The First Ten Focus Group Feedback for April's Heart
Because April's Heart 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.
Ekta Kumari
The book is about teen romance where the central characters, Mitch and April, fall in love. Though, they have to get separated when they attend schools in different towns. The storyline explores if they will work out amidst all the chaos and obstacles. I wouldn't have read the book as I wasn't intrigued by the title or the cover page. Plus, I'm not too fond of YA romance. Though, the thing I liked the most while sampling is that the author has done a great job at portraying the feelings and excitement a teenager feels. The scenes clearly capture these traits and are also quite engaging to read. I also like the descriptions of the characters and that it is detailed. The editing looks fine as I didn't find any errors, so I would rate the book as professionally edited. I did see an official review before sampling. I do not have any recommendations for improvements as I didn't see any errors in the portion sampled. Lastly, I'll not read the whole book as I don't think I will enjoy the central plot themes.
First Ten review added on January 23, 2021, at 5:00 am by Ekta Kumari.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Vickie Noel
I may not have bothered with this book outside the program had it not been for the OBC review I read. I'm not attracted to the cover; it looks pretty ordinary to me, neither is the title particularly stimulating. From the review though, I discovered that it was a YA novel — one of my favorites. Thus, my interest was captured. My opinion didn't change after sampling the first ten pages. I was drawn in by the author's words with which she dedicated the book to her husband, and I suspected that the story might be loosely about them. I also loved Ferr's precise detailing as she added days, dates and locations to the settings in the story. I felt bad for April who was already smoking pot at age 13 and couldn't help wondering how she'd gone undetected by her parents. I feel I have some things to learn about parenting and maintaining a long-distance relationship from this book. The book's editing is largely professionally, but there are a few errors scattered here and there. One of such is, "She wore no makeup, her parents wouldn’t let her." The comma should be a semicolon. I also noticed that there were no commas before characters' names during dialogue such as in the sentence, "I got you this present April!" and "For cryin’ out loud Harriet!" These errors should be worked on. As I mentioned earlier, the OBC review was what sparked my interest in this book.
First Ten review added on January 23, 2021, at 4:56 am by Vickie Noel.
Do you plan to read the whole book? Yes!
Manang Muyang
The title and blurb screamed young love, something I didn't fancy reading about. I wouldn’t have sampled the book outside of First Ten. The cover, which the author's husband made, was a mystery to me; I couldn't figure out its relevance to the story. Reading the sample did not make me change my mind about the book. I have outgrown romances, so I will not read further. Besides, the book was riddled with a variety of errors. Most were missed vocative commas in direct address, compound adjectives without hyphens, comma splices, and misplaced apostrophes in possessives. The most blatant errors follow: On page 10, "April quickly hung up the phone, not even saying goodbye to whoever it was she was talking too, remembering the 1 month grounding" had four errors. "Whoever" should be "whomever," "too" should be "to," and "1 month" should be "one-month." "Calm down April!, I know what I'm doing." The comma between those sentences on page 13 should be placed before "April." On page 15, "Maybe her mom would just would say no just because she felt like it" should lose one "would." In all fairness, I liked the links to songs on Spotify. You could listen to the songs while reading. I'm sure a lot of romance fans will enjoy that feature. The official OBC reviewer gave the book the perfect score. I wonder why. The book has to go through rigorous editing to deserve full marks.
First Ten review added on January 23, 2021, at 4:53 am by Manang Muyang.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
va2016
The cover shows the tough, semi-arid terrain, which I presume the author wants to show as a reflection of April's heart, which is full of angst. The title is equally appropriate, which reflects what to expect from the book, which is about the feelings that are felt by April. So, I like both the title as well as the cover. There are only 10 Amazon customer ratings, which is unfortunately an insufficient number for me to decide whether I should read the book or not. The Amazon summary provides a crisp and clear description of the story and the plot. Based on the Amazon summary, I would have skipped sampling the book if not for the First Ten program as I am not very much interested in narrations describing angst and bad family settings. As I sampled through the book, I found the narration describing April's 13th birthday party, and how she gets grounded for a month for drinking. As I am not interested in the overall theme of the book, I am not going to read this book in full. I found the sample professionally edited. I really liked the neat way in which the table of contents and the chapters are organized. I didn't find any grammatical or mechanical errors in the sample. What I liked most about the book is its professional editing. As an improvement, I would suggest the chapters be named instead of being numbered. Although I found two OBC reviews of the book, my decision to not to read the book in full is based on my own sampling.
First Ten review added on January 23, 2021, at 4:53 am by va2016.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Alice Heritage
I read some types of romance, but I probably wouldn't have sampled this without the programme because coming-of-age isn't necessarily my preferred type. I was intrigued by the Spotify playlist of 80s songs as mentioned on Amazon and in the OBC review though: I love (some) 80s music. I won't buy this today after sampling it (I could not get a free copy): the frequent grammatical errors and telling instead of showing were distracting. I found an error on practically every page, including frequent comma splices, sequence of tense errors like "...as they've done for years" in a sentence that began with the past simple "April was" (so it should read "as they'd done"). There were hyphens missing from words where these are absolutely standard: "high heeled"; "built in" "13 year old". I was therefore surprised by the 4-star rating; the official OBC review didn't add much to the impression I gained from the Amazon blurb and sample. The editing could be improved, and the phrases where the narrator comments could be dropped. Just one example of this is: "they didn't realize how desirous for each other they really were" - I think it would be better to show this and let the reader work it out.
