Book: In the House of Five Dragons by Erica Lundquist

In the House of Five Dragons by Erica Lindquist

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The first quarter of this book absolutely crawled for me, and I considered more than once just giving up. In the end I'm glad I didn't.

This is more fantasy than scifi in case that's important to you.

Things I loved:
the twin worlds concept, and the fact that what is matter of fact in one world is magic in the other; the understated romance over the last three-quarters of the book; character growth for multiple characters; a couple of twists I wasn't expecting; the way the girl learned to understand what Rikard was saying, and used that knowledge to help him appear less "mad" during public appearances; who the Crest turned out to be; the odd mishmash of modern and medieval sensibilities; Rikard's journey to make his society honorable again, the way nothing was easy for Rikard, especially when I expected it to be; the action sequences.

Things I didn't love:
the first quarter of the book; the weird ways names changed depending on whether one was talking about a place, a nation, or a person from that nation; the ending (not that it was a bad ending, just that I wanted a bit more about the main characters and how their lives had changed rather than about the son) - I understood it was written that way to create a bookend feeling with the opening, but though it was a perfectly good sequence, it didn't tell me what I wanted to know about how the part of the story I cared about ended; the unveiling of the Crest's identity; that we only got to know two characters from Alterra.

When I read some of the stuff in the last few pages of the book, it became clearer to me why the first quarter of the book was so boring to me: it was setting up a roleplaying universe. For some people all that information would be fascinating. For me, it was as boring as D&D is in person. Yes. I'd rather play solitaire in the dark with actual cards.

And on a personal note, I was predisposed to dislike the son, named Gaius, because that character on BSG is far from my favorite. James Callis is a superb actor, and it's a testament to his acting that I dislike Gaius Baltar so thoroughly. Some names are just ruined forever, though. lol



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Book: A SEAL's Salvation by Tawny Weber

I won't rehash the plot - you can get that from the blurb. 

I loved the way this started - teenage Genna's hesitant attempts at seducing Brody on a dare. She'd been crushing on him anyway, and took this opportunity to make herself do something she'd been afraid to do. Brody took her unskilled attempts and ran with them, until her father showed up. To me, this was a pretty empowering first experience for a girl, even if they never got to third base. 

Fast-forward ten years, and Genna writes Brody to let him know that her brother has died. Brody's pithy single line response to her letter shakes her out of her personal and professional doldrums and reignites her feelings for him. Their correspondence before his return home on convalescent leave were both funny and hot.

There were great insights into what might make a man, particularly a SEAL, feel like a failure, and the way Genna came up with to make the hometown heroes parade okay for Brody was really touching.. 

I really enjoyed Genna's coping mechanism - incessant baking - and loved that Brody's friendship enabled her to take the first step in making that into the vocation she'd always wanted.

Genna and Brody are two characters I wouldn't mind revisiting several years into the future, when they're facing another obstacle and have to find their way back to the core of their relationship.

I wasn't entirely convinced of the sudden turnaround of Genna's parents, but that was a very small oddity in an otherwise really good book.

There were a few typos and the formatting was a bit wonky in places. I did keep reading Genna as Gemma, probably because I'd never seen Genna spelled that particular way, but that was my thing, not the author's.

I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley for the purposes of review.

A SEAL's Salvation is available for pre-order on Amazon.

Movie: Conan the Barbarian

I knew if I waited long enough, Amazon would put Conan on Prime's watch-for-free list.  It wasn't terrible, either.

So, I watched it, basically for Jason Momoa.  I loved him in Stargate: Atlantis, and though his part in Game of Thrones was very small, I liked him fine there, too.  The actress playing Tamara has the most amazingly pale blue eyes I've ever seen.  In one scene, they almost look white, they're so pale.  Stunning.

Pros: Conan, at both ages, is pretty.  Tamara is pretty.  There are many naked breasts in one scene that are pretty.  The fights, however unrealistic, are pretty.  His friend, the thief King, is pretty.  In the love scene and aftermath, both Conan and Tamara are very pretty (though the actress has a body double, so presumably it's the double's body that's pretty).  As you can tell, this was all about the pretty.  lol

Cons:  The movie as a whole was mediocre, at best.  The script maybe had good bones, but whoever didn't make any inspired choices in translating that script into film.  I had no idea it was possible to make Rose McGowan unattractive, but they managed.  The end was kind of non-endy.

