Michelle

(Review originally published at Red Adept Reviews)

Overall: 4 ?? stars

Plot/Storyline: 4 ?? stars

This is a very quirky and dark story. It's also nearly impossible to review without mentioning a certain detail, and yet I'll try, because it's only hinted at in the two descriptions on the page. I think people will probably figure it out from there alone, but I won't be the one to “say” it.

While the story is very darkly funny - the last line might as well be called a punch line - it's also just plain dark. It's also thought-provoking in a Wisdom of Solomon way, when you consider the issues of justice here.
I think this story will bother people - perhaps be seen as too dark, too quirky, too out of the realm of most people's existence. I enjoyed it though and it made me think.

Characters: 4 ?? stars

The author makes the characters distinct from one another, which I believe is crucial here, while not taking it too far.

There is a good brother and a bad brother, but Ms. Slaughter never went the campy route of making them absurdly different in surface ways, but rather she went deeper to the nature of identity.

Writing style: 4 stars

I laughed, I considered the issues, I laughed, I admired the skill in characterization and storytelling, and the use of language that was both interesting and accessible.

“...the thing about hate is you can't throw it on someone else without getting a little bit on yourself.???

I've connected with other books around the topic more, and felt the characters and plot were a bit clunky or not fully fleshed out. Gorgeous cover! Please prioritize own voice reviewers over my thoughts.

While generally interesting, there's not much book there and much of the thin volume is filled with credits and attributions.

First Balogh book. Took a while to warm up to the characters, but ended up enjoying.

I found this story deeply moving ... and very depressing. Messed me up in much the same way as the Twilight Zone episode “Time Enough at Last,” in that the brutality of the world, the unfairness of life, seems overwhelming.

Thanks, Flaubert.

Short and entertaining enough. Also occasionally racist and antisemitic, which keeps the reader awake. “Did that just say– Oh, God, no!” But, yeah, if you put that aside, which you pretty much have to do if you want to read any older books and not be sick to your stomach, it was interesting to read the first story with Hercule Poirot, and to have it be so text book on the whole gathering everyone in the salon or drawing room, etc.

I received an ARC of this book through Booksirens in exchange for an honest review.

The Broken Darkness is a horror anthology. The author does a nice job with characters and concepts, but ultimately almost every story fell a bit short for me, specifically when it came to the endings. Several of the stories felt more like a first chapter than a complete story. 

Short stories CAN end with some loose ends, and often the reader can surmise or speculate in a way where the story is satisfying. I think a couple of these stories meet that mark, but when alongside other stories that fall short, every unanswered question looms larger. 

I can't stress enough that every story had merit, some solid moments, or a cool twist. A few were thought-provoking. We meet Vlad Tepes in a nicely atmospheric story that almost felt complete. If you like vampire stories, this story alone might be worth your time. The final story has layers I'm sure I haven't fully unpacked, and is impressive. The first story is also quite nice; it has loose ends, but I feel they work. There's another story that will really make you think twice or ten times about driving while distracted on your phone.

But too many stories ended for me in disappointment as I felt it needed more, and that more might only be a line or two.

To put this into perspective, I have time and time again bought Riley Sager books because I love, love, love the concepts, and I always end up disappointed. Obviously Sager is an accomplished author who is an autobuy for a lot of people, but there's something missing in his stories for me. And, in this case, the endings in this anthology fall short for me. 

I loved these books as a child, and I love them now! Of course, time moves on – there are moments of clear ignorant racism, spanking was the norm, pretty graphic depictions of hunting and preparing meat abound. Hides get tanned – this refers to spanking, not meat prep. I think these books have value in their own right, and as a history lesson. Love the illustrations.

I was watching the show recently, and there was a scene where everyone kept Carrie in the dark about the fate of a piglet. Cutesy. The real Ingalls girls were never in the dark.

For a middle-aged woman, I read a lot of YA. And a lot of the YA included, if not stars, LGBTA+ characters. Jerkbait was a book with which I struggled, because I had trouble liking any of the characters. We are given a cursory explanation of why the mother character seems like an utter homophobe, which amounts to her actually having loved her gay brother. It doesn't make any more sense in the book.

The main thing is that we have this very suicidal character, Robbie. By the use of “very,” I mean he is actively and repeatedly trying to kill himself, and no one is helping him. I mean, ostensibly, this is because his parents want him to be recruited, drafted, whatever, and make buckets of money as a hockey player, and they fear if his suicidal desires come to light, this will be ruined. But they're doing nothing to keep him alive, either. This is before they find out he is gay, as opposed to their theater-loving son. Which I appreciate makes a good point about stereotypes.

