Falls short and frustrates
926358
I wanted to love this remore, but unfortunately it still needs some tweaking before I would recommend it to any avid PS4 streamer. My advice, spend your money on a 20th Anniversary PS remote. This universal remote needs more work.

1st
It's supposed to have "punch throug" volume control, which allows the volume buttons to control the same device all the time regardless of what device mode you're in. For example, even if you hit PS4 mode to control the PS4, volume buttons would still turn up/down my pioneer AV receiver. This function does not work on my receiver or any of my 4 friends who also preordered this remote. One friend got it to work with his TV volume.

2nd
You think with the launch of Vue this would have been built with Vue functionality more in mind. Unfortunately, it fell short here too.

3rd
Play, pause and stop buttons don't work in all video apps like Plex and Amazon Instant. So you still have to use the "enter" and directional buttons to FF, Rwd and play/pause. This in not necessarily a PDP issue but PS and developer issue.

4th
In a lil over a week of ownership I have had to delete and re-register the remote to the PS4 three separate times. It's very annoying.

5th
The remote goes in a sleep mode after about 5 mins of being idle. So if you're watching a movie and the phone rings, you can't just grab the remote and hit pause. You have to first select the device you want to control, then hit the corresponding button that acts as pause, whether that be "enter" or "pause" or "play". ITS VERY ANNOYING.
2394119
There were so many gaps and an overall lack of cohesive storyline that I couldn't tell what was going on half of the time.  The underlying premise was interesting, if a bit unrealistic, but with a few major rewrites and fleshing out of the characters and timeline, it could have been an interesting book.  In the end, I was left highly unsatisfied and wondering what I had just read.
1934389
I really wanted to like this book, but after reading through it I came away unsatisfied:
* I don't think the author proved his thesis that FSU's offense is either appropriate for or easily adapted to high school football.
* There were far too many mistakes in the text and diagrams for the price of the book.
* The author only spends 4 pages on the no-huddle aspect of the offense, surely the "fast break" in "fast break football".
In short, the book gives the impression of a quick and dirty attempt to write a book on Bobby Bowden's offense.
For that matter, Wilkes doesn't even establish that he is writing about only one offense. FSU and Bowden have made dramatic changes in their offensive thinking over the years, but Wilkes attempts to shoehorn all of it into one book, even plays like the fullback trap which FSU hasn't emphasized for years. The result looks less like a coherent offense than it does a great big grab-bag of formations (several of which are mislabeled in the book) and plays.
Only moderately recommended. I hope Coach Wilkes does himself and his readers a favor and takes the time to revise this book properly and bring out a clean edition.
4500838
I wanted to like this book, but I, like several other reviewers, had to struggle to finish it, and it is a short book. Although the jacket blurb promises that all the characters will be "...brought together, and their jealousies and disappointments inevitably collide." as though Mamarrosa were a unifying point for all the characters and their stories. This does not prove to be the case. Nothing cataclysmic happens at the end. The much-heralded return of Mamarrosa's prodigal son does not add to the plotline. In fact, who is Marco Alfonso Rodrigues? There is little or no background on his life before he left the village to explain why everyone has such expectations of him. He says little, most of it obscure. His leavetaking is anticlimactic. Perhaps as Vasco says, "You know, the moment I saw him, I said to myself 'hippie'.  And that is what he is." And perhaps Marco Alfonso is a hippie, albeit one with more serenity about him than the other old hippie expat, China Potts, who is addled by alcohol and marijuana.
