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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) rated Last Summer in Books
Jul 24, 2019
I first heard about Last Summer by Kerry Lonsdale when I was browsing the giveaway section of Goodreads. I'm a stickler for books that deal with memory loss and trying to regain memories, so Last Summer definitely caught my eye. I was thrilled when I received an email from Goodreads saying I had won the eBook for Last Summer. After reading this novel, I'm glad I didn't pay for it. While it wasn't a great read, it was just lackluster.
Ella , a journalist, is in the hospital after a car accident that killed her unborn child. However, after being there for a few days, she suddenly loses her memory about being being pregnant and what happened right before she became pregnant and during her pregnancy. Desperate to remember her child, she does whatever she can to remember. When she is assigned to get an exclusive story about Nathan, a former celebrity whose son has just died, he lets her know that he knows some of things she forgot. However, some memories are best left forgotten.
The plot sounded for Last Summer like it would be promising. I felt like this book would be more about the mystery of Ella's memories. However, it seemed more like a romance novel than anything else which was a disappointment for me. It was more about Ella loving Nathan (not a spoiler, don't worry) but also loving her husband and her feeling guilty about it. At times, the plot seemed a bit muddled as well as predictable. There are a couple of plot twists I didn't see coming. The dialogue and writing seemed realistic as did the plot, so there's that. One thing that did bother me was how much sex was mentioned in the book. There were times I felt as if sex was mentioned just for the sake of mentioning it. I felt like sometimes it would have been implied or not mentioned at all.
The characters were just so so as well. I wanted to like them more, but I just had trouble. I don't think they were written poorly for the most part. I just couldn't feel a connection. There was something I didn't really like about Damien, Ella's husband, starting from the beginning of the book. He started off as being a bit mean and a bit smarmy at times. I kept wanting Ella to just run away from him because I did not like the guy! Ella sometimes felt a little too one dimensional for my liking. I felt like she was missing some depth to her, and there were many times she felt shallow. I did like Nathan, and I felt really bad for him. The hand he was given was a bad one. He was the only one character that felt the most sincere. I just wanted to hug him so many times.
The pacing for Last Summer was slow in some places, but it wasn't too bad. It did hold my attention throughout, and I found myself wanting to read more each time I had a spare minute. The story does flow well.
Trigger warnings for Last Summer include child loss, profanity, drinking, marital cheating, sex (although only slightly graphic), and lying.
All in all, Last Summer is a just an okay read. There's nothing that special about it where I would actually remember reading it a few months down the line. Saying that, I would recommend Last Summer by Kerry Lonsdale simply because I feel like it would make a good book to read while on vacation.
Ella , a journalist, is in the hospital after a car accident that killed her unborn child. However, after being there for a few days, she suddenly loses her memory about being being pregnant and what happened right before she became pregnant and during her pregnancy. Desperate to remember her child, she does whatever she can to remember. When she is assigned to get an exclusive story about Nathan, a former celebrity whose son has just died, he lets her know that he knows some of things she forgot. However, some memories are best left forgotten.
The plot sounded for Last Summer like it would be promising. I felt like this book would be more about the mystery of Ella's memories. However, it seemed more like a romance novel than anything else which was a disappointment for me. It was more about Ella loving Nathan (not a spoiler, don't worry) but also loving her husband and her feeling guilty about it. At times, the plot seemed a bit muddled as well as predictable. There are a couple of plot twists I didn't see coming. The dialogue and writing seemed realistic as did the plot, so there's that. One thing that did bother me was how much sex was mentioned in the book. There were times I felt as if sex was mentioned just for the sake of mentioning it. I felt like sometimes it would have been implied or not mentioned at all.
The characters were just so so as well. I wanted to like them more, but I just had trouble. I don't think they were written poorly for the most part. I just couldn't feel a connection. There was something I didn't really like about Damien, Ella's husband, starting from the beginning of the book. He started off as being a bit mean and a bit smarmy at times. I kept wanting Ella to just run away from him because I did not like the guy! Ella sometimes felt a little too one dimensional for my liking. I felt like she was missing some depth to her, and there were many times she felt shallow. I did like Nathan, and I felt really bad for him. The hand he was given was a bad one. He was the only one character that felt the most sincere. I just wanted to hug him so many times.
The pacing for Last Summer was slow in some places, but it wasn't too bad. It did hold my attention throughout, and I found myself wanting to read more each time I had a spare minute. The story does flow well.
Trigger warnings for Last Summer include child loss, profanity, drinking, marital cheating, sex (although only slightly graphic), and lying.
