Review - Night Shift

Night Shift by Charlaine Harris

2 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes

What and Why, these are the two words you might find yourself thinking while reading this last book in the series.

This book felt very rushed to get to a kind of a meh conclusion. I mean everything was slow paced before but this just felt like the author wanted just to be done with the series.

I like multiple points of view books a lot usually. This though felt like Harris couldn’t pick which character she wanted to be the protagonist. You flit from person to person but don’t really find out a lot about anybody.

They introduce something extremely interesting about Manfred’s family but then don’t really go into it a lot.  

The whole end game kind of felt like an afterthought and a no duh kind of moment on who would be participating. Their solution doesn’t really feel like much of a solution… Plus nobody really got a satisfying conclusion.

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P.S. The TV show has me hooked and I recommend it a lot more than I do these books. The show is definitely cheesy but in an awesome way. The pacing is much less slow and things are happening crazy fast. The characters are also a lot easier to connect to on the screen then via the books.

Review - Crosstalk

Crosstalk by Connie Willis  

* Received via NetGalley for review

My Favorite Quotes/Lines:

“No, I’ve got just the thing. An app that translates what you say into what people want to hear. I text you, ‘You’re an idiot to be having brain surgery for any reason, let alone for some infantile notion that it’ll bring you true love,’ and the phone sends it as, ‘Wow! Trent asked you to get an EED! How romantic!’ I call it the Hook, Line, and Sinker app.”

“Never underestimate the power of a good book.”

2 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes

I have a love hate relationship with this book. I was actually actively disliking it until about 40 percent through it. It just felt like a lot of set up for not a lot of pay off. The main character Briddey is not very likable at first and well rather annoying. For a lot of the book I would really have wanted the point of view to be anybody but her, anybody. (I think I really would have loved the book if it had been from C.B.'s point of view.)

The twists could have been a lot more twisty. I experienced a lot of no duh moments waiting for the main character to catch up. This was disappointing because It not usually any good at seeing twists coming. These were all very telegraphed except for one towards the end.

The telepathy part is when the interesting finally kicks in. The explanation and what they can do is confusing but still intriguing.

The bad guy is pretty obvious from page one but the slow building of a relationship starts to shine through. By the end I found myself curious about where the characters/what the author would do next.

Mini Review - The Jock and the Fat Chick

The Jock and the Fat Chick by Nicole Winters

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This story is pretty darn predictable but it is a fun read most of the time.  

Kevin is really bro-tastic aka he acts like he has to be a manly man all of the time. Then for good reasons he gets put into a cooking class or Domestic Tech (which I’m pretty sure is a really old fashioned name for that kind of class.) Cooking introduces him to Claire who is not who Kevin would normally be around. She sounds pretty normal but he and his friends only go out with the popular girls/cheerleaders.

Kevin and Claire make for an interesting combo and there are the obvious complications along the way. They both make some definitely not great decisions but it does feel earned when they find their way back to each other.

A certain part had me sobbing pretty good because I always worry just a bit too much when a dog in a story has issues.

Overall a quick read that could have used just a little more depth to it all.

Review - The Duff

The DUFF by Kody Kleplinger

2 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes

This book, well first of all I thought it was going to be a lot funnier than it actually was. It was good but not spectacular and by the end not many of the characters are likable.

It looks like the movie’s going to be completely different from the book according to the description at IMDB.com (I have a feeling I might like the movie more.)

The book has a good concept with the whole role of the DUFF but I don’t think it sticks the landing. To start with Wesley is the only one you hear use that word, it would work better if everybody used that for an insult.

It did have good parts but a lot of the time it was hard to understand why all the character do what they do. Though it did have the whole kind of bad soap opera aspect where you want to keep reading just to see what happens.

Where the book lost me though was that I really, really, really didn’t like how the whole alcohol problem was dealt with. Everything just ended up being taken care of way too easily with no real consequences. I kind of had the same problem with her parents and their problems too, they just don’t feel very fleshed out. Bianca forgives them both entirely too fast especially after what they both did. Plus what happened with her father, to just pretty much talk about that once and not say anything again is just really damn weird.

The book was good in pieces but I found myself plodding through the story at times instead of enjoying it.