Nothing in particular is revealed/resolved in the end, no plotlines tied up, except perhaps the relative reunification/redemption of the expatriate Potts family, the only expat characters who seem to interact much with the villagers.  Several of the stories just peter out: does Teresa, the village girl ultimately leave the village for the au pair job in France? Do Huw and Sophie postpone their wedding, or break off their engagement in the end?  Teresa has slept with her sweetheart, Francisco for the first time (She wants to leave the village as a woman.), but then afterward with Vincente who is engaged to her friend Clara.  What is that about? Francisco is supposed to be her sweetheart, but after they spend the night together, he seems less interested in her. (My mother cautioned me that many men are like that.) Teresa's original plan is to break off with Francisco when she leaves anyway. Although she never does tell him this, he almost seems to have anticipated her. It seems that sleeping with him, her first experience, merely now makes her available to sleep with anyone. Was that her intent in leaving the village as a woman? None of the characters seems to have any particular purpose in life, except for Teresa who wants to leave for the au pair job, but even she seems to be unclear as to what she ultimately wants. Antonio is content to be an auto mechanic; Vicente and Clara who are engaged, do not seem to be really bonded, at least Vincente isn't.
Huw and Sophie don't seem to be all that sure that they should marry at all.
Ali introduces a different story every chapter, but one needs to get fairly far into the chapter to discover who is being introduced; how each new character or pair of characters fits into the story is unclear.  What are they supposed to find in Mamarrosa? If this were a book of short stories, it would not matter, but these stories are all supposed to intersect in the village.
This book has been touted as one of the literary sensations of this summer. I cannot see what all the shouting was about.
1564698
This book had so much potential and I really wanted to like it, but it just fell short.
The first issue I had was that there were many grammatical errors throughout the book that pulled you from the story. If you get frustrated by grammatical errors in books, I would recommend you pass on this one.
The next issue was with the story itself. I felt that for a large part of the book the characters were wandering around aimlessly without any real goal or direction. Also, the characters were not really well developed. I could see what the author was trying to do by having the characters hate each other, then grow into a friendship that looks like it might become more, but she overdid the hatred and didn't put enough into the development of their relationship. You just didn't feel it when they started suddenly getting along better.
The story gave you enough that you could see hope for a great book developing, but it just didn't quite get there.
511810
I think the idea behind this story is much better than the finished product.  The writing is wooden at best, and the author creates and disposes of a number of characters without bringing depth to them - the men, especially.  A lot of things happen to the heroine, and it could have been a very interesting read.  But the pace is choppy and I found myself annoyed by overwrought dialog and self-conscious inner musings.  I wanted to like it, and kept trying to overlook the failings.  I was glad I had not paid for this book - I downloaded it free on my Kindle.  All it cost me was some time.
2177059
I'd been hearing good things about this book and after following the author's blog, I figured why not give this one a go. Unfortunately I was rather disappointed. The biggest let down for me was the writing style. I found it very difficult to engage with at times. Particularly at the start, where it seemed to jump point of view mid-paragraph without much notice. Too many pronouns were often thrown around making it difficult to tell what applied to whom. There were also a lot of unnecessary descriptions that threw off the flow. Countless times characters would scratch their chin, rub their eyes, sigh, slap their thigh. Why? Who knows, because it never really added anything other than dead words. It was unnecessary and frustrating at times. On top of that there were a lot of paragraphs, thrown in seemingly at random, with a character's thoughts on something that was completely unrelated to the current action. These all made for a slow and laborious read.

