Leah and the Jackhammer by Adam Ortyl - Review by Jess Mountifield

Story Overview:

Ostracized for the unique magical abilities, Leah lives on the fringes of a harsh and cruel world. Her one friend is, Sir Ursa, the teddy bear she magically brought to life.

But things get dangerous for Leah and Sir Ursa after she finds the legendary Jackhammer, a lost relic from a time when the world was new. A tool such as the Jackhammer cannot go unnoticed long, and with its awakening it draws the attention of dark forces. And when they kidnap Sir Ursa and drag him into the tunnels, it's up to Leah to use the Jackhammer and save her precious friend.

Cover: 16/20

The cover had some brilliant artwork on it and helps give the young fantasy feel that the rest of the book has although the old skool feel isn't quite my cup of tea. As a girl I'd have been put off a little by the cover feeling a bit masculine but I think I'd have given the book a chance anyway with the girl's name in the title.

Characters: 17/20

This book had an excellent if a tad stereotypical cast, plus Sir Ursa the teddy bear. I think I'd have felt like the cast were nothing particularly new and special if it weren't for Sir Ursa but with him it made the whole lot of them feel more fresh and I found myself wishing I was Leah at several moments.

Storyline: 15/20

The story is a fairly standard, young girl goes somewhere she shouldn't, finds something evil and continues putting herself in danger to try and save the day. The parents don't believe her etc so, although this is done well and does suit the target audience, I didn't feel blown away. I do think it might get a bit more original with the rest of the series though so I'm definitely not put off reading more.

There would also be the occasional plot point, especially involving Leah's actions and her emotions that I didn't entirely understand. I wasn't sure whether the anger was a good thing and whether it was all naturally Leah or not and didn't have it explained quite as much as I'd have wanted to and I'm hoping it's explained more in the next book.

Style: 12/20

This was where I was most confused. For a lot of the book it felt very much like a young adult fantasy and maybe even a child's book but there were a few points that were quite violent or had a bit of gore described to a level I wouldn't expect from a book that otherwise felt so young. I could have been misled by the age and gender of the main character but I know at the age I'd have considered reading a book like this I'd have struggled with the gore, so it left me a bit confused as to who the target audience was.

Spelling and Grammar: 18/20

I noticed a handful of mistakes (6-7) and for the most part I could work out what was meant quickly and move on so no real worries on that front.

Conclusion: 78/100

This was a very easy read and I barely put it down. I loved Sir Ursa and do think this is the kind of book I'd have loved as a kid, minus the violence. I will be looking out for the sequel for sure as I want to find out more.

Buy Leah and the Jackhammer from Amazon.com

Visit the Author's Website

Review by Jess Mountifield for "Kings of the World" by Matt Pike

Story Overview:

The galaxy is on the brink of war and only four dysfunctional, hormone-driven teenagers from Earth stand in its way. God help us all.

It didn’t take Cooper long to come to the conclusion that space sucks. It seems everyone there despises humans, everything’s too far away and the travel makes you heave. Worse still, Cooper’s stuck there with his best mate, The Ginge – who can’t tell where games end and reality begins - and two other former classmates who want to beat the crap out of him.

Oh yeah, and people, well… alien people are trying to kill them.

Space does have some good points. The boys can have anything they wish for, all they have to do is ask it … or think it. Plus they are now, somehow, Earth’s leaders - as in, more important than the President of the USA.

If Cooper can only stop the other boys from gorging on their every desire, chasing the most human looking alien women and fighting each other he might convince everyone humans aren’t the galactic equivalent of white trash.

But things are about to get a whole lot worse. War looms and Cooper and his inept sidekicks are caught in the middle. They, the Earth and the Galaxy will never be the same again.

Cover: 19/20

Love the cover for this book. Cute, quirky, geeky and a perfect portrayal of the mood of this book. Only drawback is that the titles a little difficult to read on the smaller sizes of cover.

Characters: 18/20

Only a couple of pages in and I was in love with the main character Cooper. The author had really got the teenage mindset down perfectly. Very occasionally some of the repetitiveness of the other character's flaws annoyed me but it was really only occasionally and for the most part they were perfect too.

I also really liked how big the alien world felt with all the many different aliens from all sorts of different planets. All of them were very well thought through.

Storyline: 16/20

I found the storyline a little stretched at times, but it was more minor things and mostly to do with the timeline. After all the time the boys were away from earth I'd have thought they'd have made a bit more progress in terms of trade and a few other things that I don't want to mention to not spoil the book but I liked the general storyline and how it built to the final events.

Style: 20/20

The style was almost spot on and was very quirky, cute and felt very much like I was reading a teenagers life. Really really liked the style and the battle scenes were very well done. Can't fault the style at all

Spelling and Grammar: 15/20

Only noticed a handful of mistakes so only knocked off a point for that but I did get confused a few times when the story changed scene and there was no break in the text or *** to mark that we were somewhere else or following someone else's thoughts. I really would have appreciated that and it's the only way this book really let me down at all. It's not technically a spelling or grammar issue but it's formatting so I figured it was best here.