First Ten review added on January 23, 2021, at 4:48 am by Alice Heritage.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Nikolas Farmakis
This is a young adult fiction story about a young girl named April and her boyfriend from school. I would not have read this book based on the cover, the title, or the genre, as I dislike young adult novels. I will not read this book, as I do not like romance stories. I found an error in the book, where the author wrote 'over crowded' instead of 'overcrowded', so this book probably was not professionally edited. What I liked most about the book was that it was very realistic and its plot matched a real-life scenario occurring in high schools today. To improve, the author should try to make the text more original and unique. This book had an Official OnlineBookClub review, which did not influence my decision.
First Ten review added on January 23, 2021, at 4:47 am by Nikolas Farmakis.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
xsquare
The cover of this book isn’t very attractive – I don’t think I would’ve sampled it if it hadn’t been part of the First Ten program. I’m not really a fan of teenage love stories either as I think that they tend to be rather unrealistic and full of cliches. Despite the high rating from the official OBC review, I wasn’t convinced.
I’m not sure if it was intentional, but I like that the author has captured the immaturity of a 13-year-old’s thought process very well through her writing style. However, I was a bit confused about the events that led up to April’s mother throwing a shoe at her – especially since it was the first time several characters such as Melissa Trotter, Janet and Tim were mentioned. I did see a minor typo – ‘“I’m April.” She offered.’, where it should’ve been a comma after the line of dialogue instead of a full stop.
I won’t be reading the rest of the book as it’s not really my cup of tea.
First Ten review added on January 23, 2021, at 4:38 am by xsquare.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
evraealtana
I wasn't at all interested in the story based on the official OBC review, since the review describes a romantic slice-of-life high school drama, which sounds incredibly boring to me. Sure enough, the first ten pages bored me to tears. I think April's mom being in a drunken rage at the party was supposed to be "exciting", but honestly, it felt overly dramatic for no discernible purpose. I rolled my eyes and intermittently gagged at the juvenile way in which April and her "friends" handled April's feelings for Mitchell. I recall being 13, and I don't think any of my classmates behaved in anywhere near as juvenile a fashion as Linda, Sharon, et al do. I didn't enjoy any part of the sample and am thrilled to be done reading it. I found ten errors in the first ten pages: a missing hyphen in "April's almost one month grounding" (one-month); a missing hyphen in "the high heeled shoes" (high-heeled); a comma in place of a semicolon in "She wore no makeup, her parents wouldn't let her"; a missing comma in "I got you this present April!" (comma before "April"); a missing comma in "Holy shit Cassie!"; an extra pair of quotation marks in the middle of April's line beginning "Mom! I'm right here!"; a run-on sentence beginning with "This year that was no longer true"; a comma in place of a colon in "had two classes together, English and Social Studies"; a misplaced comma in "Calm down April!, I know what I'm doing"; and a missing comma in "April you have a new boyfriend!" (comma after "April"). Given that, I'm suspicious of the official OBC reviewer's assessment that the book is professionally edited.
First Ten review added on January 23, 2021, at 4:35 am by evraealtana.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Jeremie Mondejar
The cover photo isn't eye-catching like the story itself. The sample is quite sweet when it starts with a birthday party of a thirteen year-old girl. I can't imagine that as early as 13 years old already taking a joint in the 1970s. This high school romance isn't for me because I can't relate. My high school life is full of academic fun than partying with my peers. The sample is long enough for me to understand the concept of the story, which is the thing I appreciated the most. Plus, while reading, I didn't notice any errors. The book looks well-written. My recommendation is to modify the cover photo into an exciting love detail. The OBC review is very helpful in describing the realistic situation of the scenes.
First Ten review added on January 23, 2021, at 4:27 am by Jeremie Mondejar.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Catherine Hsu
I feel like the cover colors could be more intense in order to match the blurb and romance feeling. But I would have still read the book. After reading the sample, I have changed my mind because I think more editing is needed. The book is missing a lot of dashes, like in "high-heeled," "13-year-old" and "built-in." Without it, the reading was not very smooth. That was my main reason for not wanting to continue with the book, although I enjoyed the personal voice of April as a pre-teen. The official review didn't affect my decision.
First Ten review added on January 23, 2021, at 4:20 am by Catherine Hsu.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Chelsy Scherba
April throws a birthday party and the neighborhood kids smoke pot and get drunk on alcohol. April gets in trouble and has a shoe thrown at her after Melissa’s mother called and complained about her daughter being intoxicated. The review mentioned this is about a thirteen year old girl who falls in love and grows up very fast. I don’t really like that April is only thirteen and doing drugs and having sex. I guess it was a different time in the 70s and a little too harsh for me. I’m not interested in reading further. The title and cover are nice though. I didn’t see any errors in the editing. This boom doesn’t appeal to me so I would not have searched for it outside of book club. If the characters were older I might be less repelled by the content, but in general, I don’t enjoy books about explicit activities or drugs.
