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I raced through this book in 3 days. Super easy reading even though it doesn't really get interesting until half way through. Right when I started to get frustrated at the lack of much magic a whole heck of a lot of magic happened!
So, the magic part is awesome. I had this book described to me as a bit like adult Harry Potter living and using magic in the real (muggle) world. They have the same first name and they're both a little snarky, but that's about where my comparison ends. That's ok though, this is good for its own magic world.
I'm looking forward to continuing the series as long as the female characters are written a whole lot better here on out. Every single woman was attractive and almost everything they did revolved around their looks or sex. Except for detective Murphy. But it was hard to take her seriously because of comments made about her. You can describe someone physically pretty without reducing them to a useless simpering fool. Strong female characters are good. You can write them without reducing the strength of your main male character.
And really, I spent a good bit of the book thinking Dresden was more a-sexual than not. Turns out he isn't, just really freaking awkward. Felt like Dresden is quite a reflection of the author. Made me pretty uncomfortable most of the time. I probably wouldn't like Harry Dresden if I met him because I'd probably catch him leering at me. He's not “old fashioned”, he's just a chauvinist who thinks he's a nice guy.

I won this book in a First Reads Giveaway.
After reading a few passages to a friend his response was, “I didn't realize 9th grade me wrote this.”
Honestly, for some reason I thought this might be erotica. Or that it would contain adult content. It would be even more cliche than it already is if it did have graphic sex, but maybe that would have broken up the monotony a little. Coco, the stripper turned model and actress, finally does have sex with her rich mob boss boyfriend Sam on page 224, but to me it was pretty short and sweet. In fact, this didn't feel much like a love story either. The entire point of the book was Coco either rising to fame or making secret business moves against Sam. The romance just happens to further the plot along until it can be used as a twist. Anyway, it took me two months to slog through this book. I kept putting it down and not really being very interested in picking it back up. I've seen most of my complaints voiced in other reviews so far too.
Every other chapter or so the focus shifts back and forth from the present to the past. It was almost like reading two stories in one and at times terribly confusing. I'd start a new chapter and catch myself wondering what the heck was going on. Then light bulb moment and I'd have to remind myself where things had left off.
I love simple and well thought out explanations, but you won't find that here very much. I was either left confused on things explained (real estate), annoyed that things weren't explained (who is Meyer Lansky?!), and downright bored with the constant sermonizing. The same points are made twice back to back all too frequently. There were so many sentences that could have been removed with another stiff edit. You just said that already, we get it. Not to mention I seriously don't care what the author thinks or feels about Robert Downey Jr. or Hugh Hefner, because it certainly didn't feel like those opinions came from characters. And even if they had they don't need to be in the book. Name dropping just alienated me even more.
Speaking of the characters, they were rather hard to relate to. The only person I was actually interested in was Coco's friend, Danny. Unfortunately he's basically just there to move the plot forward.
Coco was downright unbelievable. This was obviously a perfect woman fantasy. There's a line early on where Coco mentions at age 17 that she rarely thinks about her weight due to her high metabolism. Ok, Mr. Male Author. I don't know any girl or woman who doesn't think about her weight. Another reviewer mentions Coco's love of classic cars stemming from her love of Hot Wheels toys as a child. I would have believed her love of cars more if she had reasoned it with a nostalgic connection with her father possibly loving and working on cars before he died.
There were a few other random things I had issues with. The photographer who shot the photo that made Coco famous recommended his life partner as her agent. That agent also recommends lawyers and accountants to handle her money. Conflict of interest much? Nawwww people never screw over pretty perfect blonde women for money. Duh. Before Coco starts acting she has a conversation with someone who blatantly tells her she could act. Someone who knows nothing about acting. This just felt like heavy handed foreshadowing. Most of the dialogue is pretty corny with a rather unnatural flow at times. At one point a sniper hitman tries to kill Sam, Coco happens to be there. About two shots are fired and one of them grazes Coco. Sam and Coco have a conversation later about this professional missing. If they were a pro they wouldn't have missed. Someone's watched too many bad Hollywood movies.

