Friday, August 19, 2016

Book Review, Tour, and Giveaway: "Beauty for Ashes" and "Monstrous Beauty" by Carol E. Keen

About the Books

BeautyForAshes
Beauty for Ashes
Jazz is being forced to move and her mom has given her a major task to accomplish. She has to pack up the attic. What Jazz finds in the attic changes her life in ways she never imagined, and opens her up to life altering possibilities.
Monstrous Beauty
MonsterousBeautyEthan’s father was a piece of work, to put it mildly. His father managed to become quite wealthy before he died, yet he left Ethan deeply damaged in more ways than one. Can the love and care of a strange young woman with a past of her own free him, or is he doomed to never change?


 My Thoughts
Beauty for Ashes:

I liked the different twist on the Cinderella story and Carol Keen's take on it. I enjoyed "Cinder's" growth in her Christian walk and how she became a better person for it. The fact that more than one woman fit the slipper was a cool twist, so the Prince had to employ other methods of discovering the identity of the fleeing beauty. I thought that was cool. I had a hard time reading the story as it didn't flow well for me and jumping back and forth from 3rd to 1st person when we were following the same person was confusing. I liked how the story was tied in to the Bible verse.


Monstrous Beauty:

The book kept you wondering what happened to Ethan to scar him so badly. It was not what I expected at all. You feel sorry for Annabelle and the treatment she gets from her sisters. I almost wondered if it was going to be a cross between Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, but I knew that "Beauty for Ashes" was the Cinderella remake. The book was slightly easier to read than "Beauty for Ashes" but still had quite a few errors that made it jarring for me. I liked the different twist on the Beauty and the Beast story.

About the Author
Carol E. Keen currently resides in Alabama with her husband and family. She spends her time writing, reading, working on photography, and working with her much loved critters. She started creating stories to share with others at the age of two years old. She was published for several years in FAMA magazine (Freshwater And Marine Aquarium) as a contributing editor. She published her first book on CD, called Simply Seahorses. She is overjoyed to be publishing her fiction to share with you now. Carol currently has more books in the “works”. Please feel free to follow her for updates.
On a personal note: Carol really enjoys coffee and a good book.

Guest Post from Carol E. Keen

Can you believe it? I’m on my second tour with Celebrate Lit! Wow! I’m floored and happy and close to tears too. I have to say a HUGE thank you to Sandy and Denise for their encouragement and patience and help.
Today we are talking about my first series, The Beauty Series. The first book, Beauty For Ashes is the very first published fiction book that I have released. It started out as a contest entry. When it didn’t make the winning selection, I expanded it and had several trusted people read it. It was well received over all, and so I braved the scary world of navigation Amazon and published it.
Beauty For Ashes is based on Cinderella, and it was a challenge to write. I had always had some questions about why certain things weren’t covered in that story, so in my version, I added them. I answered my unanswered questions. I also have always felt that Cinderella had to be Christian to survive what she did and still be who she was.
My third published book is the second book in this series, and one of my favorite fairytales of all time. Monstrous Beauty is based on Beauty and the Beast. As with Beauty For Ashes, I always felt a “back story” to what drove the Beast was missing. In this version I have added all that, as well as having other answers to why “Beauty” was in this situation to start with. How would either of them relied on God to get through their situations?
I had a lot of fun writing Monstrous Beauty, and I’m looking forward to the next book I plan to write in this series.
Thank you so much for joining me on this adventure, and please feel free to ask questions!
Blessings, Carol ðŸ™‚

Blog Stops

August 14: Back Porch Reads
August 15: Pause for Tales
August 17: A Greater Yes
August 17: inklings and notions
August 18: Karen’s Krayons
August 20: simpleharvestreads
August 22: The Power of Words
August 24: ArtisticNobody

Giveaway

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To celebrate her tour, Carol is giving away three ebook copies of the Beauty Series with bookmark. Enter the giveaway here: https://promosimple.com/ps/a180



Beauty for Ashes is available for Kindle:
  • File Size: 2904 KB
  • Print Length: 56 pages
  • Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
  • Publisher: Carol E. Keen (July 13, 2015)
  • Publication Date: July 13, 2015
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B011LLL19A


Monstrous Beauty is available for Kindle:
  • File Size: 4087 KB
  • Print Length: 125 pages
  • Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
  • Publication Date: April 11, 2016
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B01E539P9O

I received free copies of both of these books in exchange for my honest review as part of the Celebrate Lit blog tour. All thoughts and opinions are my own and no other compensation was received.

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