
The First Ten Focus Group Feedback for The Neighbour At Number 18 (Reload): Stand By Me
Because The Neighbour At Number 18 (Reload) was Book of the Day, some of our most trusted members have carefully looked over the cover, the description, and other aspects of this book as a part of purchase-intent focus group. We then asked each participant in the focus group if they planned to buy and read the book, and why they planned to buy and read the book or not. Their answer to that question and reasons are displayed below. We call this awesome feature The First Ten Focus Group.
Keep in mind, the responses from the members are not reviews. This is purchase-intent focus group which means the participants are people who have NOT yet bought or read your book. A purchase-intent focus group is an important and extremely useful marketing tool for any product, not just books. For other products, you might walk on the street and show people an item in a package and poll them about whether they would buy if or $X or not. These kind of focus groups are one of the ways big marketing companies find the ideal price points for products and test the effectiveness of different packaging. The focus group can help you identify your market so you how to target ads of your book, and it can (but may not) provide you new useful info about your "packaging" (e.g. your book cover, your book synopsis on Amazon, etc.). The point of the focus group comments is to give you information from people who have not bought or read your book about why they plan to buy your book which will help you in marketing the book. These are not reviews or critiques of your book because they are not from people have read the book. This is a marketing tool, not reviews. The trick of book marketing and book advertising is that you have to convince people who have not read your book yet that your book is worth buying and reading. For marketing, it doesn't matter much if people love your book after reading it if you cannot convince potential buyers before they read it that they will love it.
IMPORTANT: Any score over 10% is considered very good. And any score above 0% is acceptable. This is because we only poll about 20 or so readers, and all readers have to say "no" to almost all books. Over a million books are published each year. Even a very active reader cannot come close to even reading 1% of books out there.
This is also why publishing books is such a tough industry.
Alice Heritage

I wouldn't have sampled this book on the basis of the blurb or OBC reviews as I wouldn't want to read about child molestation. I won't buy this today (I could not get it on Kindle Unlimited) because although I appreciated the everyday themes, I did not engage enough with the characters. I noticed one error: "... have to do before this afternoon" should read something like "... have a lot to do before this afternoon." I liked the way the story started with a focus on how hard things were for Brenda as a single mother of three including a baby. The writing could be improved by including more details such as a more vivid representation of Maria's point of view. For example, it seems incredible that a ten-year-old could push over a teenage boy who is described as being taller than everyone. I would like to know more about how it felt for her to do that, as well as the injustice of her receiving a week's suspension - it seems odd that wrongdoing was attributed to her in the circumstances.
First Ten review added on May 14, 2020, at 4:54 am by Alice Heritage.
Ekta Kumari

The book is centred around the issues of child grooming, parenting, and child abuse. The story focuses on Maria who is a ten years old girl. Maria befriends Emilia due to the growing friendship between their mothers. But what Maria doesn't know is Emilia is being blackmailed by her cousin, Tyler, to bring under-aged girls to his flat. The plot further explores this premise and the profound impact of friendships and relationships. I liked the concept. Though, I suspected it to be an emotionally charged read, so I wouldn't have read the book. But I checked out the sample and liked it quite a bit. The thing I liked the most is that the plot is well established with the portrayal of personal relationships of the central characters. I also like that the author offers background details in the narrative. But the book needs some major improvements when it comes to editing. I found at least three errors in the portion I sampled. One error is in this sentence, "For example when all the kids have gone to bed at night, she would fill the tin bath with warm water and soak herself for thirty munities and pamper herself with a cup of tea while she listened to music from the radio." Here, 'minutes' is written as 'munities'. All the grammatical errors should be eliminated to improve the text. I did see an official review for this book. But I wouldn't be reading the whole book as I didn't enjoy the sample much.
First Ten review added on May 14, 2020, at 4:42 am by Ekta Kumari.
Lorraine De Vos

I would have chosen to sample this book based on the title and genre. I did not like the cover and would recommend an image is used rather than just a plain color. The book does not appear to be professionally edited, as I found a few errors in the sample pages. An example of an error is on 6% 3rd sentence the word munities should be minutes. I like the concept of the book and that it might help prevent young girls from falling into the traps of predators, but the book needs to undergo professional editing before it can really take off mainstream. The errors are too distracting. The official OnlineBookClub review was very well written, but did not serve to change my mind in this instance. I will not be adding this book to my reading list at this time.
First Ten review added on May 14, 2020, at 4:27 am by Lorraine De Vos.
Washboard

