Lili V

Obviously needed to read more by this author since I love how she constructs her romance between her characters. Very straight-forward and no-bullshit. Enjoyed this one more than Trigger because there were two male love interests and anything reverse-harem is crack to me. Overall a quick fluff read.

This was a good quick sexy read. I'm a fan of the author's writing style when it comes to developing romance because it's descriptive but also blunt which I really appreciate. She doesn't put in the extra fluff that other author's do that makes you want to roll your eyes or gag. (Really like her Forever Evermore trilogy, not a fan of the spinoffs.)

So this was by no means bad or unenjoyable, but it was forgettable. I only put this book down once since this series is usually a quick, fast-paced read for me. And this time it was the same, but that small pause took me out of the “rolling with the punches” plot long enough for me to take a moment to realize that there wasn't anything stand-out about this installment. Like always, there's a million different mysteries that Charley is trying to solve and by the end they are all wrapped up fast enough for Charley to get a new shock to her personal life (usually via Reyes or someone else close to her). I usually get a kick out of this formulaic series (Charley never fails to get quite a few chuckles out of me) but this time the ending was so lackluster. The emotions didn't really fit, and the shock that Charley got this time was not a shock to me.
I never really remember the million different mysteries that Charley's wrapped up in for the majority of the book, I'm just along for the fun of it. It's usually the personal moments Charley has with her friends and family that keep me invested. This time the wrap-up of the mysteries was a bit muddled and whenever anything supernatural happened I had a hard time imagining it because there was no build up to it. It just happened and then everything was fixed. Since it's Charley herself, and her miraculous abilities, and her relationships with the people close to her that keeps me tied to this series, I'm sad to say that overall this book was ultimately very forgettable. (So much so, that as soon as I got on my laptop to mark the book as read and write my thoughts, I spent a good 20 minutes just exploring emails/Youtube/social media before I remembered why I turned my computer on in the first place.)

Cute coming out story. I liked the diverse representation in the cast of characters especially considering the irl diversity of the setting where the story took place, a town right outside of Atlanta, Georgia.

Just like everyone else has mentioned, after a certain point, you can figure out who Blue is but it doesn't detract from the story because there's more to Simon's tale than Blue which is something I wish the reviews would mention because it was one of the things I liked the most. The story really focuses on Simon's coming out journey and how coming out should be something every student in high school experiences. To paraphrase, there should not a default–an assumption that coming out should be for every sexuality but heterosexual. This book highlights that fact, that the journey of accepting your own sexuality is a big deal, for everyone.

This is definitely one of the better daddy play books that I've read. It hit just about every aspect about this kink that I like. The writing was great and had a nice pace, but of course it was the sexual tension and the smut that really makes this book standout. I liked the characters and I didn't think I would like the age difference but it really suited them as a couple because it complemented their relationship; it didn't drag it down.

As a whole I really liked the story, though it was longer than I expected and had a lot of typical bad-boy, innocent-girl tropes. I was expecting Ember to have a bit more backbone from what I read in the synopsis, I didn't think this would be your run-of-the-mill “girl tries to fix boy” storyline. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the writing because the story did keep me hooked throughout the second half but I wish there was more substance to the relationship between the main two love interests. I didn't really understand what Ember saw in Trace besides the savior act he pulled when they first met. She even thought and was warned multiple times about the playboy he was, and at that point he didn't really have any redeeming qualities that stood out. (Even his “knight in shining armor” moment wasn't too shiny considering the bartender would have stepped in even if he hadn't.)

I usually love the characters the most when it comes to reading romances–and the secondary characters were pretty great–but Ember and Trace were a bit too one-dimensional for me to invest any attachment to them. Their romantic moments were sweet but that's about it. Even their sex scene were lackluster, and I usually like those no matter what romance I'm reading. Ultimately they seemed to lack the chemistry of a romantic couple; I think they would have been better off as friends. In fact, plot-wise, Ember could have been there and helped Trace with his tragic past as a friend and literally nothing in the book would be different. She could have loved and supported him as just a friend and the story would still have the same storyline and the same ending, they just wouldn't be romantically involved.

