My Review of Dream Student by J.J. DiBenedetto

I started reading this book in September of 2014. It was one of the very first free books I downloaded once I started subscribing to free and bargain book emails.
It is now the end of May 2016.  And I just finished the book.  You can call me a lot of things, but a quitter ain't one of them....
This book is about a college student, Sara, who is studying to be a doctor in the late 80s, early 90s. One night, she realizes that she is able to see other people's dreams. This has it's ups and downs. For example, she meets a guy named Brian and falls in love with him, partially because she has seen him dream about her.  A major negative would be that she is able to see the dreams of a serial killer who is dreaming about murdering young girls.
The premise sounds great, doesn't it? Sara has to hunt down the murderer before he strikes again. Except it doesn't go that way.  She spends a lengthy amount of time ignoring this problem or trying to explain it away. When she does seek help from professionals and her friends,  there is no sense of urgency. Even when she sees that she could have prevented at least one of the girls from being murdered if she had taken action sooner, she doesn't feel compelled to act for weeks at a time.  While I like Sara, it makes it a little difficult to understand her when she doesn't really seem to have a driving motivation to help other young girls when she can if it might make her look a little off her rocker.  She does help one girl, however, because she is able to do so by bluffing her way through.  I also don't understand why she doesn't confide in her parents, who she has a really close relationship with.
The story is told in first person for the most part, except for the dream sequences. This made it even harder to connect to the other characters in the story, and we don't get a lot of backstory for any of them. I also feel that it may have worked better to switch those two POVs around so the dreams were more intimate than regular life.
The vast majority of the story is about Sara studying for tests, interacting with other college students, going to the cafeteria and having to settle for cereal, falling in love with Brian, and eavesdropping on dreams that do nothing to progress the story.  There are several scenes that could have been left out completely, as they do nothing to move the story forward.  I don't know if this was the author's attempt to throw us off the track of the true murderer or if he just doesn't realize that scenes should only be included if they lend something to the momentum of the story.  The same can be said for numerous characters who are introduced and fade away and have little to no impact.

"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one." J. Lennon (picture via Pixabay)

As far as the antagonist is concerned, it is obvious from the character's brief, but pointed, introduction that he is the antagonist. Despite the fact that there are lots of other characters who show up and disappear for no reason, the only purpose this character could possibly serve is so that he could eventually be the bad guy.  However, if you look at the key role of an antagonist, it's generally to move the plot forward by antagonizing the protagonist.  This guy doesn't do this because he's hardly in the story at all, and even when he is, it's usually in dream mode.  This makes the problem/solution relationship between the two key characters dysfunctional, which transforms what could have been a fast pace plot into the twitchy, annoying, squealing speed of a shopping cart with a wayward wheel; no matter how hard you try to get it to move in the right direction, it just continues to delay your progress and make you crazy. And then, in the end, the resolution is so quick and ridiculous, I was almost expecting the criminal to say, "I'd have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those pesky kids!'
There was a bit of nostalgia in this book for me since I was in college around the same time as Sara. I remember that life distinctly. If I had written this about my own life, there would have been far less romance, a lot more Oprah, and equivalent bowls of cereal for dinner.  That being said, I would never write a book about when I was in college because no one would want to read it, on the account of it was really boring and did nothing to progress much of anything--including my career (thanks a lot BA in History.)
I am impressed with the number of reviews this book has on Amazon.  Two hundred forty-nine reviews is nothing to sneeze at. And the average is 3.8 so some of them are really good reviews. Maybe the other books in the series are better. I'm not sure I will ever find out. I do like the cover design, and while there were certainly proofreading errors, the only ones that really got to me were the titles in quotation marks instead of italics. I gave Dream Student three stars on Amazon. You can find my review here, and if you find it helpful, please hit the "yes" button next to the review.  You  can try out Dream Student for yourself by purchasing it here. It is usually priced at 99 cents, but right now it is free. Let me know what you think!

My Review of Haunted Ends by Elizabeth Price

I chose this book because I really like the televisions show Ghost Hunters, and this book sounded like it would go right along with that type of program; ghost hunters investigating a haunted hotel.
Nah, not so much....
When I first started reading, I was really confused. The first several chapters are all about a guy named Sam who is  taking a plane from one city to another with a really important package, and about how he doesn't really have any friends, and about how the flight attendant keeps hitting on him.
He checks into the hotel, goes to catch a bite to eat, and is murdered; here's our ghost.

The ghosts in this book are not designed to be scary--much like this sheet apparition. 

