I gave The Siren two stars mainly because of the quality of the writing—and because I didn’t completely hate it. This novella, however, has made me doI gave The Siren two stars mainly because of the quality of the writing—and because I didn’t completely hate it. This novella, however, has made me doubt Reisz’s basic command of English. The book has to be really, really bad for me to notice its grammar. I’m terrible with commas and all other forms of punctuation but when words sound wrong to me it hurts my head.
This book hurt my head.
Individual words hurt my head.
Words put together hurt my head.
The plot and character arcs of this novella hurt my head.
Having expressed my critical view on Reisz’s writing before and having read several other critical reviews, I can’t unsee the flaws. I can’t turn back time to when I didn’t see how everyone had to be beautiful and how everyone had to worship Nora and how she was the saviour of broken things, broken men.
”She obeyed. She was trained to obey, trained to want to obey.”
She’s a broken thing, a broken soul, and she was made that way by a predator I refuse to fawn over.
Merged review:
I gave The Siren two stars mainly because of the quality of the writing—and because I didn’t completely hate it. This novella, however, has made me doubt Reisz’s basic command of English. The book has to be really, really bad for me to notice its grammar. I’m terrible with commas and all other forms of punctuation but when words sound wrong to me it hurts my head.
This book hurt my head.
Individual words hurt my head.
Words put together hurt my head.
The plot and character arcs of this novella hurt my head.
Having expressed my critical view on Reisz’s writing before and having read several other critical reviews, I can’t unsee the flaws. I can’t turn back time to when I didn’t see how everyone had to be beautiful and how everyone had to worship Nora and how she was the saviour of broken things, broken men.
”She obeyed. She was trained to obey, trained to want to obey.”
She’s a broken thing, a broken soul, and she was made that way by a predator I refuse to fawn over....more
This definitely isn't a book for me. The more I read the more convinced I become that I'll hate it if I finish reading it. So, it's better I stop now This definitely isn't a book for me. The more I read the more convinced I become that I'll hate it if I finish reading it. So, it's better I stop now while I still think there are some redeeming qualities—namely the writing even if it is all about telling—in this painful novel.
Part of me understands why so many love this book, but another part of me thinks those people don't know what they're talking about.
This is a quick and easy read. It’s even an enjoyable romance novella if you don’t stop to think about it. I’m serious, either give your brain a holidThis is a quick and easy read. It’s even an enjoyable romance novella if you don’t stop to think about it. I’m serious, either give your brain a holiday for the day or you’re going to be disappointed with this one. Mild spoilers ahead.
It all starts with a misunderstanding and that’s how it continues as well. Michelle is just finishing her first week at her new job when a misbehaving printer—let’s just ignore the ridiculousness of that situation and suspend disbelief for the romance for now—gives her an excuse to flirt with a cute nerd she mistakes for a help desk. technician. He’s charmed and doesn’t correct her immediately. After all being a rich CEO of his own company has such an averse effect on a man’s social life. To his credit, as soon as there’s a sign they could become more than office acquaintances or friends, Noah aka. Sark decides to tell Michelle the truth about himself. Only he does it in the most spineless way imaginable.
He writes her a note but doesn’t leave anything personal on it from where she might recognise him. Then again, she reveals her lifetime membership of club too stupid to live when she thinks that the CEO of her company would write a personal apology letter to her but not to any of the other employees he’s about to make redundant. And that’s how the miscommunication that drives this story is sustained. He thinks he’s been honest with her and she thinks it’s okay to date someone above her just not her CEO.
As easy a read as this was, there were rougher moments there too. The euphemisms grated and the convenient coincidences that drove their story forward bordered ridiculous. No one ever referred to Sark as Noah in front of Michelle and they were quick to defend him when they found out about the lie of omission. There’s a difference between saying “he must’ve had a good reason” and “that doesn’t sound like him.” One is excusing bad behaviour and the other is postponing judgement until further evidence is provided. Still, everyone, even the couple who just met him were quick to help Sark to win her back.
Another thing that bothered me were the inconsistent characterisations with regard to money. Apparently since taking the company public and earning a huge sum, Sark has only bought a handful of expensive things for himself. Yet his first impulse is to buy her a new mountain bike for their first date. He doesn’t tell her that, of course, and it somehow makes it all better. If biking is such a big part of his life, Sark must know other enthusiasts who might’ve lent him a used mountain bike for the day. It mars her characterisation too. When Michelle decides to turn her life upside down once again, what does she do? Does she decide to economise and save every penny possible? No. She decides to take a trip home for the holiday—entirely understandable—and splurge on taxi drives. Very soon after—almost in the next scene—she’s taken a temp job to earn extra cash.
The worst part is that I couldn’t even enjoy her positive career development and ambition. Michelle showed herself capable and willing to work her way to the top, but it was overshadowed by her stupidity in her personal life. Worse yet, she (view spoiler)[ended up supporting his new career move and a start-up that was based on one new idea. I guess he could have had other ideas but the author made it sound like there was only that one and it was worth the risk of losing everything (hide spoiler)].
I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley....more
Back when I was still feeling optimistic about Scarp Metal I bought this novella on a Valentine’s Day sale. Then I lost my optimism and I had this eboBack when I was still feeling optimistic about Scarp Metal I bought this novella on a Valentine’s Day sale. Then I lost my optimism and I had this ebook lingering on my Kindle.
