2.75 stars, poor construction, misspellings, abrupt ending, not a standalone
583429
A difficult review to write because I'd grown quite attached to the main characters, Callie and Kayden, in their first book and was rather interested to know how their story progressed. I'd even pre-ordered the book because I'd drunk the Callie and Kayden Kool-Aid!

First thing I noticed is that this book was professionally published and edited, and the author thanks both in her Acknowledgements. I have had it with the incredible amount of misspellings / grammatical + content errors / inconsistencies in ebooks, books for which we pay and invest our time, and unfortunately even with the "editor" this book was no exception to this insulting and sad trend. Shoot! I didn't keep fastidious notes (because she didn't hire me), but I counted over fifty errors, and it's not a long book. Additionally, an editor (vice copy editor) should have worked with the author to clean up the double storytelling: for example, we'll read the event from Callie's perspective, move on, then BAM!, the author switches to Kayden's voice and we get to relive the exact same event. It made me want to whine "I know it already!" Neither a necessary nor useful technique, distracting, and felt like a very lazy author.

This book is not a standalone. I'd not reread the first book (Coincidence of Callie + Kayden) so admittedly a few references in Redemption made me think "what?" and forced me to reach way back in my memory as the author doesn't elaborate to include first-timers ... or forgetful readers like me.

Now to the things I liked:

Well, I LOVE that the author doesn't shy away from uncomfortable social issues, like rape, abuse, bulimia, cutting, gay teens, bullying, suicide, mental illness. Especially mental illness, because it's invisible and impacts so many, causing so many to feel alone and one-of-a-kind. Callie and Kayden both deal with their own mental illnesses and it's okay. It's okay to like them, for them to love each other. Having a mental illness does not need to make you a pariah.

I like that each of the characters has his / her own issues: no one is "perfect" or has it easy. They are trying to cope, do the best they can, and it's (admittedly) easier for some than others.

I like that therapy / working with a therapist (counselor) is employed with positive outcomes by both Callie and Kayden. Therapy can be a wonderful tool, and it's lovely to read about teens doing just that.

I like that the author lets them go off on tangents, allows them to make mistakes, to lose faith in themselves, to (slightly) lose faith in the other, but she has them keep trying. Keep putting one foot in front of the other and trying to move forward for themselves and for their relationship.

I like that the author doesn't tie everything up in a neat bow. The ending was botched, though -- felt rushed and abrupt, disconcerting and plain odd. However there are still unresolved issues, just like life. Of course, I read to escape my day-to-day life which is FILLED with unresolved issues, but that's okay.

So I'm conflicted: I am invested in Callie and Kayden as characters, wanted to follow their journey and would love to follow even more. I think there are many fine aspects to this book, to this part of their story (and individual stories). The author does a terrific and accessible job presenting uncomfortable topics (rape, abuse, cutting, etc.). Yet ... the book itself is sloppily written, riddled with ridiculous word choices, and needs to be thoroughly cleaned-up.
3389455
You can tell this is a new author and I always want to give new authors every benefit of the doubt, but 2 stars is the best I can do here. The book is poorly edited- and I don't just mean poor punctuation. There are misspelled words, missing punctuation, missing words, wrong pronouns, incorrectly used words, etc. throughout the book. When you find multiple mistakes within the first few pages, you know it is going to be s long read.

The plot itself, while not really feasible, could still be interesting, but it is poorly executed, happening in fits and starts. The two leads magically fall in love but won't tell each other - and then seem to willfully misunderstand each other. However, they somehow instantly trust/care enough to risk their necks/reputations for each other. The story is poorly told action scenes glued together with steamy looks and a bit of action.

Furthermore, in no way is this a historical romance beyond the laughable idea of it being set in the early 1800s. Some mention is made of period clothing and a drive in the park at the fashionable hour. Beyond that, this book holds nothing of the period in conversation, actions, mannerisms, etc.

I wish the author luck. This would be a fun story for the first time out, but it needs some work for anything more.
1337024
I'd rate this somewhere between 3.5 and 4 stars.

Imagine a world where a phone app exists that allows you to create and plan your own kidnapping. You give the parameters for the kidnapping: the duration, the experiences you want to have, the safe word for a safe escape...

Henry is a daily grind kind of guy working in a mind-numbing yet steady job in programming where he's struggling to keep his head above water. His work is sloppy, he calls in late or sick often, skips out early, and he's paying for it in work performance. His marriage is all but over, and his wife is nearly completely moved out. He receives a phone call and a plane ticket one Friday afternoon to send him across the country from home (Baltimore) to Los Angeles to visit an old friend with a wild and lucrative proposition.

