Shattering Halos by Sunniva Dee

Has awesome initial reviews on goodreads.  However,  I have yet to catch the hype bus on this one. I feel like it’s coming, but that maybe I just won’t care when it arrives.
Maybe I’ll eat my words. Maybe not.

Nope. No go. Not a fan.

Symphony of Light and Winter by Renea Mason

DNF. Too confusing (I feel like I missed a book before this one), and I didn’t care enough about the characters to wait it out. It needs a strong edit for content and flow so it makes sense. I think the intent was to keep the reader engaged enough to unravel a mystery, but it simply came off as jumbled, not mysterious. I’m disappointed, as I was looking forward to this read for a while now.

Crash Into Me by Tracy Wolff

I have read several of Tracy Wolff’s books, and I have really liked them. This one I have already started, and I am about half-way through. This one is readable so far, the characters somewhat enjoyable, and the cover is super neat to look at.

Unfortunately, so far it is also the same story I have read several times already. Hopefully something will grab me and change my opinion before it ends.

 

ETA: Nope, nothing changed…

Is it Matthews or Montgomery? Two stars is generous considering the lead male’s last name changes more than the direction of his thoughts. This story is…cute. Nothing stands out in vibrant color; it is drab and dull and already been done, and with better sex. Jamison was annoying, while Ryder just seemed stupid. Every time it seemed like something was going to happen, the story went nowhere, the threads dropped, never to be picked up again. There were also a couple of plot points that came out of left field; no build-up, they just happened. I won’t be bothered with book 2

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

This has been on my nightstand since I picked up a pristine copy from a second-hand store for $1.00. And when I say “on my nightstand,” I mean literally on my nightstand next to my bed. I have no idea what has taken me so long to start reading it; turns out it isn’t half bad. Though there are some issues I am having at 125 pages in, I am hoping those pages will be able to be labeled a “rocky start” so I can review the book as highly as I’d like to when I am finished.

Review to come!

ETA: I couldn’t do it. This is a rare thing for me, but this one has to be labeled Did Not Finish. And I hate not finishing a book! Putting it on the Read it But…shelf because I don’t have a category for not finishing a book (it really doesn’t happen often with me).

This book actually has relatively high ratings; Goodreads has it a 3.99, currently. I wanted to like this book. The premise was what drew me to it. And it should have been great, phenomenal even. But it wasn’t. It was long, drawn-out, confusing; it jumped from one time period to another time period, and this group of people to that group of people…and I didn’t care for the point of view. It read stiffly, not magically.
There really was nothing here that I personally liked, and I am frustrated because this mystical, magical, romantic genre is totally my thing. This wasn’t it.

Addicted by JoAnn DeLazzari

Scooped this up on kindle for under $5. Has decent reviews (though not many yet), so I thought I’d give it a try. I will say, right out of the gate…not liking this cover so much. Maybe because it has been overdone? Maybe. Or maybe it just doesn’t look all that hot? Full review to come.

Update: Unfortunately I had to place this in the I read it, but it was nothing to write home about category. Just like the cover, it turns out the entire story, the characters, and the writing were just…meh.  Let me be clear: it wasn’t a bad read. I just didn’t love it. The characters were stiff, one dimensional, and completely forgettable. I actually just blanked on the female lead’s name (Nikki), which is way sad because that is my sister’s name! At times the book dragged, and I found myself wanting to skim just to be done. Again, not a bad read, just nothing great. The brightest spot was the male lead, King, and even he was someone I’d pass on.

If this book were 99 cents instead of almost $5, my rating might have been different, but as it is, the cost was too high.

Music of the Heart by Katie Ashley

I’m a bit late in posting this…I actually finished it this afternoon. So here goes:

This is not a book I would reread, nor is this a book that I will discuss and rave about. This is a book that I will tell people to read if they like a light romance that is 100% predictable and completely cheesy. The storyline is cute. Nothing more, nothing less. There is no “wow” factor and there is nothing that makes this story unique. The characters, aside from being annoying, were simply stock characters.

The entire time I was reading I couldn’t shake the feeling that this book is schizophrenic. It wants to be a sweet and innocent romance…and then there will be a an undertone of erotica that tries to break through but never quite manages.

 

Own the Wind by Kristen Ashley

I seriously didn’t care for this one, although props for FINALLY getting some professional editing. It made the book a normal length and it cut down on the repeated words and phrases. Unfortunately, I found Tabby and Shy to be so annoying, I had a hard time giving two craps about them. And true to Ashley form, all of her characters (usually just the males), speak in these stilted half-sentences that need to be reread many times so they make sense. Also true to form are the idiotic catch phrases that the characters utter repeatedly (took her back, got me, etc).
So why two stars instead of only one? First, the editing. There are several of her previous titles that would have rated much higher with me if they had the editing that this one had. Second…nope. That’s it for this one.

