Kathrine
Matching it's title, this book is a very sweet story. A bit predictable in the end, but the characters were enjoyable and the magical parts were fun. Loved that books followed Chloe every where she went.
Would have liked this one better if Kristi and her stupidity weren't the main characters. Also could have done without all the class/classroom descriptions.
Honestly 3.5 stars. I liked the characters and most of the story elements and the overall style, but couldn't bring myself to love them. There were things - like Ada's healing wishes and Ray's death can't touch me appearances - that felt over the top while so much else felt very grounded, extremely grounded. I know a story needs an antagonist, but Ray just fell flat for me. I didn't get his motivations or his obsession. Some of the scenes between Ada and Virgil drifted agonizingly to nowhere in particular. I kept thinking hurry up and get back the flashbacks. I wanted to know more about the journey she took. Adding to that, the ending felt rushed. I'd figured out long before who the victim was and who killed him. And I had a pretty good idea, though not all the pieces - as to why. I don't think the author wanted that to be a big secret anyway. I'm actually good with that. I just wanted more. We'd spent pages building to what happened, how Ada wanted and needed to perform, what the final straw was and why, only to get a “I love you more than anything. Let's start over somewhere else. Without all this. ok, sure. The end.”
Some synopsis and descriptions referred to this book as Water For Elephants meets The Night Circus (both books I enjoyed). While I can understand why that comparison might be made, I don't think that was the case at all. Yes, there's a traveling show. Yes, there's a tortured romance. Yes, there's even a bit of magic involved (both real and illusion). But this just wasn't at the same level. I never felt the need to hug a character like I wanted to in Elephants or quote multiple lines like I have from Night Circus. Still if someone asked, I'd probably encourage him/her to givet his story a chance.
I adored Garden Spells and so was curious find out what the Waverlys had been up to since then. Sadly, this one didn't quite hit all the same/right notes that its predecessor did. I liked the family isn't just blood, sometimes it's found theme and that Claire, always the level headed one was questioning her place with her loved ones, with her life, with everything. My problem was the way Claire's questioning was instigated - Russell and his grey shyster suit and gone in the blink of an eye abilities felt weak and wispy. Like there wasn't anything there but smoke, the non-magical kind. On top of that, Sydney's desperate for another child story felt predictable and repetitive. Haven't made up my mind where Bay and her story is concerned. I liked her magical OCD but the whole note to Josh and then sitting on the school steps every. day. felt, well, a little bit creepy.
Still I there wasn't anything to make me put the book down and walk away for good. I enjoyed the writing and as always Evanelle is a fantastic character (love Fred too).
An average Fox and O'Hare/Janet Evanovich novel. It followed the usual story set up with hijinks and humor. Made for a decent no thought required read.
Blah. Easily the worst I've read from Patterson's Womens Murder Club series. Too many plots, too many plot holes. And none of those plots was tied up satisfactorily.
This book. Really. This awesome, fun, charming, sweet, amusing book. It should come with a giant neon colored warning sticker on the cover stating readers should have their copy of the dvd nearby as they turn the pages. Because by the time you're done? You'll need to watch the movie. Again. For the 915th time.
Is it the greatest book ever written? Well no. But then it doesn't have to be. What it is, is a giant love letter to everyone and everything associated with the wonderful movie - the cast, the crew, the places, the original source material, and the fans. It's full of colorful anecdotes and humorous asides. Lots of little facts sprinkled through out - from the fact that the Man in Black's pants were suede to the amount of sword fighting practice to create the greatest sword fight ever to how they found the perfect cast. And all the stories about Andre. Those were probably the sweetest moments.
I think I smiled with every page turn. A book that can do that, is a rare book indeed. I'd recommend this one to anyone who loves the movie, even if you're just a mild fan.
And now I need to go watch the movie for the 916th time.
Some day Meg Cabot will write a teenage female main character who is not a)ridiculously naive b)emotionally stunted and/or c)romantically oblivious. I'll take any or all of the above - though a Meg Cabot book that contained all of those requirements would probably cause me drop said book on my foot in utter shock. Since my foot is doing ok, this book obviously treads the same path as other books by this author.
Leaving the above request aside, it's not a bad book. The basic plot idea has lots of potential and it has it's cute moments. It's just that somewhere along the way all of that basically gets lost. Jean's my life sucks lamentations and complete cluelessness in regards to Zach left me rolling my eyes more often than not. While I figured out the why behind Jean's move to New York pretty early on, it took almost the entire book to get the actual explanation. All things that will make me thinking twice before picking up the author's next book.