I sometimes enjoy books from this genre. The title is interesting, but the cover art is a bit bland. The official review makes the book sound like it needs some work. I noticed many errors in the sample, such as dropped words, missing punctuation, and run-on sentences. Brenda, a single mother of three, is struggling to keep strong for her children after the sudden loss of her husband, while still getting everything done. I liked that the protagonist is female, but this book could use some serious editing. I won't be continuing to read this one due to the many errors.
First Ten review added on May 14, 2020, at 1:47 am by Washboard.
Annelore Trujillo

I would have sampled this book based on the genre, blurb, OBC review, cover, and title. I wanted to know what her secret was and what happened with the tenant in number 8. After reading the first ten pages, I will not be finishing this book. There were so many errors right away that I couldn’t get into the story. For example, “munities” was used instead of “minutes” and “finance” instead of “fiancé”. This told me the book was not professionally edited. I also thought the writing seemed kind of juvenile, as if I was reading a children’s book. It jumped around without seeming to have a set course so far. It jumped from talking about her husband and their past to the kids to the new neighbor, but there weren’t really any transitions between these ideas. There wasn’t anything I liked so far.
First Ten review added on May 14, 2020, at 1:42 am by Annelore Trujillo.
AvidBibliophile

The book title is mysteriously intriguing, and the Amazon product description offers a succinctly adequate broad summary and overview, although there are some typos present. I also found it odd that the age level listed is 11-18 (since this is clearly not a title intended for a YA audience). Raising a family is hard enough, but raising children alone after cancer has taken your spouse away must be nearly unbearable. On page 1, there is a misspelled word in: "soak herself for thirty (munities)" and the mentions of "girl friend" and "over took" should appear as combined words without spaces. I also came across issues with shifting verb tenses, inconsistent pluralities, and missing words that disrupted the flow of the story for me, along with some punctuation errors like missing periods and lack of an apostrophe in: "its past seven." The 2 published OBC reviews offer varying subjective impressions, but there are no additional Amazon user ratings currently posted to support either extreme. Since child molestation, adolescent trauma, the sex trade, and themes of blackmail aren't topics I prefer reading about, I will be passing on this one.
First Ten review added on May 14, 2020, at 1:40 am by AvidBibliophile.
Catherine Hsu

If I had not read the sample, I would not have read the book. I think the cover needs to be more interesting and the blurb more professionally edited. After reading the sample, I have not changed my mind for the same reason. The book needs heavy editing. This sentence for example, "It all came flashing back, she was eighteen when they met at a friend's party." was a run-on comma splice. There was also basically no punctuation in the dialogue at all: "'Mareen' she replied" was just one line missing commas and periods, out of many. I did not read an official review but several volunteer reviews reiterated the same thing.
First Ten review added on May 13, 2020, at 10:13 pm by Catherine Hsu.
Vickie Noel

I certainly wouldn't have touched this book outside the program simply because of its cover. Although the title may have piqued my interest, the arrant lack of creative ingenuity to produce a gaze-worthy and befitting image on the most attention-grabbing part of the book is downright appalling. There are maybe a hundred books with this exact same cover. Ms Crickmore could have used one of the less popular options if conceptualizing an appropriate cover picture was really that impossible. The sample pages didn't help matters. The entire book was characterised by all sorts of errors ranging from grammatical, punctuation to typographical errors. These were too distracting that I couldn't identify the plot of the story. There was even a character mixup in the sentence, "As Maria lay awake, she could see him... Why should he have to leave her and the young ones so soon?" Evidently, Brenda, who was the one dealing with the loss of her husband, was actually the one speaking, as seen in the preceding sentences. But the name "Maria" was used instead, which happens to be Brenda's daughter. The dialogue between Brenda and Maureen at their first meeting was tiring to read. I didn't find a single period in the sentences conveying the women's dialogue. It doesn't appear like any part of this book was examined by an editor, not to talk of a professional one. Obviously, the editing aspect really needs improvement. I'd initially been willing to give the book a trial after reading the OBC review, but I decided I'd head in the opposite direction after sampling a few pages.
First Ten review added on May 13, 2020, at 9:13 pm by Vickie Noel.
Juliana_Isabella

