The Truth about Mr. Darcy by Susan Adriani

I know this is Pride and Prejudice fanfiction, but even so some standards are expected...

It starts somewhat okay, Mr Darcy is honest about what happened with Wickham, he and Elizabeth start getting to know one another, he proposes, Elizabeth, quite sensibly, asks for a courtship instead so they may be sure they're right for each other...

And then it's all downhill from there.

Inexplicably Wickham is an actual rapist and woman beater who attacks Elizabeth, sells Lydia to a brothel and despite this most of the book he is just allowed to go about his life...

Mr Darcy is constantly obsessing over bedding Elizabeth and takes many liberties which Elizabeth, for some reason, allows. 

And they're not even subtle about this? They go about in public places fondling each other, not really denying they're sleeping together... And their sex life had to be the most uninspired and repetitive thing I've ever read, and it didn't help that it happened in every other page. 

Unbelievable as this is, it was still preferable to the point in the story where they both started spouting that tripe about how much they love each other in terms that nearly made me throw up with the sugary hyper-purple prose of it all.

A waste of time.

The Sweetest Chase ( Heart of The Storm #2 ) by Sharla Lovelace

Arc provided by Montlake Romance through Netgalley

Release Date: February 23 rd

I really don't know what went through my mind to make me request this.
Yes, there's the cover that strangely pulled me in...
Also the vague similarities with the film Twister could have something to do with it...

And okay, I had already read a novella by the author, and I had liked it.

The thing is, I knew by that synopsis that this story could be tricky: a woman about to get married, but who feels something about her best friend.

It could be awesome. Or it could be a disaster -_- (highlight to read)  if there was cheating.

First of all, it would have been NICE to know that this was the second book in a series.

Yes, you can read it without having read the first one. That's what I had to do, right?
The thing is that there's so many characters "running around" on most of the scenes, that I just couldn't get a clear idea on them all. Besides them all being BEAUTIFUL.

Then, there's the important stuff:

_ The Main characters: Quinn and Simon.

Quinn, who in my head goes by "Barbie Adventure" -_- was the worst excuse for a female leading character I've encountered in a long time.

. She's thirty years old, engaged to be marry in a month_ they have been dating for three years? now _ to a guy who belongs to the same social circles that she does (up-class of course)... although the reader will have no idea WHY they're still together, because they don't share anything in common besides the blueness of their blood...oh, and their blondness.

. She's of course beautiful. With long legs and long blond hair that she actually HATES, but which she can't cut off because mummy and fiancée wont like it .... *snort*

.The mummy dearest has hijacked the wedding of her dreams ( outside... with you know, pork ribs and daisies ) and she's *okay* with it, because the same happened with her sister. You go, girl! Way to stand up for yourself.

So throughout most of the book we have to deal with this woman who has no backbone in her. Who is supposed to adventurous and independent, but who in reality is just her mummy's girl.

She doesn't take responsibility for her acts and then she blames her friends: which means that she and Simon go from best buddies to two people attacking one another as if they were stupid teenagers.

I read every single page until a little over half and then I just skimmed it. I just couldn't take any more of them or of the boring reality show let's talk about your lives y'all until there's a good storm that they could chase.

I hate reality Big Brothers shows.

Definitely not my cup. 

 

Author's Official Site 

Spinning Thorns by Anna Sheehan

I am not going to forget that I wasn't crazy about this story's beginning.
I am however going to say that it does improve in a spectacular way: the sort that leaves you wondering what is going to happen next, when you finally have to go to sleep.

Yes, I had a hard time with the beginning. I actually went back and start re-reading it once I noticed that a certain word _kit _ kept being repeated by the male character. Over and over.
I think I counted it being used thirty times in just a few pages. And I kept wondering, why not call her "sister" or "my sister"?
And the answer finally came to me towards the end due to the character's personality. So, there, a thing that I wasn't "getting" actually had a purpose that I was missing.

The other thing that I wasn't crazy about had to do with the changing pov's. Well, not the pov's per se, but the way they were told: For the guy, we have first person, for Princess Will we have third person. I don't know if I was being picky, but the thing got annoying... until I stopped paying attention to it and I started gobbling up pages as fast as I could.
Because I honestly cannot pin down the page in which I got hooked by this story.
Once the characters started to grow on me, I probably was a goner...

