In case you missed anything, here's a recap of what was posted Saturday, June 24th through Friday, July 1st.
+ DNF review of Die For Me by Amy Plum
+ Alyssa D. has won the copy of Cascade by Lisa T. Bergren!
+ DNF review of Die For Me by Amy Plum
+ Alyssa D. has won the copy of Cascade by Lisa T. Bergren!
Reviews
Babe in Boyland by Jody Gehrman
Supernaturally (Paranormalcy #2) by Kiersten White
(Click on the links to go to my reviews)
Supernaturally (Paranormalcy #2) by Kiersten White
(Click on the links to go to my reviews)
Memes
Features
When bad covers happen to good books
Spotlight List: Faves of 2011 (So Far)
What's Your Status?
A meme created by Zakiya from Butterfly Feet Walking on Life where we recap our reading week. Feel free to visit her site and link up your own What's Your Status Posts. Here's how my week went:
Finished
Currently Reading
Little Women & Me by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
(Click on the link to go to Goodreads)
I'm so breaking out my LBL cheerleading pom-poms again!
(Click on the link to go to Goodreads)
I'm so breaking out my LBL cheerleading pom-poms again!
Received: Library
Pages 120 of 341
Reviews seem pretty divided on this one (so divided, in fact, that I'm making this the subject of the next Review Comparison), but I think I'm solidly on the "Not for me" side of things. While the romance is not insta-love, the book is insta-romance and that bored me. I'll explain.
Kate's relationship with Vincent is not the typical paranormal insta-love. Instead of professing her undying love for him after about five minutes of meeting, she actually thinks he's kind of bad news and approaches their relationship with extreme caution. When she finds out he's a paranormal entity, she isn't all, "OMG can you make me one too???" No, Kate's reaction is more like, "Woah, ok, that's weird. That's maybe a little more weird than I want in my life right now. I'm going to have to think about this." Wow! Her reaction is a lot more realistic and, even more importantly, SANER, than I'm used to from YA paranormal romances. So that was nice.
What wasn't nice was the insta-romance. There isn't much development of the story or the characters before the plot veers off into relationship land, and then stays there for a really long time (we were still there by the time I DNF-ed at page 120). Nothing else really happens at all in this time outside of Kate and Vincent's relationship, andI really don't understand why they're interested in one another. At this point, I didn't feel like I had enough time to get invested in Kate and her story before I had to swallow a relationship. I didn't know the characters, nor did I care for them, so whether or not they got together or kissed or broke up or whatever didn't matter to me.
The characters were also very shallow to me. I liked Kate enough, or, well, she was just ok for me but her level of development was fine. The other characters were really shallow though. There was nothing for me to differentiate them from any other stock character out there. I keep forgetting Vincent's name and running through a bunch of other similar stock guys (Dante, no, Edward, no) before finally remembering his name is Vincent.
I know that at this point I probably only scratched the surface of the paranormal mythology and so I don't think I can say I gave that a fair enough shake to pass any real judgments on it (though what I did read seemed kinda lame. Altruistic zombie superheroes? I hope there was more to it than that). Still, I wasn't intrigued by what I did learn, so I had no motivation to continue reading.
I know they're different from zombies, but I found it a little difficult to crush on a guy who is dead (like a corpse, not a vampire or a ghost) every month. That's just, I don't know, ew? It just felt like being at a funeral and looking at the body and it just felt wrong thinking of that person as a sexy love interest. Every time I pictured Vincent he looked like a zombie with off-colored starting-to-decompose skin and then I wanted to barf because I knew Kate would kiss him.
I had requested this book on NetGalley but I was rejected and eventually got my copy through the library. I'm starting to think HarperCollins has a great handle on my tastes because all the books they've given me I've loved and all the books they've denied me I've ended up disliking. Though Die For Me did go down easy (after reading for only a short time I was shocked at how many pages I had flown through), I was bored and disconnected from it.
I'm the type of reader who really wants romance in my books, but I want it to be a side dish, not the main meal. I'm happiest if it takes the whole book of non-romance-related plot before the two main characters finally get *that kiss* in the final chapter. In Die For Me, the romance takes center stage very early on and everything else gets relegated to the background. Add in that I just wasn't feeling the characters and I had trouble swallowing the paranormal parts, and this one just wasn't for me.
I know they're different from zombies, but I found it a little difficult to crush on a guy who is dead (like a corpse, not a vampire or a ghost) every month. That's just, I don't know, ew? It just felt like being at a funeral and looking at the body and it just felt wrong thinking of that person as a sexy love interest. Every time I pictured Vincent he looked like a zombie with off-colored starting-to-decompose skin and then I wanted to barf because I knew Kate would kiss him.
