My least favorite of Mary Kay Andrews' novels
929651
My  least favorite of Mary Kay Andrews' novels.  It's still a fun read as they all are.
1072043
I've been reading Kinsey Milhone books since I was in high school (I'm Kinsey's age now) and I've never missed one. And I will read all of them until the end. V is for Vengeance was not one of the strongest. Can't remember which one was the one I disliked more, R is for Ricochet or Q.

Strangely enough in this edition, I found the Kinsey segments to be the most boring. I find William to be a crazy, meddling old man, Henry was shipped off immediately in the beginning so he was totally inconsequential, and Rosie has annoyed me from book 'A'. I was far more interested to read about Dante and Nora (laughed out loud in some parts), and I appreciated the twist/link between them when it was revealed. Didn't see that one coming. But there could've been better 'meat' around their story. The first chapter was a knockout and drew me right in. Afterwards the book lost steam, and I wanted to punch Kinsey and give her two black eyes myself about midway through the book. And Kinsey has never annoyed/bored me before. Her self-righteousness about shoplifters in a store, her loyalty to Pinky and his shenanigans, her nosy insistence on getting in the middle of the whole Pinky and Cappi duel, the whole boring story with Len, and I didn't get her deal with Diana Alavarez. Did she like her wardrobe or NOT? And these are just a few things I'm listing.

I can appreciate Sue Grafton's honesty to her readers, revealing her struggle in coming up with a plot, but I shouldn't have had to say to myself: yeahhhh, Sue. Nevertheless, as I said, I will see it to the end. I still love the series and look forward to the next book.
3349877
Nice continuation of what happened to Mary's sister Janet from previous book, but by far not her best work.  As the 3 stars say, "It's ok".
447940
I love the Rock Chicks and every other KA book, but this one let the team down. It seemed forced and inconsistent with the other books and the characters.
501459
I like the Scarpetta novels, but this one had Kay spending far too much time (in my opinion) in internal thoughts, to the point that I got bored from time to time.
4394550
Actually, I'm a little disappointed. I am a Mary Monroe fan but I just didn't think this was one of her best efforts. Just an OK read
152699
I've read all the Molly Murphy novels and I've noticed that as much I used to enjoy the main character's feistyness, the action in the stories seems to have nothing to do with the solutions of the mysteries. There have been no clues to further the plots in the last 4 installments in this series. The relationship between Molly and Daniel has hit a wall. The dialog between them has become repetitive and predictable. ("Molly, I don't know what I'm going to do with you!," must be on auto-complete on Bowen's laptop.) I've also become unenamoured by the author's habitual inclusion of gratuitous anti-Catholic remarks. As soon as it was revealed that a child was the victim of a crime in this last story, I guessed who the villian would be, although no other clues were provided in the story except author's own bias. I found Ms. Bowen to be both insensitive and insulting. I won't spend another dime on anything she writes, but since she seems to be running out of steam this won't be a loss on my part.
238735
Lost Daughters (Mama Ruby) by Mary Monroe is the third book, of the Mama Ruby series. Mama Rudy secret is revealed and others are created. The focus is on main characters Maureen Montgomery and her daughter Loretta. Maureen will hold nothing back to make her daughter happy; however, Loretta lacks respect. Their relationship is similar to mother/daughter in movie Mildred Pierce. If you seen the movie, you have the dynamics of their relationship. Overall, I am disappointed with this follow-up. I forced myself to finish. It is boring, long, drags and confusing. My favorite part of the book is the ending. The ending was touching. I recommend borrowing!
361437
I always wait with anticipation for a new Kay Hooper book. Sorry to say though that I was disappointed in the latest Bishop/Special Crimes Unit novel. The plot of Fear the Dark was kind of boring and the end was forshadowed so much that it was anticlimactic.
1978890
This book was a disappointment.  I didn't like it as much as the other ones.  I had to really slog through it because it didn't hold my interest like the previous books in the series.  I felt Faye was out of her Southern element and the story just didn't ring true as she seemed to be working more as a museum curator. In the end, I felt she became a busybody who stuck her nose where it didn't belong.  And as another reviewer said, the family issues interspersed with the mystery was just distracting and not needed.  I know sometimes an author will put these family elements in a book to humanize the main character, but often it doesn't work and just seems forced.  This was the case with this story. And the author keeps reminding us how physically perfect and beautiful all the Longchamp-Mantooth family members are, plus a few of the other characters.  This doesn't seem realistic either because in true life not everyone is tall and statuesque, has green eyes, broad shoulders, looks like a model, etc. ( It reminds me of the television series where the actors/actresses are all beautiful and handsome and are actually former models.)  It gives the reader an inferiority complex because we are so ordinary!
1877529
It was really hard to like most of these characters. The mother, while fighting for her daughter, was simply annoying in her relationship with James and even with her husband. She never fought for herself, and I couldn't believe how much crap she put up with from the men in her life.  The ending wasn't too much of a surprise either.  It ended up being a disappointing read to me. I didn't hate it, but I didn't really like it either.
1246811
I didn't love this book. I mean if it had been by anyone else, I would have liked it. I would had given it 4 stars ... but Mary Kay usually has light, funny, wacky southern reading. I REALLY needed that this weekend and this wasn't the book for it.

