Rita

Molly Needs to Mind Her Own (weird) Business

Reviewed: 12-17-24

I disliked Molly's continued questioning of her sister's relationship with her fiance. It was obvious from the first what her sister and her fiance were keeping secret, yet no one picked up on it, Molly is a flake and yet she feels entitled to tell her sister and parents how to live their life because she loves them and they can't see what she sees. Even free, this was not worth the frustration that this one character elicited throughout the book.

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Joe's persistence and loyalty is very compelling.

Reviewed: 06-10-24

I enjoyed every aspect of this book. The ending was strong and touching. The unfolding of events was well paced. Carl Iverson's character development was excellent. Joe and Lila's "romance" developed unobtrusively

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Sweet Storey

Reviewed: 04-10-17

I enjoyed the main character, and a few of the supporting characters turn out to have more depth by the end. I listened to it in less than 2 days, not necessarily because it was a great read, more likely due to wanting to know who "Somebody Nobody" was (even though it was fairly apparent who it was despite the author throwing in a couple of red herrings.) Generally, a sweet story if you can ignore the gross lack if disregard and care the father has for the main character.

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Premise Overpowered by Weak Characterization

Reviewed: 09-27-15

I struggled to finish the first few chapters - never reached the halfway point, let alone the end of this mediocre YA novel. It takes real talent for an author to write authentic young characters that can appeal to youth as well as adults...let's be clear, that J.L. Weil does not possess this level of talent. The main character's inner musings are shallow and barely tolerable...even her mother being murdered before the book's opening doesn't make me as a reader get on board with her. She literally says "I'm different from other girls" when in fact her inane complaints make her seem like every annoying girl stereotype ever committed to paper.

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13 people found this helpful

Barely Tolerable

Reviewed: 05-27-15

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The plot had promise (romance and a chance of mystery), but "Easy Love" was not worth listening to...admittedly I lasted just under two hours. Rachel Fulginiti's narration of the New Orleans accent was bad...it would have been better to have her not do the accent at all....and as expected, Sebastian York was awesome (likely because he didn't even attempt the New Orleans accent). Also, the female lead of "Easy Love" was somewhat unlikeable...she is allegedly this no nonsense, professional corporate investigator, yet she immediately moons over her boss and does nothing but engage in inner dialog that describes his overwhelming hotness and wonders if he likes her. Finally, I could no longer endure the contrived intimacy concocted by the author...chance meetings on balconies, strolls through bourbon street...barely tolerable indeed.

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7 people found this helpful

Weak Characters

Reviewed: 03-17-15

Confess was a struggle to finish. Auburn and Owen were both weak characters; Auburn's level of weakness was inexcusable throughout most of the book, although the reader is supposed to forgive her because she has something to lose if she fights against those causing her adversity. Even though Auburn and Owen 'won' in the end, it was placid and unsatisfying. I was surprised that this book was so highly rated...I know Colleen Hoover is an awesome YA writer as I have a couple of her books, but Confess fell flat. Save your credit and get "Maybe Someday" if you don't already have it.

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5 people found this helpful

Just Barely Tolerable

Reviewed: 10-08-14

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Strings of the Heart (SOTH) was initially a good read considering it's third in a series and I haven't read any of the other books. Not reading the other books was deliberately done as with most of these series, the author goes out of their way to make sure the reader knows what happened to the other characters. As predicted, ad nauseam in fact, the author kept the reader abreast of the characters from the other books in the series. That said, after the initial scene (i.e. the 'morning wood' discussion was a superfluous way to integrate characters from the previous book), the book progressed well from Alison's point of view.  However, SOTH began to peter out after Alison and Rhys got together as the reason for their not being together was thin at best. Also, Alison's brother Jake (who is also the lead character of the first Runaway Train book and Rhys' band mate) is a ridiculous character - he's a hypocritical bully that insists on controlling the behavior of every other male character when it comes to Alison, and every other character is totally fine with it. Jake hooked up with Abby and her brothers had no choice but to accept it, yet he is irrationally upset whenever a male talks to his sister because she's 'his' baby sister. Another minor annoyance was Jake and Rhys referring to Alison by her childhood nickname...it was an obvious vehicle used by the author to show Jake's affection for Alison...which ironically he had no problem dropping when he called her a whore for hooking up with Rhys. Honestly, the only reason I got SOTH was because Luke Daniels was the narrator,  and as expected I really enjoyed his narration given the  material he had to work with. Also, Justine O. Keef was an excellent narrator...her southern twang came across as natural and subtle...she really brought Alison's character to life. Overall, I'd say skip the entire Runaway Train series, but as I've only read SOTH I'll narrow my opinion to this book...avoid my mistake and skip this at times cliché riddled band drama.

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2 people found this helpful

Unworthy Character

Reviewed: 02-23-14

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The only reasons I read this book were because a) I really enjoyed Noah and Echo's story and hoped to learn more of their outcome and b) I wanted to read Isaiah's story and thought "Dare You To" was needed - it wasn't. This book was beyond just being a letdown. I'm more annoyed with myself for wasting the credit because I knew Beth's faux-edgy character was not worth a story. Ryan was adequate as a character..his most notable drawback being the repeated use of his tag line "I don't lose". The 'dare' angle was poorly executed and only served to undermine the author's efforts of trying to make the characters seem more mature and deep - they weren't. The situation with Beth's mother's extremely physically abusive boyfriend at times dominates the book and not wanting her mother to get into trouble is not reason enough to allow such abuse to go on. Trent's character openly deals drugs and beats women like it's his job, but the cops can't arrest him, yet Beth supposedly breaks the windows of his car and she is immediately sent to jail...really?

There are so many points where Beth's characterization breaks down, e.g. slapping Noah and breaking ties with Isaiah because they literally prevent her from being killed by Trent, but slinking away in uncertainty when rumors started by a mean girl leads to kids laughing at her at school...really? The whole 'Isaiah and Beth as best friends' angle felt contrived and relies too much on the reader to accept it with no foundation in the actual story. Overall, Beth is the worst character, but I knew this when I read "Pushing the Limits", and her hatred of Echo, which continues to this book, is inadequately explained nor resolved. I knew I was in trouble when after only two and a half hours I was checking to see how much time was left. Not sure if I'll get Isaiah's book at this point because he was so poorly portrayed - he prostrated himself for Beth, with no real explanation of why she was worth it, only to have her fall for the attractive jock anyway.

Narrators were good..they sounded age appropriate and did adequately with opposite sex characters. I would listen to them again, but I don't feel compelled to seek them out.

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1 person found this helpful

Not Good

Reviewed: 01-25-14

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I made it about a third of the way into “Rule” before I noticed my near constant eye-rolling. Having read a lot of YA fiction (high school and college-aged), and considering this book portrays college age youth I could not believe how sophomoric it was. Yes, it had very adult sex scenes, but anything outside the bedroom was too childish to endure. The author made them use phrases like “Go hang with your boys”, “Dude, seriously!”, “Checking out my girl!” “I thought you loved my hawk” (Rule is referring to Shaw liking his Mohawk). Also, the nickname Rule’s brother Rome called Shaw was just cringe worthy… “How are you, Little Girl?” “Take care Little Girl”. Thankfully this is a standalone book with a complete story, so if you wanted to stop at one (which I definitely will) there is no need to read the other two as you know how Rule and Shaw end-up. The author did a fair job of setting up the other characters for her next books, but no one character sparked my interest enough to use a precious credit on.

The plot was fairly sound in regards to Rule’s familial strife, but Shaw’s “tragic” rejection by her parents was contrived. Shaw is rich, very pretty, and smart and had a best friend in Rule’s twin brother Remy and loving acceptance from the Archer family, but her parents were less than ideal when it came to showing her love…really? This does not lend to the tragic figure that the author wants the reader to buy into. There definitely was no reason to accept her weakness of spirit in taking Rule back each time he decided to shut her out. Rule’s internal reflections of how much Shaw was coming to mean to him were shown to be worthless as when he got some unexpected news (news which the reader figured out chapters before) he proceeded to shut her out knowing she had a psycho Ex waiting in the wings.

The theme of the tattoos and piercings got so old, so fast within the book. Rule is supposed to be this beautiful boy, yet all that anyone sees is his tattoos (which apparently cover most of his body) and his facial (and genital) piercings. This book worked so hard to make tattooing and piercing seem "cool" and acceptable that it just came off as pedestrian and silly. By the end of the book Shaw had tattoos and piercings and it was so cheesy my cholesterol went up several points. There is not one character that I actually rooted for in this book …Rule wasn’t a jerk as much as he was immature and self-absorbed and Shaw wasn’t entirely pathetic, mostly needy and spineless. My final (admittedly small) vexation with this book was that the vanilla straitlaced depiction of Rule’s parents does not fit with people who would name their sons Remy, Rule and Rome…Rule…really? I liked the dual narration and the narrators did a fine job; their voices were age appropriate to the characters they were portraying and each handled the opposite sex fairly well.

There are so many better YA fiction books out there and I’m not at all sure why this book was reviewed so highly. For YA fiction with great characters who have plausible reasons for their youthful angst check out “Easy” by Tammara Webber, “In the Band” by Jean Haus, “Pushing the Limits” by Katie McGarry and for the best of the best (if you can handle the intensity) “The Sea of Tranquility” by Katja Millay.

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23 people found this helpful

Totally Engaging

Reviewed: 10-23-13

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The character development was excellent...Nastya and Josh are captivating young people. Even secondary characters, e.g., Drew are well developed. The characters speak like young people including cursing and sexual innuendo, and it feels authentic to the characters, not forced or obvious that it's written by an adult. This fictional book evokes real emotions; the grief and angst are almost tangible. The author doles out the tragic plot in a way that was manageable...the reader is allowed time to digest information about a character and given just enough information to wonder what will be revealed next. The dual narration was well done. The narrators sounded age appropriate, that is, they sounded like the teenagers they were narrating without sounding immature or too young. I enjoyed every minute of this book and I am anticipating listening to it again fairly soon.

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45 people found this helpful