First Ten review added on January 23, 2021, at 3:27 am by Chelsy Scherba.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
TheMazeRunner
This is a book that tells a story of a girl that survives her teenage years with her strict parents. I would sample the book because I liked the review. After reading the first pages, I have decided I won't read it. I love the book, and I wouldn't change a thing in it, but somehow it is sad for me. I see April's parents as abusive ones. They don't let her live, and they ground her for nothing. I don't like that kind of relationship, and that is why I don't want to read it. I have found no errors, and this book is edited professionally.
First Ten review added on January 23, 2021, at 2:29 am by TheMazeRunner.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Annelore Trujillo
I would have sampled this book based on the genre, blurb, OBC review, cover and title. I tend to like romance books. After reading the first ten pages, I won’t be finishing this book. I had a hard time reading about kids that are getting into so much trouble. April was drinking and smoking and hanging out with the boys, and she had barely turned thirteen years old. As a mom, this was more difficult for me to read about than I expected. I think that censoring some of the material and making the book for a younger audience would help improve this dilemma. The editing also needs improvement. For example, “I’m right here. Go guys” was spoken by April. However, each of those sentences had its own set of quotation marks even though they were in the same paragraph. This tells me the book wasn’t professionally edited. There wasn’t anything specific I liked so far.
First Ten review added on January 23, 2021, at 12:41 am by Annelore Trujillo.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Rodel Barnachea
Following my perusing of the title's Amazon page and official OnlineBookClub review, I decided I wouldn't acquire the book. The story's lead characters are teenagers: I don't think I'll be able to relate to them. I usually like coming-of-age novels, but this story seems to focus more on the romance between April and Mitchell; I didn't like that. Sampling the romance novel didn't convince me, as I still don't feel encouraged to read the remainder of the story. My initial views about the book remained even after I went through its sample. The first ten pages comprise the first three chapters and some pages of Chapter Four. What I liked the most is reading the part when April discovered the reason why her mother started yelling at her friends and the other teenagers who attended her birthday party. It is because Melissa's mother called April's mother to say that Melissa came home drunk from April's birthday party. I found a missing comma in this sentence from Chapter One: "April put the box down[,] and Jay and April walked over to where Melissa had just involuntarily shivered upon taking another swallow of the illicit whiskey." A comma should be placed before "and" since this coordinating conjunction joins two independent clauses in a sentence. The identified error is only minor, so I still think the book is professionally edited. I suggest the author fix the said error.
First Ten review added on January 22, 2021, at 9:38 pm by Rodel Barnachea.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Jennifer Donovan Smith
I would not have been drawn to the book by the title or cover. The cover does not indicate anything regarding content of the book. The title is simple. I would never have guessed that this is a story about a romance that spans from teenage years into adulthood.
I read both official reviews for this book after sampling it myself. I was shocked that the reviewers deemed this book as professionally edited! I found numerous errors in the first ten pages; there were so many errors that had I reviewed the book, I would have been forced to deduct a star according to the guidelines about editing on this site.
I found the story to be light and interesting. I liked the depiction of April; teenagers enjoy pushing boundaries, and April does exactly this. I did not enjoy the dialogue, though. I felt it was too flat and unnatural.
I would recommend that the author have this book edited by a professional. Clearly the two official reviewers missed the errors, so someone at a higher level should read over the book. With this many errors, I will not finish reading the book at this time. I have listed the first ten unique errors--occurring in just the first two pages!--below (listing one of each type despite multiple instances):
Incorrect tense: "...they proceeded south, returning from spending the Labor Day weekend at Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, as [they’ve] done for years." (p. 8)
Comma splice: "It had started out well[,] everyone was having fun." (p. 8)
Missing comma: "“Happy Birthday[] dear April!" (p. 8)
Incorrect capitalization of the first word in the dialogue tag: "'Happy Birthday to you!' [H]er smiling young friends sang in the backyard that opened up from the basement." (p.8)
Missing hyphenation: "There were burgers on the built[ ]in gas grill..." (p. 8)
Period outside of quotation marks: "...she was going for 'sexy' more than 'cute'." (p. 8)
Incorrect comma placement. A comma belongs after the independent clause and not prior to "due to." (Additionally, missing hyphenation.): "She was slender[] and her hair was blonder than usual[,] due to the fact her family had just returned from a month[ ]long vacation down the shore." (p. 8)
This is nitpicky, but the quotation mark is backwards: “I whittled this at Boy Scouts![“] (p. 9)
Every other number has been written in numerals, so this should be as well: "He was older than April, turning [thirteen] back in December." (p. 9)
A semi-colon is used where a colon belongs: "He had classic Italian good looks[;] dark messy hair, rounded nose, dimple in his chin."
