Title: Willow Pond
Author: Carol Tibaldi
Available: Amazon
Summary: "The Roaring Twenties crumble into the Great Depression, but Virginia Kingsley, New York's toughest and most successful speakeasy owner, is doing just fine. Now that the world is falling apart, bootlegging is a flourishing business, and she's queen of that castle.
Then her infant nephew is kidnapped. Her niece, Laura, and Laura's philandering movie star husband, are devastated. The police have few leads, and speculation and rumors abound in the media circus that follows the celebrity abduction.
Only one reporter, Erich Muller, seems to care enough about the child's welfare and the parents' feelings to report the case responsibly. Over the course of the investigation, Erich Muller and Laura fall in love, but their relationship is doomed to failure since he suspects her beloved aunt Virginia is behind the kidnapping. Laura, jaded when it comes to men, sides with Virginia.
But Virginia has figured out the truth, and she can't tell anyone for fear of losing her niece's affections and having the police ransack her life. So she pursues her own investigation, shaking down, threatening, and killing one petty crook after another during her search.
Little Todd's absence shapes everyone's lives. When he is finally found, the discovery will bring disaster for some and revelation for others."
Source: I received a free copy in return for an honest review.
Review: This review is going to be very challenging for me to write, because my opinions on the book are different in terms of different aspects.
Tibaldi is a good writer. The book is well done and pulls you through very well. I thought she captured the time period very well without going too far overboard on details. I'm a person who likes my settings described with only as much as necessary. I had a real The Great Gatsby feeling when I read it, which says a lot since I barely remember that book from when I read it in High School. So, in terms of this, the book is very good.
When I read the summary, I had expected a more taut, suspenseful time line to the narrative, which isn't what it has. It covered a longer span of time than I thought it would. That's not a criticism, as that's probably more realistic. It just surprised me, and the leaps of time could get a little distracting but not enough to pull you out of the story.
It did make it a little hard, though, because so many dramatic events happen that are really only glanced over, like Jenny, particularly towards the latter part of the novel. It seems like not enough treatment of those was given, and Virginia's efforts get almost dropped, it feels like, and I would have liked to have seen more of her in that latter section.
Here's where it did fall flat for me. Two points, mainly. One is reader preference, so others are likely to have very different but equally valid opinions. The other is more content related.
Content and structure: I found some of the character motivations to be kind of thin. They weren't made clear enough for me to understand why certain characters did certain things. Like Virginia. I liked her, but it wasn't made clear enough (in my opinion) why she didn't tell Laura about what she was doing. I see the reason in the summary, but that's not drawn clearly in the book. It felt like a plot device, which I understand it was, but I like things to make more sense.
Equally so, Erich's reasons for suspecting Virginia so early on. I understand that Virginia was part of the seedy bootlegging scene, but he never defined a motive: what would Virginia have to gain by being involved in the kidnapping? I could better understand his expecting she had somehow triggered it, like payback, but not his thinking she was directly involved. His animosity and certainty is so strong that she is involved, I would have liked to have seen more reason for it: at least some hint of what he thought her motive would be.
Okay, this next one is my opinion, which I realize this whole review is my opinion but this part isn't necessarily a fault in the book or the writing, but just reader perspective.
I didn't like Laura. As a mother of a small son, just a few months older than Todd when he was taken, I should have been able to hit more chords with Laura's character but I couldn't. She seemed to move on too quickly. While there were thoughts and emotions about Todd laced in, it wasn't enough for me. I didn't mind the falling in love so early with Erich, but it would have made more sense to me if there had been less going out, less "dating" and more "he was there for me" moments, like keeping vigils by the phone with her.
I realize that her reactions and actions may have been psychologically driven, coping mechanisms, a case could be made for it, but it's not how I would have reacted and so that made it hard for me to sympathize. Plus, her motivations for keeping certain big news to herself from Virginia and Erich felt thin to me. (Again, the motivation thing.) And her swaying certainty about her feelings for Erich frustrated me to no end. Her guilt over things, like falling in love while Todd is missing and about Jenny later on (you'll see when you read) also felt like token resistance, which given her history, should have been more pronounced.
