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The Book of Bart #0.5

Hell's Halo: A Book of Bart Prequel

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What could happen that was so terrible, it left Heaven desperate for help from Hell?

It's taken three years, but angel-in-training Samantha has finally tracked down her assignment: The Shard of Gabriel, a relic that grants the holder infinite knowledge. Hidden at the state fair, all that stands between Samantha and a celebratory fried Oreo is a walk across the fairgrounds to grab the Shard.

At least, that's what she thinks.

But Samantha isn't the only one chasing the Shard. And to get the relic to Heaven safely, she'll need to ask for help... from a demon.

Find out how Samantha met Bart in this prequel to the award-winning The Book of Bart.

Read the other books in this series:

Verse 1: The Book of Bart
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Bart-Ryan...

Verse 2: Bart of Darkness
https://www.amazon.com/Bart-Darkness-...

48 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 15, 2018

15 people are currently reading
11 people want to read

About the author

Ryan Hill

8 books150 followers
Growing up, Ryan Hill used to spend his time reading and writing instead of doing homework. This resulted in an obsession with becoming a writer, but also a gross incompetence in the fields of science and mathematics. A graduate of North Carolina State University, Ryan has been a film critic for over five years. He lives in Raleigh, NC, with his dog/shadow Maggie. Ryan also feels strange about referring to himself in the third person.

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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Profile Image for Bekah the Awesome.
161 reviews2 followers
June 17, 2019
Okay, so I’ve been meaning to resume reading about Bart, to the point that I’ve had Bart of Darkness on my kindle waiting for me for forever, because I super dug The Book of Bart, but like, it’s been so long since I read The Book of Bart that I figured I’d do one of those skim-over-refresher things before I got started. Cuz, yanno...

Except, when I went to go grab book 1 from my unfriendly neighborhood online retailer, it was brought to my attention that this, a book 0, existed. And since 0 come before 1, I obviously absbleepinglutely had to read this first. #NoRegerts

This was a great, short, prequel novella. It reminded me why I wanted to read Bart of Darkness in the first place, and made me realize that: A.) The author is fantastic. Like, I forgot how great he is at stringing words together. 2.) I’m probably going to read book 1 again in its entirety, instead of just skimming it, since I feel like I forgot a lot of the plot, and also because I feel like there’s a solid chance it’ll stand up to a second read.
Profile Image for OldBird.
1,852 reviews
September 25, 2019
This could be a good series for anyone after an odd religion-meets-superpowers type of YA read, but I'm not sure this prequel is the best place to start. It can be understandable when fresh to the series, but the way it's delivered left me disappointed.

Sam, once a 16 year old girl, now angel in training, is looking for an artifact. If it gets into the wrong hands, aka anyone who works for the powers of Hell, then all Hell could literally break loose. She's got to contend with crowds, a strange smoke-thing that's also after the artifact... and the temptation of deep friend cookies. All the fun of the fair, except nothing's being very fun - or very fair.

The writing style is good in that nonchalantly sarcastic teenage way, but what killed this as an introductory prequel for me was the sheer amount of info-dumping that happened. We're dropped right in the middle of things, and the situation is explained in scattershot chunks of breezy narration. Even then there are still a ton of holes. What is the smoke thing? Why is it there? How does she know this thing's after the Shard at all? (Is there a prequel to this prequel?) And what's with the angry mom who can't stop saying "bitch" to our sadly inept protagonist?

The religious superpower thing was also a bit weird to me, a bit bad taste maybe. I see the series is listed as a comedy, but I didn't get that impression from the prequel so perhaps that tone would have helped nullify the weirdness.

-I received a free copy of this ebook in a giveaway-

Profile Image for Ann.
1,049 reviews2 followers
September 3, 2019
I have read this quite a bit after I have finished book 1&2 already but it was good to get back into Bart's world before reading book 3.
Samantha is an angel in training and comes across quite mature for her 16 earth years but then again I can't remember how long she's already on assignment from heaven. Apparently, she has found the shard but a Smokey monster is after it and even heaven is not sure what it is. It causes death of innocent people and this is enough reason for Sam to do without a red velvet fried Oreo.
Profile Image for shannon  Stubbs.
1,972 reviews12 followers
July 10, 2022
Good prequel

This was a good prequel to the Book of Bart. It gives you great insight on Sam. Also the scene at the fair was pretty good.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews

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