My Own Little Corner

Jack Mercy died and left his ranch and assets to his three daughters providing they followed the stipulations in his will. They were required to stay together on the ranch for a year or else it would be given away. They were closers as sisters while someone was killing animals and people as a method to threaten them into leaving.

 

The killer was not obvious, which is what happens in most mysteries. I did have a problem that it took a full year for the cops in the book to find the killer. They were on a ranch in with a limited amount of suspects. The time frame felt off and a little unrealistic.

 

I liked the men in the novel and their relationships with the women. I liked how the romances developed over the year.

I was given this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

 

The book takes place post World War III. The last round of bombs left the population of the earth severely depleted and many of the natural compositions, such as metals and plants, forever changed. Hope and friends sneak off to jump cliffs into another remnant of the bombs known as the Bomb's Breath, which is able to kill instantly if someone tries to breath within it. One day bandits invade their little town and threaten the population for medicine.

 

Most books of this type I have read tends to focus on one thing. The need for food or protection. I thought the author's focus on inventing was an interesting choice.

 

I did like how the author made it completely plausible the best solution would come from three preteens. In most books where the main character is a child and they are the ones who fix the big problem of the book, I ask myself where are the adults? This book gave a reasonable answer to that question.

 

I also liked how everyone in the community was responsible to contribute to making the community better. They all felt the responsibility and all tried their best to live up to that responsibility

An ad was placed in the paper looking for children to send on a secret mission.

 

I really had fun with the tests and how each of the children managed to accomplish them. Then the book began to drag. I really got bored. The book did become more and more conviluted. In the end the solution was rather anticlimatic.

A serial killer styled his murders after previous serial killers methods. King and Maxwell solved the case.

 

I like the style of writing and the way the author is able to have twists so the solution to the case isn't completely obvious.

 

I do have a problem with how King does not tell Michelle what was going on and what he was thinking. I realize that is the author's way to not reveal too much to the audience, but I couldn't help but feel frustrated for Michelle. It left me disatisfied with King's character.

 

The mystery and the action within the book were both really good and involved. I thought the almost romances for both of the main characters felt a little forced.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The main character was Richard Henley. An ordinary man whose life was turned upside down and he managed to receive help from an unusual source. I liked the beginning when Richard didn't know what was going on. The story was vaguely trippy in a good way. I really liked the action sequences. The car chases were particularly exciting. I would have rated this higher except there were two things I had problems with. At one point Ri...more

 
Title: Note to Self

Author: Peter Ward

Type of book: Science Fiction, Action

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The main character was Richard Henley. An ordinary man whose life was turned upside down and he managed to receive help from an unusual source.

I liked the beginning when Richard didn't know what was going on. The story was vaguely trippy in a good way.

I really liked the action sequences. The car chases were particularly exciting.

I would have rated this higher except there were two things I had problems with. At one point Richard starts quoting lines from the poem "Invictus" by William Henley and he did not actually tell us where he was getting his material. Maybe the author thought since the main character shared the same last name the reference was there?

The other problem I had with the story was the anti-technology soapbox the characters kept getting on. I understood the moral he was trying to make, but I do not really need it shoved down my throat that deeply and I don't really agree with everything he was saying. Sorry I can't believe looking up information on the Internet a bad thing.

 Okay so things I did not like about  this book:

 Lugh, seriously anytime he
was on the page I wanted to tell him to just stop talking.

 Tommo, he was
passive aggressive in his creepiness. I thought this was really sad because he
was a good guy in the first one.

 Saba's actions three fourths into the
book. Not going into more detail than that due to spoiler
possibilities.

 Things I did like:

 The author's way of showing how
the things which had happened in the first book had adversely affected Saba
psychologically.

 I really liked Molly's personality and how she
interacted with Jack and Saba.

I liked how it ended. There was a little action and a spattering of fluffy goodness.

I had a hard time with how more than one character would not take responsibility for their own actions, thoughts, and feelings. Fault belonged to someone else the whiny characters told the person they blamed that yes this was your fault. This happened to an
excess, became off putting and dragged my feelings about the book way down.

