Book Review: A Kiss to Build A Dream On



As much as I love a good romance, I have to admit that if I saw this book in the store I probably wouldn’t have picked it up. It’s just not the kind of cover I’m drawn to. Granted, I’ve probably missed a lot of great books because of my tendency to judge romance covers.  When it comes to this book though, I knew it was going to be good because although this is Kim Amos’ first dip into romance, I have read and loved everything else she’s published under her other pen name. I was uber excited to get my hands on an ARC of the book and I seriously fell in love with the world of White Pine as soon as I began reading. 

I loved that the two lead characters are both flawed in their own ways. There wasn’t that unrealistic perfect guy or girl running around the book which was great. I also adored the idea of a former Mean Girl facing up to her past and trying to make good.  The relationship of the women in the book is encouraging and supportive instead of dismissive and bitchy.  The description of the food was delicious and even the scenery description which I’m usually not a fan of gave a great setting for the story without being too descriptive.  My only reason for not giving the book five stars was my own personal dislike of the whole guy carrying the chick up the stairs to bed thing. I know, it’s a regular in romance and I’m pretty sure I’ve written it once or twice myself but yeah… I can’t read those scenes and take them seriously. There’s no way a guy is ever carrying me anywhere because even if he could lift me, it would just end horribly. LOL I also felt like the end was just a little too rushed and too quick to put a bow on everything.  With that said though, I enjoyed reading this so much that I found myself wanting to keep reading all night but also wanting to stop myself because I didn’t want the book to be over. I’m definitely a White Pine fan and after reading the preview of book two, I’m already hooked! 

Oh and I think the inclusion of a hot dish recepie was a really great idea. 🙂 

Look for the book March, 31, 2015! 

Review: Rapture

Rapture by Lauren Kate
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was going to wait until this was available in trade paperback but then I saw that it’s a free lendable ebook through my library so I just had to read it. 🙂

As with the previous books this one still was a little too long for my taste, however it was quite possibly my favorite of the series. Luce transitioned from a Too Stupid to Live (TSTL) character in books 1 & 2 to tolerable in book 3 but in book 4 I actually liked her! In fact, I liked everyone in this book. Daniel wasn’t the moody pain in the ass he’d been in book 3 and this book did a great job at FINALLY explaining the big secrets that have been going on for the last three books. Some of it was pretty obvious a few books back, but other details caught me by surprise. I also absolutely LOVED the epilogue. Had that not been included I would probably have knocked the book down to three stars, but I think the way this book ended was by far the perfect way to end the series (I don’t count the 5th book as part of the series but rather a sidecar).

Great book, great ending. 🙂

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Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really wanted to love this book. There were parts of it that I simply adored but there were many that I just didn’t like. The grandparent flashbacks were often more confusing than anything and left me with more questions than before I read them. I also didn’t like how Safran Foer used his own weird formatting and ignored basic writing rules. I’m all for creativity in presentation but putting a conversation between two people all in one paragraph is just annoying to read. I often had to go back a page and re-read to see who was saying what.

I really loved Oskar. It took a while to get used to his narrative but once I did, I fell in love with the kid. However, as a social worker I wanted to know his diagnosis. LOL He presented as someone on the Autism Spectrum but was extremely high functioning too and there were times when I wondered if he had Aspberger’s but then others when he didn’t seem like it. Then of course there was the Grandpa. WHY did he lose his words? WHY didn’t anyone ever try to help him with it? So may questions left unanswered.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I read the book and I look forward to finally seeing the movie. I just don’t know if I’d suggest this book to other people without a disclaimer on how odd it is.

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Review: The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a hard one to rate. On one hand I wanted to give it four stars but on the other I was aiming more toward three. I guess that means it’s a 3.5. I liked this book… I enjoyed the characters and situations. The idea of a shrink for teens who is completely unaware of her own children was kind of brilliant and quite realistic. What I didn’t like about the book though was that it seemed like Ginny’s problems all got solved over night. One day she’s miserable and self mutilating and the next she’s all outgoing and making huge changes. It just felt too rushed. I still think it was a great book though despite the poor pacing.

