Book Review: The Painter by Lina Toorn

01/03/201718/05/2017SprkItLeave a Comment

Author: Lina Toorn
Release Date: 3rd June 2016
Series: –
Genre: Women’s Fiction, Mystery
Edition: E-book
Pages: 234
Publisher: –

Rating: ★★

Blurb:

A very young Dinnie loved her “Bertie” but fate intervened. His sudden disappearance left her devastated. Tormented by the fear of living a lonely life and alone, she ventured out….
The beauty of their love for each other blinded the two sweethearts to everything but each other. Her soul burned like a bright fire; her love’s thirst for her soulmate could not be quenched. Dinnie, a girl in love, suddenly had her love ripped from her heart, sending her soul to the depths of despair. She had lost her hope, her young heart broken to accept life as a lonely journey towards her end, by fate. Slowly, the world would peek into her story through paint. Time held no meaning…. History, her passion and her eye for beauty was allowed to blossom and be expressed.
Would love find her again?

Review

The Painter by Lina Toorn is a women’s fiction book that is centered around the life of a widowed painter who is thrown into the world she doesn’t belong to.

Initially, the book started out strong, but soon, after a few pages, the suspense started to feel a bit forced and then when I kept on reading the book, the story felt awkward, the scenes started and stopped abruptly and the overall plot seemed very shaky.

Sometimes, in the dialogues, the names were interchanged and that created a lot of confusion and it took me a lot of time re-reading passages and sometimes, even pages.

I wasn’t able to feel any connection with neither the lead nor any of the secondary characters, though I was able to feel the efforts of the author to force the connection very clearly, which again was another thing that made me not like the story.

The writing was good for the most part but at times it did feel forceful and clumsy. The dialogue exchange felt unreal and forced too.

Overall, I guess the story is good, but the book is in dire need of thorough editing. I could see the potential in the story as well as in the plot structure, but a few negatives worked against the book more than the positives supported it.

If I really have to, then I’d recommend this book to readers, who won’t mind the technical problems in a book.

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Book Review: We Are Going To A Wedding by Robert Davies Higgins

09/01/2017Chick-Lit, Romance, SprkItLeave a Comment

Author: Robert Davies Higgins
Release Date: 10 November 2016
Series: –
Genre: Chick-Lit, Romance
Edition: Ebook
Pages: 150
Publisher: AG Books

Rating: ★★

Blurb:

Veronica and her best friend and business partner Elizabeth work long hard hours preparing to open a high class art and gift shop in the English Lake District. With the work completed, they decide to take a short break before the grand opening, and they go to a beautiful country hotel for a few days to chill out.
They befriend a young Australian waitress, who has a bubbly fun filled personality. When a huge old American Cadillac drives into the parking lot, a competition between the three of them ensues as to what the handsome driver does for a living, and who is going to win his heart!
Great fun, and exciting adventures follow, but who indeed will win the heart of the tall handsome stranger?

Review

We Are Going To A Wedding by Robert Davies Higgins was, unfortunately, not for me.

First off the blurb of this book is actually the synopsis of only the first two chapters and after that, the story seems to stretch all the way to the uneventful ending. The story didn’t make any sense for me.

Apart from the story, the dialogues were unreal too. They were awkward and I really think that this book needs another round or two of revising and a good professional developmental as well as line editing.

The characters felt flat and one-dimensional and the story just didn’t make any sense. Veronica was at least tolerable, but the character of Elizabeth was so weird that I had a hard time reading the book whenever she started talking or making pervert snide remarks (which was quite a lot.)

I hate posting negative reviews, but there’s nothing really positive I can say about this book as the writing itself had flaws. I had a hard time focusing on the story with abrupt head hoping and change of POVs without any break or warnings. There were11 chapters in total, but I feel that the story should have been divided into at least 20 chapters giving space for individual POV chapters that could have made the reading experience better.

Unfortunately, I did not like this book and as an author myself I feel like it will be wrong to not point out the flaws, hence the detailed dissection.
Even though I might not recommend this book to anyone, I have a feeling that chick-lit readers might find it interesting enough to enjoy it (or maybe not.) And I do think that if this book gets edited properly and the typesetting is improved then it might make for a pleasant read for the genre lovers.

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Book Review: Running: The Best Cure For The Worst Relationship by Richard Cohen

13/12/2016SprkIt4 Comments

Author: Richard Cohen
Release Date: – (ARC)
Series: –
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Relationships
Edition: E-book
Pages: 356
Publisher: Createspace

Rating: ★★★

Blurb:

Estranged twins Brian and Amy are sixty years old when chance throws them together at a party. A blow-up on Amy’s part sets them on a course that leads to the reconciliation of their love, friendship, and emotional attachment. Years of no communication, petty differences and pent up anger, wiped away their comfort,friendship and love. A tragedy for twins who were inseparable as children. In the midst of a wedding reception Amy makes a public spectacle of herself and becomes enraged at her brother and throws down the gauntlet that she can run a marathon, as her brother had done eighteen times before. Facing humiliation, Amy sets out to train and run a marathon while losing over eighty pounds. Through the pains, pride, honesty and self-reflection of running, Amy gains contentment and happiness that she always yearned for, which money and materials never could fulfill. With a much improved sense of self and a feeling of pride and confidence, Amy opens herself up to regain what she had lost with her brother– love and friendship.

Review

Running: The Best Cure For The Worst Relationship by Richard Cohen is a light-hearted contemporary read centered around running.

I liked the basic concept of the story and the story build-up was decent. I did like the main characters but was not able to feel a strong connection with them. They were likable enough for me to read this book till the end to see how things end for them and for me that was a relief.

