So this book had a lot of surprises in it, surprisingly! For a chick lit, I thought it was going to be pretty straightforward, but I was shocked.There was so much that happened in the beginning of the book, where I literally gasped out loud and I was so intrigued to know how this was going to end. Usually, chick lits get wrapped up with a pretty bow, and I had an inkling that this wasn't going to be the case for this book. there is a happy ending for everyone, even if it's not right away and we don't know all the details.Without going into too much detail, because I don't want to ruin the book for anyone, I just want to go on record and say that I strongly disliked Chess' life choices. I felt bad for Tate. I wanted India to be strong. And I wanted Birdie to have the life that she really wanted. This is probably one the best chick lits I have read in a really long time. Great summer read. But I do have to say, that there were times when I wanted Elin to wrap it up. I only read this book in a day, but it was a LONG day. This wasn't the best, but it was a good story. It kept me reading until the end. But there was a lot of sorrow, jealousy, and loneliness to this book. I did shed some tears.Bottom line: Good chick lit, great summer read.
Lost Between Pages
I love to read. I tend to read more fiction versus nonfiction. I have a goal to read as many books as I can before the year is up. I like to challenge myself and I also like to discover books that I never would've picked up in the first place. I prefer real books, but lately I have become obsessed with how easy it is to download an ebook on my kindle.
So this book had a lot of surprises in it, surprisingly! For a chick lit, I thought it was going to be pretty straightforward, but I was shocked.There was so much that happened in the beginning of the book, where I literally gasped out loud and I was so intrigued to know how this was going to end. Usually, chick lits get wrapped up with a pretty bow, and I had an inkling that this wasn't going to be the case for this book. there is a happy ending for everyone, even if it's not right away and we don't know all the details.Without going into too much detail, because I don't want to ruin the book for anyone, I just want to go on record and say that I strongly disliked Chess' life choices. I felt bad for Tate. I wanted India to be strong. And I wanted Birdie to have the life that she really wanted. This is probably one the best chick lits I have read in a really long time. Great summer read. But I do have to say, that there were times when I wanted Elin to wrap it up. I only read this book in a day, but it was a LONG day. This wasn't the best, but it was a good story. It kept me reading until the end. But there was a lot of sorrow, jealousy, and loneliness to this book. I did shed some tears.Bottom line: Good chick lit, great summer read.
Yuck.This was horrible.I love the idea of twins, I even want them someday, just ask my husband I talk about it all the time! And then the fact that this book had psychic twins?! Uh, duh yeah! I wanted to read it.But this book...just YUCK! I had to finish it to know what happened, but seriously I just don't care.This read more like a day to day life than I ever wanted to hear about. I read books to escape my day to day life, not read about someone else cleaning up baby poop or doing laundry. Yawn. The fact that she cheated on her husband, got pregnant, knew it wasn't going to be her husband's baby and kept it just made me really hate Daisy/Kate. She was always trying to be something she wasn't and I hated that fakeness. But then this happened and it really cemented my hatred for her. I even hated Vi. I could not stand her; I thought she was really selfish, annoying, and just a spoiled brat who always mooched off her identical twin sister and never took anything seriously. Bottom line: I hated this book. Wish I would've never picked it up. Glad I didn't waste a lot of time on it - lots of skimming.
Neil Gaiman is just not for me folks!I was recommended this book by Amazon and GoodReads and let me tell ya, this was a bitter disappointment.It's a really short book, more like an exaggerated short story with nice binding, so it only took one sitting to get through.I just cannot for the life of me ever relate to what is going on in his books or to his characters. There's always so many questions unanswered and left to your own imagination. The problem with that in his style of writing, IMO, is that it's his fricking imagination that I'm paying for, that I'm looking for! That's why I picked up YOUR book. If I wanted to dream up a world, I would do it. But I would know why things the way they are and be able to not leave big gaping holes of nothing along the plot lines. Bottom line: I just always feel cheated whenever I read a Neil Gaiman book; I never get the full story. I'm always left wondering and never wanting more.
The Bookman's Tale: A Novel of Obsession
I couldn't get through this book. Stopped at page 133. I read some other reviews on here and they said that once they got to page 182 it got a lot better. I just couldn't put forth the effort in this one. I was so bored. I thought I was going to like it because it's a book about a bibliophile obsessed with books. I mean that sounds right up my alley, right? Unfortunately, it was just dragging on and on. I'll have to attempt it another time because it was due back today at the library with no chance of renewal due to someone else putting a hold on it. Oh well...Bottom line: Another one bites the dust...cover.
