erica

I thought Emmet was awesome, and Jeremey's depression & anxiety felt believable too - particularly how there was no magic fix for it. I didn't find him annoying like some others have mentioned, because he honestly couldn't help being so down all the time.

It is a very character driven book, which I usually like - I do not need lots of fancy shit happening to characters as long as there is some sort of development. Unfortunately, I found that both MCs lost their momentum once they were living at Roosevelt. And because the book is all about the characters, the overall impression for me was a little dull and a little flat. Once the MCs lost their oomph, the book did too, and it kinda just quietly petered out.

I get that this was aiming for angsty, dark and broken characters and all that jazz, but it ended up as over the top melodrama, shoving the brokenness of the characters down. my. throat. All the time. I GOT IT ALREADY!

In addition there was insta-lust that turned into love based on very little, a pretentious prologue that reminded me of the kind of "deep" shit I'd write in school as my teacher was a sucker for that stuff when spouted by a 15-year old, and a pointless epilogue. And some drama. And waaaaaay too much sexytimez compared to plot.

Subtlety and reading between the lines. It is a thing. This book did not have it. Whatsoever.

Huh. That was a little... bland?

At the end of the book Ben is still as blank a canvas to me as he always was through the preceding books: he was always just there, but he had no impact really, beyond being a very built and tall man. He is big and built in this book too.

And Lizzie didn't quite do it for me as an MC - she had none of the zest and sting in her inner (and outer) monologue as the other Stage Dive girls, which is what made those books. She was mostly pregnant, hormonal and horny. I still don't know who Lizzie is - I actually thought I got to know her better in Anne's book.

And the relationship evolvement felt... forced in a way the previous ones did not, and the whole Martha thing at the end was a strange, clunky plot device. Cue next book?

Overall I felt a quite underwhelmed, which is a bit sad because I was hoping we'd finally get to SEE Ben, y'know?

Everybody loves this book. I have absolutely no idea why. It annoyed me so much I feared for the health of my poor e-reader, as it was close to being hurled across the room several times.

This was at least twice as long as it needed to be, it was freaking obvious who all the grown-ups in Taylor's life were and the damn moronic school war shit going on for almost half the book almost killed me. I hated its pointless plot-existence with a vengeance.

What bugs me the most is that the school war crap just petered out halfway through the book, with everybody basically forgetting about it when the leaders & their posses of the respective schools become BFFs. I slogged through a lot of boring that in the end was only a tool to get the MC to meet some other people. They could have met at a yearly school get-together of some sort and the end result would have been the same. With added bonus of cutting the book in half!

It almost reads as two separate ideas for a book that were then woven together. Technically I guess it didn't suck, but jeesh was it boring me to tears for long stretches. So not my cup of tea.

Aaargh, I don't know how to rate this one. I'm feeling kinda... neutral? It did not make me very pissed off indignant like the predecessor. I liked the characterisations and how Gabriel did his level best to mute his alpha-tendencies because Charlie is so messed up. I liked how her issues did not just magically disappear overnight, and how they worked on them together. The slow build was good. There was very little nothing that threatened the life of my ereader, and a lot I liked, but STILL I feel neutral. I'm annoyed confused. Maybe I will be able to pinpoint what exactly it was missing for me once I've thought about it some.

Giving it 3 cause that is kinda neutral too :-/

This book. It gave me such a book hangover I walked around in a daze for days afterwards. Garrett Leigh has this knack for sucking me in with her tales of flawed, broken, struggling and wonderful characters, and Misfits is no exception.

I don't think I've read a book of hers that I didn't like. Even if I did object to some of the plot detail in Slide, I still loved the characters IN the book and their push & pull relationship that was beautiful and painful and poignant to read. The follow-up too. And Heart was amazing, though so very dark.

Basically Garrett Leigh has been big win for me so far. Enter Misfits, a M/M/M romance. I'm a bit leery of those as the few I tried and put down were just too... porny. I should have trusted Garrett and just bought it blind. Based on my previous M/M/M encounters, I had actually made up my mind to not read it. Stupid me! As the first three chapters are available online on the publisher's pages, I figured I could at least read that - free is free, right? I got to the end of the preview and was pretty much a big ball of "MOAR NOW! Garrett Leigh, please to take all my monies in exchange for book!". Hit buy button with relish.

