adds
I listened to the audiobook on my daily commutes but found myself bored senseless. The engaging storyline is practically nonexistent now in this final book. After reading a few other reviews I think I've made the right decision to abandon this and find something else to occupy me.
DNF at 47%. I just do not care a tinker's damn what happens to these characters. I'm not invested in them at all. I want to be, but I can't because this book is like Swiss cheese there are so many plot holes. It's too distracting.
There would be no plausible reason to have a war over reproductive rights. Wars are fought over money. Strip away all the crap and it always comes down to money in some way. If you want me to believe otherwise about this war then there needs to be sufficiently explained world building. Otherwise, who's making the money off of kids being unwound? Half way into a book it should be laid out how the hell we've gotten to where the story starts so things start to make sense. I still have no idea why the world is this way and I'm finding nothing worth keeping me reading to maybe find out if Shusterman ever sufficiently develops anything. How did we get from Roe v. Wade to unwinding kids in what seems to be just a few decades or less?
People don't want to be forced to keep random ass babies dropped on their doorstep. Society would shift in response to storking laws to say the least. The middle class communities portrayed would probably develop neighborhoods with security cameras and a guard watching them so someone can't plop a baby down at someone's door without getting caught. We already have gated communities where guards patrol on golf carts. But security isn't stepped up in the future in seemingly well-off areas? What kind of America IS this? I can't accept that this is just the way it is, and I think there would be large swaths of people who would never accept this either.
I can't accept that killing off teenagers to use them as transplant fodder is fine with both the pro-choice and anti-choice side of the abortion debate. The book uses the term “pro-life” to try to excuse chopping people up for their parts because the parts never really die, but I'm using the accurate real world wording. The premise of Unwind is interesting. It could be a poignant discussion while still being entertaining, but the reasoning for it is absolute bullshit, and again, there's not enough world building or even decent characters to explain how society has broken down so much. People just go about their normal lives the same way we do today. The suburban American dream nuclear family is happily having kids, until they decide to off them for being difficult teenagers. Just, WTF IS THIS HEARTLESS SHIT?!
Did all the people who gave this more than 3 stars read the same book? Excuse me, SLOG through the same book. It took me almost 8 weeks to finish this. I read 28 other books because I kept putting this down. I almost gave up and DNF so many times.
My feelings for almost every character I had come to like turned meh or into outright hate. Except for Lucien because he was lucky enough to not even be present through like 3/4 of the book. And the Archeron sisters have been annoying in all 3 books so nothing new there.
Other popular 1 and 2 star reviews sum up my disgust and frustration so I can just be done.
If I decide to be forgiving enough to pick up the 4th book and Nesta isn't given an immediate attitude adjustment though I will nope right on outta there.
Skipped from book 4 to 12 and we're still calling the khui symbiote a cootie which just makes me cringe every time.
Not a very satisfactory visit back to the wizarding world. The format doesn't lend itself to a pleasant reading experience. I had to remind myself almost constantly that I was not reading a slow buildup fanfiction of a m/m romance.
Super predictable the whole way through but the journey is still enjoyable enough to make this worth reading.
Me: starts reading
Kindle: 8 hrs 5 mins left in book
Me: Hmm ok, I'll have to put this down for bed, but that's alright.
Kindle: 1% done
Me: If the rest of this is as good as the first 8 pages I'm in trouble...
Me: 5 am I didn't put it down. I don't regret my decision.
We Are the Ants is the perfect blend of the human condition, bittersweet nihilism, and tenacity of hope. I saw myself reflected in the cynicism and dry sarcasm of Henry, the main character. I keenly felt the paralyzing fear of choices through this book. I laughed until I almost couldn't breathe, got choked up, paced in circles around my house, and even woke someone up in another room with an uncontrollable cursing fit from the emotional roller coaster at one point. Whoops!
I can safely say We Are the Ants is 1 of my top 3 books this year.
I like Elle. I love Ceph. I hate how obvious his name is, but that's whatever. They're great together; I just wish this wasn't as insta-lovey as it was. Give me more resistance, angst, survivor's guilt, and guilt over perceived betrayal. I actually found myself pretty invested in the sci-fi action/adventure plot.
If voyeurism or exhibitionism bothers you steer clear of this book. Everyone knows what you're doing thanks to group telepathy.
I'm embarrassed I read these 3 novellas. Not because of the sex parts, but just because of how craptastic everything was. I mean, bad. Really really bad. I literally said, “what the actual fuck?!” every few pages. This should have been put on Literotica and left there.
I know what it's like to be conflicted over someone. I get it! But good Lord, Katie had multiple personalities to the Nth degree. She flip flops multiple times on the same damn page. “I love him because... PENIS! I hate him... sort of.” Brandon is a creepy domineering asshole. I wanted to punch him in the face so much. Of course this story makes it ok though, because he's rich and hot and he had... reasons. Douchenozzle deserved a restraining order and a swift kick in the nuts at the least.
