Texas Pride
My suggestion is: just don't bother reading this book. I made to the end through sheer force of will.I mean, two extremely closeted men that get together so quickly you barely have time to blink. The same with the relationship. Less than a week goes by and there's already talks about commitment and so many corny and cheesy lines that I wanted to choke. I just don't buy it. And there's simply no time for you to get to know the characters as individuals and to want to root for them as a couple - and frankly I don't even understand why they are so interested in each other in the first place apart from sexual attraction and the convenience of being neighbors.
And Austin is just so arrogant and whinny, argh! I just couldn't make myself like him. And maybe I'm being naive, but the security the guy has in his house seems more appropriate for the president than for an actor.
To top it off, there are a lot of plot holes and the drama comes way too late in the story and badly planned.
I read all the books in the series in a go, so I decided to put my few general inputs here together.Though I liked the series the most prominent feelings I had while reading were frustration and incompleteness (is that even a feeling LOL?).
It was too fragmented, like every time we were getting somewhere, it was over. Or copped out.
And repetitive. My God. A fight, brooding, time apart, fucking, everything is okay, some progress, and then a withdrawal.
Maybe it is my fault and I started the series with the wrong expectations, but often the main reason I read a book is because of the romantic relationship between the MCs. And I guess that here lay the problem. For starters there was comparatively so little of them together. And between Toreth's psych profile and Warrick being either the most accommodating, patient, selfless, almost-earning-his-sainthood man ever or seemingly to simply not really care that much, I was perpetually distressed.
The Administration has been recommended to me, directly and indirectly, by several people but I always put off reading it. I enjoyed it, but I just didn't buy into the fad.
The Violet and the Tom
I feel bad for not enjoying this story more. I mean, it was a free read on a genre that I like and it had a very interesting concept of role reversal. And yet I just couldn't make myself like the characters. :( I guess it just wasn't for me.
May have spoilers, I'm not sure :PI enjoyed reading this book. But I felt that trying to tackle the subjects of addiction and rehabilitation and imaginary friends or whatever made it fail. I say this because there wasn't enough of each subject: it is a book about a man recovering from his addition to heroin, however he does remarkably well (with only one moment of real temptation); and it is a book about a imaginary friend coming to life, but Denny is almost invisible (ha-ha pun intended) in the book (who is he besides a blankie for Chris and in love with Chris?) , and their relationship goes from non-existent to coupl-y in one scene. And there were so many amazing topics that could have been explored in the imaginary friend plot.. That was actually the reason I read the book, so I was a bit disappointed.
Didn't expect to like this story so much when I picked it up. Very avatar-ish, wich is a plus for me. But I must alert you: is in serious need of a sequel, as it ends rather abruptly and with several issues pending. I just felt there were some things that were forgotten. The issue with the illegal experiments in Aklesh ; what shady thing Gwendolyn got mixed up with ; and the relationship between the MCs - that was the main reason for my rating. I felt one minute they finally reached an uncertain "friendship" and then BAM they are this lovey couple. I just don't buy it.
I loved loved loved this story. Though it should be mentioned to future readers that they have no choice but to marry and fake true love to keep their countries safe is not exactly true and, in fact, the story is not centered in romance, but more in world building and the war around them. Just fantastic, it's the type of story I'd really enjoy reading as an epic saga. My only issue is that I felt the ending was a bit weak.
Some problems I had with this book:a) From standing up to homophobic pricks a so far straight Christian starts to suddenly doubt his own sexuality. And in the time frame of two weeks after meeting Logan, he goes from being confused to dating and coming out to his family. I mean, really? Not only that, his parents suspected his new found sexuality as did his eight-years-together ex-fiance.b) I'm not trying to minimize his suffering in the war, because I think any amount of time in this type of situation must be horrible. But Christian comes back home a totally different person, traumatized. And it has only been ten months, half of which he was in a hospital. Again, not trying to minimize the suffering, but his behaviour and PTSD just seems so unbelievable. I wish the author had made his tour longer.c) How is it that everybody seems to know Christian was attacked in the army for "being gay"? It doesn't seem like something he'd go around telling people, but Logan and his parents know about it even before they met Chris. If the Darringers knew wouldn't the problems with Brian begin sooner? And aside from that, I really doubt that the army would disclose what happened to cause the injures apart from "it was friendly fire".d) When Christian comes back he has to live with his parents, something that he complains about. But he is 26 turning 27 years old. He is not some high school graduate. What did he do before? I assume he has some type of military pension, but doesn't he have savings, or a place where he lived before?e) Let's not mention how exaggerated Logan's parents were, from the Christmas love (giving presents every year to every children in the hospital and the giant party) to the talking-about-spanking-with-my-son. I believe in liberal parents, but they were just too much for me.e) I was disappointed because I thought the book would involve the subject of domestic discipline, but it barely mentioned it.