Misfits sucked me in so bad - Jake, Tom & Cass just crept under my skin and stayed there. They were the bestest. It is mostly character-driven - about life and working your ass off, relationship dynamics, remembering what is important in your life, friendship, tenderness, love, loss, growth, acceptance and working your way out of past shadows. And it has Tom, Cass & Jake. Did I mention that I loved them? I was character-crushing like crazy.

It is also (for Jake) about coming to terms with loving two men - Cass & Tom are already so unconventional in their take on a relationship that they take Jake's inclusion into their lives pretty much in stride. I'm not going to try to explain how the relationship between Cass & Tom works and develops through the book, or how Jake over many months slides into it - that is after all what much of this book is about, and Garrett Leigh explains it much better than I ever could. Suffice it to say she took all my preconceived notions on M/M/M and booted them out the door. Hard.

I've read it twice. Loved it both times. Go read it.

Ths is a book about a selfish, clueless twat called Ridge that goes off to basketball summer camp, avoids all contact with his family and girlfriend (he should have broken up a long time ago, but is feeling too apathetic and woebegone over his dad's death to actually do so, and she sticks around to not be the ass who dumped the pitiful one). He then fools around with a local kid all summer (CHEATING ASSHOLE, breaking up via txt is better than that), and though he actually comes to love the other kid, he mostly refuses to acknowledge that he is suffering from a case of GFY. It is also indirectly a story about a kid called Micha who goes through a lot of unnecessary grief because he latches on to a twat called Ridge.

At the very very end of the book, Ridge does become less of an ass, but it is a frustrating journey. I don't think I would have minded that so much had the technical execution of the book not been so annoying. My biggest gripe with this book is all the stuff that happens off page, which you as the reader is later supposed to somehow know. There is a lot of interaction and chemistry building that is skipped, and you're only presented with the end result and told to accept it. I guess that was convenient for the author as she didn't need to do a lot of showing and not telling, but it sucked for me.

On page 131 of 191 I wrote this - which quite accurately sums up my take on the entire book:

The time-line in this book is a somewhat erratic, which I could live with if it then did not mention conversations or situations that the reader is seemingly supposed to know about. It yanks me right out of the flow, and makes it really hard to follow Ridge on his summer journey. This book could have been good, but so far it falls short. It's like somebody randomly cut shit out, and the progression of Ridge & Micha's relationship could have been a portrayed a lot smoother.

I have repeatedly been told that Micha is the only one who understands Ridge, but I do not for a second believe it. Terrence (when he randomly appears) has a handle on the inner turmoil of his friend just fine, and seems to be a totally awesome and mature 16-17 year old boy. Why is there not more Terrence in this book?

I'm also having issues with the blurb, and it makes me wonder what book the person who wrote it read - unless things will change drastically from here [it didn't]. The horses have nothing to do with Micah's tribe - they are related to things Micha want's to show Ridge that has significance to his life, not his tribe's, though I feel the whole each-horse-has-a-story plotline could have been explored more. Missed opportunity here, author!

In addition I have not seen anything that can justify the book blurb's description of Micah as this hetro-boy devourer, and I'm feeling kinda offended on behalf of this boppy, excitable, fast-talking, sweet and cheerful zombie-loving kid. There has been mention of one ex-boyfriend. ONE. That does not strike me as extreme.

Grown-ups are weirdly absent, even though it is explained to a certain extent. All of this is extremely annoying, because I do see that it could have been pretty good.

At least it was a kindle freebee when I got it :-)

My biggest gripe with this book is all the stuff that happens off page. This conversation between Micha and Ridge apparently had over how Micha has no friends and his cousin avoids him at school? This is stuff that I, the reader, would have liked to know before Ridge has a "oh, yeah, that might have been a clue" epiphany on freaking page 173 of 196, when Zoey prectically shoves it down his throat. There is A LOT of interaction and chemistry building that is conveniently skipped, and I'm only presented with the end result and told to accept it.

I am waiting for you to pull your head out of your ass, Ridge. It is overdue by at least half a book. YOU ARE SO DENSE! Moron.

