Love's Beginning: Historical Christian Short Story (Eagle Harbor) 28 Sep 2015 | Kindle eBook by Naomi Rawlings
I think I have committed some sort of sin, a faux-pas perhaps. I have only given this review two stars on Goodreads and Amazon cannot find anywhere to review it. Mind you everyone else seemed to like it, but I suppose if you are a fan of the author, and this particular series you will find some good in it. But, eight pages? Really??? My review can also be found on Goodreads: https://goo.gl/bpwTxV
£0.99 Kindle Edition
This eBook is only 18-pages long, and of that Love's Beginning is only 8-pages long. Two pages thank the reader and includes an excerpt from Love's Every Whisper. There is a link that will take you to the Naomi Rawlings Author Newsletter where you can sign up for regular news and the offer of a free book too. There is also a request that is you like the short story Love's Beginning to spread the word on Facebook Twitter and Pinterest.
I have issues with the page numbering, see Observations)
Here we go.
THE REVIEW
Love's Beginning
This is the prequel, if you like, to the series. This is when the reader is introduced to Elijah, Gilbert, Rebekkah, and Victoria. This Elijah versus the school bully and he is going to lose again, for a principle.
Ahh, it's those wonderful days of corporal punishment when your parents were expected to smack you with a willow can if you displease them. Boys wore shorts to school, and you carried your lunch to school in a pail. A time when all the kids would stand around in silence to watch a fight instead of encouraging
Conclusion
This is a tidy (Welsh word for good) introduction to the series but at only eight pages long, I am sure there is more that could have been harvested to draw us into the characters and their stories, so I wonder if it was written as a backstory to the first book and never got revised. There are no chapters, only line breaks in this short story.
Love's Every Whisper Chapter One
The years have moved us on, Elijah's passion for Victoria is not diminished and neither have his principles. Victoria is out with a lantern looking for a ship that has yet to make port, a ship that has friends on board. Elsewhere another ship has run aground. Some of the crew and passengers are safe but others need rescuing. Elijah, now the leader of a life-saving boat (the first RNLI for British readers if you like) is getting ready to go to sea in the worst weather the port has ever seen. Meanwhile, there is no news from their friends or the ship they were travelling on.
Conclusion
It's a tantalising start to what I know will be another good story. There are line breaks in this opening chapter which help to move the story around.
Overall Impression of the whole eBook
It is well written, good layout and no mistakes. Even, given the differences between the two English languages, these two parts of the whole series still flow, which holds good for the rest of the books from this author. However, as I mentioned in the beginning, it is the numbering and technical layout that gives me concerns.
Is it a good read?
Not for me, it's so-so. 2 out of 5 stars. I am not that there is enough here for me to want to follow this up. As a stand-alone, it only offers questions and little in the way of conclusion.
Observations
The numbering system of eBooks always throws me. Why does the cover picture show on a righthand page like a normal book, and be shown as page one? Then the title, copyright, etc all appear as increasing page numbers of the book too. Surely page one of a regular book starts with the first page of text, be it part number headings or even Chapter One (1). Why confuse the reader? Either do not number the preliminary pages or number them as roman numerals.
Given that eBooks are trying to mirror published paper books, I can only assume the layout is supposed to mirror the printed layout too. This the numbering systems of the pages of the book:
1/18, 1/18, 2/18, 2-3/18, 3-4/18, 4-5/18, 5/18, 5-6/18, 6-7/18, 7-8/18, 8/18, 9/18, 10/18, 10-11/18, 11-12/18, 12/18, 12-13/18, 13-14/18, 14/18, 14-15/18, 15-16/18, 16-17/18, 18/18, -/18.
YOU ARE READING
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