Customer Reviews

My Man Michael (SBC Fighters, Book 4)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(29)
1 star:		(94)

 

 

I feel like I fell for a bait-and-switch. I really enjoyed the first three books in this series. They had good characters and interesting and believable plotlines. If you liked the first three books, you are going to HATE this one. If you like science fiction (as I do), you are going to REALLY HATE this one. I can't understand how Ms. Foster's editor let this one go to print. The plotholes are many and obvious and the fact that it is a complete 180 in style/plot from the other three books in the series is sure to alienate fans. If this book had been a standalone rather than the 4th in a series, it would have gone down better. As a part of the SBC series, I, the reader, feel betrayed and suckered.

*SPOILERS*
Humanity has evolved into a utopian-esque society that can provide whatever food you want with a command. Your bed and other furniture appears at will. Entertainment of all sorts is available with a simple command. They can make androids who are very human-like and have supercomputers. But they can't figure out who is attacking them? They won't re-invent better weapons because it wouldn't be honorable? It is more honorable to "sacrifice" a colony member every other month than it is to kick the crap out of the attackers with weapons? They are advanced enough to have time travel yet they can't tell an android from a human? They can repair a shattered knee but can't figure out how to get more male births? The 25-year-old virgin with access to every kind of information who doesn't even understand the basics of sex? A supercomputer that is better than everyone else's except when it is convenient to the plot for it to not do something? It certainly seemed to have the ability to be everywhere at once--unless the colony was being attacked. They had patrols to secure their borders rather than using the computer? They have the ability to see into time/space and watch what is going on there (spying) but they still can't figure out who is attacking them or where they are coming from? The sister who looked nothing like the others and no one even once figured she might have a different father? One or two of these stupidities in a novel is forgivable, but all at once? Please.

In addition, the whole story was like several bad 70s scifi novellas combined with a fairy tale or two. The virgin left out for sacrifice to the "dragon," the community run by women where the men are weak (Gene Roddenberry tv movie from the 70s or 80s), the 20th century "barbarian" man saving the day (same Gene Roddenberry movie, actually), and "we need you to breed with us to make us stronger" has been done before. And done better.

If the author had just left sci-fi out of it (because she did it really, REALLY poorly), this story could have been saved. Girl offers to help injured guy. She is an acupuncturist or herbal healer or something, helps him rebuild his life and find new meaning/purpose and fall in love. I'd've loved to read that story. The "the future needs you!" angle was *so* annoying. As was the characterization of Michael. Yes, manly-man who protects women, fine, but the constant slang and swearing got annoying really fast. I know it was to try to show the difference between the "yes sir!" future people, but goodness gracious, it could have been dropped halfway through the book. Michael was so irksome with his "hey baby" and "whatsup honey" crap, he was no longer a compelling hero. If he ever was.

The actual story, stripped of the scifi dross was...fair. Ignored illegitimate daughter finds self-confidence and love is a good foundation, but I didn't like Kayli (hated her name) very much but mostly felt she was held back by the stupidity of the plot. Michael was Conan the Barbarian and not a character I'd want to take home to meet mom.

It could have been so much better. But the blurb for the fifth book in the series (if they even still want to publish it after this travesty) makes it seem like it is all back to normal. No more time travel, no space ships, no (extra) absurdity. I might buy the fifth book, but I am going to wait for a few reviews first. No more buying-as-its-published for this author.

Two stars because while this one garnered several "What the heck?!" and "You've GOT to be kidding me!?"s, it wasn't as badly written as some things I've read. But that is damning with faint praise. Skip this book or pick it up at the used book store--there will doubtless be copies there within the week.

I ADORE SBC Fighters books 1-3 because they each tell a tale of a different fighter falling in love, facing struggles, and pulling through with the help of fellow SBC men (and the women they love). It's a great series and I have been looking forward to this for months!

Now I have My Man Michael in my hands and I am returning it after reading about 3 chapters. A warrior woman (clearly a virgin though that hasn't been revealed at the point I threw the book) appears in Michael's hospital room after an accident leaves him with only 1 good leg. She has studied his language and sayings for 'this time' so she may speak with him. She's shocked by profanities, freaks out about a kiss, doesn't recognize what the lifting sheet at his groin might be... yeah the super innocent thing was irritating from page 1.

I didn't sign on for this Lori Foster! I don't want to hear a tale of travel to the future to save her people where big men like Michael are no longer in existance- and where in fact- you want him to BREED WITH THE SUITABLE WOMEN. This isn't Conan the Barbarian, and it's so out of character for this series I'm in shock over here. Knowing Lori Foster he won't actually do that, he'll fall in love with the girl who came to take him to the future... but still. I don't want to read 300 pages to get there.

If you're into time travel and want that kind of book then cool. Me? I'm way angry that I got tricked into it thinking I was getting an SBC fighter book. I can't even finish this it feels so forced and so WRONG for this series.

I am so disappointed in this story, I still can't believe it. I love Foster's books and especially this series. In fact, in anticipation of this newest installment, I re-read all the previous books. I bought My Man Michael as soon as it hit the shelves. There is none of the comaraderie between characters that I so enjoyed from the previous books. In fact, Havoc, Simon, and the rest are barely even mentioned. Of course that's because they live in the present day and not hundreds of years in the future where, unfortunately, this book takes place. I like paranormal and fantasy books as much as the next person, but I was so looking forward to spending time with 'friends' from the earlier books in this series. I will definitely look more closely at the next book before I purchase it!

"Simon Says (SBC series book 2)" was the first book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Within days, I had purchased the other 2 in the series and devoured them in a couple of days. (Since then, I have purchased the LL Foster books, the Winston brothers series, and just about every other book she has published.)

While I am a huge fan of sci-fi fantasy, paranormal romance, and time-travel romance, I am not a fan of this book.

