The Lines We Leave Behind by Eliza Graham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars (3.5)
There are a number of things to know about The Lines We Leave Behind in advance of reading it that might help you determine if it's for you:
1) Flashbacks.
Most of the book is told in a series of flashbacks. Our narrator can only tell the parts of the story she knows (and so it may not be fulsome at times)
2) Action then nothing.
The first 60% of this book is very quick, action-packed excitement. The last 40% is poignant, about relationships and our characters. It mellows right out. If you want a fast paced book for the whole time this is likely not for you.
3) Historical Context Lacking.
I was really hoping for some good insight into WWII and how it played out in the complex and politically unstable country of Yugoslavia at the time. Unfortunately Eliza Graham barely scratches the surface of what could have been a very informative book. While we learn about some of the rival groups and how many families were divided on either side of the conflict; the reality is that reading a Wiki page would give you more context and facts than we receive here. I was very disappointed by the lack of depth to this part of the story (and that in the afterward Graham even admits to the story being almost 100% fictional).
Still Pretty Good
Now all that to say this is actually a well written book. It wasn't necessarily what I was hoping for; but that didn't stop me from loving our characters and feeling for them by the bittersweet ending. I was very invested with our leading lady, her combat friends and spy handler (for lack of a better description).
Graham handles the idea of going from a covert high-adrenaline mission to average everyday life where no one knows how amazing you might have been at one moment in your life. This is a common experience for military, police, firefighters and EMS. Plus you also add in the PTSD aspects that invade at random times and it makes "normal" life feel very unsatisfying.
Publication
The biggest disappointment I have with The Lines We Leave Behind has nothing to do with writing, characters, plot, etc. I hate that publishers today (ahem, Amazon) have 'exclusive' agreements to only have some books on their devices. I know many indie authors say that Amazon makes them the most money; but for those outside of the USA (the only country where Kindle is the top e-reader) it limits our options. I read this entirely on my iPhone because I have a Kobo, not a Kindle. But I did want to read it badly enough to suck it up. I do however worry that this limits the audience significantly.
If I can give one piece of advice to indie authors; if you must start with Amazon for your first 6 months or a year do so. But then open up your book to all platforms and stores! There's (literally) hundreds of millions of people who may want to read your book but don't have Kindle capability.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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The Astral Traveler's Daughter by K.C. Archer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This feels and reads like a typical middle or second book to a series. Nothing really happens; except that our lead gal learns more about her magical powers and time trudges on.
Cliche
I'm not necessarily opposed to cliche moments or writing; after all that is how we got genres. That said there is only so much that I can take and in the introduction to Astral Traveler's Daughter there is an overdose of cliche comments that K.C. Archer has written in. Luckily it gets better.
Again there's nothing special about this series; but it's a decent read. It's neither the best, nor the worst.
Astral Travel
It always amuses me (and slightly frustrates me) when a leading character is given HUGE amounts of warning about something (in this case astral travel) and then immediately goes and does it. Archer has made this silly moment even worse by having the person who is helping our gal get into the astral realm give the speech of warning and then say to her "ready?" Um... why would she say yes now? It's ridiculous and bugs me. At least make the person who gives the warning NOT the same person that leads her into temptation (if you will).
Defense of Friends
There is one theme that is really well done in Astral Traveler's Daughter and that is the immediate instinct we all have to defend both our friends and family. It's as though none of us want to believe that we could be friends or related to someone that is 'evil' or just does awful things. I liked the treatment Archer used to show the disbelief (even in light of a mountain of evidence) that strikes our leading lady. While it (of course) doesn't necessarily add up as expected (because what book with a mystery does); it also doesn't turn entirely innocent either.
It's a good reminder that we must all step back sometimes and consider the facts and evidence of a situation (regardless of whom is the accused) instead of acting on instinct. This goes both ways of course. It's an excellent reminder not be too hasty to condemn (Professor Snape anyone?); but also think before defending too fervently.
Overall
I didn't expect much from this second book and so my expectations were more or less met. I hope that the third book is stronger and can bring in some better plot points. While astral travel is interesting and all it makes many things much too convenient in the end. And I hate convenient only-happened-because-of-magic endings. I also did have the ending pegged somewhat early on (around page 150 of 300); but again wasn't really expecting to be surprised and so the fact that I wasn't isn't a let down so much as a nod at Archer providing us with a solidly written cliche fantasy story.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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Riwenne & the Mechanical Beasts by Kristen S. Walker
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
DNF @ 30%
I always get so excited about steampunk books and I'm always (seemingly) disappointed these days. You'd think I would learn. Is it because so many steampunk books are YA? Or because they are often written by new/debut authors? What is it about steampunk that the big three publishers are so afraid of?
In a nutshell it seems to me that there are three major problems that steampunk books have (and Riwenne & the Mechanical Beasts was no exception):
1) Believability. I'm not sure why it's so hard to make a steampunk book feel realistic. Airships work out fine but as soon as a "monster" is mechanical it seems to lose something or become awkward.
2) Intelligence. Truly smart characters seem to be a huge problem in steampunk books. It's like we need a creative author to pair up with a real engineer so that they can together write a great steampunk book. A lack of research about how things function is always lacking (and YA or not I would like machines that could in theory work please). Plus poor descriptions of mechanics makes for a very unsatisfying experience. Just like I would expect law, medicine and space to exist within our worldly parameters; I also expect machinery and engineering to be realistic and plausible at least.
3) World building. Just because you have chosen a stereotypical genre (steampunk) to set your book in doesn't mean I don't want just as much intelligent (and shown) world building as I do from fantasy. This also again goes for YA or not I expect the world building to be concise, shown (not told) and intricate but decipherable.
Edit, edit, edit
If you've ever heard the phrase "measure twice, cut once" then you may understand what I mean when I say that a book needs to be edited AT MINIMUM two major times. Once by the author themselves and once by a third party who is not worried about the author's feelings being hurt. Unfortunately Kristen S. Walker's story feels like it wasn't even edited the first time. In the opening chapter alone I couldn't numerous issues from undefined words (what is 'ordinary' in a fantasy world?), contradictory phrases ('burned with heat', say what now?), poor descriptions and explanations.
A few stand-out examples include:
"Most of the priestesses turned and glided out again. The elite in the front rows out, except for the few leaders who stayed behind."
-Yet one page before this quote we are told there are only 8 elite priestesses? So what exactly is a few and how many front rows were there? Nevermind that sentence fragment.
"When I stepped inside, lights flickered on in the ceiling. Sunstones gave off a warm glow almost as bright as natural sunlight."
- So are the sunstones the light, or is there another source of light? Would a stone flicker on? And how exactly? This entire two sentences makes my head hurt. Unfortunately the following paragraph that attempts to explain the sunstones fails miserably.
Overall
I really, really wanted to like this book. After all it does have a sassy girl (love that purple hair!) on the cover who appears to have intelligent and spunk. The blurb sounds very interesting, the world building is similar to many we've seen before but seemed like it might have its own twists later on. And yet I could barely get past the opening chapters. Yes I could have powered through a couple hundred pages of awful grammar and writing; but why?
Honestly I would love to see Walker go back to the editing room with this one. In fact at one point before I gave up I wanted to start editing and commenting at length on Riwenne & the Mechanical Beasts myself (and then realized that I do not have spare time for this unless it was a paid gig). This story has a potential future; but a lot more work needs to be done to edit, rework and reorganize it before I'd say Riwenne and her story is publication ready.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via BookSirens. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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