Rachel
August 2022 Hoopla Bonus Borrows recommendation.
Throwing this into the DNF pile at the 22% mark of the Audiobook.
By all accounts I should have enjoyed this. Opening up a tea shop with a large inheritance. Sounds fun. But this book just rubbed me the wrong way. The MC was aggravating. Yet she was “perfect” and this was “perfect” and everything was “perfect”. Also, where is her math skills? She inherited something like $230k from her deceased aunt. She buys a teashop for nearly that exact price. Then goes on a shopping spree for everything in the shop, let alone inventory. Also... uhhh TAXES?? Hello. She didn't have a job at the beginning of the story and seemed down on her luck, soo where's this extra $100k she spent.
In theory I should have enjoyed some of this book. The writing wasn't bad. The story had some points and a pace, but the pace was incredibly slow, drawn out. and I found her chipper bulldozer attitude irritating. If you're going to become part of the community, how about try to make friends instead of enemies across the board?... I have plenty of other books to read and since this hasn't been entertaining for the last 2 hours, I'm tossing it aside for something better.
August 2022 Hoopla Bonus Borrows recomendation
Ooof I wasn't sure what all the 1 star reviews were about, but at the 3.5 hour mark of the audiobook it's time to call it quits.
The character is a Mary Sue. Has the most intense powers anyone has encoutered. Adopted by a king. Saved the life of the prized knight. Princess is immediately smitten with him. A lot of instantaneous “wow, look at all these amazing things happening to me!”
Also saw another review mention how this book is made up of moments from other classic fantasy authors. There is definitely some Sword in the Stone, and wannabe Tolkein.
It's very much the “I want to be the star of the series, so I will write this character with immense luck to experience EVERYTHING.”
Returning and leaving in the DNF pile.
This was an August 2022 Bonus Borrows recommendation.
DnF at 35%.
The book itself seems fine. The MC was boring and grating like sand. I'm also discovering how much I hate period piece murder mysteries. It's like the new trend is to make a Sherlock Holmes style mystery but featuring a woman. I think I'll stick with corny modern day mysteries and avoid the historical ones.
This book was an August 2022 Hoopla Bonus Borrows recommendation.
First of all, I wanted to love this. A book using pizza to demonstrate how to do geometry? FINALLY! Something I could understand.
Unfortunately, after reading this I still barely understand geometry. Instead, I'm hungry for pizza.
So what went wrong? Simply put, this book is chaotic. There are so many things to look at that it is hard to focus and concentrate on what is actually being displayed. My eye was jumping all over the place while trying to absorb the cute illustrations, the helpful hints and how to actually do geometry. At the end of the day there was just too much and I finished it feeling helpless, lost and overwhelmed.
Ways this book could have been improved:
- Have a universal background for the text explaining how to do geometry. This way the brain can say “Ok everything in the blue box on each page is what will help me understand the subject matter.”
- Add more spacing around the text and the imagery. It is so clumped together that it is chaotic. Many times I would try to read a sentence but a drawing was so close that my eye would start to follow the drawing. Thus I'd never finish the sentence I was reading.
DNF at 25%
This book was a suggestion from August 2022 Hoopla Bonus Borrows.
Books like this you expect cliches, convenient plotlines, and fun little cozy mysteries. They're cheesy Hallmark style stories meant to help you kill an afternoon.
But THIS?? It's no Hallmark movie. It's more like a first draft for a really bad Hallmark movie. It's beyond ridiculous. Yes, yes these types of books are supposed to be ridiculous. But this is BEYOND ridiculous. A woman decides on a whim to go to Europe after her divorce. She decides she'll stay as long as she wants. No regards to customs and policies of England. She conveniently finds an old man who rents her the perfect fixer up sea-side manor. But oh the sweet old man is so gullible he's willing to rent it for $20 a day. A DAY! In a town where all the other rooms are booked for holiday travelers. But wait. There's more. He conveniently had an open storefront after the tennants dissapeared with ALL their stock in the middle of the night. How perfect! She has decided she's going to rent it. She goes online and applies for an extended business visa and TADA within 24 hours she has a business visa. Now she's the belle of the town opening up a cute little antique shop in a town in Wilfordshire.
Between the MC's self righteousness and the complete disregard to how governments work, well I had to give it up. This was awful. I was just waiting for the MC to be offed to put us all out of our misery.
This was a Hoopla August 2022 Bonus Borrows recommendation.
Illustration in the book is beautiful. The whale jumping out of the ocean was a particular favorite. The book itself does a wonderful job capturing just how important the moon is to earth and the many things it impacts (I.e. ocean tides, protection from asteroids, etc).