Again, at first, I thought maybe I hadn’t made such a huge mistake after all. Fox will never be one of my favourite authors but her stories are entertaining and I do have certain reading moods when I devour emotional anguish like candy. Yeah, no.
Matt is a horrible self-pitying mess with the worst taste in friends and childhood loves-cum-lovers. He’s supposed to be a medical student but at no point does he use anything resembling medical vernacular and he narrates the story. I couldn’t stand the guy. Oh, well, I’ve read about characters I didn’t like before and I’ve even loved such a book. Nope. Not this time.
There’s no romance. There’s rebound sex and codependency issues. Aaron is a couple of decades older, so there also might be daddy issues. There’s no plot. There are drugs, alcohol, and misunderstandings. And there are unbelievable plot twists that highlight just how too stupid to live Matt is. There’s also the compulsory vilifying of a female character.
And there’s purplish prose.
Let’s file this under not for me, never again, give up hope all ready, and what the hell was I thinking?...more
I’ve read a couple of Caletti’s young adult novels and I’ve loved them. Her work is lThis review can also be found on Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell-blog.
I’ve read a couple of Caletti’s young adult novels and I’ve loved them. Her work is like literary catmint to me, which is weird because Caletti writes about emotions and slow paced moments of change rather than adventurous plots. Her books are pure character studies of people trying to move, and usually I like the introspection that’s characteristic to Caletti, but here it doesn’t quite work. Here, it’s taken a step too far. The balance is gone.
”But he’s gone. He’s gone, and I don’t know what’s happened, but I know I wanted him gone.”
Dani wakes up in an empty house and takes her old dog out. She enjoys the morning and makes her own coffee for a change. She plunges into her personal history for a moment, comes back, and realises her husband, Ian, is gone.
Just like her YA books are about rejecting a bad relationship for a better self-worth—in the ones I’ve read at least—this book is about an adult, a middle-aged mother, learning new things about herself when her crutch, her husband, is gone.
The book is told from Dani’s point of view with first person voice. She goes through the motions of realising someone close to her has disappeared and beginning the search process. She talks to the neighbours, calls family and friends, and all the while she’s slowly working through her two failed marriages in her mind. She thinks about her own choices, she thinks about Ian’s choices, and she reflects on how those choices affected their children, and everyone else around them.
The problem is, that’s all she does. Dani takes a trip up the river Denial, climbs ashore, and sets up camp in Memory land.
”You learn, she says. You go from there. And then you change.“
Maybe it’s because of the set up—the agony of having to wait, to go slowly mad with worry and without having anything concrete to do—that Caletti relies so heavily on the introspection and itemising all the wrongs of Dani’s life. Unfortunately when the flashbacks are paired with inactive present, the book becomes impenetrable and boring. Caletti doesn’t even properly show the discussions Dani has with the police rather than tells about them in passing after the fact. (view spoiler)[So, she’s a suspect in her husbands disappearance that wouldn’t be interesting to the reader. Why would it be? (hide spoiler)]
The underlying story and the epiphany it leads to are good. Caletti even dabbles with an unreliable narrator, but when the balance is off everything slides to the side, just out of reach, off the pier and into the waters of the Pacific. The book is set in Seattle if you couldn’t tell.
Fans of Caletti’s work might enjoy reading this book, as long as they don’t mind switching the teenaged protagonist to her mother, but I hesitate to recommend this to anyone who doesn’t relish reading about thorough navel-gazing.
I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley....more
The problem here is that the authors tried to write a modern romance in a historical setting. The characters themselves are thinly disguised modern meThe problem here is that the authors tried to write a modern romance in a historical setting. The characters themselves are thinly disguised modern men whose problems don’t really stem from the differences in their social statuses in the ancient Rome.
Gaidres could have just as easily been blaming Caelius and his family for a road accident that took his lover from him as he could have been blaming them for the loss of his freedom. And Caelius doesn’t seem to fully comprehend his position as master of his household or what the word slave meant to men of such stature in his time. He could have been a wealthy business man who lets his employees walk all over him and make the important decisions rather being the successful master of his house he’s supposed to be. There’s a temporary change in this towards the end, but it’s too little too late.
What words of respect are spoken, aren’t mirrored in action. In other words it’s all telling not showing. Whenever there’s an instance of need for the main characters to hide their true relationship, there are two careless moments when anyone could overhear or see them.
The rest of the world description details, including the latin vocabulary, seem to have been lifted straight out of Spartacus: Blood and Sand, which had aired a year and half before this book was published. There’s nothing wrong in being inspired, but I wish it’d translate into better storytelling quality. Their authors’ note addresses the one historical fact I didn’t question.
If those are things you can get past, then you probably won’t mind the vilifying of the wife or the fetishist approach to m/m romance either. The book isn’t quite as bad as you could expect; some sex scenes are of the fade-to-black variety, but only some. The story and the writing were solid enough, and it’s not too difficult to see why others have loved the book. For me, the era needed to play a bigger role especially in the characterisations than it did....more
After reading Counterpunch I decided to try reading Rachel Haimowitz’s take on the modern world with ingrained slavery.
Short version: I prefer all thAfter reading Counterpunch I decided to try reading Rachel Haimowitz’s take on the modern world with ingrained slavery.
Short version: I prefer all things British.
