Review: All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood

Content warning: child abuse, rape, domestic violence, discussions of suicide. 

SPOILERS AHEAD

I started this book two weeks ago, because I saw a review written by a critic whose opinion I value and respect, saying it was one of the best books of the year. Then I saw other reviews, both positive and negative, that made it sound a bit sketchy, but curiosity killed the cat.

The story is pretty engaging, but then we see where it’s headed and, yeah... This is a book about an abused, neglected little girl who progressively becomes dependent and romantically and sexually involved with the only adult person (other than the grandmother who dies early on in the book) who ever shows her love and care, but more importantly who understands her. This is a girl so traumatized that she won’t eat when people are watching, won’t speak, and can’t stand to be touched. And this man, Kellen, sees what’s going on and works around it to the point where she talks to him, lets him touch her, and even eats in front of him.

DNF Review: This Heart of Mine by Brenda Novak

Content Warning: Horrible, “holy shit, what the fuck?” levels of fatphobia; ableism; ignorant portrayals of mental illness; and all around shittyness. Seriously.  

Let’s play a game of “Find the Quote that Made Me Rage-Quit this Book” (the page numbers are from the kindle edition, so they may not match the paperback):

The noise of the dogs brought her mother to the door. Because of Lizzie’s tremendous weight, she moved slowly and ponderously, so Kyle was gone by then. Phoenix was glad of that. But it was never easy to contend with her mother. “What the hell’s going on out here?” Lizzie shouted, her words and tone containing the caustic edge she was so famous for.

(Page 36)

“I’m hungry,” her mother announced as soon as she was done, so she warmed up some soup, hoping her mother would eat a healthy meal instead of the cheap pizza, soda, chips, cookies and candy she normally consumed. Only when Phoenix had finished cleaning out a small section of her mother’s kitchen—the one part not buried beneath all the things her mother hoarded—did she feel free to return to her own place, and by then it was after two in the afternoon.

(Page 38)

Because I Never Learn from Past Reading Mistakes: In Your Dreams by Kristan Higgins

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

TW: Fatphobia. So much hatred, you guys.  

To say that I have disliked Ms. Higgins’ most recent books is an understatement, yet here I am, reading and reviewing her newest. In my shameful defense, I still get excited when I see she has a new book out; I can’t stop myself from requesting it from NetGalley, and then I go home and read them in one sitting. I know some object to reviewers who read books they know they will hate, and I understand that, even if I don’t share the sentiment. But believe me when I tell you that the excitement I still feel about these books comes with a heavy dose of hope that this time they won’t punch me in the face with their gross transphobia, slut-shaming and casual racism. So think of this opening paragraph as a disclosure of bias and know that my subjectivity has been compromised.

In Your Dreams is about a desperate single lady, desperately seeking some desperate man who will be her plus-one at her ex’s wedding. As you can see, it’s a very desperate situation, after all, the only thing worse than going to a wedding alone, is if said wedding is that of your ex. Now, these books are very into single ladies who need a man to validate their lives, so the fact that this one repeats the pattern isn't a surprise, and although it’s a great source of perfectly valid criticism, it hasn't stopped me from reading all the books, which is why I’m moving on to my next complaint, also known as the moment the story sucker-punched me.

Review: Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Warning: Minor spoilers ahead.

I enjoyed Slammed, Ms. Hoover's first novel, but I thought the sequel, Point of Retreat was a fan service mess. Yet she has an engaging voice, and I wanted to give her a second chance, because I figured that a new, original book wouldn’t be as bad.

I was wrong. 

Sky was adopted when she was five and has lived sheltered her whole life (this means home-schooled and without access to television, internet or phone). Her only link to the world outside her house is her best friend and neighbor, Six. They visit each other, have sleepovers and sneak boys into their rooms. But sky is immune to boys, and when they kiss and touch her she becomes detached and disconnected with her body and what’s going on. Other than that, she is fairly happy and has a good relationship with her adoptive mother.

Review: Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris

Note: this is more of a rant than a review. It won’t make sense unless you have read the books. If you loved this one, you better skip it because you won’t like what I have to say. And there are spoilers.

I’m considering this –writing the review- my random act of kindness of the day, you don’t deserve to blindly get this book without a warning first. If my review can save you the time and money I’ll consider my sacrifice to be worthy. I almost  DNF’d it, but I kept reading it as my punishment for no listening to myself; last year I said I would quit the series, and yet, here I am again, so I guess I deserve the pain.

Deadlocked has no plot, none whatsoever. Nor does it have anything else going for it that may keep the reader’s attention. There’s a party where certain powerful vampires are supposed to be, but nothing happens except that a girl’s body is found nearby. No one knows who the dead girl is; she has no connection to the characters or plot (but there’s no plot so that’s okay); and there’s no motive. It just looks like a random vampire killing. Unfortunately, there’s more to it, and I say unfortunately, because when you learn the real reason behind the whole murder and what I guess is the book’s plot, you will feel like killing someone. It’s that stupid.

