My Review of The Zarion: Saving Mankind by JE Grace

This is a science fiction novel with a good dose of Christian faith--a rarity in my experience, and if you're into that sort of thing, then this might be the book for you. If you read my blog a lot, you'll notice I don't usually read sci fi, but when the author, JE Grace, contacted me and asked me to review her book, I obliged. It's not that I don't like sci fi--I love Star Wars--it's just not usually my genre of choice. I was intrigued by the premise, however, which equates the return of Christ as the savior of the world to a scientist in the future whose purpose is to save humans from aliens--or at least that was my understanding going in.

"Beam me up, Zarions!"

The main character, Davis, is slated to work for a shady company called Interplay. In fact, the book starts with his kidnapping and being instructed that he will be working for Interplay--which should have been a big heads up that something might not quite be right with this company. While Davis and his co-workers go about trying to solve some of Earth's most drastic problems--like running out of food--a sneaky member of their crew is sabotaging them. We find out later that this turncoat is not the only one, and that he, along with many other characters, is actually an agent of The Fallen.  This group of aliens, led by Lucifer, is trying to take over Earth.  As Davis begins to uncover what is happening around him, he also learns of a group working to save the inhabitants of Earth, the Zarion, and he also finds out his link to these benevolent beings is more than skin deep.
There is also a bit of romance in the novel, though nothing to make one blush, which gives another dimension to the story. Davis is intrigued by his colleague Janette from the moment he meets her. He'll have to wait a while to find out whether or not his feelings are reciprocated, and as a reader, it kept me interested to see what would happen between them.
There is a lot of action, lots of espionage, lots of intrigue. If you like sci fi, the description and dialogue regarding traveling into space, etc. sounds pretty right on to me.  In a lot of ways, it reminded me of one of those old movies you might catch late at night when invaders are coming to Earth and the strong hero-type astronaut guy has to come to the rescue.  The dialogue is sparse but sensible, and Davis and Janette are likable right away, though she is certainly not one I would describe as a strong, independent woman.
This book is not quite written in first person. It oscillates back and forth from Davis's perspective to the point of view of other characters. At first, this phenomenon only occurred between chapters, but then it got more frequent. Sometimes we get more than one point of view in the same paragraph. This makes it a bit hard to follow. Also, it is written in first person omniscient--which means Davis sometimes has the ability to know the motivation and private thoughts of other characters he is interacting with. Again, I don't mind omniscient, but  it does make the story hard to follow when Davis is talking but we suddenly know what another character is thinking. And, if he has some sort of mind-reading abilities, this is never mentioned in the plot line.
It is also written mostly in passive voice.  A lot of the action is explained to the reader, rather than shown to us.  There are whole scenes that are summed up after the fact, which took me out of the book a little bit. I didn't ever quite feel like I was in the moment with Davis, rather a bit more like he was giving me a summary of what had occurred much later in time.
I also noticed there is no editor listed.  There needs to be one--possibly another one--because there are a lot of errors, especially punctuation errors, but the mistakes aren't limited to that. There are some word usage errors, misspellings, etc.  A thorough read-through by a good proofreader should take care of that, but I would also suggest an editor go back and make some of the POV switches a little clearer.  My personal opinion--pick a POV and stick with it. Either first or third, but not both. I have read a few other books recently where this worked, but it's really tough to pull off, and I honestly didn't think it worked here as I was often confused about who was talking and how Davis knew certain things.
There is an overwhelming amount of coffee drinking in this book.... Just an observation.
I do like the concept, and as a Christian I appreciate the idea.  It's possible that this book could reach some sci fi readers who are not aware of our faith. There were some things that could have been better, but it was a quick read that kept me turning the pages. Other readers have given it four and five stars. You can read The Zarion: Saving Mankind for yourself on Amazon here. The current list price at time of post is $2.99.