Dani is a girl who's barely scraping by. She's a bartender in a band and she's covered in tattoos. She's one of kidnApp's best customers, and an early adopter. She can't make rent, and she can't make the guy she likes want her, too, but she's a whiz with getting swept away by a Taker.

The story winds closely around these two characters, and really does a good job building up the beginnings of a great partnership. This is only Book 1, so the foundation is laid rather well. I really feel the doldrums of Henry's life, and I'm eager for him to take the opportunity to turn everything on its ear and change directions 180-degrees. But he won't, because he's Henry, and he will do this methodically and planting each foot firmly down before taking the next step. That's where Dani comes in. These two may very well create a powerhouse dynamic duo that will accelerate kidnApp to the upper atmosphere where it belongs.

Criticisms: This book was littered with misspellings and grammatical errors. I am unsure if it was edited. It seems like it was, because it is well-written, but some of the errors are blatant and left me scratching my head. I tried to submit the errors via the Kindle interface, but I'm not sure those are reported exactly as I had it conjured in my mind. Regardless, with a bit of effort in setting aside these oversights, the book is fun and worth a shot to learn if the kidnApp world is right for you.(less)
1157748
This review is more like 2.5 stars. I couldn't decide between 2 or 3, but bumped it up because it was good enough to get through in a day.

I'll try to keep it mostly spoiler free, as my complaints have little to do with specific plot points.

I've been reading a lot of Cassandra Clare's work lately, and greatly anticipated City of Lost Souls. It was less on the grounds that she's some amazing writer, but more on the entertainment value of finding out what happens next. Call it a guilty pleasure, if you will. But there were so many problems with this book that I couldn't overlook this time, and it detracted from my overall experience.

Firstly, the descriptions are ridiculous. It was established in the very beginning that Jace is beautiful, angelic. We need not be reminded every time, yet we are. Even when characters are thinking about Jace, we have to hear how beautiful he is. It's also unnecessary to describe every article of clothing a character is wearing, as it takes focus away from what's happening. Same for the new locations. They're described in such detail that I found myself skipping over certain lines and missing nothing, because there was no need to focus on it. Overused descriptions are another problem. I cringed a little every time a form of the word "gold" was used in this book. Also "hearts slamming against chests," and "half-closed eyes." They simply bother me.

Focus is a good word that this book needs. Events are all over the place, and it's difficult to determine what's important. It didn't bother me at first, but I'm beginning to really dislike the constant POV jumps. They occur much too frequently, it's often ambiguous whose POV it is at first, and honestly it's a little insulting to my attention span. I feel like it's overused to build tension, when tension should occur normally within the span of a scene. I find few things more jarring than being in the middle of a tense moment, only to have to read about Jordan and Maia being all over each other again.

I'm starting to get the feeling that this book has far too many characters for the story it's trying to convey. It's probably too late at this point, but the series would benefit greatly in scaling back the number of POVs to perhaps just Clary, Simon, and possibly Jace. Other characters can still be there, don't get me wrong, but it's unnecessary to know what everyone is thinking about everything. There is intrigue in knowing only one side of the story.

Overall this wasn't a terrible book. It's just that a decent story was drowned in a lot of unnecessary things. Many fans will love it, I'm sure, but it simply had too many problems for me to enjoy it to its fullest. I still look forward to the conclusion, just perhaps not as much as I would have otherwise.
1627071
I'm a huge fan of Aaron Mahnke's Lore podcast and bought this book to not only support Aaron, but read a good suspense novel. I really wanted to like this book, I really did. However, it falls into the same pitfalls as most self-published books and unfortunately reads like a first draft that needed better proofreading. For example, the town changes from Holden to Holten around chapter 5, although it's consistently misspelled as Holten thereafter. The characters seem one-dimensional and poorly conceived, and I actually cringed when the character of Cesar was introduced as he came off sounding very stereotyped.

