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| 0575104813
| 9780575104815
| 0575104813
| 3.87
| 147
| Dec 10, 2015
| Dec 10, 2015
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it was ok
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2.5 stars Fair is fair, although I wasn't completely in love with Sheehan's first book A Long, Long Sleep, I decided to give her another shot with Spin 2.5 stars Fair is fair, although I wasn't completely in love with Sheehan's first book A Long, Long Sleep, I decided to give her another shot with Spinning Thorns. Though it's ANOTHER Sleeping Beauty retelling, that's one of my favorite fairy tales. And with this cute of a cover, I could hardly resist. But in this case... I wish I had. Spinning Thorns puts another spin on Sleeping Beauty (see wut I did thur). In this version, our main character is one of the original Sleeping Beauty's daughters. She's awoken, but the thorns around the castle remain and the kingdom has come into political and economic turmoil after being without their monarchs for so long. The story is told from two points of view: Willow, the princess, and an Unnamed fairy, who plots for the demise of the royal family. You'd think - hey, that sounds like a hate-to-love thing that's sure to be promising. Yes and no. As far as the romance goes, this book was rather frustrating. Willow is in love with her sister's betrothed, which is hopelessly unrequited and ridiculously intense for a relationship that amounts to one conversation between the two where he happened to be nice to her. (Seriously. And she seriously says she's in love with him because of that.) Her sister and this dude are GROSSLY in love with each other. Like serious crying "I can't live without the other" constantly touching each other and flirting and singing the other's praises and whatever... Ugh. Get a fucking room. And lock the door so I can't walk in on that anymore. So Willow and the Unnamed fairy (who she dubs Reynard because he reminds her of a fox, how creative) do start off hating each other... and eventually grow to care for each other. But it took way too long to get there for me to still care. I did not really have shippy feels. That's also because I care so little for these characters. Like holy crap, they're not cardboard but they're not super voice-y or dynamic. Willow I should logically be cheering on because she's not a helpless, delicate princess and she actually has more of a manly, giant figure. But she's so negative about that all the time that I'm just side-eyeing her. Reynard is so wrapped up in mystery and hatred that I *should* like him, but I dunno. I probably liked his part of the story more than Willow's but I still didn't care too much for it. Overall this story just kind of bored me. It wasn't so bad that I felt like quitting, probably because in a sense there was enough happening to keep the plot moving forward. Willow wants to learn magic, so she can also help to take care of the thorns, and Reynard kind of helps her learn about magic when it's been outlawed for so long. Then another Sleep falls upon the palace and it gets pretty chaotic. Magic becomes outlawed again, political battles are waged with betrothals, treaties, and the like, and the relationship between Willow and her family is put to the test. So the premise, I guess, was interesting enough, but the execution never got me on the edge of my seat. I was lacking the voice to get drawn into the personal conflict and mindset of the characters. I was very much on the outside, looking in. And that's something I seem to remember having with A Long, Long Sleep as well. I liked that one more, but maybe overall Sheehan's writing style lacks something for me - depth or characterization or a general "feelsy" quality. I dunno. I feel very meh about this book. Summing Up: Yeah, this review is uninspired, because this book is so uninspiring. Spinning Thorns was mildly interesting, but it never really sucked me into the story. I couldn't connect to the characters, the romantic drama was exhausting, and overall I was never truly impressed. I wonder if Sheehan just may not be a good author for me. Something in her style is lacking for me. GIF it to me straight! [image] Recommended To: asdfjkl; ugh, just go read A Wicked Thing instead. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 28, 2016
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Mar 04, 2016
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Oct 03, 2015
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Paperback
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| 1423185153
| 9781423185154
| 1423185153
| 3.76
| 2,187
| Oct 06, 2015
| Oct 06, 2015
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did not like it
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1 star Geez. That was just... so disappointing. I loved this author's debut novel, so obviously my expectations were up there. I love fairy tales, I lo 1 star Geez. That was just... so disappointing. I loved this author's debut novel, so obviously my expectations were up there. I love fairy tales, I love sci-fi, the first was awesome - what could go wrong? So, so much. This story is forced. It's like the author woke up and was just absolutely fixated on using this particular fairy tale, and she was going to use any illogical concept, ploy, or plot device to make it happen. And science fiction relies so heavily on SCIENCE that it was too hard to swallow. I mean, I think I was immediately thrown off when it became apparent that this sci-fi futuristic world had no system of writing. Excuse me? Like, how? How could that ever be a logical thing? Like, that they have tablets and mostly only need to use voice controls for daily tasks and operations, sure. But here you have technologists and scientists at the top of their field. They're going to write, to do their experiments, to take notes, to go through research. I can't even begin to explain how much this frustrates me. It was obviously NECESSARY because then when Liddi had her voice implant it would make it harder for her to expose the truth and keep her on her treasure hunt, basically. The story would be over in two seconds if it was possible to write. But that's so frustrating. I hate it when non-communication is slowing down the plot. Even when Tiav devises the tablet communication software for her she complains and refuses to use it to explain everything to him because "it would take too long to go through all the symbols". Are you fucking serious? All the time she spent complaining about that... if she'd used that to tell her story, this book could have been 100 pages and everyone would be better off. Let's not even talk about how at the end of the book, she writes - literally WRITES - the script she wants Dom to air on the newsfeeds. Suddenly she had no problem with that? Or, she had the time for it then, even though the worlds were getting more and more unstable? FOR FUCK'S SAKE. "Another nod, and I get to work writing the exact words I need for the news-vid. No shortcuts, no skipping anything. Word-for-word." [image] And why didn't she record that Minali was fired then? Seriously, then she wouldn't have had to sneak around the conduits! Forced suspense is forced and COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY. Fine, so these couple of story elements immediately put this book on my bad side. And there were no real redeeming qualities to help it recover. Liddi was bland if not annoying. Tiav was a forced love interest. I literally felt absolutely nothing during their kissing / romantic scenes. Cardboard is cardboard and flat. Twice I picked up the book, intending to make significant progress, but I promptly fell asleep within 5 pages. The "science" at the end was more magic than anything. So that didn't help. I honestly speed read through the climax just to get it over with, because dwelling on certain passages to try to make them make sense in my head was pointless. In one word: Sad. ...more |
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1
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Jul 03, 2017
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Jul 17, 2017
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Feb 03, 2015
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Hardcover
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| B00RY6YX42
| 3.34
| 950
| Jun 23, 2015
| Jun 23, 2015
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it was ok
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2 stars The premise of Tangled Webs instantly caught my attention, as it contains so many things I usually love: London, blackmail, masquerade balls, s 2 stars The premise of Tangled Webs instantly caught my attention, as it contains so many things I usually love: London, blackmail, masquerade balls, slight genderbending. For all intents and purposes, I should have fallen hard and fast for this book. But no. And wow, it sure takes skill to make a story about blackmail so boring. Let's start there, because I feel like more readers will be disappointed by the blackmail aspect of this novel. Arista, or Lady A, is a "notorious blackmailer", but no - she's actually only the messenger. She picks up secrets, sealed in envelopes, and trades them for money. She doesn't actually know what secrets she's trading, and she doesn't know the motivations of the people she's trading with. She's simply working for Bones and later for(/with) Wild. Only once did she muse that one of the secrets was that a Lord or Duke or someone was illegitimate, and it was traded to someone to steal that title and parliament seat. At the very end she does read some of the secrets, but she doesn't reveal what they were. That is so not what I was expecting this story to be. Instead, most of the story is just Arista bemoaning her position. She's stuck serving Bones, and then she's trapped in a deal with Wild. She doesn't like her life at all, but as an orphaned woman, without it she would have no livelihood. That historical part of the story was pretty strong, and I did admire her for her protective nature. She wants to be sure that her maid, Becky, is taken care of, and in spite of her blackmailing profession, she possesses tremendous empathy when she sees those less fortunate. Unfortunately, the rest of her personality was rather bland. I'll be honest: the heavy focus of the book lies on the romance between Arista and Grae. And that's a stumbling block for me. I did not ship it. It is historical fiction, so usually I'm more lenient about things like instalove, and I'm not even sure I would call this instalove, but it was not working for me from the start. Within no time, the book kicks off a fierce love triangle. Grae and Arista meet, and there's insta-serious-infatuation. They talk once, dance once, then kiss, and that's it - they can't stop thinking about each other. And that set up could potentially work if there is an intense chemistry and (hopefully) a banterous connection. But instead it devolved into a load of sap that I can't really handle. They're so damn attracted to each other (for whatever reason), but Grae is (rightfully) suspicious of Arista and (maybe too) fiercely demands her reveal everything about her past to him. She's paralyzed by fear and regret for the things she's done, so she can't bear to open up to him. And basically it's just drama, drama, drama. (view spoiler)[And then at the end of the day, everything's revealed, and his parents are totally cool with her MARRYING him. Sorry, but that's NOT realistic for the time period. (hide spoiler)] This is not the ship for me. Not in ten thousand years. So yeah. The story pretty much bored me at the end of the day. There's some mystery and betrayal, but nothing that you can't reasonably suspect having read the premise of the book. There was one twist that kind of shocked me, but then it was undone within the next two chapters. The plot felt more or less like a flatline, as I never really felt engrossed in the story, but when I realized that it wasn't going to get any better, I was already almost done. It puzzles me that this is the start of a series - because honestly the plot stands alone and I can't see any sequel potential. (Hey Disney, why not just publish The Archived #3 instead?) Summing Up: Tangled Webs is basically nothing like what I had expected - sadly, in the bad way. I thought I was getting blackmail and intrigue - instead I got an enslaved messenger, endlessly longing for freedom and her love interest. Where were the secrets? The manipulation? The swoons? Though this concept could have been a big hit with me, instead it relied on the most boring and sappy tropes. Nope. GIF it to me straight! [image] *An electronic review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion about the book or the contents of the review. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 03, 2015
