Summary:
Lucy, who apparently works in advertising, decides one day that she wants to do some good in the world. She becomes a praeceptor, which is someone who acts as a guide of sorts for people coming out of prison. Her first (and only) case is Terry Keegan. Terry has just gotten out after doing four years for burglary. This is all he knows, and it's what he goes back to. They fall in love, and Lucy decides to start stealing things, so she can become closer to Terry and understand him more. Terry thinks this is very wrong, and that a woman shouldn't be stealing things. The story follows Lucy as she not only ignores Terry's requests for her to stop stealing, but she goes on to try to steal a very expensive painting from a friend and gets pinched while doing it. Oh, and they say "quite honestly" a lot.
Thoughts:
Quite honestly, it's crap. It's predictable, and it's boring. It's barely more than 200 pages, and I think I've been reading it for at least three months. I now understand why it was in the bargain bin at B&N. Crap, and more crap. As soon as Lucy started stealing things, I knew she was going to get caught, and she was going to get jail time. The falling-in-love part wasn't even good. The story was told with one chapter from her perspective, then one from his, alternating every other chapter, so Lucy goes on about her afternoon with Terry, and then says "I guess that's when I fell in love." No lead-up, no nothing. Absolute CRAP. Quite honestly.
Pages: 206
Genre: Romance? Crap.
Grade: F
Would I Recommend?: Oh HELL to the naw.
15 down, 35 to go!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Art Geeks and Prom Queens (Alyson Noel)
Summary:
Rio is a teenaged girl who moved from New York to sunny California and is trying to deal with the whole new life she has now. She starts off hanging with people that are very much like her: nice, artsy, etc. But when things go even slightly south with them, she drops them, starting to wear the expensive and very trendy clothes her mother's been trying to force on her since they moved out west, and hanging out with the "cool" girls. This leads to drinking, cocaine, and unfounded sex scandals.
Thoughts:
Honestly, it sucked. It was basically the movie Mean Girls, only with more drugs and alcohol. Why is it that none of the books written about "cool kids" ever paint them in a kind light? I'm not saying that I was ever a "cool kid" (far from it!) but they can't all be the worst of the worst. Anyway, the writing was awful. And it was so very transparent what was going to happen, it was ridiculous. And the happily ever after mess came only on the last page. Shock of all shocks.
Why is it that so few books come with a happy ending that ties up loose ends before the very last page? It's like writers enjoy putting their readers through the worst of all angst, with very little happy in their ever afters. Maybe it's because I've been in a happy relationship for years, and I never really had to go through all this angst. But I like seeing people actually get together, and also BE HAPPY together.
Pages: 226
Genre: Teenlit, romance
Grade: D+
Would I Recommend?: No, probably not.
14 down, 36 to go!
Almost done Quite Honestly, and I can't wait to be. It's pretty crap too. Three books out of the last four have been stupid. Not awesome.
Rio is a teenaged girl who moved from New York to sunny California and is trying to deal with the whole new life she has now. She starts off hanging with people that are very much like her: nice, artsy, etc. But when things go even slightly south with them, she drops them, starting to wear the expensive and very trendy clothes her mother's been trying to force on her since they moved out west, and hanging out with the "cool" girls. This leads to drinking, cocaine, and unfounded sex scandals.
Thoughts:
Honestly, it sucked. It was basically the movie Mean Girls, only with more drugs and alcohol. Why is it that none of the books written about "cool kids" ever paint them in a kind light? I'm not saying that I was ever a "cool kid" (far from it!) but they can't all be the worst of the worst. Anyway, the writing was awful. And it was so very transparent what was going to happen, it was ridiculous. And the happily ever after mess came only on the last page. Shock of all shocks.
Why is it that so few books come with a happy ending that ties up loose ends before the very last page? It's like writers enjoy putting their readers through the worst of all angst, with very little happy in their ever afters. Maybe it's because I've been in a happy relationship for years, and I never really had to go through all this angst. But I like seeing people actually get together, and also BE HAPPY together.
Pages: 226
Genre: Teenlit, romance
Grade: D+
Would I Recommend?: No, probably not.
14 down, 36 to go!
Almost done Quite Honestly, and I can't wait to be. It's pretty crap too. Three books out of the last four have been stupid. Not awesome.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan)
The first in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.