The one flaw was the placement of the facts about the moon and the verbiage. It was jarring and pulled me out of the story. Also, the verbiage might be too much for its audience. A toddler would have no interest in Clair De Lune or Emily Dickinson.
This was a Hoopla 2022 August bonus borrows suggestion.
Fans of Sherlock Holmes would enjoy this. There was many references to Holmes, including the OG and adaptations. The MC moves around the storyline very similarly to A Holmes novel.
The story itself was clever and started strong. Some parts were definitely overembelished. By the middle of the story, my attention started the waver. The MC began to grind my gears. Her extra observant nature became obvious and her “better than though” attitude had me wishing they'd arrest her already so I could be done with her.
Buuuuuut I'd you like Sherlock then you won't mind this MC, because she is a wannabe Sherlock.
Unfortunately for me, I forgot that I can't stand Sherlock and his clever “this is how he did it and why!” Attitude. The act that everyone else is beneath them or not as clever or observant. Both he and the MC need a class on humility.
Ok enough complaints. The book was fine. Writing was fine. Plot was decent. Just not one I'll revisit.
Hoopla Bonus Borrows suggestion for Aug 2022.
Oooh nope. DnF at 50%.
When she went to the pet shop to return the cat she was judgmental over the young teen working at the shop. Then asks for the manager. Then gets frustrated when she doesn't get her way.
I tried to give her a few more chapters, because in these types of stories they characters can grow on you. Nope. Not this one. She and her friends can stay on the library shelf.
This book was a lot. There was easily enough plotlines to make a trilogy. At times I almost wish it was a trilogy. The world was so lush and vivid. I couldn't get enough of it. But the pacing was incredibly fast. One moment characters are fighting and the next they're relaxing in the garden. Read too fast and you miss things.
Much of the writing and plot twists are full of YA tropes, but the immortal realm had me eager to learn more.
Would I recommend it? Absolutely. This was a great break to the average day and the author built a beautiful world. Predictable? Yes. But I couldn't put it down. And I can't wait for the sequel.
What a wild ride.
The fact that these women are not more widely known is a travesty. Two women who ruled, conspired and helped shape a unified country during the 500s. Yes, 500s.
Fredegund and Brunhild should be a Hollywood (or film) dream star. Women in power. Murder. Revenge. Secret Plots. These women dealt with it all.
This book was written more like a fictionalized account of their life, but still drew on fact. The writing style made it easier to read than traditional nonfiction and I quickly flew through the chapters.
My one big disappointment with this book was the lack of a glossary of who is who. There is a brief one at the beginning, but that only covers the people in the first 1/4 of the book. Many characters have very similar names, making it difficult to keep track of who is who. I felt like I was only understanding at a surface level because I couldn't recall who was who.
Overall it was great to read about two powerful women who helped influence the Merovingian period of history, which is a history not widely recounted.
Throwing in the towel at chapter 107.
I normally love Jennifer Donnelly's books but this was a huge miss.
First, there are the characters of Chance and Fate. Tbh I found them completely unnecessary and a waste of chapter space. They don't bring much to the story except to steal the focus from the main characters and their actions. I felt the same way with the extra characters in her Beauty and the Beast story. They take away from the true story.
Now for the stepsister and her family. Jennifer does her best to make them redeeming, but what a challenge. Years of bullying and being cruel to Ella and we're supposed to believe they have changed over a matter of days? All because she's finally bullied for cutting off her toes?
On the plus side, Jennifer is great at writing just the right amount of romance an action. Those elements are solid 5 stars. But giving it 2 because the rest was just boring and painful to read.
DNF at 60%. I ended up googling a summary for the remainder of the book and glad I didn't waste anymore time on this.
Starting off, there is some beautiful atmospheric writing in this novel. In that regard, it reminded me of The Night Circus. Rich, evocative vocabulary that transfixes you.
Now to the characters... A Golem who has no master and a jinni with no master are living in New York, trying to blend in, while also exploring the world around them.
Now why the low rating? The plot and pacing had me bored. I kept going hoping the story would get more engaging, but it didn't. It was just so.... dull. Which is disappointing because the summary sounded very promising, the atmospheric writing was beautiful, but the pacing and characters were unfulfilling.
I see what she was going for... the start of another classic series like Goosebumps or Magic Tree House.
This could have been cute, but just missed the mark. It followed a rather bratty main character and didn't have the comraderie that a kids book should have. This would have benefitted from a prominent secondary character.