Fiona

This was very different from the first book but its been so long since I read that one, I wasn't bothered. The plot is a bit thin, much of the tale is taken up with the historical details of the court and military campaign of Sulieman the Magnificent which I knew little about. As a consequence, I really enjoyed the book. This is historical fiction for people more interested in history than fiction.

A fast-paced thrill ride in a dystopian future where those gifted with time-travel abilities are persecuted and criminalized. Our narrator, a mover who can move someone from the future into his own time, quickly discovers how hated his kind is when he saves his classmate from a mover-induced storm, which she seems to have caused, and they must go on the run from the authorities. Completely immersive.

Thank you to Random House who provided me with this advance reading copy.

I guess it isn't possible to make bridge exciting, although Mr. Sachar really gave it the ol' college try. The non-bridge playing parts were enough to keep me interested though, with some really charmingly real characters.Although I have to wonder: if the narrator hadn't repeatedly told me how boring it was, would I have found it as boring?

Mutant microbes, bullies and bravery propel this brief and deftly-told tale of the dangers of biotechnology.

The woods around Woodridge Academy are off limits, a rule that neighbours Tamaya and Marshall respect on thier daily trek to school together. But when Marshall needs to avoid belligerent new classmate Seth, rules are broken and the two find themselves lost. In the forest. With the bully. Feisty Tamaya gives him a face full of mud and our heroes flee for home. That's when it turns dark and scary as the mud quickly reveals itself to be some kind of carnivorous biofilm; Tamaya's hand starts to look like something from a horror flick and Chad disappears. The intermittent chapters of the transcript for the Senate Committee investigating the events in the story clearly illustrate what has happened, with scientists explaining concepts like biofuel production and genetic mutation (and offer a great jumping off point for introducing these concepts and debate around the dangers of tampering with nature).

Many thanks to Random House for the advance reading copy.

I suspect that for fans of this series, this installment in detective Macy Greeley's career will be perfectly satisfying and enjoyable, but I just couldn't get into it. Macy feels like she was shoehorned into the plot from a parallel dimension; she has a tediously complicated backstory and the most awkward sounding conversations with her mother (so awkward it actually made me wonder if the mother was the murderer). And I kept getting her confused with victim's daughter.

That being said, I quite enjoyed the mystery plot itself: there was some nice head-fakery when it came to whodunit and the non-police characters were fairly sympathetic, while the pacing (save for the pointless forays into Macy's uninteresting life) was consistently taut.

I recieved a free review copy of this book from Minotaur Books.

The plot: Standard hard drinking, hard drugging, antihero type with a dark past seeks missing girl in violent Cambodia. The verdict: Really well done, with consistent pacing and plenty of action but characterization (especially of minor characters) needs work, as everyone seemed to blend together. Also, there was just too much substance abuse for my taste, although I appreciate its usefulness as a plot device, keeping our narrator too addled to figure shit out.

I won this advance reading copy through Goodreads so thank you to Simon & Schuster (who are always so prompt about sending stuff).

I don't know who picked the coverart but they ought to be fired. It looks like it belongs on an infantile picture book about a middle-aged woman with a purse, her surly teenage offspring and a furry, streamer-wearing chinese dragon. I had a grear deal of difficulty taking this book seriously as a result.

That being said, this book got better as it went along and by the end, was pretty awesome. Monster is a totally charming character and so wonderfully drawn that all the other characters seem flat and lifeless (like watching Ellen Page on Trailer Park Boys, it's very discordant.) The plot was innovative with plenty of twists and the pacing fairly even once the action started. Overall, a good read. If you can get past the cover.

Many thanks the Houghton Mifflin for the ARC.

This book would be a wonderful vehicle to start discussion with teenagers about religious extremism and domestic (i.e. christian) terrorism but as a novel unto itself, seems rather heavy-handed.

Our narrator, Franny, is traumatized by repeated threats to her doctor parents (both abortion providrs) and ends up lashing out at her girlfriend's brother for his ignorant views and possibly alienating her beloved forever. But they make up and its fine. I think this book could have been much more nuanced if it had been told from the perspective of Leah, the girlfriend.

I recieved this book free from Orca through GoodReads.

I don't understand why anyone would go to the trouble of writing a book and then not even bother to have it proofread. This goes double if you're writing in a language that is not your native tongue. And given that all the letters in here have been translated already, the book seems to serve no real academic purpose, either.

I got this book free through GoodReads.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. The narrative showed real promise in the first few chapters but then it just started to go on and on with these pointless, unnecessary descriptive passages and entire chapters that seemed completely superfluous; the pacing comletely ruined. The characters were fully fleshed (if sometimes one-dimensional) and the plot was marvelously engaging. But I found myself wishing someone had gone to the trouble of editing it so it read less like a retired footballer's wistful vanity.

I won this book through GoodReads so thank you to the author who sent me this copy for review.

Despite its low page count, I couldn't even finish this. The main character doesn't feel remotely believable and neither does anyone else; its like a gang of zombies without interest, motivation or personality. Setting is vague and unclear, plot is thin and inane, and I'm sorry I didn't read the reviews on here before I wasted my mental energy on this.

