Review: The Abduction

The Abduction by Ester Lopez
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The story was good, the premise was extraordinary, but the plot integration leaves a lot to be desired. Loved the set up, but with no explanation of why the girl mis-identified Adam as Dram (the criminal she was chasing for 10 years) was confusing. Then the Ah-ha moment that they looked exactly the same except for age. Should have taken note on the fact Genesis didn't look closely enough at the young man to see he wasn't the older man. That says a lot about her character.

As an editor, there were a lot of plot holes, and some plot point mistakes that make this hard to read. I thought we'd put behind us the days where females made stupid decisions. If a person has been chasing criminals as a bounty hunter for 10 years -- even if it has only been 1 criminal -- this person would have rubbed elbows with other criminal types for 10 years and would/should be able to see through motives and traps. My suspension of belief went out the window.

Romance rarely mixes well with adventure. It is extremely hard to do it well. Most of the time, main character A likes main character B's body and face and falls into "love" that is really lust. It is basically the same thing here. There is no reason why Adam should fall in love with Genesis except those chemistry fizzes that fizzle out. Plenty of reasons Genesis should fall for Adam as he is kind, caring, honest, and high integrity level (keeps promises). But she doesn't know that right away, so why fall in love? It doesn't make any sense. They aren't together long enough to get to know each other well enough to fall in love.

The premonitions are a contrivance that doesn't work all that well. They don't help Adam so, why have them? Therefore, plot ploy doesn't work well or move the story along. They don't create tension. However, the telepathy does work, and I really like the way it's sort of learning how to walk for Adam.

Faith in God is not really explored until about half way into the story. There are some aspects of this part of the story line that are really good. I like that we don't have to wonder about who God is. But, bolding the Vaedra words just detract from the story flow. Using 2 different words for napkin is not necessary and leaves the reader wondering why use 2 different words? The Vaedra language is not part of the story, so skip over those mind traps.

Here is a bit of advice for the author and other newbie authors out there: When writing adventure, or mystery, or suspense, keep the kisses and fondling well toward the end of the story. Give each character plenty of reasons to fall for each other and your readers will love them, too.

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Review: Broken Chain

Broken Chain by Julia David
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wonderful love story with a very unusual "hero." I love Ben, but he drove me crazy. Margaret had some things to learn as well. Great character development, great journey toward love, and the song lyrics at the end are beautiful.

Great story premise. I'm not sure how I like Ben's relationship with Nadine, but it is so true how young people confuse love with those chemistry fizzies. But Ben finally sees the light not just about what love really is, but also sees himself through the eyes of God.

I know there are a lot of folks who buy into other people's opinions thinking that is truth. I didn't learn how false that is until my divorce driving back from Arizona. It was as if God embraced me, enfolding me in His hand and told me that the only person I needed to worry about pleasing was Himself. What a freeing moment that was. Especially when Bible study showed me I was acceptable to Him the instant I took His Son into my heart as my Savior.

I have never seen this fact illustrated in a work of fiction before. Great insight.

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