Tag Archive: Kindle



2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love
2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love by Rachel Aaron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a quick easy book to read! I came away with a lot of little nuggets that will be quite handy as of midnight tomorrow night. I have been sitting on an idea I started on during Camp NaNo. I managed about 19K but a whole lot of the story has resided in my head. Ms. Aaron’s book helped me feel there is hope for this little book. So, NaNoWriMo here I come, ready or not!

I am not sure that even with my Dragon Naturally Speaking I will be able to get that kind of word count the title implies but I will say that prep work before starting a book and daily prep work will help me get a better, faster, tighter story.

Now, on to editing. I had hoped for more. The author uses her own books to demonstrate what works and how to edit, but if you have never read her books it leaves one flat. Actually, that can be said of the writing faster part of the book, too. I would have loved to have a clickable link to charts or spreadsheets to aid the readers and other, commonly read novels as examples.

Still in all, it is worth the read.

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Review: The Apocalypse Gene


The Apocalypse Gene
The Apocalypse Gene by Suki Michelle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: This was a free Kindle book from BookRooster from quite a while ago, for an honest review.

So here goes. Um… I am so torn. There were parts I liked and others had me yawning. And I don’t think it’s the parts meant to be boring. I loved getting to know Olyvia and her mother and live with them through the dark and depressing life. I thought it adorable to get the little romance going. I could even get into the little computer icons, even though it seemed to take away from the problem at hand. Even still, I managed to shift gears and enjoy the cuteness.

War! What is it good for? I suppose in this case it is to cure cancer. Not a bad goal, I suppose, but really! During all the Micah parts and the war parts I got so bored that I had to let my text-to-speech yammer on while I read emails. I tuned in to learn how the story concluded. It was a nice ending.

Another thing I had a hard time with was the philosophy of the author thrown in quite obviously. The gods and demons and all that left me … meh?

Look, maybe it was just me. A lot of people have given high ranks to this book, so read it yourself and let me know what you think.

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Review: Idolmaker


 

Idolmaker
Idolmaker by Jonelle Patrick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

 

Disclaimer: I was given this complimentary copy of Idolmaker by the author, Jonelle Patrick for an honest review.

 

I can’t believe I am finished with yet another of the Tokyo Mysteries. I so love this series. Though I have tagged this as romance, it isn’t led by that squishy, gooey stuff rather, these are people and caring is a part of their being.

 

These books do start with a murder and a wonder as to who did it and why. But the most important feature of the books is the character driven adventure of the two main characters, Yumi and Kenji. Thrown in the recent historical event of earthquake and tsunami, the criminal investigation is thrown for a loop.

 

The characters are believable and likable. I feel I have become friends with them through Jonelle Patrick’s ability to write from each character’s point of view.

 

Oh, what the couple goes through! Then the book wraps up nicely with only a small thread that gives promise that I don’t have to give up on my favorite Japanese couple. 🙂

 

Thanks for letting me read this, Jonelle!

 

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Location of Tokyo within Japan

Location of Tokyo within Japan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Review: Gateway to Reality


Gateway to Reality
Gateway to Reality by Becca J. Campbell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I was given this Kindle version of the book for an honest review.

Let’s start off with what I loved. The worlds, especially Sea Clearly, And the Freefall (I can’t remember the name for it right now) world. I loved the way the characters could make their own worlds and move from one to the other. All great ideas. I would have loved even more world creating processes, seen into other characters points of view as they built and had their own relationships.

What I didn’t like, and nearly quit reading because of: ANGST. If this wasn’t from and author I like, looking for a review, I wouldn’t have read past the first chapter. A sentence could have summed it up. Wes screwed up and now he missed his girlfriend. The rest of the chapter reiterating the same thing drove it into the ground. By the end of the first chapter I hated Wes. I never quite got to the point of liking him. I kept saying to him: GET A LIFE! Here he was in a really cool dream? world? Why not just enjoy it?

Let me just say, I am in pain almost constantly. I read fantasy and sci-fi to escape. When a book spends so much time on the negative emotions, I get overwhelmed. By the way, that seems to be how the YA books go. It is the one reason I would never want to be an adolescent ever again. But Wes wasn’t an adolescent. He is older, working new adult. He has a wonderful family, good friends. Get on with life. When the life hits that could be even more fun, he is obsessing, stalking his ex. Didn’t like the ending or the bad guy either.

My advice to other readers: read only a bit of chapter one. It is worth getting to the rest of the book. I would love to see a book two with these worlds.