I had requested this book on NetGalley but I was rejected and eventually got my copy through the library. I'm starting to think HarperCollins has a great handle on my tastes because all the books they've given me I've loved and all the books they've denied me I've ended up disliking. Though Die For Me did go down easy (after reading for only a short time I was shocked at how many pages I had flown through), I was bored and disconnected from it.
I'm the type of reader who really wants romance in my books, but I want it to be a side dish, not the main meal. I'm happiest if it takes the whole book of non-romance-related plot before the two main characters finally get *that kiss* in the final chapter. In Die For Me, the romance takes center stage very early on and everything else gets relegated to the background. Add in that I just wasn't feeling the characters and I had trouble swallowing the paranormal parts, and this one just wasn't for me.
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That's a shame that you didn't get on with Die For Me! Some of the points you make sound like things that would annoy me too. Little Women and Me looks so good- seems like you're enjoying it :)
ReplyDeleteDrats...sad to hear that DFM wasn't for you! I've heard nothing but good things. Really haven't read a bad review. Then again I was rather holding off on reading reviews so I can make my own judgement. Ugh...I can't stand instant-romance!!! Stock characters and forgetting his name...oh no! Oh well, I'll still check it out. Thanks for brutal honesty in your reviews...love it and it's always needed in book reviewing.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you didn't like Die For Me. I really loved that book. Some books just aren't right for others sometimes. I did think it got more action-y and less romance-y towards the end.
ReplyDeleteI am about to start Ward Against Death so I am glad you liked it.
ReplyDeleteAnd sorry you didn't like Die For Me (and Vincent book boyfriend pics didn't help).
I adored Die For Me, but every time I read a bad review, I understand it. I suppose it's because the things that bothered you weren't as important to me. Similarly to how Bella and Edward aren't the most important part of Twilight for me, I loved the diverse characters in the Revenant family. And I love the idea of the Revenants...although I get what you're saying about the weirdness of being dead every month.
ReplyDeleteAw, I loved Die for Me. It's one of my favourite debuts of the year. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Leanna. It's a shame you didn't like Die For Me because I loved it.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Die For Me but I do get where you're coming from with the whole corpse-once-a-month thing. That just doesn't sound sexy. Also the shallow characters are not a good sign for me...I won't be rushing out to read this one anytime soon, it seems to be a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it read.
ReplyDeleteStephanie, I was disappointed about Die For Me, but I think it's more a case of "not my genre" than anything else. I really liked Little Women and Me! It was funny, but you definitely have to be able to poke fun at the original story.
ReplyDeleteJulie, I've read a few bad reviews for Die For Me and it seems like their complaints are similar to mine. So that makes me think that it's just a matter of whether or not those features are things you like or not. For me, I don't tend to like them. It's very readable, so give it a try and see if you like it! I'll have a review comparison for it later this month, too.
Alice, I agree, I think Die For Me just wasn't my thing. If a reader likes those features, then I can totally see how they would love DFM. I did hear that about the end.
Nic, Can't wait to hear your thoughts on Ward Against Death! Haha, no, unfortunately they didn't help. Every time I pictured him all rotting and dead I'd pull up your post to refresh my mental image :P
Alison, I was really hoping to like the family in DFM, but they didn't seem as well developed to me as they did in Twilight or Starcrossed. To be fair though, they didn't have a ton of page time in the parts I read.
T.B., I did hear that the action picked up toward the end. I'm curious to see the review comparison too.
Leanna, I feel so sad that I didn't love it. All the cool kids liked it :P At least we can bond over Jay and Unearthly!
A Canadian Girl, Aw, I almost want to finish it so I can see if I love it, but...not now. I think it's just not for me.
Danya, Right? Definitely not sexy. It definitely does seem to be love or hate. Tons and tons of people loved it, and I can see why. It just didn't have the things that I tend to love in a book.
Hmm, I'll be interested in reading the review comparison because, like you, I've read very mixed things. For some reason, I've never taken the time to truly think about how gross the concept of turning into a corpse once a month was until you pointed it out. Now I can't get it out of my mind how bleh that is.
ReplyDeleteAylee, Haha, isn’t it kind of gross? Hopefully you can ignore that if you decide to read the book :P
ReplyDeleteBased on the mixed reviews, I'm not dying to read this one, but the Paris setting makes me kinda wanna. Because I'm shallow like that.
ReplyDelete