| Title | : | Cherry Blossom Girls (Cherry Blossom Girls, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 322 |
| Publication | : | First published March 14, 2018 |
Grace was everything I was not, a psychic shifter, beautiful beyond my wildest imagination, a government conspiracy waiting to be unraveled.
And that was before the second superpowered woman showed up to kill us both.
Warning: Cherry Blossom Girls contains a harem; gamelit LitRPG humor/stats; violence; telepathic, shifter, and vampiric superpowers used for auto theft, mind games, and the exploitation of the general public. This series was inspired by The Tick, Stranger Things, Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, and the anime Elfen Lied.
Cherry Blossom Girls (Cherry Blossom Girls, #1) Reviews
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I mentioned a "summer blockbuster" recently. That's exactly what this book is. Kick back, relax and enjoy.
And so I did. Cherry Blossom Girls: A Superhero Harem Adventure is a superhero harem adventure book. Quite a shock, right? 😮
It looks like the LitRPG genre moves slowly towards more-adult-than-regularly-adult phase. Or I've just made severalrandomawesome choices in a row! 😅
Let's discuss the important people first. Harmon Cooper, the author, and the full Soundbooth Theater cast are involved. This will be awesome!
End of discussion about people. I loved the book already when I saw this.
It's like that favorite baker shop you have in the neighborhood. Other shops may have products just as good or even market them better but you won't care. Your favorite baker didn't make those.
So let's see what my favorite bakers made for us.
Gideon Caldwell, our main character (MC as they are apparently called in the LitRPG world) is a writer. Writes niche sci-fi and has achieved top rank around 220.000 on Ebaymazon.
Yep. Ebaymazon. And there's Googleface also. I likely got that wrong as none of the mergers made sense but I want to you have a general idea. After all, if it was real, all the companies would be called Amazon by that point in future 😂
Regardless, he wasn't a celebrity. We find about that pretty quickly. And he's doubly-awesome as he reads "The Art of War"!
This is how the book starts: "It was a dark and stormy night when a nude woman showed up on my doorstep." 😱
I shit you not! 10 words in and we have "nude". Awesome! If this was going to be over-the-top superhero action, it better have an equally over-the-top script!
Yep, this is how I justify the unnecessary nudity 😀
Well, our writer Gideon met Grace. A super-human, genetically engineered, woman. A shifter. A psychic.
If, after all of this, you envisioned Sarah Kerrigan, like I did, let me disappoint you. Grace is not a badass. At least not yet.
She can basically shape-shift into anyone she sees and pop in their head if she wants to.
It was weird reading about someone like this, theoretically unstoppable. It required a lot of care by the author to justify things left and right. And still, we need to suspend our disbelief quite frequently.
But hey - it's a super-hero story. If you can't enjoy all those Marvel and DC stories this one isn't for you either. If you can... well, you'll like this one, too.
And that's how Gideon and Grace met. And how he became fugitive from a secret (government?) organization. And how his life turned to shit. And since he basically didn't have a life before, his life turned awesome instead! 😂
Enough about the story. I can't really say much else I'll spoil things for you and I don't like doing that.
If you really want a spoiler, then be my guest.
Spoiler alert! Don't read this ->
Now, what I didn't like? Several things. But they weren't nearly as bad or important to make a fuss about. I could have just enjoyed the book more without them present.
In no special order, here they are:
[1] Foreshadowing done wrong. Many, many times you will see a chapter finish with "but I didn't know about that until much later" or "as I will later find out, the gardener was a killer". I really didn't like that. It was quite the opposite of a cliff-hanger.
[2] To many quotes from other books and authors. Quotes were good and appropriate but our MC should have just fired those like his own thoughts, instead of "As such and such said in his book 'The Name of the Book', "... I was afraid I'd find a list of references at the end of the book.
[3] Very, very powerful characters. And their counterparts are also very powerful. Fight between them should be a 3-second whirlwind. Who strikes first, wins. But that's not what we see in other superhero movies and comic books so I suppose it's fine. Although I feel everyone is a bit over the top.
[4] Writer vs Rider. I thought Gideon was a rider, as in bike rider, or similar due to the way Justin pronounced "writer." Not being a native English speaker I told myself that's the way "writer" is apparently spoken in the USA and made a mental alias. Whenever I header "rider" I understood "writer." Worked like charm.
