miyurose

• Rated 2 stars

“This will be my last Queen Betsy book. As much as I like the characters, there was just no plot here! You get a few promises of interesting stuff that might happen later, particularly with Betsy’s sister (the daughter of the devil), but nothing actually happens. I expected there to be a lot more involvement between Betsy and Nick as they search for the Driveway Killer, but instead, it’s all wrapped up inside of a chapter in a pretty anti-climatic way. Oh yeah, you get some expected bickering between Betsy and Sinclair, but that’s pretty much par for the course now. There wasn’t even any vampire politics. So I’m no longer wasting my time.”

miyurose wrote this review Monday, November 16 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“This was just your basic formulaic romance… Man and woman are best friends, man and woman end up on vacation alone together, man and woman discover mutual attraction, but of course, don’t know how to handle it, etc, etc, etc. Throw in a dead husband, a young son, and a prying yet well-meaning mother, and you have a party! That being said, it was a very enjoyable formulaic romance. Sandra Brown sure knows how to give you likable characters that you want to see together in the end.”

miyurose wrote this review Wednesday, November 11 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“I think this ranks up there as one of my favorite Baldacci books (though I don’t think anything will ever top Wish You Well). I hated Mace’s name, especially the way the symbolism is pretty blatantly spelled out, but I liked her as a character. Roy turned out to be a good partner for her — patient, steady, and with just a little bit of crazy to balance out her wild amount of crazy/reckless abandon/obsession. The mystery does get a little bit confusing, as there are several layers of bad guys, but it’s all spelled out pretty well at the end. I do suspect that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Mace and Roy…. She still has a lot of questions she needs answered.”

miyurose wrote this review Tuesday, November 10 2009. ( reply | permalink )

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• Rated 5 stars

“I’m sure that this novel has found itself compared to The Hunger Games, as they are both young adult dystopian novels. The Hunger Games is a hard title to surpass, but in some ways, The Maze Runner has done just that. From the start of the story, when Thomas wakes up in a strange elevator knowing only his name, you know nothing more than what the characters know. And the characters don’t know much, which makes everything a mystery. Where are they? Why is there a maze? Who keeps sending them supplies? Will they *really* die if they stay in the maze at night? And what is the deal with the girl who suddenly shows up the next day? I found this story to be much more complex than The Hunger Games, even if it isn’t suspenseful in quite the same way. It certainly kept me reading, and I blew through the second half of the book like someone was going to take it away from me. The ending is incredible, because just when you think you know what is going on, you find out that you’re completely wrong. Can’t wait for the next one.”

miyurose wrote this review Tuesday, November 3 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“I really do like these Dark Hunter books. They’re quick and steamy and don’t really require a lot of extra thought. Tabitha is one of the more interesting heroines in Kenyon’s world, a woman who does more sticking up for herself than some of the women in this series. I did think that this one addressed an interesting issue… What is life like for a Dark Hunter who has been given back his soul? How do they deal with no longer being immortal and having to worry about things like disease, bills, and bad knees? Though it is brief, I thought it was one of the better parts of the whole book. Unfortunately, Kenyon decides to sweep it all under the rug with a little manufactured magic that rends all parties involved immortal again (or for the first time, for the humans involved). I think I would have liked to see that theme continued in some of the later books rather than the quick happily ever after.”

miyurose wrote this review Tuesday, November 3 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“I thought this was a touching story… a little bit coming of age, a little bit romance. Bea has moved to a new town and is starting in a new school for her senior year of high school. Fate, the alphabet, and a shared affinity for late night radio call-in shows lead her to a tentative-at-first friendship with the Ghost Boy, Jonah, who has long been the misfit of the class. Bea is a bit of a misfit herself, not really interested in the usual teenaged girl things and saddled with a couple of parents that are far to involved with their own problems to really pay much attention to her. I really liked this story, though the ending is a bit bittersweet. I did have one problem with it…. I didn’t like how casual underaged drinking was in this book. I know that it happens, a lot, but I don’t think that a book that is marketed to young adults should treat it in such a "this is normal, everyone does it!" way. And though I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Baltimore, I don’t really believe that there are business establishments in this day and age where 17 year olds can waltz in and buy alcohol on a regular basis.”

miyurose wrote this review Tuesday, November 3 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“I actually liked this second Kitty book a little more than the first. There wasn’t all of the pack politics, and Kitty is starting to show her backbone. Of course, there are politics of a different sort at work here, as Kitty has been subpoenaed to testify in front of a congressional committee about the existence of preternatural beings. She finds herself bombarded from all sides, by not only a fire-and-brimstone conservative senator and a tabloid reporter, but also the mistress of DC’s vampires. I did find the confrontation with cult leader Elijah Smith to be a little too quick, almost an afterthought. I think there should have been some more buildup for that storyline. But overall, I really liked this and will definitely be continuing with the series. And hopefully, there will be more of were-jaguar Luis!”

miyurose wrote this review Thursday, October 29 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“I didn’t dislike this book, but I didn’t really get anything out of it either. It is a difficult subject matter – no one wants to think about their closest loved ones dying – but what makes Didion’s grief any different than anyone else’s? There isn’t even any sort of insight into how one should deal with their grief and move on (or at least forward), because Didion didn’t deal with it, she wallowed in it, using it as an excuse to essentially check out of life. The only thing I found even a little insightful was at the beginning, when she talks about grief being a mental illness rather than some temporary condition. I think the book might have been more interesting if it had been written later and was about both the death of her husband and her daughter (who did eventually pass away in 2005).

As a side note, this was the selection for my book club this month, and it was universally disliked. Most of the women in the group are over 50, and I think their general thought was "Oh, just get over it already!"”

miyurose wrote this review Wednesday, October 28 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“This was a quick fun read, but it suffers from one glaring problem – Fred is basically Betsy (of the Undead series) with fins and without the love for shoes. If you’ve read any of that series, it’s really difficult to read this without Betsy’s voice in your head. Despite the voice problems, Fred is a unique character, a half human and half mermaid who works in the only natural choice for a hybrid mermaid – at an aquarium. When she has to figure out who is polluting Boston Harbor (and therefore, oceans everywhere), she ends up with not one, but two love interests. It’s their interactions that will keep you reading.”

miyurose wrote this review Tuesday, October 27 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“I found this to be a pleasant surprise. It’s young adult, so it’s not super gory or super scary, but the girl-on-girl violence is super cruel and unfortunately, probably not much of an exaggeration. And the romances are sweet. I liked meeting Claire and her new roommates. Caine also makes Morganville a particularly creepy place to live. The feeling it invoked in me was like one of those dreams where you’re being chased and can’t find a way to escape. My one complaint about the book is that I didn’t like the last chapter with its manufactured cliff-hanger. I would have rather had that event open the next book – it didn’t really fit – but it wasn’t enough to discourage me from continuing with this series.”

miyurose wrote this review Monday, October 26 2009. ( reply | permalink )