Kathrine
Slightly better than the previous couple of Reacher books. Less action, more puzzle solving/mystery than usual. There was still the required amount of violence - this is Reach after all - but most of it did happen until the last 40 or so pages. Nice to meet the group of people who probably had the most influence on Reacher's life, outside of his brother and General Garber.
Though I question how this group of former military/current security experts (especially Nagely)doesn't know anyone in the hacker world who could have found a way around the encryption of the flashdrives. Instead the bunch spend hours acting like a bunch of novice, ragtag wannabe heroes.
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.
Just bad. Whatever promise might have been there at the beginning (and I'll admit I was skeptical from the start with the whole gods divide the universe a la Clash of the Titans) quickly and permanently went up in smoke in the first 50 pages.
Juvenile, repetitious writing. Treacly, stilted dialogue. Terrible grammar. Poorly drawn characters. Ridiculous insta-love (this plot device always makes me roll my eyes, but in this case it was 100x worse starting with the bimbo-fication of the only female main character). Plots started and then dropped (hey they aren't twins, but it's not important). Contradictions abound. I've read enough series to know that the first book of the group often has a large amount of exposition. It's a given. The scene has to be set, history and life have to be explained. Worlds must be built. That's the key - the author has to actively build the world the reader is in. Show, not tell through 10 different points of view what it is sorta like. Laszlo spent an awful lot of time telling how the gang of cardboard cutouts reacted to what they saw and felt (summed up in two terms - astonished and awe-inspired) instead of showing the reader.
There was little to no plot. Most of this book is the main cast of naive nitwits on the road. Nothing happened on said road, except for one silly little goblin attack. There was no strife. There was no dissension. No tension. There was nothing. Every time there was even a hint of a possible issue, a little Deus Ex Machina would come hoping into view. Everyone got along, hummed about rainbows and sunshine, giggled and were the best of friends. 250 pages and I have no more idea what the journey is about than I had on page one. There is no good reason given to continue on with book 2.
Save yourself some time and a number of potential injury producing eye rolls and just skip this one.
A bit on the short side and not on the same level as the author's other series, but a fun read all the same. I despised Bill, the guardian angel almost from the start. Obnoxious, infantile, and crass. And then something changed and he started to grow on me. By the end I was glad he was there (though, the wisecracks could be toned down in future installments). Anytime an author can change my mind about a character, I have to give them credit. It's not an easy task. Tallis on the other hand, I'm still not sold on. Maybe if I hadn't had to “translate”/read aloud everything he said, I'd feel differently. Lilly needs more personality and hopefully that will come with additions to the series.
Interesting concept. A bit of a Ground Hog Day/Time travel mash up. Most of the characters were likable, but as always there is usually something about Kate Atkinson's books that just doesn't sit well in my mind. I was pretty ok with most things in the book until the whole Third Reich/picnics with Hitler section. It was too Forest Gump (I kept waiting for Jenny to pop up and tell Ursula to Run!) and pulled me out of the story. From that point on I was mostly reading just to finish.
Also wish they'd cut the last couple of lives/do overs. I didn't think they really added much other than to add some confusions about what the correct direction Ursula's life was supposed to take.
Mixed feelings on this one. On one hand I liked it better than the last Jack Daniels story - at least from what I remember (it's been awhile since I read Rusty Nail). I basically remember being easily distracted while reading it. On the other hand, it feels a bit deja vu-ish to me. Jack, our gruff, sarcastic, fits in with the boys club, female lead character is once again chasing a diabolical criminal mastermind/mass murderer. The absolute constant “smarter than your above average cop until almost the last chapter” thing was getting a bit hard to swallow. At least he had motive other than liking to watch people suffer.
I still can't stand McGlade. Useless and Crude. I keep hoping he'll die. I keep being disappointed.
On the plus side, the humor was enjoyable and it was nice to see the “softer” side of Jack when she found out about her father.
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.
Liked this one better than the 1st book. There was less telling the reader what was happening, less ooh look at the purdy waterfalls, and less (to a degree) whining about how much her life sucks from Kara.
However why, oh why can't a “strong”, normal, female main character be just that? Why did the author have to make her an isen? I'd already figured there would be some kind of Ourea connection that Kara didn't know about but I feel like it's a been there, done that plot point.
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.
Took me awhile to get into this one. Don't know if it was the author's world building that didn't sit right, or if the characters didn't resonate or if it was just me, but the first 150 or 200 pages were a tough slog. Even a chase/battle scene was meh. Too much telling; not enough showing. After that the pace picked up and we finally stopped oohing and ahhing over pretty waterfalls and skin color and ghost like figures. There were some interesting twists on some tried and true fantasy story elements that kept me curious as to where the author was taking things. Over all liked it well enough to give book 2 a chance.
Holy cow. That took forever to finish. Sounded liked a great premise to start with - a world plunged into mass chaos due to some big unexplained event that resulted no electricity and guns being useless (I still don't get how a gun won't fire but they can start actual fires)- but it took a wrong turn and got very, very lost along the way. I was so bored in the middle section of the book that got to the point where I didn't much care who fought who or who won (though since this is a series that part is kind of obvious) as long as the number of pages I had left was less than the number of pages I had already read. I just didn't care about any of the characters anymore. Can't see myself ever picking up book 2.
I'd actually give this 1.5 stars but only because about 2/3 of the way through there's a part where I was honestly drawn into the story and wanted to know what happened next. It lasted less than 10 pages, but those pages were fairly decent. Not earth shattering or anything but at least showed some possible potential. Quickly though it went back to ridiculous, silly, un-funny and eye roll worthy (you could injure yourself while reading this book if you're not careful). Horizon was head shakingly bad - hokey, cheesy bad dream like descriptions. And don't get me started on the idiotic talking, elevator controlling monkeys. Weak plot, shallow characters who believed everything they were spoon fed and clunky transitions. Thankfully I picked this one up as a freebie.
