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My Father's Wives by Mike Greenberg
4.0
A straight forward story that I think tries very hard to find some meaning in the story but it ultimately didn't work for me. I think it was because the final ending to the story was meant to be uplifting or inspiring but just left me perplexed and shaking my head.
The main character in this book is Jonathan Sweetwater who has everything in his life that he could want. A beautiful smart wife, two adorable children, a high paying job. Except one day he comes home early and everything he thought he knew changes forever.
I really did like the main character a lot. Jonathan begins his tale with describing the three times in his life he was hit by lightning (totally immersed in a woman) and contrasts it perfectly with how he met his now wife Claire. What was being described hit home with me a lot.
When we get to what changes things for Jonathan I thought that his discovery of his father would lead to a greater discovery of himself and what he needed to be happy. However, we just seemed to have him meeting all of his father's wives and ignoring the good advice that his mother was giving him along the way.
At times I thought the author was hinting at an ending that I think would have made this a stronger book for me but in the end there was just a cop out and things were wrapped up too neatly.
The writing really flows and I thought that Jonathan's voice was very distinct. I felt for him as I read this book and hoped things worked out for him in the end. However, things kind of just became some grand re-telling of his father's life and wives and I found it boring after a while. It may have made for a stronger book to have his father still alive and we have Mike talking to him in the end or something happening that acknowledges that though his father was afraid to be alone he was not.
I read his previous novel and really did enjoy it and would recommend that book, "All You Could Ask For".
Please note that I received this book for free via the Amazon Vine Program. This book will become available on January 20, 2015.
The main character in this book is Jonathan Sweetwater who has everything in his life that he could want. A beautiful smart wife, two adorable children, a high paying job. Except one day he comes home early and everything he thought he knew changes forever.
I really did like the main character a lot. Jonathan begins his tale with describing the three times in his life he was hit by lightning (totally immersed in a woman) and contrasts it perfectly with how he met his now wife Claire. What was being described hit home with me a lot.
When we get to what changes things for Jonathan I thought that his discovery of his father would lead to a greater discovery of himself and what he needed to be happy. However, we just seemed to have him meeting all of his father's wives and ignoring the good advice that his mother was giving him along the way.
At times I thought the author was hinting at an ending that I think would have made this a stronger book for me but in the end there was just a cop out and things were wrapped up too neatly.
The writing really flows and I thought that Jonathan's voice was very distinct. I felt for him as I read this book and hoped things worked out for him in the end. However, things kind of just became some grand re-telling of his father's life and wives and I found it boring after a while. It may have made for a stronger book to have his father still alive and we have Mike talking to him in the end or something happening that acknowledges that though his father was afraid to be alone he was not.
I read his previous novel and really did enjoy it and would recommend that book, "All You Could Ask For".
Please note that I received this book for free via the Amazon Vine Program. This book will become available on January 20, 2015.
Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard
4.0
Pretty Little Liars follows four girls who used to be best friends until their de facto leader disappeared the summer before they started 8th grade.
Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin, Aria Montgomery, and Emily Fields were all best friends before Alison DiLaurentis (known as Ali) disappeared one summer evening. All of the girls had secrets that only Ali knew and though they were sad at her disappearance, all of them felt relieved since she knew some things about all of them that they would never want anyone to know. Fast forward a few years and it is now junior year for these girls at their private school in Pennsylvania. All of the girls have drifted apart from one another and have various upheavals going on in their lives at the moment. All of them start receiving mysterious text messages from a person called "A" who reveals their past mistakes and seems to have knowledge of things in the present that they would not like anyone to know.
I thought that the writing was very good and the story moved fast. Each chapter alternates between either Spencer, Hanna, Aria, or Emily. Ms. Shepard has each chapter labeled with their names but honestly each girl's voice is do distinct that you will not have any trouble telling the narrators apart. Out of the four girls I have to say that I liked Spencer the most followed by Emily. Hanna I felt really sympathetic for and Aria got on my last nerves throughout the entire book.
At times certain things in the book (such as everyone being totally ok with these teens drinking and no one ever carding them) caused me to be taken out of the book. This novel touches upon so many different threads (bullying, bulimia, perfectionism, etc) but manages to keep all of these threads from being tangled up with one another so I was able to read the book and enjoy it.
I can say I am not a really big fan of books that end on cliffhangers but I realize that this is a series and for you to find out who "A" is and all of the other secrets the Liars have not divulged yet you will have to continue to read the series. I honestly don't have time for that right now with all of my other books I must get through, but I probably will circle back to this series in a few years just so I can finally figure out who "A" is and what in the world was the Jenna thing that the Liars kept talking about but not providing any details in the book to the reader.
Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin, Aria Montgomery, and Emily Fields were all best friends before Alison DiLaurentis (known as Ali) disappeared one summer evening. All of the girls had secrets that only Ali knew and though they were sad at her disappearance, all of them felt relieved since she knew some things about all of them that they would never want anyone to know. Fast forward a few years and it is now junior year for these girls at their private school in Pennsylvania. All of the girls have drifted apart from one another and have various upheavals going on in their lives at the moment. All of them start receiving mysterious text messages from a person called "A" who reveals their past mistakes and seems to have knowledge of things in the present that they would not like anyone to know.
I thought that the writing was very good and the story moved fast. Each chapter alternates between either Spencer, Hanna, Aria, or Emily. Ms. Shepard has each chapter labeled with their names but honestly each girl's voice is do distinct that you will not have any trouble telling the narrators apart. Out of the four girls I have to say that I liked Spencer the most followed by Emily. Hanna I felt really sympathetic for and Aria got on my last nerves throughout the entire book.
At times certain things in the book (such as everyone being totally ok with these teens drinking and no one ever carding them) caused me to be taken out of the book. This novel touches upon so many different threads (bullying, bulimia, perfectionism, etc) but manages to keep all of these threads from being tangled up with one another so I was able to read the book and enjoy it.