I probably wouldn't have chosen this book because I don't like reading about abuse, and the review made me even less likely to read it because the reviewer did not seem to enjoy the book. After reading the first ten pages, I have to concur with the reviewer. The author dives right into Brenda's backstory, but I didn't feel sad over the loss of Brenda's husband because I wasn't attached to her or their relationship. As such, the opening just felt too dramatic and made me choose not to finish this book.
First Ten review added on May 13, 2020, at 9:08 pm by Juliana_Isabella.
LeDiplomatique

I would have chosen The Neighbour At Number 18 (Reload) by Hawa Crickmore based on the cover page due to its colorfulness. I would have chosen it based on the title because it is interesting. When I read the First Ten, I saw the story of a young widow, Brenda, and an abandoned single mother, Maureen start unfolding. I would love to know more about Brenda's daughter, Maria and the new neighbor at number 18. However, I will not be reading the entire book due to the many errors I came across. For example, on location 35 (As Maria lay awake, she could see him, his smiles, jokes, anger, fear - The author confused Brenda's name with her daughter's; Hereby, the narration was about the grief and loneliness of the mother, not the little daughter). I most like how the author has introduced the story by giving the reader some background information about where Maria comes from. I love this because it will help the reader to understand the character of Maria better. If I could improve anything in the book, it is the editorial shortcoming of the book. It has many errors, both punctuation and grammatical. I came across the official review of the book and I got to learn that Maria had some childhood secrets which I would have loved to unveil. Unfortunately, I will not be reading the entire book.
First Ten review added on May 13, 2020, at 2:04 pm by LeDiplomatique.
Caffrey_19

The Neighbour At Number 18 (Reloaded) by Hawa Crickmore Is a steady pacing narrative. It tells the story of a widow with three children and her everyday struggle. The title I must say is one of a kind. It was what impacted my decision to give this book a read. Although having read a few pages, I don’t see myself buying and reading the whole book. The book simply doesn’t have the energy I was hoping it had, plus it wasn’t professionally edited. I also spotted some typos/grammar errors while reading the book. For instance: the word - fiance was spelt as - finance. I also spotted a red dot that was suppose to be a full stop, amongst other short comings. I liked that Maria stood up for Emilia at a crucial moment. I didn’t like that the first few pages weren’t thriller packed.
First Ten review added on May 13, 2020, at 2:00 pm by Caffrey_19.
Melisa Jane

The book cover only suits a self-help book. A fictional novel needs something more colorful. This is the reason why I couldn't have sampled this book based on the cover. After sampling it, I'm not going to finish reading it. This book looks like a first draft that hasn't been edited at all. I found several grammatical errors right from the first page. For example, "minutes" is spelled as "munities" on the first page. There isn't anything I liked about the book. However, I recommend another round of editing. I haven't read the official OBC review of the book. I, therefore, have no idea whether or not it exists.
First Ten review added on May 13, 2020, at 10:37 am by Melisa Jane.
Sanju Lali

Nothing was evident to me regarding the book from the cover and the title because the neighbor at number 18 meant many things to me. Therefore, I was not sure whether or not to buy this book before reading the official review. The official review was helpful enough to let me know that this book follows the lives of Maria Anderson and the people in her close circle. This idea motivated me to sample the book by reading the first ten pages for making a buying decision. After reading the first ten pages, I found that this book was not professionally edited as I found a few grammatical errors. For example, the sentence, " She did not like her which her friend was surprised because she said they really get on well, she could not imagine that she did not like her all along... ". I was confused the first time when I read this sentence. The sentence should have been, "She did not like her, which surprised her friend because initially, she said they really get on well, she could not imagine that she did not like her all along...", for easy reading. The thing l liked the most in this book is the narrative, which nicely portrayed the lives of Marie and her friends. However, the characters were introduced abruptly, which initially confused me about the family of Maria's friend. I suggest the author take note of the difficulties that I have listed above and resolve them. Noting all these aspects of the book, I decided not to purchase and read this book today. I will wait until the author considers my suggestion so that I can read this book easily.
First Ten review added on May 13, 2020, at 9:43 am by Sanju Lali.
Maria Esposito

I knew I would not be interested in this book before I sampled it. Firstly, neither the title nor the cover interest me. Secondly, I do not like to read about topics such as child grooming in works of fiction. Thirdly, the blurb is quite generic, as it describes the book as being about "the effects of friendships" and "the reality of life". Furthermore, the book has no customer reviews on Amazon, which further discouraged me from picking it up. Reading the first ten pages did not make me change my mind. Brenda's husband passed away and left her with three young children to tend to. She finds it difficult to cope with her husband's loss. The book might not have been professionally edited, as I found a typo on the very first page ("munities" instead of "minutes"). Furthermore, there are many instances in which punctuation is not precise (for example, there are many missing full-stops on page 4). Hence, my initial decision did not change. There was nothing about the book that I particularly liked or disliked, I just think it might need the help of a professional editor. I came across an official review of the book on Online Book Club, but that did not shift me from my initial decision.
First Ten review added on May 13, 2020, at 7:20 am by Maria Esposito.
Zenia_Sanchez023

