*D Rating

Review: True by Erin McCarthy

April 26, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 24 Comments

By Erin McCarthy
Publisher: InterMix
Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Genre: New Adult Contemporary
Source: Netgalley

When Rory Macintosh’s roommates find out that their studious and shy friend has never been with a guy, they decide that, as an act of kindness they’ll help her lose her virginity by hiring confident, tattooed bad boy Tyler Mann to do the job…unbeknownst to Rory.

Tyler knows he’s not good enough for Rory. She’s smart, doctor smart, while he’s barely scraping by at his EMT program, hoping to pull his younger brothers out of the hell their druggy mother has left them in. But he can’t resist taking up her roommates on an opportunity to get to know her better. There’s something about her honesty that keeps him coming back when he knows he shouldn’t…

Torn between common sense and desire, the two find themselves caught up in a passionate relationship. But when Tyler’s broken family threatens to destroy his future, and hers, Rory will need to decide whether to cut her ties to his risky world or follow her heart, no matter what the cost…

Goodreads Summary

I really like Erin McCarthy’s Fast Track regular romance series – it’s hot and sexy and the characters are usually exciting. Unfortunately, I don’t think McCarthy’s style has translated well to New Adult at all. I didn’t enjoy True – I actually found myself on the verge of DNF’ing it several times, which was completely unexpected.

I confess I heard a little buzz about a controversy surrounding the scene in which Rory first meets Tyler. It’s happening often enough in NA that it could almost be considered a trope: the innocent heroine is “rescued” from a sexual assault by the big strong hero, usually at a party where everyone is drunk. In this case, there’s a whiff that Rory was asking for it, since she knowingly drank past her limit, was considering sex with her attacker since he was a loser and she thought he was the best she could do and didn’t fight back when he initially kissed her. The scene was as horrible as I thought it would be, if not slightly worse, since the hero was kind of scummy himself. Tyler is the kind of guy who has no problem with casual sex and he’s just had some with Rory’s roommate.

Many that have been reading NA, especially this year, have been bemoaning the lack of originality in plots and characters. True doesn’t stray that far from anything that’s come before it. Rory is a nerdy, smart, pretty and virginal college student who comes from a nice middle-class family with one dead parent and one distant one. Tyler is an older experienced boy with tattoos who drinks, comes from a dirt poor family with a single, messed up parent and has brothers he takes care of. He does well enough in school and plans on getting a quick degree so he can graduate fast and get a good job so he can take care of his family, away from his alcoholic, druggie mother. Is any of this sounding vaguely familiar yet?

There’s just not that much that was unusual enough about the storyline for me to go into either. Rory thinks she’s too boring for Tyler and can’t figure out why he’s hanging out with her, he thinks she’s too good for him, they have sex and are a couple, tragedy strikes, etc. etc. I do have to give McCarthy some credit for introducing some bits of storyline that I didn’t expect her to that made me uncomfortable. I don’t want to spoil them since they come near the end of the book, but they’re shocking and unexpected enough that I thought that if she followed through on them, this could have been an interesting, powerfully realistic story given Tyler’s home situation and the things going on at college. Instead, she took the simple way out with a little deus ex machina and a couple of overwrought scenes to deliver an expected ending.

I didn’t connect to Rory or Tyler as a couple or individually, which didn’t help with the lackluster plot. Rory only had a few go-to emotions: embarrassed/self-conscious, devastated/crying and deliriously happy. Most depended on what was happening with Tyler and her character admitted it, like suddenly having emotions now that you’re with a guy is a good thing. She just seemed a little desperate and I felt sorry for her more than I liked her. I think I never came close to liking Tyler, mostly because of my first impressions of him. He seemed skeevy at the parties, passing out Oxycontin and sleeping with Rory’s friend (they had an “arrangement”), so even when his genuine side came out, I found myself waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Tyler’s older brother Riley is getting a book next and I hope he gets something edgier and different. I’ll still read her adult romance series’, but I just can’t read McCarthy’s NA.

My Rating: D

Filed Under: *D Rating, 2013 Ebook Challenge, 2013 New Adult Challenge, 2013 Standalone Challenge, Contemporary/Romance, New Adult Tagged With: Erin McCarthy

Review: Spellbinding by Maya Gold

March 23, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 19 Comments

By Maya Gold

Publisher: Scholastic Point
Publication Date: April 1, 2013
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Source: Netgalley

There’s more than one way to be powerful . . .

