Book Review: The Girl and the Clockwork Cat by Nikki McCormack

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The Girl and the Clockwork Cat by Nikki McCormack

A YA Steampunk Novel published by Entangled: Teen (9/02/14)

Summary:

Street rat Maeko survives on the dingy back streets of London with her friend Chaff, her fast feet and quick thinking as well as the pocketbooks of others. Will her latest escapade ever end? Mae is in the middle of a mystery involving a lovable cat with a clockwork appendage, the son of a murder suspect and pirate, and a city-wide conspiracy.

Keywords:

Clockwork, Cat, Pirate, Friendship, Streets, Fleeing, Fighting, Stealing, Hunger, Poverty, Officers, Mystery, Death, Street Smarts, London, Jail, Teenager, Female Main Character

My Review:

The setting and main character were so vivid that I was right there with Maeko on the streets of London. Maeko was written so descriptively that I felt like I knew her. I sympathized with her because she’s compassionate as well as realistic. She didn’t have the greatest childhood, but she is clever and thinks of others just as much as she does of herself. She weighs pros and cons of any given situation she finds herself in and doesn’t just let her empty stomach lead her around.

The plot sucked me right in and was entertaining and detailed. The mystery was intriguing and I wanted to find out what was actually going on as much as Maeko.

The steampunk and language were spot on and well written into the story without being overpowering or overwhelming. McCormack is a genius with world building and writing a good story.

This novel was published by Entangled: Teen on September 2nd, 2014 and is available on Amazon here.

TL;DR Star Rating: 5.0

Links for more information:

Goodreads

Twitter

Nikki McCormack’s Website

Book Review: Accidental Makeovers: A Romantic Comedy (Rom-Com on the Edge Book 4) by Carol Maloney Scott

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Accidental Makeovers: A Romantic Comedy (Rom-Com on the Edge Book 4) by Carol Maloney Scott

A Romantic Comedy Novel published by Amazon Digital Services LLC (03/31/16)

Summary:

“I just want to make people look pretty, for God’s sake.” (Kindle Location 2892).

Bianca isn’t satisfied with the turn her life has taken. She waitresses with her mother’s catering company and is in a relationship with her baby’s daddy. She would like to move out of her mother’s house and use her cosmetology license in her job. Her boyfriend and baby daddy Max is fine living in Bianca’s mother’s house, playing video games and playing in his rock band, until Bianca tells him it’s over this time. Now Max must grow up and show how responsible he can be or let the new beau Eric take his place in Bianca’s life.

Keywords:

Single Mother, Son, Cosmetology, Catering, Waitress, Band, Musician, Friends, Makeovers, Relationship Issues, Baby Daddy, Dating, Family, Romance, Love, 2-Year Old

My Review:

This book was difficult to read. There were very few dialogue tags and with the amount of characters it was confusing and hard to keep track of who was talking. I had to work to decipher who was talking. The characters didn’t have enough diction differentiation to tell who was speaking based on style alone. Many sentences and character thoughts were also left unfinished. There were many ellipses. I wanted most of those thoughts to be finished and not left hanging.

I didn’t quite care for the main characters. They were adults but many times acted and talked like teenagers. They would sometimes talk things out and communicate all their feelings and other times act on impulse.

Max talks bad about Bianca in his head all the time, specifically pointing out her flaws as a mother and housewife. Because of these thoughts I did not like him. His actions spoke louder than his thoughts, but he was still continuously thinking poorly about Bianca.

I forgot Bianca was a single mother for much of the book because she never really seems like a mother or a single mother because her own mother is always helping her out and she’s not worried much about her kid, unless she wants to introduce him to her new boyfriend.

Eric was perfect and then he was not because as soon as Max wants Bianca back and to make the relationship work, suddenly Eric isn’t so perfect after all.

This novel was published by Amazon Digital Services LLC on March 31st, 2016 and is available on Amazon here.

