This is a gimmick book, which in itself isn't a bad thing if there's a good story in there. Maybe there was a such thing in this, but unfortunately for me all that was buried under heaps of problems.

The first ninety pages were a positive surprise. A man writing a fifteen-year-old girl in first person voice can only end up in disaster, was my first thought and indeed it was too good to last. Because the first time jump and second part started the stalker trend.

Instead of continuing writing Holly's story from her perspective, Mitchell does everything in his power to reduce her into a pawn and object in the lives of men around her. Holly disappears into the background and is only shown through glimpses in the moments most important to her life and story.

A one night stand, a would be husband, the love of her adult life, and then the world saving or ending battle through an alien black woman. That's a bad description but it's the best I can do for the fifth narrator and point of view character. To add insult to the injury Mitchell uses POC to refer to a "Pear Occident Company" and reduces the immortals into small minded trans-phobics with a single line.

Fun times end with a second short part from Holly's point of view and with her aged voice, but it's too little too late. The story, its characters, and the author had already lost me for good.

More on the latest  plagiarism scandal -- link goes to column by Jenny Trout and not to  one of plagiarist's sites in case worried you'd be increasing the criminal's traffic and statistics.

Do we care just what she can say about the plagiarism that needed a few days to write?

I never know what to do about stuff like this.  I want to broadcast "plagiarism" alerts constantly to warn everyone off but I also don't want to improve the plagiarist's position in search engines and get them more traffic by naming.   I'll compromise with a screenshot someone else shared from yesterday's Facebook which shows the name:

What excuse is there unless she's called in the Feds because Amazon confirmed someone else hacked her account to put their banking account rather than hers as collecting the money from sales of plagiarized books?  And why couldn't she say so if that was what happened?   Yes, do point me to someone's shared screenshot or cached page once she does issue the statement just because I am so incredulous of what excuse will try to be made -- I refuse to give her sites more traffic to see for myself.

Please know when shelving or rating the plagiarist's book on goodreads -- even if 1-starring and on shelves warning your friends away from like "plagiarized" "consumer boycott" "not with a gun to my head" type of shelves -- you cause it to be more "popular" meaning it will show ahead of other books when exploring genres, new release notices, search results, etc.  Make sure if shelving the plagiarism on goodreads to at least also shelve even more the authors who were violated by this plagiarist.

No doubt a good idea she takes some time to think up a better excuse after what she did say to one author about how it was accidentally done for one book because she had confused her book and that book (hacked the copy protection *snort* just to keep it as "inspiration") on her computer.  She has been claiming "innocent" of replacing names and pronouns to turn another author's M/F book to an M/M book which was "innocently" posted for sale in Amazon ... and no doubt just as "innocent" for the dozens of others already caught  [Seriously, why would I ever think she could write if she cannot even recognize something she didn't write -- even if I could swallow that excuse.]

I will never understand why people do this.

It turns out Laura Harner stole/copied the content from author Becky Mcgraw's book My Kind of Trouble:

 

 

 

Becky McGraw

October 19 at 11:47am · Milton, FL ·

HOLY CRAP -- do people have no morals about STEALING these days? I was just notified by a reader that she started reading M/M romance recently and read a book by another author that is almost VERBATIM my book My Kind of Trouble with the exception it's a m/m book!! I need a recommendation for a good literary attorney fast!!

 

 

Read more here.

 

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com by express permission of this reviewer.

Title: The Boy and the Peddler of Death

Series: The Tale of Onora

Author: Dylan Saccoccio

Rating: 0.5 of 5 Stars

Genre: SFF

Pages: DNF at 40%

Synopsis:

From what I could make out, some great mage had destroyed the Elven Empire of the North a generation ago.

Now there is a boy, who I can't tell if he's human or elven or something else who is verbally sparring with his father, who it turns out 'might' be the aforementioned mage? I really couldn't tell.

There is also an Elven woman with a baby, but all that is said is that she is running away from something.

My Thoughts:

The spoiler following is a sample of what the writing has been like for my entire read so far.

AT THE OPPOSITE END of the Steppe, the aroma of foreign spice and earthiness drifted with the breeze, swirling with the scent of vanilla and clove. A legion of figures swiftly crept out from the valley towards the break of day. Their silhouettes coasted over the arid terrain. They displayed a sexually attractive dexterity. Though the figures were young, they were suitable for midnight deeds by virtue of their maturity.

Beneath the veils of their elegantly shrouded bodies, the Oussaneans had bronze skin. Their fiery hair and feline irises ignited with enthralling sensuality. The Oussaneans habituated that it was not enough to merely conquer a people. They must seduce them.

The Caliphians had a lust for these women, an addiction even. The Oussaneans would hardly succeed at the art of seduction were they not masked by some sort of honor. If one had experienced the dilemma between stealing the life of his soul mate and refusing to do so at the consequence of his own death, he may know the feeling of fighting against these women.

The Oussaneans swept over the terrain. Their glaives and scimitars swayed gracefully like willows in the wind. Every tangible piece of their armor and weapons bore the inscription of the moon, the symbol of the Lunaega Province.

As the legion made their way east, an ominous gallop grew louder and louder until it matched the sound of thunder breaking the sky. A warhorse, blacker than oblivion, more powerful than a herd, tilled the soil as each hoof cut through the earth. The monstrous steed was clad in dark obsidian armor. Its ruby red eyes burned like embers from a diabolical fire. However, it was not the horse that was frightening. It was the rider of that demonic steed and what followed him that struck terror into the hearts of men.

(spoiler show)

 

A whole book like that folks. Over-dramatized, bloviated, purple prose that mires you down in its own self-importance.  A whole blasted book.

At 40% I thought I would have had some idea of what was going on. But the characters were simple delivery mechanisms for the author to describe to his heart's content while at the same time informing us of all sorts of deeply mystical/philosophical musings/rants. And info dumps. In Purple Prose.

It was puerile. What is worse, it thought it was grandiose with all its verbiage and synonyms and utterances beyond the ken of mortals. It was not engaging, it was not interesting, it was not well written. It was the superfluous spew of a wanna-be philosopher who didn't have enough sense to realize what silliness was coming out of his mouth.

In all fairness, this is probably not any worse than some young silly lord composing Poetry [with the Capital Emphasized!] for his latest infatuation back in the day. But back then only the poor young lady and maybe a close friend or two, had to listen to his stuff. If he tried to read it at the local tavern, I'd be the first to call him drunk and dunk him in a water barrel. Water barrels are known for their powerful restorative effects.

The one positive was the cover and the cover for the sequel. They were both GORGEOUS and I say that as a man. I will probably visit the artist (Virginie Carquin) 0n her own site and check out what else she has to offer.