So, with all of this, where do we end up? I wish I had a middle of the middle rating. I'm giving this book a 3.5 Fireballs, 'cause I can't give it a 3.75. I can't quite say I "really" liked it, because Laura drove me nuts and I wanted stronger motivations and more consistent treatment of dramatic events, but I can't say it's a 3, because I did enjoy it and I would tell other people to read it for an interesting flapper era and almost... "slice of life"/examination of a kidnapping's effects story. So, 3.5 Fireballs it is.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Review: "The Guardians: Path to Vengeance" by W. H. Cann
Title: The Guardians: Path to Vengeance
Author: W. H. Cann
Available: Smashwords
Summary: "Following the killing of his fiancée Grogaan spearheads a campaign against the Krelathans to fulfil his vow of vengeance. An unexpected encounter with a Senator’s daughter leads to romance, which impacts positively on his emotional condition. His unique piloting skills and dreams are attributed to his ancestry and gift of magic that ultimately lead to his outstanding performance as a pilot."
Review: Again, I really wish that I could just rave about every indie book I read. I want to support a community I've joined and the members there in, and to prove to the world that self-published does not equal terrible. Unfortunately, in offering reviews, I also have to offer honest opinions.
I can't actually speak to this whole story. It's rating, as seen below, reflects not a full opinion but the fact that I couldn't finish it.
The opening scene seemed like one big back story info dump and the first few pages on the whole had a lot of passive language. It was more telling than showing, so I never really got into the emotion and suspense that the author was trying to achieve. My inner editor was going crazy wanting to streamline and make it all more active and engaging, by my standards, and that made it hard for me to stick with it.
I'll grant that it might get better later. Maybe the whole story is better than the first pages gave it credit for, but I just couldn't get into it. This being just my opinion, someone else may have better luck. But since "DNF" falls automatically into a 1 Fireball category, that's what I have to give it.
Author: W. H. Cann
Available: Smashwords
Summary: "Following the killing of his fiancée Grogaan spearheads a campaign against the Krelathans to fulfil his vow of vengeance. An unexpected encounter with a Senator’s daughter leads to romance, which impacts positively on his emotional condition. His unique piloting skills and dreams are attributed to his ancestry and gift of magic that ultimately lead to his outstanding performance as a pilot."
Review: Again, I really wish that I could just rave about every indie book I read. I want to support a community I've joined and the members there in, and to prove to the world that self-published does not equal terrible. Unfortunately, in offering reviews, I also have to offer honest opinions.
I can't actually speak to this whole story. It's rating, as seen below, reflects not a full opinion but the fact that I couldn't finish it.
The opening scene seemed like one big back story info dump and the first few pages on the whole had a lot of passive language. It was more telling than showing, so I never really got into the emotion and suspense that the author was trying to achieve. My inner editor was going crazy wanting to streamline and make it all more active and engaging, by my standards, and that made it hard for me to stick with it.
I'll grant that it might get better later. Maybe the whole story is better than the first pages gave it credit for, but I just couldn't get into it. This being just my opinion, someone else may have better luck. But since "DNF" falls automatically into a 1 Fireball category, that's what I have to give it.
Review: "Dead of Knight" by William R. Potter
Title: Dead of Knight
Author: William R. Potter
Available: Smashwords
Summary: "A serial killer dubbed the "Birthday Boy" is terrorizing the citizens of Hanson, B. C. The sadistic murderer only targets women on their birthdays, but why? Hanson Detective Jack Staal is determined to get him. But, Stall is carrying some heavy baggage of his own. Staal must use every ounce of his skill to determine the Birthday Boy's true identity and bring an end to his brutal killing spree."
Source: I purchased this ebook on my own.
Review: Judging by the ratings on GoodReads, I'm apparently the only person out there who didn't like this book that much. I wanted to like it a lot more than I did, because I've had some dealings with the author via IAN and he's been very nice to me. So, I would have loved to have read this book and written a rave review, but I can't. I had a lot of issues with it.
Most of my problems come from the same source, which is that from a writer's perspective, this story really strikes me as one that was written without a pre-planned outline. That's fine, many books are, but it didn't feel like anyone went back and tried to make sure that everything was consistent. It felt like character details and information were written into the story when the idea came, because some things just come out of nowhere and then don't weave in smoothly until the end. Like Brenda. Like Travis.
I didn't find Staal a sympathetic character. Almost all of his actions, to me, seemed driven by purely selfish motives. This happens with all characters in all books in some way or another, but one of the things you love about a good cop story is that they are driven by the victims and the pursuit of truth. Staal only seemed to care about himself and only threw in the occasional hint of humanitarian motives, which made them see out of the blue and insincere. It didn't feel like it was an integral part of his character. I think that was clear in the scene where he thinks about his reasons for wanting to work the Birthday Boy case and not the case he's shifted to.