TL;DR Star Rating: 2.50

Links for more information:

Carol Maloney Scott’s Website

Goodreads

Book Review: Girl on the Brink: A Novel by Christina Hoag

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Girl on the Brink: A Novel by Christina Hoag

A Contemporary YA Novel published by Fire & Ice Young Adult Books (8/30/16)

Summary:

“People have to help themselves. There’s nothing you can do. You have to protect yourself from dangerous people, and that means walking away.” (Kindle Locations 4238-4239).

On an assignment for her newspaper internship the summer before senior year, Chloe meets Kieran. He is attentive and charming and wants to be with Chloe. After her last relationship that went nowhere, Chloe is alll too happy to be with Kieran, but he immediately starts to take over her life. He is with her at all times and she slowly starts losing her friends because she only wants to be with Kieran. It isn’t all roses and dates, though, as Kieran’s possessive side is also full of violence just below the surface waiting for an opportunity to lash out. Relationships are never perfect, but Chloe will soon learn that this one with Kieran is bringing her down a path she will have a hard time leaving.

Keywords:

Physical and Emotional Abuse, Reporter, Internship, High School, Friends, Boyfriend, Romance, New Relationship, Bad Relationship, Bad Boyfriend,

My Review:

I wasn’t really sure if Kieran was a bad boyfriend or not. He gets possessive early on. On their special date it’s all about him and his acting and using her to video him to get ready. When she wants him to meet her friends he cleverly manipulates the situations so they don’t meet and she doesn’t see her friends that night. This could be normal or it could be the shallow end of a bad situation. Kieran is the puppy dog lover who follows Chloe around and makes her feel special with all the attention. So what if he’s jealous? So what if he makes her do things she doesn’t at first want to do? They are made for each other like peanut butter and pickles on a sandwich, right?

Anyone who’s been in a bad relationship will see the signs, but innocent Chloe doesn’t know any better. This book was so scarily accurate I had trouble putting it down and going to bed. I was waiting for that climax. I was waiting for something truly dreadful to happen to Chloe. I was waiting to see how far Kieran would go.

The beginning was a bit slow to get to the plot of the story, but the smooth writing style and interesting insight into Chloe’s relationships with those around her will keep you reading until you get to the meat of the story: Kieran.

Much like Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Girl on the Brink is a book people NEED to read. Chloe had few relationships herself before Kieran came along and what he did might have appeared normal or justified, but seeing it from the outside the signs are much more clear. This could happen to you. It happens every day. Domestic abuse is NOT okay, either emotionally or physically and both boys and girls need to know what it looks like.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the author and this is an honest review.

This novel was published by Fire & Ice Young Adult Books on August 30th, 2016 and is available on Amazon here.

TL;DR Star Rating: 4.75

Links for more information:

Christina Hoag’s Website

Goodreads

Twitter

GirlontheBrinkPressRelease

Book Review: Chubby & Charming (Big & Beautiful Book 1) by Mary E Thompson

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Chubby & Charming (Big & Beautiful Book 1) by Mary E Thompson

A Romantic Comedy published by BluEyed Press (11/29/15)

Summary:

Mandy works as a customer service rep. She has a smooth voice and likes her job and helping people. When Xander calls in, Mandy is able to help him out and her voice captures his interest. He asks her out and she says yes. What Xander doesn’t know and what Mandy lives daily with is the fact that she’s not skinny and doesn’t say no to a good cupcake. What will Xander say when he finally sees her face to face for the first time? If it doesn’t matter at first to him, won’t it later on?

Keywords:

Friends, Customer Service, Telephone, Trust, Job, Cupcakes, Meeting Up, Date, Health Insurance Rep, Attraction, Lust

My Review:

The first few chapters of this novel were amazing! Mandy was interesting and different as the main character. Enter Xander, the hottie who wants to meet her. There’s tension. There’s excitement. What will happen?! Then they meet and like each other a lot. The rest of the book is about them being together and the only point of tension is Mandy’s insecurity about being with such an attractive HWP male. It’s hard to build a story around that. I kept waiting for the complication to settle in and the story to pick up. Even the climax was all in Mandy’s head and a complete disappointment and letdown.

