Monday 30 May 2016

"Depravity: Beastly Tales Part 1" Book Review



My Rating: ★★★★★ 5 Stars

Let me just start off by saying that this was the very first Melissa Haag book that I read and I gained immense respect for her after this book. I’ve read other titles under her other name and they have not disappointed me, at all.
1. Cover ★★★★★
A beast lurking in the shadowy background, dark-haired young girl in a beautiful gown, creepy woods? Sold!! I loved the cover, something about it called out to my inner dark side and we made a pact to stick together till the end of the series.
When I first stumbled upon this book, can’t exactly remember how, (since I’m writing this review based on my second read of this book. I first read it in 2015) I think I was into fairy tale retellings. At the time I had just tossed a book into my DNF folder (A Cameron Jace retelling of Snow White?), one I tried to complete reading over a course of maybe a month. So I desperately wanted to read something that would pull me out of my reading slump.
When I came across the MJ Haag book I suddenly had the urge to check out the summary, so I did. Then I ordered a sample from Amazon because I really didn’t want to buy it then regret my purchase (somehow, even then I knew I wouldn’t regret the purchase, I don’t know how).
I guess that’s how engaging the cover was, so for that it deserves a 5-star rating.
2. Premise ★★★★★
Benella, a less fortunate, sixteen year old is being tormented by two village boys whom she desperately tries to avoid while she forages for food to help feed her family of 4. The best food however is on an enchanted estate in the dark woods which houses an unwelcoming, scary beast.
After the two village-boys lock her behind the gates of the estate she knows this is the end of her life and she has accepted that, but what she didn’t expect was a beast that would be so forgiving. There begins a “relationship” between the two where she keeps bargaining with him.
I loved the premise and I think I’m using the word love way too much already. But I loved it! It was appealing, gripping and I wanted to find out more.
I also thought of it as unique, since the beauty and best story we have grown to love did not include a pair of brothers torturing the demure Belle. I also liked the scrounging part – it felt a bit like a post-apocalyptic survival novel which I always enjoy. I enjoy reading about humans in distress and how they survive.
So I gave the premise a 5-star rating for being gripping and unique.
3. Plot ★★★★★
The plot was superb, in my humble opinion. Now, I know someone else might give this 1 star or 3 stars etc. because to them it wasn’t what they expected, or not what they wanted to read. But in my opinion, and only my opinion and based on my preference, I gave this 5 stars because I loved the plot.
Too many times the sexual encounters in an adult book take away from the plot. Or there are just too many sex scenes that the plot development gets placed on the back burner.
This was complete 180. The plot was paramount, with the sexual tension being interwoven in there with as much vigour. The plot and sexual tension was executed brilliantly as a whole.
I don’t want to give away any spoilers, I really don’t….
This is a love/survival story which will have you so invested in the life of our main character that you’ll laugh, feel every emotion she goes through and root for her from Depravity to Devastation.
4. Genre Representation ★★★★★
If you’re looking for something overly erotic, you might as well move along. If you want an adult book, with mild sexual language, a gripping plot with enthralling sexual tension and anticipated romance then look no further.
I loved the mild sexual language; I also absolutely loved the anticipated romance. You know it will happen, you’re not sure when but you’re willing to wait and ride the journey with our protagonists while they get to know and tolerate each other. I think the tension and anticipation is so much better and worth it.
5. Characters ★★★★★
The character interactions were believable. Maybe I’m in love with this book so much that I am biased, because even when I hated some of the things a character did I still loved the book. Those interactions had to happen so that we could feel for our main character and thus get us (the readers) fully invested in the story.
So, we have Benella, our Belle, who is strong, opinionated, caring, hard-working and pretty darn fit, since she runs a lot and fights a lot in this book. She is a bit naïve in the art of all things sexual though, but that’s okay because she’s young and more concerned with feeding her family. However, she does know what the phallus is so Kudos to you girly!
The beast – he’s angry, forgiving (ish), self-centred, wants what he wants and must have it. His satyriasis controls him and is the main reason he’s in this mess.
The interaction between Benella and Beast is to die for. They have a sort of witty banter while they’re bargaining. Benella isn’t too afraid of Beast so she basically tells him what’s on her mind paying no attention to her attitude. Beast attributes that to her being smart and knowing how to negotiate, but it infuriates him to no end. No doubt he has ever met such a highly opinionated female. He’s probably accustomed to only hearing moans from the women with which he has had encountered in the past.
There are the sisters – Bryn and Blye. Selfish, inconsiderate, skilled in their respective art and what more can I say? They’re a great addition to the supporting characters’ cast.
While Benella scrounges for food, Bryn is the one who cooks, cleans and does laundry for the family. She has a fling with Tennen, the elder of the awful village boys who torments Benella. She believes Tennen’s family will rescue her from her poor lifestyle and whisk her away into blissful marriage. Boy! She couldn’t be more wrong, since Tennen’s family is also poor and I don’t like to gossip butttttt –Did you hear that his mom Sara was on the bakery’s counter top with that corpulent, pervy baker? Apparently he samples her goods in exchange for some coins. But you didn’t hear it from me.
So yeah, Bryn thinks she’s in love with a guy she couldn’t be more wrong about.
Blye on the other hand sews, it’s her passion and she hides whatever money she makes in the hopes that she’ll one day leave her home and happily be on her own.
The reason I said they’re both selfish is because they both hide their money and refuse to spend even when the family is going through a rough time. There was once the family had nothing to eat and they flat-out refused to admit that they had a stash of coins. I mean come on! Just spare a coin.
Their father, Bernard, works in the village as a teacher for a modest salary. It’s quite small and he gives his family every last coin that he makes, same as with Benella. He is a good father who loves his daughters and tries his best to support and provide for them. Despite their egotistical ways, she still loves Blye and Bryn and would gladly die for them.
6. Journey ★★★★★
Did I enjoy the journey this book took me on? Yes, yes, a thousand times YES. I thoroughly enjoyed the character interactions especially between Benella and the Beast. I loved reading how she grew to tolerate being around him. It actually felt like a journey, I read and understood what she thought of him on the first encounter, I was invested in the book so I also felt like I was gradually getting to know him and letting him in.
7. Ending ★★★★★
Was it predictable or unique? Well, it’s a series, so the author had to write it in such a way where a book 2 would continue where the book 1 left off.
The ending had to happen for book 2 to be possible, it just had to, but the way it happened left me thinking “Yeah, I don’t think it could have ended any other way”.
I didn’t see that situation coming from a mile away but somehow I should’ve because there was really no other way. I doubt Benella would have agreed to what the beast was proposing so he gave her an ultimatum. There was simply no other way.
I liked the situation her family was thrown into; I did – a bit of harmless coercion.
8. Writing Style ★★★★★
Her writing style was pretty simple, but in a positive way. I didn’t have to trudge through simile hell to get to the next point. It was clear, concise, very straightforward and well-edited. There was only one error which is still fine in my books.

