Liz

Three and a 1/2 ... I am looking forward to reading the next book.

I enjoyed this book. As it is a middle grade book I was not surprised at completing it in a few hours. I liked Juniper Berry, she is an interesting character. I would have liked to get to know Giles a bit better; he was her best and only friend after all. I loved the dog, named Kitty. I thought it was pretty creepy and for children with over-active imaginations (like my own child) I may hold off reading this one for a while. I think he was up all night after Coraline and I think this one was even creepier. There is something about a child needing to save the parents that jumps up the scare gauge. Overall I really enjoyed it. I want to be friends with Juniper Berry.

My son loves all books about knights. And this was a particularly well presented book. We loved the illustrations and the story.

I really wanted to like this book and there were parts that were very interesting. The basic plot of the story is facinating. However, I could not like Jack. Strange that the invisiable chracter was drawn so well that he was just ... there. I loved Wendy and agree with another reviewer that it might have been better written from her POV. It is interesting and well written, just not my cup o' tea I guess.

Very interesting, creepy book. Yet not as ‘creepy' as I was worried it was going to be, not the horror show kind of creepy that I was moderately worried about, more the usual fantasy/sci-fi creepy that I am accustomed to. I really liked it and I am looking forward to reading the next one.

I thought each chapter was a little piece of a large puzzle, it took some time to take shape but it sure was lovely. I enjoyed it immensely. 4 1/2 stars

I read a Lloyd and Hill mystery previously and liked it. It is a good thing I did not read this one first or else I would have probably not read another. One of my biggest complaints with mysteries is when the author lets you get inside the head of the murder but you - the reader - don't know it. It seems to me when that happens the author is using a cheap trick to confuse the reader. Give me the facts. Tell me the story and if I guess who did it, well then dear author you did not do you job. Or maybe you did if that was your intent, the point is when I get a glimps inside the private thoughts of characters I don't want to see surprise and questions and impulse reactions when the person is the murderer and knows very well what happened and WHY. Bothers me. Up until the moment I realized I had been deceived I liked it okay. I may have given it two stars. Maybe. One other thing I don't like is when animals narrate. The duck should have been interviewed? or was it a bunny? She finished almost every chapter with trees or animals or something ‘thinking' if only the police would interview me or something. I thought it was distracting. I still may read another Lloyd and Hill because I did like the other one I read and perhaps it just gets better, it couldn't get worse.

After a second read, I upped my rating to five stars. Dorothy Sayers really is rather brilliant.

How cool does this book sound. PI chick who is really the grim reaper -she solves cases by talking to the dead and then helping them pass over to the other side. Cool! Not so much.

First, I can handle a little sex IF it has some purpose or something so the book opens with Charley having dream intercourse with some unknown dream person and its all hot and steamy, whatever - moving on. But what I can't handle is that the book reverted back to sexual undertones ... what am I talking about ... OVERTONES way to much for my taste.

I did find Charley to be funny, most of the time. There were a few places I actually laughed out loud. I really liked her secretary/sidekick Cookie and I really liked the three lawyers that you would think would play a major part in the plot (not so much).

SPOILER:

Anyway moving on the thing that really killed this book for me was the flashback to her early teen years where she meets for the very first time mystery/dream man. When he as a 18 or 19 year old threatens to rape her because she tried to save him from getting his butt kicked by his dad - that isn't his dad. Okay hold the phone: She digs this guy? She wants him in her life at all. Who grows up dreaming about the guy that pushed you up against a wall, hurts you, threatens to rape you and you never see again. Sorry it was all over me then. I kept reading because I liked the mystery part and then I come to find out that flash/boom she is abandoning the case the find her lost dream sex king.

There were moments that I thought I could really like this book. There are pieces of a story here that are really facinating but the writer just kept veering back to crazy murderous rapist guy and sex dreams.

Not my cup of tea.

I just won this book from Goodreads! Can't wait to read it!!!

EDIT: Just got it and even though I am in the middle of NaNo I started it and have thus far been pleasantly surprised.

EDIT (again): I enjoyed this book. It was no Sayers but I enjoyed it very much. I liked the beginning better as Lord Peter is recounting his previous caper. The second half is good, it just lost some of the sparkle. I would definately recommend for anyone who likes a good whodoneit.

