Kathrine

This one wasn't quite what I expected, it was better. I was expecting a fair amount of Gilmore Girls and I would have been pretty happy with that (loved her commentary on the fashion choices of each season). Instead, this is a fantastic mix of wit, inspiration and straight forward story telling.

You'd think with only 100 pages there would be a limit to the number the plots and locations the James Patterson writing Factory would attempt to shove into a story. Apparently not. Granted, this one stuck mostly to 2 plots - one involving the murders of socialites and the other with horse racing and the shady side of gambling - so not as bad as it could have been. But in all of that we traveled to Kentucky, Baltimore, New York and Paris. Moncrief is certainly racking up those frequent flier miles.

James DiLallo did a pretty good job of keeping the plots separate (the only connection was Moncrief) while staying on pace with both. I wasn't particularly thrilled with how either plot ended but you can't expect big explanations with only a small amount of paper real estate. I do wish they'd tone down Moncrief and his over the top knows all personality. Does he ever actually investigate anything? Not that it matters at this point, as I believe this book to be the end of the series/trilogy.

Read this one completely out of order...But it was one of the few holiday themed books that was still available at my library through Overdrive. I like the Spenser series, so I thought why not. There really wasn't much Christmas in the story - it was more a time and place than a story element. Actually that was kinda nice - so many Christmas-ish stories are maudlin, sappy or overly emotional. I came to think of this as a book equivalent of Die Hard (which is a Christmas movie in my world). While maybe not the best Spenser story, it's a fun break from the usual fare this time of year.

Cute enough for what it is, but not my favorite holiday short story.

Quick, humorous holiday read. It really is the perfect read for this time of year. Heartwarming characters (especially Walter the dog) with a nostalgic glow. I can see this one turning into a holiday tradition and reading or listening to it every year.

Dear Dulcie,

For the love of the book gods, shut the hell up and go to sleep.

Thanks.


Maybe if she had done that instead of talking (thinking) in circles about who could possibly be the mole/saboteur I might have liked this book better. Less whining. Less repetition. Less me thinking Dulcie is a judgmental and incompetent moron. And maybe, just maybe there would have been some kind of event to move the overall story forward. As it is, I feel like this book left off in the same place it started. Nowhere.

This was a cute holiday read that wandered away from the usual holiday tropes.

Meh with a bit of ridiculousness. The elements for a good, if predictable cozy mystery were all there yet they didn't really come together. The writing was rather simplistic and the author was too dependent on cliches - both setting and plot. And that ordering black coffee was the main (and pretty much only) way of weeding out suspects was shake my head, over the top, plot insanity. But Jo seems like she'd be a decent cozy mystery protagonist if she was given more time to develop, so maybe I'd be willing to try another book in the series (if I was looking for mindless, no need to think reading).

Kind of cute until the last 1/4 of the book when it started to get a little too church-y. I mean, it's a Christmas themed book set on a Christmas Tree farm, so a little of the religious to sneak in (like saying they're going to a Christmas eve service). But this was more barely anything to suddenly, talking about going to Sunday services and praying for family members to get along.

Oh, and the ending that came out of left field. Seriously, Gavin proposed? He hadn't seen Madison in almost 20 years (his oldest was in college so the math says somewhere in the 18-20yrs range), he helps sell a few trees, goes on one date and suddenly he has a ring and is on bended knee to finish the story. I'd rather have seen a quiet ending and then an epilogue.

It never fails that at the end of the year I find myself visiting Snowflake, SC in one of Fischer's holiday themed short stories. There's nothing overly exciting or plot shattering, but they always make me smile. This one did just that, which makes it a good way to finish up my reading for the year.

This time of year I have a habit of going looking for short, sweet and cheesy holiday stories. Kinda like how I get sucked into those ridiculously sappy, tooth rotting movies on the Hallmark channel (I know I'm not the only one with this problem). This story hits every single one of those requirements. Even with that, it's still kinda meh. Nothing special about Eve or Mr. Realtor Guy (who's name I already can't remember). Basically the equivalent of the last little bit of spun sugar - sweet but easily forgotten.

Edited to add: Christmas Eve and Christmas Music are NOT the same short story even through Goodreads shows them as different editions of the same story.

Thankfully the last 25% of this book exists. Otherwise I'd be giving it less stars.