Summary:
Percy Jackson is a dyslexic kid with ADHD who can't manage to stay in the same school for two years in a row, thanks to his ability to get himself into trouble so very easily. But a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, complete with a really bad encounter with his pre-algebra teacher, leads to Percy discovering that he is a half-blood. Half what, you ask? Half human, half god. Percy is sent to Half-Blood Hill, a summer camp for demigods. All the campers there are sons and daughters of the Greek gods and goddesses. He and the rest of the "undetermined" go through their days, hoping to get claimed by one of the gods.
Percy does get claimed, and gets sent on a quest to find the master bolt, Zeus's most powerful lightning bolt, which was stolen at the winter solstice. Oh, and Percy has a grand total of ten days to go west to LA, find the bolt, and get it back to Zeus before the summer solstice on June 21st, when Zeus and Poseidon will break out in all-out war. Along the way, Percy comes face-to-face with five gods, as well as countless mythical creatures that are kind enough to impede his progress.
Thoughts:
AWESOME. I loved it, and will be reading the rest of the series very soon. The throwbacks to Greek mythology are great. Seeing how Riordan work the old Greek myths into the story was awesome. Sure, I knew where much of the story was going before it got there (except one little twist that I didn't pick up on thanks to not remembering everything from my mythology class), but it was great watching it all unfold. I can't wait to see the rest of this series play out. Now I can totally get myself to the video store (I think?) to get the movie.
Seriously, though, this book was can't-put-it-down great. This was the second book this year that I wasn't checking page numbers all the time to see where I was and how much I had left. The writing feels exactly like being inside a pre-teen's brain. The way Riordan tells his story, it's truly like talking to a teenager. Beautifully done. I can't wait to get my hands on more.
Pages: 375 (wow, really? Didn't feel that long!)
Genre: Fantasy, mystery, with some Greek Mythology thrown in.
Grade: A+
Would I Recommend?: Abso-freakin'-lutely.
13 down, 37 to go!
Summary:
Percy Jackson is a dyslexic kid with ADHD who can't manage to stay in the same school for two years in a row, thanks to his ability to get himself into trouble so very easily. But a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, complete with a really bad encounter with his pre-algebra teacher, leads to Percy discovering that he is a half-blood. Half what, you ask? Half human, half god. Percy is sent to Half-Blood Hill, a summer camp for demigods. All the campers there are sons and daughters of the Greek gods and goddesses. He and the rest of the "undetermined" go through their days, hoping to get claimed by one of the gods.
Percy does get claimed, and gets sent on a quest to find the master bolt, Zeus's most powerful lightning bolt, which was stolen at the winter solstice. Oh, and Percy has a grand total of ten days to go west to LA, find the bolt, and get it back to Zeus before the summer solstice on June 21st, when Zeus and Poseidon will break out in all-out war. Along the way, Percy comes face-to-face with five gods, as well as countless mythical creatures that are kind enough to impede his progress.
Thoughts:
AWESOME. I loved it, and will be reading the rest of the series very soon. The throwbacks to Greek mythology are great. Seeing how Riordan work the old Greek myths into the story was awesome. Sure, I knew where much of the story was going before it got there (except one little twist that I didn't pick up on thanks to not remembering everything from my mythology class), but it was great watching it all unfold. I can't wait to see the rest of this series play out. Now I can totally get myself to the video store (I think?) to get the movie.
Seriously, though, this book was can't-put-it-down great. This was the second book this year that I wasn't checking page numbers all the time to see where I was and how much I had left. The writing feels exactly like being inside a pre-teen's brain. The way Riordan tells his story, it's truly like talking to a teenager. Beautifully done. I can't wait to get my hands on more.
Pages: 375 (wow, really? Didn't feel that long!)
Genre: Fantasy, mystery, with some Greek Mythology thrown in.
Grade: A+
Would I Recommend?: Abso-freakin'-lutely.
13 down, 37 to go!
Monday, April 19, 2010
The Good Fairies of New York (Martin Millar)
Summary:
A disjointed tale of two Scottish fairies, Heather and Morag, who get kicked out of Scotland, and wind up somehow in New York City. The story follows their misadventures in the big city, where they piss off the native New Yorker fairies (who were originally from China, Italy, and Ghana) and set off a turf war. Meanwhile, over in England, the Cornish fairies start a war of their own, and somehow decide it's necessary to invade NYC. And there's a Scottish clan of fairies who are pissed at the two main character fairies, and are hunting everywhere for them.
Oh, and there's this guy, Dinnie, and this chick, Kerry, and the two Scots make a deal with Dinnie to get Kerry to fall in love with him. And there's a couple other humans involved, and the ghost of a long-dead rock star who's out to find his guitar.
