Kathrine

Three stars because of Edith Wharton's writing. She just has a way conveying scenes beautifully while giving fantastic characterizations. If not for that, I would probably barely give it 1 star. I don't think there was a single likable character in the group. Well maybe Paul, but he was only like 9 years old by the end so he doesn't really count. I don't think there was a single moment when I didn't want to push Undine off a cliff in the Alps or off a ship as it crossed the Atlantic. Not a single redeeming quality. The men were not much better. They all let her trample all over themselves. I nearly stopped reading this one and in some ways wish I had. Not a book I'd recommend unless you're a big fan of Wharton.

First off this book felt incredibly dated, even with the updates the author supposedly made (I'm not going to try to track down an original copy to compare. So not worth my time).

How many social issues can an author shoe horn into 400 pages? Apparently too many. Plastic surgery vs beauty? Check. Child Abuse? Check. HIV+? Check. Familial obligations? Check. Race issues? Check. It was like a bad Lifetime movie. To make matters worse, only one of those issues was truly about the ‘Girl in the Mirror'. The rest were all from said Girl's boyfriend/fiance and his family. By the halfway point, I was thinking someone should have suggested changing the title.

While I liked the idea behind the story and think it's worth discussing, giving the protagonist an obvious, major facial deformity wasn't the way to start that conversation.

Decent writing and a good beginning (even if it all went downhill very fast) was enough for me to give it 2 stars instead of 1.

The Cape Bay Cafe series is what it is - cozy, quiet, pleasant. Francesca, our amateur detective/cafe owner/ heroine is a sweet and polite and honestly a little over the top in her internal monologues. And some...maybe a lot of what she does is eye-roll worthy. But she's never in your face. And I appreciate that the mystery itself isn't full of padding and misdirections just to add another 50 or 60 pages. I could have done without all the “how to make tea” padding (as a tea drinker, it was ridiculous the amount of babbling Fran did concerning black tea. Just steep it for 3 minutes already. Yet she never mentioned herbals or matcha or chai). I also could have done without the attempted but never quite got all the angles connected love triangle.

Not bad but not great. The main character alternated between dumb as dirt and snobby busybody. Wasn't a fan of her sister either, but the other side characters were fun. Mrs. Marple was a favorite. Though I don't get why Mr. Everett can't have a first name? This isn't 1951. Anyway, the mystery was decent enough, though I figured out a couple of the twists way earlier than any of the characters.

I do love the idea of a tourist town with a row of bookstores so I'm willing to overlook some of the surface issues and maybe read book 2 in this series.

This was actually really cute. I mean, I knew how it was going to end, but sometimes you need that kind of story. My one major complaint was all the red herrings, obtuse-ness and confusion the author threw at the reader. Lina was sometimes the dumbest person in the room - like I figured out really early on that X and Howard were not the same person just from the journal entries. Since Both the reader and Lina were supposedly reading the same thing, Lina should have been able to see that too. But the author wanted to draw out the suspense, so Lina had to be dumb. Dumb is never a good look on a main character.

It's been a minute since the last Fox and O'Hare novel I read. I thought maybe a little distance would give me a new look at it. But nope. 3 Stars seems to be my go to for these books (except apparently #2? I don't really remember that one, but after glancing through my review, I liked this one better). They're kinda the literary equivalent of a powered sugar donut: sweet, early chewed, and likable but pretty basic without a lot of depth. Not that I read them for their literary power. Mostly they're an escape for me. Plus I enjoy Scott Brick's narration with the audio book.

Most of the story was typical - scams, undercover hi-jinks, fake shootouts and flirting. Nothing new to see here. I did however like the end. It's not the typical, mostly tied bow that wants you to go buy the next book just because. Definitely more of a cliffhanger that for now offers the possibility of a payoff (though I'm not holding my breath)

A very typical, light, cozy mystery. Nothing ground breaking, nothing shocking and no big twists. The mystery itself was on the weaker side, the red herrings were obvious and the ending didn't connect very well. The characters were for the most part likeable and fun - except when Fran was acting like she as the owner of coffee shop knew how to do an investigation better than the police. Seriously, she needed to binge watch a few episodes of Law and Order or Perry Mason or Columbo (or any other detective show out there) before going out and buying her cute little notebook. But other than that, the writing was good and it was nice to read a cozy mystery that isn't set in the some where in the south.