I can say I am not a really big fan of books that end on cliffhangers but I realize that this is a series and for you to find out who "A" is and all of the other secrets the Liars have not divulged yet you will have to continue to read the series. I honestly don't have time for that right now with all of my other books I must get through, but I probably will circle back to this series in a few years just so I can finally figure out who "A" is and what in the world was the Jenna thing that the Liars kept talking about but not providing any details in the book to the reader.
Letting Go by Molly McAdams
2.0
Main plot is that Grey has been in love with Ben Craft since they were both 13 years old. After finally receiving approval by their parents to marry while in college Grey is excitedly planning her wedding when she receives a phone call that Ben has died (don't worry you find out this reading the book synopsis so no spoilers here) from a rare heart condition.
Fast forward two years and Grey is still recovering from the loss of Ben and has become quite dependent on Ben's best friend Jagger (I can't stop laughing at this name by the way) and they both know that only each other totally gets what it was like to lose Ben.
I definitely liked the idea behind this book a lot more than actually reading it. Losing someone you love is very hard to get past. I have read other romance novels that have tackled this same subject. How do you get past missing someone that you loved who was taken away from you? They often have the same plot points that the widow (or in this case fiancee) starts moving on to either a mutual friend of the deceased and her or a wholly new person. That right there could have been a great plot in of itself. However, this book muddies things by trying to turn this into a romantic suspense novel at the same time. Additionally, we also have a revelation totally out of left field that was not necessary at all that I guessed at quite early on in the book.
Ultimately though the writing was serviceable it was not great. Ms. McAdams in my opinion, did not devote enough of this book to show us the character of Ben. I honestly think that lengthening the prologue by another 15 pages or so to just show us with the character of Ben or at least have some flashbacks to have readers get why Grey was still devastated two years later after his death. Just writing a story that says character X loved character Y and is devastated by character Y's death is not enough for me to really feel it when I am reading it. You have to draw the reader in and have them feel that emotionally sense of loss too.
Additionally, the character of Grey was not working for me at all. Spoiled, rude, and coddled within an inch of her life by everyone I was just over her entirely by the end of the book. Jagger was a non-entity entirely and I never felt like he was a fully formed character at all. The only thing that was important about him was that he loved Grey. Other than that I was quite bored by his character. It would have helped if I felt any kind of chemistry between these two people but it was not there one little bit.
The ending felt rushed and when we get to the end I just pretty much shrugged. This apparently will become a series of books starring characters living in the town of Thatch. This will be my first and last book that I plan on reading about this planned series.
Please note that I received this book for free via the Amazon Vine Program.
Fast forward two years and Grey is still recovering from the loss of Ben and has become quite dependent on Ben's best friend Jagger (I can't stop laughing at this name by the way) and they both know that only each other totally gets what it was like to lose Ben.
I definitely liked the idea behind this book a lot more than actually reading it. Losing someone you love is very hard to get past. I have read other romance novels that have tackled this same subject. How do you get past missing someone that you loved who was taken away from you? They often have the same plot points that the widow (or in this case fiancee) starts moving on to either a mutual friend of the deceased and her or a wholly new person. That right there could have been a great plot in of itself. However, this book muddies things by trying to turn this into a romantic suspense novel at the same time. Additionally, we also have a revelation totally out of left field that was not necessary at all that I guessed at quite early on in the book.
Ultimately though the writing was serviceable it was not great. Ms. McAdams in my opinion, did not devote enough of this book to show us the character of Ben. I honestly think that lengthening the prologue by another 15 pages or so to just show us with the character of Ben or at least have some flashbacks to have readers get why Grey was still devastated two years later after his death. Just writing a story that says character X loved character Y and is devastated by character Y's death is not enough for me to really feel it when I am reading it. You have to draw the reader in and have them feel that emotionally sense of loss too.
Additionally, the character of Grey was not working for me at all. Spoiled, rude, and coddled within an inch of her life by everyone I was just over her entirely by the end of the book. Jagger was a non-entity entirely and I never felt like he was a fully formed character at all. The only thing that was important about him was that he loved Grey. Other than that I was quite bored by his character. It would have helped if I felt any kind of chemistry between these two people but it was not there one little bit.
The ending felt rushed and when we get to the end I just pretty much shrugged. This apparently will become a series of books starring characters living in the town of Thatch. This will be my first and last book that I plan on reading about this planned series.
Please note that I received this book for free via the Amazon Vine Program.
Half Bad by Sally Green
4.0
Half Bad (The Half Bad Trilogy) is the first book in the Half Bad trilogy. I think that author Sally Green is off to a great start though at times towards the end I found the book to drag a lot.
in an alternate universe where witches live and work alongside human beings there are white witches, black witches, and fains (non-witch). White witches have their own council and hunters that go about killing all black witches.
The main character of this story is Nathan who is a half black witch. The progeny between a white witch (his mother) and a black witch (his father). The story begins in medias res with Nathan being held prisoner somewhere. You don't understand what's happening but you have Nathan trying his best to escape. The story then goes back to the past that explains Nathan's origins and how he grew up with his white witch family. In my opinion, Half Bad does a good job of setting up the world building in the first novel though I think that it could have been stretched a bit to explain the animosity between white and black witches. There felt like there was a lot of the story that was left for the reader to unearth which is a hard thing to do since the narrator of the story is Nathan who doesn't know much about white witches and black witches. And we do have some information being imparted to Nathan about his parents but it was never spelled out to the reader either. That type of thing got old fast.
Once we get back to the present day (how Nathan came to be held prisoner) things slow down a lot. I got really bored reading those passages and it seems to take until the very end of the book for any action to happen at all. I assume that the next two books in the series will be more action packed and at least explain the turbulent history a bit more between the white and black witches.
I do like that the book really did bring up the nurture versus nature argument with regards to Nathan. Being raised in a white witch household with most of his family loving him versus being treated horribly by other white witches and the council is very interesting.