Friday 27 May 2016

"Through the Zombie Glass(White Rabbit Chronicles #2)" Book Review

My Rating ★★★★☆ 4.5 Stars
Following the pattern of Alice in Zombieland, book 2 in the series dons a captivating, magical/whimsical cover which would (should) reel in any avid YA fantasy reader.
1. Premise ★★★★★
Ali, our slayers and the Zombies are back. After a zombie attack she is left experiencing strange new things, dark changes are on the horizon and Ali is determined to get through this as a champ. She needs her slayer friends now more than ever to help her get through but Cole suddenly withdraws from not just her, but from everyone.
The Premise! I loved the promise of ‘something wicked this way comes’. When I first read the premise I was hoping for a similarity to what the protagonist in Jordan’s Brains: A Zombie Evolution experienced in the second adventure (note the lack of pronoun use – the book never specified the gender of the main character. How cool is that?!) And that’s what I got. I love reading the POVs from the dark side since heroes can be so dull at times.
I’m not a fan of reading about friendships or romance, but I’d pick reading romance over girl friendships any day of the week. So when I read that Kat would have a pronounced role in this instalment I was already warming up for the countless eye rolls I’d have to perform throughout every scene she popped into. And yes, I did more eye rolls than expected. Something about girl friendships always tend to get on my nerves – they say whatever they want with no regard to each other’s feelings then come crawling back like all is well, very Disney-esque in my opinion, a bit too happy ending-y.
The other major point I noticed in the premise was Cole’s emotional/physical withdrawal from Ali. Again, this is one of the things I don’t like in romance, there’s always the happy, then the withdrawal then the reunion. BUT, it happens in real life and I/we can’t avoid it there so why should books avoid it, right? In my mind I was already thinking up multiple unorthodox paths their relationship would take – the end always being the same where they don’t end up together, I kinda like when stuff like that happens, needless to say, it doesn’t happen often enough in books or movies. However, after a while I had an epiphany. Me hating the “give me space” phase in any romance novel usually only happens when I’m truly invested in a book. Think about it, if a reader isn’t fully interested in the characters then he/she couldn’t care less about the situations the characters are thrown into. As readers, if an author writes in such a gripping and provocative way we tend feel like we are in the pages experiencing what the characters are going through, and thus would hate/dislike whenever the character we most identify with goes through a negative situation. So, there you go, I was invested.
2. Plot ★★★★☆
Holy Hell! I feel like Gena Showalter read the bad reviews from her first book and used that to fuel her imagination and awesome scenes for this instalment. This book was so much better than the first. She definitely spruced this one up, BIG TIME.
This was way more action packed. The horror scenes were improved, the melodrama was at the Days of our Lives level, romance was like softcore porn (Ok, I hardly read romance and therefore hardly read erotic novels so I’m sorry if a little bit of romance seems a lot in my books, especially when teenagers are the characters) and I felt like I was swooped up in whirlwind of scenes. What I mean is that I felt like I sat down and watched a whole season of Through the Zombie Glass in one day. There was a lot happening in this book. A lot. It definitely kept me turning pages because as soon as one issue was resolved, Ali was thrown into another, more dreadful and perilous situation. This reminded me so much of Croak series with all the action scenes and how our protagonist keeps thinking “well it couldn’t get any worse than this” then Bam! It surely gets worse. Ha Ha, I love when that happens, suffer a little before your happy ending comes girly.

There was quite a bit of violence, and when I say quite a bit I do mean A LOT. Not just violence against the Zombies inflicted by the slayers, but slayer against slayer, slayer against civilian etc. Aren’t these teenagers? -17 year olds with the odd occasion of an 18 year old. The way-more-mature-for-their-age personalities, lifestyle and outward appearances made this feel like our characters were actually grown men and women in the mid-20’s or early 30’s. I find this to be highly popular in YA novels where the author tries to whisk us into a world of enticing adult drama except this drama is being experienced by teenagers. Slap a teenage age onto the characters and voila, it’s on the YA shelf.
Cole -the bad boy with the chiselled abs that we all want to lick something off of (Haagen-Dazs please) Hmm Did I say that out loud? Oops. He infuriated me throughout this book. He really did. There was a certain time I just wanted to scream out at him the things Ali didn’t say. Sigh.
This book though. Double sigh.
Even though there were times when I had to question and compare the things book 1 told us about the Z’s por ejemplo – Z’s are only in spirit form – I still enjoyed it and tried not to concern myself too much with plot holes.
One last thing – why are the teenagers the ones making the decisions? Why aren’t the two adults the ones giving orders and formulating attack strategies? Their presence was pretty useless in my opinion, except Dr. Ankh when he replicated the antidote and treated the injured slayers.
I won’t squeal, tell you that I’m such a HUGE fan and to go read this book, I’m not a hyper/overly enthusiastic person, but do check it out.:)