His twin brother, Tristan the Theater Kid, who is technically the main character, is beyond selfish as well. Yes, he is been pushed aside by his horrible parents due to his lack of interest in, and lesser ability on, the ice, but he spends a lot of time whining about not being close to his brother, only to shut down his brother's desperate efforts to engage. We are told his brother is abusive and cold, and there is certainly some evidence, but most of the time he is simply asking for help and being ignored.

Tristan is more concerned with his own interests than helping his brother. He ignores his brother's pleas for help, doesn't meet him when he is supposed to in order to keep an eye on him, and within minutes of one of Robbie's suicide attempts actively being hateful to his brother. He also seeks to capitalize on it. This last one is what really lost me. As much empathy as I have, Tristan's legitimate need to attention crossed a line for me, making me concerned that no one in this story was capable of being altruistic.

Maybe that's just exactly what this family would produce.

The story has a lot of secondary characters acting hateful or kind based on, what comes across as, the needs to the plot. And then the plot needs the brothers to have a Twin-based Psychic Hotline to one another, and so that happens. The ending is sorta happy, but based on the personalities of the characters, it doesn't feel realistic or lasting. Parents are terrible, brothers – particularly Tristan – are terrible. Other characters, terrible. I do think there is a version of this story that could have existed where people were merely challenging, conflicted, and flawed, like real people.

The writing is technically good, which means I would consider other books by this author. Go figure. :) I truly see my issues being with plotting, here and there, and characterization as opposed to any issue with Mia Siegert being able to tell a good story. Different characters in a different setting, creating a different dynamic? I could see myself very much enjoying that.

My suggestion for a YA book with a gay male character who is also into sports would be True Letters from a Fictional Life.l had some issues with this book, but I'd easily call that story worthy of a 1/2 to 1 star more based on those characters having complexity enough to be imperfect, but still relatable.

The Sabina Kane books are my some of my favorites – it is, in fact, my favorite series. When I finished Green-Eyed Demon I was happy to see the pre-order for Violet Tendencies. It was a promised “fix.” The story concerned events referred to in Green-Eyed Demon, but not shown. Um, there's not much to it other than a brief visit with characters fans of the series have grown to like and it is very light fare. We find out how Valva and Giguhl broke up and how much damage a Vanity Demon can cause in a short period of time. If you are not a fan of the series, there wouldn't be much here for you – but why aren't you reading the series?!?! ::grin::

I picked this book because I've enjoyed the author's previous efforts, because the book had gotten a lot of buzz, and because the author said something smart on her blog. Yes, I'm weird like that. Anyhow, I'm glad I did, because Unveiled was a very good book. At one point I did that little, happy “wasn't that a romantic line?” sigh.

The people in this book learned “stuff,” evolved, became better. Ash had to deal with his quest for success and accept that there are repercussions, people who get hurt and don't deserve it. Margaret had to grapple with the concept of loyalty and what it means when the people you sacrifice for will not do the same for you.

What I particularly likes was the hero's reaction to finding out the heroine's secret and the way he treats her the rest of the book. That's romantic and he's totally a hero! He'd spent a lot of time inadvertently hurting her and I love that he realized it almost instantly, since those scenes – where he was being hurtful – were so poignant. Another touching moment was when the hero, who'd done everything for his brothers, felt excluded from their love and friendship. The heroine's reaction was wonderful.

They each in turn told the other that what made them worthy was inherent and had nothing to do with title or rank. Ash told Margaret that early on – along with telling her she had the ability to chose her own path – and it changed her, informed her decisions. Later on, she had the chance to give that back to him. Was nice. :)

Ms. Milan tends to give her heroes undiagnosed illnesses or afflictions. Undiagnosed because that was then, this is now. I actually liked how Ash's affliction affected his perception of self, how revealing it to Margaret was an act of complete trust, and how he'd compensated for it by being a keen judge of character.

I've seen the author's writing called too cerebral and not emotional enough – paraphrasing – and I've understood that. This, for me, had the intelligence, but also had an emotional element. At least I was touched and felt the strong love and connection between the two.

The revelation of our heroine's identity and when Ash finally tells his brother his secret were terrific because it said that sometimes, even though we try to keep sides of ourselves hidden, the people we love and who love us really do know us and a new piece of the puzzle doesn't alter that as much as we think it will.

Erotica. An adventurous twin decides to have herself kidnapped for Christmas, with the kidnapping including BDSM up to, but not including, actual intercourse. The less wild and more curvy sister gets ‘napped instead, which is fine with the hero/kidnapper who actually looked at a picture of wild twin and wished she was a little fuller figured.

