I snoozed my way through this one. All of the traditional Suzanne Wright elements were present minus any semblance of chemistry between the charact1.5
I snoozed my way through this one. All of the traditional Suzanne Wright elements were present minus any semblance of chemistry between the characters. She has written dozens of books that are far better. ...more
I made it all the way to the epilogue and couldn't make it through it. I was THAT CLOSE and I couldn't do it anymore. While I appreciate the spin o2.5
I made it all the way to the epilogue and couldn't make it through it. I was THAT CLOSE and I couldn't do it anymore. While I appreciate the spin on the manho turned into a devoted man in love, his overwhelming amount of insecurities monopolized the book and sapped fox of any other personality traits. In general the book lacked any sort of dynamics. It was a blur of Fox being insecure about Hannah, Hannah being insecure about work and beyond that I don't really remember what happened. Oh and I think Fox's dirty talk scarred me for life. It was cringy AF....more
You know that friend that only talks about one thing, and everything they see can be related back to said thing that’s causing them worry? Like the1.5
You know that friend that only talks about one thing, and everything they see can be related back to said thing that’s causing them worry? Like the friend that was dumped 9 months ago and still can’t look at turkey sandwiches, or axe body spray, or Chevrons, or Cheetos hot fries, and/or a million other things without talking about the fact that they were dumped by the love of their life chad?
That is our heroine. Not about an ex named chad but just substitute him for her heritage and it’s basically the same thing. It was every other thing she thought about and it was HELLA annoying. It felt like the author was beating me on the head with a mallet yelling “THIS IS IMPORTANT TO THE STORY”.
Also, calling Kace a rockstar was a stretch. I laughed every time Aria called him that because performing covers of pop songs, namely bittersweet Symphony which already heavily featured string instruments in the original... isn’t all that rock and roll. Plus he was kind of boring. So there’s that.
Overall the characters weren’t developed all that deeply nor was the relationship between aria and kace all that compelling. Their conversations were extremely boring and no offense to savannah peach wood but she really affected how much I liked this. I can’t stand the way she reads male voices because they always sound like a doofus. Sometimes the narrator can save a mediocre book but other times, it tanks it. And because this book was already on the fence, it tanked....more
Hunger games + pirates of the Caribbean + lost + the sopranos + the blue lagoon + the most dangerous game +Robinson crusoe + Christian grey +die haDNF
Hunger games + pirates of the Caribbean + lost + the sopranos + the blue lagoon + the most dangerous game +Robinson crusoe + Christian grey +die hard Bruce Willis + leaving Las Vegas nick cage = surviving rainn.
SPOILERS
What a weird book. You know when you read the words on the page but see right through them to the authors intentions? That was this book in a nutshell. And it’s because it went too far. Mainly with bastian. I was tolerating all of the bizarre past life events, the woe is me I’m so misunderstood with my abandonment issues, greatest fighter survivalist asshole on the goddamn planet human pit bull persona until the masters degree in English came up. When I read that I laughed out loud. Hes not even thirty! He lived a busy as fuck life already where’d he find the the time?! This shit was coo coo bananas. It was obvious that the author wanted us to sympathize with him but not so much so that he wasn’t still super manly and attractive.
Rainn was equally unbelievable in that I can’t understand someone that would rather die than let someone potentially see them naked. Her lack of common sense and life experience was equally unbelievable to Bastians over abundance of it.
Overall I couldn’t get into it. I could see the puppet strings on my emotions behind the words and whenever that happens to me I can’t invest. My mind just won’t do it. But it was kinda entertaining in a “how much further will the author take this” kind of way....more
Not gonna lie, this one made me a little uncomfy. It felt a bit fetish-y at times... and when I say “at times” I mean a lot a lot a lot of times. DNF
Not gonna lie, this one made me a little uncomfy. It felt a bit fetish-y at times... and when I say “at times” I mean a lot a lot a lot of times. Every time a certain character came on the page we had to be reminded of how hot and sexy their ethnicity either made them or made others. Made me feel weird. Like the book was advertising “if you want a hunky savage man who is always sportin wood for you girl, get yourself a “half-breed”!” ...more
The audio was not great. Let me just start there. Part of me thinks it tainted the story for me, even though I switched My heart just wasn't in this.
