Getting Better.... Full of fluff.....
593026
I thought this book was better than Tyree's previous two books. Mr. Tyree has been slipping.
He spends too much time describing Leslie's mysterous disposition. I could not wait for him to get the story started. You could read the first chapter and skip to page 150 & U would not have missed a thing. Tyree needs to ease up on the fluff a little.
It gets exciting towards the end. However, the ending could have been much better. It leaves you hanging like there may be a part 2 in the works. Who Knows...
2888451
The author has dropped the ball on what could easily have been a pretty decent book.

I strongly recommend that the author revise the beginning and the end.

In the early chapters the writing is labored.  The book drags because the author uses a greatly exaggerated and pretentious literary style in an effort to convey some sort of deep meaning.  It's tough to read through the drivel.

Thankfully, he drops it after a few chapters and just tells the story but I nearly gave up a couple of chapters in.

Hang in there, it's worth reading!

The author also need to clean up serious inconsistencies in the storyline.  A woman rescues several women but is presumably killed in a car crash yards from the community barricade but no effort is made to check on her or the others or to even remove the body?  Who does that?

Trust me, dead bodies reek beyond my ability to express.  Nobody leaves corpses lying around.  The stench is indescribable.

Similarly the hero never misses and racks up a mammoth body count while sustaining multiple gunshot wounds. Yet, somehow he proceeds on unhindered after a simple bandaid is applied.  Wow!  What a badass, but he was supposedly only a lowly diesel mechanic in the Army?

The characters are mostly like those on bad TV shows.  Shallow...

Finally, the hero learns the truth but actually seems to buy into the notion that maybe the whole scheme was justifiable and worthwhile.  The author clearly has bought into the whole global warming myth and seems determined to make us believe that we're doomed either way.

Having read it, I can say it was a decent work which a re-write would greatly improve.  A long weekend of edits would make this a very enjoyable book.  As it is, he's OK but certainly not competing with "Lights Out" or even "One Second After"
4382098
I'm just going to put this out there... I don't know how I feel about this book. There is a lot of stuff going on, but then, at the same time, there isn't. It's moves like traffic on a four lane highway: you're going along, at a good click and then WHAM there's a roadblock and everyone slows to a crawl.

The characters are likeable, but with so much going on, the back and forth between them made the story sort of stilted. It may have been easier if one couple was the focus, but I understand the author's intention, so I took that with a grain of salt. I've never read a book my Todd before, so I wasn't sure what I was getting into (standalone vs continuing story).

The writing is very technical, and Todd is good at it, but for me (since this is my opinion and all that jazz), a little less perfection would have made the story flow better. I'm not saying "bring on the typos" I'm just saying that I appreciate the occasional drift off course of "the proper way."

At this time, I'm not sure if I've enjoyed the book enough to grab the next one to see what happens. I think that decision will depend on the blurb of book 2.
2553250
Thanks to net galley.com, Ted Galdi and Precipice Books for the advance ARC copy for my honest review.

Not a bad book, but feel the author created several situations in the storyline, for the soul purpose of adding needless fluff writing and making the reader slog through it.

It starts out pretty good, then he gets way to unrealistic, believable or plausible at times in the storyline with the escape of inmates Danny Marsh, Monty Montgomery, and Phil Zorn, who escape from the Thorgood L. Chick prison.

1) Can a tunnel that takes 9 months to complete in a prison library? Go unnoticed
2) Guess in fiction, battery operated power tools actually work to perfection and magically the battery holds power in prison.
3) Deputy Ramos, with another deputy go to breakfast, before questioning a suspect, after they piece together that the escapees got through their check points and all because of a stolen watch. Plus we had to read three pages plus of fluff about Deputy Ramos retiring in a year and this case will help his political ambitions.
4) They travel in a Buick Lucerne, end up getting a flat, put on a donut spare, but Phil's still able to drive like a madman and the tire doesn't go flat on bad rock gravel road.
5) Monty gets a screw driver driven in his knee by Wade, his leg is numb from it and yet when he escapes, he's able to runaway into the woods. Plus his legs have been chained to a stool for days yet has no circulatory issues from lack of blood flow.
6) Ted Galdi pressed the easy button with the ending, at the last possible moment Danny able to be strong and stand up to Phil.
7) Know of the characters in An American Cage are likable, his on words contradict what Phil was able to do, in the real world Danny or Jane would have killed him behind the gas station. Since it would be quite obvious that both had to know they would have been killed once he got the $250,000 from the Marsh's.
8) Neither the Marsh's or Buddy have a gun, although the fluff part with the samurai sword was cute and just made the read predictable.