Review/Rant - Allegiant

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

2 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes

Oh Allegiant,  why did you have to go and break my heart like that. I’m afraid that we can’t be friends anymore and I may have to shelf you apart from the first book in the series which I loved. You start off strong first but things go downhill when the reader starts getting some answers.

Don’t get me wrong I adore the characters of Tobias and Tris and most of the other characters. The choices that are made will make you raise your eyebrows and wonder what exactly these characters are thinking.

Thinks pick up right where they stopped from the last book. The message is now out but nobody can agree what to do. Tris and Tobias make the decision that you know they’re going to and this leads to some major revelations.

I should have known things were headed in a shaky direction when purity started being brought up so much. There city is not the only conflict out there and the world is not exactly what they were expecting.

What everyone thought was the truth isn’t really so much and I’m not sure that I at all like what the truth is.

These characters go through quite a journey and it’s a very very very final ending and let’s just say you better be ready for one heck of a depressing ending and that in my opinion the last chapter is a tad cheesy for the series.

**SPOILERS BELOW**

Rant =

Tiny Reverse Vampire saw how the book was going to end long before I did because as she pointed out why else would a series  change to two points of view unless one of the characters was going to die… Of course she was right and I didn’t think of that because I guess I have a blind spot after reviewing a lot of YA books (I just know that dual points of view are popular and thought the author was trying to cash in on that.)

I was so freaking mad/sad at this ending because I really thought a different ending was being set up. Here’s why I think that:

* When David has the truth/fear serum cocktail and they want to know the password to get into the room he sounds crazy yes but he also keeps saying her name and I was pretty sure he wasn’t talking about Tris. It is obvious that he was in love with her mother so I thought the ending being set up would be that the password for the room was Natalie so then no explosions or secondary measures would have ever been set off and Tris still could have faced David but without the other issues.

* After David is injured and in the wheelchair they make such a big deal about how weak he is and even how people have to push him around.  Yet he’s strong enough to shoot Tris at least 2 times, killing her. If he was so weak why couldn’t she overpower him, sure she was weak from fighting off the death serum but she was also Dauntless trained and a darn good fighter.

* Death serum...really? The heroine of the whole series survives freaking death serum only to get shot!!! Infuriating is pretty much how this made me feel.  Yes I read Roth’s reasoning for this and can see why she feels that way and why she went there but I think it would have worked better without the getting shot part or you know not killing Tris at all…. :)

* They do all this to just erase the memories of one compound of people...There are other cities/experiments that do not agree at all with the genetically damaged people being allowed to do what they want. I assume that they will be checked on eventually or you know shut down the hard way where everyone gets to lose their memory or you know a new war may break out or the death serum will be discovered and unleashed killing everyone.

* With this ending I kind of wish that this trilogy had been a standalone.

Review - The Ultra Violets

The Ultra Violets by Sophie Bell

* Book received from the publisher for review

2 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes

This is a fun read but would have been greatly enhanced if it was shorter. According to Amazon this book has an, “Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up.”  I know I’m not exactly in that age demographic but I like to think that I have a long attention span this book though took entirely too long to read.

I love the illustrations that are included as part of the story, I wish there had been even more illustrations because they add a lot to the story.  It feels like a comic book mixed with a cartoon and would have been even better with more visuals to pack more of a punch.  The dialect/slang of the story is funny but at times it feels like the story is trying too hard to make up words/sound cool.   

The main characters are well done and you find out a little bit about each girl along with their babysitter Candace.  Iris, Cheri, Opaline, and Scarlet start as the best of friends who have an almost Powerpuff Girls kind of accident in a lab.  The story then picks up 4 years later when they’re all back together again.  My favorite character is Scarlet because she’s the most feisty out of the group and she develops a very interesting talent. Cheri is another great character because she cares so much about animals.  Opal and Iris are kind of two different ends of a wide spectrum.  Iris is super happy and Opal is the nervous/paranoid one of the group.

The plot meanders a bit but their chemistry as a group is what kept me reading.  The big bad of the story is just told to you outright and the badish character doesn’t take too long to be revealed.

The story’s goofy energy and fun giggly characters are worth reading about and if you’re looking for a book with a comic/cartoon-like feel, than this may be the book for you.

