Cover Image: The Wood

The Wood

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Member Reviews

I think I may have left it too long to read this book as it seems to have disappeared from my kindle. This has happened with a few titles.

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Enjoyed this book. It had a mix of characters and a good plot. Was interesting and the suspense kept you going. Great plot

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A strange storm causes havoc on a small island and that’s where 4 friends find themselves. I was expecting to read an exciting thriller when I chose this but that’s not what it turned out to be. Everything about this book was stilted and awkward. Thank goodness it was very short. I did like the cover!

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Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believeable.
Great suspense and action with wonderful world building.

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The Wood by Diana Stewart-Walker is not a good book. The writing is juvenile with terrible character development. The book blurb indicates it’s a suspenseful/thriller, but it’s not. It’s just a blah book, without much of a plot, that was hard to follow at times due to the author’s style of writing. Do not waste your time.

Thank you to Net Galley, Diana Stewart-Walker, and Lulu Publishing Services for the opportunity to read and review this ⭐️ book.

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This was not what I was expecting at all. First off, it was much shorter than I had expected...it read more like a novella. Also, the description had me thinking it was going to be a summery suspense novel, but that’s not at all what I got from this book. I didn’t mind the author’s writing, but I found the story to be all over the place. The only reason this got two stars instead of one is that I reserve one star reviews for books that I can’t finish or absolutely don’t recommend anyone read.

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I really wanted to like this book, but it was one of the only books I have never finished. Really needs to be edited to make sense.

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I can’t finish reading this novel. I’m not a fan of incomplete sentences and this is a typical sentence “smiled. Ate dinner. Laughed”

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I wanted to like this book. The blurb sounding interesting. Yet the story never fit that blurb. I kept expecting the crew to be caught in some civil war or massive unrest after the storm. However, what happened was just some mundane events that kicked off some other mundane events.

While the plot was original the writing style hurt. Much of the description read like a step by step list. Given the beach setting this was a perfect summer beach read. But, I feel given some flaws it might not have a mass appeal. Still, I will link to the book in my email newsletter as a good end of summer read.


A free ebook was provided by NetGalley for unbiased this review.

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I did not like this book at all and reasons are as follows:
1. Not a strong story line
2. Details are missing
3. Synopsis provided does not match the actual storyline.

I found it hard to finish such a short book.

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I was excited to pick this read as it was set in the Caribbean Islands and gave off a summery, beach vibe. Unfortunately, I could not really connect with the writing style and sentence structure and found it absolutely impossible to relate to the story or the characters. The interactions between the characters seem mechanical and not like real conversations.

I will still give it 1.5 round to 2 stars for the cover.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book,

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I liked the premise of this book and was excited to dive into a thrilling mystery. Unfortunately, I skimmed the first part of the book because the dialogue put me off as it was quite juvenile and choppy. The storyline was not very good and didn't keep my interest. Luckily, it was a short read, and I was able to read it to the end, but had a hard time connecting with any of the characters.

#TheWood #NetGalley

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The book blurb made me think this was going to be a suspense type read. What I got was nothing close to that. I ended up skimming through the last third of it due to the strange sentence structure and grammar making it difficult to concentrate on the ridiculous plot. I struggled on how to rate and review this book, but finally decided on one star for effort as I know the author at least tried, and I know I could not write a book. Perhaps the author could enlist a proofreader for her next novel? I thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

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thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview The Wood by Diana Stewart - Walker. This is more like a novella - short and seducing.
Four people go out on an excursion in a yacht to have some fun in the sun and relax a bit. They land on a beautiful island. But things go south very quickly and soon the four friends will be separated and the island is no longer the oasis they thought it might be.
2.5 stars - Beach read for sure

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I felt the writing was very simplistic. I thought the audience was maybe a young crowd. Thankfully it's a short story and very easy to read in an afternoon.

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I've read other reviews of this book and needless to say they aren't great.
If I'm being honest this book is just fine, not good or bad just fine. It is what it is, an easy to read short book that can be read in an afternoon on the beach and forgotten about.
I wouldn't rush out to buy another by this author but if it landed in my lap I wouldn't throw it away either.

