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Member Since: Jan. 22, 2012

tawna lambert

Smashwords book reviews by tawna lambert

Between The Land And The Sea on April 12, 2012

Maybe more like 3.5 stars. Free author copy provided thru book groups via goodreads. Review also posted on goodreads and amazon. things I liked that she wasn't the awkward outcast who didn't think much of herself, she liked who she was even if she didn't necessarily have a large group of friends. Ethan was a good strong character [and the experiences the author gave him surfing made the reason he believed her story a bit more understanding, otherwise it'd be like really? why the f does he believe that? ] Cruz was great and so was Megan as side characters. I liked that she made Cruz's outward appearance not match his personality at all, i dunno why i like that but i do things that I didn't like The writing style, I don't know what it is about it....but it didn't absorb me into the story. I wasn't on the edge of my seat or totally entranced. I could stop and take breaks from reading and was totally fine with it. overall The story is good and wraps up nicely. There is only one real loose end that I saw and she probably left it loose just so that there could be other books, but I don't see the need for other books. This was a perfectly nice story and I enjoyed it. It doesn't, however, lead me into really caring about the next book. I'm sure the next story will also be perfectly nice, I may or may not read it.
Moa on April 12, 2012

I am finally done with the book, it took me two days to read a short book. It didn't keep me interested and I wasn't attached to the characters. Likes The concept of the story The intro to the chapters where it gave the ritual ingredients Dislikes Everything else I believe. --The writing felt like it was switching around a lot. Felt like it was trying to be 1st person present to 3rd person present and because of this switching feel I had to reread parts over again because it hadn't actually switched. --Also, the Granddad part kept bugging me because she was using the word as a name whereas that gave it the feel of "granddad" being the narrator's granddad and he wasn't. --The long drawn out spiritual journeys with the chakras. It felt like we were getting long lessons on meditation and if I had wanted to learn how to meditate (which I already know how) I would have bought a beginners guide to meditation. --Learning about the chakras was cool, however they were not introduced in a fun way or an intriguing way so I ended up just skimming over it instead. Conclusion This book has major potential!! I believe if it had been in 3rd person it would've been great. Personally I wont read the next books in the series, I did like the concept of the story, but couldn't connect.
No Rules Of Engagement on April 12, 2012

First of all I'm trying to figure out what genre to put this in. Sci-fi, absolutely. YA...not in my opinion. There is an 8 year old smoking ciggs and then other kids start smoking, plus he and his group are then talking about how he has girlfriend and if he is gonna get laid (this part may put him at 9 or 10 years old). If this is supposed to be YA for under 14 I just don't find that appropriate (and btw, I am single with no kids and over 25, but I do have a 13 year old brother). I recognize that my brother, at 13, would understand that this is fiction but I believe these topics with such a young child as the main character should not be in a YA book. The synopsis for this book led me to believe it would be a YA sci-fi book which is why I'm bringing this concern up. Moving on to the other issues I had: age it was stated that they wanted the kids to be at their prime of 18 for when they finally fought. Okay fine, but having the main kid be 8, I get it super smart for his age, but couldn't you have had him be at least 10? the other kids are already around 12-13, was it necessary for the main kid to be 4 years younger? the editing for the .mobi version which is the one I downloaded was all messed up and it was very distracting. The following sentences are examples: How did rate getting put in charge? (Really? I didn't know we had anybody that young on the ship, much less in charge of it. How did rate getting put in charge? Do you know somebody?) Can ask you a question? It always won't be this way, so take advantage of it. a spelling error here and there hard to understand concept If a person wasn't raised on military language some of the concepts may be hard to understand. Including the part where he is talking about dress right dressing and parade rest. These concepts are hard to picture in your head if you don't know what they are and I don't believe people without military backgrounds or watch/read military movies/books are going to understand this. The Story For the type of book this is, a sci-fi military book, then this is a decent book. I have read other sci-fi books with military involvement and have enjoyed them, but for some reason I didn't enjoy this one. There was too much military attack procedures and planning and battle tactics, get to the f*g point already. We got it, they trained in simulators and they got hurt in the physical simulators. There is battle planning, got it...it took too long to get to the real battles, I started skipping battle training parts. The simulated battles were cool, but there weren't enough of them. Lastly, I didn't like the concept of including the bible as a present to the aliens...I think it was too soon and a bit contrived. I do read books with religious concepts too, like all of Ted Dekker, but at that point in the story it just felt all wrong and set up specifically to do that, so forced. The book is just more planning and talking and not enough of the action sequences. There were some and those parts I liked, but I just didn't like reading this book. I enjoy multiple genres, this author just didn't pull me in.
The Toy Sorcerer on May 08, 2012

The star rating is solely based on my personal enjoyment of this novel. It has nothing to do with the writing style or the very good story that was weaved. I did not read this whole book cover to cover, after reading it straight for about 25% I started skipping around and I also read the last few chapters, so cumulatively I read about 50% of the book. The Story Two realms, Earth and the Dream Realm. A witch and a young girl from the Earth realm and many characters in the Dream Realm. This young girl has had a very sad thing happen to her and this sort of creates her way into becoming the person needed to save the world. There are prophesies about an evil entity that will be released to the Earth and apocalyptic doom from there, but an ancient coven and a trapped sorcerer and the young girl are the ones who will be the center of saving or not saving Earth realm. Likes -The writing was great. Metaphors and riddles and rhymes, oh my. Also, the depths that the author went into describing and creating this other world was amazing. -I liked how the author gave little hints as to what Wicca really is and showed that there are misconceptions. (I am a believer, though not a practitioner) -I also liked that the story showed the paths of "enlightenment" basically. Going through the things that made Alice and Magog realize the things that they did that were not necessarily good and having them realize them. Dislikes -I didn't really like that around every corner it kept reminding us of how horrible the human race is (or at least that's how I took it). Some of us have redeeming qualities but we should all be ashamed at how horrible the human race really is. Which seemed to me to compete with the "everyone has the potential to be good or bad" thought that was also brought up. -I actually, personally, didn't enjoy all of the details....it seemed too too much at times and some scenes didn't seem like they were going to be necessary at all (though I ended up skipping around so I don't know if this is true) -The story seemed to drag out and then end abruptly with a cliffhanger. - It had so many different "real" thoughts and points of view in it that I ended up not enjoying it or wanting to enjoy it. Like it was an opinionated report that was made into a fantasy novel. -During the "enlightenment" path, some parts were just super crazy sad (i.e. the part with Magog meeting the old man/kid).....this is a dislike because I don't want to read a fantasy book and be sad about something like that. That part was all kinds of fudged up and I didn't like reading it, wish that woulda been a part that I had skipped. Every time I think about the story with Magog and the old man/kid I get sad and then mad that I read something like that. Conclusion I will not go back and finish reading the gaps that I skipped in this story any time soon. This is all personal for me though. I would suggest reading other reviews as well and seeing if this book is something that you may be interested in because the writing really is good and the story well thought out. A fantasy book for sure, just not my particular cup of tea. **free copy provided for review