Book Review, People of the Raven

Hello, today I am reviewing the book People of the Raven by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear. They are the authors of an exceptional series ("The People Series") which are fictional tales that focus on North America's "forgotten past". The settings are usually hundreds of years before Europeans discovered the north american continent, and really dissects the way people lived back then.

I've been reading this series for almost two years now (I've read about 5 of them and 3 by just Kathleen O'Neal Gear), and I absolutely LOVE the books they've written. It is DEFINITELY a series I would recommend to anyone. All the books (in my opinion) have plenty of mystery, romance, action, enlightenment, etc! They hit all the points I would want in a novel.

NOW on to People of the Raven. This book's setting was somewhere around the coast of Washington I believe, and it described a lot of beach scenes and forest, and COLD. There were good guys and bad guys, and a whole lot of drama and action. There were battles and loving relationships that developed throughout the book, and it was a definite page turner. I think it was one of my favorite people books (although I adored people of the Weeping Eye and Thunder the best).

The story starts out with the discovery of the Kennewick man (Caucasian male). It's a mystery, and the Gears developed an idea, a story out of this anomaly. The time this novel is set in has a huge impact of the people living their daily lives and influences much of the events in the story. At a time when people are struggling to keep up with the changes of the Earth's climate, a power struggle between two peoples occurs, and folds out into a tale of twists and turns!

**From the Gear-Gear site: One day a strange and beautiful red-haired woman, Evening Star, stumbles into his council lodge and begs him for sanctuary. Rain Bear soon learns that she is an escaped slave from the North Wind People, the Raven People's mortal enemies. If he offers to protect her, the North Wind People will attack, but if he sends her back, Rain Bear knows Evening Star will be tortured and perhaps killed.

But when Evening Star warns Rain Bear that the North Wind warriors are already on their way to Sandy Point Village, Rain Bear must decide at once if he should take his people and run or gather them into a battle that could result in the Raven People's complete demise.

Belly dance performance 4/11/10

Hey everyone, another (my second) belly dancing performance with the troupe! I don't have great pictures, so I'm posting the only ones I have that I look normal in haha. :D Okuma 2010 performance

I didn't do too well with my makeup this time because of the time limit that I thought I had, and the lack of makeup (forgot tot bring some colors). Next time (my final performance) I hope I will do better haha, and have a better camera XD

The Forest of Hands and Teeth Review :D

Now this is a book to get SUPER excited about. It's got adventure, mystery, and zombies!! :D

The book was a satisfying page turner of over 300 pages, and let me tell you, it was a great read. Author Carrie Ryan is an awesome writer that described everything just right to fill your head with her fictitious world. The book reminded me of the film The Village first, but I soon found out that it was pretty different, and pretty interesting.

The book revolved around a teenage girl named Mary, who lives in a secluded village in the woods. In her and her village's fenced in lives surrounded by the un-dead, there are secrets and twists to a forgotten path that the curious and robust Mary explores.

Although I really LOVED the book, I found myself wanting to know more about this world that Mary and her friends lived in. One clue I got about this book was that it was (perhaps) taking place in the future (she finds clues of society as it is now). Also the ending was a huge cliff hanger that made me question; "what happens now?" But it also led to endless possibilities, which a lot of authors seem to favor these days.

Overall, I loved this book. Even though I didn't think it was going to be as "scary" as The Devouring, I often found myself more "into" the book with my heart hammering away than the previous book I read. I think The Forest of Hands and Teeth is going to rank high on my list for a while (until I read some other great book, which I hope will be soon! :D)

★The Devouring review★

Hey guys, I just got done reading The Devouring by Simon Holt! Let me just say, that it did NOT take me long to zip through this book. It was an incredibly easy concept to grasp and it was very easy to read (I'm not complaining). It was a nice change from reading complicated text books for school haha. But anywho, The Devouring was a pretty good book. It's suppose to be a "horror" fiction, but it wasn't so scary that I couldn't read it, and I'm a wimp XD.

The story was about a freshman girl named Reggie "battling" an evil spirit(?) that lives on people's fears and posses bodies. It is personal for her because a vour(the evil thing) takes over her little brother's body. Reggie and her friends (Aaron and her boss Eben) research the ancient Vour and try to get the thing out of her brother. As the vour takes over a body, the person's soul goes to a place called the fearscape and goes through horrific and scary things forever while their life is lived out by the vour D: ugh that is so creepy.

As for the characters, I wasn't too fond of Reggie (just sayin, :/ I thought the way she rationalized things was dumb), but I did like a lot of the other characters, especially her little brother. The whole idea of the book was centered around fear, and I think the author emphasized in a clear manner. Holt really described things to get a good visual of what was going on without using too much detail (some authors go seriously over the top with DETAILS D: ), which I loved. It was a no non-sense story that dove straight into what was happening with little bits of mystery that was nice and exciting. Most of the time it kept me reading at the edge of my seat and I would definitely recommend this (it's probably going to my sister next lol), and I'll get the next book when I have the chance/money. Until then, I'll keep RxR!