Then, another guy, Rocky, comes to the hotel to do an investigation, and since this guy is...or was... a psychic medium, he ends up hooking up with Sam to solve his own murder. Oh, and he's also trying to find the contents of that package, which have gone missing, though that's just kind of nonchalantly thrown in there several chapters after Sam dies.  Why is he looking for the contents? Again, not really explained. It might be because it was his duty to deliver them. It might be because he wants to give them to Rocky. Who knows? We don't find out why until the very end of the book, and even then the reason isn't stated with conviction.
Much of what the characters do in the book isn't really done with conviction, as a matter of fact. Most of them were rather two-dimensional. And we don't really know much about what many of them look like either, including Rocky and Sam, except for some stereotypical comments thrown in throughout. Sam is a person of short stature, and there are a ton of short jokes all through the entire book. Personally, I found this a little offensive. I don't think many people would meet someone and immediately start making fun of them for the way they were born. Even the "good guys" tend to do this in Ms. Price's book.  There's also a lot of poking fun at over-weight people. Most of the ghosts are also stereotypes--"saloon girl," "Hispanic woman," "disco dancer," etc. I find that authors often tend to use these stereotypical types of characters when they haven't got a lot of experience writing or they've thrown a book together so quickly they haven't put a lot of time into developing their characters. We don't really know what they look like, what motivates them, where they came from, where they are going, or what they want out of life/death. This makes it really hard to connect to them or to care about what happens to them. I felt like Sam was the only character in the book who even mattered to me, and by the time I felt a connection to him, he was already dead. (I don't think that's really a spoiler since it's kind of spelled out in the book description.)
It wasn't all bad, though.  The story was complex, if not perfectly executed, and once you get into the heart of the story, the pace picks up and keeps moving. I was bored for the first three or four chapters, but after that I kept reading until it was over. There is room for a sequel, and if one is written, I hope that the characters are more developed.
Once again, like many of the books I've read recently, there is certainly room for another proofread. There are some misspelled words, sentences missing words, etc. It's not the worst I've read, but it's far from perfect as well.  Many of the Amazon reviewers noted this. I find it interesting that a Michael Price commented back to one such reviewer that he didn't notice any of those mistakes. Maybe he is the author's husband or dad who happened to be the proofreader? I don't know. Just an observation....
If you're looking for a light read, and you really like books where the ghosts aren't scary, then maybe Haunted Ends is the read for you. You can buy it here at the current price of $1.99. You can read my three star Amazon review here.

My Review of The Condolence Screener by E.M. Kaplan

This was an interesting read! I chose to read it next because I found the title intriguing. I didn't realize until I was about a chapter in that it is actually the second book in a series. Most of the time, authors do so much flagging of their books in a series that you can't help but feel a little overwhelmed by the titles, but not EM Kaplan.  Like her writing, the relationships between her books are a bit of a mystery....
Even though I have not read book one, entitled The Safe House, it really wasn't a problem in following The Condolence Screener.  Kaplan did a great job of filling in the necessary plot holes without four chapters of backstory we often get in book two of a series.  So, even though I had a few questions going in about our main character, Marissa, and some of the other players, they were answered well-enough, quick-enough, that it didn't take away from the story.
Basically, Marissa, who used to be a cop, now works as a condolence screener, reading messages for the dearly departed before they are posted to a message board online. What an interesting job--I'm a bit jealous. She soon discovers a homeless man who has been posting messages from the dead to the living, which takes her on a dangerous journey in an attempt to free a kidnapped woman. I won't give you anymore information about said woman at this point because Kaplan did something incredibly clever with the plot here, and I want you to discover it for yourself. It really was one of those "What? Shut up!" moments for me.
We also have a witch on our hands, and it becomes quite clear early on she is somehow linked to Marissa. Though I don't quite buy where this portion of the story ends up, it wasn't so unbelievable that it made me slam the book (okay--flip through the pages rapidly on my device) and put it down forever.  I am sure that the events towards the end of the story involving Marissa and the witch are all part of the framing for book three.

Not this kinda witch, but you get the idea!

