5 stars This book, which I got from Netgalley, earns a solid 4.5 stars, but since that’s not an option, I’m rounding up to 5. I only have two complaints about this book, which I’ll get to in the end. Overall, I thought it was a great book and I loved it. The book was so good that I didn’t want to put it down. In fact, although I was nearing the end, I needed to get some sleep so I stopped reading. I woke up repeatedly, and finally, after only three hours of sleep, I gave up and allowed myself to read the end. The characters are likable, the plot is riveting, and the pacing and suspense are just about perfect. Details are revealed a little bit at a time, meaning there’s lots of mystery. The villain is appropriately scary, and a criminal mastermind, which would have made his eventual demise unbelievable if not for his sickness. I really enjoyed Debbie Baldwin’s writing and her sense of humor. She gave her characters some really amusing lines, and Tox was a fun character (almost a caricature, but not quite). While his friends were barely discussing feelings (peripherally, if at all), he exited the room, saying, “I’m free for hair braiding and a tickle fight later, but right now I need to check in with our resident hacker…” Tox is always eating something, a recurring activity whenever he appears in a scene. Later, while asking for details of a story, the author describes him: “Tox was one bag of popcorn away from looking like he was watching a movie.” Almost as an aside, but more likely as a way to build up a supporting character for a future book, there’s a scene with Finn in which he tells the “bottle blonde” in his bed to get lost. She asks, “What did I ever do to get hooked up with an asshole like you?” His response floored me, “I’m guessing there’s a long list.” The author also takes the time to give the reader a few details about Ren, and after he meets a woman he finds attractive, this was the author’s take on it: “In his mind, a tiny version of him was waving two red semaphore flags and yelling, get out!” I burst out laughing at the image that conjured. Since the book is told in the third person, the reader knows who the bad guys are, so I don’t consider my following comments spoilers. These are the things that bothered me. Emma/Emily has violet eyes. In the beginning, the reader is told she is wearing blue contact lenses. Nathan shows up at her apartment unexpectedly, shortly after she has gotten out of bed, and there is no mention of her putting in her contact lenses. If she hadn’t, he would have certainly noticed her eyes and recognized her. This seemed like an important thing to overlook. The other problem came later. As the team is putting together the pieces of the puzzle to figure out who kidnapped Emily when she was a child, her father mentions someone named Cyril. Ren makes a connection to Savo, but I did a search for the name prior to that in the book, and there was nothing to indicate they should have known he was involved yet. The fact that it made me pause to research it pulled me from the story, so even if it wasn’t a mistake, it wasn’t explained clearly enough to slide into the story seamlessly. As I mentioned, these are relatively minor complaints and the storytelling was so good that they barely require mentioning. However, since they did snag my attention, it seems important to point them out. Either way, I recommend the book and I’d like to read more from this author.
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4 stars This was a charming story about soulmates who allowed their personal hang ups to derail their impending marriage. While engaged, Amanda had a pregnancy “scare” and when she and Hunter discovered it was a false alarm, she realized that she actually wanted children and he did not. Faced with a major difference in future goals, they went their separate ways, though they both loved one another. Fast forward three years and Hunter is caring for his sister’s nine-month-old baby. Amanda helps him (for reasons that are best left to the author to explain) and they cannot deny that they still love one another. However, they still have some major issues to overcome personally before they will have the maturity to commit to one another again. I like the writing, which describes medical procedures like someone with medical knowledge who understands most readers do not share that expertise. The feelings of Hunter and Amanda are described in such a way that I felt sympathy for each of them and understood their dilemmas. The plot was believable. Metaphors were unique. I loved this description from a patient who had just undergone open-heart surgery. “I feel like someone ripped my chest open, chewed on my heart and sewed me up with chicken wire.” My biggest issue with the book was an editing issue. At some point, I believe Lynne Marshall wrote as if Hunter and Amanda had been married, but then changed it to an engagement. Unfortunately, not all instances of marriage were expunged from the final draft so a few times their relationship was described as divorced or ex-husband/ex-wife. There were a few other editing/proofreading mistakes, but this particular one was significant and should not have been overlooked. It detracted from the plot because it caused me to look back through to see if I had misunderstood something stated earlier. If this were fixed, I’d probably give the book 5 stars. Since I got this book from Netgalley, there is a possibility that it was fixed prior to final publishing so I definitely recommend reading it. June 24, 2020 1 star This book had so much promise, and I kept reading long past the point of boredom because it made