A nice idea behind it which developed nicely at the beginning ...
588980
A nice idea behind it which developed nicely at the beginning but starting to drag quite early in the book. Gives an important
information and lighted few gruesome incidents during the war. An ok book.
3309346
I must echo the sentiments of earlier reviews that found this to be more of a promotional piece. This book started well but it was not long before the recurring references to his site and training courses.

As someone curious about real estate investing, I find that many of the authors on this topic use their books as introductions to their other products.

Legrand provides some interesting insights from his personal experience. However, much of the rest of the book followed predictable patterns of brief illustrations of successful investor situations and carefully selected letters to keep readers focused on the "pot of gold" that is available.

Authors trying to promote other products does not bother me. It would be helpful if these experts would share a few complete illustrations of their techniques (adding the disclaimer that these are examples and may vary greatly in real life). These start to finish illustrations would give a more complete picture of the process and really give beginners a better look at the process.
2866299
I enjoyed  the beginning, about the childhood and the projects. Also, the  early days of being in the  news business. Felt that some parts could have been left out. Somewhat repetitious.
4483216
the idea was quite god and the starting is nice, unfortunately later the story falls down...
why has the main carachter fall in love with the archaic vampire??????????????????
please.....
in any way i hope that the writer will develop a following with a more logic story and a little more carachters deep
all in all it has been fun to read the first 50%
3393659
The first in a series yields a promising start. Having a young detective and relative of Ike's investigating crime in a time of war is a fine premise. Boyle comes from a family who has a history of both war and police service. The year is 1942 and Boyle finds himself in London shortly after joining the army. Soon as he arrives he is investigating the death of an official of the Norwegian government in exile. This first installment is somewhat simple and cartoonish but entertaining. I wonder if the author is striving for the period's melodrama or if he is just finding his legs (the book's cover art is excellent but summons up a Hardy Boys type of flavor). I plan to find out where Benn takes Boyle by reading the subsequent works. I hope the series and Boyle grow a little more gritty along the lines of Kerr's Bernie Gunther and more nuanced like Airth's Madden.
1526916
Nice idea to go back to the very beginning with this series;  the trauma of the war and the inability of a lot of the men who fought in it to deal with what they did and saw.  This story gives a little context about why the men in this and all the subsequent books acted out as they did, and why their ideas about love and commitment were so formed.
3014017
It was a nice story it got better as you went along.
3645773
Lots of interesting background, human interest, etc., at the beginning but not too much action.

The book finally redeems itself about two thirds of the way through and turns out to be a good read.
4149528
The movie has some neat ideas and had a nice twist at the end.
574459
I'm sorry to say this looked like a cuter adventure than it was, which is sad, because this really could have been something delightful, along the lines of "The Magic Treehtouse" series. Instead, this is a just-nice Common Core integration attempt that's a little heavier on the educational aspect and a little lighter on the exciting read end. Even so, I enjoyed the idea of time travel and the writing is decent. But Bubba and his family... well, their characters left a lot to be desired and their adventures weren't quite there. The information is nice, and this is a rather fun idea, but it's only a midl recommendation from me.
689813
This started out as your typical coming of age 'serf becomes savior' offering that we've all read hundreds of times, and then took an interesting turn.  Instead of coming under the tutelage of the wise old wizard or the benevolent king, our hero Gen lands in the frying pan when his village gets taken over by Shadan the psycho who systematically brutalizes and slaughters the village.  At this point we start seeing the creative side of the book as Gen is slowly transformed from carefree bard's apprentice to amazing swordsman over the course of a vicious winter, the results of which appear as if they will change the course of the world...

While most of the characters in this book are well developed, there are a couple of patches where the story gets a bit rough or hurried.  A bit more detail or description would have gone a long way to bringing this book to pick up the extra star.  An example would be (spoiler alert) the fight where Gen's love interest gets slaughtered - it just felt rushed, with much of the tension around the event slipping away.  I admire brevity, and wouldn't want to see this work turned into a 1000 page Jordan-esque novel where you spend 5 pages discussing the movement of a caravan across the frozen ground - but some of the important scenes would benefit from additional details.

Overall though, this book was a very good offering -- introducing a downright odd prophecy that has resulted in an interesting method of breeding rulers (or was that breeding mares?)  The story moves along pretty rapidly, and when I finished this first book, I immediately looked to pick up the next in the series.  A nice introduction to the series and a good way to start a long weekend!
3710815
the beginning drew me in, but the story stagnated from there. Just when I was about to give up, it started to get more interesting.  The ending had a nice twist.
2963814
Off to a bad start. i may enjoy it more when i get it to do what i want.
4086496
Nice little exercise in character development.
1003830
The premise and the beginning made me think it would be one of those books that I would keep rereading every once and a while but although I eventually changed my mind, I still thought this was an overall enjoyable read.

Other than the technological devices and having women in offices of authority, the world building was minimal.  Both Arden and Luke were interesting characters.  I loved the beginning part of this book before Luke realizes who he is.  There was a lot more tension and intrigue between the characters with Luke's assignment of killing Arden and his confusion when he couldn't compel himself to it.  After Luke realizes who he is, most of that tension and intrigue went away for me.  The story then focuses on the relationship between Arden and Luke. There are a couple of mysteries, including a "who dunnit" storyline that fills in the book.

Good characterization, including those of secondary characters, who we are sure to see in future books in the series.  The book includes an excerpt of the beginning of the next book that comes out later this year.  That intrigued me enough that I'll be watching out for it.
203918
Yet another interesting concept, well begun, but ultimately retreating to clich. The first half of the book is quite good - detailing the travels of an embassy from Louis IV to the Negus (emperor) of Abyssinia in 1699. The novelist makes good use of the intrigues and mistrust among the various Catholic and other Western factions. The hero is a young herbalist whose medical knowledge gives him near miraculous powers, and provides several easy escapes from intricate plot devices. But these sections do impart a good sense of what it might be like to travel in these then unknown parts of the world, down the Nile, through Egypt and the Sudan, and ultimately to Ethiopia. (A good map would have been handy for this, as the areas involved are not well-known, even today.) But, about half way through, the descriptions and background can't hide the predictability of the plot, and the Candidean romantic subplot detracts from the overall effect.
3260394
Drags a little. Not fond of characters forced in after the halfway point. 3 stars for a good initial idea.