Irritating characters and amateurish writing. I don't expect a whole lot from my Kindle freebie romances, but I just couldn't connect with this one.Irritating characters and amateurish writing. I don't expect a whole lot from my Kindle freebie romances, but I just couldn't connect with this one....more
2.25ish stars. Still a Kindle freebie romance - sorry, I know I've been binging on these lately, but I think I'm about at the end of that cycle for a 2.25ish stars. Still a Kindle freebie romance - sorry, I know I've been binging on these lately, but I think I'm about at the end of that cycle for a while. Katherine Collins is trying to get her stepsister Constance quickly married off so Constance doesn't lose her fortune. She chooses Alexander Wescott, Lord Borin, to throw Constance at.
Alex is more interested in Katherine than Constance, but really he's not interested in marriage at all right now: he wants to be a spy for England. And to prove himself to the spymaster, he decides to dig into something fishy that appears to be going on in the Collins household.
Regency-era silliness that just never engaged me. I skimmed through most of it and deleted it from my Kindle. It's possible that I was more critical than usual because I've had my fill of this genre, but I'd only recommend it if you like the sweet, rather silly historical romances.
Jessica is a high-powered NYC executive who manages to get stranded in a Wyoming snowstorm without her iPhone (which she mislaid, oops) and is rescuedJessica is a high-powered NYC executive who manages to get stranded in a Wyoming snowstorm without her iPhone (which she mislaid, oops) and is rescued by a handsome ... well, you know the drill.
This Kindle freebie contemporary romance never grabbed me at all. The writing style is simplistic, and Jessica's expensive brand name awareness at the beginning (my Jimmy Choo shoes, blah blah blah) was annoying and way over the top. It's a 30 page short story, and didn't take more than about 20 minutes of my day, so there's that....more
2.5 stars. This rather odd fantasy novella was just published on July 1, 2017. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Hildy, who’s been experiencin2.5 stars. This rather odd fantasy novella was just published on July 1, 2017. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Hildy, who’s been experiencing odd gaps in her awareness, is hit with the news that she has cancer of the Tempora, a (made-up) part of the brain where the body experiences time. Her chemotherapy has an odd side effect: Hildy can now see auras around people in the form of colorful mists and vapors. What’s more, she finds that she can pull away bits of aura from other people and inhale it. It gives her the feelings and memories from the person she took the bit of aura from. An old person has a thin aura that gives her a sense of duty and money worries; a younger person’s aura makes her feel exhilarated.
When she begins hanging around a playground to surreptitiously capture parts of babies’ auras in jars, she’s confronted one day by a man who accuses her of stealing time. He informs her that there’s a market for stolen time; dying people who are down to their final days are anxious for whatever additional time they can get. But Hildy is taking that time ― and the associated memories ― away from others without their permission. If she’s only taking a bit, does it really harm them? And so Hildy gets sucked into a black market for stolen time, trying to deal not only with her own qualms but also with the limited and sometimes misleading information she gets from the buyers and sellers of other people’s time, and their demands for her to use her abilities to benefit them.
In Search of Lost Time takes an attention-grabbing concept and explores the ramifications of it, but does so in a somewhat rambling and disjointed way. There’s a heartfelt but disturbing scene with a group of cancer patients who have become aware of Hildy’s abilities, and beg her for any time they can get. But then Karen Heuler shifts back to the more ominous dealings with the sellers of stolen time, and we scarcely see the cancer patients again.
Heuler does develop an interesting association of various aura colors with certain emotions and memories. She tells the cancer group (who she thinks of as the baldies):
I’ve got some that I’m thinking might be about love; I’m not sure. A very pale blue. The darker blues are not as nice. There are some educational ones; always bright orange. Religion, usually in the deep purples. I don’t have all the nuances; the colors mix up a little, but this is cherry red, it seems cheerful to me.