some great points. Unfortunately, it was didactic and the satire was too transparent, and as result, not nearly as amusing as it could have been. It was written in dry, scientific language (including sex scenes that were cringe-worthy in their exacting descriptions), conversations between characters were stilted and served as mini-soliloquies, and I felt no kinship nor compassion for anyone depicted. The plot was interesting and conveyed an important point, but the vehicle for transmitting that point was plodding and distracting. The narrative was self-conscious in its cleverness, including names too similar to their intended real-life targets. This is the story I would be afraid of writing personally because it became a lecture when the intent was clearly to tell a parable and convert the reader to a way of thinking. I already share the author’s POV, so it saddens me to acknowledge that he won’t be persuading anyone. This “fictional” depiction of the horror within which we currently reside was too close to reality to allow any escapism. Unlike dystopian fiction, which I enjoy, this was more like a description of impending doom. I regret that I cannot recommend it. June 23, 2020 1 star Any time someone can put together enough words to create a book, I’m impressed. Unfortunately, despite some great reviews, this book is a complete letdown. I don’t often write scathing reviews because I don’t like to hurt peoples’ feelings. However, when something this egregious is released and a review is requested on Netgalley, I feel I have little choice. It is written in a confusing manner with syntax that only serves as obfuscation to whatever thoughts the writer is trying to convey, and seemed to rely on the word “such” a bit too much. Here are some actual sentences, and I use that term loosely: “Coupled with always gaining straight ‘A’s, in exams, teachers, and even the college Principle (sic) would always look the other way rather than upset their two star pupils.” The following paragraph was peppered with sentences beginning with “but.” But when I read this, I almost stopped reading altogether: “But life can play strange tricks on you. Call it fate, or coincidence, who can say !” Aside from the exclamation point, that should have been a question mark, there was an actual space after the last word! Then there were these sentences: “Now as we get older our appearance can change dramatically, but our personality will always stay the same. So Chad’s fun loving and excitable exterior positively exploded with happiness, as he and his beloved family having had at last reached the hotel’s reception desk.” I couldn’t read any more of this drivel. A skilled editor would have been a great investment. My time is valuable and I don’t have the patience to read such a poorly written amalgamation of words and phrases. I give up. Don’t waste your time. June 20, 2020 5 stars Thanks to Netgalley for another great book. I was unfamiliar with the author, but pleased to discover she competently portrays a depth of emotion not found in all books within this genre. Here, she addresses the issues of grief and guilt and how they can haunt a person (or persons) who stays stuck in the past and fails to face the possibility of a happy future. Cassandra lives in the past, devoted to a fiance who died on the day of their impending wedding, leaving her pregnant with a now-13-year-old “illegitimate” daughter. She lives in a state of perpetual grief, feeling as if she cannot even consider betraying the love she once pledged to Timothy. Devlin lives in a state of perpetual guilt for deaths he feels he caused, though of course, he is not ultimately responsible. As a result, neither feels deserving or capable of loving the other, though for different reasons. As we all know, the heart often has a will of its own and pursues love despite our mental gymnastics to prevent it. Penelope, Cassandra’s daughter is exceptionally incisive and mature with observations like this one: “You want to hold on to the past, the present, and the future all at the same time. You want Papa to come back and for no other person to take his place...Except he’s not coming back. Not ever. So it’s time for you to let go and move on or you’ll never be truly happy. And I’d really like for you to be happy, Mama. I want it more than anything else in the world.” Although there aren’t many 13-year-olds with the level of maturity demonstrated by Penelope, there’s no reason not to believe she is exceptional, considering the circumstances of her life and upbringing. Luckily, Cassandra takes her words to heart. Meanwhile, Devlin is realizing he loves Cassandra and is desperate to win her love. At one point, wracked by his guilt, he “needed at least three glasses of brandy in order to think straight. Or perhaps not to think at all, he decided while trying to figure out what he should do.” The confusion, and sometimes torment, experienced by those in love are on full display, the author describing such emotions in vivid and compassionate detail. It’s difficult not to become ensnared in the passions of the characters. I absolutely loved this book and I’m anxious to read more from this author. June 20, 2020 5 stars I have two complaints about this book, neither of which can be fixed. My first complaint is that the chapters are too long. I found it hard to take breaks from reading at chapter breaks because they were so spaced out. My second complaint is that this book wasn’t long enough. When I say that, understand that the book is exactly the right length. It doesn’t end prematurely and it doesn’t drag out past the point where all plot points have been tied up