Oh Dan Brown. How you've disappointed me.I was so looking forward to this book. Italy, Dante's Inferno, possible outbreak of plague. You all know how I love me some viruses.Sadly, this book was just so cliché. So predictable. So LONG.I usually fly threw his books fairly quickly, usually about a day if that. But this one took me 5 days. I kept putting it down. I kept getting BORED.I love back story, I love learning about the symbols and architecture. But this book went WAY too much into details about all the places as opposed to the fast paced reading that I'm used to for Dan Brown. I felt like all those people he mentioned in the beginning, in the acknowledgements section, got their credit due to them. All this information, information over load, about Italy, which I love, but this was so consuming. I was suffocated. I don't care about the buildings in the middle of a high speed chase seen. The whole story...was interesting, but and that's a big BUT there, it could not hold my attention like his other books could.I wanted more, expected more, and didn't get what I wanted. Long wait time on this book...should have not gone into it expecting so much.Bottom line: Typical Dan Brown book, but nothing ever compares to [b:The Da Vinci Code|968|The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2)|Dan Brown|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1303252999s/968.jpg|2982101].
Partials
OK. I give up. I gave it my best shot. I will stop reading this now, maybe pick it up in the future. I've read 4 other books while reading this one. It's time to let go, Michelle, it's time to let go.
1.5 StarsThis was my FIRST Neil Gaiman...and I think it will be my last.The premesis for this book sounded good: a boy who was raised by ghosts in a graveyard after his family was brutally murdered.Alas, so much disappointment. It could have been really good in my opinion, but I was sorely deflated by continuing to read the book.There were many times where I wanted to stop reading it, but I kept pushing through because I really value Newberry Award winners and their standards that they set for their book winners.I just don't understand how this was a Newberry Award winner. It was a cute tale, but I feel it should have been more of a short story than a whole book. Bottom line: Not that impressed.
There was just so much hype about this "coming of age" tale. It really fell flat for me. Don't get me wrong, I read it all in one sitting, but this book...I don't even know how to explain it. I got to the end and let out this huge sigh. Were we never supposed to find out who these letters were going to? Did I just miss that?I felt like these letters were the inner monologues of all the Law and Order: SVU victims. The highs, the lows. I was getting so much whiplash. So much going on. With all these kids. So much sex in their lives. Every one of them. I could not come to appreciate this book like others before me. I'm glad I read it, so now my opinion is formed and I can say I read it. But this was not a "good" book IMO. Bottom line: So much hype, such a big let down.
This book...I have nothing to compare it to. It is such a good tale! GREAT STORY! So positive.There's so much to this book; a man's life, history being made, the people he meets, all of these totally random things happen, but yet they all fit perfectly into place.I laughed, I cried. This was a true dramatic book with such a great lesson: whatever will happen, will happen; just keep your chin up.I loved this book. And don't get me wrong, there were times where I thought to just skim through the historical parts, but I was afraid I was going to miss something, so I thoroughly read every word. And I'm glad I did.The only way I could possibly relate this book to anything, would be to Forrest Gump. Except the main character is not mentally challenged, he's so intellectually stimulating, and instead of being Southern, he's Swedish. He's just really old. His stories are amazing. He's really quite funny, charming, and so, so smart.Bottom line: STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND READ THIS BOOK.
4.5 StarsI am usually not one for non-fiction. Not at all. And I've only read a couple of biographies and one other memoir, but this one...this is how memoirs should be.Jenny Lawson is laugh out loud. I can't believe the things that happened, but more I can't believe that at how similiar our thought patterns are! I was guffawing at this book and my husband was looking at me like I was crazy (which is normal), but that scene that she has to call her husband and say that she is lost and then comes up with an idiot GPS that identifies landmarks - I'm screaming YES! Yes! Because I go by landmarks too!Anyway, this was a total hoot. I did not want to put it down! Very funny, witty, and seriously the shit that went on in her childhood and later on in her life...I'm very happy to find that she came out laughing in the end.Bottom line: Highly recommend for a good laugh. Not your typical memoir. I can't wait to look her up to follow her on Twitter and her blog now.