Thursday 26 May 2016

"Alice in Zombieland (White Rabbit Chronicles #1)" Book Review



My Rating  ★★★★☆ 3.9
Don’t let the other bad reviews turn you away. Delve into this book to just enjoy it and to appreciate a story the author so kindly wrote for us.
1. Cover ★★★★★
So there I was – scrolling through scads of books, and I do mean scads. My fingers are getting tired, eyes are droopy and each cover I see drives me further and further into a soporific lull; I’m looking for my next read or at least more titles to add to my long list of TBR that are just sitting on my kindle (books I may never actually read btw, but I like seeing them there, I’m a sucker for attractive covers). Then voila! A cover, so whimsical and magical appears out of nowhere. I stopped, took in as much as I could, silently sent up a prayer asking for the synopsis to be as gripping as the cover, and guess what?
2. Premise ★★★★☆
The synopsis was kinda gripping. Not as much as hoped but it was. I love Zombies, I absolutely do so when I saw the Z word in the cover I was intrigued.
Alice, who lives a blissful life with her family, has her life turned upside down in the blink of an eye when an accident claims her family, but leaving her alive. Before his death, her father spoke of monsters but Alice only now believes in them after the tragic accident.
She decides to avenge their death by learning to fight the monsters. Alice meets bad boy Cole Holland who surprisingly knows all about the monsters and she has to trust him in order to succeed.
Well…. Zombies are my thing, romance isn’t. But there are stories where the two can mesh well and there are a few romance novels that I do enjoy from time to time, but, back to the point.
I was looking forward to an action packed plot where zombies roamed the street and the humans left to survive would band together and ride out the rest of their days in melee attacks, surrounded by death and small triumphs.
So, what was delivered?
SPOILER ALERT!!!
3. Plot ★★★☆☆
We got a world that had pretty much nothing to do with Alice in Wonderland or cards, except the few sightings of a cloud in the shape of a rabbit (a bit of a disappointment). Also it was a world where only a small percentage, very small percentage of people knew about the existence of Zombies; zombies which weren’t exactly like the ones we’ve grown accustomed to – y’know, the corporeal, shambling type which finally surrenders to death by a headshot or beheading. Nope, instead – and I wholly understand that the author was going for something unique, a new twist to the overplayed zombie survival story – we were given zombies who were actually infected spirits and slayers whose spirits had to exit their corporeal bodies in order to tackle the zombie threat. The slayers are a group of anti-zombie (of course) –made up of high school kids that are way too mature-looking for their age and a few adults -while there’s a pro-zombie group (of course) – made up of more high school kids and some adults sporting hazmat suits.
Still following? … Good, so, here’s the other part. Our spirit zombies can’t be killed by destroying the brains i.e. headshot or any kind of head injury (knife to the head). So this took me a while to fully grasp, and when I say ‘a while’ I mean a few seconds ticked by. I had to forego all previous knowledge of zombies and try to let this new world sink in; however, I was determined to not let that bother me and to just try and enjoy the book as the author would have liked us to.
I laughed a few times. I laughed out loud once during a conversation between the main characters. The dialogue was ok, some parts were better than others (but that’s normal in any book). At times I really appreciated the interaction and love story between the two because early on in the book I lowered my zombie/survival/hard-core fighting expectation after seeing romance was the more prominent genre in the first half.
What I didn’t enjoy though was how idiotic and avoidable the accident was. That was a highly dumb way to die. You’re in a car, the monsters are outside the car, I would think there’s enough protection there being surrounded by all that good ol’ metal casing. Maybe not swerve so much that you put your family in danger dude. I mean come on! He clearly didn’t think that through, so the way the accident happened just didn’t sit right with me.