First Ten review added on January 22, 2021, at 7:53 pm by Jennifer Donovan Smith.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Hazel Arnaiz
I will not sample this book outside the program. The cover and title look more like a self-help book or a memoir. I suggest a more appropriate book cover to catch the attention of the target audience. The blurb is long and tells about the story of star-crossed lovers. It also mentions music linked in the story. I seldom read romance novels, and it seems like an emotionally heavy story. But, the idea of incorporating songs in the ebook sounds interesting. Likewise, customer reviews are enthusiastic. Sampling did not change my mind. The initial chapters are about teenage love, which does not interest me. Also, I find the content mature for 13-year-olds. It will be helpful to add a content warning at the blurb and the start of the book. But I like the idea of the music links. The songs add context. I wish other genres have this feature. It will be nice to read them during long trips. As for editing, I notice some errors. Here are examples.
Page 5. Punctuation. Missing comma.
“my husband[] Mitch, for many, many things, big and small.”
Page 8. Spelling. Missing hyphen.
“There were burgers on the [built in] gas grill and a pink cake on the wooden table that matched the rest of the outdoor furniture.”
There are official OnlineBookClub reviews, but they did not affect my decision. I will skip this one.
First Ten review added on January 22, 2021, at 1:20 pm by Hazel Arnaiz.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Laura Lee
I have mixed feelings on this book. The reviewer suggested it was more appropriate for the 18-and-over age group but I honestly can't think of any adult that would like to read about a 13-year-old's first love and yet the language and subject matter may not be appropriate for younger readers, so the intended audience is a bit ambiguous to me. The book appears to have been very carefully, though not professionally edited, so I disagree with the official review on that aspect. I did find quite a bit of missing punctuation and various other assorted mistakes, such as "mom" when (in context) it should have been "Mom" and "1" which should properly have been spelled out as "one." A number of commas were outside of quotation marks which, though allowable in British English, is not in American English and the content suggests this book is set in North America. There were a considerable amount of missing commas and missing hyphens as well, and this was all just in chapter one! While this was nothing big enough to impede the understanding (there were no huge grammatical errors or more obvious problems), it was enough that it was clear that the book has not been professionally edited and I did not care for that aspect of the book.
One thing I really did appreciate was the use of slang I haven't heard in decades! The book opens in 1977. It was really fun to see the author use slang that a teen of the time would have used. How long has it been since any one said, "Far out!"? That attention to detail says quite a bit in favor of this author and this book.
I will not be finishing reading this book as the topic does not interest me. I would suggest the author rewrite her Amazon blurb. It does nothing for the book and was what gave me an immediate negative impression. Even without reading the sample pages, I would have chosen to pass on the book based on the Amazon blurb. However, if the topic interests you, give the book a try! It certainly has some glowing reviews.
First Ten review added on January 22, 2021, at 9:21 am by Laura Lee.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Sanju Lali
I guessed from the cover and the title of this book that I could find a story about a girl named April in it. With this idea, I considered reading the official review of this book before buying because I wanted to know about the premise of the story. The official review indicated to me that this book focuses on April Schweiter, a young girl, and her journey from teenage to adulthood, along with her wonderful love life. This idea piqued my interest to sample the book. After reading the first ten pages, I realized that this book is not professionally edited because I found some grammatical errors in the sample. For example, the sentence, "It had started out well, everyone was having fun...". The sentence could have been, "It had started out well, and everyone was having fun... ". The thing l liked the most is April's birthday scene, which gave a nice glimpse of April's neighborhood. My suggestion to the author would be to go for a round of professional editing. The narrative progressed a bit quickly and left out some necessary details of the scenes, leaving me to make some wild guesses. Looking at all these facts, I decided not to purchase and read this book today but wait until the author could help by addressing my suggestions so that I can have a pleasurable reading experience.
First Ten review added on January 22, 2021, at 6:08 am by Sanju Lali.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Justine Ocsebio
I wouldn’t have sampled this book based on the blurb, as I thought this has a very typical premise for a coming-of-age tale. What I like in this book is the teenage nostalgia it brings. However, I find it unrealistic that the thirteen-year-old kids in this book act like they are sixteen or seventeen. April and her friends drink and smoke pot. Her crush, Mitchell, was described as someone with broad shoulders and firm muscles. These are what I dislike. I’m not going to finish the book, as I can’t seem to find anything special with the premise. The text is well edited. To improve, the author should probably flesh out the characters and make them more realistic. The official review did not influence my decision.
First Ten review added on January 22, 2021, at 4:15 am by Justine Ocsebio.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Kirsi Cultrera
Judging by the outward appearance, I could not tell what this book was about. I am not much into romance novels, and my teenage years are long gone. Therefore, reading the blurp did not increase my level of interest in this book. The story was cute and related well to the teenage world. I also had to laugh at the way the author described April’s mother. I think teenagers will enjoy reading this book, and it could also be a nostalgic reading experience for some adults. As far as I can say, this book has been edited professionally. However, I would suggest renewing the cover picture. I feel that a matching cover is a crucial detail in selling a book to the right audience. I decided against reading this book, as I don’t belong to the target group. I checked the Official OnlineBookClub review of this book, but it did not alter my decision.
