Sara
2.5 stars.
Thank God, it's over!
I didn't have great expectations for this book, but it really disappointed me.
Ok, let's try writing a valid review.
sigh
The plot would be nice and enjoyable if not overshadowed by the characters and their relationship.
The book is set in Dublin, of course, and it occurs that some spots of the city are deadly frozen and our characters want to investigate the cause, the “modus operandi”, the criteria and why.
I'd say: “great! what a good idea to come back to Dublin!”, but here are the problems.
SPOILER ALERT!
1. Dani: a 14-year-old girl whose speaking consists of repeated “dude”, “feck/fecking”, “i am the Mega/the superhero”. I CAN'T stand her. I tried, she improved a little bit, but eventually I managed I don't stand her.
2. Ryodan: if he is more faster than Dani, more experienced than her, is everything more than her, WHY did he hire her for the investigation? The author seems not give a valid explanation for this. And why did he take also Jo under a fake contract? Just to have a beautiful waitress in his club and have sex with her -just with a nod-?
3. Three adult men that clearly have a kind of love interest in Dani! Ryodan, Christian and Dancer
WTF is this S**T?
I wanted to know about the investigation, about hidden information, not a “love-square” T.T
4. NOT contextualized sex scenes, such as the ones between Ryo and Jo, just to put sex however. It's not for me. Now I understand all those romance chicks who only care of Dani's HEA. I don't care. SHE IS 14, HELLOOOO!
5. The chapters from Kat's POV and the fact that in order to repay one of Ryodan's favors, he hires Kat's boyfriend as a waiter (he has to work almost naked!!! Whaaaat?!). What kind of repayment is that?
And why do we have to read so many boring chapters about Kat (casual sex is in it, of course!). Once we are told that Cruce tries corrupting her over and over, there's nothing more to say.
I just hope that Burned will be better, because for now I lost my interest in reading it.
2.5 stars.
I was so excited to read this. The premise sounded so cool. I read the first three chapters published by tordotcom and I was captured by the story, Kai and Ziede, their mission and the world.
Unfortunately, the more I read, the more it was difficult to put the information of the world and its cultures together and I had no connection to the characters either. I lost interest 20% through the book, but I dragged myself to keep reading. Hopefully, it would get better, but eventually, the book didn't hold any grip on me and I was happy when I was done with it.
Kai had so much potential to become my favorite character, but I found the characterization of all characters pretty flat. Points in favor of the book are the elaborated prose and the original and diverse world created by the author.
It's still a book that I would recommend trying because it's very well written and everyone is different, but if you see that you start losing interest, don't bother reading til the end.
parto col dire che mi dispiace col dare un voto negativo a un libro, soprattutto se si tratta di un libro che ho atteso da tanto. Ormai non mi aspetto piú di adorare alla follia questa serie, perche trovo che stia perdendo enfasi, ma almeno mi aspetto che il libro tutto sommato mi piaccia. ebbene, questo volume non mi ha coinvolto. nelle prime 300 pagine la trama non decolla, è statica, si sofferma sui pensieri dei personaggi o su stralci di vita quotidiana, è infarcita di dettagli inutili o addirittura noiosi. non vi è nulla di rilevante o degno di essere ricordato. molte spiegazioni o contenuti li trovo assurdi, non validati da una solida tesi oppure forzati. per spiegare ciò dovrei spoilerare quasi tutto il libro. Tra l'altro la trama è cosi assente che in poche righe o pochi minuti potrei raccontare un libro che di pagine, ahimè, ne ha 600. il problema cruciale di questo libro è che per raccontare quello che doveva raccontare (scusate la ripetizione) bastavano 350, max 400 pagine.
tornando al libro, nelle ultime 200 pagine la trama comincia a muoversi ma in fretta. Succede tutto in questa ultima parte e i rapporti causa-effetto di nuovo mi sembrano così poco sensati e forzati. il libro non mi ha per niente preso e ci ho impiegato più di un mese per finirlo. insomma, a me pare tanto che la Ward abbia finito la benzina e che la serie sia arrivata ormai agli sgoccioli. Forse non ci sono più cose interessanti da raccontare (per fare qualche esempio, è un po' che i Lesser non fanno la loro comparsa e anche Xcor - promettente e acerrimo nemico - qui non ha combinato molto). Se le premesse sono queste, trovo che sia meglio concludere questa serie che, nonostante gli ultimi libri, mi è entrata nel cuore, in modo degno piuttosto che continuare a pubblicare libri di 600 pagine dove succedono 3 eventi in croce. E magari “continuare” a fare visite alla Confraternita attraverso qualche novella dedicata (anche raccolta di racconti brevi) o qualche stralcio di vita pubblicato sul sito dell'autrice.
e per finire, non credo che prenderò il prossimo libro cartaceo, ma sarò più propensa a leggere l'ebook.
