Tag: Book Review

Posted in YA Book Reviews

Throne of Glass

Posted on by Little Bee

Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Goodreads Rating: 3 stars

There is a lot of hype surrounding Sarah J. Maas’ series, Throne of Glass, and I was oddly disappointed. I enjoyed the book, but I kept finding myself waiting for that OMG moment that seems to have so many readers sucked into the story line, but it never came.

I did like Celaena’s overall personality and disposition. I also liked seeing the growth from the time she was removed from the death camp, until the end of the story. I like that she grew to CARE and recognize she had a makeshift family, even if it meant the horror it did.

The reason this story is only 3 stars for me is 1) I have read more intriguing stories in this realm of YA and even Fantasy; 2) There are very specific scenes in the book that built and built and then just faltered and did not live up to what should have been. I am sorry, but an intense fight scene in which souls from the In-Between should have lasted more than 2ish pages and should have had more details, before and after. I felt that way about that entire scene as a whole. I know some of the unanswered questions will be answered later, and I will eventually get to those books, but a lot of incidents/feelings/interactions were rushed and more information/feelings could have been put into the situation for the reader to get more from it.

I wish I felt the way everyone else did, but this is one hype that I felt was overhyped.

Posted in Middle Grade, Uncategorized

The Hidden Oracle

Posted on by Little Bee

The Hidden Oracle

The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan

Goodreads Rating: 3 stars

Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars

I am normally a HUGE supporter of anything Rick Riordan. This book rubbed me the wrong way on so many levels that I am having a hard time comprehending what I actually read.

I didn’t like how modernized the book was. Not that his other books weren’t modern, I just felt weird with multiple Social Media sites, bands, etc were constantly referenced. I understand that Apollo is a bit self centered (okay more than a bit). I just thought it was too much. To the point of annoying. Feeling this way makes me so sad. I can usually overlook such actions, because it is the character, and I try to have that mindset.

I will continue with the story, but for once, I am saddened that I just was not head over heals for this book 😦

I do think that the age range it is meant for will enjoy it. I believe it has a lot of promise, and by the end of the book, I noticed a change in Apollo’s behaviors and thought processes. My only hope is this continues and that self centered, crap, attitude he has falters and he becomes someone you want to be around. I won’t give away the ending, but I was VERY happy to see it. Much like the new Magnus Chase series, I was happy to see old favorites and meet new loves!

Posted in Spicy Romance, Uncategorized

Secrets of Submission- Blog Tour

Posted on by Little Bee

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Goodreads Rating: 4 stars

This story is about Penny, who never seems to find happiness in her relationships. Each one is the same, unfulfilling, boring, vanilla, relationship. Penny finds herself just going through the motions in relationships and in life. One day, Penny decides to go to a vanialla, BDSM picnic. There she met Marcus.

*Side Point* This is my vision of Marcus:

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Marcus, like most Doms, can easily spot Penny out for what she is. Over the next week or so, Marcus and Penny begin a D/s relationship. Penny falls in love with Marcus, which, sometimes happens in a D/s relationship.

I won’t go more into the story, because it will provide way too many spoilers. I will, however, talk about how I feel about this story.

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One, I feel like MORE in depth sex scenes would have been nice. I feel that it is a little too Light BDSM for me. I know it was an “intro” for Penny, and Marcus, as a good Dom, really was trying to introduce Penny slowly. But, sometimes, you just kind of have to jump in and go for it 🙂 Second, the “climax” of the story, I wish there was a smidgen more. There are certain scenes that just kind of happen, and we never really know. Again, I can’t go into it without giving spoilers.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a fast and easy read. There were some grammatical errors, but the story was still enjoyable. I think it is a great intro story for D/s relationships. It also touches on briefly determining the difference between abuse and appropriate in D/s relationships.

My only wish was that there were more D/s non-vanilla encounters. I felt that it was a little PG13 for what it could have been. I feel it is okay to really dig into some of the toys and aspects of BDSM beyond some spanking and tying up to the bed. I also thought the menage encounter was good, but again, wished it had a little more BDSM. It is a light BDSM story.

Overall, I really did enjoy it. I could picture Marcus as this rustic, gorgeous, older man. I like that this story had an older man, and was not really NA Erotica. The same for Penny. I do like that she was older and that she had her life together (ish).

 

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LK Shaw lives in South Carolina with her highly spoiled and extremely needy beagle-mix pup. She began reading at an early age and devoured as many books as she could. Her favorite authors as a young teen were Christopher Pike and RL Stine. During the summer between her junior and senior years of high school, she ran out of books and asked her mom to loan her one of her “stupid romances”, and then she regretted ever calling them stupid. Because from that first book, she was hooked and hasn’t stopped reading them since. At one time, she owned over 1000 romance novels. Some of her favorite historical romance authors include Christi Caldwell, Courtney Milan, Mary Balogh, and Tessa Dare. Some of her favorite contemporary romance authors include Julia Sykes, Ella Dominguez, Skye Callahan, and Meghan March.