Also, lest people continue to think that watching TV is not educational, while I was watching the credits, I was able to tell the gender of many of the film's Slavic workers.  If the name ended with ev, ov, av (not too many of those), then I knew that person was male.  If it ended eva, ova, ava, then that person was female.  Where did I learn that?  Babylon 5, maybe?  JAG?  I don't even remember, just that it stuck in my head.  Another useless bit of trivia for that trip to Eastern Europe that will never happen.  :)

Was that barbarian/King played by the same guy who was the head dude on Terra Nova?  I'll have to look that up, if I remember long enough. 

Anyway, it wasn't a waste of my time, but I doubt I'll be watching it again.  If they got a different director, I might even watch a sequel, though I would not pay to watch at a movie house.  I hear tell they're making another Conan movie with Arnold back as Conan.  I can guarantee I won't be watching that one. 

Movie: Conan the Barbarian

I knew if I waited long enough, Amazon would put Conan on Prime's watch-for-free list.  It wasn't terrible, either.

So, I watched it, basically for Jason Momoa.  I loved him in Stargate: Atlantis, and though his part in Game of Thrones was very small, I liked him fine there, too.  The actress playing Tamara has the most amazingly pale blue eyes I've ever seen.  In one scene, they almost look white, they're so pale.  Stunning.

Pros: Conan, at both ages, is pretty.  Tamara is pretty.  There are many naked breasts in one scene that are pretty.  The fights, however unrealistic, are pretty.  His friend, the thief King, is pretty.  In the love scene and aftermath, both Conan and Tamara are very pretty (though the actress has a body double, so presumably it's the double's body that's pretty).  As you can tell, this was all about the pretty.  lol

Cons:  The movie as a whole was mediocre, at best.  The script maybe had good bones, but whoever didn't make any inspired choices in translating that script into film.  I had no idea it was possible to make Rose McGowan unattractive, but they managed.  The end was kind of non-endy.

Also, lest people continue to think that watching TV is not educational, while I was watching the credits, I was able to tell the gender of many of the film's Slavic workers.  If the name ended with ev, ov, av (not too many of those), then I knew that person was male.  If it ended eva, ova, ava, then that person was female.  Where did I learn that?  Babylon 5, maybe?  JAG?  I don't even remember, just that it stuck in my head.  Another useless bit of trivia for that trip to Eastern Europe that will never happen.  :)

Was that barbarian/King played by the same guy who was the head dude on Terra Nova?  I'll have to look that up, if I remember long enough. 

Anyway, it wasn't a waste of my time, but I doubt I'll be watching it again.  If they got a different director, I might even watch a sequel, though I would not pay to watch at a movie house.  I hear tell they're making another Conan movie with Arnold back as Conan.  I can guarantee I won't be watching that one.

Little bit of self-promotion

This is as good a time as any to remind you that if you're going to shop Amazon, I would deeply appreciate you going through one of my links, so that I make a wee bit of money from it.  (really wee, like 4%)

Thank you ever so much.

Book Review: Sold (The Auction) by Cheyenne McCray

Though I enjoyed reading it enough, it wasn't really anything special. There were about half a dozen grammar errors, mostly relating to tense, and in such a short work, those errors stood out more than they otherwise would have.

The auction to which the title refers was over fairly quickly, and the weekend at a resort which couples won was never referred to again. Too bad. It could have made for some intriguing situations.

Once the couple hooked up, there was too much time spent describing the toys and paraphernalia and his dungeon, and a lot of time on the female lead's intellectual responses, but hardly any time spent on how he was reacting, and very little time spent on actual sex. If I recall correctly, there are in reality only two sex scenes in the entire book, and most of both of them is spent talking about the toys and how gladly she is submitting to his will. I like to read about kink as much as anyone else, but this wasn't really very well done. I like to know that both people are enjoying the foreplay and the sex.

There's not really much buildup to the relationship, and the end of the story feels kind of tacked on, as if she'd run out of toys to describe and needed to end the book gracefully.

Someone else mentioned that this story was only good for eliciting a physical reaction. I didn't even get that much out of it. It really was an interesting concept/premise, one I wish the author had taken more time to explore.

This one was an Amazon freebie at the time I got it.

