Reviews By Charline

“Sandstone & Mirrors”

Author: Angelique LaFontaine

So… I received my copy of “Sandstone & Mirrors – The Crossover” by Angelique LaFontaine a couple of days ago. To start with, I enjoyed the cover artwork and I really liked the book’s “To The Reader” dedication. I was so happy for the author when I read about her successful completion of this novel after working on it for ten years. In these hectic times, when everyone is constantly moving at 100 mph, it’s easy for dreams to fall between the cracks, become labeled as less than important and forgotten about until finally they become nothing more than regret later in life.

I happily continued reading but my joy was extremely short-lived. In the very first chapter I immediately began coming across blatant grammatical errors. Example: “She looked over at her husband who is still sleeping.” There were misspelled words. Example: “inpatient” versus “impatient.” There was incorrect use of punctuation. Example: “crow’s feet”. versus “crow’s feet.” If a sentence ends with something in quotations, then the period, question mark, or exclamation point is placed after the word but inside the quotation marks. Finally, there were sentences that were oh so long and overly redundant. Example: “Carli had been staring out of the window while trying to remember her dream for so long that the water was overflowing over the top of the water dish and water was flowing back out of the dish and down into the sink.” Needless to say, I wondered who the author’s editor was. I also wondered how this book had even made it to print. Sadly I had noticed at least ten errors and I hadn’t even read anything beyond page three. However, I kept on reading and hoped that the story itself would be interesting enough to carry the rest of the book.

The premise for “Sandstone & Mirrors – The Crossover” is interesting. A young woman feels that something is missing in her current life. One morning she finds herself in another life where she learns that she is the pawn for which both good and evil are fighting. Unfortunately I struggled my way through the entire book because the writing did not improve. In fact, it got worse. I had to start re-reading sentences to figure out what word(s) needed to be added, or removed, just so I could understand what the author was trying to say. Words like “it,” “to,” and “the” are helpful and more often than not, required. Other words like “and” or “inlayed” had to be replaced with “an” or “inlaid.” Example: “…there was and in ground pool.”

I’m going to wrap up this review but before I do, I would like to offer the author two very important suggestions:
1) Find yourself a good editor. No one will rave to their friends about your book if they can’t understand it because of incorrect spelling or major grammatical mistakes; and
2) Visit your local bookseller; buy, and then read “The Elements of Style” by Strunk and White. At $9.95 it’s a steal and the knowledge it can impart to you is priceless.

Lastly, I’m truly sorry I was unable to write a better review for “Sandstone & Mirrors – The Crossover” but I do applaud you, the author, for actually finishing the writing of your book. There are many who aspire to write a novel yet there are few who actually complete it. If writing is your passion then keep at it. Just be sure to recognize your weaknesses and be willing to allow professionals to help you in those areas. Sincerely wishing you the best in all your future endeavors…

“Everything I Never Wanted To Be”

Author: Dina Kucera

Where to start? “Everything I Never Wanted To Be” is a brutally open and honest look into the heart of a family beset by drug and alcohol abuse. And, as if that’s not enough to cause one major stress, add caring for an elderly mother with Parkinson’s disease and a grandson with Cerebral Palsy, and working as a checker at a grocery store. Amazingly enough though this family somehow manages to retain a fierce love for one another.

“Everything I Never Wanted To Be” chronicles the life of author Dina Kucera. She shares with us her ups and downs, her fears, her failures, and her triumphs. She shows us she’s human. I respect what she has been through and I commend her for doing whatever it took, and takes, to help herself and her family. As an aside, I don’t feel Kucera needs to use her education, or lack thereof, in an attempt to show the world that her book is different; that she is different. Her writing does that for her. Her heart, soul, and humor shine forth from the book’s pages and THAT is what will make a lasting impression to those who read her memoir.

I also applaud Kucera for not allowing the sad, horrific or overwhelming experiences to keep her down and I like the way she uses humor as an outlet. Even though “Everything I Never Wanted To Be” is a true story there were still quite a few times I actually laughed aloud as I read. I’ve worked as a grocery store cashier. I can empathize with many of her job related experiences, inane customer comments and conversations.

All in all I found “Everything I Never Wanted To Be” to be very well-written and informative. Kucera has a way with words and she shows us a different perspective of drug and/or alcohol dependency. Nowadays we hear about drug use and alcoholism on almost daily basis. The common belief seems to be that if we paid more attention to the people in our community we could stop them before they became addicted to substances which ultimately set them on a path of destruction. If we did this we could save them from themselves. What I take away from this memoir is that it’s just not that simple. Not that cut and dried. What I understand from this book is that the chemical makeup of an addict requires something their body didn’t provide in order for them to feel the way we “normal” people do. They may need something just to be able to enjoy the feel of the sun on their face or the wind in their hair. Things that most of us take for granted. They may not even know it themselves but then one day someone offers them something and all of a sudden the world makes sense and they finally feel “normal.” Who wouldn’t want that? I also know there is a lot of criticism directed at people with dependency issues. My feelings are that unless we have personally experienced it I think we should provide empathy and help versus disdain and judgments.

Lastly, a note to the author… Maybe it took becoming everything you never wanted to be in order to become everything you wanted or needed to be… Divine Order and all that. 😉

“7 Scorpions”

Author: Mike Saxton

I wasn’t quite sure what to think when I originally contemplated reading/reviewing “7 Scorpions: Rebellion.” Usually I can deduce what genre a book falls into just by its title but with this one I couldn’t. Would it be adventure? Science fiction? Or something that falls into the “war” genre? Looking at the book’s cover also made me think of Kurt Vonnegut and I wondered if the author might have a similar writing style.

“7 Scorpions: Rebellion” is the first of three books in the “7 Scorpions” series. After reading it I would label it predominately science fiction. In this series, May 7th is the day that will live forever in infamy… That was the day the previously unknown psychopath (known only as Zodiac) struck. His goal? World domination. Refusing to be outdone by predecessors like Napoleon or Hitler, Zodiac had flash bombs planted in every major city around the globe. On May 7th they simultaneously detonated and the world was thrown into complete and utter chaos. Governments crumbled; the world’s military vanished and the only remaining law was that of self-preservation. However, a hero did emerge after this destruction. Vincent Black, a man who was a former vigilante until he became an unwilling government super-soldier experiment. And now he and his band of rebels are all that stands between Zodiac and the end of humanity.

So, I read the book and I will say that the premise for the series is an interesting one. For the most part I enjoyed the read. Mike Saxton, the book’s author, is descriptive and he shows attention to detail although I did catch a chronological mistake early on. My only criticism, and I hope it will be viewed as constructive, is that the bad guys seemed to get carried away by childish “petulance” rather than the sadistic pleasure that I would have expected them to show. If someone is intelligent enough to mastermind and successfully pull off this coupe then I would have expected different mannerisms from that person.

In summary, I give “7 Scorpions: Rebellion” a four-star rating. While it wasn’t “glue me to my seat riveting” it definitely held my attention. I do feel that Saxton has talent as a storyteller. I also believe that as he writes more he will grow into his full potential as an author. I’m glad I was able to review this book and I look forward to the next installment in this series.