Review: Emerald City by Alicia K. Leppart

Emerald City by Alicia K. Leppert

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I happened to notice the book at a store where the author was doing a book signing. The description on the book made it sound very intriguing, and she was a local author so I bought it(as well as got it signed). The story is about a girl named Olivia who attempts suicide and is saved by man who lives across the street named, Jude whom she has never met before. Judd begins to try and help her with her depression, and Olivia begins to notice not everything is normal with her new friend Jude. I felt the beginning to this book was great, I related to the main character and felt her pain, and also related to the Jude and his motivation to help Olivia. The mystery behind Jude was intriguing as well and was the only thing that caused me to finish the book. The progression of the story seemed slow and at the same time the main character progressed in her emotional growth so quickly it almost didn't seem natural. The mystery behind Jude eventually began to just drag on and every chapter began to feel like it was rehashing the same story in a different way, and I eventually became bored with the book. When Jude's secret was finally revealed it almost felt anticlimactic. The story was a great concept and showed promise but failed deliver for me. This book may appeal to some audiences but in my opinion is well worth a skip.



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Review: Night of the Purple Moon by Scott Cramer

Night of the Purple Moon by Scott Cramer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received Night of the Purple Moon through Goodreads First Reads.

In NOTPM astronomers have predicted that the earth will pass through the tail of a comet, a phenomenon that is also said to cause turn the moon, sky, and stars purple. The comet carries space dust that will enter the earths atmosphere, further staining the earth purple. But the space dust also carries with it deadly germs that kill anyone who has gone through puberty. The story follows Abby Leigh, a 13 year old girl, and her brother Jordan as they try to survive in a world without adults, while waiting for the death sentence that is adolescence.

I really enjoyed this book, for me it explored the darker side of humanity when faced with the possibility of extinction, and showed how far even young people would go to survive when faced with death. How the same darkness that causes adults to commit murder and other horrible acts can overcome even a child, and how easily we are consumed with despair. But it also showed just how far working together and caring for one another can take us, and how important it is to keep hope alive in the darkest of times. As the book progressed I found a couldn't stop turning the pages, I had to know what happened to the characters and became invested in their problems. I felt every win and loss as they struggled to survive.

I feel that this is a good book for young readers such as those going through or on the brink of adolescence. I believe the story relates in many ways to the normal struggles and insecurities teens go through today when faced with the changes caused by puberty.

Being a tech savvy person there were some things in the book that puzzled me, such as why the characters had to generate an IP address after connecting to their wireless router, and why it seemed so difficult to connect to the router in the first place. I wont go into big details, but unless i was missing something, i don't think the process of connecting to the internet should have been as difficult as it was.

I also noticed what I believe to be a couple small mistakes in the book, and would like to point them out for the benefit of the author.


The first mistake is on page 15, it says:

"'The mailman drives a green car,' Kevin said
'His is dark green,' Kevin said 'this was light green'"

I believe it was intended for two different characters to say those lines, it seems odd the character would reply in that way to his own statement, and it is also odd that the author would state "Kevin said" twice.


The other mistake I noticed was on page 61:

"His assistant, even-year-old duke, poured glasses of fresh milk...."

I believe the author intended that to be seven-year-old duke(maybe eleven?)


There was one other grammar mistake I saw but forgot to mark it, I might go back and look for it and add it to my review later.

Some scenes/conversations in the book seemed odd or not very well written and as an adult I felt they could have been written better. But being a story mostly aimed at children/teens/young adults I felt they weren't too big of an issue, and for me they were easy to overlook with the great story. Night of the Purple Moon was overall a great book, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I will be looking forward to reading book 2!

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