ARGH!

It's taking forever for me to read GOING BOVINE!  It has NOTHING to do with the writing, I'm adoring the book so much.  But Lily was on vacation last week and I was working, but this week, I'm not working, and Lily's back to school, yet the I-nets take me away from reading.  Plus I had dinner with Irisheyz77 last night.

Please tell me I need to read!  I need to get through all the books that I have.  I. MUST.GET.THROUGH.THEM!!!!

What do you prefer in an ending (spoilers abound!)

I was chatting on FB with my friend Laura (who I love to pieces!) about how some books end. Personally, I think Meyer wimped out with the end of Breaking Dawn.  I don't think she sacrificed anyone to make the ending believable and she gave us a lame ending.  However, Rowling completely did the opposite by killing of one half of the twins, Lupin and Tonks, Dumbledore, Sirius Black, Severus Snape, etc... Even Libba Bray surprised us by the offing of Kartik, who was a very popular character and some people thought should have ended up with Gemma.


I think taking chances is important in stories and if every story ended with an HEA, well that would get boring fast.  Life doesn't always have a happy ending so why should books?  Invariably, people will disagree with me, but I really think Meyer did a disservice with her series by ending it with such an anticlimax.  We all held our breaths when Harry fought Voldemort and wondered who would be sacrificed.  Even Richelle Mead caused heart palpitations, especially with me, when she turned Dimitri into Strigoi.  But you know what? It works!  It was a necessary plot device to make the story go forward.  Besides, isn't Dimitri sexier as a true vamp?





So what ending bothered you the most?

1) The ending of Twilight Series

2) The ending of Harry Potter Series

3) The ending of Gemma Doyle Series

Should authors take risks with popular characters?

A bit of blather!!!

Oh, how I love to read.  Love love love love love it.  Yet, why do I become so bored with it at times.  I love to watch TV, too.  Sometimes I think I and family watch WAY too much TV.  I try not to watch it during the day when I'm home and Lily is at school.  However, here in MA this is vacation week, so Lily is home and the TV is on all flipping day.

And today it snowed, so we had our snuggle time to JONAS BROTHERS: A CONCERT EXPERIENCE, which I got from on-demand on STARZ.  Yep, this is my life when Lily is home.  No reading, no writing, just Nick TV, Disney TV and on-demand TV.

It's going to be a LONG vacation week with just TV and not much reading, writing or anything else :(

Huge LINGER Contest!!!!

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other.  Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack.  And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love -- the light and the dark, the warm and the cold -- in a way you will never forget.

Comes out in stores everywhere July 20th. Pre-order here.

Enter to win an advanced review copies of LINGER, Sisters Red, The Dead-Tossed Waves, and The Replacement on Maggie's blog.

Gone, Lisa McMann

Reading level:       Young Adult

• Hardcover:            214 pages
• Publisher:              Simon Pulse, February 9, 2010

Bookmarks:          1

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This book is pretty bare bones in style of writing, story, plot and theme.  Everything that has been in the first two books seems to have magically disappeared.  There is no real conflict.  I don't care for Janie as much as I did in the first two books.  In fact, I'm completely annoyed by her.  For someone who travels into dreams and sees the darkest part of human nature, you would think that she'd be strong enough to handle certain things.

Cabel.  He's mainly just a shell of himself.  He was a little too perfect in this installment.  That annoyed me.  Everything seemed to roll of his back.  This is the same person who liked Janie even when he was undercover and had to pretend to like someone else.   

It pained me to the point that I had to put the book down a few times, because I couldn't stand all the self-degradation that Janie was feeling for herself.  I really just wanted to slap her around and tell her to grow up and deal with things like adults do.  Adults don't run away or isolate themselves.  We pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and do what we have to to make it through another day.  I felt her pain was self-inflicted and she was the one who could control her destiny.  Not leave it to others to make that decision for her.

