Ink of Blood

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’m going to say, first off, that real-life Hitler was an awful human being. The idea that he could survive to exist in the modern world is, well… a pretty scary and disturbing one.

So why did I enter a giveaway to win this book? Well, it was out of sheer curiosity. When I was younger, I watched a comedy film that was set in Germany during the period Hitler was in power. I don’t remember much about it, save that there were amusing moments where a Hitler lookalike managed to fool people.

I feel that this book could have been done better. I didn’t actually find very much of it amusing. At first, it was mildly funny to see Hitler’s reactions to modern day things, but by the end of the book, I was left with a very dissatisfied feeling.

I don’t think I can really say very much more about this book. It didn’t portray Hitler in the kind of way I’d feel a satire should. There’s clearly been a lot of research that’s gone into this book, but I feel that the use of the first person has created a more sympathetic character that really shouldn’t be applied to Hitler.

I have a couple of friends who have expressed an interest in reading this book. If they’re still interested, I’ll pass it on to them, but I personally don’t have much interest in reading this book again.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Having read the first volume of this book, I immediately jumped at the chance to read the second when the author offered free copies.

School students aren’t always sweet and innocent. They’re maturing earlier – and some of them do take things to the extreme. Perhaps not to the extent in these stories, but how many students lie about their homework being eaten by the dog? So the one about the student who tries to lend truth to his lies is one that strikes a particular chord. Situations can quickly spiral out of control.

Living in a fantasy world was what made my school days bearable. Yes, my world was of dragons, princesses, talking cats, swords and sorcery, etc., but creating an entire fantasy around real people is fairly common even in adults. (There’s a good example of this in the story of Stephanie Ware Ackles. Look her up at your own peril). And, yes, sometimes admiration and a crush can turn into obsession.

A lot of these stories are about students who reach breaking point. Again, these are extreme, but in many cases, the stories resonate. There are stories of things going too far in real life. Schools can sometimes be seen as a battlefield.

These stories do primarily focus around Chinese students and the Chinese culture. Even so, there are situations that can link into real life. The drive to succeed at all costs, for instance, and to fit in and become popular. Unfortunately, those are real issues faced by students and the teachers who tutor them.

For the most part, this book was fairly well-written, though I did notice a few errors. It is an entertaining read, especially the bits at the beginning and the end. Also, it’s an example of first person story telling done well.

Make no mistake. These stories are violent – and graphically so. But if you don’t mind that, I think this book is definitely worth trying out.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

This book wasn’t quite how I expected. The title, blurb and cover were really appealing and made me want to read this book, so I was happy when I won a copy.

I did struggle a bit to get into the story, unfortunately. Quinn was a well-developed character by the end of the book, but it was really hard to relate to the other characters.

I did like the religious aspects to this book and how the story mirrored Job’s in the Bible.

I noticed a lot of errors in the writing. That was one of the things I felt made this book more difficult to read.

I do think this book could be improved. A beta reader would help to check the spelling, grammar and punctuation of this book. I felt that a lot of the book was telling the story rather than showing what was going on.

I would be interested in reading an edited version of this book, but at the moment, I’m afraid it reads more like a first draft.

(I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I did find this book one that was really easy to read. It was really entertaining to read and I did like the characters in the book.

At times, I did find it a bit difficult to differentiate between the characters, though. Mit and Mikey had very similar names, so I kept getting confused between the two. I did, however, find the characters to be really well-written for the most part.

I thought it was good that the author spent as much time on the characters as the storyline itself. It was particularly realistic how Anthony and his friends reacted to the differences that Anthony was showing. It was also nice to see that his friends acted like true friends – they didn’t just abandon him once the differences became clear.

It was good to see realistic consequences happen to the characters. The danger they were in came across really well and it was intense enough to keep me reading.

I did notice quite a lot of errors in the book – mostly wrong words being used, rather than misspellings. For instance, ‘wrapping’ was used instead of ‘rapping’ and ‘curdled’ instead of ‘curled’.

This was a really good book and I would definitely be interested in reading the next book in the series in the future, when I’ve finished the many books I currently have left to read.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I like animals – or most of them, at least. Cats are my favourite, but dogs (and wolves) are a close second.

It was interesting that the beginning of the book was written from the perspective of Maggie. It’s impossible to truly know what goes through an animal’s mind, but I felt that the author showed a particularly good understanding of the behaviour of dogs and their relationships with humans.

Scott was a particularly likable character. I found it really easy to relate to them and it was good to see how he bonded with Maggie. I felt that as much of the book was focused on them as partners as on the case itself – and I felt that was one of the stronger points of this book.

The other characters were fairly interesting as well, though I would have liked to see a bit more of them. Some of the characters didn’t appear all that much, so when they did, I got a bit confused about them.

I felt that the PTSD both Scott and Maggie were suffering from came across really well, as did the patience involved in working with a dog who’d experienced that. Some of the things made me smile, while other scenes made me a bit sad.

The writing was particularly good in this book. I only have one real nitpick – paragraphs. I noticed that a character would perform an action and then their speech would be a new paragraph, instead of being in the same paragraph. That did happen quite a lot.

I found this book to be really easy to read and the tension came across really well. I really cared about the characters and the plot. I would definitely be interested in reading more books by this author, especially further ones that focus on Scott and Maggie.