The Loved, The Lost, The Dreaming by Michelle Browne

The Loved, The Lost, The Dreaming Reviews

• 
  John Dolan

  ‘The Loved, The Lost, The Dreaming’ comprises one full-length novel (‘The Underlighters’) and a number of short stories.
  
  ‘The Underlighters’ is something of a crossover novel, containing elements of science fiction and horror, but with some underlying messages about politics and social justice. Ms Browne’s characters live in an underground city, the surface of the planet having been taken over by The Dust – a dangerous and otherworldly entity from which the stuff of nightmares is fashioned.
  
  Having read the author’s previous offerings of ‘And the Stars Will Sing’ and ‘The Stolen’, I was anticipating something special, and was not disappointed. The writing feels even more assured than in her earlier works, and there is a delicious moral ambiguity which swirls about the story like The Dust itself. Her ‘world creation’ is detailed and credible, her characters flawed and vulnerable. Ms Browne keeps us guessing where the story is going , and the ending pulls the various themes together nicely. Parts of the novel are very dark: just the way I like it, in fact.
  
  Although I really enjoyed the novel, I actually liked the short stories more. Ms Browne’s subject matter was varied, but the imagery, language and structure of the tales was beautifully executed in every story – no ‘curate’s egg’ here. At times I was reminded of some of Angela Carter’s work, and would love to see the richness of Ms Browne’s short story writing in the context of a full-length novel.
  
  For those who like their science fiction/horror literary and gritty, this is a collection for you.
  
• 
  Travis Luedke

  I admit I had the opportunity to review the headliner novel of this compilation as a beta reader. It was good then, but much better now. I really enjoyed The Underlighters. It’s a dark and horrific dystopian fantasy where nightmares take physical shape in the daylight. Within this cyberpunk-horror is an intricate tale of a young girl coming of age, learning she is strong and beautiful and worthy of love.
  
  What surprised me to no end was the short stories following The Underlighters. Each tale is very different, some sad, some creepy, and some are imaginative retellings of old fables. The thin veil separating dream and reality is torn and scattered. These short tales are often bittersweet poetry, existential, with literary explorations of the human condition.
  
  There’s something for everyone in this package, it crosses most genres of fiction. There’s a dangerously sensual tale of the party to end all parties, a woeful but inspirational tale of rape and forgiveness, and other strange musings of a very talented and diverse wordsmith.
  
  Like a box of assorted gourmet chocolates, at least one flavor of Michelle Browne’s fiction sampler is guaranteed to suit your tastes.
• 
  B.R. Snow

  A most interesting book; perhaps collection is a more accurate description since The Loved, The Lost, The Dreaming features a full-length novel and eleven stand-alone short stories.
  
  The novel, "The Underlighters" is a dystopian horror adventure with a great protagonist who progresses through her coming of age journey in the midst of a world none of us would recognize. That is, we wouldn’t recognize it without the deft writing skills of Ms. Browne. She quickly establishes this new world environment and continues to add dark, complex layers to it as the story unfolds.
  
  The short stories that follow the novel are quite different and cross many genres. Ms. Browne has opened the tap on her imagination and creative juices to create a collection that deal with some difficult and dark themes. Each reader will find their own favorites, but there is definitely something here for everyone (adults).
  
  Despite the darkness and despair in the world she has skillfully created, Ms. Browne, in the end, has a lot to say about the strength of the human spirit and its ability to survive and overcome against some very long odds.
  
  This is an author will a lot to offer and I strongly encourage readers who enjoy discovering new worlds to check this one out.
  
• 
  GEORGIE

  Find more reviews on
  What She Reads
  -
  
  
  Wow, just wow. there is so much wonder behind the words written in this book. This book is not one for rushing, it takes time to read but you'll want to read every word through every breath. The first half we are in a dystopian horror novel, where everyone lives underground through tunnels, above ground they are faced with conflict of going mad because of the dust that took over the world many years ago. Not only that, we are faced with nightmares coming to life. This novel explores sexual relationships in deeper detail, as well as the intricate goings on of the mind.
  
  The second half we are faced with eleven short stories, only really lasting a length of a chapter. We're forced into the mind of the writers, telling stories of how unreal our fairy tale stories we grew up with are wrong and the conflicts of mad men.
  
  The cover is so simple and beautiful, i love the symbolism of the flower showing how delicate the human mind truly is. It is definitely something you would not expect considering it's contents.
  