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Jun 05, 2015
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Jan 12, 2015
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Kindle Edition
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| 0547927746
| 9780547927749
| 0547927746
| 3.61
| 4,781
| Aug 25, 2015
| Aug 25, 2015
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it was ok
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2.5 stars I am a huge fan of fairy tale retellings, steampunk, and beautiful book covers, so as soon as Mechanica appeared on my radar, I simply had to 2.5 stars I am a huge fan of fairy tale retellings, steampunk, and beautiful book covers, so as soon as Mechanica appeared on my radar, I simply had to have it. And the results are... mixed. We had a slow start, some shining moments, and then a very wince-worthy ending. So Mechanica retells Cinderella in a way that will be pretty familiar to you. A lot of the elements of the Disney version are the same, but the steampunk twist definitely helps to add some originality. The book starts off with some long flashbacks and exposition to reveal Nicolette (Cinderella)'s backstory and reveal the twists on the world. Nicolette lives in a realm ruled by a king which is in rough political waters with a neighboring realm of Faeries. Yes. Faeries. There's magic and wonders, but these have already been outlawed and the country is trying to push for technological innovations to make up for them. Nicolette is in fact an inventor herself - her mother having taught her much of what she knows when she was just a small child. There's definitely something to respect there. Nicolette is no damsel in distress waiting to be rescued from her cruel Stepmother and Stepsisters. When she rediscovers her mother's workshop, she starts building things, selling them through the market, and planning to get out of there on her own strengths and earnings, eventually buying back her family's manor. And the inventions themselves reek of everything I love most about steampunk novels - the most awesome being her clockwork horse, Jules, who is just twenty different kinds of adorable and without a doubt the best character of the book. So halfway through the novel, we were doing pretty well, and though I wasn't fully enthralled or impressed by the book, I was enjoying it. But then the romance appeared and we started going down a slippery slope. Fin is charming, sure. At first I thought they were pretty cute together, but Nicolette got super attached to him in no time at all. And I tried to rationalize this as a realistic reaction from someone who has hardly experienced kindness and love in her life, but when she starts thinking about Fin every other page and then berating herself for thinking of him, but then continuing to do it anyway... I grew a touch frustrated. She even - no shit - imagines conversations between them, and literally says those imagined conversations make her fall in love with him even more. They've only met 3 times by the time she admits she has serious feelings for him. I maybe don't want to label it as straight-up instalove, but it's pretty darn close. (Arguably this comes with the territory in fairy tale retellings, but I do feel it can be done better.) The ending, however, made my opinion of this book sink and the rating plunge. Now, Cornwell can be given points for originality and guts, because she throws out the Disney-like happily ever after ending and does something unprecedented. But it didn't sit well with me because the execution was so blah. This is all, obviously, for spoilery reasons. (view spoiler)[So at the end, Fin - revealed to be the Heir to the surprise of exactly no one - proposes to Nicolette, who is obviously infatuated with him (as she has been telling you for at least the last 100 pages). But in that same scene, Fin and Nicolette's friend, Caro, appears and Nicolette realizes Fin is actually in love with her. She runs away and turns down his proposal, even though Fin says he does have *some* feelings for her, and aside from Caro it's the only other time he's felt that way. Caro doesn't want to be with him because she feels they would be better off as friends. And the ending is a vague OT3-like open ending where the possibility exists for any of them to pair up at any moment in the future. In theory I would be all for OT3s. In fact, I have at times wished that love triangles would resolve that way for a change. But this one doesn't sit right with me. Nicolette is so deeply in love with Fin that I can't even believe that she'd want to be friends with Fin OR Caro after their feelings come to light. And I'm FURIOUS at Fin for proposing to Nicolette when he's known his whole life that he's in love with Caro. I would honestly PUNCH THAT GUY IN THE FACE. I'm disgusted at him. Especially with the epilogue when it seems like he's flirting with both of them. I would be so uncomfortable with that, I can't even. And Nicolette said on multiple occasions that she saw Caro as a sister - making this even more difficult to swallow for me. In retrospect, maybe OT3s just aren't my thing. (hide spoiler)] Summing Up: After the slow beginning, it seemed like Mechanica and I would get along well enough, with all the steampunk awesomeness and the magic and originality of the Faerie. Then... that romance. It ruined everything. I don't know if it's because I have certain expectations for fairy tale retellings, or if this book just went for tropes that (apparently) I can't handle, but by the end of the book, I was wincing and scowling and deeply dissatisfied. A pity, because I would have loved to add this beautiful book cover to my shelves. GIF it to me straight! [image] Recommended To: I... don't know. Nope. Don't ask me. *An electronic advance review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the contents of the review. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 04, 2015
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Aug 07, 2015
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Aug 14, 2014
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ebook
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| 1419707930
| 9781419707933
| 1419707930
| 3.17
| 11,054
| Aug 27, 2013
| Aug 27, 2013
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None
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Notes are private!
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0
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not set
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not set
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Jan 12, 2014
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Hardcover
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| 1444914464
| 9781444914467
| 1444914464
| 3.61
| 883
| Jan 02, 2014
| Jan 02, 2014
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did not like it
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1 star *exhales* First off, NO. I had to get that out of the way. I tried really hard to like Witch Finder. I went in with the lowest expectations poss 1 star *exhales* First off, NO. I had to get that out of the way. I tried really hard to like Witch Finder. I went in with the lowest expectations possible, because several of my reader friends were reading it just before I did and warned me that it didn't look that good. A pity, because I still absolutely adore the cover. But, as it was a review copy, I went ahead and read it anyway. For the most part, I was not amused. [image] I received this review copy rather late and was in a bit of a reading slump, so to still have my review up reasonably on time, I read most of it in one sitting. A good thing too, because if I had put it down more than once, I can't promise that I would have picked it back up again. Reading it in one sitting also helped to engross me in the story, so much so that I was quite enjoying the middle part of it and debated whether it was worth 3 stars. But overall... no. So Witch Finder promises us the story of a witch, Rosa, and a witch hunter, Luke, who is assigned to kill her as an initiation into a brotherhood of witch hunters. The plot, however, is stretched terribly thin. The beginning and end were rather boring and strayed into the realm of, "Huh? What?" Luke is on a mission to kill Rosa. You'd think there'd be more suspicion, plotting, etc., but no. He makes a couple attempts and quickly realizes he cares too much for Rosa, she's too much of an ordinary girl, for him to kill her. But where is the plot aside from that? I kept reading, trying to find it, but there was just no driving force to the story. A new plot arc is introduced in the last quarter of the book, and it was just really disjointed. [image] The world for that matter also made no sense to me. While it is our world in 1880, magic is in the world, and in the first couple chapters it's said that this is common knowledge. That fact is hardly used at all in the book. Sure, the witches are in hiding, and there's this secret brotherhood trying to kill them all, but ordinary people seem like they don't know witches exist, when according to the earlier chapters they should. And where do politics come in? There's some political body mentioned a few times, but no laws about witchcraft or anything. It was just so much missed potential. *sigh* The magic that is used in the book is also hardly noteworthy. Since Rosa has to be discrete about her magic around the house (given the normal human servants), the only spells we ever really see in this book are for things like starting a fire, mending some clothes, and making stains disappear. I mean really. [image] But for what it's worth, I did enjoy the romance between Luke and Rosa. It's the reason why I really enjoyed the middle of the book. I guess the way that Luke struggled with his fear of becoming a killer and his growing feelings for her did manage to touch my ice cold heart somehow. It wasn't instalove, really, although they do hop quickly to "I love you". That, however, I more or less accepted as part of the time period and of the dire circumstances they kept tumbling into. So I appreciated the romance, and it was probably the highlight of