Title of book: Everville:  The First Pillar

Author:  Roy Huff

Genre:  Epic Fantasy

URL:  http://amzn.com/B00BCOQSSQ

          https://www.facebook.com/pages/Everville/

          http://www.owensage.com/books.html

ASIN:  B00BCOQSSQ

Ratings: 

Readability:  I found it a fairly easy read hampered only by slight editing errors.

Hook:  After a nice introduction of duality we are left to wonder and want to know more.

Editing:  There were minor editing issues interspersed throughout the chapter.  Nothing was major or took away from the meaning but it was enough to be noticeable.

Characters:  We are introduced to two main characters.  The first is the main character.  To this point, and I went back through real quick to be sure, he has no name.    He is referred to as either “I” or “you” in the first chapter.  I myself will often hide a person’s name from the reader until such time that it has been revealed by someone saying their name.  So this did not detract.  “I” is confused through the entire chapter and does not have much character development.
The second person we are introduced to is simply The Keeper.  He appears to be some kind of wizard or technologist.  There is a little bit of development with him in you get his level of intelligence and no nonsense attitude.  He got right down to business.

Understandable:  In a very short time the book travelled between two different worlds and at points appeared to have some intermesh between them.  Through this through it was written well enough that I was able to understand and follow what was going on.

Visuals:  Visuals were very good in this chapter and helped you to keep track of where you were. 

Relatable:  I related with the situation of the main character in school and found myself wanting to know more about him after the chapter was done.  The level of reliability may have been enhanced by the fact that the main character does not have a name yet.  It is easy to slip into the character’s shoes because there has not been that demarcation that he is in fact not the reader.

Fun:  It was a fun read of discovery and confusion.

Overall:  From step one through to the end of the chapter there is something happening to the character and it flows through and comes out well leaving me wanting more.  I found myself wearing the shoes of the main character and experiencing his tribulations. Except for some minor editing issues, it was a good read and I plan to read the rest of the book based on my experience.

Synopsis:  A kid is sick and goes to the nurse’s office.  As he arrives he passes out but instead of the darkness of unconsciousness he finds himself transported into an entirely different world.  Before he can get his bearings he is whisked back to his original reality without a clue as to if what he just experienced was real or not.

 Favorite line:  We are somewhere between here and there, sometime between yesterday and another day.

Title of book: Provectus:  The Road to Salus

Author:  Jason M. Daniel

Genre:  Science Fiction

URL:  http://www.amazon.com/THE-ROAD-SALUS-PROVECTUS-ebook/dp/B00A6VKJA4

ASIN:  B00A6VKJA4

Ratings: 

Readability:  While it was easy enough to read and follow, it was slightly hampered by paragraphs that were too long.

Hook:  The chapter did have a bit of a hook to it and ended on a tense note encouraging me to want to read more.

Editing:  The chapter definitely needed some editing.  The paragraphs needed to be broken up some, and there were several syntax errors such as using an apostrophe to designate something as being plural.

Characters:  There are only two people we are really introduced to.  The first is the main character Morgan Williams.  His parents are briefly mentioned as are some other family.  The second is his friend Jorjah (named for the state).

Understandable:  I was able to understand everything going on which made the story easy to follow.

Visuals:  There were good action visuals and a little bit of environmental descriptions.  It could have used a little strong descriptions on locations where things were taking place and it would have benefitted from character descriptions.

Relatable:  I found the story relatable and connected with the main character.

Fun:  It was fun to read in the scary kind of way.

Overall:  The first chapter was almost all history and only a little bit of action.  The information though lent itself to keep the story interesting.  With a little bit of editing and some strengthening on the visuals this will make a great book.

Synopsis:  There was a World War and a world government was put in place.  A plague has broken out and affects only children around the ages of puberty.  It is always 100% fatal.  Or is it?

 Favorite line:  I was horrified to learn that my Mom and Jorjah’s Mom decided that a joint family cookout was a good idea.

Title of book: The Waters of Chaos: The Ancient Saga

Author:  Jeff Dobson

Genre:  Science Fiction

URL:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009EHR4CM

ISBN:  1480165131

Ratings: 

Readability:  The language used The Ancient Saga is easy enough to read, but the length of the paragraphs made reading a little bit of a chore. 

Hook:  The first chapter was all character and story building.  You understand what is going to happen and that the main character is going to go through a trial throughout the rest of the book, but the hook is not really there.  It does not drive me to read on.