Conclusion: 88/100

Great book with a fantastic cast of teenage boys and varied amazing aliens. I laughed aloud at several points and thoroughly enjoyed the whole read. I will definitely be picking up the sequel.

Buy Kings of the World from Amazon.com Buy Kings of the World from Amazon.co.uk

Review of Citizen Zero by Mark Cantrell - Review by Jess Mountifield

Story Overview:

A dystopian glimpse at a future born in an age of austerity and political uncertainty, CITIZEN ZERO is a gripping social satire that exposes our deepest fears and poses a grave warning to any society that abandons the pursuit of social justice...

After austerity came prosperity and stability, but it was bought at a terrible price...

In a surveillance society blind where it matters most, a deadly conspiracy is ready to strike...

A dictatorial Prime Minister, confident of his grip on power, is about to discover the limits of his strength...

A security operative turned terrorist is all set to bring down the man he once helped to steal power...

Welcome to Britain, a nation bitterly divided between rich and poor, as it teeters on the edge of chaos...

And unemployed David Mills is caught in the middle, torn from the woman he loves and thrown in to a terrible struggle to survive…

He’s a ‘zero’, one of the destitute millions, a nobody, but he’s also the one man who might salvage some kind of freedom out of the ruins of the future...

No wonder the Prime Minister wants him dead...

Cover: 12/20

The cover does look a little like it's indie made but it wouldn't put me off too much. It's definitely relevant to the sort of story Citizen Zero is.

Characters: 15/20

I really liked the hero of this story and his love interest and felt deeply for them both in what they had to go through. I was less interested in the rest. There were quite a few stereotypical bad guy types like the PM and his aides but a few of the other 'bad guys' surprised me as well. Several had regrets and their motives were interesting so it kept me curious.

Storyline: 17/20

The plot of this book was well thought out. Not overly complex but it really didn't need to be. And maybe a little predictable given the sort of book it is but I still enjoyed it. I love the concept of freedom and what freedom really looks like and where boundaries should be and this storyline explored all of those sorts of things.

Style: 10/20

For me the style of this book was it's weaker point. I think some people would really enjoy it and it reminded me a lot of Stephen King's earlier work in it's descriptive and very symbolic nature, but I found myself skim reading whole chunks of text to get to more action and dialogue.

For those who like the well described and thought through worlds then you will totally love this book, so I don't actually want to fault the author for this. He picked a style and did it well, it's just not a style I'm particularly fond of.

Spelling and Grammar: 18/20

I don't think I noticed a single typo which is very rare for me but I did have a few formatting issues with the size of the text. For some reason whole paragraphs would appear in a much larger text before going back to the normal size. It only bugged me ever so slightly though so I'm not knocking it much for that.

Conclusion: 72/100

So overall a pretty good book with a lot of world building, description and some well thought through characters. Not perfect, but still worth reading for anyone who likes to look at societal extremes and their consequences, while getting to route for the easy to relate to good guy.

Buy Citizen Zero from:

Amazon US    Amazon UK    Apple    Barnes and Noble    Diesel E-books    Kobo Book    Sony E-books    Smashwords

Connect with the author:

Website: www.markcantrell.co.uk

Facebook | Linkedin | Goodreads

Follow on Twitter @Man0Words

Review of "Dissolution of Peace" by Richard Flores IV - written by Jess Mountifield

Story Overview
 

When Earth Navy Captain Christina Serenity is brutally attacked by a traitor, her life is saved by Security Forces Corporal Michael Carlson. On the heels of her recovery, her ship is attacked by terrorists, and she is thrown into a difficult assignment. She must chase after the only clue they have, a Martian ship called the Phobos, and find out what secrets it hides. To make matters worse, someone still wants her dead.

Her ship, E.S.S. Australia embarks on a mission that leads Serenity on journey of discovery, friendship, betrayal, and revenge. She quickly learns the only thing harder to prevent than war, is love.

Now Serenity must trust her protection crew to keep her alive long enough to solve this puzzle while trying to prevent an interplanetary war.

The line has been drawn. Who will cross first?

Cover: 17/20

The cover for this book made me think of traditional sci-fi space covers so I think that's a great thing for an indie cover, my only slight niggle is not being able to read the small print on the top of the book very easily and considering how ebooks are going and the whole thumbnail thing works I'd prefer that to be larger.

Characters: 11/20

I liked the Captain in this novel but unfortunately I found the rest of the characters were a little bland. The descriptions of them were all fairly samey and with how little was shown of them I found it difficult to relate to them. Just couldn't quite care for their fate or feel worried when their lives were in danger.