Will is not your typical fairy tale princess. She has felt inadequate her whole life by comparison with her older sister. The perfect one. The one with the classical beauty, and the petit measurements. Her relationship with her mother _ the former Sleeping Beauty _ isn't perfect, but she has her father to lean on.
She knows she's not perfect. She longs for someone she can't have, but she doesn't let that define her.
She's rational and resourceful, and she knows that in the end she will do whatever her kingdom needs: even if it means abandoning her studies on magic.
You may not like her in the beginning, but I bet that you will come to respect her in the end.

I don't want to reveal too much of the plot, or too much on the characters, because that's half the fun, so I'll just say that Will and the one that will not be named ;) are wonderful characters, and that I loved reading their story.

Also, can I just say how happy I am to be reading a stand alone novel?! Because I am.

Author's Official Site

Bookdepository.com

Crewel ( Crewel World #1) by Gennifer Albin

New year, new reading resolutions: I will no longer force myself to finish disasters... and from all the reviews I've read after I found myself frowning upon what I was reading (HIGHLIGHT SPOILER TO READ) the girl passes a body-bag with her father's body in it, and a couple pages later she's thinking how handsome some guy is... WTH? , it appears that that was only the beginning for a trainweck.

The girl is just your usual Mary Sue. With her bland Mary Sue voice. Making stupid Mary Sue mistakes. People! I am too old for this crap!
I know the cover is pretty, but that's about it.

In twenty percent there has been no world building. Just some random information about the world the story takes place:
_ Probably in the future... there's some strange words thrown in -_-
_ There's gender segregation;
_Apparently the only jobs available to women are ones of secretaries... ?? And that is if you fail the exams to become a Spinner...
_Some people decide where we will live, and with whom we get to live...
_Food sources became scarce? Since there's control over who gets to have kids...and over the food rations.
_Makeup is a bad thing!!
_Girl on girl hate... just because -_-
_Every girl wants to be a Spinner because GLAMOROUS LIFE Y'ALL!

Also, like I mentioned in a status update, after _ and even before! _ being imprisoned in a cell, the girl has been ogling guys left and right... and she has been trough a makeover!
Honestly, I don't even know why I am DNF this crap amazing piece of YA romance??
Off to find a good book! 

 

 

The Last Ever After ( The School For Good and Evil #3) by Soman Chainani

Let me tell you that this book starts in an amazing way: Have you ever wondered what happens after a supposedly "happy ever after"?
Well look no further, this story's beginning definitely focus on that part of Agatha and Tedros story.
Is it all flowers and fluffy kittens?
Well... no.
After all Agatha does live in a cemetery and her cat that bald and wrinkly thing has very specific tastes: He's not a fan of princesses and princes -_-

So once again the author picks up in a bunch of stereotypes and gives them a swift kick in the head.
It's great! ;)

By now you're probably wondering if I found this part so great, why did I gave it only a three star rating...
Well,... THE STORY IS BLOODY LONG!
And it gets being long, by constantly undermining all that is happening. It got frustrating. It got tiresome.
By the middle of the thing I was ranting with the book: there was a couple of dozens of pages... strike that, make that two/ three hundred pages that should have been cut!
Longer isn't better, when you start getting annoyed by the constant back and forward sentimental activity  messing with your feelings that the author introduced here. There were times I felt I was reading a New Adult novel with a very twisted love triangle. Argh.

The introduction of the "old" fairy tale characters was a good point: the interaction between our new heroes and the others provided some comic realief... exception made to the moments that were heartbreaking.

I liked that once again the author made sure to spread a lot of positive messages throughout the whole story:
_ No to body shaming.
_Yes to friendship.

The biggest problem for me and the reason why this gets only a three star, is that despite all the positive messages that this has, I cannot help ignore, that the main subject of the book, the relationship between Agatha, Sophie and Tedros ended up being a big mess. Especially when it comes to Sophie's part. After all that she had been through, I was expecting more from her: More growth, less idiocy.
What she does to her "friends" is not something a friend would do. And if that could be explained by where she ends up by the end of the story, I was never fully convinced of what ends up happening.

As for other positives, there was this twist, that I never saw coming, and that I loved.
Really well done, that.

