It’s finally time for First Chapter Friday!!! This week something different: what happened is this: I receive emails every day from authors requesting Big Otter Books to read and review their books. That’s the cool part about having a blog!! Sometimes the books are exactly right for us and sometimes they are a bit …not… Either the genre is not what we read or the content is too much not what we read etc.
The bad thing right now is my time. There is literally not enough in the day to read all the books I want to read. Sadly, that means I have to send these wonderful people an email that says, sorry, can’t read your book right now. It just breaks my heart!!
That’s partly why I blog; because I don’t have that ‘thing’ to write fiction. I’ve tried & tried and the words just don’t flow. Somebody famous once said the way to write is to sit in front of your typewriter until blood drops form on your forehead!! I’ve done that, too and it doesn’t work for me! But these authors who contact me DO have the ‘thing’ and quite possibly bloody foreheads as well!!
So, even though I don’t have time to read their entire book, I read the first chapters. These are just two that I think some of my blog followers might enjoy reading; so, I’m featuring them on First Chapter Friday. Maybe they will be an “OTTER” read for you!!
The Valentine Circle is set in Boston 1885. A mystery man has been found on board a ship. He has no memory and there are odd weapons near him. This first part was pretty good as the characters were introduced and we got some great descriptions of the ship & area. The next part got a bit weird for me. The mystery man, now named Silas, joins the police force! Yep, he’s now a cop with no memory. There is a strange kidnapping of a child and Silas works the case. This was actually a pretty good first chapter. A bit convoluted and the author got a bit mixed up on present day & 1885 so an editor would have helped. But all in all, if you don’t mind taking your time to go through this, it looks like a good book. Based on just this first chapter, I would read the entire book if I just had the time!! This is a 3 star read.
I’ve read Jennifer L. Hart before. She’s the author of the hilarious Laundry Hag series. She also has new book out called Murder al Dente, a Southern Pasta Shop Mystery. In this Final Notice first chapter, Jennifer introduces the reader to Jackie Parker. Jackie is a process server who quits her job following too much touchyfeely by her boss. She joins her husband & brother in law in their property management company where she of course finds a body!!
If you enjoy a more adult book (not porn or too vulgar) just a very ‘real’ book about real characters, then you “OTTER” be reading Jennifer L. Hart books!! This is another one I wish I had time to read the whole thing. 4 stars.
Have a wonderful reading weekend!!
