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Peacock Flock Review #25 - March

March 

Author: Sunni Overend

Length: ~ 300 pages

Genre: Romance

Heat level: Moderate - for details highlight between parentheses
(Some explicit terms in foreplay, but jumps over the full 'scenes'

Stars: 3 Enjoyable Purple Stars 



Book Summary:

A creative wunderkind who once topped the country's most prestigious fashion school, Apple March is now languishing behind a retail counter. When fate shifts and her imaginative passion is reawakened, so too is the threat of a past secret.From the cool heart of Melbourne to Paris and New York, in a vibrant world of Pimms and croquet, crocodile boots and cocoon coats, Apple seeks the thrill of creative freedom and the one man worth sharing it with.A page-turning debut novel written with fun, stylish wit, March is too satisfying to miss.


Review:

We liked this. Most of the characters had distinctive traits and we thought the descriptions of everything fashion and designer were done well. However. That's about all we have for positives. There were a fair few typos and some larger ones where the sentence had to be reread a few times to understand. The main character Apple had little direction and although this did give her character some room to grow it made for a very lagging beginning. Plus Charlie and his whole family were in desperate need of some flaws. Everything about them was too perfect. Too picturesque. And did Apple come from money or not? It wasn't really clear and if she was more middle class why on earth wasn't there more reaction to the obscene amount of opulence experienced by Charlie and his family? Going to a croquet tournament and having a private area with rugs and your own personal waiter serving champagne? Yeah Apple took all the richness too much in stride for me. And the plot was just so-so. Not a lot of unexpected or unpredictable. We wanted more from it. This book hovered dangerously between 3 stars and 2.5 stars, but it was a cute (albeit very transparent) ending, so we put it into the 3 star bracket.
This review would've been 3.5 stars but we had to take .5 star off for language. There were 40+ f bombs. That is way too much swearing. And that's just the f words. We didn't even count other swears. We specifically state in the review policy that we don't like excessive language. Maybe it's different in Australia where much of the book takes place, but anything more than 5 f words and we just do not like it. We'd prefer there to be none at all. This was just time after time. From an authors stand point as well this was too much repetition. Even if it's common in Australia for f bombs to be dropped that often (which we honestly don't know) the characters began to sound all the same. And it begs the question whether or not these characters have any depth to them as they're using the same words and expressions. 
So it's a light read with okay characters. But only pick it up if you can handle a lot of language. 










That's it from the flock! 







Remember


Peacock Flock Review #24 - Wings




Wings 

Author: Aprilynne Pike

Length: ~ 290 pages

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Heat level: Clean  

Stars: 3 Enjoyable Purple Stars 



Book Summary:

Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pale things with wide eyes. They were terrifyingly beautiful—too beautiful for words.

Laurel turned to the mirror again, her eyes on the hovering petals that floated beside her head. They looked almost like wings.

In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.



Review:

We enjoyed this book and read it really quickly. However we read this for the story and the world, not the characters or the depth. Most of the characters had a serious lack of flaws and there was very little conflict in the story besides a couple outside influences about 3/4 into it and the all too stereotypical choice between two guys. The concept was amazing and we loved all the scenes between Tamani and Laurel plus we liked some of the details about the world building. (Like the hair/eye colour change of the faeries) But the whole faerie world created really could've been fleshed out better. That entire King Arthur aspect should've been left out and substituted for more details about the people and the culture. This book was also quite slow. Not a lot happening. Especially in the beginning. 30 pages in and very little had happened. We wished Tamani had been introduced sooner. And we had a problem with the lack of depth in the characters. Very few if any flaws. And hardly any substantive conflict at all. We wanted more mistakes. More tension. More doing the wrong thing. But that said we did read it in two days and will be reading the next book in the series. Make of that what you will. It was a good read. 










That's it from the flock! 





When Your Writing Gets a Burst

So the posts I'd planned on writing this week didn't happen because I was getting ready for the Kamloops Writer's Fair. Worth every single penny and definitely planning on making this an annual
thing for me!
There was an open mike night, blue pencil interviews and I went to two amazing workshops that were exactly what I needed for my writing right this moment. (Editing and ebook publishing)
Even though I'm totally drained I'm happy I went and I'm inspired and gunning for doing a lot more with my writing. If any of you, my readers, live in and around the interior BC area plan on making it to the writer's fair next November! If not I'd encourage any of you other writers out there to find a local group to attend. Nothing beats rubbing shoulders with other writers when you're in a slump. You talk and discuss writing and in conversations about your current WIP (that's Work In Progress for all you non-writerly folks) and what you love to write, all of sudden you can't wait to get back to your computer.

So get back to it! Write and enjoy the writing, find the passion that started you on the writing path to begin with. If you're not a writer, explore and discover your own passion and then set aside time each week to enjoy your passion just for yourself. As for me? I'm going to go polish off a new scene in my Lasera novel and then set about typing more in Book 2 :D


Cheers!


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