Storyline: 12/20

There was a large amount of action in this book, often resulting in the main characters going from one sort of fight to another very quickly. I often wondered how they would cope with the stress levels of being in danger that often. The action was all described really well but I'd have preferred a longer book that meandered around and had maybe one or two less battles, or at least a greater variety of reasons for getting into them.

Style: 5/20

This was probably my least favourite part of the book, which is a shame really. I just found the pacing was far too full on and I was told stuff about the characters in the gaps without being shown it. The relationships would have felt more real if they'd been allowed the limelight in a bigger way.

I also felt that the book glided over details that would have been useful and then inserted others that seemed to be unimportant, like the sex scenes. I actually think the book would do better without any reference to the sex, almost like it was chucked in to try and show the relationships, but without any real build up being shown it just seemed shallow.

As a result of the style I was kept on the edge of my seat but just wasn't connecting or relating to anyone.

Spelling and Grammar: 10/20

I noticed more mistakes than I'd have liked and it could do with a final proofread to pick those out but it wasn't too bad.

On top of that I would occasionally find that some words were in a tiny font, but it would just be odd words here and there, which was rather distracting and random paragraphs would have a right hand indent all through them for some reason, so the formatting needs a look over.

Finally, there was one of my pet peeves. The dreaded 'could care less' phrase which should actually be 'couldn't care less'. If someone could care less, then they care to some degree. That one drives me up the wall.

Conclusion: 55/100

This book and author have a lot of potential and the action is good as well as the cover design, just needs to work out the kinks, and show more of the relevant relationships and characters, possibly giving more description dropped in here and there and more dialogue.

 

Buy Dissolution of Peace from Amazon.com


Connect with the Author:

Author Website
Twitter

Review for "'New Arbor Day' by J S Clark" - Review by Jess Mountifield

Story Overview:

Agee Skyler thought the biggest problem on his roadtrip were the words he hadn't said to Caitlin Moss, but four cars piled like crumpled pop cans against a rolled semi with no survivors, no witnesses, no skid marks, and no first responders is just the edge of an attack even a Marine wasn't ready for.

Meanwhile, time is running out for Caitlin in a darkened New York City under siege, and threatened from within by refugees growing more desperate as the buildings fall.

Can Agee, Caitlin, and three uncanny strangers find common purpose long enough to save the human race from total destruction?

Cover: 13/20

The cover is pretty simplistic and wouldn't draw me into reading the book alone but wouldn't put me off either. It is relevant though and I'm a sucker for feathers and their relevant meaning so it would make me personally at least a little curious.

Characters: 20/20

The characters were amazing. I'm not even sure I can pick out a favourite character although I think Sidney should get an honourary mention for being an awesome kid. The different point of views everyone had led to them all feeling very real and easily relatable to. A sort of 'something for everyone' kind of thing. The development was also fantastic and weaved expertly into the plot. It seemed that almost no character was forgotten yet it never felt overwhelming.

Storyline: 18/20

The plot was interesting and moved along well, giving the book a fast pace, which is exactly how I like this kind of story. There was some originality to the concept and the particular destruction tool which I liked but I found the conflict was carried by a few too many very similar situations. I know humanity would have struggled with the events that happened but the same plot device was used one or two more times than was really necessary to make the point.

I totally loved the themes that were explored and the symbolism presented in the book. The whole thing was very tastefully representative of a belief system I found I loved learning about and was definitely the highlight of the book for me. None of it felt forced and I highlighted quite a few sections of the ebook when sentences and thoughts struck me as really rather profound.

Style: 16/20

The style flowed well and was in my favourite 3^rd person limited, and the breaks when it moved people were all there and for the most part I moved easily from person to person along with the narrator. There were one or two moments I got a little confused but considering the number of perspectives there were that is barely a flaw worth mentioning.

On the downside, however, I found the few parts of the book that dealt with past events to seem out of place and confused me greatly so I had to re-read a few chunks. I think they would have been better handled, being slightly more distinctly marked, and maybe even expanded upon to give make them seem like they mattered.

Spelling and Grammar: 13/20

The spelling and grammar wasn't awful but I spotted about 15-20 mistakes where a word was missing, there was an extra word, the wrong word or a comma was missed off. In all these cases it jerked me out of the story and I had to re-read that sentence to figure out what the author meant. I've deducted 5 points for those.

The other two was for the dialogue. Very occasionally, I had no idea who had said something and therefore the section didn't make sense, especially when there were more than two speaking. A few more dialogue tags would have been helpful.

All in all I think the book needs one more proof read to bring it up to normal publishing standards.

Conclusion: 80/100

A great dissatopian novel with some really interesting ideas and a lot of food for thought. Despite the few downsides I really enjoyed the book and I'll be recommending it to my book club.

Buy New Arbor Day from:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk
Smashwords

More from the author:

J.S. Clark's website:
Twitter: