Ehh - Not Champion's Best
924747
I'm a 6' male weighing 145lb with a 37" chest circumference (so tall and thin). I have a few other small Champion shirts that fit perfectly. This one, however, is oddly shaped.

My issue with this shirt is that the shoulders are a bit tight, so the shoulder seam falls on top of my shoulder rather than on it. Others reviews mention the shoulders seams forming a "point", that's what happens when your shoulders aren't properly fitted. Points are only a good thing at the edge of your shoulder. If you care about fit and like this shirt, consider getting Champion's "Double Dry Elevation Tee".

Still, for $6 the fit is just annoying - not a deal breaker. It's still great for hot days and comfortable to wear.
3412058
I've never played a Civilization simulation game before, but this one did not impress me much. Perhaps I prefer real-time versus turn-based strategy games, but after years of reading about how great Sid Meier's "Civ" games are, this one felt like a lot must have been left out. It seems like it must be dumbed down -- a lite version for the hand-held controller crowd. On the PS3 the animations were okay, but a little choppy, and certainly not something I'd show someone to showcase the PS3's power. A lot of animated advisers and adversaries pop up repetitively and have little or no purpose attached to the actual game play. (Condoleeza Rice? Even as a mumbling cartoon, yick.) The best animation was for the nuclear missiles. Moving around the map and selecting characters is clunky. I don't know ... it just wasn't what I expected as far as power and intricacy. I've played it several times over the last 4 days, and I'm ready to sell it for something a lot more engaging. I get so addicted to real-time strategy games on the PC: I had expected more zip, pow, and zing on the console games, but this one like so many others is just so-so. I'm glad that someone has made something for the consoles that is not just a button-masher though. Please keep trying!
4355537
I liked reading 'Crusader' and have enjoyed the other titles by Le Veque, but for some reason, this book didn't capture me. Maybe it was too long, and are there no normal size men in this world? I enjoy strong women in books, but I was beginning to wonder if there shouldn't be a prize for navet after a while, I hesitate to call Jordan stupid.half way through I started to speed read, which isn't a good thing, as I was finding the book getting longer and less interesting and repetitive. I prefered The Serpent, as it was better constructed, and the reason I bought this book.  Over all disappointing.
1914531
I started following the author with Dire Worm (which was a really good, but sadly unfinished fanfiction).  The movement into the Teslaverse was interesting and the first book was good.  The second was OK and this one was kinda "Meh".  What really bugged me was not the twist at the end, but instead the gradual move from Dire actually being clever (the fight with Armsmaster and the aftermath of the fight with Saint) to the author portraying Dire as being clever but most of the "cleverness" just the author hand-waving and call it clever.

One of the big conflicts into this character is the necessity to have them appear to be "Bad" while actually being an antihero.  This was handled pretty well in Worm/first book (lethality/practicality over "Hero" ethics) but seems to get somewhat bungled in recent works (really, no better way to deal with corruption in the city administration?  Picking a really hard fight for almost no reason?).  Perhaps it was just that Worm was a much darker setting, so it was much easier to write a good "villain".

I will keep reading, but I really hope the author can get closer to the roots of what made the original character interesting.
3931860
I love the Need For Speed genre....but, I am not impressed with this game. I do/did enjoy the storyline, but, the races are pretty much fixed. I hated the fact that in order to win certain races, you have to change the car class (or you are serverely handicapped).  Now, I am a bit whiny about this, because where you expect not to need a car class change, you do, and it isn't apparent and certainly, not obvious, until you lose the race(without cheating) that you are so commandingly leading.  Then, you can only change during the race... seriously, come on.  Not the greatest NFS game, but it is better than Carbon and Street Pro.  Get it as cheap as you can.
2154328
I've enjoyed this series for the most part. Glory is an interesting woman, aside from being a vampire.  She has the same sort of troubles the average American woman has - romantic problems, money problems, career problems.  The ususal.