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LK loves to interact with readers so be sure to contact her on any of her social media links below.

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Posted in Book Reviews

The Iron King

Posted on by Little Bee

the iron king

Goodreads Rating: 3 Stars

Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars

Narrator Rating: 4 stars

My Goodreads group selected The Iron King for our April read. A little side note on the Iron King- George RR Martin has stated this series inspired his Game of Thrones.

The Iron King is based on Philip the Fair, King of France. It is medieval historical fiction. I love Medieval history, so it was very exciting. My issues with the story: there are soooooo many characters that I had a hard time keeping who was in (in my defense someone who read the literal book had the same problem), there was too much constantly going on, and there wasn’t enough treachery/double cross/excitement for me. The story was TOO factual. Never thought I would say that. I was hoping that the author would take the history lesson and give it a fun spin to it, since it is supposed to be fiction. And though he did give it life, it wasn’t a very good life. Not to me anyways. I found myself constantly checking how much time I had left.

I thought the narrator was good. Some of his voices for characters cracked me up. I have not had experience with the narrator Peter Joyce. I may give him another shot if he narrates books outside of this series.

All in all, this has just been an okay read for me. Part 2 was the best section of the whole book. The rest was just slow.

Posted in Book Reviews

Joyland

Posted on by Little Bee

joyland

Joyland by Stephen King, Narrated by Michael Kelly

Goodreads Rating: 4 stars

Actual Rating: 4.5 Stars

Narrator Rating: 5 Stars

 

I picked up this story on Audible to listen on a work trip. My unconventional book club’s theme is to pick a book off a list/flow chart provided, and I decided, since I have never ever read a Stephen King story, I would like to get a good start somewhere.

First, this story is classified on two different genre subtypes on Goodreads, Suspense/Thriller and Coming of Age. On the flow chart provided, it was indicated as a Suspense. This is really where I want to start my review:

My expectations for Joyland were more along the line of It, and Pet Semetary. To me, that is what suspense/thriller means. However, that is not what this story was. This story is about a young college student, Devin Jones, getting a summer job at Joyland theme park in North Carolina. Devin discovers that a few years prior, there was a murder on one of the rides and no one was ever caught. He was also informed that at some point in time, he would come across two children: a girl and a boy, and of these two children one would have the “sight.” Devin Jones has his heart broken by his first love and this adventure shows him how to move on and provides life experiences that any college kid would be lucky to have. The only real suspense in the story is about a chapter, when he discovers who the Carnival Killer was. I kind of pegged this person, but really was leaning on a different character. I will let you decide who is who.

This book was wonderfully narrated. It took me a couple of hours to really get into the book as a whole, but once it got going, it was really brilliant. The story really  hits on all the feels you want in a book. My wish was that, for a classification of suspense, that there was more suspense in the book, beyond the short info at the tail end of the story.

I will read Stephen King again. I really like the versatility of King’s writings. I really enjoy discussing this book with my fellow book clubbers!

Posted in Spicy Romance

Three Kings For Sarah

Posted on by Little Bee

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Three Kings for Sarah by Noa Xireau

Goodreads Rating: 4 stars

I received this book in exchange for my honest review:

I really enjoyed this book. I want to point out, it is MMMF/menage/ erotica. If you cannot handle sexy scenes, then this book is not for you. BUT! If you do like some pretty sweet sexy times in an alternate reality full of vampires, native american dream walkers, werewolves, and magicians, well my friend…this book is for you!

I know what you are asking yourself, “If you liked the book, then why only a 4 star rating?” For majority of the story, I was super sucked into it. HOWEVER, there were a few things that made it somewhat difficult to me while I read. First, there were times I did not know who was speaking. I had to re-read some dialogues a few times and try to figure out who was speaking. Sometimes, someone who was not a part of the dialogue, suddenly appeared in the there. Second,there seemed to be some sentence structures that did not make sense. I believe this is because maybe translation from Spanish to English might have been the cause of this. It didn’t occur often, but when it did, I had to read a few times to get it sorted.  Finally, I felt the climax of the story could have had more to it. It just kind of ended. I would have loved to know why the Wizards were trying to siphon out Sarah’s life force anyways.

Overall, the story was interesting, entertaining, and sexy as hell! And personally, that is the most important. No one is perfect and the story was entertaining as a whole. The summary of the book provided on Goodreads is pretty spot on so I won’t go into it any further. If you are a fan of erotica, or would like to try some new erotica, this book is definitely recommended.

Posted in YA Book Reviews

The Wicked Will Rise

Posted on by Little Bee

The Wicked Will Rise

The Wicked Will Rise by Danielle Paige

Goodreads Rating: 3 Stars

First, let me explain, that I think 3 stars is being pretty generous. I have had a lot of hope for this series, I really have. My issue with this story, is similar to my issues with Dorothy Must Die, in that a LOT of information was given, and none of it was necessary. In fact, this book was 293 pages of What the hell?, and felt pointless.

