Verena

„Salford World War” – A Book Review

Another book I have received a free copy of in exchange for an honest review was the “Salford World War” (Will World War 3 start IN Salford?) A Romantic Crime Thriller for 2014 by Mike Scantlebury (published in 2014/republished in 2018). To describe the process – I was contacted on Twitter by a PR manager (hired by the author, I suppose) to ask if I was willing to read the book and post a review on Amazon and Goodreads. I said yes. It was straightforward and in good faith on both sides, and I was happy to do someone a favor, but also to read a romantic crime thriller, which guaranteed to be exciting and different from most of the books I’ve reviewed so far. Admittedly, I was also attracted by the promise of a romance, and there was some romance in the book, indeed – except that the main male protagonist turned out to be as romantic as a rotting piece of wood and I wanted to bludgeon him to death on several occasions throughout the book. But we’ll come to that later.

I will skip my usual rating system for this book as well and write a focused assessment fit to be posted on Amazon (or anywhere else), where people do not have much time to invest in reading long and rambling reviews.

The book’s main protagonist is Amelia Hartliss, who is a secret agent given an important task of protecting an official from China, who comes to visit Salford. The premise of the story is that there are many who want the Chinese official dead, and if they succeed, the consequence might be that China will issue an ultimatum to Great Britain, because the assassination happened on their soil, which in turn might lead to World War III, similar to what had happened in World War I. Here, I am not sure the idea holds water – for the start of the World War I it was not really important where the assassination took place but who did it. Therefore, even if the Chinese official was killed in Salford, it would still matter who killed him. You can’t just start issuing ultimatums because the secret service of the country supposed to protect the emissary you’ve sent consists of a bunch of people incapable of protecting their pet hamster, let alone a foreign visitor. Or you can, but then you don’t really need anyone assassinated at all.

However, the author makes a good job of selling the idea, so after accepting this as a possibility, we join Amelia in her efforts to organize the visit and at the same time figure out who has murdered a good friend of hers (and a former lover), while in parallel trying to understand if she has a personal life at all and any kind of future with Mickey, a fellow spy. By the way, Mickey is the one I’d like to bludgeon to death, simply because of the way he is treating Amelia throughout the book, and if she has any brains at all, she will delete his phone number and try to forget the guy existed. But, to get back to the main topic, the events unfold, and we discover that almost nothing is as it seems (except that Mickey is truly horrible as a boyfriend), and Amelia kind of succeeds in the end, except that it turns out it was not her success after all. Now, at that point, if I had been treated like they’ve been treating her, I would’ve probably quit my job, left my boyfriend, and found me a therapist, but Amelia is tougher than that, so she decides to stick around – for a couple of more books.

So, why should you read the book? It’s fun, and the convoluted story gets properly unraveled by the end of the book. Mind you, there are 11 books before this one dealing with the same character, so I missed the background information. Perhaps the author could put in front a short synopsis of the stuff that was happening before the book Nr. 12. Then it would be easier to understand certain references in the story. Also, I like Amelia (even though she seems a bit too trustworthy and quite incapable for a secret service agent). She is a nice character, and I am curious what will happen to her. I like even Mickey a bit (but only a bit) because he is kind of rough but honest. However, not boyfriend material. Not at all. What I didn’t like was the way dialogs were written, because I had sometimes a hard time figuring out who said what and if they have said it at all or only wanted to say it. I also did not fully manage to follow many characters who came in and out of the story and were insufficiently described and sometimes acted in a way I could not entirely explain. But if you can overlook these weaknesses, and if you like an action-filled story with a nice female lead character, then you’ll have fun reading this book.

My final verdict is 3.5 *.

Interesting, action-filled story with a twist at the end, but with some incomprehensible and confusing moments, and not much romance.

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Promoting a book – or not (Part 3)

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My book promotion journey threatens to become a book on its own. I might put all posts together and publish them as instructions on what to do (and what not to do). On second thought, I think there is plenty of similar books out there, but on third thought, they might be lacking my singular and very personal touch.

So, let’s see what’s new on the book promotion horizon of Verena Key world.

8.) To be scientifically accurate, I’ve booked Books Butterfly again, this time a platinum option (or something like that), which cost me more than the initial 80 $ top 200 push, but my book was also not free, although it was almost free (0.99 $). As before, they promised way more than they could deliver. The promotion was supposed to run for 2 weeks over their social platforms and they guaranteed 100 + downloads. I had 8 downloads altogether (counting KU reads), and at least 3 of those were the consequence of the tweets I booked over the eBooks Habit (just couldn’t resist). This time I decided to report that to the people from Books Butterfly, and they agreed to run the promotion for the remaining 92 books in November. They are very nice to talk to but something tells me that in November I won’t have much more downloads. Admittedly, “Forest Magic” is not the best book I’ve written, but it is also not the worst book in the universe, and certainly is better than many books out there that get hundreds of reviews. And maybe I am being partial, but I think I’m also realistic at least a little bit.

9.) Bargain Booksy ran my 0.99 $ “Forest Magic” again, and this time I had 30 book downloads after only one day of promotion with them. Not to mention that my last promotion of “The Neighbor” with them had brought me several sorely needed star ratings on Amazon. So, obviously, Books Butterfly could learn from them, and try to build their audience according to their preferences. Also, Bargain Booksy is very transparent and I actually see where my ad is posted and how it looks like – which cannot be said for Books Butterfly.