All in all, I think with proper editing and proofreading that this book could be improved.
2689905
I have mixed feelings about this book. While it kept my attention and there were parts I really enjoyed, I was too distracted by the numerous errors. I understand human error and not all books are perfect. I don't read to look for mistakes. But there were several times I had to stop and reread sentences several times to figure out what it meant bc of extra or missing words. At one point, I even thought that maybe the wrong manuscript had been published by accident because it seems like no one even read this after the author wrote it. But errors aside, I found myself rooting for the couple. I enjoyed Will a lot, but Jackie seemed under developed. She had a past, and even tho I don't need full-on details of these things, it just didn't seem to fit her character and was used as more of a forced plot point. I did finish it, and would be interested in checking out her other work, but I'm too worried about spending $4 on something that feels like the author didn't put forth the effort and rushed to get something out to make money. That's why the low rating. I feel as tho I wasn't delivered a quality product for the money and that left me feeling sad.
2005783
I have to say I was a bit surprised by how well-written, plotted, and paced this was, for a self-published (I think?) novel. There's nary a sour note in the whole book, and even when things get dark they never get bleak. Unfortunately, the experience is a bit marred by the fact that the manuscript doesn't seem to have been line edited. Constant misuse of apostrophes (particularly w/r/t last names, for example: Cormley's instead of Cormleys, or, again, Cormley's instead of Cormleys') or simple you're/your confusion that gets worse in the latter half is unnecessarily distracting and detracts from what is otherwise a very well put-together novel. If it weren't for the surfeit of such errors I'd easily give this 5 starshere's hoping it gets another read-through by an editor.
3522032
I really wanted to like this book. In fact, even as I'm sitting here writing a 2-star review, I wish I could give it more stars.  The truth is that, while I liked the characters and the story showed promise, I couldn't get past the blatant grammatical errors.  If this novel was not self-published, then the author needs to rip into her publisher and editors.  If it is self-published, then I'd strongly suggest hiring a (different?) editor.

So what were some of the problems?

Missing words:  There were so many missing words that were necessary for the sentences to make sense.  If this just happened once or twice, I'd understand -- the author has read her book so many times that she "sees" things that aren't there that should be.  But her editors should've caught more than they did.

"Should've/Could've went" are like nails on a chalkboard.  I could almost get past it in dialogue, but NOT in the actual writing.  Character's never "should've went' anywhere...they "should've gone."

The words "past" and "passed" are not interchangeable.  You cannot say "He ran passed her."  It should be, "He ran past her."

The words "your" and "you're" are also not interchangeable.  "You're" means you are.  "Your" is possessive, as in "It's your house."

Now, I realize I've been really negative and I hate doing that, so let me tell you the positives:

I liked the characters.  I dang-near fell in love with Mason/Razor.  It's why I kept reading so long past the point of irritation with the grammar.  I loved the fact that he was not your stereotypical geeky hacker.

I loved the idea of a batshit crazy ex-girlfriend out for revenge.  Nice touch.

I liked the pace and the not knowing what was going to happen next...twists and turns were awesome.

And I liked the relationship that was developing between the two characters.  It showed really good promise, and there were some really "real" aspects to it.

But I couldn't get past the grammar, as hard as I tried. And it's for that reason that I stopped reading at 47%.  I just couldn't do it anymore, even though I wanted to push through.

There is one "good" in this overwhelming negative review.  Normally I'd give an "I couldn't finish" book only 1-star.  This one gets two for keeping me reading long past the point where I should've stopped.  And, like I said, it really does show promise. But, as much as I'd love to know how Mason unravels himself through the next twist and turn, I just don't have the patience to sit through any more "Should've/Could've wents."  If the author doesn't know better, then her editors should've.

If these things won't bother you, then I'd recommend giving this book a try.  If you do, let me know how it ends. :)
2761078
I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I found it tiresome that I had to wait until the book was more than half over for the two main characters to even meet! Also, please please PLEASE get yourself a good editor. The numerous mistakes were very annoying to me. The consistent lack of commas and missing quotation marks and even the wrong year (chapter 27) show a lack of attention to detail. If this type of thing annoys you, I cannot recommend the book. In addition, I felt that the ending was rushed. I now realize there's another book continuing their story but I will not be reading it.
3749765
This would have been a four-star review, even perhaps 4.5, if it weren't for the painful lack of copy editing before this book was released to the Kindle world. First let's list the good stuff: lively plotting, good character development, sprightly dialogue, and a fairly well-developed sense of place and era. But here's the bad, or at least sloppy:

