Flower of Scotland 1
William Meikle
Amazon Digital Services
Fiction, Collection/Fantasy/Horror/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: A boy who longs to grow up gets more than he bargained for... a woman meets a stranger on a fateful train trip... Twitter posts from an unknown source
puzzle a young man... a young boy's father helps him deal with bullies in a very special way... These and other tales by author William Meikle are compiled in this
collection.
A Kindle-exclusive title.
REVIEW: Like Meikle's other works, he keeps these tales short and sweet. Unlike the previous collection, though, I found a few of these stories repetitive, using
very similar themes with very similar outcomes. There were also some minor yet irritating formatting issues; parts of sentences or paragraphs missing, for instance, and a
glitch that rendered the last few stories completely in italics. On the whole, they're not bad, though.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Strange Happenings (Avi) - My Review
The Anything Box (Zenna Henderson) - My Review
Flower of Scotland 3 (William Meikle) - My Review
Friday, January 10, 2014
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Scoundrel for Hire (Adrienne deWolfe)
Scoundrel for Hire
(The Velvet Lies series, Book 1)
Adrienne deWolfe
ePublishing Works!
Fiction, Historical Fiction/Romance
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Raphael Jones seemed bound for Hell even before he was born. Offspring of a preacher's wife and an unknown stranger, only the love of his half-sister and ailing mother shielded him from his father's brimstone and hatred. When his mother died, he ran away, joining a traveling theatrical troupe that runs a heavy sideline in petty scams.
Silver Nichols, daughter of Colorado mining magnate Max Nichols, struggles to keep her father's company prosperous despite his odd whims and boyish pursuit of lost treasures. When he announces his engagement to a shady fortune teller, Cecilia, she snaps. Surely this woman is a con artist, intent on stealing his fortune as well as his heart... but Max won't hear a word against her. Now, the woman has Max convinced that there's an Indian ghost haunting his mines - a ghost tied to a legendary fortune. With the wedding approaching, the Aspen papers having a field day, and the miners grumbling about spooks in the dark, Silver needs to end this sham once and for all. But how?
Rafe was only in Leadville to help his adopted father pull a scam at a mining conference. When Silver sees through his charade, he thinks he can charm his way free... but the woman doesn't want his kisses. She wants to hire a scoundrel for a scam of her own: impersonating an English earl supposedly touring the American West, he is to woo Cecilia away from her father. Rafe agrees, but with crossed fingers. A single heiress to a silver mine fortune is too tempting a target for him to pass up.
For all the con jobs Raphael Jones has pulled, this one will prove the most dangerous... to his life and, unexpectedly, to his heart.
REVIEW: Downloaded during a Free Friday promotion at the Nook Blog, this looked like a fun, light romp. By and large, it proved to be just that. The characters and situations are exaggerated, but not to ludicrous degrees, and I found myself caring for the people more than I anticipated. Silver and Rafe struggle to reconcile their growing attraction with the scams and lies that brought them together in the first place, Silver having been scarred by a disastrous affair and Rafe still half-believing the damnation that Preacher Jones laid on his soul in childhood. The plot moves quickly, and, despite certain givens for a romance (and the occasional sidetrack into silliness), makes for satisfying reading. Overall, it's a fun tale with a good heart.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Inscription (Pam Binder) - My Review
Time Treasure (Sheila Raye) - My Review
Blood for Wolves (Nicole Taft) - My Review
(The Velvet Lies series, Book 1)
Adrienne deWolfe
ePublishing Works!
Fiction, Historical Fiction/Romance
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Raphael Jones seemed bound for Hell even before he was born. Offspring of a preacher's wife and an unknown stranger, only the love of his half-sister and ailing mother shielded him from his father's brimstone and hatred. When his mother died, he ran away, joining a traveling theatrical troupe that runs a heavy sideline in petty scams.
Silver Nichols, daughter of Colorado mining magnate Max Nichols, struggles to keep her father's company prosperous despite his odd whims and boyish pursuit of lost treasures. When he announces his engagement to a shady fortune teller, Cecilia, she snaps. Surely this woman is a con artist, intent on stealing his fortune as well as his heart... but Max won't hear a word against her. Now, the woman has Max convinced that there's an Indian ghost haunting his mines - a ghost tied to a legendary fortune. With the wedding approaching, the Aspen papers having a field day, and the miners grumbling about spooks in the dark, Silver needs to end this sham once and for all. But how?
