As The Ghost of Clothes reaches 180 FREE downloads from Smashwords, I was somewhat surprised by the lack of reviews. Just one:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by: vivascarlett on March 17, 2016 :
A fantastic story, I loved it!
Same for The Christmas Carol (126 FREE downloads to date):
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by: Misty Reigenborn on Dec. 24, 2016 :
Wonderfully written tale of suspense keeps you wondering what will happen next.
And, until today and this post, none for A Planned Demise but now a fantastic review:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by: prfog on July 25, 2017 :
Absolutely fascinating and very well written.
Thank you to vivascarlett, Misty and prfog for taking the time to leave feedback.
If you take and read one of my free stories, please be so kind to leave a review.
All of my books are available via all good online bookstores.
Five star review for The Wretched!
Portsmouth By Heather Jennings on 25 May 2017
Great feature in monthly paper that covers The Meon Valley…
Click here to buy The Wretched on Kindle.
Click here to buy The Wretched on other platforms.
A teenage boy explores the forbidden areas of his home town and gives life to a new evil that stalks him and his friends and family with vengeance in mind. Whilst grappling with the onset of puberty, he must battle the shape-changing menace which haunts his dreams and knows no bounds in its savagery whilst coming to terms with his own metamorphosis. The Wretched. A unique horror story, drawing inspiration from local folklore, set in and around Portsmouth.
“Yes indeed it was a good read that’s for sure. Even had two dreams about it. You wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next.” – Helen Weaire.
“Fantastic read. Once I picked it up, could not put it down. Wanted to see what happened next. Expertly written – an excellent addition to the David E. Gates collection of recent stories. Totally recommend it.” – Amazon customer.
Photograph credit (For picture featured in article): Graham Wheatley – © 2017.
From https://audiobookreviewer.com/reviews/access-denied-david-e-gates/
David met Meg at work and they soon started dating. After some time of ups and downs Meg gets pregnant, which fills David with joy. But Meg and David start having problems and decide to separate, which will cause multiple issues to their relationship with their child, especially to David. He will start to live a nightmare in which the CSA is involved, just to find out that Kelly is not his daughter but someone else’s. Instead of apologizing, Meg and the CSA appear to mock David and he will have to suffer the consequences for several years.
I did not want to disclose that Kelly was not David’s child, but as the blurb clearly states this out, I did not see why I should not. Nevertheless, I think it would be better for the reader not to know this detail, which is revealed in the second half of the book.
The story in this book is terribly heartbreaking and one can only imagine what David had to suffer in order to try to have a semi-normal life. I do not like to judge the character’s actions when reviewing memoirs, but I find that it is almost unavoidable, especially in unfair situations like this one. It is true that David may have also made mistakes, but in this story it is clear that he was the losing party.
The story is very powerful but I think it would have benefited from having an editor. There were a lot of meaningless details (not to David I am sure, but meaningless to the reader) that just contributed to the fact that David was running in circles with the CSA. For me those parts were a bit confusing and I got lost among acronyms, letter to and fro, and other details.
The book is read by David himself, and I am sure this has to be a quite hard but liberating experience. It is clear that he is not a professional narrator but in this way we get all the powerful feelings transmitted by the same person who lived this story. There is a break in the narration at point 1:51:07, where there is something missing. Nevertheless it does not affect the comprehension of the story.
I just would like to end this review clarifying that the reader should not expect a polished literary novel but a real testimony about a very delicate situation and how organizations like the CSA can make things more difficult and unfair, leaving the individual little possibility of making a difference in the short-run.
Posted January 27, 2017 by Elena
Great feature in the local paper…
Click here for original online article.
Click here to buy The Wretched on Kindle.
Click here to buy The Wretched on other platforms.
Photograph credit: Graham Wheatley – © 2017.
Superb on the edge of your seat story
Fantastic read once I picked it up could not put it down wanted to see what happened next, expertly written an excellent addition to the David Gates collection of recent stories. Totally recommend it.
You read one of my books… You told me how great it was… But you didn’t leave a review.
Why so?
It’s the question a lot of authors ask their readers. People are busy. I get that. People get distracted, move on to the next thing.
The thing is, which a lot of readers probably don’t realise, reviews are the life-blood for an author getting his work noticed out there. Competition, especially for new authors, is incredibly fierce.
Wouldn’t you like to see that great book you just read rise to the top of the pile? Well, it can but only with your help.
Some say “I don’t know what to write.”
Well, that’s easily remedied. Write what you felt after you put the book down. Or just give it FIVE STARS (or the most it will let you) and put “Excellent.” or “Recommended”.
Then, SHARE it on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and everywhere else you have a social media presence. Tell EVERYONE you know. Copy and Paste is quick and easy. Select the text, press CTRL+C to Copy, CTRL+V to Paste. Include the link to the book you just reviewed in your post. Even send it via email!
Even if you read it some time ago, please take the minute (and it will only take a minute) to complete a review of the book of mine you read. I will be eternally grateful and, you never know, your name might end up in lights like I hope mine will.
Thank you.
David E. Gates
David E. Gates is the Author of Access Denied, The Roots of Evil, The Ghost of Clothes and Omonolidee.
I really liked the way it is written., It’s like having a conversation with a friend that is telling you his life story! Easy to get into the plot and interesting story! I can’t believe you have been through all that!!!!
I couldn’t put it down. – Dimitra.
David E. Gates 