C. E. Wilson (1)Besprekingen

Eleven is a number. It's not a good number, but it's not a bad number either. Eleven is a lie. Eleven is a person. Eleven is Grace. In this Utopian society, everyone is a number from 1 to 20. 20 being a beauty and anything under that, well, you only get a certain few chances to become a beauty. Grace's life now belongs to a family of beauties and if she truly wants to become like them, then she must learn their ways and adhere to their rules. Even if those rules make her life a living hell. Chained and locked in a gilded cage, Grace tries to make of her life what it is. But then she meet's Reese and things begin to take a turn.

Wow!
This story was so well-developed I actually forgot it was not real, not yet anyway. It showed a very true depiction of segregation and hatred based on prejudice and ill-knowledge, coupled with a true love story that tugged at the heartstrings. I want more!!!!

Here is the summary of what the book is about. Two Books in One Volume! (Five Seven Five & Five Seven Six)

White Frost has only ever known the darkness. Everything outside of her closed society is The Unknown - a strange and dangerous place accessible to only a chosen few.

White's only glimpse of the world beyond comes from her beloved cousin in the form of mysterious collections of words that hint at astonishing wonders. When an accident upends her simple existence, she's given an unlikely chance to see the truth for herself.

What she finds is greater and more terrible than she could have imagined, and before long she is forced to make the most important choice of her life: does she accept her safe, limited world that she's known or take a desperate gamble in a world not meant for her with the Boy with Words?

What can I say about this book? I found this book to be intriguing and a little strange. I can't imagine going through life in darkness and being lied to all my life the way White Frost did. This book has some twists and turns and some surprises in it.
I thought the author did a great job writing this book. What an imagination she has? I would recommend this book.

Once again, C.E. Wilson has amazed me with her beautiful writing, wondrous world-building, and an imaginative story. UNTITLED BEAUTY is certainly much darker than anything she has written so far and while it was a nice short read, I felt that there were some aspects could be more fleshed out.

―3.5 stars―

“Terrified. The girl is only a year or two younger than I am and yet she's terrified of me because of my title. If I had been declared a Beauty on my fifth birthday then Celia and I might have been friends.”

In a world where beauty determines everything, people are given a rating based on how they look. Anyone who is considered a Beauty is allowed to live a normal life, whereas those who are not Beauties are treated like slaves and ranked on a scale of 1 to 20. Achieving a score of 11 or above means that the person is a Potential and has a chance at becoming a Beauty.

UNTITLED BEAUTY draws inspiration from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST but the beauty is no longer trapped by the beast, instead they themselves have enslaved the beast. It follows Eleven's story, a Potential with a score of 11 who was just purchased by a Beauty to serve his daughter's.

Even though the overall story concept is rather original, the events, however, were quite predictable. C.E. Wilson's books seem to follow a common pattern: a forbidden love, two people who initially did not see eye-to-eye with each other but eventually came to realise that they have more in common than they thought, lots of angst, a falling out, one of them moving away (regardless of reason), realisation of how much she misses the guy (bc usually it's written in the girl's POV), guys comes to find her and they live happily ever after. I will continue to read her books, but just to see what new world and story her imagination will cook up next.

Short books are great for reading in one sitting but I really wouldn't mind more details if it meant adding more depth and realism to the characters.

I would love to know more about the history between Eleven and Reese before the events in the book. Of all the slaves he could have chosen, why Reese? What was their history like that made her so special? All we know is that they were once at the same facility when they were younger. I'm not even sure if they interacted a lot then but they had definitely exchanged names and perhaps somewhere along the way developed a crush on each other.

I feel that the relationship between Shawn and his wife should be developed past the very obvious fact that they don't really like each other very much and simply tolerate the other party's existence. Could that be the reason for some of the things he does with Eleven? That maybe his wife isn't everything he envisioned a lover to be? Or is he simply sexually deprived?

Okay but since this is apparently the first book in a series, hopefully we'll get more details in future books.