This is a great book. I don't normally go for mystery mixed with romance but this was an expection. I enjoyed the victorian setting. I enjoyed the mystery. The whole time the author was leading me to the murderer but then I was still surprised in the end. I read the ending five times. This is a book I will buy so I can read it again and again.

Since one of my all time favorite fairy tale re-boots is Juliet Marillier's Wildwood Dancing, I could just not get into this book. I couldn't (or didn't want) to love the characters and it just fell flat for me. Go read Wildwood and let me know if you think I am up in the night.

I almost gave this one star but I stopped myself because there were a few things that I liked, not at a lot but a few - mostly the last 70 pages which were relatively good. But overall I was annoyed. Chicago, sometime after something happened, which is fine I don't need a detailed explanation to why things are the way they are if there is SOME context. Also why were there factions, why did everyone group together in these ridiculously named groups? There were so many questions. I want to quote from another review but I don't know how or else I would. Overall I thought it was a big waste of time. I didn't particularly like Tris. I know everyone is all about violence and shock value after Hunger Games but Hunger Games had reasons for it and it was still really disturbing. Here, Tris got the crap beat out of her for what?, to belong, to become Dauntless or whatever. It all seemed really contrived. I didn't like Tris' love interested or his motivation. I didn't like who lived and who died. I will not be reading the rest of this series.

I loved this book. I loved the characters, the town, the secrets. Highly recommend.

After I finally got over the fact that this so vastly different than any other book McKinley has written I decided I liked it. I like her take on vampires and the other Others. I really liked Sunshine I am surprised that she did not write a follow up. Good, interesting read.

This is a very techincal book, but exactly what I needed. I did not purchase it but I think I will to have to as a reference. My favorite quote from the book is the following: “The encapsulated weakness [of dyslexia] is often surrounded by a sea of strength: reasoning, problem solving, comprehension, concept formation, critical thinking, general knowledge and vocabulary.” Pretty much describes my child to a T :)

I think I made the mistake of reading the book as a ‘novel' instead of a compilation of short stories. Here VVV retells the story of Rumpelstiltskin six times which with a different twist. The problem was reading it straight through I saw how VERY similiar each story was with only the seemingly mirror ‘twists'. Perhaps if I read each independantly I would have enjoyed it more. I did like the one with the elf and the last one from the King's perspective was fun.

So this book was fun. I liked it but you know ... it was not great. I did not expect it to be great so it did not disappoint. This is the ultimate sit by the pool and read fluff book.

My least favorite by far. The swearing was overdone and the “American” everything seemed cliche or worse caricature. I am wondering if I should bother continuing on with this series.

This book was a bit ridiculous to me but I liked it anyway. I am all about suspended belief. But I had a hard time believe that the bad guys would threated and then not really do much and a harder time believing that the ‘captives' could be so foolish. I am not giving up on Margery and look forward to reading a book that is dedicated fully to Albert Campion.

2.5. The reluctant amateur detective was fun but I couldn't get over how many times the MC was described as large and clumsy. I got it. The mystery was fun and I like how she went about gathering information. I may give the next one in the series a try.

I just rated a much more literary book with two stars and this one with three. It has to do with expectation. I expected the literary book to be great (especially because of the reviews) and I wonder if I didn't know anything about it if I would have liked it better. This book I just randomly picked up at the library. I had never heard of the author or the series thus no expectation. It is a fun, cozy read, which is what I wanted. Sometimes it seemed to veer off into the ridiculous but it worked, mostly. My favorite character was the grandmother. She was funny. I loved her comment about closets and wardrobes. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a fun, quick, mindless read. Summer beach material.

I tried. I really tried. But I just could not get into this book. I usually force myself to finish a book even if I end up skipping half of it but I didn't even read the end of this one because I just didn't care. I have never read gezzer lit before and maybe I shouldn't.

I just could not get into this one, which is sad considering it is about an alternate Robin Hood. Bran never grabbed me as a main character. The random chapters from other people were distracting and frankly boring. All that said I thought it was an interesting take and thought it was ‘ok' hence two stars. I skipped a lot. I used to force myself to read every word now I have too many books to read, not to mention life to live, to read something that doesn't keep me interested.

This book started off great. I loved the first prologue-ish catching up chapter. I thought Caity was witty and interesting but it just went downhill after that first amazing chapter. So many things happened that I just could not ‘believe' and I am capable of suspending reality just fine thank you. So overall I liked it, if you like YA urban fantasy you may like it more than I.