It is during a routine school project that Abby Silva–sixteen and nearly friendless–makes a startling discovery: She is descended from women who were accused of witchcraft back in 1600s Salem. And when Abby visits nearby Salem, strange, inexplicable events start to unfold. Objects move when she wills them to. Candles burst into sudden flame. And an ancient spellbook somehow winds up in her possession.

Trying to harness her newfound power, Abby concocts a love potion to win over her longtime crush–and exact revenge upon his cruel, bullying girlfriend. But old magic is not to be trifled with. Soon, Abby is thrust headlong into a world of hexes, secrets, and danger. And then there’s Rem Anders, the beautiful, mysterious Salem boy who seems to know more about Abby than he first lets on.

A reckoning is coming, and Abby will have to make sense of her history–and her heart–before she can face the powerful truth.

Goodreads Summary

I’ve always been fascinated by the history, theories and stories surrounding the Salem witch trials so I loved the creeptacular references to it in the synopsis of Spellbinding. I was hoping for a YA story with an unusual twist incorporating some of the Salem mythology, but the only thing unusual about Spellbinding was how many clichés and overused YA tropes were stuffed into a single story that I still was able to finish.

There may be a few stray spoilers included in my review. I was unhappy with the book and since I’m going to explain why, there will be some examples.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: *D Rating, 2013 Ebook Challenge, 2013 Standalone Challenge, 2013 Witches & Witchcraft Challenge, Paranormal, Young Adult Tagged With: Maya Gold

New Feature: Saturday Bonbon Reviews

January 19, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 15 Comments

I’ve always been hooked on novellas but it’s been difficult to decide whether to review them or not since just a quick synopsis has the potential to spoil the whole thing. I’m getting a lot of recommendations for novellas (and serials) lately though, so I decided to go ahead and create a weekly feature for whatever shows up on my Kindle that week. Since they’re short little bite-sized books, what else could I call them other than bonbons?

With Love
By Shawnté Boris
Self-Published
Publication Date: January 5, 2013
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: Purchased

Her life was all set…she had everything she had ever dreamed of. Promises of forever…. But promises can be broken. Alyson Almon, or Ally as she is called, finds this out in a tragic way. The emotional scars on her heart are ones only she can feel. With a change of location and a makeover she tries to start her life anew. She is drawn to a beautiful wedding and snaps some photos, capturing the love between the bride and her father. Luke McDerment, brother of the bride, is a man who is dealing with his own loss. Their paths cross when he spies her gorgeous photos and the instant attraction is something neither of them can deny.

Luke, with the help of his family who also find themselves drawn to this haunted young woman, involve her in a project that throws her right in the middle of this loving, warm family. They have a Gala coming up and Ally is the perfect photographer to capture the moments. Ally is embraced by the family and finds that she needs the love and warmth this family gives so effortlessly. She also finds the attraction to Luke is something she can’t deny. Can they fight the electricity between them and just walk away or will they let fate hand them the happy ending they both desperately need?

Goodreads Summary

This felt like a book in two parts, and when that book is a novella and it’s split in half, it’s going to have to suffer someplace. I absolutely loved the first half. Ally checks into a hotel and simple things like unpacking toiletries have special meanings that start to unravel her past. As she came across new items and bared new pieces of herself, I was grabbing more and more tissues. It was so beautifully, sweetly written – I wasn’t expecting what came at all.

What I’d call the second half, or at least a pretty distinct change in tone, came when Ally stumbles into a wedding being thrown at the same hotel where she’s staying. She just takes a few snaps because the father of the bride has a look in his eyes she wants to capture and from there, a sudden attraction between she and his son crops up.

The overall theme is that grieving is a process and at some point, you choose to live for yourself. The first half of the book promises an introspective, quiet and emotional look at the nature of love and the value of committed relationships. The second half is your standard contemporary romance with some insta-love and two instances where specific words yanked me clear out of the story. An “A” for the first half, “C” for the second.

My Rating: B-

Mistaken Engagement
By Jenny Schwartz
Publisher: Escape Publishing
Publication Date: January 10, 2013
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Saul knows he crossed the line when he claimed a surprise engagement with Grace. But her hysterical denial – and the way she’s avoided him ever since – has made things awkward, but it can all be worked out.