Thoughts:
This book is so effing all over the place, it's hard to keep track of everything. The story bounces from Heather and Dinnie, to Morag and Kerry, to the Italian fairies, to the Scottish clan, to the Chinese, to the Cornish government-type fairies, to the Cornish rebellion, to the Ghanaian, to the Italians, to Heather and Morag again, all in a matter of 10 pages. It's so disjointed that while you know it's all connected, and you can pretty much see the connections coming, when they DO get there, you wonder how you've gotten there. Another character involved in this whole mess is a schizophrenic bag lady who thinks she's an Athenian army commander from ancient Greece, and honestly, while reading this, I felt a little like I was going to be her soon.
Also, Kerry (one of the two main humans) has Crohn's disease, and every other chapter or so, it talks about her colostomy bag, and describes what exactly is going on with her physical ailments. I'm sorry, I don't expect to read about which tubes are connected to what and for what purpose when I pick up a book about fairies.
It's a bizarre book, and I didn't particularly like it. I muddled through because I read great reviews for it, but now that I've read it, I'm wondering why. Oh, and this printing had so many amateurish mistakes in it, I kept getting brought out of the story (such as it was) to wonder how this didn't get caught in the editing process.
Pages: 242
Genre: Fantasy
Grade: D+
Would I Recommend?: No.
12 books down, 38 to go!
I'm reading the first Percy Jackson book now, and it's really good so far. A great leap from the crap that this one was.
A disjointed tale of two Scottish fairies, Heather and Morag, who get kicked out of Scotland, and wind up somehow in New York City. The story follows their misadventures in the big city, where they piss off the native New Yorker fairies (who were originally from China, Italy, and Ghana) and set off a turf war. Meanwhile, over in England, the Cornish fairies start a war of their own, and somehow decide it's necessary to invade NYC. And there's a Scottish clan of fairies who are pissed at the two main character fairies, and are hunting everywhere for them.
Oh, and there's this guy, Dinnie, and this chick, Kerry, and the two Scots make a deal with Dinnie to get Kerry to fall in love with him. And there's a couple other humans involved, and the ghost of a long-dead rock star who's out to find his guitar.
Thoughts:
This book is so effing all over the place, it's hard to keep track of everything. The story bounces from Heather and Dinnie, to Morag and Kerry, to the Italian fairies, to the Scottish clan, to the Chinese, to the Cornish government-type fairies, to the Cornish rebellion, to the Ghanaian, to the Italians, to Heather and Morag again, all in a matter of 10 pages. It's so disjointed that while you know it's all connected, and you can pretty much see the connections coming, when they DO get there, you wonder how you've gotten there. Another character involved in this whole mess is a schizophrenic bag lady who thinks she's an Athenian army commander from ancient Greece, and honestly, while reading this, I felt a little like I was going to be her soon.
Also, Kerry (one of the two main humans) has Crohn's disease, and every other chapter or so, it talks about her colostomy bag, and describes what exactly is going on with her physical ailments. I'm sorry, I don't expect to read about which tubes are connected to what and for what purpose when I pick up a book about fairies.
It's a bizarre book, and I didn't particularly like it. I muddled through because I read great reviews for it, but now that I've read it, I'm wondering why. Oh, and this printing had so many amateurish mistakes in it, I kept getting brought out of the story (such as it was) to wonder how this didn't get caught in the editing process.
Pages: 242
Genre: Fantasy
Grade: D+
Would I Recommend?: No.
12 books down, 38 to go!
I'm reading the first Percy Jackson book now, and it's really good so far. A great leap from the crap that this one was.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Smart Boys & Fast Girls (Stephie Davis)
Summary:
Natalie is a sophomore who just made the varsity cross country team. She's a fast runner, and she knows it. What she doesn't know is geometry, and her spot on the team is in jeopardy after she fails the third test in a row. She's forced to get a tutor, who thinks that jocks are snobs, and treats her with disdain at every turn. The trouble is, Natalie doesn't want the world to know that Matt is her tutor. Instead, she tells everyone he's her new boyfriend, which leads to all kinds of high school drama.
Thoughts:
It's not the worst, I suppose. It's your classic "two people meet, hate each other, then realize their true feelings at the most inopportune time" story. Every romantic comedy follows this formula, and of course, this is no exception. The writing is kind of bland, and there's not a whole lot of meat to the story. It's only 178 pages, for God's sake. Usually this kind of story gets filled in a little bit with more substance. The most dramatic part of the whole thing is when she finally calls out her best friends for ditching her for their new boyfriends.