Author's Official Site

Bookdepository.com

A World Without Princes ( The School For Good and Evil #2 )by Soman Chainani

Still good, but for me it didn't have that wow factor as the first story. Reason for it?

Unlike what happened with the first book which I felt was more complex _ and more YA_ this one felt a little toned down, at least until the last part...maybe the reason has to do with Agatha's character that in the first book was so amazing, but in this one, the girl felt definitely dumber.

It felt as if the author was trying to say, if you're good, you're going to lose a lot of your brain cells.

Sophie on the other hand, is more amazing than ever. She's a character that has actually grown, who knows what she's done and is trying to repent...
Thing is, her methods still suck!

So once again she gets into one big mess (that involves gender bender) and that can cause her doom.
Besides the main characters, we have a villain with a capital V.
We also get more insight into other characters lives, namely a certain evil teacher...

Once again the author meshes all our preconceptions of what princes and princess should act and behave, giving them more depth and consistence. This part would get a four _if not a higher rating _ star rating.
In this volume, the author gives us fairy tale characters well aware of the constrictions of their own world: sexism, misogynistic notions...
And this is what happens when they're taken to the limit: when one again, divisions are made. This time not between good and evil, but between girls and boys.

As for the end, let's say that if I hadn't the third book to get right into the story again, I would be mad as a wet cat.
Cliffhanger alert!

 

Author's Official Site 

 

BookDepository.com 

The School For Good And Evil (#1) by Soman Chainani

"Who needs princes in our fairy tale?"

Look at this cover. Does it look too juvenile to you (albeit pretty)?
If yes, place your worries aside because this story will most likely "blow your socks". ;)
So, myself, aka "the book grinch" had the most fun while reading this dark tale of re-imagined fairy tales.
( I know! It surprised the hell out of me as well. -_-)
You're probably asking yourself: "Doesn't this woman ever get tired of reading fairy tales and fairy tales retellings?"
(....)
Not yet, I haven't :D

So... Soman Chainani picks up in various fairy tale tropes and stereotypes and mashes them all together until you have no idea whom is... whom.

The world building is very nicely done in a very stereotypical way that actually works, leaving the author free to pretty much mess with most of the characters psyche.

The characters have a complexity that more than once will leave us wondering what the hell is going on. Which is always the trademark of a good book.

At the centre of it all, we have the friendship between two very different girls who consequently have two very different notions of what friendship entails. And it will be that friendship that will be tested throughout the book through various moments.
The author plays with the idea that how we look can have influence on how we behave, and how the others see us...

However, there were some things I wasn't a fan of. Things I am not going to get into a rant, because I am "holding on" to the setting of this book: Fairy tales trope in which getting a prince is the only way to get a HEA... *cough*
Feminist Me: ARE YOU F****G KIDDING ME?
"Well, we all know what the fairy tales were all about.."
FEMINIST ME: YEAH, THE DISNEY VERSION OF THEM!
"I know... but my mind can work around that aspect."
FEMINIST ME: BUT THE GIRL HATED PRINCES!
"Well, but now apparently she likes them... and she's happy, so we have to deal with that."
FEMINIST ME: I REALLY DON'T LIKE THIS PART.
"I know. I am not crazy about it either, but what ends up happening ends up compensating that part."

Another thing that I wasn't crazy about: like I said before, the author plays for most of the book with the notion that our appearance may reflect what's inside...
I STRONGLY disliked this part. Beauty doesn't magically turn you into a good person.
Having warts doesn't turn you into an evil person.
I understand where the author was trying to "go" with that. More like, what's inside is what influences your appearance, and so in the end the so called "evil /ugly people" end up having more good deeds done than the pretty/beautiful ones, which provokes the fall of "system".

Thing is, through most of the book _ that stupid duality _  is the reality we have. The only reason I am not giving a lower rating is because towards the end this issue is dealt in a reasonable way. Also, I am expecting that things will be different in the second volume.
Please don't prove me wrong.
In the end, this was a really innovative tale that ends up deconstructing some of the fairy tales myths and the consequent corrupt system in which they were living.
Yes, even fairy tales had been corrupted.

Author's Official Site

Buy it!
Bookdepository.com ( With Free Worldwide Delivery!)

