Wayward

Wonderful bite-sized tale of hand-crafted monsters. Love the entire idea of it. Reminiscent of Kingfisher's The Twisted Ones.

Picked this up out of curiosity for the vague synopsis and lack of information, figuring I could at least fill in the gaps with a review for anyone else interested in the future.

This is a 10-page horror story without any real depth or development. The cover is the best part, and, though I don't have any proof, I'm worried that might be stolen art.

Wow, I'll tell you what, this book is fantastic! I thought it looked interesting, so entered to win it here on goodreads, and did... I am SO GLAD I did!
It's a wonder! Marian Keyes is funny and helpful, and her recipes are brilliant! Some of them are unusual, but even they look interesting.

Look, no matter what kind of cook you are [or if you're not one at all], you will be pleased with Saved by Cake.

Please, whether or not you have an easy opportunity, you must get this cookbook SOMEHOW! You will be happy, OK? :]

I won this cookbook in a Goodreads Giveaway

I'm not going to rate this because I won't be able to give it a proper rating.

I didn't finish the book, although I read more than my last update, but still.

That's not the only reason, but it's part of it... Let me put it this way, B. Barmanbek can write well. When I notice writing, the reason is either because it's written poorly, or it's written well. In this case, I didn't notice it a lot, but I noticed it enough to think it was written well. Secondly, as I didn't read it all, I cannot say confidentially that the story was excellent, but it most certainly had potential. What I was read was very interesting.

The reason why I decided not to read it in its entirety is because of two things, much swearing, starting out in the very chapter one. Being a Christian, I don't like any swearing, but I tolerate some in books, only because it's rare you can find a book without it. And two, because of Raj Patel's past. There was a... gruesome disgusting, awful scene while he was being interrogated, not like blood and things, as I've had scenes like that before, but something else... I don't want that scene in my head. I had already decided I wasn't going to keep the book once I finished reading it, but I began dreading reading it further, and when it comes to that, I decide it's time to stop reading it.

So, I'll let you readers decide for yourselves whether you want to try this book out or not.

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

Ok, ok, the storyline was alright. It had potential I suppose I would say, and it wasn't all bad. I kind of liked the characters, although a lot of the less important ones were rather cheesy and typical, but mostly I didn't enjoy this book very much.

The main reason? Good grief, Kathy Reichs doesn't know the difference between a period and a comma! She seems to think that commas take the place of periods, and she therefore leaves the book chock full of half-thoughts. There were more fragments in this book than sentences, and even that's an understatement. The style was the definition of choppy, not at all smooth or fluent, making it opposite of an easy, enjoyable book to read.





Also, locations were vague. Yes, she was in a house, a boat, an island, but nothing there was described. Was it colorful? Dim? Bright? Were there windows? Was there grass? You know what I mean?

Thirdly, the ending was somewhat of a letdown. I would have liked things to end differently, and again, it was cheesy, typical, unoriginal, boring. When the last few pages were starting I knew everything that was going to happen. Nothing took me by surprise. The themes are just too well-known, to be honest.

Well, I haven't watched Bones, and I haven't read Kathy Reichs's other books, but I wouldn't recommend this one. There are so many others out there with such cleverer ideas. Personally, I'm going to shelve it, and let it collect dust. Based off of those experience, I would not read her other novels.

This is like a dictionary for common phrases and some words one uses in regular vocabulary.

The definitions are said in clear, understandable language, and most of them are quite accurate.

To be honest, I don't know what more to say, other than ~thumbs up~

My personal favorite was the definition for “Unfortunate Jerk.” :]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

3.5

Oddry is a cute story for children. The beautiful cover and imaginative story is great to show to one's kids. Although I would not recommend this story for anyone over 12, I think the unique plot and likable characters would attract and entertain all younger audiences.

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

DNF at 13%

The side character was dark-skinned, and for reasons not related to her skin color (supposedly), others are racist to her people. Her people can't get any good work because of this racism so all they can do is work in the mines for a pittance. Meanwhile, the main character, who is a different race, is given (he didn't have to even ask for it) a very easy, very good job in which he learns and betters himself while doing it and makes many times more money than the side character.

😐

To me, this felt like thinly veiled, regular old racism, and I'm not here for it.

The world-building was the best part of this book. Clearly, a LOT of work and care went into it, and I wanted to like it for that reason. But before the racism stuff even came up, the main characters, who are 14 and 16, felt very juvenile, all fresh and always talking with exclamation points. I would have thought this book was geared towards younger teens, but there was a fair bit of swearing, including quite a few F-bombs.

Also be aware, that while no character was mentioned or shown to be LGBTQ+ in what I read, the MC likes to paint his nails, and his father called him “sissy” and other homophobic slurs because of it. He was also physically abusive.

DNF at 52%

I was fully planning on finishing this one, especially with how short it is, but I gotta be honest – it was not for me. I wasn't enjoying it. I've enjoyed books by Hawthorne before, and I'm sure I will again in the future, but the characters in this one were very one-dimensional. The plot was held together with shoestrings. It was insta-love done poorly that didn't feel remotely realistic or genuine, and unless something dramatically changed, it was shaping up to be a 1-2 star read. I don't listen to audiobooks often enough to spend more time on this one in afraid.