Rafe was only in Leadville to help his adopted father pull a scam at a mining conference. When Silver sees through his charade, he thinks he can charm his way free... but the woman doesn't want his kisses. She wants to hire a scoundrel for a scam of her own: impersonating an English earl supposedly touring the American West, he is to woo Cecilia away from her father. Rafe agrees, but with crossed fingers. A single heiress to a silver mine fortune is too tempting a target for him to pass up.
For all the con jobs Raphael Jones has pulled, this one will prove the most dangerous... to his life and, unexpectedly, to his heart.
REVIEW: Downloaded during a Free Friday promotion at the Nook Blog, this looked like a fun, light romp. By and large, it proved to be just that. The characters and situations are exaggerated, but not to ludicrous degrees, and I found myself caring for the people more than I anticipated. Silver and Rafe struggle to reconcile their growing attraction with the scams and lies that brought them together in the first place, Silver having been scarred by a disastrous affair and Rafe still half-believing the damnation that Preacher Jones laid on his soul in childhood. The plot moves quickly, and, despite certain givens for a romance (and the occasional sidetrack into silliness), makes for satisfying reading. Overall, it's a fun tale with a good heart.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Inscription (Pam Binder) - My Review
Time Treasure (Sheila Raye) - My Review
Blood for Wolves (Nicole Taft) - My Review
Friday, January 3, 2014
Write That Book Already! (Sam Barry and Kathi Kamen Goldmark)
Write That Book Already!
Sam Barry and Kathi Kamen Goldmark
Adams Media
Nonfiction, Writing
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Plenty of books tell you how to write, but what does it really take to get published? What must you expect from your editor, your agent, your publisher - and yourself? Authors Sam Barry and Kathi Kamen Goldmark walk you through the process, from draft generation to printing to backlisting.
REVIEW: Written with touches of wit, this book does just what its subtitle claims, providing a look at the marketing and publishing of a novel. The writing process itself is important enough to mention, but it's not the priority here; other books cover the topic quite thoroughly. Some of the advice I'd read elsewhere, and some was new to me, but all of it proved informative, if somewhat overwhelming and occasionally discouraging. It concludes with a helpful glossary of printing and publishing terms, and a section where famous authors list books that inspired them. For the most part, I liked it, even if some of the humor fell flat.
You Might Also Enjoy:
How I Wrote My First Book: The Story Behind the Story (Lida E. Quillen and Anne K. Edwards, editors) - My Review
How I Published My Book And Sold Thousands of Copies (Kenneth Tingle) - My Review
Your First Novel (Ann Rittenberg and Laura Whitcomb) - My Review
Sam Barry and Kathi Kamen Goldmark
Adams Media
Nonfiction, Writing
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Plenty of books tell you how to write, but what does it really take to get published? What must you expect from your editor, your agent, your publisher - and yourself? Authors Sam Barry and Kathi Kamen Goldmark walk you through the process, from draft generation to printing to backlisting.
REVIEW: Written with touches of wit, this book does just what its subtitle claims, providing a look at the marketing and publishing of a novel. The writing process itself is important enough to mention, but it's not the priority here; other books cover the topic quite thoroughly. Some of the advice I'd read elsewhere, and some was new to me, but all of it proved informative, if somewhat overwhelming and occasionally discouraging. It concludes with a helpful glossary of printing and publishing terms, and a section where famous authors list books that inspired them. For the most part, I liked it, even if some of the humor fell flat.
You Might Also Enjoy:
How I Wrote My First Book: The Story Behind the Story (Lida E. Quillen and Anne K. Edwards, editors) - My Review
How I Published My Book And Sold Thousands of Copies (Kenneth Tingle) - My Review
Your First Novel (Ann Rittenberg and Laura Whitcomb) - My Review
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
December Site Update
The final site update of the year, on the final day of the year. (Personally, I'm counting the minutes until 2013 finally leaves for good...)
The previous 6 reviews have been cross-linked and archived on the main site.
Enjoy, and Happy New Year!