12 January 2021: New year's resolutions
1. Continuing with what I started last year: I decided that I am allowed to buy a new book after I finished reading at least two books, in order to decrease my quite abundant paper tbr-pile (currently standing at 115 books). It worked so far, it just takes long.
2. Concluding the series that I have started and not yet finished, giving priority to books that I own in paper format:
- Midnight Breed
- Demonica Update: 01/12/2021
- Parasol Protectorate Update: 11/03/2021
- ASOIAF
- Fever Update: 25/07/2021
- BDB
- Night huntress
- Kate Daniels
- Legion
- Dresden Files
- Farseer trilogy
- Vampire Empire
- Throne of glass
- The falconer
- Legends of the first empire
- Lotus war
- Mistborn era 2
- All souls trilogy
- Heartstrikers
- Stormlight Archive Update 27/07/2021
- Iron Fey
- Legend of Drizzt
I am curious to see my progress on the second point throughout the year. It is unrealistic that I will complete all the listed series, but I would be glad if I will conclude at least three of them. Also, I am a person who needs to change after sticking to the same world (aka, series) for some time.
3.5 stars.
Intro
After reading The Thief I thought I was done with the series. I was fed up with all the nonsense drama going on with established couples. I was frustrated to see that newly introduced characters were just recycled ones. To me, Sola was a copy of Xhex and Assail of Rehv. In addition, I was frustrated with the lack of solid story arcs in the most recent volumes. I was left wondering, Where were the big bad Omega and Lessening Society? Why the conflict was “seemingly paused”, meaning that we got little or nothing going on? I considered the series reaching a stagnation point, with no sign of which direction we were going. When I read the plot of Claimed, though, I found myself to be very interested in the premise: werewolves? yes, please! the main character who wants to protect wolves? Yes! Wolves being endangered by humans? Yes! I studied environmental protection and I love animals. That's probably why this premise sounded awesome to me. Aaand here I am back on the BDB train, with the desire of catching up with the series. However, I would love that we could just get a single BDB multi-POV series, instead of spin-off here and there, since some of the events happening in one spin-off book are relevant for other spin-offs (it seems that the concept of wolven was already mentioned in The Jackal) or for the main series, and vice versa.
Plot: two story arcs
In this volume, we have two arcs. One is from the POVs of Lydia and Daniel, making up around 80-85% of the whole book, and a minor one is from the point of view of Xhex.
The main plot was mainly focused on the investigation carried out by Lydia and Daniel, to figure out who was poisoning the wolves. The romance between them develops slowly and is very sweet, especially if compared with other PNR series (Immortals after dark, for example) or the first books of the series. This is an aspect that I really liked. I am fed up with the “predestined mate” thing, sex from the first page, everything revolves around sex or sexual desire, with no world depth nor interesting plot left.
However, much information is still left unknown. I guess and I hope the second book will again involve Lydia and Daniel, but here we get the revelations at 80-90% with no further explanation of how this came or if the character even knew about it. I will give you an example here but it's a major spoiler, so please, click on it at your own risk. Lydia is the werewolf (I actually thought since the beginning it was Daniel, so that was unexpected). Lydia asks for help from her grandpa. She kinda sees his spirit. Then, she goes saving Daniel as a wolf, and as she got shot she transformed back to a woman. That's it. No further explanation if she knew about it or if, how and when she got transformed into a hybrid or if she was born like that. Also no subsequent conversation about it with Daniel. I am a person who needs to know all the whys of what is written in a book. For some whys, I can be patient and wait to get the answers throughout the series, but for the ones that are related to a key revelation, I am not ok that they are left out. I wished it would have more depth through explanations and flashbacks and that several nonnecessary conversations would have been cut out. The plot felt pretty static probably due to the investigation. I have the same feeling with each book dealing with some investigation. Probably because there is little action.
The minor story arc is pretty vague. Xhex just escaped from some experimentation lab, something that was likely explained in a previous book and I missed something here, but this doesn't affect my rating because it's my fault. We also see some of the other Brothers, especially V and JM, and her brother Blade. Btw, I don't remember him. where did he show up first? I must have missed something here as well. Without entering in details or spoilers, what happened here is pretty is pretty vague. She goes to the Colony and meets with her brother. She also hears a whispering voice in the woods, saying that she has to do something otherwise she will die. Huh? Again, no real explanation of what was going on or who was talking. I hope we'll get more information in the next book. This thread loosely crosses the main one, through Blade and Daniel, but again how they know each is a mystery left unknown.
Characters
Both main characters are well characterized. I loved Lydia from the first page. She's very empathetic and caring. I could not connect very much to Daniel probably due to his cover (?). I also enjoyed to see the other Brothers through Xhex' eyes. It gave me a positive of feeling of connection to the series and, as I said, I would not mind if all these spin-offs would actually become just part of one solid bigger story arc.
