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Showing posts with label 2 stars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2 stars. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

#Audiobook #Review: 2 out of 5 stars for The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden @PRHAudio

SERIES: Winternight Trilogy, Book #1
AUTHOR: Katherine Arden 
NARRATOR: Kathleen Gati 
PUBLISHER: Random House Audio
PUBLICATION DATE: January 10, 2017
FORMAT: Unabridged audiobook
LENGTH: 11 hrs and 48 mins
GENRE: Fantasy, Historical Fiction
ISBN: 9780399567179
At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

MY REVIEW:

I was so excited to read this debut when it came out but, unfortunately, it was a disappointment.

 Vasilisa never knew her mother. She died giving birth to her. She was raised by her nursemaid, Dunya, who told Vasilisa and her siblings about the Frost Demon who came for bad kids during the night and froze them to death. 

 Vasilisa's father remarries and the wicked stepmother shuns the Russian folklore and traditions. Predictably as it often is with stepmothers, she does not like Vasilisa. Bad things start to happen in the village and then it's up to Vasilisa to save the day and make things right with the Frost Demon.

 While I loved the appealing Russian setting and learning more about the Russian Frost Demon, it felt like the story took so long to go anywhere. The pace was terribly slow, and I found it very difficult to become engaged with the story. I do not plan to continue with the series.

I did enjoy the narration by Kathleen Gati, and she kept me listening. If I was reading this one as opposed to listening, I may have not finished it. Gati gave the narration an authentic feel with her Russian accent. Here is a sample of the narration:



MY RATING:

2 stars!! Meh, it was just "okay."

This book qualifies as:
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Friday, December 7, 2018

#Audiobook #Review: 2 out of 5 stars for The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen @HarperAudio ‏

SERIES: The Queen of the Tearling, Book #1
AUTHOR: Erika Johansen 
NARRATOR: Katherine Kellgren 
PUBLISHER: HarperAudio
PUBLICATION DATE: July 8, 2014
FORMAT: Unabridged audiobook
LENGTH: 14 hrs and 30 mins
GENRE: Fantasy, Science Fiction/Dystopia
ISBN: 9780062332288
Her throne awaits . . . if she can live long enough to take it.

It was on her nineteenth birthday that the soldiers came for Kelsea Glynn. They’d come to escort her back to the place of her birth – and to ensure she survives long enough to be able to take possession of what is rightfully hers.

But like many nineteen-year-olds, Kelsea is unruly, has high principles and believes she knows better than her elders. Unlike many nineteen-year-olds, she is about to inherit a kingdom that is on its knees – corrupt, debauched and dangerous.

Kelsea will either become the most fearsome ruler the kingdom has ever known . . . or be dead within the week.

Combining thrilling adventure and action, dark magic, mystery and romance, The Queen of the Tearling is the debut of a born storyteller blessed with a startling imagination.

MY REVIEW:

I enjoyed the beginning of this book, but then my interest in it started to wane.

 Kelsea, future Queen of the Tearling, has been tucked away hidden from society for her entire life. It has been for her own safety as future Queen. After she reaches her 19th birthday, the Queen's Guard comes for the girl to take her to the castle and throne that await her.

 I enjoyed the mystical elements, such as how Kelsea's necklace reacted at times. However my main pet peeve is how this book is wrongly categorized as Young Adult. It is not YA. It is wrongly shelved as YA on Goodreads, and it is also under YA reads on Audible. I went into this read thinking it was YA, but the language is just too vulgar for it to be YA in my opinion. I'm okay with f*ck and c*nt in an adult book and, depending on the genre, that language might be appropriate! It most certainly is not appropriate, in my opinion, for YA. So my conclusion is that this book was inappropriately marketed to the wrong audience. Later in the book, there is talk of a woman tweaking her own nipples. Okay, definitely not appropriate for YA! I hate to think that there are parents out there who are buying this for their tweens or teens thinking that this is an appropriate read. As a mom, I most certainly wouldn't want my teen daughter reading this.

 My other issue with the book was the slow pace of the story. It just felt like it took forever for anything to happen. I keep waiting for some excitement, but that never happened. At 14+ hours on audio, my mind wandered. This definitely could have used some paring down.

 There is a film adaptation in development starring Emma Watson. Even though I do not plan to continue reading this series, I probably would watch the movie because I enjoy Watson.

