kappareads's review against another edition
1.0
If I could give it a .5 star, I would.
Just... everything. Unrealistic dialogue, creepy LI who keep saying "female," the amount of telling not showing, the fact that the MC goes from able-bodied to paraplegic to magically healed, the weird appropriation of Cherokee myths, and the complete and utter lack of plot.
I got this for free years ago, and I still want my money back.
Now if you excuse me, I'm going to delete this off my Kindle now.
Just... everything. Unrealistic dialogue, creepy LI who keep saying "female," the amount of telling not showing, the fact that the MC goes from able-bodied to paraplegic to magically healed, the weird appropriation of Cherokee myths, and the complete and utter lack of plot.
I got this for free years ago, and I still want my money back.
Now if you excuse me, I'm going to delete this off my Kindle now.
somarostam's review against another edition
2.0
I signed up in a virtual blog tour, for the third book in The Guardians Of Vesturon series, so I had to read the first two books. Survival is the first book in the series, and it honestly disappointed me.
Maddie had lived a hard life, her parents are dead, and she is trying to live a normal life in college. But on Christmas break, she goes home to do some hiking. What she doesn't know, is that there is a cruel, monstrous man watching her every move. He is planning to kill her slowly and violently.
After catching her, Maddie's abductor almost takes the life out of her with a arrows, and leaves her at the place where she has fallen off, thinking she is dead. Although she is severely injured, she is not dead yet. A secret culture are living near that place and they call upon the Guardians of Vesturon to help her.
The Guardians take her to a cave, where they heal her, but her legs are paralyzed. The only place where she can be totally healed is on the planet of Vesturon, but the guardians are forbidden to take humans there.
Sometimes, rules are meant to be broken. As Rayn, one of the guardians and the future leader of Vesturon, falls instantly in love with Maddie and takes her to their planet to be healed. After getting back from Vesturon, Rayn and his guardian family, four brother and one sister, get to know Maddie better as she now lives in their veiled house.
Everything will turn out okay, if only Rayn's father would leave him alone. Rayn is taken back to Vesturon for a trial to decide his destiny after what he had done. When Rayn goes away, he leaves Maddie in the hands of his siblings, they should take care of her, and that's exactly what they do, until....
After talking to Rayn a little bit by telepathy, and setting the tired Sharra (Rayn's sister) to sleep, Maddie decides to take a walk around. But her abductor has come back, he is there, and now he is drop-dead willing to take Maddie down, once and for all.
What will happen to Maddie? Will she be able to escape her cruel abductor?And will she ever be able to live happily with Rayn? Find out the answers when you read the first book in the series, Survival...
First of all, I should say why I didn't like this book. The plot is pretty thick, there's a great story there, I wish the author would have put more effort into the story and it could have lead into a masterpiece.
But the poor work on the novel is very obvious, I found out that they novel needed a lot of rearranging and editing. There were sometimes, that I didn't know who was narrating, since a moment Maddie was speaking and the next moment someone (whom I have no idea who) was speaking about Maddie.
And I honestly hated Maddie, she is selfish, moody, and a cry-baby. Gosh! We know that you have been through a lot, you don't have to say it every five seconds. And Maddie is so moody too, one moment she is all sweet with Rayn, the next she is snapping back his every kind word.
I hated something else about her too, Rayn loved her soul and heart, but all Maddie cared about was how gorgeous and hot he is. She kept spatting out stupid nicknames like Mr. Hot, or Mr. Drop-Dead Gorgeous. Oh, come on, have some dignity!
I also hated the love at first sight theme, I am really getting tired of it. You don't just see someone and instantly know that they are your sole mate, it's not possible! I wished the author tried harder with the book, she definitely has a good story to tell. Although I struggled hard to finish this book, I honestly tried hard, I should read the next book in the series, since I need it for the book tour.
I hope that the next book in the series will be more developed and captivating. I am keeping my fingers crossed on this one!
Maddie had lived a hard life, her parents are dead, and she is trying to live a normal life in college. But on Christmas break, she goes home to do some hiking. What she doesn't know, is that there is a cruel, monstrous man watching her every move. He is planning to kill her slowly and violently.
After catching her, Maddie's abductor almost takes the life out of her with a arrows, and leaves her at the place where she has fallen off, thinking she is dead. Although she is severely injured, she is not dead yet. A secret culture are living near that place and they call upon the Guardians of Vesturon to help her.
The Guardians take her to a cave, where they heal her, but her legs are paralyzed. The only place where she can be totally healed is on the planet of Vesturon, but the guardians are forbidden to take humans there.
Sometimes, rules are meant to be broken. As Rayn, one of the guardians and the future leader of Vesturon, falls instantly in love with Maddie and takes her to their planet to be healed. After getting back from Vesturon, Rayn and his guardian family, four brother and one sister, get to know Maddie better as she now lives in their veiled house.
Everything will turn out okay, if only Rayn's father would leave him alone. Rayn is taken back to Vesturon for a trial to decide his destiny after what he had done. When Rayn goes away, he leaves Maddie in the hands of his siblings, they should take care of her, and that's exactly what they do, until....