Book: Primal by Raven and Lain Bower

I'm going to point you at J. Westfall's review because s/he said pretty much what I think about this book.

http://www.amazon.com/review/RXNAAQQ9TJ0L/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B0081C6CLK&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=

In the beginning the poor writing, bad grammar and worse editing were not quite as apparent. As the book wore on, it all got worse. I was pretty much ignoring all that and was interested in the premise of the book, which was that of a person in Witness Protection who actually had some knowledge of paranormal creatures. It could have been really fascinating. Then, bam! The next chapter didn't have Wrey (previously known as Maria) and Arvon in it, but some other characters, apparently a bunch of thugs in the Rekin, some kind of mafioso.

It was evident to me from the first paragraph that this chapter had been written by a completely different person; wording, pacing, even editing were all of significantly less quality than what I'd read previously. Aside from that, it was boring. I took to skimming those sections and only reading the sections with Wrey and Arvon in them. By the end of the book, the better-written sections became not noticeably different from the thug sections in quality, and I kept forcing myself to keep reading. Not even the sex redeemed the story.

I was disappointed at the spot in the plot where the author(s) chose to end the book. It's definitely not the end of the story for Wrey or Arvon. Unfortunately for the authors, I don't give a crap. Unfortunately for the publishing house, I didn't bother reading or skimming any of the previews they stuck in the last 30% of the book.      

This was a freebie at Amazon (not any longer) and I just can't recommend it to anyone.

App Review: Random Mahjong

I found this accidentally while I was on Amazon searching for something else. I actually downloaded it through my Android phone, though I've since removed it and re-downloaded it onto my Kindle Fire.

The colors are vibrant, with pretty backgrounds and several different choices of tiles. The board moves as I remove tiles, making the remaining tiles bigger and easier to see and match up. The only downside I've found is that if I get down to the last tiles and can't remove them, the board reloads exactly as it was and I get to try again. I'd rather it shuffle the tiles and give me a new chance. However, that is a very small nitpick and most definitely has not kept me from playing the game late into the night when I'm supposed to be charging my phone. lol

The ad bar across the bottom is barely noticeable, and hasn't distracted me at all from playing.Random Mahjong

Booklet: Cradle Robber by Jessica Reve

This story was so poorly edited that I can't even tell you if it had a good premise. It was so poorly edited, in fact, that it wasn't the least bit erotic. In addition to that, it was *extremely* short, taking me maybe five minutes to read from beginning to end. Punctuation was barely an afterthought, and spelling and grammar were atrocious.

I noticed when looking it up to write the review that there are two more parts. I'm not even remotely interested in reading them, even if they're free. This author seriously needs a beta reader, at the very least.

Book: Amulet by S. Wolf

While this was not the best story I've ever read, it was a pretty darn good one. Jason was well-explored, though some of the secondary and tertiary characters were rather flat. I would have liked a little more story before Jason chose to share the secret of the Amulet, but that's just personal preference.

Jason is an 18-year-old senior in high school, who saves somebody's life and gets an unexpected reward. What he does with the reward is, as Paul Harvey used to say, "...the rest of the story."

The story could have devolved almost in porn, but Wolf took Jason on a little journey of discovery. There are definitely sexually explicit scenes in the book, and they are plentiful, but none of them were more than mildly beyond vanilla, even in description.

I liked that Jason was a more than a little nerdy, fairly typical high school boy. He was in lust with a Hot Chick, he had at least one good friend who'd been with him through good and bad, and he was pretty comfortable in his own skin as he knew it. Jason used the secret of the Amulet to create opportunities to spy on several people. Rather than being a Peeping Tom who gets off on his spying (though he does, just not on the spot), Jason observes with curiosity and interest - he uses these occurrences to learn something, about himself, about sex in general, about other people. Ultimately, he uses the secret of the Amulet to again attempt to save someone from harm.

Wolf has written a sequel to Amulet, with the same small circle of friends, and if it were within my budget, I'd look forward to reading it. :)  


Edited to add:  S. Wolf contacted me through one of my websites to offer me a coupon to read the sequel free.  It's reviewed separately.

Book: Moonlight In a Pickup Truck by Serena Zane

I'm a sucker for a good friends to lovers story, and this could have been that.

The writing was in the style of a student with an assignment - run-on sentences, misplaced commas (mostly just missing), and much more tell than show, though I don't recall any spelling errors. It was very stream-of-consciousness, from the point of view of the HS sophomore girl having a last little bit of time before her good male friend goes off to the Navy. (On a side note, mmmm, love a man in uniform. lol)

By the girl's own admission, she had been pretending to be his friend the entire time, because she didn't want him to know she was in love with him. I get that, but the way it was written, it seemed as if she really wasn't his friend in any way, and that made the transition a bit more difficult to swallow.