The Australia Day long weekend down at her family’s beach house is the perfect time to show everyone that they’re friends, with not a broken heart between them. But can a fake engagement become life-changingly real?

Goodreads Summary

Can I get away with just saying breezy and adorable? Because that’s what this one was. It wasn’t terribly deep and situations and the history of relationships weren’t even needed because the in-the-moment stuff was just that good.

Friends-to-lovers is one of my favorite tropes and while this wasn’t quite that, it was close. Saul and Grace have known each other for years, so there was no need for the author to come up with a reason for them to have such familiarity and easy affection/irritation with each other. The two have a nice bickering attraction to each other that doesn’t feel unnatural and I really liked both of them, something not always easy to make me do in such a short book.

The plot was kept simple, practically clichéd, which was pretty smart, going with the familiar. It left space to add in some nice details that made things feel fresh, like Grace’s job as a student doctor, the Australia Day holiday and a little romantic rivalry subplot.

This was a remarkably fun read, considering I only had to set aside an hour or so. There was more charm in this story and it was of higher quality than a few full-length books I’ve read recently. I’m definitely reading this author again.

My Rating: A

The Arrangement, Vol. 1
By H.M. Ward
Publisher: Laree Bailey Press
Publication Date: January 6, 2013
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Serial
Source: Purchased

FML is becoming Avery’s motto. Just when she doesn’t think things could get any worse, they do. When her car stalls out at a busy intersection and she gets out to check under the hood, a guy steals her car. Armed with a dress and a pair of Chucks, Avery runs after the thief. When a hot stranger offers to help, she can’t say no. That’s how Avery meets Sean Ferro, the totally sexy, totally damaged guy with more secrets than she has time for.

Avery doesn’t have time for anything anymore. Her is life falling apart and it’s not just the car. It’s everything, and it doesn’t matter how tightly she tries to hold on, there’s nothing left to hold on to. With the sudden death of her parents, it’s only a matter of months until Avery’s shot at college is gone, and she’s living in a cardboard box. Other students have their families to rely on when things get bad. Avery has no one.

But there’s one option, one incredibly sexy, morally devoid, option. If Avery takes a job as a call girl, one guy could save her. One client. One time. She just has to say yes.

Goodreads Summary

I’m usually not a fan of serials/series’ at all, but I decided to make an exception for this one because it was New Adult and hopefully wouldn’t have the same type of death/ex-wife/espionage cliffhangers that some of the adult serials have had. To answer the big question first – this didn’t end on a big cliff. It just felt like a break between chapters more than anything.

I like novellas because they’re like little spoonsful of sorbet between courses of other books and I never expect them to give me complete character profiles, full plots and worlds and win me over with a solid, convincing romance. I have some standards I won’t compromise though – if you’re going to skimp on the world-building, give me some magnificent characters. If the plot is a little weak, make sure I believe like mad that this relationship is true. I couldn’t find anything to really be passionate about in this story. It was all just sort of meh.

I didn’t really believe Avery was in college since nothing she did felt collegiate unless you count wandering around a dorm and taking a test. She had no backstory beyond a few sentences explaining why she was all alone. I barely know what she or Sean look like. It was just all rather bland, including their sort of high school-like mooning crush on each other. It didn’t feel like passion or hot, holy-hell-we-have-to-have-each-other kind of emotion, but more like, “Hey, he’s cute. My ladyparts could learn to like him.”

One last thing that will keep me from continuing even if the book had grabbed me – the next installment was due to come out on January 15th, but as of today, there isn’t even a cover or synopsis up. If a weekly serial isn’t even going to come out weekly, then what’s the point?

My Rating: D

ETA: I wrote this late on the 17th and there was nothing there or at Amazon; I just checked it this morning and the second book is up, with a “published date” of January 16th.

Filed Under: *A Rating, *B Rating, *D Rating, 2013 Contemporary Challenge, 2013 Debut Author Challenge, 2013 Ebook Challenge, 2013 New Adult Challenge, 2013 Standalone Challenge, Barbara Recommends, Contemporary/Romance, New Adult Tagged With: H.M. Ward, Jenny Schwartz, Shawnté Boris

The Selection (The Selection #1)

April 20, 2012 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 4 Comments

By Kiera Cass

Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: April 24, 2012
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Source: Publisher

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in the palace and compete for the heart of the gorgeous Prince Maxon.