I find that the book cover and the title of the book are eye-catching, so I would have picked up this book to find out what it's about. However, having read the first ten pages of the book, I was disappointed to see that it was not thoroughly edited and there were grammatical and typographical errors all over the book. An example of this can be found at Location 21, when the author wrote, "I want you back James," failing to put a comma before the word James.
Reading the sample, I think the story is interesting and engaging, talking about the life of motherhood. But because of the number of errors in the book greatly affecting my experience in reading it, I would not buy the book and read it eventually. I hope the author gets to fix the errors soon so the reader can have a pleasant experience reading the book.
First Ten review added on May 13, 2020, at 3:21 am by Zenia_Sanchez023.
Stephanie Runyon

I like part of the book's title, "Stand By Me" and might have sampled it prior to reading the OBC review. I was disappointed after reading how poorly edited the story was. After reading the ten pages, I have to agree with the reviewer's score. The first page had a grammatical error of, "She found a way to cope with the stress that comes with it taking the least opportunity she gets." As I continued to read, the storyline was interesting, but the blaring errors of run on sentences, and disconnected thoughts from characters were a bit too much. I believe another round of editing and proofreading in order to complete the book would be best. I will not finish this edition of the book.
First Ten review added on May 13, 2020, at 2:35 am by Stephanie Runyon.
DEEPA PUJARI

The plot of the book is about Stockholm syndrome as I understand from the review on onlinebookclub. After reading the sample I do not think I would read this book as it was quite disturbing. I did not like the bullying and eve-teasing mentioned in the book. I also found a few errors in the sample pages. Location 28 of 338, line 5 minutes was spelled as munites
Location 149 of 338, feces was misspelled as faeces
First Ten review added on May 13, 2020, at 1:56 am by DEEPA PUJARI.
J_odoyo

After reading the first ten pages of this book, I’ve realized that Hawa Crickmore’s The Neighbour At Number 18 (Reloaded): Stand By Me is an engrossing read. She narrates a heart-wrenching but yet engaging story of Brenda—a mother of three—and her friend Maureen (both of them are single mothers, having lost their husbands). Brenda has a daughter, Maria, who has become a great friend of Maureen’s only daughter, Emilia. Both the young girls are schooling together; however, Maria and Emilia’s classmates are disturbed by Emilia’s short skirts. Little did they know that Ian, Maureen’s new sweetheart, was behind all these. Trouble develops as the story develops, and I can’t help guessing what is next.
Reading through this book, I noticed some punctuation issues, typos, and other mistakes. For instance, in location 30 of 336, “thirty minutes” was written as “thirty munities”. Also, a character, Emilia, could sometimes be spelled as Emelia. This makes me believe that the book was not professionally edited. The cover page was okay (though not attractive), and I think the author should consider revising the title. With that said, there is nothing more to dislike, if not for the occasional profanities involved. As for me, reading a sincere editorial review is not an option: who wants to waste his money? Thanks to the OnlineBookClub for such a detailed review. I think the author should consider posting some editorial reviews on the Amazon website for her potential readers. Having read the sample and the OnlineBookClub review, I’m not going to finish reading this book, because I’m not a fan of this genre. Moreover, the review indicates that the book involves sexual content, which is always not my favorite.
First Ten review added on May 13, 2020, at 1:55 am by J_odoyo.
Jeremie Mondejar

The cover photo did not appeal to me, while I sampled this book based on the program. Brenda and Maureen are neighbors, both their husbands died early and their daughters have awesome friendship. Tyler's obsession for girls put me off, too; he is Maureen's nephew.
Reading the sample oftentimes distracts me. I noticed misspelled words, and I am embarrassed reading the dialogue without periods. Like for example, Maria said alarmingly(.) Brenda, jumped out of bed..., soak herself for thirty munities (minutes) and etc. I suggest polishing some editing flaws. The errors make me decided not to continue on reading this book. The OBC reviewer notices the errors of the book, too and rated it fairly. I don't like the writing style as well.
First Ten review added on May 13, 2020, at 12:02 am by Jeremie Mondejar.
Shrabastee Chakraborty

