Tag Archives: KDP

Claimed

Book Review of C.C. Coats’ Claimed

Leave a reply

Claimed

I grabbed C.C. Coats’ novel, Claimed, off of the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
Earth is over populated. Leo’Nya Zesiro is one of the pilots charged with finding and cataloging new “housing options”. Life is lovely, at least until her vessel is attacked and she finds herself stranded on a newly discovered, un-cataloged planet. On a planet where males out number females 1-7.

Erol knows from the beginning that Leo’Nya is the female he’s been waiting for… now he has to keep her from leaving until she realizes it. Leo finds the beauty and peace she’s always longed for, but there are hidden dangers on Nur. The men might do all the cooking, but they also tend to steal you, that is if they can kill your current owner. If she can stay alive, she might just make it home in one piece. At least if she can manage not to fall in love with the caveman who’s trying to keeper her.

Review:
The plot line of this book could have easily travelled into dangerous and distasteful gang bang territory. I’ll say upfront that it doesn’t. It doesn’t even spend all that much time in the realm of the unpleasant. Yes, Leo’Nya Zesiro finds herself claimed, or kidnapped, more than once. Yes, not all of those kidnappers are nice people…aliens…whatever. And yes, even the kindhearted, noble men are incredibly chauvinistic. It’s a cultural thing. But the primary thrust of the book is about one man’s incredible love (OK, and lust) for one woman and the lengths he would go to in order to gain her love in return (OK, even if that means forcing it in return). It’s sweet, really…and steamy. There is lots of steamy.

Leo is a strong-willed heroine, without going overboard into suicidally obstinate. I’ve seen a lot of such women in the PNR genre, women who simply protest too much instead of seeing to their own self-preservation. I liked this about Leo. I also liked that she was willing to acknowledge her own torn emotions. Erol was simply wonderful. He did seem utterly unable to consider that as an off-worlder Leo wouldn’t know of, let alone instantly acquiesce, to his way of doing things. But even as he failed to explain her situation to her he also gave his absolute all to honestly protect and please her. Who can’t appreciate that? I also liked the way his species ‘phased’ into utter badass predators. It was kinda like taking the whole alpha things one step further. Though predominantly side characters I loved Avi and her crew, as well as Erol’s brothers to a lesser extent.

I know that a 2nd book, Bound, is due out later this year and that’s a good thing. Rather than being focused solely on Leo and Erol’s blooming romance this book also included quite a bit of planetary politics and minor characters whose presence seemed to serve no purpose to the current story. My guess is that they are important to a bigger storyline yet to come. It’s a little dissatisfying to finish a book and not know how some of the thread tie off in the end, so I’m glad to know there is more to come. All in all I was pleased. The text could do with another pass with the editorial brush, but as I enjoyed the book I was willing to overlook the errors.

Book Review of Valerie Zambito’s Island Shifters

Leave a reply

The Island ShiftersSome time ago, I missed out on a chance to win a copy of  Valerie Zambito‘s fantasy novel, Island Shifters – An Oath of the Blood (Island Shifters #1), in Mysti Parker‘s 20K hit Giveaway. Lucky for me, Mrs. Zambito is a generous woman and offered to send me a copy. As I write this post, Island Shifters also happens to be free at Amazon.

Description from Goodreads:
Heroes are born not made. 

The idyllic lives of four young shifters living in the exiled land of Pyraan are shattered when a tour of legion duty gives witness to a brutal enemy invasion. Born with magical prowess none has seen in over three hundred years, the friends become pivotal in a race against time to save a people they hardly know, but are sworn to protect. 

The journey exacts a terrible price from Beck, Kiernan, Rogan and Airron as they battle demons, both real and personal, to save the Island of Massa. But, whatever the chances, the shifters will fight.

The blood oath will have it no other way.

Review:
I initially had this marked as YA, probably based on the cover and the description of the heroes and heroine as ‘young.’ As a result, I drug my feet about reading it. I just didn’t know if I could take another angsty teenage drama. I’m beginning to think I might have to admit that I’ve finally outgrown them.