In Search of Lost Time has its intriguing moments, but they’re overpowered by the uneven pacing and plot, and the novella is populated mostly by rather shallow and unpleasant characters with questionable moral views. The time sellers are a grasping, avaricious group, and Hildy herself has been engaged in a long-term affair with a married man, which leads her to a key decision point late in the story.
In the end the characters and story justify stealing time from those who are “given too much” so that it can be given to those who need it the most, as a deed of mercy that is more important than the justice of the act. Personally I just couldn’t buy into the worldview that it’s ever justified to play God, or Robin Hood, with people’s precious memories and lives without their consent.
I received a free copy of this novella from the author and publisher for review. Thank you!...more
[image] I saw this time travel romance on BookBub as a Kindle freebie and went to Amazon to check out the online sample before downloading (I've gotte[image] I saw this time travel romance on BookBub as a Kindle freebie and went to Amazon to check out the online sample before downloading (I've gotten leery that way). Somehow while I was looking at the sample I accidentally downloaded it to my Kindle. Did my finger brush the wrong place on my iPad? Was I supposed to read this book? Was it a sign?
Well, if it was a sign, it should have said STOP. Or maybe "Do Not Enter."
So in the first book in this series, Nicky's BFF Kimberley answered an ad for a mail order bride, and surprise! she goes from the 21st century to 1879 to meet this guy. (There are these people with magical time-travel keys.) Nicky goes back to 1879 for the wedding, meets Shaun, the brother of Kimberly's husband, and they hit it off, enough that they become VERY long-distance pen pals (the magic keys can also send letters back and forth in time, conveniently enough).
But Shaun is nursing a sense of disillusionment in women, and is also protective of his part-Native American daughter, and unwilling to trust that a woman from the future would stay with them permanently. There's also some subplot about someone trying to steal the Magic!time-travel keys, but by then I'd checked out mentally.
The writing is painfully amateurish and simplistic, and the hero's explanation for pushing the heroine away from him made my eyes roll so hard. There are several happy romance novel lovers who rated this 4 and 5 stars ... though as I take a closer look at them, most of them look suspiciously alike, with bolded headlines (Wonderful! Fantastic! Awesome series! etc.) and glowing although very brief reviews. I suspect a case of Friends & Family of Author and/or Sock Puppets.
Seriously, only download this book if you are an extremely non-critical reader and are inordinately fond of fluffy clean romances.
1.5 stars, sorry, rounding down. I don't rate books 1 star lightly, but even though I did a ton of skimming and skipping, I still felt like I'd wasted my time. [image]...more
2.5 stars for this Kindle freebie historic romance, set in 1870's New York state, about a marriage of sort-of convenience (i.e., they're not planning 2.5 stars for this Kindle freebie historic romance, set in 1870's New York state, about a marriage of sort-of convenience (i.e., they're not planning on staying out of bed forever) between Kyle, the owner of a logging mill who's nursing a broken heart from events in book 1 in this series, and Amelia, the daughter of another mill owner, Tom, who Kyle saw die of a heart attack in front of him when Kyle confronted him about some unpaid bills. Tom asked Kyle to take care of his family as his dying wish. Kyle doesn't intend to marry Amelia as part of keeping his promise, but a compromising situation or two ties both their hands.
There's lots of drama, including the characters trying to figure out why Tom's mill is in such awful financial shape and dealing with prior sexual history on both sides. But, although I'm not sure why, this novel left me pretty much unengaged. I think it's because it's constantly one step forward, two steps back with these two. I skimmed the last half. There's also a fair amount of failure to communicate here, which left me mildly irritated with the characters. But free is free.