Our Alice, who now goes by Ali, moves in with her grandparents (on her mom’s side). She becomes friends with a girl named Kat while in the hospital and when she attends her new school in the fall guess who’s there? If you guessed KAT then you’re right! No points for you though, cause that was pretty obvious.
She meets Kat on her first day of school and their little hospital friendship blossoms. Kat initiates her into her clique and gives her deets to the ins and outs of Asher High – who’s dating who, who’s broken up, etc.
At some point, she locks eyes with a gorgeous, violet-eyed, bad boy and has a vision of them passionately kissing. When she finally comes to she is puzzled as to why she suddenly had a very real life vision of a boy she is now seeing for the first time. .. This reminded me a bit of a Touched A Caress of Fate – the vision/dreaming steamy stuff. More visions occur throughout the book which draw our protagonists even closer and is the reason they have their first conversation.
Moving along, we get chapters upon chapters of high school stuff (romance, jealously, rage, hormones, fashion) and little to do with the actual Zombies which I came here for. They did show up a bit later on in the book, but it was slow. The more action packed zombie attacks were toward the end of the book.
Our Ali learns to trust Cole, the guy she pines after, and they slowly reveal to each other secrets that they’ve been keeping – “I see Zombies” and “I secretly have sexual visions about you every morning that we look into each other’s eyes”. He also trains her in zombie self-defence and they fall even more in love while trying to keep their hands off each other. I’m going to be totally honest here and say that at one point I wasn’t certain if they would do the deed or not. I knew this was YA but I wasn’t sure if the author would go that far, I really didn’t know. FYI they didn’t.
4. Genre Representation ★★★★☆
Fantasy, Horror, YA
Well, it was definitely YA with all those teenagers (way too mature-looking for their age). There was a splash of horror throughout, but more toward the end; however, it was not overly done. It was very mild horror to be exact but horror nonetheless. And of course it followed the fantasy line – magic realism, zombies, things which would never happen in the natural world. I wanted more 
5. Characters ★★★☆☆
Ali and Cole seemed to fit, sometimes I felt the connection between them, other times far from it, but they were an OK book couple.
Kat and Frosty were back and forth, they’re meant for each other, they were more apart than together in this book. Maybe in the second instalment they’ll actually be together.
For some reason I didn’t really care much (at all) for the others in Kat’s clique – Reeve , another one and another one.
Kat herself was self-centred but loyal to those she deemed as real friends. She had a big ego, I’m surprised hers and Love’s could actually fit in the same room with enough space left over for the bad boys’ clique to squeeze in – a lot of ego, trust me.
6. Journey ★★★★☆
I wouldn’t say I highly enjoyed it but it was a good journey. It’s not what I was expecting, which I learned early on in the book but it kept me interested enough to pass up on sleep. At times I found myself rushing through pages, devouring it and other times I read much slower, which is a normal thing in books.
7. Ending ★★★★☆
Ending was okay, I’m not sure if it was predictable because I’m trying this new thing these days where I don’t try to predict the ending, which reminds me, I should remove this category in my next review.
8. Writing Style ★★★★☆
The writing was concise, clear at times, minimal use of overly big words that one has to consult a dictionary every three lines and simple (in a good way). The reason why I found it unclear at times was because of the explanation of the very new, strange, zombie facts. I had to read a few lines over for it to really sink in. Also, at times I wasn’t too sure which character was talking because there would be about four different supporting characters in one dialogue and they basically all spoke the same way, no real differentiation.

