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Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Beasts Made of Night in Books
Apr 19, 2018
Terrible characters (3 more)
Lack of explanation of terms
Stupid cliffhanger
Confusing geography
So this Nigerian-influenced fantasy made enough of a splash when it was released in October that I JUST got it in my hands from the library. That long wait....was not actually justified, sadly. The cover is GORGEOUS and the concept is really, really cool - the execution is lacking. I can tell that the author had the world pretty fleshed out in his mind, from the geography to the vocabulary - but he didn't actually pass that knowledge on to the reader. Kos is a walled city, but I'm not sure whether the Palace is within the walls or not? In one scene our protagonist LEAPS out of the castle and runs back the city - but in another scene he mentions that looking out the castle wall, Kos fits behind his fingernail. Kos is made up of several neighborhood plus a market - it's not small. So either his fingernail is HUGE or Kos is a pretty decent distance away. But it's written as if it only takes him about ten minutes to run there? Not to mention that he cracked a rib in the room that he leaped from (which is never mentioned again).
Oh and he winds up landing in an ivy maze out of nowhere - he couldn't see it from the palace? Let's see....the King regularly bombards neighborhoods with catapults in what's called a "baptism" but the people haven't revolted against this, for some reason. They talk about something called a "kanselo" but never define it. I -think- it's like an organized group or coalition, but I'm really not entirely sure.
The male protagonist treats every woman his age as a potential love interest, debating whether to give them his heart-stone, or whether people will think he's already given one girl or another his heart-stone - but never stops to ask if the girls are interested in HIM that way. Because of COURSE they would be, right? He's the Sky-Fist! The Lightbringer! The one whose tattoos never fade! (Eating sin-beasts causes a black tattoo to appear on your skin - on most sin-eaters these fade eventually.) Also he's just DUMB. He recalls that the sin-eater who ate his mother's sin had a certain tattoo, and when he runs across her years later, it takes him three or four encounters before realizing it's the same sin-eater. (The tattoo is a spider. Covering her FACE. It hasn't faded.) He makes stupid decisions - after nightmares of one love-interest being attacked by sin-beasts, he LEAVES HER SURROUNDED BY THEM to go run out into the city. He has at least FIVE love interests in this book. And only ONE of them seems interested in him in return.
I really wanted to like this book. The concept of sin-eating is great. But the main character and all the one-dimensional characters that surrounded him, along with the confusing geography, just turned me off. And I'm not even getting into the "ending." Yeah. Definitely throwing quotes on that because that was not an ending. The book just stops.
Skip this. It was a terrible book wrapped in a deceptively pretty package.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
Oh and he winds up landing in an ivy maze out of nowhere - he couldn't see it from the palace? Let's see....the King regularly bombards neighborhoods with catapults in what's called a "baptism" but the people haven't revolted against this, for some reason. They talk about something called a "kanselo" but never define it. I -think- it's like an organized group or coalition, but I'm really not entirely sure.
The male protagonist treats every woman his age as a potential love interest, debating whether to give them his heart-stone, or whether people will think he's already given one girl or another his heart-stone - but never stops to ask if the girls are interested in HIM that way. Because of COURSE they would be, right? He's the Sky-Fist! The Lightbringer! The one whose tattoos never fade! (Eating sin-beasts causes a black tattoo to appear on your skin - on most sin-eaters these fade eventually.) Also he's just DUMB. He recalls that the sin-eater who ate his mother's sin had a certain tattoo, and when he runs across her years later, it takes him three or four encounters before realizing it's the same sin-eater. (The tattoo is a spider. Covering her FACE. It hasn't faded.) He makes stupid decisions - after nightmares of one love-interest being attacked by sin-beasts, he LEAVES HER SURROUNDED BY THEM to go run out into the city. He has at least FIVE love interests in this book. And only ONE of them seems interested in him in return.
I really wanted to like this book. The concept of sin-eating is great. But the main character and all the one-dimensional characters that surrounded him, along with the confusing geography, just turned me off. And I'm not even getting into the "ending." Yeah. Definitely throwing quotes on that because that was not an ending. The book just stops.
Skip this. It was a terrible book wrapped in a deceptively pretty package.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
Bookapotamus (289 KP) rated Bring Me Back in Books
May 29, 2018
Ahhhhhh... I have such mixed feelings about this book. I don't know where to start or how to properly review without giving away spoilers, but I just had such high hopes throughout the first half of this story and then... meh.
