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Book Reviews: A Marriage of Anything But Convenience and War INC

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Book Reviews Week Eight!

Romance book of the week: A Marriage of Anything But Convenience by Victorine E. Lieske. I’m trying to put more of a romantic comedy spin on some of my own romance books, and since this one was actually clean, I thought I would check it out.

Science Fiction book of the week: War INC by Toby Neighbors. Once again I was looking for a fun story with mechs in it, which is what this one promised.

A Marriage of Anything But Convenience

I didn’t love the premise of this book. It felt thinner than most romance books, and the girl is so annoying for the first half of the book that I almost stopped reading. However, the end was well thought out and redeemed it a bit.

Our hero Derek, is just about as nice and love-struck as they come. If not for him, Nara’s insistence for being annoying and whiny would have made me hate her through the first half of the book.

I also expected more humor. I did find it in the romantic comedy section, after all. I only chuckled out loud a few times, but others might like it more.

This is a mid-line book for me. Not stellar, but not terrible. A fun read, if you’re looking for an easy escape.

Three and a half stars.

It was a simple marriage of convenience. Just two years. What could possibly go wrong?

All Nara wanted was to become a fashion designer. That, and an IV full of Diet Coke to feed her favorite addiction. She never thought her father would force her into a marriage of convenience. And who did he choose for her wedded bliss? None other than Derek Marshall, Mr. Stuffy himself.

Derek’s been in love with Nara since they were kids, but he’s always become so tongue-tied around her. He wasn’t like the guys she dated, smooth and confident. No, he was too awkward and nervous. So, when Nara’s father decided it was best if they marry, he readily agreed.

Maybe being forced together for two years would make her see him differently.

War INC

I’ve never read anything by this author before, but he has a lot of fans who love his books.

I wanted to like this book, but the character voices were flat and bland. The entire first section reads more like a bullet point of things that happened to someone else rather than the character on the page, and the rest of the writing is only marginally better.

The whole book felt rushed—skipping over most of the character building moments to go into exposition on some facet of the story that while interesting, didn’t carry it for me.

This book felt more like a prequel and set up than it did an actual novel. The background plot of the company is somewhat interesting, and the battle mechs are almost interesting. I guessed the big surprise at the end, which isn’t a problem if it’s well told, which it wasn’t.

Considering the flat characters and shallow writing, I didn’t love it. It’s readable, but not if you’re looking for actual story. The author claims that this series is suitable for all ages, and he’s right about that. It lacks the swearing, gory violence, and sex of a lot of other sci-fi series. So there’s that.

Three stars.

When Alex sees a Defender Class battle mech shot down just meters from where he’s hiding, he knows he has to do something.

   Getting into a mechanized battle suit isn’t easy, and controlling the powerful war machine shouldn’t be possible without Ahzco’s secret Implanted Neural Control (INC) chip, but Alex is about to do something no one on a hundred worlds has ever done.  And his life is never going to be the same.

   In the future, mega corporations control entire star systems and are even more powerful than the government.  Competition isn’t just big business — it’s war!

   Join Alex Evans as he gets fast-tracked into Ahzco’s Corporate Defense Force and the world of mechanized warfare.  There are secrets that people will kill to keep, and dangers that can’t be avoided.  The company opens the entire galaxy to a young man from a colony planet, but Alex must determine if he can trust that Ahzco has his best interests in mind.  Or if he’s just another pawn in their corporate games.

That concludes Book Reviews Week 8

Tune in next Wednesday for my last week of reviews!

After that I’ll go to every other week. Probably.

Book Reviews: Abi and the Boy Next Door and Binti

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Book Reviews Week 6!

Guys, I can’t believe I’ve read twelve book in the last month and a half. It’s seriously been invigorating. I’ll keep reading and putting up reviews through June. By then you guys might be bored of the reviews. 🙂 I try not to bore people.

Romance book of the week: Abi and the Boy Next Door by Kelsie Stelting. This is another YA romance that I’d downloaded a while ago, and thought I would give it a try.

Science Fiction book of the week: Binti by Nneid Okorafor. No, I don’t even try to pronounce the author’s name, I’m certain I would slaughter it. I’ve seen this cover all over the place, and the ebook was on sale, so I picked it up.

Abi and the Boy Next Door

All in all this book was a fun read. I have some personal, nit-picky issues with it, but I’ll start out by saying the story is solid.

I didn’t realize this is the first of three books about this couple, which is a bit out of the norm. I probably won’t read either of the others, but if you’re looking for a YA romance series, this one might be for you.

Okay, now for my nit-picking. Abi, the point of view character and our heroine, has moved in with her grandma because her parents are abusive drug addicts and Abi finally got them thrown in jail. She’s broken. She’s also overweight. Both hard things.

The author tries very hard to give Abi a good character arc, but the only thing she does to change is eat right and exercise. Oh, and pine for the boy next door. That’s it. She’s kind of bland to her new friends. It’s the other people in the story that tell her how special she is. I’m not sure she ever sees it, and that was annoying. I like to feel that moment of release when the character understands who she really is. I didn’t feel it.

The love interest is the boy-next-door who is, well, practically perfect in every way. He’s so painfully perfect that even with a forced character arc, he’s very nice and very flat.

My other beef is that the author decided to use a size 3 model on the cover. Yes, Abi loses a lot of weight in the book, but as a chubby girl myself, it rubbed me the wrong way that they wouldn’t represent this girl properly.

I’ll give this one 3 1/2 stars.

It’s the first day at my new school and I already have a wide load sticker on my back.

But this is still better than life was before. Before I was taken away from my parents. Before I moved in with my grandma.

Before I met Jon Scoller.