 I've heard nothing but praise for narrator Katherine Kellgren, and this is my first narration by her so I was looking forward to hearing her at last. I enjoyed her versatility but, at times, she was just too over the top. It was almost as though she felt like she needed to shout to add some excitement, and I was constantly fiddling with the volume. Here is a sample of the narration:


MY RATING:
2 stars!! Meh, it was just "okay."

This book qualifies as:
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Thursday, October 11, 2018

#Book #Review: 2 out of 5 stars for Wherever I Find Myself edited by Miriam Matejova

PUBLISHER: Caitlin Press
PUBLICATION DATE: February 7, 2017
FORMAT: Paperback
LENGTH: 167 pages
GENRE: Nonfiction
ISBN: 9781987915341
Edited by Miriam Matejova, Wherever I Find Myself is a diverse collection of stories about the joys and struggles of immigrant women living in Canada. Often bringing with them the shadow of war and the guilt of leaving, the women in this new anthology expose their emotional pain but also their gratitude for being able to call Canada home. Their stories paint touching and charming portraits of cultural and linguistic misunderstandings, bureaucratic hurdles, attempts to navigate unfamiliar landscapes, and a desire to be accepted despite differences in accent, skin colour, or taste in food. Together they form a mosaic of emotions and world-views that underline the immigrant condition for women.

A yellow dress with ruffles, a kind Grade 1 teacher with a surname that’s difficult to spell, cockroaches in the bathroom, the contempt of strangers, and Whitney Houston on the radio–a Filipino woman recalls her experience as a six-year-old immigrant in a ghetto in Mississauga in the 80s. Browsing through a Polish fashion magazine at a European deli, a woman sees herself in an alternative universe of what her life might have been had she never immigrated to Canada. A same-sex couple moves from Minnesota to Ontario to find refuge for their love, but first they must drive a seventeen-foot truck through a blizzard and make it through the frustrating net of Canadian bureaucracy. In search of her origins, a Jewish woman travels to her birthplace in Passau, Germany. There, among rows of European picturesque houses and foreign tombstones of a Jewish cemetery, she finds no memories, only the shadow of Hitler and the ghosts of her parents.

Through these stories of courage, aloneness, and hope, new and established writers reach out to both immigrants and those whose families long ago ceased to identify with the immigrant label. Through their struggles and, at times, endearingly critical looks at Canada, they remind us that many of our perceived divisions are nothing but artificial creations of mind and that all of us are past, current, or potential immigrants.

MY REVIEW:

I am a first generation Canadian. My parents both immigrated to Canada with their families, although they all arrived at different times. I know from my family's personal experiences the hardships that they endured and how they came here with nothing but the clothes on their backs and had to start over from scratch. They had to learn learn the English language and become educated, and then to find a job. It was extremely difficult for them, but they were grateful for the opportunity that Canada afforded them and they strove for success so that their children would have more than they had growing up. So, immigrant stories are dear to me. If my parents never immigrated, I would not have been born in Canada and my life would most certainly be very different. So, when I saw this book on my library's bookshelf, I was immediately drawn to it. 

I really wanted to love this book but, for the most part, I found the stories very depressing. The overall tone of most of the immigrant stories in this anthology was that the writers felt like they didn't belong anywhere...that they felt like they didn't fit in here in Canada and that they missed their homes that they left. I can understand that, and I can only assume that these stories were written very soon after their arrival in Canada. Hopefully, they were able to make better lives for themselves and have learned to appreciate all that Canada offers!

MY RATING:

2 stars!! Meh, it was just "okay."

This book qualifies as:

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Wednesday, August 1, 2018

#Audiobook #Review: 2 out of 5 stars for Promise Me by Richard Paul Evans @SimonAudio

TITLE: Promise Me
NARRATOR: Michele Pawk
PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster Audio
PUBLICATION DATE: October 5, 2010
FORMAT: Unabridged audiobook
LENGTH: 6 hrs and 11 mins
GENRE: Holiday/Christmas, Contemporary Fiction
ISBN: 9781442335332
A new novel from the bestselling author of The Christmas List, Grace, and The Christmas Box.

The New York Times has called Richard Paul Evans “the king of Christmas fiction.” The bestselling author of The Christmas Box (29 weeks on the New York Times list; 5 at #1; more than 1 million copies netted), Grace (10 weeks on the list), The Gift (13 weeks), Finding Noel (11 weeks), and The Christmas List (10 weeks), Evans is best known for his charming Christmas stories.

Now he returns with a story of hope, love, and faith, in a heartwarming and powerfully written new novel.

MY REVIEW:

For me, Evans is synonymous with holiday inspirational books. I love to read something from him during the holiday season. I chose this audiobook to listen to for Christmas in July.