First Ten review added on January 22, 2021, at 4:06 am by Kirsi Cultrera.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
J_odoyo
After reading the first ten pages of this book, I’ve realized that it’s is an engaging story that seems to have been well written. The book’s title was relevant and could easily attract those who love young adult reads. The title was attractive, but I would say the cover page didn't seem to be relevant. I liked the author’s description on the Amazon website; it was precise and informative enough to allow for an accurate guess of what to expect in the book. Its storyline is gripping and well written. The book also had a positive official OnlineBookClub review, which gave insight into what the book entails. I didn’t find any error, and I would say the book seemed to have been professionally edited. The book opens up with a story of a teenage girl who has started seeing someone. Despite being an eighth-grader, she can't ignore the chemistry between her and Mitchell Hudgins. The story is promising, and I can’t stop guessing what is next. If not for the cover page, I would recommend nothing else for the improvement of this book. 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.
First Ten review added on January 22, 2021, at 3:48 am by J_odoyo.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Shrabastee Chakraborty
The cover is very pretty, the title indicative of the contents. The blurb summarizes the plot succinctly. However, young adult romance is not really my forte. So, despite the full rating the official OBC review gave, I wouldn't have read the book based on the genre. I noticed no errors in the first ten pages. They narrate April's 13th birthday party, where a few of her friends indulged in booze and drugs. I liked the way the author described April's transition to adolescence, the increased attention to her looks and to boys. However, the party scene did not strike me as something extraordinary, this was a typical teenage party. I wish the beginning were more appealing so as to hook the readers from the start. Since I do not like the genre, I decided to skip the book.
First Ten review added on January 22, 2021, at 2:51 am by Shrabastee Chakraborty.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
MeganDJ
If I hadn't read the first 10 pages, I probably would have easily skipped past this book. The title style doesn't catch your attention and the cover did not give me any impression that this would be a story of a teenager navigating adolescence. After all things considered, I would not like to read the rest of the book as I am way past the years of adolescence and do not want the nostalgia from those years either. I do not think that the book was professionally edited as I found this error:...., the high heeled shoes being.... = ...., the high-heeled shoes being.... (Page 8). What I liked is that the writing style and flow is easy-to-follow but I do believe that it could do with another round of editing. It did have an Online Book Review and it helped me understand what the book was about.
First Ten review added on January 22, 2021, at 2:40 am by MeganDJ.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Kaitlyn Canedy
I likely would have skipped the sample of April's Heart if it hadn't been the OnlineBookClub's book of the day. I do not mind adult romance books, but books with teenage romance tend to be off-putting for me due to their cheesiness. Because of this, I had already decided that I did not want to read it before I had read the sample. However, I read the first ten to see if I may enjoy what it had to offer. I liked the realism involved with the parents and middle school drama; it is relatable to those that have been through either experience. I did not see any grammatical errors in the sample at all, and I cannot think of any improvements that can be done to the book. There is an official OnlineBookClub review for this book, but I did not need to read it to decide if I wanted to continue with the rest of the book. I had decided this before, and my decision did not change even after everything that I saw about the book. Readers that like teenage romance books or want a cute love story may enjoy this one.
First Ten review added on January 22, 2021, at 12:27 am by Kaitlyn Canedy.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Ari Martinez
If it wasn't for this program, I would not sample this book based on its title, cover, or OnlineBookClub review because teenage-centered books do not interest me much. After reading the sample, I will not read the rest of the book because the story did not captivate me. It was probably because the main character was very different than I thought she would be, which threw me off a bit in the beginning. My favorite part of the sample is the realistic portrayal of April, especially in her thoughts. She reminded me of a few teens from my high school. I do not think the book can be improved. On page 13, I would add a comma after the word "fact" in the sentence "In fact both Lisas were invited to April’s 13th birthday party in August but neither showed up."
First Ten review added on January 22, 2021, at 12:23 am by Ari Martinez.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Verna Coy
Wow. This book has quite an opening scene involving 13-year-olds drinking and smoking pot. I can’t say that it endeared April’s character to me to begin with, although I’ll likely keep reading to see how the book ends. The nicely designed cover drew me to the book right away. The text seems professionally edited, so I don’t see room for improvement in that area. What I liked most about what I read was how the author has the ability to describe scenes and styles in such a way as to bring a reader into the past era that the story is told in. I enjoyed the Official Online Book Club review. Four stars is a nice accomplishment.
First Ten review added on January 22, 2021, at 12:09 am by Verna Coy.
Do you plan to read the whole book? Yes!
