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Location: Lebanon

Member Since: Feb. 27, 2012

Farah Hoteit

Smashwords book reviews by Farah Hoteit

Jake on April 04, 2013

The main thought going through my head during the first 200 pages of the book (I read the epub version) was that if you want to read about someone whose life is duller than yours, then Jake is the book for you! Basically, the first bunch of chapters are a drag through. They are over written, and quite dull. Jake has a perfect life. Jake has a perfect family. Jake has friends. Jake is childish. Jake has anxiety issues. It's all really quite frustrating and you just want something to happen because I mean, I bothered to read the book and I deserve my story! And a dull life of a standard teenage kid is anything but! But then Jake meets Kim. And you get swept up in the perfect romance that they seem to share. They are in love as only teenagers can be, and it's all well and sweet. And personally, I'd have been content with that being my story had I known what would come next. But I didn't, and I demanded more, and more I got. The second 200 pages of the book had me laughing and crying and riding the general emotional roller coster of the story. I lived through Jakes eyes, and what a regretful life that seemed to be. The events are a bit overblown to be honest, but the emotions in them are perfect. The spell of bad luck that seems to follow the kid isn't a very easy pill for the reader to swallow. I mean, how crappy can your luck be for all that crap to happen to you?! Especially after the perfect life you've been leading thus far. And all over a can of beer?! Who gets that drunk over filtered beer!? And ugh I'm just pissed because the story line really got to me. (even though it didn't make a lot of sense in my mind.) As a gentle warning, if you've ever lost someone dear to your heart, THIS IS NOT THE BOOK FOR YOU! However, if you're struggling with alcohol problems THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU. The few grammatical errors throughout the book are easily ignored once the plot thickens. If a second edition of this book is ever published, I hope those are fixed. I also hope a bunch of the useless events at the beginning of the book are canceled out. Do that, and you get yourself a pretty good book on your hands. Sad, but good.
The Insurgent's Journal on April 22, 2013

I should've done my homework before requesting this book as a read 2 review story. It was only midway through the first chapter when I realized that I had too many questions, and decided to look it up. Realizing that there were 2 parts written before this one was a disappointment, as my information throughout the book was lacking. Even considering my lack of knowledge about the first 2 parts, this was a nice and easy read that I really enjoyed. A quick and fast paced adventure that takes you to a whole new world as you follow Alanna with her victories, her betrayals, and her quest. One thing I truly enjoyed about this book is the good English that a lot of the books we have to review these days seem to lack. Reading through and not grimacing at one mistake or another was a beautiful remedy for my sore eyes! (In all honesty, I had a long and well written review completed here that goodreads decided to refresh on and delete… this is all I can remember from it.. :( ) In total, I really enjoyed reading this book, even if some of the details were not exactly to my taste, I was willing to overlook that and follow through on this thrilling adventure.
Infernal Eighteen on April 22, 2013

Like I said in my review of the previous part of this series, I only learned about the 2 previous parts while reading the 3rd part (and though I will end up getting the first 2 parts just to satisfy my curiosity, exams have my hands full at the moment and it won't be for another while..) This book was not as good as part 3. True, it continues Alanna's adventure, taking her all the way to Hell and back, I found the heavy reliance on Dante's Inferno a little bit annoying. I know that Mr. Martinez plays around in some of the details, but the use of someone else's imagination to make up for the lack of my own is not what I have come to expect from this author in particular. Something I wanted to mention in my previous part's review that Goodreads found nice to delete is that the use of the word Guardsman came off as a little bit sexist to me. The current Guardsman is a WOMAN, so would it have been so hard to call them Guardians? Another thing that annoyed me is the obvious lack of research (or maybe a disregard for details is what I should say). For example, when you have injured people at your door, you start by moving the youngest and most grievously injured in, not the other way round (and that's off the top of my head). Furthermore, the English in this part felt a little wrong. Kind of like it was translated from another language by someone who doesn't even speak it well. It was too complex in places, and too simple in others. The easy flow I found in the previous part was mostly missing in this one. For some weird reason, I just couldn't connect with this book the way I could with the previous part, and it saddens me as I really enjoyed that one. I'll just pretend it was written by a shadow writer and go on my merry way.. Hopefully, the real Mr. Martinez will have it edited and a better version reprinted. P.S. what is up with "He Who Is I AM"? Seriously? Is that even supposed to make sense? Doesn't that just refer back to the speaker? If it's supposed to mean God, is that so hard to say? And if it doesn't mean God… I don't get it...