and it’s clear the author is just trying to eke out a few more words. It really was the perfect length from a technical standpoint. The reason I say it was too short is because I enjoyed it so much that it made me sad when it ended. I haven’t read anything else from Nick Spalding, but after reading this book, I am a fan—a follower, if you will. There are books that are amusing, while others are written specifically to be humorous, not necessarily having any other point. This book has a point, and it’s hysterical. On numerous occasions, I had to explain why I was laughing out loud. Told from the POV of Andy Bellows, a man with a very dry sense of humor, the narration is conversational and engaging. He is an everyday regular guy with a penchant for recognizing the absurdity in everyday regular occurrences. At one point, he tells the reader: “Look, I’m sorry, but I’m not making this stuff up.” He treats the reader as a confidante, someone with whom he can commiserate about the human condition. Nick Spalding has some truly insightful observations about the internet and its effect on us, like when he makes this statement: “I’ve been so used to outsourcing my general knowledge to Google that when I have to fall back on the contents of my brain, I find that it’s a sluggish, stupid thing, with far less recall of facts than it should have.” Later, he says: “Has my brain been so starved of stimuli that it’s begun to critically evaluate the meat sack it’s being carried around in?” There have been many times when I’ve wondered the same thing as I pull up the thesaurus to remind myself of words that I once used with ataraxia (full disclosure: I’ve never even seen this word before). Nick is also quite good with metaphors, which are always quite funny, like this one: “The irony is so thick, I keep expecting Alanis Morisette to jump out of the bathroom cabinet and hand me some toilet paper.” Or this one: “My kitchen looks like several wars zones have been through it, on their way to the pub.” And this comparison made me chuckle out loud, which again prompted the need to explain why I was laughing: “..the band start(s) to play what I can only describe as the sound of a large brass band falling down a flight of stairs.” There’s a scene where Andy imagines a duck is talking to him, although the only word he keeps repeating is “duck,” that had me clutching my sides as I laughed. But the best part of that was when he asked someone else if the duck was saying “duck” and the person assured him the duck said “quack.” The duck says “duck, duck,” in “agreement” and Andy tells the reader, “But I can tell the little bastard is lying.” I could go on quoting all of the parts of this book that I found especially funny, but suffice to say, the book is a treasure trove of amusement. If I could give it more than 5 stars, I would. In fact, I’d say this one goes to eleven. I loved it and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys laughing. Thank you Netgalley! June 19, 2020 5 stars Knowing this was just a portion of a larger story, I was worried it might end on a cliffhanger. Thankfully, it did not. Of course, I still want to read more of this series, but I don't’ feel like I was left hanging. This isn’t the first book from Rebecca Hamilton that I have read, but I get so wrapped up in the various ARCs from various authors that I forget how good she is. In this book, she has created a world that is vivid and formidable with sympathetic characters who evoke compassion in the reader. Sure, it’s weird that Evan and Ophelia fall in love within hours of meeting one another, but this is a paranormal fantasy, so it’s fine. Considering all other aspects of the book, falling in love so quickly may be the least unbelievable aspect of the plot. That said, I think the plot is great. I’m intrigued and I want to read more about Ophelia and her quest. June 16, 2020 5 stars Every once in a while, I’ll see a book offered for free on Amazon and I find it so intriguing that I want to read it right away. Sure enough, I saw this one earlier today, purchased it, and read it in just a few hours. It was tough to put down. I loved the characters of Anna and Jason and found myself rooting for their HEA. The concept is simple, yet unusual. Anna is married to an abusive Duke who is dying, but his brother is, somehow, worse, and Anna fears what will happen to her once her husband dies. He dies in the middle of the night and she finds a faithful servant to help her dispose of the body, intending to tell his brother that her husband is traveling. That part wasn’t very well thought out, since he was clearly so sick, but she’s desperate. Luckily, after burying the body in the woods, they encounter the body of another man who was badly beaten and left in the road. Lo and behold, he is a dead ringer for her husband so they take him in her husband’s place to have him pretend to be the dead husband. They don’t count on the fact that his injuries are so serious that he doesn’t remember anything. That just makes things easier for her. The new Jason is everything the dead Duke was not and it’s difficult for Anna not to fall in love with him. It’s also difficult for the reader not to fall in love with him. He is kind and gentle and considerate and he adores her. What’s not to love? Somehow the evil brother figures out what is up, which is really my only complaint because he seemed to know way more than he should have. Still, he’s exceedingly villainous and villains always seem to know more than they should. It’s not like the story is supposed to be totally believable anyway. It’s fictional, and if it stretches the limits of credibility, it’s