He's looked at and talked about like a great cop all through the beginning, but suddenly towards the end there's all this self-doubt about how he got to be a cop and if he's really good enough. That came totally out of left field to me and wasn't connected to earlier guilt issues. The whole team looks to him like he's a leader through the whole story until it's plot convenient for them to think he's nuts with little seeming explanation. It makes no sense. And his PTSD, again until the end, really only seems to come into play when an excuse is needed for bad or irrational behavior.
It didn't feel psychologically realistic and if you're going to give your character a major psychological issue, I want it to be realistic.
And his connection and the snippet of back story for it with the bar tender of the Thirsty Gull just put Staal in even more a dubious light for me. It was also just another section of back story just kind of pushed in there that never came back into play and didn't seem to serve that much purpose.
The story didn't feel like anyone had read it for flow, making sure it all ran smoothly and consistently, or to make sure the same things weren't repeated over and over again unnecessarily. Usually you can get along with only telling the reader important things once or twice. Not multiple times.
I really, really wanted to like this story. I liked the premise, both of the plot and of Staal himself, and Potter's writing is competent though in need of streamlining and polish, but the execution over all just entirely lost me and I found the ending, and reaching the end of the story, rather unsatisfactory. I did manage to finish it, which does say something at least, and maybe I'm just a freak when it comes to what I look for in books and everyone else has it right. But, for me, I can't in good conscious give this book more than 2 Fireballs.
Author: William R. Potter
Available: Smashwords
Summary: "A serial killer dubbed the "Birthday Boy" is terrorizing the citizens of Hanson, B. C. The sadistic murderer only targets women on their birthdays, but why? Hanson Detective Jack Staal is determined to get him. But, Stall is carrying some heavy baggage of his own. Staal must use every ounce of his skill to determine the Birthday Boy's true identity and bring an end to his brutal killing spree."
Source: I purchased this ebook on my own.
Review: Judging by the ratings on GoodReads, I'm apparently the only person out there who didn't like this book that much. I wanted to like it a lot more than I did, because I've had some dealings with the author via IAN and he's been very nice to me. So, I would have loved to have read this book and written a rave review, but I can't. I had a lot of issues with it.
Most of my problems come from the same source, which is that from a writer's perspective, this story really strikes me as one that was written without a pre-planned outline. That's fine, many books are, but it didn't feel like anyone went back and tried to make sure that everything was consistent. It felt like character details and information were written into the story when the idea came, because some things just come out of nowhere and then don't weave in smoothly until the end. Like Brenda. Like Travis.
I didn't find Staal a sympathetic character. Almost all of his actions, to me, seemed driven by purely selfish motives. This happens with all characters in all books in some way or another, but one of the things you love about a good cop story is that they are driven by the victims and the pursuit of truth. Staal only seemed to care about himself and only threw in the occasional hint of humanitarian motives, which made them see out of the blue and insincere. It didn't feel like it was an integral part of his character. I think that was clear in the scene where he thinks about his reasons for wanting to work the Birthday Boy case and not the case he's shifted to.
He's looked at and talked about like a great cop all through the beginning, but suddenly towards the end there's all this self-doubt about how he got to be a cop and if he's really good enough. That came totally out of left field to me and wasn't connected to earlier guilt issues. The whole team looks to him like he's a leader through the whole story until it's plot convenient for them to think he's nuts with little seeming explanation. It makes no sense. And his PTSD, again until the end, really only seems to come into play when an excuse is needed for bad or irrational behavior.
It didn't feel psychologically realistic and if you're going to give your character a major psychological issue, I want it to be realistic.
And his connection and the snippet of back story for it with the bar tender of the Thirsty Gull just put Staal in even more a dubious light for me. It was also just another section of back story just kind of pushed in there that never came back into play and didn't seem to serve that much purpose.
The story didn't feel like anyone had read it for flow, making sure it all ran smoothly and consistently, or to make sure the same things weren't repeated over and over again unnecessarily. Usually you can get along with only telling the reader important things once or twice. Not multiple times.