As for the complaints, that would be about it.
There are plenty of nerdy jokes and other types of humor to keep that distant superhero feel about the book, instead of "OMG! They are going to kill him and I so love this character *cries rivers* 😭"
"And remember, no shifting in public!" End of chapter.
Chapter 4: Shifting in public.
I liked those little things, and generally the way Cooper writes.
Narrators were particularly awesome. My first time hearing Justin Thomas James and he really impressed me. It shouldn't have come as a surprise, considering he's one of the Soundbooth guys, but still. Need more Justin now!
Girl voices were done by Annie Ellicott and Laurie Catherine Winkel. Blew me away. Both perfectly in-character at all times. Plus I've heard Annie in the
Dungeon Lord recently and if I hear any more of her soon I'll start writing love letters. No joke 😍
Finally, Jeff, too, found a way to shine despite having a total of 10 lines across 2 different characters. Well, more like 50, but it felt like 10. Need more Jeff!
Harmon Cooper does write well. Or he just has that style that I find very entertaining. It's subjective and I don't care. What I do care about is picking up some more of his stuff. Looking at his Audible portfolio, everything is narrated by the Soundbooth Theater 😱
I'll be quitting my job soon as I need more time to listen to all of this 😇
Cherry Blossom Girls: A Superhero Harem Adventure (Cherry Blossom Girls #1)
by Harmon Cooper (Goodreads Author), Justin Thomas James (Narrator), Annie Ellicott (Narrator), Laurie Catherine Winkel (Narrator), Jeff Hays (Narrator)Verdict Very pleasing. Do want more.
Overall
Performance
Story -
Wow, those pop culture references are really dated, when did this book come out... Published March 14th 2018 by Boycott Books oh wow... that's a shame.
Can we talk about meme's for a second? Authors, meme's have a shelf life of about a month. Most are much shorter than that, very few much longer.
Meme's are the most transient version of pop-culture, which is already highly transient. If you're going to stick a meme into your story it's almost guaranteed to be expired before you manage to publish the thing. I mean, this story has a Pepe The Frog meme in it (Miss used btw) and it was published, not only after that meme was relevant, but Ugandan Knuckles (see above) had already come and gone.
I feel kind of weird reviewing this, as it comes off like the authors private fantasy journal. The meta is over the top, the self insert fantasy is obvious, and the behind the scenes/insiders view of self published authors is a bit depressing.
But, to the story it's self. Well... Cooper is at least a competent writer. That was refreshing after coming off World Seed and it's amateurish style. The story too was fine, but it was all just too similar to
Super Sales on Super Heroes and that book did it better. -
So far this book is 50% author self insert, 30% book quotes, 15% fourth wall breaking talking to the reader, and 5% litrpg harem setup. I don't want any of these things separately, and here the author poorly combines all of them. If I don't drop this book, I know I don't want to read anything else by the author when I'm finished.
This is just bad cliches that are horribly executed. It makes me suffer more because I just finished another poorly written book. I should really stop picking up random recommendations.
This was so bad, I'm glad that it's finished. The author tried to pass this off as "real life", and his group against the government. But if they (The Gov) had as good technology as the author hinted at, this book would have stopped when he went to sleep the first time after meeting the girl.
It would have ended with him walking up in handcuffs.
The logic is just not there. But it isn't the lack of logic that makes this book so bad, it's everything else. The blatant self insert, book quotes, and pop culture references.
Also riddle me this. Why is it, that in the year 2030, they are still using pop culture references from the 2008-2015? I mean in 2018 they don't even use references from 2010 anymore... and 2030 is still using them?
Never touching another Cooper book. I can see this is just wish fulfillment, and I don't likes those types of books.
1.5/5 Stars -
While listed as a harem book this SF look at mutants really had a very small percentage of the book devoted to the harem. Which is a good thing in my opinion, while I'm not a harem "hater", I hate when things stand in the way of the story or feel like filler and this book had nothing like that. This was on my TBR pile for quite a while, first it was listed as harem and then the subject was Super Heroes. With all the comic book movies and TV shows airing currently I'm a little comic book fatigued. This book didn't feel like a typical X-Men story it felt much more like a SF novel with I'm about to get started on book 2 I hope it's just as good as this one.