This was my first B.A. Paris book. I've heard great things about the author and this book in particular, the buzz was deafening, but for me it just fell flat.
Don't get me wrong, the premise was so intriguing and I jumped right in with all the whodunit questions. I jumped from character to character with the turn of every page, not knowing who knew what, who did what, and these are EXACTLY the style of books I love. Unfortunately, I had major suspicions about 50% through, and I was pretty much correct - but the execution just made me more or less angry. It's like those books where you're so dumbfounded, you have no idea whats going to happen, you're so excited for those super fun twisty turny clues and then everything starts falling into place. But this was not the case with Bring Me Back. It felt like a cop-out at the end. It was like - the whole story was questions, and then you get all the answers in one final chapter and you're like... ummm what? I dunno - it felt lazy at the end, unconnected a bit, and pretty unbelievable.
The basic story is that Finn meets Layla, they fall in love and then one night, as they're stopped at a gas station rest stop, Finn returns from the restroom and Layla is gone. Did she leave, was she forced or kidnapped? Ten years later, Finn is about to marry someone else, and clues begin to appear raising questions as to if Layla is alive, and if so, where is she?
Without spoiling anything, I WILL say It was a fun idea, and the writing is top notch. I loved how stories were interwoven and little clues popping up everywhere. But again, the end just fell flat for me. I'll definitely be checking out some of B.A. Paris's other books for sure though after reading this. I really enjoyed the writing style and MOST of the book!
This was my first B.A. Paris book. I've heard great things about the author and this book in particular, the buzz was deafening, but for me it just fell flat.
Don't get me wrong, the premise was so intriguing and I jumped right in with all the whodunit questions. I jumped from character to character with the turn of every page, not knowing who knew what, who did what, and these are EXACTLY the style of books I love. Unfortunately, I had major suspicions about 50% through, and I was pretty much correct - but the execution just made me more or less angry. It's like those books where you're so dumbfounded, you have no idea whats going to happen, you're so excited for those super fun twisty turny clues and then everything starts falling into place. But this was not the case with Bring Me Back. It felt like a cop-out at the end. It was like - the whole story was questions, and then you get all the answers in one final chapter and you're like... ummm what? I dunno - it felt lazy at the end, unconnected a bit, and pretty unbelievable.
The basic story is that Finn meets Layla, they fall in love and then one night, as they're stopped at a gas station rest stop, Finn returns from the restroom and Layla is gone. Did she leave, was she forced or kidnapped? Ten years later, Finn is about to marry someone else, and clues begin to appear raising questions as to if Layla is alive, and if so, where is she?
Without spoiling anything, I WILL say It was a fun idea, and the writing is top notch. I loved how stories were interwoven and little clues popping up everywhere. But again, the end just fell flat for me. I'll definitely be checking out some of B.A. Paris's other books for sure though after reading this. I really enjoyed the writing style and MOST of the book!
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I loved the crap out of this book, it was so compelling and had me gripped the whole way through, this was a first for me on this author, I like to read new authors all the time, I like experiencing different writing and imaginations. The premise of this book intrigued me, as to who Daniel would believe when both parents are against one another.
The pace of this book is quite slow but it slowly drips feeds you information as to what has happened to his parents on the Farm in Sweden that you cannot stop reading.
Daniel currently lives in London with his partner Mark, when he gets an unexpected call from his father stating that his mother is not well and has fled from a psychiatric ward. His parents had not long moved to Sweden to retire to his mothers homeland.
Daniel who is an only child decides he needs to go to Sweden after putting it off for several months, however when he gets to the airport, he receives a call from his mother stating that she is flying over to the UK now to meet him so she can tell him her side of the story events that has been happening over the past 6 months.
Two thirds of the book are told by Tilde (Daniel’s mother), she has a satchel with evidence and a diary which she reads from, she is very specific with what happens and adamant that things must be told in chronological order so people do not misinterpret her findings as madness.
Daniel is a very naive character thinking his parents, never argued, had a great life, owning their own garden centre and several flats around London, when actually that was the complete opposite, he didn’t want to tell his parents he was homosexual as he thought they would think they had failed in his upbringing and disappoint them. Daniel seemed to have had a very sheltered life from his parents, he had never experienced them arguing, had a good education but in the end had a job as a gardener/landscape designer thingymajig which wasn’t really going anywhere and a high-profile boyfriend which he relied on for more than just companionship.
The thing that had me thinking was what if this was my parents? who would I believe? When one is saying the other is crazy and the other believes a murder has taken place and that the father is involved. I think this is why it was so gripping, you had to continue to find out the truth and I was not let down by this.
This was just a book that I picked up as the synopsis intrigued me, I didn’t expect to love it so much. The good thing about this book is that it is a thriller without the gore and blood.
I would definitely recommend this book.
I rated this 4 out of 5 stars.
The pace of this book is quite slow but it slowly drips feeds you information as to what has happened to his parents on the Farm in Sweden that you cannot stop reading.
Daniel currently lives in London with his partner Mark, when he gets an unexpected call from his father stating that his mother is not well and has fled from a psychiatric ward. His parents had not long moved to Sweden to retire to his mothers homeland.
Daniel who is an only child decides he needs to go to Sweden after putting it off for several months, however when he gets to the airport, he receives a call from his mother stating that she is flying over to the UK now to meet him so she can tell him her side of the story events that has been happening over the past 6 months.
Two thirds of the book are told by Tilde (Daniel’s mother), she has a satchel with evidence and a diary which she reads from, she is very specific with what happens and adamant that things must be told in chronological order so people do not misinterpret her findings as madness.
Daniel is a very naive character thinking his parents, never argued, had a great life, owning their own garden centre and several flats around London, when actually that was the complete opposite, he didn’t want to tell his parents he was homosexual as he thought they would think they had failed in his upbringing and disappoint them. Daniel seemed to have had a very sheltered life from his parents, he had never experienced them arguing, had a good education but in the end had a job as a gardener/landscape designer thingymajig which wasn’t really going anywhere and a high-profile boyfriend which he relied on for more than just companionship.
The thing that had me thinking was what if this was my parents? who would I believe? When one is saying the other is crazy and the other believes a murder has taken place and that the father is involved. I think this is why it was so gripping, you had to continue to find out the truth and I was not let down by this.
This was just a book that I picked up as the synopsis intrigued me, I didn’t expect to love it so much. The good thing about this book is that it is a thriller without the gore and blood.
I would definitely recommend this book.
I rated this 4 out of 5 stars.
Johnny Marr recommended Out of Our Heads by The Rolling Stones in Music (curated)
Sarah (7800 KP) rated Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Generation) in Tech
Nov 4, 2019
Wonderfully useful and functional
I’m one of those people who often takes a while to get into and accept new technology. Not because I’m a technophobe, in fact I’m a massive techie and often the go to person for tech related issues within my family and friends. My issue is that I find a lot of technology is encouraging people to become lazier or become out of touch with basic home skills (like smart ovens or washers, I just don’t get it!). I’ve often lumped smart speakers like the Echo Dot in the same category in that I just didn’t see the point in them when most people still have functioning old school speaker systems. However I can honestly say my mind has definitely been changed for the better on the Echo.
Firstly it looks and feels great. I was expecting a rather flimsy feeling speaker but in fact it feels quite weighty and substantial, and the Sandstone version that I’ve bought looks rather sleek. It stands out and looks good but at the same time isn’t at any time the focal point in a room. The speaker aspect is rather good too and has a decent sound quality. I’ve placed this in my kitchen, as I have a fairly open downstairs and the sound easily reaches the entire floor - I can even speak to Alexa from my living room which is a good 7+ metres away with only a standard sized doorway for sound to reach through. Admittedly I had to mute the TV, but I’m still impressed she can hear me from there! The Echo Dot links up seamlessly with my Spotify account and I’m surprised it plays so well and doesn’t encourage you to try and sign up to Amazon Music instead.
The thing about the Echo Dot is that it isn’t just a glorified speaker and it’s only from owning one that I’ve truly appreciated this. As well as music, Alexa also helps out with so much more like reminders, timers and the weather as well as a whole host of fun features. There are so many fun things you can ask Alexa (google it if you haven’t already), too many to name although one of my favourites is “Alexa, find Chuck Norris”. There’s also the rather sad fact that as I live on my own, Alexa provides a rather welcome conversational partner and definitely less one sided than talking to the cat! I’m also a rather forgetful person, so having the ability to ask Alexa to set reminders when I can’t do something at the time (i.e. remembering to take the bins out when I’m in the middle of making dinner) is a god send. I’m surprised at how well the voice recognition works too. I’ve often experienced issues with voice recognition on mobile phones, because it doesn’t appear to like the northern accent, but Alexa so far has not had any issues. Maybe I need to speak “proper” Northern and see how she reacts...
