erica

Gahhh, my booklikes and goodreads are so out of sync. I like booklikes better, but the goodreads app makes it so easy to just note what I'm reading. 

I foresee an evening getting all back on track.

This is bugging me no end. Jesse's innocent bumpkin act is not sweet and endearing, I'm not buying it, and he is A CHEATING ASSHOLE to his GF. I am so not seeing the attraction. Never trust a cheater; he could well do it again - TO YOU, Adam. He knows very well how Adam feels about him and is just stringing him along. His waffling over the GF is major lame, and he does not have a single measly vertebrae in his spine. Give it up, Adam. Seriously.

And really, if you take away Adam's Jesse obsession and there is *no*, absolutely NO personality left. It's all in his POV and I know almost nothing about him after 70 pages. NOTHING. Except that he is jonesing after Jesse real bad. Because he does that 110% of the time.

At least the present tense narrative is actually working so points to Ms. Pike there.

Total romance fail. I don’t know why I’m reading this. Oh, yeah, it was because I wanted to read the 3rd one - seemed like a fun rock star romance thing.

I'm theoretically huffily reading Under Heaven after insidious coercion by my boyfriend, but then my mother visited for a week, and I found out that my intrigue-power-play reading muscles were sadly out of shape, and It Was Hard. I started re-reading The Hook-Up instead because it had been pointed out that my somewhat meh reaction the first time was Plain Wrong. And so it was. And now I need to read Gray's book. 

Also need to bump rating for The Hook-Up.

BF was all in my face on my (gay) reading romance streak, wondering if there wasn't a Guy Gavriel Kay or something by "the fireman" (aka. Scott Lynch) I hadn't read. So this is me, all huffy and stomping off to read "Under Heaven" after having my arm so expertly twisted. It's not like it's been on my backlog since forever or anything.

The topic at the centre of the book is very important - abuse in various nasty-ugly forms, but I found the actual book too disjointed. It was difficult to follow and I kept being not interested.

So while the topic is important, I can't just ignore the execution which didn't work for me at all. There were too many peripheral characters, and how they connected to each other was  sometimes hard to follow - I just felt it was needlessly complicated.

The reactions of Mary Margaret & Troy were too caricatured for me - we see things from their point of view - to (supposedly) understand them better I assume - but it still seemed very one dimensional to me. Mary Margaret's actions at the end felt a little forced and basically only functioned as a wrap-up for plot lines that didn't actually require any more tying off. I wish I could give it more, but I rolled my eyes too much. I can't star a book just based on the topic it tries to tackle.

Super cute. It could probably have benefited from being a little longer, as the last chapter felt a bit rushed compared to the rest.

Wow, this was really good - the challenges and dynamics of a relationship between a 19 year old and a 37 year old are very well done and believable; the fluctuations between being equal and suddenly almost like father & son due to the differences in life experience. The frustrations & passions of being 19 vs. the cynicism and weariness of 37. Tobys exuberance, passion and naivity vs. cautious Laurie who lives so much in his head.

Loved the writing too, and how Laurie & Toby both leapt off the pages, with such distinct voices.

For me this was very much a relationship book that happened to have some kink in it.

Y'know, this is really good - the challenges and dynamics of a relationship between a 19 year old and a 37 year old are very well done and believable; the fluctuations between being equal and suddenly almost like father & son due to the differences in life experience. The frustrations & passions of being 19 vs. the cynicism and weariness of 37.

Not being all that familiar with BDSM, I googled the err.... sex toys to understand what was going on, and while it comes across as pretty hot in the book (it's all about head space there) the resulting google images pressed all my "yeah, really not for me" buttons. I think I was a bit bug-eyed. But hey, whatever floats their boat. (Yeah, I'm a naive sheltered little 34 year old).

THIS ROCKED SOCKS.

If you haven't seen the movie, this is probably a pretty spoilery review. If you've seen the move, carry on.

This was just so gooooood. I'd like to think that I would have liked it as much even if I hadn't seen Edge of Tomorrow, but my bouncing-in-the-seat glee during the entire film definitely coloured my reading experience. I suppose you could argue that I was very predisposed to like the book *grin*

The book is better though, because the alien backstory makes so much more sense. Why they didn't just use the provided setup for the aliens and their motivations in the movie beats me. Sure, it was a little more complicated, but there is dumbing it down for the masses and then there is creating something that doesn't actually make sense once you start poking at it. They had a perfectly awesome backstory handed to them, and they chucked it out the window.

