Kathrine
I...This book...well...grr....scrunchies nose and then sighs I'm still trying to forget the last 15 pages or so. I was thinking this review would bring 3 stars up until those last pages. But yeah. No. Those pages made me subtract a star. I'm still not sure what the author's goal was with that scene. There seemed to be no purpose. Maybe she thought it would be hot and passionate? It wasn't. Ick and gross would be better descriptors.
So most of this installment - #4 in the Dulcie O'Neil series - is just there. It doesn't break any new ground either character or plot wise. Honestly, it's pretty much one big trope. It's surprising the characters aren't tripping over all the trope-iness, the way it's just laying all around covering up the minuscule other plot that felt very filler-ish at times. You know the trope where 1 half of the main couple does something to save the other half, something that is terrible, awful and/or borderline illegal - usually blackmailed into it - and then can't tell the saved person what they did. Because there are death threats. Basically a Lifetime movie of the week plot. Not Hallmark this time. Because Hallmark movies and their immensely watchable cheesiness do not allow for dark and dreary death threats.
So our previously somewhat kick-arse heroine Dulcie pretty much folds like a metal chair in a church basement and does her evil father's bidding. Meanwhile, Knight, the saved one is completely clueless, emotionally blind and apparently the most gullible Loki to ever live (which is odd because Loki in Norse mythology is a trickster). All that “fun” results in lies and fights and big breakups and brooding and sobbing guilt and woe is me, my life sucks inner monologues. For. The. Whole. Book. Which thankfully isn't that long. Sure there are a few moments levity and sweetness - Trey's love of Dulcie's dog Blue and Sam being the very smart bff who knows Dulcie better than she knows herself. Plus there's Christina who is kinda fabulous in her own way (all that awesomeness clued me in pretty quickly that she was hiding something important). But bright and shiny moments were few and far between. We're left with more angst than usual, an even more convoluted love quadrangle (why again does every guy in Splendor want Dulcie?) and a rebel allian....erm I mean Resistance that has existed for years without anyone knowing about it. Makes me not want to grab my eReader and swipe over to book 5 any time soon.
So I think I'll be taking a step back from As the Netherworld Turns for now. Not forever - I'm sure I'll be back in Splendor at some point. Because my curiosity will get the better of me and I'll have to find out how the author either ignores or explains away those last few pages.
So here's the thing about these books (I'm only through book 2, so I reserve the right to change my mind later in the series): Addison drives me up a wall. But apparently in a good way? Honestly, I actually like her (most of the time). You know, when I don't want to pull her aside and shake her. Because she makes terrible choices. But she knows they're terrible. Or at least figures it out fairly quickly. Not to mention that she makes me laugh.
My one complaint with this one is that the big mystery/investigation was entertaining until the very abrupt, tied up in a bow ending in the hotel room. Other than that it was a well paced, easy read. Great when I need something mindless and ridiculously silly.
So after 3 books in this series, here's what I've learned.
I adore Charley. Her sarcasm, stubbornness, humor and general bad ass-ness. Oh yeah and her pop culture references.
Cookie (and Amber by extension) is fabulous.
Uncle Bob, while at times irritating, is awesome.
As is Garrett, who more often than not deals with Charley's barrel of crazy with an eye roll or shrug. (his top five list of things not to say to the grim reaper was fantastically awful)
I even like Donovan the guy from the biker gang. (Hello? He was upset about Artemis, the dog. I was required to like him because of that)
The B plot was fun and not a completely by the numbers missing person mystery. It mostly kept me entertained.
My problem? I don't particularly like Reyes. Which is a little bit of a problem considering he's pretty essential to the over-arching plot in this series. I know, I know. I'm probably 1 of like 10 people with this issue. The thing is I can't quite pinpoint what exactly pushes him into the not liked column. Maybe it's the over all vagueness, even when he speaks. Or the sudden about face with regard to proving his innocence (that plot development felt a little too much like Ms. Jones picking up the Deus Ex Machina card). It's not enough to make me stop reading the series, though it does make me sometimes wonder if I'll make it to the end of the series.
I knew going in that this book was going to be meh at best. It's just not my kind of book. I know I'm really not the target audience. But it was the book group pick for January, so I promised myself that I'd try to keep an open mind. Ten pages in and my brain said nope, this is gonna need rolling snark to get through. It was like a cross between a book report and a narcissistic self-marketing event. I could have started up a drinking game: every time the author mentions that other book that she didn't write (something about Miracles...I already happily dropped this book in the return slot at the library and I'm not wasting time googling), take a drink. You'll be drunk by the halfway mark, which will probably help get through all the extremely repetitive paragraphs (don't get me started about when she was talking about songs and said the same thing 4 times). Need to be drunk faster? Take another drink every time she mentions going to her website. You'll be feeling good, not worrying about the universe at all by page 50.