The audio was not great. Let me just start there. Part of me thinks it tainted the story for me, even though I switched to print by chapter 3. They should have left the narration in the proven and highly capable hands of Renee Raudman. BUT there were so many WTF moments going on in this one I'm not sure even she could have saved it.
This felt like a regression from where the novella left off. Specifically, Catalinas character development and the Baylor's place in the world. I didn't take Cat seriously as the head of house Baylor. It all felt like BS reasoning to me. I liked her 10 times more in the novella. And the romance! Her weird fangirl love for Alessandro felt kinda pathetic as did his in return. I didn't feel it at all. His "swoony" dialogue had me wincing. And the majority of the time I felt like I was missing something. Which I learned a lot of the story was edited out due to publishing restrictions so that would make sense.
Grandma Frieda is my favorite still. She's so funny, and I love how hyped she gets whenever she receives vehicular spoils of war. But to be fair the Baylor family is gold. I love them and missed them having more of a presence in this story.
SPOILERS WTFS BELOW
1. WTF had the Baylor's been doing for the last three years?! I don't believe for one second that Nevada hadn't been raking in the dough since she'd been outed as a prime. She had made just as many allies as enemies last time I checked so that felt pretty cheap. Especially when in the last books truthseeker abilities were so coveted. Her cracking didn't seem in her character either. Especially with all we've seen her deal with and so on and so forth. OH. And her bailing on her house was just ridiculous. Did I&A forget how well we know Nevada?!
2. Mad Rogan the billionaire with a private army, husband to Nevada who knows how she loves family more than anything felt comfortable leaving house Baylor with the abysmal security team right when their grace period was up? No way do I believe that. And the fact that they weren't immediately ambushed is some shit I don't buy.
3. Alessandro is basically James Bond? Only more lethal, cocky and annoying? How he could zip around town in Italian sports cars whilst evading Bug I'll never understand. Seriously his "I'm so mysterious" schtick was uber lame, feeling overproduced rather than authentic. He was, unfortunately pretty boring, rather than compelling. Like I'm assuming he was supposed to be.
4. Why are they so poor?! I don't buy that all of the houses turned their attention to attacking Rogan? Why? Because he prevented Houston from being destroyed? Ummm. What? I'm sorry but I still don't understand. The finances felt so been there done that, I thought it would be solved by now.
5. Speaking of Alessandro... I know this might make me weird but I totally ship Bug for Cat over him. IDK why but I want that to happen and I think it would be super interesting.
6. Why didn't Cat use her magic more to find out information?
7. WTH was happening with the plot? First, she's solving a murder, then a kidnapping then is lunching with Linus and then getting attacked? It started to get a little muddy here and there because I would forget what she was doing and why. There was no urgency to find Runa's sister. Even Runa seemed to forget she was gone! And Catalina thought about it hardly at all! Wtf. Basically, it felt like Catalina was walking when she should have been running.
8. Linus Duncan... I'm so confused about his role in the whole series. I was pretty sure I had him pinned down and dang I kinda like that I'm on my toes about him. Unless nothing with him pans out... But I'm pretty sure it will.
I'm sad to say it, but this was unmemorable. BUT it is still an Ilona Andrews novel and there is a level of quality that you get even when you don't love the book. Catalina is cool and has major potential when she isn't swooning over Italian Counts. So please in the next one, more family more Cat being awesome, and give Nevada's memory a little dignity....more
This was not good. There were a lot of aspects that occurred "just because" when in the scope of the world it didn't make sense.
The animosity of the This was not good. There were a lot of aspects that occurred "just because" when in the scope of the world it didn't make sense.
The animosity of the witches was logical, however, the hatred from all the other species did not. Especially with all of them clamoring for favors from her. Honestly, with how likely she was to die SOON, it didn't really make sense for them to hate her so vehemently. Also, why did people so desperately want her to shadow walk and get spells when there were witches available to create and do them for you?
