Hello, everyone!!! It’s my birthday AND Day 2 of the second ever Ultimate Blog Tour hosted by The Write Reads. This time around, the tour is even bigger and it’s spotlighting author Ben Galley. I chose to review the first book in his Chasing Graves Trilogy and I’m so excited to share this review as my birthday post with all of you!!!
Welcome to Araxes, where getting murdered is just the start of your problems.
"To say that the concept of Chasing Graves is grimdark would be an understatement... The world building is fantastic and reminiscent of Michael Moorcock’s Elric series.”– Grimdark Magazine
“Chasing Graves might well be one of the best releases not only for December but for the entirety of 2018.”– BookNest
“Galley has created a fascinating world that feels rife with stories… its history is rich with detail and there’s so many avenues to be explored.”– Adam Weller, Fantasy Book Review
“Dark, tense and surprisingly hilarious.”– Laura M. Hughes, Author of Danse Macabre
"With detailed characters, a twisting plot, and a heavy dose of gory darkness, Ben Galley has once again produced a fantasy you can sink your teeth into.”– The Grimmedian
“There’s serious grounds here for building something spectacular.”— Emma Davis, Fantasy Book Review
“A great first book to a series I sincerely can’t wait to complete.”– Novel Notions
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Meet Caltro Basalt. He’s a master locksmith, a selfish bastard, and as of his first night in Araxes, stone cold dead.
They call it the City of Countless Souls, the colossal jewel of the Arctian Empire, and all it takes to be its ruler is to own more ghosts than any other. For in Araxes, the dead do not rest in peace in the afterlife, but live on as slaves for the rich.
While Caltro struggles to survive, those around him strive for the emperor’s throne in Araxes’ cutthroat game of power. The dead gods whisper from corpses, a soulstealer seeks to make a name for himself with the help of an ancient cult, a princess plots to purge the emperor from his armoured Sanctuary, and a murderer drags a body across the desert, intent on reaching Araxes no matter the cost.
Only one thing is certain in Araxes: death is just the beginning.
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From award-winning author Ben Galley comes a new dark fantasy trilogy. Inspired by Egyptian mythology and packed with dark humour, action, and intrigue, the Chasing Graves Trilogy is perfect for fans of Michael Moorcock, Brandon Sanderson, Scott Lynch and Joe Abercrombie.
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“Chasing Graves is a dark, compelling entry into a trilogy.”– RockStarlit Book Asylum
“I enjoyed this book immensely, there rarely ever being a moment when I felt ready to put it down before I finished it.”— Diogo Capelo, Goodreads Reviewer
"Chasing Graves, with its well paced and tight plot is complex, intricate and rewarding. I can’t wait to put my hands on the sequel.”– Lukasz P, Goodreads Reviewer
“The characters are fantastic, colourful and well-rounded.”– Al Burke
I received this book for free from The Write Reads. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
I’m used to stories where being among the undead is a good thing…like centuries old vampires. And I’m not really into zombie tales, but that chick in iZombie seemed to be alright.
But in chasing graves, the undead are basically slaves to the living in a city where the only way to get ahead is to kill or be killed so your murderer can claim not just your property, but your soul!
Basically, this is a totally different kind of undead story…
Your thrust into this world where a wife is crossing the desert with her dead husband’s ghost in order to bind him to her and claim his property. The woman’s name is Nilith and I absolutely loved her! (Actually, there weren’t many characters I didn’t love) I spent almost the entire book thinking what does this woman and her dead husband have to do with the rest of this story and when I got to the part where it told me I literally screamed out loud! I shouldn’t have questioned it though, because literally everything is tied together somehow in this book!
After the intro where you meet Nilith, you’re introduced to a thief who’s been lured to Araxes (the City of Countless Souls) with the promise of silver only to be murdered shortly after arriving. Caltro manages to get himself into all kinds of not so great situations with the living, the dead, and even some dead gods…
The world building in Chasing Graves is probably some of the best I’ve read in fantasy lately. There are even short snippets of history thrown in at the beginning of every chapter and I felt as though as I was reading about a real place.
There is SO much I want to talk about this book, but I have no idea how to say anything else without spoilers, so I’m just going to say I definitely recommend picking it up and giving it a read!