Monday 16 May 2016

"The Radleys" Book Review




My Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3.5 Stars

I chose this title after reading The Humans by the same author. While this was an enjoyable enough read I didn't quite like it as much; however, this isn't a comparison so I'll get on with the review for this book. 

The story follows the life of a family called The Radleys, who has kept the family curse a secret from their two kids. For years, the parents have led the children to believe in a way of life and in a lie in order to "protect them". But, we all know that telling a lie to protect someone only turns out to hurt them in the end, and this is what happens here. The daughter, on a night out, finds out who/what she truly is. 

The Radleys presented us readers with adequate backstories in my opinion. The writing style was simple, concise, easy to follow, unpretentious. 

I'm not exactly sure what was missing since I couldn't find anything solid really to dislike about this book. I just know I didn't like it as much as I wanted to. 

After reading this I still have much respect for Matt Haig and his writing style. I'm a sucker for writing style, will always be.

Thursday 12 May 2016

"Touched:The Caress of Fate (Touched Saga #1)" Book Review



OVERALL ★★☆☆☆ 2.4

1. Cover ★★★☆☆

I always start with the cover because this is the first thing a reader sees when they stumble upon a book. “Don’t judge a book by its cover” they say. Well, to that, I say “Judge the darn cover cause that’s all part of presentation”. The cover (the first thing we see) is supposed to reel a potential reader in and pique their curiosity enough so that they end up reading the synopsis. So, let’s get on with it, shall we?
I gave this cover a 3-star rating, denoting “It was OK”. It didn’t exactly reel me in like other covers usually do and I was ok with that. I did not choose this title, but it was on my kindle and I thought -why not?
The guy, just from first glance, is portrayed as an Angel; right away the reader could differentiate it as paranormal, so in a sense the cover does represent its genre quite well. He also looks transparent, which I guess Angels usually are? The girl, (from first glance) seems mortal, quite corporeal and is being supported/held up (or not?) by the Angel. I don’t really know what’s truly going on with the cover to be honest – they’re seen in a romantic (supportive? Ugh this cover is difficult) embrace in the ocean (well, sitting on a rock to be exact). It’s an OK cover but as I said, I usually expect a book to stand-out so much that it catches my attention and makes me pause or scroll back up just to read what it’s about, because yes, I come across a lot of books, a lot! And I can’t spend time reading what each book has to offer so I usually go by how pretty, haunting, dark etc. the cover is.