But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn’t want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she’s made for herself- and realizes that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

Goodreads Summary

My review may be more spoilery than usual because I’m going to get a little ranty down below and some of what I’m upset about are general things that happen throughout the book. I’m not going to go into specifics unless you’re a good guesser, but be warned anyway.

When a Prince of Illea reaches a marriageable age, the cattle call goes out to the kingdom – if you’ve got a daughter of a certain age, ask her if she’d like to sign up to try to win his hand. Rich, poor – it doesn’t matter what social standing you have, they’re all eligible as long as they fill out the form and have their picture taken. Then the best 35 of the bunch are announced on television and sent to the palace to try to impress Maxon into proposing.

America and her family are artists – painters, singers, sculptors – and they’re poor. Being chosen to be part of the Selection would mean a huge check and likely a big boost in their family’s status. She doesn’t want to sign up though, because she has a secret. She’s in love with a boy who’s even poorer than they are, a match they’d never condone. But she gives in and is shocked to hear her name announced as one of the 35.

Now under a lot of circumstances, I could like a character like America. She’s feisty, loves her family and is intensely loyal to her boyfriend. But Cass took things way too far and made America an absolutely perfect caricature of a character – she’s beautiful and unique but doesn’t know it, kind to everyone, intelligent enough to offer economic advice to the Prince, sweetly humble, the Queen loves her despite having never met her, etc., etc. I’m sure if she wandered into the woods, butterflies would alight in her hair, birds on her finger and deer and rabbits would gather ‘round her skirts.

I’ve only seen a handful of episodes of The Bachelor, but my guess is Maxon is pretty close to those guys, just dressed up as a Prince with some palace sekrits he only shares with America. He’s not terribly deep, talking mostly about how much he hates not being taken seriously as a Prince by his dad one moment, complaining about how boring meetings are not long after that.

So the characters bothered me and oh, there are more issues coming. But even if I liked them, Cass’ writing style drove me crazy at times. If ever there was a perfect example of telling and not showing, this is it. Especially for the first quarter or so of the book, it was non-stop telling. The author also has a tendency to use the characters’ names over and over in close proximity – I guess she doesn’t like pronouns? In one paragraph, in the retelling of an incident between two characters, each character’s name was used twice, a pronoun once. In one paragraph.

I don’t rant, not really. And this is going to be pretty tame because it’s tempered by the fact that overall, the book wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever read. But there were some things that just made me angry in ways that I can barely figure out how to fit them into the review in a coherent way. So I’m just going to throw them out there.

This was not a dystopian. Was the label slapped on there because the palace was attacked a few times by some literally unseen Northern or Southern troops? They either bombed from afar or invaded, and while everyone cowered in a secure room, they ransacked bedrooms and were driven off by the guards. Really? As far as the caste system, that hardly qualifies. So there are rich people who have money and there are varying social levels of other people who have less, down to people who have trouble finding work and education and occasionally steal to eat. And this is different from our current society how?

The depiction of the girls is so stereotypical, it’s offensive. Cold, rich, bitchy girl who wears too much makeup, clings to the guy and sabotages the other girls? Check. Little mousey girl who’s small, quiet, timid? Check – her name is even – wait for it – Tiny. There’s the smart geek who’s afraid to interact with anyone, the super-friendly middle class girl who befriends America because she recognizes a kindred super-friendly spirit. While not part of the Selection group, there are America’s three maids who of course include one girl who was traumatized and once America soothes her, she earns their eternal devotion. So we have America as just “one of the girls” with her maids.

Prince Maxon all but declares to America that she’s the one he plans on pursuing. If she wasn’t totally oblivious, she’d have seen it, but okay. So his first kiss is with her and it’s very sweet. And the next day? He’s kissing someone else? It seemed like there was some confusion about what qualities make an attractive hero or heroine. Maxon and America are both faithless and loose with their affections.

The ending was the most exasperating type of coy little teaser meant to keep a breathless romantic biting their nails until the next book. Look, I am a breathless romantic and under a lot of circumstances, I would be one of those people but I was so offended by the behavior of all of the parties involved, frankly they all deserved each other and I don’t care who “wins” who.