After talking to Rayn a little bit by telepathy, and setting the tired Sharra (Rayn's sister) to sleep, Maddie decides to take a walk around. But her abductor has come back, he is there, and now he is drop-dead willing to take Maddie down, once and for all.
What will happen to Maddie? Will she be able to escape her cruel abductor?And will she ever be able to live happily with Rayn? Find out the answers when you read the first book in the series, Survival...
First of all, I should say why I didn't like this book. The plot is pretty thick, there's a great story there, I wish the author would have put more effort into the story and it could have lead into a masterpiece.
But the poor work on the novel is very obvious, I found out that they novel needed a lot of rearranging and editing. There were sometimes, that I didn't know who was narrating, since a moment Maddie was speaking and the next moment someone (whom I have no idea who) was speaking about Maddie.
And I honestly hated Maddie, she is selfish, moody, and a cry-baby. Gosh! We know that you have been through a lot, you don't have to say it every five seconds. And Maddie is so moody too, one moment she is all sweet with Rayn, the next she is snapping back his every kind word.
I hated something else about her too, Rayn loved her soul and heart, but all Maddie cared about was how gorgeous and hot he is. She kept spatting out stupid nicknames like Mr. Hot, or Mr. Drop-Dead Gorgeous. Oh, come on, have some dignity!
I also hated the love at first sight theme, I am really getting tired of it. You don't just see someone and instantly know that they are your sole mate, it's not possible! I wished the author tried harder with the book, she definitely has a good story to tell. Although I struggled hard to finish this book, I honestly tried hard, I should read the next book in the series, since I need it for the book tour.
I hope that the next book in the series will be more developed and captivating. I am keeping my fingers crossed on this one!
lottemae's review against another edition
3.0
Really good!!!! But I hated the way it ended...
NEED THE NEXT ONE!!
Warning: this book is not for the weak hearted... It contains icky stuff like blood and arrows and murder.... sorta.. and other stuff like that.
NEED THE NEXT ONE!!
Warning: this book is not for the weak hearted... It contains icky stuff like blood and arrows and murder.... sorta.. and other stuff like that.
charlie_emgwy's review
2.0
Wasn't what I was expecting it was interesting at first but it got less interesting as I got more in to the book. I didn't really connect with Maddie or Ryan
It was not my type of book, I don't usually go for this genre as well so that probably added to it.
Spoiler
and if they knew they were meant for each other why did maddie not go with him then?It was not my type of book, I don't usually go for this genre as well so that probably added to it.
slc333's review
2.0
I skim read a lot of this to get to the end, only to be foiled by a stupid cliffhanger that isn't much of a cliffhanger really.
Spoiler
I mean obviously Maddie is going to be rescued as I don't imagine the series would get very far with Maddie dead. So there is no real tension in the CH - just annoyance that the story couldn't finish properlySpoiler
I also found it was very much tell rather than show with lots and lots of the book devoted to telling us stuff we didn't need to know like all the chapters devoted to how close Cat & Maddie are and how Cat is her family now, then bam Maddie runs off with Rayn without a word to any of her so important friends and never even thinks of them again. And we are told how much Maddie & Rayn love each other and what a connection they feel to one another rather than seeing one develop naturally through the story.dashichka's review
Maddie is all alone in the world. She's lost her mom and dad and has no other family. Instead of spending another lonely Christmas by herself, she chooses to go camping, where she's attacked and hurt. Lucky for her she's brought into the world of the Guardians, her rescuers. While healing, she starts falling for Rayn, the story's hero, and he starts falling for her. But there's more to this story than just young love. Their relationship isn't meant to be, and they'll have to fight if they want to be together.
The book is written in 4 parts and told from 3 separate points of view. I didn't mind that structure so much, but sometimes the book was first person, and sometimes it was third person. That I found a bit distracting. I actually thought the whole writing style was a little distracting. I didn't think that there were a lot of visual description used in the book. The sentences were concise, leaving much to my own imagination. And most of the description was told to us. I'm more of a fan of the show me instead of tell me philosophy. The way it was written made me disconnected from the story as a whole. Similarly, I couldn't connect to the characters, and therefore didn't feel like I was emotionally invested in their happiness.
I did like part 1 of the book. Maddie was strongest when escaping from her attacked. And Rayn was mysterious and exciting. By part four I thought Maddie had turned into one of those "I'm so clumsy and needing rescue all the time but all the boys still love me, tee-hee" kind of characters (that we find in other popular books which shall remain nameless). I know a lot of people totally go for those main characters (which is why that series is #1, ok, yes, I'm talking about Twilight) but I love my heroines strong and able to handle themselves. In the end I couldn't root for her, and therefore the story just didn't interest me.
For more reviews check out http://nightlyreading.wordpress.com/
The book is written in 4 parts and told from 3 separate points of view. I didn't mind that structure so much, but sometimes the book was first person, and sometimes it was third person. That I found a bit distracting. I actually thought the whole writing style was a little distracting. I didn't think that there were a lot of visual description used in the book. The sentences were concise, leaving much to my own imagination. And most of the description was told to us. I'm more of a fan of the show me instead of tell me philosophy. The way it was written made me disconnected from the story as a whole. Similarly, I couldn't connect to the characters, and therefore didn't feel like I was emotionally invested in their happiness.