Having said that, I was disappointed with this book. There is the obvious: why do we have to have a diet book? Real Vampires Don't Diet! Aside from that, I didn't think the characters felt "real" the way they have in the past. I just didn't buy Glory's willingness to do "anything it took" to be thin.  I can see other women doing that, but it didn't feel like Glory to me.

On the other hand, the family feud subplot was interesting and I will be interested in seeing how that plays out in future books.

If you're already a Glory fan, you might as well pick this up.  If you're new to the series, begin at the beginning!
3381395
I had high hopes for this one, but I just didn't love it (sorry!!).

The beginning, got my attention. It starts with Emily already being held captive. My biggest issue? Once you get past the first third of the book, the rest just fell flat for me. Chicken soup is supposed to be a punishment, but why does she get it in the beginning as her first meal? The real punishment is the cell she lives in after first being taken. It came across more as Dom/sub relationship that I completely forgot that she was taken against her will to start with.

There are parts of captive type books where you see the person being held 'break down'. She seeks his comfort right from the start. There isn't a sense of urgency for her to escape. She tries once and makes such a stupid mistake.... I was just disappointed.

Comfort Food skips ahead, a lot. The best parts of this were the journal entries from his POV. I would have loved more of that... just a little more into his head.

If this is your first 'dark' read, then I'd say to give it a try. If not, you might be expecting a certain level of gritty, heaviness that isn't in this one.

I did like Kitty's writing style. So, although this one wasn't for me, I would definitely read more from her in the future.
4438082
What could be better than a new series by a favorite author? Answer: A little bit better story. Don't get me wrong, though; I enjoyed this one and absolutely will read the next one, and the next one, etc. But I was hoping for a WOW! kick-off, and it fell short (if only a tad).

The hero of the series is a big guy named Amos Decker, a former police detective and football star in Burlington. As with most characters like this, Amos comes with baggage - loads and loads of it, in fact. First off, his glory days were cut short on the very first play he attempted as a member of the Cleveland Browns pro football team (I'm from Ohio and a big fan, BTW); he took a hit that curtailed his promising football career and very nearly left him dead.

He survived, but not without very unusual after-effects; he has become an "acquired savant," with hyperthymesia. More simply put, he is one of two handfuls of people who remembers every single moment of every single day and can call any one of them up at will (if you watched TV's "60 Minutes" show back in 2010 or the "Unforgettable" series starring Poppy Montgomery, you know what I mean). Decker's condition is even more rare, though, because he also has synesthia abilities - meaning he is able to associate colors with people and objects. Accompanying all this is the loss of much of his ability to connect emotionally with other people.

Those rare abilities may seem like a good thing - and they certainly can be helpful to a police detective - but for the most part they're a liability because there's no way to get the memories out of his head (seeing them in living color as well does nothing to improve the situation). But he manages to get by until a couple of decades later when he gets hit with a blow that nearly kills him again: The grisly murders of his wife, young daughter and his wife's brother in their home. The killer isn't caught, and Decker heads into a downward spiral that takes him to the depths of despair - homeless and living on the streets.

Just as he's beginning to put his life back together some 16 months after the murders, there's a major turn of events as a man turns himself in and claims to be the killer of Decker's family. Couple that with a mass shooting at the local high school, and local law enforcement officials call on Decker to help (working with his former partner Mary Lancaster).

In large part because he's forced to call up old memories he's managed to push below the surface of his brain (insofar as possible), Decker is a reluctant participant in the investigation - which, thanks to the school shooting,  grows to include the FBI. But when it begins to appear that all the tragic events may be somehow related, the two cases take on even more significance and the rush to get to the truth becomes more of an all-out run.

