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Iman's Journal #1
The Red Diamond
She is a wizard. He is a normal human. She knows that these sweet moments will soon be just a dream.
Iman has respected and obeyed her grandfather Charles and his teachings all through her young life and for this reason Charles trusts her to always be responsible and keep the wizard code of conduct close to her heart, especially the ruling whereby a wizard can never fall in love with an ordinary human. He even gifts her a magical red diamond to keep all humans away from her.
But Troy is so irresistible. This science nerd is the hottest guy in class, and Iman is happy to be scientifically examined by him. Whatever it takes, she wants him! Nothing can hold her back, not even the red diamond!
Charles is not your typical grandfather. As the chief wizard, he is not someone you can easily outwit. Will Iman be able to keep him in the dark about her relationship with Troy? What price is she going to pay for breaking the code? What mystical power does the red diamond hold?
(Iman's Journal is a 5 book series.)
Iman has respected and obeyed her grandfather Charles and his teachings all through her young life and for this reason Charles trusts her to always be responsible and keep the wizard code of conduct close to her heart, especially the ruling whereby a wizard can never fall in love with an ordinary human. He even gifts her a magical red diamond to keep all humans away from her.
But Troy is so irresistible. This science nerd is the hottest guy in class, and Iman is happy to be scientifically examined by him. Whatever it takes, she wants him! Nothing can hold her back, not even the red diamond!
Charles is not your typical grandfather. As the chief wizard, he is not someone you can easily outwit. Will Iman be able to keep him in the dark about her relationship with Troy? What price is she going to pay for breaking the code? What mystical power does the red diamond hold?
(Iman's Journal is a 5 book series.)
39 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 31, 2020
149 people are currently reading
143 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 14, 2021
Damn the rules of love is so stupid sometimes. Especially in this book. But the thing is that rules can be changed. I love this book!! It's a bit quirky but it's a very fun read. If you like books about wizards and witchcraft then you really gotta read this book.
June 14, 2020
Well. Where do I even start? The first huge issue is fat shaming. The plump girl is referred to as a hippo, a water hog, and other degrading things. She is also passed off as rude, even though she did nothing. The main character constantly belittles her for her weight and it's disgusting. The second issue is the MC herself. Iman is so stereotypical and one dimensional. She's "perfect, beautiful without makeup but ugly :( and is infuriating to read about. It's impossible to empathize with her because her life is perfect and she's a brat. Another issue is her name. While the other white characters have basic white names, she doesn't. Iman is a traditional Muslim name... for males. This showed a lack of any discernible research prior to writing. The grammar is also terrible. Practically every sentence is a run on, with no commas. The writing quality is, quite frankly, on par with a third grader's. Her descriptions are awful- husky brown eyes? Elegant Asain eyes? A buff voice? Absolutely not. Aside from all of that, there was absolutely no plot. The rules switched up with no warning, and there was no explanation side from a few info dumps. There were also major contradictions within the text. There was no buildup to major scenes and it was easy to get lost. The whole wizard rules section was extremely confusing. Why was someone haunting them? Why was her grandfather in a portal? How does magic even work? My last and honestly most important issue was a certain line. She said, "his speed had more velocity than mine [becasue he was on the football team]." I'm sorry, what? The character is said to have a high understanding of science, as she is a science major, but obviously this is not evident in the writing. Has the author ever picked up a book before?
August 12, 2020
I think I just met the nastiest, most unlikeable person/character ever.
March 21, 2021
This book was a bit of a disappointment. I picked it up when it was on a free offer at Amazon to see if I was interested in any of the rest of the series. The cover illustration was clearly a “witchy” story, and the description sounded like it might be an interesting university romance with heart-breaking tension between the secret traditions of a wizard family and new love the first time away from home. I had spotted that it was relatively short, at around 10,000 words, so that wasn’t what puzzled me. I have read plenty of short books and even enjoyed many of them. What disappointed me was that although the events in the blurb did actually happen in the book, it had none of the feelings that I would hope for in a romance story. Events happened and emotions were described, but nothing from start to finish felt at all real. On the contrary, it felt like a series of tiny glimpses with nothing to connect them, and no sense that any one moment followed from another.