The characters were engaging and unique, the story really plodded along at the beginning and I wasn't too interested in what was happening. It did pick up at a few points, but I found the actual ended a really anti-climax - all the building tension for about three pages of action and an abrupt end! Whilst the epilogue was interesting, it won't be enough to get me to continue this series
3188120
This is a book I was looking foward to reading.  My book club picked it for this month & I had read the reviews and I went into it very optimistically.

It started out great:  awesome intro, great, likable characters, and a strong plot.  And then...it just...fizzled.

There was little character development.  No backstory for a minor character that played a pivotal role in Andy's life...Brax didn't grow or develop; he was very static and wishy-washy - I liked him less as the book went on.  And the ending for one of the characters didn't make sense or seem to serve any purpose.

The author took a very meaty topic and tried to wrap a story around it encompassing the turmoil and tension and it was too much for him.

Also?  Apostrophe misuse is a HUGE issue for me and this book seriously needed more editing.
3910989
This books focuses on a specific time in music teacher's life, and mainly around one gifted student whose talents and struggles bring up conflicts for them both. There's something frustrating about this book, in that it starts debates it never finishes, and spends too much time building it all up to just simply shrug it's shoulders and give up.  You're left just was confused, unsure, and blind about things as the protagonist... and maybe that was the author's goal. But as a reader, it's unsatisfying, and annoying, and feels like time poorly spent.
2911584
I read this book before it received the Pulitzer and it was a major disappointment. The book has so many possibilities that are never realized: such wasted opportunities! First, the idea of a novel with such wonderful elements as Houdini and escapism, the Golem, the birth of comic books and World War II in Antartica, is intriguing to say the least. And there are some magic moments in the novel, such as the rescue of the Golem and the creation of the Moth Woman. But almost all the characters - Joe, Sammy, Rosa, parents, police - are lifeless: they are passive, their dialog bland, their interactions mundane. The story meanders and important plot points are described by characters after the fact, rather than vividly lived by them. The action performed Sammy and Joe are often perplexing and poorly motivated (explain again why Joe jumped ship and disappeared for all those years?). The result is frustrating because the book always seems on the edge of giving a lot more.
4347207
I struggled to finish this novel. Half way through, I almost stopped reading it. The second half of the story is much better than the first. There just wasn't enough action to keep the story moving along. I even found myself growing bored during the sex scenes. This could have been a much better story if it were shorter. I never thought I'd feel that way since I tend to like epics much of the time. There were at least two instances of head hopping, which can get frustating for the reader.
Morgan had a neglected childhood, but it wasn't bad enough to give him some of the internal struggles he had. This was a mismatched pair. Monica needed a even tempered, non-threatening kind of guy. Morgan was way too domineering for someone who had been in an abusive relationship. I always try to look for something good in every book I read, but I just had a hard time with this one.
4495938
I had high hopes of this novel, which were unfortunately not fulfilled.

The premise of the young paster's wife being out of her depth coping with a husband who should have had a good swift kick up the crotch, a strange community and being pushed into parrish work, is okay as it stands. However, for me this plot had me gnashing my teeth with frustration.

The news that she has to spent six months living with him in order to achieve her inheritance and he, a sizable donation to the church is okay - just - but for the parrish council to be interfering and sucking their teeth over the two living in the parsonage together is ridiculous. It's none of their business! After all, the couple could be reconcilingfor all they know.

The story begins with the wife landing in the lift (elevator) and coming face to face with the husband, to whom she has not spoken for six years. Being as they were only married five months before she left without a word, this is not plausible. Any woman worth her salt would have announced with greast drama that she was leaving and why.

It takes six years for the husband to realise his past neglects, where it seems to me he would have thought about it sometime during the time they were separated and at least gone after her to talk. This twit accepts the word of her father after one phone call! Maybe she was right to stay away for six years. Then there is the fact that the wife leaves him without at least confronting him over his neglect, suffering her misfortune alone. The least she might have done is bounced some crockery off his head. Now that she is back in the town her lack of recrimination, for me is a glaring ommission. The forgiveness too "forgiving," and her reaction not natural.

A disappointing read all round.
3114202
The world building was good with just enough information to anchor and still allow the reader to fill in the blanks.  The storyline was interesting with a nice little twist that isn't a cheat because the clues were there.  It could be 30-40 pages shorter due to repetitive introspection.  I wasn't invested in the characters much; their angst was a bit drawn out and they switched gears at the drop of a hat, but the story and other characters pulled them along well enough.

Heres where it all falls apart:  the editing is HORRID.  Scenes are switched rapid fire without even a blank line in between, and its jarring.  It throws you out of the story as you pause to try to figure what just happened, and it becomes a chore.  This is inexcusable.  Then there are the typos.  *Hint* theres something called spell check and even one pass would have cured a lot.  Example:  his armst.  There are some words used that may or may not have been in use in the 12th century, my dictionary tells me that two of them in particular originated in the  15th and 16th century.  I didn't bother to do extensive research because, quite frankly, I was sick of the whole thing.

When I see USA Today bestselling author, and award-winning, I expect a lot more of a book that was originally published in 2010  there have been seven years in which to discover errors.  Whats even more confusing is that, since this book is a freebie, I assume its purpose is akin to advertising.  If you're asking for my time, and eventually my money, to explore other titles, you're out of luck.