Long version:
Make no mistake, this is an erotic BDSM novel, and not a romance. For a moment I thought about giving this book an extra star for not romanticising the Master and slave dynamics but then I stopped to think about all the other things I found disturbing and decided not to.
Counterpunch worked, for me, because Brooklyn had been born free. He grew up making his own choices and knowing who he was. He only lost that privilege due to an unfortunate sequence of events. Brooklyn was and is an unyielding character who’s never resigned himself to slavery.
Here, Daniel has presumably been born into slavery. He may not have been groomed to be a sexual companion to anyone willing to pay for his services, but he’s been beaten and schooled to obey his Master. Daniel doesn’t know what freedom is. He doesn’t have any idea what the concept of consent means. He’s not capable of willingly submitting to his master.
What’s worse, Haimowitz writes Daniel as an overgrown child. All the aspects of his life have been carefully controlled and Daniel never experienced the joys of child’s play or eating until he’s too full to eat anymore. The only thing he does know and take pleasure in—supposedly—is his work. The tasks and chores given to him to be performed like any trained monkey. I used the word supposedly because the reader never actually sees Daniel enjoying his job or taking solace in it. The closest he comes to using the news as a crutch is reading his Master’s morning paper. And when he most needs the comfort, Daniel chooses to watch an unnamed anime instead of his precious information broadcasts.
Where Brooklyn would brace himself and face the forced assignations, Daniel seems to have grown up in a cocoon where proper sex didn’t really exist. I could maybe buy Daniel’s virginal inexperience hadn’t the author contradicted herself: We’re supposed to believe a pair of slaves wouldn’t have a five minutes for themselves while trusted slaves are left to roam free in the weekends. Also, I refuse to believe Daniel could be good at his job and have spent years reporting from the field without stumbling on people who actually enjoy sex.
Then there’s the fact that for an erotica this book isn’t very erotic. The first half is spent on explaining how inexperienced Daniel is and highlighting his unease with his uncaring and thoughtless new Master whose name I’ve forgotten. Said Master spends night after night sleeping in the same bed with Daniel without demanding anything from him. We’re supposed to believe he’s caring and kind because he doesn’t force himself on Daniel, that he’s a good Master who just never bothers to make the rules clear to his new slave. If the Master truly were such a good Master, surely he’d know what he wants from a slave and how to make his will known with words and without scaring the new toy.
Finally, when the sex happens (view spoiler)[it’s rape. No, it’s not the Master who leased Daniel, but it’s brutal, detailed, and it’s treated like a kink that offers the reader the sexual gratification they’ve been looking for in this book. It’s the pinnacle of the story (hide spoiler)]. Then there’s the rushed magic cock cure for all and a very unsatisfying end to the whole thing....more
A decent follow up for the first book in the series. Apart from the paranormal world, I liked the fact that this time the half demon was conscious aboA decent follow up for the first book in the series. Apart from the paranormal world, I liked the fact that this time the half demon was conscious about giving her a choice in a very fundamental choice. I would have liked the scene to be even clearer on that front but I guess the author was in a hurry to get to the totally unnecessary alluded sex scene.
Who among us while walking by the river Styx doesn’t stop to think that this is the opportune time to have sex? I ask you, who?
Also, Eve Silver continues to write about mixed-race couples. This time the heroine was half Egyptian, half Japanese. I wish I knew enough of Japanese culture to fully appreciate proverbs—or know if they were real or not....more
This thing is so bad. So very bad that it almost wants to redefine my suckity-suck shelf and that's a tall order considering Beautiful Disaster is on This thing is so bad. So very bad that it almost wants to redefine my suckity-suck shelf and that's a tall order considering Beautiful Disaster is on that shelf. I swear to whichever deity you'd prefer that it felt like I was back there in that dark place and reading *that* book again. I snark and snark, but it's not often every paragraph makes me want to stop and complain.
Cutters vs. Jocks doesn't stand alone. It's a prequel to Marx's other novel, Binding Arbitration where single mom has to find her long-forgotten fling to save her cancer-sick son.
Can you guess what happens in Cutters vs. Jocks? Was your answer: The fling. You'd think that, wouldn't you. You'd be wrong.
There's no fling. There's one billiard game and a year's(?) worth of avoidance leading to the pity fuck that results in the pregnancy. As for how that situation is handled... Alicia, dear, you definitely don't want to read this one: (view spoiler)[It's the dreaded She never told him that she kept the baby-trope. (hide spoiler)]
This novella is an infodump meant to highlight Libby's and Aidan's backgrounds and to explain why they at twenty-two and twenty-three could have never worked. It succeeds in its goal magnificently, because it never shows them fall in love. Told in two alternating first person voices this novella completely skips the becoming friends and falling in love. Both Aidan and Libby suddenly go from proclaiming that they're not in love to that they in fact are. The reader is never shown why either of them would care for the other one bit.
Instead the pages are full of misogyny and romanticised stalkerism.
I assume this novella is meant to hint at the promise as to why those same two people might fit together eight years later having had the chance to mature. The only problem with this is that I became so thoroughly disgusted with both characters that I never want to read about them again. I'd almost say it goes a step further than that: I never want to read anything Elizabeth Marx writes ever again. ...more
I wish I could upgrade the rating from suckity-suck to the theory-good-practice-not lThis review can also be found on Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell-blog.
