Dacia

Well, the last book by Kresley Cole that I read started with the male love interest raping the protagonist, then we got to watch her fall in love with him, so this was better than that. Mostly just entertaining for me because my name is Dacia, and everyone talking about “Dacia's bubbling blood fountains” made me smile. Also rife with sex scenes, no surprise there.

Sweet little book. Nice to read a YA novel with a female lead I didn't want to punch in the face.

This book is decent, but I wanted it to be more after reading so much hype. It had potential–the world here was a bit unique, despite being yet another vampire book. But the characters didn't ring true. No one reacts as they should, and too much of the plot hangs on strange decisions characters make that aren't ever really explained.

All that aside, it is a fun, quick read, especially if you already love YA and vampire lore. Just don't go into it looking for something earth-shattering.

Started this without realizing it was Christian fiction, which is not a genre I enjoy. Made myself finish reading it, and it wasn't my cup of tea, but wasn't completely abysmal either.

I was expecting something more, but it's a straightforward relationship drama where everyone involved pretty much sucks. Adding a star for the descriptive food writing, which was enjoyable.

I expected twee but got saccharin. Felt like YA but with this R-rated sex scene awkwardly shoehorned in the middle. The entire conflict ends up being just one big misunderstanding. Desserts are described in detail, but the setting, which is supposed to be so magical, gets no attention. House in the Cerulean Sea did it better.

This book will do nothing to help you learn about sweatshops, Chinese labor, the reason for unions or anything like that. The author doesn't ever really explain why she decides to boycott China; she mostly complains about being unable to buy cheap goods for her family during the boycott. And considering she continues to buy items from Hong Kong and Macau during her boycott, I'm really not sure what made some publisher think the author knew at all what she was talking about.

In the epilogue, the author mentions that a Chinese boycott is possible, but she just doesn't want to live in a world without plastic water guns. Imagine the horror!

I'm giving this book two stars, though, because it has taught me something about how not to parent. If my four-year-old ever throws a fit in the middle of Target because I won't let her buy a plastic jack-o-lantern, I surely will not later give in and return to the store to buy the piece of junk. That the author was surprised when, after doing just that, her son lost interest in the jack-o-lantern a week later blows my mind.

“To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.”

What I love most in celebrity autobiographies is honesty, and this is as honest as it gets. Get the audiobook on this one, y'all.

Bleak as hell, this book will stay with me for a long time. Small and simple on its face, but has a lot to say about human connection and the why of it all. Don't read it if you don't want to think.

I kind of read this to punish myself, since I've been all snobby and bored about everything I've tried to read recently and I knew the subject matter here would make me feel at least a little something in my cold, dead heart. And it did. But in the end, I can't help but think the book has been a bit overrated because of the heart-breaking subject matter. Beyond that, there is a little something to this book, a message, a metamorphosis, but it didn't feel as big and mind-blowing for me as I was expecting from all the five-star reviews. That said, it's a good book, it's very well written, and if you really feel like having a good cry to ensure that you haven't turned into a complete robot, it certainly fits the bill.

I really enjoyed the first book, but this one was a total let down. The characters I loved turned into dumb, whiny teenagers. And the plot was all action–go here, break in here, sneak out and run to this place–with no one ever stopping to think or to talk to anyone else about what was going on. It felt like so much manufactured drama.

Also, this one left me with the feeling that there's a hidden religious message the author's trying to push with these books.

This book is shorter on action and longer (much longer) on history that the first, which isn't a bad thing, but I did find myself hoping for an epic battle scene to break up the dry bits. I bet that comes in the final book, for which I will now begin the long wait.

Cronin sucked me in with his beautiful way of stringing words together ... then he made me cry. Dammit. A quick, pretty, and emotional read.

Started out kind of ho-hum, then the mystery and love story went to some unexpected places and I got really into it. Unfortunately the whole thing ended up with one of those wrap-up chapters that authors throw in to give you the whole happily ever after thing, where everyone has fallen in love, and they have babies and new puppies and it kind of cheapened the whole experience for me.

Not the kind of book I normally read, but I really liked it. Sad and beautiful. My only complant is that the pacing was a little odd to me at times. Recommend to fans of Downton Abbey or wartime historical fiction.

No plot, no conflict, flat characters...I can't believe I actually finished this book. The writing is so terrible–people repeatedly laugh at unfunny things. It's just everyone in the book's terrible response to any dialogue whatsoever.

Boring male character: “Boy, am I hungry.”

Boring female character: laughs

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

These books are so well-written, I wind up tearing through them like, well, like a junkie through tiny packets of heroin, apparently.

Upon finishing a Patrick Melrose novel, I feel the need to take a shower and scrub out my brain with a cozy mystery or a cheesy romance novel, but I know that soon enough, I'll be back for more, if only to find out just what's in store for our anti-hero.

Wish I could give this 3 1/2 stars. I like these books, but I hit a fatigue point at about 70% in this one where I just wanted to power through so I could read something else. I think these would be 4-5 star books for me if they were just a little bit more concise.

Calling this a murder mystery is really a stretch. But that aside, I had two main reasons for not being wild about this book.

First, the author overused some annoying gimmicks. Such as a person dying and leaving behind clues for a friend to figure out how she wants her son raised, rather than just spelling it out in a note or mentioning it while she was super sick. Worse still was drawing out the only semi-interesting storyline by having be told in increments by an old lady, who tires quickly and has to take a break from storytelling to draw out suspense, I guess. It felt forced and just didn't work for me.

The second thing that annoyed me was how the adults acted like children and kids acted like adults. A five year old in this book sits at a restaurant and eats his meal in silence, never interrupting adults or even speaking at all. I don't think so. Meanwhile an adult woman becomes totally afraid of some guy and thinks he is scary because he has facial scarring. Really?

Don't think I'll be reading any more from this author.