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bibt198's review against another edition
3.0
Rating: 2.5
Not as good as hoped it would be.
Full review soon.
Not as good as hoped it would be.
Full review soon.
cody3647's review against another edition
2.0
There was something overall lacking in the book. Whether it was the development of the characters, the world, the writing. Something was just off. Its rare that I find a book that a read all the way through that is part of a series and not see the series through. But I have no desire to read anything else in the series. It's unfortunate because the premise is good.
lydsansthekidd's review against another edition
3.0
The premise of the book seems really interesting. I like how Crawford has given the characters some truly unique powers. I agree with a lot of the other reviews in that I feel like the plot of this book is flat. It doesn't really go anywhere and there still isn't a clear adversary. The ending is way too open for my liking. Some of the characters are rough and also a little flat. Despite this, I'm willing to read the next two books to see how this world might expand.
miztrebor's review against another edition
3.0
After reading the description for Caleo, I thought I’d be in for a great read. There’s a great story to the book that is great for fans of paranormal books. It also has a main character who’s gay. Even in the modern and diverse world of today, this isn’t found in many books (though there’s a growing amount of releases to explore). This was new territory for me and I was looking forward to this change from the “norm.”
While I thought the book sounded great, there are aspects that fell flat for me. The main thing was the writing. Even with a great concept to a story, the writing is what’ll hook a reader. I feel that while it wasn’t horrible writing, or anything like that, it was lacking. There weren’t grammar/spelling issues to make mention of, but another round with an editor looking out for word redundancy might have been useful. I found many instances where the same noun was used in one sentence, then the next. This felt awkward and the use of “it” would have felt much smoother and less repetitive. The frequency of this occurrence irked me.
There wasn’t as much depth to the characters, even the main characters. I felt I wasn’t getting enough to sympathize with them through all the obstacles they faced. I also thought the reactions/emotions of most of the characters were unrealistic. Without getting into specifics, something big happens, and instead of devastation and an ok, now we need to man-up to survive” reaction…the characters feel bad for a few minutes but revert back to an almost “everything’s ok, our lives haven’t changed drastically” attitude.
On the other hand, there were aspects of the story that kept me intrigued until the end. While I didn’t feel it played out as well as it could have, or expanded into (for me) a more enjoyable storyline, it still kept me reading. The variety of abilities the leeches have is great. There are abilities I’ve never thought of before, and in a culture full of superheroes and paranormal characters, that’s hard to come by. I liked some of the characters as well, especially Nolan. His power was great and the complications he brought to the story were also great. The way the book ends was intriguing as well, making me want to see how this story will continue.
In the end, this was a good first novel to a series. Grabbed me enough to want to read the second book. crawford, in my opinion, has some things that could be improved or expanded on, but maybe book 2 does just that.
While I thought the book sounded great, there are aspects that fell flat for me. The main thing was the writing. Even with a great concept to a story, the writing is what’ll hook a reader. I feel that while it wasn’t horrible writing, or anything like that, it was lacking. There weren’t grammar/spelling issues to make mention of, but another round with an editor looking out for word redundancy might have been useful. I found many instances where the same noun was used in one sentence, then the next. This felt awkward and the use of “it” would have felt much smoother and less repetitive. The frequency of this occurrence irked me.
There wasn’t as much depth to the characters, even the main characters. I felt I wasn’t getting enough to sympathize with them through all the obstacles they faced. I also thought the reactions/emotions of most of the characters were unrealistic. Without getting into specifics, something big happens, and instead of devastation and an ok, now we need to man-up to survive” reaction…the characters feel bad for a few minutes but revert back to an almost “everything’s ok, our lives haven’t changed drastically” attitude.
On the other hand, there were aspects of the story that kept me intrigued until the end. While I didn’t feel it played out as well as it could have, or expanded into (for me) a more enjoyable storyline, it still kept me reading. The variety of abilities the leeches have is great. There are abilities I’ve never thought of before, and in a culture full of superheroes and paranormal characters, that’s hard to come by. I liked some of the characters as well, especially Nolan. His power was great and the complications he brought to the story were also great. The way the book ends was intriguing as well, making me want to see how this story will continue.
In the end, this was a good first novel to a series. Grabbed me enough to want to read the second book. crawford, in my opinion, has some things that could be improved or expanded on, but maybe book 2 does just that.
byftpup's review against another edition
5.0
For some reason, I never reviewed this book after reading it..
I have done James a complete disservice in not reviewing it..
I am sorry James.
I read the original release of this book before a re-edit was completed. I really have to say it was one of the two most original story lines I've read in the last 3 or 4 years.
It had a whole heap of welcome elements from adventure factor to the drama factor. and then there was the emotional response factor which pulled a few strings a couple of times.
As to character development - Well if you want to read books with shallow players you should skip this... Each character was written in to the story line for creative purpose. It would be difficult to take one of two out with out losing the cohesion of the plot..
I am really looking forward to getting the next book.
I have done James a complete disservice in not reviewing it..
I am sorry James.
I read the original release of this book before a re-edit was completed. I really have to say it was one of the two most original story lines I've read in the last 3 or 4 years.
It had a whole heap of welcome elements from adventure factor to the drama factor. and then there was the emotional response factor which pulled a few strings a couple of times.