I wish I could upgrade the rating from suckity-suck to the theory-good-practice-not level, but I can’t. This book read like someone, after having written one historical romance too many, decided to fake it and throw together an endless string of period appropriate sounding platitudes. When I start paying attention to the language and platitudes, you know the story sucks.
Annelise Sophronia Sawcross Anne Wynter is a governess at the Pleinsworth household. She’s very lucky to have such a good position after being forced to live on her own and slave for her only two letters of recommendation. Of course someone is going to walk into her life and ruin it for her. The disaster comes in form of Daniel Smythe-Smith, the Earl of Winstead, recently returned from three year exile on the continent.
The heroine, at sixteen, was a vain and self-absorbed nitwit who got herself into trouble with a man she loved. After eight years she’s grown up a bit; I just don’t think she’s grown up enough. She’s a wishy-washy thing who on a theoretic level recognises the boundaries of her station in life, but in reality fails to show any kind of moral backbone and act accordingly. One minute she’s begging the oh so high above her earl to kiss her and another she’s pulling away, telling him to leave, and saying sorry for things she’s only half responsible for. Anne Wynter isn’t a woman who has learned to clean up her own messes.
What of the hero then? He’s another precious aristocrat, a babe in a man’s body, an adolescent who has given up alcohol but failed to fix whatever got him into the trouble with the Ramsgates and forced him to flee England in the first place. One minute he’s acting like any other man with a woman—stealing kisses, copping a feel—and another he’s a virginal youth dreaming of holding hands with his very first sweetheart ever.
Nothing of this story comes across convincing or consistent let alone appealing.
The whole book is basically about Anne thinking she shouldn’t but doing it anyway, and Daniel flying off the handle but failing to harm the one person most deserves to be harmed—himself.
Without the costumes and dates mentioned, I wouldn’t have thought I was reading a historical romance. The characters don’t exactly talk and act like people from the 1900’s. (I swear to all things holy Anachronist is brainwashing me because I never used to notice these things.) Of course I’m not an expert on the language but some of the expressions Quinn uses feel too modern for the context. There were good quotes and an odd scene or two that were almost entertaining, but nothing in the way this author writes is especially attractive to me.
This was my first attempt reading a Julia Quinn novel and it looks to be my last. ...more
The premise of this novel is really promising: A chance encounter that leads to a tabThis review can also be found on Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell-blog.
The premise of this novel is really promising: A chance encounter that leads to a taboo relationship between a theatre student and her professor. It’s a shame that it was wasted on such a poor story about a naive little girl and a man whose only charm was his British accent.
As the title says Losing It is about Bliss Edward’s quest to lose her virginity at twenty two and before she graduates from college. She’s supposedly held on to it this far because she’s a control freak and not at all attracted to all the wannabe actors in her theatre school. The control makes her a good stage manager but it doesn’t exactly hinder her acting either, which is just a blatant contradiction. The head of the department points this out to Bliss:
”You’ve always been a bit too in your head, I suppose. Controlled. Careful. Mechanical, might be the best word for it. But in those auditions—you were living in the moment. You were feeling instead of thinking. I saw shades of emotion in you—strength and vulnerability, desire and disgust, hope and shame—that were quite simply captivating. I don’t know what you’re doing or what you’ve done, but please continue. You’re much better when you make bold choices.”
So, we’re told in Bliss’ narration and with the voice of an authority that she was controlled and careful, but we’re never actually shown it. Bliss is way too comfortable in her small group of friends to classify as socially awkward. She is at best a naive little girl who hasn’t fully embraced the risks and rewards of being an adult. She’s afraid and that fear is what spurs her into drinking herself silly, ignoring a lovely boy flirting with her at the bar, and falling all over a stranger with A BRITISH ACCENT. (I’m just typing as it was in the book.)
Maybe I’m being a little cruel, but from the start Garrick Taylor’s defining characteristic is his British accent, and that’s really not enough for me. I have this vague impression that Garrick had his sweet moments and that he was patient with Bliss when she was freaking out over nothing, but those possible good guy moments were overshadowed by the lack of chemistry between the couple and the sexist red flags that would have had me and any other woman with a speck common sense run away from him.
Let’s not forget the most important part, the great illicit love affair that never was. Garrick is in the know from the start. He knows he’s a teacher and he knows he lives in an area close to the school where college students might live. And yet when Bliss confesses living practically next door, he follows her and would have sex with her, if she didn’t grab the nearest flimsy excuse and run away from her apartment and the naked boy in her bed.
That’s another thing, Kelsey, a supposed friend of Bliss’—what ever happened to her?—repeatedly calls Garrick a boy before they learn that he’s their new professor. The cover shows a boy, and I’m supposed to believe Garrick is an adult, a man? Umm, okay?
When the truth about their power dynamics comes out in chapter seven, it’s only a momentary disruption. Garrick soon decides it’s not enough to keep him away from Bliss. Neither of them really acts like they’re doing something they’re not supposed to be doing, although Bliss occasionally thinks she shouldn’t. There isn’t any of that delicious angst of a forbidden love and sexual tension building up between the main couple the blurb promises, and all the emotional stress is reserved for Bliss’ relationship with her friend Cade, who is quite unnecessarily in love with her.
