Month: January 2013

Review: Shadow on the Crown by Patricia Bracewell

by Stefani

shadow on the crownShadow on the Crown by Patricia Bracewell

Expected Publication: February 7th, 2013 by Viking Adult

Cover photo and synopsis provided by the publisher.

Buy this book at: Amazon / B&N / Book Depository

Synopsis:

A rich tale of power and forbidden love revolving around a young medieval queen
In 1002, sixteen-year-old Emma of Normandy crosses the Narrow Sea to wed the much older King Athelred of England, whom she meets for the first time at the cathedral door. Thrust into an unfamiliar and treacherous court, with a husband who sees her as a nuisance and a rival who will stop at nothing to steal her crown, the only way for Emma to secure her status as queen is to give birth to a son.
Clever and independent, Emma is determined to make the best of her difficult situation. She wins a few friends at court and is soon adored by her subjects for her generosity. But her growing love for a man who is not her husband and the imminent threat of a Viking invasion jeopardize both her crown and her life.
Based on real events recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Shadow on the Crown introduces readers to a fascinating, overlooked period of history and an unforgettable heroine whose quest to find her place in the world will resonate with modern readers.

Rating: 2 star

Review:

As I sit down to write this review, I find myself conflicted.  Part of this book was very interesting to me and I enjoyed it.  But there were things that I just didn’t like and couldn’t look past which affected my overall enjoyment of the book.  I can’t call myself an expert on historical fiction but I have read my fair share and enjoyed quite a good number of them.  I am not entirely sure this is one of them.

Let me begin with Emma.  Emma starts this story at the age of 15.  She is sent by her brother (Richard, Duke of Normandy) to marry the much older King of England, Athelred (he’s 35 by the way).  Now, I recognize that this was normal behavior for the time period.  Girls were commonly married around 13-15 years old and were considered old maids by the time they reached 20.  Historically, there was a good reason for this.  The average life expectancy for that time was around 23-25.  So by 20 you really were approaching the end of your days!  But this is why it threw me off to have a 35 year old king who keeps being described as “so young” and “having a lot of years left in front of him”.  Really?  By normal standards for the time period he’s positively mummified.  But let’s call that creative license and move on, alright?   On her own, Emma started off as a great main character.  She recognizes that typically women in her position are little about the station of cattle.  But she is determined to go into the role of queen and be shown respect for her title at the very least.  I appreciated that spunk and determination to make the best of her lot in life, no matter what that might be.  But I soon wearied of her.  She couldn’t decide if she wanted to be strong and demand respect or just do as she’s told.  It seemed to depend on the company. If she was around other women then her backbone appeared, in the presence of men other than her husband a backbone appeared, with her husband and his sons the backbone turned to jelly.   Well, most of the time at least, she spoke up for herself against her husband on more than one occasion too.  So there was not much consistency with her character.   She also had a tendency to do a lot of really stupid things in her quest to be respected.   Like deciding that she is going to go on a boat trip, in the middle of winter, in terrible weather, when she is seconds away from giving birth.  Nice job on that one Emma!

The only other main female character we meet is Elgiva.  I kept getting the feeling that I was supposed to feel compassion for her, but I didn’t.  She was a selfish, spoiled, evil, stupid little girl and one who brought nothing of any value to the plot.  She was supposed to be this grand rival of Emma’s and her biggest foe.  I found her to be more like a gnat buzzing around Emma’s ear…annoying for sure, but rarely threatening.  She only has one truly evil action in this book and no one ever even knew it was her (or that it was anything other than an accident actually) so it was rather pointless.

The plot has a lot going on but not much of it actually amounted to anything.  You have a King who is being confronted with an invasion by the Danes and has no idea what to do about it, and so he decides to do nothing or do something rash.  Really?  This guy got to become king?  He was an idiot through and through.  Athelstan started to serve a purpose in the book by being Athelred’s eldest son and the supposed heir to the throne even if he hadn’t been officially named heir yet.  He tries to solve the invading Danes issue and gets nowhere.  Emma’s plot was to find herself a place of power and title in the King’s court.  Yet she also does a lot of things that directly contradict that supposed goal.  Then we get prophecies about several characters that keep being mentioned but are not followed up on.  There are lots and lots of interesting pieces of plot but it never comes together into a cohesive story.

But what really made this a two star book was what the author chose to imaginatively overlook with historical accuracy and what she did not.  Anyone who reads historical fiction must accept that women are largely treated like objects for the sole use and purpose of men.  They are bought and sold like pawns.  Abuse and rape were common, this is all true!  But I thought there was more women beating and women getting raped than there was plot.  It was constant.  It was hard to go a handful of pages without a woman being backhanded or sexually assaulted.  Yes, it’s historically accurate, but after a copious amount of things that were conveniently made historically inaccurate for the sake of the story this is the one you decide to follow to the letter? Really?  I found it to be a convenient plot device to engender dislike in characters we weren’t supposed to like without developing their character enough to show us why they’re bad.  Just have them rape someone, then it’s all clear!  No, just no!  If there’s going to be that much blatant and horrendous abuse of women it needs to serve a purpose to the plot other than saying “see, he’s bad!”

There are a lot of things that I really liked about this book and a lot of things I didn’t.  Ultimately it was the rampant degradation of women and the disjointed plot that just me not care much about any of it anymore.  I didn’t care if we had a satisfying ending (we didn’t by the way), I just wanted to be finished.  And that disappoints me, I had high hopes for this.

Special thanks to Viking Adult for providing me an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

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Review: The Holders by Julianna Scott

by Stefani

the holdersThe Holders by Julianna Scott (Book 1 of the the Holders series)

Expected publication date: March 5th, 2013 by Strange Chemistry

Cover image and synopsis provided by the publisher.

Pre-order this book at: Amazon / B&N / Book Depository / Indie Bound

 

Synopsis:

17-year-old Becca has spent her whole life protecting her brother – from their father leaving and from the people who say the voices in his head are unnatural. When two strangers appear with apparent answers to Ryland’s “problem” and details about a school in Ireland where Ryland will not only fit in, but prosper, Becca is up in arms.
She reluctantly agrees to join Ryland on his journey and what they find at St. Brigid’s is a world beyond their imagination. Little by little they piece together information about their family’s heritage and the legend of the Holder race that decrees Ryland is the one they’ve been waiting for… but, they are all, especially Becca, in for a surprise that will change what they thought they knew about themselves and their kind.

 

Rating: 3 star

 

Review:

If any of you are like me, you are sick and tired of all these books which are basically a re-branded version of X-Men.  I have read many of them in the last year and frankly, they all sucked.  When I saw this book start to go down the X-Men route my apprehension grew, would this one suck too?  I am happy to say it did not suck!  It was not an amazing book or a book that I will remember forever, but it was enjoyable and satisfying.

Let’s first turn to the basic plot for analysis.  Yes, in case you hadn’t already guessed, it is very reminiscent of X-Men.  I won’t elaborate into a lot of detail because that might spoil some things.  Basically you have a school where they bring kids who have special abilities.  Here they are taught to control and use their abilities to fight against the bad guy and protect us poor, hapless normal humans along the way.  This is where we find Becca.  Her brother is one of these kids with special abilities and she insists on accompanying him to the school to make sure it’s not a loony bin or something.  One place where this differed from X-Men is that these kids get their abilities based on genetics.  The abilities were originally granted to a bunch of people by the Irish gods and it is passed down through their lines.  I am not sure why it was only Irish people who were given these abilites, it was never really addressed in any detail.  I appreciated that the author appeared to have done at least a little homework on the Gaelic language and the old Irish Gods.  Overall, the plot was not anything that overly surprised me and was a bit predictable but it was done well and so it is less annoying than it could have been.

The world-building was decent but lacking in certain areas.  We get the very basic details about the world and how it works but nothing beyond that.  Part of that is because we are learning these things through Becca’s POV.  Becca, overall, is a good narrator but since she is new to all this, she is only given the most base level details and by association that’s all we are given as well.  I wanted to hear more about it.  I wanted more detail and was slightly disappointed that I didn’t get it.  For example, there is an item that they KNOW is very powerful and they can’t let the bad guys have it.  Why not?  Well I dunno because the bad guys can’t even use it.  But the good guys can’t use it either.  So why did it matter?  I found out later, but initially it was very confusing.  Or, another example, we are told that rarely do women inherit these abilities and when they do their power level is very low.  Why?  It was never explained.  Even the characters copped out with, “We don’t know, that’s just how it’s always been.”  The world building that we did get was decent and fairly solid in my opinion but needs more work on the details in future books.