the book. My largest issue with this book is the rampant and blatant sexism and female oppression. You might say, "Well, duh, Debby, it's set in 1880." Yes, I know, this is set in our world more or less (plus a tiny bit of magic) and that was basically the scene in the 19th century. Female oppression was a thing. It happened, certainly. But does that mean I want to read about it? Not exactly. Does that mean it should be blatantly shoved in my face like this? No. You're putting magic in this world, couldn't you have chilled a tiny bit on the living standards for females? Even if it's realistic, this crossed the line into serious uncomfortable territory. So Rosa is from a family with good standing who recently lost all their fortune. Basically, their last hope is for Rosa to get married to a rich husband. They have their eye on Sebastian, another witch and long time family friend. Alexis, Rosa's brother, from the very start of the book commands Rosa around to do precisely as he says and more or less orders her to seduce Sebastian. Her mother basically does the same. Alexis is a prick and her mother actually slaps her for disobeying her. But Sebastian... oh, Sebastian, it turns out, is the hugest dick to ever grace this planet. On pretty much their first "date", he whips his dog to death for being disobediant. Rosa, after this, understandably is freaked the fuck out by him. She can hardly contain her fear. Her family tells her to get over it, because it was "just a dog". He then quickly, for whatever reason, decides that yes, he wants to marry Rosa. (Honestly I still can't understand this, because all throughout the book they mention that almost everyone knows that their family is broke, so why on earth would he want to marry her anyway? They don't have a good banter or talk much before he proposes anyway.) Then, he slips this ring on her finger that he magically tightens until she can never take it off. He starts referring to her as "his" and commanding her around. [image] Every second, she pretty much confesses that she's scared to death of this man. So after she gets engaged, she sneaks off to get some air and finds Luke. Luke has saved her life, and long story short, they kiss. Sebastian catches them, and BEATS HER TO A BLOODY PULP. He yells at her, screams that he'll kill her. This man is a raging psychopath. Words cannot describe the rage. [image] Do they break up after this? No. He doesn't leave her, even as he yells that he will not tolerate infidelity, and the reasoning is... he loves her? At least, that's what he keeps saying for the rest of the book. I'm still asking why. She has no fortune, which is public knowledge. She has reasonable looks. But he's wealthy as fuck. He surely could have found someone better. And then he could have gotten the fuck out of this book. [image] Like, did this happen, was it realistic in 1880? I'm sure to an extent it is. But that doesn't mean I want it in my books. Honestly, the book should come with a warning label, because there is some MAJOR abuse going on, not just from Sebastian, but also from Rosa's mother and brother. This was not at ALL what I was expecting from this book. It seriously made me uncomfortable, and every time I think about it since, I just have a hot flash of rage. No. Just no. The ending also takes a major cop out. Not only does the villain stupidly reveal his plans to obviously let the two main characters escape safely, but how they escape happens in a toss up ~fade to black~. Thanks to Christina, I've found the apt term for this: Too Stupid To Die. If my earlier rage about female oppression wasn't enough, by this time I was just yelling, "FUCK THIS SHIT," but it was too late to DNF the book. Summing Up: I can't. I just can't. Just no. I tried so hard with this book, and for a while it had me fooled, but that's only because the romance played off my emotions. At most I would maybe have considered giving it 3 stars at some point, but I just can't. While I thought it was an interesting and possibly accurate depiction of the time period, the late 19th century, it's a depiction that just makes me rage. Hence the long review. I just cannot with this book. Can. Not. No. GIF it to me straight! [image] Recommended To: No one. Definitely no feminists. Stay away. *ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley. Thank you! This does not affect the rating or content of this review. Clearly. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 30, 2013
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Jan 05, 2014
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Nov 28, 2013
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Paperback
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| 0399166505
| 9780399166501
| 0399166505
| 3.85
| 11,890
| Jan 13, 2015
| Jan 13, 2015
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it was ok
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2 stars WARNING: I am spoiling this entire book for you and I don't care. *deep sigh* It's been almost 3 months since I read this book, but I'm just get 2 stars WARNING: I am spoiling this entire book for you and I don't care. *deep sigh* It's been almost 3 months since I read this book, but I'm just getting around to reviewing it now. It's so laughably terrible that I needed to have the right energy and enough time to fully explain why. Honestly, before I dove into the book, I'd already seen that the public opinion on it was largely negative - but I still went into it with an open mind. It has such a beautiful cover and awesome premise (YA Da Vinci Code!), that I desperately wanted to like it. However, by page 24 my hopes were already shot. On page 24, the main character reveals herself to be a TSTL speshul snowflake - a theory which only gets more and more support as the story goes on. First: she has purple eyes. I know I'm not alone in my hatred for purple eyes because it's usually the first step to have a total wish fulfillment speshul Mary Sue-like character, who is just so beautiful it's not fair. It's also unrealistic. Purple eyes don't happen (don't fucking cite Elizabeth Taylor to me, her eyes only sometimes looked purple due to lighting/make-up/clothing - there are scientific articles about this), so unless there's some paranormal/sci-fi/fantastical reasoning behind it, it should not be in contemporary books. [image] Admittedly there is a reason for Avery's purple eyes and she's not the only person on earth with the eye color. It's actually a link to her father's family, though she has no idea who he is. That family is part of an elite Circle of Twelve families that controls the world (more on that later), and all those 12 families have the gene for purple eyes due to interbreeding (because that's how that works, no birth defects, just purple eyes). So she's not super speshul. But then, she's the only GIRL with purple eyes, so she is speshul, so speshul that there's even a prophecy about her (we'll get to that too). Oh and did I mention that Avery has been bullied and teased for her purple eyes as a kid, because no one thought they could possibly be real? So much so that she wears colored contacts to hide them? Yeah, feel very sorry for this speshul unfortunately beautiful girl. Further descriptions of Avery: "Has anyone ever told you that you look like one of those dolls?" he said. "A... kuklachka. How do you say it in English? With the white skin and the big eyes." "Five foot two inches tall." He looked me up and down again, and I straightened automatically. "One hundred and three pounds." [image] Her TSTL (too stupid to live) nature also reveals itself very early on. When the new, mysterious, handsome guy at school, Jack, drops a picture of her that he was carrying, instead of being creeped the fuck out, she decides to get closer to him and go to prom with him. As you do. She usually keeps herself from making friends because she moves constantly (later revealed as her mom trying to keep her hidden from the Circle of Twelve), but when she hears she'll be moving again she figures she can have one night of fun with this presumed stalker. At the dance, she meets this other guy, Stellan, who she'd spotted once before leering at her from a parking lot. He grabs her to go dance, and then Jack comes along and they start fighting with cryptic reasoning over her. And thus the seeds of the love triangle are planted, because this book needs to cover every YA cliché ever. This Stellan guy seems a bit more forceful and dangerous than Jack - who for the record does try to be honest with her and does seem to be looking out for her. But both guys have been sent by MYSTERIOUS MIGHTY PEOPLE to find her. Those people are connected to her father, who might be from one of these Circle of Twelve families. But instead of confronting her mom, who never told her about this side of her family, she obviously decides to drop everything and right that minute fly off to Paris with STELLAN. Not Jack, he'll catch up with them later. And this in spite of her earlier musings that her mom was basically her only friend and only constant in the world. *sigh* [image] So she finds out she's probably related to the Circle of Twelve and arrives in Paris like a total dumbass. Her supposed family, the Saxons, are not there but would arrive the next day, so she's staying with the Dauphins in a wing of the Louvre. Like you do. When you practically run the world, you get to live in one of the world's most famous museums because duh. She finds out that Jack is a "Keeper" for the Saxons, and Stellan is a "Keeper" for the Dauphins. Keepers are something like bodyguards, and the two families are kinda rivals but kinda not. The next day there is a ball or something, so obviously they have to go dress shopping. At Prada. Which the Dauphins just had closed for the day so they would have the shop to themselves. Stellan leaves her there to try on dresses and just before she's ready to leave, this guy comes in and tries to attack her. She runs and gets stabbed in her arm, but then Stellan and Luc (the heir to the Dauphins) arrive and kill the assassin and his partner. One had his head cut off. The other was stabbed in the chest in front of Avery. So THAT escalated quickly, but Avery is hardly traumatized - not by the deaths happening in front of her, or by these new "friends" who hardly blinked before killing people. Jack reveals that the assassins are from the Order, who are against the Circle - they don't believe the Circle should be in charge of the world. The Circle is basically the New World Order - descendants of Alexander the Great who hold almost every position of power everywhere. They are responsible for the two world wars (because of internal feuding) and all this other shit (which, okay, maybe I fucking agree with the Order and the Circle needs to die). Avery then reveals she has purple eyes just like Luc, and Jack is *SHOCKED* because this means she's a direct descendant of one of the heads of the families. The whole prophecy gets revealed - when the girl with purple eyes and the One are joined, it will somehow reveal treasure, wealth, power, and weapons - the birthright to the Circle, left behind somewhere by Alexander the Great. Now, Jack tells her some of these things and offers to take her to the Saxons who will keep her safe. Obviously the Order wants to kill her, and the other families would try to manipulate her. But Avery thinks that Jack and the Saxons would keep her under intense scrutiny, while Luc and Stellan don't know about her eyes yet, so if she stays with them she'll have a bigger