Amazon.ca:Customer reviews: Dark Stranger The Dream (The Children Of The Gods Paranormal Romance Book 1)

Top positive review

Wow

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 2, 2023

I have read all the books I can in this series and they are extremely addictive. The story line keeps me reading. I love the character of all the books, truly believe this should be on TV, movie, something. I'd be first in line to watch. I would highly recommend to keep reading, just keeps getting better!

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Meh......

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 11, 2016

I have been in a bit of a book slump lately and have been searching for something different to read. While I am a huge PNR/Sci fi fan, I definitely lean more towards vampires, shifters, and aliens, so the 'Ancient Immortal/Children of Gods' thing did not really grab my attention. In truth, it was only reading a comparison to JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series (of which I am a huge fan), that piqued my interest enough to buy this book. But, while there are some general similarities between this and the BDB novels, I did not find that comparison apt, personally. Having said that.....
This IS unquestionably a well written book, featuring a large cast of characters, and a plot that offers plenty of action, suspense, drama, and just a hint of the romance to come. I was fully aware going into this, that this book was just the first in a long, ongoing series so I expected certain things would be left unfinished, unanswered or unexplained. Nevertheless, for me, this book was less it's own story and more a long-winded introduction into the series. I appreciate the immensity of the imaginative and detailed world the author has created, but unfortunately (with this book at least) I felt it overshadowed the characters themselves. With more time seemingly spent on setting the stage for this series going forward, rather than on any interactions between the lead characters themselves, I found myself unable to connect with the H/h. Towards the end of this book, just as it seemed like the focus might finally narrow to Kian and Syssi specifically, the story came to an abrupt halt. With more books to follow, I can only assume we will become better acquainted with these characters moving forward, but by the end of this book I just wasn't attached enough to any of them to really care about whatever comes next. Bottom line? I was mildly intrigued by this story, but it simply did not provide what I needed to draw me into a long series. I might read book 2 someday, but I am certainly in no hurry to do so.
If you are a PNR lover, are intrigued by the synopsis, and are prepared to commit to a long series, then I can recommend you give this a try.

9 people found this helpful

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From Canada

Amazon Customer

Not my cup of tea

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 18, 2022

The book started out fine and if you are looking for a soft porn book for women then this is it! I am not a prude but really.... this is just over the top for me. Each to their own.

One person found this helpful

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Danielle

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 22, 2020

Describing racial profiling as political correctness gone too far, just no

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From other countries

Phil Morel

Where's the plot?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 12, 2022

Verified Purchase

Expected some conflict between the good guys and the bad guys and the first third presented an interesting premise. Then page after page waited for the plot to develop and conflicts between the good and bad guys. About two thirds of the way in I realized that just wasn't going to happen. Instead it was a back and forth between the two lead characters with some form of the word "hormone" used every other page. It became easy as I started to just click forward page after page since the interaction between the two was pretty much the same. I still thought there would be some conflict, some battle between the good and bad guys but to my surprise all of a sudden the book ended truly with a whimper. We all take our chances with books and most of the time for me if a read is disappointing I become aware of that early enough so as not to waste more of my reading time. In this case I was angry at the waste of time this book was. I suppose if you're 15 this is high literature for you, but for me it was a book without a real plot, based entirely on lame erotica, with no actual conclusion. A real waste of time.

13 people found this helpful

Nici K.

Didn't Get Very Far, Couldn't Get Very Far

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 28, 2019

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I only read the first four and a half chapters of this book. This book has so many five-star ratings, and it kept showing up as an ad on my Kindle. But I won't trust that again. How are these poorly written books getting so many positive reviews? Is this really what people like?

Things were okay, until you get to chapter five and there is a blatant information dump, and the most awkwardly written conversation I have read in a very long time. The way this man speaks is not how men speak. It's not how anyone speaks. And if you want believable dialog, try not to have your characters explain things in detail to other characters who should already know about the topic at hand. Two dentists talking wouldn't need to explain the inner workings of dentistry to each other. Yes, as the reader, I need to know about the inner workings of dentistry, but having them define things to each other just feels contrived and unnatural.

This author spends so much time trying to awkwardly explain things instead of just showing the reader and letting the world unfold. It was confusing (latents and dormants and venom and fangs and immortals and ejaculation and sexually aroused and biting and glands... this is all in a singular paragraph consisting of TWO sentences). I found myself needing to re-read those pages, and then I gave up.

The lead male is already inconsistent. He blatantly objectifies women, but then says he doesn't (probably because the author read the quote and said "uh oh, he sounds like he objectifies women... let me put a line in there to cover him"). But then he does objectify women, their faces are all a blur and he just needs them to satisfy himself. Nice. Because that's what we need right now.