I really, really wanted to like this story. I liked the premise, both of the plot and of Staal himself, and Potter's writing is competent though in need of streamlining and polish, but the execution over all just entirely lost me and I found the ending, and reaching the end of the story, rather unsatisfactory. I did manage to finish it, which does say something at least, and maybe I'm just a freak when it comes to what I look for in books and everyone else has it right. But, for me, I can't in good conscious give this book more than 2 Fireballs.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Review: "The Storm Within" by Hope Welsh
Title: The Storm Within
Author: Hope Welsh
Available: Smashwords
Summary: "Kari Davis is on the run. Witness to a murder she's been framed for, she's got nowhere to go and no one to run to. When she is stranded in an Oklahoma blizzard, she discovers her guardian angel rescuer is more than she's bargained for. Is he her salvation or will Cade Williams be the source of her ultimate destruction? Danger is coming..."
Review: This book is kind of tough for me to determine a rating. I liked it, but I did have some problems with it.
It needed... more, for me. I realize the author has a note at the end that says she had originally planned a longer story but chose to go with a short story ultimately, and that's fine. I don't necessarily think it needed a lot more, but just more hints inserted earlier in the meeting of the characters to show later what she says they think/feel about the other.
For example, she writes that the Hero had wanted the Heroine perhaps since he first saw her, but when I read that first scene, I didn't get that from it. I would have liked more magnetism and just a few more hints, pieces of history and information here and there before they were suddenly coming together, and before he believes her story so entirely. Not that I don't think his belief was unreasonable, precisely, but just a little bit more for it.
Maybe more time on that part and a little less on how lost she is on the highway in the first sections might have worked, but that could just be me!
There was also a bit of head hopping that got a little tough.
Otherwise, though, I did like the basics of the story. The skeleton of it, you could say. Welsh is a decent writer and I liked the basics of the characters. I just wish there had been a little bit more of things earlier to make the later things make more sense, so I give this 3.5 Fireballs.
Author: Hope Welsh
Available: Smashwords
Summary: "Kari Davis is on the run. Witness to a murder she's been framed for, she's got nowhere to go and no one to run to. When she is stranded in an Oklahoma blizzard, she discovers her guardian angel rescuer is more than she's bargained for. Is he her salvation or will Cade Williams be the source of her ultimate destruction? Danger is coming..."
Review: This book is kind of tough for me to determine a rating. I liked it, but I did have some problems with it.
It needed... more, for me. I realize the author has a note at the end that says she had originally planned a longer story but chose to go with a short story ultimately, and that's fine. I don't necessarily think it needed a lot more, but just more hints inserted earlier in the meeting of the characters to show later what she says they think/feel about the other.
For example, she writes that the Hero had wanted the Heroine perhaps since he first saw her, but when I read that first scene, I didn't get that from it. I would have liked more magnetism and just a few more hints, pieces of history and information here and there before they were suddenly coming together, and before he believes her story so entirely. Not that I don't think his belief was unreasonable, precisely, but just a little bit more for it.
Maybe more time on that part and a little less on how lost she is on the highway in the first sections might have worked, but that could just be me!
There was also a bit of head hopping that got a little tough.
Otherwise, though, I did like the basics of the story. The skeleton of it, you could say. Welsh is a decent writer and I liked the basics of the characters. I just wish there had been a little bit more of things earlier to make the later things make more sense, so I give this 3.5 Fireballs.
Review: "Ruined City" by A. F. Stewart
Title: Ruined City
Author: A. F. Stewart
Available: Smashwords
Summary: "In the Northern Pass stands the city of Elowen, the glittering guardian between the Empire of Aloquis and the Kingdoms of Immra. It exists proud and prosperous, never dreaming its dark past was coming to call...
On a bright winter's day a stranger arrives in Elowen, bearing a secret. From this man a dark blight of ruin descends over the great city and henceforth the day becomes known as Winter's Bane.
The day the world changed for the people of Elowen.
The day their existence turned into a recurring nightmare.
Read of the aftermath of revenge through the eyes of a shopkeeper, a child, ghosts, a blacksmith, a guardsman, an innkeeper, and even a King.
Twelve Stories, One Evil."
Review: When I read the description of this story, I immediately liked the idea. I liked the dark fantasy, the "post apocalypse" feel of it (though that's not precisely the case), and the idea of the intertwining perspectives of the after effects of a single terrible event.
The book didn't disappoint. I liked it. It could have done with a bit more editing in terms of the Tense, as some Present Tense stories shifted in and out of Past Tense at points and that got distracting. A couple stories also had this odd... removed feeling in the narrator, when it should've been more immediate for the topic and Voice.
Otherwise, though, I really don't have any complaints. The author has a very interesting concept and shows it over the course of a span of time, showing it in a multi-faceted way that makes for some interesting reading. I just wish some of the stories had been longer, so we could see more! Still, I liked it and give it 4 Fireballs.
