Kira

Ok I didn't hate it. Two stars is a little harsh. I read it quickly and wanted to see how it ended, but I really should have known I wouldn't be able to swallow it with two main characters named Rule and Shaw. Ugh, they sound like they could have stepped out of a Paulie Shore movie. I can appreciate that this is the first effort of an independent author and my hat is off to her for being brave and putting herself out there. However, the dialogue, combined with the stupid names, kind of ruined it for me. No mother, no matter how broken or hurt, would talk to her son like that and show zero remorse or compassion. I also didn't like the gigantic paragraphs of dialogue that spewed out information we should have been shown instead of told. It wasn't believable and was rather forgettable, although it was an ok way to pass time. Plus, I just don't think "marked" men are my cup of tea. Tattoos are ok, body modification not so much. I actually googled what some of that crap on his junk was because it sounded scary to me and I couldn't visualize it. Then I wished I hadn't.

I went into this book with high expectations, hoping to get caught up in a story of a young girl experiencing the mandatory two years of military service required of both men and women in Israel. Prior to reading the synopsis I didn't even know that went on. I do not know much about life in modern-day Israel and was looking forward to learning more, especially after loving other books set in the middle east, such as A Thousand Splendid Suns.Unfortunately, I struggled through half of this book and set it down, and never felt the need to pick it back up again. I just didn't care enough to find out what happened. It's not that it wasn't well-written, because parts of it were, the beginning in particular. But the overall feeling of the book was muddled and apathetic. To start with, it's not the story of one girl but of three, with each chapter being told from a different girl's point of view, always in the first person. This was confusing, especially when I didn't realize a third girl had taken a turn narrating until halfway through the chapter. There's also the fact that the books starts out just before the girls enlist, and then it abruptly skips ahead through their training and they are suddenly jaded soldiers overseeing new recruits. I was not able to like the girls, or understand the motivation for their actions, so I was not able to really care about what happened to them.There are too many books in my queue to spend time reading books that don't move me, or teach me, or give me a brief respite from everyday life, and that is why I just can't continue with The People of Forever are Not Afraid. With a title like that, I really wanted to know... why aren't they afraid? I guess I'll never know.

My rating is more like 4.5 stars. This book is haunting. The first half had me flipping pages to all hours of the night, and yet at the climax I didn't know if I could continue. When I turned the last page, I felt myself sighing that special sigh, the one that comes after meeting truly complex, believable, beautiful characters. The Language of Flowers is a keeper.

I hate writing mean reviews. I really do.However, I cannot in good conscience write anything more than a two-star review for this book or I'd be doing my fellow paranormal romance/urban fantasy fans a huge disservice.I was offered an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, and in preparation for reading it I went and purchased the first book in the series so I would be familiar with the characters. While I wasn't blow away by the first book, I found it entertaining and I clipped through it pretty quickly to find out how it would end. The writing style was somewhat juvenile but I gave the author the benefit of the doubt because usually by the third book both the author and the characters have grown. In Witchful Thinking, I was expecting Jolie to have matured and for the cheesy cliches to have diminished.Oy.This book was more like two steps forward, five steps back. Nothing actually happens in this book besides scene after scene of Jolie re-animating a bunch of people from the great battle in book 2, a LOT of re-hashing of previous plot points, and each chapter starting with a horrendously long italicized journal entry that starts with, I kid you not, "Dear Diary." They were so cheesy I couldn't even bring myself to read them and had to skim past. I kept thinking that it felt like a really sexualized version of a Sweet Valley Twins book.If you think I'm being overly harsh, here is an excerpt:"Physically, Odran is very striking. The first thing you will notice about him is that he's built like a bull, exuding strength with not even an ounce of fat-- nope, just rock hard muscle. Next you might notice his long mane of slightly wavy, golden hair that trails to his butt. Then you would probably notice that his facial features resemble those of a lion-- solid, angular planes with a strong jaw."Did you "notice" anything about that paragraph? Besides the fact that you should be noticing so many different things, you should also notice that this supposedly hot guy actually looks like a cross between a lion and a bull. Uhh... yummy? The entire book went like that.If I hadn't promised to review it, I would not have finished it, but I will admit that the last few pages took the only interesting turn in the book and I might read the reviews on the next one just to see the spoilers and find out what happens. There is no way I will actually read the next one myself, though.