Review: Bear, Otter, and the Kid by T.J. Klune (or more like review of the movie Shelter)

ETA: I have changed the final grading to 1, I enjoyed the book immensely but it turns out the plot was “borrowed” from the movie Shelter. Plagiarism is a terrible thing, perhaps said borrowing of a plot and changing a couple of things here and there including names is not illegal, but to me is unethical and just plain wrong. Writing is all about originality, stealing someone else’s idea makes you a thief not a writer, it may not be this way for everyone, including this Dreamspinner Press editor, but it is to me. What a shame. 


ETA 2: Dreamspinner Press has issued a response, which you can read it here. In addition, they are offering a free download of the book for a limited time, so that readers can form their own opinions. After watching the movie I can say that the book borrows heavily from it and that all this mess could have been avoided if the author had at least acknowledged where he got his inspiration. If you don't want to read the book or watch the movie, you can always read this post that lists all the similarities. 

Source: we received an e-ARC of the book through NetGalley for review purposes.

Everything about this book appealed to me. The cover, the blurb, the genre, when I saw it I just had to read it, I felt like the cat that found the golden catnip. I love contemporary romances with clever children, guys struggling to raise them and friends-to-lovers stories, and this book had all of that and more. This is T.J. Klune’s first book and he did a fantastic job, enough to make it into my top 10 best books of the year and into my auto-buy list.

If you read the synopsis you will know that the book is about Bear who at 17 gets a letter from his mom telling him that she is leaving with her lowlife boyfriend and that she’s leaving his 6 year old brother Ty -aka the Kid- with him. Three years latter Bear is raising his precocious brother, working at a grocery store and living a very regular and stale life. He has a girlfriend and a best friend who have been with him since he was a kid and who have helped him with the Kid, and he also has Otter. Well, he doesn’t really have him because for the past three years he’s been living in San Diego and even though he was also one of his closest friends and probably the one he relayed the most on, things are really complicated between them. But everything is about to change because Otter is back in town.

New Review: Any Man of Mine by Rachel Gibson

I should start this review by saying that I’m a huge fan of Rachel Gibson and I was anxiously anticipating this book. I should continue this review by saying how disappointed I was after reading it. This book didn’t work for me at all; I can honestly say that the only redeeming quality about it was the writing style.

Any Man of Mine is book six in the series about the fictional hockey team the Seattle Chinooks but stands alone quite well so you can read this one first.

The book's leads are Sam and Autumn. About six years ago they met in Vegas. 72 hours latter Autumn finds herself left alone in the hotel room after her wedding night (that’s right, they got married). It turns out that Sam, who apparently was drunk the whole time, has realized his mistake and has fled the crime scene. Days later Sam has files for divorce while Autumn finds out she is pregnant. After the birth of the boy, and after the paternity test results come back positive, Sam agrees to take care of him financially, but he is pretty much absent from the boy’s life. Flash forward five years later and Autumn and Sam meet again. This time they try to be more civilized to each other for their son’s sake. Here is where the book begins and you probably can guess what comes next.

Review: The First by Saadia Ahmed

Source: we received this book from the author for review purposes.

In The First we meet Reena, she is a college student who comes from a conservative Pakistani family, and is clear from the beginning that this means she doesn’t enjoys the same liberties that any regular young student would. One day in class she meets Brian, he is the all American blue eyed guy and they instantly hit it off and start dating, but there is always the concern that Reena’s family won’t approve of him.

At this point you may think you know what this book is about, girl meets boy, girl and boy fall for each other, girl’s family opposes the relationship, girl and boy fight because of this, girl and boy reunite, and in the end -and against all odds- their love conquers all.  But that is not the case here. This is a short novella but the story develops through years. I don’t really want to spoil the plot, but Reena and Brian don’t get together right away, in fact Brian is absent half the book. I think this story is more about Reena’s journey than anything else, the love story -or lack thereof- plays a secondary role.

Review: In His Good Hands by Joan Kilby

This is the first book by Joan Kilby I have read, and it will probably be the last. There were so many things that bothered me that I don’t even know where to start. First and foremost I should say that my review has spoilers, because I can’t explain why it didn’t work for me without giving away some of the plot.

The story is set in Australia; Renita, the heroine, has been in love with Brett since high school, where he broke her heart after he refused her invitation to prom. Fast forward some years, and he’s back in town. He’s a former football player that comes back to his home town after retiring and plans to start a gym. To do it he needs a big loan (Australian footballers don’t win that much money and he’s recently divorced and still hasn’t settled that), so he goes to the bank were Renita is in charge of the loans, he tries to charm her but only gets enough money to buy the old gym and not much else, he still needs to replace every single machine for state of the art equipment.

Renita sees what he’s doing and isn’t happy about it, but she tries to maintain a professional relationship and not get into personal territory. Brett finds out that Renita’s father is a diabetic and needs exercise, and offers him a two for the price of one three month membership, and one on one training sessions, hoping that she will go too. Her father convinces her and thus Brett becomes her personal trainer, up to this point and towards the middle of the book, the story was good, but then it all went downhill.