Review by lonerose72 -- Island Games by Caleb J. Boyer

[lonerose72]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Island Games" by Caleb J. Boyer.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Island Games: Mystery of the Four Quadrants Caleb J. Boyer

This is the first published book for Mr. Boyer, and even at such a young age of 12 you can understand that he is truly gifted with his writings. Island Games is a fiction story that centers around a mystery of how these two best friends ended up on this island. They must learn to overcome obstacles around them while learning to work as a team to survive. The adventures they go on can be very intense at times for them and puts you on the edge of your seat.

Matthew and Ryan awake on a beach with no memory of how they arrive and overall loss of memory about their past. They have to learn survival skills and team work in order to make it to a new challenge. The challenges alone can be life threatening for them. As each challenge is passed they are provided with what they need for immediate survival such as food and water. Frustrations can grow quickly with their situations but they learn fast that fighting is not going to help them survive and that they must put their feelings aside in order to make it.

As I read this book it amazed me the creativity that went into it. I can see where he got some ideas from other books but added so much more of his own personal twists into it that made his better than them. It was entertaining and hard to put down. I can see the valuable lessons written with in it as I was reading also. It is a book that I am enjoying recommending to others and can’t wait to read others that may be in the series.

Mr. Boyer took from his own life experiences and challenges to start the foundation of the book. As Mr. Boyer states at the end of the book in his own personal message, "each of us have challenges daily we must face and difficult choices to make that will help form who we are." Overall the book is about learning from our mistakes and figuring out our own identity of strengths and weaknesses. We can then use those to help others where they may fail at it. This is the same kind of lessons I am trying to instill into my children and look forward to seeing how this book will help them understand it better.

I have read books that other authors have tried to write about the need to overcome personal obstacles but when reading the sentences out loud you can start to hear how maybe they were rushed into writing the book with repeated phrases the entire time. This doesn’t suffer from those creativity problems. This is why I will give Mr. Boyer a 4 out of 4 for the time he took to effectively get his thoughts on to the paper. This book is for all ages to include adults. I believe that children can find much to relate to within each of the characters but as an adult I can also see the emphasis that the challenges and messages are within the story that makes it even better.

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Island Games
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[AbbyGNelson]

Did you not find his writing style repetitive or clunky? I read and reviewed this book too, and I definitely couldn't give it 4 stars myself. Thanks for your review!