Martha

I picked up this ARC because it sounded cute. And it is. But it's also well-written, with realistic, funny characters and a believable story. Even the secondary characters feel real (and funny). The dialogue is real, motivations are believable (even for the semi-villainous beautician, poor lady), and the romance grows from positive interactions and a dash of attraction. My only big beefs are that I wanted more of the heroine's backstory sooner (not just in the big reveal at the end), and I wanted in on her thoughts just before the final confrontation/discussion (not just when she's telling the hero why she was stupid). Still plenty good enough to keep in my collection instead of deleting. My opinions are my own and left freely.

This is the book I wanted the original EI book to be. Instead of just talking about how important EI is, it actually gives ideas for improving your EI skills.

I would have given 3.5-4 stars, except I found the ending too deus ex machina. I found the explanation of the ending even more deus ex machina... What were the chances of that book being written, much less found??

Still, good writing, good characters, and an excellent reason for the “why can't you just talk about it to solve the problem” conundrum.

2.5 stars. Great science, great characters, but sometimes it was a bit too slow. Not sorry I read it, though.

I almost didn't finish this one because I didn't like the heroine. I'm not sure I would have missed anything.

In some ways, this book is a nice overview of self-publishing, including some business setup discussion, some nitty-gritty how-to details, and some mindset tips. But I found some glaring holes.
1) The only major retailers discussed are Amazon and Kobo, and Kobo gets only a brief mention. What about Draft2Digital, Apple, Barnes & Noble, or even Smashwords, PublishDrive, or Streetlib? There are even more, depending on your genre and format, but the basics would be a good start.
2) There is no mention of the business philosophy behind ISBNs to help authors decide if they want to use the free ones or buy their own.
3) No easy DIY book formatting options are mentioned, like Reedsy, D2D, Vellum, Atticus, or others. Sure, they have their different pros and cons and vary price points (including free), but that's why they deserve a discussion.
4) No mention of how to set up a business bank account (or even that you SHOULD).
5) There is no discussion of KU vs wide (which means “not KU and available a lot of places”). And yes, it's an important question.

So, do I recommend it? Sure, as a starting point before you research more, this is a great book. But if you're only going to read one self-publishing business book, this should not be it.

The theory and layout of this book are fine. My biggest problem is applicability. Not that I don't think it's applicable, because it is very useful in theory, but because I haven't quite figure out how to put it into practice. Lots of ideas, but how do I choose which one will work for my purposes? Maybe it's just my problem...

I have mixed feelings about this book. Some of the stories were funny & I laughed out loud at the frawgs. A few were touching. The last one was very odd and didn't match any of the rest. Very few of them surprised me. The author was good at implying things clearly, but I got tired of how many girls seemed to catch their man by not saying a word. I think I'm going to have to give 2.5 stars.

I do like a nice First Encounter story. :) I'll admit I skipped some of the science pages, but eh, that's okay.

Okay, I saw the plot twist a long way back, but it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the story. :) Gotta love a determined heroine and a kind hero who love each other for more than their pretty faces.

Disappointing

Loved the concept but not the execution. Didn't like half the povs, didn't spend enough time in the half I liked, and the plot was weak. For a book about king Arthur, it had remarkably little Arthur.

Would have gotten 3 stars if the grammar was better. I suspect this is either a translation or a non-native-English writer, which is fine, but it needed editing. No, I don't normally subtract stars for grammar, but I had to struggle to understand this.

Lots of ideas about sharing your collected family history with your family, though not much about teaching them how to DO family history. It was easy to read and entertaining.

1.5 stars.

I'd forgotten how much I love Liz's characters until I picked up this book. Real people with real problems, dumped in a situation they have to deal with, like it or not. And though there's a drop of magic in this book (tee hee), most of the solution comes from plain old human ingenuity and stubbornness. Actually, the same could be said of the problems, too... Though the book is easy to read because it's so well-written, it's not simplistic. Liz is a master. Don't be thrown by my stars— I save 5 stars for books that change my life, but 4 still means I'd happily recommend this to you in a heartbeat. In fact, I'm doing just that right now...