I was disappointed that the girl was portrayed as knowing she shouldn't have been driving because she'd drunk too much, but doing it anyway in the hopes of getting into the guy's pants. Mom grounding her could have been the least of her worries!

Extremely short.  Worth a shot for you, maybe.

Book: Holding Out For a Hero by HelenKay Dimon

Holding Out For a Hero had been on my To Read list for well over a year, so when I found it at the local library, I was really looking forward to reading it.

What a disappointment. The plot held promise, but failed to deliver to my satisfaction.

The heroine was bland and boring, though seriously annoying. Should I ever have the misfortune to have someone like her in my personal life, I plan to run, not walk, the other way, and possibly file stalking charges. Really. She hired the man to investigate, then hired someone else to shadow him, so she would always know where he was and she could show up anywhere, including at a friend's house when he was having dinner.

Chemistry between the romantic couple was more fizzle than sizzle. The love scenes were a bit like reading the Wall Street Journal - that is, tedious. About 60% through the book (the first love scene was at about 55%), I started skimming pages and fully reading every third or fourth page. I'm pretty sure I didn't miss anything important.

There were few or no noticeable grammar errors, so at least it had that going for it. I don't plan on reading another HelenKay Dimon book anytime soon, though, even so.

Book: Dark of Night by Suzanne Brockmann

I will confess to being out of reach of a library for a little over a year, so haven't read any of the last few Troubleshooters books. Thus, I have none of the complaints that many of the one-star reviewers have. Other than the already established couples growing relationship-wise, I'm not attached to "super-couples." Watching soaps in the 80s and 90s cured me of that. lol

I was a little confused at the beginning. When I started reading chapter one, it took me a minute to realize that the entire prologue was a dream/escape for Dave. I've been there - had a need to have some elaborate world to go to in order to keep from giving up, so I understood it once I realized that's what it was. However, the segue there was not as smooth as I would have expected.

There were several times while reading that I had to click back to the previous chapter or scene with certain characters to refresh my memory on what was happening when I "turned the page." I like the alternating scenes and multiple locations, I just thought some of the transitions were so long that I couldn't keep straight what was happening where. Maybe I'm getting old.

I felt the Robin-into-rehab story was a little too pat. Those Troubleshooters are smart enough to have come up with a better story than that to explain Robin's sudden disappearance from a movie shoot. Him needing to withdraw from the public eye happens often enough. Homicidal stalker, perhaps? Severe food poisoning?

There was more tell in this book than I thought was necessary, and I inferred that it was there for newcomers to the Troubleshooters series, but some of it could easily have been edited out. Several times, characters explained things to each other for the audience's benefit. I guess if this is the first book you're reading about SEALs or government operatives, you need it, but I thought much of that was also unnecessarily telly rather than showy.

On the other hand, I laughed out loud (in a good way) more than a few times while reading Dark of Night. There were at least half a dozen occasions where I wanted to highlight and share something from the book with friends, though I only ended up sharing one.

What I found in Dark of Night were characters who took some good, hard looks at themselves and came to some difficult realizations about their personal quirks and their interactions with others. In that respect, this book was a joy to read. Characters I've grown to love begin to behave in ways that are not in keeping with the mask they've presented to others, even to others very close to them, even the mask they presented to themselves. Sometimes one learns things about oneself that are extremely uncomfortable and hard to integrate. I empathized with Decker's struggle. I did feel that his acceptance of it, after all that, was a bit rushed, but I guess there's only so much room in a book.

I loved that nearly everybody had a chance to step up to the plate and show some wisdom or strength of character. Oddball things from the past would create opportunities to showcase smarts that aren't necessarily visible on the surface. Tracy and Sophia, in particular, have obviously been heavily underestimated by both their teammates and by long-time Troubleshooters readers. Neither is as fragile as others have made her out to be.

Near as I can tell, everybody on the two teams has a Happily Ever After now, though I personally would quite gladly read more about these characters ongoing struggles and growth, even without the main romantic couple thing that has been Brockmann's stock in trade. I'm planning to reread the entire series in one go at some point, and this one will most definitely be included.  (And there's another story about Jules and Robin coming out this summer!)

