Sarah's Library

8/1 - I haven't read much yet, but I few things have caught my eye.  First I noticed a few awkward phrases, like "If you want to be held harmless,", which made me think that maybe Jordan Dane (I think that might be a pen name) does not have English as her first language.  It's clear, from the context, what she's trying to say in the phrase, but the way she wrote it isn't what might be called 'correct English'.  The second thing that I noticed, but this time it was amusing, was the use of Tortuga Island as Kincaid's pirate hideout, the name of which I immediately recognised (before I read it in the book) as the name of Captain Jack's place to find a pirate crew in Pirate's of the Caribbean, which I have now learned was also actually a filming location for one of the sequels (I assume the location scouts did that on purpose).  To be continued...

9/1 - This isn't impressing me much.  The strange phrasing continues and is irritating and the plot is a bit weak.  I feel like Dane is trying to shock readers with the amount of violence the terrorists are enacting on the hostages, but to my, possibly cynical, mind it reads like "Ho hum, read it all before, when's something unexpected going to happen?"  It also feels a bit disjointed, I don't know if that's the writing or if it's because I'm reading the third book in a series before reading the first or second books.  Will continue but I think The Echo of Violence is heading for a 2 star.

12/1 - On the back of the book there's a quote from 'New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan', that says "Hot romance and cold suspense.  Intense and satisfying."  After finishing The Echo of Violence last night I'd have to disagree with that praise.  There was NO ROMANCE to speak of and the suspense wasn't cold or even suspenseful.  Not intense or satisfying in the least.  I feel compelled to read the first book in the series simply because that might make it more fair on the plot.  I thought maybe, since I hadn't read the first book first, I hadn't given the story a fair shot to engage me, so I will give the first one a go before I completely condemn the series.