Konstantina P.'s Blog, page 6

Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson – Book Review

Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas is a sweet story following all the expected -yet enjoyable- clichés of its kind. Romance, with the proper amount of drama and a twist that wasn’t so unpredictable in the end.

Good for a rainy day, but not something I’d read twice.

I rated this book with 3/5 stars on Goodreads.

The King of Forever: Book Four of Scarlet and the White Wolf by Kirby Crow – Book Review

Probably my favourite book in the series. Even better than the first one. The fifth star is missing from my rating because it was still short for a full novel and we were left with a cliff-hanger that will not get addressed soon as it seems. Book 5 in “Scarlet and the White Wolf” was supposed to be out ages ago from what I read, but no luck so far.

Something that annoyed me: We spent the previous book being told how Scarlet was hated by everyone. In the “King of forever”, around the 80% bookmark, suddenly he feels “welcomed, even liked”, although we haven’t seen him interacting with anyone but three or four people. Perhaps the author should have concentrated on that instead of keep repeating hair and skin differences.

Something I liked: The romance is back! Liall turns his attention back to his lover, trying everything in his power not to hurt him despite the politics surrounding the court and a kind-of-arranged marriage.

I rated this book with 4/5 stars on Goodreads.

The Land of Night: Book Three of Scarlet and the White Wolf by Kirby Crow – Book Review

The author manages to save face with this book after the previous one in the series. Lots of intrigue and power games make “The Land of Night” an interesting and enjoyable read.

The romance between the two main characters seems to dwindle as more attention is given to the politics. Not a very good balance there.

As for the writing, it keeps being repetitive and tedious at places. The whole story could be told in two books instead of four (and a fifth supposedly coming soon).

I rated this book with 3/5 stars on Goodreads.

Mariner’s Luck: Book Two of Scarlet and the White Wolf by Kirby Crow – Book Review

I really don’t understand how this story qualifies as a full novel and is priced as much as the other installments in the “Scarlet and the White Wolf” series. I don’t want to be too strict and say that nothing happens, because we do get to learn a little more about the two main characters but that’s it. This book, taking place almost entirely on a ship, is so short it could just be part of Book One. Rip-off at its finest.

The repetition killed me. Scarlet gets sick and Liall nurses him. Then Liall gets sick and Scarlet nurses him. And we get told dozens of times that no one likes poor Scarlet. Redundant.

Finally, for a 6-dollars, really short novel (=novella), I expected much better editing.

Three stars and not two on Goodreads, only because the author still managed to move the story a tiny bit forward and keep her story interesting.

Scarlet and the White Wolf by Kirby Crow – Book Review

A fantasy book with a M/M romance, in some ways better than all the cliché stories out there. The slow-build is sweet and leaves you with strong feelings for the two main characters. No explicit scenes in this first part of “Scarlet and the White Wolf” series. The author handled that expertly. Where she could just throw in a sex scene to make things steamy, she decided to play with her characters’ qualms instead. Kudos to that.

The only negative was the too many names (for places, not people) and new words that sometimes I needed to look up. In the end, I just had to learn the two or three most important ones and discard everything else to move forward with the story.

I’m starting the second book now. It looks just as short which can be annoying for a story with so many installments.

I rated this book with 4/5 stars on Goodreads.

Fractured by Arika Wolly – Book Review

I don’t usually go for horror or thriller but the blurb of “Fractured” pulled me in. I’ll try not to spoil things much.

The first part of the book was a waiting game. Who will make the first mistake? Who will break first? It was really fun to read (not fun-fun considering the theme but fun=attention catching). The supernatural element was well described, coming from the character’s darkest parts.

The second part of the book was short and less interesting. I would have liked some more details on the second main character’s psyche apart from the fact that he was a sick human being.

The third part is the one where the two main characters’ stories intertwine. It was well thought-out and connected to the rest of the book. The only thing off for me was the cheesy end, especially since the mood was already set to bloody massacre.

I liked this book enough to recommend it to thriller fans and everyone who would like to keep on his toes for a few evenings.

I rated this book with 3/5 stars on Goodreads.

Advice to fellow authors – Why to stay away from Centum Press

A little more than a year ago, I received an acceptance letter from Centum Press, an imprint of Allegiant Publishing Group, for one of my short stories. They wanted to publish it in an anthology with 100 other authors called “100 Voices Vol 2”. I was obviously excited .

I did some research immediately, but I couldn’t find anything substantial about them. But they had already published “100 Voices Vol 1” and Allegiant had many published books so I thought “What could go wrong?”

Everything was alright at first. A cover was selected, a date was set for publication, pre-orders were available and everyone seemed friendly. Until I got the book in my hands. The most obvious problem? The poor format, like they just wanted to save space and print as less pages as possible. You don’t believe me? Check their page margins in the photo below. It looks like poorly cut, am I right? Then I started reading. I can’t speak for the other authors, but my story had edits that made some sentences lose their initial feeling. I didn’t complain though. They were professionals after all; I thought that I had maybe done something grammatically wrong.

