Fiona

Karen Connelly is a beautiful writer and if this book hadn't been so filled with sex scenes and whiny, privileged white folk, I probably would have enjoyed it immensely. But it was, so I didn't.

There were descriptive passages in here that were so well-crafted and evocative, lesser mortals might weep. But so much of it involved extramarital ecstasy that it quickly become tiresome and, truthfully, I skipped over a good part of the second half of the book and didn't feel like I missed anything. I would happily read more of Connelly's work, provided it isn't more thinly disguised erotica.

Thank you to Penguin Random House for the free review copy.

Technically, that was a good book but I did not enjoy it; it was just too bleak and depressing for me to really ever want to get into it. Still, I recognize that this was well-written, evenly paced, strong sense of place, deft characterization, etc. so I'm giving it 4 stars with the caveat that it is not a book for the faint-of-heart.

Thank you to Douglas & MacIntyre who were kind enough to send me this free copy for review.

The longer I think about this book, the angrier I get. The first page of this tale is written in present tense, which is unusual for a children's book so it caught my attention. Then, inexplicably, when I turned the page I was transported to the past via verb conjugation but it looked just like the present. This. Is. Not. Allowed. There are Rules! Conventions! Children do not need to be given books that will confuse their ability to properly conjugate, especially given the number of irregular verbs the English language is blessed with.

The story and illustrations are perfectly cute but the writing is sloppy and awkward and I would cringe if I ever tried to read it to a child.

I was sent this book by the publisher in exchange for my brutally honest review.

Given that this was a first person account of being a true crime victim, its incredibly dry and uninteresting. I guess that's what happens when a news journalist writes a memoir. Which is a shame because this tale could have been quite engaging if the author had been more willing to bare her soul to us a little.

I received a free copy of this book for review from the publisher.

Writing a book that weaves together five distinct points of view is an incredibly difficult thing to do successfully, and I feel like the author really bit off more than she could chew. The book starts promisingly enough but quickly becomes confused; none of the narrators have a distinct enough voice to make following the plot easy. And it's difficult to sustain an interest in a story when you don't know what's going on. The fact that the characters all feel like stock compilations of mental patients really doesn't help.

I recieved this book free through Goodreads from the publisher in exchange for a review.

Interminable is the one adjective that best describes this well-written and interesting fictionalized autobiography. Told in first person, the life of famous ballet dancer Nijinsky's younger sister is chronicled from Russian childhood under Tsar Nicholas through the Second World War, when she is working in France and England. There is clearly a wealth of information chronicling the life of Bronia Nijinska because this novel just goes on and on and on. And she's not even dead at the end of it! Its very good but could easily have been a third shorter without sacrificing any of the plot.

I recieved a free copy of this book from the publisher.

An in-depth look at several of the cases of alleged child abuse that occurred as a result of the incompetence of coroner Charles Smith. While the book is very thoroughly researched, it reads rather like a court document for much of the narrative and can be confusing at times. That being said, the author still manages to do a good job of making Smith's victims sympathetic and real.

Overall, an intense look at how the Ontario justice system completely failed a number of grieving parents which is informative but not terribly entertaining.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review.

There were parts that I rather enjoyed but overall, the whole thing seemed a bit thin. The characters were cartoonish, the plot barely developed, and the tone terribly uneven. It wasn't painfully bad, though, just tedious and uninteresting.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review through Goodreads.

I can't even explain how angry it makes me that such an awesome plot was ruined by sloppy storytelling. I willfully tuned out the pointlessness of the first few chapters. I managed to overlook the awkward stilted conversations where little effort is made to indicate tone or even the speaker for long stretches, until I can no longer keep track of who is talking because they all sound like robots who haven't figured out contractions yet. I was able to discount the fact that there are two characters named Simon who are introduced three pages apart. (Unless its historical fiction, having multiple characters with the same name is simply an invitation to chaos and confusion in all who read it.) I can even turn a blind eye to the fact that, suddenly, Tom gets renamed Tim because typos happen occasionally to even the best of us. But, apparently (and for reasons unclear to me) my tolerance is breached when an author uses the same reference to the breeze twice on one page. And ultimately this is why I am so reluctant to read self-published works: anti-editor bias and a refusal to hire one. I have seen it too many times and I am tired of it. Why, sweet Lord? Do they think God will simply bless them with the insight to see all the flaws in their own work?

I received a free copy of this book for review from the author through GoodReads and I bet he's sorry I won.