I made it through to the end of the book, but I never engaged with any of the characters. The main character, Iman, is naïve, childish, and selfish, and never changes or grows up. Her supposedly lovely Grandpapa is bullish and manipulative and for most of the book seems not to really care for Iman at all. And Troy, the love interest, is barely present in the story at all except as someone for Iman to instantly crush on. The dialogue is stilted and unnatural, relying on all those adverbs to convey context rather than the words themselves, and the lack of research, even on simple things such as the content of university courses, is saddening.
The magic, which is supposed to be such a strong theme in the book, is completely absent for the great majority of the story, and when it does appear there is no sense of there being any rules or reason to it. Apparently wizards can teleport, yet Iman’s wizard parents keep a cabin, “a place where my parents went whenever they wanted time alone” just 10km from their home. Why do that when you can go anywhere in the world? Iman is given a supposedly powerful magical artefact that does nothing useful until a somewhat contrived climax. I was left with no idea at all about what magic in this story actually means.
In addition to the clumsy structure and unrealistic characters, the book was also in desperate need of editing and proofreading. It was full of oddly phrased sentences and inappropriate adjectives, and it had so many adverbs that it set my head spinning. Worst of all though, it also had a lot of the kind of spelling mistakes which are not easily caught with a basic spell-checking tool because they result in a valid but incorrect word. I see this a lot in online writing, and it becomes a self-fulfilling habit. If you read a lot of writing which has these kinds of mistakes you begin to assume that they are correct. In this book, for example, I spotted the use of “draw” instead of “drawer” for the item of furniture that you pull out to put your stuff in, and “lightening” instead of “lightning” for the electrical discharge from the sky. A more powerful checking tool such as Grammarly or Pro Writing Aid would probably catch these kinds of errors, and a decent proof-reader certainly would.
By the end of the book I began to wonder if the project had begun life in a different medium. The fragmented and jittery nature of the story might look less out of place in a comic or a photo story, for example. If the author plans to continue this series in this style I strongly recommend that she looks at getting an editor who understands what is expected from a fiction book, and a proof-reader who knows a bit more than how to use a basic spell checker.
I made it through to the end of the book, but I never engaged with any of the characters. The main character, Iman, is naïve, childish, and selfish, and never changes or grows up. Her supposedly lovely Grandpapa is bullish and manipulative and for most of the book seems not to really care for Iman at all. And Troy, the love interest, is barely present in the story at all except as someone for Iman to instantly crush on. The dialogue is stilted and unnatural, relying on all those adverbs to convey context rather than the words themselves, and the lack of research, even on simple things such as the content of university courses, is saddening.
The magic, which is supposed to be such a strong theme in the book, is completely absent for the great majority of the story, and when it does appear there is no sense of there being any rules or reason to it. Apparently wizards can teleport, yet Iman’s wizard parents keep a cabin, “a place where my parents went whenever they wanted time alone” just 10km from their home. Why do that when you can go anywhere in the world? Iman is given a supposedly powerful magical artefact that does nothing useful until a somewhat contrived climax. I was left with no idea at all about what magic in this story actually means.
In addition to the clumsy structure and unrealistic characters, the book was also in desperate need of editing and proofreading. It was full of oddly phrased sentences and inappropriate adjectives, and it had so many adverbs that it set my head spinning. Worst of all though, it also had a lot of the kind of spelling mistakes which are not easily caught with a basic spell-checking tool because they result in a valid but incorrect word. I see this a lot in online writing, and it becomes a self-fulfilling habit. If you read a lot of writing which has these kinds of mistakes you begin to assume that they are correct. In this book, for example, I spotted the use of “draw” instead of “drawer” for the item of furniture that you pull out to put your stuff in, and “lightening” instead of “lightning” for the electrical discharge from the sky. A more powerful checking tool such as Grammarly or Pro Writing Aid would probably catch these kinds of errors, and a decent proof-reader certainly would.
