Double the Reviews - Freefall and Incense & Peppermints #amreading

I'm proud to be a part of the fantastic group of authors at Untethered Realms. We have such talented writers among us, and I'm excited to share my reviews of two of their books today.

Freefall (The Backworlds #7) by M. Pax

The Backworlds and Foreworlds have banned together with the hope of defeating a terrifying enemy, the Quassers. Craze gave up his friends and livelihood to become the envoy for the Backworlds. All he'd rather be doing is brewing some malt and tending his bar, but there is much more than his pride at stake here. The alliance is shaky, and Craze can't afford to let it fall apart. They have one more chance at survival, and it's all or nothing.

I loved delving back into the rich universe of this space opera series. The settings, characters, and storylines are all marvelously varied, but twine together so very well. I'm often reminded of Firefly with Craze and his friends out to save the universe armed with their good hearts and sometimes good luck. But things don't go their way all the time.

The cast in this series is large, but none of them suffer from lack of depth. Each of them have their own tales, but a powerful love of friends holds them together. The twists in the plot had me shouting "Oh my God!" out loud, and several times, it tugged hard at my heart. Plus there were some clever bits in there like the crusties and the tendrils. This is an immensely heavy book, and I didn't want it to end. I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment in the Backworlds.

Buy links:

Amazon / AmazonUK / AmazonDE / AmazonAU / AmazonCA / B&N / Kobo / iBook / Googleplay / Smashwords

Incense and Peppermints by Cathrina Constantine

Sixteen-year-old Mary Monroe is an innocent girl in the years of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. She has new friends in her older brother's girlfriend and her group. They take Mary out of her reserved shell where she meets a handsome new student, Michael Covington. He's got bad boy appeal, but there's something more to him. Mary is assaulted at a wild party, and Michael rescues her. At least, she's pretty certain he did. Or was he the one who attacked her? What's even more, the more she gets to know him, the more she's falling for him.

This YA read takes place in the late 1960s, but the story is easily mirrored in life nowadays. It's colorful and light, and intense and emotional. The crazy days of trying to figure out who you are when you're a teenager. Mary is immediately likable. She's a good student, a little geeky, and takes care of her family even when they aren't the best. Yet she tumbles into hanging out with the popular party girls and doesn't want to admit it's more than she can handle. Plus the hot Michael is at all the parties, and she wants to follow where he goes. It pulls at your heartstrings a lot.

Buy link: Amazon