Just finished another one. Really enjoyed the premise of this one and it was executed very well. A girl who saw her father get taken by feds at age twelve is now attending an Ivy League college without enough money for the rent. Then a bulldozer crashes into her house and she makes a deal to stay with the preppy boy next door who threw the party the frat boys who bulldozed her house attended. Now she has to get along with her new roommate who she thought was a party boy, but she soon learns that he has just as many layers to him as she does.

I really enjoyed this a lot more than I initially thought going into the book. For the first quarter I thought Raya was falling a bit too fast for Kade but the book really fleshed out their friendship a lot more as the story progressed. It built a foundation between two people who were living together and got to know each other after the fact. I loved how Raya's dad was introduced and his character was just awesome. Raya's love for her father was very forgiving and incredibly heartwarming because I could tell that he reciprocated wholeheartedly. I could predict that the author was waiting to use Raya's dad and his history as a plot twist but I didn't expect how the author used the con element at the very end. It was brilliant!

Started and finished this book today. This has a lot of the things I love in a romance novel. Unrequited love that fights to be requited. Characters that struggle with themselves and life's obstacles to discover you who they are, and who they have always been. Set in an old small town in England. Perfect setting for a nice romance.

I loved reading about Lane's family and I appreciated that the author showed how blind Lane was to the support that she's always had in her family. Most of the time (like with “The Wall of Winnipeg and Me”) I like the fact that a romance novel focuses on the two main characters the story centers around. However, the author, L.A. Casey, made Lane's loving family members into people I wanted to know more about. Death and grieving were also a very prominent theme in this book, way more than I anticipated (there were some tears...okay, a lot of tears.) It was handled very well and I liked that we got to know some of the characters that passed in flashback chapters. The deaths brought the already close family together and Lane was able to start the process of dealing with everything that she'd been running away from.

I really enjoyed the story and the characters most of all and I hope to read more by this author soon.

I have to say that this has reminded me of how I felt when I first started the ABVH series. The writing, the character interactions, the personal growth in all the main characters, all of it was pretty amazing. I was reminded of who these characters were and why I've come to love them. It's also reminded me that I read this series for the characters, not for any plot, writing style, etc. They are the main reason why I've kept up with ABVH for so long and why I will keep tabs with this series until it finishes.

Enjoyed this graphic novel a lot more than I expected. The story was unoriginal but very entertaining and well plot-out and executed. I liked the characters, though their portrayal seemed a bit one-dimensional with very linear backstories. I wasn't a huge fan of the art style but I think it suited the story perfectly. Overall a very well done graphic novel!

Stayed up all night reading this book it was that addicting. It distracted me during New Year's Eve until 3...2...1. Then I kept reading until 9 in the morning.

I really liked the slow burn romance and that the author mainly focused on the two main characters–Aiden and Vanessa. I loved their characters, how hardheaded they both were, how committed to their careers they were and loved that about each other, how determined they were not to fear their pasts but overcome it. The only critique I have about the book is the length. The beginning spent a bit too much time on exposition and it led me to skimming some unimportant/repetitive bits.

Other than that I'd like to go back and reread it again and take my time with it because I was definitely bleary eyed towards the end. Highly recommend if you want to read a sports romance done right, that focuses and prioritizes developing the main relationship, and has really great main characters.

Had to read another one of Zapata's books after reading The Wall of Winnipeg and Me. Had the same issue with too much unnecessary boring details and skim read the majority of the book. I didn't like Dex and Iris in this one as much as I liked Vanessa and Aiden in the last one. I enjoyed the biker setting and the related drama was very believable but Vanessa was a bit too childish for the independent background that the author wrote for her. There were just some things about her history that just didn't match up with her personality. Consequently, I didn't think the relationship between she and Dex was believable partly due to her immaturity. I also didn't think it was believable because their relationship seemed like it was primarily based on sexual tension. There was no root to their connection, nothing to ground them as possible love interests.

In comparison to the last book, there was more attention paid to the drama that was going on with Ris's dad than the relationship between the two main characters. While the plot was somewhat intriguing, I wish it had focused primarily on creating a tenable connection between Dex and Iris.