When did Jolie become so incredibly dumb? Way back in book one, I swear she was skeptical about anything and everything paranormal (or maybe I'm not remembering correctly). In this book she gulps down every word Sinjin tells her like it's a glass of water and she just emerged from a 3 day trek through the desert. Never been a huge Sinjin fan, but it felt like most of this book was there to appease his fans. Claims that he went back to protect Jolie from the Lurkers seemed ridiculous when the one single appearance they made, he couldn't do anything about. And then there's the time travel. I don't mind it - and even find it fun- if handled correctly. There are rules that must be followed, starting with anything you change effects the future (anyone who's watched Back to the Future knows this). Sinjin going back, meeting Jolie, changing things changes EVERYTHING. To put it right Rand and company give her all the memories of future Jolie. How is that not another change? Is this girl really going to purposely follow every decision she made to a T in books 1-3 so that she ends up in the same place she should be? If the preview at the end is any indication, it appears so. Yeah. Sure. Ok. I've got some swampland in Florida that I'm willing to sell really cheap too.

At least with the last part, things started to get back to somewhat normal. Characters were more themselves. Jolie was smarter. Rand was back (what the heck took him so long). And as usual Mathilda was the voice of reason. A whole extra star for those 3 things.

Not my favorite story from Snowflake, NC, but still an enjoyable short read

Cute, short series of Christmas themed essays. Good for this time of year when I can't remember what day it is, but probably won't remember anything from this one a couple of months from now.

While I liked Essie as the narrator, the plot was really scattered and drawn out. There was almost too much going on and so the author never gave any of the plot lines any depth.

This was my first Robin Carr book. Honestly I can't see myself reading another one. I was Bored. With a capital B. Couldn't wait for it to end - I was yelling at the last 15 pages for the characters to stop talking. Who talks like that in real life? No one I know that's for sure. It was too perfect. The characters never talked or for that matter argued over one another. And the anger. Geez, the anger directed at the men of the book was so over the top it was ridiculous.

The multiple plots might have been ok had they not contained almost every possible social issue out there. If was like reading a cross between a “very special” episode of a sitcom (minus even the hit of humor) and an episode of your favorite issues oriented talk show. Drugs/alcohol use with teens? Check. Husbands who cheats? Check. Mental illness? Check. Abuse? Check. Homophobia? Check. I think the only current events type issue missing was bullying - though I'm sure that was just a simple oversight on the part of the author.

Maybe if you're a huge fan of Carr, you might like this one. Otherwise, I'd skip it.

Continuing to enjoy this series, even if this one wasn't my favorite. I wanted to shake both Fran and Mike. I kept thinking that maybe Mike was purposefully acting like a jerk to help the investigation. I get that Fran sticking her nose in everything is annoying (believe me), but being angry and constantly yelling instead of actually investigating was stupid. I still think Mike faking his anger to help catch the killer would have been a better story element. Either that or give the reader some details for why he's not doing his job.

Still like the series as a whole, so I'll pick up the next book in the future.

Here's the thing. I'm not a John Green fan. I'm just not. I know I'm not his target audience - 13-15 year old girls - but if it's well written that shouldn't matter. Not that the author is absolutely terrible, he's not. He just...there's a tendency...he has a habit of letting his voice take over the characters. I feel like I'm reading JOHN, not Chip or Miles or Alaska or Hazel or Gus (ugh how I hated Gus in tFiOS. I'm probably one of like 10 people in the world who hated Gus. But anyway...). I often get this little voice in the back of my head screaming about how no one talks like that.

With Looking for Alaska, the preachy-ness (for lack of a better term at the moment) was still there, but it felt less/better. I saw it come through more with the adults - the religion teacher, the dean/principal - and the kids were more normal teens. Sure they had issues, but they weren't waxing poetic all the time. Well, except for Alaska, but she made sense in an odd way. I liked the interactions between the circle of friends and between them and the adults.

I figured out pretty much what was going to happen pretty early on, though I wasn't sure of the how. It all felt a little too Bridge to Terabithia after that.

How do you finish a book when you start out hating every character? You tell yourself it's a silly little beach book and maybe just maybe a character or two will grow on you. So that's what I did and it kinda worked. By the end I kinda liked a couple of characters (Ty and Dori) which is better than hating them all. Merrin/Madison was still witchy and obnoxious and was so very glad she was in that last little part in name only.

No sophomore slump with this one. Character wise, I may have liked it more than the first book because the supporting characters (especially Cookie) felt more involved, better drawn. The main investigative mystery itself felt a little meh - especially the let down of a conclusion the one guy's mom did it? Seriously? A character who wasn't even in the same state as everyone else?. I do wish we'd had more conversation between Charley and her dad and him realizing she's “special”. But all the chaos and action and chatting with the dearly departed (Angel cracks me up every time) was well done.

Fun, light-hearted paranormal chicklit with some definite laugh out loud moments.