Kane is a dollar store knock-off of barrons from the Darkfever series. Mysterious, powerful rich and handsome. What is he? yadda yadda. While those characteristics made for an interesting character in barrons not so much here. But they both had the what you don't know will hurt you but I'm not going to be the one to tell you mentality. Except what Ollie didn't know would kill hundreds. Kinda important to disclose a lil sumthin sumthin?
Ollie's inner monologue was at odds with her spoken dialogue. Inside she would process things and seem to understand the situation and then she would speak and appear to no nothing at all? It was very frustrating to read about. Also, it was such a contradiction that Ollie thought that going over to the shadow world was a piece of cake and would brush past the monsters with ease, but in her own realm where the monsters couldn't make contact, she was terrified of them? What? Especially when you take into consideration and she had been seeing them her whole life and would be desensitized to it after 22 years.
World building issues were never resolved and the appearance of Asher was weird. The dialogue felt clunky and unnatural at times and the plot was suffering from poor world building. The concept here is cool as shit and I'm utterly disappointed at how poorly executed it was....more
Not my personal idea of romance. For me, it was weird to be in the heroes head while he goes to pound town with other girls in great detail. I knowDNF
Not my personal idea of romance. For me, it was weird to be in the heroes head while he goes to pound town with other girls in great detail. I know it was his job, and good for him for loving it but... Should he have loved it so so much...? And he continued to love it after falling in love... And then he was still agonizing over his ex and so on and so forth. Bleh. ...more
This book is a big fat no for me. I don't know if it's because I am a modern woman reading about the past, but nothing about this book worked.
It is aThis book is a big fat no for me. I don't know if it's because I am a modern woman reading about the past, but nothing about this book worked.
It is a great example of wtf just happened. It was about everyone's fall from grace. The heroine was very cool and then became pathetic. She was so pathetic that it made me quit the book. When you receive death threats and have lived through two attempts on your life, it's probably a good time to stop being pathetic and reprioritize. But not in this book! The hero was a major asshole with no redemption arc. He actually gets worse, and he had no reason I deemed justifiable for his behavior.
This book is a fantastic example of the cycle of mental and emotional abuse. You will be frustrated, angry and get no satisfaction. Just like in real life! Is that the moral of the story? A warning? Personally, I hope so. ...more
I heard this was better than the last one. Nope. Nope Nope. Same insipid internal monologue, which was unbearable to read.
I can name the exact momentI heard this was better than the last one. Nope. Nope Nope. Same insipid internal monologue, which was unbearable to read.
I can name the exact moment that I lost all respect for Circe. Not Lannister, but Quinn. It was when she "fought him" in their tent and kept yelling at him about "getting things straight". I knew it was going to go downhill from there. Umm okay, crazy lady, the chick that speaks English doesn't know what you mean half the time, so why would this dude? At that point, I knew she was going to be an idiot. And my my, she didn't disappoint.
Is this series supposed to be a collection of GOT fanfiction? In the last one, the descriptions were on point for Drogo and Dany. In this one, the hero was the King of a nomadic horde of horse warriors... It is all fine and dandy, but in neither are the heroines of the same quality of Danereys, while particularly in this one, the heroes were pretty much the same. EXCEPT in thrones, Khal Drogo is way less offensive to me than Dax Lahn. Maybe it was the physical abuse? Idk.
LOL I wish that Circe Quinn was (as her name would suggest) a replica of Cersi Lannister and did some batshit crazy stuff. Now that would have been a good read.
I have a hard time believing that anyone who has read or watched a game of thrones would settle for this watered-down sham. I for one, will not. And I feel pretty stupid for believing my friend who told me this was good, after the debacle that was the last book. Never again!...more
I am going through the romance package on audible, (free one-month trial w/ membership if y'all are interested) and saw this had some pretty rave reviI am going through the romance package on audible, (free one-month trial w/ membership if y'all are interested) and saw this had some pretty rave reviews. So, I gave it a try.
I thought that most of the components were pretty good except for one very important thing. The hero sucked. Saylor was like boiling water and he was lukewarm. I stopped rooting for him about 30% through and couldn't summon an inkling of care for him when he improved at the end.
