Michaelbrent Collings
Because Life Is Too Short Not To Read Michaelbrent Collings is a #1 bestselling novelist and screenwriter. His bestsellers include Strangers, Darkbound, Apparition, The Haunted, The Loon, and the YA fantasy series The Billy Saga (beginning with Billy: Messenger of Powers). He hopes someday to develop superpowers, and maybe get a cool robot arm. Michaelbrent has a wife and several kids, all of whom are much better looking than he is (though he admits that's a low bar to set), and much MUCH cooler than he is (also a low bar). Michaelbrent also has a Facebook page at facebook.com/MichaelbrentCollings and can be followed on Twitter through his username @mbcollings. Follow him for awesome news, updates, and advance notice of sales. You will also be kept safe when the Glorious Revolution begins!
Obviously, based on the stars, I didn't like this. Why? Well, part of it was that I saw the movie first. And I LIKED the movie. The movie was a decent action flick, with an okay (not great) love story - albeit one where the hero and the heroine jumped each others' bones mostly based on nothing more than each other's good looks - and some fun characters.The book... it was about a kid who, up to the midpoint, mostly just discusses (ad nauseum) his messed up father, his messed up childhood, his messed up life. I get it that you're abused, I get it that you have issues. That's a great dramatic tool. But you have to do more than talk about it. And literally nothing happens in the actual story until nearly the midpoint of the book. The MIDPOINT. Character development is one thing, but at some point it's just talking heads.
I was also surprised at the level of profanity and fairly explicit sexuality in a YA novel. There's a scene early in that involved an attempted rape at a truck stop that had me cringing.
All in all, I really wanted to like this series, really wanted to have a new set of books to dive into and enjoy. And I'm really disappointed that I got neither of my wishes.