Hello, everyone! The Summertime Giveaway, the first ever giveaway on Combing Through the Pages, officially ended last week and today I get to announce the winner!!!
Congratulations to SANDRA!!! Check you’re e-mail because you’ve won your choice of book from Book Depository!!
Well, my plan to write a weekly audiobook update already failed. I totally forgot to post one last week! So I guess this will be just like everything else on this site – I’ll post seemingly random, yet with some sort of vague sense of an organizational schedule…
Currently Recording:
I finished recording What Kind of People Ought We to Be: Preparation for the day of the Lord by Patsy Scott last week. This week, I’ll be finishing up The Rose Diary by Curtis Maynard.
I’m really loving this story and I’m really hoping everyone enjoys the final product as much as I’m enjoying recording it!! Here’s the deets from Goodreads:
A young girl dies mysteriously from what can only be explained as a rare illness. Her younger sister finds a diary in her room that has never been written in. Day by day the book reveals a new writing that urges the young girl to investigate the death. From encounters to the writings, there is a story to be heard, a mystery to be solved.
I’ll have some Audible-US and Audible-UK promo copies available once The Rose Diary goes on sale, so if you’re a book blogger interested in a review copy, let me know! (Please specify whether you’ll be needing a US or UK code in your message.)
Currently Available:
The following titles are currently available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes:
Blood and Deceit by Laura Greenwood (I still have some promo codes available for this title. Contact Me if interested in obtaining a review copy.)
So… Happy Wednesday!!! It’s time once again for WWW Wednesday ! WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. Don’t know what WWW Wendesday is or how to participate??? All you need to do is answer the following three questions and link back to Taking on a World of Words, or you can put your answers in the comments on her blog! (You can also leave your link in my comments to be sure I don’t miss your post!)
The three WWW questions are:
What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading? What do you think you’ll read next?
Currently reading:
I didn’t manage to finish The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin last week, but should finish it up this week and then I’ll be moving on to the next book on the Harvard Classics list!
I finished up Hillbilly Elegy and now I’m beginning Appalachian Reckoning. I just started it so I’m not gonna say much here other than… I’m currently reading it.
Recently Finished:
The only book I managed to finish up reading this past week was Hillbilly Elegy. Pretty much my entire household has been sick and so that’s about all I had time for. I’m hoping this next week’s reading goes better!
Hillbilly Elegy really got to me though… I guess you could say it hit home a little too hard.
We haven’t been fostering for very long. Our first placement came to stay with us in December 2017 and left the following November.
Of course, that’s the goal of foster care – to help keep families together by providing the guidance and resources necessary to make that happen…
But it doesn’t make life any easier or hurt any less when the children who’ve become a part of your family are no longer there. It almost killed me to say goodbye.
Time to grieve.
We decided to take some time to heal and mourn our loss after that first placement left.
Unfortunately, that didn’t stop workers from contacting us to take in another placement. I couldn’t get upset or blame them. In our state (and many others) there is a severe shortage of foster families willing to take in foster children.
As hard as it was to say no, we just couldn’t open up our hearts and our home to another set of kids. We were still too broken.
The emotional roller coaster I went through during that time is incredibly hard to describe…
I deeply desired to take in every child they asked us about.
I missed having a house full of children running around all the time. It was way too quiet and the silence sometimes felt as if it would swallow me whole. I’d heard that phrase before, but it was the first time I actually understood it.
At the same time, I couldn’t imagine other children sleeping in the kids’ beds, playing with their toys, wearing the clothes they’d outgrown. And I knew I’d be comparing the “new” kids to the “old” ones, which wouldn’t be fair to any of us.
So we continued to turn down placements, convinced we were “doing the right thing.” And that saying no was “for the best.”
WWJD?
Our logic seemed infallible.
But as I sat alone one day, having my quiet time and reading the account of Jesus feeding the 5,000 in Matthew, something changed. I saw something there I’d never noticed before…
If you’re not familiar with the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000, it goes as follows:
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand 13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. 15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” 16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” 17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. 18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.
I’ve read this story more times than I can count. I’ve heard it preached on Sunday mornings, listened to podcasts, and watched videos on it.
To be honest, I’ve read and heard it so much I tend to gloss over the miracle part of it. Like, yeah, Jesus fed a bunch of people with just a little bit of food… it’s Jesus. He could do things like that.