So in this book we get more shenanigans in DC and a hell of a lot more aliens if you didn't catch it in the title. I still don't think that the switch in position for Kitty was the best decision. I think she would have still done better sticking to more field work. And keeping her out of loop was so obviously a mistake for this book that I'm still not sure why it was done. It literally had no purpose and Kitty pretty much figured everything out anyway. Obvs!

Anyway, there are new alien visitors in this book as well as a visit from some past megalomaniacs. I think the series has officially reached the point where there are too many characters and not enough attention is being paid to the AWESOME ones. I mean, there was barely any Reader in this book. That's just not right. But on a serious note, I'm able to keep most of the characters straight mostly because I'm reading the books relatively close together. If I were to wait a year to read the next one I can guarantee I would forget a majority of the characters that were in this book. I get that Kitty is the Head of Recruitment but there were just too many new miscellaneous characters in this one. The only characters that were in the majority of this book from the ‘original' cast was Mr. Richard White (adorable gentleman), Naomi and Abigail, and the Poofs (lol). Everyone else didn't have as much “screen time.”

I don't know. This may just be me missing more action and crime-solving. The only thing that made me give this book 3 instead of 2 stars were the last few chapters where we finally got some action. The author is bomb at writing the action scenes because you can vividly picture it in your head like a movie. Also, the one thing that really brought this book down the most for me was all the explanatory fodder. For example, there were many chapters that were mostly just explanations of the many detailed corruptions going on with the multiple bad guys in D.C. Then we get more fodder about the bad guys in outer space. There's just so much being explained, and not just about the bad guys. Nothing is really happening in the book except Kitty trying to get all the pieces together by “talking out loud.”

I have the next book in the series already but like I did with the last one, I going to read a few books before I get back into this series. I approached this book months after having bought it because I had to remind myself of all the parts that I liked in the previous books. I will be approaching the next book in the same way. Overall, this is a good comfort read for me but because the books tend to run a bit long, I wish they had a bit more.

I didn't think I would continue on with this series but I ended up really liking the first book and have re-read it multiple times. In this book the main character seems to have done a 180 because we are introduced to a lot of her family history that should have at least been hinted at in the first book so the transition wasn't so jarring. Sam was very emotional in this book compared to the previous ‘don't care' attitude that I really enjoyed. I knew she was hiding a lot of emotional baggage and we really get to see what's behind her mask. However, while I had anticipated that she would deal with some of her issues, I don't think enough were addressed in this book to actually count as emotional growth. Too much time was spent either dealing with Sam's mom–who really should not have gotten as much airtime as she did–or depending on/having sex with Mason. I wished that Sam would spend more time focusing on herself and her future than focus on others' actions and her how they affect her; especially when some of those characters have already betrayed or don't like her in the first place.

I probably will continue on with the series because there were some glimpses in the book that did talk about how Sam is making new friends and what her future could hold. I'm more impressed with the plot in this book because while some bits were spent on the aforementioned scenes I couldn't predict any of the author's plot twists or what would happen next. She doesn't fall into any of the stereotypical plot holes that most contemp books have, and that's another one of the reasons I will continue on with the series.

I was supremely impressed with the previous book in this series and was nervous going into this book. I didn't know if it would contain as much of an excitement for me because of the tremendous character growth that was in the last book. What I most appreciated and am thankful that was in this book was the consistency. There wasn't any bullshit that some UF authors like to sneak into their series just to mess the plot up and take the plot in a direction that's inconsistent with the tone of the rest of the series.

I appreciated the fact that Kara and Mzatal were solid in their relationship. Mostly because while I completely loved the previous book, I didn't agree with the fact that the drastic 180 with Rhyzkahl's character should have been predicted by the “hints” he dropped. It really changed the direction of the series but overall it improved the development of the characters and set them on another level. It made them relatable and I empathized with all the trauma and growth that resulted because of it.

