Tim Learn's Blog, page 13
June 7, 2016
Root Bound
Root Bound (Emma and the Elementals #1)
(Middle Grade)
By Tanya Karen Gough
Rating
Synopsis
Moving to yet another new house, Emma encounters many strange things beyond just the pretty girls at school. She eventually meets and accompanies the strange creatures called Brownies into the Under—a world that exist just below ours that ties everything together.
Prose
Here, like many independent books, the writer has a fairly decent skill with description. In parts, I saw the world quite vividly and with a creative flair; however, as usual, this well-worded sense of description is in sacrifice of other skills that need the honing, namely, dialog.
For a majority of the story, the characters say the same thing over and over. I believe this is so that we can identify who they are, but this always leads to boredom. Most of the time, I skipped over large parts because the scenes dabbled in more of Emma’s inner thoughts—which weren’t very original—only to get to these lackluster areas of dialog, rehashing the same old rigmarole I’d seen before.
I can’t tell you how many times the Brownies call her monster, only to have Emma yell back that she isn’t; and then when being introduced as the Wanderer, everyone mentions how pale she is. Of course, the whole time, super old-time talk is used to give it…an I-don’t-know-what kind of feel. Why do so many authors believe giving characters dated speech makes their characters interesting or unique? I don’t understand.
Characters
No character particularly stands out in this story mainly because—as I said above—all of them regurgitate the same language over and over. In this way, they all appear flat, except for Emma, who we see through inner dialog. And again, like above, her inner thoughts are so bare bone normal, that I never grew close to her or felt she was special somehow. A character needs to have a distinct voice to draw us in. Even though they may then appear different, we find a little bit of ourselves in them. Here, though, half the time, her thoughts felt too childish or simplistic, as if she couldn’t form complex thoughts on her own. I wasn’t sure what was going on.
Structure
In the end, the above faults hinder the plot greatly. Because so many paragraphs were dashed to indulge in description or to meander mundane thoughts, little in plot ever happened. Whole chapters would pass with little more than small repetitions in character and scene shifts. Frankly, the book could be summarized into three short chapters instead of the sixteen lengthy-sized ones the author used. On top of this all insight into this world she’s created was presented in info dump blocks of dialog—the only dialog that wasn’t repetitive. Sadly, it didn’t help because it didn’t feel real.
Added to this, elements from the real world and the under world were supposed to match up, but these parts—the Gorgeous Gang and the principal—barely felt important and seemed like odd pieces placed inside the story to elongate the page count. Frankly, a lot of the description seemed like someone saying to themselves, I want to make this chapter longer—not, I want to make this story better. And here in lies the common fault.
Overall
In the end, it wasn’t the worst story I’ve read. The fact is that most of the time nowadays, the stories I read have these specific fundamental flaws: weak dialog, the lack of plot for such a large page count, and overdone descriptions. These unfortunately are—as I’ve now learned—earmarks of this kind of work. So I don’t mean to sound negative. This author is probably learning the ropes and figuring everything out, but as always, I hope she sees these flaws, addresses them, and does better the next time around. I say this because I already know she’s published the next in the series, and I dread taking a peek at it if all I can expect is the same. There’s a reason I don’t read the second part in any of these series—usually the writing hasn’t grown at all.
To check out the book, click here.
June 5, 2016
Chewy 2 gets another review!
The wonderful Meredith over @mezzalilysteenbookreviews has given her opinion of the second Chewy Noh. Despite her busy schedule, she got it done, so go on over and check it out!
May 30, 2016
End of May Review
End of May Review
May has been a fast, yet productive month. I found another lone weekend to work and other moments of spare time. Because of this, my goals have advanced and changed. May was a good month.
Books Read and/or Reviewed
As for my independent reviews, I’m happy to say I’m back on track, doing roughly one a week while my semester proceeds, which does, of course, mean only roughly three weeks left. Nonetheless, these are the independent books I’ve reviewed this month: First, a book by another ex-pat in Korea, Super Nobody. Overall, it was okay but had structural and dialog problems. The second one was Falcon Boy. I found it too be difficult with its lack of plot and character, and the unnecessary breaking of the fourth wall.
The third indie book was The Fantastic Fable of Peter Able. True, this was published through Amazon’s Kindle Scout, but as an Indie writer wrote it, I felt it fitting, and sadly, was very similar to the earlier read—jumbled plot, fourth wall…and so on. The finally independent book was Echo: Approaching Shatter. It was definitely a story, so I like it, but had large info dumps and took too long to get to the action.