To my delight, it isn’t YA at all. In fact, it includes some fairly explicit sexual innuendo. Luckily, the story doesn’t fall victim to the painfully common sexy, simpering slave-girl trope. What Mrs. Zambito does is far more varied and insidious and, therefore, realistic. I’m not complaining. I like it. I don’t mean that I got any sort of sadist joy out of it, but it is unrealistic to think that truly evil people would just happen to be evil in every realm except for the interpersonal. It also allows for an interesting foray into different types of power. I’m probably making more of it than I need to. It is a very small part of the book, after all. But it was so unexpected that I can’t help but mention it.

The book’s strengths are definitely in the world-building and love the main characters both carry for each other and garner from those around them. Despite the heavy task before them, the book has a definite ‘feel-good’ quality to it. It feels downright sappy at times, in a good way. I did have a little trouble with the lack of contractions. Now, I’ll grant you there isn’t really any reason that people from another world would talk just like us, but it gave everything a formal feel that didn’t seem natural to me. Despite that, Island Shifters is an enjoyable example of the indomitable power of the human (or elven or dwarfian) spirit to persevere and of good triumphing over evil. I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity to read it.

Up for discussion: How I choose a free KDP book…or not.

6 Replies

imagesAs a reader I love Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing program. Almost everyday I scour the free book list (which in my case is eReaderIQ, but there are plenty of other aggregate sites out there). I’m  looking for new and interesting reads. I’m what you might call a power downloader…actually, I have been called a power downloader. (Yea, that was you Harv*.) As such, I’ve learned a few things about my own behaviour. I’m not claiming universality here. There isn’t any thing to say everyone does the same as me, but I thought it might be helpful to those authors who are putting their work up for free to know what a reader, if not all readers, is doing when looking at it.  I thought you might also like to know what is helpful or not. Honestly, I’ll admit to secretly hoping the everyone takes my advice as law and the whole system becomes my perfect whole. OK, I’m not holding my breath on that or anything.

Here are the things I deem worth mentioning, in no particular order:

no_image_120

Not cool.

A good cover is key, but it has to be a real cover. A cool picture doesn’t cut it. Here is an example of what I mean: Last Hope. Nice picture, but not a cover (sorry Ms. Gardner). Everyday I look through hundreds of books, but I don’t have hours and hours to do this. So I scroll through the list looking for interesting covers. If one catches my attention I’ll read the description. Actually that’s not quite right. First I’ll glance at the listed genre to see if it’s one I’m interested in and then I’ll read the description. So it helps if all of the relevant genre/sub-genre etc are listed.

The book description makes or breaks my ‘sale’ but I’ve come across a few annoyances that effect my choice to grab a book or not. First off, this section is for a synopsis of the story, not for praise of the book. I read reviews for that. It really really isn’t a place for so much praise the reader can’t find a description of the book. This has actually become a pet peeve of mine. I’ll pass a book up on principle if I have to work too hard to find out what it’s about. Here is an example: HeartsBlood (sorry Ms. McCray). Someone tell me what that book is about. I actually suspect that certain publishers are more guilty of this than authors, but there it is all the same.

Second, I never have figured out why people think that just because it’s an ebook, and there isn’t a physical back-of-the-book to fit their synopsis on that they can write an essay here. Take a look at any one of my reviews and you’ll see that I often include the synopsis for readers. It annoys me to no end if that synopsis is more than a paragraph or two long. If it’s longer than my review is I’m likely to trim it, but then I feel guilty for altering the author’s work. I don’t need or want a breakdown of the plot. It ruins the story. Just a basic blurb and teaser is enough. KISS after all.

