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BookInspector (124 KP) rated Tin Man in Books

Sep 24, 2020  
Tin Man
Tin Man
Sarah Winman | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.2 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
I would like to begin by saying, that I heard so much about this novel and I didn’t expect this book to be so tiny. It is only around 197 pages, but it has a really powerful punch to throw.

This novel carries a story of two friends, Ellis and Michael. They are the main characters in this book and the whole book was told from their perspectives. I shouldn’t forget Annie as well, even though she is kind of a silent character, she plays an integral part in the essence of this novel. All the characters are exceptionally crafted and incredibly complex. The whole novel got my brain working and imagination just flew free. I loved that author allowed the reader to paint the characters themselves, she allows you to know the story, but at the same time, there are so many details missing and so many questions left unanswered. I am not really sure whether I liked those gaps or not… because everything made so much sense. I found all the characters very likable and their internal relationship very amusing.

The narrative of this book was very confusing to me, it always keeps jumping between present and past, filling this book with romantic, but at the same time heartbreaking stories. I really enjoyed all the twists which author brought in, it made this book even more deeper and unexpected. I really liked the topics Sarah Winman was highlighting in this novel, such as homosexuality, friendship, HIV, family issues, loneliness etc. HIV hasn’t been discussed in the books for a while now, and I am great full for this reminder.

This was my first encounter with Sarah Winman’s writing, but there is no doubt that her writing style is very unique and absolutely masterful. The thing is, even though I admire her writing gift and I strongly believe she should be awarded for it, I am not a very big fan of it. Too many unanswered questions and I was not very satisfied with the closure of this book. Another thing what nagged me was the length of the chapters. Even though the book is not very long, the chapters were pretty long for my liking and it kind of dragged sometimes. So, to conclude, even though there were some things which were not for me, I truly think this book is a must-read, the characters and the plot are absolutely unique and very creative, and the prose is absolutely gorgeous and mentally challenging. Get it, read it, and I hope you will enjoy it! 🙂 (I know it is a confusing review and sometimes sentences contradict themselves, but that how this book made me feel… 🙂 )
  
Magic Unleashed
Magic Unleashed
Devri Walls | 2018 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
6
6.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Fast Paced with some problems
TW: Sexual Assualt, Child Abuse, Abuse, mention of slavery, mention of forced prostitution, Victim blaming verbiage.

When I was approached about this book tour, I knew I needed to jump in. Magic Unleased is right up my alley, and I couldn't wait to get started. I ended up low on time, so I snagged the audiobook so that I could read it while reading a few other books in between. The narrator did a good job of portraying the characters, though, at times, his voice bordered on monotone.

Devri Walls sure knows how to write a vast world. The descriptions were great, and at times I felt like I was walking around with Rune & Grey. The setting itself was well done, and I liked to see the author's interpretations of the supernatural characters. My favorite was how the fae were portrayed. They weren't sweet, helpful things but tricksters. I just loved it.

The characters were also well done. I wanted to get to know more about Grey and Rune, and I liked seeing how they interacted with all of the characters. I enjoyed the side characters, as well. It seems like everyone, for the most part, was three dimensional. I will admit, I struggled with how young Grey & Rune acted though this is more of a me issue and not a book issue.

The one thing that didn't sit well with me was some of the victim-blaming verbiages in a specific scene. I felt that the character had every right to be upset, and I feel like she was gaslit because she didn't just accept that something "had" to happen. This scene soured me on the book, and I have to admit, I almost DNFd right then and there. After that scene, I started to notice just some of the ways that Rune was treated, and I hated how she was consistently berated instead of helped.

Though I did find some faults with this book, I ended up pushing through. In the end, I enjoyed the world that created. It was fun to see a more sinister side of faeries, and I enjoyed how fast-paced the plot was. I'm not sure that I will continue in the series, but I do understand why so many people have enjoyed it.
  
TI
The Ice Twins
S.K. Tremayne | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry
8
7.1 (7 Ratings)
Book Rating
This was literally the most depressing book I’ve ever read. Like, literally. The writing was lyrical and descriptive (almost too much so), and it was hard to listen to because of the emotional devastation of the characters. It was a rollercoaster because out of the three main characters (daughter, husband, wife) you loved all of them, you hated all of them, but you weren’t sure which one was the bad guy (and there was definitely a bad guy). And then once you figured out which one you hated the most, it would switch on you. Suffice to say, this made it an emotional trip.

As I said, the writing was almost so descriptive that it was annoying. And it wasn’t all of it, there were just some parts where I thought “Okay, I get it, move on with the story please.” Another thing was some of the dialogue was redundant. I realize you’re dealing with a traumatized child here, and they tend to repeat themselves and not elaborate, but there are artful ways of writing that without driving your reader crazy. (Example, thought not a direct quote: “tell me what happened?” “Nothing.” “Tell me?” “no. nothing.” “Please?” “Nothing.” “Please sweetheart.” “No! Nothing.” and on and on we go.)

But the story itself wrapped up with an intensely confusing and fulfilling climax, and even a week later it is still haunting me… the ghost may never go away.

The narration was combined: there were three people reading. Rawlins for the voice of Sarah, the mother; Duncan for the voice of Angus before the climax; King for the voice of Angus after the climax (which I thought was really weird, honestly). I liked Rawlins and King, but not Duncan at all. I also would have liked Rawlins to do the voice of the daughter for the whole thing, not just her chapters, since her voice was really good for it. It would have been so much editing though.

The Ice Twins was an overall good reading experience and despite it’s minor flaws I would recommend it to anyone who likes drama, romance, or general fiction.
  
Herland, the Yellow Wall-Paper, and Selected Writings
Herland, the Yellow Wall-Paper, and Selected Writings
Charlotte Perkins Gilman | 2010 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Feminist text (0 more)
Clunky (0 more)
This was both fun and grim
This was an interesting book and for all you feminists out there, quite amusing. The author covered a range of issues which are still relevant today such as, the way food is grown, cultivated and harvested, the values of being kind to the earth. It covered the way that children are educated. There is an excellent piece on religion which I personally found amusing, being an atheist. Considering the time period in which the novella was written, this book is like a mirror on society, especially a patriarchal society.
The sentence structure is clunky, annoyingly long but typical of late Victorian work. The ending is frustrating as it is left wide open without answers. Yet putting that aside, I really liked it. It is not my ideal female utopia, but I am sure for Perkins, in an oppressive male dominated society, it was.
  
Into the Deep (Into the Deep #1)
Into the Deep (Into the Deep #1)
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
3.5 stars. 3 star for the first half. 4 star for the second half.

Well, I downloaded this as a freebie back in 2012 and it had been sitting on my kindle for ages so as part of Goodreads' "We (heart) YA"'s ABC challenge I decided to read this.

For the first 20-25% I was a little bored with it, finding it hard to get into and Ivy's friends were hard to like. However when Brant really came a part of her life, after the school classes and he more or less saved her, I started to really get into it. Romance reader and all... :)

I really liked the progression of their relationship going from wary classmates to boyfriend/girlfriend. It was a complicated journey thanks to Ivy wanting someone else who wanted her friend but they got there in the end.

As for the plot to blow up the school...I was stumped as to who was behind it. I think I ran through every member of the plot apart from the ones we were centring on. Still had no idea.

I feel I ought to mention Charlie too. She was pretty cool and seems like she'd be a great friend to have.

I know there's a second book in the series but after reading the synopsis of it I'm not sure I want to read it, mainly because it sounds like Brant and Ivy aren't together anymore :(
  
The Woman with Wings
The Woman with Wings
James MacManus | 2019 | Contemporary, Science Fiction/Fantasy
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Alison works in the international advertising company as an IT specialist, and she loves bird watching. During one of her trips, she falls off the mountain but survives. I liked Alison as a person, she is a loner, and she is doing what she loves. She is like every other female in London, only she gets wings from somewhere. Alison has a great friend Jed, who likes and supports her, and a rich executive of the company named Doxat that fancies her, so this book could’ve been a great romantic novel, and those wings ruined it for me. The story was told from multiple perspectives, but the transition between those perspectives was quite blurry, I would’ve liked if different thoughts started as a different chapter.

Alison talks a lot about birds and their migration, it is great to know about this, especially because Alison’s true passion is birds, but I was skim-reading them because I don’t like copy-paste material. I am sure, bird enthusiasts will enjoy the information, and I can see the research put into that, but those parts were not for me. Another thing that did not make sense to me were parts about Kurt Godel and his mathematical calculations regarding time traveling. There were pages and pages about the same thing, which was well researched and very philosophical, but at the same time repetitive and felt like pasted there out of Wikipedia. :/ I liked the way Alison was interacting with other characters, and there was an interesting love triangle going on in there, but that’s about it.

I was not a very big fan of the writing style of this novel, it seemed well researched, and poetic, but at the same time, it felt raw and unfinished. The setting of this book was changing between London and remote places of the UK like Skye, and I enjoyed its picturesque views. The chapters were quite long, and the narrative quite jumpy. The culmination of this novel didn’t make any sense to me and left me with million of questions instead of answers. :/

So, to conclude, this book was not for me. It has interesting characters, and I enjoyed their relationships with each other, and this book has great potential, but the plot didn’t really impress me. I think this book might interest a bird-loving community as well as people who enjoy philosophy.
  
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Mothergamer (1583 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of Assassin's Creed Valhalla in Video Games

Dec 14, 2020  
Assassin's Creed Valhalla
Assassin's Creed Valhalla
2020 | Action/Adventure, Role-Playing
Fun Combat and Mini Games (0 more)
Game bugs and game crashes (0 more)
I like the AC series a lot and while there are some that I like better than others like Origins, I do enjoy playing each one. I was excited for Valhalla and getting to play Eivor as either female or male was really cool to me. I liked the premise of the story and the setting. I thought the differences with the skill system and armor sets was refreshing. The combat is a lot of fun and I enjoyed the various side quests and mini games. However, I do feel that the story was not as strong as Origins and Odyssey. It was a darker story sure, but given the events in the 9th century that makes sense. However, I felt it was missing a little something. While I liked Eivor there were side characters that were part of the story I came to like and care about more. The ending felt a bit unfinished and I felt a little disappointed. There's also the issue with constant bugs where quests wouldn't load properly, Eivor would get stuck on things, or weird clipping issues in the game. There are also far too many game crashes. I learned to save my game often because I never knew if there would be a game crash around the corner. It feels like perhaps they should not have released the game yet until they got these issues sorted. It's disappointing because I feel the game could have been great instead of just good, but the tech issues really hindered it. You can read the full Mothergamer review here: http://lorrie28-mothergamer.blogspot.com/2020/12/assassins-creed-valhalla-good-viking.html
  
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Eleanor (1463 KP) rated Twisted in Books

Jun 6, 2019  
Twisted
Twisted
Steve Cavanagh | 2019 | Thriller
8
9.5 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
Ambitious twisty thriller
With a satire type feel to the plot, we have a tale about a super famous thriller writer called J.T LeBeau who is only known by their pen name (and it’s not J.K Rowling for sure….) They are well known for their killer (pardon the pun) twists. So this book sets itself up to some high expectations with a title like Twisted about an author who writes awesome twists you better have some darn good twists!

It’s one of those books you are better off not having to much plot detail on and just going with, so I’ll save on the details. I found it to be a well written book, I liked the style and it moved along at a good pace. I think the plot would have benefited from a few more characters but on the whole I like the ones we had (even if I didn’t necessarily like the person.) In particular the cops were interesting, for a book that does not focus on them, rather than just the standard insert cardboard cutout type cops.

For all the hype of twists it did deliver to some extent but for me it just fell short of having a real stunner twist(s.) Maybe not helped with the whole premise putting you on high alert for them. I do read a lot in this genre so I think it takes quite a bit these days to really get my jaw to drop and this didn’t quite get me to that point but still some enjoyable curves.

This was the first book by Steve Cavanagh that I have read and I think the premise of the book was very interesting it just set its sights a little higher than it managed to reach. Still it was an enjoyable ride and I’m looking forward to reading more by him.
  
I felt that this story was exactly like the cover: a beautiful mess. You look at it, and, at first, it is interesting. But when you get down to it, it’s actually just messy and chaotic.

I actually had a problem with this novel for a couple reasons. The first was that there were multiple instances where something would happen, i.e. a character would say or do something, and it didn’t make sense. I did not understand why the character did/said it and the author never disclosed why either. I felt that the author may have assumed the reader would understand what was going on, but I sure didn’t. It was very confusing. At points, I felt like I was reading about people with multiple personalities because of how random and off some of their actions/words were.

The second reason is because I didn’t like any of the characters. I felt the heroine was a doormat with no personality and the hero was just a hot mess. His children were obnoxious too. I understand that children do not articulate as well as adults, but not every word they say sounds like a curse word. And that is how the children in this story were. They couldn’t say a single sentence without it sounding like they were cursing. Once may have been humorous, but repetitively just became old and annoying.

I wish I could have liked this novel. The synopsis should have tipped me off, however. It is confusing and doesn’t really say anything so I didn’t know I was getting into. Overall, I felt that nothing happened plot-wise beyond the hero being an ignorant jerk and hurting the heroine’s feelings and the heroine just let everyone walk all over her. It was a frustrating read to say the least.

The only part I did enjoy was reading the riddles strewn throughout, especially since they had the answers attached.

_ Arec
<a href="https://rainythursdays.wordpress.com">Rainy Thursdays</a>
  
NC
Nightmare City
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
(This review can also be found on my blog <a href="http://themisadventuresofatwentysomething.blogspot.com/">The (Mis)Adventures of a Twenty-Something Year Old Girl</a>).


When I read the blurb to Nightmare City by Andrew Klavan, I knew it was a book I had to read! While it wasn't a fantastic read, it was still decent enough.

I think the title of this book suits it quite well. What the main character is in is a city made from his nightmares!

At first I wasn't sure if I liked the cover, but it's kind of grown on me. Now I do like it. I like how we see the monsters coming out of the fog. Definitely creepy!

I thought the world building was done really well. It has a super creepy and sinister feel about it. In fact, the world felt so real at times, it was like I was Tom.

The pacing does let the book down somewhat, I felt. For the first three quarters of the book, I felt that the pacing was a bit slow. In fact, there were times when I would just skim paragraphs as I became bored. However, the pacing did pick up in the last quarter of the book, of which I was thankful. From there until the end, I couldn't put the book down!

I thought the whole idea for the plot was interesting. It's not an original idea, but Klavan put his own spin on it making it a bit different. I'd go into more detail, but I don't want to give any spoilers away. Oh, and as for the mystery part of the book, I would've never guessed who the culprit was! There's no cliff hangers, so I believe this book may just be a stand alone.

I thought all the characters were written superbly! Though most of the book, the only character featured is Tom. Tom seemed to me like a typical 17 year old male. He likes cars and girls, but he also quests for the truth which puts his life in jeopardy. I liked how down to Earth Tom was and how he couldn't be intimidated when it came to letting the truth be known. Even though she isn't featured very much, I did like the character of Lisa. I liked how friendly she was, and I felt like she was just a very warm person. There's also the character of Marie, Tom's crush, which I liked to begin with, but I'm not going to say anything due to spoilers.

The dialogue flowed very well, as did the character interactions. Nothing felt disjointed or awkward at all. There's no swearing in this book and only mild violence.

Overall, Nightmare City is a decent read. The pacing does let it down a bit, but I think most people would like the book.

I'd recommend this book to those aged 14+ who are fans of horror or those who want to be a bit creeped out.

I'd give Nightmare City by Andrew Klavan a 3.5 out of 5.


(I received a hardback copy of this book for free from booksneeze.com in exchange for a a fair and honest review).