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I love books like this. Great plot! It keeps you guessing till the end. Characters were all likeable in their own way. They blended well together.

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DNF at 20%
I loved the premise of this book, the blurb really sold the story to me, and I was expecting a wild ride with twists and turns, all set on a beautiful island. I've not yet read a book with a similar plotline, and that's one of the reasons I was drawn to it. I liked the characters, and felt the strong relationships between them, even from so early in the book.
However, the writing didn't do the premise of the book justice. Although I liked the detail in areas, in others it was too much, An example of this would be the following:
"Lucy became emotional and started to cry. The elderly ministers comforted her and took her to the worship area. They prayed with her to help alleviate her distress."
For me this is just too much of a play by play. I feel that I'm missing the joy of imagining what is happening because the writing is telling me every single little aspect. I am sure, however, that there are plenty of readers out there who would love this style of writing, it's just not for me.

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I’ve been trying to find summery reads, because, you know, summer of 2020 is such a sh*tshow. So all books with ocean, beaches, vacations are a go. It’s entirely possible I haven’t been doing due diligence and quality control in this pursuit, because this one slipped through. It was short and I had a short amount of time and…well, here we go. The thing with digital publishing revolution is that it’s mostly a great thing. Mostly. But there’s no quality control, not like it used to be. Conceptually it works very well with the times we live in, with this rampant exceptionalism and everyone so convinced of their specialness, it does away with any chance of objectivity. The difference between being able to write (as in literally put things down on paper or screen) and write (as in create content using talent, skills, imagination, etc.) vanished…like manners or privacy or other victims of modern age. So now everyone thinks they can write books and once they do…well, then that’s their baby, it has to be shown off. And BooksGoSocial is a publisher on Netgalley that seems to specialize in just that. Ensuring that everyone and anyone can present their baby for all the world to behold, though most of their efforts and especially this baby, sadly, should have been thrown out with the proverbial bath water. Long preamble for a short book. Yes, I know, but it’s the principle of the thing that pisses me off. And one more thing to mention…I read a lot. At least a book a day. I’m the most well read person I know. I very well may be the most well read person you don’t know and if that’s the case, by all means, follow my reviews. But basically I have a wide field of comparison. I read a variety of genres, mostly professionally published works by major publishers, but plenty of small presses too and even random Kindle freebies. The latter are always a gamble and sometimes a pleasant surprise, but this book…this was a crime against paper and ink…or digital screens and digital ink or what have you. In fact, it was a book only very technically in that it has a semblance of a plot, characters, dialogue, etc. but it was all done do terribly that it’s difficult to consider this along the same lines as…you know, most other books. No redeeming qualities, none whatsoever. From the laughable paper thin plot involving, you guessed it, wood to the not even cardboard, more like paper thin characters to the hilariously stilted dialogue, to the even more stilted (grab an adjective out of the dictionary) descriptions to the silly ending…this was horrible, genuinely horrible. So much so that it was funny. Laugh out loud funny. The use of language was so clunky and unnatural, it worked as one longish elaborate joke. I was going to present some samples, but there were just too many, one after another. Who knew language can be used in such a manner. In fact, this kind of read like it was written by an AI just starting to learn to pass for a person. Or maybe someone with only a very tenuous grasp on English language. And punctuation. And dialogue. And so on. I mean, there are sentences in this book that are not sentences. The inane lack of contractions to add to the unnaturalness of the character interactions. There’s so much wrong here, this book should be used as a manual on what not to do when writing a book. Brutal? Maybe. But go on, throw away 105 minutes of your day on this and tell me otherwise. I mean, unless you’re in the right sort of mood and then you’ll just laugh and laugh and laugh. Maybe have someone around to read out the more precious of the linguistic mutilations. Other than that this was by far the worst book I’ve read in ages. Not even a book, really. More like just a boo…Thanks Netgalley.

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This book was certainly interesting although after reading it, it just wasn’t quite my preferred type of book. It was well-written but the plot seemed to drag on at parts. It’s too bad because the premise seemed very intriguing; unfortunately for me, the book did not live up to the excitement I felt after reading the description.

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