So
here it is - the list of reasons to avoid each of my books.
I'm hoping, naturally, some people will see the reasons as positives - signs they'd enjoy the books, while people who'd hate them will be put off before they can buy one, decide they don't like it and take their frustrated expectations out on me!
If you do read one of these books and are pleasantly surprised, please leave some nice comments on Amazon or Goodreads. Otherwise, why not give it to the local charity shop where it can help a good cause and find someone who will enjoy it?
Potential spoilers. (You have been warned).
I'm hoping, naturally, some people will see the reasons as positives - signs they'd enjoy the books, while people who'd hate them will be put off before they can buy one, decide they don't like it and take their frustrated expectations out on me!
If you do read one of these books and are pleasantly surprised, please leave some nice comments on Amazon or Goodreads. Otherwise, why not give it to the local charity shop where it can help a good cause and find someone who will enjoy it?
Potential spoilers. (You have been warned).
Death and Faxes
- Psychics? Talking to dead people? Helping the police solve crimes? Do me a favour.
- The main psychic isn't even a circus act or a gypsy. She's a normal woman living in 21st century London, with a normal office job who happens to have this weird talent.
- Not to mention her oh so normal family who don't understand who or what she is.
- She's psychic. Surely this means she knows everything and always does the right thing, but she doesn't!
- She doesn't even make the right decisions about her love life!
- People die in it. There are horrible murders.
- The protagonist has decided she doesn't want to have children.
Want to read it anyway? Available from CreateSpace Amazon Amazon Kindle
Glastonbury Swan
- A big chunk of it is set in Glastonbury - a wacky place to say the least.
- It brings in a lot of wacky stuff about Glastonbury's mysterious, rich-in-legend landscape.
- People die in this one too. More horrible murders, made to look like accidents.
- The dead people sometimes talk to the living people.
- Psychics again. If anything, even more of them.
- And they STILL don't know everything and make the right decision every time.
- It even mentions astrology, Tarot cards and non-establishment spiritual beliefs.
- A lot of the characters aren't normal mainstream people (although they are perfectly normal for Glastonbury).
- The protagonist has not changed her mind about not wanting to have children.
From a Jack to a King
- It's got superheroes in it.
- It also has a king and a queen and princesses in it, so is it a comic book story or a fairy tale?
- It's got an imaginary country in it. Therefore it can't be historically accurate.
- The superheroes aren't from Krypton. They're from England, France, the US and this imaginary place.
- Superheroes living in normal houses and apartments and not a secret base underground? Really?
- There's as much romance and character development as there is war.
- There's a suggestion criminals could actually change and become better people.
Not bad - just different? Available from: Createspace, Amazon, Amazon Kindle
Running in the Family
- Even more blooming superheroes. At least one of them looks weird.
- Apart from one alien, they're all British, so how can you tell who the bad guy is?
- The man with a British accent living in an old Gothic mansion by himself is not the bad guy.
- The plot spans about three decades. It's almost a saga!
- One important piece of the story is only revealed towards the end.
- A superhero dies.
- There's a character who believes in reincarnation.
- A character is accused of using drugs to enhance her athletic performance.
Eternal Flame
- Yet more superheroes, and they're all new ones, not the ones we know from Marvel
and DC.
- Too many people with red hair.
- Most of them are British (or Irish).
- Again they don't live in a secret base on a space station - they are students living in halls of residence or lecturers living in suburban houses. In Birmingham, for crying out loud!
- It's got time travel in it.
- It's got the Olympic Games in it, and they're not happening this year, so hardly topical.
- People go gallivanting off into space, not only to save dying worlds, but sometimes just for fun.
Doesn't seem so bad? Available from Createspace, Amazon and Amazon Kindle
Very Variant Xmas
It's a bit short.
You could probably read it in one sitting.- Most of the action takes place at a Christmas party. In a palace.
- It's all about Christmas but there doesn't seem to be a schmaltzy moral message.
- There are a couple of babies and some small children in it - and one nearly gets eaten.
- Santa appears in it, but he isn't really Santa.
- Superheroes. Again.
- Not to mention a whole bunch of super-villains. Again all new ones and not the ones we know from Marvel or DC.
Not put off? Available from Createspace, Amazon and Amazon Kindle
Secrets and Skies
- Yet another new superhero, not anyone we know from Marvel or DC or even Julie
Howlin's previous novels.
- He's not perfect, either. He's a bit of a ladies' man.
- Doesn't even take place in a world we know, but in an alternative dimension.
- Which has too many similarities to our own, or how our own could be in the future.
- It's got a nuclear bomb in it.
- There are a couple of characters having an illicit affair.
- There's an attempted rape.
- It's the first of a trilogy. So we don't find out the superhero's identity. You don't find out if you guessed right.
- It ends on a cliff-hanger, leaving everyone up in the air, literally.
Still interested? Get it now from Amazon or Amazon Kindle
Over the Rainbow (Coming soon)
- People from vastly different cultures have to co-operate and learn to live and work
together.
- People from different cultures even start relationships with one another.
- People are gaining superpowers all over the place.
- It's got telepathic wolves in it, a telepathic falcon and a whole bunch of telepathic purple animals from another dimension.
- Even the bad guys have backstories.
- People go travelling from one dimension to another to find people they love.
- It's got parallel dimensions, wormholes and mentions quantum physics.
- It ends on another cliff-hanger and the bad guy isn't in jail yet.
Have unusual tastes and actually liked the prequel? Check social media for further announcements:
https://www.facebook.com/JulieSHowlinauthor
Twitter: @JulieHowlin
Jigsaw
- They're short stories.
- Some have superheroes in, but they are new ones which aren't in Marvel or DC. Though some are in Julie Howlin's novels.
- Some stories have ghosts in.
- Some stories take place in other worlds.
- It has a story about Dungeons and Dragons.
- The Easter Egg story and garden gnome story might give you nightmares.
Sweet Karma
They're short
stories.- Some have superheroes in, but they are new ones which aren't in Marvel or DC. Though some are in Julie Howlin's novels.
- It has a story about an obsessive hobby.
- Someone in one of the stories comes to a sticky end.
- There are two stories about the second world war.
- One story is set on a space station.
