Lauren J

I HATED THIS BOOK! I liked the heartbreak series from Stephanie Gerber so I sought out this series as it had even higher ratings. ABSOLUTE DUD!! Not worth reading! Did not finish. This book is absurdist. There are so many invented elements, characters, and plot lines.. I felt like I was reading a 5 year olds fever dream. It’s AWFUL on so many levels. First, the relationships are meant to be siblings but the characters immediately abandon each other. NO SISTERS in their situation would ever do that! Sorry but an abused child set on saving herself and her sister does not suddenly abandon her sister for the “fun and games” of the caravel. In NO POSSIBLE WORLD are people EXCITED! to play a game that could KILL them or make them crazy. Immediately in the game she almost freezes to death… maybe the author has never been cold or in below zero… but fun and games are over.. no one cares about winning “a wish”… they just care about finding their sibling and finding warmth. This book is opposite to any natural human instinct.. and we are supposed to believe life and death is “fun”. Garbage. Garbage. Garbage. Perhaps instead of writing about an absurd dystopian society this author shouldn’t stuck to the basics and written something human. I HATED IT!

I wasn’t a fan of this book because it only focuses on Jocasta and Flynn but doesn’t add any new developments to their characters or any we didn’t already know. It adds more stories of Jocosta and Flynn’s life on “the farm” the village before taking over Sinta. But it’s nothing new it’s the raids and Jacosta makes potions which we already heard about. This book is the long winded version of details we already know. Idk… I was just bored. The love story between Jo and Flynn wasn’t very original or organic. It seemed to copy/paste from Cat and Griffins. Most of the time I felt like I was reading a story written for Cat but author changed the name to Jacosta. And it’s because Jacostas character wasn’t well developed and neither was Flynn’s in this story. The Gods also seem to be the biggest characters in these books but they lack the qualities that make people likeable. So in short, I never liked them and the more they appear in the story.. the less I liked the series. Book 2-3 it got to the point we’re there was no reason to care when Cat is in danger when WE ALL KNOW the Gods will step in and save her!! I got bored reading because it was predictable (Cat gets herself killed, Griffin gives a look Cats “never” seen before, Gods bring her back to life) Finally in book 3 I think Griffin finally says.. I won’t worry because it always works out.

This book is a solid good read. It’s an interesting story about a scarred young woman who only knowing poverty and the streets of a desert gets charmed by a wealthy problematic man. It’s got a few pages that read like a horror but everything stays PG-13. Nothing is too graphic or disturbing but I don’t suggest to readers under 17 because there is a description of blood and a body dismembered which may be disturbing to some readers under 17. The characters are interesting. ** spoiler alert*** My only re-write is to make the leading man less obsessed with clothing because the vapid-ness at times is too much and makes him unlikeable. I would also delete the “saba is too good for everyone” because no one is perfect and creating a character who is overly admired and without flaws is unrealistic. Especially one that is a parent. Parents are the most flawed human beings. The male lead should have resentment towards her and in some way blame her… it’s more natural. Otherwise thanks for writing a story that isn’t full of sexual scenes. I wish other YA novels would read this novel and see that a story about love can exist without. Great job! I would definitely read another book by this author.

This is a review of the first book only. I give this book a B-. This book is well written. The author has a nice flow and use of descriptive words. Its enjoyable to read. The flaw is in the Plot and there is a plot hole in this book that is too big to cover up. BUT that being said it’s an enjoyable story and adaptation of a Disney story. Once you start reading you’ll figure out which one. It’s easy to like the characters… they are all fairly well written with humility and empathy. In short, this book is good enough. I like the poverty and humbleness being rewarded into wealth and love. I also like that it’s about two people from different backgrounds growing to accept eachother. It’s a good/love conquers all type of story. It’s the kind of story we all want to believe in. ***spoilers*** The plot hole is the villain. The villains motives are unrealistic and the idea that the villain can be defeated with silly games is unrealistic. Things I would change: F cannot be a murderer again! We can look past the first one but three is too many! Get rid of the riddle and games. It doesn’t work if A hates humans so much. There’s no way A would let F live long enough to play games. A’s motives are not strong enough. I don’t believe that A did this all because she loves a guy. Ending is too long. Get rid of the tortured girl decaying.. its disturbing. Fayre murdering people is disturbing. Goes to far. We need to like F. We can’t like her if she’s a murderer. Basically from the time F enters the cave to A getting killed needs to be rewritten. Actual ending is good. Seems like the author ran out of steam near the end of the story and should have spent more time plotting and making it make sense. Writing is good but the ending is what gives this story a B and not an A.

I read somewhere that the author wrote this book to make fun of wealthy people.. and it’s very obvious that this author hates these characters. She’s outright masogonistic and scathing towards the females, mocking their eating disorders and their bodies. Towards men the author is more kind and just paints them as stoned, dumb, and predatory. The writing is decent. I finished it but I wouldn’t read another one it’s too mean girl.

Colleen Hoover you can do better! Romanticizing a relationship between a teen and her teacher and marketing the story to teens is inappropriate and disturbing. The book is also just lack luster. The female character is written as overly emotional, irrational and juvenile. The teacher is unrealistically mature and all knowing even though he’s 21. Throw in sloppy storylines of a best friend who is a foster kid and having baby with her boyfriend, A mom who’s keeping a secret because she has cancer, dead parents, two boys being raised by teenagers, a girlfriend sleeping with best friend, SA, teacher beating up student, life threatening car accidents… its just messy. It’s like the writer was like… I don’t know how to stretch the story… ohh let’s add another tragedy. Also throw in really annoying arguments, bad poetry, and annoying phrases like “suck and sweet”… entire book lacks heart. Read if you really need to read every Colleen Hoover book but don’t expect anything good. It’s not romantic it’s cringe the whole way through.

Not worth reading. Main character suddenly catches her fiancé cheating (don’t worry she barely bats an eye because she doesn’t love him), her now ex fiancé makes her work unbearable (deflates her tires, deletes her files) she quits, starts her own business and conveniently inherits a haunted mansion with a trust just large enough to support the home forever. Moves into house and begins being haunted (ghosts do her dishes and make her bed). She of course falls in love with small town lawyer who’s Harvard grad. Evil ghost throws pictures, slams doors and throws her boyfriend against a wall. But don’t worry cause every morning she wakes up and gets back to running her business like nothings happening. Nora painfully details the minute to minute life of a “brilliant” website designer. It’s painful because it’s boring. But we read about it every page. For pages and pages it’s Groundhog Day (wake up, details of what ghost cleaned, put finishing touches on new clients page, get praise for designs, get new client, eat grilled cheese sandwich, good ghost plays music, bad ghost slams doors. It’s boring, it’s stale, plot doesn’t move and even though deflated tires made her quit her job.. a ghost throwing her boyfriend or threatening to kill her friend doesn’t make her lose sleep… nope she just wakes up, works, like nothings wrong. And big finale she sleep walks into a mirror. The end. It’s left at a cliffhanger. Basically you can skip this entire book. It’s a waste of time. Chapters are repetitive and drawn out. There’s no real emotions, every character is perfect and brilliant… it’s unrelatable and boring.