Wow! I have always known beauty has power, but I would never have imagined it could have this much and control the world in such a blatant way. Scary, no, so close to the truth it is terrifying.

Five Seven Six picks up right after where Five Seven Five left off… which I shan’t say for the sake of keeping this review spoiler free.

EVERYTHING COMES AT A PRICE

Now that White knows what the Unknown holds, she can’t stay away from it. But due to the mindset and prejudice of her people, she cannot live in both worlds ― she has to choose only one. In Five Seven Six, we see White having to make many decisions, often with a sacrifice, and just like in the previous book, I often did not agree with her choices. But in the end, it all worked out so I shan’t complain ¯_(ツ)_/¯

NEW FACES

There were several new additions to the character list and while they’re not the most likeable of characters, I felt that they were all essential to the book. Their interaction with White, or lack thereof, added a new side to White’s adventures in the Unknown by showing the dangers the Unknown holds.

HEART WRENCHING

Oh that last chapter. I just can’t- Like White please stop jumping to conclusions. Stop making choices that will emotionally torture you. Stop torturing the readers THANKS. Although I didn’t shed any tears at the ending, while reading it, I still felt a brief phantom pain in my heart. But here a reassurance: IT’S A HAPPY ENDING (oh shit is that a spoiler??).

As with most books, I dived into Five Seven Five with little to zero idea about what the book is about (aka I didn't bother reading the summary). I live by the logic that “since it's on my to-read shelf, I must be somewhat interested in it, right?”

SYMBOLIC

Take a moment and look at the cover. It isn't exactly breathtaking, but it is symbolic. “It's just a pair of hands holding onto a piece of paper. What does that even mean??” While it may not hold much meaning right now, it will dawn on you once you have read the book. And there's the summary, that manages to somewhat catch your attention without giving away any important details about the events in the book. I honestly thought that it was just going to be another post-apocalyptic book, with the underground society and the sheltered lives they live. Oh boy how wrong I was.

CURIOSITY KILLS THE CAT

Five Seven Five is told through White's perspective, our headstrong, stubborn and often oblivious main female character. She has an insatiable hunger for knowledge about what lies outside her world (also called the Unknown), and sometimes this ends with her acting recklessly and getting into dangerous situations. There were often times where I got annoyed with her but I couldn't bring myself to dislike her. The rationale behind her actions were all explained in full, the emotions and thoughts that spurred her to do such things properly conveyed, you just can't help but empathise with her.

PLEASANTLY SURPRISING

I honestly did not expect to enjoy this book this much. As the title, cover and blurb don't really give away much about the book, you have the joy of slowly discovering the world White lives in from scratch and there was much room for surprises. Speaking of which, the world-building was simple but solid. They have their own way of life, culture, even their own way of naming people.

this book didn't really do it for me, but looking at all the other reviews I'm in the minority.

The book is well written, characters are well developed, as is the environment.
I guess I just found a story about pixies and humans a little odd, and for some reason the story didn't pull me in. That doesn't mean its a bad book by any means. It is definitely well written by the author.
So if you like pixies or want to read something completely different from anything you've ever read, then by all means read this and don't let my personal preference deter you.

this book didn't really do it for me, but looking at all the other reviews I'm in the minority.

The book is well written, characters are well developed, as is the environment.
I guess I just found a story about pixies and humans a little odd, and for some reason the story didn't pull me in. That doesn't mean its a bad book by any means. It is definitely well written by the author.
So if you like pixies or want to read something completely different from anything you've ever read, then by all means read this and don't let my personal preference deter you.

this book didn't really do it for me, but looking at all the other reviews I'm in the minority.

The book is well written, characters are well developed, as is the environment.
I guess I just found a story about pixies and humans a little odd, and for some reason the story didn't pull me in. That doesn't mean its a bad book by any means. It is definitely well written by the author.
So if you like pixies or want to read something completely different from anything you've ever read, then by all means read this and don't let my personal preference deter you.