chance of sneaking off. She's acting like she's been kidnapped even though she voluntarily went off to Paris with them, because retconning makes for great storytelling. [image] Because she is so too stupid to live, she goes off with Luc and Stellan, who for some reason are going clubbing in ISTANBUL so bye bye Paris. Anyway, they're clubbing in Istanbul and Avery learns about more of this prophecy stuff in infodumps from Luc because why not. The prophecies are apparently all super accurate because they were made by the Oracle at Delphi and stuff because reasons. And this one - the Mandate - is so important because of the internal power struggles. The families all want to be the One. To get all the glory. Finally it seems like Avery is acting with minimal intelligence, and she does try to sneak away.. But then Jack shows up outside on a motorcycle because apparently he'd put a tracer in her purse - isn't that romantic? He takes her to find Fitz / Mr. Emerson - his mentor, and her previous neighbor from when they lived in Boston. Fitz knows THINGS, but had sent a message to Jack that things were going wrong and they had to follow the clues he leaves them. When they get to his apartment, they find blood everywhere, and eventually they find a secret message that they have to go on a scavenger hunt thing because apparently "they are wrong about the mandate." (They call the prophecy "the mandate" as if those terms are synonyms. *sigh*) The Order then shows up and the two try to escape out the window. A chase sequence follows, and when they finally get away in a market, the two are pressed close together and tempted to kiss. Because obviously, being on the run makes for the perfect time for kissing. They go to the Haggia Sophia, where Fitz worked, and where the first of three clues would be hidden. It points them towards the Notre Dame in Paris. They narrowly escape from the Order again - who yell that they will kill Fitz if they don't tell them who the One is - and go back to Paris. At the Notre Dame, they find the next clue - a gargoyle that "watches over" the place, and they realize where it's looking would be the next location. (They puzzled over this for ages, but I had it figured out in seconds. *sigh*) It's looking at the ferris wheel and Jack says it's the Louvre. FREEZE FRAME: This is INCORRECT. The ferris wheel in Paris is in the Tuileries Garden. It is next to, but not part of, the Louvre. FACT CHECK FAIL. [image] Regardless, they go to the Louvre anyway, and find the next clue there (it should have been in Tuileries but whateverrrrrrr) in an exhibit, where Avery crawls under a sarcophagus. When the security guard comes to question them, she says she fainted and fell UNDER the sarcophagus. Because that's so believable. Well, the guard thought so. (THIS BOOK IS SO RIDICULOUS.) The Order shows up again and chases them, but by disguising themselves (by switching coats) and pretending to be a couple kissing, they manage to evade them. Then they come back around, so Avery actually kisses him, and it's all very dramatic and cliché - but honestly I'm a glutton for this kind of situation so I giggled anyway. At this point, Jack reveals that Keepers get killed if they get involved with anyone from the Circle in that way, so OOPS IT'S FORBIDDEN. (Yep, we needed to fit in that cliché too.) The Louvre had yielded them a book by Napoleon, where he documents more about the prophecy. After some research and sleuthing, a masquerade ball on the third level of the Eiffel tower, eavesdropping on conversations between the Circle families, meeting her father, make out sessions, and Stellan finding out that Avery has purple eyes, Dauphin kidnaps Avery and decides to force her to marry Luc, so that he will be "the One". (Right: the Circle is all about the patriarchy, with women mostly being good for marrying off and bearing children.) While in captivity, she, Jack, and Stellan start piecing together the clues and realize that what Napoleon had figured out was that the interpretation the Circle had was wrong. The prophecy mentions "the One superior to all others" - as in a thirteenth descended from Alexander himself. And as there's a bit in the prophecy about the One walking through fire unharmed and Avery realizes that Stellan has burn scars and he was brought to the Circle by Fitz after surviving a fire... They test it out with a lighter - he feels the pain of fire but it doesn't leave a mark on him (because reasons). Dun dun dunnnn, Stellan is likely the One. Anyway, the wedding is on, in Notre Dame because obvi. However, after many dramatics, Avery reveals herself to the crowd as having purple eyes, exposing Dauphin for tricking the Circle and trying to use Avery for her "power". Chaos erupts, and she manages to escape with Jack, aided by Luc and Stellan. They contact the Order to ask for more time, but they kill Fitz and reveal that they kidnapped Avery's mother. They want the identity of the One ASAP. The story comes to a close the next day, when Avery and Jack meet up with Stellan, now enemies of the Circle and the Order. Stellan agrees to help them and comes with a last bombshell... "That's right, kuklachka. Congratulations to us. It appears you and I are getting married." [image] While big picture this story is pretty terrible - mostly due to the very many clichés and terrible writing - there is some entertainment value. The chase scenes are decently intense. Avery doesn't escape unscathed, and enough characters get wounded/killed that it's not entirely lame. Towards the end, when more of the conspiracy stuff comes to light, there is an actual sense of complexity to the story that can be fun for readers to puzzle out. But then again, it usually comes with enough contradictions/inaccuracies to make me groan again. The biggest mystery to me is that I actually didn't find the romance altogether terrible. It's cliché and corny and overdramatic - sure. And they are super ~attracted~ to each other and tempted to kiss at the absolute worst of times. But the kiss scenes themselves are almost swoonworthy? However, all the stalking and dramatic stuff does keep me from boarding a ship. (Though, for the record, Jack is superior to Stellan.) All in all, if the story isn't ridiculous enough for you, there are more than enough horrific examples of the writing. Stellan pulled out the other bar stool and sat. My feet dangled, but his rested solidly on the floor. (Apparently Stellan is 8 feet tall and/or ridiculously proportioned.) Jack nodded. "I need to borrow a shirt from Fitz anyway," he said, rolling his shoulders. The shirt from Prada was a little tight, and stretched taut across his shoulders. The butterflies flapped harder, but I shook them off. What was wrong with me? How could I possibly be thinking about how good he looked in a tight shirt right now? (Oh look at me, I'm so cliché, but I recognize the ridiculousness, so then it's not cliché, right?) But the best thing ever, and the quote of the book, in my opinion, comes when Luc explains the significance of the number twelve in the world, all due to the Circle. Luc grinned wider. "Then you'll really be impressed with this. The twelve months of the calendar. Inches in a foot. Hours in a day. Zodiac symbols. The 'twelve' aspects of those all came into being around 300 BC, just around when the Diadochi took over." Twelve hours in a day. Twelve hours in a day. TWELVE HOURS IN A DAY. [image] Summing Up: You might wonder why I didn't give this the lowest rating possible, but that's simply because this book is so bad it genuinely became a bit entertaining. The Conspiracy of Us is a gold mine of clichés, bad writing, inaccuracies, terrible characters, and corny, dramatic romance. Laughing at it was not the worst way to spend my time. But I do doubt I'll go out of my way to read the sequel. GIF it to me straight! [image] Recommended To: I would NOT, unless you're a glutton for punishment. Or... if you liked The Jewel. [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 28, 2015
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Apr 30, 2015
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Oct 25, 2013
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0062279505
| 9780062279507
| 0062279505
| 3.49
| 6,317
| Dec 31, 2016
| Dec 31, 2013
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did not like it
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1.5 stars The Promise of Amazing promised amazing things. ZING. I had to get that out of the way. I just had to. Now that we've gotten the title pun in 1.5 stars The Promise of Amazing promised amazing things. ZING. I had to get that out of the way. I just had to. Now that we've gotten the title pun in here, let's see... did it deliver on its promise? Tragically, no. But I won't say that this book was completely terrible either. I mean, it has a pretty cover. Look at that! Ain't it purty? [image] If one enters this book in the right mood, it can be quite enjoyable. Let me clarify what I mean. When I started reading The Promise of Amazing, I was desperately in need of some winter-themed fluff. And this book takes place in the winter. And the plot is very much romance-centric. So it was a comfortable kind of read, and it read quite quickly. It was easily digestible, and that was something I was desperately in need of. I quite enjoyed the romance between Wren and Grayson! I definitely felt some of the chemistry between them, if only because Robin Constantine sure knows how to write kissing scenes. A lot of bloggers have been calling it instalove, and yeah, I see where they're coming from. But I do feel like the instalove was mostly onesided, and surprisingly not on the girl's side. No, Wren was much more hesitant about trusting Grayson and letting him get closer to her. I could actually follow her logic and really enjoyed her narrations. I did feel a connection to her, because a lot of her worries, not just about the romance, but about college and the future, mirrored my own in high school. I definitely thought she was a realistic main character. But Grayson... oh man did I want to shoot that guy sometimes. The instalove is 90% from his side. Within two brief meetings with Wren, the first of which entirely consists of him puking on her shoes, he starts saying things like, "There was a genuineness about Wren that made me feel like I didn't have to put up a front. Like she really saw me." *barfs* And then, "The way we met, at this point in my life, had to mean something. I needed to see her again." [image] Thank you, Draco. This is utter wish fulfillment bullshit. Show me a teenage guy who thinks like this and I'll show you a flying pig. It doesn't help either that in spite of these random interjections of instalove, Grayson still revels in being somewhat of a womanizer and obsesses over physical attraction. Sure, Wren has her moments of instalove, but they are much subtler, where she talks about feeling a magnetic pull to Grayson. That, to some extent, I can believe. But the bullshit Grayson's spouting? NO THANK YOU. TL;DR: I wish this whole book would be written from Wren's perspective, because I'm sure I'd like it at least twice as much. What I also dislike is that the author tried to make some sort of plot aside from the romance, hinging on Grayson's background, where he was friends with the wrong people who encouraged him to run a business of selling term papers and participate in other hijinks. But this book was begging to be all about the romance, and thus this side plot was just half-assed. At the end, its resolution was met with a shrug. I couldn't bring myself to care for it for a second. It was just there to get in the way of the smooching - which, again, I quite enjoyed - and probably kept this book from being as amazing as it could have been. 100% fluff is not totally a bad thing. It's quite what I expected from this book, to be honest. But trying to pull off being more than fluff, when you're really not? That just ends badly. Summing Up: It wasn't a completely terrible read, but The Promise of Amazing definitely didn't live up to its title. (I can't stop using this pun. Sorry not sorry. It's just too easy. To be honest, picking a title like that is just dangerous, because it begs to be made fun of.) While I liked the kissy scenes, I definitely wanted to stab Grayson. It was an odd reading experience, where I tried to ignore the instalove declarations that annoyed me, kind of like me reading with one eye shut, trying to block out the bad and concentrate only on the good. So while I still managed to enjoy it to some extent, it's not an experience I'd care to repeat, nor one that I'd actively recommend to other people. GIF it to me straight! [image] Recommended To: People who can handle wish fulfillment bullshit and sappy romance. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 12, 2013