I hope in the next book though that we do have more dialogue between characters and more explanation on the universe that Half Bad inhabits. I also don't need to see action on every page but as I said earlier the last 25 percent of this book was just slow and not engaging at all until the end.
The age range for this book is 12 and up or 7th grade and up. I think that's a good range for this book though this book though there are some adult themes at play in this book that parents may not want their children reading about.
in an alternate universe where witches live and work alongside human beings there are white witches, black witches, and fains (non-witch). White witches have their own council and hunters that go about killing all black witches.
The main character of this story is Nathan who is a half black witch. The progeny between a white witch (his mother) and a black witch (his father). The story begins in medias res with Nathan being held prisoner somewhere. You don't understand what's happening but you have Nathan trying his best to escape. The story then goes back to the past that explains Nathan's origins and how he grew up with his white witch family. In my opinion, Half Bad does a good job of setting up the world building in the first novel though I think that it could have been stretched a bit to explain the animosity between white and black witches. There felt like there was a lot of the story that was left for the reader to unearth which is a hard thing to do since the narrator of the story is Nathan who doesn't know much about white witches and black witches. And we do have some information being imparted to Nathan about his parents but it was never spelled out to the reader either. That type of thing got old fast.
Once we get back to the present day (how Nathan came to be held prisoner) things slow down a lot. I got really bored reading those passages and it seems to take until the very end of the book for any action to happen at all. I assume that the next two books in the series will be more action packed and at least explain the turbulent history a bit more between the white and black witches.
I do like that the book really did bring up the nurture versus nature argument with regards to Nathan. Being raised in a white witch household with most of his family loving him versus being treated horribly by other white witches and the council is very interesting.
I hope in the next book though that we do have more dialogue between characters and more explanation on the universe that Half Bad inhabits. I also don't need to see action on every page but as I said earlier the last 25 percent of this book was just slow and not engaging at all until the end.
The age range for this book is 12 and up or 7th grade and up. I think that's a good range for this book though this book though there are some adult themes at play in this book that parents may not want their children reading about.
The Diviners by Libba Bray
1.0
A young adult novel written by Libba Bray in 2012 I found out that Ms. Bray is an author of some note who has successful trilogies under her belt.
I think that this book had a very interesting villain and I thought setting it in New York in the 1920s made for a more engrossing read when Bray started discussing the streets and sections of New York back in the 20s. However, a great villain and period of time in New York just wasn't enough to elevate this book for me. A lot of things were kind of hand waved away. And the ending just kept coming before it finally ended.
When the book begins we start at a party where the the crowd uses a Ouija board and unknowingly releases something dark and evil.
We them segue into the main plot which follows seventeen-year-old Evie O'Neill who has a talent for holding an object and being able to tell things about the owner of the object. Doing this at a party has caused an embarrassing secret to leak out and she is sent from her family's home to stay with her mother's uncle in New York. Evie has dreams of being a Ziegfeld girl and becoming someone while living in New York.
The problem for me is that the center of this book is Evie. Evie has the sense God gave a gnat and is selfish, lies, and pretty much is epitome of the anti-Mary Sue. Believe me I don't care for Mary Sue characters in my books. It makes for a boring read and is why I gave up reading a lot of books out there that I initially loved because I couldn't with the main character with Mary Sueish characteristics. So though I applaud Ms. Bray for not making her main character a Mary Sue she went the whole other way to completely unlikable. If Evie had been written as an anti-hero then I think that you could get behind everything she was about. However, she sadly is written as a character that the author wants you to root for throughout out the book and every scene with this character stopped me cold. Also Ms. Bray decided to keep having Evie talk like a really bad actress appearing in a sub-par black and white film. If the other characters did this I could maybe deal with it, however, everyone else seems to speak modern so to have Evie trying to sound cool was just jarring.
Evie goes to New York and starts helping out her Uncle Will (or Unc as she calls him) who is the curator of the fictional Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult. Will is also at times called in by the police to help them with unsolved crimes. One of these crimes he is called in for is a series of murders that seems linked to the occult. Along with Will's assistant Jericho, Evie assists (laughingly) her Unc with his investigation of the crimes.
If book one had just been the above I think I would have liked it more than I did. Even though I couldn't stand Evie at least the plot was pretty straight forward. However, Ms. Bray than introduces several other characters and their backstories in this book and it just made for a really difficult book to get through. I stopped at around 23 percent and had to take a break since I felt like I was getting sensory overload.
The other characters are Theta, Memphis, Sam, and Mabel. There are also some other characters such as Octavia, Isaiah, Blind Bill Johnson, Malloy and a bunch of other characters I am forgetting.
I really enjoyed the characters of Theta and Memphis but that was about it for me. Theta is a Ziegfeld girl on the run from her past and Memphis is an African American who works at one of the clubs trying to forget about his talent. Sam was a male version of Evie, Jericho had the most confusing and weird backstory ever that made no sense, and Mabel though interesting at times faded into the background except when needed.
So even with the main plot and all of the characters I listed above, we still, still get a love triangle in this book. I don't know why I was surprised. Heck I should be more surprised when a love triangle is not pointlessly inserted into a book these days. There was an except for the next book in the series in my Kindle version and I just sighed and shook my head since it appears the love triangle is alive and well. I swear for once I want one of these boys/girls in this books to just be like you know what? Go pound sand. I am freaking awesome. I am not going to wait for you to decide if you want me or the other guy/girl. Choose the other guy/girl.
So even with the pointless love triangle what really annoyed me is that the so called "Diviners" don't do anything really in this book. We do find out pretty early on who they are. We don't get them realizing what or who they are really and they don't get together to try to fight the big bad in the book. Instead the book ends and we have the promise of an even bigger bad to fight in the next book. I didn't need the characters coming together like "The Justice League" or anything but it would have been nice to have them all interact with one another.