The pointless romance isn't really there - it's mostly about character development. In the book Rita is still fucking awesome; a great mix of quiet & withdrawn when she's out of her battle Jacket and wicked badass when she's in it. I liked Keiji better than Cage Tom Cruise too, but that's not all that hard to achieve as I like pretty much anybody better than Tom. I unashamedly enjoyed watching Cage Tom die (this is where the glee came in), but I did not enjoy reading about Keiji's many deaths. His learning curve and transformation from useless, regular recruit to kickass warrior was really well done, though.

And oooooh, the writing is so good. Some of the imagery is just so incredibly vivid, I ended up reading it several times.

"Distant shells thunder low and muddy, a hollow sound you feel more than hear. The close ones ring high and clear. They scream with a voice that rattles your teeth, and you know they’re the ones headed for you. They cut deep into the ground, throwing up a veil of dust that hangs there, waiting for the next round to come ripping through."

 

You should also read Navessa's review. Because what she said.

Buckle up! Time to read the thing that inspired somebody to kill Tom Cruise repeatedly through an entire film - the best blockbuster idea to come out of Hollywood in forever. I may have cackled gleefully through the whole thing.

Wow. Ungh. I have no idea how to rate this. I’m not even sure I LIKED it, even though it is unquestionably a good book. It pulled me all over the place: made me frustrated, anxious and uncomfortable. And at times amused.  

Leah Raeder, I almost hate you for building tension little by little through an entire book, hinting every now and then that the future would not be all that great. I was on eggshells. I didn’t want to read. I wanted to read. I hoped the shoe would drop, just to get it over with; I wanted the tension gone without pain. I squirmed. Put the book down. Grabbed it again after two seconds. Sighed loudly. Rearranged myself endlessly. Made faces.

My boyfriend unhelpfully told me I shouldn't get so emotionally invested in my books. But it's why reading is so amazing. Except it sucks in a good way when you get that hot, shifty uneasy queasy thing rolling in your stomach because characters are on a snowball of doom, and you don’t want them to be.

The prose is beautiful, but sometimes it almost got in the way because I just wanted the story to unfold faster, let me off the hook, get back to my real life where I didn’t have that restless feeling of wanting but not wanting to read. I think I would probably be able to appreciate it a lot more on a second reading, when I know how things will go.

It is probably a 5-star for getting to me that much. I don't want to do it again anytime soon. My next book has to have an extra helping of fluff.

No no no no! Tell him about Hiyam, Maise, TELL HIM! Don't let her do this to you. 

Leah Raeder I hate you a little for your skill at building tension little by little through an entire book. I'm on eggshells. I don't want to read. I want to read. Please let the shoe fall, get it done already - rip it off quick like a band aid, so I can move on. Don't let it fall; let them be OK. I'm so anxious I'm squirming as I read. I can't take it.

My boyfriend unhelpfully told me I shouldn't get so emotionally invested in my books. But it's why reading is so awesome! Except it sucks a little when you get that hot, shifty uneasy queasy thing rolling in your stomach because characters are on a snowball of doom. FML.

Quit hinting at Bad Shit To Come, Maise. It is making me very uneasy. I'm cringing on the sofa, just waiting for the uproar. It's bound to happen and it won't be pretty, because society will not understand.

Will postpone probable angst by doing previously procrastinated task: spring cleaning the windows. It is the most boring thing ever. Universe, please stop fouling my windows. Thanks.

Excellent decision (*nods*). Pain avoided, wholesome feeling of task completed is in my future! Just have to leave the internet first. It's happening. Any minute now.

"Let's go look at this ridiculous thing" I [Maise] said.

Me: puts down e-reader; googles "St. Louis arch". Holy fuckballs Batman! 

You had to admire this kind of pointless audacity, planting something so bold and stunning and utterly useless right in the navel of America.

 

What she said. I think.

I know it's been pointed out by pretty much anybody reading a Raeder book, but DAMN this woman has a way with words. Chapter 1 was just so.... wow.

So far I am so glad I stuffed my teacher-student squick factor prejudice skepticism in a little suitcase and shoved it under the bed. I should probably have done it sooner - I've owned this since December 2013...

Well, shit. So much stuff happened in this book my head swam.

I kept tripping over Grant & Jeff's convoluted history - possibly because I really didn't give a damn. So. Many. Stories. I'm thinking this could have been 200pgs instead 291, and seriously, there was no need for both Grant & Morgan to carry crazy-ex-boyfriend baggage. The desired plot points on relationship progress could have been made with less external drama.

I would have liked Morgan's POV. And a slightly more believable small town (seriously, it's the most gay-accepting community ever). It was really nice that they weren't gay bashing assholes, but all of Durstrand felt too good to be true.

Personally I found the evolution of Grant & Morgan's relationship the most interesting, and I could definitely have had some more of that and less FBI ex-con crap.