p Holland

Biography

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Smashwords book reviews by p Holland

  • The Mind Readers, Book 1 on Dec. 20, 2010

    Cameron can hear people's thoughts, and it's seldom a pleasant experience. Within the first couple of pages, she reads the thoughts of a man who's about to rob the diner where she's eating, but she gets up and walks away without warning anyone. She feels guilty for not acting, but she's been raised to keep her head down and not let anyone know about her ability. Her Grandma is paranoid about keeping her safe, and the two of them had to move around the country many times during Cameron's childhood, to stay away from people who would exploit her talents. Cameron's just surviving one day at a time until an unsolved murder crops up in their seaside town, and a handsome stranger named Lewis shows up and seems to understand her abilities...perhaps because he can read minds, too. Cameron's already-weird life will never be the same, and she's going to have to make some tough choices about who she wants to be and what principles shes going to stand for. I usually prefer reading about heroines who are reckless in their defense of others, but Cameron's play-it-safe attitude changes over time. So much of her unwillingness to warn people about danger comes from the conditioning she's received from her Grandma. Cameron has a tense relationship with her controlling grandmother, and sadly, her strongest friendship, with rich n' popular Emily, is built entirely on lies. Cam's mind reading ability allows her to tell Emily exactly what she wants to hear, and Emily likes having a best friend who will flatter her and never compete with her for boys. Cam has a few other friends, but nobody really gets close to her until Lewis arrives. Cam can't read Lewis' thoughts, and when he says he's also a mind reader, and that he needs her help, how can she turn him down? She's ready to learn more about her talents and to start helping people instead of always running away. Lewis takes her to meet other people with mind reading abilities, and she quickly finds that her powers are more extensive than she's ever dreamed of. I thought this was going to be a quick, cute paranormal read, and was I ever wrong. It's quick, and has some cute moments and some funny moments, but the themes here aren't at all frivolous. Cameron's character development is very powerful and believable, and she has to make some very tough lose/lose decisions. She moves from (mostly) accepting that what her Grandma says is true to wholeheartedly accepting what her new friends say is true, to truly thinking for herself. Cam has this absolutely wonderful strength that is seldom seen in YA, and it's hard-earned, to boot. The ending of the book contains a nice parallel to the beginning, the love story is considerably more complex than it initially looks, and I simply can't wait for volume two.
  • My Superhero Sister on Feb. 07, 2011

    Holly Hamilton lives in Century City where her dad, Invincible Man, defends the good citizens against all evil--or at least he did until he lost most of his powers fighting against Anti-Hero. Now he leaves all the city-saving to Ellen, Holly's big sister, who flies about in a cape as the superhero Suprema. Holly is 100% human, like her mother, and she's going through an awkward phase complete with glasses and retainers. While Holly spends all her time collecting bugs, doing science experiments, and hanging out with her equally uncool friend Mona, she can never measure up to her super sister who's not only high-powered but also an academic whiz and a head cheerleader. But the presence of a new superhero in town begins to put Holly's sisterly jealousies on the back burner as she tries to figure out whether Magna Boy is a friend or foe. Holly has a pretty good family life--her mom adores her, her dad's a vet in his spare time, and her sister Ellen's not stuck up, she's just naturally good at everything. Holly's getting along fine in life until a new guy shows up at school. Well, actually, two new guys. Eddie McGee is a classic nerd archetype, but Holly's interest is drawn by another new guy, Tad, who's a classic hunk archetype. She develops an instant crush on Tad, but she knows that he's more in her sister's league. Holly's distressed that he'll never see past her exterior to give her a chance, though she's interested in him mainly for his exterior qualities. Still, this is a light, sweet story so nobody's really trying to objectify or use anybody else. When I started this book, I wondered if it would have a comedic or sarcastic slant to it, but the superhero tropes are played pretty straight from the 1960's and earlier comic book eras. The 80's comics started deconstructing heroes in stories with gritty settings and gray morality (Watchmen, most of Batman, etc), and even though heroes are getting rebooted and reconstructed these days, I think I usually expect a twist. If you like the classics heroes, villains, powers, and mysteries, then this story is a great example of how the original plot elements work. To me, the story is clean enough and sweet enough that it feels more like a Mid-Grade, and it'll be a good superhero adventure for younger teens and tweens.
  • Vampire General: Intern with the Vampire on May 04, 2011