10.) Paid ad on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog site

Something new I tried was to pay 50 $ for a month worth of advertising on SBTB site. I came across this blog while aimlessly surfing the Internet and became a big fan. I like the informativeness of the site but also the humor. Some of the book reviews I read there made me laugh until I cried and I suggest them to anyone who needs a mood boost. At some point, I also realized they posted ads for a very accessible price (when you compare it to Amazon or Facebook paid ads). Besides learning how to make an animated GIF in Photoshop (I had no idea that was even a thing), I had around 25 clicks so far on the ad. I also advertised the Goodreads Giveaway (I’ll come to that) using that ad, so whereas I can’t tell how much overall effect it had on my sales, or on the number of entries for the Giveaway, I like to think it did have some effect, considering that I did not really advertise the giveaway through other channels.

11.) Goodreads Giveaway

There is a pop-up widget right on my homepage telling you all you need to know about it. For the uninitiated, Goodreads is a great platform where people talk about books and other book-related stuff, post reviews, blog, exchange ideas, or simply support each other. I became a member some time ago and like to go there occasionally and exchange opinions with other authors or readers. Goodreads use to organize these giveaways for free. However, recently Goodreads has become a part of the Amazon universe, and as we know, in that universe nothing is for free. Except what they allow you, and a giveaway is not one of those things. Opinions are divided as to the usefulness of the whole process, but for 119 $ you are now allowed to give away 100 free copies of your book. So, essentially, you are buying your books from Amazon and the people on Goodreads distribute them to the interested readers. Theoretically, one could also gift copies of the book to random people, but the trick is exactly that – I do not know 100 random people who might be interested in my book. Goodreads does. So I pay them to share that knowledge with me (indirectly). Considering, however, that this really increases the visibility of the book on Goodreads, and has gained me some followers, I think it is not such a bad deal. I was convinced that I would have trouble collecting even 50 entries, but so far, almost 600 people had entered the giveaway and I am impressed by the number. For all of those who do not get a book, I would be quite happy to organize another promotion on Amazon and inform them when they can download the book at a reduced price, but I don’t have the means to contact all of them. I’ll try and post a notification on my Goodreads author page at some point – maybe they’ll see it.

12.) Reviews, reviews, and reviews!

Yeah, they are important. After a lot of effort and waiting, I finally got my first written review on the book “Neighbor”. Thank you so much, whoever you are, for taking the time to write how you liked my book. And even the comment that they found the end too short – I think that, too. I still think I had to make it that way because there was not much more to say after that last chapter and I had to finish the story somewhere, but when a reader complains that 400 + pages book is too short, it only shows that they really liked reading it and wanted more! I am inclined to write a whole extra chapter just for that one person, and if I find time I will 🙂 Having such a nice review attached to my book led to an increase in sales, I believe (because I’m sure it was not the amazon ads that helped). So, readers, please, review our poor books. Honest reviews are the best advertising there is. Having said that, yeah, I have been offered to pay for reviews, but I am not a fan of such things, so I won’t. Even if they try to make it sound like I am not really paying for reviews, but for presenting my book to potential reviewers, blah, blah… It’s paying for reviews, essentially. So,… no.

I’ve had many other interesting experiences in the past few weeks – signed up for a workshop on writing, will attend a romance writer’s week organized by ProWritingAid, am supporting the development of a new serialized fiction platform called Resurgence Novels, and have written two interviews about myself and my books. But more about that later. I’m obviously having a blast and will report back soon!

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A Book Review of “At His Mercy”

I have grown somewhat tired of Greek billionaires and aliens, so for a change I decided to read something from the realms of fantasy. Fantastic creatures, magic, and a bit of romance – the next book on my list promised all that and more with the title “At His Mercy” and a subtitle Shadow Caster: Book1.

As before, to try to give an honest evaluation of all the books I read, I have decided to make several categories and give stars for each of them, plus the comments. Five stars is the maximum. The mean value from all categories will give the final review in terms of star numbers.

The Book: “At His Mercy”

By: Eve Edgeley

Published on: 1. August 2021

Publisher: Passion Prima Press

Page count: 68

Star rating so far: None at all! I’ll be the first one to comment on this book.

Review categories: 1.) Cover, 2.) Language, editing and formatting, 3.) Plot and believability, 4.) Character development

1.) Cover: ****

The book says cover design was done by Sara Porter and although design itself was not the worse one I’ve seen, it is a bit simple – a stock photo, a bit of photoshoping, and some fancy letters, all in dark tones as befitting the shadow caster. I see some space for improvement there.

2.) Language, editing and formatting: *****

Spelling and formatting are practically immaculate – which can’t be said for the heroine, especially after the dark elf has had his way with her (hark, hark). OK, I’ll stop my pitiful attempts at humor here and just say that the book is very decently written and as decently edited, although I was a bit put off by all the italicized words (which was used to emphasize them, I guess – but that’s my personal taste). The language is also OK, with words such as “brow”, “debauched”, “opportune” and, of course, “manhood” to add to the feeling that we are, indeed, dealing with the fantasy world, populated with mages and dark elves, who are mythical creatures excelling in bdsm and equipped not only with pointy ears, but also with impressive manhoods, apparently (a certain video by Cindy comes to my mind).