Now let us discuss the romance in this book between Becca and Alex.  It was like a breath of fresh area.  I’ve been reading so much YA recently and the romances are always so annoying in many ways.  This was fantastic!  Becca is a smart and intelligent girl who is not dependent on the approval of a boyfriend for her identity, which I appreciate.  Alex is smart, funny, considerate, a gentlemen, and thoughtful.  And, he blushes, I mean how cute is that!  I found myself falling for Alex right along with Becca because he was just so adorable.  I was mildly concerned that I might get weirded out with the romance since Becca is 17 and Alex is 23, but there was no reason to fear.  The romance is sweet, gradual, and innocent so I didn’t have any pervy signals going off in my head.  We didn’t even have insta love!  It was gradual and based on real things like behavior, personality, and how that person is treating them.  I was so pleased with this romance that it restored my faith in YA romances a little bit.

At the end of the day, I am happy that I read this book and persevered through my initial apprehensions.  It had some flaws which led to the 3 star rating, but overall I enjoyed myself.  I was a good book that served its purpose very well.  I recommend this book to sci-fi fans and fans of YA that are tired of the cliched romances they offer.

A special thank you to Strange Chemistry who provided me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Stolen by Lucy Christopher

by Stefani

0-545-17094-XStolen by Lucy Christopher

Published May 4th, 2009 by Chicken House

Cover photo and synopsis from the Goodreads book page

Buy this book at: Book Depository / Amazon / B&N

Synopsis:

A girl: Gemma, 16, at the airport, on her way to a family vacation.

A guy: Ty, rugged, tan, too old, oddly familiar, eyes blue as ice.

She steps away. For just a second. He pays for her drink. And drugs it. They talk. Their hands touch. And before Gemma knows what’s happening, Ty takes her. Steals her away. To sand and heat. To emptiness and isolation. To nowhere. And expects her to love him.

Written as a letter from a victim to her captor, STOLEN is Gemma’s desperate story of survival; of how she has to come to terms with her living nightmare–or die trying to fight it.

 

Rating: 5 star

 

Review:

This book was one that came to me with very high expectations.  I heard so many rave reviews about it from people that I trust and whose opinion I highly respect.  I was skeptical, surely it couldn’t be this unequivocally great.  I had a hard time finding bad reviews for it at all.  I was hopeful but skeptical after hearing so many wonderful things.  Usually in cases like this, it ends in disappointment.  This time I have to agree with the rave reviews, there is only one word for this book: Wow!

This book starts out simply enough.  Gemma is waiting out a layover in a Bangkok airport with her parents and decides to step away to get a coffee.  She meets a charming and handsome young man who offers to buy her coffee when she doesn’t have the right currency.  She allows him to do so and diverts her attention long enough for him to do the unthinkable, drug the drink and whisk her away before she is aware that anything is wrong.  The next thing Gemma knows, she is being held captive in the middle of a desert in Australia with someone who believes that he saved her from her life.

I spent much of my time during this book disturbed.  No one could possibly deny that something is very wrong with Ty.  He stalked and kidnapped a 16 year old girl and convinced himself that she would thank him for it and they would live happily ever after.  Deluded to say the least.  But I was also surprised that Ty was…well, a complete gentlemen for a kidnapper.  He never took advantage of Gemma or invaded her privacy, which shocked me.  It was my first hint that Ty was going to be a much more complex character than I had first imagined.  Before long I found myself with tears in my eyes as we heard more about him and from him.  Pity is not a common feeling for one to have for someone who kidnaps a teenage girl.  I was stunned by these feelings but still there would be moments where I felt uncomfortable at the same time.  I can’t say anything more or else I’ll spoil something, and I wouldn’t spoil this book for the world.

The method used to write this book is one that I have never seen before but I think it contributed to the overall quality and emotionality of the book.  It is written as a letter from Gemma to her kidnapper, Ty.  We read about her feelings and experiences and experience them right along with her.  I think this helps us to see her and Ty from a variety of perspectives that weren’t expected.  And the ending.  Oh my God, the ending.  I won’t say much but let’s just say that for about the last 40 pages or so I was sobbing very loudly, embarrassingly, and in public.  I just wanted to crawl in my bed, pull my knees to my chest, and sob until I had no more tears left.  I can’t remember the last time a book elicited such fierce emotions in me.