Halfway through the book, almost every thought Mandy had was on sex and how hot Xander is. We get it. Mandy likes Xander because he’s sexy. There are paragraphs and paragraphs devoted to her thoughts about his body and I ended up skimming through most of them after the first couple. Mandy spends so much time thinking about herself, Xander, and her worries about her weight that there is no time left for subplots or plot points.

I was disappointed in Mandy and her lack of character development. She is shown as a woman who’s trust has been broken in the past regarding men and relationships. Great place to start, but she doesn’t change. Throughout the book she drops her trust of Xander any time he remotely seems like he might be pointing out the fact that she’s overweight and that he’s not. Mandy never gets over this fear. She never gains confidence in their relationship.

SPOILER:

Mandy acts and thinks like she’s very much in lust/love with Xander and all it takes is something small for Mandy to lose confidence in Xander. Does she really love him, then? Mandy and Xander breakup over nothing (just a miscommunication) like they’re teenagers in high school. The climax scene at Xander’s friend’s house was very high school. There were even fat jokes!

Xander was unrealistic every time he showed up and said or did anything. I wanted more realism from him, not a Stepford Wives boyfriend! Only in his initial pursuit of Mandy did he seem authentic as a person.

This novel was published by BluEyed Press on November 29th, 2015 and is available on Amazon here.

TL;DR Star Rating: 3.00

Links for more information:

Mary E Thompson’s Website

Goodreads

Twitter

All About the Donuts – Future Donuts – Seize the Donut

by in For the Love of Donuts, Rachel Barnard and tagged , ,

Friday June 2nd, 2017 I plan to publish For the Love of Donuts Book 2 – Seize the Donut! This book will feature the stories of both Nichole and Vanessa as they start their lives beyond high school! This book will be a New Adult Contemporary Fiction book with POV from both Nichole and Vanessa and so much drama!

Here’s a little tease into book 2!

Their friendship has been the one unbreakable thing, the one certainty in their lives, but Nichole Adams and Vanessa Smith are developing into their own personas. The glimpse into who they are in Donuts in an Empty Field becomes glaringly obvious as they figure out what they want out of life during the college years.

Vanessa has never had many friends in her life, but Nichole is too preoccupied, and Nessa has to find her own way through through the whirlwind that is her college life. She has a job, she has school, she has social activities, but she can’t seem to find the right boyfriend.

Nichole is jealous of Vanessa’s ease of everything in the real world. Nessa has no trouble with jobs, money, school, or getting and going places. Nichole, on the other hand, was preemptively kicked out of her mom’s house after graduating high school and has been floundering ever since. The only thing she has easy in her life is flirting and finding a boyfriend, or at least a guy that will let her crash at his house.

I’m almost finished with this round of editing/plot restructuring and will be looking for beta readers soon so message me if you’re interested in reading Seize the Donut!

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Weekend Writing Warriors – Donuts in an Empty Field 13#WeWriWa

by in author platform, For the Love of Donuts, Rachel Barnard and tagged , | 7 Comments

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Here’s the link to the Weekend Writing Warriors central page, so you can visit all the participants sharing excerpts!

Donuts in an Empty Field is a contemporary, realistic fiction, and Young Adult novel about two best friends, the local food challenge, and letting go of anger.

This excerpt is from chapter one.

When Vanessa’s mom comes back into the room Vanessa hides the slip of paper with the bucket list on it.

I retrieve the list from under the files and walk up to take down the photograph from the corkboard. I want to move on. Nichole ushers me out of the room, clutching the unopened bag of carrots, Bluster following behind us. I clutch both the bucket list and the ripped photograph in my hands as she shuts the door firmly behind us.

Chapter One ends here! So many questions that are as yet unanswered! See where chapter two will take us in this story…

Purchase the book HERE.

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Local young adult writer, Rachel Barnard, will release the first novel in her young adult For the Love of Donuts series titled Donuts in an Empty Field with Life’s a Book Publishing, June 3rd, 2016 (AKA National Donut Day). Order your copy HERE.