By the end of the book I began to wonder if the project had begun life in a different medium. The fragmented and jittery nature of the story might look less out of place in a comic or a photo story, for example. If the author plans to continue this series in this style I strongly recommend that she looks at getting an editor who understands what is expected from a fiction book, and a proof-reader who knows a bit more than how to use a basic spell checker.
August 4, 2020
This is a story of a wizard named Iman who is starting her first year at college. The story opens with her at home with her grandpa, who she was raised by; reminding her of the 5 wizard rules. Going into this book I was very excited to get to see a story of a girl and her grand father, which is a relationship that you do not see much. I began to be let down when the main character started body shaming her roommate. It didn’t end there though, she complained about almost everything her roommate did, even when she was just trying to be nice. Iman kind of seemed self centered and like she thought she was better than everyone. She even went as far as casting a spell on her roommate to leave her alone. Next up is the romantic relationship. Iman met Troy in class, it happened so fast that I don’t even really remember their first scene together. There was no build up to it and it was very insta lovey. Also, with that being said, Troy was a human and wizards are not allowed to fall in love with humans. Which is exactly what Iman did, breaking the rules. This then caused her grandfather to have a heart attack and Iman then had to break up with Troy. Iman was more devastated to have to end the relationship with Troy than she was that her grandfather almost just die because of her. The relationship felt like it spanned over the course of like a week and they were already madly in love. Iman’s Grandfather was my favorite character until we find out that he faked his heart attack so that Iman would break up with the human boy, Troy. It is so far fetched to think that someone would have to almost die to get her to follow the rules. Then, The grandfather almost sacrifices him self so the two of them can be together, after they’ve known each other for like 20 minutes. The grandfather goes into a portal to try to change the rules of wizards and mortals being together and almost doesn’t come back. If it was that easy then why fake a heart attack in the first place? One of the final scenes is a scene where Iman, Troy and her aunts and uncles are having dinner and one of Iman’s aunts says she’s going to eat troy, like the human version of kfc. As someone who is from Kentucky, I promise you we don’t do that here. I am giving this book a 1.5 stars (Rounding it up to 2) The only reason it’s getting the extra .5 stars is because I liked the Grandfather most of the time. I will be reading book 2 to see if the story improves but I will not be recommending book 1.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 7, 2020
Iman, a young wizard was starting her first year of college. She is very excited to go to study epidemiology. With her family background of wizardry she believes magic would produce an epic kind of science the universe needed. She was raised by her grandfather, the chief wizard after her parents were killed when she was young.
Before going to college her grandfather recited the key rules of the wizard code that she must abide by.
“Rule number one, never use magic to perform bad deeds. Rule number two, never get too close with ordinary humans. Rule number three, never expose your wizard gift to humans. Rule number four, never lie to your fellow wizards. And most importantly rule number five, never fall in love with ordinary humans.”
But what would happen if the very things she needed to stay away from she suddenly can’t stop thinking about?
This book was an enjoyable read for me. The inner battle to follow the code but also wanting to follow your heart I can relate to. Sometimes the people you love just want to have your best interest at heart but may not understand it can also be the cause of your pain.
The chapters were straight to the point in most scenes which had me wanting a bit more detail in some areas, but overall had exactly what it needed to tie everything together. With that said Iman’s character development from the beginning of going to a college with "humans" as her grandfather would say and being socially distant to see how she turns out at the end was great.
I would recommend this book to young adult fiction readers. I can’t wait to see what Emily Flowers has next.
Before going to college her grandfather recited the key rules of the wizard code that she must abide by.
“Rule number one, never use magic to perform bad deeds. Rule number two, never get too close with ordinary humans. Rule number three, never expose your wizard gift to humans. Rule number four, never lie to your fellow wizards. And most importantly rule number five, never fall in love with ordinary humans.”
But what would happen if the very things she needed to stay away from she suddenly can’t stop thinking about?
This book was an enjoyable read for me. The inner battle to follow the code but also wanting to follow your heart I can relate to. Sometimes the people you love just want to have your best interest at heart but may not understand it can also be the cause of your pain.