Following Gemma on this journey was a beautiful thing that will stay with me for a long time.  Even writing this review, as vague on details as it is, made me feel teary eyed again almost a week after I finished the book.  It was such a rollercoaster of emotions that I can’t even begin to describe it in a way that does justice to the story.  I think this book gave me Stockholm syndrome.  Everyone needs to read this book, it is just that good.

Review: The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

by Stefani

the 19th wifeThe 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

Published June 2nd, 2009 by Random House

Synopsis and cover image from the Goodreads book page

Buy this book at: Book Depository / Amazon / B&N

Synopsis:

It is 1875, and Ann Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon Church. Expelled and an outcast, Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. A rich account of her family’s polygamous history is revealed, including how both she and her mother became plural wives. Yet soon after Ann Eliza’s story begins, a second exquisite narrative unfolds–a tale of murder involving a polygamist family in present-day Utah. Jordan Scott, a young man who was thrown out of his fundamentalist sect years earlier, must reenter the world that cast him aside in order to discover the truth behind his father’s death. And as Ann Eliza’s narrative intertwines with that of Jordan’s search, readers are pulled deeper into the mysteries of love, family, and faith

 

Rating: 3 star

 

Review:

For anyone who doesn’t know, I used to belong to the Mormon church.  I was born into it (4th generation actually) and lived it until I was around 18 and then removed myself from church membership at 19.  So, in a sense, I can identify with Ann Eliza and her apostasy from the church.  I may have left for different reasons but I was surprised how many were the same.  This also left with me a rather biased view of the church and their teachings.  I was still interested in this book for the story it presented and tried very hard not to let my own biases color this review.  But I feel a tiny disclaimer is warranted just in case I didn’t quite succeed.

This book attempts to tell two stories simultaneously.  First is the story of Ann Eliza, 19th wife to the 2nd prophet of the LDS church Brigham Young.  It tells the story of her disenchantment with the church and later her divorce from Brigham and apostasy over the issue of polygamy.  She later goes on a personal crusade to end polygamy in the United States for good.  The second story is the story of Jordan Scott.  His mother is the 19th wife of a polygamist man in a fringe branch of the LDS church, which branched off over the issue of polygamy, and she is arrested and accused of murdering her husband.

Now, I found both of these stories interesting but I wasn’t entirely happy with the way they were handled in the book.  Ann Eliza’s narrative overtook the large majority of the pages and quite frankly it wasn’t the most interesting thing going on.  Anyone with even a tiny bit of knowledge of Mormon history knows how Ann Eliza’s crusade ends.  They know that the church banned polygamy from practice in order to coincide with US law.  We know that her crusade was only partially effective since fringe elements in the church branched off from the main church and still practice polygamy to this day.  These are all things we KNOW happened, so Ann Eliza’s story is not surprising but only mildly interesting.  What was surprising was Jordan Scott, a young man cast out of this fringe group (called the Firsts) for holding hands with his stepsister.  His mother drives him to the highway and puts him out on the road to fend for himself at 15.  He is then pulled back into the sect when his mother is arrested for murdering his father year later, and he finds that he believes her to be innocent.  We follow Jordan on his quest to discover the truth of his father’s demise.

Although I felt that Ann Eliza’s story got far more coverage than it needed to, I can’t say that I disliked what I read.  The only part that got on my nerves was when we read something from her memoir and then a chapter or so later are told the SAME THING as someone tells Jordan Scott about it.  I felt like this was a forced attempt to connect the two stories when it wasn’t necessary.  We already had the connection of polygamy, the Firsts being founded by Ann’s brother, and both being the 19th wife.  We didn’t need anything else to be intrigued so it felt forced to put all these connections between the stories in there.  The other part of Ann’s narrative that I had issue with was that it got repetitive all by itself.  We hear her talk about her lecturing on multiple occasions, we hear about her marriage from not only her but her former husband AND her son.  It got cumbersome and took up way too many pages, meanwhile I was frothing at the mouth to hear about what Jordan was doing!

