STARTS OFF OK, and deteriorates steadily
937555
I got thru this "thriller," after casting it aside a few times in frustration.  Halfway thru the book the device of throw up a storm, find another anchor becomes glaringly apparent.  I started wondering what was in the potboiler bag next to throw into the stew.  On top of that the reference to the global warming hoax is tiresome.  If you can stomach the result you MIGHT like the story.  There isn't much in the way of likeability about the characters, tho.
3290322
Book started off fairly good and got progressively worse where at 80 percent I called it quits to bad .
2628056
I am romance reader and have recently found myself craving pirate stories. Well, this one started great, with a clever idea and a great, action packed first third of the story, as promised.

Then things start to slow down. There is a major lull in the middle of the book, where I found myself disliking both the heroine and the hero. Andrew comes out as prudish and not at all the sexy pirate I wanted him to be, while Carly is not the strong woman fighter pilot she should have been. It takes a ludicrous amount of time for Andrew to finally believe Carly that she comes from the future, and for Carly a ludicrous amount of time to figure out how to convince Andrew. Jeez, I'm not going to give spoilers here, but they were both dumb on that.

I tried, but I wasn't able to finish the story. Maybe I just like a lot more action and fast pace in my romance.
3341020
This story starts with strength, and promise. We encounter a family of river dwellers trying simply to stay alive as their remote region of Colombia is caught between right-wing paramilitaries and government forces. We see the daily compromises made by the poor and the powerless simply to eat and survive in such a context. The groundwork is well laid for a tale of struggle and escape; pacing is good, the story-line makes sense and there is early conflict of both characters and emotion. And then ....

The family does indeed slip away, removing themselves from the conflict zone and heading, as so many other rural Colombians have, to the beacon, the big city of Bogota. Once arrived in one of the many slums that have sprung up around almost all Latin American capitals, they move in with in-laws and begin to learn the "laws" of the new jungle in which they now reside. And, that's pretty much it. The author's writing takes a serious nosedive into missed lines, half-finished paragraphs and incomplete thoughts. I gave the book three stars instead of two because the decline was so dramatic that I wondered if my Kindle edition had hacked up the manuscript. The plot likewise takes a hit with some weak story-lines of husband running off to tour the country as a truck driver's assistant and the drug, pregnancy, infidelity problems of the family members left behind. There is no resolution, no arc to the story, simply an uninspired plateau to a whimpering end.
3616945
Note: This review is only based on the first 2 episodes

On the plus side, it does look pretty - the sets, the costumes, the actors, the camera work - it's all very nice, and the acting is good.

But the characters don't have much depth - even the main characters - so it gets pretty dull pretty quick. Good characters are smiling and pretty, bad ones are sneering and ugly, the family members, aside from the mother, are just basically props - even the sex and the witchcraft is kinda boring, which doesn't, I think, bode well for the rest of it, so I'm stopping.

Though if you're just looking for some fluffy middle-ages romance at the end of the day, definitely give this a shot. It's not bad, by any means; it's just not for me.
310911
Starts off well enough but gets progressively worse with each turn of the page. Tossed it without even finishing it.
4817356
This was a fun read, especially at first.  I got bored with the plodding plot by the half-way point.  The story seemed to start going off in several circular plots, touching base with that antagonist (a cop!) and then this one (a murder suspect!), then that protagonist (a mysteriously-appearing motel owner who renders aid by way of a secret hiding place, fresh clothes, food) and of course the maybe-maybe not romantic tangle.

If you have a beach afternoon, take this along and skip through as needed; you can get back on track easily enough without losing the thread.  Well-written in that respect, in particular.
402342
Here and Now begins with a promising premise. A very pregnant Suzanne McDermott, who's just tossed out her unfaithful husband, rescues a mysterious man from the river who, in turn, helps her give birth and heal her broken heart. Charles Garrity has been thrust from the Roaring Twenties seventy five years into the future and has his own broken trust and anger to deal with. Will Suzanne and Charles be able to overcome their emotional baggage to enjoy the true love they slowly find together?
The novel suffers mainly from being overwritten. I don't mind much the mundaneness or even the absolute predictability of the plot. But the bland, wordy dialogue and the endlessly repeated emotional descriptions should have been cut drastically: at least 50 of the 351 pages could have easily gone and left a better novel.

Also, the characters are largely bland and two-dimensional. If they displayed a more complete past, more complex emotions and a livelier feel, then the novel could have been interesting. For example, Suzanne and Charles both describe the other as funny, but there is no humor in the novel, just a bit of annoying sarcastic corniness.