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Good Kings Bad Kings
Good Kings Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow! Just Wow! This book was fantastic! Wait… And yet it was not.

Susan Nusabaum has presented us with a microcosm study in her fictional novel of the society of disabled youth in conventional nursing homes. Wow, again, that was a mouthful (keyboard full?)! Sadly, I don’t believe that the truth is far from this depiction.

The individual stories that create the novel outlines the hopeful actuation of each person dealing with their own demons, their own needs, their own striving for romance while being disabled in one way or another.

As many of you know, I read my books on Kindle with text-to-speech. This book has a character that is Puerto Rican but the author did a great job of capturing all accents and individual speaking quirks. These were so well done that my Kindle reader read them perfectly and even if I wasn’t looking at the printed e-pages I still knew who was talking.

The story starts and ends with a wheel-chair bound woman who lands a data-entry job with this nursing home. She is a strong woman who isn’t stuck in the nursing home, but sees what is going on. We see, through her eyes and the eyes of the other characters what it feels like to be collectively warehoused with others of differing disabilities.

This book is an eye-opener for all readers. Hopefully we all come out of the read with a better understanding for our all our fellow citizens. Whoever recommended this book to me, thank you! I now have it on my Amazon wishlist and hope someday to have the Audible version as well. This is well worth a few rereads. I see that there may be a movie of this book. I bet it will be equally wonderful! Kudos Ms. Nusabaum!

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Review: UnEnchanted


UnEnchanted
UnEnchanted by Chanda Hahn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, this was a new take on the fairytales, at times very grimm–get it? Pa-dum-dum. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. And, no, this doesn’t reflect on the stories woven into this book, a couple overlapping each other. There might be humor within the pages but not as cheesy as mine.

Mina Grime doesn’t think there is anything funny about her life. Imagine being stuck with that name, for instance. Then she has to live through the modern life of of a klutzy teen, just trying to make it out alive, with some level of self-esteem intact.

Though this follows the YA fantasy of teen-wakes-with-new-powers/gifts/threats format, Mina isn’t lost in the woods or other triteness. Her unique nature causes everything to happen right in front of her classmates giving her even more uncomfortable attention.

Ms. Grime isn’t always strong but she learns that she must be, she has to save her brother and her friends. So, more than anything else, this book reflects her growth as a person.

My thoughts? I liked the characters and the plots within plots, enough so, that I will try to read the next books in the series. Luckily this one didn’t leave you on a cliff. It gave you enough of a resolution to feel you could walk away, but clues enough to make you want to see what more is in store for poor Mina.

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Review: Unmasked Alloy


Unmasked Alloy
Unmasked Alloy by Becca J. Campbell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow! Was this part of the same series as Not the Norm (A Sub-Normal short story by Becca J. Campbell?

I fell into like, um, I really cared about the characters, in the first book. It was that caring that drove me to read book two. That’s a good thing! This part of the story hit the ground running. If there were mistakes in the grammar or spelling I didn’t notice for trying to keep up with the action.

In a world of super-humans, being either sub-norm or just human can be down-right dangerous. Hence the name of the name of the series (Sub-normal). Though you see this in the first book, this second book throws it in your face.

My only problem with this book was that I was left LONGING for part three. I have tried to think through, as a writer, how I would handle this. Would it be better as one larger book broken into sections? Then I had to think about the author. Would her larger book make as much as three (or more) short stories? I, for one, was looking for something fast when I picked up book one, and then book two. But the waiting for the next installment, then trying to remember where we left off… I guess this is why a lot of people wait until they’ve gathered all the parts before reading it as a whole. I am sure this is a quandary for serial writers everywhere. Point is, I can’t wait to read the next in this series!

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Professional Plot Outline Mini-Course
Professional Plot Outline Mini-Course by Holly Lisle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was an easy read. I took copious notes so that when I get ready to outline November’s NaNoWriMo I will be able to follow through. Though a lot of it feels like other books I have read on the subject, Holly Lisle’s personality shows through.

Ms. Lisle left plenty of examples off the top of her head. Because instruction given in other books don’t have examples, I find when I try what they present, it turns out to be quite a mess. Needless to say, I will not delete the book. I want it to be easy to refer back to in the next couple months.

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The Scriptorium Daily. Is out!!

Children of the Fog Army


Children of the Fog Army. Help my author-friend hit the top 100! Very good book, worth much more than the Kindle price of $.99!!!! Read my review at GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/297364327

 

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