I think that this book had a very interesting villain and I thought setting it in New York in the 1920s made for a more engrossing read when Bray started discussing the streets and sections of New York back in the 20s. However, a great villain and period of time in New York just wasn't enough to elevate this book for me. A lot of things were kind of hand waved away. And the ending just kept coming before it finally ended.
When the book begins we start at a party where the the crowd uses a Ouija board and unknowingly releases something dark and evil.
We them segue into the main plot which follows seventeen-year-old Evie O'Neill who has a talent for holding an object and being able to tell things about the owner of the object. Doing this at a party has caused an embarrassing secret to leak out and she is sent from her family's home to stay with her mother's uncle in New York. Evie has dreams of being a Ziegfeld girl and becoming someone while living in New York.
The problem for me is that the center of this book is Evie. Evie has the sense God gave a gnat and is selfish, lies, and pretty much is epitome of the anti-Mary Sue. Believe me I don't care for Mary Sue characters in my books. It makes for a boring read and is why I gave up reading a lot of books out there that I initially loved because I couldn't with the main character with Mary Sueish characteristics. So though I applaud Ms. Bray for not making her main character a Mary Sue she went the whole other way to completely unlikable. If Evie had been written as an anti-hero then I think that you could get behind everything she was about. However, she sadly is written as a character that the author wants you to root for throughout out the book and every scene with this character stopped me cold. Also Ms. Bray decided to keep having Evie talk like a really bad actress appearing in a sub-par black and white film. If the other characters did this I could maybe deal with it, however, everyone else seems to speak modern so to have Evie trying to sound cool was just jarring.
Evie goes to New York and starts helping out her Uncle Will (or Unc as she calls him) who is the curator of the fictional Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult. Will is also at times called in by the police to help them with unsolved crimes. One of these crimes he is called in for is a series of murders that seems linked to the occult. Along with Will's assistant Jericho, Evie assists (laughingly) her Unc with his investigation of the crimes.
If book one had just been the above I think I would have liked it more than I did. Even though I couldn't stand Evie at least the plot was pretty straight forward. However, Ms. Bray than introduces several other characters and their backstories in this book and it just made for a really difficult book to get through. I stopped at around 23 percent and had to take a break since I felt like I was getting sensory overload.
The other characters are Theta, Memphis, Sam, and Mabel. There are also some other characters such as Octavia, Isaiah, Blind Bill Johnson, Malloy and a bunch of other characters I am forgetting.
I really enjoyed the characters of Theta and Memphis but that was about it for me. Theta is a Ziegfeld girl on the run from her past and Memphis is an African American who works at one of the clubs trying to forget about his talent. Sam was a male version of Evie, Jericho had the most confusing and weird backstory ever that made no sense, and Mabel though interesting at times faded into the background except when needed.
So even with the main plot and all of the characters I listed above, we still, still get a love triangle in this book. I don't know why I was surprised. Heck I should be more surprised when a love triangle is not pointlessly inserted into a book these days. There was an except for the next book in the series in my Kindle version and I just sighed and shook my head since it appears the love triangle is alive and well. I swear for once I want one of these boys/girls in this books to just be like you know what? Go pound sand. I am freaking awesome. I am not going to wait for you to decide if you want me or the other guy/girl. Choose the other guy/girl.
So even with the pointless love triangle what really annoyed me is that the so called "Diviners" don't do anything really in this book. We do find out pretty early on who they are. We don't get them realizing what or who they are really and they don't get together to try to fight the big bad in the book. Instead the book ends and we have the promise of an even bigger bad to fight in the next book. I didn't need the characters coming together like "The Justice League" or anything but it would have been nice to have them all interact with one another.
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
4.0
The Raven Boys is told in the third person from 16 year old Blue, Adam, and Gansey's points of views.
Blue has been told since she was a child that if she ever kisses her true love that he will die. Living with her family of psychics, Blue has no psychic talent of her own, but can help magnify for her mother and others. One night Blue finally sees a soon to be dead boy from Aglionby school known as the Ravens Boys due to the emblem of a raven on their school outfits. All Blue knows is the boys name and she feels drawn to him.
The two other characters in the book are so called Raven Boys. We have the character of Adam who has a pretty horrible home life and feels second best next to all of the rich Aglionby boys. There is also Gansey who believes that the long dead King Owain Glyndŵr body lies somewhere in Virginia waiting to be awaken by someone who is worthy.
Owain story is similar to the themes and stories about King Arthur waiting to rule Camelot again.
The king sleeps still, under a mountain, and
around him is assembled his warriors and
his herds and his riches. By his right hand is
his cup, filled with possibility. On his breast
nestles his sword, waiting, too, to wake.
Fortunate is the soul who finds the king and
is brave enough to call him to wakefulness,
for the king will grant him a favor, as
wondrous as can be imagined by a mortal
man.
I can honestly say that I have never heard of Owain and found him to be a fascinating historical figure. He was a Welsh ruler and the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales. He instigated a fierce and long-running but ultimately unsuccessful revolt against the English rule of Wales. The "Young Wales" movement recreated him as the father of Welsh nationalism and he is now seen as similar to King Arthur with many people saying that he is merely waiting to awaken one day to rule again.
The reason why I gave this book 3.5 stars was that it dragged a bit, I thought there were way too many shifting perspectives for me to follow all of the plot elements, and there was really not enough historical information for me in this book about Owain.
I honestly that the first 25 percent of the book dragged when we switched from Blue's perspective. Adam and Gansey at that point were background noise to me and I found myself wishing that the author had just stuck with Blue. I realize at the end why we had to switch around to the other two characters perspectives in order to show parts of the story that Blue would not have been privy to. However, in my opinion it would have made the book stronger in the end to just have Blue tell the story in the first or third person without switching perspectives so much.