2. Premise ★★★☆☆

Evan, who is an angel of death, is sent to “kill” a teenage, female mortal – Gemma. When they lock eyes for the first time a shadow creeps into her life (whatever the H that means) ultimately leading her to face her destiny (I am simply using the words from the summary). Gemma doesn’t know that Evan is an angel of death and that he’s been sent to “kill” her. They fall hopelessly in love even though he still has a mission to carry. So, what happens when the only person who can save you is also the one who has to “kill” you?
Ah, sweet forbidden love. Or is it? It didn’t feel much forbidden to me but I am getting ahead of myself.
I found this premise to be appealing, but not gripping nor unique. Forbidden love between an angel and a mortal has been done many times, too many times, but I haven’t read a lot of them (not my favorite genre this paranormal romance thing). I wouldn’t mind being the one to fall in love with Death though! I mean come on! Its death we’re talking about – dark, evil, bad boy? I wouldn’t go so far as saying “love” though. I mean just a fling with death would satiate this reader here. Yeahhh; however, the numerous praises from critics that the author places before the actual summary definitely took some of the excitement away. It seemed like the author was trying to convince new readers that this book is really great. It certainly made me lower my expectation just because of the praise inclusion, somewhere deep down I knew it wouldn’t be as amazing as the reviewers claim, but that’s usually the case. I would love it and appreciate it if critics were more honest with their reviews, it would save us the trouble of reading awful books.


3. Plot ★★★☆☆

First off, the premise mentioned vampires, werewolves etc. None of those were mentioned in this book. It made it sound like vampires and other mentioned creatures were now extinct and the Angels of Death are the new species of supernatural; however, later on in the book we see that these Angels of Death have been around for a long time. It seems they’ve been here since the dawn of time – just after Eve’s days. So technically they were there first; unless in this story’s world, vampires were roaming around while Adam and Eve were casually living life.
So, we all want to be in love right? We relish the idea of someone being completely ours, someone wanting and caring for us blah blah.
Evan is in love with Gemma, declaring it at 48%, he’s absolutely, positively sure that he loves her but they’ve only had encounters about 3 times so far? The bleachers, crashing into him running from the woods, the diner, other times were in dreams (2 times). Apparently it’s not infatuation, he’s in love, and he’s been stalking her for the past few weeks (you’ll see how creepy he is later on in the book). How is that love?
Ok, I get that it’s a romance book, paranormal BS and there’s usually the instant love but it just didn’t feel that way. Love? Come on. Their connection felt a bit too magical, far from real. As a reader I’m supposed to be taken on a journey where I can clearly feel the interest grow into adoration which would then grow into love. There was none of that; it was love from the moment she saw him in the woods, or a magical pull.
Apart from the unrealistic love, something I didn’t like was the brutality of their job. I love horror books, I love a good torture novel but their job is to “kill” the mortal. Aren’t angels of death supposed to escort souls to the other side? Having a hand in the death of the victims made it sound brutal and portrayed them as cold-blooded murderers.
So, this book :
40% - In we find out what “Wild Thing” truly is – he’s an executioner. Why wait till 40% to tell us?
Masala is also mentioned for the first time but it wasn’t a full explanation.
42% - Masala mentioned again, more information was given but not enough to truly understand.
48% - “There was no way to be sure; I’d never felt it for myself. Not during my mortal life, let alone during the empty shell of the existence in which I’d been trapped for hundreds of years since”
He had a mortal life? Why are we now finding out he was once mortal. Excuse my lack of knowledge when it comes to Paranormal romance but I had no idea Angels of Death were once mortal, so it’d be great if the author could give adequate background information early on in the book so that I could understand the turmoil within Evan. Also, I’d have preferred less mystery because in this case it was purely annoying, having to wonder who or what he is, what he does, who he once was etc. It took away from building a liking for the characters.
Sigh. Things were better explained much later in the book, in the 80s, 90s percentage range. It could have been a tactic by the author to maintain the mysterious air but it would have been exponentially better without having to wait so long to find out about our main characters’ history.


4. Genre Representation ★★★★★

So yes, it did represent its genre very well – Paranormal romance, fantasy, magical realism. We got the supernatural realm blending into the natural familiar world. An angel, a witch, lucid dreaming (which isn’t totally dreaming but real alternate life taking place in a dream?) dark shadows, magic and so on mixed with piercing gazes, forbidden longing, sexual stuff (not really, at all, just kisses). So this section got its 5 stars.


