Location: United States
Member Since: June 15, 2011
Cathy T.
Biography
A girl with a lot of free time to read books. I am willing to review your work.
Where to find Cathy T. online
Books
This member has not published any books.Smashwords book reviews by Cathy T.
- Dark Love
on June 20, 2011
I like erotica, if done well. I like vampires in literature, if done well. I do not particularly like young adult literature. So why did I read this? It was free on Smashwords and I needed a break. I don't even know. And oh, this had 5-star ratings so I assumed it was at least good. But no. Don't waste your time. I've read better fanfiction. Granted the sexy part was sort of hot but... eh.
- Water
on June 20, 2011
Wow, that was hot.
- Dark Matter Heart
on June 24, 2011
This is a Reading Good Books review. * In compliance with FTC guidelines, it should be noted that I received the book for free. I came across this book while browsing several book blogs. I saw the author’s post saying that he was willing to give readers a free copy of Dark Matter Heart in exchange for a review. I figured, why not? (If you want your own copy, I will post details under the comments.) Dark Matter Heart is the first book in the Cor Griffin Bloodsuckers Series. Our hero is Cordell “Cor” Griffin, a seemingly ordinary high school student. Together with his mother, Jane, he moves up to the Pacific Northwest from Los Angeles, California to start anew. New neighborhood, new school, new friends. He meets Taylor on his first day of school. He also meets a pretty girl named Caitlyn. Unfortunately, being the new kid in school, he becomes the target of the bullies. Things do not become easier for Cor when strange things begin to happen. Certain people that Cor comes in contact with die. And they all have the same cause of death… all were drained of their blood. Suspicions arise when it seemed coincidental that the murders start on the day Cor moved into town. I do not have a good track record when it comes to Young Adult stories. Especially the Paranormal subgenre. Often, I am left unaffected or give up before I even finish it. But I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It was a quick read; the story was fast-paced and direct. I like that it was very readable, the short chapters seem to add to the pace of the story. There are a couple of typos here and there but no big deal. I liked how the characters were written, Taylor mostly. I also liked Cor but it was easy for me to picture Taylor in my head. The premise of the story is interesting. It is certainly different than most of the vampire fiction novels flooding the book shelves these days. I liked the ending a lot. It had a twist that I did not expect at all. I am interested on what will come next. Given that is a new YA paranormal/vampire series, I understand that the author wants to establish his own canon of vampire history, e.g. Stephenie Meyer and her sparkling “vampires”. And I respect that. I might not agree with all of it but at least the author is trying to set his series apart from the others. Although, I still found myself shaking my head at some parts. There were bits of the story that were left open-ended. I figured since this is the first book in a series that those details will continue on to the next book. I hope so. Good continuity is always a plus for me. Overall, it is a good establishing piece for a series. Rating: 3.5/5. Recommendation: Fans of YA vampire fiction would find that this is right up their alley. If you want to take a break from Twilight and The Vampire Diaries, give this a try.
- Songbird
on June 27, 2011
This is a Reading Good Books Review. Songbird is about 17-yer-old Dani Mays and her struggles with her past and present. She had a turbulent childhood; going from one foster home to the next, dealing (or trying not to) with an alcoholic mother and a convict father. It all started when she witnessed her own father murder Jace, her beloved brother. She was six years old. Eventually, Dani settled in with the Thompsons and led a somewhat normal life. But it was her best friend, Reece Tyler who made it all better. Reece was good-looking, popular, but he chose to be Dani’s friend nonetheless. He had been there with her always. Sort of like, another brother to take the place of the one she lost. Her future was looking bright until her past comes back to haunt her. This is my second Young Adult book in a row. I must admit, I am still a reluctant reader. Let me tell you what I liked about it. It is well written. Easy to read, easy to understand. It is also very plot driven. Everything, from Jace’s death to Dani’s struggles with her friends melded together nicely in the end. I must say, the funeral for Jace, as told in a flashback, was very good. I teared up a little bit. It dealt with heavy emotions and situations – abuse, murder, family dysfunction – but it is balanced by happy thoughts such as love and friendship. The thing between Reece and Dani was so cute in the beginning. I was rooting for them. Even when Colin, the new kid in school, came around, I was still hoping they would end up together. But it became old so fast. Nothing happened for the first few chapters other than Dani pining for Reece, thinking he’s cute and he’ll never go after a girl like her, all that jazz. Colin comes into the picture and Reece goes all possessive. Then it becomes this constant “will they or won’t they” among the three characters. When one gives in, the other shies away… and vice versa. It eventually got so tedious that I found myself rolling my eyes, thinking, “not again”. I felt that the book could have used less of that and still would be an effective story. Then came the weird phone calls. That plot line, to me had so much potential. If developed earlier/better, it would have been a good B-story. But it was lost in the sea of the Reece-Dani-Colin drama that you could take that whole part out and it would not affect the ending very much. I could see the author’s struggle between keeping the mood light and fun (with all the teen romance aspects) and inserting a bit of a suspense/thriller aspect. I just wish she took the risk of developing the darker plot point further. I could have used more of that and less filler. Rating: 3/5. Recommendation: Teens would like this and find that they can somewhat relate to what Dani is experiencing in high school.
