Heather Leigh Johnson - - Life -

- Life -
Star Seed


By Heather Leigh Johnson


Kindle Edition Currently Unavailable




Product Description (from Amazon) 

I have tried to explain my book in so many ways, but none do it any justice. It's about a young girl named Helen and her eight friends. They're all gifted young adults who go through life fighting evil and defending the earth. This book explains each of their gifts and unique powers, book one Life is an introduction into their world.
Helen and her friends go through events and near death situations that test them to the max. They start to train and learn how to use their powers to their full potential, because they know that one day they will have to face not only their enemies, but each other as well…….

About the Author (from Amazon)

No Author Description available

O.Scarlett! REVIEW by Kendra

When this book showed up on my kindle (my mom has a habit of just sending me books that she thinks I might like) it was the cover art that initially made me want to read it. I had no idea what the book might be about – all I knew was that it was probably a CreateSpace publication, and, if so, that the author used the same template that I had used for my own book.

So, not seeing anything else that was interesting me at the present second, I pulled it up and started reading. The prologue was interesting enough – and didn’t give me any clue  as to what the book might be about, other than the fact that a major change had happened to the main character over the course of the book. Thinking back on the book … I’m still not sure what the prologue was doing in the book. It really wasn’t needed. Sure, it was intriguing, but the actual first chapter was pretty intriguing, too.

The book starts with Helen, the main character, and a small group of people being held up at the bank by a group of three masked men. They’re all scared, but the men claim that they don’t want their money, or to kill them – only to find something of great importance to them. One of them walks over to Helen and takes her hand … and she feels drawn into his beautiful green eyes …

Eventually, they are rescued. When Helen talks to her dad, who is in the law enforcement, later, she finds out that every report given by the group had been different … and that when they had played the security tapes, it had only been a group of people apparently scared of their own shadows – no masked men … and no Helen either. Did I mention that it was her birthday?

From there, things go chaotic and confusing. Helen seems to be living her birthday over and over again – with no real rhyme or reason – including one day she wakes up to find that she is dogsitting a dog that she hasn’t had to dogsit in two years!

During these crazy dreams, the green-eyed guy shows back up, as well as another good-looking guy to whom she is also drawn. Cue my eyes rolling. The second guy seems to be a good guy who is protecting her from the first for some reason she has no idea.

At long last, however, these dreams seem to come to an end and she gets shipped to her grandmother’s for her protection. She hasn’t seen her grandmother since she was a baby. Once at her grandmother’s it is revealed that her mother was some sort of alien, and that she, Helen, is a star seed. Oh, and that she also has the cool power of being able to travel places instantaneously – and even though time.

I don’t regret reading this book. It was very interesting, and the romance wasn’t too bad. However, it needs a good editor. Not for spelling or grammar ... but more to straighten things out. The book was told in first person present tense, which I found awkward. Present tense was fine for the prologue ... but the rest of the book would have been much better in past tense.

My big issue with this book is this: while most of the book was from Helen’s POV, there were two chapters from the POV of two other characters! While I have read some books that successfully switched POV in a first-person book, this book was not one of them. The first time it happened, it was told from Meadow’s POV. Meadow hadn’t even been mentioned until that point! It took me a long time to realize that the POV had switched, thinking instead that the book had merely jumped forward in time. True, the author had marked the chapter with Meadow’s name … but that still didn’t mean that I would catch on that the POV had changed. Then, as soon as the chapter was over, we were back to Helen’s POV and I was left thinking … “What…?” The second time it happened, the character had already been introduced, though he was the weakest character in the book, and I had already had experience with the sudden POV changes, so it wasn’t as bad. Still, this did not work well for this book.

However, the plot itself was pretty good, with no huge plot holes. It is the first book of a series, though it is the only book out. I found the book intriguing, and would probably continue the series if I get my hands on the upcoming books.

Genre/Theme: Sci-fi, fantasy, romance


Reading Level: TEEN - upper elementary to middle school
Profanity:  NONE - no offensive language to
LOW - few mildly offensive words. I don’t rememeber any, but there may have been one or two mild words.
Sexuality:  SUBTLE - hinted, but not explicit. Helen finds herself attracted to the two young men, and does some description of how hot they are, but they don’t do anything beyond protecting each other and some hugging.
Other:
Quite a bit of fighting in the second half of the book. Nothing gory happens, though.