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.

On one hand there are no words. On the other, LOTS of words come to mind. None of them are complimentary.

Dumb. Stupid. Ridiculous. Shallow. Trite. Horrible plotting. Eye-rollingly bad. Worst use of Rom-Com Tropes ever.

This author is not a regular read for me. They aren't my cup of tea (never mind I have a large soft spot for Hallmark holiday movies and a few are based on this author's works). But I like holiday theme stories around the holidays. I know, I know. It's post holidays. But I'd forgotten I put this one on hold at the library and then it popped up as available and I thought why not. I really should have read a few other reviews and saved myself the trouble.

I mean seriously, the main characters were named Dash and Ash (well, Ashley...but still). That should have been my first red flag. But other than that it started out with your average, general tropey-ness. Forced by “comical” (I use that term lightly, because despite what the author said, I didn't laugh out loud) circumstances, our romantic heroes are forced to road trip together. Which could be fun. Except it's not. There's a do not fly order (that no one knows about), an abandoned puppy, a biker gang, teenage license plate thieves, a mechanic who thought he was abducted by aliens and the most inept FBI agents ever found on the written page. Argh. Just thinking about the whole stupid FBI plot makes me want to throw something. I've seen soap operas handle FBI plots better than this. It says a lot that I was more irritated by the agents in pursuit than I was by the idiot babbling on about his wife who he left on another planet.

But of course by the last page mistakes have been acknowledged. Job interviews have been missed but feelings have been spoken out loud. And everyone is off to enjoy a happy Christmas dinner with their loved ones. One big, neat, tidy red bow. Easily forgettable, which is probably for the best.

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.

Pretty good read. A bit more unsettling (for someone who doesn't read anything really gorey) at points but the scenes with Mr. Friskers completely made up for all of that.

Another good installment in the Henry Bins series. Maybe not quite as strong as the first two. I felt like the whole lost in Alaska/earthquake survivor/crazy dream thing went on a little too long. I was questioning everything - the author kept me on my toes - as Henry's narrative felt very real but then I'd read the time stamps and think something was off. But then Henry and his trek would distract me. Basic gist: Mommy dearest is evil. Period. I thought that before with the revelations in 3:10, but now there isn't even a sliver of doubt. But of course I'm going to read part 4...and hope that Henry's dad didn't know a whole lot about what his wife did.

Bleh. That's the best way to describe this one. With a large side of stereotypical sexism and characters. The bad guys twirled their mustaches. The “hero”, if you can call him that...

Wait.

No. I can't. I can't call him that.

The main protaganist, (I'm not sure he'd know what that word means, but he's not reading this review) was all muscle-y, macho, tough guy schtick. I'm surprised my eyeballs didn't roll out of my head in reaction.

The females - all 2 of them - were at opposite ends of the character trope spectrum. One was all bimbo, use her body to get what she wants, wants the bad guy/idiot to love her, etc. The other was all zen tough girl. Probably carried a taser and pepper spray while being a black belt. She even owned a dojo. Oh, maybe there were 3...I'm not sure...if there was a 3rd female, she was about as memorable as what I had for breakfast last Tuesday.

The plot was your typical shallow something stolen and there's a race to get it back. Honestly it's not worth anymore time than it took me to type that sentence.

And in case you hadn't figured it out by now, this book is one to skip.

About all I can say is, it was ok. The mystery part of the story was decent enough, but the steps to get there were contrived and extremely predictable. The pen, the coat, the doctor - all things I picked up on immediately and knew exactly where the story was headed with them. I couldn't decide whether the main character was that naive or if she was just a moron. Either way, it wasn't good. She was like watching one of those scary/cheesy B horror movies where you spend the entire time knowing she's going to do every stupid thing she shouldn't. The dialogue didn't help. It was either stilted or silly or both.