  
  I give this a rating of...5*
• 
  Simon Okill

  The Loved, The Lost, The Dreaming is a title that describes perfectly the brilliant content of this compilation that even Stephen King would be proud of. The first read The Underlighters is a New Adult dystopian horror fantasy the likes of which I could never have imagined. As the book's main title suggests, The Underlighters is all about the loved - seen through the eyes of Janelle an electrician living beneath Up (the surface)where The Dust prevails. Janelle searches for love, the lost and tries to come to terms with her dreaming. Society has been forced below by The Dust, an almost sentient phenomena that causes nightmares to become real. And boy does the writer go to town on these nightmares. A truly terrifying read, but also a tender love story and a search for things we lose - namely The Lost - those infected by the Dust.
  This incredible first story is then followed by eleven, yes eleven equally chilling tales of horror crossing every genre all interwoven skilfully by Michelle Browne to leave this reader gasping and looking under the bed before the lights go off.
  A FIVE STAR CHILLFEST to satisfy all horror fans.
• 
  OrchardBookClub

  A very intriguing novel and such a refreshing change from the usual books I read. These stories cover everything dark, thrilling and the stuff of nightmares.
  
  I love how Michelle Brown has combined a full length novel and several short stories together. The full length novel "The Underlighters" was absolutely fantastic and deserves 5 stars on its own!
  
  I enjoyed the short stories especially the "fairy tale" ones which shows you a very different view to Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty that you might have grown up with.
  
  "A shot of vodka" the last short story, was again a fantastic story. This short story had everything. Love, deceit, betrayal of the worst kind and eventually forgiveness.
  
  I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good horror book and anyone who especially enjoys a good anthology! This is definitely the one to read!
  
  Laura (Orchard Admin)
  
• 
  Adrianne

  I recently started a book club, and after reading the synopsis, everyone agreed on reading this book. We began with the full length novel, The Underlighters, which is about a dystopian society created in the wake of a terrible cloud of darkness that threatened humanity’s survival. I love books like this, in that it challenges your senses and feeds your imagination with fantastical and extraordinary endeavors. Unfortunately, the book lacked description in many ways. Instead of reeling the reader in with descriptive imagery, Browne would sometimes say she’s not sure how she’s feeling or use derogatory language to explain specific emotions. Even though she was trying to illustrate the emotions and characteristics of a teenage girl, I felt the language was excessive, and that she could’ve expressed herself a bit more clearly. It was extremely difficult to really be able to picture what was going on, or what the characters were feeling at certain times. Also, Browne wrote the book in a journal format, so in each chapter she would announce that she’s “back” in some cases and that she’s “going to bed” in others. I felt this was unnecessary to acknowledge and it distracted from the story as well as the many typos scattered throughout the book. The beginning of the book especially was difficult to understand, because Browne introduced new terms and didn’t explain what they meant right away. Being from the United States, I also didn’t understand a lot of Browne’s Canadian jargon. Keeping the language more universal would’ve made the book a little more comprehensible. Although I was disappointed by much of the content, the premise of the book is extremely creative and interesting, and I admire the author for reaching for her dreams.
• 
  Jc Eggleton

  The Loved, The Lost, The Dreaming is an interesting premise of a book. It's almost entirely ripped from the writer's dreams, sometimes at the slight detriment to narrative (a short story that feels almost like a concept) but as a whole it almost entirely benefits from this style. It gets off to a good start with the Underlighters, but about seventy pages in, she seems to hit a groove that ups it to pretty damn good.
  
  Then the short stories begin and it gets to be pretty amazing. I especially loved the story about the little girl in the snow. The dollmaker was well written but, being a dream, didn't really have a direction. I was really impressed with the story about the witch, not only in the quality of the story itself but that the writer breaks out such an obscure a bogey as the Roman strega (sp?). The story about the club read like a genuine modern fairy tale. The dream huffers had so, so many things that could be expanded into a full-fledged fantasy book. The retelling of Cinderella was a very creative touch, the jailed dictator was well-written and left me wondering about what more there was too it. The Russian story, like the snow girl, blew me away. Though perfect at its current length, I honestly wished it was longer just so I could continue reading it. It was better writing than most mainstream books I've read.
  