Finally able to Enjoy the Shakespearean Language!

I've anticipated more from this YA version of Shakespeare Made Easy. I've read a bunch of others similar Shakespeare-to-Modern English books but this is the worst modern rendition of Othello and I haven't read the original play yet.
The most powerful thing about Shakespearean plays was its clever use of language and his poetry. All of which made Shakespeare still a household name after 400 years. Even if you translate Shakespeare to make it understandable, you can still retain the essence of the story even if you sacrifice the language usage.
But this book dumb down Shakespeare for the teenage audience that its almost unbearable. There are potential in the first few chapters but then the style regressed badly. If you've read a badly translated book, this is an example. The narration actually switched unevenly between Shakespearean and a teenage pulp fiction. One time they acted like teenagers and then the next they sounded like someone from four centuries ago. The dialogues changed from a teenage drama to badly translated soliloquies. Sometimes the short teen speak feels like a substitute to a long complicated dialogue that the meaning flew out of the window. Later on the teen dialogues read like the monologues translated by each singular words. By the end, I'm not sure whether it was a retelling or a teen-speak translated Othello.
I know that there are a limitation and the difficulties in translating a hard tragedy but I wish the book had maintain its purpose as a retelling instead of a direct translation. There were no understandable complexities between the characters that all of them came out one-dimensional and the dialogues and plot was very uneven and random that the flow came out unnatural which is sad since those was the definite areas you could expand more in a retelling. Now I'm worried about Macbeth and Hamlet.
The ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

My review is also on my blog: missfictional.blogspot.com

Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
First of all, I want to thank C.E. Wilson for providing me with a copy of this book.

This was a fun read, not exactly action-packed, adventurous, or anything else you'd expect from a book in the paranormal genre, but it was still entertaining.

I'll start with the not-so-good qualities of this book. Firstly, the writing, at times, was kind of awkward. There were a few instances when the wording didn't make sense. Another thing about this book was that some secondary characters were a bit...dry. I wish that the author had developed those characters more, so that the readers would have understood them more.

The ending would have affected me more if the author had explained the pixis and Cailin's family better. I know that the author left questions unanswered to give the book more suspense and to make us want to read the next installment, but leaving that much information unknown just confused me.

Since I have stated what I disliked about this book, I will now go on to what made me like this book. I loved the idea of pixis and the author's originality. With the YA genre being taken over by vampires, its nice to have a different type of paranormal creature being introduced.

I also liked Cailin's character. She is not what anyone would expect a pixi to be like; she has a lot of pride and is very stubborn. Her ignorance of modern day things is amusing to read about (her explanation of baseball is hilarious). Teague was a character that I didn't love, nor did I hate. I felt bad for him, but at the same time, he didn't exactly act like a normal 19-year old. He was too whiny and acted more like a twelve year old. Cailin and Teague's relationship was cute, and I liked how Teague depended on Cailin a lot, not the other way around (unlike other YA couples).The nonstop banter that was a common occurence between Teague and Cailin was enjoyable to read.

Personally, I thought that this book was okay. I was looking forward to read a book with a fresh take on pixis. Sadly, it didn't go in depth about this topic. Most of the novel was Teague and Cailin's relationship and their gradual acceptance of each other. This is a book for people looking for a quick, short read. It had moments when it shined, but it also had some mediocre moments, so I gave this book a 3.5/5 stars.

Okay, so I have to admit: I never read Shakespeare’s Othello . . . aaaand I will admit that the thought of reading the original is pret-ty intimidating. Which is why when I snooped out this retelling I was relieved to find a premise I could actually relate to.

This version made the story of Othello so easy for me to understand–it really put the plot into perspective without me having to struggle through the language and references in the original.

Transplanting the plot right into a high school setting? Well done, I say!

But with that said, the dialogue was a little stiff for me. It was easy for me to follow along with, yes, but it didn’t flow like normal conversation would. It was stilted enough that I was bothered by it.