The cover is not attractive. The blurb has a bragging quality that I did not like. The official OBC review listed many inconsistencies. The first ten pages had glaring errors. They feature Brenda, a widowed mother of three school- goers. It shows her grieving her husband's death and later befriending another mom. The storyline did not at all appeal to me. I suggest the author should take care of the editing issues as well as should make the contents more attractive. Considering all these, I am not going to read this book.
Location 12: "over took" should be "overtook", "its" should be "it's."
Location 52 to 67: all the dialogues should have periods at the end.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 11:18 pm by Shrabastee Chakraborty.
Kaitlyn Canedy

I likely would have skipped the sample of The Neighbour At Number 18 (Reload) had it not been for the OnlineBookClub. The cover was not very attractive to me at all, nor was the description. The only positive point that I can make about this book is the fact that Maria is a very adventurous and strong woman, which reminds me of myself. Right away, I could tell that there are improvements that need to be made regarding grammar. In the fourth paragraph in Chapter 1, there is no period at the end of the sentence to mark that the sentence ends. The example is as follows- "'Mum, I will be late to school, its past seven and I haven't even had my breakfast yet' Maria said alarmingly". The "its" also needs to be changed to "it is". The official OnlineBookClub review for this book said that it needed to be edited, and I can agree with the reviewer. Sadly, I will be passing because the sample made the book appear choppy and poorly edited.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 10:53 pm by Kaitlyn Canedy.
Chelsy Scherba

Brenda awakens, missing her husband who died of cancer. She can barely function and hasn’t even fixed her daughter breakfast yet. When she finally gets the kids ready to go, she meets Maureen and tells her about her life. The two women bond over their lost loves, Maureen’s fiancé (incorrectly written “finance” in the book) abandoned her. There are lots of errors. Missed periods and punctuation, malapropisms, and an overall lack of professional editing. The review rated the book two stars which I have to agree with. I also didn’t feel a lot of connection to the characters due to the writing style. This book isn’t really my type, so I’ll have to pass. It might be better with proofreading and more descriptive details. I would not have found this book outside of the program.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 9:43 pm by Chelsy Scherba.
Juliet+1

Based on the title, cover, blurb, and OBC review, I did not think I would want to read this book. I don't usually enjoy books about families and relationships. Reading the first ten pages confirmed my first opinion. The writing is interesting, with rapid changes of tense and use of sentence fragments creating a stream-of-consciousness effect. But otherwise, the story is rather dull, just various people getting along with each other or not. In addition, it is difficult to keep track of all the characters. I don't intend to read the rest of the book.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 8:51 pm by Juliet+1.
MsH2k

The title sounded familiar from a while back, but the generic cover gave no clues, so I would have read the blurb even if I had not been part of this program. Halfway through the first page of the sample pages, I realized the book had not been professionally edited. At loc 28, “munities” should be “minutes”: thirty munities. Also, the next sentence was a run-on sentence: This does not happen quite often, the night before was a bad night, she had tossed over and over in bed thinking about how she had suddenly become lonely, just last year, she had a man, a man who cuddled her in bed, said sweet words into her ears, said he loved her dearly and kissed her over and over again, now she has nothing, all has vanished before her eyes.
I wanted to stop reading at that point and come back after it had been edited. I purposely stopped documenting errors after that. This book was not professionally edited, and I wasn’t sure what the point of the story was until I read the featured OnlineBookClub review. I will not buy this book. Even with a round of editing, I would not be interested in the topic of pedophilia. It’s too bad this is TBOTD before it’s been edited well enough to be more enticing to its target audience. I like the character Maria and how she stood up for her friend Emilia against the bully Connor. My recommendation is to have the book professionally edited.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 8:32 pm by MsH2k.
HRichards

I normally wouldn't have picked up this book considering the summary didn't interest me and I'm not a fan of the genre. Having read the sample I won't be continuing on with the book since it didn't seem professionally edited and I didn't find it very interesting. The sample deals with Brenda, who is a widowed mother and struggling to deal with her husband's death. She meets a neighbor and they talk about their lives. The writing is rather awkward and the book doesn't seem very well edited. There was a spelling error in the line "soak herself for thirty munities" where minutes is misspelled. Those who like romance might like this book. I'm not a fan of the genre. The book seems to be an easy read, but the grammatical errors also deterred me. I read the OBC review of the book and even more feel like this book would not be something I enjoy.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 7:24 pm by HRichards.
Brenda Creech