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“Wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good.” But, hey! It’s never too late, right! From a not known sci-fi writer who worked at a gift shop to the savior of two stunning and sexy superpower girls, going through disparate and fun situations, sexual overtones and outrageous and hilarious action packed turns. Twists where you least expect them. It has been a novel experience for me in this harem style plot, the phrasing excellent, a normal guy turned héroe, a character with his own egocentric limitations and doubts rises above all to save the day! Tremendous read! Definitely recommend it!
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This author has strange habit of overexplaining what he said in previous sentence, in the manner that the explanation turns out just the iteration of what was already said. Redundancy killed the cat which was redundant anyway. It would be better if the editor didn't indulge in Redtubing on crack cocaine and laughing gas the night he was supposed to edit this, I guess. See what I did there?
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Awesome First Book
Truly enjoyed this book.I really enjoyed how the author worked with all the preconceived notions we have and just made fun of it to make you smile. -
Narration by Justin Thomas James, Annie Ellicott, Laurie Catherine, Jeff Hayes what else you need, sound booth theatre is becoming my favorite for so many awesome audiobooks.
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Interesting new LitRPG
An unusual start but soon picking up as you get involved into the story. Really like the adjustments and what they do to the abilities which is a mainstay for the LitRPG role. Not the authors usual fortay but despite the change i think a lot of his fans will give this a try and book 2 will only up the ante -
The Book in particular, is a great book, very good book, it is very very fantastic, I highly recommend it, very interesting, I was very surprised when I read it, good book.
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Wow, just wow. I feel this was a much needed read for me. After a while of reading books you forget what a truly bad book is like. I now am properly re-grounded (last time was with Life Reset).
Okay first, I totally went into this expecting some cheese, but I figured with a 4.5/5 on Audible that it would be at least tolerable cheese. I was wrong. The MC is a total self insert character on the part of the author and even goes so far as to have the MC be a self published author writing a self insert fiction. The MC then spends the majority of the book rambling and making pop culture references, all the while defending their use in his head by telling himself in third person that he is a poor writer so it's to be expected that he isn't good at explaining what scenes are like. I feel like the author is constantly begging me to not be hard on him as a critic while he smears cliches in my face. (the MC mentions several times that there's just no way to please critics in defense of when he leaves story threads dangling) If a good writer has a plot hole that they don't want to have to fill in for some reason, they minimize it and distract the reader, they don't do like Harmon Cooper and spend paragraphs calling specific attention to said plot points via the MC's inner dialog and then attempt to defend their existence in his head. It's as if I am reading the author's preemptive forum rebuttals to the book inside the book. And speaking of inner dialog, what writer in their right mind thinks that it's a good idea to title a chapter after it's major plot point, like, "Dark Vans" (not this, by similar). And if that's not clear enough on telling you what the climax of the chapter is going to be about, then the MC spends several minutes of future-hindsight narration telling you what all happened next before the story actually progresses that far. The MC is completely caught up with himself which I guess may be another self insert; he tells you as the reader how bada** he is becoming numerous times throughout the book as well as repeatedly plainly stating how he is "breaking bad" with the accompanying references, even going so far as to mention Walter White. Then after the scene finally happens the MC will have a texted conversation with a friend rehashing everything that just occurred. The entire book is so packed full of the MC explaining in hindsight what will happen next, expositing the scene at you by way of references or intentional cliches, and then rehashing everything that happened in stilted texting format, that none of the others characters in this book have more than a scant handful of lines of dialog. They don't develop; they barely even exist, and they only do that so that they can be used for more pop culture references.
This book is a mess and it's so short. There aren't really acts, just random "action" (mostly just the MC telling you what is happening). Honestly the only reason I finished this book is because by the time I realized the slough I had wandered into there were only 2 hours left so I figured I might as well stick it out. The audio with multiple actors sounded like a good idea and I was interested in seeing what it was like but unfortunately it was executed poorly; volumes range all over the place and voices are a mess. Which surprised me a little seeing some of the voice actor names involved. -
A unique read
There were some aspects I disliked a fair bit early on, but they grew on me as time went on. I’d rather see less snarky real-World references, but that’s just me and I don’t feel it deserves a lesser rating for that reason! -
An interesting premise for a harem-style LitRPG, but poorly executed.
