Rhonda

It was no Outlander, but it was quick and entertaining. I could have done without the epilogue.

THIRD time I've read it. Favorite book of all time, by far, such that I have a tattoo based on it. Uhtred is all.

I may come back and four star this after I have some time to think. The book is well written, but it seemed tedious at times with multiple love triangles, everyone's kids dying and so on. I realize kids died a lot at that time, so that doesn't bother me, just seemed sometimes like the same thing was happening over and over again. I loved all of the characters she meant for me to love, and hated all the characters I was meant to hate. Well worth the money on amazon.

Would have enjoyed it more if it had finished stronger, and with less famous musician references... It gets old.

I'm giving it three stars for now, because I am not really sure what I thought of it....

I just finished and I can't even think of what to write in the review. I will say I almost wept at several points in the last 30% of the book, which is not something that a book can often move me to do.

Much better effort than The Heretic Queen. No over-explaining, just a good story.

Solid book, but of course I read this one with Lucas. :D

Let me cut to the chase: I found the book largely ridiculous.

The plot of “The Fourth Wing” revolves around Violet, a young woman grappling with a condition that I guess is basically EDS, except it gives her some sort of weird hair. Yarros can't stop herself from
using the word “subluxate” as often as possible. Any time Violet strains a little bit, she's bound to subluxate something.

Violet's life takes a turn as she's made to join an elite league of dragon riders who protect the realm of Navarre, in spite of spending her life up to the ripe old age of 20 preparing to become a scribe. Her
oppressive mother, a predictable trio of love interests, and the bonding of the weakest girl at school with the strongest dragon shape the plot.

Beyond the plot lies a narrative that, while not infuriating, lacks the depth to truly captivate. Yarros seems inexplicably enamored with the word “chuffed,” which is all the dragons in the book seem to
really do. The male protagonist's ceaseless smirking, along with his
textbook “hotness,” sent me into a rage more than once. How can one guy smirk so many times on one damn page? We get it. His only real facial expression is smirking. Of course this super hot badass guy loves smart women and recognizes Violet's underlying strength.

The culmination of their sexual tension, which isn't tense–you know from the start they're eventually going to have sex–feels really out of touch. It's as if Yarros harnessed her imagination from TikTok and brought it to life with forceful clumsiness. They have sex, they
destroy a room, the dialog made me cringe, the emotional depth was
lacking.

I thought Yarros would be a 20 year old TikToker who had never had
sex, but read her biography at the end and she's some 40-something
mother of six which made me laugh.

The writing is terrible. Short, choppy sentences started with “but” break up the book.

I have more criticisms than an Instagram post will hold. “The Fourth Wing” had potential to be a captivating tale, but falls short on multiple fronts. I will possibly read the second book–if I feel like
self-flagellating.

The tea is lukewarm.

But damn does K Fed suck. And her shitty family.

I really enjoyed this book. As a woman who lost her mother at age 11, the same year Diana died, only 2 years apart from Harry... I really identified with many of the things he talked about surrounding grief from his mother's death. It hit home. He may be royal, but his experience in that realm was very relatable to me.

Aren't Charles and Camilla just the worst?

I absolutely loved this book.

This book helped me write my thesis and was a great read.

I don't think there was a story I didn't love. Oddly, the namesake story was maybe my least favorite.

Dnf

OK, this may or may not contain spoilers, so I'll click the button.

I don't often pick up thrillers or whatever you call this, especially ones where people are going on and on about all the sex in it. So, full disclosure, these books don't often appeal anyway. I decided to give this one a spin because it seems to be well-loved after a bajillion goodreads reviews. Here are my thoughts:

1) The writing wasn't as bad as I thought it would be based on the Book Nerds group I'm in on Facebook. I expected a 50 Shades of Grade style shit-show, so I guess I have that to be thankful for. It was super repetitive in the beginning, following all of Lowen's thoughts in the first chapters before she heads off to Vermont which was really irritating. Yeah, I totally get she's this recluse character.

