Location: United Kingdom
Member Since: June 04, 2013

sue ward

Smashwords book reviews by sue ward

  • "You'll be Sorry!" on July 12, 2013

    I couldn't sleep well last night due to the heat, so I picked up this short story. The author John A Miller is a new author, very new to me. His style was superb, I loved the concept of the story and how it built very quickly, the characters in the book soon shot up to be real to me, and Herman, the dog. I could have read this book for longer as I had enjoyed it so much. The 'kick' in the book came suddenly which kept me enthralled, too short! I wanted more. I downloaded this book when it was pointed out to be a freebie that day, so glad I did, I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait to read his other books. Can I just say to, I have "met" the author on line, he's a lovely humble chap too. Please look out for his books, you won't regret it.
  • Gladstone on Aug. 01, 2013

    Let me start off by saying, I was gifted a short story from John Miller, I thoroughly enjoyed it. {I have a review on this blog] I met a man named Jack in this story, he was looking for a fresh start. He took a wrong turn and ended up a little lost. Due to his car overheating he was in difficulties. Along came Susan. I could then see that Susan would feature quite a lot in Jack's life from then on. I wasn't wrong. Its a clean story, a clean soft running "behind the scenes" romance. Nothing hot. Jack seems quite a laid back kind of character. To me, anyhow. Susan strikes me as quite feisty. I live in the United Kingdom and never been outside of it, so Arizona and surrounding areas are not known to me or its way of life. Although Gladstone is a fictional place, its a place that seems to draw Jack in, over friendly, a kind of 'make yourself at home' type of thing. Living in the UK people are more suspicious of one another and takes ages for anyone to be accepted unless you have been brought up in that city/town, so was hard for me to get the grips of it being so over friendly and all so polite. There is a twist in this story, I got lost at one point, but reading the other people reviews on Amazon.co.uk and .com I could see I where I missed out, I didn't get onto the wavelength at all. This is a great well thought out storyline, John has the makings of a very successful author. I just would have liked it to be a little bit more upbeat, that is MY humble honest opinion. Its well formatted, well edited, and I can see Johns thoughts and personality coming through on every page. I wish I knew more about Cowboy land, and horses and guns :) I am sure I would have 'got' it much more than I did. That doesn't mean to say this is an awful book, quite the reverse, I'm not travelled so it was hard for me to grasp the unknown. Thank you John for a lovely read. I just wish I could go and experience the 'open road' and get more light from other counties.
  • Renewal on Aug. 31, 2013

    Just finished reading this awesome, superb book! This was the first book I have read by Tabitha Short and she has great talent. I was caught up in the story right at the start. Kate had lost her husband, and if anyone knows how that feels to loose not only a husband, lover, best friend and soul mate you will relate to Kate. Broken heart, she returns home to her parents and her sister. There is so much I could tell you about this story opening door s one by one, not only getting through Kate's pain, but other friends of Kate. Her work environment threw up an unexpected obstacle too which I thought was handled excellently. I could go on and on raving enthusiastically about this book, but I don't want to give anything away too much. I have to mention that you become Kate, you feel what she feels, when she runs into the woods, I found myself screaming ` no Kate, no` !! All the characters became real to me and will stay with me for a very long time. I was gifted an ARC by the author, I feel so blessed to have been able to read this ahead of time. I read a LOT of books, this has gone right into my top 10 this year. Praise to the author. I can't wait to read more from her.
  • When it Snows on Nov. 17, 2013