 

Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

As per my usual, I have not seen the movie. So far this is a fast moving and funny-sad story, which I believe it is intended to be. I tend to not like these types of books. We will see…

ETA: Okay, I with struggled where to place this one…I read it but…or Recommended Reading. Ultimately, I cannot place it as recommended reading because I would not recommend this to everyone. Maybe it is my disdain for reading books that closely mirror real life; after all, I read to escape.

If you like reading about mentally screwed up people, and how their being screwed up has messed up their lives and relationships, then this is the read for you.

Fifty Shades…

* The following is a review I wrote shortly after reading all three Fifty Shades books. I have it posted on my tumblr website as well *

50 Shades of Reading Induced Vomiting

Fifty Shades of Grey:

I loathe this series. I have been reading this genre for it seems like ever, and I know others have as well. And what I have found is that for people whom this genre is nothing new, this is garbage. The hype it has gotten is disturbing considering the writing quality is piss-poor, the characters unrealistic and annoying as hell, and it has no plot whatsoever. How these books garnered the label BDSM is unfathomable.

Here’s the problem: A bunch of bored stay at home mommies are brushing aside their Nicholas Sparks books, and picking this up, believing it is soooooo taboo (tee hee, blush heavily, hide the book), and calling it wonderful (I guess if they think Nicholas Sparks is the shit already, we’ve found our problem). Then there are your twenty-somethings, with stars in their eyes and hormones raging, thinking this lifestyle would go great with all their piercings, tattoos, and dystopian views, picking it up and talking about how the book and characters “spoke to them on such a deep level.”One blog I read recently by a twenty something, who obviously thinks she is the shit, wrote several posts about how she cried, and identified with this so much. Blech! Give me a fucking break. Please.

Ladies, I can name several authors who have been writing this genre longer and vastly better than the pretentious E.L. James. Books with an actual storyline. Books with characters that utter more than 5 phrases throughout the entire series: Oh Fifty!; My inner goddess (spare me, please); I woke up and I was warm, and Christian was wrapped around me like______ (insert clinging plant-life here).

This is NOT BDSM. Repeat: NOT BDSM. If you want to read a well written BDSM story, pick up Wicked Ties by Shayla Black (book one in a series), or the fantastic, orgasm inducing Slave to Love by Nikita Black. If you like your stories with a little urban fantasy/paranormal bent, try The Vampire Queen’s Servant by Joey W. Hill (this is a series as well). No, what this is, is a story about a guy who was abused, and became a control freak because of it. The scary part? Women and younger girls reading this think it is desirable for their man to treat them the way Christian treats Ana. Hello?!?! Wake up!!!! She spent most of the 3 books CRYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Idiots.

Now, if you are simply looking for a read with gratuitous sex and romance (along with a decent plot and characters), as I suspect MOST of the readers of Fifty Shades of Shit- er…Grey are, then try anything by Maya Banks, or Lora Leigh’s Wild Riders series. If you want a great romance with hot sex and a paranormal/uf aspect, read the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward. And those are just a scant few.

I believe most women that read Fifty Shades of Crap aren’t into the idea of BDSM. What they are really looking for is blatant sex on the page between a veritable caveman and a hot woman that they can identify with. Very few like the idea of the cuffs and the floggers, but love the idea of the man telling her, with a hand on her shoulder pushing her to her knees, to suck his cock, with the word “baby” tacked on. The issue is, the readers of Fifty aren’t making that connection. And because of that, we have Fifty Shades of Nausea being overtly popular, made so by people who haven’t the first clue.

Okay, rant over…maybe.

 

* I have added this review after the fact because I keep hearing that there is a movie being made…dear lord. Don’t we already have that?  Isn’t it called porn…? Just a thought.

Wounded by Jasinda Wilder

3.5 stars because I liked the soldier/fallen woman angle, and in that regard, this book works well. The story starts very strong, pulls you in almost effortlessly, and keeps you turning the pages.But it doesn’t last. Without spoilers, it turns extremely repetitive and cumbersome to get through at roughly the halfway mark. It almost feels like a different author at that point. The writing, aside from repetitive, becomes unbelievable and completely rushed, leaving me wondering where it all walked off to. Vanilla sex that is hot and sweet but made boring by hearing the Rania’s thoughts…she has 3, and they are said over and over again, overtake everything else as this story barrels toward its completely predictable end. Good, but not the author’s best consistent effort