As for my other reading, I got through the highly acclaimed All The Light We Cannot See. I must say I like the writing but found the story somewhat lackluster. The one thing I did enjoy that it wasn’t just another Holocaust book. I do tire of the same old fascination with Nazis and WWII. One reason I didn’t enjoy Book Thief. On a similar note, I re-read with one of my students, Everything is Illuminated, and despite being all about the Holocaust, this book was still quite good in its creativity and unique style.
Lastly, I got through one comic, Zita the Spacegirl. It was light and fun with ok twists and characters. I did want more from it, but it was…ok. And I tackled my first John Green book, Paper Towns. It had his signature youthful style, and although I loved the beginning, the momentum and the characters grew stale by the end. On top of that, the resolution was too grandiose and ambiguous. I did expect better.
Book Reviews Received
Sadly, despite sending review copies of the third Chewy out to many people, I’ve only received one more review for it. This review comes from the wonderful Nayu over at her book corner. I suggest you go check out her unique interests.
http://nayusreadingcorner.blogspot.kr/2016/05/chewy-noh-and-march-of-death-by-tim.html
Progress on 2016 goals
Finish Chewy 5: This one has been sent to my Alpha reviewer, so I can cross it off. In exchange for it, I’ve already moved onto the next writing goal I have, to start a new book and get some details ready. During the summer break, I want to write as much as possible of it, if not complete it as well.
Read ‘The Recognitions’: This is my best month so far. As of the end of May, I now have 700 pages completed in this monster. That means in just one busy month, I doubled what I’ve already read in the past two. With one month until the end of this semester, I’m right on track to getting it done in time to relax this summer.
Compiling my Editing book: I don’t even want to talk about it. Sigh. I have no motivation here, but I will get to it. Eventually, I will kick myself into gear. It always happens. I just can’t predict it.
Next Month’s Agenda
With the end of the term, I’ll be having much more time unless I’m grading. This means I’ve got to wrap things up not only with my second goal, but with my preparation for the summer writing. Quite possibly the editing book will sit cold again, but with three weeks of school left, I only need to do three more indie reviews and then my reading schedule opens up as well.
May 19, 2016
Echo 1: Approaching Shatter
Echo 1: Approaching Shatter
(Sci-fi)
By Kent Wayne
Rating
Synopsis
Atriya lives on another planet in the future. It is a dangerous place ruled with military stiffness, but Atriya is beginning to see things aren’t as they seem. Unfortunately, no one lives in a bubble, and before Atriya can make sense of things, his actions bring him close to the edge—something that most people on Echo call: approaching shatter.
Prose
This part is a bit contradictive, and I had a feeling this book would suffer the normal disease most first time writers do: repetition. But like quite a few, this is quickly alleviated further on and actually gets good. For example:
“Their collective breathing roughened, and their panting harshened into pained braying that wounded the serene mountain air.”
‘Breathing’ and ‘panting’ are both the same thing—the intake and release of air. The only difference is the rate. ‘Roughened’ and ‘harshened’ both mean to get worse; so in essence the author is saying, ‘Their breathing got worse, and their breathing got worse into worse breathing…” Repeat, repeat, repeat. But again, the author seems to learn from his mistakes because later this horrible habit is not continued. Unfortunately, it takes roughly half the book to do so.
Characters
Here, too, I didn’t agree or like everything with this book. Most characters were stereotypical military types. This was okay with some, like Benson, the cookie-cutter of many movie-like war leaders. I understood him—you need an antagonist—and he worked well. But other characters, like Clement and his buddy, not to mention Verus, were a little too familiar and archetypal.
As for the main man—Atriya—again, I liked him more later on when the author stopped trying to impress us with how ‘different’ he was from all the other men, or how ‘trained’ he was with his never-ending commitment to push himself harder. Quite possibly the weak writing and repetition in the beginning left this distasteful residue. Like I said, later on, I liked the guy.
Structure
This is the killer. First off, the author goes through extensive pages in the beginning flipping from slight movement of characters, to well-detailed info dumps. Every time I reached one of these info monsters, I scanned ahead and realized I didn’t miss anything. Very tell-tale sign of a new writer.
Secondly, the first chapter starts with a portrait of our main character running in the hills, and that’s all it essentially is—a painting of our hero with little or no plot. It’s a common ploy in newbies to show us our MC doing something while actually having no plot. The second chapter…and the third chapter do the same but with different backgrounds. The plot doesn’t really get started until roughly thirty or forty percent of the way through. I’d advise the author to go back and fix this, if not chop it out entirely.