And so the months passed in waiting. The anthology was also on amazon now. So last August we received an email that we would get our royalties by the end of the month. We had to submit our paypal email to their form for that. Nothing came until October (I think), when we received another email saying that there was some problem with the process and we would get paid by the end of that month. Obviously, we didn’t get paid then either.

I let a month pass and I emailed them at the end of November. No one answered me. I found other people on twitter in the same anthology and they had the same problem. No contact, no official announcement and then their website closed! We knew nothing at all.

A couple of days ago, someone contacted me on twitter (not representing Centum Press, but they had contact with some people there) and informed me that Centum Press and Allegiant had gone bankrupt. Then he sent me a new website they seem to be using. And guess what! They are asking for submissions for a new anthology called “50 Voices”. How are they going to publish something when they are supposedly bankrupt I don’t know. They haven’t either answered to people who submitted for “100 Voices Vol 4”, to the best of my knowledge. I used their contact form in the knew website but no one got back to me again.

So, in conclusion, we had our work poorly presented, we didn’t get paid for it, and we have no idea what happens with the rights to our stories since the contract states that “The Author grants to the Publisher the non-exclusive right to publish, reproduce and distribute the Work in all formats in English throughout the world (‘the Territory”) for the full term of the copyright under the present and future laws of any country in the Territory. The Author understands that the Work will first be published in an anthology that will contain other pieces but that the Publisher may at its sole discretion also publish the Work separately at a later date“. I just want to give everyone a friendly advice: STAY AWAY FROM CENTUM PRESS and all other imprints of the same publishing group.

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Advise to fellow authors – Why to stay away from Centum Press

A little more than a year ago, I received an acceptance letter from Centum Press, an imprint of Allegiant Publishing Group, for one of my short stories. They wanted to publish it in an anthology with 100 other authors called “100 Voices Vol 2”. I was obviously excited .

I did some research immediately, but I couldn’t find anything substantial about them. But they had already published “100 Voices Vol 1” and Allegiant had many published books so I thought “What could go wrong?”

Everything was alright at first. A cover was selected, a date was set for publication, pre-orders were available and everyone seemed friendly. Until I got the book in my hands. The most obvious problem? The poor format, like they just wanted to save space and print as less pages as possible. You don’t believe me? Check their page margins in the photo below. It looks like poorly cut, am I right? Then I started reading. I can’t speak for the other authors, but my story had edits that made some sentences lose their initial feeling. I didn’t complain though. They were professionals after all; I thought that I had maybe done something grammatically wrong.

And so the months passed in waiting. The anthology was also on amazon now. So last August we received an email that we would get our royalties by the end of the month. We had to submit our paypal email to their form for that. Nothing came until October (I think), when we received another email saying that there was some problem with the process and we would get paid by the end of that month. Obviously, we didn’t get paid then either.

I let a month pass and I emailed them at the end of November. No one answered me. I found other people on twitter in the same anthology and they had the same problem. No contact, no official announcement and then their website closed! We knew nothing at all.

A couple of days ago, someone contacted me on twitter (not representing Centum Press, but they had contact with some people there) and informed me that Centum Press and Allegiant had gone bankrupt. Then he sent me a new website they seem to be using. And guess what! They are asking for submissions for a new anthology called “50 Voices”. How are they going to publish something when they are supposedly bankrupt I don’t know. They haven’t either answered to people who submitted for “100 Voices Vol 4”, to the best of my knowledge. I used their contact form in the knew website but no one got back to me again.

So, in conclusion, we had our work poorly represented, we didn’t get paid for it, and we have no idea what happens with the rights to our stories since the contract states that “The Author grants to the Publisher the non-exclusive right to publish, reproduce and distribute the Work in all formats in English throughout the world (‘the Territory”) for the full term of the copyright under the present and future laws of any country in the Territory. The Author understands that the Work will first be published in an anthology that will contain other pieces but that the Publisher may at its sole discretion also publish the Work separately at a later date“. I just want to give everyone a friendly advice: STAY AWAY FROM CENTUM PRESS and all other imprints of the same publishing group.

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Broken (The Breach Chronicles, #1) by Ivy Logan – Book Review

Ivy Logan has managed to build a remarkable fantasy world.

“Broken” is about family bonds; husband and wife, brother and sister, parent and child. These kind of bonds manage to surpass every obstacle using the magic that the author has woven into her world so effortlessly.

The book has a slow start, but don’t be fooled and put it down. It will reward you with a dragon twist, teary goodbyes, strong women that their men don’t feel the need to hold back and, of course, a happy, bittersweet ending.

I would have liked stronger language in some places and maybe better descriptions, particularly at the beginning of the book when the made-up world is described.

I rated this book with 4/5 stars in Goodreads.

A Love Beyond Time by Bella Emy – Book Review

I read “A Love Beyond Time” pleasantly in a single afternoon.

It starts as a classic fairy tale only to have a sexy twist along the way which, although gives the standard Red Riding Hood story an interesting turn, it seems a little hurried and awkward at places.

I liked this book well enough though. Time well spent.

I rated this book with 3/5 stars in Goodreads.