Review: Marine, Make Mine Me, Again, Again, Again
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 1, 2014
I liked the books and I would have given them 4 stars, but...I got bored. There, I said it. I got bored and skipped chapters and did not miss anything.The first and the third novels had some great moments, but the pace at times was so slow I itched for things to move faster, so I skipped ahead and found sort of a weird deja vu thing happening — it was like I'd only turned the page and was reading the same thing from a previous chapter. I had every intention of going back if I lost the thread of the story, but I did not need to.The second novel had a much better pace and I actually read it all the way through. I liked Ms. Miller's foray into her character's Native American mystic and supernatural awareness. The adventure was a lot faster than the other two novels and I really believed in Hawk's abilities as a warrior and shaman.The third novel was a different take on "body switching" a la "Freaky Friday" except the character was introduced in the first novel and mentioned over and over again in the second, which lead me to know exactly how the third novel would end, almost to the point of giving up reading the story by the 3rd chapter. Instead, I skipped ahead to about the three-quarters point, and easily picked up the story and finished without seeming to lose any of the storyline.There were some very poignant parts and I teared up a few times, but again, the story pacing was pavement-grinding slow.It is a good thing that I only spent a buck on the trilogy, though, or I'd be swearing up and down the halls.Julie Miller writes well, very well, there is no doubt about it. But these stories either need some serious editing or they need to be shortened to novellas to get rid of the oft repeated material.When you find yourself skipping two, three and more chapters and not losing anything of the story, you know it needs something done to it.I still plan on reading more of Julie Miller's books, but I may have to wait for the prices to drop before I purchase the next one. This trilogy has made me a bit leery of paying full price for a "skip ahead" novel.Good luck, Ms. Miller. I hope your stories continue to get better in the future.