Other characters keep remarking that Gansey appears to be older/wiser than his years made no sense to me. The character didn't really seem older than his years and it would be different if he actually when speaking and doing things showed that older beyond his years talk. Readers eventually do get why he has his obsession with Owain, but to me it didn't fit the character that everyone else kept describing. I think I am explaining this weirdly but I think that if you just had Gansey being a normal teenager who was just curious about unexplained things would have worked for me. Trying to model him after Sir Galahad with a bit of other character traits just didn't fit. I do want to say that I did like Gansey more as we got further into the book, but initially I thought he was sucking up space in the book.
If Gansey is Sir Galahad I found myself trying to figure out who Adam is supposed to be modeled after. Adam I found to be very interesting and I felt for his character, but again I wish that he had been interesting earlier on in the book. It took a while for me to become invested in him as well. His character pretty much did a total 180 though at the end and I am wondering how that is going to impact things in the next two books.
The different plot elements coming up about how to find the ley line, the visions, the other characters, etc. was just a bit too much to keep straight in this first book. I did think that everything worked out in the end, but for the most part I kept wondering what the significance of certain things were since they would get brought up time and time again.
Last, I love it when books do include historical figures in them when they are done well. But besides the characters mentioning Owain I have no idea who or what he was besides being a long dead King and how he may have been laid to rest in Virgina.The book didn't really include some fanciful tales about him besides that he could never die and I wonder why the author chose him instead of just making the long sleeping king, King Arthur. I assume the next book in the series may expand upon the legend of Owain but I thought it would have helped make this book stronger to include some more key information about this character.
Blue has been told since she was a child that if she ever kisses her true love that he will die. Living with her family of psychics, Blue has no psychic talent of her own, but can help magnify for her mother and others. One night Blue finally sees a soon to be dead boy from Aglionby school known as the Ravens Boys due to the emblem of a raven on their school outfits. All Blue knows is the boys name and she feels drawn to him.
The two other characters in the book are so called Raven Boys. We have the character of Adam who has a pretty horrible home life and feels second best next to all of the rich Aglionby boys. There is also Gansey who believes that the long dead King Owain Glyndŵr body lies somewhere in Virginia waiting to be awaken by someone who is worthy.
Owain story is similar to the themes and stories about King Arthur waiting to rule Camelot again.
The king sleeps still, under a mountain, and
around him is assembled his warriors and
his herds and his riches. By his right hand is
his cup, filled with possibility. On his breast
nestles his sword, waiting, too, to wake.
Fortunate is the soul who finds the king and
is brave enough to call him to wakefulness,
for the king will grant him a favor, as
wondrous as can be imagined by a mortal
man.
I can honestly say that I have never heard of Owain and found him to be a fascinating historical figure. He was a Welsh ruler and the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales. He instigated a fierce and long-running but ultimately unsuccessful revolt against the English rule of Wales. The "Young Wales" movement recreated him as the father of Welsh nationalism and he is now seen as similar to King Arthur with many people saying that he is merely waiting to awaken one day to rule again.
The reason why I gave this book 3.5 stars was that it dragged a bit, I thought there were way too many shifting perspectives for me to follow all of the plot elements, and there was really not enough historical information for me in this book about Owain.
I honestly that the first 25 percent of the book dragged when we switched from Blue's perspective. Adam and Gansey at that point were background noise to me and I found myself wishing that the author had just stuck with Blue. I realize at the end why we had to switch around to the other two characters perspectives in order to show parts of the story that Blue would not have been privy to. However, in my opinion it would have made the book stronger in the end to just have Blue tell the story in the first or third person without switching perspectives so much.
Other characters keep remarking that Gansey appears to be older/wiser than his years made no sense to me. The character didn't really seem older than his years and it would be different if he actually when speaking and doing things showed that older beyond his years talk. Readers eventually do get why he has his obsession with Owain, but to me it didn't fit the character that everyone else kept describing. I think I am explaining this weirdly but I think that if you just had Gansey being a normal teenager who was just curious about unexplained things would have worked for me. Trying to model him after Sir Galahad with a bit of other character traits just didn't fit. I do want to say that I did like Gansey more as we got further into the book, but initially I thought he was sucking up space in the book.
If Gansey is Sir Galahad I found myself trying to figure out who Adam is supposed to be modeled after. Adam I found to be very interesting and I felt for his character, but again I wish that he had been interesting earlier on in the book. It took a while for me to become invested in him as well. His character pretty much did a total 180 though at the end and I am wondering how that is going to impact things in the next two books.
The different plot elements coming up about how to find the ley line, the visions, the other characters, etc. was just a bit too much to keep straight in this first book. I did think that everything worked out in the end, but for the most part I kept wondering what the significance of certain things were since they would get brought up time and time again.
Last, I love it when books do include historical figures in them when they are done well. But besides the characters mentioning Owain I have no idea who or what he was besides being a long dead King and how he may have been laid to rest in Virgina.The book didn't really include some fanciful tales about him besides that he could never die and I wonder why the author chose him instead of just making the long sleeping king, King Arthur. I assume the next book in the series may expand upon the legend of Owain but I thought it would have helped make this book stronger to include some more key information about this character.
As Long as You Love Me by Ann Aguirre
2.0
The main character Lauren Barrett after three years in college, drops out, and returns home to her hometown of Sharon, Nebraska. Lauren hated being away from her hometown, her mother, and friends, but mostly away from Rob Conrad, her best friend's older brother. Though Rob barely knew she was alive as a teenager, Lauren still can't hope daydreaming and wanting to be with him.
Honestly I quibbled between giving this book a half star to one star. I finally rounded up to one star because the author chose not to go with the ex girlfriend is evil personified story line. And sadly this character was more interesting and had more depth to her than Lauren and Rob combined. Other than that this book was in my opinion equal parts boring and infuriating. I swear I am starting to not think that New Adult fiction is going to be my cup of tea. I don't know if it is just this book or many in the genre that I have read lately but there never seems to be a major obstacle between the two characters getting together. There was a potential obstacle here and there, but things just got dropped until we had the most ridiculous story line come out of nowhere as an obstacle.
