Debbie's Spurts

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I'm not sure I'll be reading this one; the book description sounds a little too steampunk for my own tastes.

This humorous fantasy just came off library waitlist.  What seem like errors are making it hard to get into -- but, they repeat a lot where I'm wondering if maybe I'm missing the point or something not translated into English correctly?  "or" used a lot as if a noun; "an one " is another phrase bugging me.  Commas are weird, too.

For example:

"He picked over the or with pursed lips."

"Now get in that or and get that pack organized."

"The others had settled for donning their or on top of their Outworld garb."

"And expected an one attack with every rustle in the bushes."

In context, the book description is "A magic realm is set on a collision course with wackiness when a witch and her wombat sidekick guide an assortment of tourists from the mortal world through an enchanted forest they think is merely a high-tech amusement park."  

Basically the charactes are gearing up to go on quest in a medieval/fairytale reality.  They pick up a lot of "or" -- which isn't making sense to me.  I don't think it's an abbreviation or acronym.

A good read; not quite sure it worked as part of the series (possibly the last book) for me.  Not my favorite of the series.

Partly because it tried hard to tug at some heartstrings with babies in danger.

Lucy's love, Sean, was very much exactly what she needed him to be.  Oh, some romantic moments but mostly not nearly as wacky or as interesting on the romance side. I like these two together, the emotions make sense and it's nice that the angst has died where they are confident in their togetherness.  Just disappointing though that Sean turned into cardboard perfection behaving exactly as she wants.

Maybe because Lucy did so much without the usual posse in this one, something was lacking.

I gave this library book a good try.  It had such promise of an interesting storyline.

So uneven.  I couldn't get a fix on any of the characters between fluctuating personalities and dialogue (just jumped all over the place).  Add in some bad stereotypes.  I could even have gotten over the bits that almost seem like an author was tossing in little homages, sendups, bashings or anecdotes about their real life acquaintances.  Worldbuilding was in pretty broad strokes, but had interesting bits I thought could make for a nice long series.

I'm not sure exactly how to put my finger on what went wrong for me.  One minute the good guy was nice and the next a jerk, one minute the mc was capable and quiet but the next petty and prejudiced ... About the time I'd like the book, something would annoy me or break the immersion.  Just couldn't get a feel for the characters and the storyline was better as premise than in execution.

Not completely giving up on author; later books might show more skills as they develop as  writer.  The writing and editing weren't the issues for me; just not connecting to the characters and the storyline uneven.

I'm usually good about library books, but for some reason this one got overlooked.

The reviews from people I follow are extremely mixed.

So could be a quick DNF or a new favorite series.

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2019 BAEN FANTASY ADVENTURE AWARD

"...The contest opens for submissions January 21st, 2019 and all entries must be received by midnight on April 30th, 2019. Each entry is limited to an original short story in the English language of no more than 8,000 words, and only one entry per author. .."