Author: A. F. Stewart
Available: Smashwords
Summary: "In the Northern Pass stands the city of Elowen, the glittering guardian between the Empire of Aloquis and the Kingdoms of Immra. It exists proud and prosperous, never dreaming its dark past was coming to call...
On a bright winter's day a stranger arrives in Elowen, bearing a secret. From this man a dark blight of ruin descends over the great city and henceforth the day becomes known as Winter's Bane.
The day the world changed for the people of Elowen.
The day their existence turned into a recurring nightmare.
Read of the aftermath of revenge through the eyes of a shopkeeper, a child, ghosts, a blacksmith, a guardsman, an innkeeper, and even a King.
Twelve Stories, One Evil."
Review: When I read the description of this story, I immediately liked the idea. I liked the dark fantasy, the "post apocalypse" feel of it (though that's not precisely the case), and the idea of the intertwining perspectives of the after effects of a single terrible event.
The book didn't disappoint. I liked it. It could have done with a bit more editing in terms of the Tense, as some Present Tense stories shifted in and out of Past Tense at points and that got distracting. A couple stories also had this odd... removed feeling in the narrator, when it should've been more immediate for the topic and Voice.
Otherwise, though, I really don't have any complaints. The author has a very interesting concept and shows it over the course of a span of time, showing it in a multi-faceted way that makes for some interesting reading. I just wish some of the stories had been longer, so we could see more! Still, I liked it and give it 4 Fireballs.
Sidelined!
So, I totally intend to have posts and reviews up more frequently than there has been, but first I came down with a terrible head cold the very day after I started this little project. And then, my computer decided to go bug nuts crazy for a while, but I think... I'm good. So, I will have two novella reviews coming out in the next day or so. Watch this space!
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Review: "Basement Blues" by J. H. Sked
Title: Basement Blues
Author: J. H. Sked
Available: Kindle Edition
Summary: "Billy's client has a couple of problems.
She's dead, for starters.
She smells bad.
And her laundry equipment is trying to kill her all over again.
Saving the (undead) girl shouldn't be this hard.."
Review: There are actually three short stories, as well as an excerpt from another Sked book, in this story. I won't say anything on the excerpt, and will only briefly touch on the two other stories, since my primary focus (and it's the title story) was on the first one.
Really, my main summary is that it was fun. It was a funny short story to introduce us to the characters and the business. The plot was a pretty straight line and resolved quickly, but it worked. The characters were interesting and the first person narrative was engaging.
Sked's style in Billy's narrative voice could be a little choppy at times with a lot of short sentence, or so it felt as I read it, and that could sometimes be a little jarring.
I liked Billy as a unique creature, and the bits about his mother were gold. Sked, in Basement Blues form has a very amusing, dry humor which anyone who knows me and my own writing will know that I'm a fan of.
Lines like this:
As a negative, she brought with her quite a few dust bunnies, a number of centipedes, and a couple of large, extremely traumatised spiders.
It's the "extremely traumatised spiders" that makes it art, you know?
I had some flashes to Being Human with the shifter, the vampire and the ghost all living together, but I don't know which story came first. It's not a negative, just an observation.
The other two stories were Dim and Pushing Janey and of a far different variety than "Basement Blues" had been. Both good, although the narrative form of Dim could be a little hard to follow, but because of Charlie's character it was meant to be. I'm still thinking about that ending. And Pushing Janey was interesting.
So, over all - apparently I'm in a good reviewing mood tonight - I give it 4 Fireballs.
Review: "The Survivor" by Ursula K. Raphael
Title: The Survivor
Author: Ursula K. Raphael
Available: In Kindle form from Amazon
Synopsis: "A female survivor of a zombie apocalypse finds herself overwhelmed with hunger pains. Her starvation is taking its toll on her body. In the past, she avoided the others, fearing what they might do to her, but now she must risk an encounter in order to find food. Once she finds something to eat, she has to fight for what little is left. Fortunately, the others have no idea what has followed them to their campsite."
Author: Ursula K. Raphael
Available: In Kindle form from Amazon
Synopsis: "A female survivor of a zombie apocalypse finds herself overwhelmed with hunger pains. Her starvation is taking its toll on her body. In the past, she avoided the others, fearing what they might do to her, but now she must risk an encounter in order to find food. Once she finds something to eat, she has to fight for what little is left. Fortunately, the others have no idea what has followed them to their campsite."
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