500 Subscriber Celebration - Free Books and More!
Download After It's Over and The Danger of Being Alone Together for Free!
We Did It! - 500 Email Subscribers
When I started on this journey as an indie author, I knew a big part of that was being able to communicate with you, my readers. Since that time, I started things like a social media presence and in March of 2022, I sent out my first newsletter to 3 subscribers. At that time, I was only publishing serial fiction. Over the last 18 months, in addition to serial fiction, I’ve published four novels and one short story. Thank you for supporting my work. I’m always grateful for every reader, regardless of where you found my work.
Free Book Giveaway - After It’s Over and The Danger of Being Alone Together
To celebrate 500 subscribers, I’m making two of my books available for free to download on Kindle for the next 5 days.
After It’s Over, the story that launched my fiction writing career. After suffering through the pandemic, I needed to do something, anything to communicate the emotions and loss I felt. This story was my answer. I know many of you have already read it and I hope you’ve found your way to the sequel as well, Before it Began. If you’ve read it, please share this free opportunity with a friend. If you haven’t, what are you waiting for! Get it for free today.
The Danger of Being Alone Together: Essays on Technology and Truth is something completely different, or is it? Before I ever started writing fiction, I wrote regularly under my own name, not the pen name, Hunter Chadwick. What? You didn’t know it was a pen name? :) This book is a collection of expanded articles and essays on the way technology interacts with our lives. It is written according to my Christian worldview. If you want the opportunity to see more about how I think, this book offers a clear peak behind the curtain.
Both are free now through Sunday, October 29th. Pick them up now!
The Frailty of Hope Hard Covers now available
Moving back to the other side of the world has delayed some of my non-writing book tasks, but I was finally able to get the files together for the release of The Frailty of Hope in hard cover. It looks beautiful and I hope you’ll check it out.
Book Review - The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
I love dragons and dragon stories. Some of my favorite fantasy novels have centered around dragons and the interplay between dragons and humans and other creatures. When this book started going viral on social media, I was very interested in checking it out. This book is marketed as a YA/dragon/romance mashup.
At the time I’m writing this, the book has over 600,000 reviews on Goodreads with a 4.7 rating and almost 100,000 on Amazon with a 4.8 rating. There are no ratings below a 3. This is staggering. Incredibly popular, almost universal approval. More people have already read this book than will ever read anything I’ve written or will write. It’s a freight train.
I was able to check out the audiobook from my local library this summer and over the course of a couple of weeks, I listened to the whole thing. I read profusely and listen to many audiobooks, but this one was difficult to finish.
So here I am, stepping in the path of the freight train to say, “I hated this book.” That being said, I can see the appeal. I’ve read the Throne of Glass series and some of my indie author friends write in similar genres. I‘ve read books that this reminded me of, but I found this severely lacking in comparison. I know this puts me in the minority. That’s obvious. I do know that there are others out there, even if they haven’t posted reviews on Amazon. You’ll find people who agree with me in the dark corners of social media.
So, what did I not like? First, I’ve seen this generally promoted as YA around the net and the writing does remind me of some of the YA books I’ve read. That’s not a compliment. I’ve never read anything labeled YA with such graphic sex scenes. There are two long, and I mean long, sex scenes with all the details. At least I guess, I skipped and skipped and finally reached the end. They seemed to go on forever. Not my thing and not what I ever expect to find in anything mentioned as YA.
The characters weren’t engaging. The central character, Violet Sorrengail, struck me as much more immature than the supposed 20 years of age. Her dialogue seemed bratty and unrealistic. Personally, I like my fantasy with characters that don’t speak like high school girls, but that might just be a personal preference. The romance was fairly predictable.
The dragons were interesting and the idea was promising, but the development just didn’t do it for me. I applaud the author for the intriguing idea of a pseudo military flight school that advances year by year Harry Potter-style as they get to know their dragons and each other. It’s a brilliant premise. That makes the execution all the more disappointing.
There is a nice surprise towards the end of the book that sets up some overall plot intrigue going forward, though I won’t be continuing. This was probably my first viral BookTok book that I read. I hope this isn’t representative of the quality overall. I can’t quite give it 3 stars, but feel bad giving such a popular book 2 stars. Maybe 2.5 for the premise and the dragons is the right score. It’s possible you’ll be like the majority and find The Fourth Wing soars. For me, it’s just a turkey.
As always, I welcome your comments and feedback. :)