Official Review: Cover Your Tracks, Leona Leitman

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Vickyoreo86
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Latest Review: Cover Your Tracks, Leona Leitman by C. S. Johnson

Official Review: Cover Your Tracks, Leona Leitman

Post by Vickyoreo86 »

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of Cover Your Tracks, Leona Leitman by C.S Johnson.]

Cover Your Tracks, Leona Leitman by C.S Johnson is a Supernatural Crime/Thriller, following a group of friends tangled up in a spate of ghastly murders that are animalistic. Leona Leitman is a lawyer who takes on a case to defend a man who has discovered a way to make affordable energy. A more powerful company with a similar, yet inferior, design is threatening to kill him if he releases the idea to the public, which would endanger their profits. This puts Leona and her friends in the middle and soon they come after her too. But then strange attacks and murders occur and Leona finds herself waking up in strange places with no memory of the night before, only violent dreams that plague her and feel too real.

A very clear theme runs through this book about Chinese medicines including acupuncture and it's healing benefits. Internal Nature elements are used to explain how our emotions are connected to everything around us and there is even a trip to China to learn about herbs and how all elements must balance to be in harmony with oneself.

I understood the theme, but I unfortunately understood very little else and was confused by much of what I read. This book is exactly the type of story I usually love to read. Action, supernatural beings, strong female lead and plenty of murdering. But... the action fell flat in the description and lack of punctuation that usually helps emphasise what is happening. The strong female lead, although we are told that she is strong minded, organised and slightly controlling, came across as immature. She stumbles from one thought to another and makes very bad decisions. One being that she knows bad men in a rich company are coming for her, she knows there is a pack of wild animals staying close by and she is warned to stay safe but feels she needs to walk in a park alone to get some air.

There were some very good moments. I enjoyed learning about the Chinese healing aspects. I wanted to delve deeper in to that. I also wanted more action and suspense but this books spends much of it's time describing dates with men they meet suddenly and spa getaways in secluded hotels. I felt, while these took up much of the book, the trip to china was very short, too easy and could have been expanded with more action.

I liked C.S Johnson's different take on animal shifting and what causes it. It has a very interesting way of dealing with it, unlike other stories that explain it away through infections of a bite. But I couldn't connect with the characters and the spelling and grammar mistakes constantly threw me out of the story to re-read parts. I am unsure if it was meant to be slightly comedic, perhaps, which would explain many things to me in the dialogue between characters. An example, Leona is excited that the man she is falling for is coming to see her and she says "Yes! Yay! Yippee do dahh". It made it hard to see her as an intelligent Lawyer which the reader has previously been told a few times that she is.

I think this book needs some editing and a little TLC to really bring home what the story is about. I can see what the author was trying to do, and some scenes were fun to read but, my personal opinion, was that it never quite reached where it was trying to go. I give this book a rating of 2 out of 4 mainly because I enjoyed learning about the Chinese aspect and there was a unique explanation for animal shifting. Unfortunately there were too many grammatical errors, missing words in sentences and spelling issues for me to rate any higher.

I would say if you can forgive the grammar/spelling then this is a fun read, most is fast paced and there are some interesting facts from other cultures woven in so it is worth picking up and trying out.
“We make choices everyday, some of them good, some of them bad. And - if we are strong enough - we live with the consequences.”
― David Gemmell
londonmartine
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Post by londonmartine »

This is a shame - like you, all the elements seem to be there to ensure a book that I would like. But based on your review I don't think I'll give this a go. I guess that's why we do this! Thanks for the review
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Post by kandscreeley »

Well, I don't think I'll be trying this one, but it's interesting to see all the Chinese aspects included in the story - the Chinese medicine and healing and animistic theories. Thanks for getting through this one. Hopefully with some good editing this can be turned into a great story!
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Post by revna01 »

Yeah, I'm usually not very forgiving of excessive grammar/spelling issues. I feel like that should be sorted out before the author is wanting a review. In any case, I like your review and I'm sorry the book didn't deliver what you expected.
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Post by Jkhorner »

An example, Leona is excited that the man she is falling for is coming to see her and she says "Yes! Yay! Yippee do dahh". It made it hard to see her as an intelligent Lawyer which the reader has previously been told a few times that she is.
It seems as if the author wants to tell you who the characters are without actually going to the effort of writing them to exhibit those traits. Perhaps this will come to the author with more experience, but I believe an editor would be an even greater help.
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Post by MollyEnter »

The premise of the book seems cool, but you've pointed out some disappointing features of the book. Too bad. I was hoping to want to read this one, but not anymore.
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Vickyoreo86
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Latest Review: Cover Your Tracks, Leona Leitman by C. S. Johnson

Post by Vickyoreo86 »

I wrote this review quite some time ago. It has only been published recently. You could always check and see if the author has worked on it since then? Sometimes indie authors update their books if people have pointed out mistakes. Hope that helps.
“We make choices everyday, some of them good, some of them bad. And - if we are strong enough - we live with the consequences.”
― David Gemmell
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