Let me add had the author done a little research by watching LiVE PD, he would have realized how bad his escape through the check point would have been using the hitchhiker Jane Pilgrim. Since just about every Officer would have searched the car due to Jane being sweaty and the loose clothes on the floor of the car.

If your like me a fan of the ID channel, have watched 'I Almost Got Away With It', then it's obvious why 'An American Cage' would peak your interested, but be aware it'll fall short to those expectations and definitely could have been a much better read than what it was for me.
51109
Too long. Why is there so much fluff? It is not necessary. In fact, it is hard to read this book because of it. Which is funny because I am a very detail oriented person. But, that whole part about picking a dress for New Year's Eve, fluff. There was more, it's just so unnecessary that I forgot about it already.
Also being team Russell is so hard these days. Given I got a little bit mad when he grabbed her face, and that wasn't really explained good enough. Why was he trying to push her away again because she was in danger because he had a dream? But whatever why does he remember all their past lives but she doesn't even though they both almost died from the EXACT same wounds. But Reed was a dick at the start and I never got over that. Russell just got friend zoned and I love the underdog. This is what I would love. Evie dies but not quite and then she remembers and then Russel fights Reed and wins her and bam, epic love story triangle conclusion.
It's like this author is good, I love her writing style. Just with a little less fluff. And I really can't predict much. But man there is just too much going on and there are annoying things in the story. I don't know if I'm going to be able to read the next one.
3481792
I wish he had kept working on this one.  It could have been a good book, but it's pretty much a fluffy "get another book out right away" sort of deal, though there are few points of hilariously entertaining writing.
3698863
I don't discuss plots out of respect for the author. You can read the blurb for that. I was looking for something short that I could finish in two days tops, so I picked this one from my list of recommendations. It cost 2.99 and that's not much for any book, though, I know there are a lot of cheepskates out there that will see that differently. The book is an up and downer. Lost my interest for two weeks mid way through because of the annoying too much crying scenes amongst characters. Too much, I said, not that there shouldn't be any. Then there was fluff in the middle that I felt would have served better in the beginning, that's just my opinion. And plus, I felt the book was too short to have needed fluff or filler information. BUT, the end was well written and done with heart, so much so it made me question why the writer didn't display this sort of love throughout the book. I'm never one to say don't get a book, and I won't start now. Instead, I'll say check it out. See if you like it more than me.
2629157
I feel like we wait so long for these books sometimes. Sigh... I love Julian. I didn't love how we were almost at the 50% mark before Julian and Katherine were united. It was just a lot of fluff to fill pages. I've paid for all the books in the series, and this was a let down. Sorry, Faith. I'll still wait for urinal and  buy it. I'm not sure how much story we will get though.
193390
I only got through the first two chapters of this book so I am starring this book higher based on the assumption that it gets better.

 First off, it needs a serious edit.  There is no table of contents, paragraphs are not indented consistently and the author uses commas incorrectly.  I think most people could look past that though so that didn't affect my review - just commenting because I know there are some people for whom that is a non-starter.

 Another non-starter for many people: the profanity.  I can only handle so many F-bombs per chapter and this book exceeded my limit really quickly.