All in all, Last Summer is a just an okay read. There's nothing that special about it where I would actually remember reading it a few months down the line. Saying that, I would recommend Last Summer by Kerry Lonsdale simply because I feel like it would make a good book to read while on vacation.
Deborah (162 KP) rated The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After in Books
Dec 21, 2018
Oh dear.
I decided to take this book for review as Austen is by far my favourite novelist and I thought this sounded like an interesting concept - what makes the protagonists' matches so good. And there is always the sticky Charlotte Lucas question to ponder over. This isn't really what I got; I felt that this book couldn't decide if it wanted to be a work of literary criticism/analysis or a self help manual. I'm also not entirely sure who the target audience for this book are supposed to be. I got a very strong impression that it wasn't supposed to be me! References to 'we Americans' can be somewhat alienating to the rest of the world. Although the whole book seems to push Austen as a main selling point, it also seems to be aimed at people who don't really know the novels that well - too much of obvious plot details have to be explained and there is an over use of quotation, beyond what was needed to make the point.
The text of the book is only about 250 pages, but there must be at least another 100 pages of endnotes. This is an area of complete overkill, in my opinion. When a single endnote can go on for a couple of pages, by the time you get back to the main text, you've pretty much lost whatever plot there was. Endnotes; just too many and too long and in many cases just too unnecessary.
I was only reading from a proof copy, but there were textual errors - Maria Crawford, anyone?! Hopefully someone familiar with Austen can pick this up.
At the time of writing I see that only one other amazon.co.uk reviewer has come forth to note that they didn't like it much either, while the amazon.com reviews seem to be positive. Maybe this has something to do with targeting, as the writing style was very informal and slangy and with a number of American cultural references that meant very little to me. Such a narrow focus seems a bad error of judgement as far as the rest of the world is concerned. If you want my recommendation, I wouldn't bother with this one.
I decided to take this book for review as Austen is by far my favourite novelist and I thought this sounded like an interesting concept - what makes the protagonists' matches so good. And there is always the sticky Charlotte Lucas question to ponder over. This isn't really what I got; I felt that this book couldn't decide if it wanted to be a work of literary criticism/analysis or a self help manual. I'm also not entirely sure who the target audience for this book are supposed to be. I got a very strong impression that it wasn't supposed to be me! References to 'we Americans' can be somewhat alienating to the rest of the world. Although the whole book seems to push Austen as a main selling point, it also seems to be aimed at people who don't really know the novels that well - too much of obvious plot details have to be explained and there is an over use of quotation, beyond what was needed to make the point.
The text of the book is only about 250 pages, but there must be at least another 100 pages of endnotes. This is an area of complete overkill, in my opinion. When a single endnote can go on for a couple of pages, by the time you get back to the main text, you've pretty much lost whatever plot there was. Endnotes; just too many and too long and in many cases just too unnecessary.
I was only reading from a proof copy, but there were textual errors - Maria Crawford, anyone?! Hopefully someone familiar with Austen can pick this up.
At the time of writing I see that only one other amazon.co.uk reviewer has come forth to note that they didn't like it much either, while the amazon.com reviews seem to be positive. Maybe this has something to do with targeting, as the writing style was very informal and slangy and with a number of American cultural references that meant very little to me. Such a narrow focus seems a bad error of judgement as far as the rest of the world is concerned. If you want my recommendation, I wouldn't bother with this one.
Holly Johnson recommended The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars by David Bowie in Music (curated)
Sarah (7798 KP) rated Widows (2018) in Movies
Oct 5, 2019
Shame about the heist
This is a rather unusual heist film, in that whilst the heist is the main plot, it seems to play second fiddle to everything else that’s going on. There are some great performances in this from everyone involved, and the direction and cinematography are fantastic too. The problem is with the plot. It’s rather basic and hugely predictable. The little twist mid way through was good, but still very predictable, but sadly ultimately the way all this ended was far too dull and not at all unusual. I could’ve come up with a better ending myself!
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated The Empire's Ghost in Books
Sep 6, 2017
Good worldbuilding (1 more)
Well-rounded characters
An alright debut novel
So I’ve had pretty good luck with debut novels, overall. This one was good – not what I’d called spectacular, like those three, but good. If the sequel was out now, I’d read it. Knowing my reading habits, I probably won’t, because by the time the sequel does come out, I’ll have forgotten too much of this first book. (I strongly dislike only reading the first book in a series and then having to wait.)