The cover art and description caught my eye, but I couldn't find much substance. The author has an extremely annoying tendency to over-explain things and often repeats himself. Something I would expect easily corrected with a few edits. (Unless the author's constant claims about being a poor writer are meant to be taken literally)
Cherry Blossom Girls could have been much better if the fat was trimmed. The novel is loaded with reiterations, over-explanations, and so many quotes it makes your head spin. Too many times is the action or intrigue slammed into a stop sign, so our hero can ask advice from his pen pal. Psychics-shifters and "Magneto"-vampires, great concepts, barely explored. There was more about the fictional book has was writing in the backdrop than the superheroes he's surrounded by.
Unfortunately the writing is not saved by the world. Set in the future, company names are mashed together to give the illusion of change. It's difficult to care for the cast or sense that they are in any danger, as the heroines powers are so strong, he can write himself out of anything. (Grace's "hypnosis" ability is perfect in every sense of the word, despite being under-leveled)
The long rambling narrative was punctuated with spontaneous sex and two or three brief action sequences. The story and characters felt very much at home in an anime battle girl harem. Sexing and lusting after our MC for no reason at all; They can move mountains, but they need joe-nobody to dress them. (Imprinting like ducks.)
TL;DR - Cherry Blossom Girls was the poorly worded novelization of your favorite naughty anime; Complete with self-deprecating nerdy weakling. I would not recommend it. -
Cringe self insert about a writer
I don't know how this book got so many positive reviews. It's just a self-insert story with a messy plot and cringe dialogue. It's really a shame that these cookie cutter beta male power fantasies are smothering the litrpg and gamelit genres in neck beard energy. -
Unique
Which is saying something. Fun story, light read, slow to medium pacing but it felt right. Good editing. Highly enjoyable. Worth reading. -
2.5 to 3 Stars I liked for the most part.
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I was hesitant to read this particular book at first. It isn't that I hate LitRPG or harem stories either. In fact, there are a lot of ecchi harem anime that I enjoy a lot. You also gotta admit the covers from his book are drop dead gorgeous. I believe my main quip regarding trying this book out stems more from the fact that the author churns books at an alarmingly fast rate.
Now, I can't be certain if an author either writes insanely fast or uses the aid of a ghostwriter to speed things up, and both methods are perfectly legitimate ways to have a larger reading backlist. What I do know is that even though this book is approximately 80,000 words long, I was worried about the book's quality vs quantity equation.
In a sort of way, the book managed to reach my expectations, which I guess is mostly positive, albeit at the sacrifice of not being a timeless classic. This book already has plenty of reviews and the plot is pretty self-explanatory, so I will only mention it is roughly about a seemingly ordinary guy named Gideon who rescues a super powered psychic woman named Grace that can read the minds of people and change her physical appearance. It seems like part of her memory is lost and an evil government agency is trying to look for her. Gideon obviously falls for her charms and starts an adventure to live on the lam while they both start encountering other super powered individuals he likes to nickname Cherry Blossom Girls.
A lot of readers complained Gideon seems like the idealized version of the author where he meets a bunch of really attractive women who all desire him and make his life very interesting. Whether any of that is true, I think I will leave it to each individual reader's imagination. What I do know is that while Gideon brings the story forward and everything happens from his POV, he isn't a particularly fascinating person that I would want to root for. He isn't evil per se, but he does have somewhat twisted morals (although in all fairness, given Grace is capable of controlling the minds of the people she meets, it is possible some of Gideon's actions within the story are propelled by her without him even realizing it).
As the female lead, Grace is okay. Her speech and personality seem very stilted and forced. It is likely her odd quirks are due to being raised in a laboratory without any normal human interaction. She doesn't seem bothered by her DDD sized boobs, or take notice when and if people catcall her in the street. I am not sure if some of her actions are a result of reading Gideon's mind and seeing he has watched a tad too many porn videos, giving her a distorted view of romance.
Veronique as the badass cherry girl gives the story a fun contrast. It is perhaps not that original, as many harem stories have a trigger happy antagonist turned sidekick. I think her character could have been developed better. Whereas the reader can forgive Grace's naivety, Veronique has had a lot of interactions with others, and yet she doesn't understand simple things like the concept of money or how to turn on a car.
