Dying Embers by anupamarc.

OVERVIEW

BLURB

Blurb: A drone is found on Mars on the same day Zoe Blackwell starts her new career, hoping the past will leave her alone. 

But an innocent interview with a quirky centenarian leads to a string of outrageous events, and life spins fast out of control. The book that takes you from New York City to Egyptian ruins. Alien technology, ancient talisman, a secret society and a debutant reporter. 

Their paths merge for an explosive result ending in a [heart-stopping] car chase. Two love interests - childhood friend, Zachary and an intriguing online stranger, Jaxon - which one can she trust?

IN SHORT: Boring, regular, humdrum— nothing stood out—and the inside disappointed.

MORE DETAILED:

My first impression of Dying Embers was the blurb. And I loved it. The story concept was unique enough. But again, a unique story concept isn't everything I've come to realise. 

Execution plays a LARGE role as well. 

And Dying EMbers didn't deliver well in that area.

I started the book off with high hopes about where it would lead, what these adventures in Egypt would be about—how it'd develop and where it'd go from there. 

And even though I only read the first 3 chapters, I was already getting the vibe that the story wasn't going to meet up with the blurb's expectations. 

I expound below.

FULL REVIEW

I review with the following criteria.

COVER:

STORY CONCEPT:

GRAMMAR:

CHARACTERS AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

WRITING STYLE:

PACING/ORGANISATION:

IF IT WAS ENJOYABLE!

for a final score out of 35.

After I multiply it by a 100 and give it an overall rating.

COVER: 3.5/5 

Looking at the cover, I can see where the author tried to make it look as bright and engaging, but there are still areas it lacked. For one I think the text should look larger, and the image in the background doesn't really POP or STAND OUT that much.I can't really place my finger on it, but there's something it's missing, and that's why it got the score it did. 

Refer to these examples. 

STORY CONCEPT: 4/5

I liked the concept, as I usually do, but the execution was poor, disappointing and it nearly turned me off. 

And while it wasn't disastrous, there was a mundane tone to it. New York setting, getting coffee, nervous for a job interview. 

It started off like that, and all the words leading up to her boss sending her off to interview this centenarian was bland, regular, boring, humdrum.

The story concept, however, gets its due credit, as I remember giving my express enthusiasm for the blurb and the exploits it told of. 

GRAMMAR: 2.5/5

You were switching between tenses, which I addressed, and other basic, spelling and grammatical errors. Switching between tenses is a very serious thing, so you should watch out for that. Also basic word choice, so the only thing I can recommend is that you go through your work yourself and look into those. 

CHARACTERS AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: 2.75/5

The characters were bland. Regular. Generic. Not actual people, even. There wasn't anything wrong with them really, but that's the point. 

There wasn't a single thing wrong with them. 

They were ordinary, regular, functioning members of society. Zachary, gosh Zachary couldn't have been more generic. And while I seriously appreciated that you took the liberty of not  going into some in-depth detail about the structure of his face by random genetic selection, his dialogue was painful, awkward even. 

While you were good at setting the scene, the characters just seemed...regular. 

And that's the only impression I got from them. 

Looking back now into the recesses of my mind, literally nothing stands out to me except Zoe wants a job, her friend knows her way around New York and Zachary's a nice guy. 

And that's it. 

WRITING STYLE: 2/5

Again, nothing stood out about the writing style. I can appreciate its simplicity, it wasn't very heavy on prose, but at the same time, it was just, again, regular, ordinary, bland, dull, monotonous. 

And that's all there is to it. 

PACING/ORGANISATION: 2.5/5

The pacing was a bit strange, at times it was gradual, fine, it had a steady build up and constant flow, then it halted abruptly and threw me off track with awkward dialogue and fast decisions the characters made.

I was sure to comment where I felt such instances popped up, you can go look back at those.

I mentioned where Zoe was accepting the offer her boss sprung on her—there should have been more build up to him asking the question, tying it in with conversation and not silence, and more deliberation on Zoe's part. 

That's the only main anomaly I found, but be sure to check further into your novel for similar such inconsistencies.

DID I ENJOY IT? 2.75/5

It was, again, regular. 

I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either. 

This work has drawn a particularly casual, blasé or nonchalant reaction from me. 

And again, that's all it is.

TOTAL SCORE: 20
OVERALL RATING: 5.7

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Photos of Us by illwhiskit.