In this book specifically, there was a slower pace that I, surprisingly enough, quite enjoyed. It wasn't slow by any means, but definitely slower than the last few installments. I comprehended more of the storyline because the author was able to cleverly draw out the world-building exposition and fully introduce new characters while the plot was unfolding.

I'm excited for the rest of the series because so many new revelations and answers for previous queries have led to a further dissection of the complex demon realm, it's inhabitants, and its connection to Earth and its inhabitants.

Really enjoyed this one! Quick UF read about a sorcerress trying to stay under the radar and hide from a big bad, until tall, dark and handsome comes to town accusing her as a murderer. This was a quick thrill read with a stable magical foundation. I can't wait to read more about the world and all its characters.

This is a very disappointing book in the series. I enjoyed the last few books WAY more than this one. (I skipped the Jason book though.) Sigh. There's some things addressed in this book that should have been addressed ages ago. There's just so much that hasn't been developed and while Anita going to therapy is a good thing, how can she still see herself as human? Like what? At least admit to yourself that you're some flavor of preternatural.

And the whole Nathaniel coming into power thing was really off-putting. I don't like how easily brushed-off it was that he mind-fucked Anita and Damian. It was too close to dub-con and I didn't like that it wasn't further discussed. In fact, I don't know why this was advertised as a book about Edward and Dublin. The entire time that Anita was in Dublin, I sincerely wished she wasn't. It's like going back in time in the books and getting another crash course on how to deal with vampires. It was just rehashing things that we learned early on in the series and just introducing them in a different setting. The Garda characters in Dublin were just ridiculous fodder. I don't know why Pearson was portrayed as beyond incompetent and none of the rest of the Garda were even memorable. Either way, a bit more than the first half was more relationship issues than solving crimes in Dublin. It felt like if it had been two separate books then more could have been hashed out and fully realized. In the former, there were Anita's glacial development, her acquiescence to being pregnant, and Nathaniel's sudden shift in metaphysical power. In the latter, there could have an actual crime-solving plot in Dublin. There were so many instances–too many–where it felt like the author was writing about where people were and what they were doing than any actual plot happening.

That leads into the writing of this book. That was by far the most disappointing aspect. It's just so dry and noncommittal. Since it's in first-person I was always expect to get more into Anita's head than anyone else's, and we've gotten that in previous books but not this time. The characters closely connected to Anita were the ones actually telling the reader what she felt. What's the point of it being first-person if we need the side characters to tell us what the main character is feeling?

In the middle of reading this book, I went back to the author's Merry Gentry series to remember why I fell in love with her books in the first place. I can firmly say that I officially like the Merry Gentry series more than the Anita Blake series because the overall character development and portrayal in that series is more realistic, and feels like something that I can count on. Whereas in this series, I feel like the same issues are being brought up again and again without any resolution in sight.

Pretty good short story about a reverse-harem. Pretty much the only reason I downloaded it.

This was my least favorite installment so far. I wasn't as interested in the plot and new setting that was depicted in this book. I knew from the very beginning that I wouldn't enjoy Kitty in a diplomatic Washington D.C. setting and I didn't. It really just doesn't suit her style or personality. I also found the character interactions in this book a bit lacking. I wasn't really invested in any of the other characters lives and their happenings were quickly breezed over for the sake of the “plot.”

One of the reasons that I didn't like the plot line was for the fact that every few pages some action sequence would happen but by the end of it every character was lamenting how badly they were adjusting to their new positions and the fact that they had no clue what was going on. It got annoying very quickly, especially since I didn't like the new setting in the first place. The final scene after all action was over was so predictable, I was very disappointed the book ended on such a poor note.

Overall, it felt like the book was centered around one theme that was best summed up by a single quote a character makes towards the end about adjusting to a new lifestyle; a change you don't want to make but have to in the end. I don't think it was worth all the pages this book had just to make that one theme stand out.