But this story has never really hit me in a way that I could relate to. As a disciple, it’s not one I’ve drawn strength from or looked to for guidance — at least, not until now.
If you notice, the beginning of this story starts with “When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.” That’s important as to what took place in my heart that day reading this story and having it hit me like it was the first time I’d ever heard it…
What was it Jesus had heard happened? John the Baptist had just been killed. He was Jesus’ cousin and friend. He was the one who’d baptized him! Jesus loved him deeply and fiercely.
Jesus was in mourning.
He took a short time to grieve and pray, but he didn’t shut down or shut people out. He could’ve turned the crowd away. Everyone would’ve understood if he had.
But he didn’t.
He took care if them, providing for their physical and spiritual needs despite his grief. If it was me, I wouldn’t have had any desire to care for the twelve apostles, much less some huge crowd I knew was gonna turn on me soon!
I wasn’t doing the same. I was wallowing in my own pain and grief and not willing to be Jesus’s hands and feet here on earth in the way He called me to be.
But were we “ready”?
I was already feeling the urge to take in more kids despite my heartache by this time. I felt a little lost and incomplete. Fostering is the one thing I’ve known, without doubt, that God has called me to. I felt selfish taking a break before my “WWJD” revelation.
But my husband didn’t feel the same. Neither did our kids.
Each time a call or text would come through, I’d start preparing in my head for new arrivals. Then I’d talk with the rest of the family about it and realize…it’s just too soon. Not only were we still dealing with loss, we had other issues we were also dealing with and taking in more kids during this time just didn’t make sense.
I think there are certain moments that the Lord just puts everything in place and softens hearts to bring him glory. The day I had the above heart change, He did just that.
I talked to my husband when he got home from work about accepting the next foster placement…and he agreed! This might not sound significant to you, but believe me, it was!!!
And the rest, as they say, is history.
We’re currently blessed with a new foster child in our home. She’s been here for about 3 months now and we’re enjoying every minute of having her here (even during the late night screaming parties).
I wanted to share this because I found it funny when I thought about it later. Jesus providing for 5,000 over 2,000 years ago led me to see past my own pain and provide for someone in need now. And out of all the passages in the bible about caring for orphans, widows, the least of these, etc., the one that pierced my heart never mentions them.
What do you think? Have you ever been surprised by what you’ve gotten from a seemingly random piece of scripture? Let me know your thoughts below!
Wow! It’s been a super long time since I’ve done one of these posts! Excited to get back into the swing of things though.
So… Happy Wednesday!!! 🎉 It’s time once again for WWW Wednesday ! WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. Don’t know what WWW Wendesday is or how to participate??? All you need to do is answer the following three questions and link back to Taking on a World of Words, or you can put your answers in the comments on her blog! (You can also leave your link in my comments to be sure I don’t miss your post!)
The three WWW questions are:
What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading? What do you think you’ll read next?
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is the unfinished record of Benjamin Franklinâ??s life written by Franklin himself and is one of the most influential examples of an autobiography ever written. Franklinâ??s account of his life is divided into four parts, reflecting the different periods at which he wrote them.
The first publication of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Part One, was published in Paris, in French in 1791. It wasn't until 1818 that the full version of Franklinâ??s autobiography was published by his grandson, William Temple Franklin, who did not include Part Four because he has previously traded away the original holograph of the Autobiography for a copy that contained only the first three parts. In addition, Franklinâ??s grandson felt free to make stylistic revisions to his grandfatherâ??s autobiography. W.T. Franklin's text was the standard version of the Autobiography for half a century, until John Bigelow purchased the original manuscript in France and in 1868 published the most reliable text that had yet appeared, including the first English publication of Part Four.
This edition of Autobiography of Ben Franklin comes from the original manuscript of Ben Franklinâ??s Memoirs and is presented in its entirety for enjoyment by all English speakers.
I’ve finally started reading through the Harvard Classics, which was a part of my 2019 reading goals. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is the first book on the list. I’ve actually read this one a few times now, but taking the opportunity to read it again 1) because I love it so much and 2) because I feel like not reading it is cheating on my personal challenge to read all the Harvard Classics.