What I really liked was how the author painted every character. Even the would-be Emperor, who is probably the closest to evil any character is in this book, was interesting and had clear motivations that made sense. I wouldn’t even call him evil, just ambitious. His assassin shows a different side in part of the book that also removes him from the “evil” category. I’m impressed that Steiger manager to set up several factions at odds with each other without making any of them evil. Wrong, perhaps, misguided perhaps, but not evil. Which is unusual in high fantasy.
What I disliked was there was a point in the middle where I had to set aside the book for real life – and I almost never picked it up again. Three days later, I finally did, but to me, that means I wasn’t invested in the characters or the story. I could have moved on to a different book, and I almost did. I liked most of the characters – but without liking any of them enough to truly care what happened. I also wish the pacing was a little faster, but that’s a victim of too many viewpoints, I think.
So I could go either way on this book. It was well-written but a little slow and didn’t just GRAB me the way some books do.
See all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
What I really liked was how the author painted every character. Even the would-be Emperor, who is probably the closest to evil any character is in this book, was interesting and had clear motivations that made sense. I wouldn’t even call him evil, just ambitious. His assassin shows a different side in part of the book that also removes him from the “evil” category. I’m impressed that Steiger manager to set up several factions at odds with each other without making any of them evil. Wrong, perhaps, misguided perhaps, but not evil. Which is unusual in high fantasy.
What I disliked was there was a point in the middle where I had to set aside the book for real life – and I almost never picked it up again. Three days later, I finally did, but to me, that means I wasn’t invested in the characters or the story. I could have moved on to a different book, and I almost did. I liked most of the characters – but without liking any of them enough to truly care what happened. I also wish the pacing was a little faster, but that’s a victim of too many viewpoints, I think.
So I could go either way on this book. It was well-written but a little slow and didn’t just GRAB me the way some books do.
See all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
Christina Tsitlakidou (43 KP) rated Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) in Movies
Jul 7, 2017
Happy (2 more)
Captain America - after credits
Jacob Batalon as Ned (absolutely hilarious!!)
Had high expectations and I wasn't disappointed. Homecoming was surprisingly funny and definitely worth the watch !
Loved the video diary at the beginning!! Tom Holland was a great choice to play young spider-man!
There's no origin story, so for anyone who isn't familiar then watch the earlier movies (which I highly doubt) There are a view plot twist thrown in which you wouldn't expect (but I won't spoil anything) The way the movie was shot felt like it wasn't trying too hard which definitely worked to it's benefit, I feel like movie nowadays try to shove so much CGI that it takes away from the story and actors, but this was really refreshing, hence why I love the video diary at the beginning so much
There's no origin story, so for anyone who isn't familiar then watch the earlier movies (which I highly doubt) There are a view plot twist thrown in which you wouldn't expect (but I won't spoil anything) The way the movie was shot felt like it wasn't trying too hard which definitely worked to it's benefit, I feel like movie nowadays try to shove so much CGI that it takes away from the story and actors, but this was really refreshing, hence why I love the video diary at the beginning so much
Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated Unleashed (Mistress & Master of Restraint, #2) in Books
Jan 6, 2021
Huh...well I enjoyed the first book in the series more, it had a more compelling storyline for me (4.5 star worthy!). This, I kinda had to read to see if Katya got her HEA after the events of the last book but it all got a little twisted for me.
There was so much sex in this compared to the last and for me, and I think for the story too, it was unnecessary. Everyone was with everyone (or it seemed like it anyway).
I was only really interested in the relationship between Ezra and Katya (and Cortez, I guess, though not as desperately as the first two) and a lot more than that happened. Weddings, fights, sex...
If this is the sort of thing that's going to continue throughout the rest of the series, then I'm not sure I'm interested.
There was so much sex in this compared to the last and for me, and I think for the story too, it was unnecessary. Everyone was with everyone (or it seemed like it anyway).
I was only really interested in the relationship between Ezra and Katya (and Cortez, I guess, though not as desperately as the first two) and a lot more than that happened. Weddings, fights, sex...
If this is the sort of thing that's going to continue throughout the rest of the series, then I'm not sure I'm interested.
Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated Bedwrecker (Men Of Laguna, #2) in Books
Jan 8, 2021
I liked this. I think I expected the bedwrecker thing to actually happen not just be a reference to a song but the sex scenes were certainly abundant and rather scorching.
It was rather romantic, too.
I thought it was pretty obvious they were going to get together in the end, they just went a really long and complicated journey on what could have happened in five minutes if they both weren't so stubborn and just admitted their feelings for each other.
