Review: Belong to Me

Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos

Rating: 2.5 Stars

Reader beware: spoilers below.

I have to say, I don't really know how I feel about this book. One the one hand, it's beautifully written. It's a different style than what I'm used to, but it was lovely. Marisa de los Santos definitely has a way with words.

On the other hand, it moved so slowly, and I didn't really like the story. It felt like there was too much going on, too many story lines to keep track of, and I never really got very invested in any of them. I also hated the Teo-secret child story line. I know that's almost the anchor of the book, so maybe that's why I didn't like it very much, but when I got to the part where Dev figures it out, I got so mad. I just hated that that's where she took the story, and it was a real turn-off for me. I can't really explain why, it was just kind of a gut reaction. 

However, despite all the things I didn't like, I still was compelled to read until the end and find out what happens. And I will admit the second half moved much more quickly than the first half. De los Santos wrote a lovely, quiet novel, so if you're looking for a read featuring compelling characters and emotional writing, this is one you should pick up.

Review: The Chase

The Chase by Elle Kennedy

Rating: 4 Stars

What better way to participate in Read a Romance Month than with a romance I feel like I’ve been waiting forever for?! Okay, not forever, but it’s been a long time and I’ve been impatiently waiting the get back to Elle Kennedy’s Off Campus universe! The first book in the Off Campus spin off series Briar U does not disappoint. I loved reading about Summer and Fitzy and getting quick cameos from some of the characters from the original books. The characters are loveable and believable and I was rooting for them the whole time, even when I wanted to slap them for not making good choices! I will say, I didn't love the Summer-Hunter issue throughout the book. I definitely could have done without the love triangle aspect of the story, but I'm so over love triangles as a trope that that's more of a personal preference than anything else. I have to say, New Adult is a tough genre. At least for me, it's such a hit or miss genre, and I'm not completely sure why. They tend to skew to soap opera, but I can get down for that if it's well done. It just seems that so much of it isn't well done. With Elle Kennedy, it's always well-written and she's one of the bar-setters in the genre, in my opinion. This was a fast and easy read that was paced really well. I loved spending my Sunday back in this world, and am very glad we don’t have to wait nearly as long for the next installment! If you enjoy the New Adult genre and/or sports romance, this is definitely one not to miss! Even if you're on the fence in terms of New Adult, check this out because Elle Kennedy writes some of the best in the genre, hands down.

Review: After the Game

After the Game by Abbie Glines

Rating: DNF (Did Not Finish)

I think this is going to have to be my last Abbi Glines book. I found her earlier works to be hit or miss for me, but all the more recent ones I've tried have just been bad. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I DNF'd this at about 15% and then skimmed the rest of the way through just to see if there was any redeeming qualities or a worthwhile resolution. There wasn't. The reason I decided early on to skim rather than actually read this book was the writing. There's no flow and the whole thing reads as a poorly written fiction project for a high school writing class. There's too much detail for the inner-monologues, almost like the author forgot she was writing in first person, not third, and the dialogue is completely unrealistic. I also really hated that the text conversations were not stylistically set apart (i.e. italics, etc.), because it was confusing to read a sentence or two before realizing it was meant to be a text message between characters. I continued to skim through the book, though, in order to see if there seemed to be a good story underneath the bad writing, only to be disappointed on that front as well. There are so many problems with the plot of this book, I could hardly stand it. I'm going to start with Riley. Her whole story line was a mess, from start to finish. Riley is raped at 15, becomes pregnant and has the baby, is run out of town as a liar, and she's perfectly fine? Give me a break. There's no way that she wouldn't be dealing with some major psychological issues after trauma like that, and it's upsetting to me that Glines didn't take this opportunity to address some of that and add some depth to the character. Also the fact that Riley's mother wants her to stop holding on to her anger and bitterness and spend time with Brady, even though he was one of those people who wouldn't listen and called her a liar is so not cool. Honestly, it's written like Riley's parents are so great because they took her away from the town, but in reality, they should have worked harder to get justice for their daughter. The "resolution" to this story line was also horrible. At the very end the rapist "just wanted to see" the baby, and is so sorry, and Riley forgives him. Gross. It's almost like Glines forgot that part of the story line and had to rush to some conclusion at the end.  I also didn't love that this book made being a teen mom seem like such a breeze. It just didn't seem to accurately depict what that life is really like, and again was a missed opportunity to add some much needed depth to characters and the plot. But Riley wasn't the only one with issues in this book. There was a total 180 degree character shift with Brady's dad, for no apparent reason other than to cause some conflict to make Brady's life more dramatic and less perfect, which was weird. There was also a concerning amount of toxic masculinity to deal with throughout the book. Even though Brady's dad is the cheater, Brady thinks his mom is weak for not "dealing with it" or however it was put, in the way that he thinks she should. Riley isn't accepted into the group until Gunner invites them to the party, which, considering he's her ex and her rapist's brother is problematic on so many levels. It reads almost like Gunner forgives Riley, but for what? For not just keeping her mouth shut that his brother raped her and got her pregnant? And now everyone else is going to treat her well again, because he's going to? That's messed up.  Basically this book is a disaster from start to finish, and I can't in good conscience recommend it to anyone.

