Book Notes: July 27, 2022 - Books I Took a Chance On

 Welcome back to another round of book reviews! I'm happy to have you here today. It's good to branch out every now and again and try a new author or a new genre, just to see what's out there, and what's passing for literature these days. So I took a chance on these two books. One is a romance, the other, a historical speculative fiction fantasy (if I had to guess).  Let's get to those reviews!

Book Review: Loving Luke (Stone's Crossing book 1) by Jenny Anderson

Loving Luke by Jenny Andersen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Good, but...

The basic plot of the story was good. I also liked the MCs and other characters. A couple of the scenes were not really believable, so that took off star points. There were some editing comments left in the book that really threw me out of the story, as well as a couple odd words and just plain not-correct words.
For those who mind, there are sex scenes and cussing in this story. They weren't overly included and seemed to fit the characters, as well as the situations. I think I got this book through an email promotion. I hadn't read anything from the author before. I took a chance. I won't be reading it again, and I'll skip others by this author since I prefer clean reads. But if what bothered me isn't a problem for you, then you might enjoy this one.

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Book Review: In the Empty Quarter by G. Willow Wilson

In the Empty Quarter by G. Willow Wilson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Interesting and Different

This short story wasn't like most of the stories I read. I was actually pretty skeptical about whether I'd enjoy it. Surprisingly, I did. It wasn't the awful attitude of the bored wife, or the unhappy disinterest of her husband, or the suave work colleague which drew me. But the execution of the story was extremely well done in my opinion. I found the scenery so descriptive, it was like breathing to enter the place. If you're looking for a short story which is well-written, then give it a try.

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To be fair, I wrote the above review while we were traveling to visit my grandmother. We were almost there and I was in a hurry. So I'd re-word a portion to say it was as easy as breathing to get into the story. 

I saw some negative reviews and I understand what those readers were getting at. But, if you take this book as simply one person's imagination, then I think it's much easier to appreciate what the author has created here. 

Clean factor was met for me, which means there were no sex scenes, little-to-no cussing (I can't remember so it can't have been much. If it was there, it probably fit so well, I didn't even notice.), and the violence was at an appropriate level for the type of story. 

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope you see something which interests you. If you've read these books, what did you think about them? If not, would you try one of them? Let me know in the comments below. 

I hope you'll come back Friday to see how the edit of Surge is coming along, as well as where my Camp Nano stats sit. I should also have another kitten video to share with you. I never was able to get one editing and uploaded for last week, though I did have one ready to work on. Life has been...busy, and I'm trying to get out more rather than stay stuck on my phone or computer most of the day. You know what I mean? So I hope you'll come back to see what's been happening on my author journey. Until then...

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