I found the title to this book intriguing, but the cover did not immediately grab my attention. After reading the official review, I knew I would not be reading this book in its entirety due to the profanity the reviewer reported. I have a difficult time enjoying any book with borderline profanity. As I began to read the first ten pages of the book, it did not take long to stumble across said profanity. It also did not take but a moment to encounter the first error on the first page of the first chapter. The word minutes were misspelled as 'munities' and was followed by more errors in the first chapter, and beyond, leaving me to wonder if any editing at all had been done. I got confused quickly as the character's names were different at times when talking about the same person. What I feel needs to be improved is the tone of the dialog and a round of professional editing. There are valuable lessons to be learned from this book. It would be a shame not to have the book edited so that others can get the full benefit of those issues. I will not be reading the rest of the book due to the profanity, and the much-needed editing.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 7:20 pm by Brenda Creech.
Verna Coy

Had I not sampled this book through the First Ten program, I would not have chosen it because the cover looks minimalist and doesn’t appeal to me. For this reason, I don’t intend to buy and read the whole book today. Reading the first ten pages didn’t change my mind about buying the book. The storyline covered subjects I don’t enjoy reading about, such as pedophilia. Based on what I read, the book doesn’t seem professionally edited. For example, at location 5%, The words in the heading at the top of the first page are not capitalized. “The family friend” What I liked most about what I read is how Brenda missed her husband after tragedy struck. I know that fans of romance will like aspects of this book. As far as improvements, a round of proofreading would be good. I did read the Official Online Book Club review and found it insightful. It didn’t affect my views of the book.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 6:41 pm by Verna Coy.
unamilagra

Before sampling this book, I would not have picked it up. I don't like the generic cover, and the weaknesses mentioned in the OBC review don't make it sound enticing. I found the first ten pages very difficult to get through because of all the errors. The tense was constantly switching between past and present, and I noticed several missed periods at the end of sentences. There was also an instance where "the baby" (presumably Anna) was referred to as a boy. Also, the dialog between Brenda and Maureen was very dull because there was so much small talk included. I do not plan to continue reading this book.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 5:15 pm by unamilagra.
Kajori Sheryl Paul

'The Neighbor at Number 18 (Reload)' is a book written by Hawa Crickmore. The title, cover, and Amazon review did a good job at convincing me to give this book a try.
The sample of the book leads me to believe that it follows the story of Brenda. Brenda's husband passed away the previous year. Since then, she had been taking care of her three children. Maria is her eldest daughter. They all live in Ponder. Brenda's pain after losing her husband is palpable. I liked this emotional vibrancy of the writing style. I found some errors. For example, the sentence construction is faulty in “..he was charming, tall, dark hair, green eyes..” I do not think that it is professionally edited. The editing can be improved. I will give this book a skip as I am not in the mind-frame to read a book of this genre as of now.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 4:34 pm by Kajori Sheryl Paul.
Laura Lee

Oh, boy! Where to start?
Well, what I like best about this book is it's basic concept. I enjoy true-to-life stories and equipping people with knowledge on how to recognize and be wary of school sex recruiters is very good.
That said, I will not be reading the book. Even if I weren't part of this program, I would still not read the book and that decision started with the Amazon blurb. The blurb states, "This book is carefully written . . ." but within the blurb itself there was at least one typo. Furthermore, the blurb did not do the content justice. I think this book has a lot to offer content-wise, but the blurb was too general to get a really good idea of what the book was about. The book review did a much better job of explaining what the book was about.
What I disliked most was the abysmal editing. In the first five sentences alone, there was a run-on sentence, grammatical mistakes, unclear meaning, inconsistent verb tenses, and missing commas. The formatting also left much to be desired, not having each paragraph properly indented. Furthermore, the first paragraph alone was 15 sentences long!
I applaud the author's choice of subject but would encourage him/her to do a thorough editing of this book. I might take a second look at it once it's been edited.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 3:54 pm by Laura Lee.
Kelyn

