Blog Tour: Raven's Eye by Adam Gowan

Adam Gowans is the youngest of five Air Force brats, out of which his siblings have voted him the weirdest. He loves anything that deals with stories, including movies, novels, television dramas, music, video games, manga/manhwa, and webtoons.

In his mid-twenties, he lived and taught English in South Korea for four years before returning to the States to live, like many LDS authors, in Utah.

His first novel is On Angelic Wings, which has a planned sequel, but the sequel will be released after two other novels that are calling for his attention.

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Ever since magic caused his mother's death, Ha-Neul, crown prince of Balhae, hates witches and the magic they wield. He has instituted harsh laws against all magic users.

Lisa is a young witch working undercover as a servant in his palace, hoping to gain freedom for her people. The last thing the two expect is to fall in love. But when Ha-Neul learns that Lisa is not only a witch, but the daughter of the Prince of Vires, land of witches, he banishes her. Distracted by heartbreak, he is caught off-guard by a military coup.

In hiding and on the run, Ha-Neul swallows his pride and travels with his siblings to Vires, planning to beg Lisa's aid, only to learn that she has mysteriously vanished.

Now his only hope in reclaiming his kingdom and reuniting with Lisa lies in the remote Northern Mountains, a country no one has ever penetrated and rumored home of a powerful magic source. There, Ha-Neul learns that a being powerful beyond comprehension has been carefully guiding his destiny. But if Ha-Neul can't let go of his hatred of all things magic, and accept the new path offered to him, it will mean the destruction of his entire world.

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Raven's Eye is an interesting mix of Sci-Fi and Fantasy about two lovers separated by beliefs and social status. Ha-Neul is the prince, essentially, of the kingdom of Balhea, but he has a hatred for witches stemming from a childhood tragedy. The girl he loves, Lisa, is the daughter of the current ruler of Vires, and is also a witch. When he finds out, after courting her favor, he banishes her. Not soon after, one of the more prestigious military commanders of a division of his armies stages a coup and he and his family have to run for their lives.

The plot thickens when he learns more about his own past than he cares for, leading to some interesting plot twists as he tries to find his estranged love by following her to Vires, only to learn that she's disappeared. After getting the idea to try and take back his kingdom, and to find Lisa, Ha-Neul and his family head to the Northern Mountains, a place of mystery. There, they learn there's a lot more going on than they supposed and it just goes on from there.

This story has a lot of potential. The first half of the book, or at least the first third all came from Lisa's point of view and how she hated the prince, until she's encouraged to get to know him, and then she comes to love him. The perspective changes when we see Ha-Neul try to court her, which is successful, until he realizes she's a witch, then he kicks her to the curb like any spoiled brat might, though there's more to it than that.
And then the rest of it is us following along as he tries to figure out how to take back his kingdom, gain the trust of the people he's persecuted most of his life, and generally get his life back together in time to go to war against the usurpers, which is where this book ends.

Apparently there will be a sequel to finish this all out, which would have been nice to know, because all I really wanted was to see if he and Lisa could put their differences aside and get back together. Unfortunately, there are conditions attached to that which require him to basically take back his kingdom to maintain balance in a grand scheme we don't really know much about.

There are a lot of different foreign names, titles, and terms in this book. It's great that the author provided a glossary of sorts for all these terms, but when reading it became confusing because some of those terms are really similar to each other, and there are apparently at least three or four different languages everyone keeps switching between, though I can only guess that it's because each is a dialect used only in certain social circles. But even with that glossary, there were a lot of terms where I was just like "screw it, I'm just going to pretend I know what it's saying and go with it," because there are so many of them, and it was easier than referencing the glossary every time I came across a term I wasn't sure about.

The story was intriguing, but I don't know that I will pick up the sequel when it comes out, mainly because I felt robbed not knowing this was the start of a series to begin with. I give this four out of five stars.


I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book.