It starts with Jerry killing his parents. Lieutenant Eve Dallas spends the rest of the book trying to catch him.I must confess J. D. Robb is the only author I can think of whose books I always buy the day they come out and immediately read as fast as I can. With this one I managed to hold off opening it until I had the book in my possession for almost five hours. I have found I am selectively squeamish about certain things. When I think about things that make my skin crawl I always think of the TV show Dirty Jobs, the episode Bridge Painter, where Mike Rowe goes inside a suspension bridge. Watching him as he crawls down a space that is barely wider than his shoulders makes me squirm. I had a couple of similar moments while reading the book.I love the interaction Eve has with the family she has formed throughout the series. I had fun with this one because everyone in her family was there. All of the side characters who have a connection with Eve's life, this made for some fun moments.It felt as if the story was more motivated by what was happening outside the case than the actual solving, which usually propels the storyline in one of these books. I think this was probably because we knew who the killer was from the beginning.

I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.When Bella was 13 she got married to Sebastian. They met up again six years later to make their marriage a reality.I liked the characters, well most of them and I thought the story was fun. At one point I did want to smack Bella upside the head because I thought her distrust of Sebastian had become annoying. I did enjoy the book though.

I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.I liked the relationship between Tom and Lillie. Once we were told the connection between them things began to go off the rails. It felt like the story decided to run and the author chased it, but was unable to completely cage it.I would never give this book to a young adult, its intended target. I was uncomfortable with the casual way one of the characters, who was supposed to be sixteen, mentioned having one night stands with older men. I believe unless a book is about socially conscience issues, which this book is not, sex among teenagers should not be casual. I realize that it may be true in the real world, but I would prefer not to send that message.Something else that bugged me was the idea that death is a very real solution to problems. In most instances death should not be seen as a way for a character to handle what is happening in thier lives.

In the book it says that one-third of the people we know are introverts and how they live in a world designed for extroverts.As an introvert I could see myself a lot in this book. One example happened this past summer I had a big fight with my sister. The longer the fight went the louder and more expressive she became and the quieter and more contained I became. She thought we were really connecting. I just wanted the fight to be over so we could go our separate ways and get over it. When I reached the part about fighting in the book I thought well yeah that is exactly how this goes.I really liked the stories about school. I remember in elementary staying inside and playing with my friend Jenny instead of going outside for games. In Junior high I remember standing on the fringes trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. Reading this I felt validated for hating group projects and group discussions.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.First of all I do need to confess I have not read the first book in the series. I am not sure if that influenced my feelings or not. Normally I like retellings. I will admit that Frankenstein is not my favorite book, but that was not my problem with this one. The Frankenstein aspect of the book was actually the most interesting part.Of all the characters I liked Jason the best. I liked his attitude about life. By the end his attitude about death had gotten a little morbid, but by that point in the book I felt he was entitled.I felt like Alex kept running around in circles. He would go try to save the day and put a band aid on the problem. Then go have conversations, with his friends, his mentor and his ex-girlfriend. Then something would happen and he would try to save the day again with the same band aid. The entire book circled around and around until finally the climax at the end.I had a problem with Hailey's motivation for everything she was doing. She kept telling us what she wanted, but then her actions did not feel like that is what she was really going after. There was no other motivation given for her actions, so what she said she wanted must have been what she was really aiming at, but it did not feel sincere. I guess that was a problem with my interpretation of the writing.The relationships within the story felt skewed. Between Emma and Alex especially. Her dead boyfriend hanging around because he couldn't let Emma go just came off creepy. Emma's character was weak therefore Alex had to go and rescue her every time anything happened.