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Dec 17, 2013
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Jun 24, 2013
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Kindle Edition
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| 1460321022
| 9781460321027
| B00DSX0OAW
| 3.63
| 770
| Oct 29, 2013
| Oct 29, 2013
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did not like it
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1 stars Dear publishers and authors, Consider the following warning label: WARNING: This book contains instalove. The protagonist falls head over heels f1 stars Dear publishers and authors, Consider the following warning label: WARNING: This book contains instalove. The protagonist falls head over heels for the love interest in less than 10% of the novel for some undeniable and yet inexplicable reason. And after that, 90% of the protagonist's thoughts and actions concern this undying love. It will be insufferable. You will hate it. Stay away. For the love of god. Please start using this label. Because I'm getting sick of going into these books expecting an actual plot and having it center on nothing but the irritating ramblings of a love sick teenager. And that was just the beginning of the immense list of issues I have with this book. Nerissa is a thoroughly unlikable character. So in a thoroughly original turn of events, Lo, short for Lotharius, is a new guy at Nerissa's school, and from the moment they lock eyes, Nerissa just can't stop thinking about him. But the way this instalove is set up becomes even more annoying when you factor in Nerissa's personality. She's so darn attracted to him, but the whole thing is set up as if she can't stand him. For the first half of the book, it pretty much goes like this: Nerissa: *stares at new guy* Lo: ... *stares back* Nerissa: YOU'RE SO ARROGANT AND ANNOYING. Lo: ...Hi. Nerissa: STOP STALKING ME. Lo: I like you. Nerissa: UGH I HATE YOU. *storms off* Nerissa: God I don't get that guy. Oh but he's so pretty. With his deep blue eyes and hair the color of wet sand *process repeats* [image] So I already couldn't stand Nerissa for her stupid and inexplicable attraction to Lo, who showed absolutely no personality - and contrary to how she asserts that he is arrogant and douchey, he displays no such behavior aside from an odd snarky comment here and there. But then this ex-friendship with Cara is introduced. Nerissa and Cara used to be friends until a guy Cara was crushing on asked Nerissa out and she accepted. However, instead of Cara being a bitch to Nerissa, Nerissa makes Cara's life a living hell, pretty much. She completely shuts Cara out during a hockey game, refusing to pass to her when she was open, and in general just keeps narrating about how rude and bitchy Cara is. Cara barely does anything aside from glare at Nerissa. But of course then Lo becomes friends with Cara, so Nerissa doesn't like that. And then later Nerissa's best friend Speio starts dating Cara and Nerissa doesn't like that. [image] Are you *headdesk*ing with me yet? Honestly I don't know why I didn't just drop this book. I knew within 50 pages that it wasn't the book for me. But it went quickly, and I guess I felt like that made it tolerable? The plot is near nonexistent, as most of the novel focuses on this annoying romance that had me rolling my eyes and scoffing constantly. There's one infodump chapter around midway through the novel where Nerissa explains exactly what kind of creature she is and where she comes from, which is all rather vague, nonsensical, or confusing... then it goes back to the romantic melodrama, because *gasp* Nerissa realizes she actually is in love with Lo. I know. Shocker. Then the end has a few chapters of battles and plot but it's way too late in the game to save the show. Sadly, all the plot twists regarding the identities of several characters I had called practically at the very beginning of the book. Yeah. So no big shockers there either. What a waste of time. About the only ray of light in this sad excuse of a novel was Nerissa's friendship with Jenna. It was actually a very healthy and nice female friendship, and it stood totally apart from any relationship/boy drama. Sadly, this was overshadowed by Nerissa's illogically intense hatred of Cara and the bitchy narrations associated with that element. And of course, all the rest of the book. Summing Up: I thoroughly disliked this book and sped read it to get it out of the way as soon as possible. It's just not worth it. Annoying instalove, hateful main character, bland love interest, minor plot, vague worldbuilding through infodumps... *sigh* I just want a good mermaid book. I know it's possible. Please. Someone. Prove me right. GIF it to me straight! [image] Recommended To: No one. **An electronic ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review. Thank you! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 06, 2013
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Oct 08, 2013
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May 23, 2013
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Kindle Edition
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| 0525425926
| 9780525425922
| 0525425926
| 3.88
| 44,451
| Oct 10, 2013
| Oct 10, 2013
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it was ok
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2 stars [image] How do I even start this review? I was ecstatic when Judith told me she would send me her ARC of Just One Year, because it was honestly 2 stars [image] How do I even start this review? I was ecstatic when Judith told me she would send me her ARC of Just One Year, because it was honestly one of my most anticipated books of this year, after I read Just One Day . I honestly thought there'd be no way in hell that I wouldn't like this book. When Judith didn't give it 5 stars, I thought she must be crazy. I take back my unspoken thought, Judith. You're not crazy. WHAT was this book? WHY did it go like this? HOW did Gayle Forman think this was a good idea, that this was the book we wanted? First things first then, and it really pains me to say this, but I didn't like Willem's voice. I know. Your jaws just dropped to the floor. But just honestly. I loved him in Just One Day, he was kind of mysterious and dreamy, and though you didn't know much about him, you desperately wanted more. Well here we get it. It's Willem's point-of-view the whole way through... and it didn't work. It wasn't convincing. I'm not convinced Forman can write a believable male point-of-view, since I also didn't like Adam's voice in Where She Went . The thing is, it was total wish fulfillment bullshit. All Willem thinks and talks about the whole time is Allyson and how much he likes her, how he can't forget about her... I'm sorry, but that's not realistic. He's a guy. He's supposed to have some freaking balls. I just... It wasn't convincing. At all. I wanted substance. But he was just boring. And all the love that I had built up around him in Just One Day was swept away. *sigh* Added to this personality that didn't really agree with me, the plot... it was so boring. This starts off the day that Willem and Allyson are separated and then covers the year until they meet again. Willem does nothing but pine for Allyson and simultaneously travels to Mexico and India. While in Just One Day, Allyson's year apart clearly showed a story of personal growth, that wasn't really the case for Willem. He didn't grow much, if at all. And it doesn't help that Mexico and India are definitely not high on the list of countries I want to visit. This didn't evoke the kind of wanderlust that Just One Day did, at least for me. But anyway, Willem's experiences in these countries honestly felt like it was just a stall tactic. It was boring. I was just passing the time until he would be reunited with Allyson. Since this combination of blah main character and blah boring plot wasn't keeping me entertained, I was already in a rather blah mood and difficult to impress. So things that might not have bothered me otherwise started to bother me. It just seemed like this book was trying too hard. For example, Gayle throws in a bunch of Dutch words at random, to... I don't know, emphasize the fact that Willem's Dutch. And while I appreciate the effort and none of it was incorrect or anything, it felt extremely odd as a Dutch reader. Particularly when Willem meets up with his Dutch friends, guys, all in their 20s, and then Broodje suggests making a "borrelhapje". Here's a Dutch lesson: anything ending with -je is the diminutive form of the word. It's cutsey. It's not something that a group of 20 year old guys would ever seriously say. It sounded extremely awkward. And another thing that bothered me is Forman's glaring attempts to be "deep". When you're in a naggy mood, reading one of her books is a bad idea. Each chapter ends with a sentence that has like a double or deeper meaning. But it just annoyed me. I just felt it was so obvious and trying too hard. Just. No. Ugh. Cue the eyerolls. The ending... [image] I couldn't imagine a bigger disappointment. (view spoiler)[IT HONESTLY JUST SHOWS THEM TOGETHER FOR ONE SECOND MORE THAN JUST ONE DAY. SERIOUSLY. SHE ENTERS THE APARTMENT. AND THEN HE KISSES HER. AND THAT'S NOT EVEN DESCRIBED IN A SWOONTASTIC WAY. THEY DON'T EVEN SPEAK. IT JUST FUCKING ENDS. WHAT THE HELLLLLLLLLLLLL WAS THAT. WHAT WAS THE POINT? I READ THIS BOOK TO SEE THEM TOGETHER. AND IT DIDN'T FREAKING HAPPEN. FUCK EVERYTHING. (hide spoiler)] [image] Summing Up: I've honestly tried, tried so hard to think of something to name that I liked in this book. But I'm coming up completely blank. Honestly. It may not be entirely bad, but right now, my massive disappointment is overshadowing everything. I mean, I named Just One Day one of my all-time favorite books. And now I'm going to try to forget about this book and just pretend JOD was a standalone. This book added nothing. I would take back reading it if I could. That is honestly how I feel right now. And I'm questioning whether I get along with Gayle Forman's writing after all. I've read the Just One Day and If I Stay duologies, and of those four books I've only liked Just One Day. I'm thinking that was the exception to the rule. And I'm aware this makes me a total black sheep, but you know what? I don't care. Though I do wonder why it just won't work for me. GIF it to me straight! [image] [image] Recommended To: People who are more sentimental than me. *mutters* *This review is of an ARC. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 03, 2013