Letting go of anger is life’s greatest challenge.

Vanessa hasn’t been the same since her father’s death. A hero until the end, he died saving a restaurant owner’s son from a burning building. Nessa blames the boy, but her best friend Nichole thinks it’s time to let go of the past. In a last ditch effort to break Nessa’s obsession, Nichole hopes signing up for the local food challenge will bust her out of her shell. A single choice defines the road ahead for Nessa. Doing the right thing isn’t easy, but living with the consequences of doing nothing might be worse.

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Subscribe to Rachel’s newsletter to receive important updates and promotions, if you haven’t already. Signup HERE

Add the book to your Goodreads shelf HERE

Book Review: Never Forgotten Love: A Story of Second Chances (Second Chances Series Book 1) by SM Stryker

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Never Forgotten Love: A Story of Second Chances (Second Chances Series Book 1) by SM Stryker

A Chick Lit/Romance Novel published by Amazon Digital Services LLC (12/26/14)

Summary:

Becket hasn’t had his growth spurt yet. At home and at school he’s bullied and belittled. Then he meets Harlow, who stands up for him at school and gives him a place of solace after school. When Beckett’s mother moves them away and takes away his computer and cell phone, Beckett loses touch with Harlow and misses her for years. Finally able to move out of his mother’s house when he graduates from high school, Beckett gets his college degree while he works for a tech company. His life is going well, but it’s still missing Harlow. He can’t get her out of his mind. When he decides to search for her he ends up finding her through a chance encounter at a local deli/bakery.

Keywords:

Bothell, West Seattle, Bakery, Cupcakes, Child Abuse, Neglect, Friendship, Love, Romance, Sex, Child Narrator, Confidence, Self-Esteem, Krav Maga, Growth Spurt, Technology, Entrepreneur, Best Friends, Lost Love, Off the Grid

My Review:

A novel wins over readers in the details of the story. This novel was lacking in the details. The child abuse of Becket did contain a lot of description and action, but not enough of in the moment action and thoughts to show the vulnerability of Beckett. His abuse did not seem to infiltrate his life beyond this abuse. As soon as it was over, he got out and he wasn’t very much affected at all. The setting lacked details. The action lacked details. Even the backstory lacked details. The story was told to the reader and it rushed through the life of Becket from age 4 to 6 to 10 to 12 to 16 to 17 with a lot of tone and telling and feeding of descriptions. There were a lot of written out contractions that broke the flow of the narration, especially for a young kid and a good portion of the beginning was told by Beckett as a child before the real plot began.

I didn’t believe in Becket and Harlow’s love. They were separated as pre-teens and then pined for years for each other without moving on? I don’t really get it.

The story was predictable. Usually there’s some satisfaction with the happy ending with all ends tied up nicely, but I never felt truly invested in the main characters or their love and their story to care that everything ended happily ever after.

I did enjoy Becket’s transformation from small self-conscious young boy to confident man, even though I wasn’t shown this transformation fully.

I thought it was super cool to include the cupcake recipe referenced in the book at the end of the print book. I love the integration of extra bonus content into novels.

This novel was published by Amazon Digital Services LLC on December 26th, 2014 and is available on Amazon here.

TL;DR Star Rating: 3.00

Links for more information:

Goodreads

SM Stryker’s Website

Book Review: Falling From Grace (The Gift of Grace Book 3) by Esther Jones and Frog Jones

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Falling From Grace (The Gift of Grace Book 3) by Esther Jones and Frog Jones

A Paranormal/Urban Fantasy Novel published by Sky Warrior Book Publishing, LLC. (02/12/16)

Summary:

“We’d been re-branded from “summoners” to “reality terrorists” overnight in order to give the politicians a bigger gavel.” (Page 8).