  I cannot recommend this book enough. There are certain themes that the Westboro Baptist Church will find objectionable but I think that should provide incentive to support this artist. If not for the amazing stories, then to stick it to those horrible people. Definitely getting plenty of bang for such a miniscule buck.
• 
  Miranda

  I received a free ecopy of this book for my honest review. First, I feel like this book really drew out, I think it was longer than it needed to be. I kind of got lost at how detailed the first story was and how the rest of the book was totally the opposite. It was very hard for me to stay interested in the book but it just didn’t interest me the way I hoped and thought it would.
  
  Just about at the end of “The Underlighters”, I was really captivated. Most of the story, I had a hard time keeping interested. In my opinion, I think there was too much going on so it was almost too much. I enjoyed the very beginning; it was very exciting I left you wanting more. But I was very disappointed at the end, I wanted to know more about them after everything was said and done.
  
  The rest of the stories throughout, were interesting and they left a lot of questions. But I liked the first one the best, it was fairly well developed whereas, most of the others weren’t. I loved the uniqueness of the whole thing; the acceptance of a third gender and positive views on relationships with multi-partners. This author was really thinking outside the box whenever she wrote it. I really enjoyed how fresh and different everything about the book was. She has a dark writing style without it being sad or negative. However, I found the short stories that I thought were most interesting were some of the shortest.
  
• 
  Kirstin Pulioff

  What a book!!! First, I have to say, I was impressed with the way this story developed. It was a natural progression of discover, unveiling, and growth. The character development transformed in with each passing detail about the world, the struggles, and the mystery of the dust. This dystopian fantasy focuses not only on the coming of age story of Janelle, but an interesting mystery about “dust” and missing kids.
  
  Second- what great storytelling. I was impressed with Michelle Browne’s writing style when I read her short stories, The Stolen. What I was not expecting was how brilliant it would be in a full length novel. When I think of her writing style two images come to mind… Xena the warrior princess and a mad scientist. Her style is unique, strong, and precise, with a darker edge.
  
  There is no confusion as to the feelings she wishes to convey. She chooses her words carefully, sets up her characters in the right way, and introduces you to her world in a refreshing way. There is no doubt about it, she pulls you in with her words, twists your mind with the story, and leaves you hanging onto the end with that bittersweet longing for more… and then she give you more. A complete set of short stories that showcase her ability and her range.
  
  This book, The Loved, The Lost, the Dreaming, leaves you dreaming of more. Keep those books coming!!!
  
• 
  Sharon Stevenson

  'The Loved, The Lost, The Dreaming' is a horror anthology containing one novel & eleven short stories.
  
  'The Underlighters' is a dystopian sci-fi horror novel told in diary format by a teenager named Janelle. A few entries in she admits to being jittery and that's very much the tone that's been set from the beginning. There are some creepy moments with freaky creatures, leading up to the big scares later. There are also some seriously sexy bits as there's a very sexually liberal attitude in the society created here. The world building Browne does so well is very much present, making all the little differences feel very believable. I was quickly drawn into the story and related easily to Janelle. There are some really cool ideas in this novel and it's entertaining and scary throughout, I loved it!
  
  The short stories are all good in their different ways, I would probably class them as mostly fantasy with horror twists. I personally preferred the longer stories 'The Road House'& 'My Shadow Self', as they had more of Browne's fantastic dialogue and characterization. 'A Shot of Vodka', the final tale in the book, was just an amazing story that completely shocked the hell out of me.
  
  Overall this is a highly original and very well written book. Brilliant stuff!
• 
  Sara

  I came across this book in part because Michelle released on the same day I did mine. Something about the cover and the title immediately intrigued me, and I actually bought it long before I ever heard this would be on a blog tour through CBL Tours. I couldn't wait to read it because the synopsis seemed so different from other books I have seen around the internet lately. I wanted to read something different. I got it.
  
  The Loved, The Lost, The Dreaming is a captivating, well written anthology that contains one long work, The Underlighters, and several other short stories. All of them are creepy, sad, and play on the uncomfortable nature of the topics they employ.
  
  Michelle has a gift with the written word. She writes engaging, ground breaking prose that is not afraid to test the reader’s boundaries. She did a great job in the anthology of showcasing her talent in a variety of tales, each one of which stands out from the others. In short, I would recommend this book to anyone. It’s memorable, and unique.
  
  My rating: 5 stars (download it now!)
  
• 
  Pamela Foreman

  “The Love, The Lost, The Dreaming” is an interesting collection of stories combined into one novel. I found the stories interesting and captivating to the point I had trouble putting the book down to get other things accomplished! The writing is mostly from first person point of view so there is only the one perspective, but that didn’t bother me at all. I did enjoy the journalistic form of writing that was used. This book was quite a long read, but very worth the time!
  