My Summary: So I didn’t love this, I think you can tell. Even if you take out the plot areas that made my blood boil, there were the storytelling problems and if you take out the style problems, you have the hair-burning issues, so I feel pretty secure with my opinion. It didn’t get an F because in spite of everything, I couldn’t help but keep reading, even though I hated myself and was cursing the entire time. I’d like to take the cover off and frame it so I have at least something pleasant to refer to when I think of this.

My Rating: D

Filed Under: *D Rating, Debut Author Challenge, Dystopian, Reviews, Young Adult Tagged With: Kiera Cass

Natural Evil (Elder Races #4.5)

April 9, 2012 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 1 Comment

By Thea Harrison

Publisher: Samhain Publishing Ltd.
Publication Date: March 20, 2012
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Source: Purchased

Claudia Hunter is on a road trip through the Nevada desert when she sees the body of a dog on the side of the highway. Pulling over to investigate, she quickly determines that the enormous animal is clinging to life. While working to save him with the help of the local vet, Claudia realizes there’s something about the creature that seems more. Other. Wyr. Which makes this case of animal cruelty attempted murder.

Too injured to shape shift, Luis Alvaraz is reluctant to tell Claudia what he knows about his attack, afraid it will only make her a target. But the sheriff is corrupt, and his attackers know Luis is alive and vulnerable. To make matters worse, a sandstorm is sweeping into town, and if they’re going to survive the night, Luis will have to place all his trust in Claudia.

Warning: Take a gorgeous man temporarily stuck in the dog house, add a strong, take-no-prisoners woman, mix in encroaching enemies and a raging sandstorm and stir to combine. Enjoy with a freshly opened can of whoop-ass.

Goodreads Summary

I sincerely love Harrison’s Elder Races series even if I’m not always thrilled with some of the books, because I love the characters and settings and she usually creates such interesting conflicts. They’re like stale Peeps to me (since it’s that time of year), totally addicting even though sometimes they don’t make my stomach feel all that great. This is the second novella released, and like True Colors, it takes place outside of the general world of the main characters in the full length novels. While I liked most of the first novella, this story just didn’t work on any level for me unfortunately.

When retired Green Beret Claudia comes across what appears to be a severely injured dog by the side of the road, she feels compelled to help. Claudia is a bit telekinetic and telepathic, enough to tell her that this dog might be Other, a Wyr. With the help of a rather shady deputy sheriff, she gets the dog to a vet who confirms her suspicion. In a town of less than 2,000 people, there’s apparently a human vet who can sniff out a Wyr. Who knew?

Backtracking through some town gossip and going on some hunches about the cop who helped bring the Wyr in with her, Claudia figures out that the attack was related to some work on a local mine. I’m not entirely sure how, to be honest, it didn’t make a lot of sense to me. There were large sections of the story that made no sense to me, which in a novella is a bad thing. As Claudia is off doing one thing, Luis (the dog, aka “Precious”) is being healed miraculously so he can become suitably, suddenly overprotective. He explains the mine thing to Claudia in detail but it still made no sense to me. I know how travel to the Other Land works from past books. This makes no sense.

I read a lot of novellas so I judge them a little differently maybe. I could have excused the nonsensical plot if I’d actually cared at all about Claudia and Luis but I got nothing at all from them. If this was a full length novel, I still don’t think I’d have gotten anything from them. Claudia was stone cold – she barely spoke, the reason having something to do with having spent time overseas in combat. Fine, she doesn’t say things out loud, but her thoughts were just as robotic and sterile. There wasn’t much to Luis at all. He was a dog then when he was changed to a man he was consumed with lust or generally out of the scenes in favor of the lifeless Claudia.

My Summary: These novellas aren’t part of the main series since the characters don’t seem like they’re going to ever appear in those books, so they’re not exactly critical to read to keep up with entire Elder Races world. I’ll still keep picking them up because I like Harrison’s writing and the entire Wyr universe and who knows when there’ll be a huge gem worth adding to my reread shelf. This wasn’t it. It didn’t even end in a place I felt really happy and satisfied with. I don’t like finishing books and feeling unsettled, but that’s probably the best word I can come up with to describe this experience.