 I listened to and loved Evans' The Christmas List (my favourite, 5 stars), A Winter Dream (5 stars), and Finding Noel (4 stars). This one was a bit different from the rest, and it was my least favourite of Evans' books so far because it was just a bit disturbing. More on that later. In addition, the book starts off on such a downer. Beth Cardall finds out that her husband (Mark) has been having a long-term affair with a co-worker. He insists she didn't mean anything. Why do men think that's supposed to make a woman feel better?? A man throws away his family for something that didn't mean anything to him?? Needless to say, the marriage is over for Beth even though the cad doesn't want it to end. Then Mark finds out that he has terminal cancer (a bit of divine justice, I'd say!) and that he doesn't have much time to live. Beth offers to take him back and look after him so that the little time that he has left can be spent with his family. The woman is a saint! Approximately two months after Mark dies, Beth meets a man named Matthew who just won't let Beth say no to a date. He actually insists that he just wants to be friends, and Beth soon finds that she's falling in love with him. This is where the twist comes in and where this book lost favour with me. 



This book is so not in keeping with Evans' usual inspirational stories. If you have read anything by Evans before, I urge you to try something else that is more representative of his writing like The Christmas List. This didn't feel like his writing at all. It crossed the lines on too many ethical and moral levels. I'm still a fan of Evans, but I just didn't care for this book.
I enjoyed Michele Pawk's narration. She was pleasant to listen to and her pace was good. Here is a sample of the narration:


MY RATING:

2 stars!! Meh, it was just "okay." There are better books by this author. 

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Thursday, July 26, 2018

#Audiobook #Review: 2 out of 5 stars for The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay @HarperAudio

AUTHOR: Paul Tremblay
NARRATOR: Amy Landon
PUBLISHER: HarperAudio
PUBLICATION DATE: June 26, 2018
FORMAT: Unabridged audiobook
LENGTH: 9 hrs and 25 mins
GENRE: Horror
ISBN: 9780062849588
The Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A Head Full of Ghosts adds an inventive twist to the home invasion horror story in a heart-palpitating novel of psychological suspense that recalls Stephen King’s Misery, Ruth Ware’s In a Dark, Dark Wood, and Jack Ketchum’s cult hit The Girl Next Door.

Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. Their closest neighbors are more than two miles in either direction along a rutted dirt road.

One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, "None of what’s going to happen is your fault". Three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: "Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world."

Thus begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are entwined. The Cabin at the End of the World is a masterpiece of terror and suspense from the fantastically fertile imagination of Paul Tremblay.

MY REVIEW:

When I read the synopsis for this book, it grabbed my attention right away. I've been pumped about this book since the Spring, and I even featured it on one of my "Can't-Wait Wednesday" posts. Stephen King also tweeted that it was terrifying! Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations.

 Wen and her two dads are on holiday in Northern New Hampshire at a remote cabin. She is outside in the front yard playing alone, when she hears someone coming down the road. He introduces himself as Leonard and says that he wants to be her friend. He seems friendly enough, but Wen is wary. After Leonard's three friends arrive, they confront Wen's parents and tell them that they will have to make a sacrifice to save the world. If they fail, a series of cataclysmic events will be set in motion.

 Okay, so let's talk about what worked: I love the isolated and remote setting. There's nothing creepier than being stranded in the middle of nowhere with no way to contact anyone else if something were to happen. I also love the doomsday prophecy. 

 What didn't work was that this book seemed to go nowhere for so long! I think half the book was talking about what was going to happen, and I kept thinking, "Okay, this is where it's going to get good!" but that never happened. For a book that was described as "heart-palpitating," I expected something more gripping but instead it was kind of boring.

If you look up the reviews on Audible, the narrator (Amy Landon) is criticized pretty harshly. In my opinion, she wasn't that bad. Maybe the narration was a bit lackluster and dull because the writing was? I do think that probably is the case. Here is a sample of the narration:



MY RATING:
2 stars!! Meh, it was just "okay."