First of all, when I picked this up from the library in the "new" mystery section, the inside of this book only showed one other book that this author has written with NO indication that this was a series. Even when I was reading the book, it did not reference anything out of the ordinary that pertained to another book until 250 pages in!Needless to say, this was like pulling teeth for me. I understand that this was set in Stockholm, Sweden and various other major cities around the globe, i.e. Bangkok Thailand, but the names, places, and people were all a bit dodgy for me. I never really connected with any of them.They all had their own individual scenarios they were dealing with and the only thing that related them all together was this "special unit" within their police force, which later on ended up only being made up of 2 people at the end!Frederika, I mean really? In love with a man 25 years her senior, with a baby on the way? That relationship was so messed up. This whole story line was so messed up. Everything about this book was so trivial and hard to follow at times. Can you tell that the more I write about it, the more I hate it?I had to finish it though, to see how the ending played out. And even that was sub par, just like the rest of the book. I mean, was I really expecting anything less? I guess not.This author was NOT for me. These characters were NOT for me. This book was NOT for me.Bottom line: There was really no "mystery" or suspense. It was another television cop show, that just took place in Sweden so all the names were alike for the bad guys. I kept getting them confused. The only character that was slightly interesting was Joar, but then he left this special unit so it was like OMG! I give up..So glad it's over and never have to think of any part of this ever again.
 - Kristina Ohlsson)
WOW.Not going to lie, I was really, really bored with this book when I first began it. But people just kept talking about it. They would not shut up about it, so I just kept pushing on. It took all of my concentration to really read it and so much effort it took to just get through it.There was so much ... "fluff" shall we say? Fluff that I felt could've been scrapped.I don't want to spoil this book for anyone, so I will not reveal the plot twist. But my GOD. Wow!!This was definitely a psychological thriller than any mystery thriller. For me, it didn't go as fast in the beginning. Everyone said to keep going, keep reading, just wait, just wait. So I plunged along and man! I knew that if I gave up, I would've missed out on a really good story. I'm glad I stuck it out. It was a good story. But it's not a favorite. Like the shock factor is there all right, but couldn't say that I would necessarily re-read it. Not to say that if I did re-read it I wouldn't pick up on more things, but this just was a one time book for me, because the big reveal, man behind the curtain is known. Overall, slow beginning, almost to the point where I wanted to give up, but the plot twist was very good, and then the ending was just so-so. It still took me for a rollercoaster ride, which everyone was saying that it would do, so it definitely delivered.
1
Dear HC,Oh Harlan. You know you're my favorite author. But I have to admit, I was sorely disappointed with this one. Don't get me wrong; you sucked me in with the first 100 pages or so of the novel. But it just got to the point where I wanted you to find this mysteriously perfect, love of your life Natalie. I wanted to love her like you did. I only got glimpses of past lovingly things. Why did she have to wait so long to make an appearance? Why did it take so long to find her?And excuse me, what was the time frame that you haven't spoken to Natalie? Six years. When was the last time you heard from her? Six years. Seen her? Six...years. So...you haven't seen her since when? SIX YEARS! Oh. I see. Seriously? I get it. The title was perfectly chosen because you just had to say it ONE MORE TIME.Like a true Coben fan, I feverishly read through it, burning the pages as I go, because I was reading so fast. I have to admit that I did have to set it down to go to sleep, even though I really didn't want to. (Work gets in the way of life/reading sometimes.) Alas, I was not as satisfied as I usually am with your novels. I feel like the pursuit of the chase, the "foreplay" if you will, was so long and tiring, that the "climax" was just a dudd. You did however cuddle afterwards, in the sense that, you wrapped it up nicely with a bow. Not your best; I've had better. But you will always be my favorite.Yours always, MichelleP.S. Please go to back Myron and Win. At least let Win have more of a spotlight in Mickey's life. And not just a pop in, save the day kind of situation. Win deserves to shine, especially all that he sacrificed.
Dead Ever After: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel (Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood)
1.5 starsOmg if I had to read about Sookie going to take another shower this book would've hit the wall.I am SOOOOOOO glad this series is over with! I'm so tired of Charlaine milking this cash cow.Not surprised with how she ended things; nothing really ever tied up nicely with a bow.Who she choose for Sookie to end up with...not my first pick. Or second for that matter.Someone had told me, that if I watch the show True Blood, which I do, then do NOT read the last installment (don't really want to call it a book because this was just ramblings from Sookie, more like a mental diary) of this series because it would ruin the show for you. I really wished I would've heeded that advice now. Oh well.It's finally over with. I can put it to rest. I don't even want to think about the other possibilities that could've played out, or should've played out. I'm so disappointed with this series. But so glad it's over with. Talk about beating a dead horse. Enough already! Finally the end has come.Can you tell I'm glad it's over with? Lol.
2.5 StarsThis was good for a YA vampire novel. I mean there was a little bit different twist with this book. I liked the post apocalyptic edge to it.Overall, decent book. Interested to see what happens with the next installment.
Reflected in You (Crossfire Trilogy Series #2)
It was good. Not the best thing ever, but I'm definitely intrigued to see where the storyline will go.