1. Many, many misspellings and typos (stripped instead of striped, lead for led, windowed for widowed),
2. Poor grammar ("less and less people . . ." for "fewer and fewer people", "lay down" for "lie down"),
3. Incorrect use of personal pronouns ("he saw she and Seddon . . ."),
4. Confused homonyms and just plain wrong words (queue instead of cue; affect for effect; fair for fare; throws for throes; the adverb "subtly" for the noun "subtlety"; "sparse figure" for "spare figure"; the adjective "loathed", meaning hated, for the adjective "loath", meaning reluctant),
5. Inappropriate modern terms ("nodding off", "headspace", "one-upmanship"),
6. A hilarious recurring Malapropism: The heroine concocts a mysterious back-story for herself, putting it about that she resides in a "piazza" in Florence. Apparently, the desired word was palazzo (palace or mansion), because what well-bred Englishwoman would set up housekeeping in a marketplace?
7. Rampant misuse of the poor apostrophe to indicate a simple plural: "my parent's took me . . ." Here's the plain plural truth: there is NO apostrophe required to indicate the plural of a singular word. Ever. Period. Full stop. The author seems particularly muddled over this rule when it comes to last names. The apostrophe abuse worsens when it comes to . . .
8. Possessives vs. contractions: "who's first Season had been a triumph . . ." The correct choice is the possessive pronoun "whose"; "who's" is the contraction for "who is". The possessive pronouns do not use apostrophes. Here's (here is) the list: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs. Not one apostrophe in the lot. The apostrophe is used on either side of the "s" in most nouns to indicate the singular or plural possessive - on the left for singular (the dog's bone, Mr. Smith's address), on the right for plural (the puppies' food bowls, the Smiths' house). The lesson could go on, but I'll spare you. Suffice it to say that the author needs to bone up on these fine points, or at least pay for a professional copy editor prior to publication.

To wrap it up, I did actually enjoy this book, and appreciate the author's writing talent. However, the flaws went far beyond a few typos, to the point that I was variously irritated, distracted, and occasionally amused.
4696874
This story started out good and had the ability to keep me hooked.  It was hard to tear myself away for my daily life responsibilities.  I liked the banter between the main characters and loved the side characters.  However, after completing it I realized I came away with many issues.

First of all, there were many grammar mistakes.  Then some grammar was just plain bad.  I find this in self published books all the time.  But I stil can't bring myself to accept it.

As with all romance books I read, I was pulling for the "happily ever after" for Jake and Abby.  But after Jake's last major screw up in the story even I was shaking my head wondering why Abby tolerated him.  I didn't see enough development in his character.  It was like Abby just decided to deal with his bad behavior.

Who names a dog after your own nickname - really??

And lastly, if I had to read "I have three older brothers" one more time to justify why she could be one of the guys, I was going throw my kindle against the wall.

If you want a quick read and can tolerate grammatical errors, it is worth it.  But don't expect anything in-depth and don't expect to fall in love with Jake.
4161728
I did enjoy this story and LOVED some parts -- yum, yum, yummy! For storytelling alone, at least 3 stars. However, the sloppy workmanship brings it down to 2 stars. There are typos on almost every page -- often more than one.

The narrative is emotionally compelling, but the plot is nothing new. In fact, it is very similar to an old Harlequin by Lynne Graham (see&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Unfaithful-Wife-Presents-Plus/dp/B00835TL86/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Unfaithful Wife (Presents Plus)</a>, newly republished as an e-book). It's not identical, but quite similar, involving the "blackmailed-into-marriage" trope.

My reactions: Theresa's dad blackmailed Sandro into marrying Theresa, who loved him. He thought she was in on the scheme, so for 18 months (!!) he treated her like dirt. At first, I hated Sandro and sympathized with Theresa. Then, when Sandro learned the truth and did a 180 to rebuild the relationship -- movie nights, book talks, Scrabble games, football parties, visits to the prenatal clinic -- I grew annoyed with Theresa for being so unforgiving and unwilling to trust. Yet, I understood why she was so afraid to trust: Sandro had not explained about Francesca -- the other woman-- and he had not phoned Theresa enough from Italy. So then I became annoyed with Sandro, and sympathized with Theresa again!! ;-) Why didn't he explain about Francesco sooner? It took him until 97% into the story. How did he expect Theresa to just overlook the newspaper and TV photos showing Sandro with Francesca, not to mention the .... Never mind. It's a spoiler.

Best bits: Excellent love scene in the shower. Mmmm-mmm! The first kiss! And I loved the tender, giggly scene at the clinic, when the baby kicked for the first time. Nice epilogue, too. Throughout much of the book, I enjoyed the groveling -- very sweet.

Worst bits: In one scene, Sandro's grandmother was totally hateful and insulting towards Theresa. I was shocked, and looked to Sandro to "fix it" but he let me down. He should have handled that scene very differently. He also let me down in Italy.