And MAN, was it full of drama! My word, there’s so much manipulation and suspicion and deceit! I feel like I need to see this performed, because I think it would be infinitely more amazing to see it played out as was its original purpose.

All in all it did the job that I was looking for–I followed the story line and understood everything that was happening, but I felt like the dialogue needed to slide along smoother than it did.

3/5 stars;)

Permanent Shadows (The Punishment Sequence # 2)
by C.E. Wilson

Melissa Cushing's review
Oct 04, 2013

5 of 5 stars
bookshelves: favorites, first-reads, kindle-books
Read in October, 2013

First, I want to thank C.E. Wilson for giving me a copy of Permanent Shadows in exchange for a review.... and I give it 5 out of 5 stars !!! What an awesome and amazing read! Lovers of Sci Fi, Paranormal, Fantasy, YA/NA... take note and read The Punishment Sequence series.. it is amazing!
Here is a blurb from Goodreads.....

When a friend from Teague’s old life comes to visit, it sets in motion a sequence of events that will rock the Pixi world and force Cailin to question everything she thought she knew.

She knows that her father has been keeping secrets, but it’s only now that she begins to realize just how little she knows. Now she is trying to figure out what Owen’s relationship is with her father and if Owen and Teague are really what she thought they were. Learning the truth comes at a price, and Cailin is left wondering who she can trust.

Permanent Shadows is the second book in the YA Paranormal Romance series, The Punishment Sequence

OK... so I read the first book in this series, Oath of Servitude (The Punishment Sequence #1).. and it was a good book.... I gave it 3 and a half stars overall.. but I knew by the ending of book one and the overall build up of the storyline and plot..... that book 2 seemed promising and was going to help fill in the many "blanks" I had from book #1. BUT... I did not expect to be blown away with action from the beginning! It was awesome.... I can tell that C.E. Wilson is adapting and growing into the amazing author that she is.... but man... the story she brought to us with book #2 in The Punishment Sequence, Permanent Shadows..... is fabulous! You still have the love triangle going on between Cailin, Teague, and Sariel.... and although I still love Sariel.... Teague's character grew on me immensely since the first book. I like them both now...... although, maybe call me a loyalist.... I still have lots of love for Sariel! He is the evil, bad guys son, who seems nothing like his father and has had a thing for Cailin since the beginning.... I just still very much love his character!!! There is so much going on now... it is action packed and full of details throughout.... all of this making the storyline much more solid and endearing to the reader overall and preventing the reader from putting the book down, like at all!!! :) AND to top it all off, C.E. Wilson adds in a new twist at the end involving Teague's Ex-Girlfriend and her mother..... which will make book 3 even more exciting! A bit of a cliff hanger at the end...... but that is what leaves us craving more and in turn makes us await the day for the next book of this wonderful series to be released!!! CANNOT wait for Book #3 in The Punishment Sequence!!!! Thanks C.E. Wilson for this amazing series and for continuing to write amazing stories!!! Ummmmmm.... when is book 3 coming out? LOL!!!! Now, one of my favorites!!! Read this!

of Servitude (The Punishment Sequence #1), by C.E. Wilson

Melissa Cushing's review
Aug 15, 2013

4 of 5 stars

[polldaddy rating="6971359"]

Published September 2012 by C.E. Wilson

The Punishment Sequence #1

ebook, 159 pages (look below to read a description of the book from Goodreads)