Her “examples” were utterly first world ridiculous. Example: “Sob. I didn't get an e-vite to that party that everyone else is going to. My world is ending. Everyone hates me.” When in reality it amounted to poor wittle Gabby being one of a handful of people in the world who don't know to check their spam/junk mail box (never mind that every company out there warns you to check your spam box if you didn't get that email you were expecting). Geez. If your biggest problem is that you didn't get invited to a party or that you didn't find the house with a view of your dreams the moment you wished for it, then maybe you need to rethink your priorities. At one point I was seriously wondering if she actually just made it all up, because who - especially an apparently self-employed editor/copywriter - doesn't put forth the effort to get paid for a whole friggin' year? I guess this person didn't feel the need to eat or pay other bills?
I really did not like how the author inferred pretty much stated that bad things happen to people because they aren't positive enough, because they aren't open to the universe and the author's shallow way of thinking. Bull. Sometimes bad things happen to good people and it's not anyone's fault. Oh and fear? It's not a bad thing. Sure maybe sometimes it's not the most helpful emotion, but it has its purpose. Humans have a natural fight or flight response. Fear is part of that. It helps us to make decisions. We also need those other emotions this author likes to lump in with fear - sadness, frustration, anger, fear. It's part of being human. So yes, try to be happy. Empathize with others. Do some meditation (there are studies out there that indicate it is helpful) if it helps you. But all that doesn't mean the non-happy, non positive feelings are something to be dismissed. Sometimes the best path through a rough situation is to let yourself feel all of it.
In other words, go watch the Disney movie Inside Out instead of reading this book.
Not quite sure how to rate this one or review it for that matter. It was kinda cute and the secret shopper thing was a different angle for what was mostly a typical, cheesy, girl meets boy rom-com plot. It alao helped that it was short. But, some of the characters were way, way over the top (Shannon's mother) and the main character's inner dialogue often went from small smile amusing to omg, please shut up in less than a paragraph. Yes, a paragraph, because those internal monologues quite often went on and on and on. No one talks to themselves that much. I just kept reminding myself that it's a short read. And Guttenberg help me, I actually want to read book 2.
This was one of those books I added to my local libary hold list at the end of last year and apparently forgot to uncheck the “automatically borrow when it becomes available” box. Since it's less than 50 pages, I figured why not read it (and be ahead of schedule with my 2018 reading challenge, at least for a couple of days).
Not sure that was the best decision. This is the first book/story I've read by this author. It was most definitely the cute dog on the cover that enticed me to add this to my tbr list. Cute dogs will get you every time. The story, however? Not so cute. Honestly it was boring. And Peg, the main character? I wanted to shove her in a really deep snow bank. The little bit of research I did on the series indicated that Peg isn't usually the main protagonist, while her niece Melanie is. The problem is Melanie is barely a wine stain on a holiday themed table runner in this story. Nothing about either character or the general plot made me want to pick up another book in the series. I think if you're a fan of the author's other works, you'll probably like this. If not (or if you're like me an never really heard of her), then you're better off leaving it on the shelf.
I need to stop trying to cram a bunch of holiday themed books in at the end of the year. Mostly because, I end up being more annoyed than entertained by the time I'm on the 3rd or 4th one.
Anyway, I think a better title would have been the 9 Tropes of Christmas. Even though most of the story was told from a highly animorphized cat's point of view, it still covered a large amount of stereotypical plots.
This is what happens when you're trying to meet your books read goal before the end of the year and you find a short holiday themed story offer on your Nook for free . Sigh. Characters are crazy over the top and the basic plot is a typical cliche for this type of book. My first story by this offer, but I suspect she wouldn't fit in among my usual picks. Didn't all out hate it but I don't think I'll be searching for more.
If you're looking for a Hallmark Christmas movie in book form, this is pretty close to being that. It has its problems - mainly the insta-love plot - but all the rest is there. From the jobs of the main characters (one is a well known author, the other a tv diy show host) to the setting (seriously, they live on Christmas Street) to a Grinch's heart growing 3 sizes plot, it's the ideal cheesy holiday movie. Which I guess made it kinda fun (I will deny this later). Enough fun that I sorta ignored the fact that the kids were overly precocious, that the grouchy grinches hadn't dealt with their Christmas tragedy in 20 some years (over the top ridiculous) and that apparently while it snows on Christmas Street, it's never really cold.