4 stars instead of 5 for a couple contrivances that could not be ignored. The kidnapping agency made a point of the “victim” having a safe word, and yet our heroine was gagged for quite a while while all sorts of, um, stuff was done to her person. Of course, when she's ungagged she no longer wants to set the record straight. Still, what's the point of a safe word if someone cannot use it?

There was also a standard misunderstanding over something she said, but it almost worked, so I'm letting it slide. :)

This was a nice fantasy, really, and what woman doesn't dig a hero who wants the curvier sister?

Decline to rate – worked on book, work for publisher.

(Review originally published at Red Adept Reviews.)
Overall: 3 ?? stars.

Plot/Storyline: 3 1/2 stars.

I really like the theme of this, with the characters being connected to one another by only 1 or 2 degrees of separation, but in ways that they - for the most part - won't ever realize. Some of them won't realize it simply because they won't live that long. I think it's an interesting concept that can go on and on, and it looks like the author plans on continuing it.

A guy jumps from a building and another person sees it from a caf?? window while being courted by a man who thinks he could love her as much as he did has last wife. An ambulance shows up and almost hits a man who will soon stumble into a tattoo shop from, oh, Hell. This man's ex has a low tolerance for noise and vermin, who in turn ... well, you get it.

It is a hook that I imagine will make it easy for people to read on - at least it worked for me. I also enjoy that the author took it as an opportunity to do horror, scifi, and mystery/crime, and to mix and match genres.

I think that within individual stories that there are moments that don't work or missed opportunities. In one story, someone says some very literally true things which, in the tradition of good horror, later on take on a new and more sinister meaning. My quibble? He also lied to her once, losing a little of the macabre joy at the ending that would have happened if he'd always been twistedly honest.

A few stories don't work for me at all, with the dialogue being over the top and the plot being even beyond my willing suspension of disbelief, such as a tale called “The Interloper.”

The last portion of the book is the least enjoyable for me. The author tried to tie several storylines together with a new - or newly revealed - connecting character. It doesn't work for me at all.

Entwined is somewhat of a mixed bag for me, but I'm enthusiastic about this idea and hopeful for what the future might bring to this series.

Characters: 3 1/2 stars.

The vignettes and stories are brief and there isn't a lot of time for complex characterization. I'd consider it in the Twilight Zone range, in which characters, by necessity, are a bit broadly drawn and over-the-top. Even with this taken into consideration, some of the characters are too into the caricature column for my tastes and it felt like a line or two more - or less - would have made all the difference.

Writing style: 3 1/2 stars.

I enjoyed Mr. Armitt's writing well enough most of the time, but I must confess that there is something a bit off, a bit missing for me. It feels as if some of the stories are a couple beats off from meeting their true potential. The language is good, but it didn't delight me the way that it should. These types of stories and this format beg for a writer at his cleverest, and I felt that potential more than I saw it on the page. There were moments and revelations that I feel would have creeped me out more in other hands. This is the subjective stuff though, and if a reader likes the rest of the review, the area where perhaps our author could be given the benefit of the doubt for at least a sample.

Editing: 3 3/4 stars.

None of the issues are severe enough to ruin the book, but this could have used another pair of eyes or a careful read through to catch some issues, such as a tendency to change tenses mid-sentence (Apart from me and this big woman sat at the window, the caf?? was empty.) typos such as “though” instead of “thought,” missing punctuation, and issues with capitalization. I deem it beyond the pesky 1 or 2 mistakes that get through even a diligent edit.

Note: With anthologies, I love when they're set up so that I can use my 5 way controller to shuffle between stories. (Heck, I love it even in non-anthologies so that I can move between chapters.) Needless to say, I would have enjoyed that here, particularly because the stories are connected and reference one another. There is no Table of Contents either, which would have been second best. (Both would be ideal.)

At 3 1/2 stars, I had to either round up or down for the Amazon rating. I didn't feel comfortable with 3 stars, but I felt less comfortable with 4 stars, so there you have it.

Despite the serious subject matter, this audiobook was light, funny, and easy to listen to. And poignant. It's short and quick – yeah, yeah, that's what she said. Susan Wokoma's voice rang with wonderful attitude.

We've now crossed over to YA territory. The series is about Tally Youngblood who lives in a society that makes everybody pretty on their 16th birthdays. Before that, teens are called uglies, and children littlies. Tally meets a girl named Shayla who tells her that there is a secret society of people who opted not to be made pretty, and that there might be some sinister stuff happening underneath all the symmetrical features and glittering parties on the Pretty side of the river.

There is a lot of adventure here – girls, at least before the change, are shown as intelligent and capable and athletic, able to figure out complex puzzles. Some of the messages lack subtlety, even for young adults, but the questions and issues raised are good ones. Is being gorgeous the most important thing? How pretty is pretty enough? Why are girls taught to look up to vapid girls with not a thought in their pointy heads? Would you betray someone to escape a life of being considered less-than-perfect?