He sleeps with anyone, but he won't sleep with this "recommended" one woman. Why? He pays for prostitutes and he sleeps with anyone. Why wouldn't he sleep with someone new? Maybe if I'd read more, I would have found out. Oh well.

Just five chapters in and I can tell this story desperately needed a developmental editor. And if one was used, a better one. They would have told the author to cut chapter four altogether, because it wasn't even necessary. This is the hard thing with the self-publishing industry. Instead of taking the time to craft a consistent, well developed story that unfolds with great pacing and characters, we get books like this.... that have tons of five-star ratings, which only perpetuates this kind of awkward writing.

67 people found this helpful

Yorkie

Boring

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 18, 2023

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Could only manage to read half of the book and it was a struggle. Skipped a lot of pages. Maybe I should have persevered as everyone else seems to rave about it but life’s too short.

Katie

Don't waste your time. Five star reviews have to be fake.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 27, 2017

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I bought this because it had such great reviews, and I like a good cheesy romance as much as the next person. I'm a sucker for mythology, too, so this sounded great. But this book is...bad. I couldn't finish it. I dislike writing bad reviews, especially when someone is trying to do what they love, but I felt a little betrayed by the copious glowing reviews, so I felt the need to balance it out some. It's not like this book/author has no potential. But they need some classes and an editor.

I legitimately do not understand all the five-star reviews. The only conclusion I can come to is that they're all paid or from family and friends. I could see some mediocre reviews from people who don't mind bad writing as much as I do, but the number of five star reviews with people saying this is their favorite series ever is astounding.

The writing is amateur and repetitive. So much more telling than showing. The backstory is convoluted and frankly a bit ridiculous (the ancient Sumerian god flew his plane and dropped a nuke on all the other ancient gods? Really?). The characters are flat, once again relying on a lot more telling than showing (halfway into the book Kian's inner thoughts tell us that he's a "dark-souled killer," when literally all we've seen of him so far has been an overworked guy with a bit of a temper). Their personalities are uninteresting and often...unclear and shifting (Kian's bodyguards are particularly prone to this). The dialogue is stilted and awkward more often than not. The scenes bounce around so much...I get that this is the first book in the series and the author is setting up the world, but secondary characters (some of whom don't appear again, as far as I can tell) get as much play as the supposed main characters. We meet the guy who I assume is going to be the (or a) main bad guy halfway through the book (just about where I stopped).

And, this is more a personal note, but you could see a lot of the author's personal beliefs (which are contrary to my own) shining through. Specifically, a whole section about what a shame it is that it's illegal for airports to profile because "anyone with half a brain" can tell just by looking who's a threat. And a bit where Syssi, being so shocked that she wants to be dominated by Kian, thinks to herself that "she's no bra-burning feminist." Again, that's me personally, but any book where the supposed heroine goes out of her way to label herself NOT a feminist is probably not going to go over well with me.

I really wanted to like this book, I was excited for it. I was planning to power through, but I came here and read some of the REAL reviews and they all say that NOTHING HAPPENS the rest of the book. So my advice is to not waste your time.

35 people found this helpful

P. Card

I'm so sorry -- it was filled with fillers

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 30, 2017

Verified Purchase

I shouldn't have trusted the reviews. But there's no way to know ahead of time. The premise was good, and there were glimmers of interesting scenes, but the rest was so, so, SO bad. Plot holes, more plot holes, weak explanations followed by gaoing plot holes. The "good" immortals all descended from a single goddess so they couldn't hook up because they were too closely related. A brief study of genetics shows you that AMONG HUMANS (who age, get diseases, have gene mutations etc) it is genetically relatively safe to reproduce with first cousins if there are no shared recessive traits for bad things. Beyond that, (genetically) it is safe to reproduce with with anyone else. Half brothers and half sisters, although it is illegal in the US are perfectly safe in reproductive terms. Major gaping plot hole. Another is that they can't find dormant humans. Jeez, they know who they had babies with and could just follow maternal lines and find a dormant through purely human genealogical means. Major plot hole. I won't go into any more of those, just know they are there and glaring. Next complaint would be the writing, it's awkward, sophomoric. I could have ignored it but for the plot holes, there I go again. Anyway the writing could have been better but it wasn't a deal breaker. The deal breaker was the story in between the good parts. It's literally mostly filled with EATING. This should have been 1/3 as long, take out the eating and the other boring idiocy and tell the story. I began skimming, and skimming. I guess splitting it up into 3 books required "filler". Lots
And lots of filler. And eating. And inanity. Now I could have gotten over the plot holes and the lackluster writing but the filler was intolerable. I tried to return the book but it was too late. All three books together minus the stupid should be rewritten and released as a single book. I'd buy it. Sigh. I really wanted to like it. I trudged through half the book reading every page and all the words before I gave up and tried to return it. When I couldn't I decided to finish it and had to skim through the rest. Then it ended with out any ending. Annoying but not really bad. Even that wasn't a deal breaker. Filling up pages with ordering and eating food? With financial work? Now I didn't hate it. It's ok. I read like 10-13 books a month and I've come across ones I couldn't even finish. I guess I just found myself wishing the boring parts would go away so I could read the interesting parts. So I guess I'd say it's bad but not horrible. Does it perhaps rate a 2 star? Maybe. Maybe.