I'm going to finish this book, but wow, it's annoying me big time - hence all the posts. Never time to post when the book is awesome! I honestly think it could have been a good book if it was just worked on some more.

Seriously, Ridge?!? Of all the things to be all inner drama queen about - followed by a massive bout of drinking, you want to freak out that Micha's ex was a case of GFY? Really? That bothers you? Why? WHY?! What the fuck difference does it make that his ex - and you know, the essential thing here is EX - is/was/whocares straight?

Get a grip, dude. You guys do have problems, and they are mostly due to your fine self, but the fact that Micha's ex was a case of GFY too is NOT one of those problems. Sheesh.

Besides you keep on pointing out that while you're sorta doing a GFY here, you are NOT Micha's boyfriend. This is me slapping you. Also, call your so-called girlfriend and break up with her already.

Sigh. The time-line in this book is a somewhat erratic, which I could live with if it then did not mention conversations or situations that the reader is seemingly supposed to know about. It yanks me right out of the flow, and makes it really hard to follow Ridge on his summer journey. This book could have been good, but so far it falls short. It's like somebody randomly cut shit out, and the progression of Ridge & Micha's relationship could have been a portrayed a lot smoother.

I have repeatedly been told that Micha is the only one who understands Ridge, but I do not for a second believe it. Terrence (when he randomly appears) has a handle on the inner turmoil of his friend just fine, and seems to be a totally awesome and mature 16-17 year old boy. Why is there not more Terrence in this book?

I'm also having issues with the blurb, and it makes me wonder what book the person who wrote it read - unless things will change drastically from here. The horses have nothing to do with Micah's tribe - they are related to things Micha want's to show Ridge that has significance to his life, not his tribe's, though I feel the whole each-horse-has-a-story plotline could have been explored more so far. Missed opportunity here, author!

In addition I have not seen anything that can justify the book blurb's description of Micah as this hetro-boy devourer, and I'm feeling kinda offended on behalf of this boppy, excitable, fast-talking, sweet and cheerful zombie-loving kid. There has been mention of one ex-boyfriend. ONE. That does not strike me as extreme.

Grown-ups are weirdly absent, even though it is explained to a certain extent. All of this is extremely annoying, because I do see that it could have been pretty good.

At least it was a kindle freebee when I got it :-)

Also: cringing mentally as shit is obviously about to go down. Please to be making it not so horribly painful.

This book is a bit weird. It feels like there are sections or scenes missing.

You know, so far this book is mostly about Anna & Charles's relationship and Arabian horses. Sure, there is a fae doing some nasty things in the background, but it isn't really the focus.

So plot-wise not much has happened, but I honestly don't care. If I didn't love these characters so much, and if I didn't happen to be a former horse-nut, I might not have liked this, but I do and I am so this is such a cozy read.

*Happy sigh*. Too bad it is almost over.

Also I am not bogged down with long pointless descriptions. That's so much win right there.

Release day! \o/ 

New and shiny! I am such a fickle reader with zero attention span. Moth with all it's ongoing descriptions and naive villagers having their world ripped apart by assholes will just have to wait a liiiiittle bit while I indulge in some Anna & Charles.

Wow, guess who's lost her fantasy reading mojo? I no longer have patience for long descriptions. It's a wondrous beautiful city of glass, more people than she ever thought existed, the country bumpkin is amazed, but also has a great hankering for mushrooms. I GET IT. Move along. I do not need 10 pages of this.

Time to skim passages. I do not care if I then miss out on potentially beautiful prose. It can go be lyrical somewhere else where it is not interfering with story progress.

Book, do I need to show you the DNF card??

50 of the 500 villagers are marching in righteous fear-fuelled anger to take their revenge on "the dark side". That's a whopping 10% TSTL factor for this community. Ten percent! Idiots.

Also, I am totally playing this out as the angry mob of villagers marching on the castle from Disney's take on Beauty and the Beast, rigged out with pitchforks and other implements of warfare. Hold high your torches and follow that Gaston fellow! Errr... I mean the rat-faced monk in the yellow garb!

I've had it on my TBR for a while, it's currently a freebee on amazon - I can take a hint :-)