First of all, if I don't care for the narrator in a story it is going to be an uphill battle for me to like the book. I could not stand Lauren as a character. There is one part of the book where she remembers how Rob ended up saving her from the attentions of a boy who wasn't taking no, not interested, as a reason to back off. Rob was there to pick her and his sister up and got the guy off of her. So she remembers this fondly.
She also at certain times seems to have a social anxiety disorder and at other times does not. By the way this issue is never even brought up until page 72. If your character has a social anxiety disorder how about that gets brought up sooner rather than later. I think it was used as a plot point to advance the story at certain times but at other times the author forgot that the character suffered from this. Case in point, she wants to take online college courses thinking that it will be easy on her to finish school this way. Then she gets a job at a car dealership which is going to involve her having to talk to strangers and coworkers all day. Do you think we get one scene where she is having an attack? Nope. We get an attack after she has sex for the first time with the hero. Does she have an attack when she is out and doing freaking karaoke in a bar? Nope.
The character of Rob is also written inconsistently as well. Used to be thought of as himbo, Rob is sensitive about anyone talking about how good looking he is. He has a girlfriend that he cares about since she actually sees potential in him. Good thing that Rob doesn't realize that 90 percent of the time Lauren is inner monologuing about how hot and sexy he is.
Lauren also spends all of her time helping out Rob and telling him how awesome he is. Rob seriously has a self esteem problem. I would have been more interested in this book if told from Rob's point of view actually. Though his sad sack self got on my nerves too.
The book fluctuates around many plot points and none of them are done well. Things just seem to be happening after Lauren and Rob get together. Frankly this should have been a novella since I felt as if the author just kept throwing things in the story to prolong it. Instead of focusing on things that actually could have added meat to the story this totally out of the normal chance of a lifetime comes Rob's way. And of course because of her social anxiety disorder (that only flares once in a while) Lauren can't hold Rob back from having it all.
The writing isn't really that great either and each chapter ends awkwardly and the next chapter beginning doesn't tie into the ending of the previous chapter. Sometimes the preceding chapter would drop a sentence that you would think would be followed up in the next chapter and nada. It was beyond annoying to keep reading the book that was set up this way. I felt like I was reading a Dan Brown book since he is always ending his chapters on mini-cliffhangers.
This book is apparently part of a series that Ann Aguirre has written. I have not read the other book in this series and have no idea if those books are better or not. In my opinion I really wouldn't bother with this one.
Please note that I received this book for free via the Amazon Vine Program.
Honestly I quibbled between giving this book a half star to one star. I finally rounded up to one star because the author chose not to go with the ex girlfriend is evil personified story line. And sadly this character was more interesting and had more depth to her than Lauren and Rob combined. Other than that this book was in my opinion equal parts boring and infuriating. I swear I am starting to not think that New Adult fiction is going to be my cup of tea. I don't know if it is just this book or many in the genre that I have read lately but there never seems to be a major obstacle between the two characters getting together. There was a potential obstacle here and there, but things just got dropped until we had the most ridiculous story line come out of nowhere as an obstacle.
First of all, if I don't care for the narrator in a story it is going to be an uphill battle for me to like the book. I could not stand Lauren as a character. There is one part of the book where she remembers how Rob ended up saving her from the attentions of a boy who wasn't taking no, not interested, as a reason to back off. Rob was there to pick her and his sister up and got the guy off of her. So she remembers this fondly.
She also at certain times seems to have a social anxiety disorder and at other times does not. By the way this issue is never even brought up until page 72. If your character has a social anxiety disorder how about that gets brought up sooner rather than later. I think it was used as a plot point to advance the story at certain times but at other times the author forgot that the character suffered from this. Case in point, she wants to take online college courses thinking that it will be easy on her to finish school this way. Then she gets a job at a car dealership which is going to involve her having to talk to strangers and coworkers all day. Do you think we get one scene where she is having an attack? Nope. We get an attack after she has sex for the first time with the hero. Does she have an attack when she is out and doing freaking karaoke in a bar? Nope.
The character of Rob is also written inconsistently as well. Used to be thought of as himbo, Rob is sensitive about anyone talking about how good looking he is. He has a girlfriend that he cares about since she actually sees potential in him. Good thing that Rob doesn't realize that 90 percent of the time Lauren is inner monologuing about how hot and sexy he is.
Lauren also spends all of her time helping out Rob and telling him how awesome he is. Rob seriously has a self esteem problem. I would have been more interested in this book if told from Rob's point of view actually. Though his sad sack self got on my nerves too.
The book fluctuates around many plot points and none of them are done well. Things just seem to be happening after Lauren and Rob get together. Frankly this should have been a novella since I felt as if the author just kept throwing things in the story to prolong it. Instead of focusing on things that actually could have added meat to the story this totally out of the normal chance of a lifetime comes Rob's way. And of course because of her social anxiety disorder (that only flares once in a while) Lauren can't hold Rob back from having it all.
The writing isn't really that great either and each chapter ends awkwardly and the next chapter beginning doesn't tie into the ending of the previous chapter. Sometimes the preceding chapter would drop a sentence that you would think would be followed up in the next chapter and nada. It was beyond annoying to keep reading the book that was set up this way. I felt like I was reading a Dan Brown book since he is always ending his chapters on mini-cliffhangers.
This book is apparently part of a series that Ann Aguirre has written. I have not read the other book in this series and have no idea if those books are better or not. In my opinion I really wouldn't bother with this one.
Please note that I received this book for free via the Amazon Vine Program.
Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar
3.0
This book claims to be similar to The Paris Wife and Loving Frank and that fans of those books would love this one. I for one adored Loving Frank and remember being horrified by the ending. I also really loved Under the Wide and Starry Sky which was written by the same author of Loving Frank. So with this book being compared to those books I thought I have a winner on my hands.