The third offense here is the obsession with detail in everything military and machine-like. Anytime new tech or a new division comes in, we get large rolling paragraphs, situating us just right as to how we should feel about it all. Sometimes it made sense, like when he explained the meaning of the book’s title. On the other hand, he didn’t have to get so minute about everything. Then again, I’m not a sci-fi aficionado. If that is the way those books are done, I may be wrong, but for me, it caused me to skim, and usually skimming is a sign of something done wrong in my book.
Overall
All in all, it wasn’t that bad. I know I made a lot of complaints, but what I always like is to see an author grow—and this definitely has that. By the end, him telling us how to feel about this person or that person didn’t happen as much. In essence, he got down to the story. Another drawback, however, was that this is one ‘volume’ of an ongoing story, so don’t go into this looking for resolution. This book is a snippet, not a stand-alone. And for some that’s not enough. I can get with it, though. The author said he cut it off in a way to follow themes, which is what old time books originally were as well. Crime and Punishment was published in six separate parts, but back then, that was the norm. Ultimately, it’s to each his own. Still, I have a feeling his next one will be better.
To buy his book, click here.
To check out his site, click here.
May 16, 2016
The Fantastic Fable of Peter Able
The Fantastic Fable of Peter Able
(Fantasy?)
By Natalie Grigson
Rating
Synopsis
Peter Able is an ex-boy wizard just learning the ropes of no longer having a book series. As he adjusts to his new life in the land of Fiction, his life is turned upside down when he meets Randy Potts and the mystery this man has been trying to uncover for a long time.
Prose
Like my last review, there are many things going wrong with this book, but strangely, it’s not the writing. In many parts, I enjoyed the flow and the way this author made her scenes. In the beginning, I really enjoyed everything.
‘As the genres get farther from campus, their side streets and shortcuts crisscross over and through one another, labyrinth-like, perhaps like the veins on a hand. I’m not sure about the metaphor, exactly, but I know this: it’s a great view.’
Like I said, well-written, with no errors to be found…and yet something is missing from the whole. You’ll see.
Characters
What can I say about the characters? It shows how good a book was if by the end you aren’t looking forward to seeing any of the characters again. That is how I felt here. Like the last book I read, the people populating this story either had no depth or were just plain unlikeable. Take our protagonist, for example.
Peter Able is a boy wizard who had his own series. Somehow, now, in the land of Fiction, he is incapable of any normal thought and is trumped by any and every character he comes upon. He cannot succeed anywhere, despite once being a main character. He sucks at everything—even talking. When the main character is so unlovable, it doesn’t speak much for the other characters who never really fill out.
Structure
My biggest problem with this book: Meta! I have no idea how I ended up reading two books in a row that decided to dabble in meta, but I have. It is an extremely tricky thing to do, especially if you are new to it, and yet two authors in a row have tried and—I’d have to say—failed. The botched transitions and the hyper-aware presentation to the story only pulls the reader out of what they are reading. Even if it is meta, it shouldn’t break the primary rule of fiction: suspension of disbelief.
On top of that, throughout, the author winks at us with little quips that I’ve never enjoyed in any genre or medium. Check out below.
‘Or we could be really lame and call it something like The Fantastic Fable of Peter Able.’
I don’t like this stuff, and I’m not sure who does. I hated Ocean’s Twelve for the very same reason that they made it apparent that the characters were aware of something in the real world and their world somehow overlapped. My suggestion to all future authors: DON’T DO IT!
Overall
Originally, I got this book for free because I voted for it on Amazon’s Kindle Scout. The first section was well done and unique. It showed potential. In many parts, I kept thinking to myself, if only the author had avoided that snarky tone or that bland meta-twist, and put some real plot in there instead, then this story could’ve been something. As is, the author shows potential. She has skills with words, but she needs to heed the scenes she makes so meta in her story—not to mention actually getting a plot that doesn’t evolve revealing how plot points and scenes work. When you do, you don’t have much of an audience who would understand, and the ones that do are most likely turned off by it.
If you want to check out her book, click here.
May 10, 2016
Falcon Boy
Falcon Boy
(I’m not sure)
/Users/timothylearn/Desktop/23431919.jpg
By Barnaby Taylor
Rating
2 stars
Synopsis
Dr. Don’t Know unfurls a plan to take over the world. Luckily, Falcon Boy and his sidekick are (sort-of) there to stop it.