My Rating: D

Filed Under: *D Rating, 2012 Ebook Challenge, Paranormal Romance, Reviews Tagged With: Thea Harrison

Forbidden Mind

March 19, 2012 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 4 Comments

Kimberly Kinrade

Publisher: Evolved Publishing
Publication Date: Mar 27, 2011
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Source: Author

She reads minds.
He controls minds.
Together, they might get out alive.

Sam thinks she’s months away from freedom. After spending her life in a secret school, rented out to the rich and powerful as a paranormal spy, she is ready to head to college like any normal eighteen-year-old.

Only Sam isn’t normal. She reads minds. And just before her big going-away party, she links to the mind of a young man who changes everything.

Drake wasn’t raised as a ‘Rent-A-Kid.’ He was kidnapped and taken there by force. But his exceptional physical strength and powers of mind control make him very dangerous, especially to Sam.

When they meet, Sam is forced to face the truth of her situation, and to acknowledge that not all is as it seems in her picture-perfect world. For what awaits her on her eighteenth birthday isn’t a trip to college, but an unexpected nightmare from which she may not be able to escape.

To survive, they must work together.

But will their powers be enough to save them before it’s too late?

Goodreads Summary

When I first read the synopsis on this, I was intrigued. It sounded like a twist on the X-Men comics, but instead of the kids being superheroes, they’re hired out by the rich and famous to help them become more rich and famous. The kids have lived in this school since birth, and don’t know any differently than their life as a Rent-a-Kid. These special kids with powers are hired out as early as thirteen, and are told that if they keep quiet and do their job they can leave the school at eighteen, attend college and live a normal life. Sam is a few weeks from turning eighteen and has just returned home from her last job and is tying up loose ends before she leaves to start her new life. Sam is considered unique and powerful, since her ability is to read minds. Not only can she read what you’re thinking in the moemnt, she can seek out every thought you’ve ever had. Sam inexplicably becomes very sick a few days before her birthday, and has to spend some time in the infirmary. While there, she connects minds with Drake, a boy around her age that she’s never seen before and is being held against his will. Drake also has a mind ability, and his is even more dangerous in that he can force minds under his control.

Meeting Drake forces Sam to question the reality that she’s lived with her whole life. Did her parents willingly give her to the school to raise? What really happens when kids turn eighteen and leave the school? Sam is forced out of her bubble, and she and Drake soon learn why he’s been kidnapped and why they are thrown together.

Forbidden Mind is actually a novella, and I typically don’t like novellas. I’ve only read a handful that I’ve really liked, but for the most part they leave me feeling incomplete. I guess in this case it was a good thing it was a novella, because I probably wouldn’t have finished it if it was a full length book. I felt that the book only touched the surface of the story, and I really wanted the author to dig a little deeper on some of the plot points. I was really interested in the idea of the school and the kids being hired out for various jobs, and I think it would have been a really great book if the focus had been just on that. Or those ideas and Sam finding out that the school isn’t really what it seems. Instead we quickly jump from the school, to Sam meeting Drake and finding out that she’s been lied to all her life, and then to Sam and Drake being taken together. And then it just gets weird. Like Breaking Dawn-ish weird. The story was going okay up until it then, and the sole focus of the book was on this Strange Event. Everything went downhill from there. I’m not entirely sure why the author chose to take the story in this direction, but I wasn’t a fan.

I also struggled connecting to the characters. The story is told from Sam’s point of view, and I didn’t really like her. Well, I kind of did at the beginning of the book, but then she got hormonal and emotional and I ended up not liking her at all in the end. We don’t even “meet” Drake until the end, as most of their connection takes place in the conversations they have in their mind. The romance also didn’t make sense. It felt rushed and thrown together, and if the Strange Event hadn’t have happened, I’m not sure if they would have gotten together on a normal day. I could never manage to find a way to care about the characters and their fates. I didn’t feel any chemistry between them, or between me and them.

My Summary: Forbidden Mind wasn’t a success for me. The writing was choppy, and the jokes and banter that was supposed to be funny just fell flat. I didn’t like the characters, couldn’t bring myself to care about them and the idea that I was really interested in – the kids and school – was only touched on briefly. It was disappointing, to say the least.

My Rating: D