Review: The Accidentals

The Accidentals by Sarina Bowen

Rating: 4 Stars

I really enjoyed Sarina Bowen’s new young adult novel. I don't pick up too many young adult novels anymore, but since I've enjoyed Bowen's other work, I thought I would give it a try and I'm glad I did. The story was well-developed, with good pacing throughout. The characters were flawed, but that only added to the story. Obviously the main plot point was pretty out there, but the way Bowen handled the emotional development of the characters as they progressed through the plot was extremely believable. Even though there was conflict, there wasn’t a lot of drama just for the sake of the drama, which I really like. The major plot was dramatic enough without adding overly dramatic side elements. I also liked that as Rachel didn't ever seem to hate either of her parents; she was rightfully angry, but learned to forgive and move on. I guess I just really appreciated that the story never turned into a soap opera. The progression of emotions Rachel went through felt very true to life. This was a fast and easy read, perfect for anyone who enjoys young adult fiction and emotional coming of age stories.

Review: The Risk of Rogues

The Risk of Rogues by Sabrina Jeffries

Rating: 3 Stars

I enjoyed the final installment in Sabrina Jeffries' Sinful Suitors series. Because it's a novella the story moves to the resolution extremely quickly, but that doesn't detract from the story. The characters are not as well-developed as if it had been a full-length novel, but I didn't feel like the characters were in any way flat. I really liked that the heroine was strong enough to look out for and stand up for herself, and that the hero understands and respects that. This was a quick and easy read, bringing closure to the series. Thank you to NetGalley for the review copy of this book.

June Book of the Month Readathon Wrap-Up

This month I participated in the Book of the Month readathon. Just a note: this was not started by the official Book of the Month page, it was started by another book blogger/instagrammer - booknerdnative. And what a great idea it was! I'll admit, I'm terrible about keeping up with my Book of the Month picks, and while I only made a small dent in my pile, I really enjoyed most of the books I read. Keep reading to find out what specifically I liked or didn't like about each of the seven Book of the Month picks I read in June!

When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri

Rating: 2 Stars

This is the book equivalent to cotton candy. It was and fun and easy read, but there wasn’t much substance. It felt like the whole story was surface-level only, and I would have liked if there had been more depth to the story, or the characters, or both.

Overall it was okay, especially if you’re looking for something light and easy, but it didn’t make me feel any sort of emotion.

The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir

Rating: 4 Stars

I really enjoyed this book, even though the subject matter was very hard to read about. Early on, I sort of got a picture about what was going to happen, but it didn’t come fully clear until the end, which meant I couldn’t stop reading!

Weir did an excellent job of creating believable characters with depth. I don’t know how I would react if I were in Essie’s place (thank goodness), but I believed how she reacted. It felt real and raw and rough. I hope Weir continues to write, I would be interested to read more from her.

How to Walk Away by Katherine Center

Rating: 4 Stars

This was an extremely enjoyable read about a woman who overcomes great hardship. I really appreciated that Center stayed true to life in that everything wasn't magically fixed by the end of the  novel. I felt that the characters and the plot were all well-developed.  

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Rating: 4 Stars

This was an extremely fun, steamy, perfect-for-summer read! I enjoyed the reverse Pretty Woman plot and the diverse cast of characters. The heroine is autistic, which makes it a buzzworthy book by that point alone. However, the author is also on the spectrum which lends wonderful (and needed) authenticity to the character. The hero is a young man just trying to help his family and not turn into his deadbeat father, which may sound like a cliche trope, but Hoang approaches it in such a way that I really felt I understood Michael and where he was coming from. Not to say I didn't want to shake him sometimes, but I felt for him. I also enjoyed the fun cast of secondary characters, particularly Michael's Vietnamese family. Diversity in romance (and all publishing) is so important, but diversity for it's own sake can often come off as flat or forced. I didn't feel that way at all about this book, so I suggest if you enjoy fun and sexy romances, be sure to put this one in your beach bag!

Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong

Rating: 2 Stars

This was a fairly quick, easy read. Nothing to write home about, in my opinion. The writing was fine, but the style didn't work for me. It was written as journal entries, which I often enjoy, but it didn't seem to work in this instance. To me, this story would have been better served as a narrative, not as a diary.

I never felt any real connection to any of the characters, and everything came across as very superficial. If the characters and/or plot had been more fleshed out I would have enjoyed it more.

Bonfire by Krysten Ritter

Rating: 3 stars

This was a pretty good debut novel. Ritter is a good writer, and I think she had a good story to tell with this book. It was a thriller that wasn't too terribly scary, but it went off in a direction I didn't really expect, which I appreciated. I would pick up another if Ritter continues to write.

The English Wife by Lauren Willig

Rating: 4 Stars

This was a great mystery that kept me guessing until the end. It was exactly the kind of mystery that I enjoy; the kind where I think I’ve figured out what’s going on and the author parcels out important information a little bit at a time to keep up the suspense and surprise.

So there you have it! And I have to say, if you're thinking about trying Book of the Month Club, I can't recommend it enough. Just look at all these good books! 

Book World Controversy: Negative Reviews

Recently the issue of negative reviews has been cropping up in some of the book groups I'm in. So on this rainy day off from work, I thought I'd talk about it. 

The controversy is that some readers seem to feel very strongly about keeping the book community positive. And while I understand that, and I definitely believe that the social media book community should stay civil and it doesn't need to get personal, the idea that you should only share positive reviews just doesn't make sense, for many reasons.

For one, sometimes readers legitimately don't like a book, for any number of reasons. Maybe the writing wasn't good, maybe the story didn't resonate with them, maybe they didn't like the subject matter. It doesn't matter what the reason is, everyone has different tastes and there isn't a book in the world that everyone likes. 

I've seen lots of arguments about the word hate. Some readers don't think that word should be used when discussing a book, which I definitely do not agree with. I really don't like the implication that my feeling isn't valid because "hate is such a strong word." I know, that's why I chose it. It doesn't matter if another reader doesn't like the word hate, that doesn't make the my feelings less valid. And here's the thing: I, like many other reviewers, know my own feelings. If I hate it, I hate it, and I'll do my best to explain my reasoning, but I'm not going to tone down my feelings to make someone else happy. 

Aside from wanting to be honest with anyone who may read a review I've written, as a reader I appreciate negative reviews, sometimes even more than positive reviews. When I'm reading reviews deciding whether or not I'm going to pick up a book, I often go to the negative reviews first. I find that negative reviews better inform my decision about choosing a book because the negative reviews can tell me right away if there's something in the book that I just won't like. Negative reviews are often where you can find true information about the quality of writing or if I'm going to have a big problem with part of the story line. Reviewers who loved a book will write a glowing review, which is fantastic, but they'll also usually overlook writing or plot issues, and those are the kind of issues I want to know about when deciding if I'm going to pick up a book or not.

I often also hear the argument that "authors work hard to produce a book," or "how would you feel if someone who didn't know tried to tell you how to do your job?" News flash: people have been telling me how to do my job for literally every job I've ever had. That's how people are. Everyone thinks they know better than you when it comes to your job. As humans, we have to learn to live with that. And honestly, as long as the reviews don't get personal (as in, no calling the author or readers who like the book stupid or the like), I don't see what the problem is. I try to keep my negative reviews constructive and informative, to hopefully help other readers avoid books they won't like. And that can go both ways. A trope I hate is someone else's catnip! So someone reading my bad review might think, "Well, she hates that plot device, but that's one I love!" and maybe that person will go buy the book and love it. It is my true belief that both positive and negative reviews have their place in the world. 

So, while I understand wanting to keep the book community a happy place, I also don't think that keeping it happy means not acknowledging that as a reader, you didn't like a book, for whatever reason. Keep it civil and don't make it personal, but feel free to express whatever feelings you have about a book! Like I've said before, we all have different tastes and not every book is for every person. And as a final note, reviews are all just opinions, so take them with a grain of salt. 

Stay tuned! Next week I'm going to do a round-up of all the Book of the Month picks I've read in June as part of the #botmreadathon!