2) After she ends up in Vermont, a lot of the repetition stopped. It was almost like Hoover didn't really know how to introduce her character. Lowen was a pretty one-dimensional character. The reclusive writer, oooh, big deal. Reclusive writer meets handsome dude must be some kind of trope, but again, I don't read things like this generally speaking so I don't know.

3) I don't get the big deal about Jeremy. Reminds me of a bunch of crappy romance-type novels I used to giggle at when I worked at the library. Devastatingly handsome dude, with a platinum penis, who just hates that he's so good looking and irresistible. Whatever. Definite trope.

4) I have never bitten a headboard and I think that would be bad for your teeth as well as your furniture. I kept getting images of Red Dragon in my head and Francis Dolarhyde. Nothing really sexy about that.

5) When Lowen was reading the manuscript, I thought it was kind of funny how tired she got of reading about Verity sucking her husband's dick, because I, too, was tired of reading about Verity sucking her husband's dick. I would imagine that was intentional.

6) So the story wasn't so bad, the problem was the ridiculous scenarios that kept happening. “Oh, can you cling to me up these stairs because sometimes the door shuts and I uhh, don't wanna get locked in.” Cos she couldn't like, stand at the top and just wait for him to get up there like a reasonable person. I guess that's not sexy enough. Basically all of the sexy set ups were weird to me, but maybe I'm just a really boring old married lady.

7) And then the story was bad. The letter at the end. Christ Jesus, when can people just leave well enough alone? Like, I get it, we're supposed to be shocked. Like Girl on the Train level shocked or whatever (even though that wasn't shocking either). But for goodness sake, the twist was telegraphed from ages away. A better twist might have been just not having a twist. Just leave it. Verity is a psycho.

8) Who bangs a dude out and puts a pillow under their ass? Lowen is obviously the most fucked up character of all.

I think I'm done. I wanted to like this book, honestly. I stayed up reading it even. And then at the end, Colleen Hoover was like, “I totally can't resist, I have to write this really stupid letter that you knew I was going to write cos tee hee... clever.”

Whatever. Snore.

2 only because I was mildly entertained for awhile. But honestly, that's kind of generous. Considering.

And honorable mention to Colleen Hoover for making me have to read ridiculous names like “Chastin” and “Crew.” Wtf. I conceived on an air mattress once. I guess that could have gone really badly.

I wanted to love this book. At times I did. And at other times I was slogging through trying to get to the end of a not-very-long book. I typically love Lauren Groff, I don't know if I just wasn't in the mood for this book or if it was truly, at times, just boring.

Unimaginative crap. Just crap.

I enjoyed the book. It is well written.

However, it did drag on and at times it seemed repetitive. I don't mean the five marriages, I mean literally repeating lines later in the book. I appreciate a good long book, but around the 400th page I really just wanted it to end.

Very short read.

The story of a woman who is being abused by her boyfriend–and feels obligated to let that continue–very “me too” vibes. Total downward spiral caused by a toxic man.

Very well written.

This is the worst.

... it was tomato sauce. Jfc. That's when I knew I should stop. Really I knew before that but apparently I was in some sort of masochism phase the last month while I struggled to read this.

I thought most of the women in here, and Capote, were insufferable. Then I had to think what it must have been like to grow up a southern gay man a hundred years ago. I've never grown up a gay man at all but I did grow up in the south and it was hard for LGBTQ even in my day, so I started to feel sympathy for his desire to fit in with the original fag hag cast of shrews.

26 hours of audio book is a lot.

I enjoyed this book, but it was really, really long. I commuted to and fro work and cooked a lot of meals while listening to this. Of course we all know Obama has a lot to say and is brilliant, so that will come as no shock while reading or listening. But it is.. a lot.

I can't imagine figuring out how to pair down a presidency, though.

I have placed a 4, but really feel like a 3.75 because it really does sometimes get tedious.