Pieces of Stars

Ah... well. This was not for me.The characters were hard to like. I wanted to like Charlie, I did, but I like my heroines a little more imperfect. I got to about 25% in and the whole time I was cringing at him trying again and again to corrupt her. Not a great feeling.Didn't really like the storyline. The whole "soul-collecting" thing was beyond my comprehension. Meh.Just didn't do it for me.

2.5 starsMeh. Honestly, I don't have much to say about this book except that I was bored to tears when I read it. I kept hoping for more: more humor, more character growth, more plot... but no. Also, what in the heck was the deal with that extra storyline for Sharon??? I did not get that at ALL and mostly it just slowed down the story. If you want to have more than one storyline, take a page from Susan Elizabeth Philips and make it meaningful.I didn't spend money on this, which is basically the only good thing I can say about it. I think Philips is going to have to go in my list of "not gonna happen" romance writers, along with Nora Roberts.I would just, for tiny second more like to talk about the sex. That's right, I said sex, not sexy times. Because the sex in this book was not all all sexy. This is where you might want to turn away from the screen if your puke index is too low."Wanting to give him just a taste of the sensual torture he'd inflicted on her, she bent down and flicked her tongue over his cotton briefs. She aimed for the tip of his erection and TASTED HIS SALTY ESSENCE THROUGH THE COTTON BARRIER." Okay, I realize it's to each his own for sex stuff, but TMI CARLY, TMI. I don't know a single one of my friends that would ever mouth her paramour's jockeys, much less go for that salty essence. GAG.That was my other main problem with this book. Either the sex was like above, CRINGWORTHY or it was laughable, as when she actually called his penis a "turgid member". I laughed out loud at that one, because I seriously got visions of Ms. Perky from 10 Things I hate about you.So no. This was most definitely not for me in any way shape or form. If it is your thing, then enjoy away. I will be continuing my search for romances writers I'll actually read more than once.

Lots of thoughts here...First thought, these boys make me feel like a creepy oldster because... HAWT. :)Second thought, I freaking hate love triangles and they should be illegal in YA. And they are soooo overdone. OMG.Third thought, this book was utterly predictable. Had it figured out from pretty much the beginning.But what can I say? I loved it. Not a five star, read it over and over, buy everything the author has kind of love. But I did love it with the "I can't put this down, even though I have children, dinner and laundry to finish," kind of love.It is definitely a suck you in kind of book and it was the type of PNR that doesn't annoy me. THANK GOD her boys didn't stay vampires, because when I read that at the beginning of the book I WAS SO THANKFUL THAT SOMEONE SUGGESTED SHE CHANGE THAT! Because these boys are kick butt and super fun to read about.I love it when men are men.There were a few moments when I thought she should have toned Gabriel down. Or even the part at the end where he's apologizing to Becca for being a dumbass... I really REALLY wanted her to turn to him and say, "Then next time, try not to judge a girl before you've learned her story. Mmmmkay?" In other words, I wish the author had turned it into a teachable moment. But that's a personal thing, probably.This review is all over the place. hahaha Can't wait to read the rest of this series!PS- I freaking hate the title of this readalong. Cashing in my V-card?? Maybe I'm old, but that's just NO, not how to refer to this. It makes sex so... banal. JMO.

Okay, this is my first DNF that I'm actually giving a rating, because dang it, I got to almost the very end before I finally gave up.My brother loved this book. My brother usually has the same taste in dark fantasy as I do, but I just could NOT like The Name of the Wind.It had a lot of great elements: red headed main character who is smart as a whip, the traditional hero's journey, an interesting love story, and a fascinating world.Those elements just didn't add up. The writing was great. The MC was an asshat. Seriously, this guy is a total freaking idiot and that's okay. I mean, I love characters that learn over time, that change and grow. Kvothe did not change or grow. Basically, he just stayed a poor, vicious street orphan from the time his parent's kick it and throughout his entire college experience.GOD, the stuff going on between he and Ambrose is just DUMB. I mean, sure, the first few times were funny. But it's like he didn't learn that lesson AT ALL. He just kept kicking that dead horse again and again and again. To my utter annoyance. The other thing that doesn't thrill me, and this is just personal taste... I hate stories told backwards. I hate when the main character goes back to tell a story that happened in the past, because there isn't a lot of tension there. If the MC is telling the story, then you know they live. And you know that there's nothing at stake, really. I like life and death. I like worrying about my characters and feeling like I have an emotional attachment to the moment. It was really hard to get drawn into the story because of the way it is told.That being said, the best part of this book is when he goes to audition at that musicians hangout. (Can't spell it to save my life, so I won't bother.) I was literally holding my breath that he'd make good. And he did. But then he ruined it completely by being an asshat and I pretty much lost interest after that. I kept going out of pure stubbornness, but my heart wasn't in it.Ah well... I'll just leave these books to my brother. I'll stick with George.