Book: Palatino's Pets by Ernie Centofanti

First, the book was a wee bit disjointed storywise. I feel like there could have been a better way to weave together the origin of the artifact and its subsequent life on Earth. I might enjoy reading more about the visitors, should Mr. Centofanti's muse cooperate in that endeavor. (How I wish that Amazon would put the title and author's name on the review page in big old letters for reference purposes!)

I found it a bit unbelievable that a woman (human, for that matter, regardless of gender) found this artifact and just figured it out by messing around with it. At that point, I just suspended my disbelief and read on. Obviously, as I never even finished college, I have no way of knowing how accurate the science of quantum physics was. I liked the bits of Dr. Edison's research notes interspersed into the story at various times. It might have been telling rather than showing, but her notes made the telling entertaining.

I inferred from the cover that there would be some sexual misconduct, to put it lightly, on the part of the villain. There was, but frankly it was mild and didn't live up to my expectations. All the bad stuff basically happened off-camera and was referred to only vaguely. Palatino's depravity could have been demonstrated to greater effect were some of those things actually spelled out "on paper." Perhaps that is just me - I respect that others will read this and find it horrifying enough as is.

Palatino was an absorbing antagonist, though his devolution was much too fast for me. I felt like the man I had gotten to know throughout the book would have responded to the obstacles in his path more intellectually rather than emotionally.

I did find about two dozen mistakes, though I'm sorry, Mr. C, I didn't note them individually so that I could send them to you. Had the note about errata been in the front of the book, I would gladly have done so for your benefit and the benefit of other readers.

All things considered, I found the book to be pleasing enough that I ran the battery on my Kindle down to nothing and had to go do those other things I should have been doing in the first place. lol

Book: Storm Warning by Kadi Dillon

I enjoyed this book a great deal. It has a good plotline and interesting characters.

However, it desperately needed an editor! Homophone errors were in abundance - waste for waist, for one example. In one instance, the author used the word immersed in a sentence where a female character came out of her hotel room for the first time in four days - she immersed from her room rather than emerging from it. These errors piled up more and more heavily in the second half of the book and became infinitely more distracting.

Despite these issues, I did finish the book, and like I mentioned earlier, I enjoyed reading it. If the author can find a competent editor, I'd love to read more about several of the secondary characters.

Book: Flotilla by Daniel Haight

The story of Jim and this part of his journey to manhood kept me reading until the end. What I read was a great story, with some caveats.

On the plus side, great characterization, and the descriptions of the Colony were well-done enough that I could visualize something I never actually knew existed. Jim was a typical teenage boy - drinking, rebellion, thinking about sex, love for his sister, frustration with his parents - very easy to get into his head and remember how things used to be for me. And the "I don't know why I drink" part was spot-on. An addict really can't answer that question, particularly one who *knows* that what he's doing is bad for him, doesn't want to do it, but does it anyway. Why did you do that? I don't know is a valid answer, not a copout, for some, and it worked very well in this case.

There were some inconsistencies, though. It looked to me as if the story had originally partly been written in third-person, and not all the third-person was removed. There were over a dozen places where editing had obviously been done, but not completed - extra words were still in the sentences, words with the wrong tense or wrong point of view were still in place, things like that. Within a couple of chapters, Madison was described as being ten, eleven and then eight. This definitely should have been caught by any competent editor. Jim was allegedly fourteen in the second summer (though he was described as being fifteen more than once), which is When Things Happened. However, he was scared spitless of being drafted, even though he was under the age (stated as older than fifteen) at which he would need to worry. It made that particular part of the book ring falsely for me, even though the action was fantastic.

My final and biggest complaint is that the story just ended. The escape reached a certain point where Jim could relax a little bit and gear up for the rest of his journey north, and I put my finger on the right-hand side of my Kindle page and nothing. I poked at the darn Kindle five or six times before I realized the book was just done. There was no epilogue. There was no warning. There was no wind-down. Just the current location, as is at the end of every chapter, and then nothing.

To Haight's credit, none of these things kept me from finishing the book. I *wanted* to keep reading about Jim and his adventures. Imagine how marvelous it would have been without these problems!

Book: Guardian by Elita Daniels

The blurb talks about secrets being revealed by a guardian. I read to 93%, then skimmed the rest. At 93%, there were still no secrets revealed. This was a bunch of disjointed snippets put together. Sometimes the pieces made sense and sometimes they didn't. I'm still trying to figure out what this book was. It wasn't terrible, it was just pointless. Though Anna felt passion of various kinds, I never felt them with her. The words were just words, words that didn't convey any real meaning to me as the reader. She was in love with somebody, but I never understood why or really anything about her. I never cared about her or her well-being.