All in all, not the worst crap I've ever read. (That will continue to be Raiders of the Low Forehead until the end of time.) But I could have written this a lot better, and with a lot more substance to it. Oh, and the author's bio at the back of the book is completely lame. Also I literally ingested this whole book within a few hours.
11 books down, 39 to go!
Pages: 178
Genre: Teenlit, romance
Grade: C+
Would I Recommend?: Probably not.
Natalie is a sophomore who just made the varsity cross country team. She's a fast runner, and she knows it. What she doesn't know is geometry, and her spot on the team is in jeopardy after she fails the third test in a row. She's forced to get a tutor, who thinks that jocks are snobs, and treats her with disdain at every turn. The trouble is, Natalie doesn't want the world to know that Matt is her tutor. Instead, she tells everyone he's her new boyfriend, which leads to all kinds of high school drama.
Thoughts:
It's not the worst, I suppose. It's your classic "two people meet, hate each other, then realize their true feelings at the most inopportune time" story. Every romantic comedy follows this formula, and of course, this is no exception. The writing is kind of bland, and there's not a whole lot of meat to the story. It's only 178 pages, for God's sake. Usually this kind of story gets filled in a little bit with more substance. The most dramatic part of the whole thing is when she finally calls out her best friends for ditching her for their new boyfriends.
All in all, not the worst crap I've ever read. (That will continue to be Raiders of the Low Forehead until the end of time.) But I could have written this a lot better, and with a lot more substance to it. Oh, and the author's bio at the back of the book is completely lame. Also I literally ingested this whole book within a few hours.
11 books down, 39 to go!
Pages: 178
Genre: Teenlit, romance
Grade: C+
Would I Recommend?: Probably not.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Murder by Peacocks (Donna Andrews)
Summary:
Meg Langslow is a blacksmith who has been asked to be the maid of honor in not one, not two, but three weddings. All within about six weeks of each other. And each one of the brides are bonkers. Her best friend, Eileen, wants to attire everyone in velvet, medieval style ensembles. Her future sister-in-law, Samantha, is crazy and, among other things, wants peacocks wandering in the yard for no real discernible reason. Her mother is planning on marrying a bore of a man and ignoring how much Meg's dad still loves her. Oh, and in the midst of this crazy summer of wedding planning, someone gets killed, and Meg's dad tries to deduce whodunnit, causing the killer to go after him too.
Thoughts:
Hilarious. I will be going after every book in the series. The next one is Murder by Puffins, which is the one that I saw first. Andrews' writing is great, and the voice of the book is like an old friend telling the story of her crazy summer of weddings. It's written day by day, too, with each chapter being a different day. And often times, if I'm reading a particularly slow passage, I will pause and check the number of pages, to see how much I have left, or if I'm almost to the end, I'll check. I didn't even think about it during this book, because I was so engrossed in the book. It's just that good. And anyone who's going through or who has gone through planning a wedding will appreciate this immensely. Stacy, I'm looking at you.
Pages: 311
Genre: Mystery, chicklit, humor
Grade: A+
Would I Recommend This?: YES.
10 down, 40 to go!
Meg Langslow is a blacksmith who has been asked to be the maid of honor in not one, not two, but three weddings. All within about six weeks of each other. And each one of the brides are bonkers. Her best friend, Eileen, wants to attire everyone in velvet, medieval style ensembles. Her future sister-in-law, Samantha, is crazy and, among other things, wants peacocks wandering in the yard for no real discernible reason. Her mother is planning on marrying a bore of a man and ignoring how much Meg's dad still loves her. Oh, and in the midst of this crazy summer of wedding planning, someone gets killed, and Meg's dad tries to deduce whodunnit, causing the killer to go after him too.
Thoughts:
Hilarious. I will be going after every book in the series. The next one is Murder by Puffins, which is the one that I saw first. Andrews' writing is great, and the voice of the book is like an old friend telling the story of her crazy summer of weddings. It's written day by day, too, with each chapter being a different day. And often times, if I'm reading a particularly slow passage, I will pause and check the number of pages, to see how much I have left, or if I'm almost to the end, I'll check. I didn't even think about it during this book, because I was so engrossed in the book. It's just that good. And anyone who's going through or who has gone through planning a wedding will appreciate this immensely. Stacy, I'm looking at you.
Pages: 311
Genre: Mystery, chicklit, humor
Grade: A+
Would I Recommend This?: YES.
10 down, 40 to go!
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