I chose this book because I thought it sounded exciting and interesting and it had a beautiful cover. When I received it in the mail saw it had less than 300 pages, I was almost disappointed. I was sure the story would be over too soon.Unfortunately, once I started reading, the ending couldn't come soon enough.The best way to describe how this book made me feel, was like watching an old movie where they jerk and jump between scenes with no warning. There was just no flow. The characters felt like puppets to me, and the author pulled their strings in often contradicting directions.page 1) deliver devastating news to heroine that her sister has drownedpage 2) cut to heroine standing by boat railing, a mysterious assailant pushes her overboardpage 3) heroine is saved by heropage 4) after being rescued, heroine decides not to reveal her true identity and thereby creates a major plot pointpage 5) hero takes heroine to a jewelry shop*cue record scratching* Wait, what? Why are they in a jewelry shop? Didn't they just wash up on a beach?It just jumped around and struggled between wanting to be a murder-mystery and wanting to be a romance/feel-good tale of a woman making new friends and helping them plan a charity ball to rebuild their lighthouse. I felt like the author was throwing every plot device she could think of at me, and none of them were working.There was a murder attempt, a big storm, a sprained wrist, a picnic, a kitten in a tree *gag*, an airplane crash, a sprained ankle (by this time the heroine should have been hospitalized just to save her from herself) and even with all that, after 150 pages, I just didn't care and could not continue.Based upon the variety of reviews this book is receiving, I suppose it will entirely depend on your tastes whether this book is for you. I'm a Christian, but I don't like preachy fluffy Christian romances. In fact, I avoid them at all costs. I like stories with grit and heart and characters that convince me they are real, such as Francine River's [b:Mark of the Lion Trilogy|95602|Mark of the Lion Trilogy|Francine Rivers|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349468100s/95602.jpg|920037].That was not this book.I suggest that you read the five star reviews before you decide whether this book is for you, because it takes all kinds and obviously somebody is enjoying this book, but for me, the lack of good characterization and the choppy scenes and the muddled plots and the terrible cliches just turned into one big hot mess. I wish I could rate it higher, but I just can't.

So, you've been intrigued by the the beautiful cover and plot description on this book and you're wondering if it'll live up to the hype.Let me offer you my opinion:No, it won't.The Titanic movie came out when I was in highschool and I saw it three times in the theater. I didn't really feel the need to read a book about it since I had seen the story unfold in such detail on the big screen. However, I was intrigued by the premise of The Dressmaker, where we get to find out what happens to some of the passengers after the ordeal was over. It even promised to be sort of a mix of Titanic meets The Devil Wears Prada.It's a really good premise. I wanted it to be a really good book.I was completely willing to suspend all my preconceived notions about what happened on the Titanic, to meet new characters, and to see where the author would take the story. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed.This is a relatively short book, only 300 pages or so. The story revolves around Tess, an unhappy English maid who quits her job just as the Titanic is leaving port, manages to get herself hired on as lady's maid to a famous fashion designer who is boarding the colossal ship, meets two different men on board in very brief and forced scenarios creating the now-standard love triangle plotline, and then the Titanic sinks. That was all in the first 38 pages. You have to really rush to fit that much into 38 pages. In fact, the entire book really only covers about two-weeks' worth of time, which was not enough for what the author tried to accomplish. I was so distracted by how unbelievable everything seemed, from the conversations between the characters, to the weird subplot with the fashion designer's bipolar behavior, to the fact that Tess is supposed to be some amazing dressmaking diamond in the rough who goes from a maid on a boat to designing the key dress in a fashion show two weeks later, that I just couldn't get caught up in the story.This book attempted to combine several genres, historical fiction and chick lit and mystery, but it wasn't long enough to do any of it well. If it had had a believable and interesting love story, I would have rated it higher, but even that fell flat. If you want a light, superficial, rather forgettable read, then you could give this one a go. But if you are looking for the next historical epic for your favorites shelf, keep looking. I was underwhelmed.