My Review of Freefall: Custom Culture Book 1 by Tess Oliver

I have over a thousand books on my Kindle account waiting to be read, so when I go to pick a new one, it's really difficult to decide which one to choose. Lately, I've been picking some disappointments. I was really relieved when I started reading Freefall to have gotten a good one. I liked it a lot! If you like sweet romances you can read in a few hours that have just a little bit of tastefully written bedroom scenes, then you will probably like this one as well. I will warn you, however, there are a lot of F-bombs in this one.
This book is written in first person and alternates between the perspective of the main characters--Nix and Scotlyn.  Nix is a hot guy with a reputation for breakin' the ladies' hearts.  He owns a tattoo parlor and lives in a houseboat with a friend, Dray, who likes to fight.  We find out pretty early that neither Nix, nor Dray, nor their other best friend, Clutch, have had an easy life. In fact, very few characters in this book seem to have come from easy livin'.  As far as Nix is concerned, he lost his race car driving father as a child, and his mother is no longer in his life. He has a sister and a precious Nana who is starting to succumb to dementia.  It seems obvious pretty early on that Nix is not your typical macho guy with no substance. He loves his Nana and is doing everything he can to take care of her despite her failing health.
The other main character, Scotlyn, also has a rough past. Her parents and her sister, Olivia, were all killed in a car crash when she was a child, and while she walked away from the accident, she lost her voice that day--either from screaming or from shock. She isn't sure, and she hasn't had much of a life to live for since then, so she hasn't been too concerned with getting her voice back. She was living on the streets, strung out, doing other illicit activities when a man named Lincoln Hammond finds her and takes her in. When she enters the story, she is living with Hammond as his girlfriend. Hammond has hired Nix to cover Scotlyn's scars from the wreck with an intricate tattoo.

Maybe it's because Scotlyn's mutism instantly reminded me of Katy from Deck of Cards, but I found her to be intriguing in a very ethereal way.  It's almost as if she is just the ghost of a woman, and she needs Nix's love to transform her into a whole person again. In the meantime, she seems to flutter about in her existence, something between a ghost and a lingering dream.
There is another interesting and creative aspect that comes into play when Scotlyn and Nix meet for the first time, but I will let Ms. Oliver reveal that part of the story to you herself, should you choose to check this one out.
Needless to say, Nix and Scotlyn are destined to be together, and they know it from the start. This didn't come across as cliche or ridiculous in this story, as is often the case in poorly written "love at first sight" stories.  The more we begin to cheer for Nix to get the girl, the more is revealed about Hammond until we end up realizing he is a pretty nasty guy, and it is definitely in Scotlyn's best interest to get away from him posthaste.
Oliver is a great writer. This isn't a messy self-pub that makes a person shrink back from free or reduced price books.  She moves the story along at a steady pace, encouraging the reader to continue to turn the pages to find out what happens with each of her characters.  Even though the ending of the story was not what I was expecting and ended up being a bit too easy, it wasn't ridiculous or disappointing.  There are other books in this series, and I left the book thinking it would be nice to find out what else happens to these characters, a sure sign that I am emotionally invested in the book, which is the hallmark of any good writer.
Of course, there were a few things that bothered me a bit; there always are.  First of all, this needs one more proofread by someone with a scrutinizing eye.  There weren't a lot of errors, but there were a few, and they were usually the kind that take a reader right out of the story, like a missing word in a sentence, or the misspelling of a character's name.  The mistakes aren't blaring, but they are there.
Another thing that I found confusing was that a couple of the characters have two names.  Nix is also called Alex by his sister and Nana. The first time his Nana called him this, I thought she was talking about someone else.  I don't think the story was set up well-enough at that point for me to gather this was the same guy. Also, Scotlyn calls her boyfriend Lincoln (in her mind, remember she doesn't talk, although she does write notes....) and everyone else refers to him as Hammond. This is also a little confusing.  Nothing major, but enough to make me stop reading and go back--something I don't really like to do.
Also, for someone who was horribly injured in a car wreck, Scotlyn sure doesn't seem to mind writing notes to people who are trying to drive. There were lots of occasions when she and another character are driving down the road and she's writing the driver notes like it's no big deal. How in the world does Nix, or whoever, read these notes while he's trying to drive?  I get that it was necessary for the story to progress, but it didn't seem very realistic to me.  I guess it could have been happening at stoplights or something....
Finally, when the steamy scenes arrive, there is no mention of protection. This is the sort of thing that drives most romance readers/writers crazy, and I highly recommend Ms. Oliver consider slipping some plastic into her dudes' pockets. Some might say it takes away from the action, but I disagree. I've seen it done tastefully lots of times, and I feel it's the responsible thing to do.
Again, I really liked this one! I gave it a four star review on Amazon, which you can read here. If you read my review please remember to vote "yes," that it was helpful, so that others will have a better chance of seeing it and will also be able to use my thoughts to determine whether or not to read this one. You can purchase Freefall: Custom Culture Book 1 by Tess Oliver here. It's currently priced at 99 cents.  Best of all, this is NOT a cliffhanger--it's a complete story--so if you love these characters, like I do, and you want to keep reading, you can do so, and if you've had enough, you don't feel cheated with only a partial story.
If you've read it, let me know what you thought in the comments!

