My rating: 3 of 5 stars
You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com
Lucas is an absolute gun with his colts (pun intended), his father taught him how to shoot like a beast, before he disappeared of course and left Lucas, his sister, and mother alone. He also left the colts he owned to Lucas. When the city of Van Horn is rocked by murder, six dead, found torn apart in their house, there’s only one logical explanation for Lucas. It was a monster, and now is Lucas’ time to shine. The bounty on the head of the creature is enough to pay for much needed medical treatment for his sister and nothing’s stopping him now.
I was pretty excited to read this one if I’m honest. I received it from an email along with a myriad of other short stories and novels, and this one intrigued me a lot. I’d probably put this in the YA category as Lucas is 17 years old, he’s only weeks out from graduating high school, but has no prospects when it comes to attending college or university as his family doesn’t have a lot of money; and what money they DO have, needs to go to medical treatment for his sister who is incredibly ill. The story grabbed me from the start. I was intrigued about Lucas, and the world he lived in. I found that it was fast paced and the idea was brilliant, but for me, the execution leaves a little bit to be desired, unfortunately.
I feel that another round of editing would have worked a treat for this story. There was a lot of repetition in regards to Lucas’ sister needing medical treatment, so much so that it started to annoy me a little, mentioning this once, MAAAYBBEE twice if needed would have been enough. A small thing that irked me a tad was the use of the term ‘cowboy hat’, personally, I would have gone with a brand name instead of the umbrella term, such as: Stetson, Bullhide, Milano etc. I feel that one of those would have just flowed a bit better into the story itself. I loved the inclusion of the colts, it always makes me think of supernatural haha. I also found that some of the sentences seemed a bit disjointed or unfinished, which could lead to a bit of confusion and jolt the reader out of the story itself.
I really did LOVE the base of this story, and I think it has a tonne of potential, just another round or two of editing to weed out the kinks. I’m interested to see how the story continues.
On A Witch and A Spell by Misty Bane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com
Drusilla “Granny” Rathmore isn’t having a great week. First her daughter was murdered by a witch hunter, and now her son-in-law has decided to leave with his daughter (her granddaughter) in order to keep her safe. While Granny isn’t thrilled with the decision, she understands his fear. It’s because of this she acquiesces and decides that her and her coven will follow through with his wish, and cast a spell, which will let baby Dru grow up never knowing about her lineage or her connection to the town or the coven that she grew up in. However, on the day of the ceremony, Granny realises that her spell book has gone MIA, not only that, there’s still the issue of the six missing tourist girls, and the fact that her daughters spirit hasn’t shown up yet. It’s all in a days work for Granny though, and she will power through it the best she can.
I knew pretty much from the first page that I was going to LOVE this story as well as the characters and the world. I even went to purchase the first book in the series after finishing it, to find that I already HAVE the first book in the series. One thing that instantly made me love the character of Granny, as well as the authors way with words was this quote that is near the beginning…””Do you get punched a lot? You seem like the kind of person that gets punched a lot.” I raised one eyebrow”
*Squeals* WHAT SASS!! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! And the sass doesn’t stop there. The whole short story is filled with it and I just KNOW that I’m going to love the series itself, even though it is based around Baby Dru, who is not so much a baby anymore.
I found the world building to be done fantastically and this was an absolutely awesome setup to the series. I love the characters and cannot wait to see more of them, I sincerely hope they’re in the main story itself.
I loved the whole idea behind this story as well. Even the little mystery of the missing girls and the missing spell book was done fantastically. I also love how the missing girls ended up and the culprit’s ‘punishment’. All around a fun, enjoyable, quick read that has really got me hanging to start the first book.
What Doesn’t Kill You by Jo Ho
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com
Actual rating of 3.75
Marley is moving into her dorm, this is her chance for a new start, a clean slate, a chance to make some new friends and to put her past behind her. Or is it? Marley meets her roommate Cassie, a rich girl with beautiful parents who is fairly ordinary herself, Tyler, a loner from across the hall, and Eve a goth girl with a past to hide. Navigating their first day on campus, they find out that a girl was murdered recently nearby, not thinking much of it, they decide to head out and attend a party being hosted a local bar. On the way home they witness a strange sight as two men are fighting, with one intending to kill the other. What happens next will change the four girls’ lives forever.
This had a very YA feel to it, even though the characters are college aged, they still felt kinda juvenile to me. That’s not a negative, that’s just an observation and a heads up to readers who aren’t into that kind of thing. There’s a lot of petty things still happening, like one girl being ostracised because she’s not model pretty, and another being picked on because she’s a goth. This is what made the characters seem juvenile. Even though the POV was switching between characters, I found it relatively easy to keep up with who was saying and doing what. I found the characters to be interesting, as well as their stories, but then, I’m quite partial to a good slice of life story, which is how this started out. Until Marley saw something and the story began to take a darker tone.
I really enjoyed where the story went, though the ‘big reveal’ of the cornerstone of the story felt a bit whirlwind and out of the blue for me. I feel like there would have been signs leading up to it? I’m not sure, maybe it’s just me. Also, this is a serialised story, this is mentioned in the afterword. I feel like it was translate well and possibly work better as a TV show, which the author actually mentioned she was hoping to achieve with it.
I’m super intrigued with this story though and I do plan on continuing.
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