Very Disappointing...
919681
Hershey's Syrup?
Cream cheese?

Disappointing book. This isn't nutrition.
30-40 carbs is not a good meal replacement.

I'm deleting this from my Reader, this is like equating McDonald's to a backyard burger...very misleading and not very suitable recipes.
727187
This product was not what I expected... Very disappointing
3906018
As a huge fan of the Lords of the Underworld, I was so happy to get this product to review.

Sadly, disappointment is all I can report after reading this one.  There are 3 novellas (2 of which are Lords of the Underworld).  Both are so short that they truly were a waste of time and paper.  No new info, no new twists or insights.....nothing!  I was very bummed.

Another thing is that I expect a bonus guide to FURTHER the series, plot, and continue the momentum of the series.  This one just meanders along and really just reinforces what we've already learned from previous books.

A perfect book to get from the library (if you HAVE to read it!)  Otherwise you could definitely skip it!
4701462
It took me some convincing to buy this book seeing as how all the books in this series are so incredibly short; and therefore not really worth the investment. I was so disappointed in this book that I have now vowed never to read another book in this series. As far as I am concerned this was the final book. Never mind the fact that this (again) "short" book is so jam-packed with fillers that it misses a storyline altogether, the direction that Davidson has the series going is not a good one to put it mildly. First she writes about the same background information that not only is present in all the previous books but is reiterated in darn near every chapter in this book. Also the storyline is just plain lazy. Going back in time to answer questions about Tina and Sinclair?? Most other writers do that with novellas! And the upsetting thing is the reader knows all along the purpose of the flashbacks. I just cannot understand (and probably will not since I'm not reading another book) why Davidson chose to go in the direction she's going. I'm terribly upset. Too bad cause it was a nice series.
3213235
So very disappointed in the writing....too simplistic and basic... I felt no depth towards the characters...as a fan of John Kales' North and South, Diana Gabaldon's Outlander and Downton Abbey, this was rather insulting to ones intellect...  I really don't like to criticize so blatantly, however, I'm surprised sooo many people enjoyed this book... Oh well once again I am in the lovely minority...
685869
I have been looking forward to this book for years. What a let down it turned out to be. WEAK WEAK WEAK characters..espcially Jondalar. And if I had to see the mother's song or weed descrption one more time I was going to scream. I ended up skimming at least half of the book.....What a bummer.
1703064
Oh, this book is very disappointing, indeed.

Now, I am definitely a fan of Sherrilyn Kenyon. I have read all of the Dark Hunter books before this one. I have truly enjoyed them. They are a great escape and fun to read. BUT...

As a general comment, these books have been steadily getting more and more complicated, with each one adding some new permutation of the different types of immortals and their relations. Dark-Hunters, Dream-Hunters (of which there are 3 types), Were-Hunters (of which there are 2 types... and then the fighting classes within those types). And, of course, the Were-Hunters as a whole are a type of Apollite, which can become a Daimon, which in turn has its own fighting classes.  Oh lord, then there's the humans and demons who serve them (which "them"? pick any one!). And then the gods and goddesses. And let's not forget the mysterious Ash and Savitar.... Yikes. Now try and pin characters to each of these groups, and not only keep the groups straight, but the characters as well.

Sigh...

Remember "Fantasy Lover"? How deliciously simple that was? Well, that clarity of characters and plot-line has devolved into the convoluted and entirely unfocused "Dark Side of the Moon". I don't know who half the people populating this book are. Their overwhelming presence has thoroughly diluted Ravyn's and Susan's plot to the point that I find myself skipping pages just to try and hold on to what is supposed to be the main story. Unfortunately our hero and heroine have been demoted to play along side all the other secondary characters. Half-way through the book Ravyn and Susan have only had some bizarrely affected moments of "hey, he's kinda cute", and "hey, she's attractive". Do I believe for one second that there is an actual romance brewing somewhere in this romance novel? Nope.

Now that I think about it, this novel is almost more of an advertisement for all the other characters available that have yet to star in their own novels.

As for the dialogue, well, I enjoy a few good lines of humor between characters, but Ravyn's and Susan's banter would serve better in a buddy cop movie than a romance. Susan's constant sarcastic one-liners alone have brought my reading to a dead stop out of sheer frustration on several occasions. This simply falls far outside the expectations of a Dark Hunter novel. In the past these books have been drama balanced by clever humor, not slap-stick interrupted by drama.

