This is the third Fiona McCallum book I've read, and the second one I've rated two stars. There's one main reason this book tanked in my opinion. 

Apologies in advance for the tirade below:

Jessica, the main character, is a self-centred, immature and selfish adult-child. The constant inane babbling of her inner thoughts drove me batty, and her complete inability to think about anyone outside of herself left me wanting to wring her scrawny neck. 

Add to this continued form of abuse to the reader, Jessica's incapacity to put basic symptoms of pregnancy together after the reader was subjected to copious PG-rated coitus between Jessica and Steve, her rough-on-the-outside-but-soft-on-the-inside husband, and you're left wondering how this TSTL (Too Stupid To Live) character even made it to adulthood. 

Considering the amount of inner dialogue the reader is subjected to, Jessica's character has very little character growth, the one tiny speck of change really didn't warrant the 220 pages of torment within the covers. What's with that?! Really? Are there people like this in the world?

This book gets added to my swear-tastic shelf, not because it has a lot of vulgar language in it (there is a little, it's fairly light on), but instead it's added because of the quantity of vulgar language it elicited from me as I read it.

The ONLY reasons this book gets 2 stars instead of 1, is Laurel and Hardy, the farm dogs who were adorable, and the Plain-Jane-but-not-really, Faith. The little filly, Faith, is a welcome piece of sunshine and amusement to the book. If only we'd spent more time in her mind and less in Jessica's. 

I was left thinking:



Not Fiona McCallum's best, but still might appeal to horsey people who don't mind reading about characters that are annoying and downright unlikable.

**Note: I was provided a copy of this book from the Publisher in return for an honest review**

Makedde Vanderwall's series has come to a close.

A pretty spectacular close too.

Mak is harder, grittier and downright ballsy in this book, she's taking a stand against the big baddies and she's doing it her way.

Considering it has been five years since I read the last Mak book(Siren), I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly it all came flooding back to me. Tara weaves little tidbits of information into the story but it doesn't feel like you're being drip fed it. It reads well.

I liked how we got to see Mak grow and change in this book, far more than the other books. And while one of the twists I picked very early on, the way I thought it'd go, was certainly not the way the story went.

I always had a bit of a soft spot for Andy, and this book cemented that for me. He's raw and real, both incredibly strong, yet vulnerable at the same time. Rough around the edges, but sweet and gentle too. He felt very real in this book. More so than Mak and any of the other characters.

Overall, this felt like a strong and fitting end to Mak's tumultuous journey, but it didn't blow my mind so I can't give it 5 stars. It fell just a little shy of amazing.

A quick and easy read, pick it up today but probably not until you've read the other books in the series first.

Connect fängt an, wo Chat aufgehört hat. Bev reagiert zunächst nicht mehr auf Max' Emails nach dem sie erfahren hat wer er ist. Doch Max schreibt ihr trotzdem weiter.

 

In diesem Band passiert nicht wirklich viel. Wir sehen bloß wie beide versuchen mit dem "Vorfall" umzugehen und wieder zu ihrer Freundschaft zurück zufinden. Was nicht ganz so einfach ist...

 

Wieder spürt man, obwohl wir nur die Emails der beiden zu lesen bekommen, welche Gefühle in den beiden herrschen. Und wieder ist man gespannt wie es mit den beiden weitergeht.

Dies ist die Geschichte von Beverly und Max, die sich online kennenlernen. Wir begleiten die beiden wie sich aus ihren Emails eine Freundschaft entwickelt. 

 

Dieses Buch und die beiden Folgebände sind im Original zwischen 1995 und 1998 erschienen. Seitdem hat sich im Bereich Internet/Computer natürlich so einiges getan, daher mögen einem einige Details vielleicht etwas seltsam/veraltet vorkommen.

 

Ich hatte die drei wirklich kleinen Bücher irgendwann vor über 15 Jahren gelesen und auch heute lese ich sie noch genauso gern. Die Autorin schafft es, das man selbst nur durch die Emails der beiden, spürt wie sich die Gefühle der beiden füreinander entwickeln und man "mitfiebert" wie es wohl weiter geht...

 

Ich denke, es ist schon an und für sich ein gutes Zeichen, dass ich mich nach so langer Zeit gefreut habe, als sie mir zufällig mal wieder in die Hände gefallen sind.

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers is a great book that covers the basics of editing your own work, or that of others, and how to apply those skills. Having been involved with editing and writing for a number of years, the book didn't offer me anything ground-breaking, but it did reaffirm my love of editing and brought to the forefront of my brain, the things to keep in mind when reading and reviewing a piece of writing. The book gives you plenty of examples of poor writing, mediocre writing and some fantastic writing. It hacks apart some of the greats, and showcases some works by authors unknown. I found the snippets that were edited two or three times in the book to be the most impressive. It really gave meaning to what the book was trying to say. Seeing the process in one paragraph of text really pushed the ideas home and solidified them in my mind. Not really one on rules, this book is written in the hope it will guide you towards better writing. If you're a writer but not so good with editing, this should be top of your book wishlist. P.S. It got my 'editing required' shelf because there's some shockers these pages.