Kathrine
Pretty good story that was marred by a lot of little details that weren't quite right. What has happened to all the good editors in the world? Downsized maybe? Just need someone who has enough of a clue to realize the San Francisco earthquake and fire the author mentions happened in 1906 not 1907. Someone who thinks to double check when honey crisp apples were developed - they were developed in Minnesota as cold weather tolerant trees and were released in the 1990s - so they couldn't possibly in an orchard and producing large quantities of fruit in the 1950s. If an editor can't do that, then how about an author who can, like the rest of the world, use Google or some other search engine of their choice. Or how about as an author, at least keep notes about what you're writing. You know, so that characters don't suddenly, magically appear in scenes they weren't present in 2 paragraphs before or so that something that is said (in one case about Magnus never remembering the combination for the safe) is attributed to the correct character. Or even just the ages/ birth order of the token precocious children (I would have sworn Trini was the oldest if not for a single little thought comment from Dominic). On their own each of these things is forgivable, but when you string them all together they start to irritate.
Oh and don't get me started on how naive and ridiculous Tess was. Some weird, unknown guy shows up in her office, tells her she has this other family and she automatically believes him and drops everything to go to said family. Doesn't ask for proof. Just gets in a car with the guy. RME. Gotta keep building that suspension bridge of disbelief.
So what did I like enough to give 3 stars? The relationship (as contrived as it started out) between Tess and Isabel ended up being well written. Very sisterly - love ‘em one minute but want to punch ‘em the next. And I liked the peripheral characters - especially Ernestina - at Bella Vista. The writing style was easy to read and flowed well from present to past and back again. I also liked the mystery of the car accident and the missing treasure, but wished the author had given it more of a conclusive ending (was it an accident?).
Promises, promises. sigh. This books started out so promising. Main characters that didn't start out neurotic. The idea of finishing someone's bucket list because they can't as a plot. Minor family characters that were a little bit crazy but not too crazy.
And then it all went downhill. Sane characters became over the top. The plot that spiraled into a chaotic mess (that's who Buddy Fitch was? Seriously? That's the big mystery? ugh). And me figuring out how all the major and minor storylines were going to be tied up over 150 pages before the end (and it's only a 300 pg book. Well except the Buddy Fitch thing, but honestly that felt completely tacked on, like the author suddenly realized she never provided an answer to the big mystery. I still think the general idea of the story was good, it just needed better execution.
I did like the authors style, so I may give one her other books a try.
Have yet to meet a Gabriel Allon story I didn't like (though I don't love all of them). A fleshed out plot that has more to do with art than evil henchmen and powerful oligarchs trying to take over the world allowed most of the focus to center on Gabriel rather than his team. Well paced with interesting locales. All the characters I love have returned, though I do wish Mr Silva would stop using Mikhail as a punching bag.
Overall, better than I thought it would be, even if the ending was rather abrupt. I would have been annoyed if I had read this back when it originally was published and not known it was the first of a series. The characters were mostly likable (Angel was a little bratty, but expected because of her age). Only real issue was at times the dialogue and character thoughts felt a bit cheesy and dated.
The premise of Flashforward in intriguing and thought provoking. Fate versus free will with a cast of characters trying to make sense of it from a scientific and emotional perspective. Sadly though, I found the execution of the story lacking. There were two many heavy handed scientific conversations - both between characters and with only themselves - that left my brain wandering, wishing the book was more like the television show.
The second half the book moved faster and made the characters more three dimensional, more emotional. And while not the best climatic chase scene I've ever read, the hovercraft scenes were what what finally pushed Theo into a likable lead character. It was those scenes that took the story from 2 to 3 stars for me.
Oh how I had high hopes for this one. It actually started out pretty good. I was thinking teen psycological thriller but as it went along, it quickly became obvious that it was aimed more at the tween segment. Ok, I could live with that. It had some little moments/hints of Dorian Gray so I thought there was still some kind of possibility of good story. And then the story fell off the cliff, tumbled through some undergrowth, rolled past some tumbleweeds and lay in a heaping mess at the bottom of a canyon of vampire-ness. Ugh. I have no issues with ya books containing vampires; some are actually pretty good (no, not the sparkly ones). But to suddenly take a story that is supposedly about phobias and fear and make it all about an immortal being? I didn't know whether to laugh or throw the book across the room.