This book qualifies as:
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Wednesday, July 18, 2018

#Book #Review: 2 out of 5 stars for Lamb by Christopher Moore @HarperPerennial

TITLE: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
PUBLISHER: Harper Perennial
PUBLICATION DATE: May 25, 2004 (first published 2002)
FORMAT: Paperback
LENGTH: 444 pages
GENRE: Humor
ISBN: 9780380813810
The birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his thirtieth birthday. But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God, the missing years—except Biff, the Messiah's best bud, who has been resurrected to tell the story in the divinely hilarious yet heartfelt work "reminiscent of Vonnegut and Douglas Adams" (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Verily, the story Biff has to tell is a miraculous one, filled with remarkable journeys, magic, healings, kung fu, corpse reanimations, demons, and hot babes. Even the considerable wiles and devotion of the Savior's pal may not be enough to divert Joshua from his tragic destiny. But there's no one who loves Josh more—except maybe "Maggie," Mary of Magdala—and Biff isn't about to let his extraordinary pal suffer and ascend without a fight.

MY REVIEW:

Let me start off by saying that I love Christopher Moore! His zany humor makes me laugh, and his books are so unique that I keep reading them. I don't know why, but this one just didn't work for me.

 Raziel, an angel, is ordered to return to Earth to get a new story for the Bible. Little is known about Jesus' life from the time he was a child until he became the Messiah, so God wants the new Gospel to be written by Levi (otherwise known as Biff) who was Jesus' (referred to as Joshua in the book) childhood friend. Raziel resurrects Biff from the dead, and he takes him to a modern-day hotel where he can write his story. He is also given the Gift of Tongues so that he can understand all languages and knows the words for everything.

 Biff's story is quite a creative one! I have to hand props to Moore for that. One example is how Biff claimed that it was he who hung Judas from the tree and that Judas never committed suicide. That part I thought was actually kind of cool and how Moore laid out the backstory to make that seem plausible. Because Joshua/Jesus knew that he was supposed to remain pure, he bought prostitutes for Biff and had him explain to him everything that was going on so that he could understand why it was sinful. Parts like that were funny and this is the type of off-beat humor that I expect from Moore. However, the majority of the book was very "meh" and I felt like I was just slogging my way through it. I just wasn't feeling it. 

 Nevertheless, I'm still a Moore fan and will continue to read his books! If you've never read Moore or any satire, I recommend A Dirty Job which is one of my favourites.

MY RATING:

2 stars!! Meh, it was just "okay."

This book qualifies as:
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Friday, June 29, 2018

#Audiobook #Review: 2 out of 5 stars for The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley @BOTLibrary

TITLE: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
SERIES: Flavia de Luce, Book #1
AUTHOR: Alan Bradley
NARRATOR: Jayne Entwistle
PUBLISHER: Books on Tape
PUBLICATION DATE: May 5, 2009 
FORMAT: Unabridged audiobook
LENGTH: 9 hrs and 53 mins
GENRE: Mystery, Historical Fiction
ISBN: 9781415964491
It is the summer of 1950–and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath.

For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”

MY REVIEW:

This historical cozy series is so popular, and I've wanted to read it for such a long time. Not only do I love cozies, but it's also by a Canadian author so for me that's a plus!! Unfortunately, this book did not live up to my expectations.

 The heroine in the story is Flavia de Luce, an 11-year-old girl who is quite curious and clever, and the setting is London in 1950. She is the youngest of three girls, and her mother passed away when she was just a year old. She's raised by her father, but there's no affection between parent and child. Flavia often is off on her own, in her laboratory (yes, she has one!) playing with chemicals.

 When a dead bird is found on their doorstep with a postage stamp speared by its beak, Flavia's father becomes very unsettled. Later that evening, Flavia overhears her father arguing with someone and one of the things she hears him say is that they killed someone. Dogger, one of the mansion's servants, tells Flavia that it's none of her business and sends her off to bed. She awakens before dawn and sees something from her window. In their garden, she finds a man lying in their garden. She watches him take his final breath and hears him utter "Vale!" before he dies.

 Before I started this series, I had no idea that Flavia was a child. I was quite surprised, but then the idea of a little girl solving mysteries appealed to me. For me, this story seemed to ramble on and on and there was so much extraneous information that was not relevant to the mystery and seemed like the info was there just to fill the pages. There were parts that were very boring to me and failed to hold my interest. This book won lots of awards, so it looks like I'm in the minority here! Given the popularity of the series, I'm willing to give it another shot and hope that I enjoy the next one more.

 Memorable quote:

"As I stood outside in Cow Lane, it occurred to me that Heaven must be a place where the library is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

No … eight days a week."

Jayne Entwistle is a new-to-me narrator, and she kept me listening. She pulls off the voice of a child which is no small feat. Had I been reading as opposed to listening, I don't think I would have gotten through this one. Here is a sample of the narration:



MY RATING:
2 stars!! I wanted to love it but, for me, it was a bit "meh." It was just okay.

This book qualifies as:
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