 Next, the the reason why I stopped reading so I guess my final comment is probably the most significant.  At the conclusion of chapter 2 I still had no idea what was going on.  I understand that it is about dreams and dreams are disjoint hence the story is disjoint but I really, really felt absolutely lost.  The book starts out with a few paragraphs written in the first person and we do not know who that person is.  It then promptly jumps to the third person for a few paragraphs then promptly jumps back again to first person.  Is it the same person?  I have no idea.  There was just way to much jumping in and out of stuff every few paragraphs, at least early on, and it had my head spinning.

 Too bad too because I really liked the concept and the cover.  Perhaps the book gets better but I didn't make it that far.
1626336
And it's so much better because of it! It's less repetitive in the descriptions, there's actually a fair amount of dialog and the characters are becoming a bit more believable. There were still a few glaring things that made the book not as good as it could have been.

Please please please just hurry up and kill off Andrew. I'm growing tired of this single villain plot and how he just happens to cheat death every time. It's getting old and I just found myself saying, "Oh just get on with it already!"

I hate Sydney. Children have no place in a romance novel and I find her to be annoying as a character. You would think for a child that was almost in foster care that she'd be less of an attention seeking brat. I know she's something special and whatnot but she is just obnoxious.

The amount of characters is falling into what I've referred to as "Twilight Syndrome." There are just too many people to keep track of and with so many of they guys having names that start with the same letter, I found myself rereading a few times just to make sure I knew which guy was being referenced.

Punctuation errors were rampant in this book. Dialog not being in complete quotations, things not capitalized, periods in the middle of sentences, switching back and forth between some words being in italics and others not. It wasn't a huge detraction but it was enough to throw off my reading flow from time to time.

Overall though, I am excited for the next book!
1135368
In English class, we all learned the benefits of "showing" vs. "telling." Here, there is too much of both. We see Debbie "telling" a therapist how she came to be a nervous wreck. It takes about a paragraph. However, we also see episode after episode of anxiety attack. Every moment of self-doubt is spelled out. The identify crisis seems to go on for a hundred years. Does she have PTSD? It's very likely. But she doesn't seem to gain the wisdom from her experiences to make better choices as she moves forward. The book has a happy ending, but readers won't feel like there's any guarantee it will last. She seems like a pinball---with some of the movement and drama being quite self-inflicted and voluntary.

I picked this up because, frankly, I assumed that after the first book, she *would* have picked up some wisdom and this would be more settled. However, it just feels like the pot was stirred up again.

If you are desperate to know what happened after Kabul, I would advise checking it out from the library so you can skim through it and give it back. As the start of the review explains, I felt it was just too poorly written, with too many over-dramatic situations to even ring true. I hope that the author is able to enjoy much happiness---and a better editor---as she moves forward.
3465453
I love Amazon Unlimited.  It allows newer authors to get read.  I noticed a growth in the writing style of the author through the series.  The first book is, by necessity, a bit long in it's world building descriptions.  All just a bit much.  It did actually cause the book to suffer 1 star.  The second book picked up the pace a bit in some area's but similarly suffered from just to many descriptions. The real life descriptions of his numerous issues, problems, health craziness is all a bit to much.  BOOK 2-  I did think that the action was better described in book two though.  Real life is largely ignored and the action is pointed to the game.  The trouble with having 2 female companions that he wanted to sleep with was odd but interesting.  It would have been easy to just allow things to become degenerate.  Book 3- Roth really starts to take off.  The writing style becomes a little more easy and less descriptive (less is often more.  Let me use something called an imagination).  So many authors don't seem to trust the reader to fill in the blanks.  Just about the entire event was well done, with the action moving smoothly.

-Only issues (And I know that they are addressed by the author in the forward to book 1):  Each "Book" is not a book.  It's just a continuation of the story line.  There is no story arc that I could tell.  Ram it all into one book and you would never know the difference.  There is character development but no discernible overarching plot.  I guess the plot is just "get stronger, level up."

anyways- I liked the books.  And will continue to read them as they are released.
3128404
This is the book where the series starts to become better. The story lines that felt pointless in book 1 (Eric) now have a reason. I think the author would be better off combining books 1& 2 into a single volume for continuity purposes. I imagine a lot of readers quit after book 1 with the disjointed story and cliffhanger at the end. You don't get the same unsatisfied feeling this time around.