Jordan’s story, unfortunately, got neglected.  We kind of think he has a boyfriend (Roland) who is kind of an asshole, but he so readily hooks up with goody goody Tom that I wasn’t quite sure what was going on.  Johnny was a delightful character who added some much needed levity to this otherwise very heavy story.  All of the other characters in Jordan’s narrative I really had no feelings for because none of them were fleshed out very much, so I couldn’t have any feelings toward them one way or the other.  I feel like the author relied too much on the reputation of sects like The Firsts and that the reader just automatically understood the interactions.  Here’s a hint, we didn’t and we wanted to!  The ending of Jordan’s narrative took me by surprise.  I honestly never saw it coming, mostly because I never had enough information to see it coming.

Also SPOILER!!!!

Minor grip about the title.  Neither of these women was actually the 19th wife.  Popularly they were known as the 19th wives, but neither actually were in reality.  I don’t know why that bugged me, but it did.  Overall, it was an interesting story and the ending saved it for me on many accounts. A good investment of my time, but it could have done with a few hundred pages less.

 

Review: Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder

by Stefani

scent of magicScent of Magic (Healer series #2) by Maria V. Snyder

Published December 25th, 2012 by Harlequin MIRA

Cover and synopsis provided by the publisher.

Buy this book at: Book Depository / B&N / Amazon

Synopsis:

Hunted, killed, survived?

As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avry of Kazan is in a unique position: in the minds of friends and foes alike, she no longer exists. Despite her need to prevent the megalomaniacal King Tohon from winning control of the Realms, Avry is also determined to find her sister and repair their estrangement. And she must do it alone, as Kerrick, her partner and sole confidant, returns to Alga to summon his country into battle.

Though she should be in hiding, Avry will do whatever she can to support Tohon’s opponents. Including infiltrating a holy army, evading magic sniffers, teaching forest skills to soldiers and figuring out how to stop Tohon’s most horrible creations yet: an army of the walking dead—human and animal alike and nearly impossible to defeat.

War is coming and Avry is alone. Unless she figures out how to do the impossible…again.

 

Rating: 4 star

 

Review:

Let me just start this by saying, I loved this book.  Every page was a joy for me to read and I couldn’t wait to see where things would go.  I read the first book in this series and fell in love with it and couldn’t wait to read the second one.  The cover was amazing, the synopsis was amazing, and I jumped at the chance to read it.

This book picks up just a handful of days after Touch of Power ended.  Avry and Kerrick have been spending some time, ahem, getting to know each other better.  Now they have to get back to work.  Kerrick is going to go meet up with Prince Ryne and prepare their army to meet with Estrid’s troops to take on Tohon’s attack.  Avry wants to go find her sister and do what she can to get her away from Jael and set things right with her.  And so the two of them split up, with Kerrick promising to keep Avry’s miraculous survival a secret so that no one suspects she is still alive.  This is where we get to the narration of the story.  We have two different stories being narrated, Kerrick’s story and Avry’s story. I found this an interesting approach that complimented the story overall.  We haven’t heard much from Kerrick’s perspective before and I found him to be a great character.  I knew he was a strong, intelligent, but stubborn individual but hearing his narration took his character to a whole new level.  I like Kerrick more than I did before.

Avry is still just as fantastic a heroine as she started out in Touch of Power.  She still has a few moments of being sacrificing to the point of stupidity, just like in the prior book.  But, overall, she is everything a book heroine should be.  She’s strong, smart, determined, stubborn, resourceful, and compassionate.  Why can’t we have more heroines (particularly in YA ficiton) like her?  My only complaint is that she didn’t seem to be doing much.  Yes, she was helping Estrid’s troops but it was mostly just day after day of the same with a few things thrown in on the side.

The plot was very interesting, but I admit that in places it seemed to drag and there wasn’t much going on.  This was supposed to be the preparation for war with Tohon and Tohon’s attack.  We got some preparations for war, but because neither Kerrick or Avry was involved in that planning the reader didn’t get to see too much of it.  The attack by Tohon was good and things really started to get interesting.  I also really like the secondary plot of investigating the properties and abilities of the Death Lilies and Peace Lilies.  I have to say that I was hoping to see more of this than we did.  We had characters lost and characters returned.  We learned more about the depths of Tohon’s evil mind.  I also think the title of the book is appropriate for the secondary plot that was explored.  Lilies have the ability to know if someone is magically inclined, and we also meet a character who can literally sniff out the magic of others.

