Review: just ok
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 25, 2011
I have not read Joleene Naylor's previous book: Shades of Gray. This review is for 101 Tips as a standalone (a short standalone with 683 locations).As the title of my review indicates, this book was just ok. The main character is Katelina, who is approaching her 30th birthday. Maybe, being published is some kind of mid-life crises for Katelina? This is unclear. But she sets out to provide a list of travel tips so that the rest of us can benefit from her experience. The travel tips range from being very vampire relevant (1. Vampires don't sparkle in the sun; they burn to a crisp. And putting sun block on them won't help.) to just plain travel tips (95. "Don't drink the water" may seem like an old cliché, but it isn't. Don't drink the local water.). And yes, there are 101 of these pearls of wisdom. Once we get to the end of the travel tips, there is another list of 25 tips for dealing with your vampire, being more relevant to vampire life than some of the traveling tips. My favorite: 15. Vampires do not consider rabbits "fast food". And they may not think that joke is funny, either.These lists comprise of about 75% of the ebook, or up to location 520. Then we get the "sneak peek" of book two in the Amaranthine series, Legacy of Ghosts. The sneak peek is enough of a sample to set up the issues of the book. You see a little vampire politics, a touch of the romantic interest, as well as some other vampire interpersonal (intervampirical?) relationships. I did not try to get the free sample, but I imagine it's pretty close to the same amount of content.That's about it for the content of the book. I have to agree with another reviewer, Katelina sounds like she's about 12, not 30. She can't tell you if she's in a relationship or not (it's, ummmm, complicated). Some of her tips seem like they are aimed for an audience with the mental age of 12. (Twinkies aren't a meal? You can wash your body with shampoo, or your hair with soap, in a pinch. Go figure.) It was better than some of the freebies in that it didn't feel like it was all just an advertisement/preview/free sample/buy more ploy, but it really didn't have much depth.All in all, if you aren't already a Joleene Naylor fan, or aren't already involved in the series, I'd suggest skipping this one.