And for the most part, it's a thrilling chase. If I have a complaint, it's that there is an over-abundance of repetition. Granted, given the nature of Decker's affliction, everything plays out in his head over and over and over; but READING it over and over bordered on the tiresome. Besides that, some of the details of how the school shootings were carried out seemed to cross the line of real-life possibility. Still, this book definitely set the stage for further development of this character, and I'm looking forward to the next installment.
2454253
I expected a lot more from Sade after an 8-year hiatus. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that this is a bad CD at all, but it just doesn't quite live up to "Love Deluxe" or "Stronger Than Pride" for that matter. Usually with one of Sade's releases I can just listen straight through without skipping, but that is not the case here. "King of Sorrow" "Somebody Already Broke My Heart" and "By Your Side" are the strongest tracks on this album. The rest are forgettable and lacking in variety. Where are the uptempo tracks? After a while, it just kind of became background music -- kind of nice -- but bland. Perhaps they just needed to work out some kinks. (...)
Anyhoo, this was an okay effort, and I hope we don't have to wait another 8 years for the follow-up.
4949443
You might be looking at the card and thinking (wow this is pretty sweet maybe I should buy it or Netflix it) But I'd advise against it. As neat as it is that the PPV features the UFC debuts of Rampage and CroCop, neither fight is entertaining. Quinton's was especially disappointing as the first round was seen by many as rather boring. Before the finish actually it all was pretty unentertaining. In CroCop's case, he was booked purposefully against a less skilled fighter to get him over with the audience unfamiliar with him. Well he destroys the guy, but it's not as fun as some of his other one sided beat downs.

For the rest of the card, Lyoto and Cote both have boring fights while the main event is decided in a non-title fight with a contender who's overweight and already gassed. Though it is interesting how close he is to finishing Silva. His exhaustion point cost him dearly though. Skip this one.
4515213
Again this book did not grab me with a dull-witted, nosy and uninteresting heroine who appears to have no character arc.

The death emphasis in the previous book is continued to a lesser degree, with a previously happily married man visiting his wife who has sunk into a long coma from brain trauma, planning where he will bury her in his alternative graveyard when she dies. I missed the book where he entered the series and don't know why the author keeps writing him in, except as a potential love interest for Thea, which seems particularly tacky.

In this book a child is killed; he is somewhat of a stereotype wild child from an unwed mother. Another mother brags to total strangers about how her baby was from an unknown sperm donor. Do English women do that?  Brag, I mean, and what is it going to do to the child when he/she goes to school?

Much hinges on where people were during Thea's episode of house-sitting, which she comes to see as a suitable break in the routine for people to put murderous plots into action. Well, there had to be some reason why deaths kept following her around Cotswold villages. There is a character called Gudrun and another called Gladwin, too close for easy distinction. And many, many padded out conversations.

Some readers will of course enjoy the tale more than I did, and if you have been following and enjoying the series to date, you'll probably want to read this one too.
1838322
Rough, cheap feeling cotton.  Champion used to be great.  What happened?
208817
I'm a die-hard Sookie fan, but didn't care too much for the first book in that series, and I felt the same about this one too. It's not necessarily a bad book per se, but it really did get a tad bit boring and tedious (but first books in a series never are the best in my opinion: laying down foundations, and building up characters and all that ... only a literary genius can pull that off, and even then not always consistently. Usually first books are bland with some smattering of promise thrown in, and we have to just resolve to plow through to get to the good stuff later). I'm betting (hoping - praying!) the books get better as the series progresses. Perhaps had I got this book for free a more favorable alchemy would have influenced a better rating (LOL!)? I know myself well enough regardless, that as a long time Harris fan, I'll eventually get curious, break down and buy the next book anyway to check it out.

I would have liked to have had more Manfred in a series devoted to him, as it is his moment in the sun after all. I think it would have been better if the POV was all Manfred's, instead of only say 30% Manfred's (it worked in the Sookie Stackhouse novels, it seems only right that the "star" character should be the POV we as readers get). Plus, I found that it seemed odd and unsettled having the POV shift around from character to character.

I will say (sadly) that Manfred seemed less charismatic, colorful, dynamic, vivacious (take your pick) showing a lackluster side we as readers have never seen before in his original series. One thing is for sure, this new Manfred seams long on ennui, and short on the trademark sass he is known for, which we grew to know & love in the "Grave" (Harper Connelly) series. Why? Not sure ... perhaps someone looking deep could say it's his grandmother's death - or he is more grown up ... heck perhaps a more jaded thought could be Harris is just bored with writing? On that score I can't really say for sure, but that fact sticks out like a sore, throbbing, erythemic thumb. And I'll say this: Manfred doesn't do ordinary well.