Overall this book did exactly what the second book in a series is supposed to do, move the plot forward, and entice readers to read the next in the series.  Though I felt the plot could have moved a little quicker, I am not disappointed by where it is going.  And that ending, holy crap!  How long until the next book again?

A free copy of this ARC was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you Harlequin for a great read!

 

 

 

The Best and Worst of 2012

by Stefani

After much deliberation and consideration, I have picked out my top 10 books of 2012.  The five best and the five worst.  It wasn’t as easy as I expected it to be.  Only two or three books jumped out at me as belonging on these lists and the rest were all most equal and needed to be thought over very carefully.  Finally, I reached a consensus.

The Five Best

 

renegade1. Renegade by J.A. Souders.

This book stood out to me by a mile when I considered my best books of the year.  I read it a little over a month ago and I still catch myself thinking about it and pondering over it.  I have recommended it to every person I know and will await the next book with bated breath.  It was a creepy and amazing book that was so much more than I ever expected it to be and created a fan out of me.

daughter of smoke & bone2. Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor.

This is another book that swept me off my feet and enticed me into its world and didn’t want to let me go.  It is a beautifully written book and I expect a lot of great things for the author in the future.  A masterfully woven tale that I couldn’t put down.

nocturnal3. Noturnal by Scott Sigler

While I may not have reviewed this on the blog, it was one of my favorites all the same.  For anyone who doesn’t know, I am a gigantic fan of Scott Sigler.  I can only think of one thing I have read by him that I didn’t absolutely love.  Now this book does have a few moments where even a die-hard junkie like me rolled my eyes, but the overarching story was spectacular.  It was creepy, fun, and interesting for all the right reasons.  Sigler’s horror novels aren’t the kind that will scare you and make you check under the bed, that’s not his style of horror.  His style of horror is the kind that has you wrinkling your nose and thinking, “Oh my God!”

and all the stars4. And All the Stars  by Andrea K Host

This book was a surprise.  I had seen a lot of good reviews for it but wasn’t sure what to expect.  But it was a joy and a pleasure to read.  The characters were real, the story was interesting, and I couldn’t put it down.  Without a doubt one of the best books I picked up this year.

the lost prince5. The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa

Before last year I had never read a Julie Kagawa book.  I had heard a lot of great things and when I got offered the chance to read this beginning of a new series, I jumped at it to see what all the fuss was about.  The fuss was well deserved because this book was fantastic.  The world building was some of the best I have read and the characters were well-developed and rounded.  I will be reading from his author again and hope to be just as pleased.

 

 

The Five Worst

the rook

1. The Rook by Daniel O’Malley

This book earned its place as the worst book of the year.  It was boring and amateurish.  The interest premise it established was squandered at every opportunity with boring nonsense.  I wanted to quit on this book so many times and probably would have if it wasn’t a book club read.  The long swathes of gibberish that had nothing to do with the plot made this the most annoying book I read all year.

the twelve2. The Twelve by Justin Cronin

POVs that switched and swapped every few pages and a convoluted plot that made everything about as clear as mud are the primary reason this book sucked.  Add in religious references being shoved in your face as nauseum and in the most annoying way possible and I wanted it to be over.  560 pages of purple prose later this book succeeded in making me fall asleep repeatedly and made my eyeballs shoot blood spontaneously to prevent any more pain.

ScarletUS.indd3. Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

This book made me angry.  It has such a great story and it just pissed it away with typical boring YA garbage.  The heroine was embarrassing to all young girls on the planet and the heroes should be locked up to protect the women of the world.  I didn’t find a single redeeming quality about this book.

immortal city4. Immortal City by Scott Speer

If ever there was a book that should be destroyed for the protection of humanity, it’s this one.  Yet again, another fascinating premise that they author mutilated and destroyed until it was unrecognizable.  I hated the characters, the plot, the villain, and everything in between.  I sincerely hope Mr. Speer goes back to screenwriting, it’s a certainty that he’s more talented at that than novels.

breed5. Breed by Chase Novak

Ugh, what a waste of a tree.  The characters were so irritating that I really didn’t care if awful things happened to them.  The plot dragged on and on and on but yet we never got anywhere.  There was no point to any of it and no resolution in the end.

 

So that’s it ladies and gents.  These are my favorite and most hated books of 2012.  I’m interested in knowing what yours are.  Add a comment and tell me!