I really don't have much to say about these books. Sexy, sweet, and funny. Highly enjoyable, but utterly forgettable. Fantastic fluff!

Another very sweet romance with lots of steamy love scenes. Liked this better than the first, but I don't have much more to say about it.I feel like I will forget these books a week after I read them. Ah, well... onto Chloe's story.Also, was anyone else kind of sad that she never wrote a story for Logan??

Jill Shalvis is a new author for me, even though she's been around forever, I guess. Overall, I liked this book very much. Laugh out loud funny. Hot and steamy in all the right places, for sure.My only issue is that things moved pretty fast. I wanted them to wait like... a WEEK before falling into bed with each other, because after that first time, romances lose some of that zing. Just personal opinion.They also fell in love pretty fast, like within a month. A lot of people don't have issues with that type of thing, but I like the MCs to wait a bit longer. Still, I really enjoyed it. I will for sure read this author again and would recommend her writing.(Oh, one other thing... the profanity was a little over the top for me. I mean, the f-word was like 5-7 times a chapter. Again, a personal thing, but I like to save that word for when you REALLY need it. LOL)

The first 50 percent of this book was iffy for me. Like three star iffy, with the potential to be way lower. Why? To be blunt, if there is anything I cannot STAND it's a cringing, whiny, "woe is powerful me" female character. Really, you have more power than God himself and you're afraid to even TRY IT??? Ridiculous! If I had kick ass powers, you bet your butt I'd be using them.I'd be using them all over the place! Even the REASON why she was afraid was a little sketchy for me. Thankfully, Bardugo swoops in before there was another Eon incident(Don't even get me STARTED on the whining cringiness in like 80% of that book!) and things roll along (not smoothly. Not possible with the Darkling around.) at a nice pace until the end.Was the book predictable? Yes. Was the Darkling a little too "I'm a sad and lonely man disguised as vampire type immortal disguised as a magical creature disguised as a complete MONSTER"? Yes. (Note: I'm not saying he IS a vampire. I'm just saying... well, the guy is immortal, all powerful and likes darkness. You do the math.)Still, the world was amazing and fun and imaginative and unlike most of the YA worlds I read in traditional fiction... this was was a joy and very enveloping. I honestly felt transported. And since being spellbinding is pretty much all I require in a good book, this one gets 5 stars from me, even with the somewhat annoying beginning.

I picked this up because Andre has gotten a lot of buzz for her recent deal with S&S for print only. I figured I'd give them a shot, but once again, my pickiness in the realm of romance made me give up on this book at about 13%. It's just not for me. I'm thinking Nora Roberts fans will love it, so if that is you, try it out. I hate Nora Roberts. I've never been able to read her books and I've tried multiple times.So yeah. Another romance failure. Darn it.

I'm going with a 3.5 on this one. I struggled, so much struggle, with how to rate this book, because in a lot of ways I REALLY enjoyed it. Its cleanly written prose is a joy. The first 5 or so chapters of this book had me riveted. The descriptions were fantastic.Where the book lost me was two places: scope and character.This book so complex that I was scratching my head in several places. I almost put it down when I was so confused I had to go back and re-read passages to try and make sure I'd read it right. In this book alone we have pretty much every subject matter you can think of: time travel, school for the gifted, amnesia, alternate universes, other planets, changing of fates, and much more.In my opinion, it takes on too much. Maybe I don't have the reading skills for it. Maybe it's just not my thing. I'm willing to explore both those thoughts, but man alive, I couldn't keep up. So many convoluted paths to try and walk at the same time. Just too much. I think part of my confusion was setting such a strong beginning foundation and then just taking an abrupt departure toward a completely different universe(literally) to where I was like, wait, what just happened? Are we going to stay here now? Are we going back there anytime, because I'm confused as to why you introduced those characters that we are literally not going to see again for the rest of this...300 page book?The other part that I felt suffered because of this is the characters. I applaud the authors' integration of multiple viewpoints and different narrative modes—they used first person and third person. It was well done, but to highlight so many different characters in such a short span made it tough to really connect with any of the characters. The strongest characters, to me, were Rayen and Tony. The rest just seemed shallow, even though I could see how the authors tried to give me some backstory for them. In the end, a book with so many different viewpoints should be longer. There is a reason why George R. R. Martin's books are like a thousand pages long. LOLAnyway, overall a good read. Glad I took a chance on it.

This book was a really great adaption, I thought. But holy crap was it creepy. I was seriously hiding it from my kid so he wouldn't see that evil mother button eye lady and have nightmares. Because I almost did.