Content not suitable for all audiences.

1.5 stars. Spoilers included, but I don't know how to hide this review, so consider yourself warned.

I will admit up front that space opera isn't my favorite sci-fi subgenre, but I do like a good humans vs aliens story as long as it isn't horror. Not as much as I love a nice humans plus friendly-aliens story... But I digress. This... wasn't a good human vs aliens story. Too many descriptions of weapons (I started skipping as soon as the gun/whatever was named, because I don't care how cool it is), too many details in the battles, too many POV characters in too many places (and when certain VIPs are described in the final scene, I had no idea who they were because they weren't described earlier!). Okay, I know space opera is like this (weapons & battles), so I kept plugging away toward the ending where the humans are supposed to win. Then it became apparent the humans were going to lose when the aliens gave up the fight and decided to sandblast the planet entirely. Bummer, right?

Major spoilers after this... (Although when the cool scene on the back of the book comes from the last 5% of the story, that probably already indicates a problem and a lack of concern over spoilers.)

This is where the book dropped from a 3-stars-even-though-I-shouldn't-have-started to 1.5 stars. Because in order to save the humans from certain death in this very sci-fi world, the author pulled out... vampires. Say what? Yep, including Dracula. Not only that, but for some unexplained reason (no, I totally don't buy his supposed explanation that is super stupid and illogical and a kinetic-strike-sized plot hole), he's decided to wait to save humanity until 2/3 of the planet is dead. But then he and his very small army manage to wipe out every alien base in a matter of days, and hitch a ride to the spaceships to wipe out the rest of them. All with no problems at all, because of course vampires are unstoppable. And now they're going to take the spaceships to the alien planets and blow them all to smithereens.

Um, no. Just no. If you're going to put vampires in sci-fi (hello, Innkeeper series, I love you), then they need to be part of the universe from the beginning. Or at least the beginning needs to show that fantasy elements are included and anything is fair game. But pulling them out of your invisible back pocket in the last 20 pages? No. Have a very generous 1.5 stars and don't give me the sequel.

Good job of working in Christmas Carol without making it too weird. Nice family, nice characters. I still wanted to smack the H/h, though, for not seeing the obvious.

I'm sorry, but 1.5 stars. Not enough narrative between the dialogue to avoid feeling stark, way too many typos, and too many important scenes happened off-page. And that's not even counting the too-handy coincidences.

The writing was decent, and the motivations were much better than some dystopian sci fi I've read (especially the villain motivations), but somehow, it just didn't grab me.

Really liked the characters. Didn't like the head-hopping.

3.5 stars. I didn't agree with everything, but a lot of it hit right on the nose.

Started at 4 stars for the writing. Slid to 3 when the MC knowingly dangled two good men instead of choosing one, and kept doing it forever. Slid to 2 stars when the promised missionary lessons passed in a few paragraphs, and “the only thing keeping me from making a decision” was resolved but no decision appeared. Hit one for the ridiculous last-minute ending. Finally decided two was an average.

I read an advance copy of this book. I liked the Russian setting and the tie-ins to the Mongols and various fairy tales, but the MC spent so much time alone that I had a hard time enjoying the story. She worried about her mother–but didn't stay with her. She wanted to be with her boyfriend–but he left for the army. She was “adopted” by new grandparents–but we barely saw them, either. She dreamed of her dead father–but, obviously, since he was dead, we didn't see that much of him, either. I think she might have spent more time with her enemies than she did with her friends, and it didn't appeal to me.

It was refreshing to find an LDS rock star, and have him rightfully obey the Word of Wisdom and law of chastity, but the author missed a lot of opportunities to make his beliefs a bigger, more believable part of his life. As for the romance, it was cute, but all the obstacles were the same thing over and over.