Review: Made to be Broken

Made to Be Broken by Kelley Armstrong


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Although there aren't any supernatural elements in the Nadia Stafford books, if you like Armstrong's writing style, you will probably like this series. There are less "rules" to the world to deal with so she doesn't have to spend as much time with that, and she can focus more on the characters. Also, there are fewer characters clamoring for attention so she can fully explore them. If you're looking for resolutions for any relationships in this book, you won't find them. In fact, they just get deeper and more complicated.

The plot is good too. It isn't a murder mystery, even though someone does get murdered. It turns out to be murder, kidnapping, more murder, undercover work, all with some lighthearted moments at a rural bed and breakfast mixed in for laughs. Armstrong seems to hit all the right notes as she keeps readers turning the pages trying to unravel the dirty deeds done dirt cheap in the book. The only thing that might irritate readers is that there really is no ending. The particular conundrum gets wrapped up at the end, but the dance continues. If you're a person that wants everything wrapped up, you'll be left hanging. For me, it just makes me want the next installment quicker than ever. I do wonder if she'll have the momentum to continue this series, the Otherworld series and her YA series. It seems like this series is at the bottom of the food chain given how popular the other two series are. It would be easier to put this one down if she was pressed for time, needed a break, or what have you.

Love Quinn. Love Jack. Love this series.

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Review: An Echo In the Bone

An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Don't get me wrong, I liked this book. I liked it very much, in fact. But, it is hard to read (or rate) this book without comparing it to the others in the series. In that comparison, this book rates three stars for me. There were pages where my eyes glazed over at the intense minutiae of Revolutionary War time historical accuracy. Partly, not my cup of tea. Partly, give it a break already, will ya? I get it. You're accurate. Wonderful. I don't care what was on that guy's buttons.

The "Story" seemed to move along much more slowly than usual too. It seemed compressed, even though a lot happened in that small amount of time. The "present day" part of the story was interesting, but I really just wanted them to do something. Anything. Brianna's job seemed like a vehicle to get treachery moving again. RogerMac....well, his adjustment was interesting, but not much more than that. Jem and Mandy....you get the picture.

It was nice seeing people I never thought to see again in these books (without giving spoilers, of course) and my favorite characters (Ian, John Grey) did not disappoint. But, something in this book was just off. Maybe it was the excessive detail about a time and place I care little about. I will say that the process of reading this book made me want to go back and read favorite parts from the previous books. I don't anticipate having the same feeling about this one when the next book comes out.

Speaking of the next book.....

Cliffhangers...... there was definite cliffhanger fail in this book. When you KNOW the next book is going to be years in the making, why would you leave so many cliffhangers?!

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Review: One Taste

One Taste by Allison Hobbs

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
The blurb on the front says "A Fast-Paced Sex Thriller with a lot of Eroticism" but the book did not deliver. It delivered fast pace and sex. There was nothing "thrilling" or "erotic" about it. You can't create eroticism just by using naughty words. That isn't enough anymore and there wasn't enough here to get me engaged.



I didn't like the characters and I don't think I was supposed to. The first thing we see is materialistic Regina and it all goes downhill from there. She isn't sympathetic at all, even though Hobbs tries to build in a backstory of heartbreak around a son who died in an accident. Maybe if we would have gotten the full story about the son up front it might have helped create more of a connection with Regina. Instead, we get the barest hint of her pain, but it seemed contrived without the full story. Her husband is another completely unsympathetic character. Did this man have ANY redeeming qualities? Any at all? He was a cardboard cutout character, there only to give Regina an excuse to do everything she did. Not only does that not work for him, it doesn't work for her either. Why do I feel badly for her when she stayed with someone like that? I don't believe that she did it for love. Why? Because there wasn't anything lovable about him, that's why. There wasn't anything lovable about either of them.



The rest of the characters were equally two dimensional and un-interesting. They showed no depth, no growth, no individualism. So if you have characters like that guess what suffers? That's right, the sex.



