Nicole MacDonald
Biography
I am the author of The Arrival and Awakening, books one and two of the BirthRight Trilogy, as well as an erotic short story, A Wet & Wild night (it was an experiment ;p). As an avid reader from a young age I've recently ventured into writing and I'm loving the journey. My favorite books were always those with strong, independent female leads so that's—not surprisingly—influenced my writing.
The rise of ebooks offers independent authors (indie authors) such as myself a fantastic opportunity to share my work with the world, even though I'm situated down at the bottom of the globe (a kiwi and proud of it!) I love chatting with readers and writers and you can easily get in touch with me via my blog (where you can purchase my books in epub format) or facebook fan page.
Where to find Nicole MacDonald online
videos
Fan Trailer for The Arrival
Many thanks to B.E.T for this fantastic trailer. It captures the mood of the book perfectly and I love the music track. Enjoy!
Books
Nicole MacDonald’s tag cloud
Smashwords book reviews by Nicole MacDonald
- The Treasures of Carmelidrium
on March 09, 2011
Missie is a music student working through her final year at college. An incredible flutist she looks to have a shining future as a classical musician, until an unfortunate car crash involving a cloaked figure that sends her hurtling into a parallel universe. Confronted with men in 16th century garb approaching her car as if it's some kind of monster she's understandably bewildered, at first thinking she's stumbled into a movie set, unfortunately it isn't that simple. The men turn out to be royal guards and Missie is promptly caught up in a turn of events that threaten not only her own existence but the existence of the world she's landed in. Whether they rise or fall will depend on Missie, the strength of her heart and her flute.
An intriguing tale with language that you could just imagine in a 16th century novel the author weaves a journey that will leave you thinking about it long after you've finished. Very much like a tale of old there are the traditional roles of hero and heroine that will satisfy anyone seeking an excellent old fashioned style read of good against evil. Vivid descriptions allow the horrifying Symberveen to haunt your mind as you read. A proper love story this will appeal to anyone who loves a Romeo & Juliet style romance - without the unfortunate end *grin*
- Fatal Sisters
on March 31, 2011
I was a little confused when I began reading this book as it starts with a character that isn't mentioned in the book. Once I got over the 'eh? Is this the right book' moment I quickly fell into the story. The author is a good writer, I am in no way disputing that. His characters are likable and believable and the situation (at first) is darn clever. At the end of chapter 2 I was doing my best evil chuckle at the predicament of a pair of bumbling idiots (not giving spoilers away ;p you'll have to buy or read sample) and had to tell my Hubby all about it. He did his thoughtful nodding while rattling off the titles of a couple of movie plots it reminded him of. Not having seen any of them I shrugged and continued to read. The first frustrating thing I noticed (in the first few pages too) is that the author over describes EVERYTHING. I ended up skimming pages due to his characters internal ramblings (and wow can they ramble!) or his five descriptions of one thing. He literally explains jokes after saying them.. way to kill the humour much.
I liked when he stuck to 'his' voice. A masculine (as to be expected) simple voice. However I'm going to guess someone told him they felt it was too simple and needed more descriptions. If I ever meet that person I'll be tempted to smack them.. Simple English is surprisingly hard to do and honestly if someone calls your book an 'easy' read you should be flattered! Don't start cramming in extra flowery 'feminine' words to try and 'fix' it. So yes I did a lot of skim reading and rolling of eyes in sections where he insistently over described things. As a beta reader I was itching to cross sections out as they really were just fluff that did nothing but annoy a reader trying to get on with the story. Which really was good, a little cliché for sure but what story isn't?
Until the last ten percent. Sure there were a couple of moments in the plot where I thought 'loophole! Would never happen or work' but that would have been fine (or at least acceptable). Until he threw in an annoying and unnecessary twist. Sigh.
Which suddenly brought the story and murder down to a 'honour' killing, finish (or rather that's what it felt like) and left me furious. A character I liked and respected just went down the dunny and I'm left wailing 'whhhyyyyyy?' It was one of those moments we've all seen before. The person you least suspected turns out to be the killer! Except it was so ridiculously left field that it just felt as though he decided to do it on a whim five minutes before publishing. A very disappointing end to a read I almost enjoyed.. *sigh*
- At the end of the world
on June 11, 2011
Technically speaking this book had all the makings of something I was going to love. Mayan history, a kiwi lead (hey there's only 4 million of us - we gotta stick together ;p) and an exciting mystery. Unfortunately I found it incredibly lifeless. The author is very descriptive to his own detriment. Too often things in the book were described at least three times over. The main character I had no real feeling for or interest in and reading the story ended up feeling like a trial. I still believe with a decent amount of re-working this book could be good, but it read like the author hasn't yet discovered his voice and because of that, I as a reader just wasn't caught by the story.
