Title: Storybook

by J.A. Alvara

Everyone has at least one dream they want to come true, but how they come true often scares the dreamer. And when life suddenly changes from a fulfilled dream, what can a child do but cry? When the stories they've read are untrue and the heroes they've loved are hated more than the monsters that roam. The old world continues to decay, but adventures shouldn't end because of fear. Caught in a new world, a new era of living, and after years spent in forced solitude, Aliya Remva has some catching up to do if she wants to survive in her treacherous home. A story of sung and unsung legends, where the stories hold more secrets than the words she's read. The friends and enemies she'll make, the monsters she'll fight and the fantastical powers that now scatter the land are all waiting for her. And she’ll discover if being a hero is her dream come true.

419 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 18, 2020

About the author

I write fictional books...that's pretty much it. Play games and sleep too much. It helps with the imagination.

Reviews

[Judy Ferrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Storybook monsters are real!

Alie learns all about the monsters when she takes up the fight to save her world. This exciting story holds your attention from the first page. You just don't want to stop. I can't wait to see if J. Alvara writes another.

[Shayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title: Story book by JA Alvara follows a young girl Ally Remva on her journey to become the hero she always dreamed of being. While this story has an outrageous amount of potential, the writing was lackluster and prevented me from fully investing in the book. Set in a fantasy world with a myriad of new concepts and magical items to learn and understand, the author spent far from enough time explaining the basics of how this world works, let alone the nuances that allow a reader to immerse themselves in a fantasy and ultimately grow to love it. It is clear that the author has created a great magical universe in their head for this story to take place in, and should they be asked for clarification I'm sure that they could easily provide it. However the detail and explanations just don't translate to the page which makes things difficult to follow. Often masked with unnecessary banter between the characters, transitions were abrupt and not well thought out, leading to the storyline feeling disjointed. For example, the final battle was between the hero and an enemy that hadn't been mentioned previously. With little background on the hero's progress in training or on who this enemy was, it made what was supposed to be an epic battle into one that was not well defined and hard to invest in. As mentioned, the plot has the potential to be truly brilliant. There are a number of unique pieces to this story that I would love to hear more about and would love to see tied to more of a common thread throughout the book. While certainly not a perfect piece yet, with some editing to address the number of grammatical errors and to refine the delivery of the story, this book could easily become a true classic for the YA audience!

[Jiranni Ocampo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book! Filled with intrigue, the premise is really interesting, a combination of fairytale with a bit of scary elements involved that would surely grasp the reader from the first page.

A slow burn at first, but the pacing increases as the story progresses. Furthermore, I undoubtedly liked how Alvara created the character growth, with the little nuances which made the protagonist come alive from the very pages of the book.

Technicality-wise though, there are typographical errors and verb tenses that still needed to be proofread. But, all in all, this book gave me a great journey. I highly recommend it!

[Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saw this book while scrolling through Twitter and decided to read it. My god, I loved the plot so much that I couldn't stop reading it. Two or three spelling mistakes, but nothing major, and definitely didn't ruin the experience. Will continue to read the next entry and putting this on my series to watch list.

[Rebekah Haas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cover of this book really led me to choose it, and I bought it and read it as my marathon of Indie April books. The concept was also really neat, and I'm glad that I had a chance to explore it.

[K.A. Croft · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed it

Found it a little slow to start but was interesting and built up soon enough.
One or two word mistakes but not many at all.
Overall a good read and would happily check out other works