3.) Plot and believability: ****

Plot is straightforward and simple. Considering that the whole novelle is only 68 pages long, there is no time to lose, so the story goes straight to the point – Emari, a virgin mage, is kidnapped by dark elves, and left at the mercy of the Dark elven Prince, as the title already warned us would happen. He likes to torture his prisoners by forcing them with his magic to repeatedly orgasm, which seems to be a much more efficient method of extracting information than, let’s say, waterboarding. But, Emari has a secret of her own – she is a so-called mind mage, meaning that upon touching somebody, she can enter their minds and control them. Needless to say, the Dark Prince touches her eventually, with the full length of his manhood, which seems to be enough for her to establish control over him, but also to see the truth about dark elves, which puts her own people in not so favorable light.

I’ll stop here so as not to reveal everything (like Emari). Let’s just add that in the end the things develop in such way that humans and elves make an attempt at peace, which enables the two lovebirds to finally be together.

Was the plot engaging? Definitely! On the scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the hottest male character ever, the Dark Prince is probably 11. Emari is also cool and not only a wildcat as the Prince likes to call her, but a smart and compassionate person. Was the story believable? Mhmmm… kind of, but not always. Like, Emari takes control of the prince and after she has read his mind, basically, he, instead of killing her, or at least locking her up and throwing away the key, decides to release her. Because the elves are such gentlemen. And he does that after several pages of him telling her that he wants her to submit to him, that she should beg him (for sex), and that he will split her open (don’t ask). I would have been happier at this point if Emari had really managed to get away on her own, by controlling him. Also, later, another guy is introduced, making this a kind of unsuccessful love triangle, but it was just too short a story for the third guy. I didn’t really need him, and he didn’t have much to say anyway. The whole politics in the end was also kind of hard to believe, but OK, maybe I’m being overly picky.

4.) Character development: ****

Even though the story is relatively short, the characters are surprisingly well developed. We get glimpses of the history and the past of the Dark Prince, and Emari’s background is also mentioned (although the whole dating problematics that Emari was facing was more fit for a modern-day college than for the Temple City Academy of Magic). I didn’t like his name much – Toth reminded me of Tooth, which kind of spoiled it for me a bit. I also did not enjoy the whole dominant male thing, but that’s my personal taste, and if that’s what turns Emari on, well who am I to complain.

I liked how Emari and Toth went from being mortal enemies to longing for each other, but the opportunity to make this story more complex and engaging was, unfortunately, not used by the author, who has opted for making everything much simpler and too short (unlike other things…) Maybe in the next books the plot will get more complicated. I am looking forward to reading them if that turns out to be the case.

Overall rating: 4.25 *

For this type of fantasy romance, where Elves are well endowed and are not afraid to show it, and women are tough but like to submit to their partners in bed, it is a well-written book. It would have been even better if it was longer and more complicated. Such as it is, I have a feeling I have not read a book but the first chapter of it, which was rushed at some points (the story covers a period of 4 years!). Probably it is a way for the author to earn money, but I am still a fan of books being called books and stories being called stories.

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“Requiem for a Genocide” – a book review

A welcome change from romance literature I usually read and review was the recent SF novel “Requiem for a Genocide” by Michael Drakich. I was really glad to receive an ARC copy from the author, who asked for an honest review in advance of the December publication of his book because I like reading SF a lot (Asimov, Clarke, Gibson, Lem, Strugazki brothers… you name it, I’ve read it, and now to add to the list – Michael Drakich!).

I will skip my usual rating system for this book and go straight to the point.

The main character in this book is a sentient warbot with four arms, the last of his generation, who is used in battles between two alien nations on the planet Mervos. Later on, the two nations unite and decide to use their warbots to kill some humans that happen to live among them – and that’s where the story takes off.

Although our robot is a murderous machine, he has feelings, an ability to learn and is loyal and brave. He also wants to be free from the robotic laws, hates loneliness and losing friends, and does not want to die. I could totally relate to that (minus the robotic laws, I guess). I liked him, as well as the human girl he was trying to save throughout the book. As their relationship developed, and he changed through his interaction with the girl, I liked him even more. Because I became so invested in these two characters, I enjoyed the book despite some of the problems I had with the world-building.

One other thing I liked was the representation of humans in the book as nice, compassionate, and not aggressive, supportive of other civilizations they encounter, in contrast to the way they have behaved throughout real history. I liked the idea that in the distant future when humans have discovered how to travel between the stars, they have also discovered how to be nobler, less destructive and less profit-orientated.

Coming to the weak sides of the story – I did not entirely like the world-building, as I mentioned. The planet Mervos is too much like Earth – the aliens are smaller, amphibian-like, have three fingers, but other than that, everything has a feeling of the rural USA, including farmhouses, small cities, living rooms with sofas, cars and shops and police stations. Even the clothing is similar. I would have liked greater differences there. Why does this alien civilization use an alphabet and a numeral system identical to the human ones? Also in naming their robots? A bit more fantasy from the author in inventing new worlds and aliens would have made the reading experience slightly more rewarding.

So, my final verdict is 4.5 *.

A warm, intelligent story with lovable characters and a lot of action, but with an alien world that is not alien enough to be called alien.