Enjoyable mystery that kept me guessing. I suspected who the killer was (and was ultimately correct), but a couple of times there was just enough doubt introduced to make me question my suspicions. The “one” thing that made me really think about whether to rate this 3 or 4 stars was the over the top feelings/wording that often came from Megan. Maybe I've watched too many episodes of Law & Order. Of course she was questioned - she was the wife. Yet, Megan often commented on how determined or “hell bent” the detectives were in proving her and Michael were guilty. Yet I never got that feeling from the detectives, especially not after their first meeting. Oh and the chocolate almond obsession annoyed - I swear Megan must have carried a piece of luggage as a purse for the amount of snacks she was always able to find in it.
Even with that small issue with the writing, this book held my attention and kept me turning the page so 4 stars.
“Nobody actually looks like what they really are on the inside. You don't. I don't. People are much more complicated than that.” -Lettie Hempstock
I know other reviews have pointed out that same quote, but it's so real and so true that it needs to have a spotlight shined on it. It's hard to pick my favorite conversation involving Lettie, but the one that involves that discussion is near the top of the list.
Friendship. Hope. Hopelessness. Fear. Sadness. Love. Happiness. Loneliness. Memory. Remorse. Forgiveness. Sounds like a lot to squeeze into 178 pages. Neil Gaiman does it masterfully. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is simply magical.
Enjoyed the first two books in the series, but can't say as I liked this one quite as much. The story pace slowed to a crawl. So much so that at times I felt like we were going backward. I'd say that going backward would have been an improvement but then at the end we did just that, ending up back in time all over again.
So tired of Jolie's flip floppping. Not to mention the flip flopping and lack of emotional growth from the other 2 points of the so called love triangle. There were times when I wondered if somehow I'd wandered into a cheesy preteen ya novel only to turn around and think all the characters were all attendees at a first meeting of some self help therapy group for delusional, indecisive OCD addled mental patients.
How can you not love anything that involves Four?
The first of four (yep, four stories about Four)new short stories that will lead up to the movie premier. This story doesn't introduce any thing new to the Divergent Universe, but it does give the reader more insight to Four and why he does and believes what he does. At only 35 pages, there isn't a mountain range of depth or explanation, but there is enough there for small little moments that add to the character. The glass statue and all the other things he collected because of his mother, his short coversation with one of the factionless, his want to punish Marcus turning into a realization that his decision gave him a clean slate to start over.
Highly recommended reading for anyone who has read the novels in this series.
well...I guess I liked it well enough. This book might be decent start to another series, but it's difficult to predict until book 2 makes it's debut. There's promise but there are some areas that need work. Starting with the Kate/Nick chemistry. I got the impression that there should be boatloads of chemistry between the two, but it just kinda sat there on the page not really going anywhere. Maybe it was because most of the characters where as 2 dimensional as a cardboard cut out. The overall plot seemed to have walked it's way out of a cheesy, tv detective comedy (another reviewer compared this to USA's White Collar. I see the similarities but I like WC better). I did find myself liking the supporting characers - Kate's dad (who reminds me a little of Dr Sloan from Goldberg's Diagnosis Murder series), Willie, Boyd and Tom. They were quirky and fun.
Once again, Patterson/Paetro went on storyline overload. Why have one mystery when you can have two, right? Why have one side story when you can have three. Not they were hard to follow or keep track of. (Though I got rather bored with the Bagman Jesus story which at the beginning felt like it was to be the “A” story but quickly turned into the “B” story.) No the problem with so many storylines is that none of them really get the focus or depth they deserve. And because of that they aren't memorable.
And geez. Lindsay's continued dithering over Joe's proposal is enough to drive a reader insane.
I thought this would be an easy, fast, interesting reading. Unfortunately only one of those adjectives came true. No big words, no odd sentence structure - it was an easy read. Too bad I was continually able to put it down. Why? because nothing happened. Claire obsessed about Jackie Kennedy, when she wasn't fretting over what her ex-lover was doing at that exact minute. Vivien obsessed about her long dead lover actually being alive. I figured out the connection between the 2 about 30 pages or so into the story. Characters were barely 2 dimensional and the plot, what there was of one, was flimsy. Maybe if the author had delved deeper into the characters - their motivations, their struggles with grief - there might have been more to grab onto.
What really got in the way of the story was that the actual text read more like a rough draft, if that. Character names were interchanged haphazzardly, locations were off, and for the love of history, the stock market crash of 1929 happened on a Tuesday. Thus it's referred to as Black Tuesday. Not Black Friday.
hmm...well...not the best book I've ever read. But then I don't read Dan Brown books looking for earth shattering literature. And not the best thriller I've ever read. (I read a lot of thrillers) And not even the best Dan Brown book I've read (at least it's not the hot mess Lost Symbol was). There were thrilling scenes, some great chases (always a requirement in a good thriller) and some twists I didn't see coming. The biggest problem was that there was too much exposition. Seriously. Stop telling me everything and anything you think I need to know and let me figure it out for myself by showing me the clues. There were also a few moments that came dangerously close to being deus ex machina moments. Explanations were to simple or too glossed over i.e. Sinskey being drugged.
But I have to give Mr Brown credit. The man does his research. In spades. I almost didn't feel the need to google locations, landmarks, etc but I as usual with the Langdon series I did anyway. Just to see how extremely accurate the descriptions really were.
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.