I like the author tried to help you envision your surroundings but it comes off as too descriptive. I enjoy being able to see the story as a movie in my head but I don’t like it written as it should be a screenplay.

I commend this author for taking the leap, writing the words, and getting published. It mites thank I have done. I’ve only gotten as far as writing some of the words. I feel like there was a word count minimum to be reached so it was filled with adjectives to help draw it out.

I do recommend this story if you like every detail explained to you. It has great action.

What a fascinating book. I was impressed by the storyline and the characters were all well written and complex. Where there are complex storylines combined with intriguing characters the reader experience is magnified tremendously. To have a book that is well written as well as entertaining is a delight. Reading is about escaping your world and entering another one. The word building was phenomenal in this book. Here I forgot about my own life and was immersed in the world created by the author. I would recommend this book.

I was unable to finish this book. I forced myself to read half of it out of respect for the author and their work but I was unable to justify finishing it. The writing is disjointed and jerky. The vocabulary used and the writing style is uncomfortable and confusing. I think the plot might have been a good one but when you have to wade through rhetoric and peel back layers of pretentious word and grammar choices to glimpse the underlying meaning of the situation described...who knows.

This book was fairly good. I enjoyed it well enough but wouldn't necessarily re-read. The writing was good though and I'd consider reading from the author again.

I wanted to like this book more than I did, altho i have to say there are some good things throughout the book. I like action stories, and the fact that the author is a past service member leads credence to the story as it unfolds. I found that the wordiness of the narrative sometimes got in the way of the story, which sometimes made for a difficult read. This was a good effort by a first-time author and look forward to future books. i received an ARC of this book in return for an honest review, which this has been. #NetGalley, #KingsandKillers, #EJListon.

I don’t usually give such a low score on a book. However, I have tried twice to read this book, and both times have not been able to get through much of it at all. I’m sorry, but this author really needs to learn to write a book people will actually read, There were so many run-on sentences, that the reader eventually lose sight of what the author is trying to say. Also the constant parade of over used adjectives, which, again cause the reader to try to figure out what the author is trying to get across to his audience, gets lost in all the unnecessary wordiness of the book. I, for one, and not impressed by all the adjectives and adverbs that the author has written in this book, quite the contrary!!

This book had some solid hits and some solid misses for me. The plot is intriguing, an elite group of Marines are out to seek answers and set the world straight after a brazen, targeted attack by a group of gangbangers known as the Kings, leaves one of their brothers dead, and two of their women abducted. The author is a former marine and I can certainly appreciate his perspective here, although some of the jargon is over my head.
The narrative style is very unique and the wording used redefines descriptive narrative. Perhaps the only challenge is for those with weak vocabularies, as you may stumble. There were some weak spots in the plot, and some plot points are left open ended without closure. This is a promising starting point for this author. There is definite room for improvement, and I look forward to seeing future works from this author.

The blurb of Kings and Killers peaked my interest. Unfortunately, I was not able to fully get in to the story. The reason for this is because I felt like I was reading a thesaurus. I know military people, and I know how they speak, and this book did not portray it correctly. I had to read it several times in order to grasp what the author was trying to say. I believe that if Mr. Liston wrote without trying to impress, Kings and Killers would have been an excellent story.

FREE ARC from NETGALLEY

There is talent here, of that there is no doubt. The problem is it is hiding inside a dictionary inside a thesaurus. Dude, write like they talk, not how you want to make us think they talk.

This book was not for me. I found it to be too descriptive and wordy. I couldn't even get the main idea of the story. Other people may like this book, but I found it hard to concentrate on. I was concentrating on the descriptors, and lost sight of the ideas.

The premise of the book was a good idea, But that’s about the best I can do in this review. My big issue is I felt like I was reading a Thesaurus. I just thought the wording was way over the top, and It made it very hard to enjoy.

Reading the book began to feel like playing a game of Mad Libs. This is not a story. I mistook this book to be Matthew Harffy's Killer of Kings--so I will have to read the descriptions more carefully in the future.

E.J. Liston’s KINGS AND KILLERS most definitely has an intriguing synopsis, gang retribution, ghosts in the family closet and the loyalty of comrades.

What could have been a tale full of suspense and grit became a war zone of word comprehension and I lost. Top heavy with thesaurus-worthy text, there was no way I could engage. As I firmly believe one cannot review a book without reading it from start to finish, I have to say, when I did get to that last word, I was exhausted and questioned what really happened.

I received a complimentary copy from AuthorBuzz. The is my honest and voluntary review.

Publication Date: June 7, 2019
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This book would be a solid finalist in the bad wring contest. I'm sure it was intended to display the vernacular of the Marines, but it just has too many malaprops and grammar errors, along with misspellings and over the top wording to be easily read. There is a story hidden in the blizzard of words, including side trips and flashbacks as diversions.

"KINGS AND KILLERS" is one of those books for which I could have not written a review. There was nothing literary, clever, or intriguing about its storyline or the manner in which it was written.

Kings and killers
By E.J. Liston
1 star
While the story line itself is not bad, not cohesion of the text is missing. Instead it is full of descriptive text that overwhelms the reader.
The author uses all the textual features taught in schools in an attempt to engage the reader. This fails spectacularly as the heavy text drowns out the story line.

This title has been reviewed by This title was provided by Netgalley and the publisher in return for an open and honest review.

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