So, I recently re-read the Dirty series and it made me think about trying another book by Meghan March and this was the first the Internet algorithm sSo, I recently re-read the Dirty series and it made me think about trying another book by Meghan March and this was the first the Internet algorithm sent my way.
And I have to say that I'm rather disappointed.
There was a lot of similarities between the two series, to the point that I'm wondering if the author has a certain "template" a certain setting which she uses.
However, what I missed the most about this one was the easy readability the Dirty series possesses. I found it hard to connect with the main characters. Especially, Keira, she was seriously bordering on the unlikeable line. (Side note: I hated the nickname Ke-ke and I cringed every time I saw it.) And maybe a bit ironical but I felt like Mount lacked a certain presence about himself on the page. Which is funny since he was supposedly portraited as a huge alpha male. But still, I found him more tolerable than Keira. He's definitely an interesting character and I would be interested in knowing more about his past. However, if that comes at the price of Keira being there as well I think that I will rather pass on that. Plus, the terms of their relationship really make me uncomfortable.
The cliffhanger/twisted at the end was rather unexpected even though it is a bit of cliché.
While there might be some things which I would like to know more about... I do not find this series worth continuing. So, anybody knows good spoiler-filled reviews for book two and three?...more
So, I've read this book several years ago, and I loved it so much, it's definitely my favourite when it Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing!
So, I've read this book several years ago, and I loved it so much, it's definitely my favourite when it comes to WANNA PLAY A GAME? type of books or movies. Last night I just had a look at my bookshelf, I saw this book (for some reason next to The Vampire Academy series, talk about system or organisation) and I felt like I needed to read this book.
Now here I am. I flew through this book, and I'm shaken. While I thought that I remembered the book very well, that was not really the truth. I forgot so many details! It was amazing.
However, I think that my tolerance for Rebecca is even lower than it was the first time around, which is the reason why this has 4 star rating and not a 5 one.
But, now I feel a bit guilty. I have so many new books to read and instead, I re-read one?...more
****I received an advance review copy for free in exchange for an honest review, and I am leaving this honest review voluntarily.
I have no idea what t****I received an advance review copy for free in exchange for an honest review, and I am leaving this honest review voluntarily.
I have no idea what to say. This book sounded AMAZING! I was excited to read it, but when I started, the disappointment came really fast and unfortunately never left.
I'm going to give this one extra star for great potential. ⭐ It really pains me that I disliked the book so much but it was mostly caused by characters. If Tina was different it may have been a fantastic book. I liked the complexity and possibilities of the Dead School! (I want Oscar de la Renta dress for prom!)
So, where this went wrong? Tina. The main character was very unlikeable. Okay, in the whole book there was not a single character I liked, but this is about Tina right now. She starts as this timid, unsure girl who is obsessed with playing the guitar. When she dies, she mentions the guitar two times (maybe three) but in her time on the other side does not try to obtain a guitar to play. (She can get a dress from Oscar de la Renta, you can get anything there!) And she had to throw a huge tantrum for not being placed with crafters since she is this amazing guitar player, who does not play very often. And the nerves? Nowhere to be seen. Suddenly she argues with everyone, does stupid things, is all focused on herself and does not listen. I have a feeling that the author tried to make her funny, snarky with clever comebacks (A bit like Sophie from Hex Hall) but it fell flat. I'm sorry, I was rooting against Tina. I wanted her to fail and just be over with.
Then who? The Alexei who is mentioned in the blurb? Well, I don't even know why he was in the story. Was he supposed to be a bit of romantic interest? Did not work.
Melinda? No feelings, really.
Anna. I had no idea if I should feel sorry for her or what. There was nothing. She was so much ridiculed that like with Tina I did not care at all how she's going to end.
Carl. How can you like someone who speaks for the whole book like this? "Butitmightbetheendofyoursifyoufail!"
As for the storyline, I don't know if I missed some things or what but I kept thinking that it does not really make sense. (view spoiler)[It seems like no matter what people would fail their life. Anna's life goal is Integrity. Tina's Love. Like... I'm sorry. So, even if your life was great and you did great things, if you failed the one thing that was supposed to be your life mission, you're done? That's stupid. The timeline seemed a bit strange. Do all of them graduate at the same time? Alexei was in the same class, but his protégé was a baby. Clearly, he is not done yet. They never told them, you have xx weeks to get it done. Seems strange. How can they get to Anna at the right moment? They do not follow her all the time? Is it somehow "programmed" that they will go to her in the right moment or something? Also, Anna had a possible great destiny ahead of her. The key to it? Meet Greg, her future husband. Without him, she will fail. Like really? Really?! (hide spoiler)]
I do not know what to say. Let's just leave it at the fact that my reviews for the book 1 and 2 pretty much sum up my problems with this whole series.I do not know what to say. Let's just leave it at the fact that my reviews for the book 1 and 2 pretty much sum up my problems with this whole series. Because in all honesty, there is not a lot of difference between the 11 books in this series.