18 people found this helpful

How did this book get published????? How????

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 7, 2016

Verified Purchase

I do not for the life of me understand the 5 star reviews for this book. They must be paid.

I have read plenty of cheesy, cliche-ridden, "easy reading" paranormal romance. I'm okay with that. I enjoy it most of the time. Sometimes I'll be a little disappointed in the development of a story and its characters but this.... this is a whole other level of terrible. I've read better material on fan fiction sites. Please save yourself and avoid this book.

The writing is juvenile at best, poorly organized, one scene does not flow logically into the next, the characters are never developed and seem to have flat but yet constantly conflicting personalities, the world building leaves a lot to be desired, oh, and according to this author, you aren't a good feminist if you like sex. Especially sex with a man that you just met but are attracted to. Gasp!!!! I thought feminism was supposed to be about having choices and was generally sex positive but I guess I was wrong.

Oh, and also according to this author, Muslims, oh sorry, I meant the evil-gods-who-come-from-the-same-region-have-Arabic-sounding-names-and-have-beards are evil people who want to stop the progress of the human race and it's just too bad that everyone has to be so politically correct (aka not racist) because profiling is a good thing.... Oh, and the conflict started because a goddess rejected the god she was betrothed to in favor of the one she loved. Rejected god reacted like a narcissistic teenager with anger issues, killed the god that won the heart of the goddess and then dropped a nuke (these apparently existed thousands of years ago) on the rest of the gods just because angry. And then he started a religion made of all these poor angry rejected gods who want to control women so that these women can no longer function as independent people (aka no more rejection because females can't say no!) and also just generally be a scourge to the entire human race, because somehow their anger also includes humans unrelated to the original conflict. This is the origin story for this series. Weak. Uninteresting. Stereotypical to an extreme. Just awful.

Honestly, this is a terrible book. Save yourself the forehead banging and do not read it. Not even if it's free. Not even if you're paid to read it.

101 people found this helpful

MMReadsVoraciously

DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 31, 2023

Verified Purchase

I love paranormal series...have read many series by many authors (Shannon Mayer, K.F. Breene, Scarlett St. Clair, Abbie Zanders, etc). I CAN NOT understand how anyone rated this series above 2 stars. I plodded along through the first book, really hoping it would develop before the cliffhanger ending which I fully anticipated mid-way through the book (it did not). The characters were juvenile, the conflict was pure drama with nothing of substance that a single conversation would have addressed, and all the tired tropes played out in the simplest of ways. I read part of book 2 (why?!?! WHY did I waste my time - I have no good answer) before I gave up. I have only given up on 5 books in my entire life...this series is not worth your very precious time.

4 people found this helpful

Jod

Huge disappointment !!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 4, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is one of those books that is really only a few chapters of a book. You will have to make two more purchases to actually come to any resolution, and it’s not a satisfying resolution since they use half of the last “book” to start the next story. I know when I buy a 2.99 or less book that it’s probably not going to be well written or edited, however, I’m okay with a bit of cheap escapism now and then. I actually paid almost nine dollars to get a whole book. The quality of this book is not even close to worth nine dollars. If that wasn’t bad enough, my curiosity made me buy the next book(or the first few chapters of the next book anyway), only to verify some concerns that I had started to have about the author. Her talk of “sluts” always bothered me, but she also gets pretty blatant with the homophobia and political agenda in the fourth “book”. Spoiler: it’s revealed that the bad guys have been supporting environmental causes in order to ruin humanity! With all of the environmental regulations, jobs are leaving the US and the country will soon have to divert funds from the military to welfare programs. With the last powerful watchdog of freedom weakened, the bad guys can swoop in and rule the world! Yes, because we must ruin the environment in order to create jobs...are we that unimaginative? You wouldn’t think an author would be. As for the homophobia, the bad guys use the derogatory f word very liberally. When it is used in front of one of the good guys, instead of getting pissed, she says, “Don’t worry, you look very nice, not gayish at all, very manly in fact.” What?!
If you like a well written book , you will be disappointed . Amateurish writing , I fell for the line comparing this series to J.R. Ward’s books . There is no comparison , I can’t even finish book 1 of this series .

39 people found this helpful

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5 star		58%
4 star		21%
3 star		12%
2 star		5%
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