This is a culture fest, about a dutiful daughter who finds that her parents, proud of her attention to studies and business, suddenly want to pair herThis is a culture fest, about a dutiful daughter who finds that her parents, proud of her attention to studies and business, suddenly want to pair her off. She goes on a trip to relatives in India and describes the extended Diwali festival, her friends, family, and an exciting young man. Yes, it's a holiday romance, but who can blame a young woman for feeling sudden giddiness, from freedom, excitement and submersion in Indian cultures and cities.
I enjoyed the story and would read more by this author. I would like the heroine, who started to realise just how impoverished many people were in the streets, to have actually done something about it. Even helped at a school for girls.
I read an e-ARC from Fresh Fiction. This is an unbiased review.
I enjoyed this read about three individuals who learn to be strong and capable in individual ways, working on a honey farm. The setting is Oregon, theI enjoyed this read about three individuals who learn to be strong and capable in individual ways, working on a honey farm. The setting is Oregon, there is no romance but plenty of surfing. One character is a young man who injured his back and has to learn to live again. The others are a mature lady who really needs help around the farm, and a man with a shady past he is trying to outgrow. We learn a great deal about bees!
I read an e-ARC from Fresh Fiction. This is an unbiased review.
A young woman drops out of college due to a fractious relationship, and becomes an anti-heroine. Working in a call-centre for emergency phone numbers A young woman drops out of college due to a fractious relationship, and becomes an anti-heroine. Working in a call-centre for emergency phone numbers in Sydney, she brings to us the increasing violence, random bad weather events and monstrous bushfires. All the while, she is well-advised but makes random, and wrong, decisions time and again, harming her body and destroying her future, as the powerful in Australian have been destroying their land. See this as women's fiction but also as allegory and a cheerless statement on the treatment of the environment. I read this e-ARC from Net Galley and Fresh Fiction. This is an unbiased review....more
Last night I was thinking, no, I've read this book two evenings running and it's dark, and I probably shouldn't be going to sleep thinking about this Last night I was thinking, no, I've read this book two evenings running and it's dark, and I probably shouldn't be going to sleep thinking about this book and waking up thinking about it like I have been, so I'll read something else, or just sit here and watch the news. 2 a.m., I finished the book and went to bed.
You do need to have read the first book. The Invasion comes across as a far more mature book than The Call, because while the protagonists are not much older, few of them are still in college and we never get the boarding school atmosphere. Now we are out and about in Ireland of the wasteland, where the Sidhe are starting to invade, the heroes of the past book are suspected to be traitors because they were not killed, and the older people are the only ones who know how mechanical things work. Now the effect of no manufacturing comes to bear, the lack of young fit soldiers, the unscrupulousness of the leaders.
Now, too, we see another way into the Grey Land, start to contemplate living there and the rules and quirks of that land, rather than just seeing it as a place of monsters. There are still monsters.
Some readers don't like the ending. I see it as a balanced ending. Sometimes it's hard to write balance, because it's not necessarily what you want for an outcome. You want all the good people to triumph and live in splendour among their friends. But literature too has its rules, good literature. And one of those rules is balance.
As Ireland is small I have met the author at conventions. However I was not given this book nor asked to write a review. This is an unbiased review written in my own time....more
I'm calling this new adult as the main character is 18 and adult issues dominate. I'm wondering why she is still at school if she is 18, and doesn't sI'm calling this new adult as the main character is 18 and adult issues dominate. I'm wondering why she is still at school if she is 18, and doesn't seem to have her head down for exams and assignments all the time either. More than that, I'm wondering why the author made this a strange mix of British and American setting - I thought at first it was British set because that is how it came across, but with a tired old grandma in a US old person working situation, then suddenly the US senator's son is a major part and the school is very much a high school with nobody supervising a drunken teen party in someone's house.
Lots of this book I did not like, our MC being the first part. She calls herself a friend to two other people but never asks how she can help them, or if they need help with school work, or if the guy isn't tired of hanging around with two girls. She says she respects her grandmother for working to keep them, but never does anything for that lady, never gets a part time job (she says she can't find one but we never see her try) or spends a day doing housework. The three young people would surely be recording stuff onto YouTube and Soundcloud etc. hoping to earn money from this, instead of the girl obsessively blogging onto a supposedly secret blog (when nothing you type onto someone else's computer is secret) about her immature sex life and what she thinks of her friends and teachers. She's entirely self obsessed. And thus, it never occurs to her that sending a nude photo of herself to some creep who sent her a photo of his privates is a stupid thing to do.
All the time I was reading this (after the initial third which is not that interesting) I was saying - Oh, so stupid. Oh, I can't believe she did that. Oh, not again. Okay, we're all young once and do stupid things. But we'd kind of stop and shut up after life went badly wrong.