I made it to the third chapter and decided to not torture myself with this any further. I can only imagine that people get through this series by skimming through to possibly only read the sex scenes. Which are admittedly not completely horrible. But everything in between is irrefutably painful to read. I found myself literally rolling my eyes, sighing, scoffing, groaning, cringing, and downright facepalming.

If Ana were a real person and I could talk to her I'd tell her to run her naive butt away from the abusive and domineering (not in the good way) relationship she was being trapped in. Because, guess what? THIS IS ABUSE. This isn't sexy. This is scary. Not the BDSM stuff, but everything else. Adults are fully capable of having a healthy relationship with some incredibly kinky sex. They're even fully capable of having a 24/7 Dom/sub relationship. This just happens to be none of that.

I could argue that Christian is possibly trying to get Ana into a 24/7 BDSM relationship. Except any decent Dom who's connected to a sub knows when to push, and when not to. Christian pretty much pushes all the time. He does what he wants, and he manages to wrap it in a barely pretty enough package to fool Ana. Hello mind games!

So, Ana, I don't care if the sex is mind blowing. The guy's a creep. He's scary. He treats his subordinates like chattel or with the bare minimum of respect. Oh, and you are so not on this planet to fix him. Run, don't walk, as far and as fast as you can. Pray that law enforcement will help you keep this guy at bay, because he'll for sure pull every string to keep owning you. That broken heart you think you have? It'll mend. And when it does you'll realize it was probably just your lady part hormones making you stupid lustful for the earth-shattering O's. Trust me; been there, done that.

I won a copy of this book from the Goodreads First Reads Giveaway program.For me, this is the modern version of [b:He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys 10412 He's Just Not That Into You The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys Greg Behrendt https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388205020s/10412.jpg 822184]. While trying to get to know a guy and date we're dealing with Facebook, Twitter, Apps, dating sites, Skype, and texting. Always texting. So. Much. Texting!Lisa and Carrie started HeTexted.com, a site to receive peer advice to decode what a guy really means. Questioning if a guy actually likes you or is an incorrigible flirt looking for a hookup? Post a screenshot and others will weigh in. There's even a section to seek out more private advice from actual guys.So, that's what started this book, which is broken down into different things a guy can do to communicate in this digital age. Things like adding you on Facebook, ranting, sexting, emoji and emoticon usage, all the way to texting vs. saying “I love you” in person. Lisa, Carrie, and three “bros” weigh in throughout. There are also image examples of texting conversations pulled from the site.Now, lets get into what I personally thought. Me, being me, I took notes. I knew some things I was not going to agree with and other things would completely speak to me. I wanted to make sure I kept track. Hello yellow sticky notes. I also felt I probably wasn't necessarily the target demographic with this book. At the end of it all I realized no matter what you've got going on everyone's probably run into some of the scenarios being tackled here, and we've all for sure been confused about a love interest at some point.I got through the first chapter entitled He Friended and immediately asked this new guy I've been talking to for about a month if he only looked through my pictures or checked out other parts of my page. He'd only looked at my pics. Throughout the month I'd skimmed his wall, gone through his liked music pages, and even ended up on his sister's and mother's profiles. Ok, so the book has men and women pretty much pegged right so far.About half way through the book there's the He Updated chapter. This is probably the only chapter that actually irritated me. “Women are right to examine his Wall... Everything you need to know about a guy is right there on it.” NO! That's not true at all. Want to know why? Because I am not MY wall. Let me bury you under a mountain of salt you should be taking this chapter with. I know how to make lists on FB or change custom settings and hide things from entire groups of people, or just one. I loved the section about a guy's handle on FB. Um no I didn't. If his name isn't his real name and he's made up some crap just report it. Seriously. It's against the TOS on FB.And for the love of all that is holy, this book needs to stop referencing things like Star Wars or Harry Potter. It's painful because they don't really get it right. This fan does not appreciate it.A few pages later this book is redeemed for me. The last half is a bit more serious. There are little nuggets we all need to absorb and live by. I actually gave some succinct advice from Kenny in the E Txd chapter to my best friend, who happens to be a guy. Proof that some advice goes both ways. It works for everyone. He was confused about a girl being busy. Too busy to text. A BS excuse I've heard more times than I can count. Replace busy with neglectful and don't suffer through someone keeping you waiting for days on end.

