Official Review: Sins Unforgiven by J.G. Umbac

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CrescentMoon
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Official Review: Sins Unforgiven by J.G. Umbac

Post by CrescentMoon »

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Sins Unforgiven" by J.G. Umbac.]
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2 out of 4 stars
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Sins Unforgiven by J.G. Umbac is a crime and mystery novel about a young man named Jeff Landrom who goes into a coma after a car accident. He gets admitted to the hospital and is now under the watch of charge nurse, Terrie Lopez, who finds herself very protective of Jeff. While in a coma in the hospital, Jeff undergoes out of body experiences. While his body is physically in the bed, his mind projects outward and he can glide to wherever he wants to, see people, and witness actual conversations before blacking out and falling into the coma again.

As more and more details of Jeff’s car accident come to light, the police get involved and it becomes clear that the car accident was actually not an accident at all. Someone did try to kill Jeff, but was unsuccessful. Terrie Lopez works with the police to ensure Jeff’s safety and to report any new information. Jeff’s family, including his parents and his wife, do their best to care for Jeff and find his attempted killer.

I really liked the concept of this book. When I first read the blurb, I was highly intrigued. I thought the idea of a comatose patient using his out of body experiences to help the police piece together what happened on the night of the accident, was a really unique and interesting idea. Unfortunately it was poorly executed. There were numerous editing mistakes. Quotation marks were omitted when they were needed and vice versa. Past and present tenses were mixed up, and commas and apostrophes were misplaced.

This book involved way too much telling, and not enough showing. While I was reading the story, it felt like I was reading a letter from a friend telling me about past events. Usually when I read a book, I like to get involved in the storyline and create mental images of what the characters are doing and how they are feeling, but I didn’t get that from this book. The story did not flow like a novel. Also, the dialogue was completely unrealistic. The way the characters spoke to each other did not sound like how people speak in real life. In addition, whenever certain characters received life changing news, they didn’t react the way I imagine people in real life would react. They were very calm, cool, and collected rather than scared and emotional when the situation called for it.

In my opinion, the ending saved this book. There were a couple of revelations that shocked me, and there were plenty of twists and turns that I never saw coming. One of the reasons why I was sold on reading this book was because the blurb mentioned a crazy twist ending. The author definitely delivered on that aspect. I therefore rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. I don’t think I can recommend this book as is because of all the errors. However, I really think that once the errors are cleared up and the writing style is polished, this could be a really amazing book.

******
Sins Unforgiven
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kandscreeley
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Post by kandscreeley »

Thanks for the review. This definitely is not a book that I would enjoy. It sounds like one you kind of have to struggle through.
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Post by mewsmash »

Good job on what sounds like a struggle of a novel. I hate having to claw my way through a book just to have a good ending.
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CrescentMoon
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Post by CrescentMoon »

Thank you kandscreeley and mewsmash. If the book was edited and written better it would've been a really smooth read.
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Post by kimmyschemy06 »

That was a very honest review. The premise sounds very promising and very interesting. I like 'out of body experiences' stories :) Too bad, though, about the total execution. Great job on the review.
CrescentMoon
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Post by CrescentMoon »

kimmyschemy06 wrote:That was a very honest review. The premise sounds very promising and very interesting. I like 'out of body experiences' stories :) Too bad, though, about the total execution. Great job on the review.
Thank you! I really did like the premise and the overall storyline. If it was better edited I would definitely have given this a higher rating.
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Post by Kdonegan91 »

I agree I like to be in the moment with the character instead of feeling like I'm reading a letter about past events. The storyline is unique but too bad it contained so many editing errors. I'll have to pass on this one. Thank you for an honest review!
When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. - Wayne Dyer
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CrescentMoon
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Post by CrescentMoon »

Kdonegan91 wrote:I agree I like to be in the moment with the character instead of feeling like I'm reading a letter about past events. The storyline is unique but too bad it contained so many editing errors. I'll have to pass on this one. Thank you for an honest review!
Thank you! The premise was definitely interesting for me but needs more editing.
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Post by Julie Ditton »

I look forward to reading another review after the next draft. The premise sounds promising.
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CrescentMoon
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Post by CrescentMoon »

Julie Ditton wrote:I look forward to reading another review after the next draft. The premise sounds promising.
Thank you! The premise is definitely great. I think that with some major revisions the book will be really good.
Latest Review: "Letorian Descendants- Casey Blane Series (Book 1)" by Jodi Ann Fahey
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