AUTHOR: Samantha Storm
PUBLISHER: New Concepts Publishing
LENGTH: Long novella (roughly 36k)
GENRE: Paranormal romance
COST: $3.99
Friday Maxwell is a Demon Killer, or rather, a Demon Killer in training. When she is ambushed on the way home, her savior turns out to be a mysterious Van Spencer, with an attitude as thick as molasses and a grandmother who reads Tarot cards. Her life quickly becomes entangled with his, and they join forces, albeit reluctantly, to save a group of children from the same demons that destroyed Friday’s DK group.
While the blurb for this long novella sounded like most of the other urban fantasies out there right now, the excerpt that was posted on the site was too entertaining not to try. The entire story is written in 1st person, a common feature in this type of kickass heroine story, and while sometimes it’s obvious the author doesn’t really have a handle on it, Ms. Storm does surprisingly well. Her heroine Friday is funny and astute, without being obnoxious about it. She gets her way through action scenes with aplomb and takes the reader along for the ride.
Where the story is let down is in its editing. There are numerous errors that should have been caught prior to publication, including one that’s unintentionally hilarious when, at the climax of a sex scene, Friday reflects, I felt another organism building inside me. I don’t want to think she’s all of a sudden Ripley, and an alien is going to rip out of her chest.
This story is an urban fantasy first, and a romance second, which is likely why the characterization of Van, Friday’s unwilling partner, doesn’t get the same attention Friday’s does. As an action figure, he’s intriguing to watch. His taciturn behavior on the down time, however, makes it very difficult to form a solid opinion about him.
While an enjoyable afternoon read, what this story really needed to be a truly great book was to be about twice its length in order to give Van more time to develop and the plot to smooth out and make more sense. The ending makes it clear the author intends this to be a series, so I hope she doesn’t shortchange her stories in the future. It’s okay to write longer stories when the plot and characters merit it. Let’s hope the author realizes she’s got a heroine who’s worth it.
| Readability | 7/10 – An entertaining author’s voice gets spoiled by unfortunate editing. |
| Hero | 6/10 – Great as an action figure, but when it comes to personality, a little lacking. |
| Heroine | 9/10 – Kickass, sassy, and likeable with a sense of humor. |
| Entertainment value | 7/10 – An entertaining heroine kept me involved, but editing issues and jumps in plot that came out of nowhere pulled me enough out of the story not to have this higher. |
| World building | 7/10 – 1st person stories are hard with detail, though this succeeds on a small level. Where this lacks is the history/explanation of all the paranormal elements, leaving a reader to scratch her head more than once. |
| TOTAL: | 36/50 |
2 comments:
Thanks for the great review. I'm glad you liked Friday. I promise to give her a bigger story next time ;-) This is the first story I've written in first person. I admit it was a huge challenge.
p.s. I spit Pepsi all over my monitor when I got to the alien coming out of her chest part. What can I say-- I did my best to catch everything, but apparently missed that big oops. And I guess so did the person who edited my book.
Though now I'm thinking about it what an interesting plot twist--having sex when suddenly an alien breaks through Friday’s skin, goes berserk and bites Van's head off. Praying Mantis sex. Hmm, maybe for the sequel ;-)
Samantha Storm
Praying mantis sex makes me think of Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, lol.
Good to hear that Friday is getting more stories. She's definitely a keeper. I'll keep an eye out for them. :)
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