Bottom line: Good content but poorly proofed. Emotionally, Anders hooked me. There were times I nearly cried. It's a moving story. And sexy! Anders is a good storyteller, especially considering this is her first book. She just needs to include a little bit more info on the setting (somewhere near Cape Town, I think), avoid overdosing on the poor communication trope, and pay for a professional editor.
3458962
Review: This book started out great but didn't sustain the hook that started the story. The author seemed to ramble and was using too many speech tags (said, asked, etc). When the story should be building tension and suspense it gets dry. Its not a bad book, just needs the editor/proof reader to help the author tighten up the story.

I'm sure all the authors reading this review have suffered from the same problem at one point or another. I know I sure did. I want to stress this isn't a bad book but it is lacking for me.
2446527
FBI profiler Maggie teams up with US Marshall Brandon to catch escaped prisoner John Burrows, a serial killer who Maggie caught as her first major case.

Best bits: Some decently developed characters. I can appreciate Brandons devotion to his job as an outlet for his anger at his fiancees death, and also Maggies dedication to her job even as she is haunted by the worry that her first success is a fluke.

Issues: Scattered typos (including the egregious "stares" for "stairs"). Also frequent 1st-person statements mixed into the 3rd-person narrative. They're meant to be thoughts, but really need to be italicized for that to work. And (SPOILERS) frankly, I don't buy the hidden tunnel and bunker. What kind of thorough search for missing bodies did they conduct the first time around if they didn't look behind the bookshelf in the secret-basement-torture-chamber, or in the woods less than a mile from the guy's house? Lame, anticlimactic, and not worth the hype of all the stress leading up to it. The book does just barely enough to earn the Christian fiction label. We see that Brandon is anti-God, angry at Emily's death. And then, faced with Maggie being captured, he suddenly prays for her and is fine with God again. And that is about as much detail/explanation we get.
1748953
Rating:  2 3/4 stars

FIONA, by Danni Roan, is a pleasant Western story.  The story really doesn't have much conflict or drama to it, but it was an enjoyable, pleasant distraction read (and there's nothing wrong with simple escapism).  This is the first book by this author which I've read, and it's number two in what appears will be a series of stories around the many members of the Jones family on the Broken J ranch in Wyoming.  It can be read as a stand-alone book.  The characters are all uniformly nice people, but with sufficient variation of personalities that they are each distinct from one another.  As I said, a bit of pleasant, undemanding escapism, which actually can sometimes be exactly what one is looking for.

Sadly, the enjoyment of the story is significantly lessened by frequent misspellings and constantly misused and missing punctuation.  This would have been a solid four-star story had it been properly edited.  Why authors publish without a simple proofreading is a mystery to me.  And this is the second in the series, so it's not a first-book error.

I hope the author takes the time to find an editor/proofreader and fix the errors in this book (and the errors that probably are in book 1 and no doubt will be in future books).  The proofreading errors were such that I won't be trying any other of this author's books.
646742
This ebook does have some major flaws.  (1) As others have mentioned, the errors in the text were unbelievably numerous.  This is a prime example of how essential a good copy editor is for thorough proofreading before an ebook is released. The errors unfavorably detracted from the writing.  (2) It was hard for me to believe in the advanced maturity of Josie as she was represented in the early part of the book.  Her mother dies when she is ~9 years old and she completely steps into the now vacant role of homemaker?  That is not plausible.  (3) The conversations on the bus between Josie and Samuel did not ring true as realistic teen conversation.  They sounded more appropriate to 20-somethings.  At least make the dialogue believable!

Even with all it's shortcomings, however, I enjoyed the storyline and the overall character development.  The focus on the Navajo culture and tradition gave depth and richness that provided substance and shored up the plot, making me want to continue reading.  I found the adult Josie and the adult Samuel much more realistic and I completely bought into their romance and deep respect for each other.  If there are true soul mates in this world, Josie and Samuel found theirs.  I'm not a fan of either the romance novel genre or the conservative Christian inspirational genre, but this book has more to offer than just that.  Bottom line: read this book for the plot and character development and try to turn a blind eye to some of the aforementioned issues.
1751192
Strictly speaking, the content of this book is not bad at all - decent characters and story. However, I cant convince myself to move forward through the series (and, in fact, forced myself to finish this) because its clear this hasn't been put through even a basic spell/grammar check, let alone edited - quote/comma basic misplacement, frequent misspellings, no periods at ends of sentences.

These aren't occasional problems, but constant throughout, so bad it overwhelmingly detracts from the enjoyment of reading this. I know some, perhaps most, self-published authors might not have the funds for an editor or proofreader (and, as a writer/editor myself, this is a particular peeve of mine, so I try to temper these kinds of comments), but this is just sloppy - and inexcusable.