Furthermore, I have a hard time understanding why Gideon is working at a Yale gift shop when he didn't graduate there; he went to an unnamed public school. Even odder, this story is supposed to take place 12 years from now, and Gideon graduated with a hard-to-market liberal arts degree and earning minimum wage in a job that doesn't require a college education. I initially assumed he worked there as a Yale alumni (many private schools offer job placement to their graduates), and that part of the story continues to make me scratch my head. College is very expensive in the US, and after the 2009 crash, kids in junior high school today would be familiar with the adage to choose a degree that guarantees a job, or in the very least, pick a liberal arts degree if you can nab a good scholarship or if the curricula includes a lot of marketing and IT subjects.
While this book was pretty well edited and without any typos, I do feel like it is these little details where writing too fast takes an inevitable toll on the overall experience. Lest to say, as long as you set aside these quips, the story is very fun. I loved the scenes where Gideon tampers with the power stats of both ladies when he hacks into some software in their cyborg(?) bodies, and the ingenious ways Grace takes advantage of her powers to confuse unwitting people to help them.
I believe I am willing to give the second book a chance sometime just for the sheer fun involved in the story, and it was enjoyable enough to read to merit a solid 4 stars. -
Rating 2.5 stars
This book wasn't very good. Not terrible. It didn't trigger any of my pet-peeves that would make me hate it, but there also wasn't anything that good about it. The one good thing I can say about this book is that it flowed well and was a very quick read. This book tried to be too much and failed at everything. It was SciFi, Lit RPG, Harem, superhero and failed at each. I think if the author would have focused more on what he wanted it to be, it might have turned out better.
There was a different take on the genre that could have been good, but it did not work out in this case. The main character in the story is Gideon who is a "not very good" self published SciFi writer who works at the Yale gift shop. Some crazy stuff starts to happen to him, so he decides to write about what is actually happening in his life into his book. Every time he has a problem in his life, he calls a friend and asks him what he should do with his "story" because his "main character" has a problem (such as my character has a car full of dead bodies, what should I have him do with them?). So this ended up being, as it turned out, about a not very good fantasy writer, writing about a not very good fantasy writer.
So overall I would conclude:
Idea for the story - 4 stars
Characters - 1.5 stars
SciFi aspect - 2 stars
Lit PRG - 1 star
Harem - 2 stars
Super hero - 1 star
Story execution - 2 stars
This book falls into the growing category of books: Great premise, very poor execution -
Not entirely my cup of tea, but I was able to stick with it, which counts for something.
The book is written in a simple way. Which isn't always a bad thing. A big part of the joy of reading is filling in events with the imagination, and not necessarily stunning MFA-level wordcraft. But some of the action scenes were very much told instead of shown--to the point that action scenes seemed like a friend describing a movie a month after they had seen it in theaters.
There's also quite a bit of filler. It seemed as if a quarter (maybe a third) of the book was made up of the MC reviewing events that had already happened in the narrative. The MC also liked to lean on out-of-context quotes from famous authors that connected to the events happening in the story. Sometimes this worked, other times the connection was tenuous at best.
I don't have much to say about the sex. There's not much, considering it's used as a selling point for the book. I think one of the main negatives of digital indie publishing is that pretty mundane parts of books, like sex, are amplified in the advertising over and above the plot. Almost as if they're not books, but drug delivery systems for readers to free-base a highly specific experience. The harem subgenre's weird. It's always some schlub who meets beautiful women with amazing powers--and there's nothing special about him, except that he has a vague "protective feeling." I think there's a scene in this book where Grace becomes calm and determined because the MC raises his voice slightly? WTF? Like, the entire subgenre's a chauvinist fantasy, I get it. But I don't think it's asking too much for the MC to earn his role in some way. Maybe Grace distrusts the MC at first, and she uses her psychic powers to make him help her. And he finds out, and that creates tension. But then when she's rendered unconscious, he helps her of his own free will. That's interesting. And it would be a more positive articulation of the harem subgenre, because the MC would be loved because he grew into a heroic figure, and not just because he's literally-any-lame-ass-dude. -
Let's start with the good part - the narration. The tandem of Justin Thomas James, Annie Ellicott, Laurie Catherine Winkel, Jeff Hays made this book awesome even though the book is awful.