- Concerto
on July 09, 2011
This is a Reading Good Books review. The premise was really interesting. The whole stalker part was scary and I thought it was very effective. I am a bit familiar with classical music so I liked those parts too. The book started out well – clear explanations of what an orchestra is all about, good character introduction and development, and the stalker issue was creepy. It reminded me of a Criminal Minds episode. But unlike Criminal Minds and similar crime drama shows where they preserve evidence, Chrispen Marnett chose to get rid of it. Yes. I wanted to like it, I really do. But the story was all over the place. Chrispen, orchestra, Alexis, stalker, murder, Kolbi, crushes, reunions, Mendelssohn, family issues, Dwight, jobs. It had so many goings on. Eventually, it got confusing and tiring. The plot, albeit had promise, was inconsistent. It had good moments here and there. The author could have used the orchestra more as a device to further the story rather than just a setting where often irrelevant and tedious stuff happened. It was kind of hard to read; I found myself re-reading some paragraphs over and over because I would get totally lost. And oh, I never thought I would see the word “fangirl” in a novel. This is also the first time where the author gave away who the suspect was somewhere in the middle of the story. I mean, I knew who it was from the start anyway. It was not enough that it was obvious, the author had to point him out. I was so close to giving up after that but I soldiered on. I think the author tried to put doubt on who it really was when it was mentioned that Chrispen’s best friend’s hobby was lock-picking. REALLY NOW? How convenient. Come to think of it, it would’ve made for a better ending if it really was her best friend who threatened her. The characters were poorly written, in my opinion. Like the story, they were all over the place. Chrispen was so frustrating. As the heroine of the story, she was so naive and it became irritating. Why would you destroy evidence of creepy, stalkerish behavior? To forget about it? Maybe it’s just me but I would preserve that and submit it to the police. Why would I keep the police out of it? I didn’t get it at all. The whole romance with Alexis Brooks started out nice but I… okay, would you get engaged to someone you barely know personally? Everything came out of nowhere and I thought it was nothing but filler. Also, was Chrispen psychic? Eh, whatever. The other characters were confusing too. Except Kolbi Edwards. I liked her. The others were just so impossible and shallow. The ending tried to redeem the whole piece but fell short. It all came together in a nice red bow as all happily ever afters do. Eh. I dislike giving low marks to books. I appreciate the effort the author put in to it. But I just could not wait for this book to be over. I probably won’t read it again. Rating: 2/5. Recommendation: If you are familiar with orchestras and classical music, you’ll find a couple of familiar names in this book.
- Isle of Stumps
on July 11, 2011
This is a Reading Good Books review. Isle of Stumps refers to the first story in this three-piece collection. All three stories have military themes. The first one was about fitting in with the population, with how they look like, even though the norm looks grotesque and ‘unnatural’ to us. Set in the dystopian future, a would-be warrior fails his final test and gets thrown out into the sea to die. He ends up on a strange island with an even stranger population. It was scary, the lengths he had to go to in order to fit in. Swallowing a Boot is set at Army boot camp. The recruits are under the watchful eye of a harsh drill sergeant. They wanted more food and soda and other junk that they are not allowed to have while in basic training. One of them sneaks out but nothing escapes the eye of Drill Sergeant Petri. (It does not have anything to do with the collection’s title.) I didn’t get it, really. I mean, I am very familiar with the whole military basic training and all that, so I appreciated that aspect. But I didn’t get the point of the story. The third short story is Eight Legs to Doomsday. It is about an alien race threatening to wipe out the humans with the use of poisonous spiders. They are minuscule creatures and they do their job while inside robotic spiders, relying on the arachnophobia of some humans. I liked this story the most. A team goes into mutiny and tries to stop the invasion. In the end… well, the ending was the fun part. The book also includes an excerpt of the author’s debut novel An Epitaph for Coyote, which I will not review on this post. Rating: 3/5. Recommendation: I gave it a three because it’s not the best but it’s also not bad. It’s very quick read, if you’re looking for something to pull you out of your boredom.
- Friends of Choice
on July 12, 2011
This is a Reading Good Books review. I tried. Don’t get me wrong… I really tried. But I couldn’t finish this. I couldn’t even get to the midpoint. Provided it was just 88 pages on e-book. I respect the obvious effort of the author to make a compelling story and (as I skipped to the end) a public service to teens, the writing was just so bad. There’s no other, nicer way to say it. Just… BAD. Errors – typographical or grammatical or BOTH – litter the whole thing. At least the parts I’ve read. But based on the other reviews I’ve read, it’s the main issue of this book. Misplaced spaces, punctuations, hyphenations, two words that should be compounded, ending with a preposition, redundant phrases and words… ah, it was so distracting and irritating. It needs MAJOR overhaul. It’s a shame that my copy is digital or else, I would’ve taken it upon myself to proofread the damn thing. All the errors made it so hard to read. “Baited breath”? “We’re moving and that’s finale“? I’m pretty sure no spell check in the world would make that mistake. After reading these, I just gave up. And the whole “Oooh… the mall is a bad place for teenagers because they steal and get into trouble at the malls” — I was laughing at the absurdity. I was surprised to see a Green Day mention. And of Boulevard of Broken Dreams, dubbed “I Walk Alone”. Geez. I can’t even give this book a single star but I will for effort. Rating: 1/5.
