Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Book Review - Off Target

Happy Wednesday, good people of the blogosphere! Wow. I can't believe we're already blazing through October. NaNoWriMo is right around the corner. I do hope you're all prepared. Today, I have another review for you all from my Indie Fever Reading Challenge 2014 list. I've sworn to get through them all before my review request event happens in December. Some of these titles were added after the event, and will be reserved for reviews next year (I already have them scheduled), but they weren't part of my promise list. So, yada-yada. I've marked the additions with a ~.

Here's the list again. Progress is being MADE!

Molly Taggart Off Target REVIEW BELOW
Gloria Piper Finnegan's Quest REVIEW HERE
Skylar Hamilton Burris The Strange Marriage of Anne de Bourgh REVIEW HERE
Tamar Hela Feast Island REVIEW HERE
Rebecca Trogner The Last Keeper's Daughter REVIEW HERE
Scott Marlowe The Five Elements REVIEW HERE
L.K. Evans Keepers of Arden: The Brothers Volume 1 REVIEW HERE
Sarah Mäkelä The Witch Who Cried Wolf REVIEW HERE
Felicia Tatum Masked Encounters REVIEW HERE
David T Griffith The Bestiarum Vocabulum REVIEW HERE
Thaddeus White Sir Edric's Temple REVIEW HERE
Heather Topham Wood The Memory Witch REVIEW HERE
N. L. Greene Illusions Begin REVIEW HERE
J. A. Huss Tragic REVIEW HERE
Pauline Creeden Sanctuary REVIEW HERE
Casey Bond Reap REVIEW HERE 
Casey Bond Devil Creek REVIEW HERE
S. G. Daniels The Druid's Doorway REVIEW HERE
Misty Provencher The Fly House Amazon Kindle $3.99 ~
Peprah Boasiako The Hitman Amazon Kindle $0.99
C. S. Janey Surrender To You Amazon Kindle $2.99
Elle Todd The Elect Amazon Kindle $3.99 
Morgan Wylie Silent Orchids Amazon Kindle **FREE** ~
Laura Howard The Forgotten Ones Amazon Kindle $0.99 ~
Christina Marie Morales Ambience Amazon Kindle $2.99

About the book up for review today:

Title: Off Target
Author: Molly Taggart
Genre: YA Contemporary Coming-of-age
Length (print): 198 Pages
Buy LinkAmazon Kindle $2.99

Synopsis:
Sophie Mitchell may be the top marksman on her high school rifle team, but she has bad aim when it comes to boys. Her best friend Cory tells her that she doesn’t have to date, but how else is she supposed to fit in? Even her own mother thinks she’s eccentric. What almost eighteen-year-old girl isn’t interested in romance? So Sophie resolves to date even while she remains bullet-proofed from love. As Cory observes her amorous adventures from downrange, he worries that, these days, Cupid might be making armor-piercing bullets.

Off Target is a humorous coming-of-age story and a tender romance that can appeal to any adult, young or old, who has ever learned through love.

***Will not appear in review elsewhere! What a cute little cover! I do wish for stronger typography, but the imagery is bang on (no pun intended). It also has good contrast. It just feels somewhat flat.***

On to the good stuff!

Off Target was pitched to me during my 12 Days of Christmas event, where I ask Indie authors to pitch their books for purchase and review. I grab a sample of the ones with great pitches and give them a read. This title was intriguing because of the eccentricities of the main character, Sophie. Let's get going, and I'll tell you about it.

From a Reader's Perspective:
Sophie cracked me up, made me cry, and had me cheering throughout. She's a tough cookie with a penchant for everything guns. I know girls like that, so I could totally see it. I'd be friends with someone like her. That being said, I would've liked to see her with more flaws. She seemed way too perfect. Sure, she had her moments, but her hair, eyes, grades, shooting, and ideals about boys felt just a hair contrived. Either way, I liked her crazy moments, so I'm choosing not to give too much weight to the perfection. Cory was interesting, but I liked his twin brother, O, better. Surprisingly, he was more fleshed out. Pacing of the book was excellent. I didn't find there was a time where it dragged on. In fiction, I prefer none of the comparisons to older times, or things other people said in the past, to be put in parentheses. This novel had a lot of that going on. Feels like an infodump when it comes up, and without all the little quips, it would be an even better story. Plot was awesome, and surprised the heck out of me a couple of times.

From an Editor's Perspective:
There were some inconsistencies in age when things began to happen in the story, misspellings (riffle instead of rifle, a sleep instead of asleep), and one huge snafu where the parents are yelling and tell the MC she's about to be seventeen (she's about to be eighteen). Sadly, this many errors take away the ability to give anything for editing.

Rating:
1 Star for giving me a main character and a supporting cast I'd actually like to meet
1 Star for pacing and plot
1 Star for the happily ever after and tying up all the loose ends
- .25 Star for perfection of the MC
- .75 Star for parenthetical sections that came up way too often
- 1 Star for editing
Overall, 3 out of 5 stars. Recommended for those who enjoy coming-of-age tales with a tough cookie for an MC.

What do you think? Will you pick it up?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

6 comments:

  1. Sounds like an interesting story!

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    1. Oh my goodness, it totally was. I loved the gun toting MC :) Thanks for the comment and welcome to the blog, Reese :)

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  2. Sounds like a decent book to me :-)

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  3. Thanks for the review. The necessary edits have been made to the second edition.

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    1. You're welcome, Molly! :) Thanks for popping in and acknowledging :)

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