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Oct 05, 2013
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Jan 16, 2013
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0316212830
| 9780316212830
| B00FOSPDAU
| 3.67
| 51,210
| Apr 02, 2013
| Apr 04, 2013
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it was ok
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2 stars As a true hopeless romantic, the "normal girl meets and falls in love with a famous boy" story makes my heart flutter. No matter how cliché, I 2 stars As a true hopeless romantic, the "normal girl meets and falls in love with a famous boy" story makes my heart flutter. No matter how cliché, I really enjoy reading stories like it. And yet... This Is What Happy Looks Like is just lackluster in everything. This review will contain spoilers. Beware. I just can't review this book without pointing out the idiotic plot points. So Ellie and Graham meet by accident when Graham misspells an e-mail address. They don't know who the other is, but they seem to really easily strike up conversations about almost nothing. So Graham, a famous movie star, when in need of a location to shoot his next film, insists on traveling to Ellie's home town to meet her. After a first cliché mishap of mistaken identity, they meet and instantly know this is true love. Okay, they talked for three months via e-mails, so it's not really instalove, but it felt like it. I just feel so cheated. Maybe it's because I have experience with situations like this, but online contact is vastly different from offline contact. And even if you really like someone online, that's not necessarily the case offline. But no. They knew it INSTANTLY. He wanted to kiss her INSTANTLY. And just... UGH. What is this?? [image] And the rest of the book only makes it worse. Why? They were together for all of two days, before Ellie freaked out about the paparazzi shizzle and started avoiding him like the plague. For THREE WEEKS. And during that time, all they do is pine for each other. Then when they're finally reunited, you once again see them together for only THREE DAYS. Guys, this isn't a heart-throbbing romance. This is just odd. They're pretty cute together, for sure, but I don't buy it. Whereas I think the concept asked for a happy-go-lucky, totally feel-good kind of romance, I think Jennifer placed way too much emphasis on the underlying "drama" in both of their lives that just made the romance kind of stupid. Like, Ellie is terrified of the paparazzi because she is the illegitimate daughter of a senator. Her mother ran away with her as a child to escape the press and it's basically implied that all hell would break loose if their true identities were discovered. Well, spoiler alert: it gets out, right at the end. You feel that coming, but still have a certain curiosity about how it would get resolved. Well? "Yeah, they found out your name, and the connection to your father, but it's really just a footnote, and nobody really cares because all they care about is that you're Graham's girlfriend." [image] No no no no no. And don't get me started again about how the press calls her his girlfriend, he refers to her as "his girl" and everyone else in town knows they're in LOVE when they've known each other for FIVE DAYS in total. I don't count those three weeks they weren't speaking, and I don't (really) count the three months of email conversations. Hell no. asdfjkl; Their romance consisted of like 3 kisses and a bit of hand holding. Some more development would have been amazing. I just didn't see it as a serious relationship, unlike apparently everyone else in the book. Also, in the end, out of nowhere, Graham suddenly regains contact with his parents, whom he's been estranged from since he became famous. And it then turns out that, contrary to everything Graham has indicated about them in his narrations, they truly care about him and have been keeping tabs on his activities via magazines and stuff... instead of just talking to him... I'm sorry, WHAT? Talk about a plot element out of nowhere just for your convenience. This made no sense to me. You can't establish one image of certain characters all throughout the book, and right at the end, over the phone prove that it was totally not like that. I get that this was supposed to just be a feel-good moment, but usually that still has some kind of cause... or build up. Or something. Summing Up: I started off writing this review wondering, "Hmm... how did I feel about it?" And within 10 minutes it became this full-fledged rant. I read the book, entirely, at a high speed, all things considered, but I just totally disagree with it. This is not the book I hoped it would be. The characters were all right, and the concept held some appeal to me, but it desperately failed in the execution and overall in the plot. So two stars... because I did manage to finish and while reading didn't notice how much I disagreed with it. TL;DR: this is SO NOT what happy looks like. Recommended To: I honestly don't think I would. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 13, 2013
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Apr 14, 2013
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Dec 16, 2012
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| 0062201298
| 9780062201294
| 0062201298
| 2.97
| 2,220
| May 21, 2013
| May 21, 2013
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did not like it
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NO STARS [image] No. No no no no no. No no. No. This book is one of the worst I have ever read. Hell, it may well be the worst. Save yourself the inevit NO STARS [image] No. No no no no no. No no. No. This book is one of the worst I have ever read. Hell, it may well be the worst. Save yourself the inevitable frustration and disappointment of reading this book. Please. Do yourself a favor. Let me tell you why. Cue my longest review ever. After only 15%, my gut told me to throw my e-reader across the room and give up. But I am not one to easily DNF books, and I really felt I should review this one. So I kept on going. But this isn't going to be pretty guys. I'll throw in some gifs though. To pretty it up. And because they so adequately can depict my rage. Let me start off with this: Sam is the most annoying, douchebag main character I have ever read. Here are some quotes for you, introducing himself right at the beginning of the book. "Man, I just want to go to bed," I said. I was exhausted. I wanted to jerk off and fall asleep. [image] First thing to know about Sam: he's blunt and vulgar. I consider myself a sociable person, but sometimes I feel best being sociable with myself. I guess that's why I enjoy masturbation. [image] Why? Seriously. Why? This morning at the beach was different. I felt the muscles in my shoulders pumping with blood. I felt ocean in my eyelashes and a heaviness in my dick. I felt strong and solid, more myself--the best version of myself, I mean--than I had in a while. Okay, aside from once again mentioning his dick, "I felt ocean in my eyelashes"?? What the hell kind of writing is this? [image] And although Sasha had remained obviously into me in the weeks following the party--texting me nonstop and leaving long and pointless handwritten notes in my locker--I'd quickly decided that she was annoying and not even all that hot. [image] No. Just no. Adding sexist to the list of personality traits. I wondered if the earth was flat-and if so, where did the water go when it tumbled off the edge? [image] I think the author intended to show off Sam's thoughtfulness here, but... JESUS. NO. UGH. Think again, Sam. You definitely are an idiot. Sam also frequently cites the "wisdom" of his best friend, Sebastian. And that yields us such beautiful passages as... Sebastian always advised me to ask questions when in doubt. "Girls like to talk about themselves. If you can't think of anything to say, just ask some dumb question about nothing, and if you're lucky she'll go off and you won't have to say anything else for another ten minutes and she'll think you're a great listener. [image] I actually thought about calling Sebastian for advice, but I could practically hear his voice: Wait, this is all over some girl? Don't be such a fucking vagina, dude! I mean, dude! You go to the beach for a month and you turn into a human tampon! [image] And yet, even worse than Sam, there's his brother, Jeff, aka the most sexist pig ever born. "You sleep with some girl once, and before you know it you're like trapped in her crazy pussy-web," he said, nodding sagely to himself. [image] "You wearing some kind of special cologne or something?" he asked. "You're working some crazy voodoo on those bitches." [image] Now all of the above are completely infuriating. Every male character is portrayed to be such a huge douche (except Sam and Jeff's father, who is a total pansy). And I don't know about you guys, but the majority of the YA reader base being female, this is all pretty freaking (1) disgusting, (2) insulting, and (3) disheartening! I'm single, and thinking that every guy is like this is totally depressing. It just makes me think... [image] But the sexism doesn't end there. The main love interest, DeeDee, also has some choice words to add. "I've never read the Bible," I said. "I didn't know anyone actually read it." [image] You... wait.. what? The women think we're tacky, but we're not interested in the opinions of women anymore. We learned long ago how unimportant the opinions of women are. [image] Kristle tried to do it with me." I said. DeeDee didn't flinch. "I know," she said. "She told me. Typical ho. [image] This is the weird thing about September Girls - it's so blatantly sexist, disgusting, and infuriating, at a certain point I was wondering if I was reading it wrong. And if it wasn't just totally meant to be a comedy. A disgusting comedy, but still. I mean. Why on earth would a publisher publish this??? (I still love you, HarperCollins, but...) [image] I could go on with the quotes, but I think you get the point. I did read the whole book, and I have some choice words to say about the rest as well. The characters are ridiculous. I think from the quotes you've probably already understood that they're all sexist assholes, and obviously that kept me from connecting at all or caring about them at all. However, something weird happened too. We have these sexist idiots, Sam and Jeff, and at a certain point they both have love interests (I know, I know, HOWWW??!??!?!) and they do some kind of 180. Jeff, who admittedly made some of the worst comments, gets all defensive when Sam questions his relationship with Kristle. Sam is suddenly totally love sick after he meets DeeDee. ...It doesn't work this way guys. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. GET SOME. PREFERABLY BELIEVABLE. [image] Sam's parents are some of the stupidest I have ever heard of. So Sam's mother leaves the family - just one day ups and leaves. Sam then so very eloquently blames this on... feminism. Yes, through Facebook and Farmville, his mother discovered the internet, and then came in contact with a whole crowd of people there who apparently inspired her to ditch her family. What? When does this ever happen? And then she comes back. During Sam's vacation. And his father has been pining and moaning since she left, a truly pathetic human being, to be quite honest. So she comes back, and he doesn't blame her for anything, just welcomes her back, pretty much. I'm sure there's a deeper story there but the author just decides to pretty much glaze over that to talk more about Sam's melodramatic love life. [image] The plot is stupid. Wait, I should rephrase that. Plot, WHAT plot? Seriously, at around 50% I didn't know what I was reading anymore. The whole first half was basically: there are these mysterious girls. Something's up with them. Oh and Sam is completely love sick for DeeDee. And Kristle keeps flirting with him. It's just plain boring. After that, it still takes a while before anything really happens. But I pushed on. You guys don't care about spoilers, right? Eh, SPOILER ALERT. So it turns out that the oh-so-mysterious Girls are mermaids... kind of? (the world building is shit), and they have a CURSE. They can't leave the beach unless they... have sex with a virgin male. [image] Whyyyy? Seriously, you couldn't think of anything better? At that point, it hit me: this is a teenage boy's wet dream. It's got to be. But yeah, that explains why all these ever so slightly weird but totally hot Girls are after Sam, who has shown no personality besides a slight propensity for sexism. You know how attractive that is. But yeah, they're only after sex, so... One of my favorite (sarcasm) scenes was when a hurricane came to the beach! Not only did Sam's family very stupidly decide to stay (seriously, living in Northwest Houston was terrifying enough when hurricanes struck - being right on the shore? umm) but this very interesting passage happens. (Just one more quote, I swear!) "So why are we staying?" I looked from Dad to Mom. "If we're supposed to leave?" Everyone just sort of shrugged. "Are we all going to die?" I asked. Seriously, his parents are so stupid. After that, you know what happens? It's a couple hours before the hurricane is due to hit, and Sam's dad hands him his metal detector and tells him to go off and hunt for treasure on the beach. Right now. And Sam goes. [image] WHO DOES THIS??? Well, he goes off on his merry way, hunting for treasure, eventually finds something, starts digging, digging, digging, and then notices the hole he's standing in is filling with water and the winds are actually too fierce for him to swim back to the shore. *heavy sigh* Luckilyyyy his Girls are there to save him. Moving on, the writing is pretentious. So this book doesn't even have that to save it. The writing alternates between Sam's point of view and passages from the Girls. These short Girls chapters are the most cryptic and pretentious passages. I suppose that was intended to heighten the mystery about their identities and whatever, but most of them ended with me scratching my head thinking, "What the hell did I just read?" But that feeling wasn't only limited to those passages, and sometimes Sam had a propensity for those kinds of tangents as well. And of course, you've seen some samples of the writing already, with beautiful descriptors like, "I felt ocean in my eyelashes." The world building was just awful. There's so much potential in mermaids. I wished for so much better. But no. We get pretty much one cryptic infodump that is equal parts confusing and forgettable - I suppose because creative world building was not a goal of this novel. Here, let's see what you make of this: the Girls are mermaids. Their mother is the Deepness. Their father is the Endlessness. They have two brothers: Speed and Calm. They for some reason only really "live" in the summer and are rather dormant the other months. They get sent to the beach when they're 16 and have no real memories of where they came from or what their name was, except the knowledge that they're cursed, in fact, by their father. There's a lot of other little disjointed details, but it's like none of it really builds on each other and none of it is thoroughly developed. I mean, did it make sense to you, Sherlock? [image] Also, I feel like I have to mention that the Girls have the most ridiculous names ever. So when they wash up on the shore, they don't have a name, so they watch TV and stuff and then pick names. But I don't get why that yields them the stupidest names in history (especially when they have their sisters there who have been living there for a while and would probably know what is normal by now). Here are some of these brilliant names: Kristle, L'Oréal, Olay, Taffany, Fiesta, Jenuvia, the list goes on. I couldn't help but giggle every time I saw Kristle or Taffany written on the page. I mean, seriously. Even if they didn't know any better after just crawling out of the ocean, they could catch on later and switch to more normal names right? Names aren't exactly set in stone... Okay, this is going on for far too long. Summing Up: There is nothing redeemable about this book. Reading it can best just be summed up with this one final gif. [image] Someone hand me the brain bleach. Recommended To: I wouldn't subject anyone to this. *ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the contents of the review. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 21, 2013
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Apr 25, 2013
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Nov 25, 2012
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ebook
| ||||||||||||||
| 037321071X
| 9780373210718
| 037321071X
| 3.66
| 9,989
| Jun 08, 2013
| Jun 25, 2013
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it was ok
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2 stars [image] It is with a heavy heart that I sit down to write this review. You see, Ink was my most highly anticipated debut. In fact, it was one of 2 stars [image] It is with a heavy heart that I sit down to write this review. You see, Ink was my most highly anticipated debut. In fact, it was one of my most highly anticipated 2013 releases. A book, set in Japan, about a fantasy world where ink drawings come to life? That sounded like everything I could ever want and more. And yet, it turned out to be something totally not for me. And despite how high my expectations were, it would have been no different if I had absolutely no idea what this book was about beforehand. Let me start by saying that this book is stunning, design-wise. Not only does it have that beautiful cover, but given that it's a story about ink drawings coming to life, there are illustrations within the book and flip-book animations as well. The chapter headings are also stunning. All in all, it's one of the most beautiful books I've ever read - the design is truly a work of art. Two of the best things about this novel are the setting and Amanda Sun's writing. She showed a deep understanding of the Japanese culture, and descriptions of the setting truly painted a beautiful picture. I felt like I was there, even though I've never been to Japan before. Her writing is beautiful and easily digestible. After reading so many debuts this year, I can only say the same for about two other books. I wouldn't have expected this to be a debut. So I'm excited to read more of her work. But... perhaps not in this series. Let's start with the characters. Katie, the main character, is, to me, rather unlikable. She is impulsive and extremely love sick. But we'll get to that second one in a bit. Her impulsiveness just caused her to make all the wrong choices. Aside from those two personality traits, she fell flat. She lacked character depth and considering her back-story of being thrust into a vastly different culture and just having gone through the death of her mother, I did not expect that. Tomohiro is... well, picture your basic drool-worthy anime character. Then minus some of the drool, because he also lacked the kind of depth that would really make him attractive. The concept was still wonderfully unique and relatively well-executed. Amanda Sun's fantasy world had a ton of potential, which made for an intriguing plot. However, I felt like it was over before it began - and for 377 pages, that's a weird thing to say. I felt like the plot centered way too much on the romance. When the action scenes arrived, they were over just like that. The fantasy world was still left largely unexplored. And at the end, I felt extremely cheated. I didn't feel like I ever got to a climax, though it may have also been due to the fact that around 50 pages at the end of the book consist of the glossary, acknowledgements, interview, discussion questions, preview of the next book. The ending was completely unexpected, because I thought I had a lot longer to go. It just fell flat. I feel I must also warn you that Ink features a lot of romanized Japanese dialogue. And even as someone who has watched so much anime and J-Dramas that I can understand all those phrases without a second thought, I found it to become a bit irritating. I feel like it often got in the way of the flow of the dialogue, especially as the Japanese phrases were usually translated into English right after. I appreciate the effort to include those phrases to make the setting more authentic and to show how Katie was still learning the language, but I can't help but wonder if there was a better way to accomplish that. If it even got on my nerves a little, I can only imagine how it feels for a reader with no knowledge of Japanese. What bothered me a lot throughout the novel was the constant use of YA stereotypes. You have the helpless Katie, who is head over freaking heels for Tomohiro (we'll get there). You have Tomohiro, who seems like he has split personalities - is dark and scary one moment, and then the most romantic guy ever the next. You have the absentee parent - in this case, aunt. (I really didn't understand that - Katie's aunt gives her a cell phone, and then later, when Katie need to call someone for help, she doesn't have her aunt's number - are you kidding me?) You have the obnoxious best friend who almost yells to the whole school that Katie slept over at Tomohiro's house (seriously??). The list goes on. These all just give me a massive urge to *headdesk*. Now, let's get down to business. The romance to me is baffling and ultimately the biggest reason for my disappointment. Let me take you through a chronological order of this romance, actually: Katie sees Tomohiro break up with a girl in a totally heartless way because supposedly he cheated on her and got another girl pregnant. He sees her and glares at her. Katie's friends warn her to stay away from him; he has a bad reputation. But no, she sees something in his eyes that would prove he's not so heartless. So she STALKS him. Seriously. Stalks this guy she's been told to stay away from because he's dangerous. The more Tomohiro didn't want me to delve into his past, the more I needed to. But yeah, then the cliché arrives, and he's really got a heart of gold but tries to keep everyone at a distance. At 41% of the novel, this little gem appears. 