Short, fun, and entertaining. Didn't really learn all that much new - at least that you couldn't figure out from the books that are set after this. (and I may have to glance through Pros and Cons again because I don't remember Nick and Kate actually knowing each other at the beginning of that one.)

Crazy, ridiculous, fun read. The best part? That Henry speaks fluent Cat. His conversations with Lassie, while completely requiring a very large suspension bridge of disbelief, kinda, sorta ring true. As anyone owned by a feline knows. The part where we (and Henry) found out that the apartment had been bugged felt a little too far past believable knowing what we know about the comings and goings of Henry's family and friends. And the revelation about his mother was not so shocking....well the revelation about whether she's still breathing oxygen wasn't. But that part about her possibly conditioning Henry to only be awake for an hour a day, as test run for torture was I'll forgive all that though because the rest was fun. Now on to book 3.

A little different than Child's usual Reacher plot as this one flashes back to his military career. Nice to get a little more background on our hero through his brother and his mother. On par with Persuader and 100x better than Echo Burning (my least favorite Reacher book thus far). Do wish Leon played a little bit bigger part.

While I think I prefer Baldacci's Will Robie series, this wasn't bad. I liked the complexities of Amos Decker and I liked the supporting characters. Parts of the plot seemed a little too convenient and a little too thin. Still not sure I actually believed the killer's motive, but okay. Occassionally the writing felt repetitive (I'm hoping that changes with future books because then the main characters would already know about Amos's condition). But I'll probably end up picking up Book 2 at some point.

Enjoyable read, even if I did figure out the major twist fairly early on (really it was the only big, unforeseen twist the author could make).

Enjoyable enough - lots of action, non-stop plot, likeable characters (except of course the ones you're supposed to hate). Had to suspend my disbelief in places but I kinda expect to do that with Baldacci's thrillers. I liked Shaw well enough to want to read the next book but I had a hard time not comparing him to Lee Child's Jack Reacher. Shaw is definitely not Reacher.

huh. I kind of get all the hype surrounding this book and then again I kind of don't. And I kind of get the comparison to Gone Girl and I kind of don't.

It's a great mystery - well written, with well examined characters. Granted the characters are all horrible. Not really a single redeeming quality in the whole group. That in a way makes them fascinating. Like watching a train wreck fascinating. Every time we switched to Rachel's POV, all I could wonder was how she could be more self absorbed and how she could possible screw everything up even more. With Anna, I kept waiting for someone to knock her off the pedestal she'd put herself on. And Meagan? Wow. Talk about a hot mess. All of them took their turns in telling the truth and telling themselves lies. All that was very Gone Girl.

Where things started to fall apart for me, was the whodunit portion. I knew the shrink was a giant, flashing neon red herring. And the husband was awfully obvious. Too obvious. So that left Tom. With maybe a slight possibility of some unknown until 5 seconds before the reveal, nobody character. But that was a very slim possibility. So all that was left was the perpetually cheating, slimey, never met a lie I didn't like husband (I'd figured out early on about him and Megan). Between that and the jumping around in time, I just wasn't overly thrilled with this one.

Meh. Not my favorite Child/Reacher story. It was typical Reacher, all morally strong and crazy abilities to see what everyone else missed (though no shoot outs this time around), but the story itself was mostly boring. Glad I borrowed it from my local library rather than buying it.

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.

Yawn. Have to say that was my least favorite Reacher book that I've read to date. As evidenced by how long it took me to get through it. Had a very been there, done that vibe about it. Even the bad guys were mind numbingly dull. Not one of the characters was drawn deeper than teacup saucer. I'd write more in the way of a review, but I honestly don't remember much about any of it.

Hopefully this was a one off stumble and the next Reacher novel is better.

Action packed thriller - definitely one of the books in the Reacher series. A couple of good twists - I didn't quite see the one coming (or at least the reason behind it) I do wish some of the characters had been fleshed out a littler more. And I wish Child would try to find another way to say “Reacher said nothing”.