Review: Perspective and Foresight, you'll need them both
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 02 18, 2013
Now the story for this series is not original in that it is easily predictable to the avid romance reader but what is gripping about it is that it is not quite the run of the mill erotica (or yaoi if you insist)The Good:This is a great start to a series. Though I thought i was going to be reading a manga on my kindle I soon realized it was a novella.The characters have potential, chemistry. Even though it was forced upon the reader to acknowledge it very, very early on in the book the author is consistent in her writing.There are not many spelling errors or grammatical faults. Those that exist, for 99c, can be overlooked.The Misleading and therefore very bad:This is one of the most frustrating erotica's I've ever read.And it is not the good kind of frustrating either.-This series has brought out the frugal, penny pincher, book bargainer in me in the worst way. The kind of way that refuses to give anything above 2 stars.-this book is 99c and about the length of a regular chapter. I know what you're thinking 'That's not so bad. It is only 99c'. Don't be fooled. Books 2-8 are all $2.99. If you are intrigued enough to buy the whole series you will spend almost US$25.00 on something that, when compiled is about 9 chapters long.This brings me to my next point:-This feels like the rough draft for a much longer book:The world building is well done but brief,the character perspective is a bit one sided for something not written in the first person,the main character's name is misspelled throughout the entire series, I saw that every. single.  time. The beginning has it spelled as 'Maelstorm' half way though the first book and right though  the end of the series it's still misspelled as 'Malstorm'. I'm dockin' points for inconsistency.the internal conflict with the protagonist needed to be elaborated upon.- reading this book was like watching a plant outgrow it's pot i.e. in desperate need of room to grow! It got to the point where the story felt compressed and that is what, in my opinion separated it from being an erotica. It wasn't rushed just very compressed. And that was aggravating because if that were the case then why not wait to release all the chapters at once rather than sell each chapter for $3.00 a piece? If I were a fan I would feel like I was being robbed or at least taken for being a completely devoted fool. But I don't like to be angry because of the frown lines and whatnot.Now if this were an actual manga I would understand releasing the story in parts because the drawing takes time. And i would understand the cost because the art would take time. But there is no art. Just a very interesting story being released a chapter at a time. And then even in mangas there are several chapters released at a time. Even without the drawing/art, it would read like a play with just dialogue...I'll end my review on this thought: I'm not saying that the other reviews on this site, for this series, are all wrong but while you are eager to find out what happens in the end like i was you could end up paying very near $25 dollars for a series that, if compiled, might scrape by and pass as a poorly written novella.If you are a lover of books of all kind, like me, and you've just about read them all then you'll realize that someone is trying to make a quick buck here. I despise when authors do this or allow this to be done with their work.The thing about this book that really gets you though is that it's a not raunchy, quick, steamy, just-about-the-sex erotica. There's a very alluring plot with amazing potential with adds to the irritation. Every chapter/ book is a tease. They don't end with cliff hangers alluding to a new book they end like a page break at the end of a chapter.The very same way this (Maelstorm 1) 'book' ends, all but the last of the series ends.I can not in honesty give this book 5 stars. Not when there are whole yaoi/ gay romance novels out there for the cost of one chapter.My final judgement on this book: Buyer Beware.