Overall rating and opinion of "Cynthia and Dan: Cyber War" by Dorothy May Mercer

[Chlabonte923]

Sadly, I think I have to give this book 0 stars, in that I just could not bring myself to finish reading it. Cynthia was not believable as a character. And because I found her so unbelievable, I noticed every single other point where the author did not do her research, and found myself nitpicking every little thing. For example, if you are planning on attending graduate school in the fall, you know in January or February if you have been accepted to programs, and throughout the US, students attending graduate school are required to let programs know if they have accepted their offer or not by April 15. This is standard. So you will never have a student on a summer internship not knowing where they are going to school in the fall. This is something incredibly easy to research (heck, simply google "graduate school decision deadline" to get the April 15 date), and the fact that the author did not research it is just mind boggling to me.
Basically. I lost all ability to suspend disbelief. I kept trying to convince myself that I would come back to the book, but in the end, had to admit I was not going to.

I finished the book but I do have to agree with you. Once you start to notice the flawed research in the book, you can't stop. This was why a lot of the technological aspects of the book irked me a lot.

I agree with you both, the amount of times I rolled my eyes or sighed in exasperation at the horrible dialogue can't be counted. I finished only because I have trouble not finishing books once I start and knew it wasn't an incredibly long book so shouldn't take too much time. Part of my problem was how stupid most of the characters were, like one of the nerds not knowing what being an Independent voter was or the ROTC nerd not knowing what Marine One was. I mean, come on!

[Nisha Ward]

Sadly, I think I have to give this book 0 stars, in that I just could not bring myself to finish reading it. Cynthia was not believable as a character. And because I found her so unbelievable, I noticed every single other point where the author did not do her research, and found myself nitpicking every little thing. For example, if you are planning on attending graduate school in the fall, you know in January or February if you have been accepted to programs, and throughout the US, students attending graduate school are required to let programs know if they have accepted their offer or not by April 15. This is standard. So you will never have a student on a summer internship not knowing where they are going to school in the fall. This is something incredibly easy to research (heck, simply google "graduate school decision deadline" to get the April 15 date), and the fact that the author did not research it is just mind boggling to me.
Basically. I lost all ability to suspend disbelief. I kept trying to convince myself that I would come back to the book, but in the end, had to admit I was not going to.

I finished the book but I do have to agree with you. Once you start to notice the flawed research in the book, you can't stop. This was why a lot of the technological aspects of the book irked me a lot.

I agree with you both, the amount of times I rolled my eyes or sighed in exasperation at the horrible dialogue can't be counted. I finished only because I have trouble not finishing books once I start and knew it wasn't an incredibly long book so shouldn't take too much time. Part of my problem was how stupid most of the characters were, like one of the nerds not knowing what being an Independent voter was or the ROTC nerd not knowing what Marine One was. I mean, come on!

Not just that but the civilian nerd was supposed to be a computer science major yet needed simple things explained to him about computer science.

[Kaylee Elmer]

This story, derived from current day news items, in terms of online influencing of others whether they be individuals or institutions, was well written with sharp dialogue and logical characters. The protagonists needed to navigate a rapidly changing context of needing to know enough about vague online attacks, until they were on the brink of happening. It consisted of expertly woven story threads with an enjoyable climax. I would recommend this story for those who enjoy a real time approach to fiction where issues that society is grappling with are being dealt with by the characters. I did not enjoy reading so much about the romance since, other than moving story lines along, most fictional romances, to me, are contrived and detract from various genre story realities. I would only recommend this book to others to the extent that their reading selections fit with my own rating preferences since its hard to predict how strongly different readers will rate the topics of cyber warfare and romance.

I've been trying to decide whether or not I wanted to read this book for awhile now. Based on what you said about it being a "real time approach to fiction" I think I'll give it a try! I usually enjoy reading about romance, too, so that part might not bother me.

[MCHildebrandt]

These types of "cozy" stories with little depth of character or real conflict/resolution are hardly my preferred genre, but compared with some others I've read, this was one of the better. There was very little reiteration of plot points, the characters were distinct, and the story interesting enough. While I see the issues others are raising (misleading title, cliche character, etc), I stand by the belief that these sort of short stories are generally accepted as "lesser" forms of literature. No one is going to read this to be a better person or learn about the history of the French Revolution. Rather the target market seems to be people with an afternoon free with nothing to do and choose to read a self-contained story instead of turning on the TV. For a read on a quiet, rainy day? I enjoyed it.

[Delaney35]

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I felt like the writing wasn't the strongest though. The plot was well paced, but the characters lacked some depth.

[Delaney35]

I wasn't a huge fan of this book. I thought the characters all had very similar personalities and the dialogue seemed unrealistic. I did like the idea of the cyber war against terrorists, but I found there to be very little conflict with that part of the story.

I was rather disappointed there wasn't more conflict there. I feel like the author didn't add more because that would have gotten very political very fast, and maybe she didn't want to go there.

[Delaney35]

So far into the book (10 chapters), I don't really like it. Sky seems too perfect to be interesting, and every character comes off kind of cheesy to me. Cynthia also doesn't seem to have much common sense as she meets Sky. I doubt meeting the man would have turned out so smooth if this actually took place in Washington D.C. I felt as if I were reading a "So-Bad-It's-Good" book, but without much of the good.

I definitely agree the characters are weak. I don't feel they have much beyond a basic characters without much depth.

[Ekta Swarnkar]

I liked the idea of cyber war, although I found the book little boring. I think the characters were responsible for making the book boring to me.

[Van112]

I read the book reviews about it and the story line doesn't appeal to me like some of the genres i am into. It is a good book however i was not drawn to it. Great job in botm and for having a romance storyline and a little bit of mystery and action.

[Niv123]

To begin with, the cover art was a complete no no for me. It didn't seem professional or like a book adults would take seriously. I feel the cover art make the first impression and that was a let down.

[Niv123]

As far as the romance was concerned, it seemed too repetitive and boring. There didn't really seem to be anything different or intriguing between Sky and Cynthia.

[Niv123]

I did enjoy the plot. It seemed new and vivid. The writing style employed by the author was captivating as well.

[Adedayo+23]

The book cover was rather misleading. That aside, some of the characters were a tad flat and unrelatable. The cyber war aspect was quite interesting.

[Aniza Butt]

I didn't really like the book. The issue with the drones was interesting, but the love story aspect kind of ruined it for me. It was a clear case of insta-love, and I found Sky's character to be very cliche. He's another perfect, mysterious love interest who always knows exactly what Cynthia needs. I also thought the title was a bit misleading because, although Dan has a significant role in the book, it isn't about him and Cynthia, but Cynthia and Sky. It also felt a bit like the author was trying to justify cheating in certain parts, which I disliked. I liked the twist at the end, but I saw it coming. I also appreciated the addition of further information for taking Plan B One-Step at the end of the book. Overall, I would not recommend this book. It might appeal to some, but it wasn't for me.

Justifying cheating on the part of the author is very unpleasant andd would make many readers lose their interest and even hate the book.

[LeeleeByoma]

Most of the comments here make me not want to read the book. I'll definitely pass. I'm just going to search for reviews of it and see what different reviewers had to say about it.