    Dr. Aline Harman never meant to become a staff member of Grace General Hospital for paranormal patients. After all, she's human and she's enjoying her second year of residency at a normal hospital where the staff is unfriendly but the emotional reward of helping patients is very high. Then she lends a hand to the mysterious Dr. William Rocque and his bizarre zombie-like patient, and makes a mistake that gets her dismissed from her workplace. To Rocque, this shows that Aline's the kind of person who will take a risk to help someone, making her the perfect candidate for an internship at his hospital. Aline has never heard of Grace General, but Rocque assures her that it is a well-known “private facility with a unique clientele”. She's about to find out just how unique. This story is really a genius kind of genre-blend. Some people love medical stories and some love paranormal stories, and what better way to make a lot of readers happy at once than to write about urban fantasy medicine? The glimpses of worldbuilding are really cool, because Grace General isn't just for vampires—werewolves, pixies and other creatures are treated, too, and one of the first patients Aline sees is a mermaid who had an unfortunate collision with a yacht propeller. Aline is thrown into a tough world where the patients are dangerous and the doctors are slightly psycho, but just when the story's getting really crazy, it is grounded by Aline's sympathy and how much she wants to help hurting people. The support cast is great, though most of them just cause more problems for Aline. Rocque is sweet and kind, but he's only slightly helpful and rarely offers his much-needed guidance. Kessler, the grumpy Chief of Emergency, is looking for any excuse to fire Aline, and Dr. Arlington dislikes Aline so much that she worries she might not even survive her first shift. One neat thing about this novella/short novel is that it actually makes you care about the lives of these paranormal creatures, because Aline does. It's a fast, fun ride of a story, but it's also surprisingly heartbreaking in places as Aline faces tough situations and tougher choices about her patients' welfare. Looking for some fresh urban fantasy that really stands out from the pack? Check into Vampire General.
  • Between on May 11, 2011

    Lindsey's a college girl who is enjoying life with her boyfriend, but when he drops the "L" word, she knows she's not ready to say "I love you" back. But she doesn't have much time to ponder their relationship's depth because half a minute after Ravi confesses his feelings, the two of them are caught in horrible car crash. Instead of waking up in the car wreckage, Lindsey finds herself regaining consciousness in beautiful meadow in springtime. She meets Aiden MacRae of Eilean Donan Castle, a dashing Scottish fellow who is not an angel, but a Transporter--he's basically her guide to get from earth to heaven. But the trip might not be so simple after Lindsey falls for Aiden and begins to hope she can stay in the in-between place forever. Lindsey and Aiden have some cute moments. He actually goes all-out Scottish and wears a kilt, and is one of those extra-perfect heroes who knows just what to say to the heroine and appreciates all her virtues as well as overlooking her flaws. Lindsey has a tender heart and cares about things like how her parents will feel after losing her, and how Aiden feels about his job as a Transporter. Between's subgenre is kind of an afterlife-meets-time-travel setup because Aiden can manipulate their surroundings to reflect his past. There are lots of accurately drawn historical flashbacks in the form of Aiden's memories, which he replays for Lindsey. A realistic battle scene, a visit to the palace at Versailles and the streets of France (pre-Revolutionary War), and some scenes of his boyhood in Scotland are all interesting. Lindsey can re-experience her memories too, and the visits to her past help flesh out her character, since we didn't really get to know her before she met Aiden. The real conflict of the story comes from the ever-present possibility of separation, and there may be more keeping the two sweethearts apart than just Lindsey's imminent move to heaven. Can a supernatural love endure even a permanent separation? The book is aimed at older teens, but it doesn't so much follow YA tropes as it does more grown-up-book plot movements, so I think it'll work better for adult readers who are fans of highland stories
  • The Curse Girl on June 11, 2011

    In this novella based on Beauty and the Beast, teenage Bee (Beauty) has heard the stories about the Beast and his nightmare of a magic house--all of the stories sound impossible, and none of them give her the slightest confidence that she won't be harmed by the Beast inside. Bee's father has made the ultimate mistake of trespassing on the Beast's property, and Bee is the one who has to pay for the mistake by living with the Beast. When the Beast shows himself, Bee discovers that he's nice-looking except for the scar that marks one side of his face, and he's not particularly frightening, except for his disdainful, snobby attitude. His real name is Will and he lives in the house with his younger sister Rose, and his named-for-what-they-do servants Housekeeper and Butler. He's under a curse and needs Bee to help him break it, but he doesn't know how she can help, and Bee's barely convinced that she wants to help such a nasty person. She tries to use her wits to escape from the magic house, but the doors refuse to open and the windows are unbreakable. And the house truly has an eerie Gothic vibe, from the smiling statues in the Hall of Regret to the underground Labyrinth, to the dead conservatory. The setting really contributes to the mood of the story, and it's clear that while Bee might not be in any life-threatening danger, any number of weird, impossible things could happen in this place. And weird things do start happening, especially after Bee discovers a certain chained-up prisoner in the labyrinth. We might not know much about Bee's background, but she's still a strong and sympathetic character who's acting brave in the midst of a bad situation. There's some really rough emotional issues between Bee and her dad because, lets face it, he has sacrificed his own daughter to who-knows-what in order to save himself from the magic that marks him as a trespasser. We expect this sort of bizarre abandonment to happen in dark old faery tales, but when it happens in modern fiction, you experience the full weight of a parental betrayal that's impossible to justify. In Alex Flinn's Beastly, she made Beauty's father be a drug addict, to explain why'd he'd willingly hand his his own daughter to a dangerous stranger. In The Curse Girl, the father seems like he's just very thoughtless and weak, and Bee resents him for it, but his mistake allows her to find out what she's really made of. The romance starts as a near-enemies relationship, like you'd expect. Will and Bee exchange a lot of verbal barbs because she automatically distrusts him and he's immediately dislikes her, though he needs her to break his curse. I really like this version of the Beast--not a brawny monster like in the Disney version (though I love him, too) and not really the standard handsome-guy-turned-ugly guy either. He's intelligent and caustic and he's trying to figure out the rules of his own little supernatural world, just like Bee is. In another upside, he's not some stalker that demanded that Bee's father hand her over to him--getting Bee wasn't really even his idea, so he's still a bit of a brat but he's no kidnapper. I like the gradual development of Bee and Will's relationship. It's halfway through the story before they've even established a good, tense friendship and their struggles to connect are fantastic to watch. The end of the story definitely made me smile. With a strong heroine, a well-layered mystery, and a truly great setting, The Curse Girl makes for a very solid paranormal read. It's a really compelling take on Beauty and the Beast, and I'll be looking forward to seeing what Kate Ellison comes up with in the future.
  • Gravity on June 12, 2011