It says a lot about the romance when I’m ready to cheer for two other minor characters to win the wishy-washy girl rather than the apparent love interest. In two words: It sucks. This book’s only saving grace is that it’s not romanticising an abusive psychopath—that’s because it hardly romanticises anything—but unfortunately for Carmack that’s no longer enough to inflate the rating.
P.S. I really didn’t like how the gay character was portrayed....more
Entertaining but so very bad. She’s an irritating adolescent and he’s a shadow of a dunce. I’ve overgrown the virginal heroines and their innocence, eEntertaining but so very bad. She’s an irritating adolescent and he’s a shadow of a dunce. I’ve overgrown the virginal heroines and their innocence, even if they do deliciously stupid things as pretend to be other people to seduce their husbands. ...more
This might be a case of mislaid expectations. I was hoping for a paranormThis review can also be found on Blodeudd'sBook Girl of Mur-y-Castell. -blog
This might be a case of mislaid expectations. I was hoping for a paranormal with romance and erotica on the side, not an erotica with romance and paranormal on the side. But that's what I got. When the main couple wasn't having sex they were thinking about sex instead of things that normal individuals think about. Like survival.
There was a lot of promise there. I like the idea of an alternative world where humans have become extinct and immortals, demons, vampires, and such rule the earth. I like the idea of following different clans and watching their family feuds evolve. I like the idea of a rich and complex world-building with endless adventures and pairings--on the side.
All the plot points were hit, all the beats in the character arcs were hit, I just didn't like how the tune was played. I didn't like the excessive use of words female and male as substitutes for woman and man nor did I like how the Scottish accent was implied with a no'. I don't like the overtly done eroticism that appears shallow without any real character development shown during the story arc.
Bury's writing style isn't for me. I prefer a subtler touch. I prefer heavier emphasis on the plot and showing the action. Internal monologues are important in the sense that they're the window into a character's mind, but I've always preferred houses with smaller window to all-glass houses. And I happen to think that whatever windows the author offers should only confirm what can be inferred from the garden of the text.
I might be too harsh referring to Izel as a too stupid to live or a vapid, insipid diva and ingenue heroine, but I can't help it. While I appreciated the fact that she didn't go down without a fight and just let Kelvin carry her to the Kerr Castle, the manner in which she kept showing her independence was the most inane way possible. It was like she didn't have a sense of self-protection or survival.
She's told that she's human and that anyone within a paranormally enhanced scenting distance can smell her, and what does she do? She goes gallivanting in town. Admittedly she had magical help to disguise herself, but nowhere was it said how long or how thoroughly the effects would last. This and the handling of her change in the beginning made me think the author hadn't thought through Izel's reactions to her newly found humanity. Bury was trying but couldn't quite nail it.
As a character Kelvin, the Pookah, Kerr had more promise, but unfortunately his good qualities were of the one track mind quality. I like my men, fictional and real, more complex than that.
This book also suffers from being the first in a series and the setting up syndrome that comes with it. While I could appreciate getting to know Ian and Ryo, most of the information they provided could have been explained elsewhere.
The ending that either makes or breaks it, this time only saved the three star rating. It was predictable in its outcome but managed to surprise me in the details. There were too many tears throughout, but it would have been truly a sweet moment, if only I'd cared about the characters.
I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley....more
Some time ago--probably a year or two back--I saw a paperback copy of this book in the bookshop. I glanced at the Well, wasn't that a disappointment.
Some time ago--probably a year or two back--I saw a paperback copy of this book in the bookshop. I glanced at the blurb and thought interesting, but put it back and decided to look it up in the library. Aren't I glad I did.
It wasn't the sketchy science that I found unpalatable. I'm too lazy to look up the real numbers but I can smell circular mathematical reasoning when I stumble on it. By nature I'm an easy sell. Just put some effort into the storytelling, make sure your basic facts are straight, and I'll suspend disbelief long enough to breeze through the book and won't notice a thing. Of course once someone else points out the failures I'll happily join in on the lambasting.
And by put some effort into the storytelling I mean, have the characters act like the rational, slightly cynical but impossibly curious scientists they're supposed to be. I've seen actual physicists act like children at the face of some new exiting data--I felt it--and I wasn't even in position to understand what was so damn intoxicating about it.
Dominique did not in any way fit the mould. Usually that would be a good thing to say about a character, but not when she's supposed to be an abuse survivor dealing with her past by becoming a clinical psychologist. I could have understood a moment or two of weakness at the face of an emotional dilemma, but I could not tolerate her bawling at every single turn. Psychology is different from physics or archeology, but she's gone through the school and the moves. Unless she's bought every single test and article she's written for her professors, her first plan of attack towards Mick's hallucinations would be to verify the facts from independent sources. She did not. Any academic should know better and that the author would brush it aside so makes me doubt his qualifications.
Then again, I know nothing about sport medicine.
But I do know a thing or two about story telling.
The mixing of first and third person limited narratives didn't work. Having finished the book I can appreciate what the author was trying to do with Julius' journal entries, but it did not work. The beginning was too slow and bogged down by the numerology-would-be-archeology and choosing Dominique as the main character from whose point of view to introduce the alternative world, did not work. Failures in her characterisation prevented me from connecting with the story. Once the focus was shifted to Mick and the actual thriller part was embraced, I could see why people could--some would--like this very much.