How is it possible for a main character to get more wimpy, more helpless, more wishy-washy, more dumb? I dunno but Cesar is apparently talented enough to do just that. Everyone, and I mean everyone from the top the government food chain to the lowly sort of consultant seems to be smarter and more competent than him. And yet, he manages to bungle and crash his way through the story -with the help of a ridiculous sparkle bomb - and solve the mystery/rescue the kidnapped. And the whole Fritz thing at the end felt like it came out of nowhere. The book while maybe not the best plotted story - there may have been one too many paranormal creatures thrown at us - is a fluffy, fast read. I just wish it was a little more saltwater taffy and a little less cotton candy.
Except now I kinda want to read book 3. It only to see if the series/Cesar gets better or worse. It's like a train wreck.
It was an okay urban fantasy mystery. A fast paced and easy read, but neither the writing nor the characters were anything to write home about. This is my first book by this author and it didn't feel like she had a really good grasp of writing from a male perspective. I had to keep reminding myself that Cesar was supposed to be some macho masculine guy - even with all the mentions of him making those super strength potions (or whatever they were called). Honestly he felt a bit Stephanie Plum-ish (I like Stephanie, but no guy who is supposed to do what Cesar does should feel like her). I did like Suzy and Domingo and even Isobel for the most part. Good supporting characters are a plus is helping me get through stories that are lacking something.
All in all, this made for good, mostly forgettable fluff. I'm already almost finished with the next book in the series, so it can't be all bad.
On a side note, the dust jack blurb is just odd. It makes it sound like the main plot of the book is Cesar trying to track done Isobel. Except that's not it at all. Maybe that would have been the better story. The main plot is finding out who killed the waitress and why.
I go back and forth on how much I like this series. Some times (like in book 2) I down right love it and other times I seriously ask myself why I bother. But mostly I liken these books to being the literary equivalent of cotton candy. Light, fluffy, impossible to take seriously but they have plot (even if predictable) and they keep me engaged when I don't want to read anything heavy. Because sometimes you need that. Whiskey, You're the Devil falls squarely into that category.
I know this series gets compared A LOT with the Plum series and rightly so. Plots are similar, there's a similar cast of characters, there's even...sigh...the potential love triangle. I hate triangles. That's probably why I was thrilled when the author had Addison make a choice and stick with it. Or at least I thought she had. There seemed to be an attempt to walk that back in this book. Fingers crossed that this walk back gets walked back because this series doesn't need a triangle. (I honestly liked the Phoebe/Savage pairing).
Merged review:
I go back and forth on how much I like this series. Some times (like in book 2) I down right love it and other times I seriously ask myself why I bother. But mostly I liken these books to being the literary equivalent of cotton candy. Light, fluffy, impossible to take seriously but they have plot (even if predictable) and they keep me engaged when I don't want to read anything heavy. Because sometimes you need that. Whiskey, You're the Devil falls squarely into that category.
I know this series gets compared A LOT with the Plum series and rightly so. Plots are similar, there's a similar cast of characters, there's even...sigh...the potential love triangle. I hate triangles. That's probably why I was thrilled when the author had Addison make a choice and stick with it. Or at least I thought she had. There seemed to be an attempt to walk that back in this book. Fingers crossed that this walk back gets walked back because this series doesn't need a triangle. (I honestly liked the Phoebe/Savage pairing).
Enjoyable fluffy fun with a dash of mystery. Definitely reminded me of Janet Evanovich's books (mostly the early Plum books). Though I'd say Maddie, our slightly ditzy heroine, is more like Sophie Kinsella's Becky Bloomwood than Stephanie Plum. Probably because her car never explodes.
Fantastic read. Fast paced, well plotted, engaging characters. I was a little worried in the beginning because in just the first paragraph Madeline irritated me. Now I think that was just residual irritation from the book I'd just finished. Because by the halfway point, Madeline had become a favorite (loved her almost as much as I loved Ed). So much so that I missed her when she wasn't around.
A great mix of over the top, absurd parenting antics and reactions (anyone who has ever had to deal with parents will immediately identify real life counterparts to the fictional women) and normal family dynamics. But, along with the humor there were serious topics like bullying and abuse, none of which were handled lightly.
The author masterfully staged and plotted the who-done-it portion of the story. Throwing in clues and jagged bits of information without tilting her hand at who was the perpetrator or the victim. It took me a while to figure out that the interview excerpts weren't really police interviews. Love what they really turned out to be.
Really liked this one - so much so that I feel the need to read Liane Moriarty's other books.