Note:  the man on the cover has dark hair, the hero of the novel is blonde
4819867
Cal comes from a difficult background, he has abandonment issues, and it seems the only family that has  has exited poverty is Uncle Trevor, and he is even more emotionally unavailable than mom. Long story short, only (2) stars because, the premise was good, but character development was incomplete. This story has a protagonist that is hard to like and even harder to sympathize with. Some of the best parts of the book, the Company, Fisher King, and Corbenic are only used to support Cal' s personal psychological analysis and NOT as interdependent storylines that come to life early in the book. Frustrating book, decent enough read.
4035428
I really wanted to like this story. The concept is just so good- a fresh take on the zombie genre where zombies retain their intelligence and human characteristics, but they must have meat to live, so it makes survival difficult. Plus there is a group hunting the zombies, making their lives more difficult. The idea of having the story told from the perspective of one of the human zombies is just fantastic.

So why have I awarded only 3 stars?  Well, it's because I could only get about halfway through this book before giving up. There are lots of typos, which I did my best to overlook, but for me the real deal breaker was the improbability of several of the plot points. I will present a few example so,

********SPOILERS BELOW***************

When the characters go on the run from those hunting them, they are told to befriend a coroner or someone who has access to dead bodies. Really, they had already scored by having one of their group members be friends with a coroner, but sure enough after they split up they arrive in a town looking to eat, then find a place to buy meat by using the phonebook and to their delight the butcher they find happens to be brothers with a coroner who can get bodies for them. Its all just a bit too convenient for me.

Soon after that, some group members are reunited after being apart for a few days. One of them describes getting away from the hunters, a group dedicated to hunting these zombies, by running out the front door, across the road and hiding in a neighbors tool shed until dark. Really? The hunters didn't see her cross the road, and they never though to check in any tool shed for the fugitive they were searching for?

And how did she manage to find the other group members? She went to a cell phone store and "paid an employee to tell me your location based off of Susan's phone." Too convenient for me, to the point of it almost being insulting to the reader, trying to pass off such improbabilities as totally normal occurrences.

***********End of Spoilers**************

For me the plot was a 4 or 5 star plot, but was marred by typos, amateurish writing and highly improbable plot points. I will give the book 3 stars because I suspect others may be able to see past these flaws and enjoy the story for what it is. I personally made it to 54% and gave up (and I usually see books through to the end) due to annoyance, so I feel that 3 stars is actually pretty generous.
2594967
What a disappointment and frustration! As a fan of both science fiction, time travel stories, England, WWII, and the Blitz this seemed a tailor made story and what a let down. There is some good. It does a good job in showing the bits and pieces of personal life during the blitz - trains that would be hours late and descriptions of  Anderson shelters and sheltering in the Underground. However as the book progresses, much of the descriptions are lost in the moaning of the strangely uniformed historians that have time traveled to
London and the surrounding countryside during the Blitz.

One of the huge disappointments were simple mistakes in vernacular English., i.e. cots are baby cribs, not something an adult sleeps in and the biggest historical lapse was claiming Queen Mary said" "The children won't go without me. I won't leave the King. And the King will never leave." Queen Mary was King George's mother, his wife, Elizabeth, the queen consort, the mother of the present queen Elizabeth said this and has become one of the legends of morale building during the blitz.

The other huge frustration is that the book just ends and leaves on hanging literally. One almost looks to see if discs or page are missing. This is a horrendous thing to do to a reader and at least makes this one so mad I would not purchase the sequel. It's like false advertising to present to an interested reader an unfinished product
4291851
After enjoying McDevitt's well written, exciting, and imaginative "Deepsix", I was shocked and dismayed at the ineptitude of this book. It has an interesting premise and starts off ok, but then goes downhill fast. The reader is told, not shown what's happening in this poorly written book, and character development is virtually nonexistent. At one point I was informed that a couple of the characters had "changed". Well, I had to take his word for it since they kept going through the motions the same way as before. And two of the characters fell in love even though they had barely spoken or interacted! Also, mundane details kept getting described in detail while important/interesting stuff was completely glossed over! Ugh. I skimmed through to finish but it was a chore, I didn't really care what happened. If you want my advice, avoid.