I've already mentioned characterisation failures, but I've said nothing about the villains. Borgia is the most interesting character of the lot and he has some kind of background to justify his actions. However Foletta, Raymond, Groznyi, and every other nameless halfwit doesn't. I've only taken few basic courses but reading about these characters made me sincerely wish that Alten would invest in a few psychology course books help him write human beings and how they interact with others. Then again, if my guess about the sequel is correct, he didn't need to. Not that I'm in a hurry to find out.
The fact that this book was written over a decade ago shows. With some things Alten gets very close to today's technology but other things made me shake my head. As always the human factor distances his view of status quo from the reality. People die, people cheat, people get elected to office.
Also, I'm not convinced by his chosen method of intimidation. Somehow failing economy and the possibilities it creates with new world order(s) seems scarier than a nuclear holocaust. After all, I doubt I'd have to live through the latter considering my geographical location so close to St. Petersburg.
One last note. This was the last book I expected to read a bad romance in. I have read enough actual romances for that, I don't need it in my science fiction....more
Zach is on his way to LA and as far away as he can get from London. He only has six mThis review can also be found on Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell-blog.
Zach is on his way to LA and as far away as he can get from London. He only has six more weeks to go, but first, he’s asked to edit one more manuscript. The catch is, the novel is an erotica written by Nora Sutherlin. That same novel means more to Nora than anything else she’s written and she wants to get it right. She’s desperate enough to give Zach total control over it.
The blurb promises gruelling, draining, and shockingly arousing writing sessions, which are notably absent from the book. There is writing, there are sessions, there are shredded scenes, and there are excerpts from the book within the book—something I particularly disliked mostly because of the dip in quality—none of which were the reason for my rating.
The word I’m stumbling over is the last one in the list—arousing.
Once again, I’m the odd man out; I don’t get the appeal.
Reisz can write well and there were certain things I enjoyed reading. I mostly liked the banter between characters and the characterisations. I liked the fact that none of them were boring or insufferably honourable and good. I liked that they were flawed.
I adored Wes. He was used to mirror Nora’s relationship with Søren and I kept thinking he was better than that, that he deserved to get away. As good a guy as he was, as vanilla, he never came across as sanctimonious. Quite the opposite, he knew his flaws, just like he recognised Nora’s flaws and accepted them. He was honest with himself.
Unlike Zach. The Jewish—a very important fact that—Zachary or Zechariah Easton had to quite literally have the truth beaten out of him. That certainly didn’t add to his nonexistent appeal, but I’m glad someone found him appealing if it takes him far away from the story. Zach also earned the label too stupid to live for not figuring out or at least suspecting what Nora’s day job was.
Søren, Nora’s old Dom, let’s just say that I liked him much more with the robes on than off and that I didn’t understand why he’d care for Nora on any level. Although, I wouldn’t mind reading more about his flavour of mind-fuckery as long as it was kept out of the dungeon-hell. As a turn on, Søren fails.
J.P., Kingsley, and Mary, were among the supporting cast I’d like to know more about, but not as much as I was left wanting layers for the office villain. He was an example of a lazy characterisation and especially disappointing compared to the effort put into the main cast.
And then there was Nora Sutherlin, the author and pseudonym for Eleanor Schreiber. The woman, the Switch, who’s not afraid of her sexuality or playing the game. In fact, I think that might be the only thing she’s not afraid of, the game. Nora only ever came close to being honest with herself and facing her own feelings when she was with Wes. I’d go as far as to call her a coward that’s how busy running from herself she was. And all I have for a coward is pity.
No, Nora isn’t a likeable main character, but being a user and a bitch doesn’t make her strong either. It simply makes her interesting and that’s where the strength of this novel is—in the characters.
But. There’s more.
Or rather, there isn’t. The Siren is an erotica but very unerotic at that. I’m not a fan of pain and I don’t particularly get excited by the forbidden aspect of sex—hazards of having been born a Finn with a mother who never shut up about the human reproduction when I was growing up and living in a sauna culture where the most natural state of man is in the nude. The closest I came to finding anything erotic in this book was when Nora was with Wes, Michael, or Sheridan. That’s when she let little bit of her armour slip away, emotions trickle out and almost show intimacy.
At this point, I feel like I’m repeating myself, because I’ve written it so often lately. I could list a spoilery list of events—which include (view spoiler)[hints of blood play, a sex scene with an underaged boy, a f/f BDSM scene, multiple occasions of beatings leading to face injuries, casual dismissal of the law enforcement, a rape, an unrealistic office fight, bringing religion into sexuality, infidelity saving a marriage (hide spoiler)]—and not see a plot in it. But apparently that’s okay, because Nora’s introduces the reader and Zach to the shocking horrors of BDSM life. I only half-kid. The pure BDSM shocked and horrified me about as much as it aroused me, which is to say very little.
To be perfectly honest, I was bored. It didn’t take me days to finish reading the book because I was savouring the story; it took me days because reading a sex scene after another became a chore. Neither did the manufactured confrontations or Nora’s assumed self-sacrifice help. I only devoured the pages when there was emotional torture or those rare moments honesty for example when Søren was telling Nora off or when was Wes his adorable self.
All this left me thinking that this would have been a much better book without the sex and wishing Reisz had written a deliciously twisted character drama centering around something other than kink. As well written as The Siren is, it’s not enough to make it a good book.