So this was just pure thrill for me. I wasn't really looking for anything more than that, and that's partly because this book didn't offer much else. The main thing that I enjoyed was that Mason and Sam were pretty rock solid together and there wasn't anything their stupid parents or friends could do to break them apart. I also liked the fact that Sam didn't care about any of the petty bullshit that her classmates pulled because I wouldn't have kept reading if she had. Consequently, that everybody was pretty honest about their intentions and no one was fake–at least not convincingly–was refreshing. Obviously, Sam's mom and some of the classmates that tried to befriend were trying to be subtle about it but it was unbelievably evident that their intentions weren't good. This book is definitely character-driven, there's really no plot to speak of but that's what I appreciated most about it.

As I said, I liked the fast pace thrill of the novel and the drama was non-stop but it was dealt with and it left no questions unanswered so I'm glad I read it. I would only recommend to those that are in a reading a slump and feel like they need a trashy book to get back in the grove of reading.

So that was definitely a curveball ending. I still stand by the things I said in my mid-read updates (below). But I've also come to realize that this is the longest book that I've read in a while, I mean that metaphorically and in a good way. It's the first book in a long time that has made me stop and analyze character interactions and plot twists at more than face value. It's something that I miss from my “book blog” days. It's also the first book in a while that I've spent more than 2-3 days reading. I've been devouring the books I read recently and I'm glad I took my time with this one. It made me appreciate it a lot more.

Mid-read updates:
08/05 page 32 8.0% “So I love the fact that Simon is more concerned/worried about Meg and what she did “without his supervision/approval” than he is about the political shenanigans going on and the fact that he needs to be a wolf and run. But I have a bad feeling that it's going to bite him in the butt. Sigh”
08/06 page 91 22.0% “Did they seriously forget to tell the Elementals about what's going on? That seems a little too far-fetched. C'mon, the most powerful terra indigene?”
08/08 page 196 49.0% “I think it's smart of the author not to include POVs from the human females. I noticed they were lacking, and thought that it might have been overlooked and that they should have been included. However, if they had been, their thoughts and opinions would have clouded mine because I wouldn't shape my thoughts and opinions about the book myself but shape them around what another fellow human female thought.”
08/09 page 245 61.0% “I'm definitely taking this one slow for multiple reasons. One, the switching POVs makes the narrative easy to take a break from, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Two, the writing delves into the minute details and it gets a bit boring to read about every little thing. Three, where I am currently, the characters are hashing out an important issue for Meg, but just sounds patronizing to me.”

Currently on page 245: potential spoilers below
While the author's writing is very detailed and leaves no stone unturned, it does leave a lot to be desired in terms of pacing. I've noticed that exclusively in this installment the smallest details are part of the narrative and make for a very tedious read. And the level of importance that the author assigns to some characters but not to others has me invested in some of their story lines and annoyed by others. She tends to sidetrack the main plot into all the minute issues that Simon must deal with as leader of the Lakeside Courtyard. I normally enjoy these parts of the books because I love to learn how the world-building and government work but it seems like too many little subplots are going on at the same time the main plot is unraveling. For example, the book talks about Nicholas Scratch and the HFL movement and its diabolic plans, as well as the blood prophets and how the Others are dealing with them, and then there's Meg's growth to consider. It seems like the parallel of the other blood prophet's exposure to the outside and Meg's growth don't coherently fit into the same book and timeline. The issues that Meg goes through in the first half of the novel seem like they would have fit more believably in the previous two books. She's been at the Courtyard for months, and seemed to have settled comfortably in even as she's still learning her way around. Why is she only now beginning to become “overwhelmed”?

4.25 out of 5 stars.

I really liked this installment for a variety of reasons. I've come to love all the motifs that Koch sprinkles throughout her books like “I love the way you think”, “megalomaniac”, etc. It's just a part of the main character that distinguishes her as a person. “Kittyisms,” if you will.

The only thing I had an issue with in this installment were the amount of different Operations in the book. It seemed like at any moment in the book there were too many things going on and it became hard to keep track of who was in danger and the elaborate explanations behind all the action. Of course, there was a lot of convenient happenings when it came to the development of Kitty's “enhancements” and the fact that she could figure out so much of the megalomaniacs plans, but that's something I've come to terms with about this series. There's no feasible way that Kitty can figure out all the evil guys' plans just by growing up with the Conspiracy King and having read a lot of comic books. It's just a tad too out there, but so is the entire premise behind this series. Super-hot aliens from another planet and all that. If you're going to fully enjoy and immerse yourself in this series, you have to take a lot of things at face-value and appreciate the world-building and multitude of absurdly amazing characters for what they are.