If you're suffering from recent marital breakup, Here and Now may provide some comfort. Otherwise, don't waste your time.
4740199
This tale starts with a some style and promise then, about midway - after very little real entertainment - it looses what  'Oomph' it had and goes rapidly downhill from there.
Its alarming that the sellers would pitch it at the current pricing. Not worth it, frankly. Mr. Grishman can do better.
4832422
Fantasy seems to be falling into a depressingly regular pattern, and unfortunately this book fits it too. boy whisked away to adventure, boy becomes man, (spoilers sort of i guess) he becomes all powerful, but loses himself, he becomes even more powerful and becomes a tortured character, meets a girl who is determined to turn him around, she fails, he becomes even more powerful, even more depressing, then he destroys the "big boss" at the end without any effort, and the girl succeeds in turning him around, although he is still forever scarred. it's a decent story, the first few hundred times you read it. there are some really interesting parts to this book, but at the end i disliked the main character. some good plot twists but nothing terribly surprising. in essence the book is okay but if you want the character to do more than moan about his lot, and effortlessly  massacre his enemies you may want to look elsewhere.
2918734
Heinlein's "masterpiece" Stranger in a Strange Land starts off brilliantly.  The first 100 pages or so comprise a well-paced absorbing thriller, and even up through the 200-page mark the story remains strong.  And then the protagonist Valentine Michael Smith grows up and takes charge of his own life.  And the whole novel falls flat on its face and remains thus for the remaining 250 pages.
You see, in the beginning Michael is innocent and somewhat helpless.  So he's powerless against his enemies and I naturally rooted for him.  Then he slowly began to use his superhuman powers and I became even more absorbed and thrilled, watching him shake off his foes and emerge unscathed.  Then he took asylum in a large secured residence with the evil government of the U.S. bent on capturing him and using him for their own ends.  Could it get any better, I asked?  This was five-star material.
Unfortunately, that's the climax of the story and it comes less than halfway through.  The rest is supremely mediocre.  Mike becomes a god on earth due to his invulnerability and wealth.  What does he do with this status?  He basically uses his powers to establish a large harem and teaches others how to do the same thing.  The only interesting character in this whole charade is Jubal Harshaw, who probably represents Heinlein himself and his opinions on various matters of philosophy, sex, religion, etc.  Two stars here.
Average: three and a half stars but I'm knocking it down to an even three due to the unsatisfying ending.
478735
The adventure itself does not start out well - kind of an "Alice down the rabbit hole" beginning, but gradually the author introduces a number of good characters, many based on Native American and indigenous culture themes. The book gets more and more involved as it goes along - perhaps too involved, but the author gets points for trying. The names, as other readers have remarked, are somewhat inadvertently ridiculous-sounding, but in the field of YA fantasy there's lots of that going around. However, none of that is what makes the book off-putting for me. It's the increasing level of melancholy that grows throughout the book. At the end of the book, there is the feeling that Elwood and Slukee have lost far more than they have gained by undergoing the adventure. I found it rather depressing overall, and I wonder what its intended audience would think. I'll give it two stars because it's obvious that the author spent a lot of time developing his world, and because he is a good writer. But the overwhelming melancholy does not inspire me to keep reading books in the series, and I would suspect that it would strike many a YA fantasy reader the same way.
2094592
Started with a promising introduction  to the main characters,  but the romance between them became more implausible and uninteresting as the book wore on.
994459
The Dying Times is a passable work -- the writing is a bit mediocre and the character's actions don't always make perfect sense, but I've seen infinitely worse.  And though there isn't really anything spectacularly original in the book, most probably aren't getting it for that anyway.  What really hit me as a big negative was not really feeling any of the character's emotions.  It's not that Kittrell doesn't seem to know what the characters should be feeling, but just that he doesn't convey it convincingly.  In a sense, even the main characters don't really have "life".

He does do a pretty good job with some of the zombie escape scenes, managing to build at least some tension and throwing in a few little surprises.  He's also good about killing off characters when he feels the need/whim/whatever -- he doesn't get overly sentimental about it and you don't feel like he'd flinch from killing off likable characters.

Note that I did manage to get this free, and if I had paid for it I might have dropped it a half-star.  It's not unreadable, but has nothing particular to recommend it either.
372829
this movie started off really well. i love the beginning part, and was fixed on the screen as the tragedy happened on the cliffside at the beginning of the movie. but from there on, i actually lost interest. they made the first part of the film too good, so that the rest seemed paltry.
193064
These started out pretty solid, but have gotten more or less off point. Waiting for the next one until I pass further judgement.
4347154
it's OK, two-and-a-half stars.  It went from mysterious to silly pretty quick.  The premise and build up showed promise but once the "mystery" was solved, the last third of the book broke down, becoming cartoonish and frantic.