  
  
  This book receives 5 out of 5 stars!
• 
  Corinne

  Review originally posted on
  http://www.TracingTheStars.com
  
  This book includes a full length novel which is then followed by eleven short stories. The novel, titled "The Underlighters", is told through journal entries written by Janelle Cohen, a late teen girl who is coming of age in a post-apocalytpic/disaster Earth future in which Earth's population has been forced to live underground by a mysterious substance known as Dust.There are two very uniquely developed storylines that unfold within the pages and excerpts from Janelle's journal. One of them is her own story, which tells of her experiences living in an underground city, her job as a training electrician, and her relationships with her father, her friends and her past and present partners. The other story is the mystery of the Dust, how it has forced mankind underground, the question of exactly what it is, and the strange things that start to occur both above ground in the abandoned cities and underground where mankind thought they had found refuge.
  
  I am not a fan of first person narratives, and I am an even bigger non-fan of journal style prose. So, when I began reading The Underlighters, I will admit that Michelle had to do a great deal to win me over and get over those two stylistic hurdles in my head. To say that she accomplished this is an understatement. My biggest issue with first person narratives has always been the that while you can often gain a limited-but-biased understanding of the main character, the other characters remain flat and unexplored. I have only read a few authors who have managed to overcome the first person narrative objective limitation, and Michelle Browne has been added to that very short list. Not only did I gain a good understanding of Janelle's character, I was able to form very good impressions of the other characters in the book through Janelle's interaction and realistic observations in her journal. My second issue, the journalistic style, is because many authors who use this style can leave the reader with a feeling of being told a disjointed story. Though Michelle's book did not change my dislike for journalistic narrative, she did an excellent job of telling the story without it feeling like you were only catching glimpses or disconnected pieces.
  
  Aside from Janelle, the novel is full of three-dimensional characters and an exploration of different relationships, from father-daughter, to friendship, to partnership. One thing that might cause readers a bit of raised eyebrows is Michelle's very bold inclusion of all manner of sexual orientation and partnerships. In The Underlighters, the society is accepting of all types, seemingly without discrimination. There are even those who don't define themselves as a gender (Michelle uses xer / xim / etc instead of her, him, ((replacing h with x)) when referring to these types) and there are those that are defined as "inbetween" (bisexual). Janelle, in the beginning of the story, is dating a female, Chloe, but she explains past relationships with a male, Raheed. She later explores the idea of polygamy. I think this exploration and inclusion is refreshing and adds unique flavor to her story.
  
  The gooey center of the cake that made me really enjoy The Underlighters was the world building. It is beautifully done; both the above-ground abandoned cities (known as "Up") and the underground city Janelle lives in. There are no info dumps and the two distinct worlds are revealed slowly through the journal entries. This slow world building eases the reader into both very alien environments and also adds to the mystery/thriller aspect of the story.
  
  The mystery of the Dust was the cherry on top that earned five stars. Michelle does very little foreshadowing, which is often where authors stumble and reveal to much, giving the mystery away. Instead, Browne reveals tiny clues and pieces bit by bit, drawing a thread through each journal entry that gives you tantalizing ideas as to what Dust may be and what is really going on in Underlighter, but you won't fully figure the mystery out until Janelle does.
  
  By the end of The Underlighters, I had already given The Loved, The Lost, The Dreaming five stars, but the good points didn't end there. Browne follows up the main story with several stand alone short stories for the reader to enjoy, each of them a glimpse at darker worlds within the imagination, dripping with delicately crafted description draped around solid bones of intrigue, mystery and emotional strings. I have only read three of the eleven stories at the time of this review because I find myself wanting to savor them. I want to devour them slowly and be able to revisit them in between my other review readings for a refreshing breath of really well crafted writing.
  
  In a word - recommended. Keep an open mind and you will be rewarded with a dive into the depths of imagination that may leave you questioning, breathless and inspired.
• 
  Michelle Willms

  The Loved, The Lost, The Dreaming by Michelle Browne
  
  The Underlighters:
  
  Janelle Cohen, who is training to become an electrician in her underground city, comes home from work with her stomach and arm badly cut and tells her father that she was attacked by a baby dragon. He is skeptical, but she shows him the claw she severed from the beast in hopes of proving her tale. He is still disbelieving. He examines her wounds and discovers that she is in dire need of treatment, so he rushes her to the clinic near their home.
  