10 Fun Facts

1. I love chocolate. I always have a stash of Lindor Truffles and Reese’s, my favorite Reese’s being the large Easter’ eggs and Christmas trees. I also eat chocolate every day, sometimes with all three meals.
2. I only buy the physical copies of books that I really like. All my other copies are digital. I started doing this after I moved to South Korea and had very limited living space.
3. I spent a few hundred dollars collecting all of the single volumes of the manga Skip Beat! while I lived in South Korea. I still buy the new volumes as they come out and read each new chapter online every month.
4. I like to cook, but I prefer cooking when it’s for more people than just me; otherwise, I cook simple meals.
5. My favorite video game series is Kingdom Hearts. I own multiple copies off the main games. However, my favorite standalone (which is standalone for now) is Horizon Zero Dawn.
6. I own four of the Harry Potter books with the original British covers (1, 3, 5, and 6) because I was given them while I lived in South Korea, but sadly can’t afford to try to buy the others.
7. Weird fact: I have seven moles on my right arm that form a dipper.
8. I was a bad student in university. I hardly ever did the reading assigned for my English classes. I always preferred to read a novel of my own choosing. Then I skimmed whatever reading was appropriate for the essays I wrote for class.
9. Though my two novels are Sci Fi/Fantasy, I very rarely read that genre anymore.
10. I’ll hold conversations with myself as different characters. It helps me hear their voice better and get to know them more.

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Great Summer Reads: Love on a Limb by Laurie Lewis

Laurie (L.C.) Lewis will always be a Marylander at heart—a weather-whining lover of crabs, American history, and the sea. She admits to being craft-challenged, particularly lethal with a glue gun, and a devotee of sappy movies. Her ninth published novel, her first romance novella, Sweet Water, was inspired by a visit to Oregon’s magnificent coastline, and time spent with Mother Eugenie, upon whom the character Mother Thomasine is based. 

Laurie’s women’s fiction novels include The Dragons of Alsace Farm (2016), Awakening Avery (2010), and Unspoken (2004), written as Laurie Lewis. 

Using the pen name L.C. Lewis, she wrote the five volumes of her award-winning FREE MEN and DREAMERS historical fiction series, set against the backdrop of the War of 1812: Dark Sky at Dawn (2007), Twilight’s Last Gleaming (2008), Dawn’s Early Light (2009), Oh, Say Can You See? (2010), and In God is Our Trust, (2011).

She is currently completing a political suspense novel planned for a summer 2017 release, a re -release of a romantic comedy, and she’s working on another historical fiction novel for a 2018 release. She loves to hear from readers.

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Matthew Grayken is young, successful, and dying, which is why he’s about to propose to a total stranger. He isn’t interested in love. He needs a caregiver, a companion, and someone to be his legal voice when he can no longer speak for himself.

Lonely, compassionate nurse Mikaela Compton is intrigued by Matt Grayken’s tender request, but when their friendly marriage turns into love, she rejects the inevitability of Matt’s death and prays for a miracle instead.

Mikaela succeeds in reigniting Matt’s will to fight, but his body is losing the battle, and her determination to save him causes her to betray the fundamental promise she made him--to help him die peaceably.

Their last hope at saving Matt's life will require a sacrifice from each of them, and force them to decide how far out on a limb they're willing to go for love.

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Snippet:

         

“I love you, Matt.” The words were spoken in a whisper, so light and airy that they tickled his lips. “Just finally be mine. Give me these arms to hold on to. This shoulder to lay my head on. This mouth that speaks honesty to me and gives me kisses. These are enough until you’re well. Just knowing you love me is enough.”

Each word had been followed by a touch that left him weak in the very best way. It took some doing to position their bodies so Mikaela could rest her head upon his chest without causing him pain, but the sensation of her against him was less painful than her absence. 

He drank in the heady scent of coconut in her hair, and felt life pump through him with the rise and fall of her breaths. He loved the press of her forehead against his throat and knew in that moment that he had been a prideful fool, squandering precious months on the silly notion that he could bar this woman from fully claiming his heart.

The tree lights’ glow softly burned through the first traces of dusk. Small lights brightening a darkening night. He wondered if that was why Mikaela set the tree up early, to remind him that even when they couldn’t hold back the darkness, they must hold on to the light.

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Great Summer Reads: Love at Lakewood Med by TJ Amberson

TJ Amberson hails from the Pacific Northwest, where she lives with her husband and nutty cocker spaniel. Her most recent novels include The Kingdom of Nereth, The Council of Nereth, Fusion, and Love at Lakewood Med. When she's not writing, TJ can probably be found enjoying a hot chocolate, pretending to know how to garden, riding her bike, playing the piano, or surfing the Internet for cheap plane tickets.

  

With a love of writing in multiple genres, TJ Amberson strives to provide well-written, age-appropriate, and original novels for tweens, teens, and new adults.

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Savannah Drake would be thrilled about starting her final year of medical school if it weren't for one thing: she has to spend a month working in the emergency room with cold, aloof Dr. Wesley Kent as her mentor. 