I am a devoted reader to all good romance books and am willing to allow the author as much creative license as they deem necessary; however, in this case, why in the world would you want to take a unique contemporary series (one of the best series out there) and make it a mainstream, mediocre time-travel fantasy?

In the book, why would Kayli Raine (who is an intelligent leader/warrior/virgin from the future) be so ignorant about sex? Doesn't she have access to all the loads of knowledge in the future? The ignorance and naivete of the main female character is astounding. Kayli resembled a romance heroine from a regency romance instead of a futuristic time-travel book. Further, all the other females in the other SBC series books were strong and interesting. Why couldn't Kayli have been written with that degree of care?

Michael "Mallet" Manchester, the main hero, was unrecognizable. Here is a character that appeared in other SBC books and was only somewhat similar to Mallet in the series. The book began describing his generous, larger than life personality but turned a little cheesy at the end.

Finally, the love scenes in the book were silly. Imagine being in the middle of a hot scene and a computer voice starts talking to Kayli and Mallet. I about tossed the book across the room when that happened.

Last, the dialogue of Kayli's mother and other individuals in the future was stilted, silly, and green. For example, Kayli's mother said "But when I saw how happy Michael made my daughter, I started to doubt many of my decisions. He's bigger than you, Valder, and every bit as dominant, but he takes great care with Kayli's feelings."

I can't believe this is a Lori Foster book -- especially SBC series...This story was unrealistic and boring. She should re-write this book, minus the sci-fi.

Though I'm definitely not a fan of ultimate fighting, after reading some of the really bad reviews for this book, I had to read it. I love time travel stories, especially ones to the future.

Ms Foster's story is FUN! She set the tone for the story early on, so as I was reading it I was prepared for the utopian socitey where women rule and men are too valuable to risk with fighting. Because her writing is so smooth, her characters engaging, even when they're not totally believable, and the love scenes are hot, I totally enjoyed the story with all its sci-fi cliches and plot holes. I rather enjoyed them as well, sort of like revisting some of my favorite B sci-fi movies. And I never expected a scientific or realist view of the future, just a good read.

Since I haven't read any of Ms Foster's other SBC books I wasn't put off by the switch in setting. And after reading My Man Michael I may just give them a try. Still, it might have served Ms Foster better if the book cover and blurb had clued the readers in that this book was a futuristic time travel. Maybe the readers who expected more of her standard SBC fare wouldn't have been quite so upset.

I waited for this book to come out because Walmart has been getting real slow with book releases on the actual book release day. So while strolling through Target, I saw 3 books that I was waiting on: Shattered by Joann Ross (fabulous), Into the Fire paperback by Suzanne Brockmann (also fabulous) and My Man Michael. Well I read SB in 1 day, and because I had to go to work I read JR in 2.5 days, so I expected to breeze through LF just as quickly as the other 2.

One chapter and 30 head-scratching, cover-checking, swear jar-contributing minutes later, I gave up. What happened LF? The book had nothing to do with the series AND your readers were never informed that we were going on unconvincing time travel.

Thanks to other viewers I learned how the book ended, and I commend those that were able to somehow finish this stinker.

I will, in future, wait for reviews on this author before I pay out my hard earned money.

As a reader of the first 3 books in the SBC series, I was looking forward to Michael's story in the next installment. What the heck did I get? Did the wires get crossed while downloading to my Kindle? NOPE! I got a time travel sci-fi novel. How is this a continuation of the series when it's not even set in the same reality or genre? I cannot believe I got duped into wasting $8 on this story that I can't even make myself finish. Even worse, I cannot believe Michael, a likeable character, got robbed of a great story. Ms. Foster, I'm hugely disappointed in you. If you wanted to start a sci-fi series, you should have finished this one properly first. Thanks a lot.

Short review: This book is not worth the money to buy it. If you really want to read it, look in my trash can.

Longer review: I have couple of issues with this book. First, it is not what you expect. This isn't always a bad thing and I can admire a writer who steps away from the expected, but when you go to your Mom's for Thanksgiving dinner and she serves you lasagna, you're probably disappointed. That doesn't mean you don't like lasagna, or that Mom's lasagna isn't fantastic, but you had your heart set on turkey, yams, and dressing.

So my first complaint is that I was expecting a contemporary romance set in the SBC arena. I am not someone who enjoys, in any fashion whatsoever, actual fighting sports in real life. But Lori Foster has made me a BIG fan of her SBC books. Unfortunately, this isn't an SBC book. It takes an SBC character and drops him into a time-travel book, and nothing public (Amazon description, book cover description) tells you this. It's lasagna, but I thought I was buying turkey.

Second, it's bad lasagna. The plotting and characters are horrible. Foster presents us with one colony with "men strong, women weak" vs. "women dominant, men weak." Gee, I've never read that before! <Yes, insert sarcasm here, a low form of humor, but that's all this book deserves.> The heroine is dim-witted and the hero is a jerk. The supporting characters are even bland and witless.

I will buy Lori Foster books in the future, I'm sure. However, I will never again buy one of her books without reading the reader reviews or standing in the bookstore and reading the first three and last three chapters. (I'm sure the bookstore will love that!) In short, I've lost my trust in her as a writer.

I'm in shock. I cant beleive that I bought this book. I bought it without even looking at the reviews because it was part of the series that I was already reading. I will NEVER make that mistake again. I was planning to buy the 5th in the series. I will be taking that out of my cart. In fact I'm about 50 pages in and dont think I'll be finishing this one. I think I'm officialy done with Lori Foster. What was the editor thinking allowing this.

I'm open to sci-fi books, but I expect to be informed thats what I'll be reading so I dont feel tricked later on.

Still in shock. I'll be tossing this book in the garbage. Please dont waste your time or money!!!