What is your opinion?
Splendid
"Splendid ***** thank you for sharing this marvelous story with us I hope you will release some more for us"
Good work
"I read your book,what I realy enjoyed the most was Africa and Amajuba.I find myself open minded about the whole book so keep on writting and I will follow your next work as well.I wish all the best for your book to be published.I did this review on Eddie's computer.My name is Makhosi and my email address is [email protected]."
Amanda
"For a first attempt at writing, I found the story totally captivating and easy to read, and the fact that it's written in.the first person also brought me. closer to the characters. The chapter on "The Race" made me feel one with the horses, and I felt you had a great understanding and sympathy for these beautiful steeds! I also felt that the amount of research you put together on the war itself is commendable and made for some riveting reading! My favourite chapter was "Annie's War" and, here again, you painted a wonderful picture of just how "grey" and desperately soul destroying those concentration camps were. I loved Annie's feisty character as well. If you read the entire manuscript you will understand the title "Scorched Earth", which I found most appropriate. A really stellar and. courageous effort for your first attempt and I would encourage you to keep on writing!"
Scorched Earth
"Very dramatic with dramatic changes in the life of the the main character and the difficult choices for a young man to make in a strange country with different language and strange customs of living "
Great read
"Love historical reads about war. And, honestly first ever of the Boer war. I will search for me now thanks for your work."
Scorched Earth
"First off I admit I’m a brutal reviewer as I wish to be reviewed the same. It should also be recognized I am an amateur not a professional writer and hold no degree in English. Please accept my review as my attempt to improve your story. You may take or reject as you see fit. I only read the first chapter as you read my first chapter. I will read more but let’s start with this. Change the title of Chapter 1 to “Finding Me Legs”. Living in Liverpool they are assumed to be Cockney so make the title fit the local and vernacular. You start out over working the word working. Read your first few paragraphs and limit this word use to twice. Over all you are too verbose. You need to say the same with less. For example change the first sentence to, “I was born into a Liverpool working class family on April 18, 1852, officially baptized Donald Stewart by my parents, Mary and John Wallace but I was called Danny.” Change the second to, “My siblings were John-Patrick, 15, Mark, 9 and Mary Victoria 5. At the start of the 4th paragraph it is not clear if your mom is three and half or you. You need to clean up your grammar; also a fatal flaw of mine. These are just suggestions. It is your story. Here is a scary thought. Can you speak Cockney? In my story I have a chapter of her Mom speaking in Hawaiian Pidgin English. Very tough to do and I worry if I did it correctly. I appreciate your comments on my review. While critical it is not meant to be dismissive. You read my chapter and realize I have similar flaws."
Confusing title
"The one thing about this story that really threw me off is the title. I mean when I read ‘Scorched Earth’ I thought it would be a sci-fi, action-packed, adventure sort of novel. But from the first chapter you set a really light tone and a happy-go-lucky mood. So I’d probably change the title if I was you as I don’t think it accurately reflects what the story is about. On the plus side though, I really enjoyed your style of writing. And I love that it’s written in first person, especially because the novel talks a lot about horses. It really helps a reader connect more to the characters and the animals in the story. Your writing has great flow and you use simple words, making this story a light read. I haven’t read the whole story yet, but I enjoyed everything up until where I left off. Great job!"