Prose
This is going to be difficult, so let’s get started. The writing is actually good in the way it has few mistakes. Quite often his lines and paragraphs are beautifully structured and roll together. This I can’t deny; however, there is a large underlying flaw to the whole thing. That is: what the author uses his writing for. Check it out.
“…with the show about to start and everything else she had to think about, she really couldn’t be bothered to pursue this whole thing any further.
‘You better get your outfit on,’ she simply told the drummer. ‘The show is about to start and I really cannot be bothered to pursue this whole thing any further.’”
Do you see what I’m talking about? This linguist repetition is done just enough to be disruptive—and I can only believe that is was intended to be funny, though I’m not sure who it was intended for. I believe this book is supposed to be for a younger audience, but even I wouldn’t enjoy this strange playfulness when I was young. Don’t worry—there’s more.
Characters
The title tells us there should be at least Falcon Boy and Bewilder Bird in the story. However, that is not necessarily true. Before anything gets started, they are captured, leaving their release entirely up to a girl named Ellis. So we have her—sort of. The only problem here is that Ellis spends most of her time reflecting and rehashing in length the tales of her most favorite story detective Pearly Stockwell. So though we get to see actually quite a few characters with interesting names, none of them are developed to the degree that could be called rewarding. I’m afraid I can’t say much more here, so we’ll move on.
Structure
Here is where everything falls apart completely. The author constantly breaks the fourth wall, talking to us directly; added to which he raises things to a meta-level, addressing the flaws and the flow of the plot, jerking the story to a halt and launching it back into motion with little reason. All of this only further confounds why this book would be considered for children. Even as an adult, I found it grueling and lackluster.
All in all, the story was actually quite simple. Bad guy tries to take over the world. Girl foils it by releasing the superheroes that were captured, and…that’s it. The filler in between that fattens the book to 190+ pages are tangents that usually have very little relevance. Because of this too, the reader is forced to focus harder to get details that seem to be pertinent only to find out that none of them are.
Overall
Clearly, I’m not a super fan of this book. That said, I have to say the writing had its moments. The author knew how to string sentences together, but sadly that doesn’t always make a good story. There is literally little plot for the amount of pages spent. Though the book bounds with creativity, spotlighted in all the kooky sidetracking that is done, the heart of the story is weak if not non-existent. I hope if this author ever produces anything else, it picks its audience appropriately and has a little more cohesion to the events and characters with more depth. Even at a satirical level, this was lacking—and still not meant for KIDS!!!
Check out his book, https://www.amazon.com/Falcon-Bewilder-versus-Battle-Planets-ebook/dp/B00LZRKMXC?ie=UTF8&keywords=falcon%20boy&qid=1462925714&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1
Check out his website, here.
May 6, 2016
New Chewy 3 review!
Here’s what Nayu thought over at her reading corner. She has an interesting little niche over there, so check her out.
http://nayusreadingcorner.blogspot.kr/2016/05/chewy-noh-and-march-of-death-by-tim.html
May 3, 2016
Super Nobody
Super Nobody
(YA)
By Brent Meske
Rating
Synopsis
Michael Washington is a normal boy in a normal town until, obviously, things change. At first, he just has trouble making friends. In fact, he is the target of quite a few bullies. The prospect of a newer, odder student in the girl called Charlotte seems promising, but soon even that is eclipsed by the news that most everybody in town has superpowers—all except one: him.
Prose
As I’ve said before, a lot of indie writing has certain key flaws. This book is no different. The description scenes are wonderful and sometimes quite witty and entertaining. It seems like the author has a good ear when it comes to this aspect, as seen below.
He felt guilty and awful for the thought, but he couldn’t squash it. Grandpa was coming over more often for dinner now, and had popped in several times for breakfast over the summer.
But for every well-presented paragraph of inner dialog or description, we have equal representation of weak, colorless dialog. Half the time, the characters seem to spit out either cliché hero quips or trite everyday contrivances—whether it be people saying hello and how are you with each other, or asking if they should do something, like below.
“Yeah, that’s another thing. Isn’t is about time we told him the truth? I mean, my God Susanna, considering who I am, and his grandfather…he has a right to know.”
It is hard to dispel the basic inability for the characters to speak meaningfully to each other, especially when it seems like the author can express everything else in a unique way.
Characters
Michael is obviously the main character, and as it follows him around, it’s not so bad. I didn’t particularly like him in the beginning but grew to like him and over time to not liking him again by the end. His irrational reasons for doing half the things he does is bothersome, above all.