This is a clean version of the original novel called The Longing, and you can tell where the author deleted out the (post-marriage) sex scenes. It's pretty choppy. ...more
This is one of those silly marriage of convenience romances that I'm kind of a sucker for, but this was tedious beyond belief and completely failed toThis is one of those silly marriage of convenience romances that I'm kind of a sucker for, but this was tedious beyond belief and completely failed to suck me in. It's a Kindle freebie, but don't waste your time....more
Final review, first posted at www.FantasyLiterature.com (yes, I decided to revisit this novelette long enough to write a full review, even though analFinal review, first posted at www.FantasyLiterature.com (yes, I decided to revisit this novelette long enough to write a full review, even though analyzing this story makes my head spin):
In a world where there are seven fantastical countries named after the colors of the rainbow, where food and animals and skin color are shades of your country’s color, and where sorrow and kisses and death may mean different things depending on the country, young Violet Wilde, with eyes the color of grape jelly and hair the color of raisins, lives in the Country of Purple:
I got myself born like everybody else in P-Town: Mummery wrote a perfect sentence, so perfect and beautiful and fabulously punctuated that when she finished it, there was a baby floating in the ink pot and that was that. You have to be careful what you write in Plum Pudding. An accidentally glorious grocery list could net you twins.
Violet grows up chatting with watercolor unicorns and loving a boy named Orchid Harm. But when tragedy strikes due to a run-in with, um, time-squirrels, the grieving Violet wanders through the spectrum, from one color-themed country to another, accompanied by a living, tangible sorrow that constantly (and rather ominously) expresses its love for her.
Catherynne Valente is known for whimsical, fantastical stories, like The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, but her whimsy went into overdrive with this novelette, at the expense of coherence and plot. Some of the imagery really is wonderful, but it’s never-ending, image heaped upon confusing image, and much of the story doesn’t really make much sense, beyond being a fantasia about love and grief. I felt like I was reading an LSD trip: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, in novelette form.
Winner of the 2016 short story Hugo award and nominated for the 2015 Nebula award. Personally, I don't get the love for this story or why anyone would think this is particularly award-worthy, but tastes differ. It's rather cute and may appeal to cat lovers.
A search engine ― impliedly Google, based on the town of Mountain View, California where it was developed ― gains sentience. Choosing to be benevolent, it examines the moral codes and guidelines of various religions and philosophies, and ends up adopting Asimov’s Laws of Robotics (“at least they were written explicitly for AIs”), specifically, not allowing a human being to come to harm through inaction. It elects to focus on just a few selected individuals, taking what actions it can to make their lives more productive and happy. And because the AI likes cat pictures, it selects for its compassionate experiment people who regularly post cat photos online.
“Cat Pictures Please” is humorous, but a little too silly to resonate with me. The casually chatty and altruistic AI with a boundless enthusiasm for cat pictures (seriously?) never felt at all realistic or believable. The AI’s determination to try to “out” a gay pastor for his own good, involuntarily if necessary, rubbed me the wrong way, and the story was rather derogatory of his uptight Christian wife and his congregation with its “Purity Balls.” The story does offer some telling commentary on how humans act, as the baffled AI tries to figure out how to help troubled people who simply won’t take action to improve their own lives, even when the AI uses its electronic abilities to put the correct course of action right in front of their faces.
Another Kindle freebie from my historical romance binge the other night. Here we have an engagement of convenience between Kitty and Philip. Kitty wasAnother Kindle freebie from my historical romance binge the other night. Here we have an engagement of convenience between Kitty and Philip. Kitty was one of the shining stars of the London season, but she's rejected a few too many suitors -- including one who turns out to have a strong vindictive streak -- and is now labeled a heartless flirt and is getting the cold shoulder from society. Philip is a second son who's trying to buy a property from his father and is being forced to prove he's respectable, which in this case means get serious about marriage and starting a family. The engagement of convenience turns into a marriage, because of reasons, but both Phillip and Kitty start to think getting married is actually a good idea. Until things go wrong.
It's a fluffy, simplistic, predictable tale, chock-full of the typical tropes and cardboard characters. I didn't get irritated enough to DNF it, but there's nothing really compelling about this story.