Just to make this clear: Yes, I was trying out a new genre. No, I was not expecting a romance. Yes, I still think the book failed. ...more
I started this book thinking of giving it a solid three stars and hoping for the fourth. Instead of something extra, I found all the plot threads of aI started this book thinking of giving it a solid three stars and hoping for the fourth. Instead of something extra, I found all the plot threads of a promising premise slipping through my fingers until only thing left was bitter disappointment.
Let's start with the characterisations. What characterisations? The characters do and react as it suits the scene and situation rather than following some internal compass that guides them through life even with the needle improperly calibrated. To this moment I can't tell you what Natalie or Mac is supposed to be like. I can tell you the events that supposedly helped to make them who they are because I read the infodumps, but based on their actions showed in this book they remain a mystery to me.
Because of the poor characterisations, the pacing doesn't work either. It's not as bad a situation in the beginning where the focus is on the investigation, but when Natalie and Mac meet, it soon unravels into their incomprehensible instant attraction. Of course they don't really spend time getting to know each other like normal people would, but they snipe at each other to add to the tension, I suppose. The evolution of their relationship is minimal to the point that their sexual encounter feels like it's coming out of the blue even though all the trope warning signs are there. This is because majority of the book Natalie and Mac are apart.
The book is written in third limited with alternating points of views from the hero and heroine and the villains of the story. Yes, that was a plural. At first those glimpses into the criminal psyche were the part I enjoyed reading, but then all subtlety was thrown out and replaced with full-scale infodumping.
This isn't a character driven storyline. This reads like a book that had a mapped out structure before the characters were shoehorned into it. It leaves the distasteful feeling of forced plot progression. Things don't develop naturally, but they are poked and prodded to the right direction by obvious deus ex machinas. I guess it could have been better, had the quality of the writing been good enough to distract from these obvious flaws. Though, I must admit, even then this book wouldn't have made on my favourites shelf.
In my status updates I mentioned the lack of research or feel of it. I might have been overly harsh, but the fact remains that I didn't feel like whatever research had been done did shine through the text. Random titbits about the everyday life of a blind person were thrown in, but they weren't integrated into the text to help bring Natalie's character alive. This, once again, highlights the problematic characterisation.
There's one, highly spoilerish thing I must mention. If you plan on reading this book, don't click to open the tags. I mean it. (view spoiler)[Natalie has supposedly had her tubes tied when she was twenty-five-years-old. I admit I was speed reading at this point, but nowhere was it mentioned that she had to go through a rigorous process to get the operation. There's no mention of psychiatric appointments or reluctant doctors. I don't know if things truly are so different on this side of the pond or if it's simply a failure on the authors part.
I point this out, because my mother's friend was deadly afraid of getting pregnant and giving birth. She had had her tubes tied at the earliest opportunity after the doctors agreed to do it. She didn't have any children and she'd just turned forty. As she lay on the table they still kept asking her if she was sure she wanted to go through with it.
No way do I believe Natalie could have had her tubes tied that young and easy. She would have had to meet with a counsellor of some sort and as afraid as Natalie was about going mad like her mother I doubt she'd agreed to it. And had she, I highly doubt the counsellor would have green-lighted the operation (hide spoiler)].
I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley....more
Try to remember that despite all of this, I didn't hate the book.
Mild spoilers ahead.
He's an idiot. She's an idiot. Everyone is an idiot. Despite theTry to remember that despite all of this, I didn't hate the book.
Mild spoilers ahead.
He's an idiot. She's an idiot. Everyone is an idiot. Despite the author's best intentions (I've read worse so I'm giving her some leeway), pretty much everyone in this book comes across an idiot at one point or another. Everything is explained to such a fine detail that the reader can't help but feel the hammering continue after the nail has been buried into the two-by-four. Not only does this foreshadowing hit you like a steamroller, it makes every epiphany the characters have look like a dunce figuring out the obvious.
Devlyn's attention to detail extends to physical descriptions and prolonged internal monologues. Here is another author who simply doesn't trust her characters--or readers--to infer from context but feels obligated to paint the mural with a one haired brush. I could feel my IQ dropping reading either Cora or Guy piece together "complex" clues.
Speaking of internal monologues. If all the repetition would have been edited out this book would be a third of its current length. I was going to say half but my generosity only goes so far. I actually reached the point where I hoped the author would offer extraneous details on how Cora and Guy travel from and into Town. Actually, I would have gladly read the 460 kindle pages had there been more action.
If you take the plot apart, there's real promise there. There's a Nexus of spies, one of them has been compromised and two others have been sent to rescue this invaluable asset. Excuse me while I cough. There's the Villain Valére who is as inept in villainy as only romantic foils have right to be (no, not even them). He sneaks over the Channel after them and tries to kidnap Cora several times, only succeeding when Cora foolishly becomes the bait without telling anyone to set the trap. There's a coded message (the author obviously doesn't know anything about decrypting), and then there's the mystery of Cora's parents' murderer. There are so many plot elements and threads that could have made this book a brilliant read, had not the author chosen to focus on the romance.
And what kind of romance is that? Guy and Cora have known each other since childhood when they were friends and fellow spy trainees with her brother Ethan. Only he didn't fall in love with Cora until three years earlier at a masquerade where she was on her first mission. That's also when Cora fell in love with Guy and buried her hopes to become his wife, since being a spy would tarnish her reputation beyond repair for a respectable match. Except we never get to see them fall in love. We never really find out why they love each other.
