Location: United States
Member Since:
Nov. 29, 2010
1 reader has added this author as a 'Favorite Author'.
Poets of TNBW
Biography
The Poets of TNBW (The Next Big Writer) have banded together to create a combined book of our poems. Many of us have published our work in many independent journals and magazines but hope now to provide our poetry to a larger audience.
Where to find Poets of TNBW online
Website: http://www.thenextbigwriter.com
Books
Smashwords book reviews by Poets of TNBW
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The Finding
on March 11, 2011
I debated writing a review for this book because on one hand, it's very good for a self-published book. On the other, it has a few flaws that would keep it from being traditionally published. I'm not sure how honest of a review is really warranted. I've read all three books in the series. They are all quite readable. The good news for this one is the plot is clean, the action well-described, the writing solid. The characters are consistant from one book to the next. The bad news is that the book needs to be content edited. It's clear the author has taken pains to clean the mechanical issues and structure problems out of the text. It's very well-edited in that respect. However, it needs content edited. In this book, Bryan repeats similiar statements about 'Finding' law in multiple places. It feels heavy handed and I can see the writer working behind the scenes. The same was true of the Keeping as well. The author kept explaining it over and over to the reader until it was annoying. Many scenes can be cut from this book to make it a tighter more-driven plot. As it is, I found myself wanting to skim sections because I was bored or felt like I was getting information I didn't need for this book. I understand the author is working on a series but I don't need all the info on the characters outside this story. A small update would be find. This story is padded on both ends with material I don't need. A content editor would help the writer cut and compact the story to give a better, tighter story line. 125,000 words or less. Plus several scenes in the book could be crunched down into one scene that would give me the same info and doesn't drag the plot to a crawl. Overall, it's a good book but it could be a much better book. For free? I have no complaints but with a little more cutting and I'd be glad to pay for it.
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The Keeping
on March 11, 2011
This book is better developed than The Mating and more sexy than The Keeping. Ryne is more likeable character to me than his brothers. I thought of all the books, the bar scene in the start of this one really set the flavor of the town well. The book gets bogged down somewhat in the middle later half once Mel gets to town. I like the tension of the possible mass suicide. What I absolutely could not buy was Mel's use of the Lycan website. First, that she found this website at all by accident is absolutely not believable. Second that she could be thought to be a Were without blood samples or an actual Were parent listed. What exactly were they researching? Her mom's diary? I felt that was really reaching. I thought this book had a lot more action than the others and I liked how it was done. The fight scene was really good. The sex was hot (unlike The Finding). Lucy's death seemed to gain very little and didn't really further the plot. Why kill her? It might have been better to keep her as a human 'who knows' then the bear/Lucy love book would have been a nice add-on to the book series. Killing her doesn't do much but get her out of the way when she wasn't in the way to begin with. And why show the full sex act between her and Ryne. I mean I don't have to see the sex with them to get that when he comes back from it, he's still unhappy. I'd rather keep the sex scenes on him and Mel. Otherwise he comes off as more of a dick than he needs to be. Daniel and Bryan in this book are more or less interchangable. I wish they were more distinctive as people. Mel gave up a lot for Ryne and he just expected. She only gave a token resistance to staying in Canada. She also adapted to pack life easily. Which struck me as too easy. The book has less padding than the Finding but there are still places in the mid half of the book where sections could have been cut or tightened to make the book tighter. Overall, a very good read. The best of the three books available so far.