Incredibly informative, chronicling the struggle of African Americans to claim basic civil rights from Frederick Douglass and Ida Wells through the Harlem Renaissance to Martin Luther King. The tone is incredibly academic, which is hardly surprising given that the author is a Yale professor of African American history and philosophy, but its not the kind of thing I would hand to somebody who wanted a primer on the history of black oppression or even an easy book to understand the black lives matter movement (which is what I was after). There's virtually no information on the current BLM movement, merely an examination of the historical underpinnings, rendering the book's title rather misleading.

I had two books last week from publishers that were at polar opposite ends of the spectrum of “gendered” literature. They both sucked.

First Blood is the novel that the movie Rambo was based and is total dick lit. Basically, a war vet with PTSD meets a cop with control issues and they spend the rest of the book trying to kill each other for no adequately explored reason. Head Over Heels on the other hand is quintessential chick lit: fluffy romance with no real conflict, just misunderstanding and miscommunication, but then everybody talks and lives happily ever after. Neither book was badly written, both had consistent pacing and both are reprints which were originally published decades ago. And my hatred for both of them is mostly predicated on lack of balance. There is hardly any conversation in First Blood (entire chapters pass with nobody taking to another human being!) and the majority of the characters only exist to be killed off (I was disoriented by how high the body count was). Head over Heels is all talk and no action and by the end of it I was really wishing somebody would be killed (or, even better, several people), because there are far too many characters who only exist to be a romantic interest.

In a perfect world, Rambo and Sheriff Teasdale are magically transported to Upper Sibley and blow the place to smithereens. Everybody dies, except for Teasdale and Jessie (the main protagonist from Head Over Heels whose relationship with her long-lost love was so inane I nearly puked) who fall in love and build a perfect literary world where people occasionally get killed but everybody talks about it first.

Thank you to Sourcebooks who sent me a copy of this book for review.

The illustrations are so engaging, with their delicate pastel shades contrasting the stark black shadows. But the story is rather wanting; Smoot mysteriously detaches from his boy in a pointlessly nebulous way and the solution for the story's conflict is uninspired. Highly recommended for everyone who likes to make up better stories than the one the book came with.

I received this book free from the publisher in exchange for review.

I had two books last week from publishers that were at polar opposite ends of the spectrum of “gendered” literature. They both sucked.

First Blood is the novel that the movie Rambo was based and is total dick lit. Basically, a war vet with PTSD meets a cop with control issues and they spend the rest of the book trying to kill each other for no adequately explored reason. Head Over Heels on the other hand is quintessential chick lit: fluffy romance with no real conflict, just misunderstanding and miscommunication, but then everybody talks and lives happily ever after. Neither book was badly written, both had consistent pacing and both are reprints which were originally published decades ago. And my hatred for both of them is mostly predicated on lack of balance. There is hardly any conversation in First Blood (entire chapters pass with nobody taking to another human being!) and the majority of the characters only exist to be killed off (I was disoriented by how high the body count was). Head over Heels is all talk and no action and by the end of it I was really wishing somebody would be killed (or, even better, several people), because there are far too many characters who only exist to be a romantic interest.

In a perfect world, Rambo and Sheriff Teasdale are magically transported to Upper Sibley and blow the place to smithereens. Everybody dies, except for Teasdale and Jessie (the main protagonist from Head Over Heels whose relationship with her long-lost love was so inane I nearly puked) who fall in love and build a perfect literary world where people occasionally get killed but everybody talks about it first.

Thank you to the publisher who sent me a copy of this book for review.

Rick Hillis passed away before this book was finished and it is sadly, glaringly obvious. The characters have no depth and the plot never goes anywhere. The man was clearly capable of turning a phrase but that's completely insufficient to save this tale. I hope nobody ever publishes any of my writing posthumously.

I recieved this book free through Goodreads from the publisher.

“Hilarious” is a definite oversell here; amusing perhaps, certainly good-natured, but at no point did hilarity ensue. In fact, the only time I laughed out loud was when the narrator acknowledged her weak acting ability. Ultimately, I wasn't even interested enough to finish the book (although, based on the title, I'm assuming she got better and everybody was very proud and told her repeatedly brave she was and they all lived happily ever after.) The characterizations are weak, the dialogue tedious, and there's no dramatic tension to be found for miles.

Free review copy blah blah blah.

This is exactly the sort of book somebody would buy as a gift for a writer. Said writer would likely use the book to prop up the short leg of their couch because its just a tedious bunch of quotes and not something they would actually read. The layout and graphics are lovely though.

I received this book free from the publisher for review.

A rather saccharine collection of four misadventures about a girl and her mother who is a fairy, I suspect this will be enthusiastically greeted by fans of the first book in the series. It is very readable but I find the concept is so cutesy that it feels almost satirical; so many sparkles and sprinkles.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review.