The chapters were straight to the point in most scenes which had me wanting a bit more detail in some areas, but overall had exactly what it needed to tie everything together. With that said Iman’s character development from the beginning of going to a college with "humans" as her grandfather would say and being socially distant to see how she turns out at the end was great.
I would recommend this book to young adult fiction readers. I can’t wait to see what Emily Flowers has next.
June 9, 2021
I really wanted to enjoy this but I just couldn’t. I hate to bash something but I feel like it needs to be said. The story description was promising but I don’t think there was one thing about it that I ended up enjoying. There were some really weird grammar choices that I suppose might be correct, but if I have to reread a paragraph then maybe a different choice should be made. The pacing was absolutely terrible. One one page she meets a boy and the next one they are in love. At the end, she thought someone died and half a page later they were all sitting down to dinner. I understand it’s a short story, but it was really jarring and eye-roll inducing. I didn’t have time to care about anyone or anything in this story.
September 8, 2020
I liked this story. Sometime quirky but enjoyable. Definitely different.
July 13, 2020
Iman and Troy are delightful. Well, Troy is after he makes his first apology. Grandpapa, the aunts, and the uncles seem to be rather unyielding at first. The story is a bit stilted at points.
Easy-to-read. Entertaining. Great world building. Happily Ever After. Page-turner. Romantic. Scary. Twisted. Unpredictable. Whimsical. Wonderful characters.
Easy-to-read. Entertaining. Great world building. Happily Ever After. Page-turner. Romantic. Scary. Twisted. Unpredictable. Whimsical. Wonderful characters.
September 22, 2020
I found it okay, but...
The work needs a proper proofreading.
Words may pass a spell checking, yet make no sense. Syntax should agree. At first I thought the writer was trying to give the main character a foreign flavor, but it would really be worth it to have a person who has skill, proofread this otherwise good first story.
The work needs a proper proofreading.
Words may pass a spell checking, yet make no sense. Syntax should agree. At first I thought the writer was trying to give the main character a foreign flavor, but it would really be worth it to have a person who has skill, proofread this otherwise good first story.
February 28, 2021
This was an interesting story. I wanted to like Iman, but I found it difficult. I didn't hate her, I was just kind of ambivalent about her. Furthermore, I liked the premise of the story, and I think with a little polishing it would be a great story. A quick read, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in book two.
June 13, 2021
The story of Imam the wizardess, is fun to read and moves along nicely, as she is coming of age. The closeness of her and her family pulls the story together. Falling for a regular human boy could lead to huge disasters, but what is college for? I don’t want to give any spoilers so read on in this novel and the rest of Imam’s Journals. Thank you, Emily Flowers.
December 17, 2023
This has to be a parody or satire cuz there's no fucking way I can't take this serious.
The protagonist is so hateful and nasty for no reason the writing and pacing is bad, tbh it gives very Wattpad. Anyway I was going to give it a 1 star but it's Hilariously bad so that added star is for making me chuckle a little lol
The protagonist is so hateful and nasty for no reason the writing and pacing is bad, tbh it gives very Wattpad. Anyway I was going to give it a 1 star but it's Hilariously bad so that added star is for making me chuckle a little lol
February 12, 2021
A cute and short read about a femaie wizard going to college and falling for a human, Troy which is against the rules of the wizards. But what happens should a wizard break the rules regardless of the circumstances. Read and find out.
February 13, 2021
A short ebook story. I found this one while searching for free ebooks to read on my phone, and The Red Diamond was one of them.
It is a nice short story about a wizard girl who goes to university and meets a nice human student there..
I enjoyed the book but it was a bit too short for me..!
It is a nice short story about a wizard girl who goes to university and meets a nice human student there..
I enjoyed the book but it was a bit too short for me..!
December 24, 2020
I was rather disappointed in this novella. The characters, like the story, are flat in this disjointed tale. It definitely needs some editing. I received a copy of this book for an honest review.
November 9, 2021
Definitely for the youngest readers. Not bad exactly but too trite for me.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews