Laura
Family sagas are often bloated and desperately in need of a savage edit imo, but this one isn't . The characters are well-rounded and believable. They all have a part to play in a plot which gradually draws together seamlessly to a credible conclusion at a family party where the who and why of the central mystery is resolved. Although the nuggets of information along the way do hint at what the truth might be, they add to the enjoyment of the read. The prologue and epilogue bookend the story excellently, leaving a bittersweet feeling at the close. Very good.
The novel itself would have scraped a *** review, but the narrator dragged it down to 2 stars. A good narrator can lift a book, but this one is clumsily read, so that I kept being taken out of the story. It's a contemporary cosy mystery, set in an English seaside town, with a bit of a love interest starting up, presumably to be continued in the rest of the series. The characters are a bit two dimensional, which is a bad thing in a cosy mystery, where you don't have drama, passion or violence to pep it up. It passes the time.
Karen Swan's books have so much more depth than many others in this genre. All of the characters are strongly written, there will be some surprises, the plot is not predictable and it's more about the growth of the heroine than the romance. What I like particularly is that she doesn't do two-dimensional baddies. Yes, the “rival woman” turned out to be very far from perfect, but she had a traumatic past as well, and the charming surface image was still true. In so much “women's writing” the rival woman or erring boyfriend/husband is so ridiculously selfish and cruel that it isn't credible that the supposedly intelligent hero or heroine could possibly have stuck with them. Laura's boyfriend is lovely, he just isn't the right one. I have read a few of Karen Swan's books and she hasn't disappointed me yet.
Very good. The audio version by Jay Benedict isn't quite as good as in Paris Immortal. He confuses which character is talking at times, and Travis' accent wanders between vaguely Australian and upper class English. Still good though, and he voices Trey in his panicky moments very well. The story is another good one, continuing what we learned in the second book. The title is apt, as we find out more about the traumatic past of more than one character, and a certain amount of resolution is achieved. There is a bit more sex than previously, but still tastefully done. There are occasional gruesome scenes as you would expect in a vampire story, but they are not excessive. I'm looking forward to starting the fourth book.
I enjoyed the first one very much, and this one is as good for different reasons. The action moves out of Paris for some of the story, and the pace picks up with the change of location. So if you prefer the more fast and furious kind of paranormal story, then you will like those bits best. I do like fast and furious when it's well-done, but also subtle and classy, which is not common in modern paranormal novels. Sherry Roit can do classy, and that's the best thing about this Paris Immortal series - so far anyway. I find PK a bit boring, but that's a minor criticism, as the men are obviously meant to be the sparkly ones in these books.
This story is told in a more traditional way for a vampire story, in fact I kept forgetting that it was set in the present day, and was jolted every time someone mentioned cell phones, or modern clothing. This impression is helped by the fact that the characters move about on foot, with hardly any mention of cars, trains etc. It starts slowly, and it takes the main character almost until the end of the book to realise what is going on. There is violence and sex, but much less of both than in other modern paranormal novels. The main characters are all beautiful and mostly fancy each other, but this attraction doesn't go beyond kissing for the most part. In case it bothers you, the rare sex scenes are tastefully described, with no explicit details about what was actually happening. The audio version, read by Jay Benedict, is excellent. Mr Benedict does a great job of voicing Trey's bewilderment, and manages the various accents pretty well. Nice to listen to an audio book that adds to the enjoyment of a novel.
I lke Nora Roberts' writing style, and a little of that style is in this book, which meant that I actually finished it. The characters were all dull, and the plot, such as it was, was predictable. 2 things particularly irritated me:
1. There is one non-white good guy in the story (in fact I think in the whole book). Only one of the good guys doesn't make it to the end, and colour me not in the least bit surprised - it's King. - the depressingly familiar expendable black character, yet again. Casual racism is alive and well in too many fims and books.
2. This supposedly wily 2000 year old vampire baddy can only come up with one method of attack, namely send a vampire/s to pretend to be humans in need of help - 3 times!!! And guess what? The good guys don't fall for it the first 2 times, but the 3rd time they do!
Why isn't this novel published and a best seller? It is my favourite read for a while. Twilight character names, a vaguely Twilight plot, and other minor Twilight details, but as another reviewer has said, if you changed the names you wouldn't know that. Twilight lovers will love this though. It is long, and could have been a bit shorter for perfection, but I loved it, and when you are loving something, a couple of hundred unnecessary pages are a good thing. It is unusual for me to read until 4am on two nights running as I did with this, but I really didn't want to stop. Edward and Bella are messed up by awful events in the past, are terrified to sleep, antisocial, and miserable. They meet, realise that they have things in common, and that they can help each other. The story follows them over a few years as they struggle with their psychological/sexual problems and family relationships. If you don't like bad language and explicit descriptions of sex then you might want to give it a miss, but I would suggest skim-reading the sex scenes instead if you must, as the book is so good. All of the characters are very real, and the ‘Twilight' ones do have a lot in common with the originals. It is funny, sad and really gripping. Give it a go, you won't regret it.
Starts well, with clever ideas for a kind-of time travelling story. The middle section, set in russia in the cold war, is tedious. This part is made harder to plough through because the main character is grey and boring.The last third of it got better. I gave it three stars for the brilliant idea, partly realised, but I couldn't recommend it as a good read. It had the potential to be a classic, what a pity.
Sex: none
Violence: some nasty things happen, but not described in much detail.
Bad language: none
Very funny, sometimes bittersweet, year in the life of Jo as she copes with an earth shattering change in her life, and two enterprising small boys. I laughed a lot at the antics of Jack and Archie, and their down-to-earth mum. There is an element of romance to the story, but that isn't the main theme. An enjoyable, easy read.
I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory issues. Read them at your peril!
I don't have a good explanation, I was just really bored from quite early on. These notes are for my own use.
Sadie, girl visiting her sick sister in hospital, meets badly injured boy, Sam, gaming on his own. She is the first person he has opened up to since His mother was killed in the car crash that almost destroyed his foot. They don't meet again until they are both students at MIT because she was claiming the hours with him as credits towards her bat mitzvah, and he feels betrayed. Eventually, they create a game together which is about a 3 year old who gets swept away to sea and takes 7 years to get home again. They use a gaming engine written by Dov ,the married ex professor and on/off lover of Sadie. They are also helped by Sam's kind college room mate Marx who will go on to father Sadie's child and die in tragic circumstances that I didn't get to, just flipped forward to see what happened
I think the story may be a good one, probably a 4 *. But it's difficult to tell as the narration is terrible. Mary Jane Wells reads the MMC as if he's a bluff rotund country squire, rather than a brooding hero. When the writing suggests he should be intense, she reads him as brisk and hearty. The intended atmosphere and mood is completely ruined.
I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory issues. Read them at your peril!
Penniless seamstress, cast-off daughter of a vicar , appears on a duke's doorstep in a wedding dress asking for payment for her it. He is a bitter and despondent recluse after being cruelly scarred at Waterloo. He wants a marriage of convenience and an heir , and she agrees.
The story focuses on the 2 main characters, and I found them flat and unconvincing. I could tell that it was going to get really angsty eventually, which is not my thing.
Woman mole shifter, with cute guide dog, escapes her sadistic wolf pack and moves to bear town.
The author has used “spastic” as a term of abuse. Was staggered by this offensive language. So can't give it more than one star, and I won't be reading any more by this author.
I know I'm going to hate a book when the main characters start having lustful fantasies about each other in the midst of a head-long dash for survival. I mean whilst actually running for the human's life, not during a momentary rest. No one would do that, it's ridiculous. If an author is shoe-horning sexy times into an inappropriate scenario like this, it says very very amateurish to me. So not going to waste my time again.
The characters were one dimensional and interchangeable. Too many introduced too fast. I didn't care in the slightest what might happen to any of them. I was bored from the start until I gave up. I'm going to leave this book on my phone for when I next have insomnia.
I'm giving up at 400 or so pages because I'm bored. I am always wary of long books because ninety nine times out of a hundred they just need drastic editing, and this one does too. A big revelation has just happened, which promises more interesting stuff to come, but I've had enough. If you're flagging a bit and haven't yet got to the surprise, then it might be worth your while pressing on to the half way point, and see if it grabs you. Unfortunately, I think I can now guess the rest of the plot, and I can't summon the enthusiasm to read on and see if I'm right.
The first non-picture book that I read on my own, in my own room, voluntarily, aged 7. It was a revelation, and started a delight in books that will last as long as I do.
Taking an old tale and giving it an exciting twist for a new audience is a job for a skilled, dedicated writer who is prepared to put effort into making the differences in the new version gel with the original story and characters. Fans of the original will mostly love it, and it will still be accessible to everyone else.
Taking the same tale and changing every part of it, trashing every character within it, is a job for the less talented, lazy writers out there. This is like writing a story about a lovely faultless guy, who visits his mother once a week and gives to charity, and then calling him Dracula. Why bother? I gave it two stars rather than one because I did finish listening to it on a long journey, and it did pass the time.
The title suggests the common format of “Youngish heroine, hit by crisis, starts cute small business, eventually triumphs.” Carole Matthews often writes stories with more interesting plots, and here is one of them. Early-forties Fay is already running the cute cake shop, and is overworked and stuck in a rut. The author is very good on character and plot, more so than many in this genre. However, the heroine does need to be shaken until her teeth rattle for being such a willing doormat, which is annoyingly true-to-type for many romances. That irritation aside, this is a cut above most chick lit.