I did like part 1 of the book. Maddie was strongest when escaping from her attacked. And Rayn was mysterious and exciting. By part four I thought Maddie had turned into one of those "I'm so clumsy and needing rescue all the time but all the boys still love me, tee-hee" kind of characters (that we find in other popular books which shall remain nameless). I know a lot of people totally go for those main characters (which is why that series is #1, ok, yes, I'm talking about Twilight) but I love my heroines strong and able to handle themselves. In the end I couldn't root for her, and therefore the story just didn't interest me.
For more reviews check out http://nightlyreading.wordpress.com/
yohina1989's review
1.0
Blog tour: http://readingbykindlefire.blogspot.com/2012/02/blog-tour-review-of-survival-by-am.html
I had trouble finishing this book. It was really slow. The strangest is that the book is written very well. There were very few typos or grammar mistakes. Most of the sentences check out. However, the story just didn't work for me. I explain all my problems below, but if you want the short version, it's that the book didn't have enough "show not tell".
The entire book felt like it was just the characters telling us what was happening. There were paragraphs and paragraphs of expositions, but very few places where the action is actually taking place. This was especially obvious when we get to Rayn’s POV in the middle of the book. Because there were repetitions of events during his POV, all we got were paragraphs recapping what had already happened.
That was another thing. There were too many repetitions. I read about Maddie’s life story three times. She and Rayn had the same argument twice, with Rayn saying the exact same things he said the first time they had the argument. In addition, there were a lot of descriptions. When a character is introduced, we find out basically everything about the character. Instead of that, it would've been better if I could have read and judge about a character through actions.
For me, the dialogue felt stilted and long. I didn't like the way Maddie spoke especially, with a lot of slangs and lingos. I know that's how some people speak in real life, but when reading it, it felt weird. Some people might not mind, but it just wasn't for me.
Maddie is pretty strong character. She's really been through some tough things in her life. I felt bad for her whenever the story of her life comes up, but at the same time, her clumsiness bothered me a little. Because there were chapters dedicated to her clumsiness. To me, those chapters didn't really serve any other purpose other than to show how clumsy Maddie was. It was cute the first time, but became repetitive later.
As for the love story, there really was no falling in love. It was purely that they felt connected, and they’re suddenly in love. They never did get to know each other. I like that they decided to try and not just immediately jump into things. I just never really saw them try, instead I was told that they love each other, for no other reason than that they felt connected on some level. It also bothered me how perfect everyone else.
Overall, not a book for me, but if you're sick of the vampire/werewolf genres, this one has aliens. You might find it more entertaining than I did.
I had trouble finishing this book. It was really slow. The strangest is that the book is written very well. There were very few typos or grammar mistakes. Most of the sentences check out. However, the story just didn't work for me. I explain all my problems below, but if you want the short version, it's that the book didn't have enough "show not tell".
The entire book felt like it was just the characters telling us what was happening. There were paragraphs and paragraphs of expositions, but very few places where the action is actually taking place. This was especially obvious when we get to Rayn’s POV in the middle of the book. Because there were repetitions of events during his POV, all we got were paragraphs recapping what had already happened.
That was another thing. There were too many repetitions. I read about Maddie’s life story three times. She and Rayn had the same argument twice, with Rayn saying the exact same things he said the first time they had the argument. In addition, there were a lot of descriptions. When a character is introduced, we find out basically everything about the character. Instead of that, it would've been better if I could have read and judge about a character through actions.
For me, the dialogue felt stilted and long. I didn't like the way Maddie spoke especially, with a lot of slangs and lingos. I know that's how some people speak in real life, but when reading it, it felt weird. Some people might not mind, but it just wasn't for me.
Maddie is pretty strong character. She's really been through some tough things in her life. I felt bad for her whenever the story of her life comes up, but at the same time, her clumsiness bothered me a little. Because there were chapters dedicated to her clumsiness. To me, those chapters didn't really serve any other purpose other than to show how clumsy Maddie was. It was cute the first time, but became repetitive later.
As for the love story, there really was no falling in love. It was purely that they felt connected, and they’re suddenly in love. They never did get to know each other. I like that they decided to try and not just immediately jump into things. I just never really saw them try, instead I was told that they love each other, for no other reason than that they felt connected on some level. It also bothered me how perfect everyone else.
Overall, not a book for me, but if you're sick of the vampire/werewolf genres, this one has aliens. You might find it more entertaining than I did.
bookbitereviews's review
5.0
I loved Survival! It was unlike anything I have ever read before. I love Maddie's character and I love that you quickly love her character because of the terrible events that take place. You start rooting for her from page one. I loved the romance in this novel and thought it was perfect. Me being a romance nut I of course wouldn't have minded more cuteness, but what was there was good enough for me. The ending is a HUGE cliffhanger and I am dying to find out what happens. I recommend this to those who love YA paranormals and are looking for a new paranormal to fall in love with. I will definitely be continuing on with this series!