The only part I really couldn't get past was a the insta-love. In 96 pages and about a week's timeline, they wet from strangers to neighbors who hate each other to emotional blackmail to getting married. Not just engaged, but married. In a week. Ridiculously fast. Which took me completely out of the story, because who does that? Which is why it get 3 stars.
That was....cheesy. And predictable. And childish. And at only a handful of pages, it bordered on tedious. The characters were stereotypes (right down to what color the red head thought she could or couldn't wear) and the plot points were cliched. I thought maybe this would play out like one of those cheesy Hallmark type holiday movies I ALWAYS get sucked into, but no. I couldn't wait for it to end.
Meh. It was ok. Didn't like it any more or any less than the other Fox and O'Hare stories I've read. Took me forever to get through though because I never felt any kind of urgency to find out what happened. Easily put-downable (that's probably not a word, but it fits so I'm using it). On the plus side, it was pretty mindless, meaning I didn't have to backtrack when I did pick it up in order to remember what was happening.
Two stars because somewhere in those 140 pages there were some good story bones. The premise, the set up and even the who, what, where, when were if maybe a little predictable, still decent possible story. The problem is that all that was covered up with tedious, banal, unnecessary details and comments and plenty of grammatical issues. There were parts felt like they were written for a law school text book. I read my fair share of legal thrillers. I don't need legal terms explained to me ad nauseum (if there's something I'm curious about, that's what google is for). I don't need to be told the time down to the second. Say your character arrived at the coffee shop the next morning. Want to be more descriptive? Use early or late. Say it was during the usual morning crush. I don't give a damn if it was 8:35 am on Tuesday, July 12, 2014. There wasn't a bomb set to explode at that second; there was no importance to that day. I also don't need to know what a character ordered for lunch - every time he orders lunch. Is that lunch order important to the story? Does it affect something that happens down the line? Like say the character gets food poisoning or causes an epiphany that the protagonist was allergic to nuts and that's why whatever happened, happened? No? Then it's not needed. And the receptionist commenting to herself about said lunch orders is even more extraneous.
Poor sentence structure at times stuck out like a sore thumb. Simple, stilted dialog (no one talks like that on the phone). Not so great ebook formatting. And, if as the author, you're going to knock a big ol' hole in the 4th wall, then tear the whole thing down. Don't try to board up that hole and go back to how things were. Don't use phrases that make it sound like your third person narrator just tapped the reader on the shoulder and is directly talking him/her and then pretend you didn't do that. It takes the reader right out of the story. This is a good example of why self publishing authors need a good editor or at least someone who will read drafts objectively and offer constructive criticism. Oh and remember - read what you write. That absolute favorite part? Dump it. Trash it. Get rid of it. Because mostly likely it doesn't fit with everything else.
Hunted is a fast paced, adrenaline filled story. Car chases and sword fights (who doesn't love a good sword fight?) and shoot outs and supernatural beings and all kinds of nifty edge of your seat stuff. Like sitting in a dark movie theater, edge of your seat stuff. Normally I hesitate to say a book should be made into a movie. There are always things that get left out or changed (or destroyed). Most of the time...to repeat the cliche...the book is better. BUT...in this instance, I'd probably cheer for a movie. Why? Because sometimes movies make corrections that need to be made. Corrections the author should have seen and corrected on his or her own but for whatever reason didn't. There are definitely a couple of those glaring details that need that smoothing over thing movies do in order to get the general public to accept them.
Our lead character, Lucas Soul is pretty close to being a top of the line Gary Stu. In Mary Poppins' standards, he'd practically perfect. Brilliant sword fighter? Check. Owns and knows how to use every type of gun, bullet, weapon? Check. Halo Jumping experience? Check. Willing to sacrifice himself by injecting a dangerous virus into his veins? Check. Has a day job where he looks for lost kittens? Check. Can apparently never, ever, ever die? Double Check. See? I think the only blemish on his record is his choice in love interest, but we'll get to that in a moment. I was never concerned for his life (and not just because this is the 1st book in a series). I never wondered how he was going to get out of whatever ridiculous situation he was in. Because he was soooooo good at everything he did. The only thing I was concerned about was not injuring myself while rolling my eyes.
The villains, particularly Felix Thorne were pretty basic, mustache twirling, cardboard cutout antagonists. There wasn't enough detail there to pretend they were more than that.
