BUY or PASS? The Seventh Sons #FridayFiveChallenge

Welcome to the ‘Friday Five Challenge.’

Would you BUY or PASS if you had only a thumbnail image and five minutes to decide?

Welcome to the #FridayFiveChallenge. The original idea comes from Rosie Amber, and you can join up at https://rosieamber.wordpress.com

The rules are laid out at the end of this post if you fancy having a go.

Here is my contribution for this week:

As I sat on the window ledge at three in the morning, watching an incredible supermoon turn red, I thought it only fitting to enter ‘Blood Moon’ into the Amazon search bar and see what came up. This is what I found:

The Seventh Sons (Sycamore Moon Series) by Domino Finn

BLURB:

Two years after his wife went missing, Detective Maxim Dwyer is still running down leads. The isolated woods of Sycamore are home to many lawless men, and no one’s talking, but that hasn’t stopped Maxim from gathering suspects. Topping his list is the local motorcycle club, the Seventh Sons.

His biggest obstacle? Everyone swears the bikers are werewolves. The small-town residents are wary of provoking the MC, and the marshal’s office is no exception.

Everything changes when a routine biker brawl turns fatal. Going against procedure, Maxim presses an enigmatic stranger for answers. But Diego de la Torre is running his own con. The outlaw deals in lies and legends, and no adversary can back him down. Not even the police. It’s too bad that nobody’s above the law for Maxim. He’s willing to risk his badge, and his life, to prove it.

“Supernatural meets Sons of Anarchy. Detective Maxim Dwyer is a man on a mission and nothing is going to stop him from finding his missing wife – not shape-shifting hard cases, outlaw bikers, or government cover-ups. Finn’s Seventh Sons is a story you’re not going to want to put down.” – James A. Hunter, Author of Strange Magic (Yancy Lazarus Series) 

My Analysis:

I love the cover! Surprisingly, searching for blood moon provided an overload of scantily clad ladies in compromising positions under a full moon, however, this cover dared to be different. I can see why it got the ‘sons of anarchy meets supernatural’ strapline. For me, the bonus was a promise of werewolves and nasty ones by the sound of it.

The Stats:

The book has 262 pages, and the Kindle price is £0.00. There are three reviews on the UK site, all are four and five stars, and fifty-two reviews on the U.S. site (54% are five stars).

Here is an example of a three star review from Amazon.com:

When Diego strolls into town looking for information about his sister, he could not have anticipated meeting Maxim Dwyer, a local detective. After being detained for a murder, Diego tries to convince Maxim (in vain) that he wasn’t the killer and that the bikers he tussled with are werewolves. When those bikers escape from their holding cell through a secured window many floors above the ground, Maxim might just have to reevaluate what he thinks is possible.

The Seventh Sons of Sycamore combines a detective tale with werewolf bikers. Suicides, hidden graves, government conspiracies and the like tangle to weave a tale fraught with lies, betrayal, and two men who must rely on each other if they don’t want to end up bitten. Both Maxim and Diego are more alike than they realize, as both as searching desperately for answers to the loss of their loved ones. The biker gang is filled with various characters, some who try to get in our heroes way at every turn. The mysterious Mom, for example, tries to reign in her subordinates while getting Diego to stop sticking is nose into local affairs.

The writing is okay. The author is competent at setting a scene and making the initial chapter engaging, but sometimes I felt that the writing lacked flair, but it gets things done. The perspective shifts between following Diego or Maxim, and occasionally the chapters move forward or backward in time, which can be a little confusing. The premise was interesting and I liked the characters motivations. Some plot points were easy to guess, but the ending wrapping things up nicely. A short read that isn’t perfect but does have some entertainment value.

The Seventh Sons is book one of a trilogy, the second and third books are £3.77 each for a Kindle copy. If you enjoy book one, then it’s nice to know you can get the follow up straight away. I do like the sound of this book, and the cover is great, but I could be put off by the lower reviews. If it were £3.77 like the other books in the series, I would pass, but as it’s free, I’m going to give it a try. It’s a tentative BUY from me.

The Seventh Sons –

Buy your copy from Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IWFPCXA

From Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IWFPCXA

Take a look at who else has taken part in the Friday Five Challenge:

Rosie looks at ‘Dead Detective’ – https://rosieamber.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/would-you-buy-or-pass-fridayfivechallenge-the-dead-detective-by-jr_rain/comment-page-1/#comment-16096

Cathy heads to Pembrokeshire – http://betweenthelinesbookblog.com/2015/10/02/fridayfivechallenge-paradise-house-by-erica-james-buyorpass/comment-page-1/#comment-2742

Barb looks at Magnificent Things – http://barbtaub.com/2015/10/02/frustration-and-the-most-magnificent-thing-fridayfivechallenge-from-rosieamber1/

 

What is the Friday Five Challenge?

In today’s online shopping age, readers often base their buying decisions on small postage stamp size book covers (thumb-nails), a quick glance at the book description and the review. How much time do they spend making that buying decision?

AUTHORS – You often only have seconds to get a reader to buy your book, is your book cover and book bio up to it?

The Challenge is this… IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES…

1) Go to any online book supplier,

2) Randomly choose a category,

3) Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appealed to your eye,

4) Read the book Bio/ Description of this book,

5) If there are reviews, check out a couple,

6) Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?

(then write a little analysis about your decision)