The author would have us take the message that women get abuse over their sex lives and men don't, but actually the message most young people should and I hope will take, is not to act as stupidly and selfishly as this young woman, so for that reason I'm rating four stars. Also for showing that some men think a woman must reciprocate their interest, because after all, they're a decent guy. No, men can't oblige women to be interested.
I borrowed this book from the Raheny Library. This is an unbiased review. ...more
This is a ten minute read about people who don't have any worries except frequently divorcing parents. A girl and her two unrelated stepbrothers startThis is a ten minute read about people who don't have any worries except frequently divorcing parents. A girl and her two unrelated stepbrothers start sleeping together and it gets even creepier at the end. The young people are all under 18 (high school) and clearly the girl does not have much of a choice in anything nor are they using contraception. The romance scenes are not written very well and they could tend to normalise the situation in the minds of young readers.
While I didn't enjoy the book, other readers may find it harmless fun, and no coercion is involved beyond the subliminal. I would much rather the girl had her own means of support so she could leave the house if she wished. She is totally without agency. I downloaded an ebook from Instafreebie. This is an unbiased review. ...more
I love the film, and I was determined to read the book while I was at college, but the book is not a patch on the film. This happens a lot - HollywoodI love the film, and I was determined to read the book while I was at college, but the book is not a patch on the film. This happens a lot - Hollywood screenwriters tend to be good at their job. A fine idea - blonde California beauty-obsessed girl goes to law school to try to win back rich snobby boyfriend. And then what? Well, the book didn't really progress that idea. Another book/ film on this basic/ improved model is Jumper by Stephen Gould. The book has one idea and there is no Griffin - Jamie Bell character, no "welcome to the war" between paladins and jumpers.
Elle doesn't change much from start to finish of the book, once she takes up the challenge. She doesn't help anyone but herself. She is happy to receive aid though. Helping a blonde client is only furthering her own image of blondes as deserving of help and boosting her own image as a lawyer. She appears to have slept with any man with money, but nobody makes even one pass at her, lovely as she is. Really. It's a college, and she is single, and no guy even asks for a date. Her manicurist is a wallpaper person, as indeed are almost all characters, who have little identity or arc. She still gets moral support from her glamour-obsessed friends in California. While the obsession with Greek letter name clubs in colleges is beyond me. We don't do that in Ireland. We don't have a clue.
On the good side, this book encourages education and dedication to success.
I have just read a much funnier, much more detailed and much better book called 29 Dates by Melissa de la Cruz, about a Korean girl who comes to study in an American college. I highly recommend it, though it's for a younger target readership. This is an unbiased review....more
This is a romance between college students but they are from different cultures. The lad is French and not a Muslim but the English Muslim family of tThis is a romance between college students but they are from different cultures. The lad is French and not a Muslim but the English Muslim family of the lady appear to think that's fine. The story is set slightly in the future and a town in England is called Sanctuary because all cultures are accepted and mix freely. However, the pair are young and exploring the world. They do so without a chaperone, but stay chaste. Only, we see that the Muslim girl is actually only going to explore on her terms; she'll starve unless she gets the right kind of food, whether in Paris or Istanbul; she'll visit cultural landmarks but insists on behaviour which in other traditions would be called OCD, no matter how it gets in the way of her daily life. Of course, this is her daily life. Quite simple.
We don't actually see why the lad is so fascinated with the lady, what she has done that makes him love her, when he could have a variety of girlfriends to choose from in society. I like that he is keen to learn and accept differences. On the other hand, I am not keen that anyone - blindly, deafly, dumbly, however you want to say it - insists that someone knows better than they do what is good for them, in every circumstance, and there is nothing to be gained by questioning or finding out or experimenting. They are in college for goodness' sake, and advances in technology from the printing press to the Kindle have been made because of questioning and experimenting and learning. Abandoning free thought is what generates blindly led stooges who do the will of those with malice. Abandoning free thought keeps women barefoot, pregnant and ignorant, like the generations of Irish women downtrodden by the harsh hypocritical rule of the Catholic Church.
The drama comes with violence in this short novel, so it's not for the young reader below 16. Some of the writing is lovely and illustrative, with a nice window into cultures in Europe and Asia today. This is an unbiased review....more
Excellent, cheerful and interesting story for Young Adult readers, especially girls, but boys can enjoy it too. Jisu is sent from South Korea to an AmExcellent, cheerful and interesting story for Young Adult readers, especially girls, but boys can enjoy it too. Jisu is sent from South Korea to an American high school to get her grades up before applying to college. Her parents have high expectations and they further insist that she sign up to seon dating, which is where a matchmaker puts her in touch with a couple of Korean-American lads a week. Jisu gets homesick but has a really nice American host family in California, and she can Skype her family. All she knows about is photography (she's well off and has all the latest gadgets) but she has to fit in at school and apply to the big colleges.