To put it bluntly, there was nothing sexy about the sex in this book. It wasn't hot. It wasn't "freaky" (despite the blurb from Zane on the back of the book). It was plain, like checking off the list of words: Pussy? Yep. Dick? Uh huh. Clit? Gotcha. Cum....yep. Great! We hit our quota. If it wasn't plain, it was ridiculous. I mean, did you really say:

"Yeah, his dick was husky like a mufucka"

Seriously? And I'm supposed to be aroused by that or laughing my ass off? Because I'm still laughing. Which is too bad because the one redeeming quality of this book was Cochise (aside from his nickname.) He was the only character that straddled the line between two dimensional and fully developed character. He wasn't all the way there, but he came closer than any of the others. He had his own voice and hinted that Hobbs might be a better writer than this book suggests.



But I knew I was in trouble on the first page with

"She could eye spy a knockoff with just a glance"

She could "eye spy"? Really? That's something a person might say, that doesn't belong in the narration. There is an old adage for writing called "show, don't tell." There is a lot of tell in this book, and not nearly enough show. Would I try another book by her? Probably. There were glimmers of things in this one that gave me hope. But, I'll definitely be checking out from the library instead of forking over my own recession dollars.


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Review: 3

Three by Julie Hilden

My review

rating: 1 of 5 stars
It wasn't so much dislike that made me give this only one star. It was more disinterest. There was an interesting hook to start the book: a woman catching her husband with another woman. Okay, I'm intrigued. And back cover copy told me that said wife would agree to an "open" marriage of sorts. That's why I picked it up! The author has already won me halfway over because I picked up the book. But, it takes more than that to keep me interested.



The prose was written well. The book had a literary look and feel to it. And, even though it may seem like I have a bias against modern literary fiction, I really don't. Some of it is interesting, and some of it isn't. This one wasn't. The characters were bland. They weren't sympathetic at all. I didn't like any of them, and I didn't dislike them either. I just turned pages. Pretty soon, I didn't care enough to continue to do that. I didn't care about their motivations. The sex was boring, even though it was supposed to be illicit and exciting. It wasn't the words that made the sex boring, it was the lack of interest in the characters.



A lot of people enjoyed this book, and that's great. Anything that is positive feedback for an author is a good thing. For me, though, this was a disappointment. I probably won't be trying any of her other fiction.


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Review: Kill Zone

Kill Zone: A Sniper Novel by Jack Coughlin

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This gets four stars because even though I thought there were problems with it, I couldn't stop reading it. And, by the end, I realized I'd liked it a lot.



Part of the problem, I think, was reader interference. Whenever you have a book that deals with politics, even tangentially like this one does, I can't help but try and decipher the unwritten (and probably unintentioned) messages. Does this author have a political bias? Do they lean in one direction or the other? What does it mean if they DO have a bias? The fact that I had to ask meant that it was pretty well hidden.



The other criticism I have is that there were some missing descriptions in the book. What did these people look like? Some of them were described pretty well. Others, I'm still not sure. I actually went back to where one character was first introduced because I thought I had missed the description. Turns out, it wasn't there (other than he was bald.) WTF does he look like, though? Maybe the authors don't feel it is important, but, trust me, it is.



Some of the conversation seemed stilted in a few places, but that can happen to even the best writers. It certainly wasn't an issue throughout the book. It just seemed like the authors weren't together and the gap showed in the conversation between two characters at that point. It always got back on track.



The action sequences were EXTREMELY good in this book. If I were writing a book and I needed to know how to handle things of an action nature (using contemporary weapons and techniques) I would use this book as a reference. Not a call to plagiarize, of course, but to see how things are done. Obviously, authors involved know what they're talking about and it shows. But, it is done in a way that is less "education" and more entertainment. Main characters are likeable, secondary characters are decent. Villains are.....villainous? And there are even some characters that are in between. It almost reads like an action movie, which can be good or bad. Your choice.


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Review: Family Tree

Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was a book that had been on my shelves for almost a year before I finally got around to it. The premise is a lot like the Kate Chopin short story Desiree's Baby So, I won't rehash the plot.



There were moments in this book where I wanted to shake every character in this book (except the baby) within an inch of their lives. But, reality says that people sometimes do very stupid things, even if they know better. So, in that way, I suppose the characters were very realistic.



I think Delinsky goes wrong here by trying to do too much. The plot with the baby and the plot with the main character's long lost father is enough. Delinsky adds in other sub-plots and it just becomes a muddled mess of secrets that really detract from the story. I think the book worked, it told a good story, but it could have been so much better. I would recommend it to people, but I wouldn't be surprised if they came back with complaints.


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