I picked up an ARC of Little Century largely because of the review on the front cover by Joshua Ferris which called it, "A frontier saga, a love story, and an epic of many small pleasures."Now that I have read it for myself, I have mixed feelings about that description. I would say that if you enjoy Willa Cather's writing, you would most likely enjoy this book as well. It was not as "epic" as I'd hoped and the part of the story I was most interested in (Esther learning to tend to her homestead) was hugely glossed over. Everything was very detailed up until the first night in her little cabin alone on the dark prairie, and then it skips ahead several months to where she is fairly self-sufficient. I was pretty disappointed in that.That being said, some of the writing was just beautiful. Written in the present tense, it is a bit jarring at first, but after a while you become caught up in the rhythm, the descriptions, the interactions between the characters. This IS an adventure of many small pleasures and I wished that it would have been just that. As an epic about a range war, I thought it fell flat, but as a study of characters in a small town at the turn of the century it excelled. From first page to the last, Esther's story is memorable.All in all, I liked the book and I'm glad I read it. It's not one I would recommend to my girlfriends as an epic love story, but I do plan to loan it to my grandmother, a writer herself, because I know she will appreciate it.

Listened to this on tape and it was wonderful. Enjoyed every bit.

Starters is a book about an orphaned 16-year-old girl named Callie who is trying to survive and provide for her 7-year-old brother in a future where a biological weapon has wiped out everyone between the ages of about 18 and 85. "Starters" are the younger generation and everyone else is called an "Ender." Because of technological advances, Enders are able to live for up to 200 years and they have made it illegal for minors to work. When Callie's brother becomes very ill, she is forced to earn money by signing up at the body bank, a secret place where old people are hooked up to a machine (much like you saw in The Matrix) and their brain functions are transferred over to a nubile teenage rental body. It was supposed to be easy for Callie: go to sleep, wake up one week later when the rental is over and then get paid. Unfortunately, when she regained consciousness she was lying on the floor of a night club in a puddle of sticky liquid and was hearing a mysterious voice in her head.Such a great start! I so wanted to love this book.Unfortunately, everything went downhill from there. It's hard to explain exactly why, but this book felt like an original idea that was pieced together with scenes from movies that I've already seen. The now-mandatory love triangle (why must the girl always have two boys to choose between, WHY?!) felt forced, the dialogue was flat, the action scenes were not original, and the characters behaved so unbelievably I was never able to engage with the story. The old people were all so evil and over-the-top I found myself rolling my eyes on almost every page and the big twist in the story was just.... silly. I actually laughed out loud.Ever since the Hunger Games exploded on the scene a few years ago, the YA genre has been riding the post-apocalyptic dystopian society wave. There have been numerous books suggested to me by Amazon in the last year that claimed "Fans of the Hunger Games will love this book," and I've been lured into reading several of them because I enjoyed that series so much. Some of them were good (i.e. [b:Divergent|13335037|Divergent (Divergent, #1)|Veronica Roth|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328559506s/13335037.jpg|13155899]) but most of them were really, really.... not.As a 32-year-old married woman, I realize I am not the target demographic for these books; however, you can usually tell about 20 pages in if a book is labeled YA because it's a great story minus the gratuitous sex and violence, or if it's labeled YA because only 15-year-old girls will enjoy it. Starters is one of the latter, which is why I gave it two stars. If I was rating it based on the cover, I would have given it a better score because the cover truly is one of the best I've seen in a long time, but sadly, the old saying is true, you can't judge a book by the cover.

I've heard this book is being compared to The Hunger Games and Divergent, and that is what originally made me pick it up. I *loved* those two books. This one, however, left me... bored and annoyed. If you're looking for the next Hunger Games, this isn't it.The overall concept sounded very exciting and original: Two gigantic space ships that are capable of sustaining life for an 80+ year voyage are launched from Earth and sent to colonize a new planet. After 43 years, the two ships meet up in the middle of a nebula, the crew from one ship boards the other by force, steals all their female children (including the toddlers) and then leaves the other ship drifting in space with nothing but teenage boys to man it.The plot definitely had my attention and I was all settled in for a great read, but about four chapters in I was starting to wonder where this was going. By separating the boys and girls, you start to get a bit of a Lord of the Flies situation going on one ship, with the boys turning on eachother in bewildering and unrealistic ways, while the girls on the other ship are basically resisting assimilation into a cult. That could have been interesting in itself, but instead it just gave me the creeps.I think overall this book lacked balance. In the Hunger Games or Divergent, I was able to forget that the main characters were teenagers. I got swept up in the story and just enjoyed the ride. With this book, however, I never forgot for a moment that these were supposed to be 15 & 16 year old kids and it just made it feel... wrong. The heaviness of the plot was never lifted with any moments of levity and hope; it was just dreary and aggravating from start to finish, and there was a lot of ant-religious undertone that surprised me as well.By the time I got to the end I was rolling my eyes at the weird and inexplicable behavior of some of the characters and had lost all respect for the heroine. I know there are sequels coming, but I won't be reading them because, frankly, I just don't really care what happens to these characters. If you're like me, a mom looking to escape into a YA book for a while, there are better ones out there. There's a lot of hype surrounding this book, but unfortunately, that's what it is~ hype.