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About romance books and romance in books

So, you have this book in your hands and someone comes by and asks, innocently enough, what you are reading. You pause. From this point on, there are several possible scenarios:

1.) You are reading “A Brief History of Time” from Hawking, or Euclid’s “Elements”, in original. In that case, you can proudly show the book cover and subtly brag about your intellectual prowess and knowledge of ancient languages.

2.) You are reading some sort of a non-fiction book, maybe about home improvements or gardening. Or someone’s autobiography. It’s a dignified read. You can use it to start a conversation, and maybe you’ll even end up with a handyman willing to fix your plumbing.

3.) You are reading fiction, but something classic. Like Tolstoy, or Orwell, or Proust. Preferably, the book you are holding shows signs of extensive usage, indicating that you have read it many times, and hopefully underlined important passages. It definitely leaves an impression.

4.) You are reading fiction, but something more popular. A thriller, a detective book, maybe a fantasy or an SF novel. You can show it to the inquisitive passerby with the probable net result of zero. Perhaps you’ll find a kindred spirit and your next partner for binge watching of whatever series you agree upon.

5.) You are reading a romance. The cover is either very sparkly, to attract attention, or dark, to indicate mystery, or in the worst case, it sports a half-naked man or a woman in a compromising position. Good luck with showing that to anyone but your best friend with similar tastes. Fortunately, you are probably not holding a book in your hands, but an eBook reader, which enables you to discreetly turn the screen off and reply to the annoying question by referring to the scenario 1 to 4.

6.) You are reading a romance. You have just come to the steamy part, and you are so engrossed that you don’t even hear the question.

Yet, why is it embarrassing to read a romance novel, but not, for example, a book about model railways? Why do people brag about having written a biography, a self-help book, or an SF/fantasy novel, but rarely that they have written a steamy romance? And why, if someone writes a book and it happens to be a romance, it is not considered to be “serious” enough? I mean, some of the best classics are essentially romances. Think about “Pride and Prejudice” or “The Age of Innocence”. Or if you want to venture away from female authors, how about “Eugene Onegin” or “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame”? In each of these books, romance plays if not the most then at least a very important role. This is one of the reasons why these books are such captivating read. And maybe Victor Hugo wanted to attract attention to the values of the Parisian cathedral, but he chose a romantic plot to do it. Right?

Because people love romances! At least women do. I don’t know about men – do they really avoid such books or are they sticking to the scenario Nr. 5?

It is important to add, however, that the books I mentioned are exceptionally well written. Being a fan of the romance genre myself, I have perused quite a few of the books belonging to it, both classical and modern. And admittedly, some of the contemporary works were not that well written (some of the older books as well). And some of them were just plain ridiculous. Nevertheless, do I feel embarrassed for having read them? No, and neither should anyone. These books have fulfilled their purpose of keeping me occupied for a while and cheering me up, and that’s an honest purpose and a commendable one. You can keep track of all the romance (and other) books I’ve read and found time to review in my posts on book reviews. My goal with these reviews was not to criticize, but to help authors gain more visibility, so my star ratings are always three or more on Amazon or Goodreads (and anything I would rate with less I’ll keep to my blog and my blog only…)

However… when I set out on a journey to write a romance novel myself, it was mostly because I lacked something in the majority of the books that I’ve read. What that was I cannot precisely describe. Maybe I wanted the story to offer something more besides the two main characters and their best friends (about whose romantic entanglements we will learn in the second and the third book of the series)? Or I really wanted the character arc to exist? Maybe the romance was too superficial, and I wasn’t convinced? Maybe it was too implausible? Honestly, how many of us encounter billionaire CEOs with a sixpack on a daily basis? Who shapeshift into wolves, bears or dragons occasionally? And do men really like women who use ten swearwords in a row in one sentence? Is that supposed to be charming or am I just too old-fashioned? And don’t get me started on the description of sex in books! Actually, I’ll try to come to that topic later, in another post (if I find time).

To cut the long story short, what elements make a good romance book? It certainly depends on one’s taste, but I prefer to give my characters time to get to know each other and then fall madly in love. I want them to be aware of the faults of the other person and still decide that they like them and want to spend (probably) the rest of their lives with them. And, finally, I want the attraction and tension to build up gradually, all the way to the point when they can’t be ignored any longer. In another words, I want people to interact (and not just in bed), to suffer, to yearn, and I want to be there when they finally find happiness.

With that being said, I am off to continue working on my new story! Stay tuned!

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A book review of “His Ultimate Concubine: A Romance”

A longer book this time, “His Ultimate Concubine: A Romance” is a contemporary romance novel exploring the inner worlds of a Greek billionaire and a daughter (and sister) of his sworn enemies. They both have hidden agendas in the beginning, but love conquers all, even the completely misplaced efforts of the male MC to take revenge on the unsuspecting female MC.

As before, to try to give an honest evaluation of all the books I read, I have decided to make several categories and give stars for each of them, plus the comments. Five stars is the maximum. The mean value from all categories will give the final review in terms of star numbers.

The Book: „His Ultimate Concubine: A Romance”

By: Nataline Altherr

Published on: 11. August 2021

Publisher: Harnest Media

Page count: 121 (finally a longer read!)

