Perfect Titles for the Picture-perfect Sunnies

Whether its for Instagram, Pinterest or FB, here the perfect titles and picture-perfect sunglasses to be caught in!

Titles and Sunglasses – clockwise from left:

Hit the Ground Running (Hit the Ground Running Series Book 1) by Mark Burley and eyebobs’ “Phone It In”
A Time of Torment: A Charlie Parker Thriller by John Connolly and eyebobs “Case Closed”
HOLY WAR by Mike Bond and eyebobs “Board Stiff”

Holy War has an interesting premise, and Mike Bond seems to have a much stronger understanding of the region, both through the lens of understanding terrorism and the understanding the culture in general, than most of the thrillers set in the Middle East that I have read previously.

The story structure is one that I’ve seen before in more general fiction, but not nearly as often in Thrillers. The jumping between protagonists or in some cases antagonist and not just giving you their POV but presenting it in a way that is sympathetic to that character is something I enjoyed. I should give a word warning that some of the characters and viewpoints might turn off some readers. I, however, read a lot of thrillers and was happy to get characters outside the usual cookie cutter mold.

I should also say that the structure, while interesting, has its issues. The decision to jump POVs often happens just as the story heads to a notable point, usually involving action. It happens enough that there are times when I would throw up my hands and say ‘oh come on’ out loud.
The pacing is fine once you get into the book, but is a bit slow to start. It takes the plot a little while to reveal itself. While the book opens with action, that action isn’t directly connected to the plot so does little more than whet the appetite for the reader before delaying serving anything up. I am all for building characters, but I’d like to have seen it done while advancing the plot, and not putting the plot on hold for it.

The biggest sin of this book, however, is the writing style. Bond isn’t a bad writer, but I’m amazed an editor let his stylistic decision go by. For some reason, Bond decided to have nearly every paragraph or so the book would stop and present a staccato list of mood setting actions or descriptions. While this works when used sparingly, its near continuous use made the book nearly impossible to enjoy and increasingly difficult to not get pulled out of the narrative. The ‘description’ comma ‘description’ comma ‘description’ presentation quickly becomes annoying in the extreme.

There is a good idea here, but in story and structure, but sadly neither are pulled off well and then further hurt by writing choices that make the book even harder to read. I could not, in good conscience, recommend anyone read this book.

Mike Bond's novel Assassins really impressed me, so I was expecting a lot when it came to Holy War. Sorry to say, I am less impressed as the novel bogs down and becomes hard to follow. No doubt evil things were done, and much of that is shown here. But in total, the book just didn't work well for me.

Well, this is a DNF. I can't push through it, I don't care for the characters, nor the skewed views. The quotes in it are wrong. It's a huge mess. I was confused, it was slow and full of errors. I finally did something I don't do frequently, I gave up on reading this book before the end. I don't feel like I missed anything. That is the sad part.

My copy came from Net Galley. My thoughts and opinions are my own. This review is left of my own free volition.

Well wriiten, and researched, characters real to life and real scenarios. Lot of action and all ages can enjoy this.

A frightening look at the war in Beirut. Two men go into Beirut to kill a Hezbollah leader, each with reasons of their own, and are caught up in the insanity of this brutal war. Mike Bond’s characters are well developed and believable in a setting where humanity is often lost in the face of insidious cruelty. While they search for Mohammed, Mohammed searches for his soul.

Injured and rescued by Rosa, a young girl, they travel through bitterly cold mountains to reach their safe area. As they journey through enemy territory, Mohammed begins to believe peace may be possible, while Rosa argues for a greater war.

Mr. Bond shows the multi-faces of the war in Beirut and other Middle East countries in concise and clear prose the helps the layman understand some of the reasons why these wars are so complex and difficult to solve. A book that is difficult to read but well worth it.

This is a decent read. However, having recently read another book by Mike Bond (Assassins), I expected more from this book than I received. The book is slow going at first. Also, the book has three converging and interconnected storylines; early on this makes the story feel disjointed. However, the book gets better later on. I thought the author did a good job portraying the tragedy, "messiness", confusion, and futility of the Lebanese civil war, how the war affected those involved, and how the war changed those involved.

When I read the description of Holy War it grabbed my attention, especially since I've never read anything on this subject before. I'm sure it's good, but not for me, and this is the reason why. I had a hard time following the plot because the author jumped from one character to the next in the blink of an eye. I decline leaving a negative review on Amazon, Goodreads or my fb page because I don't want to dissuade anyone from purchasing this book. I can tell this author put a lot of research and time into Holy War and be it far from me to hurt his sales!

Another DNF for me-- the premise sounded interesting, but I simply couldn't get into it. When my TBR pile is so big, I really need something to grab me from page 1 and not let go, and this simply failed to do so. Also, I wasn't into the author's writing style, and the jumping between 3 POVs/intertwined stories could've worked well but just felt really jarring.

Not even sure how I ended up with this book as I did not request it but it was not interesting at all. Just not interested in the topics so I did not finish the book

Sorry. This is one of the few books I could not finish. At 25% complete on my Kindle I gave up. Too chiatic plot. Not gripping. I really didn't care what happened to the characters

A very strong read. A book that challenges you, in some of your historical thoughts.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. I struggled to finish this one. Maybe it was the kindle formatting but I kept losing track of who was telling the story as their were several narrators. They finally came together near the end. I never did figure out most of their motives, I think mostly because they didn't know why they were doing what they were doing either. Not a happy book.