Kelyn
If I had not been a member of this program, I doubt that the genre, title, cover, or author would have enticed me to pick up this book. Although I occasionally enjoy reading YA novels, the ones I choose are normally of the sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal persuasion. As far as the cover and title, they don't really give an idea of what the book might be about. I prefer when I can get some idea about the book just from the cover and title. I am unfamiliar with the author, so that would not have affected my decision. The blurb does a good job of roping in the reader. It is well-written and already had me rooting for the romance to work before I even looked at the inside of the book! There were several customer reviews on the Amazon site, all of which were positive (to varying degrees). Although I did not see a review from this program on the Amazon site, if I had, I would have been interested in what the reviewer had to say. The review on this site was also positive. That gave a good impression going into the sample. Honestly, at that point, I hadn't planned on reading the book. My own teenage years were enough of a rollercoaster. Why read about someone else's? That's before I downloaded it to read for the first ten pages...it turned out to be more than that. I hadn't really been looking at the chapter numbers, but suddenly I realized that I was on Chapter eight and rooting for Jay rather than Mitchell. Whaaat? I looked at the clock, and more than an hour had gone by. Soooo...I guess I'm reading it! I haven't really gotten a feel for the love between April and Mitch yet. At the moment, it seems somewhat superficial, especially on his part. I mean, Mitch's first words to his 'girlfriend' were snarky and rude. At present, I'm still rooting for Jay, despite what the blurb says. Even if he has been 'the boy next door' all of April's life, he seems a heck of a lot more likable than Mitch at this point. I guess I'll have to keep reading. The book seems well-edited. I found no 'countable' errors in the first ten pages.
First Ten review added on January 21, 2021, at 10:51 pm by Kelyn.
Do you plan to read the whole book? Yes!
Jsovermyer
The cover picture and the title are okay but not very exciting. I would not buy this book from the cover alone. The official reviewer liked this book and gave it a high rating. On page 8, the author should consider changing "the high heeled shoes being thrown at her head" to be written with a hyphen as,"the high-heeled shoes being thrown at her head." I didn't find any other grammatical errors in the 10 pages I read. This is a sweet coming-of-age story of first love. I like that it makes me think of my teenage years. Princess phones and expressions like "outta sight" were definitely used in the 1970s. What I don't like about the story is the drinking and pot smoking. A thirteen-year-old is too young to be doing those things. I don't approve of April's behavior because she is stealing and lying to her parents. I don't like the character and am not interested in finishing this novel.
First Ten review added on January 21, 2021, at 10:01 pm by Jsovermyer.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Sou Hi
If it's no for this program, I wouldn't be interested in this book. The reason is that the genre is not my cup of tea, and the cover seems totally unrelated to the title and Amazon's blurb. The sample starts with April's 13th birthday, which ended in disaster when April's parents found out that the kids had been drinking. After being grounded for a month, April returned to school and being indirectly confessed to by her crush, Mitchell Hudgins. Their relationship goes smoothly after that.
I like the romance concept of the book. The innocent love between younger teenagers is beautifully depicted. However, some aspects don't sit well with me. The love of April and Mitchell progresses too smoothly with almost no hardship, so it feels bland. Besides, the official review fails to note this, but the characters are too young when they are involved with alcohol and drugs. April even swears. It would be more acceptable if the cast is highschoolers and not some middle schoolers. While April's mother is a bit too extreme with her reaction, I think April deserves punishment for what she did. I would also suggest another round of editing, since I notice too many grammar errors. As I don't enjoy the sample, I won't read on or buy this book.
Error example: Monday September 5, 1977 Labor Day. -> Lack of commas. There should be a comma after "Monday" and a comma/period after "1977."
First Ten review added on January 21, 2021, at 9:56 pm by Sou Hi.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Gabrielle Sigaki
April's Heart by Shilah Ferr is a romance novel that brings April's life and her relationships with her family and friends. If I didn't sample this book, I wouldn't read it based on its genre and its Official OnlineBookClub review because I'm not interested in teenage romance books like this one. After sampling it, I didn't change my mind and I won't read the entire volume because the premise of a couple who passes through various problems to stay together didn't catch my interest. However, I enjoyed the fact that the author has a dynamic style that resembles the language used by teenagers, which makes the novel more realistic. Besides, the book seems professionally edited and there's nothing to be improved in it.
First Ten review added on January 21, 2021, at 8:32 pm by Gabrielle Sigaki.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
MsH2k
Based on the genre and blurb, I would not have sampled this book if I were not part of this program. I don’t read many romance novels, and when I do, I prefer older protagonists (and I don’t mean the nagging mom). The description of Greystone Junior High, “the epicenter for young teenage hormones, misinformation, experimentation, cliques, and a rumor mill that functioned at the speed of lightning,” confirmed that I would not be interested in this book. The featured OnlineBookClub review was very complimentary; this sounds like a great book for a younger crowd or those who would like to reminisce about their teenage years. I am neither one of those, so I will not finish this book. Neither the OBC review nor any Amazon rating could convince me otherwise.
I noticed several grammatical errors in the sample pages. There were comma errors such as comma splices, missing commas before a vocative, and other various comma infractions. An example is this comma splice on page 8: “It had started out well, everyone was having fun.”
This is an example of a missing comma before a vocative on page 9: “I got you this present April!”
On page 11, [too] was used instead of [to]: “April quickly hung up the phone, not even saying goodbye to whoever it was she was talking too.”
There were also cases of missing hyphens and unnecessary hyphens. A suggestion for improvement would be to have the book professionally edited. If you are caught up in the teenage happenings in the story, you may not notice the errors, but quite a few are there.