As for the end bit, that was fun, and super cute! Keen--bit of an unusual name there, and he was taking the mick out of people with normal names!--had me grinning like a loon. SUPER CUTE!
If the next book is Brooklyn's I may just have to read it so see who catches his eye.
It was rather romantic, too.
I thought it was pretty obvious they were going to get together in the end, they just went a really long and complicated journey on what could have happened in five minutes if they both weren't so stubborn and just admitted their feelings for each other.
As for the end bit, that was fun, and super cute! Keen--bit of an unusual name there, and he was taking the mick out of people with normal names!--had me grinning like a loon. SUPER CUTE!
If the next book is Brooklyn's I may just have to read it so see who catches his eye.
Zuky the BookBum (15 KP) rated The Grownup in Books
Mar 15, 2018
<b><i>I would rather be a librarian, but I worry about the job security. Books may be temporary; dicks are forever.</b></i>
This is no Gone Girl, nothing even remotely as good as Gone Girl, but, because it's so short, it was better at keeping my attention, so I wasn't so fussed about the kinda crappy ending.
This was a funny novel. Flynn is really good at inputting humour into moments of a book that could be taken more seriously, and that's what I loved so much about this book, the humour. The story was good... well the beginning and middle were, and then the end lacked any oomf, but it was our funny narrator who made this book something worth reading.
The plot for this was cliche as cliche can be, but I think that was intentional, because our narrator made fun of how cliche everything sounded. It was there to add some comedy value. The ending, as I said, was disappointing, only because it goes exactly as you would expect it to. I was hoping Flynn was going to pull another "oh-my-god" twist out after the initial twist, but alas.
Worth a read if you can get it cheap, but don't expect anything too amazing... that sounds weird to say after rating it 4 stars, but I did actually like this and it did hold my attention... it's just... I don't know, I can't explain it.
This is no Gone Girl, nothing even remotely as good as Gone Girl, but, because it's so short, it was better at keeping my attention, so I wasn't so fussed about the kinda crappy ending.
This was a funny novel. Flynn is really good at inputting humour into moments of a book that could be taken more seriously, and that's what I loved so much about this book, the humour. The story was good... well the beginning and middle were, and then the end lacked any oomf, but it was our funny narrator who made this book something worth reading.
The plot for this was cliche as cliche can be, but I think that was intentional, because our narrator made fun of how cliche everything sounded. It was there to add some comedy value. The ending, as I said, was disappointing, only because it goes exactly as you would expect it to. I was hoping Flynn was going to pull another "oh-my-god" twist out after the initial twist, but alas.
Worth a read if you can get it cheap, but don't expect anything too amazing... that sounds weird to say after rating it 4 stars, but I did actually like this and it did hold my attention... it's just... I don't know, I can't explain it.
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Alex, Approximately in Books
Dec 25, 2018
This was a super-cute Young Adult Romance. I actually read it for free off RivetedLit - it's free to read there through the end of July. I really enjoyed the change in formatting for the online conversations between Mink and Alex, and the explanation for why Bailey hadn't shared any identifying information online at all. That was pretty well done.
The book is a Young Adult take on the enemies-to-lovers trope, but it mostly avoided the "he picks on you because he likes you" line. The initial conflict between our two characters is really just due to misunderstandings, and the boy quickly apologizes. (With cookies!) I really enjoyed both of these characters, and I was definitely cheering for them as they revealed more of their histories and insecurities to each other.
I REALLY enjoyed their date to Monterey, California - they visited the Natural History Museum and the aquarium, both of which I have been to personally! I lived in Monterey many years ago, so it was neat to see them in a place I have personal memories of.
Overall, I thought this was an excellent young adult romance. There was some mention of sex, but nothing too graphic. I loved the setting; it brought me back to the Pacific Ocean, even if it was California beaches instead of the cold, rocky Pacific Northwest.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
The book is a Young Adult take on the enemies-to-lovers trope, but it mostly avoided the "he picks on you because he likes you" line. The initial conflict between our two characters is really just due to misunderstandings, and the boy quickly apologizes. (With cookies!) I really enjoyed both of these characters, and I was definitely cheering for them as they revealed more of their histories and insecurities to each other.
I REALLY enjoyed their date to Monterey, California - they visited the Natural History Museum and the aquarium, both of which I have been to personally! I lived in Monterey many years ago, so it was neat to see them in a place I have personal memories of.
Overall, I thought this was an excellent young adult romance. There was some mention of sex, but nothing too graphic. I loved the setting; it brought me back to the Pacific Ocean, even if it was California beaches instead of the cold, rocky Pacific Northwest.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com