The previous 6 reviews have been cross-linked and archived on the main site.
Enjoy, and Happy New Year!
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Riders of the Purple Sage (Zane Grey)
Riders of the Purple Sage
Zane Grey
Public Domain Books
Fiction, Western
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Jane Withersteen's father left her a legacy of wealth and respect in 1870's Cottonwoods, a Mormon settlement in the sage-swept deserts of Utah... but now, having befriended the outsider Gentiles and defied church elders by showing affection for the wrong man, she stands on the brink of ruin. The last person she ever thought she'd consider an ally was the legendary Mormon-killer Lassiter, yet when her Gentile friend Bern Venters is threatened by elder Tull, only Lassiter's arrival spares him. As cattle rustlers, church-led conspiracies, and other threats close in on the Withersteen estate, Jane finds herself more and more reliant on the mysterious man, even as she learns the truth behind his violent and vengeful reputation.
REVIEW: This is a book where setting outshines both story and characters by orders of magnitude. The wild deserts and rough canyon country glow on the page, painted bright and bold. Even the tension of the frontier world, with the threat of stampedes and rustlers and religious tensions, takes on a stark and tangible nature. The characters, by comparison, come across as flattened cartoons, their speech and moods melodramatic almost to the point of comedy. The women are universally innocent and soft and in need of masculine protection, while the men are grizzled soldiers in the bloody game of frontier life... even the good guys, who nonetheless crave the salvation of a lady's touch. Even as they wrestled with their own imperfections, they did so in such grandiose manners that it was almost laughable. The worst offender by far was Jane Withersteen, who clings to blind faith long past the point of sympathy or sense simply to prolong her inner angst. Thanks in no small part to her and the rest of the over-the-top cast, the story often stretches credulity, with peculiar meetings and withheld information and impossible coincidences, not to mention a tendency to relay important encounters secondhand to the readers. The whole thing takes on a soap opera sheen at the climax. I enjoyed some of the descriptions, and a few of the action sequences had real tension, but overall I found myself too annoyed by the characters.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Killing Dirty (Peter Clark) - My Review
A Pocket Full of Spells (Ash Stirling) - My Review
Devil's Tower (Mark Sumner) - My Review
Zane Grey
Public Domain Books
Fiction, Western
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Jane Withersteen's father left her a legacy of wealth and respect in 1870's Cottonwoods, a Mormon settlement in the sage-swept deserts of Utah... but now, having befriended the outsider Gentiles and defied church elders by showing affection for the wrong man, she stands on the brink of ruin. The last person she ever thought she'd consider an ally was the legendary Mormon-killer Lassiter, yet when her Gentile friend Bern Venters is threatened by elder Tull, only Lassiter's arrival spares him. As cattle rustlers, church-led conspiracies, and other threats close in on the Withersteen estate, Jane finds herself more and more reliant on the mysterious man, even as she learns the truth behind his violent and vengeful reputation.
REVIEW: This is a book where setting outshines both story and characters by orders of magnitude. The wild deserts and rough canyon country glow on the page, painted bright and bold. Even the tension of the frontier world, with the threat of stampedes and rustlers and religious tensions, takes on a stark and tangible nature. The characters, by comparison, come across as flattened cartoons, their speech and moods melodramatic almost to the point of comedy. The women are universally innocent and soft and in need of masculine protection, while the men are grizzled soldiers in the bloody game of frontier life... even the good guys, who nonetheless crave the salvation of a lady's touch. Even as they wrestled with their own imperfections, they did so in such grandiose manners that it was almost laughable. The worst offender by far was Jane Withersteen, who clings to blind faith long past the point of sympathy or sense simply to prolong her inner angst. Thanks in no small part to her and the rest of the over-the-top cast, the story often stretches credulity, with peculiar meetings and withheld information and impossible coincidences, not to mention a tendency to relay important encounters secondhand to the readers. The whole thing takes on a soap opera sheen at the climax. I enjoyed some of the descriptions, and a few of the action sequences had real tension, but overall I found myself too annoyed by the characters.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Killing Dirty (Peter Clark) - My Review
A Pocket Full of Spells (Ash Stirling) - My Review
Devil's Tower (Mark Sumner) - My Review
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