Speaking of phobias. How about our illustrious, super smart, main character/supposed hero, Will Besting. When we finally find out his fear, what is it? People. More specifically crowds, but the author apparently doesn't see much difference. So looking back, how in the world did Will ever manage to get in that van with 7 other humans he didn't physically know, drive for hours and yet not have even 1 small panic attack? Um. yeah. Ok. Since his fear is apparently more of a relapsing-remitting type fear rather than a crippling one, perhaps the adults in his life should have been more concerned about his stalker like tendencies. Perhaps if the author has given more info about how Will's little brother died, like if he was involved or if it was a horrific accident, this would have made more sense
On top of all that the author apparently felt the need to have Will explain why the author made some of the writing choices he made. Not once. Not twice. But THREE times. Who writes what basically amounts to 3 epilogues? Why encourge ya readers to read The Pearl for themselves, when you can just explain it all in an epilogue. Want to appear oh so smart to your readers, bring up Edgar Allen Poe and then explain why you decided to bring him up after the story was done. Apparently the author was following a mantra of why have less, when you can have more. Kinda like those AT&T commercials with the little kids. In this case, less is more would have been a better way to go.
Maybe a little bit of a sophomore slump going on with this particular Cole novel. Still like his brand of humor but at times it felt pushy, like Crais was trying too hard. There were a couple of times when I wanted to turn to Elvis and tell him to shut up already. And normally I like Pike, but this time around he felt a little too two dimensional, a little too there just to allow for some blood splatter.
Enjoyed the major mystery with the Hagakure, but would have enjoyed it more if the thief hadn't been staring me in the face from the moment the character was introduced.
Overall not a bad story, but it could have been better.
Interesting take on the traditional coming of age story combined with slightly twisted fairy tale retellings. Loved the “new” versions of Snow White and the 7 dwarfs. Sleeping Beauty on the other hand seemed rather vague and empty.
Still trying to decide between 3 and 4 stars. Going to have to let this one roll around a bit more.
It's a good thing this was short. And that those annoying web chats ended. They didn't add anything to the story other than make me think the author is considering retelling more fairy tales.
I usually find fairy tale retells interesting. And this one was being told from the opposite point of view (the Beast instead of Belle) Add in the ya genre and I thought it had possibility. Unfortunately that possibility never evolved into anything but sugary sweetness and cheese. I found the author's style, especially the dialogue to be juvenile. The characters were extremely stereotypical - the pretty, popular kids were all vapid and shallow and more concerned with the next party than anything else while the poor/scholarship kids were smart and homely looking all while being naive. And that's pretty much where the character development stopped, even for the main characters. I did like Will - he made Kyle/Adrian slightly more tolerable. Probably because in being more adult and less stilted, Kyle also became that way.
The end was what finally did me in. Everything in a nice neat bow. From Kyle instantly becoming human again without any pain or confusion unlike the initial transformation and Lindy didn't see a thing to Will getting his sight back and a spiffy new job to Kendra being all accepted back in her family that the reader didn't even know existed (terrible plot point) to Kyle and Lindy going back to Tuttle (why? is it the only school in NYC now?)
It's been a long time since I read Robin McKinley's Beauty (it's now on my re-read list), but from what I remember, I'd most definitely recommend it over Beastly.
Any book that makes me laugh on the first page, can't be all bad, right? And for the most part, it's not. Lots of humor, lots of silliness, and lots of fluff. There aren't enough pages for much plot development, which leaves the characters more two dimensional than anything else. Most of the time, there wasn't enough information there for me to decide whether to like a character or not.
I'm not a fan of Jane Austen (the movies, yes. The books on the other hand I find to be long winded.) so I did enjoy how Kindl poked fun at Austen's classics.
