Tuesday 24 September 2013

Uncovered By Amy Silva


For a person who tries to stay clear of making enemies, I sure know how to rack them up! I say this, because I am about to write a bad review that I really wish I didn't have to do. However, the integrity of my blog and myself, leaves room for nothing else.

I like Amy Silva. After one e-mail, I can see that she is a good person. Still, she either needs some Beta readers, or need to get some better ones. This novel was not well written at all! I kept waiting for the end to see where all this was going and I wasn't surprised with our ending, as I was about the editing. After about chapter three, I got use to the dull and flat, but I had hold out hope for better editing by the end. (Weird, I know)

The editing in this book is atrocious. I am starting to wonder if it was edited at all, or if it has something to do with the copy I was given to review. Grammatical and spelling errors littered the story from beginning to end. The conversations didn't flow and sometimes became painful to read.

Actually, the dialogues lead you to believe that English is the author's second language. The pronunciations and sentences sounded more realistic on the characters with accents and foreign descents. The spelling errors though were what got to me the most. It had me asking where this story was typed and edited ... in notepad perhaps? Almost everything these days, except a notepad document, has spell check. At first, I thought it would be an one time error, but they just continued throughout the book. For a set of characters who likes to drink 'champagne', they sure don't know how to spell it!

There was also some ridiculous slip ups like the lead male character giving the dog ... *drum roll please* ... a glass of water? o.O

To add insult to injury, this is not one, not two, but three persons POV and focuses on a set of couples. Both Kate and Jace, as well as, their besties Olivia and Ben. As cliche as this is, I wouldn't have mind, but then I ask, "Why were they added?" or at least, "Why were they present for Jace and Kate's first date?"

I have no clue where this story started and where it ended. I don't know how much time passed, I don't know how and when they fell in love, I don't know when Xavier became a criminal, how he got away, how the pseudo epilogue was developed with it's irrational and unrealistic solutions. It's all a big blur.

We were switching between characters, scenes and everything alike at lightening speed. There was no time to slow down and assess. Add the awful grammatical and spelling errors and it's a recipe for one confusing disaster of a novel.

I persevered through this novel, because I wanted to be a fan of Amy's work and to at least be tolerable of this series. I would have preferred to have a cliche story that bore me out of my mind, than have one that seemed more like a really bad and unfinished manuscript. Even better editing could have given this book a extra star for me.

This story was a struggle to read, comprehend and believe. Things happened too fast, and the time it took to sort through the mess of unedited chapters, I lost the story line including the few "hilarious" moments. I don't even know why sex scenes were thrown into this novel, because they did nothing and held no sway whatsoever. Honestly, we could have done without them. Those times could have been used to edit the rest of this story.

I am really sorry I have to give such a negative review of this novel, but it really is a bad one. It is in need of the basics of a story, editing, emotions, time, effort, understanding. Too much is missing to make this a good story much less a series. Hopefully the continuation will be better, but this one was really bad to the point of being unreadable.

* Copy provided by author for honest review*

- http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18483784-uncovered

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