Star rating so far: Three 4* reviews on Amazon and one 4* review on Goodreads

Review categories: 1.) Cover, 2.) Language, editing and formatting, 3.) Plot and believability, 4.) Character development

1.) Cover: **

You can check it out for yourself, but this cover is better suited for a cyber punk SF novel than for a romance. Where’s a naked male torso? Or a yacht? Blue Mediterranean sea with scattered green islands? Or the sea, with the yacht, with the naked guy on it (I feel I’m on to something here). But honestly, I’m not trying to claim I know anything about design (I don’t), but I don’t find this cover very appealing or appropriately representing the content. Interestingly, the same publisher has put out several romances, on the same date (plus minus a day) and all have a similar cover design. Was the budget tight? Or are they trying to maximize the profit? I chose to read this one, because I liked the word concubine (what can I say, it sounded so dramatic). Turns out it’s just another word for a mistress, but we’ll get to that later.

2.) Language, editing and formatting: ****

With very few spelling and grammar mistakes, this is the best-formatted work I’ve read so far. What jarred me somewhat were the dialogues. They were often interrupted by explanatory paragraphs, or several sentences depicting what the characters felt or wanted to do at that moment – she was usually busy comparing him to a dragon, and his thoughts mostly revolved around taking revenge. This seriously affected the pace of the dialogues, so that I had trouble recalling what it was that the people were saying in the first place and had to go back to read it again. Another thing about the writing style that I noticed were many incomplete sentences, missing the verb or the subject, or repeating the last part of the sentence somewhat changed (“…as she had vowed she would never do. Must never do!” or “…and wondered how she could ever, possibly, survive this. Survive him.”), all applied with an aim to increase the drama. Which they did, but sometimes there was just too much drama for my taste. One final thing that was not so off-putting as it was funny – he was so often compared to a dragon and his chest was so often compared to a wall that I’ve lost count. For me, mentioning this once or twice would have been enough. The guy was dangerous and he was well-built – I got it the first time. Therefore, one star deducted, although this is a personal taste. If you like dramatic writing, than you’ll probably like this book a lot.

3.) Plot and believability: ****

OK, some spoilers ahead. A common or garden Greek billionaire (or maybe not so common – after all, his life is anything but happy), a daughter from the family he hates, who has good reasons of her own to become his mistress (or concubine). She plans to do that without actually going to bed with him, which, of course, does not really work out. He, on the other hand, wants his revenge, because her father and brother have destroyed his family. So far so good, and I could feel with them and totally understand his motives as well as hers. Until the point when it is revealed that his family was treating him essentially as a mop, but he still feels obliged to revenge them on her, who hates her brother and father anyway, so not only is his revenge pointless, but he is taking it all out on a completely wrong person. I think even he realized that at some point in the book. So, yes, a lot of drama there, easily avoided if the characters invested some time in thinking, but then, there would be no book if that were the case.

One other point of critique: Why is his name in the book Abby, whereas the book description on Amazon says he is called Nikos? And what kind of a Greek name is Abby? I’ve never met a Greek guy called Abby, and I’ve met quite a few of them. No billionaires, though, to my chagrin.

4.) Character development: *****

As mentioned above, I really liked the characters. The Greek billionaire starts as a cruel, vengeful person and is in time transformed through his love for her (although, with some emotional intelligence, many tears could have been avoided). And, she remains true to her character and forgives him almost everything. If there would be something to complain about, it would perhaps be the depiction of the supporting cast – her brother, who seems to be a very one-dimensional villain, and her mother, who seems to be outright stupid.

Overall rating: 3.75 *

Characters are interesting, the story can keep the reader’s attention for a while, however too much drama and jerky dialogues spoil the effect somewhat. For those who like this kind of romance, where revenge plays a major role, but love conquers in the end, it is a solid read.

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A book review of “Toxic Stepbrother”

Another book (if you can call it a book) I came across is “Stepbrother Toxic” or “Toxic Stepbrother”. I expected a somewhat extended read, but it is in fact one relatively short story, with a couple of excerpts from other stories of the author. Therefore, my review will not be extensive either.

As before, to try to give an honest evaluation of all the books I plan to read, I have decided to make several categories and give stars for each of them, plus the comments. Five stars is the maximum. The mean value from all categories will give the final review in terms of star numbers.

The Book: “Toxic Stepbrother: A Stepbrother Romance”

By: Celia Styles

Published on: 12. August 2021 (Also a recent one)

Publisher: as far as I could tell, self-published

Page count: 26 (officially, 63, but the rest are excerpts from other stories)

Star rating so far: One 3* review and two 4* reviews on Amazon and an average of 3.06 * from 35 reviews on Goodreads

Review categories: 1.) Cover, 2.) Language, editing and formatting, 3.) Plot and believability, 4.) Character development

1.) Cover: ***

A half-naked guy, with an obligatory tattoo, probably representing the stepbrother. OK, as such covers go. Why is the title written as “Stepbrother Toxic”, whereas the real title is “Toxic Stepbrother”, I don’t know. Also, what’s toxic about the guy in the story is beyond me. The stepfather is toxic, for sure, but the stepbrother is anything but.

2.) Language, editing and formatting: ****

Language is OK. I noticed only a few spelling mistakes. No ellipses, but a lot of em-dashes, as well, in the middle, at the end, and sometimes at the beginning of the sentence.