When her first day in the ER proves to be a humiliating disaster, Savannah is ready to swear off emergency medicine forever. Gradually, though, she finds that the unpredictable, emotional experience of caring for patients in the emergency room is affecting her far differently than she expected--and Dr. Kent turns out to be anything but the arrogant attending physician that she assumed him to be. 

But just when Savannah finally admits to herself that she is falling for Dr. Kent, she learns that things at the hospital are not all what they seem. 

Faced with a seemingly impossible choice, Savannah must decide between her future career and everything that she has come to care so much about.

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Snippet:

Footsteps approach fast. An instant later, the drunk guy is ripped off of me by a person who is wearing dark scrubs. I collapse to the floor, shaking from adrenaline. Havoc continues directly above where I'm cowering. I crawl away from the stretcher and stagger to my feet. Turning around, I am met by the sight of Doctor Kent pinning the drunk guy down on the stretcher.

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Great Summer Reads: The Gentleman Physician by Sally Britton

"Sally Britton is sixth generation Texan, received her BA in English from Brigham Young University, and reads voraciously. She started her writing journey at the tender age of fourteen on an electric typewriter, and she’s never looked back.

Sally lives in Arizona with her husband, four children, and their dog. She loves researching, hiking, and eating too much chocolate."

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“I didn’t really understand what love was. 

I didn’t know what it meant, that I should’ve fought harder for it.”

Banished from home by her angry father, Julia Devon travels to Bath to fulfill her role as family spinster by assisting her cousin, Lady Macon, in caring for her dying husband.

Nathaniel Hastings’s life runs in a predictable pattern, until a routine visit to one of his ailing patients brings him face to face with Julia, the woman who broke his heart five years before in London.

Julia and Nathaniel find themselves unlikely allies as they work together to tend to the family’s needs, fend off Lady Macon’s scheming brother-in-law, and avoid confronting the pain of their shared past. But could this accidental meeting be their second chance at love?"

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Snippet:

Nathaniel looked up at last, meeting her eyes more steadily, and Julia saw purpose burning within them. “I needed you to know, to understand, that I am a whole person again and have been for some time. I have no ill feelings towards you, Miss Devon. I wish you the very best.” 

His meaning was quite clear. Nathaniel had no desire to ever see her again.

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Great Summer Reads: All the Way to Italy by Flavia Brunetti

Born just outside of Rome, Flavia Brunetti grew up bouncing back and forth between Italy and California, eventually moving back to the Eternal City and confirming her lifelong commitment to real gelato. 

Flavia holds a Master of Arts degree in Government and Politics from St. John's University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from John Cabot University.
Today she travels the world working for an international humanitarian organization and spends her free time writing and wandering around her beloved Roma in constant search of bookstores and the perfect espresso. 

You can find her city blog on Rome at whichwaytorome.com and her portfolio of published writing at flaviinrome.com.

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Until her dad died, Little considered herself a Californian. Now, thanks to half a letter, a symbol she can't quite remember, and writer's block, she finds herself back in Italy, the country of her birth. In a headlong rush to return to her beloved San Francisco, Little will travel throughout Italy, enlisting the help of the aunt who raised her, friends old and new, and the country itself, in her search for the answers she needs.

This is the powerful story of those in search of a balance between wanderlust and the necessity to come home, a reminder that although we may be fragments, we are never a lost cause.

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Snippet:

This is a story for the third generations (the fourth, the fifth, the sixth generations), for the not-so-lost generations, for the hybrids. For the people who feel more at home in an airport than they wish they did, who yearn for one place to call home but also always, inevitably, long for something they do not know, miss places they have yet to behold, people they have yet to meet. This is for the ones who have grown up checking if the gate has changed, who have both struggled with and embraced transience, have learned to find themselves in the moments in between, that have found a place to belong in the very un-belongable (I just made that a word). This is for the ones who always say goodbye, who have learned too well how to keep tears from falling until they’ve gotten through Security. The ones who cry inconsolably when they get on that plane but are always ready to say hello on the other side. For the ones who hear the sea even in the rumble of the 747 as it wakes up, who have chosen freedom but know that they have placed their roots everywhere, not nowhere. Everywhere, in the laugh of the friends they never forget, in the people that wait for you at Arrivals even when your flight is nine hours late and you stumble off the plane in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm. Lifetime friendships, your blood runs in my veins friendship. 

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