So about that love interest thing. This is the icky thing I'd really need the movie version to change. Anna, his love interest is also his cousin. Like first cousin - her mother and Lucas's mother were sisters. Both of them spend half the story mutually trying to keep their grandfather alive. Yeah, they're both immortals and we're told multiple times in story that immortals have had procreation problems since the whole plague thing. But cousins? BLECH. A simple “she was adopted/raised by an honorary grandfather after her family was killed” explanation could have easily fixed this icky-ness. On top of that, it was one of those insta-love plot points that never sits well with me.
I did like Reid and his dry humor. And the fact that he was still loyal to Lucas even after coming thisclose to dying a half dozen times. The chases - both on foot and by car and even helicopter were fun, if not exhausting. Could have used a little more breathing room between action sequences but that's more a personal preference than something that harmed the story. The author obviously did her research - which there is a lot to do when your main characters are hundreds of years old - so that is a definite plus.
Over all, a fun, no holds barred, urban fantasy/supernatural read as long as you don't think too much about it or pay too much attention to the details.
I am finally, finally, done with this piece of torture. After skimming and skipping an awful lot, to be honest. I will admit I learned some things about myself while dragging my brain through all those too many pages.
My Lessons:
If the book has Adriana Trigiani's name on the cover, I should let it be/ignore it/move on. Definitely don't pick it up. Even if it is the book club's pick for the month. (I've also read The Shoemaker's Wife. I wasn't particularly impressed. Still can't get over her comparing the flatlands of Minnesota to the mountains of Italy, but whatever)
I am stubborn about finishing books I start. (ok, I already knew this but holy cow did this book come close to being one of the few I tossed, never to picked up again).
I don't like authors who employ a character in a bait and switch tactic in order to write about what they really want to write about. I honestly thought this story was going to focus more on Alda. I was ok with that. Keep the famous in the background and along the periphery, especially since you're going to have make up 99% of the conversations for them. Go ahead, blur the line between fiction and reality, just make sure that line is pretty short. But, nope. Alda was pretty much a secondary character. Mostly because the author wanted to spend pages putting her words in Loretta's mouth and she apparently badly wanted to direct most of those words at Clark Gable and about Clark Gable.
I don't like authors who repeat themselves over and over. If you, as the author, find yourself repeating words and sentences every couple of pages, you need to sit down and do some serious editing. We get it. Alda was a nun. She sacrificed a lot. Loretta had probably more heartbreak/heartache than the average person. etc. I don't need to be told this 100 times. As the reader I end up with bouts of deja vu and am bored. And then I start skipping paragraphs and even whole pages. In other words, don't make your reader do your editing for you. In the end maybe you only have 250 page book instead of a 400 page book.
Apparently I like dialogue tags. You know the “said”s and the “sighed”s and the “mumbled”s etc accompanied by the speaker's name. I can't say I always pay attention to them precisely, but wow did I notice when they're not there. Those little words help creating emotion and environment.
I'm trying to think of something I actually liked about this book....Nothing is coming to mind. I guess the cover artwork is kinda pretty? But it's also pretty bland. Actually pretty bland is probably the best way to describe the book as a whole.
I liked this one well enough, but there was just something about it that left me meh. Maybe it was the ending with Jane, you know the part where suddenly she seemed all calculating and cold where Edward was concerned. Maybe it was the first time Emma called Edward ‘Daddy'. Which, ewww. (Dear authors, There are LOTS of names out there. Can we please stop naming everyone Edward? I blame Twilight for this.) Maybe it was because I never trusted Simon, mostly because I could never figure out why he was hanging around the story so much, unless to end up being the bad guy. Mostly though I think it was because Emma and Jane sounded almost identical in their POVs. I don't know how many times I had to flip back to double check who's name was at the beginning of the chapter. I know they author was trying to convey the idea that Edward was trying to make them into the same person or at least the newest version of his ideal woman, but the women in their own heads were different people. Their outlooks and experiences were different and should have been shown, even if only in the little things like tone or word choice, as such.
The story veered a little too much in the Christian Grey direction (I'm going with what I've heard about those books, as I couldn't bring myself to get to the halfway point of the first book, the writing was so bad). It would have made a better psychological thriller if the author not made it all about Edward setting up the same sexual situations with different women.
Why does it seem like every Brit authored mystery/suspense novel to come out lately is full, from page one to the author's picture on the back cover, with crazy people? Because holy cow were all of these characters immensely unlikable and mentally unstable. Except maybe the neighbor with all the kids. In that way this book reminded me of The Girl on the Train (not only are these books full of crazy, they have ‘Girl' in the title).
