Book Review (Pride's Children: Purgatory by Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt)- Monday Madness

Hello my lovely Readers!

Welcome back, I hope you had a great weekend. Now prepare yourself for one of the reviews that I hate doing, but if you read my post, Reviews Rant then you know I feel I must. This book I give a one star too. This means I find it unreadable.


Pride's Children: Purgatory by Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt

All right everyone, I did not finish this book. I could not finish this book. It is 545 pages long, and it took the first page for me to realize why it was so long.

This author writes tediously long descriptions about everything. The very first 'paragraph' is one run-on sentence. I shoved on, it had to get better, right? It didn't. Sometimes I can get through drawn out descriptions, but she also had the need to prove that she had this immense vocabulary. Sometimes learning to write simple and to the point needs to happen.

I would like to clarify. I have no problem with using 'large' vocabulary, I actually think it is great. However, I do not think it needs to be used excessively. There comes a point where it is too much. In my opinion, this book hit that point and continued going. There is a beauty in simplicity and I think this author has not yet learned this.

I desperately tried  to get into a book that was given such high ratings, but I honestly could not.

As always, I think you should give it a try and give your own honest review.

That is all for now. Keep Reading!

Ta, Ta.



If at any time you think, "Hey, Astrid, you should do a post on [fill in blank]." Send me an email to penname.books@gmail.com
Are you an author? Do you want me to read your book? Send business inquiries to penname.books@gmail.com (I only do review exchanges if you make a request for me to read your book.)

Book Review (Wraith by Robert Allen Johnson)- Monday Madness

Hello my lovely readers, and welcome to another Monday Madness!

Today's review is on Wraith by Robert Allen Johnson 

In this thrilling tale, we follow two characters as they face many trials and pains. Trio is a boy, a hunter. He tracks down men from the Empire and takes their lives just as they had taken his father's life. The coin Trio receives from The Hand for these deaths is used to take care of his sister and mother.

Arch is a traveler of many places. As he and his horse make their way home they are met with a shadowy figure. This unwelcomed ghost refuses to leave Arch's side. The Darkness temps him with the possibility relieving the guilt from his past.

As you can guess from the synopsis this is a captivating story. The descriptions that Robert uses are woven together in a beautiful way. However, he gets a little bit carried away and at times over describes useless things. It is also unclear as to whom the chapters about until you get to character's name. So each chapter can either change to a different character or be the same person in the previous chapter. You have to read a paragraph or two in order to find out which person is being talked about. Then when you do figure it out you feel like you have to go back and reread because you don't remember what was said about that character. You didn't know who was being talked about and so the information didn't quite stick in your mind. At least, that is how it is for me.

Overall it is an exquisite novel and one I will be adding to my list of books I want to buy. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

That is all for today. Keep Reading!

Ta, Ta


If at any time you think, "Hey, Astrid, you should do a post on [fill in blank]." Send me an email to penname.books@gmail.com
Are you an author? Do you want me to read your book? Send business inquiries to penname.books@gmail.com (I only do review exchanges if you make a request for me to read your book.)

Book Review (Infinity Formula by Steven V.S.)- Monday Madness

I have reviewed this book before, but I did not post it here. The author made some edits and asked if I would consider giving it another look. I did and here is what I think.

The Infinity Formula by Steven VS

The Infinity Formula by Steven VS

Although you can tell that a great amount of editing took place, I still feel it could use more work. This truly has so much potential. It could easily become one of my favorites. However, as I said there has been a great amount of editing, so I will be changing the previously given three stars to four.

Some of the chapters still need more structure and some of the ideas still do not quite fit together. I did notice that most of the useless descriptions were taken out and additional information was given for things that are more necessary.  

The specific example I gave below was not only fixed but had a few things added that gave it some oomph!

*Below is my original review. The edits Steven made helped make this book much more captivating and he does deserve the bump in the star level.  

This book is good and has the potential to be great. Here is the deal, the storyline is a solid idea it is the actual writing that I feel needs help. In addition, I think the placement of ideas needs work too. The individual chapters need a little more…structure? I think that is the word I am looking for.

Often things that were completely useless were described and then we were given little to no information on more important matters (I should add I do not mean it was held back for suspense, just flat out did not describe things.) The phrasing and ideas within the book often jumped from place to place. Almost as if the author had so many good ideas, he could not decide which to put in and so he added both. I also noticed that subject pronouns were used at inappropriate times making it difficult to understand exactly who he was talking about. For example, this is taken from the beginning of the book (it is from the second chapter, not a spoiler).

“The gunshot rang.

Lily…

He pushed her to the ground, covering her. He was shouting at him, but he couldn’t hear, the crowd had erupted into a frenzy…”

Someone, please tell me who was shouting at whom? Even if the author meant to say she instead of he that still shows the need for some more editing. Anyway, as you can tell from that little blurb it really is an action packed book. I honestly would like to see this book worked on more and republished as it really has so much to work with.

That is my honest opinion.

As always, keep reading.

Ta, ta

If at any time you think, "Hey, Astrid, you should do a post on [fill in blank]." Send me an email to penname.books@gmail.com
Are you an author? Do you want me to read your book? Send business inquiries to penname.books@gmail.com (I only do review exchanges if you make a request for me to read your book.)