(view spoiler)[Funny thing. When Yakov leaves, and Mike starts to woo Ashley, it is said that he was in South Africa and he saw her at her worse. The author tries really hard to present Mike as the good and sweet guy. But! When he "officially" meets Ashley, he says hi in Russian, she does not understand him and does not answer. So, he immediately calls her b*tch! If that is not a red flag, I don't know what is. Then again he is all nice, taking her on dates and stuff but the moment she says that she wants Yakov he is all nasty once again. But Ashley still thinks about him as the good guy. (hide spoiler)]
But the worst thing is that I actually sort of had a bit of hope for this one. How crazy of me. ...more
You know, I'm sort of tired of saying this but I feel like I have to! Please do not use language you do not know well enough.
And I sort of don't knowYou know, I'm sort of tired of saying this but I feel like I have to! Please do not use language you do not know well enough.
And I sort of don't know what to say.
Here I had hopes that the characters would be a bit more mature but no such a luck.
And every book seems like a rehearsal of the previous ones. You always get the same "characters" with almost identical problems etc. I already read the whole series but I just do not want to review it. And honestly, I cannot tell the characters and the plot from those books apart. If you ask me in which (view spoiler)[book the female heroin went behind the backs of her man with the help of his men to get rid of an FBI agent (hide spoiler)] I would have no idea. I know that it happened but I have no idea with which characters and in which book....more
Please, tell me that I'm not the only one who thought this was called "Owned by the BaTman". :D
Yeah, so, me being me, I had to read this one. And I soPlease, tell me that I'm not the only one who thought this was called "Owned by the BaTman". :D
Yeah, so, me being me, I had to read this one. And I sort of wish I did not. Or I wish it was about Batman instead of a Badman.
I don't even know where this book went wrong for me. I do not have many triggers points, this book definitely has a lot of those, but those were not an issue for me, except that I found the plot really annoying. Here is a little run down for you if you are interested. (view spoiler)[You get the girl sold off to a stranger. She sleeps with him right away. You get cheating. She gets kidnapped. She gets pseudo-raped. (Sorry, for calling it that but the author put so much emphasis on the fact that she actually liked it even when she hated it...) All that while pregnant. Then she gets slapped by her husband. Oh, and then the said husband leaves his wife because she did not fight the rape/not-rape. (hide spoiler)] I don't know where exactly to go with this. But the thing is, while I know many people who would hate those things and would consider them a deal-breaker in a book, it's not the point where the book went for me.
But the things that killed me were:
- Maxim's English was perfect but then suddenly turning into a caveman with broken English and don't start with me that he is Russian and speaking in a different language can be hard sometimes. It is hard, but you do not go from a speaking flawlessly to pre-school sentences. That's insulting and rather annoying even to read. - Sorry, was this supposed to be a breading fantasy? - I love a good mafia book/series, but please let the characters be really evil and not have the whole Bratva caring whether he's treating his wife right. - And I do not really know what else to say. Just that sometimes I had problems not to laugh aloud at a somewhat serious situation.
I almost forgot the most important thing. My Russian is not the best; I'm nowhere near fluent. But even I know that the author managed to butcher the bit of Russian that was included! And that made my blood boil! If you want a character speaking a different language in your book and it is a language you do not know then go and find someone who does speak said language. Because as far as I'm concerned the Russian was plucked straight out of Google Translator, and that is disappointing, to say the least....more
Okay, someone titled this book wrong. It should be "Bound by Aria's stupidity".
Where I was a bit okay with Aria being dumb in the first book since shOkay, someone titled this book wrong. It should be "Bound by Aria's stupidity".
Where I was a bit okay with Aria being dumb in the first book since she was still young and was sheltered all her life, here it was a tad too annoying. Scratch the "tad", it's unbelievable how stupid someone can be.
But let's start from the beginning.
Blurb: When Aria betrays Luca by going behind his back for her family When I read this I was disappointed because all I wanted to say was "again?" First for Gianna and then for Lily, and now again, the girl never learns her lesson.
Actually reading the book: I was surprised (and not pleasantly) to find that the majority of the book was only books 2,3,4 and 5 from Aria's or Luca's POV. I would say 3/5 of this book was a repetition of the series. Then we finally get some new content. (view spoiler)[And Aria again goes behind Luca's back for her family! How dumb this girl is? Seriously, how was she able to think that her plan was a good one! And she gets alive out of it. She just hopped on a plane, went to Chicago and expected to somehow snatch her brother and bring him to New York! I repeat, how dumb this girl is? And she's surprised that Luca is mad. And then the story moves and Luca is a bad guy in the situation? NO! Come on, if he is supposed to be the Capo, he cannot have a wife that goes into the enemy territory and repeatedly goes behind his back, and in the process, she steals money from the Famiglia. She should be dead for it! (hide spoiler)]
This is my main problem. And I will repeat it; Aria is dumb!