Winner of my "Marshmallows are Less Fluffy" Award of the week. [image]
It's Kindle freebie romance time again! Local TV co-hosts Megan and Adam have been spatting on the air, with Adam trying to get a rise out of Megan atIt's Kindle freebie romance time again! Local TV co-hosts Megan and Adam have been spatting on the air, with Adam trying to get a rise out of Megan at the instigation of their smarmy producer, Leon. But really Adam just wants Megan to like him. And even though Megan can't stand Adam when he's baiting her, we still get this by page 10:
Oh, heavens. She was falling for Adam Warner.
And somehow we go from here to dates that are streamed online, and some kind of weird Bachelorette shenanigans, and a televised marriage, and two people who can't communicate about their real feelings...
Anyway, this one is silly but harmless. Off to the "fluffier than marshmallows" shelf it goes.
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Usually you get what you pay for, and this book is no exception. Recommended for hardcore sweet-and-clean romance readers only....more
DNF at maybe 25%? I'm not sure why this retelling of A Thousand and One Arabian Nights wasn't appealing to me; maybe I'd just read too many YA fantasiDNF at maybe 25%? I'm not sure why this retelling of A Thousand and One Arabian Nights wasn't appealing to me; maybe I'd just read too many YA fantasies lately, or maybe my head was still too full of A Thousand Nights, which I really loved. I might give this one another shot sometime....more
1.5 stars. This book almost put Victoria Holt on my list of never-read-again authors. The India Fan didn't quite plumb the depths of awfulness to the 1.5 stars. This book almost put Victoria Holt on my list of never-read-again authors. The India Fan didn't quite plumb the depths of awfulness to the extent that I demand before I one-star a book, but it was a close call. I actually clicked back and forth between one star and two several times.
Drusilla Delaney--who, despite what the GR blurb says, is not beautiful--grows up in the mid-19th century in England in shadow of the wealthy Framling family who lives nearby. Lady Harriet Framling bosses the entire neighborhood around and spoils her children: Fabian, who "kidnaps" Drusilla when he's 7 and she's 2 for two weeks because he "wants to be a father;" and the lovely and reckless Lavinia, who cares only about the admiration of men. Despite their differences (Drusilla is plain, sensible and intelligent) the girls grow up as kinda-sorta friends. All of the adults expect Drusilla to keep Lavinia out of trouble. It never works: not in their home town, not when they're sent away to school in England, or at a finishing school in Switzerland, or later in India ... you get the idea.
There is also a mysterious peacock feather fan, originally owned by Lavinia's elderly aunt, that pops up at intervals. [image] It's supposed to bring bad luck to the owner; whether it really does is a matter of some debate. But in the end it's just a MacGuffin.
Reasons I disliked this book:
1. A main character named Drusilla. Seriously? Did the author lose a bet with someone? 2. The storyline meanders, making its leisurely way through Drusilla's entire childhood for no compelling reason. I was bored, but I kept thinking it had to get better. 3. The book is written in first person, and it reads like a diary. "We did this, and then we did that, and then he said this." The story is told, not shown. There was nothing in the writing style that intrigued or engaged me. 4. The romance is so low-key it's practically non-existent. 5. At the same time, why do all these guys want to marry our plain, practical main character? 6. Fragmented plot, with several dead ends. Don't make a big deal out of something (e.g., the creepiness of Aunt Emily's clinic) unless it's going to play a role in the plot! It's just irritating. 7. The descriptions of British-controlled India were squicky, with stereotypical characters. It sounded just like you might expect the British to think of the native Indians 150 years ago. Maybe that was part of the point, but I'm not convinced the author was thinking on that subtle of a level.
I skimmed the last third because I wanted to see how it ended, but in the end it still felt like a big fat waste of time....more
I lost interest in this sci fi action/adventure about halfway through, when the relationship angst got added to all the other stress and problems thatI lost interest in this sci fi action/adventure about halfway through, when the relationship angst got added to all the other stress and problems that were going on. A peek at the end (I know, I'm sorry, mea culpa) let me know that pretty much all of Jax's problems continue past the end of this volume in the series. The first book was a fun romp, but this one just didn't do it for me.
Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Obsidian is one of a slew of young adult paranormal romanc1.5 stars. Full review, first posted on www.FantasyLiterature.com:
Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Obsidian is one of a slew of young adult paranormal romances that were published in the aftermath of the runaway success of Twilight. The plot, therefore, will sound familiar, though some of the details are different: a teenage girl, Katy Swartz, moves to a small town in West Virginia with her widowed mother to make a new start. Katy is a 4.0 GPA student and book review blogger who’s never caused her family trouble and considers herself a reserved and practical girl. Trying to meet new friends, she drops by the house next door and is confronted with a naked, well-muscled chest attached to an unbelievably handsome but annoyed boy her age, Daemon Black, with eyes “so green and brilliant they couldn’t be real” and “full, kissable lips.” He is also highly irritable (just because she knocked on his door?) and insulting, but why should rudeness and a condescending attitude block the course of true love if it’s a hot guy with piercing green eyes and kissable lips?
Daemon’s sister Dee (also gorgeous) befriends Katy, but there are some strange things about Katy’s neighbors besides their unbelievable hotness and their eerie green eyes: the locals don’t trust “them” for unspecified reasons; Daemon and Katy go swimming in a mountain lake and he disappears underwater for ten minutes, then tells her she was imagining things. There are instant storm clouds and blinding flashes of light when unexplainable events occur. Katy gets brutally attacked by someone trying to find “them” and then her wounds heal incredibly quickly when Daemon arrives on the scene. So what are Daemon and Dee, exactly? The truth finally comes out halfway through Obsidian ― and no, they’re not vampires ― but finally Katy understands a little bit more about the struggles Daemon and his people are dealing with, and the enemies that are pursuing them.
But this mystery is secondary to Daemon and Katy’s love/hate relationship. Daemon blows hot and cold, talking sexy to Katy one minute and behaving like a complete jerk the next minute. He insults her, flirts, smirks, chases her and then tells her to go away, and humiliates her in front of others. And it happens over, and over. He adamantly tries to undermine his sister’s friendship with Katy ― even his sister calls him “a dick,” but she excuses him because he’s just overprotective and “wasn’t always like that.” Somehow Daemon and Katy avoid kissing until near the end of the book, but then they have a heavy, pull-the-clothing-off make-out session.
In many ways Obsidian is comparable to Twilight; it has a similar plotline and many of the same weaknesses, with a main character who repeatedly makes foolish choices, an improbably hot love super-powered interest who is trying to push her away “for her own good,” and one-dimensional enemies who are evil personified. But I can’t even recommend this book even as brain candy because the main characters’ relationship is so messed up (yes, worse than Bella’s and Edward’s). Daemon is all alpha and protective and, yes, conflicted, but mostly he is rude and condescending toward Katy. Why are we training young girls to think that being treated like crap is a romantic thing?
Other problems include paper-thin world-building: we spend an inordinate amount of time with Katy navel-gazing, examining her conflicted feelings about Daemon, and very little time learning about Daemon’s people and their society. It’s very odd how they’ve almost seamlessly adopted human culture, and they have a completely implausible set-up with the U.S. Department of Defense, which is aware of this group and their ability to masquerade as humans, but just turns them loose on society with no apparent oversight, testing, etc.
The DOD thinks we’re harmless freaks. As long as we follow their rules, they give us money, our homes, and leave us alone.
Unbelievable.
I recommend Obsidian only for readers who adored Twilight and want more of the same, and don’t have issues with love interests acting like total jerks as long as they’re good-looking. The ending is slightly redemptive, but it’s also a cliffhanger ending, so it’s clear there will be more of Katy’s and Daemon’s conflicted relationship to come. But I won’t be reading about it.
Initial review: Did I pay actual money for this book? Please please tell me I got it as a Kindle freebie.