'Warui,' he whispered in apology, and I knew then that I couldn't live without him, even when he was infuriating. Which was pretty much all the time. They are barely together at this point. But she can't live without him. Oh hello, Bella, I didn't know you became a blonde and moved to Japan. How interesting. Some odd number of pages after that, they say, "I love you" to each other, and THEN have their first kiss. Is it just me, or does this sound like it's totally out of order? I mean, okay, Japanese culture, confessing before a kiss is common, so I'll give you that one, but the can't live without him? Please. Please. Take your instalove and leave. [image] Wait-- What-- No-- I told you to leave! Tomohiro's eyes met mine, and in them there was none of the darkness that I had seen in the hotel, no ugliness or hatred. I saw only our link, the axis that kept our worlds spinning, that kept us in balance. And I knew that neither of us could leave the other. [image] Clearly, I didn't know what I was getting into. I didn't expect this book to be so romance-centric. And I didn't expect the romance itself to be such sickeningly sweet instalove with poor development. I think part of it stemmed from the fact that some of the more casual scenes where they were spending time together and getting to know each other were skipped (mentioned in passing later) in favor of getting to another scene where Katie annoyingly decides its her prerogative to stalk her boyfriend whenever he seems to be keeping anything from her. That all doesn't really make this an endearing, convincing, or healthy relationship. It totally lacked chemistry. (Oh yeah, did I mention the part where he forced her into a love hotel, acting like he was going to rape her--to try to break up with her?) Don't get me wrong, I love anime and J-Dramas as much as the next Japanophile, and if this story were told in that format, I may have enjoyed it. But the addition of Katie's love sick inner monologues pushed the cliché and sickeningly sweet over the top, and I couldn't enjoy it anymore. Summing Up: I feel awful now. I loved the concept of this book (which was still relatively cool) and I love the author, who is unbelievably awesome. But the book didn't work for me. The romance made it almost unbearable and honestly made me consider giving up. Writing this review was seriously painful. But I always feel I must be honest, so despite my love for Amanda Sun and my hope that a shit ton of readers will love this book anyway, I had to write this review. (`･ω･´)ゞ [image] Recommended To: Hardcore animanga fans (which apparently I am not) and people not as instalove-averse. *ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the contents of the review. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 19, 2013
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May 22, 2013
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Nov 21, 2012
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Paperback
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| 1101552247
| 9781101552247
| B005ERIS80
| 4.01
| 54,573
| Jan 10, 2012
| Jan 10, 2012
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did not like it
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1 star The one star rating may be a little harsh since I didn't finish it, but I just can't deal with it, and I really tried. I don't understand why pe 1 star The one star rating may be a little harsh since I didn't finish it, but I just can't deal with it, and I really tried. I don't understand why people are in love with this series. I wasn't convinced after Across the Universe and while reading this my apathy only grew. Not only do I not feel any sort of connection or liking towards either Elder or Amy, I find their relationship so asdfjkl; annoying. I just found myself rolling my eyes the entire time. It may be that I've reached my YA capacity again and need to mix it up with more adult books - that does tend to happen to me. There comes a time when my ability to accept bullshit fails. Like I'd mentioned in my review of Across the Universe I just don't understand why Amy is still attracted to/not repulsed by Elder, or refuses to show any sign of a backbone. Like, one moment she says she blames him (rightfully so) for waking her up, but then she still loves him. There's so little development to their relationship that I can't buy it. I just can't. But the characters (or should I say lack of personalities) are to me inexcusable. The personalities are so static and so undeveloped, I can't handle it. To me, if I finish a book (or in this case get halfway through the sequel) and still can't think of one good adjective (besides, in this case, stupid, annoying, or ignorant) to describe the personalities of the main characters, that book is nothing for me. But yeah, I got almost half way, didn't enjoy a second of it and just gave up. I was only growing more annoyed reading it. And while what bothered me the most was the characters, the story couldn't hold my attention either. After officially giving up, I read some other reviews and saw similar criticisms - also indicating it didn't get any better. And I spoiled the story for myself by looking at plot summaries and the "twists" sounded like plot elements I'd *headdesk* at. So yeah. TL;DR: this series just isn't for me. This is not how I like my sci-fi, or basically any series at all. Recommended To: Absolutely no one. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 16, 2012
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Aug 21, 2012
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Jul 16, 2012
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ebook
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| 1101486082
| 9781101486085
| B00475ARSO
| 3.77
| 118,502
| Jan 11, 2011
| Jan 11, 2011
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it was ok
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2 stars I don't really know quite how to feel about this one. I'd heard a lot of hype about it, quite a few people I know really love it. While the sto 2 stars I don't really know quite how to feel about this one. I'd heard a lot of hype about it, quite a few people I know really love it. While the story was good and intriguing, something still kept me from connecting to it. This novel is another example, in my case, of how wrong expectations can ruin a book in your eyes. I read the premise, of course, but that was QUITE a while ago. A few months. So all I really remembered was that it was sci-fi, with romance, of people searching for a new planet to live. That being said, in my head I expected quite a few glamorous sci-fi elements, futuristic clothing and mannerisms, that whole thing. What I got was more dystopia, totalitarian peasant living inside a spaceship. That didn't quite equal my expectations. That's not to say that it was bad, but just that I had to take a lot of time to get used to the setting. I despaired in opening the book to find that it was multiple pov (seriously, I can't escape it can I?). And in this case, I can't really say it added anything in my eyes. But that blends into my next point. Amy and Elder! The main characters. I honestly did not connect to either of them. Really didn't. I don't know why. I have no idea. My mind couldn't settle on an image for either of them. And thinking about how I would describe their personalities, I have no idea either. I guess they were a bit static characters. I became more intrigued with Elder's character in the last four chapters or so. But it honestly took that long. And my interest is very dependent on how the story goes in the next book. I can however praise the fact that it was not instalove. I have to comment on the bullshittery of Amy and her ex. That was a plot element that should have been thrown in the trash, then incinerated, then have the ashes scattered at various points of the world. Can I even call it a plot element? It was just... there. The first, I dunno, third of the book, Amy won't shut up about him and complain about missing him, and idolizing him or whatever. Then she admits to him being a complete dick and that was just so asdfjkl; out of nowhere. I don't understand WHY this was in the book. Those paragraphs could easily be deleted. Seriously. Maybe this whole element is the reason why I just could not like Amy as a character. The last couple chapters (which I sort of see more as an epilogue I guess, as it comes after the -to me- truly big reveals) threw me for a loop. (view spoiler)[Okay, so Elder uplugged her.. While Orion hinted at it so I'd already figured it out, to me it still comes completely out of nowhere. But not in a good way. In a "seriously, wtf were you thinking?" way. I didn't see that as matching Elder's personality. Or something. I dunno. It's just WEIRD. But what's even weirder is that after that, Amy just calms down and is like, sure, hold my hand, you ruined my life, but hey, shit happens, I totally still see you as a potential love interest. While their romance may have been appealing at a certain point in the book (like around the kiss) the last chapters KILLED IT. I just. I just. I don't know. (hide spoiler)] The really big reveals, the true ending, was very satisfying. Probably the best part of the whole book. All of the questions that had been raised during the story were answered, which I suppose is pretty rare in a YA series nowadays. Particularly, the development we see in Elder here is quite intriguing and is probably the main reason why I will continue on to read the next book. (view spoiler)[I absolutely loved the twist of Elder being cloned. I feel like that hints to a deeper storyline than you'd typically find in YA - who am I really? How much of my personality/behavior is predetermined? These are the kinds of deeper meanings that I love in a story. Really love that. But I feel like Revis just lightly scratched the surface, so I really hope that she'll go much deeper into that in the next novel. While I stated in the paragraph before this that I disliked the twist about Elder having unplugged Amy (though what I really hate about it is Amy's reaction I guess) I could see myself liking it depending on how Revis develops that in the next book. It was very reminiscent of the Star Wars prequel trilogy and Annakin's descent to the Dark Side. Okay, bear with me while I get super nerdy. I liked how Elder at a certain point makes the observation that Eldest tried to rule through power and became a control freak, and Orion became a sociopath, despite them having come from the same DNA. So I see potential for Elder's downfall being his love for Amy. But this would involve major character development on Elder's part and a rather dark storyline, so I don't know how high the probability of this is. But in any case, I can see myself liking it. (hide spoiler)] I guess I should just continue on to the next book to see if it will live up to these expectations. Probably not. We all know how that goes. Summing Up: So the story overall was satisfying. There were enough plot twists and mysteries to keep it interesting. Some more predictable than others. It may have been less predictable if it wasn't so long. But the story and story alone is what lets me give this book 2 stars. I want to see lots of character development and depth in the next book, or I don't really see myself continuing the series. Recommended To: I really don't know. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 12, 2012
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Jul 16, 2012
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Apr 09, 2012
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| 1101445440
| 9781101445440
| B003YL4AOE
| 3.62
| 792,595
| Nov 30, 2010
| Nov 30, 2010
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it was ok
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Mar 12, 2012
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Apr 09, 2012
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ebook
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