I love this that much that I’m looking at buying a second Echo Dot for my upstairs so I have full coverage in my house, and can then take advantage of using Alexa as my morning wake up call amongst as well as being able to link both together to act as a multi room speaker system. Fingers crossed I’ll be able to get a bargain during Black Friday in a couple of weeks!
Firstly it looks and feels great. I was expecting a rather flimsy feeling speaker but in fact it feels quite weighty and substantial, and the Sandstone version that I’ve bought looks rather sleek. It stands out and looks good but at the same time isn’t at any time the focal point in a room. The speaker aspect is rather good too and has a decent sound quality. I’ve placed this in my kitchen, as I have a fairly open downstairs and the sound easily reaches the entire floor - I can even speak to Alexa from my living room which is a good 7+ metres away with only a standard sized doorway for sound to reach through. Admittedly I had to mute the TV, but I’m still impressed she can hear me from there! The Echo Dot links up seamlessly with my Spotify account and I’m surprised it plays so well and doesn’t encourage you to try and sign up to Amazon Music instead.
The thing about the Echo Dot is that it isn’t just a glorified speaker and it’s only from owning one that I’ve truly appreciated this. As well as music, Alexa also helps out with so much more like reminders, timers and the weather as well as a whole host of fun features. There are so many fun things you can ask Alexa (google it if you haven’t already), too many to name although one of my favourites is “Alexa, find Chuck Norris”. There’s also the rather sad fact that as I live on my own, Alexa provides a rather welcome conversational partner and definitely less one sided than talking to the cat! I’m also a rather forgetful person, so having the ability to ask Alexa to set reminders when I can’t do something at the time (i.e. remembering to take the bins out when I’m in the middle of making dinner) is a god send. I’m surprised at how well the voice recognition works too. I’ve often experienced issues with voice recognition on mobile phones, because it doesn’t appear to like the northern accent, but Alexa so far has not had any issues. Maybe I need to speak “proper” Northern and see how she reacts...
I love this that much that I’m looking at buying a second Echo Dot for my upstairs so I have full coverage in my house, and can then take advantage of using Alexa as my morning wake up call amongst as well as being able to link both together to act as a multi room speaker system. Fingers crossed I’ll be able to get a bargain during Black Friday in a couple of weeks!
Debbiereadsbook (1494 KP) rated My Pulse (Town of Broward #1) in Books
Mar 2, 2020
really does creep up on ya!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.
You know what? I really REALLY enjoyed this book! You'll laugh at me though, cos its first person, present tense AND multi point of view!
If you follow my reviews, you'll know that this, for ME, is the worst way for a book to be written and I have dumped many a book when realising it is written this way. I am, however, so very glad I did NIT dump this one!
So, I went to look to see what else I have read by Ms Dale, and lookit! This is the first book by this author name and I was extremely impressed!
I love the family legend of how each and every one of them would know who their other half was instantly, much like you get with the mates thing in shifter books, but there are no shifters in this book. A witch is mentioned, when Owen is telling Tristan about the legend, and the family legend itself borderes on paranormal, but thats all.
I loved that who was causing problems for Tristan wasn't obvious, and there were a lot of red herrings thrown about!
I loved Stella, Tristan's daughter, and how Owen took to her immediately, with the help of his dog, Huck and that Owen had that MINE moment for Stella as well as Tristan.
It's deeply emotional in places, hilarious in others. Dark and very deadly in places, and super sexy in others. Owen's family are a lot of fun, but Tristan's are . . not so much. I loved the hints that pop up to maybe future books in this series, and I hope I picked those clues up correctly. Be fun, I think, but I sense some of them might be way WAY more emotional than Tristan's!
Can't quite stretch to 5 stars, but a good solid, GREAT . .
4 star read!
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
You know what? I really REALLY enjoyed this book! You'll laugh at me though, cos its first person, present tense AND multi point of view!
If you follow my reviews, you'll know that this, for ME, is the worst way for a book to be written and I have dumped many a book when realising it is written this way. I am, however, so very glad I did NIT dump this one!
So, I went to look to see what else I have read by Ms Dale, and lookit! This is the first book by this author name and I was extremely impressed!