Lovely, heartbreakingly sad, amazing! I can see I'll have to try out some of Oliver's other books.I don't think I'd let anyone under Junior high level read this book, however. A bit gruesome.

Ultimately I had to shelve this one. The writing was good, the story was there, but too much sexytimes for me. Just not my thing. If you like sexytimes and fantasy (PNR) then this will be YOUR book.Also... I think I'm just going to stop trying PNR, because I just can't find one that scratches me where I itch.

In my quest to read as many indies as possible this year (I just made that goal up, but it sounds good) I decided to snag this on sale from some website advertising thingy. I didn't even read the synopsis. Or if I did, I promptly forgot it.My reading tastes are eclectic. If you follow my reviews you know this and probably wish I had one specific taste. But no. Strangely enough, as varied as my reading material is, my taste in romances is pretty specific. I can think of three romance writers off the top of my head that I actually LOVE and buy their books: the incomparable Susan Elizabeth Philips(whose work has disappointed me of late), Jude Deveraux(everything she wrote in the middle of her career, nothing too early or lately), and Jennifer Crusie (just for Bet Me alone, does she deserve to be on this list).This has not stopped me from trying everything under the sun just for funsies. But you know, I have a certain formula: no sex too soon without a good reason (I really like a nice anticipatory lead-in), no overbearing man throwing the girl around like a ragdoll, a likeable heroine, and some honest to goodness laughs. I am a romantic comedy fan.So let me just say how pleasantly surprised I was by my random pick-up of Roger's book. It had all of these things. Rogers had her own unique style, which I liked, while she also reminded me of some of the Deveraux historical romances I read. Do I think she's up there with Deveraux? Not yet. But given some time and lots of writing, I DEFINITELY think she could be. I wasn't expecting to find this book funny, but there were many times where I laughed out loud. A scene with Lucinda, a mule, and a shotgun in particular had me embarrassing myself at the gym because I couldn't contain my mirth.Now, all that goodness being said, the story was a bit convoluted at times. One part of the ending was weird to me, the way it was hurried through with the uncle. I wish that some of the side characters had been a bit more fleshed out than, "She cooks great." or "Her voice is strained from when someone tried to strangle her." Especially since Rogers took such great care to make the prostitutes sympathetic and likeable (whereas many authors would have just taken the "they're disgusting and pitiful" route).Perhaps she will do that with her next installment. Overall a highly enjoyable book and a fun read. Recommended for readers of historical romance who like a bit of humor in the writing.

If Wool didn't do it, this book has now made me a slobbering Hugh Howey fangirl! Guys... THIS is what YA sci-fi should be like. Seriously! None of that other drivel I've read of late cuts the mustard. This sci-fi gives me that meaty fare that I loved back when I first discovered Brin, McCaffrey, Norton, and Heinlein. What I love though, is how capable Mollie is. (Everyone knows that's the real way you spell her name.) People don't usually throw around the word "capable" when they discuss why a heroine kicks ass, but man, it is a word that I have come to WISH for. When I look at the wimpy, girly, "OMG, I don't do anything but make the main man look good, and that's my only plot point," type heroines they have going on in the YA world, Mollie is like a breath of FREAKING FRESH AIR!!!Mollie is the best pilot in the Navy Academy. She's smart as a whip. She's full of feeling and inadequacies that piss her off, and delightfully human. Mollie is a REAL person, no special powers, no super strength. But she has so much fire and determination that you will just gobble up this book and want more. If there is any criticism I have... It's that there was SO much going on in this book that I almost couldn't believe it all happened in the space of one episode. Howey put a whole team together and worlds literally exploded. It was CRAZYPANTS, man!

*I got this book from Amazon for free, as advertised by the website "BookBlast".I seem to say this so much, but when you're as eclectic a reader as I am, you MUST often say, "This book is not for everyone." And believe me, it's not.There is some violence, some vile descriptions, rawness, roughness, and lots of rednecks. However, I really enjoyed this book and it once again reminds me how when indie books are done well, they are a wonderful addition to writing culture at large. Tash is quite the original mind, let me tell you. This book reminded me of a Holly Black book I once read, because that book too wasn't afraid to get down and dirty with fairy tale land. I don't think if I sat down to write for several hundred days I would ever think to combine fairies, trolls, roller derbies, rednecks, Amish and rock & roll. Despite its rough and tumble nature, I was enchanted by the obviously lesbian protagonist (which would never happen in the traditional publishing industry) and her quiet and unassuming best friend Harlow. I'm so thankful that Tash took a chance and published this book herself, because the loss of it would be a crying shame! If you like to read fantasy and fairy tale turned on its head, this is THE BOOK FOR YOU! Strap yourself in and enjoy the rocky ride!