Shakespeare’s Counselor: Yet Another Bland But Light Hearted Mystery

Smoothie review

Shakespeare’s Counselor By Charlene Harris

Okay I’m always looking for something new. And I decided to give Charlene Harris a try. Why? Because it seems everyone one in my family is obsessed with her True Blood series. But borrowing those books is apparently is forbidden and they must be printed in golden ink because they are super expensive. So instead of that I ended up with a Lily Bard Mystery novel called the Shakespeare’s Counselor.

So what is it about? It focuses on a woman named Lily who had clearly had a hectic past. So to clear things up, she goes to a weekly counsel group to confers and talk about her rape incident from a while ago. But at one of these meetings, Lily and the other group members discovers a body. And Lily awakens her inner detective and gets the aid of her detective boyfriend to solve the murder. It is a very straight forward plot.

So the good? It’s a fun little mystery. It never does take itself seriously. Despite that, there are some heavy issues that show up. They don’t darken the story, but strengthens the characters. The relationship between Lily and her boyfriend, Jack is believable and adorable to some extent. Yet sadly in comparisons, the rest of the characters fall flat and shallow. And like good mysteries should, it keeps you guessing until the end There was also a fun sense of sarcasm throughout.

The bad? Well I had a hard time finding out who Lily really was. I’m not sure if this is not the first book in the series or one deep into a book series. So that threw me off. It wasn’t until half way through I put together that she really just a cleaning lady and karate expert. I felt she might had been a actually detective for the longest time. But I guess that’s the price I pay for jumping into a series in the middle. There were also some elements that seemed silly and corny, like a scene where she wants to put karate moves on a man she hates. But it wasn’t anything that hurt the story too much.

Overall it’s a cute fun story. If you like Lily Bard or light hearted mysteries check it out. If you’re not one of these people, it may be a pass. Because, hey its just another mystery. There is nothing to make it different than the rest. Very Mediocre.

2 smoothies out of four.

Overall rating : Yet Another Bland But Light Hearted Mystery

P.S. If you like books then please check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Cutthroat Island: A Tale Of What Could Have Been Epic Witty Fun

Cutthroat Island: A Tale Of What Could Have Been Epic Witty Fun

Cutthroat Island By John Gregory Betancourt

Yes. Another novel from church book give away. This time the novel is called Cutthroat Island and it is written by John Gregory Betancourt. Well I call it a novel, but I’m not sure it really counts. It is a novelization of the screenplay to apparently a old movie I never seen with the same title. So it is a movie tie in. I typically don’t read these things, but when i’ts free, Why not try it?

Anyways, what is the story? The story focuses on a woman pirate Morgan who upon her father’s death inherits the crew and pirate ship he once had. He was killed by her evil uncle Dawg, who is looking for Cutthroat Island and it’s mysterious treasure. Each of his brothers has a piece to the map, so the evil Dawg (who never was given any pieces) is killing his brother for these pieces. Meanwhile Morgan is trying to find the treasure first by stealing the pieces of the maps before her uncle finds them. But because the map is written in Latin, she finds she must break a Latin reading con man/thief out of prison, William Shaw. Together Will and Morgan go on a adventure to find this treasure and fight Dawg along the way.

So I’ll start with good. It’s a pirate book. There are so few of these so I’m glad when I find a pirate book in general. It also has a lot of adventure.

The bad? The book is very shallow. Both the character and story is. It moves quickly and refuses to give is detail during action scenes. There is a complete lack of ambitions and character depth. There is a subplot which is this story between Shaw and Morgan. It is so flat, empty, and emotionless. It just seems to fly out of nowhere. I wasn’t quite sure why this happened. The story had everything going for it. I’m guessing it because it is a movie tie in. And oddly enough there were typos. Not a big complaint. Often times I never do because I care more about the story than grammar. Also as a self publish author I understand how hard editing could be. But this had a lot of typos. But it was a movie tie in so I feel that there was little effort involved. Very odd.

Overall, the control story is good and fair. But the lack of detail and character development pulls it down. This makes it very mediocre when it could have been something much greater.

2 smoothie out of four.

Overall Rating: A Tale Of What Could Have Been Epic Witty Fun.

P.S. Like books? Then check out my book and ebook website, Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/