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance Published byHarper on June 28, 2016 ISBN: 0062300547 Pages: 257 Goodreads Synopsis
From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love,” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility.
But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that this is only the short, superficial version. Vance’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother, struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, and were never able to fully escape the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. Vance piercingly shows how he himself still carries around the demons of their chaotic family history.
A deeply moving memoir with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.
I received an ARC of Appalachian Reckoning from WVU Press, but I’ve never read Hillbilly Elegy before. I figured to be fair, I should read this first. So far, I have very mixed feelings about it.
What I recently finished reading:
Reviews will be posted soon for most of these so I won’t be saying much here.
Healer (Truth Seer Trilogy) by Kay L Moody on January 7, 2019 ISBN: 1792918283 Goodreads Synopsis
Cairo 2121. The city is failing.
To save it, all they need is a list.
A list that has the names needed to take down the slave cartel that targets orphans. A list that’s impossible to find.
In an unfamiliar city, Imara attempts to secure the list, but her efforts are thwarted again and again by a man who grips Cairo with terror and control.
She joins a security team, hoping to save Cairo and her new boyfriend’s business all at the same time. With the team’s numbers dwindling more each day, they prepare for an upcoming event to attract new recruits to help them hunt down the list and stop the terror for good.
But then, their efforts get hijacked by an old threat and their problems multiply. Now, Imara faces a man who enslaves orphans and a woman who craves revenge. As the fight progresses, she’s forced to make an impossible choice:
Fix the mistakes of her past… or save the city?
Healer is the 2nd book in the Truth Seer Trilogy.
Breakthrough: The Miraculous True Story of a Mother's Faith and Her Child's Resurrection by Joyce Smith, Ginger Kolbaba Published byFaithWords on March 12, 2019 ISBN: 1546010602 Pages: 256 Goodreads Synopsis
The impossible true story about the powerful impact of prayer that inspired the major motion picture starring Chrissy Metz, Topher Grace, Dennis Haysbert, and Josh Lucas. Through the years and the struggles, when life seemed more about hurt and loss than hope and mercy, God was positioning the Smiths for something extraordinary--the death and resurrection of their son.
When Joyce Smith's fourteen-year-old son John fell through an icy Missouri lake one winter morning, she and her family had seemingly lost everything. At the hospital, John lay lifeless for more than sixty minutes. But Joyce was not ready to give up on her son. She mustered all her faith and strength into one force and cried out to God in a loud voice to save him.
Miraculously, her son's heart immediately started beating again.
In the coming days, John would defy every expert, every case history, and every scientific prediction. Sixteen days after falling through the ice and being clinically dead for an hour, he walked out of the hospital under his own power, completely healed.
Breakthrough is about a profound truth: prayer really does work. God uses it to remind us that He is always with us, and when we combine it with unshakable faith, nothing is impossible.
My name is Amy Able. I used to be just a scrawny geek...until that morning. I was in a daze, with no memory of recent events. Sunlight burned, I had fangs, and I hungered for blood. What happened? Why did I turn into a vampire?Then I got that call from my worried friends and the invite to go see the Lupia concert with them. I cautiously accepted, but it turned sour when I uncontrollably bit my best friend and a strange enemy, representing a group under the command of someone called "The Fool," attacked Lupia.By mastering my newfound strength and power over fire, I can fight back. I also have my uniquely talented friends-modern warlock Will Jadis and lovely sharpshooter Amelia Valentine-and together we can defend Lupia and our hometown from these vicious vampires, one of whom is that hulking beast from my past.To complicate matters further, mom and dad are missing, those jerk journalists won't leave me alone, and I still have to survive school, where I must now brave deadly sunlight and the continued stares of my classmates. What did I do to deserve this?
Because Blood on Fire is a book I’m currently working on for audiobook, I’ll be talking about it more later but won’t be writing an actual review. (However, if you’re interested in receiving a review copy of the audiobook, once available, then please contact me.)
A young girl dies mysteriously from what can only be explained as a rare illness. Her younger sister finds a diary in her room that has never been written in. Day by day the book reveals a new writing that urges the young girl to investigate the death. From encounters to the writings, there is a story to be heard, a mystery to be solved.
Because The Rose Diary is a book I’m currently working on for audiobook, I’ll be talking about it more later but won’t be writing an actual review. (However, if you’re interested in receiving a review copy of the audiobook, once available, then please contact me.)