My Review of Romance: The Billionaire's Heart by Nancy Adams

Contrary to what you may naturally assume from the title of this book, Romance: The Billionaire's Heart, there is very little romance in this story. And by romance, I don't mean s-e-x (there's none of that) or even kissing (there's a few kissing scenes) there's literally not a lot of romance.  We don't get any sparks at all until about 70% of the story has gone by. So... right off the bat, if you're a romance fan, I think you're gonna have a few issues with this one. It really should be labeled as "clean" or "Christian" romance because the reader isn't really enlightened into Katelynn's religious devotion until really late in the story, and without that information, you'll be waiting a long time for something to happen that just doesn't.
The premise hit a little too close to home for me.  The main character, Katelynn, is a recent college graduate with her Master's in Political Science who decides to go into retail management instead.  As I was also a Poli Sci major (got my BA in '98) who ended up going into retail management, I was very familiar with the life our MC was embarking on.  Even if I knew nothing about retail management, I feel that the extremely detailed account of exactly what transpires in every facet of a retail store from opening to closing on a daily basis was enough overkill to find anyone bored to tears. I honestly have no idea why most of this was included in the story. It's not relevant to the plot at all. Likewise, very few of the minor characters we are introduced to have anything to do with the plot either. Luckily, you won't be vested in any of them as most of them are just names and brief descriptions of what they look like.
When Katelynn learns she will be learning the ropes from the son of the owner, billionaire Nate, things should start to heat up a little bit. She is clearly interested in him.  But we continue to learn about running the store and how they eat lunch together for a really, really long time before she decides to buy a new outfit and catch his attention. I guess that's all she needed to do because he finally asks her out--again 70%ish through the book.

Pucker up and wait! (picture via Pixabay)

I won't ruin the ending by telling you how the date turns out, but I will let you know that there is no ending, which ultimately ruins the book. That is, it's ruined if you care to find out what happens to Katelynn and Nate by the jarring cliffhanger ending anyway. If you read my blog at all, you know I hate books that just stop.  This is one of those.  There's no tying up of anything, just an abrupt ending. Then, there's a sneak peek into book 2, which is a much more succinct recount of book 1told from Nate's perspective. It still doesn't advance the story very much at all, and at the end, I wasn't scurrying to buy the next book.
There are also some proofreading errors that were annoying. Twice, for example, the number four is inserted into a word for no reason--as in "teen4ger."  I don't know how these kinds of errors aren't caught. Spell check will catch that. Something else that really, really bothers me is that, at one point, Katelynn, who is telling the story, actually address us as her "readers."  Excuse me? Is this a book or a blog?  Talk about taking people right out of the story. I don't know if this is some new literary device Ms. Adams is trying out, but I really didn't care for it. I was under the impression this was a narrative recollection of events in a character's life, not a magazine article. It was just very distasteful, in my opinion. I'd never seen it before and hope that I don't see it again.
Once again, however, I have to say, this book has a ton of four and five star reviews on Amazon. I really don't understand it!  A lot of people really like this book, apparently.  Maybe they are all twelve year old girls with strong religious beliefs. I don't know. I didn't get it. This was the closest I've been for a while to leaving a one star review. I didn't--I found enough redeemable qualities to give it a two star review, which you can read here.  If you find my Amazon review helpful, please vote "yes" for it, as that helps my reviews become more noticeable to readers, such as yourself, who may need to be warned as to what they are getting into. This book is one of six, I believe, so I think it's permafree. It was free when I got it last fall, and it's still free today. You can download it here and see what you think for yourself. It is a quick read, and if you happen to need some information about how to become a manager at your local Walgreens, by golly, this one might just be for you.