This is the first book I can remember reading and thinking "I cannot WAIT to see this movie." Most of the time movies cannot possibly do a book justice, but in the case of this beautiful, ethereal story, the world Erin Morgenstern has created begs to be brought to life.It's the story of an enchanted circus that only opens at night, the Circus of Dreams. It arrives mysteriously in the middle of the night and leaves just as suddenly. You are invited to join the crowd flocking to the swirling gates, enter through a starry tunnel, wander through each tent and all it's mysteries, and peek inside the lives of the contortionists, magicians, and acrobats when they are not performing.The overlying story is of two children who are raised to compete in a game to which they do not know the rules, and they are never told what 'winning' entails or what it will cost. All they know is that the circus is the venue, and they are to out-do one another with illusion, wonder, and awe-inspiring tents, such as the Ice Garden or the Cloud Maze. They are absolutely not supposed to fall in love with each other. While that plot is the selling point of the synopsis, and a really good selling point, it's a little misleading, which is why I gave the book four stars.The danger that the main characters were supposedly living under was overshadowed by the grandiose descriptions of the circus, and I was so busy imagining all the amazing things being described I didn't have time to feel the suspense she was trying to create. The end felt a little anti-climactic because I never really understood what, if any, repercussions there would be if the "duel" never came to a head. I'm a hopeless romantic and books with a good love story tend to get higher ratings from me. This book certainly had some of that, but ultimately the love story felt a little flat. I wanted more interaction between Celia and Marco and more passion (romance, not sex); however, the fact that the romance is a little subdued is probably what will make this book appeal equally to men and women. It has a little something for everyone. Beautiful writing and an interesting story, and like I said, I really hope they make it into a movie.

There are very very few series that can maintain momentum after the first few books without becoming repetative. This series is not one of them. I don't know how they manage to do it, but this husband-wife writing team manages to keep each book fresh, page-turning and fun. Love these books and if it's possible, this is one of my very favorite additions to the series so far. I have yet to read an Ilona Andrews book, in either series, that I didn't love.

This is the first book in a long time that has made me cry. It was beautifully written, and even though the main character could not speak through 3/4 of the book, I barely noticed. That was remarkable to me. It's based on a celtic fairy tale, but it wasn't one I was very familiar with so the story felt fresh and there were surprises around every turn. I loved it.

Before reading this book I had never heard of Kimberly Snyder, her blog, or the Beauty Detox Solution. I didn't really know what to expect and I was VERY pleasantly surprised. This is the first "diet" book that I have read cover to cover. Usually I get bored halfway through and just start skipping ahead to the good stuff. Kimberly's writing style was engaging, easy to understand, and made me want to read every word. I was still able to finish the book in two days (I devoured it) and I came away armed with lots of great information.Kimberly's personal testimony of how and why she learned these things was what really drew me in and made me pay attention. She has traveled all over the world, studying other cultures, their beauty and diet regimens, and I felt like she was did an amazing job of condensing it down and making it "doable" for the modern American.In this book I learned:*Why raw foods, especially greens, are so beneficial (I mean, I knew that they were, but now I really get WHY)*Why probiotics are a must*That I do not have to rely on meat or whey powder to get all the protein my body needs*Why the order you eat foods is important, and that this can sometimes be the one thing standing between you and weight loss*How to give your body the building blocks it needs for radiant skin and soft hair*The difference between a really miserable bi-yearly "cleanse" and having a lifestyle that is continually cleansing your body in a gentle yet very effective way*Some awesome recipes for tasty and guiltless foodNow, with that being said, am I ready to run out and become a strict vegetarian, give up dairy completely, and never have another bagel? No.BUT, Kimberly packed her book with testimonials from normal people who followed the plan to the extent that they were comfortable with, and still saw results. I didn't get the impression that it is an all or nothing thing. I think that the biggest thing I came away with was feeling empowered to start eating my foods in the correct order for optimal digestion, and to ADD in foods that I know are going to up my nutrition level tremendously (i.e. the goddess smoothie and the probiotic & enzyme salad). Those are things that I can start immediately and reap the benefits from.After drinking the Green Smoothie for breakfast every day for the last week, I've lost one pound and it might be too soon to say this, but I think the blemishes I had are healing much more quickly than they previously did. It tastes much better than I expected (especially when it's been in the fridge for 24 hours) and I feel really good after I drink it. That recipe alone was worth the read for me, but that is certainly not the only thing I got out of it. There were a few little things that I didn't agree with (the possible connection between the animal's emotions when they were slaughtered affecting our own moods) but they were minor and easily overlooked. The vast majority of this book was right on, in my opinion, and I definitely recommend it.