In my experience, Alt POVs fall into 1 of two categories - 1. Pretty useless or 2. Pretty good. To land in the latter, the alt pov has to add something to the story emotionally. And it really depends on how well the author has fleshed out the character and whether he/she has picked a scene that has potential relevance. Happy to say this one falls into the ‘pretty good' column. Veronica Roth picked a great scene - one that wasn't sappy or was full of teen whining. It let us see what Tobias thought about numerous things going on around him. It wasn't just about Tris.
Liked this one well enough, though really, really could have done without all the Melusina stuff. Got to the point where just seeing the word caused me to roll my eyes and skim through whatever was italicized. Also not fond of the “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” moments every time Henry Tudor and how he would never be king was mentioned. I know Gregory wrote her Tudor series first. I get it. Stop dropping anvils on my head.
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.
Wow. I'm not quite sure how to describe my feelings on this one. The main characters were so incredibly messed up and unlikeable and yet I was drawn in and didn't want to put the book down after a bit of a slow start. It was like watching a train wreck, you want to look away but you can't quite make yourself do so.
Love when an author leaves me guessing and then second guessing.
Hallelujah! I'm finished. Finally.
Glad I stuck it out and finished but now I know I am not a Tolstoy fan. Tolstoy's writing wanders all over the place with tangents. I admit there were a number of times I zoned out but kept going. It was like a soap opera. I still knew what was going on even if I missed an episode. And as if the all the tangents weren't enough, at one point, Tolstoy thought it was a brilliant idea to hear/read the dog's thoughts. Yes, the dog.
Thank god for Levin and Kitty - at least when she wasn't being a whiny, lovesick girl and he wasn't yapping about farming with the peasants. Without them I would have wanted to throw the whole book under the train with Anna.
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.
Cute, sugary. A paper and ink version of cherry flavored red pop (aka Quixie).
I've read other books by Mary Kay Andrews so I kinda knew what I'd find inside. Most of the characters were well rounded and the children were tolerable (unlike the kids in some other chick lit). The 2 exceptions were the villains of the story - Celia and Sally. Both were over the top and rather transparent. Couldn't figure out how everyone but Pokey didn't see through their thinly veiled actions to their true motivations.
Even with that little problem, it was an enjoyable beach read type book.
hmm...I'm truly at a loss as to how to rate this one. Was it great? ummm, not really. Was it terrible? No. Were there places in the book that really did have great potential? Yeah. Did they live up to that potential? No. Some parts were well laid out but then there were other parts where I felt like I was reading the back of a cereal box. Going with the cereal box theme, I'm just going to list what I liked and didn't like. Maybe that'll help me decide how many stars.
Didn't like
-Clary and Jace have got to be some of the most immature, whiney, bratty teen characters I've ever read (though I've read worse coughvampire diariescough). There were times when I wondered how old Clary was supposed to be because she was acting like a spoiled 10 year old.
-I hate the word mundane and how it's used here. Why can't authors (or at least ya authors) just call them normal, plain people? I hated it when a certain british author who shall not be named did it and I hated it here. It always ends up sounding snotty and superior. And it irritates me and becomes a distraction
-my biggest dislike? Clare's extreme over use of similes. Seriously. No need to say fist like iron when you can simply say iron fist. I can't completely blame the author for this. Her editor at Simon & Schuster should have worked to contain those (oh and dear S&S editor...there is no need to both italicize and bold words. One or the other provides plenty of emphasis)
Rolled my eyes at
- the whole that's my dad ridiculous plot point. Wasn't impressed that the author went there, but it's not like this is the first book to go there and I'm sure it won't be the last.
What I liked
-Magnus. He's just cool. His party had an Wonderland feel to it. He's a combination of Chesire and Hatter.
-Luke. granted his character isn't very deep, but there was enough there to keep me interested.
-The demon fueled transportation. Better than brooms or bird like flight abilities.
-the library at the institute
sigh...not sure listing all that helped, but I'm going with 2 stars. Maybe 2 1/2. There was just enough there to entice me to read book 2, but it's way, way down on my tbr list.
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”.