In general it was a good read. Some might think a bit repetitive and too long - the MCs get together literally on the last scene -, but that didn't bother me until I read how the ending played out. Riley is immensely insecure about his appearance due to burn scars that cover half his face. Due to that, he seldom goes out and is only semi-comfortable around his family and best friend. He falls in love with Cameron over the phone, but firmly believes he will be rejected if Cam sees him in person and that no person could love somebody that looks like him. In some level I think we all can relate to this type feeling, so it was really interesting to read a story where self-deprecation is so strong that disrupts so much a person's life. To what I didn't like: the ending. Ok, so in the last scene they have sex while Cam wears a blind fold, and Riley has a magical epiphany that 'wow' I am deserving of love, I am loved' and let his boyfriend see him?. I was so annoyed by this, it was just so sudden! In the pages leading up to this point Riley there was no indication showing that he was feeling ready to show his face to Cameron. So what was that!!? And then a cut to the end , showing absolutely nothing of what happens next?? I was so frustrated!
It was a nice enough read (and I paid a dollar for it!), but there were a few bumps in the road, like: - the MCs' relationship rockets. Between meeting and moving together to an island about a week passes.- the ex goes from a bad guy to a total psycho, and his actions are so incompatible with the personality of the character when he was first introduced it's bit ridiculous.
Sociopath. Killer. Deviant. Monster, devoid of morals, incapable of human emotion - that's what I was hoping for when I picked up this book: a person with completely twisted morals, lack of empathy. Not exactly a dark story in the sense of a lot of blood and gore, but a hard and long journey of a MC trying to find out if he's capable of feelings, if he's capable of love. But Tobias isn't remotely like that from the start, and he was the one who initiated every step of the relationship with Sean. That was so disappointing. I won't even mention the development of the superhero plot, which was also lacking to me.
I'm so pissed off right now that the only thing I can say is: are you fucking kidding me? All those pages with random and not particularly necessary stuff and when the plot finally arrives it's sorry, wait for the next book?? This is not a series, it's a serial, and if I'd known that the work was incomplete I wouldn't have bothered.
There are so many great reviews here that there's not much I can't add, except to say I loved reading this story. The only issue I had was that I wished the story didn't end before showing how Ryder and Luca would mature their relationship. They still had so many steps to climb, like monogamy, getting public.. Might not be in line with the general atmosphere of the story, but it was something I really wanted to see, more than find out the mystery of was the Admirer, actually.
This book has a very different tone and pace from the others in the series, and I enjoyed that. I really like reading about the tribe and the many battles they faced to live in the middle of the Ice Wastes with very little magic at their disposal. That's why I'm sad that Kam and Lor, supposedly the main characters of this title, were thrown to side for other things. I feel I barely know who they are are - and that's why I would have prefered if the characters fromm the previous' books hadn't shown their faces here, even though I love them all. However, I loved hearing about the Eldest and the White Dragon. I felt they had so much to tell. It'd be really amazing having a story from the POV of the Eldest, showing moments in the thousands of years he has lived.@Mell Eight - I know this is the end of the series, but I still hope you'd make a little epilogue or whatever telling us about Tori when he grows up!
This series is just lovely. I know a lot of people already said this but it really does have a fairy-tale quality to it, which I'm just a sucker for. The reason for my rating is that I didn't enjoy this book as much as [b:Stealing the Dragon|17145708|Stealing the Dragon (The Dragon's Hoard, #3)|Mell Eight|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355787557s/17145708.jpg|23550388]. I felt that Leon and Nyle's relationship didn't feel as believable and organic as the one from book #3 - I mean they've met for ten seconds and already have sex, despite the fact that dragons don't have sex. And that's all she wrote. They were going to be together forever. Given the background info I could accept Nyle feeling this way, L was to be part of his hoard after all, but not Leon. It felt a bit fake. My misgivings aside, this book is a very sweet and interesting read, even if only for the world building.
sorry it just wasn't for me. it was really well-written and the world building was impeccable, but i just didn't care for any of the characters [and most of the story] and in the end that's what defines my reading experiences.
I feel sad go give the book this rating, because I loved the premise and subject (low self-esteem due to excessive weight is really something i can relate to). And although some of the things in the book really did give me feels (ow, did i suffer with Caden and Kevin in their bout of miscommunication) some of the choices in the book weren't really appealing for me.I'm not so good at expressing myself, so I refer you to Nivalis' review, which coveyed really well almost all of my opinions on the book :)