I can't tackle this series from a reviewer standpoint and I'm not even going to try. I'm reading this series for my own pure, unadulterated enjoyment and entertainment. (That's probably a redundant statement but I stand by it.)

I will definitely continue on with this series for as long as I find it enjoyable and entertaining.

Jones's writing is so freaking brilliant. I cannot believe that an author can whittle me down so hard then build me back up so fantastically. It's amazing!

Okay so halfway through this book I was ready to take a break from it because it reintroduced a motif that ran through the entire series that I didn't particularly care for. Basically, the fact that in every single book there's always a lack of communication between Reyes and Charley. There's always too many secrets and it was really starting to tear me down in the sense that I wanted a break if the book series was going to continue on this way. But oh, what a surprise I was in for! Once I decided to stop being a coward and keep reading the second half of the book, I was able to see the deviousness behind Darynda Jones and her amazing writing skills.

There was a second thing that really fascinated me about this book and that was the character development. No doubt it goes hand-in-hand with what I mentioned before but Charley was almost like a–should I dare say it?–an adult in this book. She didn't lose any of her quirks–thank god–but even Reyes was proud of her. She was able to be objective about certain things that involved the people closest to her while not losing any of her fiery passion. She's able to see the consequences of her actions and either face them and apologize when she's in the wrong or fight for what she believes in and confront the risks.

Reyes grew a lot as well because he's able to open himself up and express his insecurities. For lack of a better word, it shows the humanity in him and the utter depths of his soul that have nothing to do with his hellish background but how he was able to rise up from the ashes, so to speak.

Overall, another awesome installment in a wonderful series.

(Can someone tell me if there's a blog out there that's collected all the little quotes that are posted at the beginning of every chapter? I'd love to revisit the ones from past books because they just keep getting better and better.)

Very, very good read. I love this series for a variety of reasons and one of them is the monologues. There may be too many at times but when one of the characters goes off on a tangent about their reasons for their actions (in this instance, George the All-knowing manipulator) it captures my attention every single time. Another example would be when the spiritual leaders from the Holy Anocracy and the otrokars were explaining to Dina what desperation could do to a person, especially a soldier. Each of these monologues were absolutely, fantastically written.

I loved the development of the characters because it was real and raw. It showed what a nonsensical war could do to a community and its people.

The one of the reasons this is not five stars is because I found some of the description of scenery and wildlife a bit superfluous. It was too much at times, and would distract from the plot of the novel. It would detract some of the magnificence of the characters and the overall plot in general.
The other reason is Dina. I enjoyed her character for the majority of the novel but there were times that I wished she expressed her opinions, if not out loud, then at least so the reader knows what's she's thinking and feeling. She is supposed to be a neutral party to her guests but it really muted her character and I feel like I didn't get enough of how she was feeling to really empathize with any of her actions.

Overall, I love this series and hope the authors continue it for a long while because I don't think there's a limit to how many stories can be told about Gertrude Hunt and its innkeeper. Or the vast universe that it's a part of.

Really nice plot-wise! I really enjoyed the fact that they author took the time to flesh out the series and the main plot line of the book but also wrote a fabulous wedding.

I'm taking this series at face-value more than I do other series because I think I would nitpick at the characters if I took this series too seriously. I do love the side characters a lot (especially James, the Airborne team, and Christopher and Chuckie) and I enjoy reading about the main characters. Sometimes it gets repetitive, however, that Jeff's biggest flaw is jealousy and we're supposed to like his stalkery ways because Kitty likes it. And while I mentioned in a previous review of the first book that I enjoy all-knowing female protagonists, it's gotten kind of annoying when everybody turns to her for the solution. I'm more of a all-knowing-but-doesn't-tell-anyone fan. (I know. I know. My tastes are very specific.)