Bookishly Ever After (Ever After #1) by Isabel Bandeira

Arc provided by Spencer Hill Press through Netgalley

Release Date: January 12 th

Okay, time for the truth: Did I or did I not enjoy this book?
Well, I did.
Most of it.

First of all, the synopsis does not lie. This really is a book for bookworms. Young bookworms.
Bookworms that love when they get an arc.
Me.
Bookworms that anxiously anticipate the release for a next book in a series...
Me.
Bookworms that say things like :"nothing compares to book boyfriends.."
Well... I have.
Bookworms that dress up like their favourite characters...-_-
Ah...not really my style, but I left sixteen year old me in the past, more than twenty years ago...so who knows how I would behave right now! Maybe I would also pick up a bow trying to emulate Katniss...

But let's go down to facts: This is really a well written book, with a varied cast of well developed characters.
There's actually DIVERSITY in this book! There's a LGBT couple, and one half of the main couple _ aka, the love birds _ is an Indian character.
 Dev is quite possibly one the cutest, nicest guys in all the ya books that I've been reading. He also on occasion starts some Bollywood dances, and he likes to read... not as much as Phoebe, but no one is like Phoebe when it comes to her bookish obsessions.

 People are actually friends to one another in this book: Yay!
You know how hard it is to find a book that takes place in a high school that doesn't have friends behaving like enemies?
Well, it is extremely hard.

There's no slut shamming. None of the "so called" dramas that normally fill high school themed books.
The characters in school actually study _ well, Phoebe doesn't seem to have homework, lol, but I'll let that pass_ and are invested in other school activities.
So, we have intelligent characters and dialogues. A character who loves to read, and a really sweet romance.
Only in fiction, but that is why we love to read.
So why not a higher rating?
Well, this is the part in which I have to point out some things that didn't quite work out for me:
_At times the sweet parts become a little cheesy... Phoebe has some cringe-worthy moments...
_In the middle of the story there's a bit of repetition and it feels like nothing relevant actually happens ( in a movie these parts would probably be filled by some musical moments?)
_The length of the book: It felt quite long for what was happening.
 In fact, I couldn't help but picture what I was reading as some sort of Dysney movie or series. I actually think  that this will be a success between younger readers who  are still huge fans of romances, and who fangirl about fictional guys.
This means, _  despite how much it pains me to say so _, that I am no longer this book's intended audience. I am old! Woe is on me!
Maybe if I had a daughter, lol

p.s. I will however read the next volume. Especially if it is about Em.

Author's Official Site

Bookdepository.com

Happy New Year

May you all have a great 2016 filled with great reads.
Here's to a new adventure :)

               


                  

Carousel Tides ( Archer's Beach #1) by Sharon Lee

TW's: memories of child abuse

Carousel Tides started out great. Extremely atmospheric, it caught my interest from page one.
However there were some things that prevented me from fully appreciating this:
_ The writing style
I wasn't crazy about it. The abundance of what I presume are Maine colloquial expressions made it impossible for me to sometimes understand what I was reading. Then the descriptions weren't that good: most of the times I couldn't see what I was reading.
_ The abundance of strange words that are part of this fantasy setting, and that most of the times aren't that well explained...
_And then there's Kate, the main character...
Here's the problem, Kate starts out as an incredibly complex character with issues that are actually life threatening. This added complexity and interest to the story. Unfortunately this situation ends being resolved in a blink of a eye, in a very anticlimactic solution.
What follows isn't bad _ far from it _ but I was expecting a little more.
For instance, there's this possibility of a romance between Kate and a character named Brogan, and once again I was expecting a little more from it.  More intensity.
At the beginning, Kate is all: "Oh, I can't accept help from Brogan's kind because there's always some sort of payment to be had"...and after a little _ a really short number of pages_ she's counting on the guy as her sidekick. wth, woman?

Oh, another thing that really, really bothered me: I tend to get away from books that are rapey just for the added shock. When the thing involves children, it leaves me way, way madder.
If I am reading a fantasy book, I do not want to have traces of child abuse floating in the goddam book.
Yes, the guy was a villain, and that's what villains do, some of you might say.
I don't care. I don't want to read child abuse in a fantasy book.
That is why I've stopped reading thrillers.
Give me flying horses with bat wings, selkies and dryads, but just leave the kids alone.

Author's Official Site

Buy " Carousel Tides"
Bookdepository.com