The story is about a twin brother and sister duo, Brian and Amy, who are kind of estranged and cross path after a while in an unsuspecting wedding where they end up in a bet in which Amy, who is fat and unfit, decides to run a marathon. As I said earlier, the concept was really interesting and the story turned out to be really good by the end, but there were a few issues with it that made me rate this book lower than I would have loved to rate it otherwise.

First of all, there was endless head-hopping. The story was written in the third-person omniscient narration and the POV shifts were understandable, but what I didn’t like was the abrupt shifts in POVs. There were some POVs of secondary characters too but only for a couple of paragraphs in between the POVs of the main characters. And that was really off-putting, to say the least.

Secondly, the story progression felt a bit slack due to continuous and abrupt change in timelines. In one paragraph you’re in present, the next one you’re reading about 20 years younger Brian. These timeline shifts were not technically right so it was also a bit of a downer.

Other than these two issues, though, there was nothing major that affected the book in a negative way. The story is good and I’m sure that if you can see past, or completely ignore, the technicalities of fiction writing (which, for the life of me, I can’t) then I’m sure you’ll enjoy this story.

Book Review: Eden’s Apple by Pamela Blake

12/12/2016SprkItLeave a Comment

Author: Pamela Blake
Release Date: 18th February 2016
Series: –
Genre: Historical Fiction, Women’s Fiction
Edition: E-book
Pages: 286
Publisher: Xlibris

Rating: ★★★★

Blurb:

Prewar Bradford, England, 1937. A sinful act is perpetrated by a father against his daughter that will alter the lives of three future generations. Rose’s troubled past haunts her forever. Lucy seduces a man of the cloth and has to bear its devastating consequences. Samuel escapes real life and journeys through his own hell to try and find what he has lost. Children are deprived of a normal upbringing. Secrets, when revealed, have a destructive power. These are ordinary people whose lives go full circle in their voyage of self-discovery and who undergo a transformation resulting from an extraordinary existence. Each of them has to overcome his or her tragedy before the realization that great success, or the reaching of one’s own goals, does not give the pleasure, happiness, or satisfaction expected. Ultimately, it is only in the real values of love, understanding, self-sacrifice, and forgiveness that the outcome has to be found.

Review

Eden’s Apple is a moving story about two women that’ll rip your heart apart. It is a story of a mother and daughter who go through their own hells and experience the cruel brutality of the world in times where there was little to no hope for single women.

I started reading this book expecting to read about family drama, but I was taken aback by the sheer realism and the cold brutality that defines this book.

Author Pamela Blake’s narration is extremely powerful and strong. I was so lost in the story that I wasn’t able to think about anything else. The author’s strong narration crippled my senses and made me see the emotions of fear, love, and loss with such acute realism that I was moved deeply.

There were a few issues with the dialogues and conversations, but in front of such powerful writing, everything can be overlooked. The story itself had so much life that it pained me to imagine it to be a piece of fiction.

I liked this book a lot, yet I feel a sense of foreboding thinking about it now. I have so many emotions welling inside of me even after long finishing this story that I have to literally force away some of the things I read in this book. I’ve read only a few books based on the theme of child abuse, but I never imagined any story to have such a lasting impact on me the way this book had.

I’d recommend this book to everyone because of it an exceptional story written brilliantly.

Goodreads and Amazon

Book Review: The Beauty Of The Fall by Rich Marcello

26/11/2016SprkIt1 Comment

Author: Rich Marcello
Release Date: 25th October 2016
Series: –
Genre: Corporate-Fiction, Sci-Fi
Edition: E-book
Pages: 358
Publisher: Langdon Street Press

Rating: ★★★★

Blurb:

A TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVE CHARTS A HIGH-RISK,
UNCONVENTIONAL PATH WHILE GRIEVING THE LOSS OF HIS SON.
Dan Underlight, a divorced, workaholic technology executive, suffers lingering grief over the death of his ten-year-old son, Zack. When Dan’s longtime friend and boss, Olivia Whitmore, fires Dan from RadioRadio, the company that he helped create, he crashes and isolates himself.
Willow, a poet and domestic violence survivor, helps Dan regain his footing. With her support, Dan ventures on a pilgrimage of sorts, visiting Fortune 500 companies to flesh out a software start-up idea. When Dan returns home with a fully formed vision, he recruits the help of three former RadioRadio colleagues and starts Conversationworks, a company he believes will be at the vanguard of social change.
Guided by Dan’s generative leadership, Conversationworks enjoys some early successes, but its existence is soon threatened on multiple fronts. Will Dan survive the ensuing corporate battles and realize the potential of his company? Or will he be defeated by his enemies and consumed by his grief?

Review

The Beauty Of The Fall is a unique story that’ll grip you right from the start till the very end. It is a story full of heartache, sadness, dreams and possibilities – everything that makes this book a complete package.

I liked the basic concept on which The Beauty Of The Fall is based upon. To have a software that brings truth to selected conversations is not only unique but also very intriguing. Especially in times like these, the application of measures mentioned in this book will surely make for a nice topic of discussion.

The characterization was good and I was able to connect with the main character, Dan Underlight. The secondary characters were also well developed, but I was glad that the author let the main lead, Dan, steal the show.

I liked the writing style of the author; it was simple and made this book a pleasant and an easy read. I liked the easy flow of the narration and fast-paced story progression. All these factors, combined together, made this amazing story all the more enjoyable.

As I mentioned earlier, I really liked the basic concept of the book and wish that we had a company like Conversation Works in real life too because I’m sure it would have definitely helped on a global scale. Anyway, it was mainly the concept of online fact checking that really gripped me.

I’d recommend this book to all the readers who like reading corporate fiction and also those who like light Sci-Fi stories.

Goodreads