G475 Book Review of I,James by Mike Hartner

Name of Book:I, James

Author: Mike Hartner

ISBN: 978-1-927867-31-0

Publisher: Eternity4Popsickle

Part of a Series: Eternity Series

Type of book: History, travels, boating, sea life, 1600s, family, nature vs nurture, improbable scenarios or characters, alternative universe

Year it was published: 2014

Summary:

James Crofter was ripped from his family at age 11.
Within a year the prince was a pauper in a foreign land.
Is nature stronger than nurture? And even if it is, can James find the happiness he so richly desires?

Characters:

The characters really need to be more in depth than now. There is very little dialogue or quirks that would allow for the reader to remember them, and they seem to be two dimensional instead of multi dimensional. No inner lives are portrayed. For young adults it might be an enjoyable read, but I didn't enjoy it.

Theme:

To be honest, I'm not sure what the message should have been of the story

Plot:

The story is written in first person narrative from both James's and Rosalind's points of view. I did feel that point of view switch were done very awkwardly and although the author did attempt to make Rosalind be important to the story, I feel that her point of view added very little. I think I also wanted to know what she did after the first few chapters, that is more background story on her, and I would have liked more tension when it came to love between her and James. I really wanted the characters to be more drawn out and human.

Author Information:

About the Author

Mike Hartner was born in Miami in 1965. He's traveled much of the continental United States. He has several years post secondary education, and experience teaching and tutoring young adults. Hartner has owned and run a computer firm for more than twenty-five years. He now lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with his wife and child. They share the neighborhood and their son with his maternal grandparents.

Mike won first place blue ribbon for the 2013 Chaucer Award for Historical Fiction and first place blue ribbon for the 2013 Dante Rosetti Award in the YA category for I, Walter.

His latest book is the historical fiction/romance, I, James.

For More Information

• Visit Mike Hartner’s website.
• Connect with Mike on Facebook and Twitter.
• Visit Mike’s blog.
• More books by Mike Hartner.
• Contact Mike.

Opinion:

I'm sorry, but I didn't like nor enjoy reading the book. I think for one is that I set my expectations a little too high, and I wish I could have known that the tone would be reminiscent of a young adult novel, which it felt like. The chapters and point of view switch felt awkward for me, and it did take me awhile to get that the names of chapters are named after character. Despite the promising story and synopsis, I knew next to nothing about James and Rosalind. There is very little dialogue to reveal their inner selves or how they felt about certain things, and the story is more of a told rather than shown.

This is for Pump Up Your Book

2 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)