My points are twofold. First, the tone of this book does not match the tone set by the previous titles in this series. When I want action and characters bouncing buddy-movie witty repertoire at each other, I'll read Jim Butcher, F. Paul Wilson, or even Charlaine Harris (at this point I've given up on Laurell K. Hamilton). When I want a gorgeous alpha male, a heroine I can admire, and a romance to match, I read Sherrilyn Kenyon. I mean, we've already lost so many of our best alpha male authors (i.e. Linda Howard, Karen Robards) to mainstream mysteries; I don't want to lose another! Second, as a by-product of changing the tone, this book became a mash of multiple storylines, all of which could have been fleshed out to become novels in their own right. Instead the book became a juggling act of half-realized plots and characters.

Look, here's the bottom line. I really do have fun reading Sherrilyn Kenyon's books. This book happens to be an unfortunate example of unfocused writing from an otherwise enjoyable author. If you are a fan of the Dark Hunter series, then you'll likely want to read this book anyway. But it is definitely not worth rushing to purchase. Borrow it, or wait for the paperback.

It is decidedly disappointing.
356860
I am sorry to have to write a bad review on this novel, though I find sometimes negative criticism is good for a writer to improve, and I hope if the author reads this review that she is not hurt by what I have to say, but perhaps learns something for her next novel.

I was *sorely* disappointed in this novel. It had the makings of a great story, but alas, it was not. First of all, plot poorly constructed. Cerberus, Hades' 3 headed hound's job is to keep the living out of the Underworld and the dead in. He is not evil himself as he is made in this book. Also chacacter names and weapons are spelt wrong!! Xena's Horse is Argo (not Argos). Her weapon is called a Chakram (not a Charka, which is are points of light in and outside of the body). Roman and Greek mythology was mixed up. In Greece, the place of the Dead is called the Underworld and the God of the Dead is called Hades. In ancient Rome, the place of the Dead was called Hades, the God of the Dead, Pluto. Since Xena is set in ancinet Greece, the *God* should have been called Hades, not the place. And if Hades' hound is running amok, surely Hades (the God) would have something to say and do about it? He does not even get a *mention* in this poorly constructed novel.  Again a very big disappointment. It's a wonder it got any positive reviews at all.  Did they actually *read* the book!!?? The only two good things I'll say about this book were that I felt for the child seer character and the image of flames dancing was nice, but as for the rest of it, I really wonder how in Hades they made it past an agent and a publisher! Really! It angers me that there are many, many great writers out there, struggling to get wonderful writing out and stuff like this is printed. With a little more work, effort and research, the author could have really gone places with this book, but as it stands, I'd rather go to Hades.
1958670
I was so disappointed with this book, especially since I have invested so much time & money in the previous 9 books in the series! It was a complete and total let down, the ending chapter made me so frustrated I just shook my head and tried to forget I ever read it to begin with...I am very sad that Charlaine Harris has compromised her story in such a way, she obviously did not take the time to give her readers a satisfying 10th book to the series, it seemed more like she is just trying to drag out the story by adding more characters that no one cares about and subplots that are just ridiculous!

I really, really hope that her next book makes up for this disaster, but I will certainly read the reviews BEFORE I purchase it so I know not to waste my time & money!
2868570
I, like other reviewers, found this book very disappointing as compared to the earlier (pre-Narcissus in Chains) Anita Blake novels.  However, this book was frustrating not so much because of the typos or occasionally annoying catch-phrases, but because it actually has some elements of both the best and worst of the series.  For example, the murder investigation was pretty interesting. . . but the story unfolded in fits and starts and it had no resolution, really.  Also, some fun/interesting characters were represented (Nathaniel, Damian, Jean-Claude), but really only one develops in an appealing way character-wise.  (I'll let you discover which one.)  However, other characters that I like and who also seem to be fan favorites are missing completely; a stray mention here or there does not count as that character's presence (Edward, Asher).  Still, other characters I view as ancillary (Micah) are still around.  And, of course, that brings us to the gratuitous sex scenes.  Honestly, many of them weren't even that hot.  (Plus, it's gotten a little hard, at this point, to believe Anita is that conflicted about her new sexual freedom.)  I just knew that with a book this long, there'd be enough going on to save it, but I was wrong.  The early reviews I read when the book was first released were bad enough that I had fairly low expectations.  I thank those reviewers, because I picked the book up from the library, and wasn't nearly as disappointed as if I had spent money on it.  Hoping for much better next time.
2754762
I am still reeling from disappointment. I thought Brandon Sanderson did a great job on "The Gathering Storm" and "Towers of Midnight" but "A Memory of Light" has left me so disappointed, I don't know how to get it out of my head except to write this dumbo review. Basically, the story didn't have cohesion - there was way too much superfluous stuff going on that didn't have to be included, while primary issues that needed to be developed toward a successful build-up were just left blowing in the wind.