Definitely a fun read! Good twists and turns along with an unusual premise. Yes, it required a bit of suspended disbelief, but who cares. At 80 or so pages I'm not expecting John LeCarre or even Robert B Parker. I just want to be entertained. This book more than accomplished that.
Oh and the main character had complete conversations with “his” cat. That alone was enough to make me like the story (because I never do that).
ummm, ok? I mean I'm not the biggest HP fan. I like the books well enough (I think a couple of them needed a good editor. Just because you can use 7 words when you only really need 2, doesn't mean you should). But this was honestly kind of boring. And that's with me choosing to listen to the audio version - the one with spiffy sound effects and read by Eddie Redmayne. I'd be half listening and then suddenly there'd be a squawk or screech that made me jump. So I guess that was exciting. But without all that, had I been turning the pages of an actual book, I'm pretty sure I would have been bored.
A fun read that hits all the right notes for anyone who even remotely considers themselves a marshmallow, made all the better by Kristen Bell being the narrator for the audio version. Plus it's a decent mystery, with some good twists (one of which I didn't see coming until right before it happened).
Beautiful story. Now it's one of my newest recommend to everyone books. Liked Death as a narrator. Most of the time he wasn't for or against. He just was. But there were small moments - Rudy, Liesel's writing, etc - where he had moments of humanity.
Cute, amusing and decently written, though really, really predictable. Like Hallmark Channel movie predictable. Not that that's a bad thing. On the plus side, the dialogue was pretty good - realistic sounding. Picked this up (really just picked out of my e-reader library where it's been sitting for months) because I needed something light and fluffy and it fulfilled all those requirements.
Liked it a lot but didn't love it. Fast paced and an interesting plot, but there were a few too many coincidences and jumps to conclusions for my liking.
I'd be willing to try another book by this author.
So I um, read this in the bookstore...while shopping for my nephew and niece. But I'm counting it toward my books read for the year, as I did read it cover to cover (which I don't always do when shopping in the children's section).
I've always liked Pete the Cat and this visit to his world was really cute. Read to the same cadence as Twas the Night Before Christmas, it's fun and has great illustrations
This was ok. Ok in that it “wasn't anything spectacular but I don't feel I wasted my time” kind of way. It's been over a year since I read Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore and maybe if I'd read it closer to finishing that, I'd feel differently. Then again, I wasn't a huge fan of the Google Love Letter that book turned into, so maybe not.
I do still like Ajax and it was fun to see Corvina before he was an evil mastermind. In a way this made me wish the original story had been more like this - more about Ajax and his adventures instead of bumbling Clay and stupid love interests.
Wonderful short story that is a microcosm of all that is a Sarah Addison Allen. A basic everyday story - activities we all do - interwoven with magical moments. If there is one fault with the story, it's that I wish it was longer.
Supposedly this is book 3 in Baldacci's Will Robie series. I say supposedly because it felt more like the Jessica Reel show. Or maybe Jessica and Friends. There were after all the usual supporting characters, like Julie and Jerome. But Robie always seemed to take a backseat to Reel no matter what. While I appreciate the character building that continues from the previous installments, it needed more balance.
It also felt like Baldacci went with Patterson's “Look how many plots I can shove into a book” method of writing. The answer to that statement is TOO MANY. First there was the Robie/Reel vs the higher up at the agency. Then there was the Neo-Nazi plot that lead to the kidnapping plot, which lead to the Reel deals with her past (for now) plot resolution. All the while there's a couple of North Korean plots - in the past and present. And then there's the President does something incredibly stupid that puts a target on the backs of his love ones plot, followed by the big chase/explosion/shootout and tying most everything up in a neat bow. Even half of all of that should have been enough plot to fill the pages of this book.
Still, I enjoyed the Robie/Julie relationship as usual. She's probably the most real person in his life.
Hopefully the next book cuts back on the number of plots and puts more focus back on Robie.
I'm always skeptical when I pick up a YA book. Especially one that has been turned into a tv show or movie. Will it be filled with cliched dialogue and characters? A little, but this is aimed at teens so it's to be expected. Will the adults be dumb and clueless? Of course. However, I've read more clueless adults than this. Will I want to strangle each and every character before page 100? Surprisingly no. And lumped altogether, it actually made for a quick, light, enjoyable read. Better yet, it was different enough from the tv show (yes I watch) that I didn't feel like I was reading a smashed up conglomeration of 3 or 4 episodes of the ABC Family series (though I do like some of the changes they made for the show).
The one thing that bugged me was the constant switching between 1st person narrative (Sutton) and 3rd person (Emma). I imagine the reason behind this was so the author could keep the characters separate, but it made for some issues with story flow.
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.