I did like seeing a another familiar character from a different Charlaine Harris series: Bobo from the Lily Baird series. That was a nice surprise - to meet Bobo again as a middle aged adult was very cool, kind of like running into an old acquaintance some place unexpectedly, years later. I kept wondering if Lily Baird (Leeds) & Jack Leeds would show up to help out, being as they are private investigators and all (after all, they appeared in that guise in the Sookie Stackhouse series, even if they were more of an annoyance for Sookie than help, as she was desperately trying to cover up her burden of guilt born from self defense) but alas, they did not, which was rather disappointing, but also probably too expected. Again, this Bobo was rather flat too. Everyone seemed kind of bored in this book, just sort of going through the motions. It would be a nice save for the series if something exciting actually happens in Midnight eventually in future books (I know, how can murder be unexciting? Well, sorry to say Harris sort of pulls that one off somehow).

It would be a wonderful treat for those of us who decide to stick with this series to see some of Harris' more colorful characters from alternate series make a debute in future Midnight books - perhaps a character or two from the Sookie Stackhouse series visiting or passing through, or maybe even Harper & Toliver from the ("Grave") Harper Connelly series from which Manfred was created? If nothing else, Harper would at least perk up Manfred's libido, if not his old verve he's known for! One never knows - Harris is certainly talented enough, and more than capable of making this a stellar, exciting series loved by old and new fans alike, I guess the only question now is if she will. Let's just hope that Ms. Harris will be kinder to her Midnight fans than she was to her Sookie Stackhouse following at the time of this serie's finale.
195803
My least favorite book of the series.  It wasn't bad, and I don't regret spending the money...but it was just "ok" at best.

Just a couple of comments on why that was:

=> Nothing much happens.  It is not exactly action packed.  After reading for a while the dog reminded me it was her dinner time, so I took a break.  When I came back to the kindle I was surprised to see that I was 70% done with the book...but nothing had really happened yet.

=> Angst and internal deliberation.  A lot of the book is spent on the main character considering things.  I guess that's character development, but this is the last book of the series - not the first - so I really wasn't interested.  I found myself skipping whole pages trying to find something interesting happening.

So that's my review.  If I had to do it over again I would probably have passed on this one, but I don't feel cheated either.  To sum it up in one word:  "Meh".
986636
This second volume of The Goon does not live up to the standards of the first.  It is a compilation set where you do not have one continuous running adventure, and that is not all bad.  However, the stories just weren't as good to me.  There were bright points, but for the most part I feel the series took a step back in these issues.  Don't get me wrong I will still continue to purchase the series, but this was not my favorite, and I can't give it any more than an average review.
4187337
Like other reviewers, I found it refreshing to have an interracial relationship in a romance (even if it is paranormal where even inter-species romance runs towards the norm). And I liked that Brandon was not perfect, or a typical alpha male. He had weaknesses and was flawed, and aren't we all? It worked for me. But the history of Brandon's abuse is retread, and retread in this story and it gets very tedious, without adding a lot of value to the plot. The siblings and sibling dynamics are bizarre to the extreme. And I guess this is a spoiler alert but somewhere towards the end of the book the hero develops the ability to communicate with and summon birds, yep birds, to help him in the final show down with the bad guy. That the showdown took place at night in an underground club...well, what the heck, very obliging birds I guess. More spoilers, we all get that Rene is going to likely have his own book in the series, but he pretty much overshadows the couple in this book as soon as he's on the scene. All in all, it was kind of...meh. It wasn't awful, but not great either.
3124336
Lore does a better job of flushing out his characters in this one but at times, the characters are still largely flat and one-deminsional. the constantly switching narrative can be very confusing as well.
Fans of the earlier books will enjoy reading this next book in the series. however, parents be warned...the violence increases dramatically in this one!