If I were not a member of this program, it is unlikely that the cover, title, author, or genre would have attracted me to this book. Firstly, the book seems to be memoir based, and I know from experience that I do not generally enjoy books of that genre. The cover and title hint at the book possibly be a crime novel (i.e., the sub-title ‘Reloaded’), which is another genre I do not enjoy. The author is unknown to me, so that would not have affected my decision either way. The blurb reveals that the book is, indeed, somewhat of a memoir. It was at that point that I first decided not to read the book. There were no customer reviews to consider, nor was there one from this program. If there had been, I would certainly have paid attention to what the reviewer had to say. Reading the sample cemented my decision not to read the book, mostly because of the numerous errors. The main characters, Brenda and Maureen, were relatable in both their personalities and their unfortunate situations (having lost their significant others). The running theme of child molestation, with no punches pulled, might appeal to some readers, but it was offputting to me. The book did not seem to be very well-edited. Although there are many quotation mark errors by American standards, they are consistent within the book. This inclines me to think that perhaps the book was written by British standards; therefore, I do not mark them here. The first countable error I found was at 27% of the book: She was protective of Maria as they ran around the zoo watching different spices of birds and reptiles…” ‘spices’ should be ‘species’
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 3:41 pm by Kelyn.
gen_g

Based on the title and the cover, I would not have sampled it; it seems like realist fiction, which I am not in the market for. In addition, I have come across a lukewarm review of this book. After sampling, there are quite a number of errors present. For example, at 6% of the sample, there is a missing comma after the introductory phrase: "For example(,) when all the kids...". I would suggest more rigorous editing. Still, I appreciate how the author has explained and given the reader some background. For example, we learn that Brenda is now a single mother of three after James died. She had met James when she was 18 at a friend's party. Both of them hit it off well, and they started dating, which Brenda expected since they fit together well. Her mother liked James too, and both of them ended up married pretty soon. However, I will not be buying the book today, as the errors are many and very distracting, and I prefer a clean copy.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 2:34 pm by gen_g.
Sarah_Khan

At first glance, I thought the cover and title of this book were both plain. I would not have picked it up without the First Ten program. I also found it a little funny that the Amazon blurb suggests that this book would make a good television series. I have to say I think this book needs another round of editing. There were poorly formed or unfinished sentences that did not make sense to me (e.g. She had found a way to cope with the stress that comes with it taking the least opportunity she gets). There were also verbs in the wrong tense, title not capitalized or formatted and the use of the word mutinies instead of minutes. I did not see an official OBC review, but I doubt it would have changed my mind. Due to the numerous editing mistakes, I am unable to continue reading this book. My one suggestion to the author is another round of editing for this book.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 2:24 pm by Sarah_Khan.
Odette Chace

The cover of the book is pretty generic and the title doesn't make me want to read the book. The synopsis on Amazon contained a few errors, and I dislike that it stated that the book is ideal for a television series. The official Online Book Club review highlighted a few major issues that the book has, and after sampling the book, I have to agree with the reviewer's assessment. The book has too many errors for me to enjoy. There are multiple errors in the second sentence of the book: "For example[,] when all the kids have gone to bed at night, she would fill the tin bath with warm water and soak herself for thirty munities and pamper herself with a cup of tea while she listened to music from the radio" (location 14). Run on sentence and munities should be minutes. While the general premise of the book interests me, I won't be finishing it due to its poor execution.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 2:02 pm by Odette Chace.
Diana Lowery

Even though the review stated that there were few grammar errors, reading the first ten pages was hard for me because of all the errors. There were at least ten in the first paragraph. In the second sentence, there is a comma needed after the phrase "For example." There are many wrong words throughout the text. "Bordered" instead of bothered is one example. Although the Amazon blurb said it was for 11-18-year-old children, the word "shit" was used. I will not finish reading this book. There is nothing about it that is appealing.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 1:54 pm by Diana Lowery.
Laura Ungureanu

I can't say I found anything interesting in the appearance of the book, and the OBC review didn't spark anything in me. It felt like I'm dealing with a complex story, but the reviewer described the story in an intricate way that made me lose interest. I'm also repelled by subjects like pedophilia or blackmail. The sample had a nostalgic feeling to it, caused by Brenda's memories of falling in love with James. It's cute because they are Maria's parents. The writing feels somehow unnatural, like the author is struggling with English. I say this because the sentences are incredibly long, like the author doesn't know when to end it. So the book is in a serious need for some editing. In order to give a proper example of an error, the word minutes is written wrong in "soak herself for thirty munitis". I didn't like the sample, and without some editing, I'm not even going to consider reading this book.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 12:56 pm by Laura Ungureanu.
María Andrea Fernández Sepúlveda