    It's Ariel's fifteenth birthday, but nobody's too happy about it. Her calmly dysfunctional family only has a tiny 4-person party because Ariel's mom Claire decided it was necessary. Claire is an ultra-perfectionist who runs the perfect business and maintains the perfect home, while Ariel is a standard messy teenager feeling the weight of her mother's disapproval. Ariel's not-so-great birthday gets weirder when she looks out the window and sees her friend Jenna who has been missing for three months. Ariel follows as Jenna runs into the nearby woods and enters the old Dexter Orphange building, which is supposedly haunted. The house catches fire, then Ariel wakes up, still missing her friend. Ariel stars her sophomore year of high school in a daze, feeling lost without her best friend and wondering what connection her dreams might have to reality. More paranormal phenomena start cropping up, and Ariel gets the unsettling feeling that she's being watched. On the bright side, Ariel does meet a new friend, an outsider girl named Theo, who is a great supporting character. At school, Ariel also she hears other girls gossiping about a cute new guy named Henry, but Ariel doesn't think she'll like him. And at first she doesn't--he tries to win her friendship and make her laugh, but she's not in a mood for joking because she's still dealing with survivor's guilt after losing Jenna. Henry's actually kind of intrigued that she's annoyed by him, but though he shows some interest, Ariel knows that she shouldn't even think about flirting back because the most popular girl at school has already called dibs on him. Henry has a genuine charm, and his presence seems to be a benefit to Ariel. It's always nice to see a YA guy who isn't especially mysterious or brooding, though Henry does have a few secrets to hide. There are only a couple of difficult elements in Gravity: 1. The school scenes can be a little longer than necessary when there's no particular action or character development we need to see. 2. Ariel and Henry go back and forth a few too many times about whether they're involved with each other or not. Ariel tries to manage her school life, plus her new friendship with Theo and new potential relationship with Henry, but she's plagued by her memories of Jenna. Ariel is certain that there's more going on in her town than meets the eye, and Ariel and Theo start spying on the suspicious-acting Principal McPherson. Ariel also begins digging into her town's dark past, particularly as it relates to the creepy ancient orphanage, and she uncovers some truly chilling secrets. Gravity is a good read for younger teens who'd like something that's on the scary side, and it'll probably be the most interesting to read around Halloween.
  • Limerick: The Shimmer Trilogy, #2 on Aug. 03, 2011

    THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BOOK #1 One week after the events of Shimmerspell, Jensen's having disturbing dreams of a water nixie who talks about a curse Jensen is under. A normal teenage girl wouldn't have to deal with these wacked-out dreams, but Jensen is the halfling granddaughter of the dark nixie Morgan Le Fae, and she's now staying with Dermott, her recently discovered father who also happens to be a skilled magic user. Jensen's best friend Zoe is still providing her with emotional support, but it's hard for Jensen to regroup after learning that her "sister" Lauren was actually her mother, and that she wasn't one of the good guys. Everything Jensen has known to be true has turned upside down, and she still has plenty of unresolved issues. Brennan the spike-haired siren is back, and he seems to be ready to help Jensen stay safe from the supernatural creatures who would try to harm her, but she's really not sure if he's trustworthy. Jensen's enjoying the little time she gets to have with her faerie boyfriend Liam, a Sidhe Guard who's part of the Seelie Court living on Earth. But her dad is convinced that Liam has some nefarious intentions, and Jensen has to admit to herself that she doesn't fully know this paranormal guy who seems so perfect. There's a very small number of people that she can truly trust in, and they keep changing. This volume contains even more surprise revelations for Jensen, and they're all very attention-grabbing. For me, the only real downside to the story was seeing Jensen using her magic for kind of selfish reasons. Nothing evil, but still on the shallow side. The writing style has some good, rich descriptions like I enjoy seeing in faerie fiction--you can get away with some really pretty flourishes when you're discussing the dark and beautiful faerie courts. But the language never kicks over into being flowery because the story really does have its roots in urban fantasy, where there's enough action and grittiness to balance out the beauty. And the Arthurian legends are still woven into the story, which makes it even more interesting. Overall, this is a very engaging second volume in Jensen's ongoing story. And there are dragons in it! Grade: B+