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Review: Year Zero

Year Zero by Rob Reid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a book that I probably never would have read but I’m really glad that I did. See, I’m an avid Backstreet Boys fan and when I read the review of this book in Entertainment Weekly I giggled like a fan girl. The idea of aliens mistaking a lawyer named Nick Carter for Backstreet Boy Nick Carter just tickled my heart. (I’m an avid Carter fan as well). I even paid full price for the hard cover version of the book because it’s not in paperback yet, and that’s something I just don’t do. But I was excited so I splurged for my birthday.

In reading the book I found that the plot was funny, interesting and pretty darn creative. I could have done without the footnotes, they got annoying after two chapters or so, but even those I learned to skim over. I’ve decided that Reid simply has to be a Backstreet/Carter fan because at times it was like reading inside fan jokes. His Nick Carter had too many things in common with the real Nick Carter for it to be coinsidence, in my humble opinion.

It was a fun read and lived up to my fangirl needs.

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Review: Speak

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A great 5-hour read (when I should have been asleep). I saw the movie years ago and couldn’t remember if I read the book or not. Loved the book (still can’t remember if I read it before), and now I really want to watch the movie again.

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Review: The Wishing Spell

The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved this book! I can’t believe some of the negative reviews I’ve read. Sure, this is a debut novel and there are points where that’s pretty clear… But this book is by all means so much better than many debuts I’ve read. I think Colfer did an amazing job weaving new tales around characters that we have all grown up knowing. Incredibly creative, funny, touching, silly, action-packed, all all around a great read! Bravo, Mr. Colfer! I can’t wait for the next book and will definitely be passing this one around.

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Review: Passion

Passion by Lauren Kate
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First thing’s first… I don’t like the cover of this book. LOL I judge books by their covers and books 1, 2, 4 and 5 of this series have gorgeous covers. Why did book 3 had to have a weird color thing going on, a totally different style dress, and straight hair on the model? It doesn’t fit at all.

Cover aside though, this book was SO much better than I expected it to be! I really thought the book was going to annoy me because let’s face it, Luce is pretty much the poster child for a TSTL (Too Stupid to Live) character. The whole plot of this book begins with the hissy fit that Luce pulls in book 2 when she puts herself in danger by running off alone to time travel. I expected to be pissed at her through the whole book.

I was happily surprised though that this book was really good. It was still a little long winded at times just like the other books, but things actually made a little more sense for a change! No, we still don’t know what the big huge secret is that the angels are keeping from Luce, but we know SO much more than we did from the first 1,000 pages of the first two books. I was so into this book that I didn’t want to stop reading it and couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. Well done, Ms. Kate!

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Review: Torment

Torment by Lauren Kate
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was torn on this one… I liked it. In fact, I think I liked it better than the first book. But there were a bunch of things that made me groan and roll my eyes too so I had to knock it down to three stars instead of four.

As with Fallen, this book has WAY too many scenes that have nothing to do with the plot. It could have been a much shorter and more interesting book had Kate thrown out some of the fluff. Also, Luce was a bit of a brat in this book… I’ve read people say that they thought she was a brat in Fallen, but I don’t agree. In this one though? Holy bratness, Batman! I get that she’s pissed because NO ONE will give her any information on WTF is going on… I’d be pissed too. But to blatantly ignore the people who are trying to protect you makes for a TSTL (Too Stupid To Live) character in my book. Then of course there was Daniel. I think he needs some mood stablizer meds because he’s all over the damn place in this one… moreso than in Fallen and that was a lot! Finally, I just don’t understand Kate’s need to write books where the reader is left out of major plot points along with the main character. At the end of Torment we’re like 1,000 pages into this series and we still don’t know the basics of the Daniel/Luce backstory. If it’s so annoying for Luce not to know what’s going on, just imagine how annoying it is for the readers who have sat through two 500 page books and still don’t know what’s going on!

Despite my groaning though… I really did like a good deal of this book and I’m hooked into the plot so I’m going to have to read on. 🙂

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Review: Fallen

Fallen by Lauren Kate
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a good book but there was a lot of it that could have and should have been cut in editing. There were complete scenes (and even chapters) that just didn’t need to be a part of the book for it to make sense. It took way too long for the main character Luce to finally figure out what was going on (despite the readers knowing it since the prologue) and then just like that, the book was over. But then at the end there were still a bunch of unanswered questions. Interesting idea though and I plan on reading the next one just to see where it goes.

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