Spectral Story

Notes from Ghost Town by Kate Ellison

* ARC received from the publisher for review

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Oh Notes from Ghost Town, I thought we would be good friends but no you really weren’t what I was expecting.  I mean everything started out great with your prologue, that’s what drew me to you.  After that initial meeting though things became confusing/weird.  

At first I thought your main character was in college and just back home for the summer but then I was really thrown for a loop when I found out that she was only sixteen.  I thought from the first chapter you were going to be one of those New Adult type books and I was cool with that.  I think you misrepresented yourself just a bit and maybe could have been stronger if the main character and her friends were in college instead of high school.  

I would have liked to know more about pretty much all of the relationships portrayed.  Olivia is an interesting character, she just feels rather disconnected from the other characters especially her best friend and the guy she might just like/love.  I believe she’s supposed to be seen as an unreliable narrator but from the prologue and first chapter I had the feeling that all of these events had already happened (so you get the feeling the whole time that everything turned out all right in the end.)

You had some great paranormal stuff going on, I just wish there had been more and maybe have a certain ghost be explained more.  I mean your tagline is “First loves never die.”  When you have a great line like that I really want to see more love happening before characters are inevitably pulled apart.

Your mystery was a tad too easy to solve and (I’m someone who’s usually terrible at solving mysteries and figuring out who the bad guy is.)  This murder mystery didn’t seem to have enough urgency, maybe the story would have been more exciting if it had been told right after the murder happens.

I spent much more time with you then I originally thought I would because I kept trying to find ways to avoid you.  I finally finished with you and just felt kind of meh.  You certainly have a lot of build up but they you just fizzle out at the end.

Garish Glow

Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan

* Received ARC from TOR via a post on Twitter where the first 100 people to respond won a copy.

2 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes

This book kind of felt awkward while reading, I don’t think I’ve ever vacillated between loving and hating a book so much while reading. The book has it's good parts but there is some stuff that it kind of hard to get through. I found myself wondering throughout why the book is titled Glow. It's a good title but doesn't seem to connect anywhere in the story so far.

Books set in space always interest me just because there is so much that can be done with this environment. My love for all things Star Trek probably also influences my love for space books. It's easy to have lots of tension when people are stuck in one environment and have nowhere else to go. 

In this book the main tension though is pretty predictable when in the first chapter you find out that they aren't the only ship out there. No one knows what to expect and then of course things go awry. It was surprising how fast things went wrong and how ill prepared the adults of the ship were when there's big troubles.

I usually like books that have two points of view.  This book though, not so much.  At first I really liked Kieran but then I got to the chapters from his point of view.  They just bring the action in the story to a screeching halt. Waverly actually grew on me as a character while Kieran just made me madder the more it switched to his chapters. I would love this story a lot more if it was all told from Waverly's point of view.

Waverly by far is the stronger character of the two. She becomes the defacto leader of the girls because she's the oldest. They all look to her to see what they should do when they are separated from everybody but each other. She is actually a believable leader for a rebellion I just wish more time had been spent showing all the planning that Waverly and the girls have to do to escape.

The two love interests couldn't be more different. If we're picking teams though, I'm definitely Team Waverly over any of the guys. Kieran seems to be to pliable and like he might go power hungry eventually. Seth, the other love interest, seems like a good guy at first but as the story progresses isn't exactly a stable guy. 

There's a lot of craziness in this story and that's what kept me reading. Plenty of uncomfortable moments abound and will make you question if there are any good guys. Another bit that is kind of all over the place is the view on religion. Even in the future I don't think that ships would be separated purely by religion (that's just asking for trouble). Even though I'm not the most religious person I'm not sure that religion should be shown to be the answer to or the most evil thing all in one novel. I guess I just like a bit more hope in stories.

The ending does make the set up for the next book look interesting but I don't know if I'll actively seek out the next book or just wait until it's on sale somewhere. Overall an okay read but not as exciting as I originally thought it would be.

Most awkward quote ever:

"He loved her long arms, her strong bones beneath olive skin, and the silken hairs hairs that wandered up her fore-arms."

My thought upon reading the above quote: Who the heck talks like that.  Not exactly what you would want a guy thinking about, right??