First Ten review added on January 21, 2021, at 7:51 pm by MsH2k.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Stephanie Runyon
Normally I wouldn't have sampled this book. The title and cover are simple and denote a romance novel. The OBC review made the book more intriguing. I really liked how the author made the characters easy to relate to. The music links were a great touch to the story. The book appears professionally edited and I was so completely engrossed into the book I admit I read way past the first 10 pages. It goes without saying I am going to finish reading this book. I didn't read any other reviews. I would like to see a different cover on this book because the field doesn't fit what I have read in the story so far.
First Ten review added on January 21, 2021, at 5:44 pm by Stephanie Runyon.
Do you plan to read the whole book? Yes!
Sarah_Khan
I like the title of this book, but I can't say I am a fan of the photograph for the cover. After reading the Amazon blurb, I would not have went ahead and sampled this because I am not a huge fan of coming-of-age novels. The first few pages seem well edited. I have to say April seemed a lot older than a 13 year old. I was surprised to read about her talking about alcohol and being sexy. The OBC review was positive, the reviewer recommended this book to adults. After reading the first few pages and the OBC review, I have to say I have changed my mind. My initial reaction at hearing about kids being in love was to cringe at the expected cheesiness, but I am happy to say I was wrong. I actually look forward to reading the rest of this book. My one suggestion for the author is to change the cover to better reflect the romantic aspect of this book.
First Ten review added on January 21, 2021, at 4:32 pm by Sarah_Khan.
Do you plan to read the whole book? Yes!
Odette Chace
I don't like the cover or the title. The synopsis on Amazon didn't interest me. I don't read romance novels. The official Online Book Club review gave the work a perfect rating of 4 out of 4 stars and the reviewer found nothing to criticize about the book. However, the review did not change my mind about the book. I don't believe the work was professionally edited as I noticed several errors in the first ten pages. "April was staring out the window of the back seat of her father's station wagon as they proceeded south, returning from spending the Labor Day weekend at Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, as they've done for years" (pg. 7). As they had for years. While I found the first ten pages more engaging than I anticipated, I simply do not enjoy this genre of literature. I don't plan to finish reading the book.
First Ten review added on January 21, 2021, at 3:03 pm by Odette Chace.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Brenda Creech
I immediately loved the cover of this book and could tell by the title it was probably a romance novel. Since I love a good romance story, I would have checked this book out without reading any reviews. After reading the official review, I was convinced I wanted to read this book. When I read the first ten pages, I did not find anything that needs improving. The book is well-written, and I only found a couple of typos. For instance, on Kindle page 10, the following sentence is missing the word 'the' before 'hallway:' "It clattered to the floor as the shoe’s mate came hurtling through hallway along the same path as the first one." The portion I read was mainly about April's thirteenth birthday party. I found her mother to be unreasonably strict; however, with young teens, they have to be disciplined at times, although I found April's mother's discipline over the top. I found the book very interesting, and I am interested in how April's relationship will turn out with Mitchell Hudgins, so I got the book and definitely plan to read the rest of it as soon as possible.
First Ten review added on January 21, 2021, at 1:42 pm by Brenda Creech.
Do you plan to read the whole book? Yes!
Diana Lowery
I liked the cover because it looked like the gulf coast in Alabama. The title made me think that it was a romance. I did not like that there were so many chapters listed in both parts one and two. I loved the dedication page to the author's husband. There was a verb tense error in the first paragraph: "...as [they've]" should be they'd. The blurb was good. The review was very positive and mentioned having good memories from being a teenager. I am not going to finish reading this book because I don't like to think that it is realistic that a thirteen-year old was so involved in drinking and smoking pot in the 70s.
First Ten review added on January 21, 2021, at 1:32 pm by Diana Lowery.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Emy Katherine
The story is set in 1977 and follows the journey of a 13-year-old girl named April, whose life changes for the better after falling in love with a handsome boy, Mitchell Hudgins. As the years go by, she falls more and more in love with her boyfriend, but she has to make a tough decision when they both decide to go to different colleges. Without this program, I would not have read the book based on the genre. However, as I found the writing style clear and pleasant to read and enjoyed the realistic dialogues, I changed my mind after sampling the book and reading the positive OBC review. I would suggest another round of editing, though, as I noticed some distracting errors. For example, I found a missing comma after "commotion" in the following sentence: "Janet and Tim, awakened by the commotion came quickly down the stairs just in time to see April reflexively block the shoe with her arms." (location 101 of 541 • 19%) It should be written "her 13-year-old daughter" instead of "her 13 year old daughter." (location 173 of 541 • 32%) There should not be a comma after "note" in the following sentence: "She thought about writing him a note, but was too scared of rejection." (location 390 of 541 • 72%)
First Ten review added on January 21, 2021, at 1:29 pm by Emy Katherine.
Do you plan to read the whole book? Yes!
Iva Stoyanova
If I wasn't part of this program I wouldn't have chosen to sample or read this book. I don't mind reading romance but it's not my typical genre that I read. From the cover and the title I knew that the book is about a teenager and maybe her love story. So, I wasn't intrigued at all. What is more, the cover suggests probably a summer romance because of the sand. However, this is only an assumption. The official review supported my opinion of the book. I don't normally read teenage romantic books and this one is not an exception. So, I will not buy and read this book. Also, I didn't change my mind after reading the first ten pages.
