ARC, Books

Book 279: It’s Complicated (Tucker Springs #7) – L. A. Witt

Witt, L.A. - It's Complicated (Tucker Springs #7)I love it when authors start to stretch their writing muscles and it works out well for them. I’ve read quite a four books by Witt at this point, all within this series, and each one feels better written and more fleshed out which is GREAT! And as with After the Fall Witt keeps this series going wonderfully. I once again received a copy of this book from Riptide Publishing (Thanks!) and received no compensation in response for my honest opinion, so read on!

I’ll get the minor negative out-of-the-way first and then go on to gushing about the greatness of the book. The only problem I had with It’s Complicated was that I struggled because Witt’s writing convinced me multiple times that this was a sequel to another story, that I should’ve known Brad and Jeff’s story.

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Book Group, Books

Book 266: Misery – Stephen King

King, Stephen - MiseryStephen King is a sick-sick man, but clearly incredibly talented to write these books. After reading Cujo, I wasn’t sure I’d read another, but my books into movies book group once again selected one. As I’m writing this I haven’t seen the film yet, but I’m sure I’ll be terrified. I’m not sure if I’ll read more of King, other than 11/22/63, but if they’re all like this I’d definitely consider it, even if I do get nightmares!

I’m a little torn on this novel, as with most novels that are just outside the realm of (my) possibility I’m not sure how much to enjoy it. If it’s something I could see happening, even if it’s a super stretch, then I get a little freaked out by it, and this is definitely one of those instances. And let’s face it with the number of weirdos out there this book is totally feasible! I mean it could happen today, even with all of the technology in modern society I could easily see this happening.

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Books

Book 260: Openly Straight – Bill Konigsberg

Konigsberg, Bill - Openly StraightI saw this book first on Sarah’s blog Sarah Reads Too Much and as soon as I saw the author and read her review I knew I wanted to read it. My first introduction to Bill Konigsberg was through his debut novel Out of the Pocket. It’s hard to believe I read it three years ago AND it was my very first book on my old Sony e-reader. The best part is as I did a quick re-read of that post Konigsberg answered quite a few of my critiques and he’s clearly matured as a fiction writer over the past few years!

As I read the book I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between this and Andrew Smith’s Winger which was a great novel I read last year. However, they are distinctly different and as much as I enjoyed Winger I would probably put this one ahead, not for the writing, but for the story and the subject matter.

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ARC, Books

Book 247: Marionette – T. B. Markinson

Markinson, T. B. - MarionetteHow do I approach this book? I want to be honest, but I don’t want to be too over the top in either direction. I received a copy of Marionette via the author, who is a great blogging buddy, and this is my honest response and I received no compensation for my response.

I guess I’ll just rip the band-aid off. I HATED the first half of the book. (Sorry TBM!)

I can’t put a finger on it, but I’ll call it sophomore slump. I’ll talk more later in the response, but I just could not identify with Paige even though there was a great line which convinced me I was going to! TBM’s first book, A Woman Lost, was a phenomenal debut novel, but this one fell short (at least for the first half of the book). However, with that said, the last half of the book was AMAZING (mostly :-D).

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ARC, Books

Book 240: After the Fall (Tucker Springs #6) – L. A. Witt

Witt, L.A. - After the Fall (Tucker Springs #6)Now this is how you write a romance novel! There was one line that captured this for me, “A first kiss was usually a one-way ticket to a one-night stand or an awkward exit, but this one…I didn’t know where anything was going now.”

I was worried about where the Tucker Springs series was going, but L. A. Witt single-handedly brought the series back to a great, if predictable (it is romance after all), place and pace. I was so impressed with this addition to the series that I’m convinced I should probably look into whether Witt has written any other MM romances and it left me hoping she will contribute more to the series! I received a copy of After the Fall (link to the publisher’s site) from the publisher in return for my honest opinion of the novel. I received no compensation.

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