For those who don't know Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf were both members of the Bloomsbury Group. This group rejected Victorian attitudes prevalent at the time which were shocking to the good society that many of them were brought up in. Also the group focused on individual pleasure and group and that friendship was most important than anything else. Author Priya Parmar has the members of this group appear in this book but they seem like caricatures, not the real life people that they were.
I loved Under the Wide and Starry Sky since it made me feel as if Fanny had come to life again and I was able to really experience her thoughts and feelings about her first marriage and how she came to know and love Robert Louis Stevenson. At the end of this book I felt as if Vanessa was just a character in a book. I never felt the same sense of awe as I did while reading the other books that this was a person who was a real life person that experienced these things.
The bigger issued I have though is that in my opinion this book is a very muddled read. Besides telling a very long drawn out story via diary format in Vanessa's point of view we also have telegrams and letters being sent out from another person's point of view (Lytton Strachey) and the occasional letters written by Leonard Woolf. Having the points of view shift via other mediums makes it hard to get through this book. It also makes the life of Vanessa Bell to be quite boring when it was everything but boring. I was glad to get to the end of this book and decided that I would just be better off just reading a straight biography about Vanessa Bell.
I also found the writing to be way too overly flowery at times. I don't know if the author was trying to evoke the writing of the day back then or what, but it got to be a bit too much after the first hour of reading.
Please note that I received this book via the Amazon Vine Program. This book will be released on December 30, 2014.
For those who don't know Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf were both members of the Bloomsbury Group. This group rejected Victorian attitudes prevalent at the time which were shocking to the good society that many of them were brought up in. Also the group focused on individual pleasure and group and that friendship was most important than anything else. Author Priya Parmar has the members of this group appear in this book but they seem like caricatures, not the real life people that they were.
I loved Under the Wide and Starry Sky since it made me feel as if Fanny had come to life again and I was able to really experience her thoughts and feelings about her first marriage and how she came to know and love Robert Louis Stevenson. At the end of this book I felt as if Vanessa was just a character in a book. I never felt the same sense of awe as I did while reading the other books that this was a person who was a real life person that experienced these things.
The bigger issued I have though is that in my opinion this book is a very muddled read. Besides telling a very long drawn out story via diary format in Vanessa's point of view we also have telegrams and letters being sent out from another person's point of view (Lytton Strachey) and the occasional letters written by Leonard Woolf. Having the points of view shift via other mediums makes it hard to get through this book. It also makes the life of Vanessa Bell to be quite boring when it was everything but boring. I was glad to get to the end of this book and decided that I would just be better off just reading a straight biography about Vanessa Bell.
I also found the writing to be way too overly flowery at times. I don't know if the author was trying to evoke the writing of the day back then or what, but it got to be a bit too much after the first hour of reading.
Please note that I received this book via the Amazon Vine Program. This book will be released on December 30, 2014.
Just Once More by Rosalind James
4.0
This is the seventh book (really the second novella) of the Escape to New Zealand series. I don't know if Rosalind James plans on continuing the series or not but if she does I hope we get updates on our favorite couples again in future books.
This book occurs before the end of book 6, Just Not Mine which made things a bit confusing at first. I suggest that people don't start off with this book since you will be 100 percent confused since all of the previous couples show up in this book.
Just Once More has fan favorites Drew and Hannah returning to host the All Blacks rugby team at their home. This is happening a few days before the wedding of Hugh and Josie which is why everyone is in town. We have Hannah expecting her third child with Drew and feeling overwhelmed with pregnancy and the constant people coming and going from her home. Drew for the first time in their married life is home and helping to raise their kids and realizing that even though he loves and appreciates his wife a part of her still wonders why.
I ended up giving this book four stars due to fond memories. Without those fond memories of the series I probably would have given this a three. I do still have a soft spot for Drew and Hannah since their story was the first book. In it we had Hannah dealing with the fact she had raised her brother and sister after their parents death and never having anyone to rely upon. It was huge for her when she finally realized that relying on Drew would not make her weaker but stronger. I think it was a bit too much of a retread that Hannah still thought that Drew could not possibly love her while pregnant or feeling like if she didn't do everything perfectly all of the time he would not love her.
Drew and Hannah's segues were great but trying to have the story also discuss other couples from the series was too much. It was nice to hear some of the proposal stories from previous couples since readers never got to see that. However, it ended up just feeling like filler to me. I was honestly more intrigued with Drew and Hannah and her valid points that she and the other women mentioned about needing to be more than just a wife and mother and how judged she feels by other women if she doesn't do everything. I also thought that Drew had valid points that hiring someone to do things to free up Hannah's time does not make her less than other women. I was honestly surprised to see a thoughtful dialogue going on like that in this romance read but liked seeing it included. The sex scenes when they did come were not that interesting and the one between Kate and Koti was just weird. I remember thinking that the sex between these two was so hot and very realistic. However, the conversation that took place in this book after they had sex would be something that I would think they would have had before that point.
Besides Hannah and Drew, Kate and Loti, Jenna and Finn, and Hannah's sister (who I am still annoyed did not get her own full length book) I was not interested in anyone else. I already just read about Josie and Hugh's romance and we got the novella showing how Reka and Hemi got together. I really wish that this either had been expanded in order to get more with these characters or just focus on Drew and Hannah with mentions of the other couples.
This book occurs before the end of book 6, Just Not Mine which made things a bit confusing at first. I suggest that people don't start off with this book since you will be 100 percent confused since all of the previous couples show up in this book.
Just Once More has fan favorites Drew and Hannah returning to host the All Blacks rugby team at their home. This is happening a few days before the wedding of Hugh and Josie which is why everyone is in town. We have Hannah expecting her third child with Drew and feeling overwhelmed with pregnancy and the constant people coming and going from her home. Drew for the first time in their married life is home and helping to raise their kids and realizing that even though he loves and appreciates his wife a part of her still wonders why.
