Queen Procrastinator strikes again

I am terrible with journals, blogs, diaries, etc. Anything that requires I record my thoughts just doesn't happen smoothlly. My mom says I go into my "ozone" and don't surface again for hours. This may be the leading cause, it may just be my laziness to type. Ironic when you were an English undergrad and had a paper a week to churn out. That is when Queen Procrastinator was born and she lives on to this day. 

Fate Succumbs by Tammy Blackwell

After the tedious labor behind reading a Wheel of Time novel, I decided for a quick palate cleanser. I was humbly surprised by the offering of Tammy Blackwell's Timber Wolves series. I started the first novel on a free Kindle give away (which has become one of my favorite marketing concepts from Amazon as it introduces me to wonderful authors I may have skipped over even at $3 a novel).

Tangent here: I really was against the Kindle and the digital age for the longest time. I still hold to the belief it has hurt the literary field in an irrevocable way. People are able to self-publish now and place crap novels out on the Internet for money. Some do not have a proper respect for grammar (possibly even storytelling in certain cases), and they do not deserve to receive anything for their lazy attitude towards publishing. It is a travesty to read cocktail napkins that have never hit the desk of a trained editor. It hurts. I am always, and will forever be, leery of self-published authors that do not list an editor on their copyright page. I do believe that there are "diamonds in the rough" attempting to make their way and have a true passion for the written word so I will keep giving them a chance, but I feel mugged by the hacks ruining it for the talented.

OK, back to the review: After reading Destiny Binds early in 2012, I was happily impressed by the story for its light young adult story without being vapid. I bought the next book in the series immediately. I was impatient to wait a year for Fate Succumbs, but it was definitely worth the wait. As an excellent end to the series, the story did not fully complete itself. After some research, I did find that the characters are not "finished" and Tammy plans to create more novels that involve the main characters in a back seat plot. Had I not done this research, however, I may not have been as satisfied with the ending. 

For a young adult offering, it has as many unexpected twists and turns that can be anticipated when the main audience has extensive ADD in a media driven world. I also didn't feel taxed reading yet another set of immortal stories. There was the very clear message about how life really works, even if you are special.

The story moves along at a brisk pace, and I was entertained through the entire novel. It was a very refreshing read after paragraphs of description (sometimes needless) from Robert Jordan. Tammy Blackwell truly cleansed my reading mind and put me back in an ecstatic state to reach my goal of 75 books this year. I even added her short story novella collection of prequel points-of-view to engross myself further into the Timber Wolves realm.

Here's to a completely new genre!