Luca spends so much time repeating that he cannot be soft and that no one can see his weakness. But then he goes and acts like a fool just because Aria makes puppy eyes. (view spoiler)[Like when Fabiano contacts them as an Enforcer for Camorra and asks for a meeting. And for some reason, Luca takes Aria with him... WHY?! (hide spoiler)]
As for Fabian, I'm actually interested in his story, so, I may give it a shot. Mainly because I hope he kills their father. (view spoiler)[However, I do not like Fabiano. Is he as dumb as Aria or what? He blames them for the way their father treated him. As if that idiot treated his daughters any better. And if I remember correctly, they offered him to go with them. He decided to stay in Chicago! (hide spoiler)]
Also, I'm interested in Remo Falcone; he seemed like the devil Luca was supposed to be. But let's see. (view spoiler)[However, the book here makes no sense at all. Remo comes and asks Luca not to interfere when he takes over the Camorra. And he sort of hints that maybe in the future that could be allies. But suddenly a couple of years forward they are not on friendly terms, definitely closer to the war than not. WHY?! (Okay, I guess this might be because I did not read book 5 in this series. But if I consider how much was repeated in this book, I don't get why this was not. (hide spoiler)]
As for Dante, I was never his fan but now? Probably even less. (view spoiler)[ I don't know what his plan was, but from where I stand it seems like when he found out Aria was pregnant he did not felt like personally using (okay, I should have said hurting, he definitely used her!) a pregnant woman. However, he sends her back to Luca and makes sure he gets pictures that look as if she cheated on Luca with Dante, with his enemy! And if you consider that Dante sees Luca as a monster, then I would say that Dante was hoping that Luca would snap and hurt Aria that much that she would miscarry or he would kill her and the baby as well. That much for not hurting women, especially a pregnant one. Anyone... I still don't get how anyone even for a moment could have thought that Aria has an affair with Dante like when? How? One would think that Luca would notice if his wife was going to Chicago from time to time without him... (hide spoiler)]
(view spoiler)[In the end, Aria and Luca have two kids that no one knows about and Luca is trying to keep them hidden from the world. And I'm asking for how long? How do they think this will work? The son is Luca's heir, for how long is he going to hide him? (hide spoiler)]...more
Genuine Fraud. I cannot say about the "genuine" part, but this book is definitely a fraud.
It pains me to say this because I was blown away by We WereGenuine Fraud. I cannot say about the "genuine" part, but this book is definitely a fraud.
It pains me to say this because I was blown away by We Were Liars. It's in my TOP 10. But this is like someone else wrote it. Okay, I could feel a certain similarity in the plot twist, but it's nowhere near We Were Liars.
I read several reviews, and it seems that pretty often people who liked We Were Liars were disappointed by this one. But on the other hand, people who were not impressed by We Were Liars found this one to be better. So, if you did not like We Were Liars, this might be a better one for you.
And I want to write a long review, explaining what went wrong for me but... it seems like everything went wrong. ...more
****An advance reading copy of Deacon by Kit Rocha was generously provided to me in exchange for an honest review.
EDIT (05/09/2017): Change of rating.****An advance reading copy of Deacon by Kit Rocha was generously provided to me in exchange for an honest review.
EDIT (05/09/2017): Change of rating.
Writing this review is a bit hard for me. I kept thinking and overthinking every single sentence. I loved the Beyond series very much; I was constantly re-reading the series and getting the copy of Deacon I just realised that since finishing Ashwin, I didn't go back to re-read a single scene from it. Realising this I was a bit sceptical; well, I was sceptical also because of the Deacon/Ana duo. They didn't sit well with me from the very beginning we knew they would be a couple. Which wasn't anything new, I was sceptical about Jeni and Hawk book because I didn't care for either of them, but the outcome was good. Here? For me? Not so much.
I'll start with better things. I love the Riders. Especially Reyes, Hunter, and Gabe. Always waiting for another scene with them. Which was also the part of the problem. I like the book when it was Deacon and others, even Ana (okay, not really her) and others but not the two together. If you took out the "romance" part of this book it would be decent. And since the romance is such a huge part of the story that's a problem I would say.