Korean YAs will find this hilarious, I had a great time, and just seeing Jisu's good example will help a lot of readers who are stepping on the school to college path. I also like that we see you don't have to (and shouldn't) develop a crush on the first guy who looks nice or who is nice to you.
I downloaded an e-ARC from Fresh Fiction. This is an unbiased review. ...more
I would call this short book New Adult, though the age of the girls isn't all that clear. Two half-sisters, Talia and Greer, in Connecticut break the I would call this short book New Adult, though the age of the girls isn't all that clear. Two half-sisters, Talia and Greer, in Connecticut break the normal mould of horse stories by having more money at their disposal than you could shake a stick at. Their dad is rich and they have stables, trainers and multiple horses on tap.
Talia has a favourite horse, but arthritis is starting to get to him and he's retired. Cue a parade of horses that might be bought to suit either girl, the differences between Thoroughbreds and Warmbloods explained. A new trainer arrives. Unlike previous trainers he expects the girls to use their legs and seat. A major show is coming up. But the trainer has a disabling condition caused by one too many falls on his head. He can't get up and train the horses very much; the girls will have to do it. I didn't get the impression that Talia cared about the show. The girls don't seem to like each other much and are very unlike in temperament.
I didn't see a clear goal in the story and it ends as the girls predictably start to compete for the trainer's affections; way to get the man fired. Younger readers will perhaps find some of the tale confusing or wish a sister would get on with picking a good horse and doing some training. This is an unbiased review....more
A few challenging issues are faced by a young lady in her first year away from home. She's at college, loving her music and making friends, becoming aA few challenging issues are faced by a young lady in her first year away from home. She's at college, loving her music and making friends, becoming a more outgoing personality.
A death in the family draws her home to face up to the more unpleasant facts in the family dynamics. Her first college crush turns into something rather too intense and even scary. She starts missing classes and doesn't know how to cope with all that is happening.
Very good advice is given by a friend who tells our heroine to google the relationship situation. If you find yourself in a situation you don't understand and don't think feels right, check it out online and see how many others have gone through a similar relationship problem, what they have to say about this. I love the true friends, the helpful, caring folks at the edges of the story who become stronger and more concerned as the year proceeds. This novel is extremely well written, and will be loved by young people who make music particularly, but should be read by all young women starting out in life.
I enjoyed the description of a tornado and how young people in America have grown so used to tornado warnings that come to nothing - because their patI enjoyed the description of a tornado and how young people in America have grown so used to tornado warnings that come to nothing - because their path is unpredictable - that they tend to ignore the chance of danger. Where to hide on campus when the tornado does arrive? And who would you prefer to be trapped with until rescuers arrive?
This is a lightly romantic story suitable for YA readers. ...more
Mixed feelings here as some aspects of the tale are well written. The kids are from foster homes and have been around the country a bit, so we feel inMixed feelings here as some aspects of the tale are well written. The kids are from foster homes and have been around the country a bit, so we feel instant sympathy for them as they try to make their way. Most of the action occurs in New York but we don't see much of the city or landmarks which for me was a downer. There's school settings, grungy music clubs and parks.
A girl who moved away after she was adopted, returns when her new family moves back to NY, but her new outlook on life means she wants to break away from the past boyfriend from foster care. They do have a lot in common, but she has different opportunities now and he's completely tied up in his music. Should they try to get back together or not? The lad, probably rightly, thinks that she's a fantastic girl for him and doesn't want to lose her.
I suggest that girl readers should be a little more cynical because not all young men will be so keen to stay with the first girl they see. It's natural for young people to grow and explore. We see a lot of counselling sessions as the modern approach to dealing with unhappy situations and trauma. Anyone interested in counselling young people will probably get a lot out of this book. On the other hand I found it slowed down the story and made for repetition. The tale may interest teens who want to see how hard it is to break into music - very hard.
I downloaded a copy when the author made it free. This is an unbiased review. ...more
This lively tale of a teenage girl who has a genetic talent to shift form into a were mountain lion is worth a read. I'm calling it a New Adult book bThis lively tale of a teenage girl who has a genetic talent to shift form into a were mountain lion is worth a read. I'm calling it a New Adult book because of the violence and sexual references. Missy goes missing as a thirteen year old and spends two years in the mountains as a mountain lion, before safely mastering her ability and returning to human form at will. Then she comes home in a spectacular way, helping others.