5. Characters ★★☆☆☆

Gemma – flat, annoying, talks too much in her head,
Evan- hot, creepy, possessive, mysterious (in a very annoying way)
You know what? I’d like this story to be re-written with Evan being a below average looking guy, with normal dark brown eyes. All this forbidden love would have been avoided. That’s how much the connection between the two main characters was lacking. There was just no real emotional connection; I saw it as purely physical. From the first time she saw him in the woods, she felt something. Before they even had their first conversation, she knew she was completely in love with Evan. Throughout the book their chemistry with each other was mentioned, but that doesn’t justify their love for each other before they even shared a conversation. It just doesn’t.
Simon and Genevra – hot, in love, having sex all the time?
Drake – hot, enjoys his job.
Basically, the characters are all hot, they’re all flat.


6. Journey ★☆☆☆☆

Did I enjoy the journey that this book took me on? I certainly did not. I found myself ranting and talking to myself, asking so many whys!

7. Ending ★☆☆☆☆

Predictable. There was something which was left unexplained – why did the smell of the poison entice Gemma? I’m guessing the readers who continue reading this story will find out in the other books. I bet she’s a witch or a descendant of Eve or something like that.

8. Writing Style ★☆☆☆☆

I think the author was going for a poetic or lyrical sort of writing style but ended up producing something quite verbose, elaborate and overly descriptive packed with unnecessary similes and overused words. This could have been a 250- page book if all the pointless similes and descriptions were removed.

Words now stuck in my head from reading this book – wild, Wild Thing, dark, mysterious, cold, ice, ominous. On almost every 2 pages one of these words, or a combination of a few were used.
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Wednesday 11 May 2016

"The Humans" Book Review



My Rating: ★★★★★ 5 Stars


The Humans: A fun, witty and insightful read about an extra-terrestrial sent to Earth to destroy information far too advanced for the humans’ own good.

I always start with the cover since this is the first thing which captures the reader’s attention.
The Cover: The cover I have is the UK released version, not the one featured on Goodreads displaying a monochrome nose. My cover has a gorgeous blue backdrop fading into a washed out green then becomes a more pronounced darker green. It is covered with white dots depicting stars and looks absolutely magical with the dog sitting, looking up at a “falling star”.

I loved the cover. Could have been the dog which reeled me in, nonetheless, reeled me in it did!
The name also held my interest – The Humans. Just from reading the title I knew I was in for a treat. I knew I’d be reading from the perspective of someone who wasn’t human, entirely human or saw themselves as an outsider and that was enough for me.

The Content: So this book is actually about a Vonnadorian extra-terrestrial sent to earth posing as a human named Professor Andrew Martin. His mission is to destroy evidence of the solving of the impossible-to-solve Reimann Hypothesis. This E.T does not have a name of his own, nor does he need one because he inhabits the body of the Professor, and no one suspects a thing.

He is thrown into this situation without the proper etiquette for interacting with Humans on planet Earth and there ensues a hilarious account of trying to be human while accomplishing his sole mission- to destroy all evidence which also includes disposing of anyone who has knowledge that the hypothesis was solved.

I know not everyone will love this book as much as others did. I sometimes give 1 star to popular books which others absolutely love.

But this particular book was funny and it taught me some things about humans that I’ve never even thought about – everyday things which humans do which makes no sense if looking from the outside.
A fun, insightful read on humans which will have you laughing out loud like you’re insane and which will make you appreciate/despise (if you’re misanthropic) your fellow homo sapiens even more.

Now I'm going to find another Matt Haig book.

Thursday 5 May 2016

"The Creeping" Book Review




★☆☆☆☆ 1 Star


1 star because it's takes time to write a 400+ page book and the author deserves at least 1 star for that.
This reminded me of a Stephen King's novel - the summary gets you all excited then it's very anticlimactic at the end, it just doesn't deliver what was promised.
I was expecting a monster, a real monster, not some measly pathetic mortal who bleeds like the rest of us fragile homo-sapiens. AND..... it wasn't just the anticlimactic "climax", it was the whole delivery - the lack of fluidity in transitions, the skip in time (no time bridge connecting one paragraph to the other) where the author would jump from present time to days later in the next paragraph without proper transitional writing techniques. Some sentences had to be re-read so that I could be sure of what I was reading.
This was poor in my opinion but clearly it was awesome for some other readers who gave it 4 and 5 stars.