The first book, Uglies, is the best one in my opinion, but it ends in a way that justifies a sequel. The sequel gives us a chance to go into the world of the Pretties, which I think most girls, even level-headed ones, would want to read about. We get an idea of just how deep the control is, but that even the Pretty people might not be all that happy, might understand there's something more. The Specials, while still well-written and gripping, seems a little like the author wanted Tally to try on all the hats. (The Specials are a secret group that exists to police the populace.)

In the words of Gaston in Beauty and The Beast: It's not right for a woman to read. Soon she starts getting ideas, and thinking...

Funny and touching essays from the Little Girl from The Goodbye Girl :grin: She's left that life behind though and the stories are very relatable – Hey! I'm clumsy, too! Hey! I like to rescue animals, too!

Pleasant, but I just can't imagine having a lifetime of thoughts, a decades long relationship with, this book ... unlike Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre. Half a star for the dog reunion.

In short, Charlotte, Emily, Anne. ;)

This was light and inclusive when I needed that. I'm an introvert who loves karaoke and so I enjoyed the introverted Sam who still liked to sing with their friend group. Sam has a crush on Lily, a plus-sized goddess who when she sings commands the room as she serves fashion and confidence. The confidence doesn't translate to the real world, but Sam doesn't know this. When Sam's group bails, Lily invites then to her table and her group. 

I really enjoyed this group of people and the concept for this series – Moonies, the karaoke bar. I plan to continue with this series. 

Romance novel primarily set in a snowed-in airport at Christmas featuring a school teacher and a veterinarian. Likeable characters with great chemistry. Nice cast of characters. A “sick” dog with an easy-to-figure out diagnosis. The last portion of the book is set in the ���real world” as they deal with familial problems and estrangements they each have while also handling the aftermath of the argument they had right before they parted. Some of that lagged for me. Low/no spice. 

This is a shorter work, there are themes to think about.

Something the author probably does not want to read: This story would make a good video game, with all the sights, sounds, and decisions to be made.

The story is told from the POV of Callie, a woman who is divorcing her husband. They're in a legal office, with their respective lawyers, when an earthquake hits. The couple band together to reach their son, who is in daycare, and deal with a lot of moral, emotional, and physical dilemmas along the way, and Callie has a major psychological breakthrough. You know, the usual.

Linda, Callie's lawyer, very early on, when the earthquake is minor, makes a comment about how a quake can put things in perspective and remind people what really matters. I hated this, actually. Way too heavy handed. If people don't get this as the message, they don't want to get it.

Anyhow, good story, went some places I didn't expect, made me care about a whole bunch of people. Contained perspectives on love and marriage (go together like...), grief, suppression, perspective – thaaaaanks, Linda, hope you made it out okay – loss, altruism, and sacrifice.

Early on, Callie makes clear she researched if they were in a major earthquake zone when she found out she was pregnant. This seeming throwaway character trait – she's a planner/worrier – turns out to be a result of guilt, the sense of being responsible in multiple senses of the word. I believe by the end, she has learned to share, or even sometimes, hand off the burden of responsibility.

Genuinely no connection/chemistry with this author. I think she is quite good at what she does, and the story was good, but her work doesn't move me or stick with me. I've read at least one book by her previously, and so I'm willing to admit I don't think I would do another, but would happily recommend her to someone else.

This book is totally naughty, like, erotica...shhhhhh! Actually, it read like a traditional historical romance, with a smidge of the Bluebeard tale, and more graphic sex.

Some of the story hinged on the both members of the couple having no idea how kinky the other one was, and they managed to completely miss how really into the BDSM the other one was, but a good time was had by all. The ending was almost Judith McNaught-ish in the big misunderstanding leading to hurt feelings on both sides.

It made me wonder about all the ways that we are able to love each other and how movies and TV make it seem like you have to discard people once they break your heart or once the love disappears. Maybe that was a horrible lie, a complete disservice to real love.

JTaB is about a Puerto Rican lesbian girl attracted to feminism through a white woman's book. She learns all the problems with white lady feminism, while still coming to a place where she could appreciate her mentor. She knows that she has to find her own way with the help of people who truly get her and love her for who she is.

3 stars because Harlowe – the white feminist – was a lot.t.t. for even a white feminist to suffer through, although I loved her period ritual which involved a hot, wonderful smelling bath, and crawling between clean sheets. :)

The best parts were when Juliet was with her family.

I'm declining to rate due to strong possibility the author called a reviewer an a-hole. If anyone has proof this is a misunderstanding...