I'm going to list some stuff I hated so don't read if you don't want to see some massive spoilers. These items are not listed in any order.

*Spoilers*

#1 - Lan and Nynaeve had no time together in this book except for a couple of sentences at the very end.

#2 - Perrin spends page after page after page in the dreamworld trying to find Slayer and kill him - boring, boring...

#3 - The 4 great generals who have oversight of the battle are compromised by compulsion via Graendel. After the buildup of these great men, we see Bryne, Bashere, Ituralde and Agelmar being removed from command and sitting useless. Purely disrespectful way to end the careers of these great men.

#4 - The Aiel might just as well have been left out of this book - oh, wait a minute, in my opinion - they were!

#5 - The nation of Shara shows up during the last battle - did we really need one more element added to the already bursting balloon of confusion going on? This one was ridiculous. They were not a well known people. If the author needed some other people to battle besides the boring Trollocs, why not send in the Shaido? But then again, the "good" Aiel might have had to actually have a role to play in the book.

#6 - Why in the world did we need to kill off Gareth and Siuan and Egwene and Gawyn?

#7 - Leilwin or Egeanin - whatever you prefer was so superfluous that I can't believe she was even included in the book. Plus, her character had always been portrayed as being so strong - Sanderson turned her into a wimpy marshmallow in this book.

#8 - I thought the Ashaman deserved more than they got - both in support and in details. So much more could have been made of Logain and his leadership - wasted opportunity.

I could go on and on. But the biggest issue I had after wading through so many boring pages in my effort to get "somewhere" was the dumb ending. In all fairness to Sanderson, It's my understanding the epilogue was written by Robert Jordan but here goes: Rand leaving in Moridin's body, albeit healthy and with his right mind - thinking of the places he would go and what he would do giving the three women in his life a few final thoughts - wondering if one or all of them might follow them. It was as though they were nothing to him - absolutely nothing! What about your children Elayne is carrying? What about the fact that Aviendha can't walk and may be crippled for the rest of her life, what about Min, your faithful companion and encourager? This to me was the final heartless blow. That our main guy that we had traveled with, loved with, anguished over - some readers for 23 years and all of us for 14 books, could be so blase about the people he purportedly loved?

One last item - I did like Mat's character in this book and felt it was portrayed truer than most. Sanderson did provide me with some good laughs. However, Mat should have been leading the battle from the beginning with the other captains working under him. Also, Lan's character remained true to the end - just needed more writing about Lan and Nynaeve together.

I just re-read the two books in Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive Series and he is a fantastic author. I can only wonder if he had too much going on and was under too much pressure when he wrote this book.
1279162
I was really disappointed in this book. I didn't finish it because of the bad language and overly descriptive sex scenes. Don't get me wrong... I love romance novels... CLEAN romance novels. We all know what happens when two people love each other... so does it really need to be described in detail on paper? Besides.... I don't think a book needs to include that type of material in order to get people to read it. It is demoralizing and very frustrating for someone who's just looking for a quick, clean romance read. Even if you are a fan of "The Notebook" type of romance novels... the grammatical and spelling errors were hard to overlook. In the end... there are much better books out there to read... regardless of whether this one was free or not... a price which was way too expensive considering the flaws of this book.
3903641
This was an EXTREMELY disappointing book. I have been a longtime fan of the series and have eagerly awaited sequels...until now. The great parts that I think many fans like such as the brotherly bond between Cal and Niko, Cal's identity/power struggles, the conniving irreverence of Robin, Niko's superhuman ability to keep everything together, and the threat of some creature of unknown power/destruction that the trio have to overcome has been a fairly standard pattern for the books. And it usually works.

But here, it's almost as if the author heard that fans like the Cal/Niko co-dependence and Robin's sexual ridiculousness, and Cal's over-the-top violence/foul mouth and decided to write a book that is 75% comprised of those elements (with a noticeable increase in violence, graphic descriptions, and general crudity)  and about 15% plot (and it's a decent enough idea for a plot). The unbalance of plot and these elements is so extreme that this book is almost unrecognizable from previous stories. While Thurman has tended toward repetition in some of the more recent installments (same phrases and ideas over and over again, we get it already), this book is by far the worst offender. The grand pronouncements and speeches different characters make at different points to each other are over-the-top bonkers, pretentious, unrealistic, and furthermore, completely unnecessary. Oh, and also the retconning of Cal's childhood continues (in that he apparently was always conniving, crude, and somewhat terrible, despite the first 1-5 books' depictions), which is also annoying.

