Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Due North by G.M. Rogers


This book was acquired free from the author in exchange for a review. 

Due North is a book that focuses on a woman named Madison who is away at college. She spends her semester with Jack, a man who she is deeply in love with. They part ways after the semester, though she is always thinking about him. She goes to her home in Iron Bay, where she meets Dane. She falls for him quickly, but keeps thinking about Jack.

A large portion of the book focuses on describing sex scenes in detail. These scenes go on for several pages each, and sometimes one scene is followed by another. This may not be a problem for someone who likes this sort of thing, but it leaves a lot to be desired for people who want to read a story with a flow that is not interrupted constantly. The result is that the characters suffer greatly from being mysterious sex-driven men and women who the reader knows little about. The book is mainly filled with beautiful women and tall, bulky, blonde, and masculine men. Although this may be a fantasy, this extreme is a little ridiculous. There is some excitement to be had between the sex scenes, but this usually lasts briefly, and can only be found near the beginning, middle, and end of the book. If it had focused a little more on character and plot development, perhaps it would have been more interesting.

The plot develops into what you would think would be the usual romance fantasy, but it certainly has a few twists. The LARGEST problem with the book is with the thought processes of certain characters. When something occurs, a person is expected to learn from that experience. In this book, it feels as if the characters have artificial intelligence; they NEVER learn from their mistakes! This seems to be forced to make the book longer in order to make room for another expected book.

The book is divided in nineteen chapters. The writing style is good, and enhances how the story eventually develops. There are quite a few grammar mistakes, along with missing words. Many of these are found during important dialogues, which hurts the experience. It seems that the book was written for the Kindle version, but was not edited for the paperback version. Along the whole book, many words are hyphenated mid-sentence (randomly skimming the book produced the example "over-whelming"), which makes you feel that the author is telling you to buy the virtual copy instead.

Due North is a nice try at a romantic fantasy, but sometimes it feels like you are reading about nothing but one's sex fantasy. If these scenes were fewer and the characters and plot had more development, it may have turned out better.

Interested? Get a preview of the book and buy it here.