I lost count of the number of times while wandering through Barnes and Noble, I stopped and looked at this book. The cover was intriguing. The title was curious. The blurb on the back sounded decent enough. But every time, for one reason or another, I put it back. Maybe it was a subconscious warning me away. A slight fear of all those things listed above ending up not living up to expectations. After having the chance to sit down and read this, it appears my subconscious was correct.

Take away the odd photographs that are said to have inspired the story and what's left? A mediocre at best story that can't quite seem to find its focus. Is the focus supposed to be on Jacob and be a coming of age type story? Is it supposed to be time travel? Is this focus supposed to be the children in the time loop who are alive but don't really live? Is it supposed to be an adventure that focuses on the “scary” (not a word I would use to describe this book ever) kidnapping, evil beings out to take over/destroy the world? Actually I'm not sure what the scary, evil, vague enemy group really wants to do. Maybe they want to take over the universe. Or just Antartica and form their own Shangri-La. And yes, I know a book can be all of those things at once, but it can't do that when the narrative is disjointed and all over the place like it is here.

Jacob, our narrator, is supposedly sixteen. Great. A pretty normal age for a main character in a ya novel. Except that I had to keep reminding myself that he WAS 16 every couple of pages. Most of the time he read like he was 10 or 11. Maybe 12 at the oldest. On top of that, he wasn't likable. He had no charm. He was a rich kid, with rich parents, who went out of his way to whine about everything and anything. There wasn't anything to make him complex. There wasn't anything that made me thing, ok I don't like him but I can kind of see why he's acting this way. Nope. He was just a brat. The entire length of the story was just Jacob on a teeter-tottering between giving a damn or not (most of the time, the answer was not).

There was no rhyme or reason to the peculiars or why they were there, what they were doing. It was like the author had the stack of photographs on his desk and as he went through them, made up a story about each one and added it to the book. Didn't matter that it didn't flow narratively, that the photo didn't match the character age-wise or that the story itself was weak. It was more about look how creative I am, wink, wink.

I wish the there had been more and better explanations about the loops. are they all 24 hour cycles? If a loop stops working or is sealed, how does that affect real time? Does anything change? If a loop is sealed, how does another group inhabit in the future?

All of that doens't make for a good story. All it makes is a big mess.

I think I may have to take a long break from the WMC books. This one left me just meh. Lindsay whined and fretted, which is what she does a lot of anymore. Cindy managed to get herself in trouble. Again. Yuki did the whole “I'm right about everything...oh wait maybe not quite about everything” thing. And Claire was on prop duty. None of the 3 major arcs kept me interested. The best one was probably Yuki's court case but that ended up being so convoluted, that I really didn't care how it all worked out.

Liked it, but I'm starting to sense a pattern...Emma starts at square 1. Then the hints start in and Sutton starts having only partial memories. Everything points to a particular character being guilty. There's a possible motive and plenty of opportunity - at least as far as Emma knows. And then we get to the end and it was all a big red herring. And we're back at square 1, ready for the next book. If this continues, I'll stop thinking this series is a fun diversion.

Enchanting. Magic and Belief. A book that made me smile - especially those last 10 or so pages.

This one has been on my to read list from the day it was published and now I'm trying to figure out why I waited so long to read it. Well of course I know why - I was worried. Worried that it wouldn't live up to my expectations. Worried that all the positive reviews were wrong and I'd only agree with the negative ones. Because there is nothing worse than finding out you absolutely hate a book that you really wanted to love. I really had nothing to worry about.

Is the Night Circus perfect? No, of course not. Are there issues that you kind of just have to ignore? Yep. But this is one of those stories where in the end everything comes together and all of that is enough to overcome those little things.

If you're looking for vast character development where everyone grows with the story, this isn't it. Marco and Celia, our main characters aren't the most interesting of the group (honestly I found Marco a bit dull at times). Naturally I wish there had been more on Celia and her emotions as she learned the art of illusion from Hector. Even Bailey (who I loved) at times felt like he forgot to tell the reader why he was so willing to take up the cause. But maybe why isn't the important question. Sometimes you're better off not asking for the explanation and instead just letting the experience itself take over. Don't over think things.

If you're looking for some kind of fantastical action thrill ride with magic, once again this isn't it. (I suggest you add The Prestige to your Netflix queue if that's what you're looking for.) This story is more of winding Sunday afternoon hike. A hike where you want to pay attention to and notice everything around you rather than keeping your eyes forever trained on the trail directly in front of you. Description abounds. Everywhere and about everything. Normally I'm not one for long winded, purple-ish prose. But in this case, it's needed and for the most part welcomed. It's those descriptions that set the scenes; that bring the circus and its story to life. See, this story isn't about Marco and Celia or Bailey or Poppet and Widget, or even Hector and Alexander. It's about The Circus and how all of them (plus the other mid-major characters) together and apart experience it.