Robert and Grace freed Andrea from her centuries’ long slavery to Cythumau in Book 2, Coup de Grace, but is she really free? Though it has only been several decades in this weave, she has been away so long and in captivity so long that being human is now something foreign. But when someone takes a bullet for her, she will have to step up to protect him, right? Meanwhile, Robert is trying to live a normal college life, but summoning keeps getting in the way of his plans. At least, that’s what he tells himself. Robert is still the cause of his own undoing, but with Grace gone, he will have to lead the Spokane Grove out of trouble all by himself. Unless, that is, Andrea is willing to help.

Keywords:

Summoning, Magic, Danger, Big Beasts, Escape, Fighting, Police, Damage, Power, Runes, Blood, Hunting, Organization, Politics, Hiding

My Review:

The main focus of this book was on Andrea. The way she processed and thought about everything going on around her was fascinating. Her thoughts were thorough and interesting and quite logical. She is a character with quite the background story to overcome, but she doesn’t always make the sympathetic choice, sometimes her past overwhelms her. Andrea’s perspective was super cool and though I miss Grace, I fell in love with Andrea quickly.

Robert continues to get himself and others into trouble and then has to get them out of trouble. This time, however, the trouble has built up beyond what he’s capable of handling. Or has it? Calling on all resources, Robert will stop at nothing to keep those he loves safe.

Rick the Cornuprocyon continues to amuse in this book and has a decent role to play. The mind link between him and Robert is explored a bit more and is fascinating as an aspect of world building. Summoners and their abilities are also so very, very interesting as world building goes. The rules! The possibilities! Such a cool concept to watch unfold in a world where not everyone is a Summoner and not everyone wants to be.

This novel was published by Sky Warrior Book Publishing, LLC. on February 12th, 2016 and is available on Amazon here.

TL;DR Star Rating: 4.50

Links for more information:

Frog and Esther Jones’ Website

Goodreads

Twitter

Donut Goals and the Future of Donuts

by in author platform, For the Love of Donuts, Rachel Barnard and tagged

Hi readers! I hope you’re all enjoying Donuts in an Empty Field. I wrote the sequel during NaNoWriMo 2015 and have been working on editing it into shape this year! My plan is to release the second book in the For the Love of Donuts Books on National Donut Day 2017, June 2nd.

If you haven’t snagged a copy of Book 1, you can get your copy HERE.

Here’s a snippet from chapter one:

”

Nichole sighed and sagged into her twin bed, leaning against the pallid gray walls that probably used to be a cheery off-white decades ago. The hinges on the bed creaked under her. Nichole set her bulky laptop on her lap and powered it up, drumming her fingers on the side as she waited. She sighed again when the blinking light came on indicating her Wi-Fi was not connected again. She wiped perspiration off her forehead. When would summer finally end?

Thumping the laptop with a fist, Nichole growled in frustration. Nothing ever worked and everything that did was always breaking. She pulled out her phone. In a world of smartphones, her downgrade to a flip was more than embarrassing. It had a poor connection to the internet at best and right now was not connected at all.

Sighing again, Nichole threw her laptop to the side, letting it settle onto her ruffled Power Ranger’s blankets and hopped off the bed and onto the dingy carpet. She grabbed the laptop and walked out of her small room, hardly larger than a walk-in closet.

Nichole stepped into the living room to check the Wi-Fi router, but all three of her roommates were sitting on the couches and they stared at her as she entered the spacious living area. Nichole’s arms sagged. Oh shit, what day was it?

All three roommates simultaneously crossed their arms over their chests and sat up straighter.

”

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Letting go of anger is life’s greatest challenge.

Vanessa hasn’t been the same since her father’s death. A hero until the end, he died saving a restaurant owner’s son from a burning building. Nessa blames the boy, but her best friend Nichole thinks it’s time to let go of the past. In a last ditch effort to break Nessa’s obsession, Nichole hopes signing up for the local food challenge will bust her out of her shell. A single choice defines the road ahead for Nessa. Doing the right thing isn’t easy, but living with the consequences of doing nothing might be worse.

donugts

Subscribe to Rachel’s newsletter to receive important updates and promotions, if you haven’t already. Signup HERE

Add the book to your Goodreads shelf HERE