I spent almost the entire time reading this wanting to throw it across the room. First because I was frustrated with the style and then because of the actual plot.

I quickly got tired of hearing how fair a maid Evangeline was and how Gabriel was the noblest of all the youths. We get it: they're gorgeous people who're destined to be together. Except...

Cruel Fate has torn them apart. Yeah, that's depressing. Really frustratingly depressing. But this only worked to make me angry, not sympathetic. There are times I'm too literal to just accept certain things and go along with the flow of the story. This happens to be one of those times. Sucks for me.

Poor Evangeline treks across the land following rumors trying to catch up to Gabriel. You know what my parents always taught me when I got lost? Stay in one place. Don't wander. It makes it harder for you to be found. So what does Gabriel do? He wanders. And the only time he stays in one place is when Evangeline stays in one place too hoping he'll come back to that location. Ugh! So much anger. Why does Evangeline hear all these rumors and searches for him but he doesn't seem to be hearing anything about her?

Here's the only passage giving any indication of Gabriel being upset about being parted from Evangeline. And yes, I'm aware that this poem is following Evangeline so we don't get Gabriel's perspective, but still.

“‘Be of good cheer, my child; it is only to-day he
departed.
Foolish boy! he has left me alone with my herds and my
horses.
Moody and restless grown, and tried and troubled, his
spirit
Could no longer endure the calm of this quiet existence.
Thinking ever of thee, uncertain and sorrowful ever,
Ever silent, or speaking only of thee and his troubles,
He at length had become so tedious to men and to
maidens,
Tedious even to me, that at length I bethought me, and
sent him
Unto the town of Adayes to trade for mules with the
Spaniards.'”

I wholeheartedly do love this book. I've read it twice and was quite caught up in it both times. I recommend it. I'll be reading the sequel, of course. And perhaps perusing other works by Follett.

I feel the hidden influence of Follett's ability to write successful mystery or thriller novels added enhancing factors to this novel, while also possibly contributing the few defects. The style can be a bit too abrupt at times, mostly being revealed through somewhat lacking dialogue. All the same, the plot is propelled at a steady and interesting pace with clever twists and turns. We're able to follow many characters and actually understand their motivations, all while not necessarily agreeing with them. I commend Follett for that ability, and his masterful use of foreshadowing. Only on a second read did I see how subtle it was at times.

My only real complaints:
Did they use the words “puke” and “sexy” in that time?
I feel for whoever had to edit 973 pages, but did no one notice these spelling errors? There were only 4 or 5, so not bad for a book of about 400k words. Maybe next printing they'll be gone.

Bought this at Spirit and own this for decor. The contents are ridiculous because... of course. “Spells” like this aren't real. Book looks good next to my obsidian skull, which also doesn't do or mean anything because it's a rock.

Got a kick out of some of the reviews though.

After being informed of child sex abuse allegations against Bradley and her husband I won't be reading any of her books. She knew and helped her husband rape boys as young as eight, along with their own children.

I read this when I was far too young to grasp pretty much any of the references. That's alright though, because it leaves for the now humorous memory that I was sad for all the people who winked out of existence. How awful to just be gone and be... where? Seemingly nowhere. Made me anxious to imagine if that could happen to me. Thankfully I don't have to worry about that since I'm a heathen. Anyway, I remember rooting for all who were left to scrape together and rebuild since that's just what we do as a species.
Obviously I was reading this as any other post-apocalyptic novel and didn't have the wherewithal to recognize or be put off by the writing. I think I made it through a few of these books actually.