Author(s), if you want to publish a sexual fantasy of yours then that's totally great. But you have to flesh out an actual story, not just awkwardly force a plot along to get to yet another not-so-fantastic sex scene. I don't know anyone who orgasms at the drop of a hat. If you can insta-cum the second someone puts a finger in you then you're the exception, not the rule. Also, people can and do say no to sex, even when it's with someone they love.
DNF 26%
I spent most of my time frowning while reading this. Too many questions of “why?” or extreme skepticism. The vibe of this is social commentary, but the message isn't clear.
Also, the characters suck. I hate Cal and I hate Frida even more. If anyone shouldn't have survived whatever the hell happened it's her. Cal I could see actually making it with some struggle.
I was hoping I'd be one of the few who liked this, but I'm not. I can understand the low-ish votes and semi-negative reviews.
I just finished Star-Crossed and I'm so exhausted. Done-in. Emotionally drained. I've just been on one tempestuous journey, and it wasn't always very easy to keep going but thank god I did.
I almost gave up on this book at least 3 different times. I was seriously so frustrated with how awkwardly hard it was trying. Having them perform Romeo and Juliet while reading Lolita at the same time? C'mon now, really? So disgustingly obvious I almost couldn't take it. Yet there was this little voice that kept whispering about how much I was liking Kaitlyn and Will Tennant's interactions. It kept saying, “Who is Mr. Tennant? What will he do?” I will be honest that I skimmed a lot just to get the gist of things and get right back to Kaitlyn and Mr. Tennant.
For me, Will Tennant made this book. Kaitlyn may be the main character and did the most evolving, but I silently saw everything from Will's perspective even while it's Kaitlyn's voice guiding and telling the story. He's my age so I easily put myself in his shoes. I've even had someone years younger than I am make an impressive attempt to woo me into a fling with more confidence than someone their age should rightfully posses. It was disconcerting for me to say the least. I also totally understand how some people and relationships can transcend societal barriers. Some people just connect and the rest almost pales in importance.
Both Kaitlyn and Will had a lot to figure out internally. Different kinds of growth spurts haphazardly come throughout life. There's no guidebook on how to grow up and sometimes it hits hard and devastates while it's happening. So yeah, Will made me cry. I literally started bawling for him I couldn't even see to keep reading. It surprised the hell out of me how much I empathized with his pain.
I would definitely recommend this book to people. It might not be easy to get through but do what you gotta do to keep going because I found it absolutely worth it by the end, faults and all.
DNF at 24%
I got bored reading so many disconnected stories leading up to the robot apocalypse/war. Just get to it already. The individual stories are interesting, but how freaking many are there and I'm only 24% in? Not fast paced enough to keep me hooked.
Game of Thrones Dothraki romance/erotica fan-fiction set on another planet humans have partially, and somewhat unsuccessfully, tried to colonize where the wannabe Dothrakis have tails.
Somewhat questionable consent in that if you get someone tipsy and the touchy-touchy feels good it's not really rape.
Decided to give up on this half way through the seventh chapter because I couldn't take one more minute of these characters' stupid head games and abusing the word no.
I'd call this more a short story. Or a .5 novella prequel. This doesn't have to be read to understand the other two books. If I hadn't read this I wouldn't have had the horror Rose refers to painted out for me in gory detail. I might not have minded that. At times it can be good to imply or hint at things and let the reader use their imagination.
It's been years and the blurb and genres are still misleading. This is erotica veering into BDSM like spanking, anal, power play, and primal/animal play. This isn't dark romance. There's almost no romance at all actually until the last 10% of the book. None of the characters are really obsessive/possessive or even morally grey. Trauma and violence doesn't automatically mean dark romance. If you're looking for that from the title and the blurb it's not here. Instead we get a paranormal mystery thriller plot to get us from one sex scene to the next. It's really unfortunate that this wasn't a romance to keep me more invested. I was never really hit with any big emotional impact. I had the mystery figured out 45% of the way in. The twist is revealed at about 88% which is also when the more romantic stuff starts up but there's barely a love story to get choked up over. If this had been tackled differently I probably would have cried over these characters. Instead I mostly watched them have somewhat rough sex while calling each other bunny, lion, sir, and master a few too many times. This isn't a bad read, it just wasn't genre melded together, presented, or sold the right way for me.
This is ok. Ophelia never being even a teensy bit scared of the “monster” kind of defeats the purpose of having a monster as the love interest for me. If you like Luxuria try [b:Land of the Beautiful Dead 27228341 Land of the Beautiful Dead R. Lee Smith https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1446254788l/27228341.SY75.jpg 47272939]. And if you didn't like Luxuria definitely try it because it has all the romantic and sexual pining, angst, and drama that I was missing here.
DNF at 8%. I wanted to stop at 2% but forced myself to keep going until I couldn't stand it. Absolutely not for me.
I'm not sure if it's the cover, or what, but I fully expected a poorly written story just to get readers from one interspecies erotica scene to another. Wow, that's not what the Wraith Kings series is at all. I'm so here for the world building.
Also, the second book might even be better than the first one, and Radiance is pretty darn good.