I found it to be sad in some parts and hard to get through .. it moved pretty slow and hardly had any talk about crazy, wacky residents in a southern town. I really expected it. I normally WAIT for MKA to write a new book. The characters weren't very likeable except maybe Annajane and there was very little humor. I just found it sad and not at all heartwarming.

The book was fine ... it was good for entertainment, just not what I would have expected from her.
2756953
This is the first book I have read by well known author V.C. Andrews.  She is famous for her Flowers in the Attic series, but I never had a chance to check them out and read them.  When I was offered this novel for review, I figured it would be a good place to start and work my way backwards through her books.

While I really enjoyed the first couple of chapters in this book, it really started to stall after that.  It seemed to stretch on and on with no real progression in the plot.  After Sasha and her Mother are hit by a car, Sasha wakes up in the hospital and learns that her Mother didn't make it.  They were homeless and therefore without insurance so she wasn't really receiving the treatment she deserved.  When Mrs. Marsh shows up in her hospital room and moves her to a private room, she is curious to know why she is helping her.  Mrs. Marsh reveals that her daughter Kiera was the one that hit them with her car while intoxicated with drugs.  Mrs. Marsh is very wealthy and insists that Sasha come live with her and her family so she can have a proper home and wonderful life.  Sasha is hesitant in moving in with her because she feels it to be a betrayal to her Mothers memory to live in the same house as the person who caused all the heartache.

After Sasha moves into the home though, she realizes Mrs. Marsh has some ulterior motives for her being there.  She seems to be replacing her daughter Alena with Sasha after Alena passed away awhile back.  Sasha is living in her room, wearing her clothes, and even being treated like Alena by Mrs. Marsh.

The book is predictable and rather quite boring after Sasha is moved into the house.  I struggled with finishing this book and was just thankful when it ended.  If this is any indication of what the other books by this author are like, then I am not too sure I will be picking up anymore.
751578
Blake uses his past as an excuse to be a boot of the first order. Kara does a lot of protesting, but yields every time because Blake touches (gropes) her. For an FBI agent, she comes across as rather helpless. There's a lot less of a plot to the third book than there was to the first (Royce's story), which I liked much better. Was the author tired of the Walker brothers? Or was she just looking for a thin plot to string steamy sex scenes together? I generally like Lisa Renee Jones' books, but this one was disappointing.
3734773
I've loved Kelley Armstrong's books from Bitten but this one falls well below her standard.  The multiple POVs that were a little annoying in "No Humans Involved" grew to ridiculous in this novel.  I lost count and interest as we topped 5 different "voices".  This novel feels like a short story being stretched into a full length novel and I wish she had left it at what might have been a very interesting short story.

The audio version of this book is another point where I wish she had stuck to tried and true methods.  The reader is very distracting with her different voice attempts (horrible at men in particular) and she lost me completely when she spoke of Jamie Vegas with a Spanish pronunciation (as though it started with an 'H').

I will still read her next book and hope for a return to the kind of fun interesting read that I have come to expect from Kelley Armstrong but this one was a bust.
4421624
I love this author and have read most of her novels but this 3rd novel in the Lord and Lady Spy series really disappoints. With her other two novels in the series she takes 2 popular modern movies (Mr.and Mrs. Smith and True Lies) and places the story in the 19th century.  I don't think it worked as well with this novel since the Bond character is a womanizer and had multiple movies. I think she should have chosen one particular movie as she did before. Also, the whole Bond theme (shaken,not stirred, Q,M) didn't really work well...it just came off as corny....is ratafia even ever stirred or shaken? Lastly, I am not a fan of authors making the twist in the book or character centered around sexual abuse. I like to be prepared for when a novel will have this topic and personally I like to avoid it when trying to lose myself in some light reading.
3464405
Normally I am really engaged in Mary Lu's adventures on the high seas, but this one just didn't feel like one of her usual stories for a few reasons: 1) I couldn't get into the story about Southern rebels escaping to Brazil from the "reconstruction" of the South. The story just seemed to drag on an on. I had to force myself to finish the book. 2) the hero seems inconsistent. (Spoiler) He's constantly flipping between forgiving her and holding a grudge against her. I could understand his need to sort things out within himself, but in the mean time, don't kiss her and say you love her and then say you never want to see her again. 3) Despite other reviews, this is almost NOTHING like Gone with the Wind. Yes, it is about southerners after the civil war, but that's about it. The heroine isn't like Scarlette O'Hara. She's too caring and compassionate to people who obviously don't like her. She actually has somewhat of a relationship with God. She's not conniving enough either. A good thing I would say about the book is that it does show both sides of the South. Not all Southerners were these horrible people who abused their slaves. There were people in the south who opposed slavery and there were some people who owned slaves that actually treated them well. And then on the other hand it does show people who did treat their slaves with less than respect. So many books today like to show ALL Southerners as people who were cruel and merciless to slaves without allowing that there were people who had compassion on them and tried to help them. That was one good thing about the book, but I was still disappointed.
If you liked her previous series (Charles Belle trilogy and Surrender to Destiny trilogy), I wouldn't recommend this one. It just didn't have the same "feel" as her previous books.