Frankly, I was much more sympathetic to the ex-fiance than to him. I wanted Hayes to lose her because the stakes weren't high enough for him. He had nothing on the line, and he didn't really care. Until the end. He forgot about her! For TEN YEARS. TEN. And he was only doing her the favor to ease his guilt and because he felt sorry for her. I liked Saylor way too much for her to deserve that shit. I wanted him to burn for her! But nope, he treated her like shit and got away with it. At least the ex f had the excuse of being devastated and having a meddlesome mama.
What is a romance novel with a lame ass hero? So much meh....more
This could have been awesome. Could have, being the operative word.
The inaccuracies regarding the police work and the ethical issues that went unacknThis could have been awesome. Could have, being the operative word.
The inaccuracies regarding the police work and the ethical issues that went unacknowledged were extremely frustrating. I lost faith that the characters could exist or that they were worth the reader's respect. It was kinda cheap.
Why did Sam take Nick with her everywhere? I didn't realize homicide detectives could take potential suspects on investigations? Oh wait... you can't? Coulda fooled me! Someone should tell Ms. Force, Pronto!
I hated the hero. What the hell could he not understand about the conflict of interest?! Boundaries man! Was he so bummed about losing his job that he had to jeopardize hers too? I love guys that disregard my wishes to not be grabbed at every turn. Soooooo swoony. NOT.
I hated the heroine. She was HELLA stupid. She had the highest profile case of her career, coming off a huge fuck up and all she could think about was how much she wanted Nick. But couldn't have him. No shouldn't. But would. Actions speak louder than words idiot woman. No wonder Nick's grabby hands couldn't get a clue. Her mental back and forth WAS SO ANNOYING. She should have been taken off the case. Really it solved itself.
They literally knew each other for less than a day SIX YEARS AGO. All their warm fuzzies? I call BULLSHIT.
I had many issues with this book. So, so many. There wasn't anything really compelling me to read on, and I had to force myself to do so.
Top three:
1.I had many issues with this book. So, so many. There wasn't anything really compelling me to read on, and I had to force myself to do so.
Top three:
1. Too many undeveloped characters. There were a lot of subplots going on here that were never developed. Inconsistent characters as well. One minute they were one way and in their next appearance, they were different. And because they weren't developed, I couldn't keep them in a row.
2. We are told that Sam is highly intelligent, and then shown her being an idiot time and time again. It was insufferable. She wanted to play with the serial killer, as long as her life wasn't in jeopardy. I can't think of a single instance that she did something understandable.
3. Wasted words. A lot of repetition going on. It dragged and bored me to TEARS.
If I were you I would skip this. The only reason I skimmed the final three quarters was to find out who the killer was. Color me unsurprised. Hence, the two stars....more
Regan wasn't a real character. Very one dimensional. She was just as defined as the side characters. I found her extremely unlikable. And it's frustraRegan wasn't a real character. Very one dimensional. She was just as defined as the side characters. I found her extremely unlikable. And it's frustrating that I hate her so much because there was no reason to! It was like she existed to hold our hand and guide us through all of her revelations. SO SLOWLY. Why she couldn't put two and two together I have no idea.
There was way too much going on. And yet, not enough. Because of the diverging plot lines, too much time was spent introducing everything and everyone. It was boring. A psychologist ruled by his inner devil hunting her down would have been a lot more concise an thrilling than what we were given.
I quit listening at about the two-hour mark. I found Daisy insufferable. One minute she's going on about how desperately she wants to change everythinI quit listening at about the two-hour mark. I found Daisy insufferable. One minute she's going on about how desperately she wants to change everything about herself to snag a husband, but when it came down to actually doing it she was all its too expensive. Thus she began running through all sorts of stupid scenarios and before finally and painfully doing what was suggested in the first place. It made her character inconsistent. If she had been a tech genius that never did anything but programming in their bedroom, her complete ineptitude of anything socially related would make more sense.
I quit reading because something other than a makeover should have happened by the two-hour mark. The whole makeover portion felt longer than the entirety of War and Peace. And I thought that felt long.
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