Introducing the stranger into her life was the wrong way to go with the last book in the series.   I don't think it wrapped anything up for us.  It didn't explore new avenues for Janie to look into.  We didn't get any insight into why she is a dream catcher.  Nothing was really tied up nicely and given to us on a platter.

I'm a huge fan of Lisa and this series, but this ending just disappointed me.  

YAY! Hunger Game book 3!!! Cover and Title

I absolutely LOVE this cover! August 24, 2010 cannot come fast enough!!!!

Writing a Review that is Negative

I constantly struggle with this as a reviewer and I think I'm not alone in this feeling.  Writing a review that is fair and honest is hard, but I find it rewarding when I let people know exactly what I felt about that story.  Whether there were plot points that made think or if there were plot holes that made me wonder what happened.  It's never fun to write a negative review, just like it's never fun to read a book that maybe just didn't knock your socks off.

The first thing to think of when writing a negative review is to not attack an author.  That is just the number one mistake.  Perhaps this book just was not your style.  That is not the author's fault.  Obviously the style of writing will appeal to other people.  Remember your review is just your opinion and not everyone will feel the same way you do.

When writing a review whether positive or negative try to pick out what you liked and what you didn't like.  Balance is the key.  When reading reviews by famous reviewers, you'll notice they balance the good with the bad.  It can be done.  Was there something in the text that made you go 'what'? Did you like how certain back stories linked up to main storyline that really made an impression on you?

I've read several books that are targeted to young adult, but I honestly found them to be more middle grade in style and tone of the story.  Is that the author's fault?  No.  Again, do not attack the author.

Editing.  Sometimes you just know when a book has been rushed in the editing department.  I remember when HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF PHOENIX came out.  I read so many different opinions on it and the biggest complaint was that it needed to be edited a bit more cleanly.  It was too long, there were storylines in there that could've been removed (again, what I read).  The anger of Harry to Dumbledore and his constant YELLING could have been toned down.  Again, which would've been done in editing.  For one reason or another, they kept the plot lines in and we have another best seller.

None of us like to write negative reviews, and it really isn't up to us to tell someone not to read that book.  If I write a negative review, it is my opinion.  You may love that book.  That is the whole idea behind writing reviews, so that we can pick the good and the bad and let other people make up their own mind as to what they want to read.  Never take my review as the be all and end all to a story.  Challenge me.  Read the book and if you love tell me why you love it.  What did I miss?  Would a re-read help? Or perhaps it just wasn't my style and nothing will change my mind.

I'm not a fan of Stephen King.  I don't understand his appeal, but obviously, as a household name and an extremely best selling author, I'm in the minority.  Yes, there will be people who will think I'm nuts because I don't like his stories.  I'm also not a fan of slice and dice movies, either.  But there are millions of you out there that will spend money and go see those SAW movies, Freddy Krueger, and FRIDAY the 13th movies.  So I already know not to review those:)

These are just a few ideas and points that I've been thinking of.  Authors if I didn't like your story.  It has nothing to do with you.  There was just something that didn't connect with me.  Doesn't mean that someone else won't connect with it.

I have been a slacker

Yes, I have been.  Other than changing the look of my blog.  Which will probably change once again, because I'm not sure WHAT I want.  Which has been just like my reading.  I'm currently reading GOING BOVINE and darn, this a a great book.  But it depresses me too, because it is so well written that I could NEVER, EVER compete with a writer like Libba Bray.

I read her Gemma Doyle series, and yes, they were very well written, but there is something about the voice in this book that just grabs me.  I like the tone and the style of it all.  I wish I could write like that.  I wish I could talk like that most times, too!

Do you ever get into a book, and wonder, wow, how did this person come up with this idea and figure out how to write it down to make it enjoyable?  Then wonder how you ever lived because this book is so fricken good?  Do you ever get so attached to a character or an author or a style of writing, that you look out for similar books, but at times get disappointed?

Yeah, this is how I get at times.  Weird.  I know.