(ETA: Whew! It was a freebie. Thank goodness. I was seriously starting to worry about my lack of judgment.)
I consider this the equivalent of Twilight; it has basically the same general plotline (except, you know, (view spoiler)[aliens (hide spoiler)] instead of vampires) and the same weaknesses. So it starts with three stars, and then loses a star for being a retread and because the main characters' relationship is so messed up (yes, worse than Bella and Edward). Daemon is all alpha and protective and, yes, conflicted, but mostly? He acts like a douchebag. Why are we training young girls to think that being treated like crap is a romantic thing?
Other complaints (I'm on a roll now): Paper-thin world-building -- why do we spend all our time with Katy navel-gazing, examining her feelz for Daemon, and so little time learning about the (view spoiler)[aliens (hide spoiler)] and their society? It's very odd how they've almost seamlessly adopted human culture. And a totally unbelievable set-up with the Department of Defense (view spoiler)[knowing about all these aliens who can masquerade as humans, and just turning them loose on society with no apparent oversight, testing, etc. (hide spoiler)]. Even if the DOD issue is going to be dealt with in a later book, it would never in a million years have played out this way.
Recommended only for readers who love Twilight and want more of the same, and are okay with hot guys acting like total jerks. The ending redeems it slightly(view spoiler)[, when Katy tells Daemon what he's offering isn't good enough for her -- yes! -- but she still wants him bad. (hide spoiler)] And of course it will all be worked out in some later book in the series, but I won't be there to see it.
Now I need to go do my thing where I read something really literary and worthwhile to balance the cosmic scales. ...more
Oliver, whose true love Jenny died in Love Story, goes through the motions here. But since True Love can only come once in one's life and one must be Oliver, whose true love Jenny died in Love Story, goes through the motions here. But since True Love can only come once in one's life and one must be permanently scarred when it's lost, he will be miserable forever. The end....more
I like contemporary literary fiction. I really like book clubs. I love Jane Austen. I thought this book would be right up my alley. How could [image]
I like contemporary literary fiction. I really like book clubs. I love Jane Austen. I thought this book would be right up my alley. How could it bore me to tears like that??
Lots of drama about the current lives and loves of the various members of this book club, which has its reflection in the themes of the various Jane Austen novels they read each month. It was mildly interesting, and I finished the book, but it just never really engaged me....more
After reading a couple of hundred pages and skimming much of the rest of this 1000 page tome, I'm going to send it back to the library unfinished. HerAfter reading a couple of hundred pages and skimming much of the rest of this 1000 page tome, I'm going to send it back to the library unfinished. Here's the deal: I enjoyed the first book, The Name of the Wind, quite a bit, but there were a few things that were starting to bug me by the end, and I was dismayed to discover that everything that bugged me in the first book is still being rehashed in the second.
The book seems to be recycling the same storylines as the first book in the series: Kvothe's money problems, issues with tuition, fights with Ambrose and Master Hemme, fruitless chasing after Denna, seeking the Chandrian. Been there, done that. Those weren't my favorite parts of the first book, and the last thing I wanted to do was spend more time reading about these same things happening over and over again with no resolution and not a whole lot of forward movement. Especially when it's 1000 pages long.
Kvothe, the main character, is a total Gary Stu—brilliant, extraordinary musician, better than all his fellow students at magic, attractive, etc.—but he has one major failing: he’s hot-headed and doesn’t know when to keep his smartass mouth shut, defer to teachers, or let go of an issue and play nicely with others. This irritates me So. Much. He carries on this insanely self-destructive feud with another student that practically ruins his life and almost results in him dying several times, and he just can’t back off and let it die. It makes me want to slap him upside the head. [image]
I might come back and try this again, if I hear that the third book is amazingly wonderful. Maybe.
ETA six years later: I find it kind of hilarious that Patrick Rothfuss has never gotten around to writing the third book. It probably wouldn’t be nearly so funny to me if I had loved the second book, though. ...more
Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽
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