  After painful stitches, with the treatment staff continually accusing her of being a gang member, Janelle finds that several other young people have recently been treated for similar injuries. One nurse mused that the weapon used upon Janelle was clearly meant to tear her apart. No amount of argument by Janelle could convince her or the other medical staff that she’d never belonged in a gang.
  
  When Janelle took her friends to see the corpse of the dragon (with her girlfriend Chloe expressing doubt that the dragon actually existed), there is nothing left but dust. As she tries to convince the group of the truth of her story, she removes the bloody claw from her pocket and throws it at them. It disintegrates into Dust before their eyes.
  
  Dust in the world of the Underlighters is a dangerous substance. It has taken over the land Above, blocking out the sun. Those who breathe Dust for an extended time lose their minds, hallucinating their way into complete insanity. It is only safe below ground, in the depths of the tunnels. The higher Up one gets, the greater risk one takes of inhaling Dust or of becoming one of the Lost, as happened to Janelle’s mother so many years ago after she went Up in search of her sister. The Lost wander further and further, breathing the Dust until they become disoriented, unable to find their way home, eventually dying from Dust exposure or worse.
  
  The Crows try to protect the citizens, but not everyone can be protected. Even though it is safer now than it was in the days when Janelle’s mother disappeared, strange things are happening. The Dust seems to be able to take the form of people’s nightmares. Janelle and her girlfriend, Chloe, see a spider-dog in one of the tunnels. Children begin to disappear from their homes, leaving no evidence of where they’ve gone or of who might have taken them.
  
  Two of Janelle’s friends become engaged and Janelle, Chloe, Jay, and Adrian go Up to see if they can salvage something nice for the wedding. They go past the level they are approved to visit, hoping to find an area less picked over. What they find is pure horror. As the crisis escalates, Chloe falls completely apart, Jay has seemingly vanished with Adrian searching for her, leaving Janelle to fight off a horde of monsters, hoping to keep them at bay until help arrives.
  
  When the Crows find her, they are impressed with Janelle’s response to the crisis, and later with Jay and Adrian. Janelle finds herself increasingly drawn to the leaders of the Crows, Una and Nathu. They are married to each other, but both seem to express an interest in Janelle. Chloe is violently jealous and acts out whenever she can, in spite of the fact that Nathu is also the leader of the city, and the son of the Mayor.
  
  In spite of this drama, Janelle joins the Crows and works to discover the mystery of the Dust.
  
  Amid disappearances, kidnappings, and betrayal, Janelle discovers her personal strengths and learns to believe in her own power as well her ability to love and be loved by others.
  
  Michelle Browne has created a unique blend of fantasy for lovers of the paranormal or fantasy genres. There is a flavor of the apocalyptic fantasy about it, but without the dreary, “woe is me, what a crappy world we have” attitude that is so often found in that genre.
  
  This novel is full of real emotion – it wrings tears from the reader as Janelle writes about her experiences in her journal. She has lost her mother; she loses friends; she has disagreements with her father. Her lover is difficult at best; and a real trial at worst. She lives a regular life amid the tunnels far below what was once the regular world. At the same time, she has powers of which she is never aware.
  
  The author has created an underground city that becomes incredibly real. The tunnels sound warm and homey, even to a claustrophobic reader such as me. The Dust is scary; the reader can feel it and its effects. The monsters are real. Watch out, you may find yourself wondering about all the Dust around you once you’ve finished this novel.
  
• 
  Dianne

  The Loved, the Lost, the Dreaming by author Michelle Browne is a diverse collection of stories that will astound you with their intensity, detail and unique feel.
  
  First up, a very disturbing look at a dystopian future world, holding only a bleak future for its inhabitants, is The Underlighters. Teenaged Janelle is training as an electrician, not because she is dying for the position, but because there isn’t much else in store for her future, until the day she comes home bloody and bruised with a fantastic tale of slaying a real dragon and the claw to prove it. But is everything as it seems in this dark and horrific tale? Is the underground world she lives in hiding a deadly force that may consume its inhabitants in a world of hallucinations and terror? What exactly is “Dust?” If inhaled, it produces bizarre effects, up to and including insanity. Isn’t this what she was told destroyed the upper world that lived in the sunlight? A mission to the upper world is a must and Janelle is determined to go. Does she join the Crows and endeavor to protect her people? What she discovers on the way changes her, causes her to grow as a person, in spite of the losses along the way.
  
