Review by lindsaypalmer -- The McCoys Before The Feud
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lindsaypalmer
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- Latest Review: The McCoys Before The Feud by Thomas McCoy
Review by lindsaypalmer -- The McCoys Before The Feud
[Following is a volunteer review of "The McCoys Before The Feud" by Thomas McCoy.]
The McCoys: Before The Feud by Thomas McCoy is the first book in a new series that follows the McCoy family through their new life after the Civil War. The story starts when Thomas McCoy Jr. receives a letter from his fiancé, Terry, stating that she knows of valuables taken from the Southerners during the war. When Tommy McCoy arrives back home after the war, he discovers that not only does his fiancé know of these valuables, but she has acquired a map of where they may be. Tommy decides to gather the rest of his family, the McCoys, and head out on an adventure to secure the valuables taken from the South and to return them to the Southerners. The McCoys: Before The Feud is a story about kinfolk and what you can accomplish when working as a team.
The McCoys: Before The Feud is an historical fiction novel. Thomas McCoy stays true to this genre with his writing style and details, fully capturing what life was like after the Civil War. The author does a great job at capturing the sense of urgency each time the McCoys attack another site in search of their treasures. This book will draw an audience who enjoys reading battle stories, American history stories, or stories that involve much planning and tactics. This story has only one instance of profanity, very little grammatical errors, and zero sexual interactions which helps to widen the audience, given that the book would typically have a smaller audience due to the genre. Although this story is historical fiction, Thomas McCoy does a great job at weaving in facts. This may be because he is a direct descendent of the family in which he writes about.
What I dislike about The McCoys: Before The Feud is how repetitive the story is. Each time the McCoys raid a site, the author goes into great detail about how they do so. From getting to the site, to taking down the guards, to transferring the goods, each time is almost identical to the last. With there being so many sites to raid, it gets tiring. At first, the detail was very welcome. However, it did not need to be in so much depth for the rest of the story. I also wish the author gave more to certain aspects of the story such as giving the treasures back to the Southerners. Giving back was the main reason the McCoys decided to take on this job. However, it was only brought up again towards the end of the story and they gave back very little, a fraction of what the McCoys retrieved. I personally would have liked to see more given back and things done with the money to help the Southerner families after the war.
What I like about this story is the sense of kinfolk the McCoys share. The author, Thomas McCoy, does a great job at creating the sense of unity and family. The family works together like a well oiled machine which creates a nice overall feel to the book. My favorite part of the book was when all the McCoys returned to Terry's ranch to start anew. It was refreshing to hear of something other than the same old raids again and again. I also enjoyed how Thomas McCoy gave each member of the family a certain job and they stayed true to those jobs to the end. This gave a sense of character and belonging to otherwise minor characters.
In general, The McCoys: Before The Feud was a fairly average read. There was nothing overly exciting about the book and read more like a nonfiction book than a fiction. This may be due to the very little dialogue included in the book. I will not be reading this book more than once. However, I absolutely will be reading the rest of the books in the series to hopefully have some of my questions answered like "What happens to the McCoys who leave the ranch?", "Do they ever get caught?", "Do Tommy and Terry live happily ever after?". The author did an excellent job at setting up the rest of the books in the series and hopefully continues to do so. With everything I have written in mind, I gladly rate this book a 3 out of 4 and will recommend it to other readers.
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The McCoys Before The Feud
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
The McCoys: Before The Feud by Thomas McCoy is the first book in a new series that follows the McCoy family through their new life after the Civil War. The story starts when Thomas McCoy Jr. receives a letter from his fiancé, Terry, stating that she knows of valuables taken from the Southerners during the war. When Tommy McCoy arrives back home after the war, he discovers that not only does his fiancé know of these valuables, but she has acquired a map of where they may be. Tommy decides to gather the rest of his family, the McCoys, and head out on an adventure to secure the valuables taken from the South and to return them to the Southerners. The McCoys: Before The Feud is a story about kinfolk and what you can accomplish when working as a team.
The McCoys: Before The Feud is an historical fiction novel. Thomas McCoy stays true to this genre with his writing style and details, fully capturing what life was like after the Civil War. The author does a great job at capturing the sense of urgency each time the McCoys attack another site in search of their treasures. This book will draw an audience who enjoys reading battle stories, American history stories, or stories that involve much planning and tactics. This story has only one instance of profanity, very little grammatical errors, and zero sexual interactions which helps to widen the audience, given that the book would typically have a smaller audience due to the genre. Although this story is historical fiction, Thomas McCoy does a great job at weaving in facts. This may be because he is a direct descendent of the family in which he writes about.
What I dislike about The McCoys: Before The Feud is how repetitive the story is. Each time the McCoys raid a site, the author goes into great detail about how they do so. From getting to the site, to taking down the guards, to transferring the goods, each time is almost identical to the last. With there being so many sites to raid, it gets tiring. At first, the detail was very welcome. However, it did not need to be in so much depth for the rest of the story. I also wish the author gave more to certain aspects of the story such as giving the treasures back to the Southerners. Giving back was the main reason the McCoys decided to take on this job. However, it was only brought up again towards the end of the story and they gave back very little, a fraction of what the McCoys retrieved. I personally would have liked to see more given back and things done with the money to help the Southerner families after the war.
What I like about this story is the sense of kinfolk the McCoys share. The author, Thomas McCoy, does a great job at creating the sense of unity and family. The family works together like a well oiled machine which creates a nice overall feel to the book. My favorite part of the book was when all the McCoys returned to Terry's ranch to start anew. It was refreshing to hear of something other than the same old raids again and again. I also enjoyed how Thomas McCoy gave each member of the family a certain job and they stayed true to those jobs to the end. This gave a sense of character and belonging to otherwise minor characters.
In general, The McCoys: Before The Feud was a fairly average read. There was nothing overly exciting about the book and read more like a nonfiction book than a fiction. This may be due to the very little dialogue included in the book. I will not be reading this book more than once. However, I absolutely will be reading the rest of the books in the series to hopefully have some of my questions answered like "What happens to the McCoys who leave the ranch?", "Do they ever get caught?", "Do Tommy and Terry live happily ever after?". The author did an excellent job at setting up the rest of the books in the series and hopefully continues to do so. With everything I have written in mind, I gladly rate this book a 3 out of 4 and will recommend it to other readers.
******
The McCoys Before The Feud
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: The McCoys Before The Feud by Thomas McCoy