I don't know if I should evaluate the simple red cover or the one on the Amazon catalog. The former is not eye-catching enough and doesn't convey anything to the reader about the subject of the novel and the latter is actually very well suited for the topic at hand. The blurb caught my attention because I enjoy personal narratives and I think the topics are meaningful so, even when the book has some bad ratings, I would've chosen to read it.
Unfortunately, the first ten pages were disappointing. For starters, I found a bunch of editing mistakes. I'll mention just the first one. In position 27 it should say "minutes" and it says "munities": "soak herself for thirty munities and pamper herself..." I also found very hard to believe that Brenda started revealing all her problems to Maureen who, even if she was her neighbor, was a stranger for all intents and purposes. The dialogues seem a bit forced, too. The book has an official review that just confirmed the book is poorly executed. It's a shame, I was excited about this book. I think the topic is very important to discuss and learn to spot the signs to avoid sexual violence. I would suggest a thorough second editing round and sticking with the cover that has the drawing.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 12:55 pm by María Andrea Fernández Sepúlveda.
Cristina Chifane

If it hadn't been for the first ten program, I wouldn't have read this book since the cover doesn't tell me much and the Amazon blurb is rather ambiguous. What is more, the book has no editorial or customer reviews. Considering the issues mentioned by the OBC reviewer, I think the book needs further proofreading and editing. The sample abounds in punctuation and grammar mistakes (see the missing comma after a connector: "For example(,) when all the kids [...]" - 5% of Sample, or the misspelling "munites" instead of "minutes" - 5% of Sample). My suggestion for the author is to get professional help for the formatting and organization of the book. For me, the sample was disappointing. The dialogues between Brenda and her daughter Maria or her best friend Maureen fell flat and included too many ordinary details. I found the description of Maria and Emilia's friendship more interesting. Connor is also a promising character as a catalyst for the future plot development. I won't be adding the book to my reading list primarily because it has numerous editing errors which I find extremely disturbing.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 12:54 pm by Cristina Chifane.
Emy Katherine

In all honesty, I would not have read the book based on the genre. The story follows Maria's journey from childhood to adulthood as she experiences child abuse, betrayal, loss, friendship, and love. Since the book revolves around the theme of pedophilia and its devastating effects on victims, it is too intense for me to read. Because of that, I did not change my mind after reading the first ten pages and the OBC review. The cover was not captivating, but I liked the concise Amazon blurb. The writing style was clear, and the dialogues were also realistic. However, I found some punctuation and grammatical errors that disrupted the flow of the story. For example, it should be written "minutes" instead of "munities" in the following sentence: "She would fill the tin bath with warm water and soak herself for thirty munities." (location 14 of 2737 • 0%) From what I have read, I would only suggest another round of editing.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 11:30 am by Emy Katherine.
Theresa Moffitt

The cover and title of this book did not stand out to me. The color didn’t catch my eye and the title doesn’t really tell me what the book is about. I would not have picked this book up based on the cover alone. I haven’t read a customer review of this book yet, but I did read an Online Book Club review. The review provided additional detail about the themes of the book. For example, there is a recurring pedophilia theme that I was not aware of when I read the first ten pages. The OBC review gave the book a rating of 2 out of 4 stars due to inconsistent page numbering and lack of proofreading. One example given by the reviewer was that the names and genders of the children changed throughout the book. When I read the first ten pages, I saw several errors, so I don’t believe the book was professionally edited. For example, on the first page of chapter one, it refers to “thirty munities” when it should state “thirty minutes”. While the story and characters seemed interesting in the first ten pages, the author could have improved upon the book by proofreading. The main character is a single mother. The first ten pages provide a brief description of how she met and married her husband. They seemed very happy together, but he died suddenly leaving her to raise three children alone. I was glad that I read the OBC review of this book. I don’t think I would enjoy reading a book with pedophilia themes, so I will not finish reading this book.
First Ten review added on May 12, 2020, at 10:28 am by Theresa Moffitt.
Total ~ 0%
The Neighbour At Number 18 (Reload) earned a score of 0%.
In other words, out of the top-level reviewers who read at least the first 10 pages of this book, 0% plan to read the whole book.
IMPORTANT: Any score over 10% is considered very good. And any score above 0% is acceptable.
Over a million books are published each year. Any given person could not even read .0001% of the books out there. This means readers have to be very selective. Even taking the time to look over reviews and blurbs, let alone read samples, is more time than most readers can afford for most books. The First Ten is a powerful focus group that addresses those issues. It creates a helpful tool for authors, publishers, and other readers.
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