Here are some examples of what I mean (minor spoilers):
1) Cal and Robin are running away from things that they can't defeat. So they're running for their lives. How in the world could they have a meandering multipage conversation of Cal whining about how Robin doesn't trust him despite all Cal has done in previous lives for Robin? I mean, seriously, this is neither the time nor the place to be having this kind of conversation that is completely tangent from the main story.

2) And another tangential story that takes WAY too long to convey is Cal and Loki meeting. Which is pretty much completely prima donna posturing nonsense between Cal, Loki, and Robin (who also seems to get more and more retconned into having additional powers), and also does not seem to have impact or payoff in this story.

3) The ridiculous melodrama after younger Cal lets older Cal fall asleep. And oh no older Cal has bad dreams. And everyone suddenly hates younger Cal for "betraying" him. I mean, seriously, WHAT? Completely unnecessary, stupid whining and whinging. The inconsequential angst and stupidity of everyone involved has hit 11 with that one.

Part of why my review is so negative is my love of the series as a whole, and I'm disappointed it has come to this. If there wasn't so much repetition and ridiculous filler, there wouldn't need to be "two" books for this story (looks as though the fluff/filler was to stretch this story into 2 books, rather than adding some more interesting twists; we hardly even meet the bad guy. I think this would have been a better story if we see more of the brothers' running battle with the Vigil and then getting intel on the new Big Bad that culminates with the opening scene, and then ends with Cal going back to fix things. That would be a more worthy two-parter. So much of what happens with the Vigil since the last book occurs "off-screen" so to speak that it is very unsatisfying.) I hope Thurman gets a good editor and can turn this mess around with the next book.
4919433
My impression was that this was to be a continuation of the previous books, and tell us more about what was going on with the Seelie and Unseelie courts.  Boy, was I disappointed!!  This was a **SHORT** story, followed up by what was basically a blog entry by the author.  That was followed by a book proposal....  What a waste of $10.  I have to say, I'll never pre-order books from this author again.  The short story itself felt flat, like it was just a formula used to fill space.  Hopefully we'll see better from Ms. Moning in the future.
951602
Extremely disappointing...and this from a fan who has enjoyed most of Turtledove's other "alternative history" efforts.  This one is sluggish, vapid, and baseless.  I searched in vain for any unifying thread to connect the antics of Lincoln, Clemens, Jackson, Custer, et. al. And Orlando Willcox as a major character???  One almost feels that the luckier characters were the Mormon leaders hanged by Pope and Custer.  At least THEY didn't have to muck through the rest of this overblown humbug of a novel! I certainly hope Mr. Turtledove returns to form with his Great War project.
1174019
This is a very disappointing volume in the Fever series. There was very little forward momentum and way too much internal dialogue. Most of it read like little character vignettes rather than a story in which characters have goals and struggle to reach them...except for the last bit with Christian. Beautiful writing, but for such a long book, very little actually happens--it could all be summed up in about 4 sentences. I bought the audio book and when it ended, I had to check to see if it was really the end of the book or if there was a second part I hadn't downloaded because the story ended without ever really having begun...after 13 hours of narration :(

I also felt that having Mac invisible so we could see what was going on with all the other characters as she "spies" on them was was a very poor narrative device. Sorry, but it was a cheesy cop-out for such an experienced writer to use.

Overall, I think Burned was just beautifully written filler. The editor should have done KMM a favor and told her the truth...there's no book in the book.
4422150
I wish I could time travel two weeks into the past so as to not purchase this book.  I have thouroghly enjoyed all previous novels from the series and was excited to meet up again with characters that feel like close friends.  To my amazement, however, I found myself skimming (rather than reading) page after page -- it was just so boring. And then the end -- pathetic and disappointing.  Rushed and disturbing character behavior that was completely "out of character", and lots of cliff hangers.  Pathetic to make people wait another 4 years for the next novel in order to resolve these storylines. I have never finished one of Diana's books before and felt so disguted that I needed to write a review to vent. Diana, you really wasted my time and have ruined some of the magic of this series.  I still want to know what happens next, however, I do not care as much as I used to.