- Sit Down Sit
on Aug. 19, 2011
I would love to see this illustrated. :) Very cute.
- American Nightmare
on Aug. 20, 2011
I hate giving books a low rating. I do appreciate the effort of putting your work out there but sometimes, a book comes along that is just so bad that I couldn’t even finish it. Unfortunately, this is one of them. It’s a mere 59 pages on Adobe Digital Editions but I wanted to give up right around page 15. The premise of the story is pretty interesting. An average nice guy has been living the American dream of a good job and a family until his wife filed for divorce four years ago. Then he got laid off at his job of 32 years. Being 52 years old, he wasn’t eligible for retirement yet… basically, everything falls apart around him. Then he snaps. Based on the cover art, he goes all Dexter on the people around him. Great, I love Dexter. This should be good. But it’s not. It’s really not. The writing wasn’t good. It’s choppy and inconsistent and redundant. And most of all, it was BORING. There was pages upon pages of description and back story to introduce the main character, Bob, but it was so boring and cliche, I didn’t care much for him. Everyone’s an alcoholic, Bob’s a doormat… I don’t think a page went by without a retelling of those two things. And the formatting problems. Oh my, is it too much to ask for dialog paragraph breaks? Huge chunks of text with 2-3 people talking in them. I salute self-published authors but come on… a little editing goes a very long way. I should stop now, really. I feel bad bashing a book but I just did not like any part of this. Rating: 1/5. Purely for effort.
- Ziggy Two Step - Courier Extraordinaire
on Oct. 01, 2011
This is a Reading Good Books (WP) review. Call it what ever you want — Murphy’s Law, coincidence, bad luck, being at the wrong place at the wrong time… trouble follows Ziggy Two Step wherever her goes. Thomas Edward Haliburton aka Ziggy Two Step is a bike messenger in the small town on Riverton, Montana. Not two days into his new job, his town experiences accidents, crimes, even bombings. He had no idea what was causing these events. Nothing will stand in his delivery route and time. He was proud of himself because he was fast on wheels and on foot. “Ziggy Two Step is oblivious to most of what is happening around him even though he is often the cause of it.” The cover is really nice. Very simple but nice. It was a fast read, 24 pages PDF. It wasn’t boring at all. The writing was okay; it started out good but somewhere in the middle, there were too many exclamation points and some formatting errors. There were a couple of cliches here and there as well. Nothing too distracting but still. The whole story was like Ziggy, fast, breathless, and at times, all over the place. Rating: 3/5. Recommendation: A very quick and fun read. If you have time to kill and you want an amusing pick-me-up, give this one a try.
- Transfection
on Oct. 05, 2011
This is a Reading Good Books review. I love a good medical thriller. I challenge myself in understanding all the technical jargon and keeping up with the pace and different plots of the story. Short story thrillers are a little tricky. Usually, thrillers take their time establishing the mystery and building up to the big reveal. This book only had 5,000+ words to set it up and execute. The blurb seemed very promising. It doesn’t really give away much, if anything. But it read like a teaser or a pitch rather than a stand-alone story. The premise had so much to work on and a short story format was not enough for that. A lot was left unexplained, including the “reason behind the cancer link with GM food”. So yeah, I ended the book scratching my head and trying to figure out what the hell just happened. The writing was excellent and polished. I was impressed by that and frankly, that’s the reason why I kept reading. For its length, the character development was done well even with the time jumps. But because plot development was severely lacking, I didn’t care much for the story itself. It could’ve worked as a full book or anything longer than a short story. Rating: 3/5. Recommendation: It’s 5,500 words, it shouldn’t take you too long to read. I read it during my down time at work and still got stuff done.
- Progenitor
on Oct. 09, 2011
This is a Reading Good Books review. I honestly didn’t get it. It’s true that futuristic sci-fi stuff is not my cup of tea yet I can still follow a story. I tried but I just wasn’t relating to this. I didn’t even see the sarcasm that the main character, Tim Carr, was supposed to have. The author had an interesting premise of a future world — space/time travel, other worldly beings, and the existence of classes even in that future world. Tim Carr was one of the Lower Level Citizens, LLC, serving as a janitor in a space ship. And then, he sees orbs or balls of light and gas, trying to communicate with him. Okay, I got that much. That’s when the story goes all over the place. It goes on and on about other things that by the time it got back to the orbs, I’ve forgotten what they were about. The conclusion fell short and I felt that there was so much filler, for a short story, and not enough development. It could have been a great serious sci-fi novel. If Tim’s “sarcasm” is a device to put a bit of humor into this, it didn’t work that well. Rating: 2/5. Recommendation: Again, it’s one of those e-books that you can finish in one sitting.