Sure the reasons might have been mentioned in the long, long, long internal monologues, but as a reader I didn't feel like I was ever shown the reasons why. Telling me something is so, isn't enough anymore. It stopped being enough years ago. I need proof and I need to be shown. They keep saving each other's lives, you say. To that I would argue it's what they were brought up to do. They have a higher purpose as agents for the Crown.
I haven't even mentioned the abundance of bad smut writing clichés, nor that the BDSM tendencies equal to a villain's characterisation, or the incident where the hero threatened to out a gay man--and thus have him lawfully hanged--not because of his prejudice against buggery but because the gay marquis dared to question Cora's ladyhood.
I'm sorry Alicia. Unless we make this one of the taste test books, this really isn't a book I would recommend to you or to anyone.
P.S. Just think of all the bad books I must have read not to hate this one. Two stars doesn't mean I think book is okay, it means it's a bad bad book I didn't hate....more
Alyssa Everett has certainly read her Jane Austen, but Roxana Langley is no Lizzie Bennet.
Then again, I wouldn't be saying that hadn't I thought it fAlyssa Everett has certainly read her Jane Austen, but Roxana Langley is no Lizzie Bennet.
Then again, I wouldn't be saying that hadn't I thought it for the first fifth of the book. In the beginning Roxana is a lively young though perhaps too thin girl who doesn't hold back her laughter. Then she turns into a sobbing blushing mess, and finally when the plot calls for it she's witless Lady who doesn't know her own mind let alone how to speak it.
Darcy Ayersley is a shy, but decent and reliable Earl, who just happens to have very modern political views. His characterisation is quite consistent until the final outpouring. I agree his patience was tested a bit too far and he needed to vent, but the manner in, which it happened didn't feel right to me characterisation-wise.
The number of miscommunications and misunderstandings in this plot is staggering. Manufactured obstacles aren't my kind of idea of a romantic plot, especially not when they don't feel natural or character driven. I'm assuming the author was hoping to create tension and angst for Roxana and Ayersley's budding relationship, but instead she managed to make me think the couple was wholly unsuited for one another.
Also, there was a cartoonish villain twirling his moustaches. Or that might have been just my internal illustration for it.
The resolution and fix to their problems was a little too flimsy for my taste. Should anyone really test their marriage, I for one think it would fail.
I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley....more
I'm so tempted to deduct the second star but I've read worse—it's a faint praise and meant to be one. Proper review to come, maybe.
EDA: You know what.I'm so tempted to deduct the second star but I've read worse—it's a faint praise and meant to be one. Proper review to come, maybe.
EDA: You know what. I'm not going to even pretend I'm not lazy. Go read Lisa's review. She says everything I could hope to say only she does it better....more
Everybody has read those books–usually they come with horrendous cover art–that start with an apparent self-ironic scene that tries to justify using aEverybody has read those books–usually they come with horrendous cover art–that start with an apparent self-ironic scene that tries to justify using a cliché. It's some trope that has been beaten, hit, struck, battered, hammered, trashed, pummelled, and flattened to the ground ages ago. And for a while it works.
The author works his ass off and makes the first person past tense voice of his character sound like something hilarious, something new, refreshing, and witty. Then he crosses the line from a fine comedy to unadulterated spoof and ruins the effect. If you, the reader, are very lucky the narrative still sounds entertaining enough to carry through to the end and lets you finish a book instead of feeding your DNF pile.
If you're very, extremely, exceptionally, not-that-uncommonly-at-all unfortunate, you'll end up with a WTF face and whole lot of wasted hours. Hours of your life that you'll never be able to reclaim. At which point you either decide to move on and give this author a wide berth in the future, or you decide to give something back to the reading community and write a longwinded review that starts with a handful of meta-paragraphs sure to annoy innocent review readers.
[image]
Welcome to my life.
This book reads like an autobiography trying to be self-ironic and falling short by miles. It's like the author decided to skip coming up with anything original or fictional and instead document his day-to-day life in the publishing world. Maybe his editor told him to throw in a few outrageous characters and give them the kind of urban legend lives you only hear around the water cooler or wherever the workers go to smoke illicitly. Maybe the author was bored and decided to imitate a handful of his idols–in one book.
Whatever led to the creation and publication of this book, is everything that's wrong with the publishing industry today. This book is unbalanced, tactless, and inane. If it had to be published, why couldn't it be an in-house newsletter to amuse the people who are able to recognise and appreciate the publishing jokes. If it had to be published as a gay romance novel or erotica wannabe, why not write one. If this had to be published at all, why not just do it and NOT market it as something it's not.
This book is mislabelled as a gay romance. It's mislabelled as a romance. There's no romance here. There is simply a string of sex scenes and fuckbuddies without anything resembling a plot.
Also, Arvin went there. He had the ex-editor-fuckbuddy-friend attack-comment on a one star rating-review. How is this any better than the author–still talking about the book characters, just want to make it clear for Goodreads staff–himself commenting on a negative review? Just having it in the book is like condoning bad behaviour and I've had my limit. I would have given this book one star regardless, this just removed any guilt I might have felt.
Had Galley Proof been shelved under general fiction I might be more forgiving to the abrupt style changes and the utter lack of the thin red line that connects it all, but it wasn't and I'm not. If only Arvin had said what he made his character say:
"I have decided it's not worth my time to write nor is it worth her time to read."
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
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