Tag Archive | 1 Star

Book Review: Cranwood by J. Bryer

Abby Hill and her mother have moved to England to help her grandmother run the inn she owns in Cranwood. However, Abby Hill isn’t a normal sixteen-year-old girl. No, no, no. She hears/sees dead people and tries to save the ones they warn her are in trouble!

For example, David, the cute neighbour in the village. Though she struggles with her visions, Abby is desperate to help everyone she can. When a particular haunting spirit warns her of friend in trouble, Abby will have to figure out who to ask for help or if she can try to do it all on her own.

The harsh reality: Well, I don’t have anything nice to say about this book, it’s terrible and there’s noting Young Adult about it. The book is written in an elementary age range instead of fourteen+. I’m talking, ‘I’m having the best day ever!’ kind of sentences. There is a time and place for juvenile writing, and Young Adult fiction is not it.

For instance: Abby gets ‘mad’ that David hasn’t called her so she walks over to his house to see if he’s home. When he’s not, she pouts and hates her life until he finally calls which then the day suddenly becomes the best ever! I’m sorry, but nothing about that passage makes sense! How can a day be the best ever, when it clearly wasn’t?

Le sigh, the main problem is that the age range is all wrong for this book. If the author tweaked the characters age and made changes to the story that fit the writing range it might have a chance at working, but as is, it’s awful and I’m sorry for stating that. It’s not easy to hear but I grew so frustrated with the clunky language, thin plot and ignorant assumptions on people different from Americans. To top it off, Abby states how she’s been living in England for while, but her mother who must be English (because hello, the grandmother obviously is?), clearly only speaks like an American. It. Just. Doesn’t. Work.

And the cover? Beautiful, but honey there is no way that girl is sixteen. Try twelve and you’ve got yourself a better start. Make like a knitter and rip it up. Start over and either read a lot more R. L. Stine for appropriate age range or start reading constantly current YA fiction to learn how it’s written. The ideas are there, but there needs to be much more practice.

Book Review: Finale by Becca Fitzpatrick

Aug13

Please note: This is the fourth book in the Hush, Hush series and does contain spoilers.

Check out my review for Hush, Hush (1), Crescendo (2) and Silence (3).

Nora Grey is not your average seventeen year old. In the past six months she’s had her life threatened, almost died multiple times and fallen in and out and back in love with her destined to be fallen angel Patch.

Now Nora is the leader of the Nephilim army, but there are darker sources at work. The battle is coming to a head and Nora’s wish for peace is a million miles away. To claim her destiny, her life and her love, she’s going to have to fight for a side. But when Patch is on the opposite end, is choosing a side truly the answer?

UGH………..WHAT A LETDOWN………..GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

I am obviously not a fan of this book. TERRIBLE. HORRIBLE. Make it stop it hurts my eyes!

I really, really, really hated the ending. One of the worst endings I have read in a long time. A waste of my time and for a series that had a promising beginning, I had no idea it would go so far astray. I’m sure romance lovers will love this finale, but for me I hated it because it was only about the superficial love aspect.

The plot that had so many different directions got lost, into the ether. The romance took dominance and everything else just closed into an easy box. Nora dissolves into a whiny little brat that can’t, and won’t do anything without her man. This is not ok! As a leader of an army, Nora needs courage and bravery, but instead she became a hunk of mouldy cheese.

It’s such a shame, the marketing team truly have done a fantastic job on the series book cover and I just the writing matched.

Book Review: Glitch by Heather Anastasiu

Jun11

Zoel’s world is run by her constant adherence to the Link, a controlling system that creates all peace within The Community. Connected by her implanted V-chip, Zoel feels nothing but a grey haze of indifference. That is until she starts ‘glitching’. For the first time Zoel can hear her own thoughts. Now calling herself Zoe, she must fight to hide her malfunctions or risk being terminated.

That is until she meets Adrian, who is able to explain emotions and share what the real world truly is. As Zoe meets others like her that glitch, she struggles with not being able to understand how to feel around them. The Community can’t discover their anomalies. Under any circumstances, they must keep their disconnection from the Link unknown. There’s also the issue that the glitchers are developing supernatural powers, and there are others than The Community that would do anything to convince these fragile minds to join their side. But which side is truly worth fighting for?

Sigh. I wanted to like this book, really I did. I got through the first ten pages and thought, hmmmm, kind of like The Giver, but dystopian, decent beginning, maybe if I kept reading it will get better.

I made little notes. There were a lot of repetitive words. Also some overwriting. However, I was still holding out that the story would get better, but it didn’t. BOOM came in the ‘love triangle’ of characters that have known each other for five seconds. Big disappointment. (Especially as this book isn’t directly marketed as romance in my eyes) Halfway through the book I was constantly distracted by the fact that timelines were all over the place. Those chapters seriously needed some editing.

My biggest issue is that one of characters attempts to sexually assault the main character and she sympathises and thinks it’s her fault that he is acting that way. Zoe is a lump of chewed up oatmeal that doesn’t have any redeeming qualities about her. Sure, chalk it up to the fact that in this world the characters don’t feel emotions and this would cause Zoe to be without a personality. However, she makes the choice to change her name, therefore she has the potential to discover herself whenever she was alone, but instead she stands as weak and uninspiring.

I was greatly disappointed with this first book and I won’t be continuing with the series. (The sequel Override, sounds like a X-men rip-off) If anyone else has read this book, I’d love to hear thoughts about this story that could have gone places but seems to be lacking structure and direction.