3.) Plot and believability: **

Oh, boy… Sorry, oh, boy –

Whereas the beginning of the story is not so bad, and I can understand how the girl hooks up with the pretty surfer boy and even agrees to have sex with him half an hour later (protected, I sincerely hope), the writer lost me at the later point, when we find out that (SPOILER) the pretty boy is the son of the man the mother of the main character married. Despite being a stepbrother and a stepsister (by marriage), our two main characters decide after three days of acquaintance to start a family, which indeed happens a few pages later. I’m sorry, but I can’t believe that anyone in their right mind, and no matter how good the sex was, would decide they have found their soulmate and the mother/father of their children after 72 h of knowing someone.

4.) Character development: **

Some of it is present, but there is simply not enough pages to develop anything. We are mostly informed throughout the text about the past, and the plans for the future, as we are later on informed about how the life of our two main characters proceeds after they elope to Hawaii. Due to it being compressed to only a couple of pages, I had a feeling I was reading a Wikipedia article instead of a romance story.

Regarding the characters, the main female character is nice and relatable, and her stepbrother/boyfriend is cute. A bit lost, definitely uneducated (he quit school at 17), although properly sculpted, due to his passion for surfing, and not in the least toxic. What annoyed me was that after knowing the girl for the whole of three days, he, upon meeting her mother, immediately claims he wants to marry her (the girl, not the mother). Why? How? Also, the whole naughtiness of them being together, even though they are related (they are not)… I simply don’t get it. I also don’t get how any decent, loving mother, would allow her new husband to hit her daughter and not say a word about it. Excuse me? No matter how rich you are, you slap my kid, we’re done! Considering how close mother and daughter were described to have been, I could not believe that such an act of physical violence would be tolerated by the mother, and also that she would continue to ignore her only daughter in the days to come, only because her psycho husband said so.

Overall rating: 2.75 *

The writing style is not bad, but the story is rushed, and I did not have time (nor much desire) to get invested in the characters. At all. Too much cardboard, too little flesh. Also, paying 4.57 $ for what is essentially 26 pages story plus a bunch of excerpts is a rip off. Sorry, it is. There are so many full-length books out there costing less, and although quantity does not necessarily mean quality, I still find it uncool to bait people like that.

A book review of “Toxic Stepbrother” Read More »

A Book Review of “Between Two Galaxies”

I love SF and I love romance, so for my first review I chose a story which combines the two genres under a compelling title “Between Two Galaxies”, and subtitle “Alien Romance Story” by Kerry Webb.

Even though the topic is more fiction than science, such books can be fun, if frustrating. Ever since my experience with “The Krinar Chronicles” by Anna Zaires I have been on a lookout for a hunky alien, with whom I could have the first contact (and the second, and the third…). Unfortunately, we need to be realistic here – the probability of having a wild, interspecies sex with an ET are very low, despite the many sex scenes in the book of Ms. Zaires, some of them copy-pasted from her other books (did she think we wouldn’t notice), which would imply otherwise. But let’s get back to the original story I intend to review here.

To try to give an honest evaluation of all the books I plan to read, I have decided to make several categories and give stars for each of them, plus the comments. Five stars is the maximum. The mean value from all categories will give the final review in terms of star numbers.

The Book: “Between Two Galaxies – Alien Romance Story”

By: Kerry Webb

Published on: 09. August 2021 (So, a recent publication)

Publisher: as far as I could tell, self-published

Page count: 38 (on the short side, so more of a story than a novel)

Price: 0 $

Star rating so far: One 3* review on Amazon and an average of 4.67 * from three reviews on Goodreads

Review categories: 1.) Cover, 2.) Language, editing and formatting, 3.) Plot and believability, 4.) Character development

1.) Cover: ***

Not entirely bad, but not really reflecting the content of the book. To give an idea what I am talking about – the book tells a story of a NASA biologist Alessandra and her crush on an alien Ka. The cover shows a woman in a wet shirt and a bikini hugging a half-naked guy. If that’s what they standardly wear at NASA, I want a job there, please. But maybe it is a scene from the time after they got together and had a chance to go to a beach. I don’t know. I like the starry sky in the background, it looks quite cool and alien.

2.) Language, editing and formatting: ***

Formatting is reasonable, I was a bit put off by the curly letters used for the chapter titles. I would have liked something more scientific or with an alien flair. Language… well, how can I say, there’s some space for improvement there. For example, one sentence in the beginning:

“Sometimes, she had to admit, working for NASA could be boring sometimes.”

There’s one sometimes too many there, if you ask me.

Also, capitalization of the words (is it Alien or alien? Is it The General or the General?)

The book would profit from an editor or a proofreader.