Conclusion
Overall I enjoyed this book and made me want to go back to one of my beloved series. I liked that more focus was given on the investigation rather than the romance. What made this lower rating are the holes with lack of explanations for big revelations, the not-so-sympathetic character of Daniel, the static plot, and the cliffhanger, that left me with the feeling that this book was inconcluded. As if the author was writing and a black-out occured. It could have been structured in a way to convey more depth to the world and its events and leave out nonnecessary details of sex scenes and superficial conversations between Lydia and Candy.
Thank you, Vippi,for the recommendation.
Since we are stuck in a traffic jam and the story is so short, I decided to read it. And it's strange and mindblowing at the same time.
I hope to be able to read more,maybe also a storyline, of this universe.
4.5 stars.
After A touch of darkness, this was literally a very nice surprise!
I guess I will keep reading only his POV.
3.75 stars.
Novellas do not really work for me and this one made no exception. However, I liked the characters and story very much.
5 million stars.
David Attenborough is to me the British version of Piero Angela, the executive producer of the documentary series named Super Quark in Italy.
I urge you all to read this and watch also the same documentary on Netflix for the following reasons:
- it provides a very clear and structured explanation of what's happening to our planet: from what we have done to it, to the consequences of our actions, to what we have to do to make amendments.
- you do not need to have a scientific degree to understand it, although you'll benefit from knowing a few concepts in advance, at least superficially. For example, what the initial and final products of photosynthesis and cellular respiration are: nothing that a quick read on the wiki can't do.
- if you are not sure if the climate disturbances we are experiencing in the last decades are linked to biodiversity loss and our ever-going expansion (i.e. conversion of natural habitats into land for humans), this book will explain to you how and why
- it includes a glossary, which explains specific terminology, like ‘carrying capacity', ‘carbon storage', ‘bioenergy', ‘biochar', etc.
Please note that if you are a person who already cares about the stakes our planet is at and who is already doing small everyday actions to live more sustainably, this book won't soothe your worries.
If you don't care about ‘climate crisis', well, I will recommend you this book, because you should care, since Earth is our home and we are all connected to each other.
Sir David Attenborough uses very graphic and melodic writing that gave me the feeling I was reading his documentary (in more depth) and could picture everything he said in my head. This made the reading experience very smooth and awesome.
2.5 stars.
The short stories of this anthology just don't catch my interest. I only liked the last ones, where there is also Alec.
I'm led to think that these anthologies have been written just to make money riding the wave of success. :(
3.5 stars.
Andiamo meglio: più coinvolgente delle precedenti grazie alla presenza di personaggi visti negli altri libri.
It's the 28th February. HOSAB came out a couple of weeks ago and 141 people already rated the book 4 or 5 stars. That's annoying.
DNFed at 35%.
I was so excited for this book due to its premise and the high-rate reviews. I wanted to like it, but it ended up being a disappointment for me.
I will start with the positive aspects, for which this book still deserves a couple of stars. First, it is a well written book, well-thought and with graphic descriptions. Unfortunately, that's it for me. Not even the dragon was a good ground enough to keep going.
Why it did not work for me?
1. Plot: absent. Practically, nothing happens. Each chapter is about a battle of some sorts. I can argue of course that something might happen later on in the book and I just missed it. Yes, true. However, even in the hughest-rate reviews the lack of plot is mentioned and that did not give me any hope to go on.
2. Characterization: that's probably the main reason why I abandoned this book. We followed three characters, but they all sound pretty similar and besides for their name at the beginning of each chapter, I could not really say who was talking. Plus, I did not feel any connection for the characters. We are not told their motivations, so that I could get an impression of what the story could lead nor to feel any emotions for their choices.
3. World: the world did not catch my interest. The old gods are now dead and their bones are valuable, dragons feed on teeth. Ah. The author makes use of norse-inspired and partially invented words, of which I could not always find the meaning on the internet and this made my reading experience pretty frustrating. Sometimes, I could figure it out from the context or from viking-inspired TV series but was not always sure if what I imagined matched what the author meant. A glossary would have been of great help.
Even if this book did not work out for me, I will still give the author a chance and read his other series. maybe that will work better for me.
2.5 stelle.
Boh, racconti in cui c'è anche Alec a parte, le prime due cronache di Magnus Bane non mi hanno detto proprio niente. Non hanno suscitato alcun interesse ne il minimo coinvolgimento.
4.5 stars.
Finally a Disney book that really adds something interesting to the movies and it's pretty well written.
1.5 stars just for the curated edition.
The world is dealt with very superficially and the stories did not capture my interest at all. Very often they did not even include the champions of the game.