The series becomes geared towards strong female leads in this volume. Gina and Shima are both very likable and well written. Shima and the entire Shan story line could have been a series by itself and I would have read it. Unfortunately, every book has at least 1 character I can't stand. Kate is it this time around. I could have done without the psychotic, self-absorbed assassin completely.

The authors lack of a military background becomes obvious in this volume and never stops being so. It's honestly my biggest problem with the entire series. The interactions between the various military characters, scenarios, battles and everything else military related is just a bit off. In this book it's the Navy's refusal to sufficiently support the ground war with their fighters that stands out. There's no reason given. The Admiral just says "no". It's illogical and would be an idiotic way to fight a battle. Your troops are vastly outnumbered, orbital strikes aren't an option, so you take away the only thing that gives your troops a chance at winning for no reason at all. Yeah, that would happen, sure.
2564496
There is a lot of fluff and un-necessary information here just for the sake of filling pages. If you manage to go through all the fluff there are some good info as well.
2569588
I didn't know if I should rate this because I haven't finished it yet...and that's because it seems to ramble. I've just gotten bored with it, and I'm having trouble even wanting to finish it. I keep hoping it gets better. I'm sure it's very hard for the author to describe his experiences in a way all of us can understand, but frankly, my understanding is stuck in the "black jello". Wish I would have gotten it from the library-but since it's on my Kindle I'll finish it, probably, eventually.
3301700
Mr. Jordan is in need of a good editor. There are far too many minor characters crowding up this book and bogging down the plot. It crawls at points with endless descriptions that one could skip entirley and never miss. It's pretty bad when you can skip entire chapters and not miss a thing.
The best part of the book is the last part, if you have the patience to wade through countless and seemingly meaningless storylines to get to it.
Also, am I the only one who thinks Rand bonding and bedding three women is turning this into soap opera trash. I mean, come on...Is he the Dragon Reborn, or The Dragon Stud?
I'm glad to see the return of Matt...though Jordan goes on ad-nasuem about him being Tylin's boy toy. More soap opera trash?
The ending finally gets down to business and moves this story along. It's the best part of the book and yet Jordan spends way less time on it than on the rest of the book. I wanted more. He begins descriptions of the battle with the Forsaken, skips the most of the action and then we pan to the end where we get a brief body count and Cadsuane making up her mind to keep an eye on Rand...duh. What happened to all the Forsaken? Were they injured at all? And speaking of them....their identies are now so hard to keep up with you need a reference manual to see who's who.
It's better than Path of Daggers, which did nothing to advance the story. But it's not good enough. Mr. Jordan is beginning to seem as overwhelmed by his story as his readers and one wonders if he is making this up as he goes along or even has an end in sight.
3278905
my feeling when finishing this book.  I seriously just want to return it (but I won't) because it was, in a nutshell, lacking any developments in the story.
As many others have reviewed, quite accurately and much more in depth, this book lacks a lot of what the first 8 or so had.  Has Harris gotten tired/bored of writing about Sookie and its world?  That is the feeling I got while reading, and once I finished I just wanted to know what exactly was the point?
A few pieces of information that did develop the story could have been written and covered in a few chapters.  The book is full of 'filler'---I wanted to just skip pages due to the redundancy I was reading.  The characters seem to have lost their identity and I was disappointed to see Eric as essentially a spineless whiner.  In the few pages in which he appeared, there was barely any true interaction between him and Sookie.  Which, since they are married, you would think that would be a storyline worth developing.
**SPOILER**  And seriously, all I could say was "Are you kidding me?" when I read the end and what Sookie used the fairy item for.  Anyone else??  Out of all the things in the world----it was all set up so predictably and, well, crappy.
UGH.  I am still on the fence regarding the last book.............I am afraid that it will just be more fluff and truly have no end.