Kim Jones

A great introduction to the subject

Revisado: 05-04-21 El oyente recibió este título gratis

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

This book is a great introduction to setting out and explaining Reiki, especially for those who are overwhelmed by how complex and confusing it looks from the outside. It takes you through the different schools and explains their systems and helps guide people toward a path that may be the best for them.

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An interesting premise with a weak foundation

Revisado: 12-24-20 El oyente recibió este título gratis

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review. The premise of the book is interesting, but it quickly begins to shake itself apart as the foundation of the story begins to collapse and it tries to prop itself up with several cliche tropes as it limps toward the finish line. The main character goes from being a strong protagonist to a weak teenager and flips between the two as needed for the story. The why of the acceptance ceremony is never explained and never makes any sense at all, and the science of the deadly virus, science we've all become familiar with over the last year unfortunately, also doesn't make any sense.

There's a concept that, while a touch cliche, is intriguing. It was just unfortunately bogged down by trying to conform to popular tropes of the genre instead of standing out as something more original. Hopefully future books in the series break away from the tropes that tend to drown many books in the YA genre and stand on its own. I would warn readers that later chapters of the book do heavily skirt the line of the 'noble savage' trope, to the point where it's almost nearly offensive, and the accent the reader chose to take for those characters does not help.

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Many flags of floating colors

Revisado: 12-15-20 El oyente recibió este título gratis

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review. The book starts what promises to be an amazingly interesting fantasy series by showing the reader tantalizing glimpses of mysteries and the political ties that bind that fantastical world together. And, with tension pulling on each thread of yarn, it leaves the reader waiting expectantly for the next book in the series to see how the entire map is torn asunder and woven anew.

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Fast adventures on the red planet

Revisado: 11-07-20 El oyente recibió este título gratis

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review. The story hits the ground running and never stops to take a breath. It's a thrilling detective story, following the main character and her collected fellowship of friends along the way. While it would have been nice to see the world fleshed out a bit, enough references are certainly made that there is an untold history there, it stands alone quite well and makes a great start to a series.

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Saccharine in all the worst ways

Revisado: 10-24-20 El oyente recibió este título gratis

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

The series stars well enough with an interesting premise; magic in baked goods! It's fascinating, and the first book quickly ushers everyone to the dinner table with the murder of the head of the guild. But then the first course is served, seasoned though a little bland, and the wine is sour with the main character's standard trope of everything bad in the universe always happening to her, and the rest of the meal just becomes worse after that. Until, finally, you're handed a half scoop of mud coated with a pound of sugar and told it's the best thing ever.

The books have an interesting skeleton with their magic users, but the flesh is tacked on in an attempt to look like murder mysteries and political revolution, but all it really ever comes down to is painfully crafted romance plots. Nothing else really seems to matter but the romance, and it's the variety of romance that maybe a young reader would find fascinating but the rest of us are left with a tooth ache over how sappy and sugary it all is. It takes what could have been interesting and just shrugs and says a lukewarm bowl of mushroom broth is as good as the steak dinner with sides that was on the menu.

From the over description of clothes every time a wardrobe change is performed, and you will always know, down to the detail, what every character is wearing, to everything revolving around 'true love is best' and 'true loves saves the day' at the end, this is a series where the syrup fermented and went bad, and leaves the taste of vinegar and relief in the mouth once it is finally over.

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A good book about an often forgotten history

Revisado: 08-19-20 El oyente recibió este título gratis

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

This is an interesting and fascinating book about the often overlooked history of the fall of the Byzantine empire. It carefully guides the listener through the politics and battles of the waning days of that grand and crumbling empire. How so much at the end centered around the battle of Manzikert, and a betrayal there would ultimately lead to the fall of an empire.

If you, like myself, have merely just a passing knowledge of the Byzantine empire as one that existed, and put no more thought behind it but are curious to know more, then I highly suggest this book. It is not dry enough to parch as history book can sometimes be, but breathes life into a nearly forgotten memory from the pages, and does a beautiful job in telling how the fall came to be.

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