I love the family legend of how each and every one of them would know who their other half was instantly, much like you get with the mates thing in shifter books, but there are no shifters in this book. A witch is mentioned, when Owen is telling Tristan about the legend, and the family legend itself borderes on paranormal, but thats all.
I loved that who was causing problems for Tristan wasn't obvious, and there were a lot of red herrings thrown about!
I loved Stella, Tristan's daughter, and how Owen took to her immediately, with the help of his dog, Huck and that Owen had that MINE moment for Stella as well as Tristan.
It's deeply emotional in places, hilarious in others. Dark and very deadly in places, and super sexy in others. Owen's family are a lot of fun, but Tristan's are . . not so much. I loved the hints that pop up to maybe future books in this series, and I hope I picked those clues up correctly. Be fun, I think, but I sense some of them might be way WAY more emotional than Tristan's!
Can't quite stretch to 5 stars, but a good solid, GREAT . .
4 star read!
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
RF
Real Food/Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You're Eating and What You Can Do about It
Book
"Olmsted makes you insanely hungry and steaming mad--a must-read for anyone who cares deeply about...
Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post
Nov 3, 2020
Ivana A. | Diary of Difference (1171 KP) rated The Plus One in Books
Oct 21, 2018
Did Not Finish it...
Full review can be found on my blog: www.diaryofdifference.com
I love romance, and chick-literature. I love fast reads, and enjoyable nonsense. The cover looked so cute, and when I got approved the ARC on The Plus One from Sophia Money-Coutts on Netgalley, I was excited to read it. And then, it all started going downhill…
The Plus One is a book about Polly Spencer. She is thirty, single and works for Posh! Magazine. I didn’t like the Poly Spencer of now, and I thought, this might be a book where the main character is a lady with no self-respect, gets dumped, doesn’t have any ambition in life, and that’s okay.
People learn, people change, or if people don’t change, they start to be happy in their own world, without bothering what others think about it.
But Polly - she is all of these things, and on top of that she is not a happy bunny. She keeps complaining about things without trying to act on it, and her day consists of her checking if the phone has a message of her ‘crush’, and asking herself eighty-six times whether to send a message first or not.
I usually love these types of books, but not in cases where the character is just so… I don’t even have the words to explain.
And the book is full of words used too often (Shenanigans is such a lovely word, and Sophia destroyed it for me), lame pick up lines (‘I carry farm animals. I can manage you.’ - WHO SAYS THAT?), dialogues and useless waste of pages with people deciding what to eat:
‘So let’s get some onion bhajis to start. And then I’m going to have a butter chicken. And it comes with popadoms, right?’
‘Yes’ - I said, taking the menu from him.
‘And I’ll get the chicken jalfrezi. And plain rice. Mums, do we have any chutney?’
And it goes on…
At 42%, I decided to store this is my DNF stack. I really wish I had loved it, and I am so sad I didn't.
But life is too short to read the books you don’t like...
I love romance, and chick-literature. I love fast reads, and enjoyable nonsense. The cover looked so cute, and when I got approved the ARC on The Plus One from Sophia Money-Coutts on Netgalley, I was excited to read it. And then, it all started going downhill…
The Plus One is a book about Polly Spencer. She is thirty, single and works for Posh! Magazine. I didn’t like the Poly Spencer of now, and I thought, this might be a book where the main character is a lady with no self-respect, gets dumped, doesn’t have any ambition in life, and that’s okay.
People learn, people change, or if people don’t change, they start to be happy in their own world, without bothering what others think about it.
But Polly - she is all of these things, and on top of that she is not a happy bunny. She keeps complaining about things without trying to act on it, and her day consists of her checking if the phone has a message of her ‘crush’, and asking herself eighty-six times whether to send a message first or not.
I usually love these types of books, but not in cases where the character is just so… I don’t even have the words to explain.
And the book is full of words used too often (Shenanigans is such a lovely word, and Sophia destroyed it for me), lame pick up lines (‘I carry farm animals. I can manage you.’ - WHO SAYS THAT?), dialogues and useless waste of pages with people deciding what to eat:
‘So let’s get some onion bhajis to start. And then I’m going to have a butter chicken. And it comes with popadoms, right?’
‘Yes’ - I said, taking the menu from him.
‘And I’ll get the chicken jalfrezi. And plain rice. Mums, do we have any chutney?’
And it goes on…
At 42%, I decided to store this is my DNF stack. I really wish I had loved it, and I am so sad I didn't.
But life is too short to read the books you don’t like...