The other characters aren’t ever developed too much. We have Charlotte—his female interest—who disappears for a large section in the middle and is only hyped up for her love capabilities if not as an outlet to gush over things from the past. His parents are stereotypical and flat, and the bad guy is cookie cutter.
Frankly, I had few I liked.
Structure
Here, too, there was a lot not going on. Only after writing about this did I see other people had similar complaints about the story’s beginning—that being: it is too slow. By the time things get going, I already disliked Michael, which isn’t good. Then it improves…for a while.
Once the action does start, it is repeated scene after scene of Michael in the middle of action where he somehow makes it out of and then…everything goes black and he’s in the hospital again. For all his time in the hospital, I would expect people to start suspecting he has some kind of super healing power because it never takes him long to recuperate and get back into a situation that lands him in the hospital again.
Eventually, why this repetition happens is revealed—though lackluster at best—and Michael dons his detective cap—or so the book keeps telling us he does—to find out what is going on. Somehow, he always goes to the right place to find the next info dump we readers need to understand this peculiar town.
Clearly, this bravado builds until he and his girl wonder barrel into fight the bad guy and he somehow defeats him—though even this is undermined by another character.
Overall
In the end, I wanted more from this book. The premise is interesting and unusual, but at the heart of it, the story turns out to be nothing more than a normal superhero comic dressed up as something it’s not. Supposedly others have said the second book is better, but having zipped through the first couple of pages, the same voice echoes out to me, and I’m not sure I want to hear anymore from Michael. That being said, there are elements here that show the author has a voice, just we don’t get to hear too much of it in this outing.
Check out the book, here.
Check out his website, here.
April 26, 2016
End of April Review
End of April Review
I am overly happy with April’s progress. Despite loads of work, a lot of free time came my way, and ignoring all distractions, I was able to get a lot done and now find myself well ahead of schedule.
Books Read and/or Reviewed
Only about halfway through the month was I able to tackle any of my independent book reviews. My first one was a bit disappointing (Fireflies,) but the next one (Shizzle, Inc.) more than made up for it. Besides these two, I already have one more done which will be posted next month and am halfway through another book as well. Once I get my momentum going, it doesn’t stop. Here are my two reviews, click on the images below.
Besides my independent reading, I have also tackled quite a few published works, the first being Kate DiCamillo’s Magician’s Elephant. It had all the normal trappings of a DiCamillo book—the language and magic with a hint of fairytale—but did not land quite as well as I would have liked.
Next came I’ll Give You The Sun, by Jandy Nelson. This book is all over the book-blogging universe, so I wanted to give it a shot. Though I enjoyed the language and metaphors—especially when it comes to the brother—I felt it got old eventually. All in all, a fun read that I would recommend.
Then we have J.K. Rowling’s pseudonymous work, Career of Evil. With her whole Strike series, I have the same feeling over and over. While reading them, I enjoy it, but once I finish I’m left with a sense like I just wasted a whole lot of time on a guilty indulgence—you know, like eating a whole cake by yourself. It was good, but I could’ve done without it.
My biggest struggle this month was Arundhati Roy’s God Of Small Things. I had to work my way into the fractured structure and take in all the strange word play and connections. In the end, a very rewarding book—her only one written so far—but well-deserving of the hype.
After that was Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon. I really wanted to like this book as Nicola is married to a man with Korean roots and self-proclaims her love of Korean food, but in the end, even with loads of well-used and creative pictures, the story sagged in the middle. It felt merely like a hyped up teen-romance that didn’t even feel real.
Lastly, I read a long time book on my list, Crying of Lot 49. Short, but strange, this book gets in your head and it is easy to see why it has been referenced in pop culture so much. It is the top of conspiracy books. If any of you have tried Pynchon and found him inaccessible—I forced myself through Gravity’s Rainbow, choking on certain abstruse sections—then this book is for you. Very readable.
Book Reviews Received
Otherwise, this month, I’ve received three Chewy reviews. Two are from the amazing bookworm, Justine @ bookwormaniac. The other one was for Chewy 2 from kind-worded Allie over @ alliesopinions. Please feel free to check out their blogs below.
Justine @bookwormaniac
Allie @ alliesopinions
Progress on 2016 goals
Finish Chewy 5: I’m happy to say I’ve completed—for the most part—this goal. Now, true, I still have the editing process and the alpha / beta reads to go through, but I’m happy to have the whole story set down. From here, it gets easy, or so I think.