I read reviews, good bad and otherwise. If a book is a maybe, having a few reviews makes all the difference to me. I’ll take more of a chance on something that has obviously been read by others, even if they left bad reviews. Bad reviews don’t always put me off. Well, they will if the main gripe of the reviewer is poor grammar and editing, but if someone just didn’t like the story my interest is piqued. It’s almost a challenge to see if I agree or not. The point here is two-fold, don’t mourn over poor reviews, but it behooves you not to put the book up for KDP until you have a few stars under the title. 

goodreadsIt helps me if your book is on Goodreads. I get that this one is almost certainly not a universal. I have roughly 2000 books on my ereader. There isn’t any easy way to keep track of them, but I’ve found the GR shelves very helpful. When I go through eReaderIQ I keep a GR tab open at the same time and do this: click ‘buy now with 1-click’, copy the title, go to the GR tab, paste it in and mark it as to-read/lendable or not. If the book isn’t there I sometimes will add it, but that’s a lot of trouble and I have passed up books just because I can’t be bothered. (If you haven’t discovered GR as an author yet, shame on you. It is one of your best online resources for reviews.)

Familiarity increases the likelihood that I’ll download a book. This is one of those vague tricks of the mind that I don’t really understand, but I know that if I’ve seen a book ‘around’ I’m more likely to grab it. So, I guess all of those blog tours, giveaways, cover reveals, etc do make a difference somewhere. 

If a book is part of a series it is helpful to know this. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s in the title, description or just prominent on the cover. But if I download a book only to then discover it is book four in a series and I don’t have book 1-3 I’m unlikely to ever actually read it. I especially like it when all the books go free at the same time but that’s asking a lot, I know. I’ll often try to piece series together, but that requires I remember that I have part of it already and can identify the books as part of the same series. It’s not always easy.

I buy sequels. If I like a series I am more than happy to buy the next one in the series. I have limits though. It’s always hard to rationalise buying more books when I have so many already available to me, so the more expensive a sequel the less likely I am to buy it and I just find it rude when they get progressively more expensive at the series goes on.

Annnnnd lastly, if you’re story is a short story please make it readily apparent. I have more than once downloaded what I thought was a novel and discovered it to be a short story. Just about the only time I read short stories is on car trips, so while it is nice to have a few available to myself, I like to choose them instead of having them surprise me.

Now, I’ve spent a lot of text-time on my own complaints, and lets face it, even if couched as information or advice every item above could be seen as a complaint in some way or another. I’m not so self-absorbed as to not see a few places where my own behaviour might be annoying to authors and I’d be interested in hearing from them. The first is that, though I have every intention of reading all of the books I download (and reviewing them), I download more than I can read in any reasonable amount of time.

I’ve heard authors grumbling that KDP isn’t worth it because lots of people download the book, but no one posts reviews. It might be true. I’m not looking at your download numbers, but I know that I have picked up, read, and reviewed a lot of authors I wouldn’t have come across or taken a chance on if the book wasn’t free. Not just because I’m cheap (which I am BTW), but because I wouldn’t have a reason to look at lists and lists of books I have to pay for. I have plenty of books on my wish list to choose from already. So, KDP gives me a reason to be exploring new authors that I might not have otherwise. 

Another bone of contention might be how eager I am to get a free book. The assumption is that I would pay for it otherwise and am therefore cheating the author out of their income. Fair enough. I do download books I wouldn’t pay for. It’s true. I admit it. I bet I’m not the only one who does this. I’m especially prone to download erotica in this manner.  My only excuse is that I do it with the eventual intent of reading and reviewing it and probably wouldn’t even know about the book without KDP. But is that enough? I’ve also always been a little curious to know if my download contributes to advancing a book to the too 100 list, and if so is that enough of a bonus to an author to forgive my tardy reviews or cheapskate ways.

So there is the basic breakdown of my own download behaviour. Is it familiar to anyone else or just seem a little too OCD and cranky? Are you a KDP author? I’d love to have your take on the whole affair. What do you do when exploring your fellow KDP publishers? What are your criteria? Anyone just want to bitch me out yet?

*By the way and completely unrelated, if anyone is a hard Sci-fi fan, Harv’s book Daughter Moon is a great one. I don’t know if it’s on KDP. I paid for my copy, but it’s worth picking up.