The narration is clear, full of emotions, girls made their job even better than the author, as for me, because exactly due to their work I had a clear image of these cherry blossom girls.
I'm very happy to hear again Justin James and Jeff Hays, two men with such an incredibly voices! Love it!
About the book... Well, I'm totally okay with all that stuff that is in it, but still, something was wrong. A motivation, I guess. After a few days I finished listening I can't understand the motivation of all that people in the book. Furthermore, I was upset to discover that in the book main characters live in their own world and almost don't connect with the other people in the world. Yeah, okay, I know, there was a psychic, and a murder, and everybody who runs into them dies or is charmed, but I don't feel that connection with these heroes or other people from the book. I can't imagine that I will bump into one of them one day.
That feeling that there was not enough of something - everything - is haunting me. Not enough of humor, not enough of reasons, not realistic.
So.
The narration - great!
The book - could be better. -
This is an entertaining, serial launch that pits the cooler version of the author (assumed) up against powerful people with a deadly, classified, conspiracy-type plan. The bonus: Two hot chicks that are into sex. Said hot chicks have super powers and can both cripple, control, and shag the author. Hmm, I wonder why he wrote himself into this work? ;)
A brief overview: Hot naked chick shows up outside the protagonist's basement-level apartment. He doesn't have much of a life, so this alone is pretty sweet. However, said hot chick, Grace, can shape-shift and control minds. Not a bad skill.
Of course, this then opens up a new world were killers are hunting, a powerful corporation wants Grace back, and another hot chick comes into the fold. Speaking of folds, err. Never mind. I'm already a bit crass in this review.
So, said Author works with the pair (resisting again), determined to expose those that altered these humans. The story does unfold and has backstory and action, but it is just book one, so don't expect loads of answers.
In all, a fun, quick read. Good for travel!!
3.8 of 5 Stars. ARC provided by author. -
An ordinary guy - who just happens to be a writer - with a sort of ordinary life, finds his world turns completely topsy-turvy when a gorgeous, naked female lands on his doorstep. Ha! A wet dream, you say? Well, yes and no.
It's a very good story, well thought out, and easy to read. The female characters are full (oh, yes!), and the 'mousy' male character (at first) seems to have a superhuman amount of self-control for a guy in a harem situation.
This is funny, with lots of action once it gets going, and I especially enjoyed the girls' antics. You won't believe the twists and turns, and you won't see them coming either. It's built a good foundation for the next book which, I imagine, will be even more action packed.
The male being able to control the females' stats and turn them into exactly what he wants? Hmmm. Reminded me a bit of a 'man-made' Frankenstein when Grace admits sadly, "Sometimes I just want to be normal."
I voluntarily read and honestly reviewed an eARC of this book. Any opinions are my own. -
If you've read Harmon Cooper's other books, this one is different - it takes place in the real world! Despite that, it still has elements of LitRPG because the "superheroes" are somehow genetically and digitally modified, so the main character can view and adjust their stats. The plot of this book was action packed, with constant running and battling against the superior forces that were after our trio. It was also really fun to read because the main character seemed to be based loosely on the author, or at least a less successful version of himself, and there were lots of little easter eggs peppered throughout the book. The story is narrated in the first person, so it's easy to relate to Gideon, the hero of our story and the struggling author who not only tells the tale, but also "publishes" it right before the final battle. Just like its real life counterpart, the main character's book is also the first of a trilogy. Genius!
I volunteered to review an ARC of this novel. -
I'm a fan of Harmon's LitRPG books, especially Fantasy online. I think Fantasy Online is one of the best LitRPG series on Audiobook. With that being said, I couldn't get into this book. Main problem I think is I didn't like any of the main characters. They kill innocent people, use them without regard and it doesnt really faze the main character even though this is new to him. Some of their decisions seemed a little odd as well. The story feels forced, rushed and lacking. Very different from the rest of his books. The narration was good, but I am starting to notice that the female narrator sounds a little muted and doesnt seem to flow well. Instead of sounding like they are talking to each other, it sounds like their conversations are spliced together. There is seperate voices for each character, which is always great. Maybe the next one will be better, but i'm not a fan of the harem angle. I received the book for free for my honest review.