As to character development - Well if you want to read books with shallow players you should skip this... Each character was written in to the story line for creative purpose. It would be difficult to take one of two out with out losing the cohesion of the plot..
I am really looking forward to getting the next book.
rissa53's review against another edition
3.0
Very interesting and a cliffhanger ending indeed! So many questions! It was definitely an intriguing world. The idea of a Leech was very creative and imaginative. The different groups were kinda confusing. You didn't know who was with who and you wanted to be aware of everyone. You didn't know who to trust. What happened to Nolan? To Caleo? What's going to happen to Jack and Jillian? To Mickey? To Thorn? See? So many questions! Lol
Interesting!
Interesting!
cyanide_latte's review
4.0
I'd been interested in reading this book when I happened to notice a Tweet from the author listing a deal for all three books in the trilogy, signed, as a bundle. Naturally, I couldn't resist, and so now here you have my review and thoughts on this first installment.
This book caught me by surprise in ways I wasn't expecting it to. It does have its flaws and I'll mention those at the end, but my criticisms are very few here.
Firstly, I loved the story far more than I was expecting to. This is a fast read and it hooks you pretty quickly, which are good things. The characters all feel very, very real and many of them are easy to relate to. If you're someone who enjoys stories that are character-driven, I think you're going to enjoy this one. If you like having a main character who is virtuous at heart but not without very human flaws, then I again state I think you'll enjoy this.
Personally I found the set-up, the concept of this world and this race of Leeches, and the progression of the plot highly imaginative and written in a style that provokes cinematic imagery. Again, it isn't without its flaws, but for a debut novel, this is definitely worth a read.
What are those flaws I keep mentioning?
The first that must be pointed out is that I feel like the book is regularly advertised as having a gay main character in a way it makes it seem as though that is the sole defining trait of the book. It isn't, and the plot summary doesn't hinge on that overmuch, but having that be the sole selling point in advertisements feels like cheap clickbait to me. It works, but I do feel like there could be better ways of advertising the book that mention the homosexual MC without making that the only aspect of the book that gets mentioned. This is more of a nitpick than anything however, so feel free to ignore that.
The second is that I feel like the only other thing I see mentioned in advertising about the book is that it's fantasy or magic-based, but it feels closer to science fiction or supernatural genres to me personally. There's nothing wrong with that either, it just kind of came across as misleading while I read.
The third is the format. The font used in these books is not at all one that I'm used to (I may have to do some digging later to list here which font style it uses specifically,) so that took some adjusting in order to be able to read comfortably. There are also a few spelling and grammatical errors here and there in the book, but they were pretty sparse for the most part and didn't really detract from what I was reading.
The only real issue I had with the story itself was the pacing and the events that happen. The book moves at a pretty breakneck pace between events, but sometimes the events that do get focused on seem somewhat drawn out and at times a little confusing. (I had to read through the last two chapters twice each in order to make sure I had a grasp of what was transpiring.)
But those things aside, I definitely enjoyed reading Caleo. It was incredibly different and refreshing, and to that end, I do think it's worth checking out if your interest is piqued.
This book caught me by surprise in ways I wasn't expecting it to. It does have its flaws and I'll mention those at the end, but my criticisms are very few here.
Firstly, I loved the story far more than I was expecting to. This is a fast read and it hooks you pretty quickly, which are good things. The characters all feel very, very real and many of them are easy to relate to. If you're someone who enjoys stories that are character-driven, I think you're going to enjoy this one. If you like having a main character who is virtuous at heart but not without very human flaws, then I again state I think you'll enjoy this.
Personally I found the set-up, the concept of this world and this race of Leeches, and the progression of the plot highly imaginative and written in a style that provokes cinematic imagery. Again, it isn't without its flaws, but for a debut novel, this is definitely worth a read.
What are those flaws I keep mentioning?
The first that must be pointed out is that I feel like the book is regularly advertised as having a gay main character in a way it makes it seem as though that is the sole defining trait of the book. It isn't, and the plot summary doesn't hinge on that overmuch, but having that be the sole selling point in advertisements feels like cheap clickbait to me. It works, but I do feel like there could be better ways of advertising the book that mention the homosexual MC without making that the only aspect of the book that gets mentioned. This is more of a nitpick than anything however, so feel free to ignore that.
The second is that I feel like the only other thing I see mentioned in advertising about the book is that it's fantasy or magic-based, but it feels closer to science fiction or supernatural genres to me personally. There's nothing wrong with that either, it just kind of came across as misleading while I read.
The third is the format. The font used in these books is not at all one that I'm used to (I may have to do some digging later to list here which font style it uses specifically,) so that took some adjusting in order to be able to read comfortably. There are also a few spelling and grammatical errors here and there in the book, but they were pretty sparse for the most part and didn't really detract from what I was reading.
The only real issue I had with the story itself was the pacing and the events that happen. The book moves at a pretty breakneck pace between events, but sometimes the events that do get focused on seem somewhat drawn out and at times a little confusing. (I had to read through the last two chapters twice each in order to make sure I had a grasp of what was transpiring.)
But those things aside, I definitely enjoyed reading Caleo. It was incredibly different and refreshing, and to that end, I do think it's worth checking out if your interest is piqued.
ronniereadsbooks's review
4.0
This book was really good. There were moments where I wanted to slap the characters but overall I really enjoyed it and am excited to start the second one.
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