Editing:  I found no editing issues at all

 Characters:  Osi is the main character and he has been selected as one of the chosen ones.  As a group, the un-chosen ones form another character contrary of him.  Other chosen ones were not defined so much as identified.  His father and the high priest are identified and the high priest gets a bit defined by his dialogue.

Understandable:  I found it easily understandable

Visuals:  The visuals were good in regards to the actions and scenery.  I found the characters needed a little more description.

Relatable:  It was an unfamiliar situation to me, but I did relate to Osi in being a bit of an outcast among people his own age.

Fun:  The narrative and backstory building left the chapter a little dry and without much action.

Overall:  Taking everything into account, I believe this story does have potential and may be a good read.

Synopsis:  Osi has been selected as a chosen one since a very young age and today is the day he finds out what the secrets the chosen ones know.

 Favorite line:  “We know the mysteries of how to eat and sleep and bed our women!”

Title of book: Intersection

Author:  Lee Stanford

Genre:  Science Fiction

URL:  http://www.amazon.com/Intersection-ebook/dp/B00A6BE9P0/

ISBN:  B00A6BE9P0

Ratings:

Readability:  There was only some minor difficulty in reading the chapter.  I had to re-read a couple of paragraphs to fully get their meaning.

Hook:  There was a bit of a hook to the story.  I did feel the desire to read on to find out what happened next and if they were going to be successful in their mission.

Editing:  There were only minor editing issues in the chapter.  In particular there was a sentence missing a couple of commas that made me have to go back and re-read it to determine what the meaning of the sentence was.  Also, someone grabbed two different people by “his” web gear.  There is a number conflict in that.

 Characters:  Mike was the main character and there was a little bit of character building on him and then there were numerous other characters mentioned but I found myself not knowing a lot about them other than they were hot headed and ready to seek vengeance.

Understandable:  I was able to follow everything that was going on.

Visuals:  The visuals for the chapter were well done.  Characters were described and there was good descriptions of the action sequences.

Relatable:  I did find it mostly relatable though not being in the military myself there were some things that portrayed the military life that I did not relate to.

Fun:  This was a very fun read.  It was lined with action and fighting with a purpose.

Overall:  Overall I think it will be a very enjoyable book and would be interested to find out how they defeat the alien scourge.

Synopsis:  Already coming off of a duty shift which had made a major blow to the alien invaders, Staff Sergeant Mike Rielly goes back out on a mission to secure a road for inbound tanks.  They end up fighting house to house against groups of the alien invaders laying in wait.

 Favorite line:  Despite its four mechanical legs, the alien never had a chance.

Favorite character:  Tech Sergeant Elena Santos.

Title of book: Charmed

Author:  Lindy Zart

Genre:  Fantasy

URL:  Facebook.com/LindyZart

ISBN:  B00A6X9XKE

Ratings:

Readability:  Very readable and easy to follow.

Hook:  The chapter definitely left me wanting for more.  A lot happened in the short time and I would like to know more.

Editing:  There are a couple of run-on sentences, fragments and at least one occurrence of wrong word used.

 Characters:  We are introduced to three characters, Shah, the man with the black everything, The Angel that fell from the sky and crushed her car roof just to get her attention, and the main character Taryn  Each was described well and there was good character development in Taryn and the Angel.

Understandable:  It was easy to follow everything that was going on in the story.

Visuals:  There were excellent visuals in the story.  The leaves blew in the wind regardless of the fact that Taryn ignored them and put on her dark sunglasses.  I also got a good idea of the visual actions going on in the scene.

Relatable:  I can relate to the awkward birthdays and not trusting strangers.  Thinking an Angel is hunky – not so much, but then again I am a guy.  I related more to the Angel in this case because he is more like I would want to be:  The hero of a red-head with freckles, even if she does not see me as the hero yet.

Fun:  The story was definitely fun to read and follow.

Overall:  Overall, this was a great read and I would suggest it to my friends.  There were minor editing issues but those did not detract too much from the story.

Synopsis:  A girl turns eighteen and is heading out to work.  She gets accosted by two different mysterious people and has to choose which one is less scary to go with.

 Favorite line:  Had everyone taken a spastic pill and forgot to mention it to me?

Favorite character:  The Angel.  Definitely the Angel.