Genre: Urban
Fantasy/Mystery/Young Adult
Description:
“For Nikki Raines, one of Chicago's best magical tattoo artists, life
is good. Work is steady, she owns her own boat, and who needs a date when you
have a ghost magically tied to your necklace to keep you company. So when a new
customer walks into Inkslingers Nikki's only worry at first is if she can work
the woman in before her next appointment. Then she gets sucker punched through
the door, almost drowned, caught up in magical crimes, and finds herself
fighting in an underground pit.
Some days you just should have stayed in bed.
But Nikki isn't about to let circumstances get her down. Before it's
all over she'll kick some a**, find out a few names, and discover that the
worst thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies.”
Author:
“Jonathan Burchett was born in a little town named Paintsville,
Kentucky, in 1969, just before Sesame Street first aired and soon after the
first man walked on the moon. He was always a voracious reader. I cut my
eyeteeth on Mysteries and Science Fiction in elementary school, moving on to
mostly Science Fiction and Westerns in high school. For the past decade or so
I've been hooked on Military Science Fiction and Urban Fantasy. This is my
first time writing and I've been blessed with a supportive family and people to
help me along the way.”
For more info you can check out Mr. Burchett’s Amazon Author page or
follow him on Facebook.
Appraisal:
Nikki Raines is intelligent, snarky, and well trained in fighting and weapons by the Chicago Knights, defenders of humans from the monsters who exist amongst them. She is also one of the best magical tattoo artists in Chicago. And probably the only one who has a millennia old ghost, Leo, who was bound to her at the age of thirteen as a gift from her now absent mother. I do like Leo’s personality, he’s like Jiminy Crickey in her head trying to talk sense into her at times. Leo also makes a good sounding board to talk things over with.
Mr. Burchett has a unique urban fantasy here, but I think he has too many story-threads going on this early for a series book. Granted it is non-stop action with the stakes getting higher and more dangerous as the story moves forward. I think what the author has here is more like a serial series, especially with the cliff-hanger ending. With none of the story-threads coming to a conclusion in the one-hundred-twenty-six pages For The Best Of Reasons is not a complete book. Well, perhaps the part of the story where Nikki is bound to a shapeshifter, as well as Leo, is a complete story-thread because it can’t be undone. So now they are all still getting used to each other and their quirks. And this brought up the question in my mind about Leo and his binding to Nikki, which I’m sure was nothing like D’Niya’s binding fiasco.
So, essentially the plot is captivating and draws the reader in quickly. There are good bones here, it just isn’t ready for prime time yet. For The Best Of Reasons needs a good copy editor to clean up the repetitions and a thorough proofreading to clean up the many typos I came across. I do think this story is worth polishing up. I do love the title, it fits Nikki’s personality, and it has a nice book cover.
FYI:
Young adult appropriate.
Format/Typo
Issues:
Too many proofing issues, I had to deduct a star.
Rating:
*** Three Stars
Reviewed
by: ?wazithinkin
Approximate
word count: 45-50,000 words
2 comments:
I never liked cliffhanger endings, but I avoid them like the plague these days. Thanks for the fair warning!!!
"For The Best of Reasons" is Jonathan Burchett's debut book, I see I forgot to mention that in my review. There is a good story here I hope he polishes it up. I also agree with you, Maria, about cliffhanger endings. Thanks for dropping in and commenting.
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