The very last post of 2011, and it is an exciting one for me. Yesterday, I had one of the biggest surprises I’ve ever had in the five years I’ve been writing professionally. I checked my Amazon sales ranking and discovered that the Kindle version of The Pirate Daughter’s Promise was #92 on the Top 100 Paid Kindle books under Religious Historical Fiction for a while. Making an Amazon best seller list was completely unexpected and quite an excitement for me. It’s a huge thing for indie author like me.
I never would have made it without the sale I had for Christmas. I was going to let it run through the 1st and then put the price back up to $2.99, but in celebration of a month that was even more successful than I ever expected, I’ve decided to leave The Pirate Daughter’s Promise eBook at 99¢. :) I hope many more people will enjoy it.
There’s no doubt about it, The Lord of the Rings movies were a turning point in my writing journey. They introduced me to epicness. I’m sure I never would have written my Makilien Trilogy, or my current and future fantasy projects had I not watched the movies and read the books. Yet, even before that, the first seeds of my love for epic fantasy were planted when my mom read The Hobbit to me and my brothers. It’s been ten years since the release of The Fellowship of the Ring, and now, at last, we get the first peek at the very beginning of what will always be to me the most epic of adventures. I can hardly wait so see Middle-earth come to life before my eyes once more.
Just alerting everyone that The Pirate Daughter’s Promise ebook is now showing up for only 99¢ on both iTunes and Barnes & Noble. Only 16 more days to take advantage of the sale! Here are all the links where it is available.
Twenty-four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives.
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death – televised for all of Panem to see.
Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
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I started noticing all the hype about The Hunger Games Trilogy a few months ago. I’ve never been one to jump at the latest and greatest fictional masterpiece (mostly because I rarely read secular fiction), but after I found out about the movie coming out this spring, I thought I should read the books and see what it was all about. After all, there haven’t been many times I’ve read the books before seeing the movies. So, after a very long wait (I think I was somewhere close to 20 on the waiting list), I finally got The Hunger Games from our local library. It seems I’m almost always pleasantly surprised when I have low expectations (although, thinking about it, “pleasant” isn’t the most ideal word to mix with this trilogy). Here are my thoughts on each of the books.
The Hunger Games was certainly interesting, if a bit disturbing since it involves children forced to fight to the death in a gladiatorial type of game for the amusement of those in the Capitol. Considering this, I thought the story was told well. It’s one of the few books I’ve ever read that is in first person. This took some getting used to for me, but it really worked well, especially in the following two books. This was probably my second favorite book of the series. It set everything up well, and was quite fascinating in a morbid sort of way. I wasn’t sure if I truly liked Katniss or Peeta, the two main characters of the story, although I could sympathize with them. I did, however, love Gale for what little he was in the story. All in all, a good book that I’d probably like even better reading it a second time now that I’ve read the whole trilogy.
Catching Fire was my favorite book of the trilogy. The growth of the plot was excellent. I could hardly put this book down. The characters really grew on me in this book. I found I cared much more about Katniss and Peeta, and I was delighted that Gale had a much bigger role. The direction the plot took about halfway through was completely unexpected. I’m sure my eyes got really big at that point. Definitely the best book of the series, in my opinion.
Mockingjay, the conclusion of the trilogy was just plain intense. It was a lot darker than the first two. By this point in the trilogy, we’re talking about full-out war. It was difficult because, by this time, you really became attached to certain characters and casualties are mounting. You never know when you’re going to turn a page and find out someone you’ve come to love has been killed. I read this book just about as fast as Catching Fire. With so much going on and wanting to know how this whole, huge thing is going to be resolved, it’s hard to stop reading. I thought the progression of things was natural and believable, but I will say this was probably my least favorite of the trilogy because it was so dark. The ending was fairly satisfying. It certainly wasn’t a series where you could expect a perfect happily ever after. The characters were far too scarred for that. There were a few things that irked me and character storylines I wish could have been tied up better, but I can live with it.
Overall, The Hunger Games Trilogy was a fascinating read. It probably had some of the most real characters I’ve ever followed in a book. Suzanne Collins wrote it in such a way that you were dragged right into the emotion with the characters, horrified, just as they were, with the atrocities around them. I think the most disturbing part about the whole series was how, in the world we live in now, it didn’t seem too far fetched. Another thing I became very aware of, being a Christian and hardly ever reading secular fiction, was the overall hopelessness of the story. There isn’t the slightest mention of God throughout the book, so when everything was crumbling and being destroyed, what did any of these characters really have to hold on to? It’s a sobering thing to think of having no God to trust in to take care of you no matter what happens.
Would I recommend these books? Well…yes and no. The story is good and exciting and relatively clean, but I would not recommend them to anyone who is really sensitive to reading pretty in depth accounts of death, killing, and torture. Some parts of the books are extremely depressing and very intense. But I can’t say don’t read them, especially if you plan on seeing the movies.
Today being the first of December, I’m excited to announce that from now until Christmas you can purchase the ebook version of The Pirate Daughter’sPromise, the first book of my Pirates & Faith series for only 99¢!
The ebook can be purchased for Kindle from: Amazon
I am a 25 year old homeschool graduate and independent Christian author and publisher. I love to write stories of truth, faith, and courage with the message that even in the deepest darkness, God's love shines as a light to offer hope. I also write Christian fantasy under the pen name Jaye L. Knight. Whether you are a reader or a writer, I hope you'll enjoy reading about my writing journey.