Read ‘The Recognitions’: This month was awesome. I tossed down more than two hundred pages in this monster, getting to 342 total. I’m now more than a third of the way through, quickly approaching the halfway mark.
Compiling my Editing book: With Chewy practically complete, I hope to get started on this. However, my students’ projects are nearing completion, which means an abundance of editing work as well. I may have yet another month with little to show here. Sigh.
Next Month’s Agenda
Next month should allow me a lot of time to venture in other areas. I’m aiming at finishing my students’ stories and getting them printed. This means a lot of editing work on my part, but I do enjoy it, as do they. Nonetheless, I want to stay on top of my independent reviews as well as my extracurricular reading. Besides that, I don’t have any specific goals but to keep moving forward.
April 24, 2016
Sizzle, Inc. (Isabella Maxwell Escapades #1)
Shizzle Inc. (Isabella Maxwell Escapades #1)
(Humor / Satire)
By Ana Spoke
Rating
Synopsis
Isabella’s life long dream has been to get discovered, you know, be famous. Unfortunately, after her boyfriend breaks up with her and she has little left in prospects or skills, she decides to try out for a new job at the local billionaire’s company, Shizzle Inc. Obviously, her life changes after that.
Prose
There are many interesting things about this book, but I’d have to say it is the writer’s style that is the most grabbing. One of the hardest things to do is capture a voice—especially a first person voice—and keep it consistent without making it too catchy. Isabella is the perfect mix of this, which is even more difficult as the story is clearly a satirical take on everything American, if not the look-at-me mindset of the world at large. Here’s an example:
“What’s with the vest?” [Isabella]
“Cool, huh? Got it from my dad.” Harden got a lot of things from his dad, including his fat genes. The two of them haven’t been able to hug properly since Harden was a little kid.
The whole story is filled with pleasant little bits like that. Isabella’s sarcastic, sometimes biting take on the world is very unique and interesting. Again, it is one of the most enjoyable parts of the book and what made it an easy read.
Characters
The book is ramped up with characters, but the author knows how to balance it well and make each character seem fully realized. Isabella is ditzy beyond belief—to the point where you may even be yelling at her horror movie style from your seat at home, hoping that she gets a hint. But, again, it’s never detracting.
Her boss, Mr. Hue—an amalgam of Richard Branson and Christian Grey, among others—is played off perfectly, going so far as to even tease the inherited wealth ideology of certain less than desirable American entrepreneurs.
My most beloved character would have to be her father—a man who is bitter about the world and constantly recounts his key life events over and over, believing firmly that knowing history will stop it from happening again.
All in all, this band of self-indulgent misfits are wonderfully fresh and even makes me somewhat recall O’Toole’s ‘Confederacy of Dunces’ with all their ridiculous antics.
Structure
If this book had any flaws, here’s where it lies, and it may not seem so at first. I went into the book hoping for good things. I’ve read the author’s blog many times. She is a workhorse. I’ve never seen any other self-published author work so hard. She has things down to a science and is worlds apart from her protagonist.
However, immediately upon reading, it was hard not to draw connections from the book’s plot to Legally Blonde—not only because the lead is a blonde but also because the impetus for the whole story is her gigantic loss of her boyfriend—and Shades of Grey with the introduction of a slightly indulgent, sadistic boss. Though it must be noted, this book never veers off into questionable sexual behavior.
After the first chapter, this book really launches into its own. Isabella’s half-baked ideas and horrible personality send her all over the place, succeeding where she shouldn’t until finally she ends up with what she has always wanted, which she loses just as quickly as well. The ride is fun, for the most part, but I’d have to say by the end, the non-stop jostling and questioning as to how everything fits together gets wearisome, and I’m left with a less than high feeling by the final page. The author is clearly setting it up for the next installment when she could have just ended it nicely in success or disaster and have everything start over again in the next book. As is, I felt like someone stopped off mid-story. And that’s were my lower rating comes from.
Overall
In the end, it was a fun read with amazingly distinct characters. On top of this, it is a biting portrayal of American life and culture, even though at points I could see that it was written by an outsider as certain key elements were off, if not presented with another country’s indigenous facts that an American would never possess or at least the American that Isabella appears to be. I hope whatever comes of the next book, the story is ramped up and ends in a tighter fashion. As for this one, I would’ve been happier with a bit more finality than I was given.
Check out her book, here.
Check out her website, here.