I think the book is well written and edited. However, I've found some instances where I think there are errors. For example, on p.8: "He was a childhood friend a year younger than April." I think there is a missing comma after the word friend. Also, again on p.8, I think there is a strange wording: "Somehow April knew to wear her new white short shorts and...". Here, I find it strange to say "short shorts" as the word shorts is sufficient. I don't have something in particular that I liked about this book. I am sure that it is suitable and very interesting for a younger audience. Many teenagers will find it relatable and engaging. I don't have recommendations for improvement. I hope the errors I've mentioned are not real mistakes though.
First Ten review added on January 21, 2021, at 1:17 pm by Iva Stoyanova.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
PeterRabitt20
I would not read this book based on the cover page or the blurb because it seems to be for a younger audience. The font style and color of the title gave that impression. After reading the sample, I might give it a try. The writing style of the author seems good, and I didn't get bored. The OBC review was also encouraging. The book didn't seem to be professionally edited. I only found many instances of missed commas and added quotation marks; "Mom! I'm right here![" "]Go[,] guys! You've got to go!" she yelled ..." I liked most that the story seems easy-going and builds up. The only thing I would improve on is the font and color used for the title.
First Ten review added on January 21, 2021, at 12:02 pm by PeterRabitt20.
Do you plan to read the whole book? Yes!
gen_g
Based on the title and cover, it seems like a conventional romance book, which I am not in the market for; hence, I would not have sampled it. I have also come across a positive OBC review of the book, but this would not have changed my decision not to sample, since this book does not belong to a genre that I am looking for. After sampling, there are a couple of errors present. For example, at loc 58, there is a missing hyphen marking a compound modifier: "...her one(-)month grounding...". I suggest more editing. However, I appreciate that there was a short introduction by way of description into the main character April's life; it helps readers to better relate to the story. For example, we learn that April was grounded for a month, and she was having a wild birthday party, with illicit whiskey that one of her friends nicked from her garage. In fact, April was really glad that she did not get caught smoking pot with her friend Cassie, as she believed that she would get into even more trouble. In fact, April's mother then threw a high-heeled shoe at her head. However, as I am not in the market for romance, I will not be reading the rest of the book.
First Ten review added on January 21, 2021, at 11:34 am by gen_g.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Laura Ungureanu
The cover didn't make any impression on me. Based on the title and the image of the field, I thought it might be historical fiction, so I was surprised to learn from the OBC review that it was actually romance. This genre is not one I enjoy reading, so I wouldn't have checked this book out. I don't know what to feel about the fact that April has just turned thirteen. I know it's not too early for romance, but it's most likely not going to be the romance of your life. I don't like reading about a teenager's fling. I would've liked it more if the book also approached some serious topics, not just boys, parties, and alcohol. I can't say that I've enjoyed anything about it, so clearly I won't continue reading. Concerning the editing, I feel the need to put commas before names, like in the case of "I got you this present April".
First Ten review added on January 21, 2021, at 10:37 am by Laura Ungureanu.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
María Andrea Fernández Sepúlveda
I don't love the cover of the book or the title. "April's Heart" made me think the book was about a transplant, which probably speaks more of my psyche than it does of the book. But once I read the blurb, I was sold. I love a good romance story! The ratings for the book are mixed, but I like the blurb enough to buy it based on my first impressions.
First of all, I love that the book includes playlist links, making this a multisensory experience. This is the kind of added value that makes a book stand out. I can totally relate to the experience of being a girl on the brim of growing up. For example: "April was cute for a 13 year old, but she was going for “sexy” more than “cute”. I also think throwing a shoe at your daughter just because her friend arrived drunk is a bit abusive, but that only made me intrigued about April's family dynamics.
I didn't find editing mistakes. There are some missing commas and some words that could be hyphenated, such as the above "13-year-old", but these are not mistakes per se. I would suggest improving the cover. The official review furthered my enthusiasm for the book.
First Ten review added on January 21, 2021, at 10:15 am by María Andrea Fernández Sepúlveda.
Do you plan to read the whole book? Yes!
Timothy Rucinski
From the Official Review, I knew that I would never have selected this book, and the same goes for the cover. Modern romance novels, especially those featuring teenagers, are not of any interest to me so I won't be reading this book. From what I read, I mostly enjoyed the dialogue as the author has a fine ability to render speech. There wasn't anything about the book that I disliked; it's just not my genre of interest. As far as a suggestion for improvement, the author may want to have the book edited professionally as I found a number of errors and inconsistencies. One error, for example, is on page 8, in the fifth paragraph, where the words "built in" should be hyphenated. As far as inconsistencies, on page 8 the author uses the number "13" to indicate April's age, but on page 9, uses the word "thirteen." The other children's ages are subsequently cited numerically as well.
First Ten review added on January 21, 2021, at 9:54 am by Timothy Rucinski.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Total ~ 21%
April's Heart earned a score of 21%.
In other words, out of the top-level reviewers who read at least the first 10 pages of this book, 21% 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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