiar with, I quickly read a chapter or two to get a feel for her style and her story.

Earth Girl is told in the first person, through the eyes of Jarra, its teenage protagonist. It's late 28th century and portal technology has been around for more than six centuries. Since mankind stepped onto another planet a century after the discovery of the technology, babies incapable of supporting interplanetary portal travel have been condemned to live on earth abandoned by their parents. They are considered handicapped and labelled as "ape"s because of their genetic differences. By the 28th century, this makes Earth a planet nobody cares about and inhabited by people who cannot do otherwise.

This gives the author a very good way of introducing the setting to the reader. Because people are uninterested to know about life on Earth and the conditions of its inhabitants, the fact that Jarra goes through some of the details of life on Earth becomes natural. She even makes the reader feel guilty of not knowing such details.

All Jarra wants is to feel normal and travel to any planet just like the "norm"s (or "exo"s) do. As she is of age to decide what she's going to study at university, she tells her ProMum about her plan to take a course run by an off-world university.

Even though I've only read a couple of pages, Earth Girl strikes me as a book that I would like to read more. I simply would like to hear more about Jarra. I also think that Janet Edwards created a very interesting setting which contributes to my curiosity.

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