ARC Review: Good Intentions

Good Intentions

By Pembroke Sinclair

book rate: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)

Series: The Road to Salvation

Publisher: Booktrope Editions

Release Date: July 28th 2015

Genre: Young Adult; Paranormal Romace
Page Count: 190

Source: We received a copy of this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:

Katie has been through Hell—literally—and discovered that it wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be. In fact, she kind of enjoyed it. She got to be with Josh, found out about her past, and discovered who she wanted to be as a person. Katie didn’t care that her actions went against social norms. She was happy.

But things are changing—again. Wes has come back into her life, and that can only mean trouble. His presence threatens to unravel her new-found happiness. She can’t allow that. She won’t let him back in. Yet, Katie can’t push him away. 

Thrown back into a state of confusion and uncertainty, Katie is once again forced to pick sides, and in the process, she may lose herself.

Review:

Reading a book is an individual experience and therefore two people reading the same book will always have different reading experiences (and the derived feelings and opinions regarding the book). This happened very clearly to me and Isabel while reading Good Itentions.

Isabel points out her discomfort with the writting style, as we have referred in our review of book two, Dealing With Devils, the main character Katie keeps asking questions to herself in her head in a way we didn't consider very natural...

Secondly Isabel was enjoying this series mainly because the main characters weren't the typical type, the female protagonist wasn't a heroine and the male protagonist was a demon capable of loving and worthy of being trusted. Good Intentions disappointed Isabel because in this book Katie choses "the good side" and the demon betrays her showing therefore that he is a typical demon.

I personally only disliked two aspects about this book. Firstly it was slow-paced, there wasn't as much action as I would expect for the conclusion of a triology. Second and lastly, there were a lot of "repetitive thoughts" - as in the characters keeps thinking the same thing and the reader keeps being told that she/he is thinking that - which isn't necessarily bad because it's an excellent way for the reader to accompany the character's development and changes of mind more closely, but I would suggest formulating the thoughts differently so as not to sound so repetitive.

To wrap up we will leave the messages each of us took from reading Good Intentions and also what made us warm up to this story. Isabel enjoyed the "Be careful with who you trust" message and I loved the "You always have a choive; no matter how far you've gone, you can always change paths" message.

Congratulations Pembroke Sinclair on writing this triology, thank you for giving us the opportunity to review it and good luck with future projects!

Review: The Appeal of Evil by Pembroke Sinclair

The Appeal of Evil

By Pembroke Sinclair

book rate: ★★★☆☆ (3/5) 

Publisher: Booktrope Editions

Date of Publication: January 13th 2014

Genre: Young Adult; Paranormal Romace
Page Count: 210

Source: We received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

From Goodreads:

Katie wants to invest her heart and soul in love, but she may lose both to Hell. 

Katie, a senior in high school, is torn between loving the "good" guy, her childhood friend Wes who makes promises he doesn't keep and abandons her when she needs him the most, and the "bad" guy, the new kid at school Josh who is also a real demon from Hell. Katie wants someone who pays attention to her and puts her first, but what is she willing to give up to find him?

Our Review:

This book took us both for surprise. We went into it without any expectations and it turned out to be nothing like we imagined. We had never read anything like The Appeal of Evil before.

Katie has been in love with Wes for a long time but Wes is constantly breaking her heart, making promises he can't keep. The, one day, Josh appears and gives Katie exactly what she so desperately wants: attention. However, nothing is ever as simple as it seems and soon she finds herself in a war between good and evil.

Although the plot itself was pretty simple and coherent it was lacking world building. There was a lot of potential that was left undeveloped. Maybe there will be a next book and we'll learn more about the world, about Wes, Josh and what they represent. In addiction it seemed like everything happened in the same place: her room, the hospital and the warehouse. 

Therefore what surprised us about the book was the characters. Katie is not our usual heroin. She is mean, influenceable and selfish, Wes was annoyingly good - always trying to do the right thing but never quite accomplishing it. On the other hand, Josh was the exactly opposite. He was evil. Wes and Josh are the perfect impersonation of Good VS Evil while Katie is the one in the middle. She is not good like Wes but she is not evil like Josh, yet. They are not the characters you will fall in love with but they serve their purpose perfectly. Neither these characters are likeable but that doesn't mean they aren't good characters. We believe this was Pembroke's Sinclair intention and that it was what made this book good.

One of the main problems we had was with the writing style. Kate kept asking asking herself a lot of questions, but because the book was written in 3rd person there was the impression she was talking with herself in her head in 3rd person. All of this reflections and questions slowed the pace of the book quite a bit, but not enough to out it down.

All in all, a book we recommend to everyone who is tired of the perfect, goodhearted characters and is looking for a different and refreshing read.