This review is going to be super short. Like, so short it is less than 200 words short. I want to not give any spoilers, even though there aren’t really any spoilers to give. However, of all the ways I could have predicted this book ending, how it ended, was not even on the radar. I am really not sure where this story is going. It is not that I want a predictable story, but these stories goes from point A to point Z and not hit any points in between. I cannot remember the last time I felt this confused and this frustrated from reading a book or series. I feel it held a lot of promise, but somewhere it is just not connecting.

Posted in YA Book Reviews

The Ask and The Answer

Posted on by Little Bee

The Ask and The Answer

The Ask and The Answer by Patrick Ness

Narrated by Nick Podehl and Angela Dawe

Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars

Narrated Rating: 4 Stars

 

The Ask and The Answer is the second book in the Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness. If you read my review of The Knife of Never Letting Go, I was left devastated and not wanting to continue on. The Ask and The Answer did not crush my soul so it was pleasant and I will not wait a year and half before reading the finale, Monsters of Men.

The Answer is a terrorist group (let’s face it that is what they are) that was originated by women during earlier wars. When Mayor Prentis took over Haven, and became a tyrant of a President, The Answer reformed and began bombing buildings, grain houses, wells, etc in order to restrict the town and the people within. Mayor Prentis (Now President Prentis) created a response to The Answer called The Ask. Part of The Ask was a process called The Asking, in which men would torture a captive in order to get answers about The Answer.

I won’t give away any endings, or anything significant. I did like this one. There was a LOT of manipulation and attempting to turn Todd and Viola against each other. I like that there was a lot of growth for Todd and Viola.

As expected, Nick Podehl is amazing. Angela Dawes as Viola had a whiney voice. It made it sound like Viola whined the ENTIRE story.

 

 

Posted in Romance

Mermen

Posted on by Little Bee

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Mermen by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

Goodreads Rating: 4 stars

Mermen, a paranormal romance, is about two individuals (unknown to each other) who get lost at sea in various accidents and show up on an island that NO ONE knows about. The island is alive, has magical healing powers, and the men that live on the island are descendants of the first beings that came out of the ocean and turned into humans. Liv, the leading lady, is found drifting just off the island by one of the resident mermen. Liv is saved by Roen, who was stranded on the island from a helicopter crash, who happened upon the strong man dunking Liv’s face in the ocean water. The two become inseparable and Roen starts wanting to stake his own claim on her.

The rest of the story is basically Roen trying to find a way to get Liv off the Island and save her life. The story ends on a cliffhanger…one bad enough that I had to get book 2…I will probably start it soon.

The romance is there, but it is more like a day dream or thought, and not an actuality. There was only 1 scene where there was some kind of contact. I do like Roen, and I really hope Roen and Liv make it through the end. (This is not a spoiler FYI).

This book is a quick, short, read and flowed pretty smoothly, even if some parts were repeated over and over again.  It was pretty good, my first book from this author. I bought one of her books in 2014 when I first got to Texas, and now I am intrigued at reading it and other works of hers.

Posted in YA Book Reviews

All The Bright Places

Posted on by Little Bee

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All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Goodreads Rating: 5 stars

I didn’t know if I was going to write a review for this book when I finished. Sometimes we come across books that are just fantastical. They are so wonderfully written, I do not even know where to start. All The Bright Places falls in this category. I am not even sure where to begin my thoughts or how to even reel them in. So let me try…

This story broke my heart and crushed my soul. I laughed, I cried, I cried some more. I knew guys like Finch in high school. They would have been the type of guy I went for, or was curious about. You know the type? The ones that live right there at the edge of life. I knew girls like Violet.  In fact, there were times I felt like Violet myself.

I love the relationship that blooms between Violet and Finch. I love how Finch saves Violet and wants her to Live her life. Without regrets. I love that Finch teaches Violet to see the world differently, to wander, to not take movement for granted. Meanwhile, Finch is suffering .We know what is going to happen, but deep down inside, we hope it doesn’t. Maybe the author will take mercy on Finch.

I do like that All The Bright Places highlights mental illness and the fact that many families and those affected will hide it, or pretend it does not exist. Finch never received help. What is worse, Finch’s family and friends never stepped in to help. Even Finch’s counselor only half helped. Violet wasn’t even aware. That is what breaks my heart even more. No one did anything, and the one person who would, was too late. Finch didn’t want saved.

How many people do you know that is affected by mental illness or often flirts with suicide or high risk behaviors that are deadly, and you just ignore them? Will you continue to ignore them or will you reach out and make sure they are okay?

On a final note, I am still heart broken by this story. I finished days ago, and am just finally composed enough to write a review. Have tissue ready. Even when you are mentally prepared, it is not enough! This story is one that sticks with you even after the book is closed.