Posts
 |
| Book Cover via Amazon.com |
Opinion
KD McNiven contacted me and asked me to review her book, and I cannot begin to explain how happy I was to get this and read it. I picked it up on Kindle Unlimited and was treated to such a fun book. This is a book that takes us to mystery and suspense, but with the fun and action of any Archeology Quest.
My first impressions of “The Monkey Idol” were fueled with delight and excitement. From the opening salvo with an action-packed sequence to the next one of a mail carrier that starts a chain of events, it was a non-stop ride of adventure.
Honestly, “The Monkey Idol” was better than any Indiana Jones movie, or even the Tomb Raider games in my humble opinion. I have a love for adventure books like this, especially when there are a mystery and artifacts but the science of archeology behind it. This was instantly a pleasure to pick up and read.
Critiques time for “The Monkey Idol,” and this critique comes from my “Story, Structure, Foundation and Presentation, ”One e-reader copy issue kept creeping up. Specifically, there are no breaks between paragraphs, and everything is somewhat crammed together. It’s not terrible. Though the Justified alignment at times can stretch, it’s rare, and not nearly as noticeable as the fact that there are no line breaks to give the eyes a bit of a breath between paragraphs.
That's it for critiques. "What? Mrs. Y, you only have one critique? You usually have tons of nitpicks; you almost go bananas!" (Get it? Bananas? Monkey Idol? Huh, lousy joke eh? Darn!)
Well not today my friends, I didn't have anything really to nitpick. I have like no other critiques because the pacing was lovely, the story fits together, it has a beautiful arc, the sub-plot, and main-plot blend well, and there is a romantic subplot that fits well. Moreover, in the end, everything comes to a beautiful climax and a final that I liked. I enjoyed just how well and seamless the book was put together, it was so fun, and I enjoyed every bit of it. I was so pleased to see such great real-world consequences for everything. Even the terrible parts where someone gets hurt or dies or anything wrong, that was done well. The jaguar den, for example, is going to be nightmare fuel for a while, I promise you that. The realism and fantasy of the adventure notes blended well and overall, the story was terrific.
For this part of the review, I want to focus on what I enjoyed about this book. Specifically, this was a full story from beginning to end and told a full tale for what was presented in this story. Now, I’m not sure if this is the beginning of the series or not, but I think it’s fantastic that I don’t know and that fact does not matter. This story is all encompassed with references to past experiences with our main characters.
Additionally, “The Monkey Idol” has some fantastic secondary characters and the landscapes were given such love and attention. I knew where the people were by the descriptions that were given, and I could almost smell the smells. I genuinely enjoy imagery like this. The antagonist and the plot of the antagonist are well constructed, and I felt it moved along the main plot well, as also adding a nice tension to the romantic sub-plot.
Lastly and my biggest compliment about “The Monkey Idol” I haven’t had this much fun with a book in a long time. This is just fun for the sake of fun, and it’s why I picked this to have ready for today. It was as if KD McNiven somehow crept into Spielberg's brain and instead of creating a movie, we got the most fun book ever. It’s just a big adventure that I could see easily become a movie or streaming show, but at the same time, the book was fun. She wrote such beautiful works, from the most tragic and terrible things to the more light moments between our main characters. The marriage dynamic, for example, is so good, and I felt the love between them, and I knew there was deep trust there. I always loved movies where I could see the chemistry between the characters interacting, and this is one of the best examples of novel chemistry between a pair I’ve seen.
Score
With my math taken into consideration, “The Monkey Idol: Decker & Callie Adventure” has scored a lovely 96/100 which is a 5-star review on Goodreads and Amazon. Moreover, for you fans out there of my reviews, this one goes into the “Mrs. Y Recommends” pile, which hasn’t had an entry in a few days. Oh yeah, it’s that good. I want to reread this, and if there is more I want some! I enjoyed this book.
