The Digital Renaissance: Review: Hopewell

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Review: Hopewell

Hopewell by C.J. Petit
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Performance: **
Story: **

It was a good premise, but the story just didn’t develop very well. On the up side, it was one of the more wholesome (barring some course humor that didn't land) and upright westerns in the genre (which seems to be a rare thing these days) ... and of course I am a sucker for happy endings. The main problem is the lack any real tension in the plot, made so much worse with the mechanical narration. Characters are flat and extremely predictable. World building is poorly researched (US Marshal … a federal agent … is not able to remove a locally elected sheriff because you don’t like the way he does his job). In short, the story didn't connect at all and it went on nearly two hours after resolution of the primary conflict. By the end, I was actually a tad irritated with how the main character was presented, mostly because I know it could have been better.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#Hopewell #FreeAudiobookCodes

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My Ratings Explained ...

[ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
[ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
[ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
[ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
[ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.