He’s cute, he lives down the street, but the guy asks way too many questions. Questions about a past I’d rather forget.

And I am not his type. He needs to be with a cheerleader. A perfect girl. Someone who doesn’t look like the before picture for a weight loss shake.

Jon makes me feel like I’m more than a number on the scale, but I’m starting to wonder: does he feel the same way or does he just feel sorry for me?

Binti

This is a novella, not a full-length novel. Since there isn’t much in the way of YA sci-fi that isn’t dystopian, I thought I would check it out.

This book won some fancy awards, which I don’t usually put any credence in these days, but I have to admit this was a very different, very cool book.

The world the author creates is interesting, to say the least. There wasn’t a lot of explanation—no time in a novella—but there was enough to keep me grounded in what was going on.

I had to laugh at this review quote from an award-winning film director: “Binti is a supreme read about a sexy, edgy Afropolitan in space!”

Sexy? Uh, no. The girl was terrified most of the time (rightfully so) and was afraid to talk to the one boy she liked. She was a weak character that forced herself to become strong, but she was still scared.

Edgy? Uh, not really. No idea what this guy is talking about. The world is interesting. The aliens are everywhere and some are scary. The main character leaves her family and her life to fulfill her dream. What’s edgy about that?

Afropolitan. Not going to lie, I had to look that up to make sure I was right about the definition. This is true. She was from Africa and wanted to stay connected to her home and people. The story takes place far in the future, so it’s not Africa as we know it, but still fun.

The scant length of the story made it feel like the author had cut a lot out to shove it into a word count, which makes me sad. It could have made a great novel as well.

Four stars.

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti’s stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.

If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself — but first she has to make it there, alive.

That concludes Book Reviews Week 6!

Tune in next week for more reviews!

Book Reviews: Nantucket Inn and Rika Outcast

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Book Reviews Week 5!

Romance book of the week: Nantucket Inn by Pamela M. Kelley. This one has been lurking near the top of several romance categories since it came out a year ago, so I thought I would check it out.

Science Fiction book of the week: Rika Outcast by M.D. Cooper. I’ve met Mal Cooper, and I’ve been looking for something not strictly military sci-fi to read. This one has a lot of military components in it, so plenty of action, but without the strict structure. Sort of.

Nantucket Inn

This book is about a widow and her four adult children. The series lends itself to continued use of the same characters. There are two “happy for now” endings at the conclusion of this book, but no real “happily ever after.”

Instead of a romance novel, this one is really a romance series where your favorite character may or may not find true love, or they might go back to their loser boyfriend instead. Read the next book to find out what happens.

These books are still doing really well, so it’s a style a lot of people must like. I prefer a solid resolution and a “happily ever after” for the characters in my romance books.

My author brain twitched at the writing. There was a lot more outlining what was going on rather than having me see it through a character’s point of view, so that bugged me.

Three-and-a-half stars

Lisa Hodges needs to make a decision fast. Thanks to her dead husband’s gambling addiction, their savings is almost gone. In her early fifties with a large, waterfront home on Nantucket to support, Lisa hasn’t worked in over thirty years, has no in-demand skills and is virtually unemployable.

Her only options are to sell the house and move off-island, or, she could use her cooking and entertaining skills and turn her home into a bed and breakfast. She desperately needs it to succeed because she has four grown children with problems of their own and wants to stay close to them. 

Her oldest daughter, Kate, has a fabulous career in Boston–working as a writer for a popular fashion magazine and engaged to a dangerously handsome, photographer, who none of them have met.

Kate’s twin, local artist, Kristen, has been reasonably content with her on-again off-again relationship with an older, separated businessman. 

Her son, Chase, runs his own construction business and is carefree, happily dating here and there but nothing serious. 

Youngest daughter, Abby, is happily married to her high school sweetheart, and they’ve been trying to have a baby. But it hasn’t happened yet, and Abby wonders if it’s a sign that maybe their marriage isn’t as perfect as everyone thinks.

Come visit Nantucket and see how Lisa’s new bed and breakfast has an impact on almost everyone in her family. It’s the first book in a new series that will follow the Hodges family, friends, and visitors to Nantucket’s Beach Plum Cove Inn.

Rika Outcast

This book promised a kick butt female character and lots of action. It delivered.

There’s a prologue sort of thing at the beginning that isn’t really needed unless you want the gruesome details of how Rika gets made into a mech soldier, but the author does a good enough job in the rest of the book that you don’t need it.

Rika’s character arch is good, but loses its own way a few times in the story. A couple of the women were too sweet/tender to me, which is strange, but there you go. The guys crack me up.

The story could have used another 10k words to flesh it out a bit, and the story seems to end at one point, then goes on. A better bridge between the sections would have helped.

All in all this was a fun read. A bit more swearing than I prefer, but I’m sensitive about that and won’t hold it against the author.

Four stars

A cyborg killing machine, created by the Genevian military and cast aside when the war was lost.

Now she slings cargo on Dekar Station, falling deeper in debt as she struggles to make enough money to keep her cybernetic body functioning. The local gangs would love to have her join their ranks, and the takings would pay her bills, but the only thing Rika hates more than what she’s become, is killing for others.

But morals don’t buy repairs and she’s at the point of utter desperation when her loan holder cashes in her debt and sells her to the highest bidder.

When Rika wakes, she’s in a warehouse on a planet she’s never heard of, and a trio of mercenaries are reassembling her body. Their mission is to kill the world’s president, and her mods and abilities are just what they need to get the job done.

Whether she likes it or not, Rika is in the business of killing once more as she joins the ranks of the Marauders.

There you go! Book Reviews Week 5!
Tune in next week for more reviews.