The Book Landers: Book Review+Author Interview+Giveaway: Win the Rings

Title: Win the Rings

Author: KD Van Brunt

Genre: YA urban dystopian/thriller

Book Blurb:

Jace has been the property of the U.S. Army since they found out about her when she was five, and now she has become one of its most valuable weapons. But Jace is not the only one of her kind. Gray is one too, but with the help of his sister, he has spent most of his sixteen years hiding from the Army. Now, the Army has found out about Gray and they cannot allow him to roam free. Operating on the theory that it takes one to catch one, Jace is send out with a special ops squad to hunt Gray down. But Jace is not the only one pursuing Gray, and the competition is after her too. What ensues is a desperate chase through city after city as duty and honor collide with love and sacrifice.

Review:

Wow...Win the Rings grips you from page one and won't let go. The plot and action is relentless. Okay...before I get ahead of myself, perhaps I shoulder start at the beginning. I absolutely love the whole setup and premise of Win the Rings. Basically, people called "Shifters" exist and are government property. Shifters are people who can acquire the identity of other people who had skin contact with him/her. And Shifters don't just acquire their looks, they also get their memories.

Normally, Shifters are sent to a special school to be trained (all kids are tested for shifting ability at a young age.) However, Gray, one of the main characters, manages to avoid this fate. Now, he's on the run with his sister.

Jace, the other character, has been at CRACKED (name of the military school) for eleven years and she wants out. When words surfaces that a rogue Shifter (Gray) is on the loose, she is given the chance to win her freedom and "graduate" from school if she proves her worth three times over. In other words, if she can catch Gray, she's free.

How awesome does that plot sound??? And oh, did I mention that Jace is the best Shifter around? But wait...there's a PLOT TWIST!!! It seems as if there's another organization just as determined as Jace to capture Gray...and they always seem to be two steps of Jace and her team of Shifters.

Okay, 'nuff said about the plot (which I loved) and let's move onto the character. Normally I go for the more kick-ass character (in this case, Jace), but for some reason, I was drawn much more strongly towards Gray. Even though he may make some rash decisions, I find his loyalty to his sister very admirable. Further more, his action speaks volumes (ie. risking his identity in order to save other people from dangers.)

Jace is more of a loose cannon. Although she's a damn good fighter, her temper is very short and she seems full of anger (though I don't really blame her, given her situation.) Nevertheless, I found it harder to connect with her. Bottom line: you do not want to anger her! Both characters had very distinct voices.

Oh my god...that ending. That Ending!!! Although all of the book was very enjoyable, that ending was just a killer! (in a good way) I was gripping the book so hard I'm surprised I didn't tear the pages. I couldn't believe what Gray was willing to do in order to escape being captured. I'm trying hard not to give away any spoilers...but Gray's action, as I mentioned before, really speaks volumes and reflect his true character.

Rating:

About the Author

I was raised in Southern CA and Seattle and came east to Boston to go to school, before drifting down to Wash, DC for work. I now live in Maryland, work in DC, and write in whatever Starbucks I can find nearby. What time I have when not writing, working or reading, I like to cook and hang out with my standard poodle, Buffy (now who do you suppose I named her after?) I like fast cars, hockey, long drives and hiking. Short term goal: finish my trilogy. Long term goal: support myself writing.

Author Interview (be sure to stick around for the giveaway!)

The Book Landers: What inspired you to write?
KD: For me it wasn’t any one thing. It was something in my soul. I had stories I felt an overwhelming compulsion to tell. They sat around boiling inside of me until one day I read a “bestseller” and said to myself, ‘this is crap and I can do so much better…so, stop saying and start doing.’

TBL: What is one thing you learned from writing?
KD: Patience and devotion. Writing is like love—if you rush it and take it too far too fast, it usually sucks. So, slow down and make it perfect. Great love doesn’t happen in one night and neither does a great story.

TBL: If you could meet any character, who would it be?
KD: So many to choose from. In my own book, it would be Jace—I’d love to have her over for a 4th of July barbecue. Moving beyond her, in YA lit generally it would probably be Tris from Divergent-Insurgent-Allegiant. Yes, the ending in Allegiant sucked, but she was a great character and wouldn’t it be unbelievable to sit down at a table at Dauntless and have a hamburger and a discussion with her.

TBL: How do you beat a writer's block?
KD: I have several strategies, depending on how severe it is. My first step is to back up a chapter or two in the draft and revise my most recent stuff in the hope that by the time I get to where I left off I now have momentum and inspiration to keep going. If that doesn’t work, I outline the next scene in the hope this will kickstart my creative juices. If I’m still running into a brick wall, this often means there’s something wrong with the direction the story is taking that subconsciously my mind is rebelling against, so I need to make a fundamental change to a character or plot arc.

TBL: Dogs or cats?
Definitely dogs. I have a standard poodle named Buffy (aka the slayer), who is smarter than me and likes to lie at my feet when I write. Also, she actually watches TV, running over to sniff it when a dog comes on screen—she may be an alien, but I’m cool with that.

TBL: What is one song that could describe your novel?
KD: Tough question. I think I’d go with “It’s Time”—Imagine Dragons. I think I probably listened to Imagine Dragons for a hundred hours while writing the book.
TBL: Whoot! Huge Imagine Dragons fan here!

TBL: What draws you to the dystopian/scifi genre?
KD: I call the genre of my book, Win the Rings, urban dystopian—it deals with a group of people who are marginalized and treated harshly by society, but the society in question is not some future post-apocalyptic world. It’s the current world we live in, our society today. What makes dystopian work, and what attracts me to it, is losers stepping up against bad odds and becoming winners. Most dystopian stories have an oppressed character overcoming odds and winning. Who can resist that? The issue with most dystopian stories, which I tried to avoid, is they take place in a future society that is usually is underdeveloped, story-wise, and is hard to buy into. Take Delirium/ Divergent/Uglies, just to name a few—Fabulous stories, but the overall world and environment they take place in is very sparsely explained and as a reader you’re mostly asked to just accept the world on faith. And let’s face it, some of it is hard to swallow. Urban dystopia/urban fantasy tries to tell a story as much as possible in our known world and selectively engage the reader in magical propositions. I like it that way. So that’s what Win the Rings is all about.

TBL: Who is your favorite author?
KD: Depends on the genre. When it comes to adult Sci-Fi, I’m a fan of space opera and I consider myself a literary citizen of the Honorverse, so I love David Weber.
For high fantasy, as much as I love Tolkien, I got to go with Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson. The Wheel of Time series was epic to the nth power.
For YA, I think I’ll go with Richelle Mead. She consistently produces good stuff—great characters, good plots, and really enjoyable reads. A close runner-up is Tamora Pierce, whose Alanna/Beka Cooper characters were a real inspiration for me with this book.

TBL: How do you plan your books--do you outline or just make things up as you go along?
KD: I start with a one or two page synopsis of the major plot points and a short paragraph about each of the main characters. Then, I re-evaluate the synopsis after the first couple chapters. I keep revising and adding to the synopsis as I go. Detailed outlining doesn’t work for me. I like the freedom of being able to take a story or character in a new direction and for me outlines are a little constraining.

TBL: Any advice for aspiring writers?
KD: The path to success is different for every writer, but one common denominator for most is perseverance. It’s not easy to write a book and see it through to publication, and there’s no shortage of reasons to give up along the way. Plus, rejection sucks. It’s the rare writer that hasn’t had a belly full of it. So, aspiring writers should recognize going in that it’s going to be a tough slog and they’re going to be rejected a lot, but if they can persevere through all that and hang in there, it’s totally worth it.

TBL: Thanks for taking your time to answer these questions!