So I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review..... and I want to thank C.E. Wilson for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the process. I give this book 3 and a 1/2 stars honestly, but I am unsure of how to do that..... do I give 3 stars or round it to 4? So, I have rounded it to 4 stars. OK.... the first thing I have to mention is that C.E. Wilson has a very beautiful writing style..... very clean and easy to follow and the editing was great! I really did not notice typos and such..... So all in all, the book was nicely written and nicely edited! I will say that I thought at times the story may have moved a bit slow for me..... and really did not get to the "good" part until the last 40% of the book. I actually re read the ending of the book last night and have decided that I would really like to read the sequel because I have so many questions that I want to know the answers to..... I really want to see where the author goes with it. I believe in many book series..... or trilogies..... that there is usually one book that is slower than the others.... so I am really thinking the next book is going to be packed with the answers to my questions (or a lot of them anyway :)) and in turn move along at a pace that will make it hard for me to tear myself away from it. My only other issue with the story was that I had a hard time with the love story of the book. I am all about the romance of any story. The romance or the build up of a love story is typically what draws me in and keeps me there. What can I say, I am sucker for romance. OK.... so that is where I run into an issue with this love story.....Cailin is a pixi and Teague is a human. Cailin is 12 inches tall..... which is abnormally large for a pixi. Most of her pixi clan are more like 6 inches tall. BUT..... having said that, it is hard for me to wrap my head around her falling for a full grown young man. Or vice versa.... keep in mind Teague is blind due to an accident that happened before he ever met Cailin.... so he is not able to see her and does not know that she is a pixi until the story kicks in to the "good part" (around the middle of the book). I do know that at one point in the book it was mentioned, I believe that a pixi could somehow become human sized??? Do not hold me to it.... but I am pretty sure that was quickly mentioned which is why I believe maybe that problem will be solved eventually.....? Not sure.... that is why I will have to read the sequel. Still the idea is unique and interesting..... again I have to state that the book is well written and nicely edited and has serious potential to be amazing... I just need a little more to keep me involved. I need a little more action and I need to somehow believe that this love story can truly come to fruition because at this point that is hard for me. I actually found myself liking Sariel..... the evil pixi Lennox's son who is in love with Cailin. He tries to protect her from his fathers wrath, and then there was their little steamy kissing session in the woods near the end of the book where Sariel tells Cailin how he feels for her and she promises herself to him, kind of caught up in the moment..... but unfortunately for him, I believe her heart is already Teague's. Sorry I did not give a blurb of the book.... you can read that here on Goodreads, I just wanted to give my opinion of it. It is a clean, straightforward, delightfully different read, that was a little slow and hard for me to get into at times because of the love story situation........ BUT it leaves you with a promising future.... because I do believe this story can really go somewhere wonderful! Very imaginative and creative! That is always refreshing. Thank you C.E. Wilson!!!

** I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. That in no way has influenced my review**

We also met a young man, Teauge, who suffered a horrible baseball accident, which causes him to drink away his pain with alcohol. He has cut ties with all of his old friends and including his girlfriend. His father, Owen, is desperate to help is son that he calls an old friend for help.

This is where we met a young pixie girl named Cailin, who was punished by her pixie clan to stay with a pair of humans instead of being sent to the mysterious darkness, where pixies are normally sent when they disobey the rules. Cailin is very outgoing and wants to stand out from her clan by dying her hair red, wearing heavy makeup and dressing in outfits that her clan frowns upon.

Because Cailin and Teauge are very much alike that butt heads right away and are off to a rough start. Eventually Teauge finds out what cailin really is and this is where the book get REALLY good.

We learn of evil pixies who are desperate to ruin Cailin's family. They end up kidnapping cailin's sister in an attempt to make cailin break her oath to the humans. They even send someone to coax Cailin into leaving.

Just as Teauge and Cailin begin warming up to each other; it is very clear that they are in love. Does Cailin break her oath to save her sister and her family, or does Cailin stay and help Teauge?

To find out all of these exciting answers and what really happens
BUY THE BOOK! :)

The author is able to bring able a distinctive and novel concept in the current paranormal filled reality of books we live in. While the author did a brilliant job describing the characters there was not a great deal of focus on the world building as a whole. The flow of the story did not progress too fast but just well enough to keep the reader interested. There were parts of the plot that seemed scattered.

I also loved the uniqueness and dimensions of the characters. They did not seem to fall flat and the author was able to bring out each individuals personality and plausible reactions. Cailin was able to shine through with her confidence while Teague grew throughout the book finally being able to turn his life around.

Note: I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.