Review: Overpriced
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 15, 2013
I'm not sure if mentioning ff is proper etiquette in Amazon book reviews...but here goes.I kept seeing this author come up in my "recommended for you" list.  I've been thinking of looking at her MC series but hadn't quite gotten there yet.  Then I saw this book and thought, "This is different, although I remember reading a story like it at one time on a free website.  I enjoyed it enough.  Maybe this will be a great book."  I also purchased this book because it had a 5 star rating with over 100 reviews.It turns out is was the same story.  I'm happy that authors have a venue to turn their stories into personal revenue.  However I'm not as enthralled when they merely change the characters names (at least some of them...I did have a chuckle that Charlie was still Charles) and some physical features.  In the world of free reading I would be saying "Thank you so much for putting your words on paper and sharing them freely with us.", but when I'm paying $4.00 for a kindle book in a vast sea of kindle books, I'm looking for a little more.I would have liked to have seen more research and more background information put into this story.  What exactly did Hendrick do?  What were his business ventures?  Give us more of his background.  How has he managed to successfully stay in this life for 10 years?  Who are some of the other off the grid characters that he has come in contact with?  What do they do?  What did he owe Charles money for?  Why are they enemies?  Give us more serious details about the characters and their lives please.  (SPOILER Why should we like Hendrick?  He planned to sell the h.  He killed several people in this book.  Sure, one was going to hurt the h, however some of them were there to help her and he killed them.  In my head I still see the character from another author that this character was originally based on.  So I know why I like him.  However Hendrick has yet to really prove himself.)  I know that there are more books coming to be purchased that will answer some of these questions, but I wanted more substance in book 1 to convince me that this and future purchases are worthwhile.One other reviewer mention that it was unrealistic.  I agree.  Where I can buy into the idea of modern pirates doing business offshore, I need to see more details from the author to completely buy into this idea.(SPOILER:I did not understand how the h was rescued from the island without reinforcements to try to take down the pirates.  This was truly unclear to me.)The ending changed from my original read to this novel.  The current ending creates more opportunity for further books.  However at $4.00 each, there has not been enough substance in the first novel to intrigue me to purchase more.  When reading the first version there was enough background information in my mind from the original novel to fill in some of these gaps themselves.  Please oh please add more to the books when you are converting them for sale.  I truly don't mind purchasing good reads.  I wouldn't even mind purchasing this book as is at a slightly lower cost.I'm thinking that maybe I've been reading too many Amazon kindle books.  I'm getting pickier as I go along and want to see more from a 5 star rated book.  Sorry for the less than stellar review.