3.) Plot and believability: **

Sorry, I am trying to be positive here, but although the plot is not that bad, there is significantly more fiction (or fantasy) than science in the SF part of the book. Let me elaborate (spoilers ahead, be warned):

Our main character is Alessandra, who works for NASA as a biologist. Her best friend is Emma, a chemist. As the writer informs us, quote “Even though they were in different fields entirely, it never seemed to influence their friendship”. Is there some secret feud between chemists and biologist that I wasn’t aware of? Or do people only become friends with others working in the exact same field? More importantly, what are two (presumably young) women, a chemist and a biologist, doing in the middle of the night in NASA headquarters? What happened to all astrophysicists? Are they on a vacation? And how can Alessandra (a biologist) figure out by just looking at the screen that the asteroid is a) manned, b) going to hit the Earth? Last time I checked, the asteroid trajectory analysis needed some serious observation and calculation, and I am kind of skeptical that a biologist would be able to do that in such a short time (or at all – most biologists I know have studied biology because they are bad in math and physics). Emma, however, seems to be much more convinced in the abilities of the chemists, in this case, to do complex astrophysical calculations because when at one point the military wants to check if the asteroid is really going to hit the Earth, she rolls her eyes and says:

“Oh, like the military scientists who went to the same schools we did know more than we do.”

Ahem… Yes? Because they have studied physics perhaps? I might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that not all military scientists are either biologists or chemists.

OK, so then everyone is alarmed, and they go to the spot where the asteroid is going to hit and expect to be protected from the effects of the impact by sitting in an armored vehicle. Well, tell that to dinosaurs.

The spaceship lands (because it was a spaceship, in an asteroid, or that looked like an asteroid), and in it, they find a naked alien with a loincloth and a glowing hand. So, the representative of this highly developed alien civilization, which has mastered interstellar travel, is essentially an ET Tarzan. Alessandra is the first on the scene, and somehow, here I was really confused, one minute she was wearing a protective suit, and the next minute she is touching his glowing hand with her bare hand. How? Why? I had once been warned not to touch a dolphin with my bare hands, let alone an alien!

Anyway, now we come to the part that was really bordering on the unbelievable: the alien is a prince (OK, what else, but this is not the unbelievable part) who has come to Earth (to the USA, to be precise) because his planet is under an attack, and they need help. In fact, the Earthlings (and the USA) are their only hope!

Wait a second. You have an interstellar travelling technology, and you depend on us to save you? How? By paddling to your planet? And, do you really want that? I mean, look what happened with a number of countries on Earth that have depended on others to save them. For an all-knowing alien that’s a pretty daft move.

Later on, we find out that the aliens are apparently capable of flying through a hyperspace but know nothing about nuclear weapons. And that their spaceship control panel has three buttons and one screen (a radio, an autopilot switch, a hyperspace jump button, and a radar).

There is suspicion on both sides, the president shows up, Lindsey the red-haired soldier woman has a brilliant idea of going to the alien planet to check out the situation and the president calls that “A fine and dandy idea, sweetheart”. Lindsey is a trained soldier, not a sweetheart, Mr. President.

What was really unbelievable was when they decided to send Alessandra, Emma and Lindsey as their emissaries to Ka’s planet. I mean, three women? Hello? When did that ever happen in human history? But then it turned out they planned for them to die anyway as a pretext for attacking Ka’s people and stealing their resources, so that explained it.

Three girls find out about it by listening in on some secret radio communication (I am not sure how that happened) and decide to switch sides, essentially betraying their planet and their species. Lindsey then kicks the assess of the Earth forces, Alessandra the biologist becomes a diplomat and Emma the chemist creates cures to nearly every ailment. And Ka, the prince, becomes very popular.

So… no. I need more substance in an SF book, even if it is primarily a romance. Writers, do your research. There are so many good movies out there, so much info on YouTube about the mysteries of the universe and how much we don’t know about the things. And so, so many good SF books where people speculate on extraterrestrial life and technology required for space travel. No, you can’t just get in a spaceship and fly to a planet light years away within days. And if you could, those aliens would probably be so technologically advanced that they would come and crush us like bugs (not date us). If they could find us in the first place. The universe is enormous, namely. If you are unsure of the facts (and don’t want to take advanced courses in theoretical physics, for which I can’t blame you) then please write the plot in such a way that this does not become immediately obvious. Or find someone who is an expert and ask for support.

4.) Character development: **

Enough about science. What about the characters and their emotional connection? Alessandra is strangely drawn towards Ka, and he claims she is his soulmate. There is a telepathic connection between them. At one moment, he suddenly knows everything about her. Which is that she can speak English and that she likes Jane Austen.

OK, Jane Austen is pretty cool, admittedly. I’m a big fan myself. But is that really everything there is to know about Alessandra? There is a hint that Alessandra did not have such a great childhood. At one point, the book says:

“She had never been looked at with such care and compassion before by any man, even her father.”

I was curious to know why. It could explain why she took only a couple of seconds to fall for an alien, even though we learn along the way that he is really well mannered (he gives Alessandra his seat) and that he has perfect pearl white teeth (even though he apparently has retractable claws, as well).

Regarding Ka’s appearance and anatomy, if I were Alessandra, I would pay more attention to Derrick’s report. Derrick is a physicist in charge of studying Ka’s biology (it seems that they have real problems at NASA to assign appropriate tasks to people). Also, a secondary love interest of Alessandra. He says that Ka has an anatomy almost entirely the same as human. That “almost” would really worry me! But Alessandra ignores it and seems quite enthusiastic when Ka says that she should just move in with him and stay on his planet (the one threatened by an invasion by another type of alien and devastated by war). Maybe she knows something about Ka’s anatomy we don’t?

