Amber Vial (Mixologists and Pirates Book 1) Kindle Edition

First, didn't realize this was a novella - if even that! It read under an hour -- Anyway, it had humor, but seemed a little childish. The girl seemed to have the "hots" for all the weird aliens she encountered - some 7 foot dude, then a snake-skinned one...Like, yikes! Girl, really? Not for me...

Afraid of both flying and aliens, Allie Sai stared at the huge silver alien airship. How could something that big actually fly? Why did she ever sign up for the draft to help repopulate and colonize new planets? It was supposed to just be a joke – it was just a dating profile! Figuring no one would miss her, she spun around to lose herself in the crowd but instead bumped into a hard chest as she fell and scraped the skin off her hands. He was a gorgeous man, but she had to escape while she could before a Lock found her. But as she turned to leave, he held her arm and spoke her name. How did he know her name? And then she saw the chain on his neck with the obsidian wings – he was a Lock! And he was specifically assigned as her escort since they found her to be a flight risk for having filed so many appeals to get out of the colonization program. When nothing persuaded her, he put her over his shoulder and carried her onboard.Allie was frantic as the ship launched. She kept saying she was going to be sick, and the passenger below her urged her not to! They tried to talk her into being sedated but she preferred knowing what was happening to her. But at the passenger next to her, Jer, asking her if she had something to settle her down, she thought of the moonshine her family made and sent along with her! A sip or two would help.The next thing she knew, Jer was trying to wake her, saying they were under attack! The door was forced open and 5 aliens pushed their way in! Kidnapped by space pirates – what more could happen to her? Will she be taken captive? Where will she end up? What will they do to her?I think this book was fun! Allie was such a sassy girl that she kept me laughing. Her “battle” and plan for “vengeance” with the Lock for preventing her escape led to a fun banter between them. Despite the short story, it was engaging and I’ll gladly read future such stories by this author.

The title is a little misleading as this is not a book, but more of a novella. It took less than 30 minutes to read. I would have preferred it to be in the KU universe rather than $.99 for that read time. While I enjoyed the premise of the short story, I probably will not be purchasing the additional novellas in this series. If they are all pulled together on one actual novella, maybe then.Overall, good writing style, but a bit abrupt at the ending and less cliffhanger more, seriously, that's it frustration...

Good concept but too short. I feel a bit cheated and would have preferred one longer book instead of novellas that take less than an hour to read.

Amber Vial feels much more like a prequel or introduction to a larger story than a full story in itself. Despite interesting concepts and Allie and Jer having some interesting characteristics, most of the story fell really flat and dull and I struggled to connect to the narrative despite everything going on. The prose felt a bit of a struggle as well. My favorite part was the idea that due to overpopulation, the government tricks citizens into relocating onto another planet via mundane things like dating applications in a magazine. But for the most part, I dragged through the story, hoping to get at least something out of it, but felt like the first few chapters of a larger story before it just stops. What we got didn’t feel intriguing enough and had little clue what the story is actually about, not even the whole ideal about alcohol. I couldn’t connect to the characters either. There’s little sense of place either. I’m probably not going to read the rest of it sadly, not even the two chapter preview of the next part hooked me.

This story is a good beginning, but I would have never guessed it would be so short! In this short, short, short story, we are just beginning to get to know the main character when it ends. There is some humor, and a mysterious "was I in a drunken hallucination or did it really happen?" scene. I feel like there was potential here, but the dialogue wasn't as good as I've come to expect from Frost, and the overall brevity was extreme.

Amber Vial is a short story. Seemingly, it is a prequel or prologue to the Mixologogists and Pirates series. The author includes the first 2 chapters of the next book in here, so you can get a better feel for the story.The idea that the crooked government of Earth spies on you for your information, and then illegally mandates people to populate an alien planet by way of a dating application in a women's magazine, was comical and original.The protagonists actions and reactions seamed appropriate. The banter between the MC and support characters was entertaining. I enjoyed the whole moonshine/poison aspect, too. The MCs fear of flight was slightly annoying, although funny.There is plenty of potential with this series, but it didn't hook me as some other stories have done. I feel like I needed MORE than what was presented to figure out if I would continue reading the series or not. With that being said, I might pick up the next book. Might not.

The storyline and writing are great. I like the characters and the world building is excellent. But it's so freaking short. It feels like an incredibly written screen play for a 30min TV show rather than a book. I don't get the chance to be invested in the characters but the storyline is enough to have me wanting more and thankfully I have more waiting for me so I'm going to read the next one right now! I'll post a spoiler free review of that one as soon as possible and update this one as to whether I think it's worth it to continue the "episodes" or not.Update: I've completed the second episode and I'm sorta obsessed. See that review for further details.

I'm described as a quick reader so I'm generally able to read 100 pages in 1 hour. This took me 15 minutes to read. So at a guess, I would say 'Amber Vial' contains 25 - 35 pages. (Plus two chapters of the sequel, which I didn't read) Which means it's clearly a novella/novelette broken up into three parts. And the author is pricing the other parts at least £1.50!! This is outrageous! I can easily pay £3 for an ebook by better, well established writers who provide 300 - 450 pages.I don't want to read a serial, I want to read a *book*. The author should have provided the number of pages and made it clear that Amber Vial is a serial in the description.But here's the thing that makes me so angry: nothing happens. Yes, it has a bit of world-building and introduces secondary characters but that's it. There's a scene with the pirates but it was wrapped up in a way that the character thought it was a dream. This is actually a pet peeve of mine so this is another reason why I didn't like 'Amber Vial'.I thought the writing was mediocre. I did grimace at the author's use of "popping her p" as a character spoke. I've only seen that used by amateur writers on sites like wattpad.And there was one obvious error, "He cutut through my shirt."Amber Vial was priced at 92p the other day but today it became free and I thought myself extremely lucky! Had I paid money for this then I would have been furious!Authors, if you're writing a serial then advertise your work as such. Do *not* write a serial and advertise each part as a "book", then add a ridiculous price tag for a handful of pages.

I really enjoyed this book. The heroine is young,honest .funny and very anxious with her fear of flying and the situation she has got herself in. This is the first book by this author i have read but I will be downloading lots more.

'I've just read Amber Vial and I feel ep......' oops, sorry, wrong advert! This is a great read that has one major drawback, it is too short! I love the story-line, the characters, the scene-setting, I can't wait for the next book to be published.

The author describes her six chapters as 'A book'. I very much disagree. I was actually enjoying the story and the characters. Nothing great, but an enjoyable light fun read. It included two bonus chapters of her next 'book', that I definitely wont be buying at a higher price. Stop conning readers by passing a few chapters off as a book and as a lead in to a higher priced offering!

Bin zufällig auf dieses Buch gestoßenund möchte es.Witzig, frech, vorlaut, actionreich und unerwartete Wendungen.Sehr originell.Leider ist es viel zu kurzund geschrieben, wie eine Telenovela.Man wird angefüttert und soll dann das nächste Buch kaufen, das auch wieder unter 100 Seiten hat.Sorry, würde sowas vielleicht mitmachen, wenn der Preis angemessen wäre.Daher bin ich raus.Ansonsten, tolle Geschichte und wunderbar geschrieben.Nur das gewählte Veröffentlichungsformat ist nicht meins.