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Almost Midnight
Almost Midnight
Rainbow Rowell, Simini Blocker | 2017 | Romance, Young Adult (YA)
10
8.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Rainbow Rowell ! (3 more)
Amazing Pictures by Blocker
Nerdiness
Cuteness
Almost Midnight is a short, cute story of how two people came to meet to become best friends and then become a couple all due to it being almost midnight at a New Year’s party in 2011.

In a way you are left to wonder if Mags, a possible shy girl, had not checked out in 2011 to hide outside to eat the snacks to avoid everyone would she have ever spoke to Noel, a more outgoing type? Would they have ever spoken to one another beyond that moment? And if they had not attended the parties each year would their bond be the same, even if they were well enough friends with everyone else there? Well, Noel was. Before Noel, Mags only knew Alicia.

Then Mags had to spend a year without everyone, without Noel. Everyone else left to go to college somewhere else. Mags stayed, not because she was not able to leave, but she had a local school for free and it would've been crazy not to take that offer.

She's spoken to no one and everyone has changed.

Well, she texts Noel always. They stay in contact even if it wasn't like before, but she still has him, so she has one person still even while everyone else has grown a part.

It's noticeable, too, when they all come for the New Year's party of 2015.

But maybe that's a good thing.

In a few pages we’re able to see how a friendship grew into a budding romance. Yes, I want more because I adore Rowell’s writing style. I need more about Mags and Noel. I need to know they are happy. I want to know the little tidbits of their lives because it is learned they do EVERYTHING together. So, it is without much else I loved Almost Midnight.

- - - - -

Elena has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as she can remember. It’s been part of her whole life because of her father. Now after being unable to experience any other event to the series, she is going to wait in line for the newest movies hoping to meet other fans that are stoked for the new movies Disney is putting out. However it isn’t what she hoped and somehow becomes more.

It may have been a short story, but Rowell was able to put some of her charm into tale. It may not have been packed like her actual novels, but it is nothing short of her normal work. Yes, I certainly need more of Elena and Gabe and of the overall story. However it doesn’t mean five stars wasn’t earned. There were such small pieces that added to the appeal of this story. I know many complained, but I thought it was perfectly fine as it was. It isn’t like we aren’t left wanting more anyway.
  
TT
The Talk Show
Joe Wenke | 2014
2
2.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
After reading this book for a week and only making it to 25% of the way through, I have decided to give it a rest for now. Reasons I could not finish this book:

1. The Language--While I am not offended by foul language, dropping the 'F' bomb 10+ times in the first 2% of the book is a bit extreme. I did a search for the word on the Kindle and found out it appears over 100 times throughout.

2. The story is moving way too slowly for me. At 12% there is a shooting and at this point I still don't know what happened to the victims. But, we've met a few strippers and a transgender priest who also babysits, and a crazy copy named Germany(at least I think he's a cop, I was quite confused when he entered the story).

3. Finally, it's not holding my interest. Every time I start reading, I start to fall asleep.

When I first read the synopsis for this book, I was excited about it, but it fell short of my expectations.

**I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.**
  
TH
The Hunt (Hunter's Mate, #1)
Anne Marsh | 2009
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I had high hopes for this book. The plot is right up my alley with the mythology aspect and I was curious to see where the author would take it. Unfortunately, I found myself jaded with it by the time I finished. There seems to be a lot to the story that the author isn’t telling. I am not sure if she planned on elaborating in future installments, but she doesn’t even give us enough to really be curious. For example, the female lead will make a mental comment about her master but that’s it.
 
The leads were also much to be desired. There wasn’t anything about the lead female to make me like her. In fact, I felt disconnected from her as person in general.

I think my biggest problem was that I was a disappointed there wasn’t more erotica to it. We are given two scenes and they are so short I wondered why the author wasted her time. I loved the world and mythology the author created, but I guess it just wasn’t the story I wanted.
  
T(
Tracker (Sigma Force, #7.5)
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Another whet-the-appetite short story, linked to [a: James Rollins|38809|James Rollins|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1328147798p2/38809.jpg] Sigma Force series, this one is set between the events of [b: The Devil Colony|7202829|The Devil Colony (Sigma Force, #7)|James Rollins|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1264522557s/7202829.jpg|7897971] and [b: Bloodline|8709527|Bloodlines (Bloodlines, #1)|Richelle Mead|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1297199431s/8709527.jpg|13582374].

Rather than focusing on any of the previous 'main' characters of the series (by which I also include Seichan!), this instead introduces two new character who will become important in the next (the afore-mentioned [b: Bloodline|8709527|Bloodlines (Bloodlines, #1)|Richelle Mead|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1297199431s/8709527.jpg|13582374]) of Tucker and Kane.

Like [b: The Skeleton Key|103983|Skeleton Key (Alex Rider, #3)|Anthony Horowitz|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1306076661s/103983.jpg|1443938], this is an extremely fast read, with the bulk of the length given over to an excerpt from the next in the series. However, and unlike that previous mentioned story, there is even (I felt) a teeny-tiny bit of character development in this one!
  
SW
Star Wars: Outbound Flight
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
If I was asked which author is most associuated with kick-starting the whole Star Wars Expanded Universe (EU), I would have to choose Timothy Zahn, with his 'Heir to the Empire' trilogy. From that trilogy, two of his main protaganists would have to be the Jedi Master Joruus C'Baoth (a clone of the dead Jedi Jorus C'Baoth), and Grand Admiral Thrawn.

In this particular novel in that universe - set between the events of Episode I and Episode II - Zahn returns to those two particular characters, as well as to the fate of the eponymous 'Outbound Flight'. Slightly misleadingly, I felt, the main story does not detail how Thrawn joined the Empire (although there is a short story in the back of my edition that does just that), but instead fleshes out a previously hinted at backstory from his <i>Heir to the Empire</i> series. Set in an earlier peirod, I found it also interesting that it also foreshadows some of the event of the later <i>New Jedi Order</i> series of books - a series that, if I'm honest, I never really took to, preferring instead to primarily remain in or around the Rebellion era.
  
40x40

Deborah (162 KP) rated Ashenden in Books

Dec 21, 2018  
A
Ashenden
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I really thought this sounded like the kind of book that would be right up my street, but unfortunately I found it didn't meet my expectation and was, in all in all, a bit of a disappointment.

It's the story of a country house, built in the Palladian style, and the people who live in it. To be honest, I found it rather dreary and depressing and the house never really seems properly loved and seen in all its glory. Each chapter is a separate short story or vignette, often trying to link characters from one to the other to try and keep a sense of continuity, but not always working. So many of the character were just plain unpleasant and if there was someone you did want to know something more about, well you are bound to be disappointed. Life isn't all roses, but this just seemed to have too much unhappiness and misfortune in it. also, some of the architecture of the house is described in great detail, but I never felt it strong enough to be a 'character' in the book as I expected.
  
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