This book was entirely too long for the amount of plot it contained. If ever there was a book that deserved the readers digest condensed treatment, it is this one. Much of the problem resulted from the fact that it was apparent to me right from the first time we met him, that our narrator was chasing the wrong boy and I knew exactly how the story was going to end. The fact that it took us so long to get there seemed ridiculous to me.

A big fat thank you to Simon & Schuster for the free advance copy and the opportunity to pretend my opinion is wanted.

It took me a very long time to finish this collection because I didn't want it to be over, a rare occurrence. Each story was like a little present to be unwrapped and astonished by and mull over later; I understand perfectly why some of these tales were prize-winners. This book has made me stop hating short stories, which I had really become antagonistic toward lately.

A big fat thank you to the Penguin Random House who sent me this ARC which I savoured thoroughly.

This is the most haphazard collection of hockey nostalgia I have ever come across. It feels as though Mr MacFarlane cobbled together a bunch of stuff he had lying around which had not been be included in any of his other publications. While there is plenty here to interest hockey aficionados, the structure of the book makes it difficult to enjoy as we jump from topic to topic without any rhyme or reason; tales of tragic career ending injuries are rapidly followed by happy reminiscences of Olympic glory. This is a book written more for hockey fans than for fans of literary merit, irritatingly.

I received this book free through Goodreads in exchange for an honest review.

Easily the best new YA fantasy of the year, Ms. Egan presents us with a magic-based reality that echoes 17th century England. Our hero, an orphan with a adopted family of upright if criminal types, takes a job spying in the house of a great lady. Naturally, things are far more complicated that they first seem and our able Julia is suddenly in it up to her neck. A well-drawn cast of characters, constant even pacing, and a plot that, while resolved at the end of the book, is deep enough to sustain a trilogy mark this the beginning of a beautiful reading relationship.

A big thank you to Penguin Random House who were kind enough to send me this ARC. (If you guys could get the second book out asap, I'd really appreciate it.)

I do not understand why this book has nothing but good(ish) reviews. Reading this book was painful for me; not in a good that-really-affected me sort of way, but in a torturous can-this-just-be-over-already kind of way. Its not badly written, but the whole plot was uninteresting and tedious and made me feel depressed.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for providing me with an advance copy via Goodreads.

There's a lot going on in this book, too much really. There are four narrative voices, which are all puportedly written by our protagonist, a writer named Sharon who is dying of cancer. The premise itself I quite liked but the execution left me less impressed; the pacing seems uneven and I never really got into the story emotionally. Sharon comes across as whiny, constantly obsessing about the grad student her husband has left her for and any tiny shred of sympathy was destroyed by the revelation that Sharon was her husband's mistress before thier marriage. (You don't get to be surprised that your husband is cheating on you when you knew he was a cheater right from the beginning.) The chapters about Nelly Terman and Charles Dickens are not nearly as factual as I would have liked, although I certainly enjoyed that plotline the most. Overall, not an unpleasant read but not really my thing, as I cannot bear characters who think their love can reform another human.

Thank you to Penguin Random House who were kind enough to award me this advance reading copy.

For a book with such a richly imagined setting and premise, Smoke's plot and characters fell completely flat. There was not a single character who did not seem like they had been pulled from a catalogue of hackneyed person-types (the tormented antihero, the rebellious daughter, the heart-of-gold best friend, the vicious bully, the aged extremist, etc., etc.) and the plot felt as formulaic as a children's cartoon (two best friends + the love interest + somebody out to get them = some chase scenes and a mystery to be solved).

It always makes me sad when something so ambitious fails to fulfill itself.

Thank you to HarperCollins for the advance reading copy.

Full of fascinating tidbits and cute illustrations, this is a rollicking introduction to the individual elements and thier physics. While well-written and fairly clear, the visual material leaves something to be desired; charts are insufficiently labeled and some more diagrams would have been nice. Also, for some reason, the actinides don't have thier own introductory page, like all the other groups do explaining the properties and principles governing the constituent elements and it should be noted that elements 99 (Einsteinium) and higher are not covered as fully as the others.

With many kind thanks to Firefly Books who are responsible for this free review copy I have been enjoying.

Plodding. That is the most apt single descriptor I can think of for this book; it just seems to go pointlessly for the longest time without anything happening and, by the time Vera finally showed up, I was feeling irritable about how long it took to get going. Its very well-written; if I had a lot of time to kill, I might have enjoyed the slow plodding through the story but there are far too many other books on my shelf.

Thank you to St, Martin's Press who were kind enough to send me this free copy for review.

Given the title, it should not be surprising that this book is really a paean to the Patriots' long-time coach and his dutiful quarterback. Focusing mostly on the Superbowl and League champion years the two men have shared, the book also deals with the scandals surrounding the team, notably Deflategate, and the author defends his subjects with no pretense of impartiality.

The writing itself is rather choppy and lacks the sort of narrative flow I admire in good non-fiction. It's not unreadable though and the tale is interesting enough to sustain the attention of any NFL afficianado.

Thank you to Hachette Books who were kind enough to send me a free review copy which my father now seems to be enjoying more than I did.