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thelibrophile's reviews
1112 reviews
Unbroken Bonds by J. Bree
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.25
Would have liked this series a whole lot more if it were a 4 book series truly. It got so slow and so repetitive!
I loved the series till book 3 maybe. There was no surprise element left after that. We all knew what the exact ending was to be by half of book 4. The relationship development since the starting was the point I was most interested in the series. And all the development that had to be had was done by book 4 . There were just bits anf pieces left after that- which are spread out for 2 whole books! And it was all same thoughts through all the characters head in situations one after other. That sort of thing is skipped over in a book. You don't describe 10 battles if they are all different versions of the same thing! You just describe 2 in the beginning 1 in the middle and maybe 2 at the end. That's it!
I have left book series unfinished like this. Read 3 books of a series and left the last one or last couple because they got slow and repetitive and boring. I just finished this one because I was somehow still interested in the characters!
Ah finally done with this
I loved the series till book 3 maybe. There was no surprise element left after that. We all knew what the exact ending was to be by half of book 4. The relationship development since the starting was the point I was most interested in the series. And all the development that had to be had was done by book 4 . There were just bits anf pieces left after that- which are spread out for 2 whole books! And it was all same thoughts through all the characters head in situations one after other. That sort of thing is skipped over in a book. You don't describe 10 battles if they are all different versions of the same thing! You just describe 2 in the beginning 1 in the middle and maybe 2 at the end. That's it!
I have left book series unfinished like this. Read 3 books of a series and left the last one or last couple because they got slow and repetitive and boring. I just finished this one because I was somehow still interested in the characters!
Ah finally done with this
Goldfinch by Raven Kennedy
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Blood Bonds by J. Bree
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
Savage Bonds by J. Bree
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.75
Broken Bonds by J. Bree
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
Gold by Raven Kennedy
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
My Dark Desire by L.J. Shen, Parker S. Huntington
emotional
hopeful
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
Oh this was good. Didn't disappoint. I wanted Zach's story, I got Zach's story. And what a satisfaction that was!
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
5.0
I am wondering if Koreans and Japanese are on speaking terms, if yes then how? I'm wondering how Koreans can even bear to interact with Japanese. I'm wondering how the citizens got over the mindset that one is inferior, poorer, than the other. But then again, I should wonder how us Indians live with the English? Things change. Things should change. But how does a whole nation forget the atrocities committed against it, the mindset one had against the other. I wonder.
Pachinko means gambling, Pinball machine gambling to be precise. Pachinko book - is a story spanning a whole century, starting in 1880s lasting till 1989, a story covering 5 generations.
It begins with a fisherman and his wife, pre war Korea, before the country was annexed by its neighbour. It goes on to tell the story of their only surviving son, Hoonie, his only daughter Sunja, her children Noa and Mozasu, the generation after them, and all the people that came into and went from their lives.
But is it just that? A family saga?
Absolutely not.
It's tells the story of people who "refused to be distracted by the country’s incompetent aristocrats and corrupt rulers, who had lost their nation to thieves."
It tells the story of people who had to leave their homeland and go to a place where everyone looked at them with hatred, distrust, where they were treated as worse than 2nd class citizen.
It tells the story of people struggling to preserve their culture and beliefs while living among people who look down at those same beliefs.
"Sho ga nai" (it can't be helped)- it tells the story of people who are living with this belief, homing this in their children from childhood.
It's goes on to tell the story of people who have no home - not in the country where they live, where they were born and especially not in a country where their parents are from.
The people who left one Korea to live in Japan at the time, now even after the war ended, were treated as foreigners in Japan. And their Korea was now divided into North and South. Going to North was not an option, and South was too poor and unstable at the time. Also they had no home in the South too then.
Consider such life, and the options they had - just one of the stories covered in this book.
Love, life, death, religion, ideals, how you dress, where you work, what you study, what you eat, who you speak to, who you befriend - so many scenarios and all varying stories born from these.
This is so different from the other books I've read which were set in this time period. Because it's not a war fiction. It has nothing about the struggle for freedom, or suffering to get your country free. No, it's no heroic tale. It's just a family's tale of survival in a world which doesn't just let you live, no matter what you do or don't!
This book covers so many lives, so many facets. It's a hundred stories packed in one.
This book took the author over a decade to write, and it shows.
Pachinko means gambling, Pinball machine gambling to be precise. Pachinko book - is a story spanning a whole century, starting in 1880s lasting till 1989, a story covering 5 generations.
It begins with a fisherman and his wife, pre war Korea, before the country was annexed by its neighbour. It goes on to tell the story of their only surviving son, Hoonie, his only daughter Sunja, her children Noa and Mozasu, the generation after them, and all the people that came into and went from their lives.
But is it just that? A family saga?
Absolutely not.
It's tells the story of people who "refused to be distracted by the country’s incompetent aristocrats and corrupt rulers, who had lost their nation to thieves."
It tells the story of people who had to leave their homeland and go to a place where everyone looked at them with hatred, distrust, where they were treated as worse than 2nd class citizen.
It tells the story of people struggling to preserve their culture and beliefs while living among people who look down at those same beliefs.
"Sho ga nai" (it can't be helped)- it tells the story of people who are living with this belief, homing this in their children from childhood.
It's goes on to tell the story of people who have no home - not in the country where they live, where they were born and especially not in a country where their parents are from.
The people who left one Korea to live in Japan at the time, now even after the war ended, were treated as foreigners in Japan. And their Korea was now divided into North and South. Going to North was not an option, and South was too poor and unstable at the time. Also they had no home in the South too then.
Consider such life, and the options they had - just one of the stories covered in this book.
Love, life, death, religion, ideals, how you dress, where you work, what you study, what you eat, who you speak to, who you befriend - so many scenarios and all varying stories born from these.
This is so different from the other books I've read which were set in this time period. Because it's not a war fiction. It has nothing about the struggle for freedom, or suffering to get your country free. No, it's no heroic tale. It's just a family's tale of survival in a world which doesn't just let you live, no matter what you do or don't!
This book covers so many lives, so many facets. It's a hundred stories packed in one.
This book took the author over a decade to write, and it shows.