I love his descriptions of his mother. The comparison to the airline among others. I could see that in my own family, how my mother is central. My father died four years ago and I still miss him. I can not imagine the time when I will no longer be able to talk to my mother everyday. I thought this was a beautiful way for the author to say he missed her.I buy books as presents. Once someone reaches around age seven or so in my family it is rare for them to get anything but a book from me. I don't really think very many of them actually read the books, but they still get them. I loved how Mary Anne did the same thing. My favorite line in the book was, "That's one of the things books do. They help us talk. But they also give us something we all can talk about when we don't want to talk about ourselves." I like the idea of being able to read a book around the same time as someone else and being able to talk about it. My problem is if I get unhappy with a book I put it down until I get past that part. This means it can take me forever to read some books. Not sure that would really work in a reading partnership. Still like the concept though.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.When in trouble Cora goes to her brother's best friend, Stig, for help. Stig had a secret he was a dragon shifter. This book was pretty much what I expected it to be. A lot of smut with very little plot. It could have had more back ground on his history and the conflict with the Knights. Also the relationship between Stig and Cora was a little fast. One moment they were talking about her problems and how the deal with them. Then suddenly he was telling her all of his secrets, that he had never shared with anyone. There was no build up to that. The author could have fleshed the story out more and given it better depth.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.This book was well written but it is not one of the normal genres I read. Also when I get stuck or unhappy with a story I will put it down for awhile and just read a few pages here or there. This being an advanced copy I was unsure about putting it down and coming back to it later.I have a hard time with the concept of possession. I do not like the idea of not being able to control my own actions. Yes, I have done stupid things or things that are not right within my lifetime, but they are mine to claim. I guess the idea is just one of those things I find really creepy and uncomfortable to contemplate.My imagination is good enough that all the many fowl smells were nauseating.There were a lot of deaths. I began to wonder who is the next one to die and if five pages without a death came I would think huh, someone should really die soon. Then within the next few paragraphs it would happen and I would again wonder who would be next. This made the impact of the killings less. By the end I did not really care who lived or died. With the exception of George, he was the best friend of one of the main characters. I liked George.

Gen was a thief taken out of the king's prison to steal an ancient stone. The possessor of the stone was said to be the rightful ruler of the neutral country, Eddis, between Attolia and Sounis. Both countries viewed Eddis as the means to conquer their enemy. They were each trying to become the ruler. Sounis saw the stone as one way to do that. The story is about the group who goes to steal the stone.From the beginning I was unable to figure out how Gen could be as stupid as he seemed. From everything I have ever understood in order to be a successful thief you need to be smart. From every indication Gen was a successful thief except he was in prison. I found the explanation satisfying.I did find the book slow to get into. I was unsure if it was because it was actually slow or if it was because the main character seemed so stupid and I kept getting flashes of how stupid my brother could be in a similar way. After a few chapters the book really picked up though.At the beginning of the story I kept feeling like I had missed something I thought it had something to do with what made him end up in prison in the first place. In the end I liked where the story went and how it ended. I would be interested in reading the next book in the series.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.Lila was the new girl in the small town called Shade. There she encountered "the clique", a group of werewolves. The book consists of the drama that followed.By the end of the book I felt like the author was aiming for a cross between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight, it just came out really boring. It is fine getting some information by being told, but if it is going to be a lot of information it would be better as a story or being shown. Action is more interesting in a story and far less passive than talking about everything. Something else that bothered me was the repetition. I am able to understand when something is being said the first time, I even handle being told the second time. The problem comes when the same thing is repeated over and over, by the fifth time the same line was repeated within two pages I would say (often out loud) just move on already. One example was the sudden obsession with the character Sky. There was no lead up to it, it was just suddenly there. Then we were told about her feelings, lust, etc. towards Sky a lot.Characters were flat and the descriptions in the book were inconsistent and vague. One example was Lila's tattoo. It is mentioned many times, but never fully described. At one point Lila is shown a drawing of the tattoo and still no description. If you are going to something mention multiple times in a story describe what it looks like.The conversation felt stilted. Anytime Lila talked to someone else in the book it felt like one of them was interrogating the other. It did not feel like a normal conversation. Then the answers would be evasive, which just made the conversations worse. On page fifty I began to give up on getting an actual plot. Then a vague one showed up around page 100. I was almost excited.