Mini reviews!

Sleeping Beauti by D B Green and A K Steen. Published December 2019.

I wanted to enjoy this book so much, it sounded absolutely amazing from the description. Individually, each section of this book was excellent, but when you put them together to form a story it didn’t gel. I felt confused by Rose and Philip to begin with and then even more so later in the story, which definitely did not help with the lack of gelling.

Sleeping Beauti had all the makings of a good story, and I do think it would have been better had the story been longer and allowed the author to expand more on the background, which would have enhanced the story. 

Secrets on Sale by Willow Morgan. Published September 2020.

I don’t want to sound horrible but I’m just going to say this… I hated this story.

There were far too many people introduced to us in such a short space of time, which made it incredibly difficult to keep up with and to know what was going on. Which was made worse when the plot was all over the place and seemed to at one point focus on something entirely different to the end game.

And the “romance” aspect was just downright unnecessary in the grand scheme of the book…

It’s hard with a short story, I find, to get the balance between including enough and then including too much. There has to be a good plot but that also has to be well developed within the few pages the author is allowing themselves, something I felt neither of these books did well.

Until next time, Em xxx

Death’s Door, Paul Finch – A Review.

Death’s Door by Paul Finch.

Synopsis… “When a stalking case lands on DS ‘Heck’ Heckenburg’s desk it seems pretty straightforward. But when Heck discovers that the victim lives in the same house that a young woman was brutally murdered in six years earlier, instinct tells him that it’s not so simple after all. Before long Heck is entangled in something far more dangerous than he had expected. In a race against the clock, can Heck and Gemma stop history from repeating itself – or will they end up getting caught in the crossfire?“

Overall rating 2 out of 5 stars.

My review…

I had high hopes for this book! It started out with someone watching possibly my favourite slasher film of all time so I was definitely invested and wanted to keep reading. It also helped that the fear was built up straight away, the atmosphere was tense…

Death’s Door hooked me in from the start and built up so much intrigue within just a few pages. As a short story I was worried the book would feel rushed, but we moved through at a steady pace, and even though quite a lot was packed into the few pages we had it didn’t feel like too much.

Reading this book was like being on a roller coaster, it was a wild ride!

Admittedly, I was disappointed in the ending of the book, it felt a bit anti climatic and I was left feeling underwhelmed and wanting to know more about the killer.

What did really piss me off about this book is that we got to around 73% of the way through and then the rest was a sample from another novel, we got a underwhelming ending and then when I thought there was another chapter or two to redeem it LOL NOPE.

Whilst this shouldn’t have bugged me as much as it did, it lead me to really drop down my rating.

Until next time, Em xxx

Mini Reviews!

Hey guys, doing two little mini reviews of some short stories I read. The reason they’re mini reviews is that they were literally tiny, but I still wanted to review them. 

I read Treehouse by J Sharpe and Dark Web by Kelvin Teo. 

Treehouse review – I know this book was a short story but it was literally 2 or 3 pages? The idea was so good, and I did get goosebumps just reading the short passages. But, it would need to be expanded upon to warrant a story, it was more of a short creepy pasta!

Dark Web review – This story had so much potential! I really enjoyed what was written and the author did really well to fit everything in but I just wish it wasn’t so cut off at the end – it could have continued just a few more pages! 

So there we have 2 very mini reviews to go with the very mini books that I read. Hope you enjoyed them and let me know if you’ve read either of these and what you thought. 

Em xxx

The Man Upstairs, Del Henderson III – A Review. [SPOILERS].

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog! Just a quick post from me today as I’m reviewing a short story I read on my Kindle! As you can see from the title it’s The Man Upstairs by Del Henderson III. 

Overall rating: 1 out of 5 stars. 

I know that it’s a short story and so there can’t be the same level of detail as there is in a proper novel, but that doesn’t mean that the story doesn’t need to make sense! Honestly, I read this book and just felt confused and let down. 

It was absolutely awful, the main story focused around the young couple hearing noises upstairs, basically going into their day to day life, over and over again… Then, when we reach what I would say is the climax when they actually go up to the apartment, it’s over in a page. WHAT…

I would definitely not recommend this book to anyone!

Have you read this short story? Let me know if you have I’m interested to see if anyone feels the same way… Em xx

The Balkan Escape, Steve Berry – A Review. [SPOILERS]

Hello my lovely followers! And welcome if you’re new to my blog😊

I thought I’d jump on here quickly and share a review of a short story I’ve just finished (it only took me about 20 mins to read) called The Balkan Escape.

It was one of the free kindle books they do and I was looking for something “scary”.

On the whole I’d give it 2 out of 5.

Whilst I felt the story didn’t really have a clear direction, or any direction at all really, it did have a lot of potential.

If anyone has a kindle or has read on one before you’ll know it has the little percentage bar at the bottom that tells you how much of the book you’ve read? The book ended at 70% so there could be loads of unnecessary spiel🙄 which gives you an idea!!

It had potential to be great, there was a lot of good ideas in the book, the archeological aspect, the idea that the Russian’s were mining things under a guise… but it just wasn’t long enough to factor all those things in which is why it lacked direction, it never really got going or expanded on much.

My rating is 5/10 and even that is being generous!

Have a read and then let me know what you think in the comments below.

Em xx