Anyway, the character that I liked the most was the General. Why? He was always true to himself. He barked at people, glared at them, or screamed orders most of the time, as any decent General should. Also could pilot a spaceship so well that Ka could see him sitting inside and even wave at him. Therefore, capable of making his hands dirty, not only expecting others to follow his orders. Way to go, General!

Overall rating: 2.5 *

Short and a bit rushed at the end, with a potential to be a nice story, but losing points on the science part and character development.

A Book Review of “Between Two Galaxies” Read More »

Promoting a book – or not (Part 2)

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The big promotion weekend is behind me and it is time to evaluate the results. My approach was not really scientific, having booked several promotion services on the same day, so I cannot give you an info about each one of them separately, just an overall effect they had on the number of downloads of my book. Plus, on this day, and the next one, I offered my book on Amazon for free. The idea was to entice people to look at the book and to create some buzz (am I using the right expression here?).

The conclusion: people looove free stuff.

And I am glad they do. I am absolutely thrilled that over 200 people have downloaded my book and are hopefully reading it now, even though I have not earned a single cent (and have actually accumulated some expenses due to the promotion fees). I will be even more thrilled if at least a portion of them likes the book enough to recommend it or write a review (like the persons who had given me the first reviews for my books – thank you so much!), and maybe even go ahead and read my other book. The experience with the publishing and marketing has sensitized me to a value of a good review, so I have decided to do my best to help other authors by reviewing their books (you can read all about it in my posts about book reviews). But, let’s get back to the promotional services I tried.

4.) Fiverr:

Fiverr, as I found out, offers all kinds of services, basically connecting freelancers with their customers. For around 30 bucks I booked someone to advertise my book on their Facebook pages over the course of 5 days. Oh yeah, the name was bookkitty. Oh, I just checked, my book ad is really posted there! Thank you bookkitty for keeping your end of the bargain. Unfortunately, no book downloads today 🙁 No likes on your post either. I guess you still need to work on your followers list, maybe?

5.) Books Butterfly:

I booked the cheapest option: an 80 $ top 200 push for free books (my book was free on the day of promotion) with guaranteed 1000 + downloads. Apparently, it should work in 92% of the cases. I guess I am in that 8% minority. Should I ask for a refund (I might be able to get a coupon to use it for their services again)? But, do I want to use their services again? I did get to a #214 rank in the contemporary romance category (if only for a moment), and to a #1014 rank in the overall Kindle free ebook download on the day of promotion, which is pretty good if one considers that there are over 60 000 titles in the contemporary romance category. However, only I am aware of that fact (and maybe my cat, if he was paying attention). And it might have been the effect of other promotion services, not them. Hmmm…. Therefore, my verdict: they promise too much. No need to do that. Why make people hope? I knew I was not going to get 1000 + downloads, and I was perfectly happy with my 200 + downloads, but I was kind of annoyed by their propaganda. And one other interesting observation: they seem to have something going on with BookBub (a fancy promotion site for books accepting only special books with a sufficient number of reviews) because they do not refund the money if the book had already been promoted over BookBub. Why? Add that to the mysteries of the universe…

6.) eBooks Habit:

For 12 $ (15 $ usually, but I had a promo code) you can book 24 tweets over the course of one day about your book on the day of promotion. Let me see, it amounts to one tweet per hour. Wow! I can do math! They claim to have a lot of followers, but I haven’t checked. Sorry 🙁 Anyway, it is not that expensive and it cannot harm to have your book promoted in the Tweeter universe, so I would go for it from time to time, maybe during some of my next book promotion actions.

7.) Reddit and Facebook:

On the day of the promotion I posted a few posts on Reddit and Facebook informing people that my book is free on that and the following day. I even got upvoted on Reddit and earned some Karma points! I really like those Karma points 🙂 And I had one like on the Facebook post. I feel so grateful! This did not cost me anything but my time, and I always get such a warm feeling when someone likes my post or upvotes me, so emotionally, this has been highly rewarding. Have I mentioned Karma points? 🙂 The conclusion: I would recommend it. There are many channels for posts about free eBooks and it’s free advertising. Plus, I became active on both Reddit and Facebook and had fun exchanging infos about books and favorite writers, which I intend to do in the future, as well. It’s nice talking to people, and even the messages from the Reddit bot make my heart beat faster.

Now to end this post, one interesting Amazon absurdity: several people came across my book and downloaded it (because it was free) by clicking on Amazon ads (which I’m paying for). So basically, I paid Amazon so that people would read my book. Whaaat? No wonder J.B. is (almost) the richest man on Earth.

Anyway, I have more plans for future promotions and one other promotion coming, so be sure to check my posts for new insights.

Promoting a book – or not (Part 2) Read More »

Vacation reading list

To support fellow writers and maybe discover my knew favorite authors, I have decided to read several books and write an honest review about each one of them. It’s vacation time, and I managed to get all the work that kept piling up either reassigned or postponed, so I have some time for reading and writing. I will post reviews here, but also on other platforms, such as Amazon, or Goodreads and similar, wherever I can for the maximum support of the authors. The criteria for choosing the books:

Genre: Romance (all sub-genres); I do plan to read other genres as well later on 🙂

Price: Free or 0.99 $

Reviews: None or very few (no need to write a review for books that have thousands already!)

Hang around to see what I’ve read and how I liked it. I am really excited!

Vacation reading list Read More »