In my opinion, Kaplan is a good storyteller whose writing hasn't quite caught up to her yet; it will. There are times when things seems a little rushed or I was confused about how we got from Point A to Point N--already.  There were some grammatical errors, as there almost always seem to be, and a few sentences that a decent editor could have fixed up--I don't think there was an editor from what I can tell. There should have been. Editors make writers even better, you know.
I liked the book, and I recommend it to anyone who likes supernatural mysteries. It's not really horror in that no one really gets chopped up or has a ghoul jump out of the closet. But parts of it are creepy, and it is definitely dark.
One thing did bother me a little bit though, I have to admit. When I went to look at the reviews for The Safe House (I like to read other reviews just to see if I'm totally out of line, even though it doesn't change what I write in the end) and I noticed this interesting review by Emily Kaplan.  Hmmm.... If this review is authored by the person I think it is, why is this necessary??? If it's a good book, we'll let you know. (I'd recommend reviewing Amazon's review policies and possibly taking this down if it doesn't meet them. And, needless to say, I don't think it does.)
If you'd like to start with The Safe House, you can buy it for 99 cents right here. If you'd like to skip ahead like I inadvertently did, The Condolence Screener is also available for just 99 cents here. These are bargains, my friends.  Kaplan's writing is worth more than 99 cents (if she does say so herself) and I don't expect her to stay in this price level for long. You can read my 4 star review here.

By the way, I like to go back and see how the books I have reviewed are doing for a few weeks afterwards, and I've noticed a spike in reviews for some of them after I publish my review. I'm wondering if this is a coincidence. If you happen to give a book  a try after you see it here, would you mind letting me know? I know how many people click on my reviews; it would be nice to see how many people go on to read the books I recommend.
Until next time, keep reading!

My Review of Pretty Little Werewolf by Kate Salidas

When this book, Pretty Little Werewolf, showed up on one of the numerous lists of book deals I subscribe to, I did a double-take. Why? Because of the cover. It is the exact same cover as Deck of Cards by ID Johnson, which was published a year before Pretty Little Werewolf.  I was momentarily confused--until I realized it was a different book, and that cover images can be reused. Still, I was intrigued. I love the cover, and I decided to give this one a try.

The cover for Pretty Little Werewolf uses the exact same stock photo, which I love.

The story is about a girl in foster care by the name of Giselle.  We find out pretty quickly that she is a werewolf and that she has been kicked out of lots of families over the years for giving into her inner wolf.  When she goes to live with a new family in Las Vegas, it seems like everything might work out, especially when we find out that this whole family is also--you guessed it--a pack of werewolves. But things aren't that easy, of course. There's another pack of werewolves in the area and there is a generational feud going on between the two. When Giselle meets Asher and instantly develops the hots for him, things become problematic, because Asher is from the other clan.  It seems things might start to take a little turn towards Romeo and Juliette here,  except for Asher is a jerk. When he becomes Giselle's partner in Chem class, it became reminiscent of Twilight--new girl, falls in love with an aloof dude, there's a werewolf.... Oh, and another dude. This one happens to be a witch, though, not a vampire, although there is mention of vampires that we never meet. Maybe that will be in book two, if there is a book two.
Giselle talks to Asher and gets his side of the story. Determined to come to the bottom of the feud between the two families, she goes looking for the truth. She discovers a lone wolf, like herself, in the desert, guarding a secret. In order to solve the mystery and end the feud, she relies on all sides to come together and concocts a plan to make this happen. I won't spoil the ending for you, but it does turn out to be a little too predictable.
But that's okay. I liked the story.  Salidas has written a lot of books, and you can tell; she is clearly becoming a master of her craft.  There were a few times when I was actually comparing the plot to yet another  well-known bit of literature--or TV, anyway--Scooby Doo.  It was pretty clear the book was written for Young Adults, and so maybe it wasn't as sophisticated as literature written solely for older audiences, but it was well-told, and I really liked some of her characters (though some were very annoying, including Giselle) and she did a nice job of tying up loose ends with the possibility of a sequel coming down the line, if she'd like.
A few things bothered me. It needs one more proofread from someone with a keen eye. There are a few paragraphs where multiple people are talking. In one place, Giselle's name is misspelled.  Things like that--picky little things.
Secondly, there's a lot of people just walking around naked in front of other people, and it's no big deal.  Only Giselle seems bothered by this sometimes. Maybe it's part of being a werewolf, but it wasn't well explained.
Finally, there's a lot of repeated words that started to bother me after a while. There seemed like hundreds of reverences to Captain Obvious. And there was a lot of niggling going on in Giselle's neck. I'm not exactly sure what that is, but it happened frequently.  Sometimes she's Giselle, sometimes just Elle. Sometimes her sister is Diana, other times it's Di. It could be Ash or Asher. I get that people use nicknames but there wasn't a lot of rhyme or reason to what they were being called and/or when.
Nevertheless, I found it a pretty good read, one that I finished in about four hours.  I gave it four stars on Amazon, and you can read my review here. If you'd like to read it for yourself, you can purchase Pretty Little Werewolf for $1.99 here.  If you're an adult who doesn't mind adult situations and language, please check out Deck of Cards by ID Johnson (same cover, remember?) which you can purchase for $2.99 right here.