With hundreds of thousands of copies sold, a Ron Howard movie in the works, and the rise of its author as a media personality, J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis has defined Appalachia for much of the nation. What about Hillbilly Elegy accounts for this explosion of interest during this period of political turmoil? Why have its ideas raised so much controversy? And how can debates about the book catalyze new, more inclusive political agendas for the region’s future?
Appalachian Reckoning is a retort, at turns rigorous, critical, angry, and hopeful, to the long shadow Hillbilly Elegy has cast over the region and its imagining. But it also moves beyond Hillbilly Elegy to allow Appalachians from varied backgrounds to tell their own diverse and complex stories through an imaginative blend of scholarship, prose, poetry, and photography. The essays and creative work collected in Appalachian Reckoning provide a deeply personal portrait of a place that is at once culturally rich and economically distressed, unique and typically American. Complicating simplistic visions that associate the region almost exclusively with death and decay, Appalachian Reckoning makes clear Appalachia’s intellectual vitality, spiritual richness, and progressive possibilities.
In bestselling author Lauraine Snelling's new novel, a group of women realize that life is full of half-finished relationships and projects. However, they discover that the outcome is not as important as the journey.
Recognizing how common it is for crafters to start many projects and finish few, a group of women join together to form a guild--Unfinished Projects Anonymous to keep each other on track and accountable. Three friends are tasked with the job of home visits for their guild. They are laughingly called the Cartel as they do visits to snoop around craft rooms and knitting baskets to report on progress for the members. The guild has even expanded to checking on half-trained dogs and half-weeded gardens.
Over the course of the story, this ensemble of women discover that much of life is half-finished--relationships, the raising of children, even our very relationship with the Lord. And that may be perfectly fine.
Another blackout night...Myla drank too much. Again.Then she notices the bloody scratches on her leg.Panic sets in as scattered memories from the evening surface. The Persian guy, the Junkie girl. The streets of San Francisco are not friendly to teens with fake ID's. And especially harsh to arrogant girls like Myla, whose pastime consists of chasing complete abandon.Instantly, she knows something is wrong. Fatally, and irreversibly wrong. Nothing would ever be the same again....not after the wrath of The Lunatics.You'll love this Magic Realism adventure novel because everyone loves the freedom of breaking all the rules.Get it now.Seven N Blue is the winner of the Paris Book Festival for the Young Adult Fiction category. The Lunatics is book one of the series.Amazon Verified 5 Star ReviewHere's the deal with me... I buy a lot of books, read the first few chapters, ... and that's about it. To put it plain and simply, I get bored, really bored, really fast. Twilight, Hunger Games, The Notebook, to name a few. I truly thought I just didn't like reading.The Lunatics proved that to be wrong!!! I could not put it down!! I am a mother and wife, ... so that makes me pretty busy, but every "free" moment I had, I was reading The Lunatics on my little iPhone!!It is exciting from BEGINNING TO END!!! Otherwise, I wouldn't have finished it!!!!!Amazon Verified 5 Star Review: This is a world I wish I could inhabit. Myla is a free spirit with a highly creative imagination. I was totally taken with her in the first five pages when she "went off" at Christian Luna when he appeared to becoming on to her while a supposed girlfriend was standing nearby. Love the spunk.At the same time, there is a deep humanity of Myla that was very real. Her life was complicated, but you hang in with her and root for her to succeed, and triumph. A refreshing talent and a great read. Will look forward to more work from Seven N Blue.Amazon Verified 5 Star Review: While other YA books deliver a heaping serving of vampires, witches and warlocks - Blue has given us the answer to the age old question "how do crazy people lose their mind" Bravo! A page turning novel with characters that will leave you wanting for more. A little dark, sexy, w/ a side order of the SURREAL. Does anyone know if this is a series?Amazon Verified 5 Star Review: Vertigo spirals, alternate lives, a touch of magic, characters you wish you could meet in person! I've read a lot of YA, and i have to say that this is a fresh outlook on the "villan." Forget vampires, witches and warlocks. The grim reaper's got competition. Hooray for the Lunatics
Chasing Graves (The Chasing Graves Trilogy, #1) by Ben Galley 