  An extra bonus following this tale is a group of short stories, each dreamlike and unique, each written with Michelle Browne’s unique writing style, full of detail, characters written in 3-d who are capable of dialogue that is realistic. Each world is uniquely defined and brilliantly colored in! I think “attitude” is what Ms. Browne imparts to her characters, possibly a piece of herself?
  A good author can create a variety of stories and plots, an exceptional author can hurdle the genre lines successfully, as Michelle Browne has done!
  
  A review copy was provided by the author in exchange for my honest review and I thank her!
  
  
  Publication Date: January 28, 2013
  Publisher: Michelle Browne
  ISBN: 1482361507
  Number of Pages: 636
  Genre: Sci-fi/Fantasy
  Rating: 4.5 Stars
  Available from:
  Amazon /
  Barnes & Noble
  For more reviews check out
  Tome Tender's Book Blog or find us on
  Facebook.
  
  
  
• 
  Nicolas Wilson

  (Notes stored here for the wife, who plans to have me read it eventually)
  
  She enjoyed the Underlighters a lot, though she said it could benefit from very specific proofreading(I guess it was mostly clean, but there were some errors, particularly recurring errors with commas, that bugged her) and the narrative tone was the best when the author toned down the filler words intended to emphasize the youth of the narrator.
  
  Her favorite thing, though, was in Browne's handling of the setting. She said that Browne had a very fluid view of sexuality and gender, and she really enjoyed how much more developed and open all of the characters became, without having to adhere to traditional ideas of gender, sexuality, or relationships. It's something I don't fully understand, just given my own nature, but she's certainly seen a lot more of the subtlety in those interactions, since many of her closest friends are people who fall between the cracks of sociological expectation in that regard.
  
  There were a number of macabre elements and twists(though she didn't want to say what, in case I get time to read it) I don't think she was satisfied by the ending, or some of the plot points(she said there was one in particular that seemed to have no realistic consequences, even though the positive effects of it factored into the latter half of the story), but she seemed to enjoy the setting a lot. She said it was very gritty and well realized. She enjoyed the written tone, overall, and thought that the narration carried the visuals along very well.
  
  She said the other stories were good as well, but the characterization in Underlighters held her attention the most, since the longer form let Browne focus more on that than on the multitude of concepts and settings. She loved that, since it's a huge pet peeve of hers when authors have a striking concept, and then write their characters from point A to point B without developing that action organically, or exploring the characters involvement in the plot.
• 
  Casey Peeler

  Ok, like Holy freakin Cow! Let's just say that when I started this AWESOME book Monday night, and I didn't realize the length and how awesome this anthology was going to be! With that being said, I really didn't get to digest everything in this book!
  
  This book was amazing! One thing I will add is that since I did read almost 1500 pages in 48 hours, it took me about the first 3 chapters to grasp what was going on in The Underlighters... but once I did IT WAS AMAZING!
  
  The remainder of the book is didn't stories that all are all intertwined or have some of the same aspects. I will have to say that I enjoyed all of them, but my favorite was The Roadhouse.
  
  If you are looking for a sci-fi, out of this world, read. This is it! I honestly wish that I had started to read this earlier so I could soak up EVERY detail and information within each story.
  
  The only thing that I had a hard time grasping was how the society worked because YES, it is SCi-fi and it is different. In fact, I see some of the aspects being how my great grand children might view society and people ... and I' m31! The ideas of everyone being equal was fabulous. Once I grasped the society and levels, this was FABULOUS!
  
  The Lost, the Loved, and the Dreaming is a wonderful read that is full of life, nightmares, fear, and dreams.
• 
  Diamond

  A copy of this book was given to me by the author. This does not affect my opinion.
  
  Ok, I DNF this book. I only read the first story, a very small portion of the overall work. So I'm not writing a review or leaving a star rating.
  
  I will say why it didn't work for me though.
  
  -There were quite a few editing errors, misspelled words and grammatical errors which distracted me from the story.
  -A lot of the slang was confusing to me, what country are they in? (Just curious, lol)
  -I was not sure if the MC was a male or female. She/he talks about having a gf but also a ex boyfriend, so that could've been clearer.
  -Some awkward sentences like '...after all, we are teenagers, ' (and other sentences that didn't make sense)
  
  - With a strong editor, this could've been a lot better. If it gets edited properly, I'd pick it up again.
• 
  Laura Smith

  My review has been done under Orchard Book Club