More like 3 1/2 stars, but I'm rounding up with this one. Mostly because this story has heart.
It's a an unimaginable, yet remarkable story that a 5 year old could survive all that he did by luck or fate or a combination of the two and then come out on the other side as a well adjusted and positive adult.
It was the actual writing that I had some small issues with. Obviously writing is not the author's career but he did a great job of explaining to the reader his emotions and where his mind was at. That being said, I think the story would have benefited if a collaborative writer had been involved. Someone who has more experience with story and sentence structure and pacing. Someone to explain that pages of talking about using google earth gets boring and repetitious.
I did appreciate the various photos and maps that were included, as they gave me reference points.
So over all an enjoyable memoir, that could have done a few minor improvements.
I finished this one like a month or so ago. Yep, I'm behind on my updates and reviews. So here goes.
If you know me and my reading tastes, I will rarely turn down a dystopian story. They're as addicting as Oreo cookies. At least for me. Sometimes they turn out to be all fluffy, frosting cream centers (so not my favorite part). Sometimes they're just the chocolatey cookie (which really, I find fabulous all by themselves). And then there are the few that are the perfect combination. Not a Drop to Drink is one of those.
It's a story about survival in its simplest form. Survival where your safest choice is isolation, because trust? Trust in other people? That kind of trust can get you killed. Instead you learn to only trust yourself and your instincts. That's how Lynn grew up. That's what she was taught. And then one day, because life in a dystopian world is never, ever fair, Lynn is forced to rethink that tendency not to trust. Otherwise, that survival she desperately strives toward won't exist. Watching Lynn work her way through relearning and diverging from what she had always known was a journey all of its own.
One of the major reasons I liked this one is because while it's considered to be YA, it didn't focus on that. Yes, the main character is a teen, but it's never about her age or even coming of age. It's about the threats and fears and finding happiness in little things. And it's about developing relationships and feelings and trust. Which, yeah are all things common place in YA, but in thise case they are different. The sometimes rocky psuedo-parent/child relationship between Stebbs and Lynn was by far my favorite of the book. They bicker and exasperate each other and yet still have each others backs through the end. I could have done without the required YA romance that really didn't develop all that well, but it was a small thing. Easily ignored or gotten over. Lucy was sometimes too precocious for my tastes, but that could be because we saw her through Lynn's eyes. Lynn had nothing else to compare it or Lucy to. Again, something I could easily let go. This is a character driven story and those characters, for better or worse, easily have their hands on the wheel.
Of course there were a few problems story-wise. The world building was weak. I kept wanting to know the why of it all. What happened that to put all of them in this dystopian setting? There was some vague mention of cholera - thus the importance of water and the pond- but it was hard to tell if that was the origin or just part of the aftermath. Also, the author is from Ohio but at times it felt like she didn't bother to do anymore than look at a google map. That's not to say it's not a well well set story(in the immediate sense). Lynn's farm, the surrounding area, even the small town in the near distance felt close and accurate. It's only when you went outside the circle that things got wonky. (Dear authors who live in Central Ohio...Northern Ohio is different environmentally, setting wise from your backyard. And Lake Erie is HUGE. It's not anything like say Alum Creek Lake. Rowing across it in a couple of hours is so NOT do-able. Visit the Great Lakes before you set your story there. Thanks.)
Overall, this is a coming of age story, but it's more than that too. It's a journey worth reading.
Apparently I like to torture myself with James Patterson books. I see them in the bookstore, I read the back synopsis and think this sounds interesting. There's a voice in the back of my head that starts whispering “Wait. What? Patterson? No. Don't do this to yourself. Put it back.” And then I ignore that voice. Often to my own regret.
Not that this book was bad, even though the writing was rather plain. It was short - just over 100 pages, so there was no way they (and by they I mean James O. Born and the notes/story outline from Patterson) could cram in 10 additional non-related plots involving 4 other residents of the small New York town where it was set. The characters have potential - especially Mitchum, if they'd lay off the constant mentioning of his almost being a Navy SEAL. The plot however was pretty much a paint-by-numbers, cram it all in at the end suspense trope.
Fun, though very, very dated read. Lots of wry wit and sarcasm. Though at times it felt a bit more like a sort of autobiographical stream of consciousness than an actual character driven story (because this was always more about Suzanne Vale than it was about anything she did).
And just an fyi, the book really is nothing like the movie. Both are worth checking out but I think this is one of the few times where I prefer the movie.