    Classified as a short story by Tony Spencer. I was asking about some Christmas reads for reviewing. He is just a humble man that doesn't classify himself as an author and does this for a hobby and his enjoyment, he shares just incase someone may want to read it. Its FREE to download from Smashwords where I will give you the link in a moment. I have to say, he is never keen to promote his books in our group [2 friends promote with authors] but joins in the conversations brilliantly and I enjoy reading his comments. Because he doesn't promote his books I have not taken any not to progress with that thought other than......wonder what he writes and how he writes. He will probably wonder why on earth I have mentioned him on my blog, well, its because I have now read 2 of his short stories. This one above called WHEN IT SNOWS, my honest opinion is, too many F words in there, but apart from that, it has some pretty good one liners, great story line, bit of love, sex and romance. It has the makings of a brilliant novel if he rounded it, but then again, I don't think that is his style, this is more his style, a nice "quickie" so to speak. This book is longer than the first one I read but I enjoyed it better, but in a different way. I am definitely going to be fitting in his other short stories to read. I am loving them, maybe not everyone's taste, but they are mine, so seeing they are FREE to download, why not read them? Write him a review, I am sure he will appreciate it.
  • Lane 1 Closure on Nov. 17, 2013

    This is a short story written by Tony Spencer. He never promotes his books as he write for a hobby and nothing else, but, I had to say I thought this story fun. Its a very short entertaining book. I read it whilst having my tea and toast this morning. I was in the group Philomena and I manage along with authors and asked about anyone having any Christmas based books they would like us to read for December as although we have heaps to read, it would be nice to read and review some during this time period. Tony left a link and said [very humbly] that he has this one that is short, I might like but not sue of. These were his words: This was my 3rd self-published short (2180 words) story written last Christmas for my NCC highways chums. Although I am in the middle of reading a previous book, out of curiosity I opened it, and before before I knew it, I had read read. It made me chuckle. Loved his style. So if you are looking for a quick read whilst sitting and have a 10 minute cuppa, have a read.
  • Alien Species Intervention Books 1-3 on July 01, 2014
    (no rating)
    when asked if I would like to read and review this, my first reaction was, I don't read books in this genre. But as a favour I did. I found myself liking this book due to the expertise of the writer. The story did take my interest and I found myself enjoying it. Its truly unique.
  • A Questionable Hero on Feb. 03, 2015

    DEBUT NOVEL *Please read his Bio on GOODREADS you can see how far he has come, I admire this man* When Stephen Gane contacted me and asked me to consider reading his book, I looked at the blurb and a bit inside of the cover on Amazon and agreed to read it. So this author kindly gifted me it. One thing that swung it, was it was based around my community in Bristol. OK not some places I frequently visit or I dwell in, but places like Bedminster were mentioned other places that I was familiar with or knew of. I felt like I was walking through this book quite comfortably knowing where I was going. Stephen Gane being a British author of course [like me....as in British, not that I am an author *grins*] meant I could follow this book with some of the ghetto language [man] and slang that came out in some of the ways some of the characters spoke. It was great! One of my pet hates is when someone uses the Queens English when they are Scottish! [ack ei the noo] I feel that authors should write the dialogue of where the story is based around, and I admire that this author did this. This is his first debut novel and I am in awe of his ability of writing. I read a lot for Indie/self published authors, ones that have just written their first book, some are OK but they need to grow, some 'don't give up the day job' kind of reads, some that think they are brilliant and no one can teach them anything from a readers POV and some that come along and you WHOOOSH you away thinking "This is your first written book? WOW" and if they are like this in the beginning, then their writing ability as a progressive author will only get better and better. This in MHO is how I felt about this author. Its not the greatest book I have read in this genre, but its certainly more than halfway up there. What I also saw was his care of a decent cover for his book, and his layout and formating within the pages. I see no errors and so this made it a comfortable read and enticing the reader on to read more and turn pages. I see lots of bad formating, errors, and lack of front covers, and some saying "ah well, its only an ebook" they could learn a lot from this author. The storyline was good, I wondered what would hit me when I found out why this author named this book A questionable Hero. I soon discovered why. Liston was a great character, father and sister's were very close and caring to him when things turned around. The sentence when he went to his father and confessed that he had Killed someone was very touching. Because this showed me that although he was within a 'gang' he had a sense of morality. There are more things about this story I can say to encourage you to pick this book up, but I would spoil the book for you. I would like to thank Stephen Gane for contacting me and asking for me to read his book, knowing I am honest and open with my reviews, I bet he's wondering what I am going to write!!! Thank you for the opportunity for allowing me to read and review your book Stephen Gane and I look forward to more from you