Free Book (bad format PDF) [anti-christian] - My Love Lies Bleeding (Hearts at Stake)

[koland]

Sorry, could not add "fiction" to title, as I ran out of characters. Anyone in the following groups, please ignore this post:

Those who only read christian fiction
Those who only read non-fiction
Those who don't read romance
Those who don't read vampire books
Those who only like non-cuddly vampires
Those who only like non-sexy vampires
Those who don't like strong female leads
Those who object to violence (except those who like violence against church approved racial groups: vampires, in this case; although, see above for possible exclusions)
Those who don't read PDF's or want to rant that they are not proper book formats
Those who think books that once free, should be free forever
Those with no sense of humor

My Love Lies Bleeding (not available in US), by Alyxandra Harvey, is the UK title of Hearts at Stake ($7.79 Kindle) and is free, today only, as a PDF download from the UK publisher Bloomsbury (as far as I can tell, only the cover is different between the two). This is a young adult/children's book and the book is being offered to celebrate the release of Blood Feud ($7.99 Kindle), the second book in the The Drake Chronicles series.

Note that they are five hours ahead of the east coast, so the deadline to download is 7PM EST.

Book Description
The Drakes are rather different to your usual neighbours. They are vampires and some of the members of the family date back to the twelfth century. One of the children, Solange, is the only born female vampire known and, as such, she poses a direct threat to the vampire queen. Her best friend Lucy is human, and when Solange is kidnapped Lucy and Solange's brother, Nicholas, set out to save her. Lucy soon discovers that she would like to be more than just friends with Nicholas. But how does one go about dating a vampire? Meanwhile, Solange finds an unlikely ally in Kieran, a vampire slayer on the hunt for his father's killer . . .

Click HERE to get the free download.

[Critteranne]

That list of content warnings makes it sound more interesting than the description.

[Connallmac]

Originally Posted by Critteranne

That list of content warnings makes it sound more interesting than the description.

The warnings certainly peaked my interest, only to be dashed against the rocks of the description. Twilight clone? Thank you, no.

Also, then shouldn't books tainted with christian themes be tagged with an anti-atheist warning? Or at the very least, "Warning: May encourage magical thinking!"?

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by Connallmac

The warnings certainly peaked my interest, only to be dashed against the rocks of the description. Twilight clone? Thank you, no.

Also, then shouldn't books tainted with christian themes be tagged with an anti-atheist warning? Or at the very least, "Warning: May encourage magical thinking!"?

I believe they should put a picture of Jesus on the front, thumbs up and underneath : guaranteed not to give you any trouser trouble.

[Lemurion]

But does it support voting hamster for Batman?

[koland]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

I believe they should put a picture of Jesus on the front, thumbs up and underneath : guaranteed not to give you any trouser trouble.

Obviously, you haven't read christian romance. Same content as regular romance, just it all happens after they get married. Minus the vampires, werewolves, non M/F relationships (other than regretted and repented), etc.

Of course, the audience is almost exclusively female. So the warning would probably still apply.

Another possible warning: NSFMC - Not Safe for Muslim Countries (sort of like NSFW, but with more dire consequences if caught sharing it with someone).

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by koland

Obviously, you haven't read christian romance. Same content as regular romance, just it all happens after they get married. Minus the vampires, werewolves, non M/F relationships (other than regretted and repented), etc.

Of course, the audience is almost exclusively female. So the warning would probably still apply.

Another possible warning: NSFMC - Not Safe for Muslim Countries (sort of like NSFW, but with more dire consequences if caught sharing it with someone).

You could always put a picture of Muhammed on....wait.... And no I haven't read any out-and-out Christian anything, perish the thought.

[Terisa de morgan]

[Dr. Drib]

Now THAT'S the way to write a description!




Don

[brainycat]

From the provided description, it sounds like the story may cover territory that would upset some (maybe most) fundamentalist christians.

But what's anti-christian about that? Wouldn't that be better classified as "unchristian", "non-abrahamaic mythology" or even "modern fiction"?

What, exactly, about this story seeks the destruction of christianity? As noted above, the description sounds like Twilight.

[tench]

Originally Posted by brainycat

But what's anti-christian about that?

I took the whole post as somewhat facetious, poking fun at people who ask for detailed info about the free books that get posted here. I didn't think "anti-christian" or any of the warnings were meant seriously. I could be wrong, though.

[Lemurion]

What really turned me off was this: "bad format PDF."

PDF on its own is bad enough... but a bad one?

[koland]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

What really turned me off was this: "bad format PDF."

PDF on its own is bad enough... but a bad one?

According to a number of those who frequent here, all PDF's are bad format. This one has a footer and is formatted for a large screen. It's fairly large and some have had trouble getting Amazon to convert it (I haven't tried). As PDF's go, it's about average, from looking at it. Great for printing, not so great for reading.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by koland

According to a number of those who frequent here, all PDF's are bad format. This one has a footer and is formatted for a large screen. It's fairly large and some have had trouble getting Amazon to convert it (I haven't tried). As PDF's go, it's about average, from looking at it. Great for printing, not so great for reading.

I'm one who normally considers PDF to mean "bad format," so calling a PDF "bad format" is either redundant (which I didn't think you were being) or a sign of truly execrable foulness.

[koland]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

I'm one who normally considers PDF to mean "bad format," so calling a PDF "bad format" is either redundant (which I didn't think you were being) or a sign of truly execrable foulness.

I'd agree. But it seems many are upset at being duped into reading the description of a free book that is posted (even those not posted by the author, which is another can of worms). They want warnings in the title, to protect them from opening up the thread (and keep those threads at the top of the list by posting their objections). Of course, there are many warnings that might need to be added: the platform (of which PDF may or may not be one), the genre (what if it is multiple or you have time to read it first and decide), geographic restrictions (never mind that most people can't find this out without going to extraordinary lengths, testing each possible geo area at a store (even if that is possible) to see if it is still free and available, the length (count me in with those that avoid short stories and business samples, not that I object if anyone posts them), besides a caution if a book might either violate their beliefs or try to change them (or just instill new ones), regardless of the agenda of the author or publisher.

Of course, it's all too much to fit into a title, without obscure abbreviations abounding. I've added the hardware platform or format to my posts and my country to my profile, but if those interested in a free book can't bother to take three seconds to open a thread and scan the first paragraph and delete if not interested, I'm not entirely sure that anyone here should cater to them excessively. In the case of the most recently objected to book (which can change at any moment), the request was to label it as "christian", so they would not have opened up the thread to see that the title clearly stated that the subject was "The Lord's Prayer". One problem with the label, though, is that the old testament is shared by several religions and short of investigating the author or reading it (and perhaps several years of scholarly research into the differences of many major religions in how they treat prayer and the Old Testament), I can't say for sure that it is uniquely "Christian" in nature.

I can say, for sure, that the only other major genre that generates so many objections when offered free is the erotica/pornmance currently being offered by Ellora's Cave, et all. The threads on that at Amazon are about as active as the ones complaining about Christian fiction (and wanting labels so they are not duped into reading something, when they are just too lazy to scroll down the description page themselves to see what labels and genre have been attached to a book).

In any case, the point has been made and the moderator is welcome to change the title of this thread, if desired. What I would have used, had not the other discussion came up, was this:

Free Book (PDF) - My Love Lies Bleeding (UK/US=Hearts at Stake)