spoilers of what I read below

The FMC seemed to dramatically change personalities from the first couple of chapters onwards. She became extremely abrasive, uncooperative, sarcastic, and unlikable.
The MMC was mostly fine, but his insta-connection with the FMC didn't make sense. He had barely known her 24 hours and aside from her intriguing eyes drawing him in, she had only been a nasty, difficult, malicious, unwilling witness. He then proceeded to cross multiple lines with her, threatening to “consensually” force her with one hand on her throat and the other gripping her arm to keep her still when she lied and said she liked that. Again, when he'd only known her for less than two days. She could have reported him, and he could have been fired, but the thought never even crossed her mind even though she didn't enjoy these aggressive, line-crossing encounters. I felt zero chemistry. Their interactions were awkward at best.
Besides all the character problems, the believability was stretched to a snapping point. The MMC's boss insisted she stay at the MMC's house. They proceeded to FORCE her to stay there with cop detail when he was away at work so she wouldn't leave. Because she was a WITNESS and they had vague suspicions she may be connected somehow. Not remotely legal or realistic.
Then she escapes by sneaking out the back door and through the hole in the back fence, but rather than slipping away without anyone knowing she'd even left, she SHOOTS THE GUN SHE STOLE FROM THE MMC'S ROOM. Intentionally trying to “create a distraction,” even though she'd already effectively escaped without anyone knowing. Where's the logic???
And since this wasn't shaping up to be anything like the synopsis, or at least what I expected based off of the synopsis, I was generally disappointed and less interested. It was increasingly looking like a 1 or 2 star read, and I'd rather not spend my time on that.

This is going to be brief.
In the 16% I read, there's implied incest/rape that an adult male discovers and does nothing about, even though the girl being abused literally begs him to just take her with him and even offers him sexual favors or to become his new wife if he would take her away from her father. He considers the sexual favors, but decides to not to take her.

In the first 3 pages of the first chapter from a FMC's perspective, she's referred to as “helpless,” is said that her betrothed will “give her strong babies,” and the size of her breasts are compared to her mothers. She is 12 years old.

Obviously, there's rampant misogyny, and the descriptions of female children tend towards pedophilic while the MMC isn't even physically described, but his mind, personality, and morals are the focus.

Even ignoring all this disgusting content, the writing from chapter one was bland and aimless. Actions, emotions, scenes, were told instead of shown. If it weren't the disgust I felt at the way women are depicted in this story, I wouldn't have felt anything at all from the writing. It wasn't scary. It wasn't exciting. It wasn't clever. The Warded Man is just written badly. Dull writing, aimless “plot,” and naive, basic characters. 

This is the first book I've EVER returned. It's garbage. I don't know how or why so many people have given it so many high ratings. I was going to try to push a little further before DNF-ing, but when I got to the FMC POV, I couldn't read past the gagging. I can't imagine how much worse it must get if the first 16% was so lousy. What an absolute waste.

I don't normally 1-star a book I DNF-ed, but the writing and grammar in this are so awful, coupled with a handful of unlikable, shallow characters, plus blatant agism that was both making me depressed and sending me into a slump that I DNF-ed at 30% (the actual premise of the story had barely begun, so much waiting around for the actual plot to get started).

From the awkward lack of contractions, to the tenses shifting from present to past, even in the same paragraph, along with an obvious lack of understanding how punctuation works, it's obvious the author is ignorant of basic grammar. I would highly suggest he take some classes for his future books.

Besides this glaring issue, the book has some very rough sex between the main character and someone he picked up, a stranger, who proceeds to spit in his mouth and slap him, as well as many other things. Not to yuck on anyone's yum, but this type of rough sex wasn't remotely discussed or agreed to beforehand and wasn't safe or sane, and while I get this is a dark romance book, this particular encounter was random, the MC was not hyped up on serial killer blood, and, besides pushing the MC into deciding to go to Youthology after all, had no bearing on the rest of the novel.

And I just couldn't get behind the painful and constantly reminded shallowness and agism of the MC. It's one thing to want to look and feel young again, it's another thing to allot all worth, personality, and attractiveness to the youth, both in himself and in strangers.

This isn't remotely all of the problems that came up in this book, but it's the most glaring ones. I'm not going to put myself into a slump finishing this just to say I finished it so I can give it a fuller review. Would not recommend.

DNF at 26%

I'm not going to rate this because, honestly, it's, like, 85% personal preference, not book quality, that I'm DNFing. Besides, I only listened to a quarter of it.

Objectively, Borrowing Blue has been a pretty good book. It has solid writing (though the characters “laugh” in reaction a bit too frequently), it's mildly funny, and the characters seem relatively interesting.

This is an insta-love book, obviously. And maybe following up Boyfriend Material that does the fake boyrfriend trope SO well, with Borrowing Blue, which plunges in so voraciously, wasn't the best idea. Unfortunately, I just couldn't make myself FEEL anything for these two, their incredibly rapid romance, or during the spicy scenes.

I think I might be over insta-love? I mean, it was never something I gravitated towards anyway, but I did sometimes read it and enjoy it. I wasn't sure about this one, but the raving reviews pushed me to pick it up. I'm not sorry I tried it. I just realized it wasn't for me.

Basically, if you're down for some insta-love, high-spice reads, this might be for you. Otherwise, maybe try something else.

I will say, though, if you're considering the audiobook, the narrator is fantastic. I wasn't sure of him at first, but once I got into it and the narrator got going, he proved himself excellent at his job. Practically a voice actor. A+

Maybe I'll come back to this one day. It was terribly boring, but I do hate leaving classics unfinished

Picture Cook was definitely the most original cookbook I have ever seen. The pictures were cute and fairly clear, and the recipes were interesting.

I would not dissuade you from gettingPicture Cook, but I would not exactly encourage you either.

It isn't the simplest cookbook to use, as it gives the impression, and the recipes are only alright, not excellent. I do understand that it was more... suggestions than actual to-the-letter recipes, but regardless the cookbook was just... alright.

One way they might have made it better is to have a suggestion section. Like, “try adding some cinnamon, lemon, or pistachios to your banana nut bread.” It would have caused more curiosity and creativity, I think.

I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.