I chose this book after reading the compelling description and was looking forward to a multi-generational story of life in Vietnam. I was really hoping for something along the lines of "Cane River" by Lalita Tademy or "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan. Perhaps the height of my expectations was my downfall. I mistakenly thought this book was based on the true story of the author's ancestors, and like some other reviewers, I was left disappointed. If it was a true story I probably would have rated the book higher because in that case the author is constrained by the facts. However, about halfway through I was frustrated so I re-read the intro and the dedication and realized it's not a true story, it's fiction. That caused my rating to go down because there is so much more she could have done to flesh out my understanding of her characters.I wanted to be invited in to experience the lives of these women, but I felt like I had an aerial view of their circumstances without really understanding why they behaved the way they did. They became paper dolls for me, and while I was told they had relationships with eachother, their interactions felt very superficial. The story jumped forward and back and there were several "revelations" at the end that would have impacted me more deeply if they had simply been placed in chronological order. I wish that I could pinpoint more accurately why I didn't love this book, but I think all in all I was just bored. I set it down several times in favor of other books and in the end I still don't feel like I know much about Vietnam or it's people, especially how they were affected by the war.I'm sad to rate it only two stars because the cover is beautiful, the visual descriptions were good, and there were some very poetic moments. I truly did want to like this book, but in the end I probably won't think about it again.

I've been avoiding this book for a while. Amazon kept suggesting it based on other books I loved, and I kept rejecting it because the cover and book description didn't seem like my cup of tea. How can you get involved in the love life of a succubus? Arn't they basically the prostitutes of the paranormal world? Ick.I was wrong.I don't know how she did it, but Richelle Mead made me believe her world and like her heroine. Georgina is a succubus, but she was once human and traded her mortality to "fix" a terrible wrong. Now she's stuck for eternity doing something she hates and trying to pretend she's human again. I loved Georgina's witty and likeable personality, and the supporting characters in this series are great (vampires, angels, demons, cute human authors who write amazing books, hot college professors who can salsa, and a crazy lady who owns a cheesy new-age shop and has it in for Georgina). I really enjoyed that it wasn't a rip-roaring action-packed murder mystery from start to finish. It is romance, but the kind that gives you butterflies, not heart palpitations. And that was a welcome change.I didn't always like what Georgina did, sometimes it made me cringe, but a good writer can carry you along with the heroine and let you understand her, even when you don't like what she's doing. She is a succubus after all.After reading this book I'm now really sorry that I didn't give it a chance sooner, but I'm thrilled that there are more books in the series to jump right into. I can't wait to get into book 2 and find out what's next for Georgina, Seth, Carter, and the rest. This is one of those books that made me say "WOW, that was really good" when I turned the last page. So if you've been putting it off because the premise seemed unappealing, I encourage you to give it a try. You might be pleasantly surprised like I was.****UPDATE*** I'm editing this review to include the fact that I gave up on this series in book three. I really like Richelle Meade, but unfortunately her books thrive on relationship triangles, and the stress of it eventually became too much for me. I gave up on the Storm Born series after two books too, for the same reason. If relationship drama doesn't bother you, you will love this series.