Sexual predation upon young girls, and later some crimes of death-dealing mobsters, are part of the story. I could have done with less of the sex creeps among the problems Missy resolves. She learns to use her strength in martial arts, which is useful for any young person, and also makes good friends mostly by being a good friend. The issues raised become quite complex and villains keep recurring because, after all, they are men who resent being bested by a sixteen year old girl.
There's more than an element of the superheroine about the tale. Missy changes when nobody is watching, has extra physical abilities like strength, speed and heightened senses, and rushes into burning buildings. I was pleased that she managed to find a boyfriend but wonder if more werefolk will appear in later books.
The writing style is not challenging and would be the main reason why I am not giving a better rating. There's a great deal of repetition as the story is shown to us once and elements are recounted to characters by other characters several times. This adds to the word count but could have been edited to - When the agent had heard the tale from the medical staff, he was perplexed. Repetition makes readers skip pages. The tale gains nothing in the retelling, either in style or content. Otherwise Missy the Werecat is an enjoyable and feminist paranormal crime story. ...more
While set in an Australian harbour city, this tale could fit many locations. It's an odd romance story following a girl who has just left college and While set in an Australian harbour city, this tale could fit many locations. It's an odd romance story following a girl who has just left college and is hoping to get a reporting job. Everything that occurs seems to me to be totally unrealistic from the outlined, proposed article to the events that follow. So just read it as an escapist and slightly erotic fantasy.
Angelina gets leered at for thirty minutes in a café by a strange man. Not having the sense she was born with, she decides to stalk him but doesn't do very well. Another strange man pulls up in a car and tells her to get in and he'll take her to Haithem, since she's so interested. Lesson one: girl, do not get in the car. It was true when you were a child and it's still true now. She doesn't tell anyone where she is going. Lesson two: tell someone where you are going. She gets on board a luxury yacht with nobody else in sight but armed guards. Lesson three: girl, do not get on a yacht with strangers who could dump you overboard in shark-infested waters a mile offshore.
Meeting a man of Middle Eastern appearance, our heroine never makes the obvious conversation by asking where he's from. Why not? She doesn't wonder if all this suspicious activity means he's a terrorist. Why not? By the time Angelina realises she should have been more careful she's in a precarious situation. We don't get a good impression of Haithem until extremely late in the tale, which, I have to say, makes it all the harder for us to understand why Angelina would want to meet him or find him sexy. I did find the ending interesting and a well-thought out motivation.
There's an element of suspense and of erotic romance which is well done and plenty of nice setting detail. As the title implies we could read this as a warning - what not to do. I'm classing it as a New Adult story because of Angelina's obvious inexperience and because it is an adult read. ...more
More horror-erotica and less urban fantasy than my usual reads. This tale loses our sympathy from the outset for a young woman at college who tells usMore horror-erotica and less urban fantasy than my usual reads. This tale loses our sympathy from the outset for a young woman at college who tells us she continually falls for bad guys - as in married, jerks, those seeing other girls and those just looking for sex. But later in the book she adds that she loves sex, with herself or any male pal free on a Friday night. So this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Have no standards and you can't expect to attract men with standards.
Especially when our miserable, weepy loner - her name is Margery, but it's hardly ever mentioned, though the name of Martin crops up often - spots a weird guy hanging around the college - he's been expelled for violence - and decides that he's just her type. Excuse me? She doesn't know what Martin does for a living (nothing as it turns out) or what his interests are (none we are told of beyond himself).
These people don't have any relationship beyond sex (in the library, the park or a garage floor) during which Martin reveals himself as a well endowed werewolf with the dog-mating drawback. But Margery seems to like it. We do end up admiring her stubbornness. As the title indicates, our girl who sleeps around with every jerk on campus doesn't take precautions, so she's clearly not the brightest (and probably has several diseases). A baby - of some sort - is on the way. Pain, blood and more sex are required.
If the adult erotic fantasy story line is what you are looking for, it's going to interest you, and the complexities of this brand of werewolf are tumbled in towards the end. I'm classing it as new adult because of the college setting; and we don't get to see beautiful wolves running through dreaming forests, the monstrous character is to the fore. Atmospheric, yes, scary, sometimes more of a horror than I prefer. Other readers who like horror may enjoy it more. ...more
Three young American football players want to date the cheerleaders but the girls aren't obliging in a physicalThis is a one-scene short; it's scary.
Three young American football players want to date the cheerleaders but the girls aren't obliging in a physical sense, so the boys decide to throw money at the problem in a cruel, abusive fashion. The tables are about to be turned however, and we are about to learn why well-mannered kids should not go to the bad side of town at night.
I was hoping for a happier outcome (like bruising being makeup) and in determinedly dark fashion we meet only antiheroes and an antiheroine. This is an unusual read which might make you want to read more of the underworld stories by Gamal Hennessy, where the most exotic women are also the most capable. ...more
Loading...