And to my main problem. I basically couldn't stand Ana! The first female Rider, the legacy of her father. Bragging about it, fighting for it and then after it all, she's just a little girl too scared that others will only judge her! Come on! Everybody is always judged, no matter what! And after more bragging about how she cannot sacrifice all she ever achieved because they are going to laugh at her for it and say that somehow she cheated, she basically does what she knows is a big No, No! (view spoiler)[Calling out Deacon (by extension even Gideon) in front of everyone that his plan is rubbish is also rubbish! Come on; you know that what he says it's what's going to happen. He's the damn boss! But because she sleeps with him and possibly loves him, she now thinks she can just disrespect him as a leader in front of everyone? No matter how bad the plan or the decision is, you cannot scream at your boss in front of everyone! Plus it just seemed she needed to stomp a bit around and scream to feel better about herself. (hide spoiler)]
So, what can I say? This book is a low for me. Saving grace for me is the rest of the Riders. And the promise of the storyline. (view spoiler)[ If the killing of the ruling family of a Sector had a nice little price tag of a million, how much is it to kill the Riders, probably the best soldiers/army you can find in the sectors? (hide spoiler)] And the promise of next stories - Waiting for Ivan and Maricela which I have high hopes for! Then Gideon and (view spoiler)[ Lex's sister! (hide spoiler)], Gabe and definitely (view spoiler)[Laurel, they were so cute in his book! (hide spoiler)]. And I cannot wait to see who will be brave enough to catch Reyes that one will be fun!
Well, as I said everything other than the couple was great, which leaves me with a hard choice of rating. I'm somewhere between two and three stars. Cannot really decide but since it's so close to finishing the novel and I know I am way too angry with Ana that if I rate it two stars, I'll probably change it to three stars in a while because as I said, this novel minus Ana is pretty good. - Okay, no. This book is 2 star for me. No change....more
It's not as good as the previous series, but at least we got a little peek at Julian and Nora. Definitely gonna read the rest of the series. And I realIt's not as good as the previous series, but at least we got a little peek at Julian and Nora. Definitely gonna read the rest of the series. And I really, really do not like Yulia, I don't care for her, and I want her to die. My major problem with this one. ...more
EDIT (8/3/2017): I am finding more things that were irritating me about Calaena. Like the scene where she got the puppy. Like I want the puppy to do tEDIT (8/3/2017): I am finding more things that were irritating me about Calaena. Like the scene where she got the puppy. Like I want the puppy to do this and that and that... It's a puppy! Not a doll or a robot for your amusement!
Calaena is simply too much of a brat for me! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well, I wanted to read this for very long time and just watched the praise for this whole series rise. And unfortunately, I don't get it.
It was okay, but there are better series.
I was so sick of Celaena hating on Kaltain after the first second she saw her. Just because she wanted the prince and did not like her? (view spoiler)[ She was also so quick to think that Nehemia was doing something wicked. (hide spoiler)] She just judges others how she judges herself.
Also, Celaena was sort of torn between her hard/killer part and the girly-girl one. - Not a bad thing to be one or another. But sometimes it felt like two different persons. Maybe I would like to see her be both at the same time more.
I somehow like Dorian (It's the name!!!), but he was a bit shallow. I wish the book showed more of him because I think there is more to him. (view spoiler)[ But I am not buying all that "romance" and "love" between him and Celaena. (hide spoiler)] <-- Not working for me!!
As for Chaol - (view spoiler)[Captain of the guard who is shattered with grief after killing a pretty much criminal! (hide spoiler)] I would say that is a major flaw for his position!
Right now I am a bit critical of the series, but there are some plot lines and things hinted that I am curious about....more
It starts rather promising. We even got a new pretty interesting character. A new Marshal who is not blinded as aYou know what? I am so sick of this.
It starts rather promising. We even got a new pretty interesting character. A new Marshal who is not blinded as all the other cops and focuses on the important stuff and not on who's sleeping with whom.
But then what? Anita goes back to her "sweeties" (hate that word!), and it's all sex, insecurities and talking. And pointless, endless descriptions!
I bet that Hamilton has a file with a lengthy description of every character. And every time they come to the scene, she just puts the description there. Every single time! We all know how blue eyes J-C has. We all know what happened to Asher and how he got his scars. And how he hides behind his hair. We all KNOW that! Or Nathaniel's hair. I seriously want to shave them off (and donate them) just not to have to read about his hair all the time!
Yet, she always repeats herself.
And speaking about J-C... Master of the city? No way! No one, not only Anita but also some lousy wererats he is paying do not follow his orders!
And the Anita almost (view spoiler)[ kills Nicky (hide spoiler)] and when they are supposed to really explain it something interrupts them. But Anita had time to cuddle with Jade.
This is beyond pathetic. Especially because it ended like every other book. When Anita summarised what happened with the bad guys and how they rock. And how hard it is going to be with her "sweeties" but how much she loves them....more
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