all in good fun. I loved the story and found the writing to be engaging, descriptive, and easy to follow. It’s not terribly poetic, but the storytelling is competent and I’d definitely enjoy reading more from this author. June 14, 2020 5 stars My only complaint about this book is that it was too short, but I won’t let that affect my rating. The author stays true to the story of Aladdin and gives it much more depth of feeling than the original fairytale, but like a fairytale, it is relatively short. I think that she could have added more details about the intervening years between Ian and Valentina’s first meeting, and I don’t like that she suggested reading Shear Heaven to learn more about Valentina’s marriage to Steve. Don’t get me wrong. I’m interested in reading Shear Heaven, but I feel like this book should have included more about those years. Despite my disappointment, there were some wonderful statements about love and I particularly liked this one: “...you were the brightest light my dark life had ever known. Because I didn’t know what beauty was, what love was, what was possible, until I met you. Because when God sees fit to place an angel in your life, you don’t ask how much it’ll cost.” It was statements like this one that poetically conveyed the love shared by these two characters. I really liked this story and I highly recommend it. June 13, 2020 3 stars Averaged together, my rating should be 2.3, and it would make sense to round to just 2 stars, but I’m feeling generous. Isaac and Foster make this collection worth reading, followed by Blaze, Ciaran, Benjamin, and Josh. Milo and Grimm were okay. I wouldn’t bother with Silas, Asher, Terrance, Kaden, or Deacon. You can read below to get reviews of each individual book, in the order in which they appear in the collection. Silas - Bella Roccaforte 1 star A book has to be really bad for me to stop reading it. This was one of those books. I found that there was a lot of telling without enough showing and far too many cliches. I read a couple of chapters and gave up, moving on to the next book in the collection. Asher - AK Michaels 1 star I started and then skipped this one too. There's more to fixing a run-on sentence than simply inserting some periods and capitalizing the next word. After only a page or two, I couldn't stand the inconsistency of verb usage any longer. Blaze - SJ Pierce 3 stars I like Susan Pierce's books and this one was pretty good. Simple premise: human single mom meets wolf/man, he saves son from kidnapper, they are fated mates, HEA. Because it was so short, it didn't evoke any particular emotions. Scenes were clearly described, character motivations were believable, and the plot pacing was just about right. It’s memorable and I enjoyed it but it won't be going on my list of "best books." Ciaran - Pia Milan 3 stars The plot for this story was unexpected and exciting. I was hooked from the beginning and the more I read, the more I wanted to find out more of the details. The pacing was good, mysteries being revealed a little bit at a time, keeping me engaged. I’m perplexed by the title because each chapter was entitled either Ciagan or Leira, but it’s hard to think of title names so I’ll give the author a pass on that. I wish the proofreading had been a bit more thorough because I kept finding verb tense errors and other mistakes, like listed instead of listened, hatches instead of hutches, and innocents instead of innocence. The biggest problem for me, though, was the author’s tendency to tell emotions rather than show them. A couple of times, characters shared looks of “admiration,” and at one point, one character’s “eyes filled with encouragement and admiration.” Also, there were a few times when Ciaran thought he saw flames in Leira’s eyes. This led me to believe her eyes must be an amber color. In chapter 16, I read that her eyes were green. I think this should have been revealed earlier to avoid confusion. At one point, Ciaran “slunk slipped out from beneath the camouflage and crawled into the brush…” I got a chuckle out of the phrasing. Overall, although I was pulled from the story by the author’s intrusions, I enjoyed it, for the most part. Benjamin - Tami Lund 3 stars This story was fast-paced with a few surprises. I liked the characters of Ben and Hannah and the development of their relationship. The build-up of suspense was done well, but the fight was a bit of a let-down. Overall, it was an enjoyable, complete story. Milo - Susan Griscom 2 stars At times, this story was told in a way that had me convinced the writer was a male. I don’t have a specific reason for that; it’s just a sense that I sometimes get from certain writers. Part of it, I think, is that sex scenes seem more like the kind of thing I’d expect to read in Penthouse Forum than in erotica directed at women. The story was pretty good, but the sex scenes made me uncomfortable. The mystery of the story was decent, though not outstanding, and Skye’s hesitancy to trust anyone seemed a bit exaggerated. Nevertheless, I was drawn into the story’s action and continued to read because I wanted to find out what would happen. I did not feel much for any of the characters, which was unfortunate. Grimm - Elaine Barris 2 stars Characters had little depth and conversations were stilted. I liked Grimm and his backstory but it wasn't enough to power the entire plot. Lacy's backstory was interesting, if skimpy, and necessary for the conflict of the plot. Some details seemed unnecessary, like mentioning there wasn’t a shower or toilet in the cave and Lacy’s intentions of asking Grimm “about the facilities later when she needed them.” She never needed them, so I don’t know why this observation was included. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't terribly well told. (Also, tittering should have been teetering.) Terrance - Lia Davis 1 star Maybe this one deserves 1.5 stars, but since it ended abruptly without a true conclusion, I'm rounding down. A new paranormal-type character, Vicky, is introduced. She’s a vampire and a “Gifted,” and apparently, Terrance’s mate. From the beginning, I suspected I wouldn't like it because there was too much expository writing, explaining relationships and histories. Even so, the explanation of Mary's living arrangements was unclear. There were silly details like Samira and Luca transforming into identical wolves, except she had a heart-shaped white patch on the top of her head. Sentence fragments caused me to puzzle the meaning the author was trying to convey, and misused homophones (& other somewhat similar-sounding words) abounded: to instead of too, pass instead of past, your instead of you're, shuttered instead of shuddered, bare instead of bear, since instead of sense, and arched instead of arced. And there were plenty of typos and confusing verbs, too. I was relieved to reach the end. Kaden - Cora A. Murray 1 star Ugh! This one starts off with confusing and inconsistent verb usage, from present to past perfect and back, causing whiplash. Why are verbs so hard?! Sometimes they would contradict one another mid-sentence. What’s worse is that the story also changed POV without warning, mid-chapter. Chapters were told from the POV of Gianna or Kaden and the name at the beginning of each chapter let the reader know who was talking. However, at times within a chapter, the POV would change without notice. This, within a chapter titled Kaden, was one of the worst examples: “I let my wolf out. He strikes without hesitation. When her blood fills his mouth, a growl rumbles in his chest. Mine, his wolf says gleefully, as Kaden thrusts deep, spilling his seed inside her.” I think what happened here was it started in first person (Kaden), then switched to third-person. Other times, it might switch from Gianna to Kaden, or vice versa, totally ambusing me and leaving me shaking my head, trying to figure out what had happened. It was a difficult story to read, not only because of the grammar, but also because it just wasn’t very good. What a disappointment. Deacon - Robbie Cox 1 star Thankfully short, this was another candidate for Penthouse. Okay, so maybe not, but the sex scenes were certainly similar. Frankly, I got sick of all the honey dripping out of Purity. Foster - C.D. Gorri 4 stars Hey, this one was pretty good! I enjoyed the storytelling style which included humor and emotion. Lydia has escaped an abusive wolf-shifter spouse and Foster was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. After an inauspicious first meeting, things move along rather quickly once Foster realizes Lydia is his mate and she realizes how attracted to him she is. Lydia has a little girl, Skylar, who is about five years old. Unfortunately, the author makes the mistake of thinking an independent kindergartener would drink from a sippy cup. Other than that, the story is believable (as far as paranormal stories can be) and I enjoyed it. Josh - Skye Jones 3 stars This one was pretty good. I liked the characters of Rebecca and Josh, and I sympathized particularly with Rebecca’s history. There were some great descriptions of the feelings these mates had for one another. Josh experienced this: “Colors flashed behind his eyes as he closed them to relish the taste of her. Oh Goddess, he’d heard finding your mate was good, but this? He’d fallen from the earthly realm surely and now walked in heaven.” Rebecca experienced this: “...she’d never had sex quite like that. Mind blowing, body pleasing, soul fracturing sex. The kind of sex that you started as one person, and finished as quite another.” I enjoyed the story, except for one small thing: Rebecca “filled the tub to the brim, added bubbles, and climbed in with a contented sigh.” I can’t be the only one to know that if you fill a tub to the brim and then get in, you’ve got water all over the floor. I know it’s silly, but it bugged me. Luckily, it did not detract from the story as a whole. Isaac - Rosalie Redd 5 stars The last book in this collection turned out to be the best one. Having been introduced to Isaac in previous books (Milo & Kaden), this was an interesting alternative view of him. Funny how Gianna (Kaden) didn’t see him as particularly sexy or attractive because he wasn’t her mate, whereas Chloe couldn’t see him any other way. There were a few things that I liked about this book: the author’s use of metaphors and symbolism (the recurring flashlight falling over), the descriptive words she uses to describe scenes and characters, and her ability to convey the feelings felt by Cloe and Isaac. There were a couple of silly things that stood out to me: 1. Chloe called herself a divorcee. Who uses that term anymore? 2. Her best friend Brooklyn finally reached her on her cell phone and confessed she had been frantically calling for hours. She should have just called the motel directly and she would have been connected with the room. Don’t worry, the mystery surrounding Samuel is revealed at the end. It’s not a surprise, but it would have been disappointing if the author hadn’t tied up that loose end. Overall, I enjoyed this story a lot and I’m glad I continued through this collection until the end. June 11, 2020 |
Elizabeth J ConnorWriter. Editor. Proofreader. Archives
September 2022
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