Grammar and spelling were good. Book was well-edited.

I'm not sorry to have skimmed the remaining 7% of the book, and I have zero interest in any other books by this author. Your mileage may vary.

Book: Glass Houses by Stella Cameron

I really wanted to like this book. I mean, it's Stella Cameron, right? To be fair, this was published twelve or so years ago, so this Kindle edition is just a reprint of a previously published book.

Perhaps most problematic for me (yes, I'm one of *those* people) was the bad formatting. Indentations in the middle of paragraphs, a systematic removal of periods at the ends of sentences, a lack of quotation marks where they were needed, and the occasional misused word. For me, all these factors together made this book difficult to read, and I felt let down to read a Stella Cameron story I didn't enjoy.

There are two main characters: Aiden, a New York City detective, and Olivia, an introverted British photographer. At first, the scenes written from the two points of view were properly separated. Around chapter two, the Americanisms and the Britishisms started running together, and sometimes Aiden thought in Britishisms and sometimes Olivia thought in Americanisms. This became unduly distracting.

Dialogue between Aiden and Olivia was sometimes stilted and awkward, and sometimes Olivia was uncharacteristically forceful or aggressive. In a scene toward the end of the book, Olivia's behavior was consistent with the growth of the character, and I cheered her on.

Olivia's parents were completely extraneous and could have been left out of the book entirely, except as references Olivia made in conversation. Otherwise, they should have been fleshed out more. Instead, they were tragically unfunny clueless parents that wasted a chapter of my time. Conversely, Boswell, a somewhat minor character, was the most appealing character in the entire book, and his unwavering fealty to his core self was a joy to read.

I knew how the bad guys were keeping tabs on Aiden and Olivia less than halfway through. I did not guess the logistics or the why, but I most definitely knew who. I was sometimes distracted trying to figure out why this person would betray them in this way, and that distraction took away from my immersion in the story as it unfolded.

Bottom line - the core story is good, but overall I had to try too hard to enjoy reading it. Your mileage may vary.

Movie: Fast Five

This was complete and utter escapist fantasy!

It didn't matter that parts of the plot were completely unbelievable. It didn't even matter that there were no captions.

The parts of the scenery that featured the ocean and the countryside surrounding Rio were breathtaking! Made me totally want to visit and see the ocean. Guess that's going on my bucket list. lol

I admit being shallow enough to *totally* enjoy the fight between Johnson and Diesel. I'm sure it was choreographed all to hell, and yet it looked like they were having so much fun with each other.

Yes, I finished high school. Yes, I'm older than twelve. Yes, I'm even a girl. Yes, I just adored this movie. Not everything has to be a high-brow cinematic masterpiece.

Book: Bloody Freak by Emily Barker

Bloody Freak is the first in what is purported to be a series (note: there are at least three other books, as I've downloaded them to my Kindle). I've already gotten the second one and may make myself read it, since I can hope it's edited more professionally than this one.

Though the story has good bones, that's overshadowed, for me anyway, by the poor editing job. I'm pretty sure it was just run through a spellcheck, rather than having any actual editing done. I still have hope, but honestly, the editing has gotten worse since I started reading, rather than better.

There is a sexual situation early in the book, and then again in the last few pages of the book. The earlier one was much more graphic, and frankly, both were gratuitous to the storyline. The denouement wasn't exactly - there was just a speech by one character that basically wrapped everything up in a pretty bow just when things were getting interesting. The conflict I was expecting, even hoping for, did not materialize, and having it would have made the book much better.

There are sentence fragments, misused and misspelled words, a lack of commas where commas are sorely needed, and no apostrophes in possessives. Some examples: discrete instead of discreet; whose instead of who's; passed instead of past; conscience instead of conscious; conflictions instead of convictions (I'm not sure on that one, because conflictions isn't even a word.); everyday instead of every day; into instead of in to; went instead of gone; your instead of you're; queue instead of cue, rights instead of rites. Mistakes are not few and far between - they are on nearly every page, and frequently, there are several on each page.

I see the possibility of a pretty good storyteller here in this book, and hope that Ms. Barker will find herself a good editor or two and keep getting better.