I ended up giving this book four stars due to fond memories. Without those fond memories of the series I probably would have given this a three. I do still have a soft spot for Drew and Hannah since their story was the first book. In it we had Hannah dealing with the fact she had raised her brother and sister after their parents death and never having anyone to rely upon. It was huge for her when she finally realized that relying on Drew would not make her weaker but stronger. I think it was a bit too much of a retread that Hannah still thought that Drew could not possibly love her while pregnant or feeling like if she didn't do everything perfectly all of the time he would not love her.
Drew and Hannah's segues were great but trying to have the story also discuss other couples from the series was too much. It was nice to hear some of the proposal stories from previous couples since readers never got to see that. However, it ended up just feeling like filler to me. I was honestly more intrigued with Drew and Hannah and her valid points that she and the other women mentioned about needing to be more than just a wife and mother and how judged she feels by other women if she doesn't do everything. I also thought that Drew had valid points that hiring someone to do things to free up Hannah's time does not make her less than other women. I was honestly surprised to see a thoughtful dialogue going on like that in this romance read but liked seeing it included. The sex scenes when they did come were not that interesting and the one between Kate and Koti was just weird. I remember thinking that the sex between these two was so hot and very realistic. However, the conversation that took place in this book after they had sex would be something that I would think they would have had before that point.
Besides Hannah and Drew, Kate and Loti, Jenna and Finn, and Hannah's sister (who I am still annoyed did not get her own full length book) I was not interested in anyone else. I already just read about Josie and Hugh's romance and we got the novella showing how Reka and Hemi got together. I really wish that this either had been expanded in order to get more with these characters or just focus on Drew and Hannah with mentions of the other couples.
Mai Tai'd Up by Alice Clayton
3.0
So the first book in this series (Cocktail) was okay, the second was meh, and I liked the third one a lot. The fourth book in this series, Mai Taid Up was just okay.
The main character, Chloe Patterson on the day of her wedding realizes that she is about to make a colossal mistake. Realizing that she is not in love with her almost husband she retreats to her father's ranch in Monterey and decides to leap at the chance to set up a pit bull rescue shelter. She meets one of the local vets, Lucas Campbell and starts to wonder what it would feel like to kiss and be with Lucas.
Chloe's voice in this book is very unique. She has an aversion to saying the "F" word so also says "fudge". Previously a pageant girl and finally winner of Miss Golden State she is used to always doing and saying the right thing. It was great seeing her grow out of her shell and becoming an individual.
I would say that the love scenes unlike with Wallbanger and Rusty Nailed were pretty by the numbers. I found myself skimming to just get to the end. To me the romance portion was not that important since Alice Clayton made me care more about Chloe as an individual. I really wish that we had seen her stand on her own two feet and not decided to fall in lust/love with the first male she laid eyes on after her busted wedding. Readers quickly find out that Chloe has only been with one man (her previous fiancee) and it would have been interesting to have her explore her sexuality.
Additionally, there is a plot contrivance that ultimately didn't work which I think was just thrown in so we had some tension in the book .
Also, unlike with previous books I don't think I smiled or cracked a smile except for an airport scene (and that was only because the TSA agents were not at all down for people acting stupid at the airport).
Finally, the dialogue between Chloe and Lucas just got annoying. Both Chloe and Lucas lapse into Rat Pack speech and listen to Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin (due to Chloe's father's home not being decorated since the 60s/70s) that believe me got old quick. I was tired of Chloe saying fudge all of the time and the "chickie babie" nonsense between the two of them just set my teeth on edge.
The ending of the book tried to recreate the ending of Wallbanger but it really didn't work for me at all.
There are some scenes between my least favorite couple of the series, Sophie and Neil and I can only hope and pray they don't show up that much in the next book. I recommend to fans of the series since the next book in the series, Last Call comes out in January and that is going to complete the series.
The main character, Chloe Patterson on the day of her wedding realizes that she is about to make a colossal mistake. Realizing that she is not in love with her almost husband she retreats to her father's ranch in Monterey and decides to leap at the chance to set up a pit bull rescue shelter. She meets one of the local vets, Lucas Campbell and starts to wonder what it would feel like to kiss and be with Lucas.
Chloe's voice in this book is very unique. She has an aversion to saying the "F" word so also says "fudge". Previously a pageant girl and finally winner of Miss Golden State she is used to always doing and saying the right thing. It was great seeing her grow out of her shell and becoming an individual.
I would say that the love scenes unlike with Wallbanger and Rusty Nailed were pretty by the numbers. I found myself skimming to just get to the end. To me the romance portion was not that important since Alice Clayton made me care more about Chloe as an individual. I really wish that we had seen her stand on her own two feet and not decided to fall in lust/love with the first male she laid eyes on after her busted wedding. Readers quickly find out that Chloe has only been with one man (her previous fiancee) and it would have been interesting to have her explore her sexuality.
Additionally, there is a plot contrivance that ultimately didn't work which I think was just thrown in so we had some tension in the book .
Also, unlike with previous books I don't think I smiled or cracked a smile except for an airport scene (and that was only because the TSA agents were not at all down for people acting stupid at the airport).
Finally, the dialogue between Chloe and Lucas just got annoying. Both Chloe and Lucas lapse into Rat Pack speech and listen to Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin (due to Chloe's father's home not being decorated since the 60s/70s) that believe me got old quick. I was tired of Chloe saying fudge all of the time and the "chickie babie" nonsense between the two of them just set my teeth on edge.
The ending of the book tried to recreate the ending of Wallbanger but it really didn't work for me at all.
There are some scenes between my least favorite couple of the series, Sophie and Neil and I can only hope and pray they don't show up that much in the next book. I recommend to fans of the series since the next book in the series, Last Call comes out in January and that is going to complete the series.